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February 15, 2025
 

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INFLATION

The government's stockpiled rice in Tokyo in 1999. Since 1995, the government has been stockpiling around 200,000 tons of rice from the annual harvest to ensure that there is enough to go around during emergencies.
JAPAN
Feb 14, 2025
Government taps rice stockpile to reverse price increases
This will be the first time the stockpile has been used to reduce prices instead of due to emergencies.
Japan has effectively exited deflation, but Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s reluctance to acknowledge it reflects outdated economic fears rather than current reality.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 13, 2025
It’s time for Japan to admit victory over deflation
The last time prices declined was in July 2021, the same month the Tokyo Olympic Games took place.
Giving out courtesy chocolates to coworkers on Valentine's Day is becoming obsolete.
JAPAN / Society
Feb 10, 2025
How giving chocolates on Valentine’s Day is evolving in Japan
One change is fewer people are handing out chocolates to others at work, which had been a widespread practice over the past few decades.
Shoppers walk past a display of cabbages for sale at a supermarket in Tokyo last month. The 2024 record summer heat and heavy rain ruined crops, driving up the cost of the usually inexpensive leafy green in what Japanese media has dubbed a "cabbage shock."
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 7, 2025
Inflation becoming a concern in Japan after being a goal for decades
Rising consumer prices are putting real wage growth at risk and possibly becoming a drag on much-needed household consumption.
A cargo ship full of shipping containers at the port of Oakland in Oakland, California, as trade tensions escalate over U.S. tariffs on Monday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 6, 2025
Economists brace for Trump's new trade war to rekindle inflation worldwide
Stubborn growth in consumer prices was bothering much of the world even before U.S. President Donald Trump entered the White House.
Households continue to be squeezed as inflation outpaces pay increases.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 5, 2025
Real wages in Japan rise in December, but fall for third straight year
Inflation continued to outpace pay increases, which have been generous on a nominal basis in recent years.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks during a committee meeting in parliament on Monday.
JAPAN
Feb 4, 2025
Ishiba seeks quick action in bid to fight inflation
The prime minister's plan comes as households face soaring rice and vegetable prices.
The Bank of Japan headquarters in Tokyo
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 3, 2025
BOJ discussed worries about price upward deviation in January
One member referred to "a growing possibility that underlying CPI (consumer price index) inflation will rise steadily toward achieving the price stability target of 2%."
Trucks wait in line at the Zaragoza-Ysleta border crossing into the U.S. on Friday in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, a day ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump's order to impose tariffs on Mexican imports.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 2, 2025
Trump launches trade war with tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China
U.S. President Donald Trump has ordered 25% tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports and 10% on goods from China starting Tuesday.
Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda speaks during a news conference at the central bank's headquarters in Tokyo on Jan. 24.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 31, 2025
BOJ's Ueda voices confidence conveying rate hike message to market
Ueda said the BOJ’s policy settings are still accommodative after recent rate hikes and that would remain the case as the central bank continues to support the inflation trend.
Prices of some 1,600 food items, including Ezaki Glico's chocolate snack Pocky, will be raised in February.
BUSINESS
Jan 31, 2025
Prices of 1,656 food items to increase in Japan in February
There are notable price hikes for chocolate confectioneries, flour products and frozen food using rice.
YouTuber Kazuki Nakata looks at his indoor farm at his home in Kawasaki on Monday. The 37-year-old now has nearly 90,000 subscribers eager to learn how to stretch out store-bought vegetables and grow new ones amid soaring produce prices.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 31, 2025
Japanese look for creative ways to fight soaring food prices
As the price of agricultural products has risen, Japanese have also been eating less of them.
The Immigration Services Agency says it is unclear whether application fee price hikes will lead to shorter processing times, but would “continue its efforts to improve efficiency to minimize any inconvenience to applicants.”
JAPAN
Jan 31, 2025
Japan's immigration processing fees to rise starting April 1
The Immigration Services Agency has cited rising prices and personnel costs for its first price hikes — of as much as 50% — in over four decades.
Consumer prices excluding fresh food in Tokyo climbed 2.5% in January from a year earlier, the fastest pace since last February.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 31, 2025
Tokyo inflation hits fastest pace in a year, supporting BOJ view
Consumer prices excluding fresh food in the capital climbed 2.5% in January from a year earlier.
Many workers at small companies continue to fall behind as wages fail to keep up with inflation.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 29, 2025
Smaller Japanese companies unlikely to meet wage-increase target for 2025
For this year’s spring negotiations, the Japanese Trade Union Confederation set hike targets of more than 6% for smaller firms.
People were more concerned about the direct and specific impact of the Bank of Japan's latest rate hike on their personal lives, according to an artificial intelligence-driven analysis of various platforms, including social media.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 29, 2025
Japan begins feeling the pain of BOJ rate hikes more concretely
As time goes on, the BOJ’s rate increases appear to be having a stronger impact on people’s everyday lives, shifting from more abstract concepts to more concrete effects.
Bank of Japan Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda during a news conference at the central bank's headquarters in Tokyo on Oct. 31, 2014
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 29, 2025
BOJ policymakers divided over additional easing in Oct. 2014
The actions taken as a result of the meeting took market players by surprise, sending the yen lower against the dollar and Japanese stocks higher.
Despite Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda’s efforts to explain his thinking, many struggle to grasp the BOJ's position as businesses face high costs and weak demand while consumers deal with rising prices and stagnant wages.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 28, 2025
The Bank of Japan’s communication challenges
Despite limited developments that would justify a policy shift since December, Japan's central bank nevertheless went ahead to raise interest rates.
People line up to use an ATM in the separatist-controlled city of Donetsk, Ukraine, days after Russian President Vladimir Putin authorized the full-scale invasion of the country in February 2022. Western financial sanctions have weighed on the Russian ruble, which has sunk from 34 to the dollar in 2013 to around 100 today.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 27, 2025
Putin’s war is fueling Russian stagflation
For a normal country, a budget deficit of 2% of GDP would be of no concern. But Russia is not a normal country.
Yoichi Takemura will oversee yen rates and foreign exchange trading for Barclays in Tokyo, bringing nearly two decades of experience in those operations.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 27, 2025
Barclays hires ex-Garda manager Yoichi Takemura as Japan bond market revives
The bank's Japanese investment banking arm posted a record ¥16.5 billion in net profit in 2023, driven by increased client orders to trade yen rate products.
Honda and Nissan cancel megamerger after weeks of negotiations
Following weeks of talks after Nissan Motor President Makoto Uchida and Honda President and CEO Toshihiro Mibe's December announcement of a possible merger, the two automakers confirmed on Thursday that the deal is officially off.
Japan's 10-year cancer survival rate stands at 54% in latest survey
By cancer type, the 10-year survival rate was 57.9% for stomach cancer, the most common cancer among the patients surveyed.
Nippon Steel wants 100% of U.S. Steel, not a minority stake, report says
The U.S. Steel Mon Valley Works Edgar Thomson Plant in Braddock, Pennsylvania.
Hungarian police discipline officers over Japanese woman’s death
People attend a vigil for a recently deceased 43-year-old Japanese woman in central Budapest on Feb. 4
Nariaki Obukuro found his groove — just not on the dance floor
While Nariaki Obukuro’s previous releases often included lyrics with specific references pulled from his own experiences, on “Zatto,” he’s stepping back to explore the joy and pain of the wider world.
Japanese research team develops world’s largest 'biohybrid' robot hand
A "biohybrid" robot hand developed by a research team from the University of Tokyo and Waseda University
How giving chocolates on Valentine’s Day is evolving in Japan
Giving out courtesy chocolates to coworkers on Valentine's Day is becoming obsolete.
Nariaki Obukuro found his groove — just not on the dance floor
While Nariaki Obukuro’s previous releases often included lyrics with specific references pulled from his own experiences, on “Zatto,” he’s stepping back to explore the joy and pain of the wider world.
Mao Asada sets out to safeguard the future of Japanese skating
"I hope skaters who train here will go on to shine on the world stage," Olympic silver medalist Mao Asada told the Japan Times at Mao Rink Tachikawa Tachihi, a skating rink in Tachikawa, Tokyo, whose establishment she was involved in, on Jan. 28.
Japan exploring drone production capabilities for military aid program
An unmanned Hamadori drone developed by Japanese company Space Entertainment Laboratory and equipped with various sensor options for surveys is displayed at the Japan Drone 2020 exhibition at Makuhari Messe in the city of Chiba in September 2020.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Eme-Ima Kitchen is one of over 10,000 kodomo shokudō in Japan. A term first used in 2012 to describe makeshift eateries offering free or cheap meals to disadvantaged kids, it now refers to a diverse range of individuals, groups and organizations working to provide not only food but a sense of belonging to both children and adults.
Japan’s ‘children’s cafeterias’ are booming — but is that a good thing?
By Alex K.T. Martin

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SWCC keeps changing with keyword ‘new challenges’
SWCC keeps changing with keyword ‘new challenges’

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