Wednesday, May 14, 2008

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Most Recent Stories

Japan’s foreign reserves fall in April; Should 80% be sold off?

Earlier today, the Ministry of Finance announced that the value of Japan’s foreign reserves had fallen for the first time in eleven months in April, from $1.02 trillion in March to $1.0... 

Japan auto sales up 6.9% in April, Exports and Production up in March

According data released last Thursday by the Japan Automobile Dealers Association, domestic auto sales in April increased to 232,993 vehicles, up from 217,911 in April 2007. Major auto makers... 

March new housing starts down 15.6% nationwide, 11.7% in Tokyo

Last week, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism released its figures for March housing starts. Last year, we saw a huge decline in the number of housing starts as new government... 

Japan’s household spending down 1.6% in March - durables hit harder

With food and fuel prices surging, Japan’s consumers have expressed their lowest degree of sentiment in nearly five years. In the face of sluggish wage growth, we have been expecting to... 

March consumer price index up 1.2% - is a pull out of deflation coming at the wrong time for the wrong reasons?

On Friday, the Statistics Bureau announced that Japan’s core consumer prices had risen 1.2% in March compared to a year earlier. This follows a1.0% rise in February and successive 0.8%... 

Global Voices Online looks at the butter shortage

Hanako Tokita over at Global Voices has posted an interesting article entitled Where has all the butter gone? As US retail shops grab headlines by rationing rice to customers, there has been... 

Bloomberg’s William Pesek on Japan’s (lack of) English ability, and why it hurts competition

Bloomberg’s William Pesek has penned an excellent opinion piece on why Japan needs to focus on better English education for its workforce at this point in history. As he points out, without... 

Japan’s supermarket sales up 1.4% in March for second straight monthly rise

In February, Japan’s supermarkets finally showed an official rise in sales after having declined for 25 straight months. However, as we noted, sales were actually down 2.39% when not “adjusted”,... 

DoCoMo has a new logo; increased market share to follow?

We’ve touched before on the struggles facing DoCoMo, Japan’s mobile market leader. As the introduction of number portability and aggressive advertising and pricing campaigns from... 

Japan’s consumer confidence shows slight recovery in March

After five straight months of falling consumer confidence, and numbers at nearly a five-year low in February, March consumer confidence figures showed a slight recovery, according to the Cabinet... 

Steel Partners sells off stakes in Bull-Dog and Kikkoman; TCI is holding paper losses in J-Power

Earlier today, the Nikkei reported that Steel Partners has sold off all of its shares in the Bull-Dog Sauce Company, as well as Kikkoman. A year ago, Steel Partners held about 10% of Bull-Dog... 

Nikkei highly critical of Japanese government’s decision to block The Children’s Investment Fund

Now that Japan’s government has effectively blocked TCI from upping its stake in J-Power from 9.9% to 20%, a slew of negative reactions to such action is bound to be published, and some... 

Tokyo area condo sales down 17.9% in FY2007 as prices rose 9.3%

According to research data released by the Real Estate Economic Institute today, 58,156 new condominium units were sold in the Tokyo area in fiscal 2007, marking the first year since 1993 that... 

Finance Minister Nukaga requests IMF watch sovereign wealth funds, to battle protectionism

Just as Japan is having discussions over legislation to prevent foreign investors from taking large stakes in airports and other such infrastructure, and the government appears set to reject... 

February machinery orders down; March machine tool orders up

There have been a few relevant economic reports that we haven’t had the time to touch on this past week, so now is a good time to play a bit of catch-up and look at some of the numbers... 

FY2007 bankruptcies up 18.4%, March bankruptcies up 23.0%

Neither of these figures are huge surprises, given the context of uncertainty in Japan’s markets right now, but they are worrisome. Both figures were released earlier this week by Teikoku... 

Which Japanese firms are most at risk in a US downturn?

Earlier this week, Nikkei Veritas published it’s list of the 20 Japanese firms that depend most heavily on the North American market for their operating profit. Of course, high dependence... 

DoCoMo’s market share falls below 50% - mobile fragrance service to help revival?

According to data released by the Telecommunications Carriers Association, NTT DoCoMO’s market share of Japan’s mobile phone users has fallen below 50% for the first time since December... 

Terrie’s take on Japan’s cyberspace; Japan’s spam blogs

If you don’t regularly follow, Terrie Lloyd’s weekly Terrie’s Take is a newsletter worth reading. This week Terrie focuses on Japan’s web businesses and cyberspace statistics.... 

New auto sales, minicar sales, import sales down in March

A year ago, we heard that a lack of new models was hurting domestic auto sales as they continued to slump throughout the year. Now, despite the fact that Japan’s automakers have been on...