Ken W. posted an article on Japan Economy News and Blog - Nov 17, 2009, 8:11 am
Online Colleges recently published their list of the “100 Best Blogs for International Business Students.” I definitely recommend checking it out, though it might be a bit dangerous and ti...
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Ken W. posted an article on Japan Economy News and Blog - Nov 11, 2009, 8:16 am
Earlier today, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry announced that it plans to kickoff a campaign to collect used mobile phones from November 21. During the campaign, which is scheduled to last...
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Ken W. posted an article on Japan Economy News and Blog - Nov 9, 2009, 1:02 am
Those who felt that Tokyo’s failed bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics was a colossal waste of $48 million are surely going to groan at today’s headline: Tokyo to bid for 2020 Summer Olympics...
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Ken W. posted an article on Japan Economy News and Blog - Nov 3, 2009, 8:26 am
On Monday, McDonald’s Japan reported that its pretax profit had jumped 25% in the January-September period compared to a year ago, despite a 10% drop in same-store sales, which can be explained ...
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Ken W. posted an article on Japan Economy News and Blog - Oct 15, 2009, 8:42 am
After transport minister Seiji Maehara announced on Sunday that Tokyo’s Haneda Airport (formally known as Tokyo International Airport) should become a 24 hour hub for domestic and international ...
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Ken W. posted an article on Japan Economy News and Blog - Oct 2, 2009, 9:05 am
According to gaming magazine Enterbrain, the domestic market for video game sales shrank by 10.5% in the April-September period, to 213.8 billion yen. According to the report, sales of Nintendo DS con...
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Ken W. posted an article on Japan Economy News and Blog - Oct 1, 2009, 6:18 am
According to a report released yesterday by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, average wages at Japanese firms with five or more workers fell 3.1% in August, to 273,360 yen. August was the fi...
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Ken W. posted an article on Japan Economy News and Blog - Oct 1, 2009, 12:49 am
On Tuesday, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications announced that Japan’s consumer price index had fallen 2.2% in August, while core consumer prices (excluding fresh food) tumbled a rec...
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Ken W. posted an article on Japan Economy News and Blog - Sep 28, 2009, 2:10 am
When Peter Schiff recently said that Japanese policymakers were embracing a “strong yen” policy, one of my eyebrows raised a bit. Although Finance Minister Hirohisa Fujii has made it clear...
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Ken W. posted an article on Japan Economy News and Blog - Sep 27, 2009, 8:38 am

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Ken W. posted an article on Japan Economy News and Blog - Sep 23, 2009, 8:05 am
Japan’s core consumer prices fell a record 2.2% in July, showing a fall for the fifth consecutive month. Earlier today, the Nikkei published a piece illustrating the negative effect that store b...
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Ken W. posted an article on Japan Economy News and Blog - Sep 16, 2009, 8:13 am
Softbank announced yesterday that it intends to launch a new Samsung handset designed by Giorgio Armani. The unit has a 2.2 inch OEL screen and a 3 megapixel camera, and will be available in either bl...
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Ken W. posted an article on Japan Economy News and Blog - Sep 14, 2009, 8:28 am
According to data released Friday by the Cabinet Office, Japan’s Consumer Confidence Index rose to 40.1 in August, up from 39.4 in July. August was the eighth consecutive month in which the cons...
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Ken W. posted an article on Japan Economy News and Blog - Sep 9, 2009, 8:04 am
According to results of a survey released Monday by the Nikkei, employees of Panasonic enjoy the best work environment in Japan. Panasonic moved up one spot from the same survey conducted in 2008, thu...
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Ken W. posted an article on Japan Economy News and Blog - Sep 7, 2009, 8:51 am
Last month, we noted that in July, DoCoMo had ended Softbank’s 26 month run as the carrier enlisting the most new subscribers. That post questioned how long DoCoMo could stay at the top, and it ...
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Ken W. posted an article on Japan Economy News and Blog - Sep 2, 2009, 8:31 am
... which found that about 52% of Tokyo residents use e-money for shopping. With Suica, Edy, Nanaco and Pasmo cards ... (about 127 million). Of course, this means that there are many people not us...
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Ken W. posted an article on Japan Economy News and Blog - Aug 27, 2009, 10:19 am
According to data released Thursday by the Japan Federation of Construction Contractors, construction orders received in July by its 49 member firms dropped a record 44.9% year-on-year to 593.2 billio...
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Ken W. posted an article on Japan Economy News and Blog - Aug 27, 2009, 8:04 am
Softbank has announced that starting next Tuesday, it will waive its 980 monthly fee for five months for all customers who switch from another carrier and sign up for the company’s popular White...
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Ken W. posted an article on Japan Economy News and Blog - Aug 25, 2009, 8:36 am
Japan’s department stores and convenience stores have little to feel positive about after July sales results rolled in. According to data released by the Japan Department Store Association, sale...
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Ken W. posted an article on Japan Economy News and Blog - Aug 23, 2009, 8:47 am
A translation of an opinion piece entitled Japan must shake off US-style globalization by Democratic Party of Japan leader Yukio Hatoyama appears in this week’s edition of the Christian Science ...
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Ken W. posted an article on Japan Economy News and Blog - Aug 18, 2009, 9:29 am
Despite the 0.9% rise in GDP over the April-June quarter, there remain some skeptics worried about how strongly Japan will be able to recover from multiple quarters of negative growth. The Nikkei publ...
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Ken W. posted an article on Japan Economy News and Blog - Aug 10, 2009, 8:18 am
Earlier today, the Cabinet Office released the results of its monthly Economy Watchers Survey, and the results showed a 0.2 point increase to 42.4 points. The Economy Watchers survey is measured as ...
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Ken W. posted an article on Japan Economy News and Blog - Aug 9, 2009, 8:37 am
As an update to last week’s article on quarterly losses at NTT, it was announced Friday that out of Japan’s mobile service providers, NTT DoCoMo gained the most new subscribers in July. P...
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Ken W. posted an article on Japan Economy News and Blog - Aug 5, 2009, 10:17 am
In fiscal 2006 and 2007, Japan’s public pension system managed to log losses. In FY2007, the fund earned money on government bonds, but lost a whopping 7.5 trillion in in equities positions. The...
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Ken W. posted an article on Japan Economy News and Blog - Aug 5, 2009, 8:15 am
Earlier today, NTT announced that its net profit had fallen 20.5% in the first quarter (April-June) of 2010, to a total of about 139.6 billion yen. At the ame time, operating income fell 12.4% to 325....
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Ken W. posted an article on Japan Economy News and Blog - Jul 27, 2009, 7:13 pm
Two months after rival furniture retailer Nitori’s announcement that it would cut prices on 400 items by 15 to 40 percent, Ikea announced on Monday that it plans to cut prices on 1,450 items by ...
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