- Sep 22
- 3 min
Safety Mania
Ichiro Suzuki The Japanese government has recently announced that dedicated lanes for driverless cars be laid out in the existing...
- Sep 12
- 4 min
Water from Fukushima
Ichiro Suzuki On August 24, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) started discharging treated water, which has been stored in tanks,...
- Aug 31
- 3 min
A Tale of Two Post-Bubble Capital Flows
Ichiro Suzuki China’s renminbi is under pressure recently. Beijing is reportedly making great efforts to stem the currency’s decline...
- Aug 21
- 4 min
Chile’s 9/11
Ichiro Suzuki This September 11 marks the 50th anniversary of a military coup in Chile that overthrew a democratically elected...
- Aug 12
- 4 min
Japanification of China
Ichiro Suzuki By the summer of 2023, it has become almost public knowledge that China’s economy is in trouble, mired in a ‘balance sheet...
- Aug 12
- 3 min
Balance Sheet Recession
Ichiro Suzuki Nomura Research Institute economist Richard Koo is forever proud of having coined a word ‘balance sheet recession’ to...
- Jul 7
- 4 min
Capital Flight from Japan?
Ichiro Suzuki The Japanese yen is under pressure again halfway through 2023. The yen is falling almost unilaterally. Its precipitous...
- Jul 2
- 4 min
Hinomaru Projects
Ichiro Suzuki The Japanese flag is casually called Hinomaru. As is almost always the case with a national flag, it symbolizes the...
- Jun 18
- 4 min
2023 G7 Summit in Hiroshima
Ichiro Suzuki In May, leaders of the developed world gathered in Hiroshima, Japan for their annual G7 Summit. Hosting a summit should...
- Jun 8
- 4 min
A Tale of Two Stock Market Indices
Ichiro Suzuki On May 16, Japan’s Nikkei Index closed above the 30,000 barrier for the first time in 18 months, and has been trading...
- Jun 4
- 5 min
Nomura’s Woes
Ichiro Suzuki In late April, shares of Nomura Holdings fell sharply, in response to an earnings announcement for the year through...
- May 30
- 4 min
Shohei Ohtani and Takafumi Horie
Ichiro Suzuki Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Angeles is showing the baseball world something that has been long considered as...
- May 7
- 4 min
Rise of Bangladesh
Ichiro Suzuki It is widely expected that India overtakes China as the most populous country on earth, half way through 2023, and it...
- Apr 28
- 4 min
Japan Exchange’s Wrath
Ichiro Suzuki Japan Exchange Group (JPX), the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s parent, has long been unhappy with low value assigned to Japanese...
- Apr 26
- 11 min
Global South Debt and Chinese Banks
Ichiro Suzuki This is not a new news or revelation, and has been already well documented. The developing world, or the Global South...
- Apr 7
- 5 min
The Folly of Coddling Shareholders
Ichiro Suzuki Shareholders are God in the 21st century capitalism. Management of Corporate Japan began to be told at the turn of the...
- Mar 29
- 3 min
Digital Deficits
Ichiro Suzuki For January 2023, Japan’s current account registered deficits of ¥1,976 billion, up from ¥1,396 billion twelve months...
- Mar 19
- 4 min
Anti-Declining Birthrate Policy of Another Dimension
Ichiro Suzuki In 2022, 811,604 babies were born in Japan whose population is approximately120 million. This was 29,231 fewer than in...
- Mar 8
- 4 min
Spring Wage Offensive 2023
Ichiro Suzuki Spring is the season for Japan’s labor unions. They negotiate their members’ wages for a new fiscal year that begins on...
- Feb 27
- 4 min
The Bank of Japan’s Next Governor
Ichiro Suzuki Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has asked Professor Kazuo Ueda to take over a position that will be vacated by departing Bank ...
- Feb 17
- 4 min
Retained Earnings Tax
Ichiro Suzuki From time to time in recent years, Japan’s opposition politicians have called for a new tax. It is one on retained...
- Feb 7
- 5 min
Looking Back on the Bank of Japan’s Extraordinary Monetary Policy
Ichiro Suzuki This spring marks the end of Haruhiko Kuroda’s ten-year governorship at the Bank of Japan. (He has served two...
- Jan 29
- 3 min
What’s Behind the United States’ Outsized Presence in Global Equity?
Ichiro Suzuki Former Morgan Stanley emerging market chief Ruchir Sharma ran an article on The Financial Times at the beginning of this...
- Jan 17
- 4 min
The Covid Death Toll Myth in China
Peter Zhang George Bernard Shaw once said, “Assassination is the extreme form of censorship.” He wasn’t exaggerating a bit. The swift...
- Jan 17
- 4 min
A Tale of Two Endings
Ichiro Suzuki Since the final weeks of 2022, the world has witnessed a flurry of reversal of policies that had been enforced on China...
- Jan 11
- 4 min
Japan’s Long Bear Market
Ichiro Suzuki Japan’s Nikkei Index closed 2022 at 26,094, down from 28,791 a year earlier amid a global rout in the stock markets....
- Dec 19, 2022
- 4 min
General Electric
Ichiro Suzuki General Electric is a company that Thomas Edison founded in the late 19th century. It was natural progression that...
- Dec 16, 2022
- 4 min
India’s Rise
Ichiro Suzuki India is on the rise. It is expected to overtake China as the most populous country as soon as in 2023. This takes place...
- Dec 12, 2022
- 5 min
Soccer in China
Ichiro Suzuki China is missing in Qatar. For the fifth time in a row, Chinese men, ranked 79th in the world at present, are not in the...
- Nov 23, 2022
- 4 min
Toyota Motor
Ichiro Suzuki Toyota Motor Corporation is thriving. For the fiscal year through March 2022, Toyota’s consolidated earnings jumped 36%...
- Nov 15, 2022
- 4 min
Germany AG
Ichiro Suzuki In the first week of November, German Chancellor Olaf Scholtz visited Beijing to meet President Xi Jinping, who just won...
- Nov 8, 2022
- 5 min
Curse of Life Time Employment
Ichiro Suzuki The U.S. dollar is roaring on the Federal Reserve Bank’s determination to get the surging inflation under control. On...
- Nov 1, 2022
- 4 min
What Holds Back Japanese Women
Ichiro Suzuki ‘Diversity’ is a popular buzzword in Japan in the 21st century. This imported word is usually narrowly interpreted as...
- Oct 26, 2022
- 4 min
End of Savings Glut
Ichiro Suzuki Unexpected a year ago, major central banks around the world are finding themselves in a war against the worst inflation...
- Oct 18, 2022
- 4 min
China’s Population Peaks Out
Ichiro Suzuki China’s population has been aging fast, and this is widely known. If there is any surprise in this, it is aging faster...
- Oct 14, 2022
- 2 min
The Bank of Japan vs. Speculators
Ichiro Suzuki The Bank of Japan was under pressure in recent weeks. Some speculators began to believe that the BOJ’s ability to cap...
- Oct 14, 2022
- 4 min
A Bad Week in Britain
Ichiro Suzuki As soon as Queen Elizabeth’s state funeral was over, Britain was thrown into financial markets’ turmoils. Markets...
- Oct 4, 2022
- 4 min
Shinzo Abe’s State Funeral
Ichiro Suzuki On September 27, the Japanese government held a state funeral of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was assassinated...
- Sep 27, 2022
- 6 min
Japanese Banks’ Sins
Ichiro Suzuki In 1868, aspiring young samurais founded a new government in Japan, ending Tokugawa Shogun’s two and a half centuries of...
- Sep 20, 2022
- 5 min
Foreign Exchange Reserves
Ichiro Suzuki Contrary to all the headlines on Japan’s economic malaise, the country’s foreign exchange reserves remain solidly...
- Sep 15, 2022
- 4 min
First Female College Graduate
Ichiro Suzuki 2022 marks the140th anniversary of the first Japanese woman’s earning a bachelor’s degree. Sutematsu Yamakawa not only...
- Sep 6, 2022
- 4 min
Quiet Capital Outflows from China
Ichiro Suzuki China’ renminbi (RMB) is weak lately. After having approached 6.3 against the U.S. dollar, the RMB has shifted its...
- Sep 1, 2022
- 4 min
Iwakura Mission
Ichiro Suzuki In 1868, two and a half centuries of Tokugawa Shoguns’ rule in Japan was brought to an end, as the last Shogun returned...
- Aug 23, 2022
- 3 min
De-Japanification
Ichiro Suzuki About ten years ago, in the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis, some economists came to believe that economies...
- Aug 17, 2022
- 5 min
The Irresistible Charm of Authoritarian Growth
Ichiro Suzuki Economists Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robison, from MIT and Harvard, published a book in 2012 that became a best...
- Aug 11, 2022
- 0 min
- Aug 11, 2022
- 3 min
Mitsubishi Corporation Board of Directors
Ichiro Suzuki At the end of June, eleven men and women were elected as trading house Mitsubishi Corporation’s board of directors at...
- Aug 2, 2022
- 3 min
China’s Financial Woes
Ichiro Suzuki As competition against the U.S. intensifies, President Xi Jinping is aggressively seeking diplomatic relationship with...
- Jul 26, 2022
- 0 min
- Jul 26, 2022
- 4 min
Revolt of Mortgage Borrowers
Ichiro Suzuki In many Chinese cities, people are refusing to pay mortgages as it is becoming clear that real estate developers are not...