politics
Bank of Japan chief Kazuo Ueda said Friday the central bank does not see any major impact of a weak yen on trend inflation at this point, but it will continue to monitor developments. Speaking at a press conference after a two-day policy-setting meeting, Ueda reiterated that the BOJ would consider a policy change if the weak yen's impact on prices "cannot be ignored." Trend inflation excludes temporary factors. He said an additional interest rate hike will depend on economic data, adding that the BOJ will continue with its government bond buying.
Kyodo News
Japan's Cabinet approved Friday a bill to regulate smartphone app stores to promote easier market access for third-party developers, in a move to challenge the duopoly exerted by industry giants Apple Inc. and Google LLC. The bill would require dominant smartphone operating system providers to allow the entry of third-party app stores and payment systems to increase competition. Under the new regulations, providers who fail to comply will be slapped with a penalty worth 20 percent of their domestic revenue related to the violation. The penalty can rise to 30 percent if the malpractice continue...
Kyodo News
The Bank of Japan maintained its policy rate unchanged as widely expected at the end of a two-day meeting on Friday after hiking it a month earlier. The BOJ's new forecasts showed it expects inflation to be around its target of 2 percent until fiscal 2026. For the current fiscal year that began in April, core consumer prices that exclude volatile fresh food are forecast to rise 2.8 percent, up from 2.4 percent projected earlier. The Policy Board examined the impact of its decision in March to guide short-term interest rates in a range of zero and 0.1 percent, in a major shift away from years o...
Kyodo News
The municipal assembly of Genkai in southwestern Japan gave the go-ahead Friday for the town to request a preliminary survey by the state to gauge its suitability to host an underground disposal site for highly radioactive waste. The Genkai assembly is the first in the country hosting a nuclear plant to approve such a survey request. Mayor Shintaro Wakiyama will make the final decision in May or later regarding whether to request the survey, the first part of a three-stage, 20-year process to select a permanent storage site for waste from nuclear power generation. If the mayor gives the green ...
Kyodo News
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi began talks on Friday in Beijing, with agenda items expected to include China's alleged support for Russia's defense industry as well as tensions around Taiwan and the South China Sea. Blinken, who returned to the Asian country for the first time in 10 months, is also likely to raise U.S. concerns about Beijing's overcapacity in electric vehicles and other industries. He may meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping later in the day. His three-day China visit through Friday is part of the two countries' efforts to stabiliz...
Kyodo News
Japan is closely watching currency movements and is ready to take all necessary steps, Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki said Friday, amid market caution about intervention to slow the yen's fall to 34-year lows against the U.S. dollar. Suzuki said he is "concerned" about the negative aspect of the weaker yen, while noting that it also has its positive side. He declined to say when and what specific steps the government would take against excessive volatility in the currency market.
Kyodo News
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said Thursday "many serious concerns" about intellectual property protection and enforcement in China persist, criticizing its slow pace of reform. The office said China is one of the seven countries remaining on its "priority watch list," pointing out that, among many other issues, it and Hong Kong were again the largest exporters of counterfeit goods in fiscal 2023. "China's e-commerce markets, the largest in the world, remain a source of widespread counterfeits as infringing sales have migrated from physical to online markets," the USTR said in an...
Kyodo News
The Japanese government on Thursday conducted on-site inspections of two plants of a subsidiary of IHI Corp., a day after the leading engine maker said fuel efficiency data had been falsified for decades. IHI Power System Co.'s plants in Niigata and Gunma prefectures were inspected, the transport ministry said, after data was found to have been rigged for 4,361 engines. IHI said data falsification may have taken place since the late 1980s at the Niigata plant and since 2001 at the Gunma factory. "We will sincerely cooperate and respond. We will make efforts to prevent a recurrence, while seeki...
Kyodo News
Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki said Thursday there is no change "at all" in the government's stance that it will act appropriately with regard to the yen's value after it slipped past 155 to the U.S. dollar. Speaking in parliament, Suzuki said the government is carefully monitoring currency market developments but declined to comment further, amid market vigilance over a possible yen-buying dollar-selling operation to slow the Japanese currency's fall.
Kyodo News
The Bank of Japan is widely expected to leave its policy rate unchanged at a two-day meeting from Thursday, a month after implementing a hike for the first time in 17 years, though a persistently weak yen is raising the prospect of higher inflation driven by import costs. The Policy Board shifted to using short-term rates as its major policy tool last month, guiding them in a range of between zero and 0.1 percent. It ended unorthodox monetary easing that had weakened the yen, including its negative rate and yield cap program, as robust wage growth has boosted the BOJ's confidence that stable i...
Kyodo News
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