Japan

Entertainment giant Sony Group Corp. is the latest company to jump onto a bandwagon of Japanese businesses seeking to tap blockchain technology, a trend that poses challenges for the nation’s government, Bloomberg News reported. Sony last month officially unveiled a digital ledger, Soneium, anticipating that developers will use it to create applications to enhance the firm’s offerings. Precisely how is a work in progress, but the broad idea is that intersecting Soneium with gaming, music and movies could yield opportunities.

Bank of Japan policy board member Naoki Tamura said the central bank should raise interest rates to around 1% in the near future, fueling expectations of several rate increases, the Wall Street Journal reported. In a speech Thursday to business leaders in the western prefecture of Okayama, Tamura said short-term interest rates should be raised to at least around 1% in the latter half of the bank’s projection period. Japan’s neutral interest rate is likely around that level, he said.

The Bank of Japan will continue to raise interest rates if inflation moves in line with its forecast, policymaker Junko Nakagawa said, signalling that last month's market rout has not derailed the bank's plan to hike borrowing costs steadily, Reuters reported. But the central bank must take into account the impact that such market moves could have on the outlook for the economy and prices when considering whether to raise rates, she added. Her comments pushed up the yen as markets took them as a renewed sign the BOJ could raise rates in coming months.

The number of corporate bankruptcies with debts of at least ¥10 million in Japan in August dropped 4.8% from a year earlier to 723, down for the first time in two years and five months, Tokyo Shoko Research data have shown, the Japan Times reported. The figure stood below 800 for the first time in four months, according to the data, released Monday. Growing moves by companies to pass on higher costs reflecting a rise in inflation are believed to have led to the decrease in bankruptcies.

Japan's economy grew at a slightly slower pace than initially reported in the second quarter, hurt by downward revisions in corporate and household spending that point to a bumpier second half for consumption and the central bank's rate-hike plans, Reuters reported. The Bank of Japan is keen to see consistent improvement in domestic demand as it focuses on exiting its decade-long monetary stimulus programme and raising interest rates further in coming months.

For years, mortgages in Japan have been nearly cost free. Homeowners are now bracing for that to change, the New York Times reported. Japan’s central bank had maintained benchmark interest rates near zero since the mid-1990s. As a result, many home buyers have gotten used to paying between 0.3 and 0.4 percent for floating-rate mortgages, or just over 1 percent for longer-term, fixed-rate ones.

Bank of Japan Deputy Gov. Ryozo Himino has backed the case for further interest-rate hikes if the economy and prices grow as expected, echoing recent comments from the central bank’s chief, the Wall Street Journal reported. Himino’s remarks on Wednesday suggest that the BOJ’s top officials are on the same page about the bank’s future policy path.

Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda reaffirmed that he is open to more interest-rate increases, clearing up doubts about the central bank’s intention to continue on its path of policy normalization, the Wall Street Journal reported. “There is no change to our basic stance of adjusting the level of monetary easing going forward if we can confirm that the outlook for the economy and prices is more likely to realize as we expect,” Ueda said in a parliamentary session Friday. The BOJ governor’s comment fueled rate-hike expectations, causing the yen to strengthen against the dollar.