Japan's wholesale inflation slowed for a fourth straight month in April as rises in raw material costs moderated, data showed on Monday, suggesting that consumer inflation will begin to ease back towards the central bank's 2% target, Reuters reported. The data may diminish market expectations that broadening inflationary pressure will prod the Bank of Japan to seek an early exit from ultra-low interest rates.

Several Bank of Japan (BOJ) board members said the central bank must be vigilant to the risk of inflation accelerating more than expected, minutes of the March policy meeting showed on Monday, Reuters reported. A few of the nine-member board also said they saw some "positive signs" emerging in Japan that suggest the economy was making progress towards achieving the BOJ's 2% target, the minutes of the March 9-10 meeting showed. The board debated how companies were continuing to hike prices to pass on rising raw material costs, and price increases broadening to services, the minutes showed.

A Japanese hotel chain, once at the center of a bidding war between US private equity firms Blackstone Inc. and Lone Star Funds, faces a reckoning with its creditors, Bloomberg News reported. Unizo Holdings Co. became the first Japanese company to default on its bonds in six years when it filed for a court-supervised restructuring in April. The firm, which has hotels and office buildings, said it didn’t have the money to pay debt worth 10 billion yen ($72.8 million) maturing in May. Several of the country’s regional banks warned they may not get repaid.

The Bank of Japan indicated it has more confidence in much-awaited wage increases for this fiscal year, a shift that is likely to keep fueling market speculation over policy adjustments this year, Bloomberg News reported. “It is highly likely that the growth rate of scheduled cash earnings will increase clearly this year,” the central bank said in its full quarterly economic report released Monday.

Japan's factory activity contracted for the sixth straight month in April, but the details of a private survey released on Monday showed the manufacturing sector was edging towards stabilisation amid a slower decline in new orders, Reuters reported. The final au Jibun Bank Japan Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index was up slightly at 49.5 in April from March's 49.2, and matched the flash reading. New orders contracted at the softest pace since July while remaining below the 50.0 threshold for a tenth consecutive month as inbound demand stabilised moderately.

The Bank of Japan may conduct a comprehensive review of the impact of the monetary easing steps it has taken over the longer term, an idea recently flagged by its new governor Kazuo Ueda. But there is uncertainty on how soon, and in what format, the central bank could launch such a review, which will be a topic of discussion at upcoming policy meetings, Reuters reported. Any review likely won't have immediate policy implications, and instead focus on structural factors such as lessons drawn from the BOJ's long battle with deflation.

Credit Suisse has lodged a $440 million claim against Japan's SoftBank Group Corp in London as it presses ahead with formal proceedings in a dispute borne from the failure of Greensill Capital, a finance firm, Reuters reported. The Swiss lender is trying to recover client funds that Greensill had lent to Katerra, a SoftBank-backed U.S. construction group that filed for bankruptcy in 2021. SoftBank has vowed to vigorously fight the claim. The collapse of Greensill, along with a string of scandals, helped dent confidence in the 167-year-old Swiss bank.

On 20 January 2023, the Interim Proposal on the Reform of Secured Transaction Law (“Interim Proposal“) was published by the Japanese government, according to an analysis on Lexology.com. The Interim Proposal is, among other things, intended to govern security interests created by secured transactions, such as security assignments and sales with retention of title, that have been recognized by court precedents. The Interim Proposal also considers the introduction of a new type of security interest over all the assets of a company’s business.

Crypto lender Amber Group is weighing options for its Japan unit, including a possible sale, and plans to apply for a Hong Kong license following the city’s pivot toward creating a digital-asset hub, Bloomberg News reported. The evaluation of the Japan operation is part of a strategic decision to focus more on institutional rather than retail business, Amber’s Managing Partner Annabelle Huang said on Friday. Japan is a “very high quality market, but regulations are strict,” Huang said, adding the firm doesn’t have an announcement at the moment about a deal.