Japan’s job market remained tight in January, keeping pressure on companies to pledge solid wage increases in annual negotiations currently underway with labor unions. The unemployment rate fell to 2.4% from a revised 2.5% a month earlier, the ministry of internal affairs reported Friday, sliding to the lowest level since early 2020, Bloomberg News reported. The outcome was in line with economists’ consensus estimates. Another report from the labor ministry showed the job-to-applicants ratio held steady at 1.27 in January, matching the median estimate by analysts.

Japan's core consumer inflation slowed for a third straight month in January but beat forecasts and held at the central bank's 2% target, keeping alive expectations it will end negative interest rates by April, Reuters reported. The 2.0% gain in the core consumer prices index (CPI) was slower than the 2.3% increase in December, internal affairs and communications ministry data showed on Tuesday, underscoring views waning cost-push inflation from commodity imports could ease the pain of higher living costs.

Japan unexpectedly slipped into a recession at the end of last year, losing its title as the world's third-biggest economy to Germany and raising doubts about when the central bank would begin to exit its decade-long ultra-loose monetary policy, Reuters reported. Some analysts are warning of another contraction in the current quarter as weak demand in China, sluggish consumption and production halts at a unit of Toyota Motor Corp. all point to a challenging path to an economic recovery.

Sushi is one of Japan’s most iconic cuisines with fans around the world, but in its home country restaurants are closing their business at the fastest pace since the Covid pandemic days in 2020, Bloomberg News reported. Rising material prices, staff shortages and reduction of Covid-era support measures have hit sushi joints in Japan. Five restaurants went bankrupt in Japan in January, the most in a month since August 2020, according to research firm Tokyo Shoko Research Ltd.

The seeds of former flight attendant Mitsuko Tottori's rise to the top of Japan Airlines (JAL) were planted in the aftermath of the carrier's bankruptcy more than a decade ago, Reuters reported. Tottori, who rose through the ranks from cabin crew to chief customer officer, takes over as president of JAL in April, becoming one of the few women to lead a major global airline. Qantas, opens new tab has a woman boss and KLM and Air France are led by women who report to a male group CEO.

Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda kept investors in the dark over when he will scrap the world’s last negative interest rate while leaving little doubt that a move is in the pipeline, Bloomberg News reported. The BOJ maintained its -0.1% short-term rate and kept its yield curve control parameters intact Tuesday. It also updated its price and growth forecasts with no overall change to the picture of an economy heading slowly toward its first rate hike since 2007.

One in six Japanese companies have become “zombie” firms unable to keep up with debt payments from profits alone, putting them in a vulnerable position should the central bank raise interest rates this year, as is widely expected, Bloomberg News reported. The number of zombie companies hit 251,000 or 17% of the total number in the 12 months to March, jumping almost a third from the previous year, according to a report by Teikoku Databank on Friday. The number was the highest since 2011, when Japan’s economy was battered by an earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster, the firm said.

Star Wars-inspired hoverbike maker A.L.I. Technologies Inc. filed for bankruptcy due to mounting research and development costs and slow adoption of the next-generation vehicles, Bloomberg News reported. The filing comes less than a year after parent Aerwins Technology Inc. debuted on the Nasdaq in one of the worst SPAC mergers of all time, prompting the startup to say it was at risk as a going concern.

Japan's factory activity contracted at the steepest pace in 10 months in December as output and new orders slid on market uncertainty, a private-sector survey showed on Thursday, Reuters reported. The final au Jibun Bank Japan manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI) shrank to 47.9 in December from 48.3 in November. It was the weakest reading since the index hit 47.7 in February and stayed below the 50.0 threshold that separates growth from contraction for a seventh straight month.

Japan’s trucking industry is a crucial cog in one of the world’s largest economies, and it is the lifeblood of the Japanese culture of ultra-convenience. But it, and its drivers, are under immense strain, the New York Times reported. To improve job conditions and make the work more appealing, the government is moving to cap overtime for the first time next year, easing the punishing hours that have long defined trucking in Japan. Addressing that problem, however, will create others — potentially disrupting the nation’s entire logistics system.