Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga officially expanded and extended the nation’s coronavirus state of emergency on Tuesday, as government advisers recommended legal changes that would allow penalties for violations, the Associated Press reported. The measures, approved by a government task force, add seven prefectures to the six areas already under a state of emergency and extend it to Sept. 12.
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Japan
Japan stepped back into economic growth in the second three months of 2021, but prospects for a more robust recovery looked dim as the country grappled with its worst coronavirus outbreak since the pandemic began, the New York Times reported. The country’s economy, the third-largest after the U.S. and China, grew at an annualized rate of 1.3 percent during the April-to-June period, recording a quarterly increase of 0.3 percent. The expansion followed a quarter-to-quarter drop of 0.9 percent in the previous three-month period.
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Japanese wholesale prices rose in July at their fastest annual pace in 13 years, data showed on Thursday, a sign that global commodity inflation and a weak yen were pushing up raw material import costs for a broad range of goods, Reuters reported. There is uncertainty, however, on whether companies will start to pass on the higher costs to households and prop up consumer inflation, which remains stuck around zero due to weak consumption, unlike in other advanced nations, analysts say.
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Facing possible bankruptcy, the city of Kyoto has drafted a financial restructuring plan that would trim its bureaucracy, reduce the number of elderly residents eligible for bus and subway discounts and cut spending on day care centers, the Japan Times reported. “I deeply regret the fact that we’ve been forced to rely on special measures in order to manage our finances,” Kyoto Mayor Daisaku Kadokawa said Tuesday when announcing the plan.
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The number of corporate bankruptcies in Japan fell at the fastest rate this year to hit the lowest in 50 years for a July, thanks to funding support from the government and banks, a private-sector credit research firm said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. There were 476 company bankruptcies in July, down 40% from the same month a year ago, Tokyo Shoko Research showed, pointing to government help for corporate financing amid a resurgence of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Japan will act "without hesitation" to cushion the economic blow from the COVID-19 pandemic, economy minister Yasutoshi Nishimura said on Friday, signaling the government's readiness to compile another spending package as the crisis weighs on growth, Reuters reported. Japan decided on Friday to expand states of emergency to three prefectures near Olympic host Tokyo and the western prefecture of Osaka, as COVID-19 cases spike, a move that will delay an already fragile economic recovery.
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The Olympics have long been an almost ideal forum for companies looking to promote themselves, with plenty of opportunities for brands to nestle ads among the pageantry and feel-good stories about athletes overcoming adversity — all for less than the price of a Super Bowl commercial, the New York Times reported. But now, as roughly 11,000 competitors from more than 200 countries convene in Tokyo as the coronavirus pandemic lingers, Olympic advertisers are feeling anxious about the more than $1 billion they have spent to run ads on NBC and its Peacock streaming platform.
More Japanese companies have decided against sending executives to Friday’s opening ceremony for the Tokyo Olympics as concerns about holding the games during the pandemic grow, Bloomberg reported. Senior officials from Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp., Fujitsu Ltd. and NEC Corp. will skip the event given that organizers decided to hold the games without spectators, spokespeople for the technology giants said Tuesday, a day after Toyota Motor Corp. announced its top executive wouldn’t attend.
Japan's financial regulator and central bank will launch a sweeping investigation into how well anti-money laundering measures work at regional banks and other local financial institutions, Nikkei has learned. The probe, which comes amid a spate of fraudulent money transfers in the country, could get underway this summer. An international assessment by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on money laundering, scheduled to be released in August, will likely point out inadequate internal control systems at Japanese financial institutions.
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Until last year, Kyoto basked in the glow of being ranked as one of the best, if not the best, places in the world to visit, the Japan Times reported. Polls like one by the U.S. travel magazine Conde Nast in 2020 called Japan’s ancient capital the world’s best city. One estimate showed that the city went from about 30,000 available rooms at hotels and traditional inns in 2015 to over 53,000 last year.
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