After weathering decades of deflation and stagnant growth, Japan is seeing an investment boom that has made apartments in central Tokyo unaffordable for young Japanese professionals, Reuters reported. The flood of investment drove the average price for a new condominium in central Tokyo up 60% to a record 129.6 million yen ($865,000) in the first half of this year, according to the Real Estate Economic Institute. For locals, the surge in prices has made Tokyo the second most unaffordable city worldwide, only behind Hong Kong, according to a UBS global real estate report.

Japan's factory activity fell at the fastest pace in seven months in September, a survey showed on Monday, as worsening global economic conditions continued to weaken demand, Reuters reported. The final au Jibun Bank Japan manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI) fell to 48.5 in September from 49.6 in August and roughly in line with the flash reading of 48.6. The index has remained below the 50.0 point threshold that separates growth from contraction for four straight months.

Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida unveiled on Monday the pillars of a new economic stimulus package to be compiled next month to help households ease the pain of price hikes and boost wages, Reuters reported. Kishida will instruct his cabinet on Tuesday to put together the package and swiftly set up an extra budget to fund it, he said. It will include measures to protect people from cost-push inflation, back sustainable wage and income growth, promote domestic investment to spur growth, reform to overcome dwindling populations, and encourage infrastructure investment.

Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda said there was "very high uncertainty" over whether companies would continue raising prices and wages, stressing anew the bank's resolve to maintain ultra-loose monetary policy, Reuters reported. He also offered a cautious take on the overseas economic outlook, warning of the fallout from aggressive U.S. interest rate hikes and sluggish growth in the Chinese economy. The key to the outlook for monetary policy is whether strong wage growth and consumption, rather than cost pressures from rising import costs, become the key driver of inflation, Ueda said.

Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda, defying speculation about a near-term rise in interest rates, said Japan couldn’t yet be confident of sustainable inflation backed by strong wage growth, although prices are currently rising faster than the central bank’s 2% target, the Wall Street Journal reported. He said he planned to keep a benchmark short-term interest rate in negative territory for now—the same place it has been since 2016.

Japanese household spending suffered its biggest drop in nearly 2-1/2 years squeezed by rising prices, although volatility in some items meant the outlook might not be as gloomy as the headline figures suggested, Reuters reported. Japan's economy grew much faster than expected in the second quarter, helped by the end of COVID-19 curbs and a resurgence in inbound tourism, and analysts expect private consumption to support overall growth amid weakness in global demand.

Japan's financial regulator will closely monitor how central bank policy impacts regional banks, as the world's third-largest economy approaches the normalisation of its monetary settings after years of massive easing, Reuters reported. The Financial Services Agency (FSA) "will monitor how potential changes in the financial markets and client situations will affect regional banks' profits and health," the regulator said in its annual policy outlook released on Tuesday.

Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda said the pace of economic activity in China has been a disappointment that could cloud Japan's economic outlook, Reuters reported. China's July data, such as retail sales, business investment and industrial production were "on the weak side," Ueda said, according to the text posted on the BOJ's website on Monday.

The Bank of Japan is purchasing government bonds at a record pace this year, a factor that likely prompted its recent move to allow larger yield movements so as to reduce the strain on its control of longer-term interest rates, the Japan Times reported. Doubling the effective cap on benchmark yields in December and again last month has yet to significantly reduce the BOJ’s bond buying, raising the possibility that more changes will be needed to help rein in purchases.

Japan’s economy recorded impressive growth in the second quarter of 2023, government data showed on Tuesday, evidence that the country is finally recovering from the Covid doldrums, even as signs of significant challenges remain, the New York Times reported. Economic output in Japan grew by an annualized rate of 6 percent in the second three months of the year, the country’s Cabinet Office said. It was the third consecutive quarter of expansion, following a revised reading of 3.7 percent growth in the January-to-March period and a slight bump of 0.2 percent the quarter before that.