Japan is in the midst of en masse hiring season, when a wave of college graduates join companies in formal ceremonies after sweating through the job-interview gantlet. While this year’s ritual has a different look, with Covid-19 forcing many companies to scale back or go online, the goal has long been the same: to kick off what was often a lifetime devoted to one company, the New York Times reported.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said the central bank's monetary policy is aimed at achieving its 2% inflation target, not at manipulating currency rates, brushing aside the view the country must end an ultra-low interest rate policy to stem sharp yen declines, Reuters reported. Kishida also said the recent rise in domestic inflation was due mostly to a global spike in crude oil and raw material costs, rather than the weak yen.

The Bank of Japan (BOJ) is likely to raise its inflation forecast for this fiscal year to near 2% at this month's policy meeting as global commodity inflation drives up energy and food costs, Reuters reported. While the upgrade will bring inflation closer to its 2% target, the central bank will stress its resolve to keep monetary policy ultra-loose to underpin a fragile economic recovery.

Japan's Nippon Steel Corp. has completed its acquisition of majority stakes in two electric arc furnace steelmakers in Thailand, paying about $477 million in total, it said on Monday, Reuters reported. The company, Japan's biggest steelmaker, said in January that it will buy Thai steelmakers G Steel PCL and G J Steel PCL in a deal worth up to $763 million, seeking to cut its reliance on blast furnaces that use coking coal and emit carbon dioxide.

The Bank of Japan should pay close attention to currency levels because its efforts to hold down interest rates are weakening the yen, according to a senior member of the Japanese ruling coalition party Komeito, Bloomberg News reported. “From the point of view of the economy, I understand why they are holding down interest rates,” said Keiichi Ishii, secretary general of Komeito, the junior partner to Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party. “But the side effects of that are reflected in exchange rates,” he said in an interview with Bloomberg News in Tokyo on Friday.

The war in Ukraine is making a bad situation worse for Japanese power providers struggling with the energy crisis, forcing more companies to quit the business, the Japan Times reported. In the last month, at least four companies halted power retail operations, as a surge in wholesale electricity prices makes it challenging to procure stable supply and turn a profit. At least seven temporarily halted taking on new customers for some plans. For the fiscal year ending Thursday, 14 Japanese power companies have filed for bankruptcy, according to Teikoku Databank.

The conflict between Russia and Ukraine, which are exporters of steel products, will have a huge impact on global steel demand and trade if it lasts for a long time, the head of a Japanese steel industry group said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. "Even before the Ukraine crisis, we had faced three risk factors to dent steel demand -- China's slowdown, global chip shortage and soaring energy and natural resources prices," Japan Iron and Steel Federation Chairman Eiji Hashimoto told a news conference.

Japan will ban the export of high-end cars and other luxury goods to Russia in its latest response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the trade ministry said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The partial ban on Russia-bound auto items, which account for more than half of Japan's exports to Russia, came after Prime Minister Fumio Kishida made a commitment to place more sanctions on Russia at a Group of Seven summit last week.

Japan has frozen the assets of an additional 32 Russian and Belarusian officials and oligarchs following the invasion of Ukraine, the Ministry of Finance announced on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The newly added sanctions target 20 Russians including deputy chiefs of staff for President Vladamir Putin's administration, deputy chairmen of the state parliament, the head of the Chechen Republic and executives of companies with close ties to the government such as Volga Group, Transneft and Wagner.