Japan’s prime minister insists he will raise consumption tax to 10 per cent next year and has hinted that another economic stimulus package is being planned, the Financial Times reported. Shinzo Abe said before leaving for Washington he would press ahead with the tax rise unless there was a natural disaster or economic blow as big as the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy. But Mr Abe also began to prepare for another fiscal stimulus, already under discussion within his party, and warned of downside risks to the global economy.

Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Foxconn Technology Group’s flagship company, on Sunday denied media reports that the bailout of Sharp Corp. will be approved and signed on March 31, a day after Hon Hai’s board meets, Bloomberg News reported. Progress in talks to acquire troubled Japanese electronics maker Sharp will determine whether the deal is discussed at the board meeting, which will go ahead as scheduled, Hon Hai said in a statement to the Taiwan stock exchange.

Japanese companies have markedly slowed the pace of wage growth in one of the worst blows to hit the Abenomics stimulus since it was launched in 2012. As results of the annual “spring offensive” on wages poured in from across the manufacturing sector, many companies offered pay rises half the size of last year, and far below the pace needed to drive inflation to 2 per cent, the Financial Times reported. The results are a double blow to Shinzo Abe, prime minister, and the Bank of Japan.

The Bank of Japan said on Tuesday it would maintain its massive asset buying programme at existing levels but offered a bleaker view of the economy, suggesting it may roll out more stimulus as it struggles to reach an elusive inflation target, the International New York Times reported. However, the central bank appeared to back-pedal on its recent radical shift to negative interest rates, highlighting the dilemma the BOJ faces as it struggles to respond to renewed signs of economic weakness with dwindling policy options.

Japan's Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp will press hard to approve a capital increase for Brazilian steelmaker Usiminas SA this week, with a threat to sue if fellow shareholders block the motion, a source with knowledge of the matter said on Tuesday. The Japanese group will propose a cash injection of 1 billion reais ($267 million) at a Friday board meeting, and is willing to finance the capital increase alone if the other major shareholder, Italian-Argentinian conglomerate Techint Group, refuses to participate, the same source said.

Japan, the world’s most heavily indebted nation, is now getting paid to borrow. The Japanese government for the first time Tuesday issued benchmark 10-year bonds with negative yields, meaning it is effectively charging investors for the privilege of lending it money, The Wall Street Journal reported. That is the result of the topsy-turvy world of negative interest rates, which Japan entered earlier this year, when the country’s central bank began to charge lenders for holding some of their deposits, instead of paying them interest.

Global bitcoin exchange Kraken said on Wednesday significant progress has been made in the investigation into claims of creditors of bankrupt exchange MtGox, Reuters reported. In 2014, MtGox Co Ltd, a Tokyo-based bitcoin exchange, was forced to file for bankruptcy after hackers stole an estimated $650 million worth of customer bitcoins. Kraken was appointed in November of that year to assist Tokyo district court-appointed trustee Nobuaki Kobayashi in the bankruptcy investigation of missing bitcoins, receiving claims and distributing remaining assets to creditors of MtGox.

Japanese industrial conglomerate Toshiba Corp expects a bigger full-year loss than previously anticipated, amid mounting restructuring costs after a $1.3 billion accounting scandal, Reuters reported. Toshiba said on Thursday it now expected a net loss of 710 billion yen ($6 billion) compared with a previously expected loss of 550 billion yen. Chief Executive Masashi Muromachi told a press conference that Toshiba had lowered its expectations to fully reflect possible downside risks to its business.

Faced with sluggish domestic growth, Japan’s megabanks are expanding their role in financing global mergers and acquisitions, which hit a record level this year, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Japanese banks have long ranked among the world’s top cross-border lenders, and have lent many billions of dollars to Japanese companies also seeking growth abroad through acquisitions. Now the banks are increasingly financing deals that don't involve their compatriot companies.

The Bank of Japan still has policy options to continue its unprecedented monetary easing, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said in an interview days after the central bank announced it wouldn’t expand its main stimulus target, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. "I think they still have policies they can pursue," Suga said yesterday when asked about concerns the program could be reaching its limits.