Prior to IPF Breakfast Meeting presentation by Kozo Yamamoto, a member of the House of Representative, GR Japan Managing Director, Jakob Edberg, has provided an analysis of the current political situation and what to expect in the new Diet session on...

SNEAK PREVIEW! IPF Breakfast on 28 January 2014 at GR Japan,  Kozo Yamamoto.Prior to his talk for IPF Breakfast, Yamamoto, a member of the House of Representatives, Former Vice Minister of Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, shares his perceptio...

At a congress of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) on 19th January, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe promised to link improvements in corporate earnings to higher pay. Abe expressed his intention to prioritise economic recovery, emphasising the need to cre...

Former defense minister and national security adviser of Japan, Yuriko Koike, expressed concern on Asia’s apathy to the protest in Thailand in a rare but very well written op-ed article on Project Syndicate. Koike warns that the current protest could...

The upcoming Tokyo Gubernatorial race is definitely the topic of the Day in Nagata-cho. Media reports about former PM Hosokawa possibly teaming up with former PM Koizumi on an anti-nuclear ticket has stirred a lot of discussions within the political ...

GR Japan Managing Director, Jakob Edberg, made a presentation to the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan on 1 October on the outlook for Abenomics and the Extraordinary Diet Session Autumn 2013.  To view the presentation slides, please click the...

The Nikkei Shimbun reports that at yesterday’s meeting of the Working Team on Civil Service Reform, both the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan and the New Komeito Party confirmed intentions of establishing a “Special Advisor” at each Ministry. The re...

Several news outlets report today that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has solidified his decision to proceed with plans to increase the consumption tax rate to 8 percent in April. It had been widely reported that a 5 trillion yen stimulus package was bein...

NHK reports that private sector members of the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy plan to present a proposal at the next meeting of the council (to be held on 13 September) calling for the establishment of Tokyo as a special regulatory zone as par...

According to data released by the Cabinet Office today, Japan’s gross domestic product (GDP) during the April-June period was on a quarter-to-quarter basis revised up to a 0.9 percent increase from a preliminary 0.6 percent. This amounts to an annual...