The IMF projects Japan will fall to sixth by nominal GDP in 2027, behind India and Britain, yet the gap to Britain is roughly 0.5%. The weak yen explains the ranking; it does not explain Japan's slow real growth.
Hong Kong's SCMP reports that Trump asked Xi to lift China's export curbs on Japan, citing a threat to US industry. In July, China's magnet exports to Japan fell 52.2% while US shipments rose 4.6%.
Japan may write a study of nuclear-powered submarines into its security documents. Why nuclear propulsion is not nuclear arms, why the barrier is a 1965 legal reading, and what Australia, Korea and Brazil show.
Minoru Kiuchi, Japan's economy minister and long seen as a reflationist, says Abenomics-style reflation is over. The BOJ was already at 1.25%. Yet Japan still hasn't declared deflation over.
Japan bars under-18s from campaigning, even by sharing a candidate's post. On September 25, 2026, a Tokyo court called that ban unconstitutional, yet the four plaintiffs still lost.
GO, Waymo and Nihon Kotsu want driverless taxis in Tokyo in 2027. Japan has had a permit regime since 2023, but the permits granted so far cover fixed lines: a 2 km cart route, a 700 m shuttle, a busway.
Astellas and Kyowa Kirin are the first Japanese drugmakers to sign most-favored-nation pricing deals with Washington. A September 29 tariff deadline explains the timing, and Japanese prices sit inside the U.S. formula.
The Switch 2 hit $499.99 in the US on September 1. Japan raised its price three months earlier, and Famitsu's numbers show a rush to 712,000 units in May, then 100,166 in June, with July still under April.
Goldman Sachs, Citi, Deutsche Bank, MUFG and 17 others will form a company in late 2026 to issue a dollar stablecoin. Why banks are entering a $303.7 billion market where Tether holds about 60%, and what is undecided.
Transits through the Strait of Hormuz have fallen from 21.6 to 4.9 million barrels a day, and Gulf producers are building seven bypass pipelines. Japan restored procurement, but July brought a 634.5 billion yen deficit.
Japan's Environment Ministry will stop subsidising the purchase of conventional solar panels for new projects from fiscal 2027. The stated reason was not carbon but industry: the money was benefiting factories abroad.