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.
Uniqlo's owner hit 3.9633 trillion yen ($25.1 billion) and passed H&M. The weak yen inflated its growth, not its rank. The risks now: China, tariffs, wages, succession, and a Zara owner still 1.8 times bigger.
Japan lost about 1.9 million dogs in twelve years, yet its pet market grew to 12.7 billion dollars in fiscal 2025. Shipment tables show dog food going from 397 to 811 yen per kilogram.
1 million units on day one, 10 million for the series. Capcom's own sales list has the three PS2 Onimusha games at 1.52 to 2.10 million lifetime, and the habit of borrowing movie stars' faces goes back to 2001.
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.
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 anime studios billed a record $2.56 billion in 2025, clearing 400 billion yen for the first time. Teikoku Databank says 2026 could bring the first decline since 2021, in a year when 34.6% already ran a loss.
Metaplanet moved 5,014 BTC between its own custody addresses for about $8 in fees, and the market assumed a sale. Why nobody believed the denial, and what the balance sheet says.
Japan's food exports hit 897.7 billion yen (about $5.7 billion) in the first half of 2026, a record. Green tea rose 83.5% and yellowtail 69.0%, but the yen was 5.5% weaker, so about half the growth was currency.
Japan bought yen without warning on July 30, moving the currency five yen in an hour. The BOJ then held at 1% and warned inflation could overshoot, as Washington and Seoul moved too.
Imabari Shipbuilding posted 600.5 billion yen in fiscal 2025, and with Japan Marine United the group now sits at roughly 1 trillion yen, about $6.1 billion. The bigger news of July 23 was a deleted clause: LNG carriers are back in scope.
Takeuchi invented the mini excavator, earns 99% of sales abroad, and ranks 2nd in Europe and 5th in North America. The story of a Nagano firm that built a market from nothing, and the US-dependence risk it now carries.
Japan saw a record 36 ramen shop bankruptcies in the first half of 2026. While the world pays $18 a bowl, shops in ramen's homeland collapse against a cultural price ceiling of 1,000 yen (about $6). Here is the structural squeeze behind the paradox.
Nintendo's stock has fallen more than 50% since its August 2025 peak, even after a record fiscal year. We unpack why, for an overseas investor audience: the Switch 2 price hike, a softer FY27 outlook, and how Nintendo stacks up against US gaming names like Roblox, Take-Two, and EA.
On June 16 the Bank of Japan raised its policy rate to 1.0%, the highest in 31 years, with Governor Ueda hospitalized and absent. We unpack the 7-1 vote, the lone hiker among major central banks, the still-weak yen, and Japan's swelling debt-service bill.
Japan's 2025 property investment topped the 2007 record, with foreign buyers at their largest presence yet. We break down Tokyo's 0.9% office vacancy, 7.5% rent growth, and why the Japan-West interest rate gap is pulling global capital in.
The Bank of Japan began selling its ETFs, yet its holdings ballooned past 110 trillion yen, over 8% of the Tokyo market. Why the Fed and ECB never bought stocks, how Switzerland differs, and whether central banks should own equities at all.
China overtook Japan in net external assets at the end of 2025, dropping it to third place, yet Japan's holdings hit a record high. Here is what the numbers really mean for the yen.
PM Takaichi met BOJ Governor Ueda on May 22 and asked the central bank to carry out 'appropriate policy.' We explain Japan's central bank independence next to the US Fed and the ECB, and how a weak yen near 159 and the carry trade tie this to global markets.
Japan welcomed 3.69 million foreign visitors in April 2026, down 5.5% from a year earlier, even as the yen sat near 159 to the dollar. We unpack the three forces behind the drop (China's travel advisory, an Easter calendar quirk, and Middle East flight cancellations) and ask whether this is actually the right moment for foreigners to book that long-postponed Japan trip.