Japan's finance minister has again signaled support for domestic crypto ETFs. But under current law crypto is not an eligible asset for a Japanese fund, so no spot ETF can be built. The bill that fixes that is still in the upper house. Here is the honest answer to the three questions global investors ask: when, which tokens, and at what tax rate.
PMs Takaichi and Modi are set to turn cow dung into vehicle fuel and build a 2.5-million CNG-car market in India — a clean-energy deal that doubles as a hedge against China's grip on electric cars.
Japan's government just promised over 370 trillion yen ($2.3 trillion) across 17 strategic sectors by 2040. We unpack the suspicious arithmetic: a 6.5x return promised on chips, an undisclosed public-private split, and a deadline conveniently 14 years away.
Japan, the UK, and Italy are building the GCAP sixth-gen fighter, but lead partner Britain is in political and fiscal chaos after PM Starmer's resignation, with the contract keeping it alive expiring June 30. Why Tokyo is the anxious one, plus the queue of countries like Canada lining up to join.
Germany's largest arms maker, Rheinmetall, is eyeing its first production base in Japan. Who is the company behind the guns on the Leopard 2 and Japan's Type 90 tank, how did the Ukraine war transform it, and why does it now want to export from Japan?
Japan's 2026 population estimate shows foreign residents up 9.64% to 3.73 million while the total falls. How Japan is quietly becoming an immigration society, compared with Germany and Canada.
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 PM Takaichi wants to scrap food consumption tax for two years—but POS vendors say the register overhaul takes a year. Why does changing a number take so long? We compare Japan's tangled POS systems with the US, where a tax change takes an afternoon. The twist: America's speed is a side effect of its chaotic tax code.
At the APEC trade ministers meeting in Suzhou, China, Japan's industry minister demanded that exporting countries rectify arbitrary rare earth curbs. A look at the slow squeeze on Japan, its roots in a Taiwan remark, and Tokyo's exit strategy.
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.
On May 19, Japan's ruling LDP unveiled a policy proposal calling for stablecoins and tokenized deposits to be treated as national financial infrastructure — and added to PM Takaichi's Big-Boned Policy in June. We compare Japan's approach with the Web3 hubs of Singapore, Hong Kong and the UAE.
Anthropic's Head of Global Affairs Michael Sellitto arrived in Tokyo May 15 and confirmed the company is weighing participation in the cyber defense corporate alliance proposed by Japan's ruling LDP. Modeled on US Project Glasswing, the framework will test Japan's distinctive 'middle path' — an AI Promotion Law with no penalties, sitting between the EU AI Act's hard regulation and the deregulatory turn under the Trump administration.
On the afternoon of May 14, Japan's 10-year government bond yield hit 2.625%, the highest since 1997. OIS markets now price a 74% probability of a rate hike at the June 16-17 BOJ meeting. BOJ board member Kazuyuki Masu, previously considered cautious, said in a Kagoshima speech that 'early rate hikes are desirable.' With US PPI surprise, USD/JPY near 158, and 'long rates at 3% in sight,' we map where Japan's FX, bond, and rate-hike expectations stand right now.
PM Sanae Takaichi pledges to effectively double research funding and build a 'new technological nation,' targeting AI, semiconductors, and quantum to compete with the US, China, and Korea. We examine the reality behind the plan—Japan's 3.44% R&D-to-GDP ratio, declining PhD numbers—and whether the strategy can work.
Reuters reports Japan conducted multiple yen-buying interventions during the May Golden Week, exploiting thin holiday liquidity. Combined with the April 30 operation of about 5 trillion yen, the total reaches roughly 10 trillion yen. Vice Finance Minister Mimura stated IMF rules do not constrain intervention frequency, while a meeting with US Treasury Secretary Bessent looms. How would your central bank respond in this position?
The BOJ released its March 18-19 meeting minutes on May 7. The deliberation sections are anonymous, but votes and dissenting opinions are published with names attached. The 8-1 split? Hajime Takata alone dissented. We trace the 9 members behind the March meeting, the shift to a 6-3 split in April, and the rebalancing coming when Nakagawa's term ends in late June.
On May 4 in Canberra, PM Takaichi and PM Albanese signed five joint documents including the Economic Security Joint Declaration. Six critical mineral projects backed by $1.2B. How Japan's approach differs from the US IRA and EU CRMA, and what it means for global supply chains.
Private estimates put Japan's April 30 yen-buying intervention at around 5 trillion yen ($32B). Here's what it means for the US-Japan rate gap, carry trade unwind, US Treasury monitoring list risk, and emerging market spillover.
On May 2, Japanese PM Sanae Takaichi met Vietnam's new PM Le Minh Hung in Hanoi, agreeing to cooperate on crude oil and critical mineral procurement amid Middle East instability. The same day, Takaichi delivered a foreign policy speech at Vietnam National University announcing the evolution of the Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP) doctrine. Inside the new economic security pivot, how it differs from US friendshoring and EU Global Gateway, and Vietnam's untapped rare earth potential.
One day after Japan's 5-6 trillion yen intervention, Vice Finance Minister Mimura hints at more action with a 'just the beginning' line. But trade deficits, energy import dependence, ECB on hold, yen weakness against all majors, and a 40-trillion-yen carry trade time bomb suggest intervention can only buy time, not reverse the trend.