Japanese economy

Raising Profits without Raising Sales - What's the Bottom Line?

written by Richard Katz on January 22, 2016

Japan’s firms, particularly its 5,000 largest firms, have mastered the art of producing growth in profits without growth in sales. They’ve done this by cutting costs, particularly labor costs.

TOE Alert: How Does Japan Stack up on Growth Compared to G7, Part 2

written by Richard Katz on October 05, 2015

Richard's second installment on how Japan's economic growth has been compared with other G7 countries.

How Will BOJ Respond to Return of Deflation?

written by Richard Katz on September 25, 2015

By one measure, deflation, like the swallows at Capistrano, has returned to Japan. According to the official target of the Bank of Japan (BOJ)—the consumer price index (CPI) except for fresh food—prices fell -0.1% in August from last year. This is the first time Japan has seen deflation since April 2013.

Toyota the Exception On Wage Hikes, Part 2

written by Richard Katz on March 24, 2015

In this part 2 of the report, Richard argues that rather than rush to judgment about the impact of this spring’s wage negotiations on nominal and real wage growth based on the headlines from a few big firms like Toyota, we should wait until we get the actual numbers on wages for April and a few months thereafter.