Showing 1 - 8 of 8
Japan is better today thanks to PM Shinzo Abe
News, Noah Smith, Published on 30/08/2020
» Shinzo Abe, Japan's longest-serving prime minister, is resigning due to ulcerative colitis. He leaves behind a Japan that is economically stronger and more socially liberal than the one he inherited.
Why Japan desperately needs criminal-justice reform
News, Noah Smith, Published on 14/12/2018
» Japan's police recently threw the chairman of Nissan Motor Co, one of the country's largest auto manufacturers, into a jail cell. Carlos Ghosn, a Brazilian-born executive with French and Lebanese citizenship, has been accused of falsifying financial reports and hiding US$44 million (1.4 trillion baht) of personal income.
Japan needs, but can't lure migrants
News, Noah Smith, Published on 01/12/2017
» Even as the Donald Trump administration tries to think up ways to keep talented foreigners out of the US, Japan is trying to lure them in. But it's having trouble getting them to come.
Voters want a bit more 'Abenomics'
News, Noah Smith, Published on 27/10/2017
» Japan's long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party has figured out a novel and interesting way to stay in power -- govern pragmatically, focus on the economy and give people what they want.
Japan should spend a little less on its well-off elderly
News, Noah Smith, Published on 29/09/2017
» When discussing Japan's debt, most people get caught up in the issue of fiscal solvency. As everyone by now knows, Japan has a very high level of debt versus gross domestic product:
Private equity will do a lot of good for Japan Inc
News, Noah Smith, Published on 22/08/2017
» Back in 2012, I wrote a blog post calling for more private equity in Japan. Japanese companies are held back by a hidebound, inefficient workplace culture. Managers are often grey elder statesmen promoted up through the ranks, instead of dynamic outsiders ready to shake things up. Shareholders are often passive owners, doing little to push companies to raise profitability, while managers build empires instead of focusing on what their companies do best.
How to fill the void once Trump kills off the TPP
News, Noah Smith, Published on 01/12/2016
» The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which would have created trade links between the US, Japan and a number of other Asian countries, is dead. Donald Trump has vowed to kill the pact on his first day in office. That won't be a hard promise to keep, as the trade deal was already effectively dead -- Mr Trump's move is just a flourish.
Dumbing down of education policy is a very bad sign
News, Noah Smith, Published on 22/09/2015
» Most people who follow news from Japan will be paying attention to the economy, or possibly to the fist-fight that broke out in the Diet over security policy. But there was a huge and very worrying change in Japanese education policy that somehow hasn't received much public notice.