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Jul 2, 2024 | 
asia.nikkei.com | Juntaro Arai
TOKYO -- The Bank of Japan begins issuing new banknotes on Wednesday, redesigned with new historical figures and scenes and including the latest in anticounterfeit measures such as 3D holograms. This is the first time since 2004 that Japan has updated the designs for its banknotes.
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Jun 11, 2024 | 
asia.nikkei.com | Juntaro Arai
TOKYO -- The world's developing countries were expected to pay a record $150 billion-plus in interest on external debt in 2023 and again in 2024, according to the World Bank, raising concerns over the potential effect on the global economy. The figure amounts to about a third of the over $480 billion these countries are expected to pay in debt servicing costs in 2024.
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Apr 19, 2024 | 
asia.nikkei.com | Juntaro Arai |Kosuke Takami |Yumiko Oshima
WASHINGTON/TOKYO -- A yen sell-off and its effect on inflation loom large over the Bank of Japan less than a week before its first policy board meeting since ending negative interest rates in March. The central bank has signaled that it will weigh the impact of its first rate hike in 17 years and wage trends before making further policy changes.
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Apr 17, 2024 | 
asia.nikkei.com | Juntaro Arai
WASHINGTON -- Top finance officials from the U.S., Japan and South Korea expressed shared concerns over the recent weakness in the yen and the won at their first trilateral meeting Wednesday, vowing to maintain close communication over volatility in the currency market.
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Apr 13, 2024 | 
asia.nikkei.com | Juntaro Arai
TOKYO -- Countries across the globe are becoming increasingly wary of the growing might of the U.S. dollar. Emerging economies such as Indonesia have begun to move to defend their currencies against the possibility of renewed inflation and downward pressure on growth through higher import prices.
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Apr 3, 2024 | 
asia.nikkei.com | Juntaro Arai
TOKYO -- Seven central banks will join with private-sector lenders to test the use of "tokenized" money on a digital ledger for faster, cheaper international transactions, which could mark a step toward a new settlement system. Project Agora, announced Wednesday by the Bank for International Settlements, brings together the central banks of Japan, South Korea, the U.K., France, Switzerland and Mexico as well as the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
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Mar 19, 2024 | 
asia.nikkei.com | Juntaro Arai
TOKYO -- The Japanese government faces mounting pressure to streamline its finances following the Bank of Japan's decision to end negative rates, with interest payments on bonds seen potentially tripling over the next decade. Japan's nominal long-term interest rate will increase to 1.5% in fiscal 2028 from 0.6% in fiscal 2023 under a high-growth scenario, the Cabinet Office projects. This would lift annual interest payments by around 50% to 11.5 trillion yen ($76.2 billion) from 7.6 trillion yen.
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Jan 22, 2024 | 
asia.nikkei.com | Juntaro Arai
TOKYO -- Interest payments on Japanese government bonds could swell to 15.3 trillion yen ($103 billion) in fiscal 2027, a roughly 60% increase from the forecast for the coming fiscal year, as borrowing costs rise, according to a government estimate seen by Nikkei. While tax revenue is also expected to grow, most of the gain would be spent on interest and social security.
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Dec 20, 2023 | 
asia.nikkei.com | Masaya Kato |Juntaro Arai
TOKYO -- Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's cabinet is poised to approve a draft budget for Japan's fiscal year starting in April that would reduce spending for the first time in 12 years, Nikkei has learned. A proposal seen by ruling-party lawmakers Wednesday calls for around 112.07 trillion yen ($780 billion) in general account spending for fiscal 2024, roughly 2.31 trillion yen less than in the current fiscal year, excluding supplementary budgets.
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Dec 19, 2023 | 
asia.nikkei.com | Juntaro Arai
TOKYO -- Japan is poised to increase its estimate of long-term interest rates to 1.9% from 1.1% for calculating interest payments on government bonds in the fiscal 2024 budget proposal, Nikkei has learned. The estimated interest rate was last raised 17 years earlier. The revision reflects the recent upswing in long-term rates stemming from expectations that the Bank of Japan will exit its ultraloose monetary policy.
