Japan Economics Weekly Vaccine rollout kicking into gear, emergency over With Japan initially entirely reliant on imports of the Pfizer vaccine, many initial concerns over the speed of the vaccine rollout centred on supply constraints. However, that hasn't been an issue... 19th March 2021 · 4 mins read
Japan Economics Weekly Legacy of Fukushima nuclear meltdown 10 years on On the 10 th anniversary of the meltdown at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station, we take a closer look at the disaster’s lasting legacy of higher electricity prices. On the eve of the pandemic... 12th March 2021 · 7 mins read
Japan Economics Weekly Risk averse Tokyo, mass vaccinations yet to begin While the Bank of Japan’s consumption index fell a bit more sharply than we were anticipating in January, it came off the back of an upwardly revised, virus-era-high in December. Indeed, our GDP... 5th March 2021 · 5 mins read
Japan Economics Weekly Bank of Japan likely to cap bond yields before long The global surge in long-term interest rates means that 10-year JGB yields are now the highest they have been since the launch of negative rates in 2016. While we expect the Bank of Japan to widen the... 26th February 2021 · 5 mins read
Japan Economics Weekly Economy entered lockdown with strong momentum The pick-up in GDP in Q4 was stronger than most had anticipated. And while it still left output 2.9% below the peak reached ahead of 2019’s sales tax hike, other economic data released this week are... 19th February 2021 · 6 mins read
Japan Economics Weekly Sanguine January, TOPIX hits a 30-year high Timely data for January suggest that economic activity has held up far better than during the previous state of emergency last spring. And with the government mulling lifting the state of emergency... 11th February 2021 · 8 mins read
Japan Economics Weekly Emergency extension, more flexible JGB yield target While the government this week extended the state of emergency by a month in virus hotspots, with daily infections falling sharply and the start of the vaccine rollout imminent there is light at the... 5th February 2021 · 5 mins read
Japan Economics Weekly Skies brightening, AstraZeneca-JCR deal boost The resilience of retail sales in December coupled with rapidly falling daily infections in recent days has prompted us to raise our forecasts for consumer spending in Q4 2020 and Q1 2021. And we... 29th January 2021 · 4 mins read
Japan Economics Weekly Voluntary measures may not bear enough fruit The light-touch state of emergency appears to have had some success in stemming the surge in cases in the Greater Tokyo area. But with many hospitals reportedly close to full capacity, the government... 22nd January 2021 · 7 mins read
Japan Economics Weekly Suga banking on Pfizer vaccine ending harsh winter Japan’s state of emergency was extended to seven additional prefectures this week, with the declaration now covering more than half of national GDP. And there are early signs that the recovery in... 15th January 2021 · 6 mins read
Japan Economics Weekly Second lockdown will be less damaging than the first The state of emergency declared in the Greater Tokyo area this week only entails mild restrictions on economic activity and we think it will soon be extended nationwide and made more draconian in... 8th January 2021 · 4 mins read
Japan Economics Weekly PM Suga will struggle to keep up light-touch approach Survey data suggest that surging coronavirus infections have done little to knock the economic recovery off course thus far. Such resilience amidst an increasingly severe public health situation has... 18th December 2020 · 8 mins read
Japan Economics Weekly Recovery slowing, but prospects brightening for 2021 The latest data suggest that the recovery in output has continued apace in recent months. Admittedly, the third virus wave will probably act as a brake on the recovery for now. But with vaccines set... 11th December 2020 · 7 mins read
Japan Economics Weekly Infections rising again, “Go To” still alive and kicking Daily cases have started creeping higher again at the national level driven by a renewed rise in infections in Tokyo and Osaka. We suspect that both cities will soon ask citizens to stay at home and... 4th December 2020 · 6 mins read
Japan Economics Weekly Vaccines stoke Tokyo’s Olympic flame With many local authorities rolling out fresh restrictions this week, it’s becoming increasingly likely that the third wave will weigh on activity over the near term. But while we’ve revised down our... 27th November 2020 · 7 mins read
Japan Economics Weekly Restaurant boost, third outbreak set to be worst yet Output recovered just over half of its H1 plunge last quarter. The onus is on services consumption to recover most of the remaining half – services spending was still 9% below its Q4 2019 level last... 20th November 2020 · 5 mins read
