Â鶹´«Ã½

Tag - bubble-era

 
Â鶹´«Ã½
Search
 
August 12, 2026
 

Home Delivery
Subscribe for more access

BUBBLE ERA

Employees chant work targets during a daily meeting, part of routine corporate practices aimed at boosting productivity, at the Global Partners office in Tokyo.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 28, 2026
Tokyo firm evokes economic miracle machismo to tap Gen Z workforce vigor
Business development firm Global Partners has become an internet sensation for rejecting ¡°soft¡± modern workplace culture.
A craft beer brewery run by California native Brian Shevlin and his wife Mariko Furuta, Joynt Brewing Co. regularly hosts events that highlight different cultural communities.
COMMUNITY / Issues / The Foreign Element
Feb 9, 2026
Foreign residents breathe new life into bubble-era resort town
A spate of new businesses operated by non-Japanese residents is bringing new vitality to the seaside town of Ito with cultural events, art classes and more.
Abandoned Japanese-style inns in the Kinugawa hot springs resort in Nikko, Tochigi Prefecture, in March 2023
JAPAN / Society
Nov 9, 2025
Japan to subsidize demolition of abandoned inns
Many large hotels running since the end of World War II were left to rot in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Japanese workers in their 40s and 50s ¡ª known as the "lost generation" ¡ª saw their wages rise slightly in the second quarter.
BUSINESS / Economy
Aug 29, 2024
Â鶹´«Ã½ ¡®lost generation¡¯ gets a raise, and the economy, a small boost
The pay bump in the second quarter is vitally important to the economy, as consumption by Japanese workers in their 40s and 50s is an important driver of growth.
From behind his desk in a Tokyo office, Hideki (Arata Iura) yearns for something more in life, but he is not prepared for the culture shock of life on a Montana ranch in ¡°Tokyo Cowboy.¡±
CULTURE / Film / CULTURE SMASH
Jun 13, 2024
¡®Tokyo Cowboy¡¯ strikes balance between cross-cultural comedy and fish-out-of-water tale
From behind his desk in a Tokyo office, Hideki yearns for something more in life, but he is not prepared for the culture shock of life on a Montana ranch.
People exit the platform at a train station along the Yamanote Line in Tokyo in 1986. A time-traveling TV comedy with a bawdy middle-aged hero from the era has become a big hit in Japan, juxtaposing brash 1980s attitudes with the more politically correct present day.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Mar 29, 2024
Satire TV show strikes a generation-spanning chord in Japan
¡°Extremely Inappropriate¡± uses a time-traveling protagonist to humorously highlight the gap between attitudes of the 1980s and the 2020s.
Customers make a toast at an eatery in Tokyo. Many view Â鶹´«Ã½ economy as being on the rise, and that of regional powerhouse China as declining. But how accurate is this narrative?
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 18, 2024
Japan is back, China is over. The trouble with narratives.
The idea that Japan and China¡¯s roles have flipped, with the former on the rise and the latter in decline, obfuscates important facts and trends.
Pedestrians in front of the Shinsei Bank headquarters in Tokyo in October 2021
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 8, 2023
SBI Shinsei Bank to go private to repay public funds
By going private, SBI Shinsei Bank will free itself from the shackles of stock prices and be able to pay back the public funds ¡°at some point.¡±
As China slips into deflation, one word is popping up more and more to describe the gloomy atmospherics: "Japanification."
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 30, 2023
¡®Japanification¡¯ for China? It should be so lucky.
China is not on the path to global dominance nor set for collapse, and observers should consider the various shades of gray in analyzing these countries.
A new high-rise is erected in Beijing in October 2021. The same year, 41% of the assets in China¡¯s banking system were accounted for by property-related loans and credit.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 1, 2023
Is Â鶹´«Ã½ economic past China¡¯s future?
China is facing a long period of low growth similar to Â鶹´«Ã½ experience since the 1990s.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 7, 2021
Who is afraid of bursting the bubble? Not Â鶹´«Ã½ elite
We will never know whether the elite¡¯s proactive bursting of the bubble brought more or less pain and hardship on society than a laissez-faire approach would have.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 8, 2020
Zombie companies feed off the living
Like their namesakes, zombies feed off the living. They are companies that should close their doors but don¡¯t, cannibalizing healthy businesses, depriving them of customers and income.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Nov 25, 2020
The post-COVID-19 industrial revitalization
There¡¯s still no end in sight for the pandemic crisis, but as Â鶹´«Ã½ economy averts a worst-case scenario, how to revitalize its industries is becoming a major issue.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 5, 2019
S&P warns it could be bubble time again for Â鶹´«Ã½ real estate companies as debts rise
Â鶹´«Ã½ real estate firms are entering dangerous territory. That¡¯s the assessment of S&P Global Ratings, which said in a report Friday that the sector¡¯s debt levels now eclipse that of the nation¡¯s bubble era.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jun 22, 2019
Â鶹´«Ã½ print media ponder wealth, poverty and pensions
One of my recollections from the bubble economy of the 1980s was a passage in a 1987 book titled ¡°Hokokuron¡± (¡°The Theory of National Wealth¡°). Its author, the late economist Taiichi Sakaiya, stood out as one of the bubble era¡¯s most fervent cheerleaders.
JAPAN
May 1, 2019
Disco¡¯s not dead: Japan grooves to bubble beat for Heisei Era sayonara
Disco fans hit the dance floor and partied like it was 1989, reliving the glitz of the ¡°bubble economy¡± heyday that defined the early years of the outgoing Heisei Era.
JAPAN / History / Defining the Heisei Era
May 26, 2018
Defining the Heisei Era: Japan indulges in excess
The Japan Times presents the first installment of a monthly 12-part series that looks back at the leading issues of the past three decades.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Dec 9, 2017
Shut in by the past yet still unable to face the future
Mom, dad, two kids, nice house, nice suburb, good income ¡ª you just know this story is about to go smash.
¡®Total whiplash¡¯: Foreign residents react to Â鶹´«Ã½ changing permanent residency rules
The entrance to the Tokyo Immigration Bureau in Minato Ward, Tokyo, in March. For some foreign residents of Japan, tightening measures for permanent residency have become one factor in a broader calculation over whether remaining in the country makes financial sense over the long term.
Yasukuni Shrine introduces ban on military attire and cosplay
People gather in front of thousands of lanterns on display at Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo on July 15 during the Mitama Matsuri, one of the capital's largest summer o-Bon festivals.
Many Indonesians named after Japanese anime characters
Some people in Indonesia are named Doraemon, the name of a lead character of the blockbuster anime series with the same title.
Strong wind and heavy rain forecast as tropical storm approaches Japan
Tropical Storm Chan-hom is expected to make landfall in northern Kanto between late Tuesday and early Wednesday.
Severe tropical storm Chan-hom makes landfall near Tokyo
Severe Tropical Storm Chan-hom made landfall around Ibaraki Prefecture, near Tokyo, on Tuesday night.
¡®Total whiplash¡¯: Foreign residents react to Â鶹´«Ã½ changing permanent residency rules
The entrance to the Tokyo Immigration Bureau in Minato Ward, Tokyo, in March. For some foreign residents of Japan, tightening measures for permanent residency have become one factor in a broader calculation over whether remaining in the country makes financial sense over the long term.
As Â鶹´«Ã½ concrete jungles sizzle, urban forestry offers an all-natural fix
People and birds find relief from the sun in Tokyo's Nakano Ward earlier this month. While experts agree that urban greening is crucial to mitigating the impact of climate change, trees are becoming even more scarce in Japanese cities.
Â鶹´«Ã½ brewers experiment with a secret ingredient: music
At Smoke Craft, a craft beer brewery in Tokorozawa, Saitama Prefecture, music isn't just a background to the brewing process ¡ª it's an ingredient.
As countries ban social media for children, Japan mulls a different approach
Data from NTT Docomo¡¯s Mobile Society Research Institute released in June found that 55% of respondents across all age groups said they fiddled with their phones when they had nothing to do, even when another person was in front of them.
J. League enters new era as league kicks off first fall-spring campaign
Players from each J. League club pose during a kickoff event on Monday ahead of the start of the 2026-27 campaign.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo¡¯s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo¡¯s ¡®stadium of desire¡¯

Longform

Disaster relief workers Taichi Kato (left) and Seiji Yoshimura enter the collapsed living quarters at Kyuganji temple in Yatsushiro, Kumamoto Prefecture.
What Kumamoto revealed about Â鶹´«Ã½ earthquake readiness
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS note

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER