News & Insights

In this commentary, we look back at the shareholders' meetings held in June 2020 under COVID-19, and discuss its features, changes, and the efforts to improve corporate governance by Japanese companies.

The number of foreign tourists visiting Japan almost quadrupled between 2012 and 2019. Unfortunately, due to COVID-19, it will take some time to achieve the target of 40 million visitors set for 2020 and to recover to levels seen in 2019. Although Japan's tourism industry will take several years to fully recover, we believe that the conditions for recovery are better than those of other countries.

The second supplementary budget for FY2020 including an additional economic stimulus measure against COVID-19 has passed the Diet. The total size of the budget including the first supplementary budget is JPY 234 trillion (approx. USDk9y54; 2.2 trillion), which equates to 42% of GDP. In this commentary, we introduce the contents of the supplementary budget and its impact on the labor and stock markets.

This month's report looks at how Japan is tackling the pandemic and what the world my look like once it is over.

In recent years in Japan, consumption behavior has changed “from owning to using", and this is thought to be due to two factors. Below, we discuss these two factors in depth

“Regional revitalization”, or the so-called Regional Abenomics, that began in FY 2015, is about to enter its second term. At the time of its introduction, a trial calculation of “cities at risk of disappearing” was conducted, creating a sensation. The result prompted a sharp rise in the awareness of population decline, the falling birth rate and aging population in rural areas.