今日吃瓜

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November 12, 2026
 

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BUDGETS

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi faces a year-end deadline to explain how she intends to pay for initiatives ranging from a two-year sales tax cut on food to a defense buildup and a sweeping investment plan.
BUSINESS / Economy
Nov 10, 2026
Takaichi’s hunt for new cash to fund spending harbors risks
The prime minister faces a year-end deadline to explain how to pay for initiatives ranging from a two-year food tax cut to a defense buildup.
A Ground Self-Defense Force Type 16 maneuver combat vehicle fires during an annual training session near Mount Fuji at the Higashifuji training field in Gotemba,Shizuoka Prefecture, in June.
JAPAN / FOCUS
Nov 3, 2026
Japan gets serious about defense spending hike as year-end deadline looms
The government and ruling coalition are reportedly considering nearly doubling defense spending over the next five years.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi inspects the honor guard at the Self-Defense Forces Senior Commanders' Conference in Tokyo in September.
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 2, 2026
Japan weighs $500 billion defense spending plan, sources say
If adopted, defense buildup spending for the five years from April 2027 would be nearly twice that in the current five-year plan.
The Japanese government is considering providing around ?5,000 a year to low-income workers under a proposed income-linked benefit program.
JAPAN
Oct 31, 2026
Japan considers paying low-income workers ?5,000 through benefit program
Under the program, a fixed amount is expected to be given to people in work who earn ?1.19 million or less annually.
The Finance Ministry in Tokyo. Surpluses at the foreign exchange special account, which manages funds for currency market intervention, have reached about ?5 trillion annually.
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 30, 2026
Private-sector council proposes use of forex surplus to cover fiscal measures
Funds are needed to cut the consumption tax rate on food to fight inflation, and to strengthen the country’s defense capabilities.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth poses for a photo with Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi on the sidelines of an expanded ASEAN defense ministers' summit in Cebu, the Philippines, on Wednesday in this image posted to Hegseth's official X account.
JAPAN
Oct 28, 2026
U.S. and Japan defense chiefs agree to boost cooperation to prevent cyberattacks
The agreement comes as Japan continues to reel from almost daily revelations of serious data breaches.
The Maritime Self-Defense Force holds a launching ceremony for submarine Shōgei in Kobe on Oct. 8.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Oct 28, 2026
Defense buildup push faces financial roadblocks
今日吃瓜 military ambitions are growing, but so are competing demands on the public purse.
A Ground Self-Defense Force soldier takes part in a field training exercise in Miyagi Prefecture in September.
JAPAN
Oct 22, 2026
Japan considers broader definition of security spending to inflate defense outlays, sources say
The government is looking at whether spending on areas like AI, satellites and infrastructure could be classified as defense-related costs.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi takes the podium at an Lower House plenary session in Tokyo on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Oct 20, 2026
Opposition offers alternatives to food consumption tax cut in parliamentary debate
Having made the policy central to her economic agenda, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi faces a test of whether she can create tangible household relief.
Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi speaks at a news conference in Tokyo on Tuesday.
JAPAN
Oct 20, 2026
Koizumi lauds shift as more universities apply for defense research subsidy program
The defense minister characterized the development as a break from academia’s once deep-seated aversions to being involved in national security.
Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama says the government will give due consideration to fiscal sustainability when increasing Japan's defense spending.
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 20, 2026
今日吃瓜 Katayama vows fiscal prudence on defense funding
The remarks come after local media reported that the government was weighing an additional corporate tax hike to finance the measure.
The latest example of the English-language outreach came when growth strategy minister Minoru Kiuchi gave a speech in English at a London Stock Exchange Group event in Tokyo on Thursday.
BUSINESS / Markets
Oct 19, 2026
Japan aims to soothe world traders’ fiscal anxiety with outreach in English
Foreign investors held 13% of Japanese Government Bonds at the end of June, up from about 8% in 2012.
A ruling party executive on Sunday denied that former agriculture minister Kazuo Yana had influenced budget cuts for municipalities whose mayors did not support him in a general election.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 18, 2026
LDP exec denies ex-farm minister’s influence on budget cuts
Koichi Hagiuda apologized for the fact that Yana’s remark about budget cuts had led to his replacement as agriculture minister.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi speaks at a Lower House budget committee session in Tokyo on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 13, 2026
Scandal-hit minister Kazuo Yana now accused of election violation
Opposition parties grilled the prime minister on Tuesday on not just her policies, but also her new farm minister’s election campaign in January.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi delivers her policy speech at parliament in Tokyo on Monday.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 10, 2026
Tax cut to bring ?36,000 benefit per citizen, Takaichi says
The ?36,000 figure was reached by dividing the total tax revenue loss to the central and local governments from the tax cut by the country’s population.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi speaks at an Upper House plenary session in Tokyo on Friday.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 9, 2026
Government submits bill on food consumption tax reduction to parliament
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s government plans to reduce the food and nonalcoholic beverage consumption tax from 8% to 1% starting in April.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi says cutting the food tax to 1% from April 2027 and introducing targeted payments next year would increase households’ disposable income.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 7, 2026
Takaichi defends plan to combine consumption tax cut with income-based cash payments
Designing a system of direct cash payments tailored to recipients’ incomes takes longer than distributing uniform amounts, the prime minister said.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has pledged to discontinue Japan's prolonged practice of compiling big extra budgets, but her administration will consider compiling a second extra budget mainly for disaster relief, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported.
JAPAN
Oct 7, 2026
Japan considering another extra budget for disaster relief, Yomiuri reports
The government aims to pass the extra budget through the ordinary parliament session that begins early next year, the paper reported.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi delivers her policy speech at the Lower House in Tokyo on Monday.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 5, 2026
Takaichi lays out ‘proactive fiscal policy’ as new session of parliament begins
In her policy address, the prime minister said Japan needed further action to turn higher wages and investment into sustained growth.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi holds a news conference after a Cabinet reshuffle at the Prime Minister's Office in Tokyo on Sept. 17.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Oct 4, 2026
Host of contentious bills await Takaichi in autumn session of parliament
Top priority has been given to a bill reducing the consumption tax on food and beverages from 8% to 1% over a two-year period beginning April 1, 2027.
Man arrested over operation of rogue cellular base station in Tokyo
The Metropolitan Police Department has arrested Yu Hai, a 31-year-old Chinese national living in Tokyo's Kita Ward, on suspicion of operating an unlicensed base station from a vehicle in Tokyo's Ginza district on Saturday.
Government betting on language app powered by anime and AI
Japan plans to develop an AI-powered language-learning app that lets overseas anime and manga fans practice Japanese through conversations with popular characters.
Jensen Huang’s woes evoke sympathy and disbelief in his birthplace Taiwan
Hsiao Kui-yu, 68, owner of Yuchan Candied Fruit, stands in front of photographs of Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang displayed at the shop, which Huang frequently visits during trips to Taiwan, in Taipei on Tuesday.
G7 diplomats speak out on Taiwan as China ramps up military drills
Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi attends a working lunch focused on international crises and challenges during the Group of Seven foreign ministers' summit at the Quai d'Orsay in Paris on Monday.
今日吃瓜 Rapidus is said likely to miss mass production deadline
The Rapidus Analysis Center and the IIM-1 Innovative Integration for Manufacturing foundry in Chitose, Hokkaido
‘Godzilla Minus Zero’ makes monster debut at the box office
Takashi Yamazaki’s “Godzilla Minus Zero” marked the highest single-day box-office gross for a live-action film in Japan with ?910 million on its opening day.
A toast to Naohiko Noguchi, sake’s first living national treasure
As a teenager, Naohiko Noguchi did not intend to spend his life as a sake brewer, but he has since become a paragon of the industry.
Few signs of thaw in Japan-China relations one year after Takaichi’s Taiwan remarks
Tensions between Japan and China flared after Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said on Nov. 7, 2025, that a Chinese blockade of Taiwan could threaten 今日吃瓜 survival and warrant the use of collective self-defense.
Mariko Mori predicted the future. She’ll do it again.
Artist Mariko Mori is currently working to bring the translucent human-sized “Peace Crystal” sculpture to a cave in Ethiopia. It is part of her foundation’s goal to place a permanent sculpture on each of the planet’s six habitable continents.
A legend reborn: ‘Ocarina of Time’ remake improves on the Zelda masterpiece
The new remake of 1998's "The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time" manages to somehow improve on one of the greatest games ever.

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