Word: japanized
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...says Pamela Golbin, curator of the exhibition along with Nicolas Ghesquière, the current designer for the reinvigorated label Balenciaga. The 170 dresses and suits, including Balenciaga's sack dress, his semifitted suit and that cocoon coat, were culled from private collections and museums as far away as Kyoto, Japan...
During a two-day meeting later this week in a stately neo-baroque building in Tokyo, nine men may vote to end of one of the oddest periods in the history of central banking?and send one of the clearest signals yet that Japan's economy has finally emerged from 15 years of stagnation. Led by governor Toshihiko Fukui, the monetary-policy committee at the Bank of Japan (BOJ) will vote on whether to raise its overnight lending rate to 0.25% or leave it at zero, where it has been for more than five years. That shift would not just...
...This conviction is an indication of just how far the Japanese economy has come. Following the stock and property collapses of the early '90s, most businesses and consumers drastically cut their spending and investments. With demand falling, prices dropped too, exacerbating businesses' unwillingness to invest in new ventures, and Japan found itself in a disastrous deflationary spiral. In desperation, the BOJ reduced interest rates to zero in 1999, but it had little impact for years because Japanese companies were hobbled by so many other problems, like bloated payrolls and debt-laden balance sheets. Under the reform agenda initiated by Prime...
...rapidly. BOJ policy-board member Kiyohiko Nishimura has warned that low rates could promote "useless, excessive investment," and Fukui has vowed to raise rates "without delay" should investment become rampant. Those fears may be coming to pass. Last week's much-watched Tankan business-sentiment survey indicated that Japan's largest companies plan to increase investment at the quickest pace in 16 years. "The Tankan survey showed the economic climate is slightly overheated," says Takeo Okuhara, a bond strategist at Daiwa Institute of Research. "The current financial policy is so accommodative, it's better to pull back soon...
...Koizumi and his cabinet have voiced strong opposition to a rate hike, claiming that deflation has not been conclusively vanquished and that higher rates could dampen growth. Bitter memories remain of 2000, when the BOJ prematurely raised rates from 0% to 0.25%, plunging Japan back into recession; six months later, the BOJ was forced to drop rates back to zero. Still, Jesper Koll, chief Japan economist at Merrill Lynch, says fears of a replay of 2000 are misguided: "The Japanese economy is fundamentally different today, fundamentally stronger...