Japan Digest, March 2024

They also operationalises the change made in June discussed a range of issues relating to 2023 to the Development Assistance bilateral relations, and agreed to work Charter, the basic document governing together to deep their ties in the economic Japan’s Official Development Aid (ODA) and security domains. [...] This, the paper Minister Fumio Kishida and spoke at the noted, was mainly due to the weaker value inaugural Raisina Roundtable in Tokyo of the yen vis-à-vis the US dollar. [...] However, as a He attributed the central bank’s decision to percentage of GDP, Japan’s ODA in 2022 the robust wage growth seen in the top accounted for only 0.39 percent of its gross firms of Japan, where negotiations between national income, well below the 0.7 percent labour unions and management have target set by the United Nations. [...] As a result of the Bank of Japan ends negative rate of interest decision, the BOJ will no longer buy exchange-traded fund (ETF) bonds in the The Bank of Japan in a meeting of its Policy open market, and will dismantle its control Board on 19 March 2024 announced that it over long-term interest rates, letting market would raise its interest rates, ending a two- forces determine them instead. [...] Stock markets in Japan and Asia responded Since 2007, the BOJ had maintained positively to the decision, with the Tokyo negative short-term interest rates, whereby Stock Exchange showing a healthy rise in banks had to pay it marginal rates of interest trading in the aftermath of the for capital held in their accounts.