Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's drive to revise Japan's pacifist constitution for the first time risks alienating voters who support his economic agenda and dividing his coalition government before July elections. (Bloomberg)

Expectations for Abenomics have apparently shifted the economy into a positive cycle, as seen through increased personal spending, the gradual expansion of corporate production and an improvement in unemployment. (Yomiuri)

Bonuses and other special payments for Japanese workers increased 8.2 percent from a year earlier in March, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said in a preliminary report Wednesday. (Yomiuri)

Japan was the top foreign holder of U.S. financial assets in mid-2012 and China was No. 2, the U.S. Treasury Department said Tuesday. (Yomiuri)

Japan's household spending surged in March at the fastest pace in nine years in a sign that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's bold efforts to end two decades of stagnation are lifting consumer confidence and setting the stage for an economic revival. (chicagotribune.com)

Japan's household spending surged in March, while the unemployment rate eased, the Finance Ministry reported Tuesday, with both results surpassing economists' expectations. (MarketWatch)

The nation's four major life insurance companies are set to shift away from investing in government bonds, whose interest rates are expected to fall, to foreign bonds that are expected to produce higher yields. (Yomiuri)

Bank of Japan Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda and economists in the private sector are far apart on their views of whether the central bank can meet its inflation target in two years. (Yomiuri)

No one has ever fully explained why, in 2002-3, the virulent pathogen known as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) ran rampant in mainland China (5,328 cases, 349 deaths) but only infected four people in South Korea, with no fatalities, and none in Japan. (Japan Times)

Repairing and rebuilding aging bridges and expressway tunnels will likely cost at least 5.4 trillion yen over the next 100 years, three highway operators have said. (Yomiuri)

Japanese inflation is likely to rise to around 2 percent during the latter half of the coming three-year period covered in the Bank of Japan's latest semi-annual economic and price outlook, the central bank said on Friday. (Reuters)

Asian Development Bank (ADB) has elected Takehiko Nakao, Japan's former Vice Minister of Finance for International Affairs, as new president effective April 28. (gmanetwork.com)

Japan's key retail-price gauge deflated in March from a year earlier, even as the index rose compared to February's levels, the Finance Ministry reported Friday. (MarketWatch)

Japanese investors are repatriating funds from around the world at an accelerating pace, dashing hopes that stimulus from the Bank of Japan will flood global asset markets with newly-printed money. (telegraph.co.uk)

New Zealand is the formal administrator, or legal 'Depositary' of the TPP Agreement. This reflects the real negotiating history of TPP, which started as a strategic decision by Singapore and NZ to negotiate a bilateral FTA in the 1990s with precisely this concept - a wider Asia Pacific FTA - in mind. That led eventually to P4 and, in turn, to TPP today. (scoop.co.nz)

Investors in Japan are cheering the implementation of "Abenomics," a fresh round of government spending and drastic monetary easing designed to end 15 years of deflation. (CNN)

Most Japanese treat Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's new economic program, dubbed "Abenomics," with a heavy dose of skepticism. (CNN)

After two "lost decades", Japan has begun a risky monetary gamble. Abenomics has the potential to make or break Japanese savings, the Asian century and global recovery. (South China Morning Post)

On the Tokyo foreign exchange market on Monday, the yen weakened to the upper 99 range against the dollar, following a weekend meeting of the Group of 20 financial leaders in Washington. (NHK)

Trade ministers from the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum agreed Sunday to promote free trade agreements in the Asia-Pacific region, just a day after Japan's entry into negotiations for a free trade pact involving many of the APEC economies was approved. (Kyodo)