A grand stitch-up or an election?The prime minister’s opponents want a grand coalition. That’s a terrible idea WHEN Naoto Kan moved into the prime minister's office a year ago, his wife, Nobuko, joked that she had packed only their summer clothes, fearing he would not survive for long. In fact, he has outlasted his four predecessors and, since March 11th, steered Japan through its worst disaster s

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Accelerating into troubleThe company’s problems sharply illustrate the failings of Japanese corporate governance Reuters IT IS hard to overstate the importance of Toyota in Japan's business psyche. The company has long been regarded as the pinnacle of Japanese innovation, manufacturing quality and industrial strength—particularly since it overtook General Motors in 2008 to become the world's bigge

Reuters Weighed down IT IS one of the hottest shows in town. People queue up, replace their shoes with slippers, and enter a gymnasium where TV cameras are filming. What they have come to see looks like “Dragons' Den”, a popular TV show. But bureaucrats, not entrepreneurs, are the ones begging for cash to fund their pet projects. And politicians give the thumbs up or down. This is budget-balancing

JUDGING by the shrill comments from Wall Street, Japan's biggest problem is its huge public-sector debt, which has grown to nearly twice the size of the country's GDP. But it isn't (see article). Far more pressing is deflation.

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It's timeAmerica should take a chance and make Barack Obama the next leader of the free world IT IS impossible to forecast how important any presidency will be. Back in 2000 America stood tall as the undisputed superpower, at peace with a generally admiring world. The main argument was over what to do with the federal government's huge budget surplus. Nobody foresaw the seismic events of the next

Putting the air back inStaring at recession, policymakers in rich economies are considering how to avoid a prolonged slump. Here are some options—and some obstacles