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The Japan Housing Finance Agency (JHF) announced on May 29th that fiscal 2025 usage of Reverse 60, its reverse-mortgage-type housing loan for older borrowers, declined year on year, even as all-time applications surpassed 10,000 for the first time since product launch. FY2025 covers the period from April 2025 until the end of March 2026. How Reverse 60 Works Reverse 60 is offered by private financial institutions in partnership with the JHF. It is designed mainly for borrower

For decades, Japan was seen as a lost economy, defined by deflation, weak demand and near-zero interest rates. Jesper Koll, one of Japan’s best-known market strategists, argues that story may finally be changing. In this episode of Macro Sessions, Maggie Lake speaks with Koll about rising wages, stronger consumer demand, renewed corporate investment and growing pricing power across Japan’s economy. The first half of the conversation explains why Japan’s shift away from deflat

Real estate information service provider AtHome released registered price data on May 28th for newly built single-family homes listed on its proper in the Greater Tokyo Area in April 2026. The data covers asking prices per unit for properties registered and publicly listed for consumers on AtHome’s real estate information network. Prices were compiled across eight areas: Tokyo’s 23 wards, Tokyo non-23 wards, Yokohama and Kawasaki, the rest of Kanagawa Prefecture, Saitama City

Hulic is planning to redevelop the Hands Shibuya store site into a hotel after the landmark retail property closes in November 2026. The plan would replace one of Shibuya’s best-known specialty retail stores with a hotel-led development in one of Tokyo’s most visited commercial districts. Hands Co., Ltd. announced on May 25, 2026, that its Shibuya store will close in November 2026 due to the expiration of its lease agreement. HotelBank reported that Hulic plans to open a high

In this May 23rd Squawk Box Asia interview from CNBC, Andrew McCagg of Nomura Asset Management explains why the yen’s move toward 160 to the dollar has become more than just a currency-market story. A weaker yen can support exporters, but it also raises import costs and can pressure household consumption. McCagg argues that Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi wants Japan to satisfy the Domar Condition: the idea that if nominal GDP grows faster than the interest rate on government d