Japan visit and Phl economic challenges

This is my first time to set foot in Japan’s fourth largest city by population, and I was impressed — modern and nice.

- BIENVENIDO S. OPLAS JR.

Our flight was Manila—Narita-Nagoya, and among the things I noticed at the Narita International Airport was the seemingly fewer-than-usual passengers; the immigration line was also short. This could be related to the substantial reduction in visitors from China after recent diplomatic tension with Japan and the new Prime Minister’s statement about Taiwan.

Japan’s GDP growth in the first three quarters of 2025 is 1.6 percent, an improvement from the same period in 2024's -0.5 percent. Japan's growth is closely tied to the growth of the other G7 member countries for the same period this year: US 2.1 percent, Canada 1.8 percent, UK 1.5 percent, France 0.7 percent, Italy 0.5 percent and Germany 0.3 percent.

The fastest-growing economies in the world remain Asians, with GDP growth in the first three quarters of 2025 as follows: Vietnam 7.8 percent, Taiwan 7.0 percent, China 5.1 percent, the Philippines and Indonesia 5.0 percent. India has not reported its third quarter data yet, but its first two quarters showed a growth of 7.6 percent already.

Japan this year has become the “inflation capital” of East Asia, with inflation from January to September 2025 at 3.4 percent, followed by Vietnam at 3.3 percent, South Korea two percent, Taiwan 1.8 percent, the Philippines 1.7 percent, Indonesia 1.6 percent, Hong Kong 1.5 percent, Malaysia 1.4 percent, Singapore 0.8 percent, Thailand zero and China -0.1 percent.