With Japan’s economy softening, its central bank needs to at least consider further steps to support growth. There’s one major hurdle, however, and only Prime Minister Shinzo Abe can remove it. A 2 percent hike in consumption tax, scheduled for October, would shore up Japan’s fiscal position and thus its ability to pay for an aging population. Yet this plan ...

You’d think all the pressure on Huawei Technologies Co. would make life easier for archrivals Nokia Oyj and Ericsson AB. In some senses, things have got harder. The US has intensified criticism of Huawei over the past year, saying its network equipment is vulnerable to exploitation by Chinese state-sponsored actors. That’s led to various bans in Australia, New Zealand and ...

Rarely have policymakers seemed so keen to snap the links that connect global markets, even at the risk of economic self-harm. Theresa May’s dogged pursuit of a Brexit that takes Britain out of the European Union’s (EU) single market and customs union is an obvious own goal, considering the City of London’s global position. The UK’s intransigence has already sent an ...