Japanese economy

Japan’s trade balance returned to deficit in January, with a shortfall of 646 billion yen ($5.65 billion) as exports fell 13 percent from the year before, led by an 18 percent plunge in the value of shipments to China.

Toshiba plans to cut 7,800 jobs, mostly in its consumer-electronics business, as it reorganizes in the face of projected record losses for the current fiscal year.

Here are 5 things to know about Japan’s ailing economy, which sank into technical recession in the third quarter, contracting at an annualized pace of 0.8%.

Japan’s Cabinet approved 3.5 trillion yen ($29 billion) in fresh stimulus Saturday for the ailing economy, pledging to get growth back on track and restore the country’s precarious public finances.

It may seem politically counter-intuitive for a prime minister to seek an early election just when the economy has gone into recession. But following his return to Japan from the G20 Leaders’ Summit in Brisbane, Shinzo Abe has done just that.

Japan reported Monday that its economy contracted at a real annual rate of 1.6 percent in July-September, in a second straight quarterly decline that returned the country to recession.

Japan’s central bank surprised the financial world and pleased investors Friday by intensifying its purchases of government bonds and other assets to try to revive a chronically anemic economy.