Japan opts for first interest rate hike in 17 years
Commuters walk in a passageway during a rush hour at Shinagawa Station, Feb. 14, 2024, in Tokyo. Japan’s central bank raised its benchmark interest rate, March 19, 2024, for the first time in 17 years, ending a long-standing policy of negative rates meant to boost the economy.
Japan’s central bank has raised interest rates for the first time in 17 years. It’s a milestone in a long economic recovery and sign of something afoot in the Japanese economy. And, from “Stories From The Stage,” Eson Kim tells a tale about how she was held up at gunpoint with her dad in the family’s hardware store when she was 12 years old. What happened next forever changed her. Also, all but one of the 100 cities with the world’s worst air pollution last year were in Asia, according to a new report from IQAir. Climate change is playing a pivotal role in bad air quality that is risking the health of billions of people worldwide. Plus, the earliest Japanese inventor of karaoke dies at age 100.
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