East Asia Today

A busy day of data today, with regional PMIs, Q2 profits data for Japan, and foreign trade in August for Korea. Japan is leading in both relative manufacturing activity and prices. Taiwan activity is also strong, and not benefiting from the ccy appreciation that is dampening input prices in Korea.

Paul Cavey

Sep 1, 2026 • 3 min read

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Japan – fiscal guide

A step-by-step guide to understanding Japan's fiscal position. By using this, you will have a better idea of how to make the assumptions needed for each component of the standard gross debt equation, which can then be plugged into our online model.

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Region – Japan leading

The PMIs show Japan's manufacturing cycle is the strongest in the region. That might be because the measures in Taiwan and Korea struggle to capture the macro impact of chip strength. Even so, it is still an important take-away, especially when the PMIs show Japan also leads in price strength.

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Japan – mfg mini-boom

Defying BOJ fears of a slowdown, this year's surge in corporate profits continued in Q2. The big driver this year has been manufacturing, and today's PMI shows the recovery in the sector isn't over yet. Relative to the strength of profits, capex and wages are sluggish.