Exports propel Japan to trade surplus for third straight month

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been trying for years to rejuvenate growth and end an extended period of on-and-off deflation through a policy blitz of easy money, stimulus and reform.

Easy money is supposed to be the stimulus, and my great-great grandchildren already hate you for making them foot the bill of your ego.

Reform? What reform? Where? This part is BS too!

Domestic demand is getting strong, which helped increase imports,

If you want strong Domestic demand you need to put money in people's pockets.  How about raising the minimum wage and cutting down on the hours that workers have to do?

Easy money is supposed to be the stimulus, and my great-great grandchildren already hate you for making them foot the bill of your ego.

Won't take that long. Even we can feel the pain of the so called stimulus as the yen weakens and prices increase...

Reform? What reform? Where? This part is BS too!

Yup!

What this article misses: Previous was 12%, consensus was for 7.8%. Plus, imports rose to 15.1% over a consensus of 14.8%...  Japan is so totally dependant on exports that the Japanese economy heavily relies on a trade surplus. That is narrowing, yet, well, the genius of setting up Japan.Inc all across Asia and further afield, more than any other industrialised nation, sits them relatively pretty even when other countries would see a run on their currency, hyper inflation and a folding of their hand.

while imports jumped 15.1% on the back of growing domestic demand.

disclaimer..or was it due to imports of mango and Okra?!

The Trump Effect is real. Feel sorry for the haters.

"my great-great grandchildren already hate you "

People always say this kind of thing, and I always wonder what makes them think their great great grandchildren are not going to be total low lifes. They really really might be. Why bend over backwards to make their lives easy? They are just going to laugh at our clothes and hairstyles and say we smell funny. I also kind of wonder if people already have great great grandchildren. I mean, if everyone in someone's family winds up with a child at 15, presumably the result of a happy marriage, of course, then someone could be a great great grandfather/mother at age... 75. That would be something to brag about, and I bet people in Kentucky DO brag about what their great great grandchildren think of this or that policy.

Anyway, putting the hyperbole aside and talking about TRADE, ListntheTruth knows how Japan works. You know, Japan financed its train system using domestic funds, America did not even come close to accomplishing that even in the 1800s, when things were going well in terms of trade. And Japan continues a tacit policy of financing its debt through trade. Nothing wrong with that at all. Every seller has a buyer. Nobody's arm gets twisted. I think it is wonderful. I have not seen a good argument for how Japan "cheats," and I don't expect to. The yen is solid and it has been for the last .... well, since the Plaza Accord, really... and yet Japan still manages to compete.

Looks like the quotes in the article are made by people who understand that AMerica does not need a factual reason to call someone a cheater these days. So they are getting ready for everything. My impression, however, is that Trump has walked that back already. He never had a factual basis for his allegations about Japan. And he never will.

".....my great-great grandchildren already hate you"

Then your great grandchildren will be ignorantly vindictive people. Someone should teach them beforehand about public finance, You know, how it's different from household finance, and how Japan owns the bulk of its debt, and those liabilities are in a currency it can issue, unlike, say, Greece or Argentina.

No problem USA. Just make stuff we want to buy, and the trade deficit will go away. And don't complain about cars. Lots of Fiats on the road here, but no Chryslers. I wonder why. They are owned by the same company.

"No problem USA. Just make stuff we want to buy...."

Like Apple devices and Boeing airliners?  Yeah, no one wants any of those, huh. America's biggest exports are machinery, electrical equipment and aerospace, and America is also one of the world's most successful exporters. So you can drop the smarmy attitude.

@JeffLee, Apple devices and Boeing airliners are full of Japanese high end circuitry, materials, and parts. If America is such a successful exporter, why the huge trade deficit? Japan doesn't have one.