Japan industrial output falls; jobless rate unchanged

"Japan’s industrial output contracted by 4.1% in September from August and 8.1% from a year earlier as automakers and steel mills cut production due to shrinking demand and antagonisms with China."

Thanks, Ishihara!

You see? This kind of antagonism over a few rocks and pride does nothing for either side but cause grief in a number of areas. It would be best if both parties could avoid moves that would further exacerbate things and allow them to mellow out, giving the nation a chance to restore ties. That means for China to stop sending ships into the disputed areas (Japan too), and for Japan to stop putting the limelight on people like Ishihara, who seem hell-bent on keeping things negative and harming the nation.

Japan's economic output has been on a downward trend for nearly two decades and off-shoring continues unabated and, yet, the unemployment rate remains the envy of the world. How does that happen? Magic!

Smith if it were not the Senkaku islands it would be something else. The yen is too strong and needs to be lowered however the greedy rich do not want to devalue their assets.

taro67, I supposed it depends on how they classified employment. Whether full timers moving into part time work due to lack of full time job are classified as employed. Another possibility could well be that workers may accept lower pay to stay in employment rather than be unemployed when companies resorted to stay at a going concern and requested their workers to accept a reduced wage. This also can have the effect of maintaining unemployment at steady rate.

YuriOtaniOct. 30, 2012 - 11:43AM JST

Smith if it were not the Senkaku islands it would be something else. The yen is too strong and needs to be lowered however the greedy rich do not want to devalue their assets.

The problem is that it was the Senkakus and not something else. You can speculate all you want, but the present batch of Japanese politicians, with their nationalist chest beating, have done a great diservice to the Japanese economy.

Word on the sales vine is that next month's sales figures for China are even worse than last month's. Last month's sales would have been much worse if it were not for the Japanese companies completing orders which had been placed before the Ishihara inspired crises.

It is estimated that a 3 month crash in a market is a kiss of death for any recovery so only 1 more month to go and the Japanese companies will not be able to recover their position in the Chinese market, no matter what they do. Maybe the Japanese can sell all those excess cars in Burma and the Phillipines although they haven't got any roads to drive them on and they'll have to pay you in pineapples

As for your lowering the Yen, don't give up your day time job as cashier at Walmart. It doesn't matter how cheap the yen gets, nobody in Europe or the USA, but the very rich, has any cash to buy the high-end goods that the Japanese manufacture. The only way that they will be able to sell them is for the company's to carry the cost by offering 4 years interest free credit, like the Koreans do , but we all know how untrustworthy the Japanese are to lending to each other - guarantor needed - let alone to a foreigner.

" the government reported the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 4.2% in September, unchanged from August." Stop complaining. Any country in Europe as well as the USA would take 8.4%. today. If the unemployment rate in Japan drops below 4%, inflation will eliminate any growth.

Redcliff Oct. 30, 2012 - 11:55AM JST

Over 40% of Japan's workforce is either unemployed or working part time. That figure will continue to increase until real economic growth (not that generated by obscene amounts of government spending) returns. Japan official unemployment data is nothing but meaningless propaganda.

You always have to figure the REAL rate is at least double whatever the govt says it is

So, realisticly speaking, who has the highest unemployment percentage, Japan or the US? Please advise.

Juan RodriguezOct. 30, 2012 - 12:59PM JST

Read this on the US.

http://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_data/unemployment-charts

Japan is most likely comparable. Each nation has its own method for presenting the most politically optimistic figure.

persistent strength of the yen, which makes products made in Japan relatively more expensive in overseas markets.

Japan have to make Yen is weaker and weaker like Swiss and US are making their currency. There is some risk for inflation. However Japanese goods will be kicked off from word wide market forever if there is no depreciation. Samsung and LG are dominating consumer electronics thanks to weak Won.

The yens strength is only ONE problem for Japan there are many others

The end is nigh,, and I am OK with this.

There are hundreds of Chinese investors ready to buy the real estate mentioned above. Where is it and how much?

I think this is only a harbinger for things to come. If the output goes down, spending doesnt get reduced, people asking for the "seikatsuhogo" safety net skyrocket and the change rate remains at a 1dolar:80yen 1euro:yen, it is fair to say that the situation is going to get worse.

Appart from that we have a government that needs a new law that allows them to sell new national bonds in order to pay for social benefits from November till the next time the tax revenue kicks in and a debt crisis in Europe and the US, which means that it is harder to "bring money from the future" through the international debt market.

But I can bet you 10000 yen that most Japanese citizens/politicians dont even know or care much.

YuriOtani: "Smith if it were not the Senkaku islands it would be something else."

Yeah, heaven forbid they deal with real issues instead of focusing on a few rocks to try and distract from the woes of the nation. Sadly, and thanks in large part to Ishihara (who wants to be a leader! haha!), they have created more woes, and those will become considerably worse in the near future, and much more so in the long term.

I seem to recall a lot of people coming on this site and gloating when the Chinese reacted to Ishihara's proposed purchase of the islands back in April, and the subsequent tit-for-tat rise in incidents by both nations to hurt relations further. Those people would post things like, "Move the companies to other nations, which would be grateful for the business", and, "This will destroy the Chinese economy and it's only hurting themselves", etc. etc., but now we are seeing the truth, that if anything Japan is hurting and will be hurting more than China very soon, if China is hurting at all from the current crises. They can't simply up and move to another nation because that would require years of investment and development, which is already set up in China. In short, Japan is screwed because of its own pride and silly actions. China will lose a lot of jobs if the companies continue to close shop there, but there will always be demand for labor there, and therefore outsourcing, and always demand for cheaper goods. What's Japan going to do?