Japan's economic growth slows in April-June quarter

tiny growth 'achieved' by spending trillions of Yen in stimulus packages?

the western media have the "slower than expected growth figure of 2.6 % " headlines while the govt. mouthpiece NHK spins it positively as a "3rd straight quarter of growth

Yes marcelito indeed! The western media tell it as it is but the government TV company NHK feed the little people the necessary propoganda! Wages and salaries aren't generally rising and there are all the tax rises to come. Hopeless, just hopeless.

In previous decades, governments spent money and jump-started weak economies until business started investing and hiring and consumer demand picked up. More recently, because of globalization and declining real wages and savings, easy credit and marketing was the way to create consumer demand and the result was the 2008 crash.

The problem for Japan is that neither of these methods can be used effectively for sustained economic growth because of a declining birthrate. There are just not enough consumers with enough money or debt capacity. The elderly have savings, but they don't spend. One third of Japanese are working poor. Student loan debt is becoming a serious issue. The young see few future prospects and only higher tax rates. Then there is the whole question of energy use and climate change. To grow an economy we basically need more people using more energy. Until Japan moves to a more sustainable and renewable energy future, the price of energy will continue to increase, which will put downward pressure on energy use, as will the immediate need to decrease greenhouse gas emissions as the planet continues to heat up.

Future economic growth in Japan is pure fiction and the people need to wake up and start talking about a better way to measure the health of society.

As long as prices keep rising that is all that matters to Abe, Aso and their cronies. Inflation is the Holy Grail.

The JapanTitanic is getting ever closer to those icebergs.

The business-friendly reforms for foreign investment have yet to manifest themselves, Japan remains down the list of those companies that are easy to do establish and do business in.

So-called ultra-lax monetary policies mean nothing to the average Suzuki and Watanabe families. They still need deposits and guarantors for loans, if they can even afford them, and if the banks even bother to listen to them.

And telling people to spend money that they do not have, for a supposed better future that is not guaranteed, with impending tax rises on the near horizon, is a great challenge, even for the likes of Dentsu and the other spin doctors...

The business-friendly reforms for foreign investment have yet to manifest themselves,

Who can blame any foreign investor from wanting to put their money into Japan?

The JapanTitanic is getting ever closer to those icebergs

Yup. Have you jumped ship yet?

Wages were never going to rise in the domestic sector. Japanese domestic companies remain overstaffed by inefficient workers. Companies are trying to cut their overtime bills, not increase salaries. If Abe succeeds in creating inflation thorugh currency manipulation, wages will almost certainly not keep pace. Higher bonuses in international corporations may have an effect, but that is only 15% of Japan's economy. Some 85% of domestic companies say they will keep wages as they are, or will lower them next year. Abe's plans require spending, but falling or stagnant salaries combined with tax increases and inflation will not get people spending. So the spending is coming through yet more LDP-type stimulus packages, which will have a limited short-term effect, before leaving a younger, declining tax base with even more debt to pay back.

Wholesale changes to Education and employment needs occur. Kick start several mergers and trim the worker. Encourage more people to open their own business. Use the tax system to encourage the development of smaller companies. Japan should be wooing international investors, not burying it's head in the sand. Once international companies start completing for business Japanese company will be forced to deal with their underlying problems.

Abe's arrows revealing their bluntness will hit way off the mark. A very dangerous and precarious move his monetary policy of devaluing the yen. More long term pain will be forthcoming as promised.

Abe's 2nd disgrace will be worse than his first disgrace. But he will find a good medical excuse to step down, maybe Hongkong foot!

2.6 percent isn't bad for an economy whose workforce is shrinking.

Most other developed countries rely on mass immigration to boost their GDP rates and give the illusion of growth, whereas in reality the living standards of their workers are in decline.

Nothing is going to convince me that Japan's economic figures are real. How can a country with so many factories, producing goods that people buy, still be in recession?

The time for Japan being timid in pursuing its national interest is over. Japan needs to push the chess piece that the Swiss National Bank chose in September 2011 when the SNB stated unequivocally to markets that it would not permit 1 Swiss franc to be worth more than 0.83 pounds (SFr 1.20 to the Euro). More specifically, Abe and Kuroda need to state unequivocally to markets that for the next 5 years, Japan will not permit the Yen to strengthen more than 100 Yen to the US Dollar; and that if the success of Abenomics requires it, they will produce a still weaker yen.

Such a stand will produce the following benefits: First, most Japanese firms have based their earnings estimates on the assumption that dollar/yen will trade between 91 and 95. Creating certainty that dollar/yen will not be weaker than 100 will permit these firms to raise their earnings estimates and plan domestic infrastructure/investment projects with certainty that the worst case scenario for their profit projections can be calculated using dollar/yen of 100. Due to the market’s expected rate of dollar/yen equilibrium closer to 105, this cutting off of the higher end of the current dollar/yen volatility range below its expected equilibrium price, Japan would avoid the UK’s September 1992 mistake and thus limit its action to diminishing the range of volatility while demonstrating respect for the course of long term currency flows. Consider the value of Draghi’s verbal intervention when he stated that he would do “Whatever it takes” and that “It will be enough”. Market participants holding European policymakers hostage via the credit-default swap market, sovereign debt yields, and equity shorts were tamed such that they came to understand the merit in the mantra “Don’t fight the Central Bank”. Since then, they have been compliant, and the efforts of European policymakers to achieve their aims have been facilitated. In like manner, Japan too needs to make the analogous announcement in order to convert markets from foe to friend to the success of Abe and Kuroda.