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© Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Japan's trade deficit rebounds as export growth slows
By Elaine Kurtenbach TOKYO©2025 GPlusMedia Inc.
18 Comments
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Aly Rustom
I said it before, I'll say it again. Raise the minimum wage. Cut the unpaid overtime. Put money in people's pockets and give them time to go and spend it.
sigh...water off a duck's back.
sighclops
This is most telling. Squeeze the middle class of their dwindling salaries & this is the result. Corporate tax rates have been eased all in the name of promoting business, but at what cost? Japanese companies aren't putting the cash to use, nor raising wages. Strap in for another decade of stagnation, folks.
Noble713
Agreed on fixing the unpaid overtime problem, but raising the minimum wage just induces inflation. It also further encourages companies to cut their labor costs, either by overworking the rest of the staff, outsourcing, or adopting automation.
Yubaru
Japan is unlike some countries in the world where the population generally speaking, tends to put their money into savings vs building up debt.
It's not the minimum wage that needs raising, it's the wages of the work force in general that need to be raised as they have been stagnant and many havent seen actual raises in a decade or more as their cost or living has gone up, taxes have increased, and their actual wages have gone down in overall value.
All while the big business and markets here have seen large increases in profits. Go figure huh.
jerseyboy
Doesn't take a genius to figure out that slowing exports along with weak consumer demand at home is not a sustainable proposition. Abenomics is failing Japan on many fronts, and all the glowing PR from the BOJ/Kuroda and the Cabinet Office cannot hide the truth.
MyTimeIsYourTime
Cool. Cannot wait until the regressive consumption tax hits 10%.
Meiyouwenti
Who said a weak yen would boost economy? Fire them all, including the PM.
fxgai
Yubaru,
I agree with everything you wrote except the last bit - "All while the big business and markets here have seen large increases in profits."
Presumably we aren't talking Toshiba here. But if profits have grown so much, the Japanese stock indexes should be near all-time highs, like they are in the US. Yet the Nikkei 225 is barely half what it was at the peak of the bubble 25 years ago. (Maybe the Nikkei is still a buy? Or the US is a sell?)
Even if businesses were making massive profits, that's good for workers, because the government has decided to plow everyone's pension money into Japanese stocks. Everyone benefits from business making money.
itsonlyrocknroll
It's window dressing, China stock market margin calls today show a deprecation of 4%, stock owned by China Securities Finance Corp that lacks the leverage to prop up the market. the Yuan has breached it official reference rate, by Friday close the slide could be 6/7% since it 11th August devaluation.
hero77
Yubaru, wages have been raising for two years now, and abe is considering raising it again Please next time educate yourself before you speak
Yubaru
BULL....Dont believe everything you read. Just because some get higher bonuses, real wages have not increased any amount worth mentioning. Take your own medicine before you force it on to others.
The work force is not the same as it was 25 years ago when just about everyone was a full time employee, not about 1/3 is contracted or temporary and their wages are stagnant and many get ZERO bonuses.
Also actual raises, have been lost due to increases in taxes and cost-of-living expenses.
BertieWooster
It's ABENOMICS.
Early days yet! Give it a few more years and then we'll be raking it in!
Don't worry about a little dip!
(Sarcasm)
DannytheGaijin
Those Abenomics arrows are missing there mark big time.
BertieWooster
Just wait for Abe's next tax hike. He's going to have to have one to pay for all the money he's been frittering away. That will REALLY cause Japan's trade deficit to rebound!
gokai_wo_maneku
"trade deficit rebounds" Is that good English? "rebounds" sounds like something good happening. Just curious, and not asking for a free English lesson.
BertieWooster
gokai_wo_maneku,
My point exactly! It's PR speak, like "negative growth!"
Aly Rustom
Noble, that's EXACTLY WHAT the Abe government wants. That's why they had QE. However, as a result of that, prices went up but wages stayed the same. That's the disaster that is Abenomics. The japanese kept chanting we need to get rid of deflation like a mantra. You would have thought they were praying, the way they kept repeating that.
Inflation/Deflation reflects the current state of any economy. People have money and time to spend it-they spend and prices go up. Price goes up when demand from the public does. You get Inflation. Anyone wanna guess what happens when people have no time nor money to spend? Anyone?
Yes. That's right! Deflation. Printing money doesn't help. You can't print your way out of debt. The russians tried that in the 90's and look what happened to their economy.
The middle class is the backbone of any economy. Break its back, and the whole country, rich and poor, will eventually collapse.
The end is near.
skookella
Bertie Wooster is on the right track here. "We" are just being played. Just testing for what is/needs (according the "them") to come, which is a Cashless Society, and there will be no more such a thing as Dept. Only thing is you have zero control over your finances, which is what "they" exactly want to achieve. Let "them" do as those who know also know that "their" plan will fail. :)