What do you think of the government's plan to give a Y12,000 cash handout to members of the public in an effort to stimulate the economy?

Who is the "public" guy? Will they track down the homeless and give them Y12000 also? What about the resident aliens who pay taxes?

What do I think? Give more information!

Japan will go into debt as a nation in order to do this. Japanese people (most of them at least) will NOT spend the money but will tuck it into savings out of fear and hard economic conditions. With no income ceiling limits and politicians talking about getting thier cash the whole thing is bound to be a giant LDP failure!

Rich govt doing poor work. Either add one more 'zero' or delete completely. Total Y2tril should be used for educational needs/medical care for elderly and related social works.

A useless gesture. Some people will save it, though why, I don't know. If times are tough, 12,000 yen isn't going to help. A better long-term solution to stimulate domestic spending is to cut both income and ward taxes. That would give me more disposable income and I would go out and spend more. Also, don't hike the consumption tax.

Agree on another comment. Give me that money now and off to the bank I go.

Should go towards buying a new pair of shoes or jeans. It's not even enough to cover a good night out.

At least we are (apparently) being included. Frankly I'd rather the government put this cash into a decent support program for the workers laid off in hard times to provide them housing and support. ¥2tril ought to go a lot further between a few hundred thousand truly unfortunate souls.

People are going to keep on saving as long as educating a child costs an arm and a leg and the pension system is fubar. If you want people to spend money, you have to give them reliable assurances that their children's education will not leave them bankrupt and facing old age with increased medical costs and a pittance of a pension.

As for the 12,000 yen the government wants to throw at the problem, as other posters have said it it will in most cases go straight into the bank, or be used for ordinary household purchases that people would have bought anyway. To prevent that, it should be distributed (assuming that it should be distributed at all, which isn't a given) in the form of coupons not cash, that must be used within a set time-frame and eg not in supermarkets. And if the idea is to get people to simply spend, better to give more to feckless teenagers, not oldies.

Need to add an extra zero on the end...12,000 yen?! That's about 1/3 of what you need to stimulate the purchase of some LV in Saitama.

What can you do with 12,000yen? Two cases of beer? A night at an izakaya? A coupla pairs of shoes for ya kids? How the heck will the piddly amount of money stimulate the economy? It's a political stunt and that's all. The Oz Gov. just gave $1,200 to pensioners and $5,000 to families. Japan is supposed to be a rich country, right? Stingy bastards!

Mind bogglingly stupid. This is all that Tokyo University educated (mostly) people can come up with? Why is the use of such an inept government?

Sorry. What is the use of .....

Totally idiotic. Economists get lots of things wrong but this is one they have gotten right: this does almost nothing to stimulate the economy but helps increase national debt, which is already staggeringly huge in Japan proportional to its GDP. Instead they should cut taxes and eliminate the pork subsidies handed out to the construction industry in cahoots with the transportation industry. Oh, and forget about raising the consumption tax if you expect consumer spending to recover at all.

Like the US tax rebates, Japan should only give the cash payouts to people who filed a 2007 tax return. Its absolutely ridiculous to give money to senile-bag-of-bones lying in nursing homes...

When the gob give free money, then you know that they have no idea of how to use the money for fix the economy.

initially this was a straight up bribe to the J-pop which Aso & co were going to give away then call a snap election to retain power but now that Aso realizes he`s toast eihter way he has to carry on with the giveaway or loose face ha ha what a moron

GREAT IDEA!!! I need some extra cash for booze.

the whole idea is to get banks to start lending again. you can't just give them directly, so distribute it firstly to "public" and next thing u know, it's on it's destination baby. plus you buy in some votes along the way

plus you buy in some votes along the way

Except the whole 'baramaki seisaku' is by all accounts very unpopular with the voting public, particularly in view of the fact that what you get this year is offset and more by the proposed hike in consumption tax. This fiasco has lost the LDP more votes than it has given them.

As a foreigner wishing to work in Japan I would love to hear the Government making it easier to move and work in Japan. I'm pretty sure with a shipload of skilled/experienced foreign people, Japan would get a huge boost...

@robbienz: Japan doesn't want skilled foreign employees. They want people who will do the grunt work at lower rates than Japanese people.

Regarding the 12,000 yen hand out, it's silly and I'm sure most people feel the same way, but they won't turn down free cash.

Orchid: Its not free cash. You just paid them your taxes, and now they ask you to to jump for joy because the give you some small change back. Ludicrious.

¥12,000 Ha! No one would need it if they would let us work till we drop rather than being forced to retire at age 60!

how about they take care of deflation first? giving cash doesn't do anything unless people have to spend it. Maybe food stamps for kokusan products might work but the farmers are already getting to much public money. stupid idea.

This is a waste, what you'll get will be eaten up even more in the tax increases coming. More LDP insanity using smoke and mirrors to fool an all too gullible public, except it is appearing the public ain't so gullible after all, Aso's rating dipped to just under 20% according to a Chunichi - NTT poll.

Just a quick point, but other information I've read on this says they propose to give ¥12,000 per family member, plus an additional ¥8,000 proposed for dependents aged 18 and younger, or over 60 years of age (if I recall correctly).

Granted, I agree that this money could be better spent... but on the other hand I'm not one to turn down money (especially since it's money I've already paid in taxes), and if I recieve ¥12,000 per family member plus and additional ¥8,000 for each kid then I'm looking at a decent chunk of change. Of course I'll be packing some of that away in savings but it will also provide a little extra spending money as well.

¥12,000 payout? Nothing in comparison to the $600 the U.S. gave last year.

This is just idiotic. It will not work. Government is not needed to fix the problems that the government created... The japanese government is stupid, the whole lot. Of course these idiots believe that they can fix everything with magic yen(that is stolen from those that produce the real wealth).

"eliminate the pork subsidies handed out to the construction industry in cahoots with the transportation industry". Do that and you'll see a collapse in employment never before.

Taking on extra debt to cover a ¥12,000 payout is ludicrous. The money should be ploughed into supporting pensioners, education and health.

I meant to say "a collapse in employment like never before" - soz.

¥12,000 payout? Nothing in comparison to the $600 the U.S. gave last year.

And it worked like a charm in the U.S.

Dumb. That's what I think.

But, they'd probaby just waste it anyway.

Still, dumb.

if they really had a clue what to do, it wouldn't be giving money away. Rather it would be investing in a Post Carbon Japan, high on (real) recycling and electricity, geo thermal, stirling engines and insulation. As Japan imports all its fossil fuels and will be rendered inoperable more so than any other country.

the prospect of disaster management from this or any gov't does not look promising.

It's good for the sake and pachinko industries and a nice gift to the banks, where everyone else will stash it.

it'll do nothing to stimulate the ecomony as most people will not spend it in these economic times. instead of cash, they should give out checks, coupons or something with an expiry date which could be used like cash and redeemed only by business.

Granted, I agree that this money could be better spent... but on the other hand I'm not one to turn down money (especially since it's money I've already paid in taxes), and if I recieve ¥12,000 per family member plus and additional ¥8,000 for each kid then I'm looking at a decent chunk of change. Of course I'll be packing some of that away in savings but it will also provide a little extra spending money as well.

Yeah, me too! I'll be posting it back to Oz so I can deposit in my Oz bank account at 60yen. Woo Hoo!

60 yen? not this week :/

In Aust, we received $1000 (Aust$) from the government just before Xmas. According to the media, it did cause a ripple in certain sectors of the aussie economy, but nothing to get overly excited about.

Close to 70Y now

What do I think of the government`s plan? STUPID.

Well, it is about 4 cases of beer (or 8 cases of happoshu).... which should help us forget about how small an amount it is..... I'd accept it.

Stupid! But Y12,000 is Y12,000, no sweat!

I think less government spending and cutting taxes will do far more to stimulate business than these handouts. But as knews says, it would pay for 8 cases of happoshu, which will last me about four months. Heck, I'd accept it!