Kishida tells ministers to compile new economic package as prices skyrocket

Let me guess, more help for businesses and people with kids. No help for hardworking single people, or people that lost their jobs due to covid?

@fxgai

but weren’t those MMT proponents telling us that the central bank can print as much money as it likes to finance rampant government spending without negative consequences?

Huh? Kuroda believes a weak yen is best for Japan's economy. And with this action, he got it -- ie, a public sector institution buying the public debt. Japan does this because it can. Get it?

But of course the “rich” (people other than oneself) can never be paying enough tax can they..

A good paying job is not a social welfare scheme, it’s a mutually beneficial agreement. Both parties gain, and that’s why both parties enter the agreement.

More neo-liberal cant and journalists like Matt Taibbi have taken to calling it "the cosmic lie", like trickle down economics. I am surprised so many multi-millionaire defenders of the rights of billionaires have time to post online. I thought their extraordinary work ethic and schedule is why they earn orders of magnitude more than the average worker?

Income is taxed more than capital gains, so Warren Buffet's secretary is paying proportionately much higher taxes than he is .

The .01% have influenced politics to make sure that their stock buybacks and rents were legalized and taxed minimally and income is heavily taxed.

There is nothing "mutual beneficial" about the taxation and employment system engineered to benefit the .01%.

Tax payers will suffer and normal Japanese will suffer.

they might as well lower the sales tax permanently to 5% … then increase luxury taxes on all the people driving benz's in Tokyo.

Uh, but don’t you think there is a fair bit of consumption tax paid for a brand new Benz or BMW or new home?

And didn’t you just suggest to lower the consumption tax rate to 5%?

A low-rate, broad-based tax like consumption tax is the way to go for taxation, and the rich can’t avoid paying loads of tax on all their big ticket purchases, which the poor never pay for obviously.

But of course the “rich” (people other than oneself) can never be paying enough tax can they..

 I really don't get why they can't double the minimum wage. The usual excuse is that businesses will suffer. 

It is because the lowest skilled workers will suffer, by pricing them out of a job. Employers aren’t forced to hire employees, it’s a choice, and needs to be regarded as worth it versus the alternatives.

Singapore has one of the largest income gaps in the world. So 'workers are doing just fine" - don't think so.

It is natural for different types of work to get different types of pay.

The top sports people in the world make loads more than the rest of us, but that gap doesn’t mean the rest of us are doing well. The gap has nothing to do with it - you probably want to talk about the absolute level of means by which to live. A person with no family, no job/income, and other support is going to be doing it tough. But that’s because their absolute level of means is zero, not because Roger Federer makes millions every year.

A good paying job is not a social welfare scheme, it’s a mutually beneficial agreement. Both parties gain, and that’s why both parties enter the agreement.

The question of how to provide adequately for those with insufficient means is a different matter to the wage level that may be offered for any given type of work.

It is always critical to keep in mind that a person with no job at all should somehow be provided for adequately. A mandated wage level simply can’t help a person who doesn’t have a job.

As Kishida aims to achieve wealth distribution as part of his push for a new form of capitalism

From the article, subsidies and payments to this group and that - none of which is capitalism at all. It’s just more big government socialism. Paid for by all of us, not Santa Claus.

Free market capitalism would cost us all much less, and we could focus our resources on helping the needy rather than the politicians and their re-election bids and special interest groups.

And yet Japanese policymakers yesterday intervened in the bond market to lower LT interest rates, hence the yen. Don't tell me they're bedeviled about a situation they're responsible for.

Um yeah, but weren’t those MMT proponents telling us that the central bank can print as much money as it likes to finance rampant government spending without negative consequences?

Strange time to start changing tune…

"¥5000 to pensioners? Is it 1970? A six pack of Asahi costs ¥1200!"

OK then, four 6-packs should be enough!

Now all the people that were screaming fear-induced lockdown are wondering why the economy is so screwed, and crying for yet more handouts.

I don't know man... the people demanding lockdowns likely don't need the handouts.

As Kishida aims to achieve wealth distribution as part of his push for a new form of capitalism, the government is also expected to prepare steps that will make it easier for smaller firms to pass on higher costs to consumers.

Translation: Japan Inc. will not distribute wealth from its hoarded reserves or raise wages, but will pass on costs to consumers.

That you can bank on with the LDP.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Tuesday instructed ministers to begin work on developing a cunning plan by late April to soften the blow from rising steak restaurant prices.

¥5000 to pensioners? Is it 1970? A six pack of asahi costs ¥1200! Kishida really lives in a dreamworld..

More look-over-there-ism, brought to you by the same people who brought on the crisis in the first place.

Governments need to learn - the very hard way if necessary - that they're here to serve us, not the other way around.

Until a few of them and the people who pull their strings are made an example of, nothing will change for the better.

Cut the 8% sales tax on essential items like basic food to 0, or if that's impossible, to 3% or 5%.

sorted.

I really hope and pray that the Japanese Government Officials are going to be able to give themselves a raise again to pay for their luxury apartments, homes, vacations, and expensive educations for their children.

This is what happens when you intentionally devalue the yen, as Abe wanted to do, and Kuroda has made his goal for 10 years or so now. Yeah, so now with the yen at ¥120/ $US Japan Inc. can make windfall profits on exports, and they just MIGHT see to it to give workers an extra... what was it they said months back? ¥4000 yen a year and relax the 100-hour cap on overtime? And, oh yeah, giving all our money to other nations -- may want to cut back on that a bit, because now, since Japan is a mere 40%+ food self-sufficient and costs of IMPORTS have near doubled in many cases due to said devaluation, that extra 4000 yen per year for workers, if realized, and even the ¥5000 one-off for pensioners, will barely cover half a tank of gas, or if you wanted it, maybe 3 lbs of butter after additional tariffs. And since all finish products here require imported raw goods, domestic costs for such items will sky-rocket as well.

Well done, guys. Well done. How much you want to bet the emergency stimulus goes 95% to where it's not needed?

Giving out 5000yen to every pensioners?

Wonderful! Japanese people will be very gratefully accepted!

BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda has said a weak yen is positive for the economy.

Great, but not for me. I buy most of my supples from outside of Japan (not by choice but by necessity - they're just not made in Japan) and paid for in Pound, Dollar or Euro but my products are sold in Yen.

It does make my products cheaper for overseas cunstomers but with ca. 95% of the world cut off from postal air mail delivery by Japan Post that's not helping at all.

To summarize, not big change.

A stimulus package and everyone is happy

Redundant stimulus package is not going to solve the price hikes issues. We have to pay more and more tax to recover this burden. Why the JP Govt is planning this double edged strategy, I can’t understand :(

Money is not what you think it is. It's just a number on a database, it's not real. Govts can make more money whenever they like (and they do, often). So when they tell the public money is limited they are lying. This is an oversimplification but if you are interested search Modern Monetary policy. What you know about money is all wrong.

Oh the old "it's fiat" rant.

Money is exactly what I think it is, despite all the "it's Fiat" blah blah blah stuff.

Money is what is used to buy the wheat, rice, oil, etc.. we need to live,

Any other comment saying anything else had better explain how they plan on paying their bills and buying food without the "money" as we know it

And to those thinking barter economies they are a myth they never existed.

In fact when it wasn't money it was something else being used as money so if you had wool and you wanted an ax you didn't go looking for someone with an ax who wanted to buy silk you exchanged just silk for a commodity that was universally exchangeable in China and Japan that was "Rice".

So you exchanged your wool for three bags of rice took two bags of rice and paid for your ax.

People can go on and say money isn't real it isn't what you think it is fact is we need the money to buy stuff and the economy works on it that way you don't get your wheat your oil or your rice my wishing it.

As for the package, Kishida's Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner Komeito have floated the idea of distributing a one-off 5,000 yen ($40) payment to pensioners to support them amid the pandemic.

Perhaps the purpose is not to help pensioners so much as it is to keep the fiat currency propped up through digitised money printing? It recently came out that the US fed has added a phenomenal 80% of all dollars in existence in the last 2 years, so Japan is probably not far behind concerning the yen.

On a related note a guy was telling me the other day that his company was about to shut down its factory for a few months as they were going to add an extension. When I asked him why he said that the Japanese govt had approved a covid-related 100 million yen handout on the condition that the company report on how they were using the funds. Ironically the company manufactures products like hand sanitisers and did well financially over the last couple of years, so it sounded like they didn’t really need the extra cash. While many small businesses need the handouts, in this case it revealed a bigger picture (in my opinion) where the govt is trying to prop up a dying currency through depreciation. Time will tell I suppose.

I really cannot stand the cognitive dissonance and ignorance that most people on MSM display these days.

"GIVE me more money."

"Shut down businesses and stop people from working."

"Place embargoes on any nation that doesn't bend the knee."

And then...

"Why is everything SO EXPENSIVE?!"

Larr FlintToday  11:20 am JST

Nice "the yen sky is falling" claim.

I guess then the NZ, Aus,CND dollars GBP are the same, along with the SK won, because they are all falling against the USD as is the USD against the Euro.

30 years here and every few years I hear the same "the Japanese sky is falling" still waiting for it!

Any form of cash handouts should be given across the board as it’s everyone’s tax paying money! 5,000¥ to a few pensioners is so pathetic and worse than underdeveloped countries offering cash handouts to its citizens! Japan Government acts like beggars when it’s time to support its citizens but acts as if they are kings or billionaires throwing money to other countries!

And where is this money going to come from? I mean where is it really going to come from?

With Covid costs didn't anyone in the government think.

" Hey this embargo/sanctions thing on Russia may not be a good thing for Japan and cost even more"

And don't give the sadly misguided "Russia needs to be punished" or something lame like that.

Sanctions don't work, they haven't worked on Cuba in 60 plus years, haven caused the collapse or regime change wanted in Iran after 40 years but they are going to somehow miraculously work on Russia with far more money, power, resources, than Iran or Cuba.

So now we in Japan need to be ready for higher prices on everything,

But don't expect help from the government, just look at covid response, and payments came months too late and to little, even the vaccine program was slow and late.

Buckle up folks, we are in for another very bumpy ride.

The average poor paying by own taxes 5000¥ to the other average poor seniors , that makes very much sense…NOT

How unserious are these people? We have had years of stimulus due to deflation or low inflation leading to price and wage stagnation. Now price rises are here they want to borrow more to stimulate more? Utterly ludicrous. No wonder the yen is tanking and the economy continues to be lukewarm at best.....

I tire of the "resource-poor Japan" shibboleth. The next article noted, "Tokyu's Setagaya Line has been running on renewable energy generated by hydropower and geothermal power plants." What is meant by "resource poor" means oil - Japan is bountiful in other, more important resources, particularly as oil is on its way out. Japan has water, a lot of it, and water is the ultimate resource. As a Californian, I know this.

japan is made by retired people who eat thanks to debts

japan's economy is dead, stop turning around with your illegal printing and debts!

Remember the song ""The less that you give you're a taker"" and it go's on and on and on Heaven and Hell.

The idea being floated within the LDP-Komeito coalition is to help people whose monthly public pension benefits are set to fall by 0.4 percent starting in April from a year earlier, due to a change made by factoring in price and income situations.

I love the matter-of-fact way in which this is stated. Everyone knows the cost of living, especially essentials, is rapidly rising, but pensions are "set to fall". That is, that's the way it is. Shouganai. It should be pitchforks on the streets.

ok Yubaru. I Manspain for you. Energy = gas= petrol= benzine. decease by 50%. To offset the deceased government gas tax you incease the gambling tax and allow gambling not just on Kerrin, power boats and local horse race. You allow betting on all sports and politics which is allow in the USA and the EU and most western countries and tax heavily. You are the one disconnect with reality about the Japanese who love gambling. the biggest visitors to casinos in Australia are Very wealthy Japanese. I say no to casinos because it a place for crims to laundry money. To back this up you just have go for a drive if you do live here and within 5 minutes you come across a big car park full outside a pachinko center. Do you understand now.

a lot of empty talk.

pathetic 5000JPY talk like some kind of giveaway to some beggars at the streets.

solution is simple.lower VAT for food to 0,lower tax for petrol.diesel and gas.

no any extra "packages" and rounds of meaningless timewasting meetings needed.

Fumio be a man finally and show your balls.

Let me guess; the "package" will involve taxpayers (or future taxpayers) giving money to businesses.

Since 2012 the government has been open about wanting rising prices and actively attempting to hoodwink the public into thinking inflation is somehow good. Finally the public has caught on and is denouncing these swindlers.

Now all the people that were screaming fear-induced lockdown are wondering why the economy is so screwed, and crying for yet more handouts.

Anyways.. it's all Putin's fault eh...

plan to hand out 5,000 yen per pensioner……….The handout plan has drawn criticism from opposition party lawmakers who see it as an attempt to woo senior voters ahead of the election.

More like an insult than a woo.

Time to up and widen gambling tax. Not casinos but legal sports gambling on al sports local and internation. Even on politics and the weather. Then decease the energy tax by 50% for the time being.

One, upping and taxes on gambling is not going to make all that big a difference in the economy. Two, there are no casinos in Japan, so your suggestion about that is meaningless. Read No 1 for my response to answer your "sports gambling.

Up taxes on "politics and weather"?????? And what energy tax are you talking about?

You do realize you are talking about Japan here, wait maybe you dont.

￥5,000? You gotta be kidding? That will fill my tank 3/4 of the way! What a joke.

Time to up and widen gambling tax. Not casinos but legal sports gambling on al sports local and internation. Even on politics and the weather. Then decease the energy tax by 50% for the time being.

BOJ's rare moves to step into the bond markets to keep 10-year Japanese government bond yields from rising above its implicit upper limit.

Doesn't sound like much. Unless you consider first that the central bank offer is to buy unlimited amounts of government bonds, to stop the selloff prompted by rising global interest rates. All the while signaling no end to slowing down stimulus, while pledging that increases in inflation (.09% annual, .06% consumer) would be met by rises in wages, Quite a high-wire-juggling balancing act.

Should have assisted almost everyone in Japan during COVID so that people could have survived 2020, 2021, and 2022. Some people did not make it. Some companies went bankrupt. When it comes to the people in the Japanese Government, the war affects them so NOW they roll out a package. But not for the people who voted them into office.

I'm assuming ALL the assistance will go to consumers and not to corporations. As the article states, a weak yen boosts corportates' performance and profits, while it makes food/groceries at home more expensive.

The yen's depreciation is posing a challenge to policymakers...

And yet Japanese policymakers yesterday intervened in the bond market to lower LT interest rates, hence the yen. Don't tell me they're bedeviled about a situation they're responsible for.