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© (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2013.Abe stresses deregulation is priority for growth
By Kaori Kaneko YOKOHAMA©2025 GPlusMedia Inc.
27 Comments
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Yubaru
Talking about it an doing it are two different things. There are going to be plenty of komuin that are going to moan and groan about this one.
Privatizing is one thing, but what happens when unemployment skyrockets because the newly privatized companies find out how much dead weight they are carrying from former government owned entities?
CanadianJapan
Priority number one is to deregulate the job market and make layoffs easier. Japan should get rid of the lifetime employment once and for all. Japanese companies can then get rid of the Japanese oji-sans who do nothing all day and young people, women, foreigners(politically correct term would be non-Japanese) can take control and put Japan back on the map.
some14some
negative growth or positive? so far j-economy keeps sliding southward after Abenomics took over the reins.
Yubaru
Don't know where you have been but countless numbers of middle-aged now retirement aged men got axed back in the mid-90's through early 2000's. Japanese companies cut a ton of dead weight through "restructuring" and while some still need more, the bigger problem is the unneeded government/public sector dead weight that is dragging down the economy.
The idea of lifetime employment in reality is a myth today and while many companies still hire based upon numbers and not areas of need the workforce today moves around now more than ever. Or they just go back home to Mom and Dad.
Schopenhauer
Deregulation is important for business while changing our nature is not an easy thing. I think the tradition comes from Japan's long continued feudalism backed up by morals of confucianism. It is not necessarily a bad thing for a stable society and America's "hire and fire" style will not take root easily in Japan.
Jay Que
Abe is excellent.
nikku510
Give the man a chance . For the people who put Abe down , remember the economic situation is better than when Noda was PM
LiveInTokyo
I think deregulation will be extremely difficult to implement. There is just too much at stake for so many people who have already grabbed their part of the pie. Far too many amakudari still exist. Privatisation of the Post Office? I really hope he can deregulate. but it would be foolish to think it will be easy. A lot of people will resist this.
Moonraker
Any deregulation that it can be argued will be detrimental to safety or Japan's "unique" culture or institutions will be hard to push through. These are always pretty decisive, if suspect, justifications for maintaining the status quo. In fact, when these are trotted out it is good to look for some kind of vested interest.
Wakarimasen
Talk is cheap. Waiting to see some action. As for labour deregulation, certainly in manufacturing Jpan is already one of the most productive countries in the world. so essentially we are talking about service industries being loosened up - not sure just how much value that is going to add to the economy....
rickyvee
@canadianjapan
this is one aspect of western-style capitalism that is self-serving. the company wins out but society loses because there will be hundreds of thousands of people out of work living off of gov't assistance. how does that help?. asian-style capitalism tries to balance out the needs of the company with the needs of society. having a company pay for deadweight is much better than having the gov't do it.
Disillusioned
Just another step towards a greater class separation in Japan. This move will create more poverty, more unemployment and many more lower paid workers, while companies increase profits and the fat cats get fatter. There will be no changes made to the welfare system to compensate for it either. Next, they will abolish the minimum wage. The companies get tax cuts, while the workforce gets increased taxes and lower salaries. Abenomics? It is Liberalnomics! Japan's greatest resource is its workforce, but Abenomics are going to send Japan back to the slave labor days of old. He should doing exactly the opposite to put food on the table and money in the pockets of Naoki Average.
JeffLee
This message is directed at a foreign audience, so maybe it's just lip service. I would give Abe's comments much more credence if the message were directed at a Japanese business audience, like the Keidanren.
Yubaru
Ever watch NHK and the discussions from the Diet? This is just a translation of a Japanese report.
CH3CHO
Thomson Reuters should be ashamed of its reporting and lack of journalistic ethics. Anyone can check what PM Abe really said here. http://www.kantei.go.jp/jp/96_abe/statement/2013/0603kaiken.html
He was talking about monetary easing and growth strategy. Growth strategy is not equal to deregulation. I really wonder how and which part of his words Reuters translated into "I acknowledge deregulation is the priority for our growth strategy".
If anyone is interested in knowing what PM Abe means by growth strategy, look here.
http://www.kantei.go.jp/jp/singi/keizaisaisei/skkkaigi/dai10/siryou.html
Mike Critchley
Deregulation, at least for domestic affairs, would mean less hoops to jump though and less paperwork...and that means less need for public workers at the shiyakusho or vehicle-registration offices, etc., that are overflowing with people whose only purpose is shuffling papers that aren't needed in the first place.
I'm guessing that Abe is counting on a booming economy to absorb displaced and disgruntled koumuin. But his 3rd Arrow will REALLY have to hit the mark to get this one right.
In_japan
Its working like injecting a steroid. Market jumps till you inject and when you stop injecting bamm everything is gone.
Zenpun
During Regan Era, US deregulate the financial market. Banks are free to borrow without proper risk assessments. The consequence was 2008 financial crisis. Not only US but also EU business have borrowed for properties and infrastructure investments. However there were no decent commercial return from most of the investments. The consequence were banks wrote off many non performing loans. Many banks from EU run out of the cash.
Unlike southern neighbour, Canada did not follow the deregulation of the market. Canada is fairly conservative for monetary policy. It does not share the cruel fate of swimming in the red sea as EU or US.
Labour market deregulation is good for Japan. However other deregulation will be kamikaze pilot mission for Japan. Japan is losing the competitiveness in many sectors. The more Japan open the domestic market, the more people will be unemployed.
Mirai Hayashi
Did we not learn what lack of regulation does from the 2008 economic downfall, and the Fukushima power plant....its a recipe for disaster
Elementz
Deregulation is good for the private sector. The idea is to limit the amount of bureaucracy that goes into everyday business practices and free up companies that are hogtied by endless paperwork and government regulations. Once the government gets out of the way, private companies and individuals will be free to create and innovate and hopefully become competitive in a globalized market. Also, Japan loses a huge amount of intellectual capital to the west because of its heavily regulated industries. Japan would do well to keep innovative people at home rather than seeing them flock to the U.S. where they are more free to pursue their ideas and more likely to see their dreams become a reality.
danalawton1@yahoo.com
Good... Bad.... makes no difference. Japan will not anytime soon deregulate and allow fair competition.
Christopher Blackwell
Deregulation will lead to more disasters in industry, more corruption in investment firms and just about everything else. Whenever we allow business to do anything that they want without overseeing them for the protection of everyone else we get more corruption and more damage for the rest of the community. We have learned the hard way that business never can be trusted to regulate themselves nor to worry about safety and quality without outside watch dogs. If you want things far worse then they are and total economic meltdown deregulation is the way to bring it about. So history shows us in every county in the world.
Moonraker
There is deregulation and deregulation. It is not all the same. It has to be looked at "case-by-case", including what vested interest currently benefits from it. When drugs are not approved quick enough for use simply to benefit certain Japanese companies and bureaucrats (with the excuse of "safety"), and patients are left with yesterday's treatment, then looking at this regulation seems urgent. When manufacturers are involved in setting regulations merely to limit foreign competition then there is a good reason to investigate deregulation. When luxury produce farmers (beef, sugar) are protected by high tariffs because they vote LDP then looking at deregulation seems a reasonable idea. But when manufacturers and service industries are allowed to club together to set prices then there is a good reason to increase regulation and strengthen the anti-monopolies and anti-competition architecture.
umbrella
If labor markets are deregulated ie hundreds of thousands are thrown out of work and wages/salaries plummet even further, you can say goodbye to "safety Japan". There will be riots in the streets just as in Turkey now. Even Japanese will give up gamen and shoganai in the end.
JeanValJean
" Abe is excellent." Yeah, at talking out both sides of his mouth at the same time.
I support true deregulation, but that's not what Abe means.
CanadianJapan
@yubaru
I have worked at 3 different Japanese companies and I had friends working in the human resources department. It is all but impossible to lay off permanent employees in Japan. The layoffs you are talking about are voluntary retirements or buyouts. Unless a company is on the brink of bankruptcy workers cannot be lay off. In my country of origin (Canada), if a company decides to close a department and let go the workers, it is perfectly legal. Here in Japan, the company has to transfer the workers to other departments, it CANNOT lay them off. I have experienced that personally. If the company were to lay off workers they could take the company to court and would most likely win in forcing the company to take them back.
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/9e491fa0-ccf2-11e2-90e8-00144feab7de.html
bannedacctsam
Abe and the LDP is following the economic playbook of the GW Bush's economic principles.