'Abenomics' wins praise, but tough work lies ahead

Everyone...get ready for interest rates to climb soon. Good time to take loans while it is still low.

But appeals for the corporate sector to hike wages have largely fallen on deaf ears so far.

What a surprise.

Here is where Japan's lack of meaningful and powerful Unions really hurts the workers. The working man bitches and moans about the cost of living and the stagnant wages, but does not band together to demand more from their employers. This is, evidently, also why the Japanese salary man is married to the company, and has no life outside of work.

The corporate sector must love it.

"debt is debt"

No it isn't. If it were, Japan, with the most debt in the world, would have crashed a long time ago. So why are much less indebted countries like Greece crashing instead?

"the BOJ is using the national wealth of this country "

That's a howler. "National wealth"? -- You mean electronically crediting institutions with a currency that only it can issue? Or do you mean drawing doubloons out of a pirate's treasure chest?

"yeah stable currencies lose 20% of their value over a 12 month period"

The current rate, around 100, is in line with modern historical trends, and businesses are really happy about that level. Anyway, you're making a comparison with an unsustained all-time record high.

Again, what is the evidence that the economy is now being "crippled" by its fiscal debt? Demographics, structural issues: yes. Fiscal debt: no.

seen as critical to shrinking Japan’s massive national debt.

Hiroshi Hiyama of AFP, please explain who 'sees' this, instead of resorting to the rhetorical passive. Who sees this is the Ministry of Finance and other unimaginative, self-serving bureaucratic parasites. And their criminally-affiliated cronies in construction, real estate, and export-oriented manufacturing. As umbrella rightly pointed out, the sheeple are too brainwashed by the negligent news media to resist. Shoganai.

But they will buy less come 2014. And it will hurt the economy. But that's not what Abenomics is about anyway. It's about kissing the right people's backsides, those who can turn out LDP votes. The LDP knows there are no viable alternatives to its autocracy, and it knows most ordinary Japanese have given up hope of getting anything else.

An unprecedented campaign by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe

A better description than 'unprecedented' would be 'cynical and manipulative'. It's not unprecedented. The LDP has been doing this crap for over half a century, and their elitist forebears did it for centuries before that. Abe doesn't give a rats about the people of this country, despite all his nationalistic BS.

The lowdown is that the majority of Japanese are getting screwed massively. Abenomics has benefited Toyota and other industrial exporters (and I guess construction bosses), but few besides.

No praise from me and my family. Prices are getting higher and our pay checks are staying the same with smaller bonuses.

"leaving an already debt-crippled country even worse off"

How exactly does the fiscal debt "cripple" Japan? Where is the evidence? Here's the real situation: 3.8% growth, world's lowest bond rates, zero inflation and a strong/stable currency.

Why do pundits throw out these strong statements and not back them up with examples? Maybe because...they aren't true?

The big well-connected corporations and construction industry cronies are/will benefit, but it's the people who have just begun to pay. When the reality of the tax hike hits, that's when it's going to really hurt. But don't worry, there will probably be bailouts for those too big to fail. The rest will be crushed. I'm not going to stick around for the coming collapse.

Yes prices are rising in the supermarkets all right. But don't worry, the companies are happy, the little people will pay. They will just shoganai and gaman themselves as per usual.

Yes its working all right , just look at the prices in the supermarkets over the last 3 months, ask the housewives if they're happy with abenomics, Bet the wages haven't gone up though.