politics

Finance minister says Japan needs aggressive public spending

16 Comments

The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.

© Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

16 Comments
Login to comment

does this mean more roads to nowhere and bridges with no roads to them again?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

I like how all these old politicians propose massive public spending when they're not going to be around long enough to have to worry about picking up the tab.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

DeepAir: That, and Japan will develop laws like Panasonic and Hitachi, etc., have, where you have to put 100,000 of your salary every couple of months towards company products; except they'll call it a consumption tax increase as they make it mandatory.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Oh, and Yosano might want to take a look at Japan's current debt to GDP ratio while he's making "gut level" proposals.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Road to nowhere? Show me a single road that goes through "nowhere" on a map.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

TokyoHustla, I think they're talking about roads that don't go anywhere important. So you spend far more money on the road than the economy can benefit from the use of it.

What Japan really needs is more private/personal spending. It's hard for the government to make that happen, but it needs to work on it.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Majority of Japanese do not want to spend a lot of money because they are worried about their future. They think that they might need more money really in case, so now try to save money as much as they can. Nobody wants to be ended up to eat dog/cat food.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Nemo dat quod non habet. You cannot spend what you do not have!

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Ok, if so, you are the Finance in-charge go ahead and start spending aggressively.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

I would rather believe that majority of Japanese can't spend a lot of money even they want to because they don't earn enough money for that. Many of them don't save any money for the future.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Let me break it down for you. Economy tanks. People are unsure of the future, so they spend less money. No consumer spending means less products produced, means less jobs, means worse economy. So people hang on to what little they got. So here comes the great big government. Massive public spending, on those that don't have any money. Where do they get it? Taxes, which come from the people that already are afraid to spend what little they got. Politicians like it because it sounds good to be throwing twenty trillion around. Not their money. People like it because it sounds like some magic pot of money in the sky. Unfortunately, all it does is take from working people and give to non working people. And another thing is that once governments increase their budgets, they never decrease them. So what we are seeing, gentle readers, is the whole wide world slowly slipping into socialism. It appears that in the ideological meme fight between socialism and capitalism, socialism appears to be the favorite.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

OMG, Obamanomics in Japan. Don´t we have enough bridges to nowwhere here already?

How about lowering taxes instead, Mr. genius Finance Minister?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

bamboohat, I could say that you have many of your facts twisted or flat-out wrong. Seems to me you want a laissez-faire type world. In the current economic situation, governments should spend money, because no one else is. Companies aren't because no one is buying their products. Consumers aren't because they don't have money and are worried about losing jobs.

I think you see the economic world as black and white, with capitalism as good and socialism as bad. In reality, the world is a mixture of both. What is probably going to happen is the major governments will become larger and go more in to debt to jumpstart their economies.

When times are good, people will forget what it was like right now.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Ladies and gentlemen, the bribe hunting season will start sometime soon.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

right! don`t need to care about own people, more important is our image abroad ! http://www.japantoday.com/category/politics/view/japan-reassures-africa-on-aid-boost

0 ( +0 / -0 )

more spending for the islands? ya'll need to spend that in afghanistan where it's needed.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Login to leave a comment

Facebook users

Use your Facebook account to login or register with JapanToday. By doing so, you will also receive an email inviting you to receive our news alerts.

Facebook Connect

Login with your JapanToday account

User registration

Articles, Offers & Useful Resources

A mix of what's trending on our other sites