Daniel Dahl comments

Sounds great, what's the reason? Revitalizing the positions?

At least we can look forward to real estate prices dropping, says the morbid voice in my head.

I approve of this gentleman.

People worrying too much, and yes I wouldn't mind having one next to where I live. Chill out.

it is all just window dressing.

Could very well be the intention, as described in the documentary 'Princes of the Yen'; to make it seem as if no monetary policies work and that structural adjustments are necessary, opening up Japan for foreign interests.

Most workers inside the plant are contract laborers hired by multiple layers of construction companies.

"Building trust" for the price of working conditions and safety.

Normally, a low oil price would allow the common folk to spend more on other goods and services (at presumably a lower price since oil affects all prices directly or indirectly), a good thing in an deflationary economy. This, however, is BOJ's home turf...

Exciting times to be alive.

Serrano: 口 くち kuchi can also refer to an entrance/exit, with the translation Mountain Entrance being a more plausible one imoho. Then again, I'm not going to throw out the possibility of an ancient Japanese tribe living next to a mountain with a pair of giant lips on one of it's slopes, as the image does tickle my funny bone.

Interesting how different cultures also share similar traits and methods of naming people. 森田 もりた Morita, roughly translated as Forest Field, has a Swedish equivalent in Skogsfält, and there are more examples of such similarities. Guess humans be humans, using whatever the environment had to offer in order to distinguish one another.

Good read, thanks for an interesting article.

And one reason the unemployment rate fell last month had nothing to do with more hiring: Many of the jobless gave up looking for work and so were no longer counted as unemployed.

"Phew, unemployment is declining", said relieved policy makers.

Another thumbs up for Uemura-san.

johnnygaijin: maybe you're getting bigger? jk

My guilty pleasure is McD's french fries; I'll probably end up with bowl cancer soon enough.

For anyone playing games out there, the best experience is usually on the PC (though I'm a die-hard fan of consoles as well), with services like Steam and GOG providing great content and value.

How about having vehicles communicating with each other, sharing information about speed, weather/road conditions, where the next individual turn will be (excluding destination), pedestrian presence, etc? If the AIs could communicate, they could collectively choose the safest driving methods and perhaps not be subjected to the irrational, emotional whims of beings who are not evolutionally adapted to speeds above that of a human dash. Of course, this would be limited to the vehicles, meaning scenarios involving accidents with (sometimes irrational) pedestrians/cyclists would still be needed to be taken into account.

Nintendo is a Blue Ocean Strategy addict.

Miyamoto says that in order to create unique experiences, dedicated hardware is necessary. However, they are sitting on a backlog goldmine that could make them a huge profit if they offered it on mobile platforms. This would however remove one reason to buy their consoles, if they are readily available on other platforms. On the other hand, they kind of already are and have been since the birth of emulation. Personally, I'd rather see them go all-out software, and if they need dedicated hardware, they can sell that as an add-on for the platform they are developing on in a bundle with whatever game is promoting a new experience.

bjohnson I suspect the panel, or assembling a panel is not a big issue, if it is not already in place

"If the prosecutors again decline to take up the case, as some experts expect, the 11-member panel of unidentified citizens can order prosecutors to indict if eight members vote in favor.

Prosecutorial Review Commissions, made up of citizen appointees, are a rarely used but high-profile feature of Japan’s legal system introduced after World War Two to curb bureaucratic over-reach. They were given the power to force prosecutions in 2009."

You can't have strong export numbers, a weak currency AND inflation. Gotta pick your poison, and in Japan's case, they should have let the yen get stronger a long time ago. We all know the current rate is artificial.

Burdened Japanese companies may rather keep whatever money they might make from this tax setup rather than increasing the income of it's employees.

Reckon any heads might roll due to this mishap?

How about letting the yen truly move freely? It's much stronger than ~100 per USD. You can't have your cake and eat it, or in Japan's case strong export sales and (relative to currencies from other developed countries) a weak yen, at least if basic macroeconomics has taught us anything. It'll be a painful transition, but a necessary one to get out of this policy trap (recommended reading "Japan's Policy Trap").