doraemonchan comments

Food is consumed both by the rich and the poor. You don't need to exclude food for those who can afford not to care. Keep the C efficiency high and give handouts to the poor.

There time is nearly up.

Yes, and J taxpayer have to foot the bill for their social security. Change their job? No, they are too old to get trained again.

Those little islands, North Korea and now China are the main excuse to maintain huge military budget (or a tribute to US to recycle Japan's consistent automobile dollar) and without the islands both countries have to annouce something else like Chechnya, Georgia or Ukraine, which would make both countries extra awkward. So the status quo is in everyone's interest?

I'm sure while Russia anihilates everyone and everything regardless except Al-Asaad, it will kick out Ukrainians completely out of the eastern Ukraine. Mysteriously this time, Europe and the US suddenly realize intricacies in the matter and stay quiet as nothing has ever happened.

Where is the apocalyptic Chinese hard landing doomsday whatever pushing the entire world to hell we were talking about only weeks ago?

Abenomics was always an illusion built on two cornerstones: a weak yen policy and an easy money policy. Both policies have reached their limits.

Yes, yen is weak but if Japan had started an expansionary policy along with other countries after the Great Recession, there would have been no weak yen (and no strong yen before abenomics). Yen is weak, anyway, because dollar is strong against practically all currencies. An easy money policy, yes, but every central bank is struggling as no one wants to borrow as much at this high real (not nominal) rate. That's the zero lower bound issue. If you find it not enough, then flooding more with easy money is the morally wrong but economically right answer on the monetary side. On the structural issues, pushing women into the labor market would be the single most important factor and he should build more nurseries and change gender skewed tax system.

This article forgot about the majority of foreigners: Chinese, Koreans and Filipinos but then gaijin never includes them as opposed to gaikokujin.

What's the point of making the war sound more lyrical. Killing this millions is as immoral as that millions and what's the difference between chemical experimentalism and making people starve if they die anyway. You call it defense or aggression, either way the outcome is the same.

“10,000 people together eat the Japanese war criminal.” and let imperialist stimulus run through your blood!

If "responsibility in the international community" matters, why not accept more refugees for a start instead of military shopping?

shallots, I may sound conservative but I still think it's in the direction. The equal employment opportunity act made 25 years ago was largely symbolic but there has been an undeniable change during this period although it's fair to say Japan is too slow compared to other countries. Corporations may water down the intention of the law themselves but talented people eventually stay away from them as long as there are ones, including foreign companies, that take HR issues seriously.

shallots, I agree with your observation in general, so your take is no target is better than meaningless target?

What's wrong with setting target, really? The policy took the lower end of international range so it's naturally attainable figure in other countries. No enforcement? When the entire society tells women to stay low and the talent pool is limited, enforcement now is not practical. The mindset and skewed tax system needs to be changed, the supporting social infrastructure needs to updated and training and experience takes time to form a large talent pool.

The real economy is not like a market. It takes time, especially if it's infrastructure as opposed to cutting withholding tax on wages, to feed into the entire economy. Nominal wage increases when labor market is tight and it's not tight enough yet although in some segments increase is already visible. A few years ago, no one was really sure about anything but now we have a clear case of U.S. and Europe. The previous policy didn't work well because the monetary and fiscal policy were not coordinated, in fact, sometimes contradictory to each other and the scale of the monetary policy was not adequate, a lesson U.S. took to apply after 2008.

I love this show. Maybe Simon Cowell can make things even more dramatic. All the tea parties members now look very restraint and moderate.

convey Japan’s exquisite tradition and culture to the rest of the world with zen simplicity, not with extravagance.

Arab spring started with one fruit vendor burning himself in protest. Why be cynical if you support the cause...

fxgai, you are right about nominal growth.

Still, deflation is bad for debtors (Japan) and nominal wages and prices have to be adjusted sometimes. Inflating debt away is an age-old trick of economic management and that is the discernible benefit.

That the labor market is tight is meaningless unless it includes the discouraged, in particular, women. When they finally appear in the statistics, then, the statistics will have some meaning and inflation start.Everything else, including oil price fluctuation, is not important here to decide a long term trajectory.

Releasing cash in corporations through taxing, capital spending, dividend or whatever, is more effective to stimulate the economy and collect tax revenue than raising consumption tax flat, which is obviously regressive. Making interest undeductible may be a good start in Japan as interest rate is almost zero anyway and property market needs to be tamed.

Japan is so deep in debt and fiscal responsibility is urgently needed. That's the line you've been hearing from intelligent and serious people for some decades and the government bonds has been....ever higher for decades.

China can massively confuse the world for another two weeks so FED doesn't have to go for an early interest rate rise.

It simply means lower inflation because of oil price drop is temporary, not affecting the course of reflationary policy itself. Google core inflation and find ECB mistook the oil price hike in 2011 as inflationary and that they raised the interest, only to kill the fragile economy. Do nothing is the economically right answer but don't overinterpretate it.

I'm ok with no stadium at all if that is translated into more public facilities and parks. Athelets can run on a grass field.

Skydive seems more suitable for invasion than self defense to me.

Maybe they should start offering foods and redecorate the toilet like interior.

Japan living in the kabuki world is true, but if Germans have learnt from history that massive economic burden in a deflationary world can lead to unstoppable vengeance, then why Germans treat Greeks as they do now?

Hydrocarbons are dirty, wind turbines kill birds and solar uses polluting copper. If nuclear is not the answer...maybe conservation or energy efficiency is the surest way?

Abenomics has put unemployment rate lower to the extent left in the market are those unskilled and discouraged, including women. The bottleneck, of course, is a lack of nursery school or skewed tax system and Abe has belatedly looked for solutions in what usually the left has in their closet. It's no surprise women don't support him. He is our Donald Trump but all I need is a result. Employment is a panacea to many social issues.

I do have some sympathy with him on economic or some gender correction issues. He could use his political capital more wisely than his revisionist instinct dictates.