JeffLee comments

Looks like Abenomics worked.

*based on the view that the costs should be shared more broadly and* fairly

Is that a bad joke? The plan is definitely NOT fair. It shovels more more public money to people having kids while raising the tax burden on people not having kids and cutting their social security services, (which they pay for through their health insurance and pension contributions). Double-whammy exploitation.

If you don't have kids or have already raised your kids, then get out of Japan!

The reviews are pretty accurate in my Tokyo neighborhood. The local dermatologist is as rude and useless as his patients say. The family clinic GP is great. The large dental clinic overpriced, etc.

No dividends, no fixed income, no thanks. Gold is a rock that no longer serves much of a financial role in today's world.

A short recession without so many cheap foreign workers would have been preferable in the long run.

Inflation and interest rates remain high in the US. The Fed says it still can't cut rates, which are raising the cost of mortgages for American consumers and the cost of borrowing for enterprises.

Us here in Japan would also benefit with more strength for the yen if the US tolerated a short downturn.

Whenever I have gone to a large public event in Japan, it's always crowds, crowds, crowds. Then there are the long lineups and lack of seating and tables. I doubt I would go to this event even if someone paid me.

I suggest that Mr. Akiba read the recorded deliberations of Japan's Supreme War Council (as I have done) in the days leading up to and after Japan's surrender. They show very clearly that the sense of urgency and alarm among council members and the emperor triggered by the news of Hiroshima and then Nagasaki, prompting them to act on the Allies' unconditional surrender demand.

Japan is really well suited for this. Public baths, sento or onsen, dotted throughout the country and the plethora of decent convenience stores mean you'll never starve. The national routes in depopulated rural and mountain areas are fun and scenic for driving and the highway rest stops are a real treat.

Essentially, due to JPY depreciation...

More fundament to that is that Japan remains the world's biggest creditor.

It is really tough for average Taro...

The "average Taro" has record-high financial assets and easy access to tax protected investment programs where he can buy vast amounts of foreign-denominated assets, like SP500 ETFs for nearly zero commissions and fees....if he chooses.

One of the “Japan is different” realizations I get after coming back from overseas is how many service industry people are forced to stand so much.

The security guards outside my work building, for example, stand all day (although in rotating shifts), while in summer there is no provision of gazeboes or anything else to shade them from the sun in the brutal heat.

In other countries, I always see chairs and tables, and if outdoors, they're located in shady spots. I can’t imagine that forcing workers to such fatiguing conditions makes them very productive.

One year visas? This isn't such a big deal.

Eclipses have inspired superstitious beliefs since caveman days and continue to do so today.

How can that be with the stock market exploding up???

Because corporate Japan is keeping more and more of its earnings for itself and its "stakeholders" rather than distributing them to its workers. This is part of the corporate and structural "reforms" that everyone (except me) on the JT forum were all calling for about several years back, in case you don't remember.

I unexpectedly had to drop the kids off at the pool while on the Narita Express a couple of days ago, and I must say the facility was impressively spacious and clean.

The Chinese will eventually dominate EVs, and thus passenger vehicles throughout the world, (although Japan will be the last holdout thanks to its stronger protectionist tendencies). Check out the $11,000 BYD Seagull, if you don’t believe me.

General Motors has stopped production of the Volt

The stupidest decision ever made by a carmaker. Detroit is crying about the Seagull, yet they developed its worthy competitor well beforehand. It's like they want the Chinese to take over.

Not much flavor with the common Koshihikari, it’s more about the texture: sticky and lumpy. It’s great for sushi, but for curries and most other dishes, I much prefer long grain rice from places like Thailand.

Genamai is the exception, with its wheaty flavor, but is quite rare.

Or, they can mandate the use of hard sealable garbage bins, like, um, most of the rest of the world uses.

Narita. 2 dedicated rail services with reserved seating, while Haneda has none.

Warren Buffett was right about Japan, after all.

The film was made in a way to validate the conclusion that the atomic bomb was used to save the lives of Americans.”

And many Japanese and other Asians too. Nearly a million Japanese troops were deployed in Kyushu waiting for what would have been the bloodiest battle of all. Millions of japanese civilians had been given bamboo sticks to fend off Us tanks and guns. The 2 bombs made all that unnecessary.

The number is skewed by the group of Afghans working for Jica. If not for then, the number

I've stayed there, a bit farther down the river. I thought the place was kinda cool. A nice break after hectic and strictly organized Tokyo.

It make look Japan good, however only on paper 

Yeah, it's always a drag when a working person discovers their savings and assets becoming more and more valuable.

Gambling and moving money around is not real work.

Yes indeed, but that is not what the article about. We're talking about investing in productive and profitable companies.

You mean doing business in a communist dictatorship is "challenging."?! Wow, these people are geniuses! How long did it take them to figure that out?

China is doing what every major economic power did! 

That's exactly right. Every major economic power in the world got where they did through protectionism, not free trade.

MarkX

But here we are cheering them into bankruptcy

We should be celebrating their demise. Japan has a severe labor shortage, while many workers are holed up in these stagnant swamps, which have contributed greatly to the deflationary trend as they tend to cut wages and never raise them.

Of course, it would help if the government didn't keep subsidizing them or arranging to supply them with third-world workers.

the financial system is basically broken, confidence in the future ....

I guess that explains why Japan currently has the world's hottest stock market.

@sakurasuki

that's not necessary ordinary Taro has their wage going up and living luxury life.

So blame private-sector employers, which are the ones who, um, set wages. The govt and BOJ are the ones responsible for creating the economic conditions under which corporate profits have hit record highs while interest rates (borrowing costs) have remained the lowest in the world.

And what Abenomics really achieve so far? 

People have short memories. Japan used to have recessions fairly regularly along with deflation, while capital investment and the stock market languished. Every winter and summer, a staple news item was about how Japan’s major employers were once again cutting workers’ bonuses, hence their real wages. The downward spiral has since halted and the economy appears to set for a growth trend. Inflation has been higher, but much less than in other developed countries and without their very high borrowing costs.

The neutral interest rate which would be neither contractionary nor expansionary is estimated to be 2%.

And does a central bank get there? By small incremental moves, so as not to cause shocks in the financial markets. It's a gradual path not a leap, unless there's a crisis, such as the jumbo hikes by the Fed during Pandemic. But in Japan, there has not been such a crisis. BOJ stuck to loose policy for so long -- because it could. Its counterparts - facing much higher inflation rates -- could not.

Let's see what happens when the Fed starts cutting.