Kronos comments

I have seen many people who talk about flexible work arrangements which mean leaving the office at 6 or 7 pm and then working from home. I'd like to keep work at workplace and when I am off, I am completely off. It is not a nice feeling that your house is also your workplace. You have one already. I am not exactly clear on what exactly the article mean by flexible work to be honest. Is it just for working mothers as they give in the example?

Cheesy

If we are talking about the risk of a big earthquake, the back-up capital / facilities have to be outside the Kanto region. The Big E will not only hit Tokyo and stop at Chiba. You have to spread out the risk as much as possible.

Osaka seems the be most likely candidate considering their infrastructure but I think cities in Kyushu and Hokkaido should also be seriously considered.

The Bubble Economy finished 20 years ago. Hardly realistic attitude in this economic climate.

Unfortunately there are still many J-women like that, especially those who grew up watching their mothers just being housewives and nothing else. Trend seems to change a bit in bigger cities but not as much as people would like to think.

Default is the last option. Once you default, borrowing again becomes very very difficult.

The only criticism for S&P is why they waited this long to downgrade US. Economy is in tatters. Debt is sky high. Politicians are incompetent no different than the J-government. Actually US should have been downgraded further than just one notch.

Lightly taxed? I can't think of one thing that isn't taxed to some extent.

@sailwind: What is in the tax book and what is actually paid are two different things.

US corporates are not paying taxes. If I remember it correctly The Congressional Budget Office estimated that federal taxes would be about 15% of G.D.P. in 2011. So yeah, there are taxes "in theory" but corporates are not paying a dime thanks to their subsidiaries in tax havens or lower tax jurisdictions. Consequently giving more tax breaks or on the contrary raising more taxes will not have any effect on the current job situation in the US.

He gets stoned and kills people in a crash. Then gets only a year.

US justice system sucks.

Yes, they should. How else will they survive?

It wasn't funny.

It was not supposed to be.

@ka-chan: I believe it is widely considered that Japan's debt is mostly domestic i.e. the government owns it to the Japanese people not foreigners. So if they want to pay it, they have certain tools at their disposal, like raising taxes (the current debate we see in the Diet). The perception is Japan's debt is managable...for now...This is mostly not the case for other countries like US.

@david: Thanks David. I guess I should learn to read lol!

Foreign currency deposits have exploded. According to a Shinsei Bank report, compared to June, U.S. dollar account balances have increased fivefold

As compared to when? Before the BOJ made the indication they would intervene?

I am not sure that it is wise to be buying EUR or USD with both Eurozone and USA in tatters. JPY is just going to get stronger.

Just talking for Japan, who would buy electric cars with all the power saving talk going on?

My sympathies to those earning in USD and paying in JPY.

Yen is bound to stay strong for a while. There is not much the J-government can do to prevent it.

Even if they try to intervene, they need to sell Yen and buy another currency and in return make that currency stronger. Which country wants to see its currency get stronger in these times?

Actually, I would say Mexico is a good choice for Honda. They can cover both Americas. I would expect other auto manufactuers to follow suit if they do not have any plants there already.

It is not the "disaster excuse" but the strong Yen that is killing the exporters. So they have to move the production to somewhere cheaper to stay competitive. Moving it to US would not make much sense if you want to cover the American markets. Why deal with unions, legal issues in US, when you can have it easy in Mexico?

Actually I would expect US auto manufacturers to move the production to Mexico as well if they have not done so already.

There is not much anything you can do about it though. You can watch all you want.

Yen is going to get stronger still, with the debt crisis in Eurozone and the weak US economy. If the Japanese business is expecting to see the Yen around the 100 / USD mark, they'd better not get their hopes up any time soon.

We started checking the origins of all the products we buy since we do not trust that the items are checked throughly for radiation. We have not necessarily shifted to imported goods but usually try not to buy anything from affected areas.

And people still want to "invest" in China...

Or maybe they know there are so many faults, they do not want to dish out lots of money...

Really really cheap.

Google had offered 20 grand to hackers to find any security faults with Chrome.

Industry leaders argue that many consumers like targeted ads since they deliver personalized pitches that people may want.

Excuse me? Are these guys high or something?

Hey JT,

I think you put the wrong picture(s) for the article considering the title. What about one of Maria Ozawa? :-)

How about Godzilla-sized gokiburis after all this radiation?

I hate those bugs...

The sad thing is, it is not clear how they will turn their fortunes around. Maybe they should take advantage of the strong yen and purchase some technologies abroad. Or maybe move production abroad to cut costs.

My real estate agent told me the same thing - that sales of high-rise apartments have come down significantly since the earthquake. Also not just high-rises but he mentioned that there is now a tendency people are looking to live on lower floors instead of higher after the quake.

One big reason is that people were scared out of their minds when the quake hit. Another was that some of these apartments had problems when the land got damaged i.e. no water or electricity for a couple of days or even longer. It made no difference if the apartment was itself was OK when they did not have the basic utilities.

Also quite a few of these high-rises are built on reclaimed land. Those ones are also not being sold that much since buyers now prefer solid ground after the quake.

I remember reading the original article in NYT. It is called "After Quake, Japanese Choose Peace of Mind Over Great View. Check it out. It is an interesting read.

Export it saying there are no immediate health effects.

Well, this news is good and bad. Good part is obvious.

Bad part is it is time to renew those mortality tables, social security computations, and retirement age.

I do not trust any "religion" where the leader calls himself "the Messiah" and then starts passing the baton to family members. To me it is another money-making scheme. You can go and believe in it all you want.