SaikoPhysco comments

@dagon - "The West is hardly better" Well... there are 31 female CEO's in the S&P 500, which is 6.2%. Also, the Russell 3000 index, 3000 of the largest U.S. Companies, in 2022 there were 196 female CEO's. That works out to 6.5%. Hardly not, "Hardly better". Statistically almost 9 times better than Japan and the numbers continue to rise. Do some research before you compare the "West" to Japan. It took me all of about 5 minutes to find the data.

Wait until after the election... right now neither side wants to appear easy on Corporate America. As soon as one or the other is elected a package will magically appear that will keep the company going until it needs rescueing again.

In the Tachikawa area of Tokyo... well, I have a bucket that is about 25CM deep, it was empty yesterday morning, it was full and overflowing this morning. And the rain didn't really start to fall until around 5PM yesterday. That is a lot of rain in a short time. Oh... and Japan was not always fearful of Typhoons... 30 and 40 years ago people would have been out like it was practically a normal day... now-a-days, the media, like almost any place, blows it a bit out of proportion but... it is very hard to balance vigilance and going overboard.

The point is... you let one company get away with it other's may follow. I agree with the courts 100%.

Good luck!

The Mayor of Nagasaki has taken the stance against Nuclear Proliferation and diluted it to anything they disagree with. Which basically has weakened the fight against Nukes.

I find this story hard to believe! Their 1st ever foreign guests left without paying? Why, up until now have there never been any foreign guests at this ryokan? And it cracks me up that they felt the need to make this a story. Something is very fishy about this... not sure yet what it is but I believe we're not getting all the information on what actually took place. Not saying it is impossible to happen, but my antennae is perked up.

Too many posers that think they know economics.... the Yen at 130 is the best blend for Japan. Not too strong but not too weak.

Japan's domestic designed engine keep chugging along. House built 30 years ago... worthless now, tear it down, build another. The people lose but industry gains. Chug a Chug along.... while the young see no end of despair in sight. But we want more babies!

We are due for a correction... the U.S. will probably sell of tomorrow but I'd be willing to bet it will rebound on Tuesday. That said, the silver lining here is the Yen, it has strengthened 10% vs the USD. Much of this due to unwinding the Yen/USD Carry trade. A currency carry trade is when interest rates are very low in a certain country... like Japan. What happens is Hedge Funds from around the world borrow Yen at a low interest rate from Banks and Brokerage firms like Morgan Stanley, the hedge funds then buy mainly U.S. Dollars and then buy U.S. Treasury bonds that yield anwhere from 1 to 5% or more. The Yen loan may only cost 0.3 to 0.7%, so you borrow at the low rate, invest at a higher rate and pocket the difference. And we're talking hundreds of billions of dollars here poured into this trade. Most of these trades were orchestrated years ago when the Yen was much stronger. But with the BoJ looking to increase rates and the U.S. looking to ease rates and with the Yen so cheap, the Hedge funds can cash out and still make a massive profit. Especially if they put on these trades when the Yen was around 80 to 90 to the USD. This is the "knee jerk" reaction... so initially we'll see a big move... but it will slow down unless the BoJ makes another solid move and increases rates again.

Next time... take a quick picture and call the police... and then pray the police do not arrest you for voyerism but arrest them for semi-public acts of lude conduct.

I suspect in the future China may become the 1st country in the World to allow its athletes to dope up on anything and everything possible and make it legal for domestic competitions. Come on... it is China, if you're not cheating you're not winning! So just take the "cheating" part out of the equation and make everything legal.

Israel was attacked and Hamas knew how Israel would respond. They wanted Israel to respond as it has because they knew they'd get bad press for it. Hamas didn't care about those living on the Gaza Strip, they are just pawns in the game. So here we go, Hamas is getting their way because a feeble minded Mayor in Nagasaki is falling for it hook-line-and-sinker.

A "dual system" because Corporate Japan and their Political buddies do not want to increase domestic wages. What cracks me up is people complaining that foreigners are causing the problem when they should be pointing their anger towards the Government... which has been screwing them since the bubble collapsed.

My wife works at a Nursing Home... quite often the thing that kills profitability is building maintenance and equipment breaking down. If it is an old badly designed facility you're pretty much looking at bankruptcy unless you were able to put enough money away to cover building a new one.

China has grown arrogant in the last 40 years. Heck, who can blame them. They make more cars than any country in the world, have over a billion people in a very large country and they are quickly becoming extremely technologically advanced. They still have a way to go but they are a force to be reckoned with and just this potential agreement with the Philippines confirms that. What may take the wind out of China's sails are the amount of headwinds they're facing. If China continues to force sovereignty issues they will face more and more agreements and alliances. If they thought taking disputed territories was going to be easy, which might have been the case, they're sadly mistaken.

Typical Japan Today... slide this story of to the side but if a U.S. Serviceman touches a girl it is front and center. Guess you have to do that to stay in business here.

Japan's over 99% conviction rate and the "hostage justice system" are the scariest things by far about living here. The Govt. is all about saving money when it comes to people's rights but not when it comes to stimulus packages directed towards corporate Japan.

We read about it for decades... China's one child policy. And we've recently read that due to that policy there are too many males, not enough women and the population is dropping. Now, China will continue to grow GDP wise because there are still vast areas that have not modernized. Corporations can take advantage of cheap labor and lax medical and insurance. But over time things change. China has basqued in the idea that their large population meant that someday they would rule the world. Meanwhile, the USA, via legal and illegal immigration has gone from 260 million to 340 million in just over 20 years. If this trend continues the U.S. and China may have an equal number of people by 2160. Don't just look at everything in a measurement of your life, because governments don't, espcially China does not. So what worries China isn't necessarily this year's GDP but the end of this century and the next.

Japan's population is dropping to the tune of almost 1 million people a year. Last year the population fell by 900,000. By 2035 the population is forecast to drop to 110 million, with 54% of them being 50 or older. And it does not stop there, the population is forecast to continue to drop, possibly to 80 million. So GDP isn't going up anytime soon unless Japan can all of a sudden manufacture about 20 million android robots to sustain it. Yes, Japan needs people but the Govt. does not want to rock the boat because as you know, bringing in millions of immigrants will cause problems that they don't and never seem to want to deal with. If all of a sudden by some miracle I were made Prime Minister. I would have the Govt. advertise in foreign countries a 5 year Working Tourist Visa for those that can work remotely from any location. If, after those 5 years they want to stay, let them apply for a Permanent Visa. Many of these people might bring family and if they do not, they may marry here. Have the program include medical insurance and some sort of minimum tax to cover any cost of them being here. The have a program now but it is for too short of a time. Oh... and get someone to explain how to dispose of garbage...

Interesting.. at the end of the article, written is that Govt. was targeting 40% cashless payments by the end of 2023. Which basically means over 60% of retail transactions are done with cash in Japan. Now... that said, think about Japan's demographics. Currently around 48% of Japan's population is 50 and older, by 2034 it is expected to hit 54%. The U.S., even with baby boomers, is at 36%, 50 or older. So my point, and you probably have figured it out, older people do not well adapt to newer methods of doing things... so Japan will continue to fight an uphill battle on this front.

@BeerDeliveryGuy - that is the crux of it, ultimately Renault, for some unknown reason, was unable to acquire Nissan. The answer to the reason is "Ghosn with the Wind".

Just after their ally left... or I should said their Dictator friend, Putin, they critize Japan and S. Korea for doing just what they just did.

Smart move by NATO, the U.S. and Japan, by holding exercises in Hokkaido they further put pressure on Russian armed forces that are already stretched thin and moral must be very low. If it were me, I'd put as much pressure globally in every theatre of operations and work the Russian military hard.

I was one of those American's stationed at Yokota many years ago. Learned the language, married a Japanese girl, and we have 3 son's all living in Tokyo with 3 grandchildren and hopefully more to come. For every idiot U.S. Servicemen, there are 1,000 that do their tour and go back to the states without incident. Or, like me, stay and contribute to society. I have myself 3 times on trains stopped or scolded a Chikan. I have helped keep young girls and women safe in Japan. Many American's are like me, we feel the need to get involved if we see something unjust. Even that said does not justify any crime but we're human and I firmly believe we are no worse than the average Japanese person walking around crime wise. I'll tell you what though... we are decisive and we will put our neck on the line for others even if we don't know them.

I'm thinking of forexing more USD to Yen and buy a new car. I'm looking at a new Honda Freed, all in it would be around Y3,000,000. In UDA that works out to $18,750.00... for a damn good minivan. In addition, used car prices are currently quite high, so I should get a decent amount on a trade in. If you have cash in the States... now it the time to buy Yen.

There is so much information that is not in this article that for anyone to conclude any sort of guilt would be nothing but biased. Sure... he could be guilty, but until we get the full correct details, maybe withhold judgment.

My wife and I are hoping it goes to Y170... looking at converting some USD to Yen and after that, heck, let go back to Y100. Yes! Totally selfish motives but hell... it is all about timing.

Costco is to the USA as 7-11 is to Japan. Basically both companies put massive amounts of effort into ensuring that every item in their store is of the best quality for the price. The compeition in the USA to get a product into a Costco store is massive. As is the same at Japan's 7-11 stores. I love shopping at Costco and always walk out spending more than intended. They're opening a new one next week right at the Minami Alps IC in Yamanashi, I'll have to check it out on my way to our summer house in the high elevations. Anything to beat the summer heat in Tokyo.

While I somewhat agree with his intentions... to infiltrate secretive organizations and corporations in order to weed out corruption and unethical activity, I also believe he was Naive. When you start messing around with Governments and their Secrets you cross into a whole different world. I doubt there is any Govt. of any significance in the World that does not have Secrets. Sometimes these Secrets are what add protection in the case of open hostilities on their borders or with allies. Or they could be about things done in order to change the course of a potential threat. It would be a wonderful world if every country opened their files and made all transparent for anyone to read. But think about that, the first time anyone holds back information, well then you open up a whole big can of worms and now everyone is keeping Secrets again. And that is where we are because Govts. can't afford to trust anyone, even allies need to be monitored lest one be blindsided. Assange should have continued to go after unethical companies because ethics and protecting a Population of people, well that is a very grey subject.