shinsaku.ai comments

There better be no major accidents on that line.

Japan lost this fair and square. Hopefully the Indonesian people gained. No more burying the train evidence like at Wenzhou!

Have they unified the track gauges yet? I believe Hokkaido Shinkansen is using a narrower, less stable gauge. Hopefully, management as well as infrastructure unification should make Hokkaido Shinkansen safer and easier to use!

The real test of the pudding is, should the opposition unseat the ruling coalition next election, will the opposition undo the Collective Self Defense laws.

I'm thinking the opposition won't. The opposition will just thank Abe for passing the laws on their behalf.

I answered a YES, but with qualifications: Ideally, those with PR should be restricted to only vote on local/regional issues. Voting on national issues should be restricted to those with full citizenship.

In practice, since Japan is a Westminster style parliament so it is not easy/impossible to have a clear divide between regional/national issues....

Yes, I agree with multiple citizenship.

"“Our high-speed train technology is quite developed and safe,” Xu said."

Guffaw

Reasons to be long the Topix400

The future for the previously unemployed isn't more Seishain (Permanent Workers), but rather more Keiyakushain (Contractual Workers) with better benefits and higher pay.

Today's children, however, probably are looking forward to a golden future where they are very much in demand as Seishain because of the decrease in young people due to Japan's low birthrate. These kids will have a prosperous, stable future that should spur them into making more babies and correct Japan's demographic plight.

Just keep on scratching this scab

@Guy_Jean_Dailleult, it's appalling the level of economic ignorance in these posts.

Worse, people who write in English "We" when referring to Japanese are obviously not Japanese as Japanese mostly refer to themselves in the 3rd person. The talking points are classic fifty-center.

I would think the logical response for homeowners would be to favor time-shares and condominium-hotels more. Current choices are still too limited and unexciting.

I agree with TravelingSales: The interviewee doesn't seem to know what a bubble is.

On the flip side, PVB seems to be providing a desired service for foreign investors who either cannot deal in Japanese, or does not have PR that Japanese megabanks would require.

That being said, I still do not fully understand their business model: They are not an introduction-only orthodox brokerage house since they take a position in the asset through renovation. I guess that means they get the differential from the (depressed) original buying price and the (improved) selling price they give to the ultimate investors who will get the loan from the Japanese bank.

I realized a very sad thing: Although his story is very well-known in Japan, most Japanese still do not think of Shuji Nakamura as a hero.

For Japan's future sake, this has to change. The man has as much if not more balls and better smarts than Horimon and Horimon was well celebrated, for a while.

We need to celebrate this man!

I love Taiwan's Gugong and am looking forward to the exhibit of the best Chinese artifacts in the whole world!

Taiwan is an independent, democratic, liberal country populated by polite, considerate and hardworking people. It is my pride to count a lot of Taiwanese as friends.

I am sad that you have a big bully pointing a lot of missiles at you and preparing for an invasion. I am doubly sad that Japan and the world has not seen fit to give Taiwan de jure status as a state. This mistake is a shame for democracy everywhere.

I am tripley sad that you only have your own strength and your own wits and guile to preserve your way of life and political system from being overwhelmed by the totalitarian bully across the straits. In an ideal world, the TWA would be worded stronger, Japan would pledge a formal alliance, and Asian democracies would give you diplomatic support. But until that day, stay strong and resolute.

Also, please start/continue to care about Tiananmen: The events 25 years ago might have happened to another country, but what happens to that other country has profound impact on what happens to yours.

Proof that Japan's environment isn't that unhealthy. I have a couple of Masked Palm Civets (Hakubishin) who pass by my window every so often.

I do know several highly skilled and successful people whose PR applications have been turned down. Not only are these people successful, they are also highly keyed into Japanese society, studied in Japanese schools, and have Japanese partners.

I agree with a previous comment that progress, however slight, is progress nonetheless. Grabbing low hanging fruit like this creates its own momentum, and makes going the next level easier to achieve.

To emphasize something, this law came out of the blue. This means Japan's legislative cauldron is bubbling with ideas. What's next? Gay marriage? Nikkei visas? These are (relatively) low hanging fruit that would contribute their own momentum.

As it was in disputed airspace, I would think the side that has faster planes should bear more of the criticism. That being said, China has a history of being reckless.

In general Japanese police are very ready to use "domestic affairs" as a reason (excuse?) not to do something. Eerily reminded me of the police's non-action on stalking cases.

@Todd Topolski

Actually, the reasons for Japan's labor crunch are very different from the US and Europe case.

Japan's labor crunch are due to 2 factors: Worsening Japanese demographics and Japanese' shunning 3K work (Kiken, Kitanai, Kitsui, or Dangerous, Dirty and Hard/Heavy jobs). The same dynamics are evident in the difficulty Japan's nuclear energy industry is having recruiting workers: However much the industry increases wages there just aren't enough people interested and these people have better non 3K options. Japan has no large pool of unemployed waiting to join the labor pool for just marginally higher wages. Japanese housewives are a different topic ), however (income tax exemption policy.

The long term solutions to the recruiting problems of Japan's Uniqlo, Don Quijote and nuclear energy lie in some combination of kickstarting demographic improvement (either through increased fertility or more immigration) or technological innovation that would enable less people to do more work.

zurcronium has raised the most pertinent issue in this thread: Japanese companies are sitting on billions in cash.

The government cannot mandate that these corporates pay them out in the form of higher salaries. At most, the government can mandate higher minimum wages, but most of these jobs are already paying above minimum wage so the only impact is to throttle employment at the lower end of the spectrum.

What the Japanese government needs to do is to promote changing jobs and, more especially, entrepreneurship. In other countries corporates need to pay competitive salaries or people will move jobs or strike out on their own. Japanese are increasingly changing jobs every 2-3 years with an expectation of 1M JPY salary increase, but very few Japanese still strike out to build their own companies.

As most of the job growth and salary growth worldwide come from young companies, I think this is the ultimate reason why Japanese companies' pay increases are stagnant.

This is Putin's payback for Japan supporting the US sanctions on Crimea. All's well: Japan decided that its alliance with the US is worth more than the promise of closing the Kurile issues with Russia. On balance, I think Japan made the right decision and should just suffer Russia's wrath, for now.

This is a very good development as these ASEAN countries appreciate any assistance that will better enable them to better resist Chinese bullying in the South China Sea.

Not having a gun doesn't mean you can't die from one.

We Filipinos are on the receiving end of China's military bullying in the South China Sea. I remember stories from fishermen relatives of visiting these traditional fishing grounds off the coast of Palawan, my mother's hometown. My mother used to ride by outrigger boat on those choppy seas to visit far away relatives.

Now the traditional fishing grounds of the Ayungin Shoal have been held hostage by China.

At the peak of the confrontation, the Philippine Navy's sole warship of world war 2 vintage was surrounded and harassed by over 90 ultramodern Chinese Coast Guard vessels.

We Filipinos, although we might not have guns, can still die by the guns brought to our seas by the PRC.

We need Japan's help to modernize our world war 2 vintage navy. It is not an accident that of the 4 ASEAN countries with which China has maritime disputes the PRC chose the Philippines, with its lone world war 2 vintage warship, as its first bullying victim.

Those who don't have guns can still die from guns.

Japan's Peace Constitution is a beautiful document that has enabled Japan to live in peace for 70 years.

Japan allowing exports of modern ships and rescue seaplanes can ensure that the Philippines lives in peace and dignity against a terrorizing, bullying China.

If PM Abe didn't want Japan in the TPP then he wouldn't have ordered the government to join negotiations back in January 2013.

Abe wants to join the TPP because he sees it as:

A way to better tie together US/Japan interests A mechanism by which to use gaiatsu to force structural changes on Japan A way to make Japan become a member of a giant trading block that would mitigate China becoming the world's biggest economy in 10-20 years

The above considerations haven't changed: Japan is just trying trying to wrangle out better concessions from the US, and the EPA with Australia is just such a negotiating weapon.

At the end of the day, Japan knows it has to be a member of TPP, or China will steam-roller Japan.

Arrows #1 and #2 are unqualified successes in doing what they were supposed to do: Stop deflation.

Abe never claimed that arrows #1 & #2 would not give birth to its own bad child: Inflation (which is really, just a mirror image of deflation). What the IMF was railing about was Arrow#3: Structural changes in the economy. There are several lines to this criticism;

Either the structural changes aren't happening at all, OR The changes are happening are insufficient, OR The right changes are happening but they aren't happening fast enough.

I am firmly in the 3rd camp. Jesper Koll might be panned as the eternal optimist but I see no logical jumps in his arguments in http://thediplomat.com/2014/04/koll-japan-economic-recovery-on-track/

In fact, I would prefer that the changes happened faster, but as long as the right changes are put into place Japan can survive these structural changes being a few years belated.

This ICJ ruling is a brilliant godsend to Abe. What other issue can succeed in making Japan look like an improved global citizen while at the same time giving Abe a face-saving way to tell his right-wing supporters that he tried his best?

Yesterday Japan changed its ODA policies as well so now Japan can give ODA to Vietnam and Philippines to build Coast Guard port facilities to even up the score between these countries and their bully.

Also, you can't discount that most of the negative people here are "fake" people, i.e. fake people paid for by the Communist Party of China to sow confusion in the discussion groups regarding Japan.

These people are known as fifty-centers (i.e. Wumao in Chinese) as they allegedly receive 50 Chinese cents (50 Yuan) per post that promotes Beijing's line or demolishes an opponent's line.

Not having a gun doesn't mean you can't die from one.

We Filipinos are on the receiving end of China's military bullying in the South China Sea. I remember stories from fishermen relatives of visiting these traditional fishing grounds off the coast of Palawan, my mother's hometown. My mother used to ride by outrigger boat on those choppy seas to visit far away relatives.

Now the traditional fishing grounds of the Ayungin Shoal have been held hostage by China.

At the peak of the confrontation, the Philippine Navy's sole warship of world war 2 vintage was surrounded and harassed by over 90 ultramodern Chinese Coast Guard vessels.

We Filipinos, although we might not have guns, can still die by the guns brought to our seas by the PRC.

We need Japan's help to modernize our world war 2 vintage navy. It is not an accident that of the 4 ASEAN countries with which China has maritime disputes the PRC chose the Philippines, with its lone world war 2 vintage warship, as its first bullying victim.

Those who don't have guns can still die from guns.

Japan's Peace Constitution is a beautiful document that has enabled Japan to live in peace for 70 years.

Japan allowing exports of modern ships and rescue seaplanes can ensure that the Philippines lives in peace and dignity against a terrorizing, bullying China.

I agree there is flimsy ground for exclusivity. NYC should just draw guidelines on how the taxis of the future should be and let various service providers /car makers bid on their provision.