Zoroto comments

I am not worried about inflation,prices are never going down

Yes, unless there is a deflation, prices are not going down. That's the definition of inflation.

"The US-Japan alliance is a corner stone, because like the corner of the house, it's built on a stone, which makes it very strong, stone-like"

Embarrassingly thin list of world readers. But what did they expect?

At Sunday's convention, the party retained Keiichi Ishii, 64, as secretary general and newly picked Yosuke Takagi, 62, as policy chief and Makoto Nishida, 60, as election chief.

Kazuo Kitagawa, 69, and Shigeki Sato, 63, were also retained as chair of the Central Secretariat and Diet affairs chief, respectively.

So many fresh go-getters.

I guess Japan is counting on militarization as the driver of economic growth which they have failed to stimulate any other way.

. Long-term, recruiting, training and retaining Japanese fighting men and women is going to be a challenge.

Most de facto one party states have some kind of national service, since the people in power cannot really ever be voted out. So I would not surprise if that happened here

The Japanese Government does next to nothing to make having children easier much like America does.

The oyaji ruling class wants to enjoy the fruits of their incompetence today, and not 20 years from now when a child born today will be a productive member of the society and not a burden.

But fret no more... The government will give you ichi man per day towards your next ski trip.

Do I get the 10,000 yen discount if I stay at the Four Seasons Niseko over Christmas and New Year. Otherwise I can't afford the trip

In other words, every day working people paying taxes subsidize the vacation of those who can already afford it

with price rises remaining relatively slow compared with the United States and European countries. Japan's core consumer prices in August rose 2.8 percent from a year earlier.

We hear this literal sentence copy pasted into every Kyodo article.

For 2 years we heard from them how low the COVID case numbers were in Japan, just for it rise to the worst of the worst of the world.

Let's hope we won't end up the worst of the worst in this recession, also, but frankly, I personally feel we might, due to the structural issues of stagnant wages coupled with inflation.

The action took the market somewhat by surprise

Yes, especially since Japan is supposed to notify the other G7 countries of any currency intervention, which they did not, apparently. At least, the Canadian central bank states they did not know.

Also, buying the yen at the quantities where it would make a large difference in the exchange rates can very easily deplete the dollar reserves, therefore it's not as effective than when selling the yen where they can just print more.

No wonder the US has Japan listed as a currency manipulator, along with China.

Why is the term "climate change" used, instead of "global warming"? Is it because anything with the term warming in it is too accurate, and too frightening? Perhaps we should be frightened.

It is so that anomalies of any kind (hot/cold/rainy/drought/etc) can be included or excluded as they wish for political purposes.

Why would these people be counted as the "population of Japan" for births/deaths stats purposes???

I don't think it matters much (e.g. 1% difference?) as long as they are consistent year after year. Of course, there is a problem if they are trying to obfuscate numbers, which is possible.

Unfortunately many smaller restaurants will be forced to close, which is very sad. Those local, family-owned joints are what Japanese cuisine is all about.

It's not a given unalienable right that every business needs to thrive. Many restaurants may close, reflecting the decreasing population and shifting in demographics. But many will survive. Japanese cuisine is in no danger, if there isn't an izakaya on every corner.

I used to go out to eat at least 2-3 times a week.

I thought you were going to say next, that you are going out much less now, but ...

my going out will be reduced to about once a month if I can swing it.

Get back to us when you actually did reduce your going on. Until that happens, the restaurants increasing the prices are the ones winning.

I can't keep track of all these groups.

by the Cabinet Office said the coronavirus had weighed on the number of marriages and pregnancies, adding that people in their 20s and 30s had become more worried about marriage, income, jobs and families than other age groups compared with prior to the pandemic.

Sure, it has nothing to do with the policies of the government, right?

Hint: you can only blame COVID, Ukraine and the supply chain for all the problems for so long.

which still makes no sense. How is opening for 6 hours instead of 8 supposed to lower the chances of catching corona? It doesn’t.

I am not great at math, but if you are only open for 6 hours instead of 8, you lower the chances your staff getting infected by 25%?

Shun Tanaka, a senior analyst at SBI Securities Co, said, "A lot of people became accustomed to buying ready-made food at supermarkets or cooking at home instead of eating out during the coronavirus pandemic."

Because it's cheaper and no worse.

If restaurants cannot offer added value such as better ingredients, they could lose customers, he said. "Demand has not recovered yet. We might see more restaurant closures in the future."

There are way too many restaurants in Japan.

those tourist dollars would have come in handy right about now! Guess they are reaping what they have sown....

The Chinese tourists are not coming back for a long time. That's 80% of the tourist spending that's not coming back for a long time. No American goes and buys $10,000 worth of LV bags and other luxury goods in Japan.

Time for japan to turbo ramp up its exports and open the door right now to tourists.

Essentially, the only tourists who spend any money in Japan are the Chinese, and they are not coming back for a long-long time. There are some wealthy south Asian winter time tourists, but they are just a drop in the bucket compared to the waves of Chinese all year long.

Newsflash: the otaku visiting Akiba and staying at an APA hotel will not help the economy.

1 million yen

Was it a kei car?

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the government secured funds to give 100,000 yen each to low-income households in an extra budget for the previous fiscal year that ended in March.

I am definitely not low income, but I got this. So it was everybody AFAICT.

food prices

Seijo Ishii raised their prices pretty much across the board by 10% a couple of days ago. I don't know about other supermarkets, but I assume they would be the same, since they are all colluding.

largely caused by Russia's war against Ukraine.

Sure...

If the LDP wants a funeral for its former leader, they should pay for it with party funds instead of forcing taxpayers to foot the bill.

In other words, you are suggesting that the Unification Church should pay for it. Wouldn't it be ironic.

will cost about 250 million yen ($1.8 million), excluding outlays for security and the reception of overseas dignitaries, the government has said.

What's the bottom line, including the 10% consumption tax, boys?

Kishida apologized last week for his ruling Liberal Democratic Party's ties to the church and said the LDP would make it "party policy" to end such ties and step up compliance.

Did Kishida ever submitted his own disclosure statement?

which Moscow seized in the closing days of World War II.

a.k.a. victor's spoils. Happens after almost every war.

According to Wikipedia:

"Japan's territorial waters extend to three nautical miles into La Pérouse Strait (Soya Strait) instead of the usual twelve, reportedly to allow nuclear-armed United States Navy warships and submarines to transit the strait without violating Japan's prohibition against nuclear weapons in its territory.[3]"

So it's not Japanese territorial waters to appease the US, therefore anybody can sail through there as far as I read it.

Historic? How so? Will we remember in 50 years the first time an Amazon warehouse uniionized?