On Friday, the mayor of Futaba, a ghost town of once upon a time 7,000 souls near Fukushima No. 1, told his staff that evacuees might not be able to return for 30 years. Or never, for the older generation. He spoke in Kazo, Saitama Prefecture, where the town’s government has settled. It was the first estimate of a timeframe. But it all depends on successful decontamination. And that has turned into a vicious corruption scandal.
Japan
Japan’s Export Debacle: Revenge In China, A Crash In Europe, Offshoring All Around
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Japan’s Export Debacle: Revenge In China, A Crash In Europe, Offshoring All Around
One of the pillars of the Japanese economy has been its exports. That pillar has been crumbling for years, but the deterioration this year has progressed at a phenomenal pace. At fault: China and Europe. But beyond the noise, Japanese companies have been investing their valuable yen overseas, and it’s making the deficit structural. An ugly combination.
Japan’s NO EXIT Strategy
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Japan’s NO EXIT Strategy
At a yearend Bonenkai party, an official from the Ministry of Finance, the most powerful entity at the core of Japan Inc., let slip that the Bank of Japan wasn’t doing its job; it was just giving money to the banks which bought Japanese government bonds instead of channeling it into the economy. “That’s why the Ministry of Finance is trying to gain control over the Bank of Japan,” he said.
Japanese Prime Ministers Ugly Popularity Contest
by Wolf Richter • • 4 Comments
Can your approval rating drop to zero? That must have been the question Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda was brooding over as he digested two polls taken over the weekend: his approval rating had plunged 15 points from a month ago, to 19%, his lowest rating yet. Clearly, the yakuza scandal didn’t help.
Political Violence Scares Japanese Investors, Acrimony Flows Instead Of Money, But It Doesn’t Stop Japan Inc.
by Wolf Richter • • 1 Comment
Softbank’s announcement to buy 70% of Sprint for $20.1 billion caused its stock to plunge 17% in Japan that day. Investors had been through it before: a company paying way too much to accomplish a CEO’s megalomaniac goals, only to get mired in a corporate culture clash and other nightmares overseas. Japanese acquirers have a “terrible” track record.
The Pauperization Of Japan
by Contributor • • 4 Comments
“Pauperization,” the word, became infamous when three executives of huge consumer products companies voiced it as the new challenge in Europe. To market their products successfully, they changed strategies and applied what worked in poor countries. In Japan, a similar process has hounded the economy, but for much longer. And nothing shows this better than the plight of the ubiquitous but hapless salaryman.
Japanese Ministry of Finance To Bondholders: You’re Screwed!
by Wolf Richter • • 4 Comments
This has got to be the icing on the Japanese cake. The website of the Japanese Ministry of Finance, more specifically the FAQ page on government bonds, has been catapulted to stardom on Facebook and Twitter. Not in a good way. It asks the question: “In case Japan becomes insolvent, what will happen to government bonds?” And then, incredibly, it answers with a terse action plan for when the Big S hits the fan.
“Forceful And Timely Action” To Nowhere
by Wolf Richter • • 2 Comments
“Japan’s experience is a sobering real-world reminder of why forceful and timely action is appropriate,” said the Fed’s Eric Rosengren in his desperation to rationalize QE3. It would be a flood of money, not the “muted” response from Japan to two decades of stagnation. “Appropriate fiscal policies”—even larger deficits—should be used to battle Japanese-style stagnation. Alas, no developed country has done that for longer and to a greater extent than … Japan. And no developed country is in deeper trouble.
Japan’s Slow-Motion Tsunami
by Wolf Richter • • 5 Comments
Beer, A Reflection Of The World Economy?
by Wolf Richter • • 7 Comments
As a kid in Germany, I engaged in underage beer drinking. I was too young to drive, so it didn’t bother anyone, except me the next day. It was when German beer consumption peaked at 151 liters per capita, the highest in the world. But then I went to America … and German beer consumption took a multi-decade dive. In the US and other Western countries, the beer industry is now morose as well, but it’s booming elsewhere.