Japan's Exports Collapse In January

Japan’s exports plunged by 45.7 percent year on year in January, producing a record trade deficit, as recessions in the U.S. and Europe, and a sharp downturn in China crushed demand for the country’s machinery, cars and electronics. A drop of this size is truly staggering.“People are coming to realize that Japan is in deep trouble,” said Hiroshi Shiraishi, an economist at BNP Paribas Securities

Japan's "Unimaginable" Contraction

Well, it isn't only in Europe that we are having a hard time of things. Last week Kazuo Momma, head of the Bank of Japan’s research and statistics department, warned that Japan’s economy now faced an “unimaginable” contraction, and today we can begin to see just what the unimaginable might look like, since the preliminary data for fourth quarter GDP are now out. And what we find when we come to

To Print Or Not To Print, That Is The Question

Well in a week which has seen Kazuo Momma, head of the Bank of Japan’s research and statistics department warning that Japan’s economy now faces an “unimaginable” contraction, and Prime Minister Taro Aso's approval rating dropping to a mere 14 percent according to the latest Asahi newspaper survey, it should not surprise us to hear reports that yet another set of "exotic" proposals have been put

Japan's Economy - No End in Sight?

By Claus Vistesen: CopenhagenAs I wind up, post exam session, for some serious economic analysis it is to an economic landscape which is increasingly looking like a surreal mixture between Kafka and Dali. Having been paying only scant attention to the data stream the past 5 months, I have been adequately awake to note that the incoming barrage of data from the real economy has been absolutely

Japan's Grim And Bear It 2009 Outlook

Things in Japan are looking grim. They keep getting grimmer, and it doesn't seem they will be getting less grim anytime soon. To give you some idea of what this means, only this week we learnt that Japan’s steel production fell 28 percent in December. This was the steepest decline in no less than six decades. Meanwhile Hiroshi Yoshikawa, Tokyo University professor and head of the Japanese

Exports Collapse As Consumer Confidence Continues To Fall

Japan’s exports plunged by a record in December, signaling companies will be forced to shut factory lines and fire more workers, driving the economy deeper into recession.Exports plummeted 35 percent from a year earlier, the sharpest decline since 1980, the earliest year for which there is comparable data, the Finance Ministry said today in Tokyo. The December drop eclipsed a record 26.7 percent

One New Year's Resolution Japan Badly Needs

In a week when we learn that Toyota plans to suspend production at all 12 of its Japanese plants for 11 days over the next couple of months, news which follows hot on the tails of last week's report that industrial output shrank at the fastest pace since at least 1953 in November (16.2% y-o-y), with December's Purchasing Manager Index survey - described in JPMorgan's Global Report as the weakest