Happy birthday Japan

Happy birthday Japan, welcome to year one of your new era. December 31st will mark the first anniversary of when your population actually started to fall, and from now on each year will see less and less Japanese citizens in the land of the setting sun. Another way of putting this would be that the proportion of robots to people is definitely set to rise there.This turning point in human history

This is my Day-to-Day Weblog on the Japanese Economy. For More Detailed In-Depth Commentary, Analysis and Links on Japan's Continuing Economic Crisis See the Japan Page on My Website

Japan's Job-Loss 'Recovery'


I'v made myself a promise to try and look a bit more at Japan this week, since I'm sure I've been neglecting things there. This piece serves to kill two birds with one stone, since it also relates to the ongoing 'structural reforms' theme. I think the argument demonstrates two things: that job creation is getting harder everywhere, and that the Asia Times (following

Japan Pensions: Where is the Incentive?

It seems that, little by little, the world is waking up to the importance of all this. Last week it was the Italian Minister of the Interior, this week it is the director of economic policy in Japan's cabinet office. When I started blogging about this, just over a year ago, it was much harder to get a hearing. This change is positive. OTOH too many people

Row Over Resona Bailout

This is obviously part of the backdrop to the election campaign, and it is always hard to judge the significance of things in this context. But Resona is interesting, since it is a strange case, and it could give us some clues as to the real determination for serious reform in Japan. On the face of it, not encouraging.The Democratic Party of Japan, the country's main

Japan Still On the Deflation Trail

Japan economy minister Takenaka tells us Japan will triumph over deflation. Just one last question: how? No, this isn't fair, he does offer some pointers. But it still remains to be seen what these actually mean in practice......Heizo Takenaka, Japan's economy minister, said on Thursday that the country could overcome its persistent deflation because the

Japan: Conflicting Signals?


Along with the renewed pressure from the Bank of Japan against the rise of the yen, here is one more small piece of evidence that all may not be as well as the markets imagine:Machinery orders placed by Japanese companies fell by a bigger-than-expected margin in August, according to official figures released on Wednesday, indicating an uncertain outlook for capital