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Japanese seek bargains as economy limps, Abenomics loses shine

23 Comments
By Leika Kihara

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23 Comments
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Don't worry, building a few patrol ships will provide food on the table for the entire nation. Trust Abe.

7 ( +8 / -1 )

"Lost its shine?"

Abenomics never even glimmered.

13 ( +14 / -1 )

But..but...Abe's virtuous economic cycle is working.

NHK told me so yesterday.

12 ( +13 / -1 )

100 yen - some 25% below levels a year ago.

This is sloppy reporting: for the dollar to have fallen 25%, it would have had to buy 133 yen at that time (so a drop of 33/133 or 25%), not the 120 that it sat at for a while or even the 125 that it peaked at. When calculating a percentage rise or fall, you divide by the old number, not the current one.

In any case, we can be happy that the average consumer and saver is doing better than they were for most of the early parts of the Abenomics regime. We know that the consumption tax increase will never be reversed, but at least the price rises are seeming to stall. Hopefully soon Abe will be gone and a new PM who cares about protecting people's savings and enabling them to buy life's necessities without fearing that increasingly more labor will be required to have them, as has been the case since 2012.

7 ( +7 / -0 )

Interestingly, I noticed middle class Japanese with the same spending habits 20 years ago. Some things never change.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Abe has never been serious about "Abenomics". It is just a cover to distract people from his real aim: revising the constitution and making Japan a "normal" country, that is, a military power in Asia, and glorifying Japan's military past. If we don't see through Abe, well, I guess we deserve what we are about to get.

8 ( +9 / -1 )

gokai_wo_maneku,

I'm sure you're right. But there's another and more sinister purpose to Abenomics. "Let's get Japan so deeply in debt that the IMF has to bail us out."

And then, like a huge fish, Japan is caught on the end of a hook and goes the way of all those other countries that are controlled by the $harks!

0 ( +3 / -3 )

...meanwhile, back in Nagatacho, our intrepid leader Abe announces plans to bestow $30,000,000,000.00 on the countries of Africa in a bid to win their support for a Japanese seat on the UN Security Council...

6 ( +6 / -0 )

Abenomics has been doing great!!

Said no one ever

6 ( +6 / -0 )

Three years of so-called Abenomics, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s bold stimulus program, has failed to dislodge a deflationary mindset among businesses and consumers.

Mindset? Does having a sunny mindset mean you don't need an umbrella when it rains?

It is not about mindset, it is about the rather obvious fact that Japan's population is falling by hundreds of thousands per year, that Japanese companies depend on the domestic economy for 60% of their sales, and that these sales have nowhere to go but down. These are cold, hard facts, not mindset. Thinking that growth and inflation can occur in such an environment is not mindset, it is insanity.

8 ( +9 / -1 )

This country desperately needs a quality of life movement first, for the economy to spring back. It would take 15 to 25 years if they started now. This concrete jungle idea must be retired.

3 ( +5 / -2 )

Price hikes hurt consumers and it ultimately comes back to bite you? Who'd a thunk it? Children could do better with the economy than the clowns in government and the BOJ. How many times before "I told you so" actually sinks in?

5 ( +6 / -1 )

When have consumers ever NOT sought bargains? Abenomics has been nothing short of a disaster because it is rooted in Keynesian ideology.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Abenomics has always been "smoke and mirrors." Whatever happened to the "third arrow?" All the govt. knows how to do is throw money it does not have around--like it it doing right now in Africa. Vested interests make structural reform too difficult. Japan's passive populace just shrug their shoulders; meanwhile, this country continues it downward spiral.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Three years of so-called Abenomics

Only three? It feels more like ten, it's been that uneventful.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Abenomics cannot work. There isn't enough infrastructure for it to work. The world economy is in recession. How can there be true sustained growth? I'm just awaiting the final collapse. No one is talking about the domino theory anymore, but it's very alive. 1997 was just a precursor here in Asia. Sigh.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

That "shine" was from tinsel.

No substance.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Abenomics cannot work.

The sad part is that it could have worked. The most essential part to Abenomics was the "third arrow." Japan's economic is bound up in cronyism, red tape, corporate collusion, and other anti-competitive practices. Had the "third arrow" been actually used to address these burdens to the economy, Abenomics might have worked.

But the government loves red tape, as most governments do, it gives them leverage to reward supporters (those with the bags of cash) and punish opponents (those who have scruples). Companies love cronyism, collusion, and anti-completive practices because it allows them to pad their profits.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

even if implemented, the problem with the "third arrow" is that it would only be aimed at the commercial sector and not the government itself...

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Nobuko Jin, a 75-year-old part-time worker who receives some pension, says she is cutting back and just buying necessities. “I get the feeling prices are creeping up. I wonder where the benefits of Abenomics are going. SIMPLE Abe is sending 30 billion to Africa there goes your benefits Nobuko!

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Of course Abenomics does not work . They are lucky dip strategies made up with Abe's superficial thoughts. I will try this idea or that idea and wait to see if it works or not. How can he devised Japan's economic policies when he does not have economics credentials? In the old Japanese traditional way he would have to apologise to the Japanese people for being a failure and for brushing them off as gullible simple folk and bringing them false hopes .

However, will Abe Shinzo take responsibility for plunging Japan deeper into the economic abyss? Of course not. Remember..... as he kept reminding everyone, he was voted in and he has the mandate to do whatever is "beneficial " for the good of Japan.........or not!!!

The 30 billion for Africa? A buying friends for cash exercise!

2 ( +2 / -0 )

And yet, the first article I read this morning was

Majority want Abe to stay on until Tokyo 2020 Olympics: poll

and

Support for Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe edged above 60% for the first time in almost two years,

http://www.japantoday.com/category/politics/view/majority-want-abe-to-stay-on-until-tokyo-2020-olympics-poll#comment_2260842

I think the Japanese just love to complain. You people have been backing him and his crooks since 2012. AND now you just gave him an approval rating of over 60%. So don't come now and start whining about your financial situation. You elected him. You reap what you sow.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

From the start of primary school, Japanese children are cajoled to do homework in their holidays and this continues up until they leave at whatever particular level for their job where work becomes nonstop! Being told to do and not think leads to the current economic and political malaise where massive amounts of yen are squandered on the dreams of the elte.....

More saddening is that the Japanese people aren't even able to wake up.........

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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