British PM says world can learn lessons from Japan's mistakes

Wednesday 15th October, 05:57 AM JST

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neverknow2 at 09:34 AM JST - 15th October

saying all Japanese are slow and indecisive

This is true. Maybe its rude by Japanese standards, but not to the rest the earth's population. Only Japan has four seasons. Can you eat Japanese food?
seesaw at 09:40 AM JST - 15th October

Everything in Japan is slow, Mr Brown....
thepro at 09:48 AM JST - 15th October

They should look at Japanese work practices and the education system for extra ideas on what not to do
notimpressed at 10:12 AM JST - 15th October

nicely done meanringo!
Statistician at 10:13 AM JST - 15th October

I guess he just wanted to give you some tips on how to do it right next time. Show some gratitude please.
NeoJamal at 10:25 AM JST - 15th October

any reason why Japan's mistakes mentioned falls short of 'advesarial relations with its continental neighbours' and 'stunted immigration'? I would've thought that most Labour voters would be rejoice with pride that their nation has taken the contrary approach.
medievaltimes at 10:59 AM JST - 15th October

Bingo Ringo.
roobus1 at 01:21 PM JST - 15th October

I am a British citizen with a Japanese Financee... I left the UK because of the way in which the English deal with their economic crisis... gord-o is a plonker.. I have just returned to my home in Singapore after visiting japan again.. I would much rather be their than the overpriced UK.
proxy at 01:51 PM JST - 15th October

What mistakes did Japan make? It may have been a rather long period of slow growth but the unemployment remained low, the prices on everything deflated to realistic levels creating an increase in the standard of living for everyone. There were no riots or insurrections and the government made a tidy profit. Go talk to the people living in the tent city that has sprung up in L.A. and ask them if they are happy that their government is avoiding the "mistakes" Japan made. We will see what happens when thousands in London lose their jobs.
realist at 05:50 PM JST - 15th October

Dear Gordon Brown First, you are a well-known liar, and it is hard to believe a word you utter. In this case, as usual, you have only got half the story. True, the J-government were slow to act. They are always like that - if they act at all, it is something of a miracle. The sad fact that you omitted to mention is that the Japanese Banking system itself is backward and inefficient. Its now the 9th year of the 21sy Century - and Japan stilol does not have a comprehensive 24 hour/365 day ATM system. Even the biggest back in Japan, the Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ Bank (what a mouthful!) which combined two banks several years ago, is still working on co-ordinating its ATM machines, and has shut down the whole system nearly every weekend this year so far, thus depriving its customers of access to their own money. Its a joke of a bank, and it is one of the world`s major banks, we are told. Until the Japanese banks come inot the 21st century, things like the latest financial crisi will always hit Japan hard. They never learn from the past, so they are destined to repeat the same mistakes again and again . . .
medievaltimes at 12:18 AM JST - 16th October

Japan is free to handle their financial situations as they want to, just like any other country.
888naff at 07:45 AM JST - 16th October

"Everything in Japan is slow, Mr Brown...." I have heard so many times from Japanese that have moved to the UK "Everything in the UK is so slow!"... amongst other things which funnily enough echo the comments repeated here in other stories/posts from foreigners in Japan.

Anyway this story has progressed that since Aso earlier suggested holding another extra G7/8 summit to sort these issues out, now Gordon or the UK press claim Gordon is just now suggesting that same thing (amongst other things) to the rest of the world ( ..its ok, look at us we leading the rest of the world talk again.. you can all feel better.. yeah right, like you will read any news sources from elsewhere to know otherwise). Who knows, but I'm sure most of the UK press cant see as far as Japan most of the time so they wouldn't know either way about Aso.
Simon_Foston at 09:07 AM JST - 16th October

The sad fact that you omitted to mention is that the Japanese Banking system itself is backward and inefficient. Its now the 9th year of the 21sy Century - and Japan stilol does not have a comprehensive 24 hour/365 day ATM system.

All very true but I don't suppose it was relevant to Brown's main point. I don't suppose it helps that just about every prefecture seems to have two or three of its own banks run by geriatric dodderers who don't have enough capital to invest in such modernisation and probably haven't figured out calculators yet. Anyway, they don't want customers taking out their money any time it pleases them! They'd have less to lend to their useless friends and golfing partners who run all the local businesses (into the ground). I think this also ties in with why interest rates are so low.
Soochi at 10:24 PM JST - 17th October

>the UK press cant see as far as Japan most of the time so they wouldn't know either way about Aso.

Simply not true - not even close.
seesaw at 06:20 PM JST - 21st October

yup..not even close...:)