JeffLee comments

Posted in: Japan accepts record-high 303 refugees in 2023 See in context

The number is skewed by the group of Afghans working for Jica. If not for then, the number

3 ( +7 / -4 )

Posted in: Derelict hotels See in context

I've stayed there, a bit farther down the river. I thought the place was kinda cool. A nice break after hectic and strictly organized Tokyo.

7 ( +7 / -0 )

Posted in: Higher share prices lift Japan household assets to record in 2023 See in context

It make look Japan good, however only on paper 

Yeah, it's always a drag when a working person discovers their savings and assets becoming more and more valuable.

Gambling and moving money around is not real work.

Yes indeed, but that is not what the article about. We're talking about investing in productive and profitable companies.

9 ( +14 / -5 )

Posted in: Doing business in China is growing tougher, more uncertain, European business group says See in context

You mean doing business in a communist dictatorship is "challenging."?! Wow, these people are geniuses! How long did it take them to figure that out?

China is doing what every major economic power did! 

That's exactly right. Every major economic power in the world got where they did through protectionism, not free trade.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Posted in: BOJ rate hike may help exit of unprofitable 'zombie' firms in Japan See in context

MarkX

But here we are cheering them into bankruptcy

We should be celebrating their demise. Japan has a severe labor shortage, while many workers are holed up in these stagnant swamps, which have contributed greatly to the deflationary trend as they tend to cut wages and never raise them.

Of course, it would help if the government didn't keep subsidizing them or arranging to supply them with third-world workers.

-4 ( +1 / -5 )

Posted in: Easy does it: The Bank of Japan's experiment See in context

the financial system is basically broken, confidence in the future ....

I guess that explains why Japan currently has the world's hottest stock market.

2 ( +5 / -3 )

Posted in: Easy does it: The Bank of Japan's experiment See in context

@sakurasuki

that's not necessary ordinary Taro has their wage going up and living luxury life.

So blame private-sector employers, which are the ones who, um, set wages. The govt and BOJ are the ones responsible for creating the economic conditions under which corporate profits have hit record highs while interest rates (borrowing costs) have remained the lowest in the world.

3 ( +9 / -6 )

Posted in: Easy does it: The Bank of Japan's experiment See in context

And what Abenomics really achieve so far? 

People have short memories. Japan used to have recessions fairly regularly along with deflation, while capital investment and the stock market languished. Every winter and summer, a staple news item was about how Japan’s major employers were once again cutting workers’ bonuses, hence their real wages. The downward spiral has since halted and the economy appears to set for a growth trend. Inflation has been higher, but much less than in other developed countries and without their very high borrowing costs.

7 ( +14 / -7 )

Posted in: Bank of Japan ends negative interest rate policy, opting for its first hike in 17 years See in context

The neutral interest rate which would be neither contractionary nor expansionary is estimated to be 2%.

And does a central bank get there? By small incremental moves, so as not to cause shocks in the financial markets. It's a gradual path not a leap, unless there's a crisis, such as the jumbo hikes by the Fed during Pandemic. But in Japan, there has not been such a crisis. BOJ stuck to loose policy for so long -- because it could. Its counterparts - facing much higher inflation rates -- could not.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

Posted in: Dollar tops 150 yen as BOJ ends negative rates See in context

Let's see what happens when the Fed starts cutting.

7 ( +13 / -6 )

Posted in: Bank of Japan ends negative interest rate policy, opting for its first hike in 17 years See in context

Plenty of JT contributors (not me) over the years claimed that the BOJ was trapped, unable to raise its rates or otherwise tighten. Oh, well. The BOJ will also to scale back its asset purchases including the ETFs. Let's see if that crashes the TSE, as so often predicted here (not by me).

9 ( +20 / -11 )

Posted in: In Germany, the far right is on the rise again. How did it happen? See in context

@Mocheake

The general population resents the presence of people who do not look like them...

I don't know about that. I do that in a democracy, mainstream parties all pushing the same unpopular policy for quite a few years will open the door to extremism.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

Posted in: In Germany, the far right is on the rise again. How did it happen? See in context

It's mass immigration, mainly. Especially after more than a million people arrived from the Middle East in 2015 alone. If you continually foist unpopular policies on a moderate population, you will eventually generate a lot of extremism.

Imagine if Japan decided to adopt the scale immigration that Germany and other western European have done? The reaction will be a lot harsher, I reckon.

3 ( +13 / -10 )

Posted in: Japan business lobby chief hopes for gov't efforts to end deflation See in context

That’s rich, coming from this guy. His business buddies are the ones mainly responsible for Japan’s many years of deflation: They cut their workers’ nominal and real wages for a couple of decades after the bubble popped -- and kept going even after their profits surged.

The government can’t do much. Maybe hike cut its spending. The BOJ is the one with the best tools.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

Posted in: Filipino woman admits to killing sister, Japanese niece See in context

The Philippines has a fairly good banking system. I’m not going to say these women asked for it, but they showed very little common sense carrying such a huge amount of cash.

11 ( +12 / -1 )

Posted in: Man arrested after elbowing commuter on Tokyo subway See in context

When are the Japanese going to introduce individual or scooped out seating like other countries have? Bench seat has got to go.

3 ( +10 / -7 )

Posted in: Tokyo's controversial Yasukuni Shrine picks ex-admiral as chief priest See in context

gave their precious lives for the country

Well, the ones in WW2 gave their lives not for the country but for the Emperor, whom most Japanese at the time actually believed was not human but descended from heaven.

This idea was explicitly drilled into both soldiers and civilians and most believed it. There hardly any dissent at home, while Japanese soldiers had the reputation on the battlefield of being the most fanatical of all. To think there are folks today who want to bring at least some of that back is chilling.

-4 ( +3 / -7 )

Posted in: Japan's unions find surprising allies in push for higher pay See in context

The common enemy are the greedy corporations that are refusing to pay wages in line with their record-high profits.

It's just the big international companies doing these "big" salary increases,

In Japan, the large corporations set the standard within their respective industries. For example, what Toyota does filters down to its hundreds of suppliers.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Posted in: Britain to offer failed asylum seekers 3,000 pounds to move to Rwanda See in context

Just deport them. That’s what Japan, S. Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and most other countries in the world do. Why doesn’t the UK?

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Posted in: A blood test for colon cancer performed well in a study, expanding options for screening See in context

The old stick-up-the-hole still seems to be the best method in terms of price (in Japan) and accuracy.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Posted in: Why is anti-Japanese sentiment remaining from the World War II era almost non-existent in Taiwan, Singapore, the Philippines and Indonesia, unlike in China and South Korea? See in context

In some countries, it's due to propaganda by authoritarian regimes that the Japanese have coddled up to and effectively supported in the form of generous ODA. In Indonesia, for example, the Japanese invasion killed 4 million Indonesians, twice the number as all the Japanese who died in the Pacific War. Yet Japanese nationalists point to Indonesia as an example of how the people supposedly love Japan. If that’s the case, then the “people” have been deceived and lied to.

You may as well as ask why Poland and Germany are such great friends these days. To say it’s because the Germans actually treated the Poles well during WW2 would be outrageous, just as JT’s question above is.

3 ( +13 / -10 )

Posted in: Major Japanese companies offer large pay hikes, fueling hope of beating deflation See in context

It's about time! If all goes well, we'll be getting a stronger yen as well.

9 ( +13 / -4 )

Posted in: King Charles' diagnosis throws UK's long cancer treatment waiting times into sharp relief See in context

Same thing is happening in Canada. Tens of thousands of people die every year waiting for surgery. In this respect with many others unable to have a family doctor, I'm soooo lucky to be living in Japan, where social policies are so much more sensible and responsible than in the neo-liberal West.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Posted in: Hiroshima grapples with 'Oppenheimer' Oscars success See in context

The Japanese feel they need to monopolize any discussion on the A-bomb.

Oppenheimer created the atomic bomb, which means he made this world a very scary place.

The Americans accelerated their efforts after learning that the Nazis and the Imperial Japanese were trying to make atomic bombs. Many of the people, like Oppenheimer, who pushed development were Jews, in the strong belief that the world would be a much, much safer place if America and not the Germans and Japanese got there first. They were right.

Key background information like this is totally left out of the Japanese narrative, which is why we need more movies and books like "Oppenheimer."

21 ( +66 / -45 )

Posted in: Gains from rising stocks proving elusive for most Japanese See in context

seeing little benefit from rising share prices

In most case, that is because they are choosing not to benefit. Household financial assets are high in Japan -- and most of it is kept in cash!! The government has set up and promoted 2 outstanding programs, NISA and IDECO, that make investment cheap, easy, relatively safe and lucrative. They're there. If you decide not to use them, that's your problem.

7 ( +9 / -2 )

Posted in: Kyoto may launch tourist express bus service to handle overcrowding See in context

The transport system was appalling the last time we went. We were crammed very tightly and uncomfortably into a very slow-moving every-stop bus, where every stop had long lineups of people waiting. Afterward, we vowed near to return.

9 ( +10 / -1 )

Posted in: Spain's prime minister says he will propose that parliament recognizes a Palestinian state See in context

 Like the resistance movements in countries occupied by the Germans?

Huh? Gaza wasn't "occupied" when the attacks on Israel took place. The Israelis left in 2005, so that the Gazans could rule themselves and choose their own leaders. And that's how Hamas took power.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

Posted in: Monday will be 13 years since the March 11, 2011 disaster. If you were in Japan, what are your memories of that day? See in context

The sound more than the jolt. Our buildings and the ones beside it rattling, humming, clacking, creaking and shuddering all at once and at a terrific volume.

Deciding whether our bicycle shelter would strong enough to protect us from falling debris. Running instead to a car parking lot and later watching the empty vehicles bouncing up and down during the many aftershocks.

Also, old people on the street of my Tokyo neighborhood remarking that the quake was the strongest they'd ever felt.

6 ( +6 / -0 )

Posted in: Discover the serene beauty and cultural significance of mosques in Japan See in context

“go and find out…”

That’s the writer’s job, not the reader’s.

3 ( +6 / -3 )

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