JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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- Assistant Language Teacher (ALT) in Kanto region
- RCS (RCSコーポレーション), Kanto
- Salary: ¥180,000 ~ ¥250,000 / Month includes performance bonus
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- Assistant Language Teacher - TOKYO - late-March start
- Interac, Tokyo
- Salary: ¥230,000 ~ ¥255,000 / Month
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- Assistant Language Teacher - Kanagawa Prefecture - late-March start
- Interac, Kanagawa
- Salary: ¥230,000 ~ ¥255,000 / Month
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Dog
tmarieJan. 27, 2012 - 01:02PM JST Things people don't really need - the price of food is through the roof right now. 300 yen for lettuce? A joke.
Totally agree and the price of renting accom in Tokyo still remains unnaturally high.
Apaart from Mexican limes and Philipine substandard mangoes, It's really hard to believe that Japan has a number of FTAs. The only deflation in Japan that I've noticed over the last 10 years is in electrical goods and my wages. My electricity bill was unnaturally high this month.
Posted in: Japan consumer prices down 0.1% in December
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Dog
oginomeJan. 21, 2012 - 03:37AM JST The treatment of women is definitely Japanese society's weakest point.
You really think so? I think you’re rather belittling the real problems of Japanese society from treatment of the old and poor, very few societies anywhere in the world have institutionalized crime syndicates that are treated like public corporations and the lack of basic human rights for all participants of a country that has the death penalty. The treatment of women, while being a problem, wouldn’t even register on the radar of the 20 weakest points about of Japanese society.
oginomeJan. 21, 2012 - 03:37AM JST The reason why there's never really been a robust civil society in Japan, unlike South Korea is simple; because Japan's government actually delivered on its promises after the war to increase living standards, health care and personal income and spread it almost equally over society resulting in a truly prosperous, safe nation.
I think you should brush up on your Japanese history a bit for the real factors of why there is not presently a robust civil society in Japan. Maybe research the Meiji Restoration and social/political engineering from the top up to the bottom down, then do a bit of research into the development of trade unionism in postwar Japan and the neutering of protest movements from the early 1950’s. While you’re at it, next time you’re in Japan, should take a walk around Shinagawa, Shibuya, Shimbashi stations, to name a few, and see your prosperous Japan where personal income is almost equally.
oginomeJan. 21, 2012 - 03:37AM JST The homeless rate has in Japan already been more than halved over the last decade. Japan isn't run like America and won't end up like it. You should read this, tmari http://www.paecon.net/PAEReview/issue23/Locke23.htm
I’m sorry posting a dubious article from pre-2008 - 2005 to be exact, when Japan was prospering from an artificially weak Yen in a world fueled on credit – is hardly a commentary on Japan since the 2008 crash. In a country like Japan, where so many young people’s accommodation is embedded with their continued employment, without the fact that Japan has not made the complete post industrial transformation from an extended family society to a nuclear family society, homelessness would be chronic in Japan, especially among the young.
You seem to be suffering from the cultural shock of making the place you left more flowery than they place you find yourself now (exile is to dream of glorious returns) and confusing the concept that a problem is only a problem when it’s in your face.
Posted in: Entitlements are not rights
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Dog
MoskolloJan. Take a look at what raising taxes has done to the uk, riots a depressed nation and an approaching double dip recession. Raising taxes will NOT stimulate growth in public spending, Japan's present policy is working, if it's not broken don't fix it..
Wrong on all points.
With the UK, I think you're confusing raising taxes with the government's actual present policy of cutting back on public spending. Osbourne's policy of cutting the UK deficit might well please US Republicans and the money markets, but it is proving to be the biggest contributor to a depressed nation which will almost certainly enter recession in the second quarter of this year.
Of course raising taxes will stimulate growth in public spending. By definition government spending is public spending and unless Noda and gang are syphoning of the new taxes for their private use, the new taxes will be spent by the government, ergo they will stimulate growth in public spending. Whether that public spending will be spent wisely is a different issue altogether.
However the biggest cognitive faux pas was with your last statement of Japan's present policy is working, Where do I begin? How about I leave it to the 'Spike Japan' website for you to browse to see all that is structurally and financially wrong with Japan since the bursting of the bubble. A very intelligent and well traveled Japanophile.
Posted in: LDP once again refuses to discuss sales tax hike with DPJ
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Dog
As much as I dislike the LDP, they are not at fault here. If any party is at fault, it's the DPJ, but the reality is that the Japanese political model is the real fault line. Over the last 60 years Japan has tried to take the best of both liberal democratic worlds, the Anglo-Saxon (excl US) parliamentary system, which produces strong government but pays a democratic price, and the US/European congressional/assembly system, which sacrifices strong government for a more democratic/representative system. The result has been, for Japan, the worst of both worlds.
According to the parliamentary principles, the DPJ has no right in calling for LDP cooperation and the LDP is merely behaving like an effective opposition. Of course the LDP should be reacting as an opposition government who formulates their alternative policies with the nation in mind,and ignore, except in the most extreme cases, regional interests. The DPJ government should likewise be formulating their policies and have a strong whip system to ensure their fellow party MPs do likewise. We all know that none of this happening.
If the Japanese are to implement a proper parliamentary system, which has been their intent since the 80's, then they must first change the electoral system and do away with representative proportional representation, and then they must diminish the powers of the upper house so that at best the upper house can only delay legislation.
At present the Japanese political system is a mess and it really doesn't matter who or what controls the reins of govt, there is a paralysis of nobody's making. Time for the army to enter politics and for the rebirth of the Seiyukai party of the 1930's. This isn't very different from the post Taisho politics of the late 1920's and the present world economic crises gives it a frightening 1930's deja vu feeling.
Posted in: LDP once again refuses to discuss sales tax hike with DPJ
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Dog
This 57 million yen Tuna. A lost but glorious age, The Bubble. revisited through a single act which has no connect to the reality of now.
Let the Japanese enjoy their moment of distraction.
Besides this is probably the last year the prized Tuna will go domestic... China from now on.
Posted in: Record Y56.49 mil paid for single tuna fish at Tokyo auction
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Dog
Another example of your typical Japanese policeman. Apart from the select NPA graduate entrants, the majority of policemen are lowly educated, following a family tradition and pretty useless for anything else - which is saying something in Japan!
The quality of the Japanese police officer has to be improved. They have to be paid more and be more selective in the recruiting stages. They also have to get rid of that middle management strata, often aged and gotten to where they are by virtue of time served rather than talent.
The koban culture of tea and biscuits, with a quick ride around the locality, then back to the koban for banter with the rest of the uniformed lads, has to be replaced with more proactive policing. I kid you not, the other week, the local plod had the cheek to place a speed trap right in front of their koban. It was the first one I had seen in my area in 16 years.
The Japanese police, apart from being the legal instrument of the state, are often the the most common interface that the public have with the state. Until that interface is seen as acting competent and fair, all else (a fairer balanced system of criminal investigation and laws protecting the human rights of all legal inhabitants of Japan) will be a side show and unenforcable.
Maybe an employment system followed by many military institutions, where future employment is based on reaching a certain promotional grade by a set time, rather than a job for life, might be a good way of going.
Posted in: Police at first turned away surrendering Aum fugitive
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Dog
realmind * It is late but still Asia can hope for a better and safe future if India become a super power to counter China. Japan and Korea should invest more and more in India to achieve this goal for Asia. Very good first step...go fast forward...*
I think it was Francis Fukuyama who likened Indian democracy to sausage making, He said that like sausage making, Indian democracy looks less appealing the closer one gets to the process.
Nearly one-third of Indian legislators are under some form of criminal indictment,
India is not the way for Asia to go
Posted in: Japan, India strike $15 billion currency swap deal
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Dog
m5c32 Now, who started using quantitative easing in the 90's and 00's?
Exactly and because the world economy at the time looked good, Japan got a really decent break thru it. It saw incredible growth in exports, to support a waning domestic economy.
At that time the world service economy grew by 20%, while Japan's service economy only grew at a paltry 3%. I know this for a fact because I was working in METI at the time and everyone was aware that the devalued Yen, rather than aiding a reformation of the export driven economy, was hindering it by cementing the dependence on exports and ecouraging the political inertia of the LDP.
For Japan, the chickens have now come home to roost and it has very little to do with the present US or Japanese administrations.
Posted in: U.S. Treasury criticizes Japan yen intervention
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Dog
**ExportExpert ** Dog and where to you propose they build these large houses with 3 bedrooms for everyone? Fukushima Iwate?
Proper zoning and proper house building legislation. Contrary to myth, Japan is not the most populated land mass in the world, far from it.
Posted in: U.S. Treasury criticizes Japan yen intervention
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Dog
ExportExpert *Two points here, japanese domestic market is flooded they dont need a new 50 inch tv they already have them, they have all the latest goods that's what the govt eco points thing was, get the domestic economy going. *
That's just bollocks. For a people mostly living in 2 room shoe boxes and being at their place of work from 6 in the morning to 11 at night 300 days a year it has a certain truth, but if Japan were a true middle-class society, then the Japanese household are far from saturated with electronic devices. The average japanese urban dwelling, being so small, has 1 TV, 1 stereo, 1 air conditioner and 1 family computer.
If the government were to spend a little of that money it keeps pouring into shinkansens to nowhere on better and more spacious housing - something along the lines of every family member has a right to a bedroom of their own - and was to legislate on quality building construction and fair rent charges, then I'm sure the average Japanese dwelling would have 2-3 TVs, 3 ACs, 2-3 stereos and a couple of computers to boot.
Don't get me started on enforcable work legislation that limits the working week to 40 hours and severe penalties for companies who break them, creating a consumer leisure boom unheard of in Japanese history.
The present system was created in the 50's and 60's to stifle the appetites of the Japanese consumer and hasn't changed since.
The world economy has.
Posted in: U.S. Treasury criticizes Japan yen intervention
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Dog
**Bad SamuraiBlueDec. ** @Dog Go watch this to see why your argument is SO wrong.
I watched the whole series of that documentary (2 episodes) when they originally came out and either your comprehension skills are a bit shakey or you're being sarcastic.
That series totally reinforces my argument of a global disbalance in trade as being the origin of this crises, rather than any specific policy followed by the US government.
His points are that Chinese (and German) people work very hard and save half their salary and don't spend or create a domestically driven market. For the last 25 years, the West have imported the savings of these exporters to fund their lifestyles.
Of course he could and should include Japan with Germany and China, but he just ignores Japan.
Posted in: U.S. Treasury criticizes Japan yen intervention
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Dog
**SerranoDec. ** Considering the exchange rate was around 240 yen to the dollar just 20 years ago, I can understand the Japanese gov't intervening when the yen fals below 80 yen.
In June 1995 it was at Y83 to the dollar and would have remained close to there, if Japan had not been allowed to weaken the Yen through currency intervention.
Like I said a weak Yen was G7 policy throuugh the late 90's and early 21st Century, with the explicit understanding that Japan would use the breather of more exports to reform its domestic economy, The economic crises of now, for Japan, is the missed opportunities of transforming away from an export driven economy.
Now that breather has gone and all the world is having a bad time, and nobody is going to give Japan another breather through allowing her to manipulate her currency exchange rate.
The Japanese Yen is only strong now relative to the artificially weak rates it was allowed to have at the beginning of this century. Again, Mercantilism leads to its own destruction because a creditor nation's currency will eventually rise and a debtor's nation currency will accordingly lower. Japan is the biggest foreign currency creditor nation in the world .... ergo sum.......
Posted in: U.S. Treasury criticizes Japan yen intervention
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Dog
** ExportExpert** All was going well till the USA's boil on its arse burst in 2008.
That;s the point......** it wasn't**
Posted in: U.S. Treasury criticizes Japan yen intervention
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Dog
@SamuraiBlue Isn't that what got the US in the heap of trouble in the first place?
No, the US problem is a tax base problem, rather than a problem of credit or expenditure. Unlike Europe, the US Federal government has no problem selling its bonds. Unlike Japan, the US consumer accounts for over 60% of US GDP.
@SamuraiBlue Show me a place that actually produces consumer electronic goods from the bottom up in complete packaging in the US. US cannot provide herself let alone provide goods to the international consumers would want
There's acually quite a few. B and K Components and Legacy Audio to name 2, but you should venture onto whybuymadeinusa.com for a more comprehensive list.
By the way, I am not an American but BS should be called by what it is and Japan, with its whys and whens of intervening in the currency market is exactly that. Japan's present economic problems have very little to do with a 'strong' Yen. In the early 2000s Japan was allowed to greatly weaken its Yen so that the two-tier Japanese economy (foreign exports and domestic) could remedy the problems of the domestic one wiith the increased revenue from the foreign one.
Did Koizumi reform the domestic economy? Did he hell. He made it worse by impoverishing the Japanese worker through legislating changes in the work contract in the hope that Japan might hold on to its manufacturing base in direct competition with developing economies.
In Japan we are in this present economic mess because of the missed opportunities of the LDP in 2001 -2005. America is quite right, this Yen is only strong relative to the Y133 levels of 2002. In real economic terms, in 2011, Japan is a net creditor and Yen should probably be stronger, if not for the Japanese government's currency manipulation.
Posted in: U.S. Treasury criticizes Japan yen intervention
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Dog
SamuraiBlue @ Dog If the US starts creating something within her domestic borders to export that people wants around the world then your argument may hold water until then it's a pie in the sky plan.
Its not that The US has to start exporting anything to anyone. The US can quite happily and with ease manufacture and produce for its own market. It's that others have to stop relying on exporting to the US for their prosperity and create their own domestic markets. Japan does this and has done this, with others (Germany and Korea for example), by manipulating the true value of their currency.
The Japanese have to ease up on the government being the prime consumer of Japanese society, by lowering taxes, raising the standard of living of the average Japanese (legislate to ensure housing is both well spaced and affordable for example) and increasing the quality of life for the average Japanese (legislate strictly on a 40 hour working week and all holidays are taken).
Basically, in layman's terms, Japan has to change into a consumer society with a developed service and information economy, and get away from this present neo-mercantilist economy.
This currency manipulation serves nobody and delays the inevitable; irrelevent of what economic / fiscal policies the US does or doesn't follow in the future.
Simple.
Posted in: U.S. Treasury criticizes Japan yen intervention
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Dog
ExportExpert USA should have sorted its own mess out first then none of the intervention would have been needed, tell the USA go sit on it.
Gurukun Thumbs up for ExportExpert!! Well said!
Japan continually runs trade surpluses and relies on exporting itself out of recession, rather than creating a healthy domestic demand. Nobody wants to see a return to the dark 1930's currency wars of 'begger thy neighbour', but Japan is taking us there with her currency manipulation and she, with her export driven economy, is the last nation who would want to. This world economic crises will only be truly resolved when some sort of balance between nation manufacturers( read Asia) and nation consumers (read The West) is put into place. Japan with its 50 year old one party trick of 'export export export' is making the world crises worst. Mercantilism, from its birth, has the seeds of its own destruction, if it is continued as the only policy. Eventually, if the natural order of the markets operate, the currency will rise to such a level that an alternative model to exports is needed. Japan, thru currency manipulation, and Germany, thru the Euro crises, are just trying to keep the mercantile model operating, long after its sell-by-date. This has nothing to do with US economic policies.
Posted in: U.S. Treasury criticizes Japan yen intervention
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Dog
NetNinjaDec. 12, 2011 - 08:57AM JST This will be good for young Japanese to see as well.
As if that's gonna happen. What do you think Japan is, a democratic society with freedom of expression?
I've got more chance of picking up a 'Mishima A Life In Four Chapters' DVD in my local video shop, than getting to watch this and god forbid any film theatre that dares attempt to show it. The black van boys and the LDP politicians will come out in force.
Posted in: Christian Bale denies Nanjing Massacre film is propaganda
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Dog
She was underage for the legal age of drinking, which is 21.
She is around or 19 years old since she was attending Kyushu University of Nursing and Social Welfare.
By the afternoon news it sounds like the woman's crying rape in revenge for him telling his mates that he had porked her.
He's still a dick for slipping one to his students, but this is Japan!!!
Posted in: Olympic judo gold medalist arrested on suspicion of raping teenage girl
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Dog
Patrick and Bea are great people and sincere about their goals.
I worked for them back in 1994, when they just had the 3 English Studio schools - 2 in west Tokyo and 1 in Funabori. Even then Patrick was always looking to the bigger picture.
Keep up the good work.
Posted in: Tokyo International School
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Dog
Yeah the FTA is gonna happen between the 2 most neo-mercantilist economies in the world.
Me thinks not
Posted in: 70 S Korean, Japanese lawmakers call for FTA agreement