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Japan's factory output down in red flag for economy

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the first fall in six months and the latest red flag for the world’s No. 3 economy, official data showed Tuesday.

Japan is buried in "red" flags! I am wondering when a "white" one is going to come from Abe!

2 ( +6 / -4 )

A weak yen has helped prop up the economy by driving exports

The weak yen helps to perpetuate the status quo of stale old companies producing stuff for which there is no growth in demand. A good old clean out is in order.

but inflation and consumer spending remain weak as cautious firms avoid big pay hikes.

Inflation remaining weak is one of few bright signs for the Japanese consumer. But consumer spending remaining weak and firms cautious suggests a lack-luster economic environment indeed.

I'd offer that Japan's economic actors should be producing different types of product, that are (or hoped to be) in higher demand.

The data dampen hopes for Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s efforts to produce meaningful growth with a policy blitz, dubbed Abenomics.

I personally got over such hopes way back in November 2015, as the promised reforms of Abenomics never eventuated, and to make matters worse the LDP again resorted to election bribes.

The Bank of Japan (BOJ), aiming to create two-percent inflation to achieve sustainable growth,

I believe that the notion of two-percent inflation being a prerequisite for sustainable growth is totally false. Amazing that this is not questioned.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

Amazing that this is not questioned.

What, in Japan, is questioned? It is because the people never question what their political and business leaders do that Japan is in the mess it is.

I personally got over such hopes way back in November 2015, as the promised reforms of Abenomics never eventuated,

As soon as Japan began to demand exemptions in TPP it was obvious that Abenomics was over. Trade reform of the type which TPP in it's original form would have provided was the first, and lowest step necessary to pulling the economy out of the mud. But when Japan could not make even that step, there was no way further, more difficult steps would be taken.

But then Abenonomics was never about improving the economy. It was only a ploy to use taxpayer money to buy votes from the taxpayer to keep the LDP in power. The main beneficiaries of the various stimulus programs are the LDP and Japan Inc, and certainly not the ordinary Japanese people.

I'd offer that Japan's economic actors should be producing different types of product, that are (or hoped to be) in higher demand.

Japan's economy was built upon a weak yen, lower labor costs, and a lack of industrialized competition. The world has changed. Japan can no longer excessively debauch the yen, labor costs are high, and industrialized competitors are numerous. The world has changed, but Japan refuses to change with it.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

Up. Down. In. Out. Shake it all about.

The Dow Jones/Nikkei/Footsie hokey cokey

(Am. hokey pokey)

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

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