1% Growth! Please to Obey Abenomics Rule!

[Takechanpoo]

its all the fault of increasing in comsumption tax.
its a dogma for Zaimu-sho. i heard that most part of zaimu-sho brueacrats oppose to it.
but they cannot help obeying so-called "空気" to put it into effect.
but i dont understand why IMF too push it, eh?

[Wage Slave]

but i dont understand why IMF too push it, eh?

Let me help ......

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_future_gross_government_debt

[wagyl]

Veering off-topic but are you aware that you can voluntarily top up your national pension over and above the standard contributions?
http://www.nenkin.go.jp/n/www/english/detail.jsp?id=38

Additional Pension Plan

There is an extra voluntary plan to pay a small additional benefit to your Old-age Basic Pension. If you opt for this plan and pay the contribution of ￥400 / month, you can receive additional benefit, which is subject to early / delayed payment option. However, this contribution is not subject to the Lump-sum Withdrawal Payments.

Benefit Amount

Annual amount = ￥200 × Number of month to which you paid the Additional Contribution

[matsuki]

but i dont understand why IMF too push it, eh?

Let me help ......

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_future_gross_government_debt

Maybe it'll be like the Casino proposal, they'll separate the currency...Yen for FG and Yen for Japanese?

[Wage Slave]

Veering off-topic but are you aware that you can voluntarily top up your national pension over and above the standard contributions?
http://www.nenkin.go.jp/n/www/english/detail.jsp?id=38

Additional Pension Plan

There is an extra voluntary plan to pay a small additional benefit to your Old-age Basic Pension. If you opt for this plan and pay the contribution of ￥400 / month, you can receive additional benefit, which is subject to early / delayed payment option. However, this contribution is not subject to the Lump-sum Withdrawal Payments.

Benefit Amount

Annual amount = ￥200 × Number of month to which you paid the Additional Contribution

I wasn't really aware of that - thanks. I did get a letter the other day offering the opportunity to make extra voluntary contributions. SWMBO took a quick look and said it was offering a new facility to make back payments for years missed. We've both been too busy to take a closer look but I might well be interested given how poor the rewards on other low risk investments are at present and for the foreseeable.

What is it about the subject of pensions that makes me switch off and lose the will to live? Has to be done though, as depressing as it is.

[yanpa]

but i dont understand why IMF too push it, eh?

Let me help ......

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_future_gross_government_debt

Maybe it'll be like the Casino proposal, they'll separate the currency...Yen for FG and Yen for Japanese?

Foreign Exchange Certificates anyone?

[dimwit]

It seems that the 1.5% inflation rate isn't even that according to the IMF.

In-house calculations by the International Monetary Fund showed that Japan’s inflation rate, excluding the effects of foreign exchange fluctuations, has hovered around zero in 2014, sources said. The IMF figures indicate that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s package of economic and fiscal measures, designed to move Japan out of a deflationary state, has been less effective than government officials had hoped for. Although the results of the IMF calculations have not been made public, the figures were shown to finance ministers and central bankers at an October meeting of the IMF and the World Bank, according to sources in international finance. The nation’s overall inflation, excluding the effects from the April hike in the consumption tax rate from 5 percent to 8 percent, has been rising in the neighborhood of 1.5 percent on a year-on-year basis. The overall inflation is known as "headline inflation" in the financial market. But the IMF’s calculations showed that inflation remained basically flat when the effects from the weaker yen over the past year or so, such as higher prices for imported products and raw materials, were excluded. According to the calculations, consumer prices in Japan have risen by only up to 0.3 percent and even declined by 0.2 percent in 2014 on a year-on-year basis. In presenting the results of the calculations at the October meeting, IMF officials explained that not only has Japan’s inflation rate been around zero excluding the effects from the weaker yen, but also that Japan’s exports had not increased as much as expected with the slide in value of the Japanese currency.

http://www.asahi.com/english/articles/A ... 30020.html

[Samurai_Jerk]

Japan recession worse than thought

Japan's economy contracted more than initially thought in the July-September quarter, revised official data revealed Monday, showing the world's third largest economy sank deeper into recession.

The economy shrank 0.5 percent quarter-on-quarter, worse than the 0.4 percent estimated in initial data released three weeks ago, the Cabinet Office said.

The reading was much worse than the median forecast of a 0.1 percent quarterly shrinkage in a survey by the Nikkei economic daily.

[Mike Oxlong]

Japan’s Economic Dilemma: Comfortable Decline or Painful Revival?

“Recession,” “stagnation,” “slump,” were the ominous labels I constantly read describing Japan before I moved here in late 2009. After I’d settled in, a better word seemed “kaiteki,” which means “comfort,” and conveys a wide range of virtues like convenience, reliability, safety, even charm. I was struck by the disparity between the world’s perception of Japan and the remarkable feeling of prosperity here—compared not just with the bubble-era Japan I saw when last living here 20 years earlier, but with the America I experienced in the interim, during its own boom times.

Tokyo in recession showed none of the distress you would expect in the U.S. or Europe: no boarded-up storefronts, garbage piles, beggars, trashed subway stations or any hint of serious street crime. If anything, the city had spiffed up considerably during the “lost decades” of my absence. Near my financial-center workplace, the dumpy cinder-block office buildings with smoky coffee shops were replaced by gleaming towers anchored by gourmet dining and high-end clothing stores, bustling with customers. In my home neighborhood in a more traditional part of the city, old businesses did frequently shut down—but the space would close only during a frenzied weekend refurbishment, reopening Monday with rows of bouquets outside used to celebrate new openings.

The numbers don’t lie. Japan’s economy, by many measures, has been in historic decline, causing distress for a growing underclass of workers who lack permanent full-time jobs and for regions far from Tokyo where the population is shrinking. But the country has, by and large, managed a relatively comfortable, peaceful decline. That helps explain why it took so long for an aggressive response, in the form of Abenomics—and why the public has so quickly developed second thoughts.

Having covered Japan’s topsy-turvy politics and economics for The Wall Street Journal over the past five years, this is what I see as the defining tension in the country: deflationism vs. reflationism, two starkly different visions of Japan’s future.

Deflationists emphasize stability, see demography as destiny and believe Japan’s aging, shrinking population inevitably dictates a stagnant economy. Their response: minimize risk, disruption and division to make that transition as comfortable as possible—like a nation planning for retirement. Reflationists consider that outlook unnecessarily defeatist. To them, risks and disruptions are a price worth paying for a more expansive, dynamic future...

http://www.wsj.com/articles/japans-econ ... 1417640405

[wagyl]

The comment I would make about that journalist's experiences is that Tokyo is a special case: it is not really representative of the situation in the rest of the country.

[Samurai_Jerk]

The comment I would make about that journalist's experiences is that Tokyo is a special case: it is not really representative of the situation in the rest of the country.

How so?

[wagyl]

The comment I would make about that journalist's experiences is that Tokyo is a special case: it is not really representative of the situation in the rest of the country.

How so?

From where I view it, both as a past resident of Tokyo and a current resident of the declining countryside, there is a greater prosperity, a greater resilience to the recession still present in Tokyo. For an outsider, looking at national figures, who then travels to Tokyo and says "for all the talk of lost decades, the retail tenancies are never vacant and buildings are shiny and new," I think they are only getting one, non-representative view of the economic situation here. You could almost say that Tokyo is a vampire, looking healthy and longlived because it is sucking the lifeblood, the working age people and their families, out of the countryside. There are plenty of boarded up shopfronts and rust if you get out of Tokyo.

[matsuki]

The comment I would make about that journalist's experiences is that Tokyo is a special case: it is not really representative of the situation in the rest of the country.

How so?

From where I view it, both as a past resident of Tokyo and a current resident of the declining countryside, there is a greater prosperity, a greater resilience to the recession still present in Tokyo. For an outsider, looking at national figures, who then travels to Tokyo and says "for all the talk of lost decades, the retail tenancies are never vacant and buildings are shiny and new," I think they are only getting one, non-representative view of the economic situation here. You could almost say that Tokyo is a vampire, looking healthy and longlived because it is sucking the lifeblood, the working age people and their families, out of the countryside. There are plenty of boarded up shopfronts and rust if you get out of Tokyo.

As a frequent traveler between Wagyl's neighborhood (among other inaka) and Tokyo. I have to agree here. There are some revamped places around my Niigata stomping grounds...but they're all chain stores and there is a dismal amount of customers there each time I visit. Always hearing about them popping up here and there but soon failing. I think the only places that I ever worry about a parking spot are popular restaurants and pachinko (not that I partake in the latter but with N-1's the size of Costco everywhere there, one can't help but notice) Anyhow, Tokyo, on the other hand...is like the writer describes it...plunging forward despite the economic outlook....though the business owners aren't exactly the ones hurrt most by the current situation....especially in a cuntry where is not unheard of to "request donations" from employees or demand unpaid overtime work from them. (or just keep a bunch of baitos and never actually hire anyone on)

[dimwit]

According to our genius finance minister the any problems associated with Abenomics are all the result of poorly run businesses and women not having enough babies.

Aso explains Japan's problems: Young people, incompetent executives

Finance Minister Taro Aso effectively blamed young people for exacerbating Japan’s social security woes and said companies struggling under Abenomics are either unlucky or run by incompetent managers.

The gaffe-prone former prime minister made his observations on the campaign trail for the Dec. 14 Lower House election.

In a Dec. 7 speech in Sapporo for a candidate in the election, Aso said the trend of people having fewer children was the key reason the government was having difficulties financing snowballing social security expenditures. But he used a verb that generally refers to women.

“There are many people who are creating an image that elderly people should take the blame, but the more serious problem is that people are not giving birth,” he said.

http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_new ... 1412080021

None of the problems of course, are caused by having fuckwit geriatric finance ministers.

[Coligny]

Ehmmm... Nagoya is also sprouting boutiques and high rise tower in every direction... Hell... Even Toyohashi got more than a new mansion a year around the city center disfiguring the landscape.

Go to the countryside, yes, stuff is closing left and right... But don't mistake the effect of depopulation with recession... Little village dying is nothing new...

[Salty]

... None of the problems of course, are caused by having fuckwit geriatric finance ministers.

Or even by fuckwit LDP politicians and their bureaucrats who continue to pump deficit bond funded moneys to cartels who – surprise, surprise, continue to vote for them. I do not have the numbers, but if agriculture, fisheries, forestry, and construction lost their subsidies – I would guess that the budget would be balanced without needing the consumption tax.

[Russell]

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s campaign promises include comprehensive measures to lift the nation’s birthrate.

That's not the first time I hear that from them, but apparently the previous measures didn't work very well.

What are they going to do now?

Forced fertilization of the nation's flowers?!?

[Salty]

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s campaign promises include comprehensive measures to lift the nation’s birthrate.

That's not the first time I hear that from them, but apparently the previous measures didn't work very well.

What are they going to do now?

Forced fertilization of the nation's flowers?!?

That will be the next constitutional amendment – to specify the obligations of Japanese Nationals, rather than their rights. 3 rugrats per woman, minimum. Failure to produce them to bring strong tax penalty.

[wagyl]

Ehmmm... Nagoya is also sprouting boutiques and high rise tower in every direction... Hell... Even Toyohashi got more than a new mansion a year around the city center disfiguring the landscape.

Go to the countryside, yes, stuff is closing left and right... But don't mistake the effect of depopulation with recession... Little village dying is nothing new...

Your points are valid. I think what I am trying to say is that the effects of the recession are less visible in big proud places with names beginning with the letters T and O precisely because the regions are suffering, and working age people are moving to places where they at least have some chance of finding work. After all, how do you fill those new manshions in Toyohashi unless it is with people coming in to do the work still available there (thank you Gilberto and Jefferson for going back home to Sao Paulo).

[kurogane]

I agree with Waggy. Economic prosperity in Japan seems to have become a zero sum game rather than a rising tide and growing pie, and the regional population transfers seem to only be gathering pace. I am quite sure neither Osaka nor Kyoto are doing very well outside of short stop tourism and real rural areas are utterly dead, except for the tourist magnets like Shirakawa-go, onsen towns, and Okinawa, and very little of that is sustainable or useful industrial growth.

[IparryU]

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s campaign promises include comprehensive measures to lift the nation’s birthrate.

That's not the first time I hear that from them, but apparently the previous measures didn't work very well.

What are they going to do now?

Forced fertilization of the nation's flowers?!?

That will be the next constitutional amendment – to specify the obligations of Japanese Nationals, rather than their rights. 3 rugrats per woman, minimum. Failure to produce them to bring strong tax penalty.

well, i can help with the fertilization.

[J.A.F.O]

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s campaign promises include comprehensive measures to lift the nation’s birthrate.

That's not the first time I hear that from them, but apparently the previous measures didn't work very well.

What are they going to do now?

Forced fertilization of the nation's flowers?!?

That will be the next constitutional amendment – to specify the obligations of Japanese Nationals, rather than their rights. 3 rugrats per woman, minimum. Failure to produce them to bring strong tax penalty.

well, i can help with the fertilization.

Well I'm keeping up my end of the stick ... so to speak

[matsuki]

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s campaign promises include comprehensive measures to lift the nation’s birthrate.

That's not the first time I hear that from them, but apparently the previous measures didn't work very well.

What are they going to do now?

Forced fertilization of the nation's flowers?!?

That will be the next constitutional amendment – to specify the obligations of Japanese Nationals, rather than their rights. 3 rugrats per woman, minimum. Failure to produce them to bring strong tax penalty.

well, i can help with the fertilization.

Well I'm keeping up my end of the stick ... so to speak

Don't you mean "giving" your end of the stick?

[IparryU]

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s campaign promises include comprehensive measures to lift the nation’s birthrate.

That's not the first time I hear that from them, but apparently the previous measures didn't work very well.

What are they going to do now?

Forced fertilization of the nation's flowers?!?

That will be the next constitutional amendment – to specify the obligations of Japanese Nationals, rather than their rights. 3 rugrats per woman, minimum. Failure to produce them to bring strong tax penalty.

well, i can help with the fertilization.

Well I'm keeping up my end of the stick ... so to speak

Don't you mean "giving" your end of the stick?

Well, depending on how much contribution he has, keeping it up the whole time may be more difficult.

Dem double Y alpha male chromosomes!

[J.A.F.O]

I don't "give" it away anymore. But yea you could say that.

[J.A.F.O]

Don't you mean "giving" your end of the stick?

Well, depending on how much contribution he has, keeping it up the whole time may be more difficult.

Dem double Y alpha male chromosomes!

Yea my wife is at the point she just tells me to get/find a girl friend so she can get some damn sleep. She so tired of my alpha male bullshit anyways LOL

[matsuki]

my wife is at the point she just tells me to get find a girl friend so she can get some damn sleep.

Get that in writing!

[J.A.F.O]

my wife is at the point she just tells me to get find a girl friend so she can get some damn sleep.

Get that in writing!

If I ever do you and IPU are the first ones I'm going clubbing with, trolling for lemurs.

[matsuki]

I think IPU has been trollin' the senior centers lately...

[IparryU]

I think IPU has been trollin' the senior centers lately...

Already sick of young ones. Older ones are so much less hassel and they pay for shit.