Financial Times (January 14, 2014)
“One trend that is prompting parts of Japan Inc to shop abroad is the ageing population. Japanese banks and insurers, for example, are increasingly looking to the younger demographics of southeast Asia to build up their next generation of depositors and policy holders.” And while this was part of the rationale behind Suntory’s acquisition of Beam, a new overseas M&A boom is unlikely given the weak yen, especially as many “companies remain unwilling to borrow for expansion after years of cutting costs and hoarding cash.”
Tags: Acquisition, Ageing, Banks, Beam, Cutting costs, Demographics, Depositors, Expansion, Hoarding cash, Insurers, Japan, M&A boom, Overseas, Policy holders, Population, Southeast Asia, Suntory, Yen
Institutional Investor (September Issue)
“While Abe may have won the first couple of rounds, he will need to win plenty more before he can declare final victor in his high-stakes bid to turn around Japan, Inc…. For one, unless structural changes are made, demographics are likely to prove disastrous to Japan’s economy. For another, Japan’s nominal GDP is still at 2008 levels, meaning that it has stood still for the past five years. Finally, with public debt now exceeding 1,000 trillion yen ($10.2 trillion), time may be running out for Japan to sort out its problems.”
Tags: Abe, Debt, Demographics, Economy, GDP, Japan, Structural changes
Financial Times (September 18)
South Korea is increasingly turning to immigrants to fill 3D jobs considered dirty, difficult and dangerous. The “migrant worker population that has risen to around 540,000 from 49,500 in 1990” looks poised to continue growing. “With a looming demographic crunch driven by one of the world’s lowest birth rates, the reliance on foreign labour is likely to spread more broadly in this increasingly mature economy.”
Tags: Birth rates, Dangerous, Demographics, Difficult, Dirty, Foreign labour, Immigrants, Mature economy, Migrant workers, Population, South Korea
Wall Street Journal (November 25)
At a time when Japan really needs a leader, none of the candidates for Prime Minister measure up. “As giant problems in need of urgent solutions go, Japan is a thing of beauty. Its economy contracted by 3.5% on an annual basis from July to September, and slack exports and declining industrial production suggest another recession is coming. Demographic decline is well underway and Tokyo’s fiscal position—with debt roughly twice annual output—appears ever more precarious. So it’s a shame, as the Japanese head to the polls next month, that no candidate is offering even plausible solutions.”
Tags: Demographics, Economy, Election, Exports, Japan, Prime minister, Recession
Washington Post (May 18)
“America’s complexion is changing, literally.” Unlike Japan and many European countries, America’s population has continued to grow, largely thanks to immigrants. As a result, “minorities now account for more than half the babies born in America, a milestone in the path toward what demographers forecast will be an overall majority-minority population in 30 years.”
Tags: Demographics, Europe, Immigration, Japan, Minorities, Population, U.S.
Washington Post （April 6）
“The world’s most significant social, political and economic development is its aging population….Within five years, for the first time in history, the number of adults 65 and older will exceed the number of children younger than 5, the World Health Organization reports. By mid-century, this demographic will outnumber children younger than 14, and more than 2 billion of the people on Earth will be 60 or older.”
“The world’s most significant social, political and economic development is its aging population….Within five years, for the first time in history, the number of adults 65 and older will exceed the number of children younger than 5, the World Health Organization reports. By mid-century, this demographic will outnumber children younger than 14, and more than 2 billion of the people on Earth will be 60 or older.”
Tags: Aging, Demographics, Population, WHO
Bloomberg (January 5, 2012)
“The vanguard of a looming demographic shift” is beginning in China. In 2009, there were already 178 million Chinese over 60. By 2050, “that figure could reach 437 million—one third of the population.” Caring for them is expected to place an increasing burden on the state. This graying of the population resembles Japan, but brings a much larger challenge: “China will grow old before it gets rich.”
Tags: Aging society, China, Demographics, Graying, Japan
The Economist (December 17)
“Japanese firms spent a record $80 billion on some 620 foreign companies in 2011…, exceeding the previous record of 466 deals worth $75 billion in 2008.” This major shopping spree is different. Corporate Japan’s acquisitions of the 1980s showed strength. “This time, it is a symptom of weakness.” Multiple calamities made 2011 “wretched” for Japan and, due to long-term demographics, “Japanese firms find it nearly impossible to expand domestically.”
Tags: 2011, Calamities, Demographics, Japan, M&A, Overseas
