The Economist (March 2)
“Japan’s plan to let in more low-skilled migrants is half-baked. The rules are too woolly and too onerous, and support for new arrivals too scant.”
Tags: Half-baked, Japan, Low-skilled, Migrants, Onerous, Plan, Rules
The Economist (February 16)
“Ageing and robots are more closely related than you might think. Young countries with many children have few robots. Ageing nations have lots.” South Korea, Singapore, Germany and Japan top the list, but there needs to be a shift in focus. “An ageing world needs more resourceful robots” that can help care for seniors “rather than take people’s jobs.”
The Economist (November 17)
“More than half of Japanese babies can expect to live to 100.” This blessing presents Japan with a tremendous challenge “to stay solvent as it turns silver.” Among the G7, Japan now has the highest “share of over-65s in work,” but this not enough. “If Japanese people are going to live to 100 they will have to retire much later than 70.”
LA Times (November 5)
Though the “Trump administration slapped tough U.S. sanctions on Iran’s energy, banking and shipping industries,” there are “gaping holes” as the White House “granted waivers to the six largest importers of Iranian oil.” China, India, South Korea, Turkey, Italy and Japan accounted for “more than 75% of Iran’s oil exports last year.”
Tags: Banking, China, Energy, Exports, India, Iran, Italy, Japan, Oil, Sanctions, Shipping, South Korea, Trump, Turkey, U.S., Waivers
The Economist (November 3)
It’s “sunrise in Tokyo… After three decades out of fashion, the country’s companies are ready for a revival.” At last, “Japan’s stock market is poised for a comeback.” Japan has had and still has its detractors, but “for the first time in years, Japanese companies are playing a tune that investors are able to whistle.”
CNN (October 25)
“Donald Trump’s unconventional diplomacy is pushing China and Japan closer together…. Still, despite the US hostility” moving the countries “closer together, the two countries’ long and fractious history makes an easy and lasting rapprochement difficult.”
Tags: China, Diplomacy, Hostility. History, Japan, Rapprochement, Trump, Unconventional, US
Financial Times (October 21)
“Investors should expect decades of selling pressure on Japanese stocks from the most implacable bears in the market: the recently deceased…. The relentless sell-off, which threatens to intensify until the year 2040 as the huge, wealthy postwar baby boom generation expires, arises from an estimate that about 80 per cent of inherited shares are immediately sold by heirs.”
Tags: Baby boom, Bears, Deceased, Heirs, Inherited, Investors, Japan, Market, Selling pressure, Stocks
Bloomberg (October 1)
“Stocks of the so-called sogo shosha, the groups that drove Japan’s postwar export success—the likes of Itochu Corp., Marubeni Corp. and Mitsubishi Corp.—have rallied as much as 36 percent over the last year, outpacing the race to a three-decade high by the broad Topix Index. The trading companies’ free cash-flow levels are above those reached in their heyday, and their leverage much lower.”
Tags: Export, FCF, Itochu, Japan, Leverage, Marubeni, Mitsubishi, Outpacing, Postwar, Rallied, Sogo shosha, Success, Topix
The Economist (September 22)
“Mr Abe may be burning to give Japan a more normal foreign policy, but what it needs most is a more normal economy. His signature policy—Abenomics—is far from complete. The fiscal and monetary expansion, his first two “arrows”, were supposed to buy time for the third and most important one: sweeping structural reforms, leading to enduring growth. The economy should take precedence over constitutional reform… Otherwise, Mr Abe will be remembered less for his long tenure than for wasting it.”
Tags: Abe, Abenomics, Arrows, Constitutional reform, Economy, Expansion, Fiscal, Foreign policy, Growth, Japan, Monetary, Structural reforms
Time (August 23)
It is shocking “that more than 65% of Japanese medical doctors who responded to a survey said reducing the entrance exam scores for women is unavoidable, since the extreme working hours make it impossible for female doctors to work full time while taking care of their children. Japanese society still sees household chores and childcare as the main responsibility of women, whether or not they are in paid employment.”
Tags: Children, Doctors, Employment, Exam, Full-time, Household, Japan, Scores, Survey, Women, Working hours
