The Economist (March 19)
The Economist Intelligence Unit just announced the most expensive cities in the world. Due to inflation, Tokyo doesn’t rank in the top 10. “Singapore marks its sixth straight year at the top of the rankings, and is joined there by Hong Kong and Paris.” Osaka was the only Japanese city to make the top 10 in “the survey, which compares prices across 160 products and services.”
Financial Times (June 9)
For the first time in over four decades, Japan earned more in tourism than it spent. This last happened in 1970 when “the Apollo moon landing was still fresh in the memory, Osaka was hosting Asia’s first World’s Fair and a dollar bought three-and-a-half-times more yen than it does today.” Visitors from Asia have skyrocketed as destinations in Japan have gone from “prohibitively expensive” to reasonable, aided by the drop in the yen and higher disposable incomes elsewhere in Asia.
Tags: Apollo, Asia, Destinations, Dollar, Incomes, Japan, Osaka, Prohibitive, Reasonable, Tourism, Visitors, World’s Fair, Yen
Institutional Investor (October Issue)
“Atsushi Saito has reinvigorated the Japanese exchange world with a merger and a technology overhaul. Now comes the hard part: winning back market share in Asia.” Following the merger of the Tokyo and Osaka exchanges, the Japan Exchange Group ranks third behind only the NYSE Euronext and Nasdaq OMX. “JPX now controls more than 90 percent of all equity-and derivatives-trading volume in Japan.” Yet, “despite its lead in listed companies, JPX trails in foreign listings. It’s also weak in terms of options, futures contracts and exchange-traded funds (ETFs), compared with the big U.S. exchanges”
Tags: Asia, Atsushi Saito, Derivatives, Equities, ETFs, Futures, IT, Japan, JPX, Market share, Merger, Nasdaq OMX, NYSE Euronext, Options, Osaka, Tokyo, Trading volume, U.S.
Bloomberg (July 26)
“Everyone from officials at the U.S. Treasury to punters in London trading pits to salarymen in Osaka are so ecstatic to see a Japanese leader acting boldly that they’ve forgotten to study his strategy. It’s great that Abe wants to shake Japan Inc. out of two decades of complacency. It’s equally important, though, that his fixes are the right ones and are implemented carefully.”
Tags: Abe, Bold, Japan, Japan Inc., Leader, London, Osaka, Salarymen, Strategy, Trading, Treasury, U.S.
Wall Street Journal (June 12)
“Rents go down, grocery bills shrink, companies lay off workers and people move away to live in the countryside—and yet somehow Tokyo continues to be among the world’s most expensive cities for expatriates to live in.” Tokyo shot back to the top of Mercer’s annual list of the most expensive cities in the world. The strength of the yen was a major factor. Osaka ranked third and Nagoya tenth.
“Rents go down, grocery bills shrink, companies lay off workers and people move away to live in the countryside—and yet somehow Tokyo continues to be among the world’s most expensive cities for expatriates to live in.” Tokyo shot back to the top of Mercer’s annual list of the most expensive cities in the world. The strength of the yen was a major factor. Osaka ranked third and Nagoya tenth.