The G7 is due to meet in Essen, Germany this weekend, and there are dark rumblings that Japan may be called to account for failing to allow its currency to rise as the dollar falls, which has forced the euro to appreciate to a greater extent than the yen, which has remained the weakest of …
Tag: Japanese economy
Will they or won’t they?
The "they" in the title of this post are, of course, the members of the Bank of Japan's Policy Board, and the 120.54 million yen question is whether its members will vote to raise interest rates on Thursday.Call me naive, but I'm used to the Fed's way of doing business, namely advertising the direction of …
Open Stackelberg Warfare in Japan
I have previously noted tension between the Bank of Japan and Abe Shinzo's governing coalition regarding the timing of the next round of interest rate hikes. It seems that that tension has become open warfare between monetary authorities and LDP and government officials in advance of this week's meeting of the BOJ's Policy Board.As this …
A Japan of regions
Nikkei's leading editorial today, found here (in Japanese), is an urgent call for action on the "regional" problem in Japanese society. The problem is that Japan, like France and other countries, is extraordinarily top-heavy: Tokyo, like Paris, plays a disproportionately large role in all facets of Japanese life. And, as Tokyo grows, Japan's regions wither …
Future-shocked Japan
I first want to wish a happy and healthy New Year to all of my readers.After a bit of break, I'm back to posting, although my posts will most likely be on a more abstract level, like, say, this post, because Japan is on holiday for the week.The title of this post refers to the …
Japan’s comparative advantage?
Reuters has a story today on Japan's booming "elderly services" industry. As I've written before in this space -- and noted in a number of conversations -- Japan may be poised to reap an enormous economic windfall not only from its own "greying," but from the greying of the world, include its soon-to-be-considerably-older neighbor, China.As …
Nikkei sends a warning shot across the bow
Nikkei's lead editorial today discusses a meeting this week between Prime Minister Abe and BOJ President Fukui.The meeting itself was uneventful, but Nikkei uses the occasion to warn of undue political pressure by the government on the BOJ in advance of the 2007 elections. It concludes with a call for the government to respect the …
The Susanoo boom?
Once again David Pilling, the FT's Tokyo correspondent, has a superb analytic piece on Japan, in this case the Japanese economic recovery (unfortunately subscription only). He reports that forthcoming statistics are expected to confirm that the economic recovery that began in 2001 will surpass the fifty-eight-month "Izanagi" boom that lasted from 1965 to 1970.He cautions …
Takenaka criticizes Fukui (and the Abe cabinet?)
With the Bank of Japan sending signals that it will raise Japan's interest rates soon, Takenaka Heizo, former Prime Minister Koizumi's point man on the economy and structural reform, has criticized the BoJ (and implicitly its president) for prematurely tightening monetary policy, reports the FT.For a high-ranking "Koizumian" to criticize Japan's monetary policy -- which …
Continue reading Takenaka criticizes Fukui (and the Abe cabinet?)
Fukui’s itchy trigger finger
It seems that while Prime Minister Abe is busy fending off opposition attacks in the Diet on nuclear weapons, Fukui Toshihiko, the president of the Bank of Japan, has been signaling that the BoJ will be raising interest rates again soon, this despite ambiguous signs about the strength of Japan's recovery.There are serious questions whether …
Tobias S. Harris 