business

From the WSJ:

To further protect the market, Japan resisted rice imports until the Uruguay Round of global trade talks in 1995, when it agreed to start buying some 682,000 tons of foreign rice a year, mostly from the U.S. But the Japanese government, which controls rice sales, doesn't sell the imported rice on the market. That is because Japan produces more rice than consumers eat.

From the Japan Times, an article about consumer protectionism states:

Also attending the meeting were Yuka Murata, 46, whose 7-year-old son suffocated in 2007 after eating "konnyaku" (devil's-tongue) jelly, and Japan Federation of Bar Associations President Makoto Miyazaki.

This week-end, even if I live in a third world country with a teetering economy, I can still cut through the jungle with my machete as I make my way to the local rundown movie duplex and catch the latest Indian Jones movie, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Skulls. However, if I live in the worlds second biggest economy, a country known for its high tech gadgetry, can I see the movie? No. Japan is literally one month behind every other country showing the film.

According the Yomiuri:

A government panel said Monday the consumption tax rate would have to be raised from the current 5 percent to between 9.5 percent and 18 percent if a fully tax-funded system is employed to finance the basic pension as part of envisaged reforms.

Okay. Let's think about this. Pension funds are underfunded. Why? Well, aside from the facts that the record-keeping is incredibly inept, the pension calculations were probably poorly done.

As I write this it now takes 114.52 yen to purchase a dollar (link). So let's ask the question again, are people still unwinding those carry trades?

A post about booms and busts and banking.

Aside from the fact that this isn't good, I'm not entirely sure what else it means, but ... Housing starts have fallen precipitously in the last couple of months. Stricter earthquake-proofing regulations and the economy are cited as factors. Here's the graph from the Asahi: The number on the right is the housing starts in the tens of thousands.

Note that carry trades should not really exist for any discernible amount of time. Interest weight fluctuations should be reflected in currency values. So why is the following happening --

Investors have resumed selling yen as part of the so-called carry trade, buying higher-yielding currencies with funds borrowed in Japan, where the benchmark overnight rate is 0.5 percent. This strategy unraveled, causing the yen to rebound from a 4 1/2-year low starting in June, when a sudden global surge in the cost of credit led investors to trim risky bets.

T or F: cheap cell phone rate in Japan is good news. False, at least apparently not in Japan. Ever wonder just how big cell phone consumption is in Japan? It is so big that if major service providers cut prices substantially it will actually cause the price index to significantly move downward. This means deflation. Is that desirable? Well, people didn't seem to like it during the great depression, but in some ways it is better than inflation. I mean, cell phone prices are too high in Japan, aren't they?

Some data on unemployment, prices, industrial production, and consumption ...