Japan 01 (May 08 - Dec 09)

[kennynah]

actually, i was angling in on how cooker-pressured Japan has become in the last 2 decades. to the point that one without a tertiary qualification is almost ensured failure in their society. very unlikely to obtain any meaningful job in any organisation. these girls are driven to survive buy selling their bodies. of cos, their sicked country also ensures no less demand for these AVs and magazines. easy to conclude by their acceptance of rubber dollies for sale, used underwears, fetish acts, etc...

when a country has lost their "values" and only emphasizes mindless paper chase, like singapore is becoming, it can lead to such degradations. it's sometimes a gradual process, such as legalising drugs, gambling(casinos), sex tourism, etc..and not obvious. like a frog thrown into a pot of water under fire... wont feel it till it's too late...

[winston]

There's a generation of lost young people in Japan due to the decade long slowdown..

[helios]

There's a generation of lost young people in Japan due to the decade long slowdown..

delinquents?

[kennynah]

some call them "artists" or "entertainers", or simply "porn stars"

[winston]

Tokyo land prices rise 17.5%, nationwide 10%

TOKYO - Land prices in Tokyo rose 17.5 per cent last year in the biggest increase by far since Japan's bubble years, a government survey showed on Tuesday, although rural areas have yet to share in the recovery.

The rise in Tokyo property prices, which was the fourth straight year of increases, followed a 17 per cent rise in 2006, the tax agency said.

Led by the increase in Tokyo, average national land prices rose 10.0 per cent last year after an 8.6 per cent increase in 2006, marking the third straight year of increases, it said.

Property price growth outside of Tokyo was patchy, however.

Land prices in the central Japan city of Nagoya, close to the home of world's No 1 automaker Toyota Motor Corp rose 10.9 per cent, a bigger increase than 9.1 per cent in 2006.

But in Osaka, western Japan, property prices rose 7.4 per cent, a smaller increase than the previous year's 8.1 per cent, the tax agency said.

Property prices fell in 28 of Japan's 47 prefectures last year, the tax agency said.

Land prices in rural areas were flat last year, suggesting that the property boom in Tokyo has yet to spread broadly across the nation even as the economy shows signs of peaking.

Japan's economic recovery has boosted demand for office buildings and fuelled investment in real estate in big cities, with rapid rises in Tokyo's retail heart seen by some economists as driven by speculative investment.

But the economy is expected to have contracted in the second quarter of this year on slowing global growth and slack domestic demand.

Analysts say tighter global credit conditions after last year's US sub-prime mortgage loan crisis could also cool property investment.

Japan's land prices had dived since the early 1990s after the nation's asset price bubble burst, leaving a huge amount of bad loans in the banking sector and crippling the economy for a decade.

The National Tax Agency evaluates land prices as of Jan 1 every year to calculate property tax. It is among the several property surveys published by the government. -- REUTERS

[winston]

Japan business sentiment falls less than expected

TOKYO - Confidence among big Japanese manufacturers fell to a five-year low in June, a central bank survey showed, but the fall was less than expected, hitting Japanese bonds while helping push up shares.

Capital spending plans by companies were the weakest in six years for a June survey, but again not as bad as economists had expected in the wake of the US credit crunch and resulting slowdown in some key Japanese export markets.

Japanese shares rose about 0.5 per cent while Japanese government bond prices tumbled, as derivative contracts priced in a larger chance of a rate hike by the Bank of Japan (BOJ).

'The key thing shown in the tankan is that the Japanese economy is slowing but not at as rapid a pace as expected,' said Takahide Kiuchi, chief economist at Nomura Securities.

'The pace of worsening in business sentiment is moderating and it looks unlikely that the economy is heading toward a deep adjustment,' he added.

The headline index for big manufacturers' sentiment dropped to plus 5 from plus 11 in the previous survey in March, a tad above the market's median forecast of plus 3.

It has fallen for three straight quarters and was the lowest since September 2003, when it was plus 1.

The index for September was seen at plus 4, showing firms expect conditions to worsen a bit more over the next three months.

The index is calculated from the percentage of firms reporting a favourable business environment minus those reporting unfavourable conditions.

The Japanese yen ticked up about 0.1 per cent on the data to around 106.10 per dollar after the data.

Swap contracts are pricing in 33 per cent chance of a rate hike in the second half of this year, compared to about 25 per cent late on Monday. The Japanese economy has been hit by a double whammy of rising energy and raw materials costs and a slowdown in exports in the wake of the credit crisis.

The BOJ has made it clear - especially since Masaaki Shirakawa took the helm as Governor in April - that it is more concerned about downside economic risks now, even as other major central banks worry increasingly about inflation.

While the BOJ has said the Japanese economy will slow down only temporarily before returning to a moderate growth path later this year, it has also stressed that uncertainty is large because of lingering concerns over the health of Western banks.

The BOJ is also worried that soaring oil and food prices are eating into Japanese corporate profits and hurting consumer sentiment, rather than fuelling broader inflation.

Analysts say Japan's relatively low inflation levels also give the bank some leeway in dealing with inflation.

Japan's core annual consumer inflation hit a decade-high 1.5 per cent in May, but it is still well below that of other major industrialised nations.

The tankan showed big firms planned to increase capital spending - a key engine for Japan's growth - by 2.4 per cent in the year to March next year, slightly above the median market forecast from economists for a 2.0 per cent rise.

However, companies slashed their profit outlook. Big companies expect their recurring profits to fall 7.0 per cent in the financial year to March 2009, compared to their forecast of 0.3 per cent rise three months ago. -- REUTERS

[winston]

From Bloomberg:-

``Now that the economy is slowing and land prices have started falling, banks have become very sensitive about risks associated with real-estate companies,'' said Mitsushige Akino, who manages the equivalent of $557 million at Ichiyoshi Investment Management Co. in Tokyo.

A gauge representing 56 developers plunged to the lowest since March 31 and was the biggest loser among 33 industry groups on the Topix.

The Markit iTraxx Japan index, a measure of the cost to protect corporate bonds from default, jumped yesterday to the highest in more than three months, Morgan Stanley prices showed.

``The measures investors usually go by to evaluate stocks are out of order,'' Fukoku's Sakurai said. ``They're only attracted to companies with products that have demand globally or to shares that have fallen recently.''

[winston]

Bloomberg: Japan’s wholesale inflation rises to a 27-year high

“Japan’s wholesale inflation rate rose to a 27-year high in June as companies raised prices to counter record oil and commodity costs.

“Producer prices climbed 5.6% from a year earlier, after a revised 4.8% gain in May, the Bank of Japan said in Tokyo today. The median estimate of 36 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News was for 5.3%.

“Oil, wheat and soybean costs have almost doubled in the past year, forcing companies to charge more and fanning the fastest consumer-price inflation in a decade. Costs are gaining faster than firms can raise prices, prompting businesses to predict the first profit decline in seven years, a report last week showed.

“‘Producer prices are rising so rapidly that companies can’t absorb them,’ said Junko Nishioka, an economist at RBS Securities Japan in Tokyo. ‘Higher prices are squeezing profits to the point where companies have no choice but to pass costs onto consumers.’”

Source: Mayumi Otsuma, Bloomberg, July 10, 2008.

[millionairemind]

Japan's Freddie, Fannie exposure totals $56 billion
Nikkei reports FSA to look into exposure to U.S. lending giants' assets
By Lisa Twaronite, MarketWatch

Last update: 3:21 p.m. EDT July 14, 2008Comments: 22

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Japan's three megabanks and major insurance companies had nearly 9 trillion yen ($56 billion) in debt securities issued by U.S. lending giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as of March 31, according to a published report.

In light of the rapidly eroding market confidence in the U.S. financial giants, the Financial Services Agency -- Japan's financial watchdog -- will start looking into domestic financial institutions' exposure to debts issued by those firms, business daily Nikkei said in a report on its Web site Tuesday.

Most Japanese financial institutions say they plan to sit back and assess the situation for now, citing no need to immediately change investment strategies, the Nikkei added.

"Japan's exposure to the U.S. subprime was marginal, but the Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae story is different," wrote Marc Chandler, head of currency strategy at Brown Brothers Harriman, in a note to clients.
The report on Japan's likely exposure to Freddie and Fannie highlights the potentially global impact of the latest financial sector woes, he said.
"In addition to Japanese bank exposures, recall that numerous central banks have bought Agency bonds for reserves. The failure of these agencies would pose systemic risk not just to the U.S. financial system but the global system," according to Chandler.

{Truncated}

[kennynah]

BOJ Holds Interest Rates at 0.50 percent
7/15/2008 12:37 AM ET

(RTTNews) - The Bank of Japan's Board of Governors voted to leave the overnight call rate unchanged at 0.50 percent for the 20th consecutive meeting, the BOJ said Tuesday at the conclusion of its two-day monetary policy meeting in Tokyo. The bank added that the economy was slowing further on high energy costs and capex.

In a move that was widely expected, the board voted unanimously to keep the rate unchanged for the eighth straight meeting. The BOJ has kept rates unchanged since a 0.25 percent increase in February 2007.