The blog is a continual work in progress. There are many articles that don't have any comments or ideas yet. Eventually all will have some kind of ideas related to the articles.
The focus is always on the practical and not so much the academic side. Business and economics are social sciences, meaning they are about companies, people, and society, and not just numbers or statistics.
Dr. Peter Drucker, while in academia for most of his life, was a prolific writer that focused on companies, business managers, and society. He didn't focus too much on writing for academics. He wrote for a wider audience, to improve businesses, managers, and society.
Dr. Drucker felt he had a higher calling to reach the widest possible audience, and not just a narrow audience of academics. Writing for academics is important, but he felt his mission was to reach those who were in business and to a wider point to those in society.
Dr. Drucker's ideas were widely accepted in Japan but not so much early on in the US. As such Japanese companies and even society accepted his approaches to how business should be run and operated.
Maybe the Japanese culture, at the time, was more in-tune with his management ideas, while it took some time for US companies to accept or understand his ideas.
The ideas of this blog again, is not so much to write like Dr. Drucker. That would be impossible, to have the exact mind and spirit of Dr. Drucker.
But to focus on Japanese business, economy, and society and just give some insights into the practical side of the above.
The ideas are not meant to be exactly academic but again practical observations of what might be going on in Japan.
The ideas might not even be exactly correct, as they are just ideas and observations.
The blog is always being reviewed and re-written as needed to get the right tone of the ideas and of course to re-write if mistakes and errors occur, which happens often and are corrected as needed.
We live in a global world, global society, or used too, and as such no country is isolated from any other country. We live in an interconnected world.
But of course there is now a "new normal" in the global world, to be more precise a "new normal" is now a work in progress and countries, economies, and societies trying to figure out what is going on and how to move forward.
One idea of the blog is to see how Japan is moving forward in the "new normal".
The blog has tried, for the most part, to stay away from the"gloom and doom" of what is going on and try to find the positive in all things related to Japan. If that is even possible these days.
Have a nice day and stay safe out there!
Tuesday, June 9, 2020
Sunday, June 7, 2020
Reuters: Japan Economy:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/japans-economy-minister-keeps-focus-015751551.html
Article:
Article:
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan should focus on back-stopping struggling businesses rather than trying to spark overall demand in fighting the coronavirus pandemic, its economy minister said, suggesting the central bank should avoid pushing interest rates deeper into negative territory.
The remark by Yasutoshi Nishimura, made in an exclusive interview with Reuters, underscores the challenge Tokyo faces in supporting an economy bracing for its worst postwar slump, while preventing a renewed spike in infections.
Ideas:
There is a lot of debate now on what governments and economies should do to reduce the fall out and or stimulate the economy and helps its citizens.
It appears Japan is taking the approach of help struggling business as an approach. While whatever approach will help some, but for how long will companies need to be helped until overall demand returns or some kind of demand returns so that businesses don't have to depend on government help.
Pushing interests even lower than are already, at negative rates, might have an extreme affect on banks. In economics and everything there are positives and negatives. While negative rates might help businesses and families, in the short term, there is no sure thing that banks can survive on super low rates.
Article:
Ideas:
There is a lot of debate now on what governments and economies should do to reduce the fall out and or stimulate the economy and helps its citizens.
It appears Japan is taking the approach of help struggling business as an approach. While whatever approach will help some, but for how long will companies need to be helped until overall demand returns or some kind of demand returns so that businesses don't have to depend on government help.
Pushing interests even lower than are already, at negative rates, might have an extreme affect on banks. In economics and everything there are positives and negatives. While negative rates might help businesses and families, in the short term, there is no sure thing that banks can survive on super low rates.
Article:
"What's most important now is to protect jobs and help businesses survive the pandemic," Nishimura said in the interview conducted on Saturday.
"We're not at a stage yet where we want to stimulate consumption and encourage people to travel a lot. Efforts to stimulate consumption should wait a bit more," he said.
Nishimura made the comments when asked whether the Bank of Japan should consider measures to stimulate demand, such as deepening negative interest rates.
Japan's approach contrasts with that of Western countries that are already shifting from crisis-response to policies aimed at propping up growth.
Ideas:
Very interesting ideas. "Were not at a stage yet where we want to stimulate consumption, spending, and encourage people to travel a lot."
I understand the need to maybe keep travel down, but an economy, market economies, depend on consumer spending.
The Japanese GDP is about 60 percent consumer spending, with business spending/investment, government spending, and exports-imports the other part of GDP. If the economy doesn't see an increase in consumer spending back to some kind of normalcy, then the government needs to step in, which it has been doing and cover the slack related to decreases in consumer spending.
Business spending is down and exports are down, so only government spending can add something to the economy at the moment.
Businesses need consumers back in the market and not on the sidelines waiting for everything to be perfect before they return to the market place.
The Japanese government has a different approach than the western countries. Lets see if it works and the economy can try to get back to some kind of "new normal."
Article:
Ideas:
Very interesting ideas. "Were not at a stage yet where we want to stimulate consumption, spending, and encourage people to travel a lot."
I understand the need to maybe keep travel down, but an economy, market economies, depend on consumer spending.
The Japanese GDP is about 60 percent consumer spending, with business spending/investment, government spending, and exports-imports the other part of GDP. If the economy doesn't see an increase in consumer spending back to some kind of normalcy, then the government needs to step in, which it has been doing and cover the slack related to decreases in consumer spending.
Business spending is down and exports are down, so only government spending can add something to the economy at the moment.
Businesses need consumers back in the market and not on the sidelines waiting for everything to be perfect before they return to the market place.
The Japanese government has a different approach than the western countries. Lets see if it works and the economy can try to get back to some kind of "new normal."
Article:
Under Nishimura's initiative, the government compiled two spending packages worth a combined $2.2 trillion to cushion the economic blow from the pandemic.
The BOJ joined in by easing monetary policy for two straight months in April, focusing on steps to ease corporate funding strains.
On whether the BOJ should join government efforts to inject capital into ailing companies, Nishimura said: "This is an area the government can handle. We hope the BOJ plays its part in helping financial institutions meet corporate funding strains."
Japan slipped into recession this year and is expected to suffer an annualised 20% contraction in the current quarter, as the government's decision to declare a state of emergency in April forced citizens to stay home and businesses to close.
Ideas:
It seems a two pronged approach is being used here. The Bank of Japan will work with ailing banks and financial companies to meet company funding challenges and the Japanese government is injecting capital into companies with challenges.
A 20 percent annualised contraction seems a bit severe at this point. It has to be remembered when governments or whomever make projects, they are at best, "best guesses" as no one, because of human behavior, can really accurately predict how much exactly. It could be 10 percent, 15 percent, or even 25 percent.
And everything is related to human behavior as companies, businesses, society, consumers,overall economies are all people, subject to the fears, worries, and anxiety of the moment and the future, especially now.
Japan used a different approach compared to the western countries and the forced shutdown was more of a suggestion. But it seemed to work, or so it seems, in reducing the virus situation in Japan, for now.
But again, a market economy can not exist on no human or company activity. It depends on companies operating, spending, investing. People/workers working and out and about spending some of their income.
Article:
Ideas:
It seems a two pronged approach is being used here. The Bank of Japan will work with ailing banks and financial companies to meet company funding challenges and the Japanese government is injecting capital into companies with challenges.
A 20 percent annualised contraction seems a bit severe at this point. It has to be remembered when governments or whomever make projects, they are at best, "best guesses" as no one, because of human behavior, can really accurately predict how much exactly. It could be 10 percent, 15 percent, or even 25 percent.
And everything is related to human behavior as companies, businesses, society, consumers,overall economies are all people, subject to the fears, worries, and anxiety of the moment and the future, especially now.
Japan used a different approach compared to the western countries and the forced shutdown was more of a suggestion. But it seemed to work, or so it seems, in reducing the virus situation in Japan, for now.
But again, a market economy can not exist on no human or company activity. It depends on companies operating, spending, investing. People/workers working and out and about spending some of their income.
Article:
Revised data released earlier on Monday showed the economy contracted less than initial estimates suggested, though the outlook remained grim due to depressed demand at home and abroad.
Indeed, while the government lifted nationwide lockdown steps last month, many analysts expect any rebound in growth to be modest.
"We're already reopening business, so the economy will probably hit bottom from April through mid-May," Nishimura said, voicing hope that domestic demand could pick up soon if Japan can avert a big second wave of infections.
Ideas:
Not sure what to think exactly, except good news if its true. Kind of like the US jobs report for May, which was better than expected. Again, sometimes, you can't be sure of numbers and statistics.
The real measure is the "real economy," meaning people's lives, jobs, and income. That is the true test whenever we see reports that look positive. Good if they are true, but what about the thousands upon thousands of part-time workers or low wage workers still out of work, as an example.
Rosy export numbers, GDP numbers, etc are always good but they don't give the true picture of an economy. They only show a small part of an economy and not the entire economy or the "real economy."
Article:
But he warned the outlook for external demand was more uncertain as some regions in the world were still seeing infection numbers surge.
"We need to take timely, flexible action" if a global surge in infection hits Japan's export-reliant economy, Nishimura said. "That means we shouldn't be thinking about fiscal reform now. Tax cuts aren't something I'm thinking about now."
Under a policy dubbed yield curve control, the BOJ guides short-term rates at -0.1% and caps long-term borrowing costs around zero. It also buys massive amounts of assets to pump money into the economy.
Ideas:
Whatever approach the government of Japan uses or the Bank of Japan uses most likely will help some. But until some kind of normal or real business activity occurs, including an improvement in business sentiment, or feeling, and some kind of normal consumer sentiment, or feeling occurs, the Bank of Japan and the government might need to keep pumping funds into the system, keeping pumping money into ailing companies. And it could take up to a year to 18 months to get back to some kind of "new normal."
Ideas:
Whatever approach the government of Japan uses or the Bank of Japan uses most likely will help some. But until some kind of normal or real business activity occurs, including an improvement in business sentiment, or feeling, and some kind of normal consumer sentiment, or feeling occurs, the Bank of Japan and the government might need to keep pumping funds into the system, keeping pumping money into ailing companies. And it could take up to a year to 18 months to get back to some kind of "new normal."
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