Japan logs current account surplus for 12th month in Jan. on China exports
Ideas
It appears that maybe the Chinese economy situation might finally be beginning to see some daylight at the end of the tunnel and it's hasn't been its normal economic growth for a few years or at least since the pandemic.
And especially with Japan as the on again and off again diplomatic friction has been a challenge for both economies.
Japan seems to focus on its current account more than other countries or at least more than the US as Japan is a heavily focused export economy and also is an economy that the government spends a lot so it needs to replenish its current account often to keep its government spending at a high level.
The two global areas that Japan has been challenged with recently has been the EU and with China, but both areas seems to showing signs of life again or recently showing signs of life again as both had been less than what they had potential to be.
Japan is a very stable economy even though it doesn't grow that much but that is the characteristic of a very mature economy which Japan is and it depends a lot on its current account reserves for many programs and projects that the Japanese government needs to keep the economy functioning for its citizens.
Yes, most likely the US tariff situation might have reduced dividends and profits from overseas subsidiaries of Japanese automakers and they were probably expecting to not have as good a year as before.
And even goods trade, which might have included other products besides Japanese cars, as Japan exports a lot to the US and of course to many other countries too.
Japan seems to have re-entered the semiconductor market or different segments of the semiconductor market and might not be in direct competition with Samsung and South Korea or TSMC and Taiwan these days.
And of course Japan is still a major player in the electronic devices market as it focuses on hardware only and has never really shown much interest in software.
Yes, again, even though there is friction between Japan and China, there doesn't seem to be as much friction when it comes to doing business between Japanese and Chinese companies or at least within certain business sectors.
Japan is a resource-poor country which means it has to import much of what it needs including oil, gas, and energy commodities which means its subject to the whims of the oil producing countries and there volatile prices.
But, as seen in the news oil prices are going to increase and Japan might begin to see significant increases in gas and oil prices in the next few weeks or months.
Yes, prices are already going up but how much will they go up and can oil producing countries have the will or desire to try and keep prices down to a reasonable level over the next few weeks.
Japan is always going to have a services trade deficit and it again is a resource-poor country and has to pay a lot for intellectual property rights and even research and development payments as its, for the most part, not a major player in the pharmaceutical market.
The travel surplus shrank mainly due to the fact that up to Japan has lost up to 60 percent of its visitors from China due to the on-going diplomatic friction between the two countries.
But that might be a good thing as many Japanese, especially in Kyoto and the Osaka areas, have been complaining for years due to the over-crowding of foreign tourists in tourist heavy areas in Japan.
The only problem with that is foreign tourists spend a lot of money in Japan, which Japan needs desperately as its domestic economy and consumer spending among the Japanese is not where it should be to help with economic growth.
And yes, maybe more Japanese are now traveling more but there is still the problem of the Japanese yen being weak which means the purchasing power of Japanese tourists is less than what it should be.
Have a nice day!
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