Japan intends to distance itself from US (politics)

[kirakira]

Originally Posted by fluffy0000

Pls. try harder to blame someone else for Japans economic policy of manufactering TV's and Cars when people had stopped buying these.

Well as far as I can tell none of the Japanese car manufacturers have come to the government and asking for handouts on the private jet yet.

Subprime loan snowballed into a global demand collapse, Japanese investors paniced and withdrew from overseas market, jacking up the yen sky high which effectively screwed Japan's export industry.

If Japan had any clue, they should have take some measures to prevent the currency from appreciating at the rate it did. But of course, let the market decide right? US policy, just ask the Carter administration back in the 70s

[fluffy0000]

The BofJ ( Bank of Japan ) has experienced recession before without benefit
of US economic policy failures pls. it's finger pointing and blame someone else
for failed economic policy that Japan has used before during 'Lost Decade' 1991-2001 recession that some would argue never ended. Using the US subprime market failure does not explain why Japans GDP in 2008 is devoted to the manufacter of cars and TV's nobody is buying?
TOKYO (Reuters) -- The Bank of Japan on Tuesday pledged to spend $11 billion to buy shares held by Japanese banks to ease the pain from the global financial crisis, reviving a scheme launched earlier this decade to head off a domestic banking crisis excerpt Feb/2009
Last time I checked the massive Toyota Plant known as Toyota City employs 'foriegn workers'
20,000 of these work in conditions that include 100 hr work weeks without any overtime? Non Union paid far below multi tiered labor force?

[kirakira]

Originally Posted by fluffy0000

The BofJ ( Bank of Japan ) has experienced recession before without benefit
of US economic policy failures pls. it's finger pointing and blame someone else
for failed economic policy that Japan has used before during 'Lost Decade' 1991-2001 recession that some would argue never ended. Using the US subprime market failure does not explain why Japans GDP in 2008 is devoted to the manufacter of cars and TV's nobody is buying?

Dude, what are you on about, the Japanaese GDP actually grew (2-3%) during the past few years mainly thanks to a new economic relationship with China.

If you are talking about crap cars that nobody buys, look no further than GM, Ford and Chrysler. Still producing gas guzzlers when oil was $150 a barrel.

What do when a business is producing crap that nobody wants? Give it handout so it can produce more of the same garbage of cause! Well done. Is it any surprised that GM has came back for MORE. The audacity!

[cridgit001]

....I just want a 09 Corvette ZR1 in my driveway, that or the 09 Cadillac CTS-V, both are very good cars.

[fluffy0000]

SOURCE: 2008 CIA WORLD FACTBOOK Japan's huge government debt, which totals 182% of GDP, and the aging of the population are two major long-run problems. Some fear that a rise in taxes could endanger the current economic recovery. Debate also continues on the role of and effects of reform in restructuring the economy, particularly with respect to increasing income disparities and the 2007-17 privatization of Japan Post, which has functioned not only as the national postal delivery system but also, through its banking and insurance facilities, as Japan's largest financial institution. Are we still on the same page dude? kirakura
I do'nt drive a car and do'nt have a bias about Detroit versus Toyota like you? Lose the attitude and grow some skin.
The growth rate you think Japan had was smoke and mirrors and never approached 1.5% during those years. Translation BofJ and government was cooking the books. Lehman Bros Bank was sacrificed by Hank Paulson and Ben Bernanke because unlike the other banks they did'nt have enough political connections. excerpt CNN Top Financial Meltdowns 2008; Funny how that didn't apply to Bear Stearns, which the Feds at least sold for a couple of bucks to JP Morgan. Instead of stopping the financial meltdown, letting Lehman go down amplified it. Any confidence in the market was undermined, and financial stocks began to head south in a hurry. Not only was the U.S. forced to step up to save AIG, it was soon on the hook for $700 billion in bailout money to faltering financial institutions.
The US does'nt have a lock on 'epic fail' and neither does Japan.

[kirakira]

Originally Posted by fluffy0000

SOURCE: 2008 CIA WORLD FACTBOOK Japan's huge government debt, which totals 182% of GDP, and the aging of the population are two major long-run problems. Some fear that a rise in taxes could endanger the current economic recovery. Debate also continues on the role of and effects of reform in restructuring the economy, particularly with respect to increasing income disparities and the 2007-17 privatization of Japan Post, which has functioned not only as the national postal delivery system but also, through its banking and insurance facilities, as Japan's largest financial institution.

That's really nice but it does in no way support your simplistic argument of "japan shouldn't be manufacturing cars and tvs that nobody wants" which leads to the current economic crisis? I fail to see how government debt could have caused a world credit crisis, global collapse in demand, and insane appreciation of the yen?

[Sinestra]

Originally Posted by YukisUke

we bombed two of their cities (Hiroshima and Nagasaki). I think that event pretty much said that we are not to be trusted. PERIOD! I'm not angry at Japan for their decision. Why should I?

That has no basis on the current era nor the state of the world economy. Thats like blaming China for putting up the Great Wall and it hurt the prime realestate and economy of the Mongolians because they couldnt expand their housing market and it was harder for them to rape and pillage. I fail to see how bombing 2 cities in a war almost 6 decades ago has anything to do with Japans economic individuality now.

Originally Posted by YukisUke

Well said, brother. Well said. The US doesn't give a damn about anyone but themselves, sorry to say.

Your point being? Its the same for pretty much every country. First and foremost a countries main goal is to watch out for its citizens. Cooperation with other nations they hope to gain prosperity and security for their nation (you scratch my back and i will scratch yours). So its been so in the past so it is true now.

Originally Posted by YukisUke

Listening to the US is like listening to a skipping record. No offense.

Sigh you might want to add about 20 more countries to your statement. Every era needs someone to blame for something. Today it will be the Americans fault for this and that when its another countries turn to stand in the light the cycle will repeat itself.

[fluffy0000]

Do you bother to read the post? I did'nt post the UK Guardian posted this item about Japans economic problem? This is repost of UK Guardian Article
Feb.20.2009
From Bill Emmott in Tokoyo
In the race to report the worst economic contraction among rich countries this year, Britain is being run close by another island nation: Japan, the world's second biggest economy. Japan is, however, winning the contest for the country with the most shambolic politics - this week its finance minister, Shoichi Nakagawa, resigned after turning up drunk to a press conference after the G7 summit in Rome last weekend. Nevertheless, Japan stands a good chance of being one of the few countries to benefit from the economic crisis.

Many Japanese would find that hard to believe. Unemployment is rising sharply; the big, famous Japanese names such as Toyota, Panasonic and Sony are all making losses; exports are plummeting; and manufacturing output has dropped to a level last seen in 1983. Any Briton who thinks the reason our economy is weak is that we no longer have much manufacturing should come to Japan, for the reason Japan is weak is that it has too much (20% of GDP, compared with 10% in Britain), making precisely the things that everyone has just stopped buying, such as cars and fancy televisions.

So where is the silver lining to all those clouds? It lies in politics, and the sharp kick in the pants that the economic crisis is about to give to the old political elite. A general election must be held by October at the latest, and could be forced much sooner. The same outfit - the Liberal Democratic party, which is actually a conservative group - has run the country for the whole of the past half century, barring nine months in 1993. The LDP survived even the country's stagnation during the 1990s, when Japan's financial crash destroyed its banking system. But, finally, the LDP is running out of road as fast as it long ago ran out of ideas. The prime minister, Taro Aso, has an approval rating that would shame even George Bush.

As a result, the main opposition, the Democratic party of Japan, a centre-left group, is miles ahead in the opinion polls. Its leaders are plotting what they will do when they win power in a manner reminiscent of Labour in 1997, though with a touch of 1979 Thatcher too. The party's secretary-general, Yukio Hatoyama, says that as soon as it wins, the DPJ will outline its policies and fire any bureaucrat who won't support them.

More than that, however, this opportunity matters because in Japan the public services are in desperate need of reform, just as the economy itself is. The national health system is starved of funds, with the recent tragic result that a woman died in childbirth after having been refused admission by several over-crowded hospitals.

The public pension scheme is in disarray, with the government having lost 50m pension records and many people distrusting the state's promises. And, for all its fabled equality and social cohesion, this is a country where there is only a scant safety net for the unemployed, whose numbers are about to rise dramatically. Many of the new unemployed will be part-time and non-contract workers with low pay and few protections: new labour laws in 2001-03 enabled manufacturers to switch to cheap workers, raising profits but also enabling them to slash costs rapidly.

It is a country, in other words, that is in desperate need of a change of government, and the election of a party dedicated to repairing broken social services as well as shaking up the economy. No doubt as and when the DPJ wins power, it will bring disappointments and its own occasionally shambolic ministers. No matter. The important thing in a democracy is to punish those who have failed and to bring in a new crowd capable of making new mistakes. Japan has waited far too long for that.

[fluffy0000]

NYTimes: as excerpted posted Alpha CV Feb/2009
As recession-wary Americans adapt to a new frugality, Japan offers a peek at how thrift can take lasting hold of a consumer society, to disastrous effect.
The economic malaise that plagued Japan from the 1990s until the early 2000s brought stunted wages and depressed stock prices, turning free-spending consumers into misers and making them dead weight on Japan’s economy.
Back here in the good old US'
"The US government is on a “burning platform” of unsustainable policies and
practices with fiscal deficits, chronic healthcare underfunding, immigration and
overseas military commitments threatening a crisis if action is not taken soon."
David M. Walker
David Walker served as Comptroller General of the United States from 1998 through 2008. He is now the CEO of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation and leader of the Fiscal Wake Up Tour. He has been a lone voice in the wilderness for the last decade regarding our looming fiscal disaster. As head of the General Accounting Office he would go before Congress and explain that the country need to change course before we flounder in a Perfect Storm of debt. They listened to him respectfully and proceeded to add $5 trillion to the National Debt in the next eight years. The borrowing binge is now entering a hyper-speed phase. President Obama has been only concerned with speed rather than long term corrective actions.

[Ronin4hire]

Originally Posted by YukisUke

I have high doubts about that. America is sort of a bully when you look at all the things that we did to multiple countries. BTW... why are you targeting me? I'm just saying the truth and stating my opinion. Nothing wrong with that. If there is find another person to bother because I'm don't have the patience for people like you.

Yeah but it's not like that because they're Americans. It's like that because that's what the most powerful countries in the world have done since the dawn of time.

From Rome to the British to America.

And Sinestra is right... America might be the biggest bully in the playground... but there are other bullies too. ( I say might because I haven't really compared such things... Russia, especially when it was the USSR, or China could possibly be bigger bullies as far as I'm concerned )

China's meddling in Tibet, Sudan, Zimbabwe
Russia's meddling in many of it's former Soviet territories such as the Ukraine, Georgia (they even invaded Georgia!)

There are also loads of unsettled border disputes around the world which have simply been resolved with the more powerful country holding on to territory which is being disputed.