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Nokia pulls out of Japan

Earlier today, the Nikkei announced that Nokia will cease shipping handsets to DoCOMo and Softbank from January 2009. Although Nokia holds a 38% share of the global mobile handset market, it’s share in Japan’s mobile market is just under 0.5%.

Developing software for the Japanese market - and DoComo’s iMode in particular - is simply costing Nokia too much money.

Yet, Reuters is reporting that Nokia intends to launch its own MVNO (mobile virtual network operator) system sometime in 2009.

This story was also picked up by blog omJapan.

Clothing sales pounded as Japan’s supermarket sales fell 1.6% in October

Following a 2.2% decline in September, supermarket sales in Japan fell a further 1.6% in October on a year-on-year basis, according to figures released today by the Japan Chain Store Association.

Here is a breakdown of October’s adjusted figures (not including stores opened within the past twelve months):

• Food: +1.1%, 62.4% of total revenue
• Household Products: -3.7%, 19.7% of total revenue
• Clothing: -10.8%, 11.6% of total revenue
• Miscellaneous Items: -3.4%, 6.0% of total revenue
• Services: +4.6%, 0.4% of total revenue

When stores opened within the past twelve months are included in the figures, Japan’s supermarkets saw a 5.2% decline in sales compared to a year ago. The total number of shops open declined by 20 to 8,724, while sales per square meter fell 4.9%. The total number of employees fell 2.8% to 437,847.

Jiyugaoka is Tokyo’s most desirable neighborhood

According to the average result of surveys carried out over the past five years by Major 7, a website run by a consortium of real estate firms, Jiyugaoka has been voted the most desirable neighborhood within Tokyo’s 23 wards to live in, followed by Futakotamagawa and Ebisu. The rest of the ranking went like this: Read more

Japan department store sales down 6.8% in October

The Japan Department Store Association has redesigned their website. It still looks like a cheap template, and still has no information in English, but it looks about a million times better than what they had before.

According to data released yesterday, sales at the nation’s 281 department stores fell 6.8% in October, to about 584.56 billion yen. The 281 stores surveyed is two higher than a month ago, and sales have now been down for eight consecutive months on a year-on-year comparison basis.

Here is a breakdown of sales by individual categories:

• Clothing: 40.0% of total sales, down 9.6%
• Personal Effects: 12.7% of total sales, down 9.7%
• Miscellaneous Goods: 13.8% of total sales, down 8.5%
• Household Goods: 4.9% of total sales, down 15.1%
• Food: 23.2% of total sales, up 1.6%
• Services: 1.0% of total sales, down 4.2%
• Other: 1.7% of total sales, up 17.2%
• Gift Certificates: 3.0% of total sales, down 2.2%

Once again, the only increase in a major category was seen in food sales. Clothing sales were particularly battered in October, and the JDSA blames continued warm weather having put a damper on sales of autumn and winter clothes. Sales of artwork, jewelry and precious metals dropped 13.5%, as big spenders seem to be holding back in the midst of the financial crisis.

In Tokyo itself, department store sales dropped 8.4% from last year for the eighth consecutive month of decreased sales.

Nikkei: Nomura to lay off “dozens” of former Lehmans employees

Tuesday morning’s Nikkei is reporting that Nomura has offered severance packages to “dozens” of employees hired after the firm took over operations from Lehman Brothers. Although the article is very short on details, it appears that about 30 employees have been asked to go, and that they are chiefly from Lehman’s fixed income division.

Hopefully mass layoffs will not be the method through which Nomura deals with carrying the increased cost of having taken on about 8,150 former Lehman’s employees.

Across the pond, Citigroup has announced plans to cut about 52,000 employees, while Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has been charged with insider trading. So much for buying the Chicago Cubs.

Japan’s GDP shrinks 0.1% in the July-September quarter

After a 0.9% quarterly drop in the April-June quarter, Japan’s GDP fell 0.1% in the third quarter, according to data released by the Cabinet Office. The forecasted 0.1% rise reported by Kyodo News before the announcement seems to have been just a bit too optimistic about the state of Japan’s economy.

Consumer spending was reported to have been up 0.3% in the July-September quarter, while capital spending sagged -1.7%. Exports continued to show a slower pace of growth at 0.7%, while imports grew 1.9%. In nominal terms, GDP fell 0.5%, or 2.1% annualized.

Now that two consecutive quarters of falling GDP have been registered, the media is free to say that Japan is officially in a recession, though many observers have been saying so for some time now. Thus, the big question must now focus on how long recessionary conditions will continue. We know that the consumer confidence index and economic sentiment amongst small businesses were both at all-time lows in October.

An article published by CEP today tells us that “some economists say even if Japan’s economy contracts again in the fourth quarter, the downturn might not last long.” On the other hand, Bloomberg quotes Mitsubishi UFJ Securities analyst Takashi Nishimura as saying, “We are going to see a prolonged economic slowdown.”

Expect plenty of debate on this issue in the weeks to come…

A missed opportunity: The new Tourism Agency, NPB and the Asia Series

The Japan Tourism Agency was formally established on October 1 of this year. Under the “Inbound Initiative” section of the new agency’s website, the goals of having 10 million foreign visitors come to Japan in 2010 and attracting more international conferences are listed.

This post is not meant to get too deep into the problems facing the Tourism Agency - the fact that the yen was strengthening just as it was established is sure to be a thorn in the side of anyone trying to attract international travelers to Japan. Rather, we’re simply going to quickly look at one event from this past week - the Asia Series. Read more

Interviews with Peter Schiff from 2006-2007

The video pretty much speaks for itself - follow the jump to view:

October bankruptcies jump 13.4% to five year high

According to data released Wednesday by Tokyo Shoko Research, the number of bankruptcies in Japan involving firms with at least 10 million yen in capital rose by 13.4% in October to hit 1,429.

The number of bankruptcies increased in nine of 10 sectors surveyed, as the construction industry led the way with 402 firms having gone bust in October. In six of the 10 sectors, bankruptcies showed a rise in the double digits when compared to a year ago. Making matters seem even more dire is the fact that eight publically listed firms went bust in October, which is an all-time high. Read more

Japan’s consumer confidence hits all-time low in October

In August, Japan’s consumer confidence index hit its all-time low for the third month in a row, at 30.1 points. That figure recovered slightly on the back of slightly lower oil prices in September, to 31.4 points. However, according to data released by the Cabinet Office today, the consumer confidence index slipped under the 30 point mark in October to 29.4, a fresh all-time low.

The Consumer Confidence Index itself contains five scores, each of which is considered positive when above 50, and pessimistic when below the 50 mark. Here’s a breakdown for October figures, with the change from last month: Read more

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