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Japan’s core Consumer Price Index fell at fastest pace ever in May

On Friday, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications announced that Japan’s consumer price index had fallen 1.1% in May. May’s figures well exceeded the 0.1% drop seen in March and April, and showed a decline for the third consecutive month.

As Japan includes energy prices as part of its core CPI, it’s always helpful to look at what the CPI looks like with energy stripped out. Here’s a breakdown of CPI categories for May: Read more

OECD: Japan’s public pension to provide 34% of salary

According to the OECD’s “Pension at a Glance 2009″ report , Japan’s public pension system is expected to provide 33.9% of salary as pension to workers entering the workforce in 2009. This is the second lowest figure in the OECD, with only Britain trailing Japan. The OECD average for public pension payouts is 59% of salary.

The report also highlights that 22% of Japanese people over 65 had incomes below the what the OECD considers to be its poverty threshold (defined as half of median household income). The OECD average for people aged over 65 living under the poverty line is 13.3%. Read more

Japan not banning cash any time soon

The foreign media recently seems to have pounced on a story concerning plans to ban the use of cash and push nominal interest rates down to -0.4% in an attempt to fight deflation in Japan.

It won’t happen.

While electronic cash payments will continue to grow as a proportion of transaction settlement methods, the idea of banning cash altogether is impractical. At the same time, the idea of creating negative nominal interest rates is political suicide. In such a situation, the yen itself would be essetially worthless.

To be honest, I had a lot more ideas on this topic, but the proposal seems so absurd that it’s better treated as a media oddity.

May new condo offerings in Tokyo area down 19.4%

The Real Estate Economic Institute released its report on May condo sales in the Tokyo area on June 16, but it’s been a bit busy to get a post up. At any rate, the number of new condo units put on sale in May stood at 3,538, down 19.4% from a year ago. New condo offerings have now declined for 21 consecutive months. Read more

The Onion: US To Trade Gold Reserves For Cash Through Cash4Gold.com

This piece from The Onion is satire - at least for now - but it’s well done as usual. It’s subtle that the writers valued US gold holdings at $200 billion.

US To Trade Gold Reserves For Cash Through Cash4Gold.com

Glenn Beck on the counterfeit bonds

Glenn Beck is passionate, the only US commentator willing to discuss the subject, but doesn’t really get the issue. His guest, however, is dead on at times, while sounding like someone who doesn’t have a basic understanding of how the Treasury works at others in the video that follows. The fact is that over two weeks since the two men carrying these bonds were arrested, the truth about what they were doing has not yet been made public:

My favorite quote: “Is a dollar really worth 100 cents, or is it worth less than that?”

Dude, I think they explained that in third grade, at least at Cathoilc Schoool. Aquinas can explain it pretty easily in terms of math.

Bonds held by Japanese in Italy nearly equal to the amount of leftover TARP funds

Very little news has been reported since the initial discovery of two men with Japanese passports who were apparently trying to smuggle $134 billion worth of US Treasuries from Italy into Switzerland. The initial Kyodo report stated that on June 3rd:

[T]wo unidentified Japanese in their 50s concealed the bonds, including 249 U.S. Treasury bonds worth $500 million each, in a suitcase with a false bottom.

249 times $500 million is $124.5 billion. It has also been rumored that the men were carrying other bonds denominated at $1 billion. At any rate, the total amount reported, $134 billion ($134.5 billion in later reports), appears to be consistent. Read more

Tuesday morning headlines: Food producers moving into China, TV sales and the Aso Cabinet

The Nikkei’s Tuesday morning edition is reporting more moves by Japanese food producers into the Chinese market. First, Maruha Nichiro intends to begin farming trout in the Philippines later this year and shipping the fish live to China. The firm is hoping for sales of around 1 billion yen within a few years. On the beer front, Kirin is now selling its brew to watering holes in Shanghai, and is hoping to sell 150,000 cases of 12 500ml bottles this year. Finally, House Foods and Ichibanya aim to increase the number of their joint-owned curry shops in China from the current 13 to to 41 by the end of March 2012. Read more

Peter Schiff on Yosano’s bizarre comments about US Treasuries

This morning I saw a Bloomberg article with a not-so-surprising headline: Purchases of U.S. Treasuries will continue, Yosano says.

When I started reading the article, however, I thought it was reporting on a different universe. Here is part of what Yosano had to say to reporters in Tokyo prior to leaving for the G8 meeting of finance ministers in Italy: Read more

Central tokyo office vacancies up for 16th straight month in May

According to data released Thursday by consultancy Miki Shoji, vacancies at office spaces in downtown Tokyo rose 0.17% in May against a month ago, to 6.96%. Office vacancies in downtown Tokyo have now increased for 16 consecutive months.

After having dipped below the 30% mark in April, vacanices at newly built large office buildings in Tokyo shot up to 30.83% in May. This is still somewhat down from the peak of 34.33% seen in March, but the increase is worrisome news for developers.

In terms of individual areas, Shinjuku Ward took the lead in terms of vacancies in May, with its rate coming in at 8.49%. Chuo Ward had the lowest vacancy rate, at 5.11%.

The average asking rent in the five wards surveyed (Chiyoda, Chuo, Minato, Shinjuku and Shibuya) stood at 20,660 yen per tsubo, or about 3.3 square meters in May. That price was down 305 yen (1.45%) from April, and 2,166 yen (9.49%) from a year ago. Average office rents have now fallen for nine consecutive months.

Rents at newly opened large offices, however, increased by 1,968 yen per 3.3 square meters, or just about 6.00%, to hit 30,859 yen.

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