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Mutantfrog: The history of department stores in Kyoto

For an absolutely awesome writeup on the history of department stores in Kyoto, check out Roy Berman’s recent post “The history of department stores in Kyoto, and Kyoto in the history of the department store” at the Mutantfrog Travelogue.

Links and Resources: Online Colleges’ “100 Best Blogs for International Business Students”

Online Colleges recently published their list of the “100 Best Blogs for International Business Students.” I definitely recommend checking it out, though it might be a bit dangerous and time consuming if you have some actual work to do.

The majority of these blogs were new to me, though of course I recognized Claus Vistesen’s Alpha Sources and Edward Hugh’s Bonobo Land. And, yes, this blog made the list as well. It’s an honor to be named alongside some truly wonderful blogs.

Unemployment by region in Japan

Over at the Mutantfrog Travelogue, Curzon takes a look at unemployment by prefecture in Japan. While some of the results are unsurprising, such as Okinawa having the highest unemployment rate, other results seem to raise the eyebrows - I never would have guessed that Shimane has the lowest unemployment rate in Japan. The original map, with unemployment listings by prefecture in Japanese, can be found at Maps of Japan.

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.

Shisaku on the Japan Air Lines bailout

Last week it was reported that struggling Japan Air Lines is set to receive a 100 billion yen worth of loans from the state-backed Development Bank of Japan, Mizuho Corporate Bank, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ and Mitsui Sumitomo.

Later that same day, blogger Shisaku pointed out the presentation of this news in the Yomiuri Shimbun, in a post entitled Left Hand, Meet Right Hand: Read more

More on the iPhone in Japan

Over at Mobile in Japan, Paul Papadimitrou has written a good post on the perception that the iPhone has been a failure in Japan. His post looks into the structure of the Japanese mobile market while debunking many of the claims that the iPhone has been a failure, while my own article on the subject published at Japan Inc four months ago takes a look at the practical problems holding the iPhone back from dominance in the Japanese market.

It’s unfortunate, however, that one has to sign up for an account simply to post comments at the Mobile in Japan website.

Mutantfrog Travelogue on the gender makeup of Japan’s workforce

With the New York Times recently reporting that women may soon surpass men and comprise a majority of the American workforce, Mutant Frog Travelogue’s Adamu decided to take a look at where the figures for Japan stand. I was actually surprised to learn that just over 40% of Japan’s workforce is made up of women. The comments section of this post is also worth checking out, for the discussion on Krispy Kreme.

BizCast Japan #17 released at Trans-Pacific Radio

BizCast Japan #17 has been released at Trans-Pacific Radio. This edition of the show covers Toyota, Sony and firms that seem set to do well in the recessionary environment, including Rakuten, Uniqlo, Tsutaya, Nintendo, and why Tokyo Disneyland’s recent record attendance figures will not hold up.

Japan Economy Watch sums up the dreadful state of Japan’s macro data, debt levels and political paralysis

Although Japan’s macro indicators are tracked here, it sometimes helps to see everything put together. Over at Japan Economy Watch, Edward Hugh has done just that, and the data shown collectively in his post is simply breathtaking. Revised GDP data, industrial output, machinery orders, consumer confidence, the Economy Watchers Index, wages, household spending and the Tankan are all covered in one post, with the yen’s rise and a look at Prime Minister Aso Taro’s continuing fall in approval rating also included in this must-read post.

Mr Hugh weighs in with some very accurate comments on Japan’s national debt:

…[W]e have reputedly just been through Japan’s longest running expansion in I don’t know how many years, but if you look at the chart you will find that net debt didn’t cease to rise at any single point, while of course, as life expectancy went up even more than anticipated, the implicit liabilities in the social security system also rose. Well basically, I claim this is unsustainable, since to show evidence of sustainability you need to be able to establish that Japan can (with a median population age of 43 and rising) still have expansions which generate enough sustained growth (after you turn the juice of zero interest rates and substantial fiscal injections off) to be able to bring the trend percentage of net debt (that is the one between the trough of one cycle and the trough of the next) down. We are a long long way from this at this point, and as such any claim that Japan will be able to bring the net debt dynamic under control should be treated as purely hypothetical and speculative. What we need is evidence, but Aso’s recent policy initiatives suggest that things are now, rather, about to move in the opposite direction.

The red lights on the console are madly blinking, and the alarm is piercing. As each day passes, it seems more and more clear that the LDP, on whom much of this mess can be pinned, will need to pass on in order for any real progress to be made. Of course, as the LDP loses its grip on power, the risk that the bureaucracy will strengthen looms larger.

For a closer look at the disaster of the Aso premiership, see the recent article “2008: Change and Politics” by Tobias Harris at Neojaponisme.

Darrel Whitten on the Nikkei’s nosedive

Over at Seeking Alpha, Darrel Whitten has published a must-read take on the Nikkei’s recent nosedive. Entitled “Japan’s ’80s ‘Bubble’ Has Completely Deflated - and Then Some,” the piece includes this incisive passage:

On Monday, October 27, 2008, the Nikkei 225 index closed at 7,162.90, its lowest point since October 7, 1982, before the infamous 1980s bubble began. The trailing P/E multiple for the Nikkei 225 was 8.58X and the forward multiple 9.53X, while the Nikkei 225 PBR was 0.87X, while forward dividend yield was 3.07% versus a historical dividend yield of 2.97%. The Nikkei’s earnings yield (inverse of the P/E multiple) was 10.47% on historical earnings and 9.92% on forward earnings, while the market’s ROE was 10.1% on trailing earnings and 9.1% on forward earnings—versus a JGB (Japanese government bond yield) of 1.47%. In other words, market valuations are also back to pre-bubble valuations that existed some 30 years ago.

The full article is here.

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