Japan Economy News & Blog

Japan supermarket sales fell 1.2% in July

Ken Worsley — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 14:44:03 +0000

According to data released earlier today by the Japan Chain Stores Association, supermarket sales in Japan fell 1.2% to 1.05 trillion yen in July. Supermarket sales have now fallen for 20 consecutive months on a year-on-year comparison, though the rate of decline is slowing somewhat.

Here is a breakdown of July’s adjusted same-store figures (not including stores opened within the past twelve months): (more…)

Japan convenience store sales up in July for the first time in 14 months

Ken Worsley — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 14:54:14 +0000

According to data released today by the Japan Franchise Association, convenience store sales rose 0.5% in July, showing an increase for the first time in 14 months.

The hot weather appears to have helped convenience store sales in July, as sales of cold drinks, ice cream and processed food increased 5.8%. Customer traffic was up 2.3% in July, and this is notable because it is the first increase above 2% since June 2009, when the TASPO card was introduced. (more…)

What’s Kirin going to do about Ito En?

Ken Worsley — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 04:18:42 +0000

Ito En is currently Japan’s fourth ranked soft drink manufacturer. In third place is Kirin (Coca-Cola and Suntory, respectively, are #1 and #2). However, Ito En has slowly been sneaking up on Kirin’s market share and when private label production is included, Ito En actually outsold Kirin in the January-June period.

According to Inryo Soken, which tracks soft drink and beverage sales in Japan, Kirin sold 79.3 million cases of soft drinks during the January-Japan period, down 7% from the previous year. Ito En, on the other hand, sold 79.2 million cases, an increase of 5% against the same period a year ago. When private label brands are included, Ito En’s sales are boosted to 84.7 million cases. (more…)

Japan news RSS feed

Ken Worsley — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 14:26:56 +0000

I’ve been working with Yahoo Pipes to create a single RSS feed that should provide coverage on Japan news without having to use multiple feeds and/or feed readers. This is obviously a work in progress and will be developed more in the weeks to come, but it’s a start:

http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.run?_id=f058da8a147191a9489391d3648f7e80&_render=rss

It’s also being displayed in a (kinda crappy) widget here: Japan news RSS feed widget. I’ll write my own thing to parse the XML and display it nicer soon.

Note: Sports and entertainment news is being filtered out (as much as possible) for the time being. It’s possible that sports news might be re-inserted, but not entertainment.

Deflation watch: 3D TVs already 20% cheaper

Ken Worsley — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 14:29:33 +0000

The Nikkei is reporting that both Sony and Panasonic have seen about a 20% decrease in prices since launching their 3D television sets this past Spring. 3D televisions still cost about 30-50% more than their 2D flat screen counterparts. In terms of sales, 3D tellys account for 2.6% of sales of televisions 40 inches or larger, and 5.9% of overall television sales.

Why are prices falling so fast? Truth be told, 3D televisions are pretty much useless. Unless video games can exploit 3D technology in a very popular series, there’s really no reason to buy one.

While there is a niche market for hardcore gamers, it remains a mystery why this technology is being pushed. 2D TV in Japan is awful enough, the last thing I’d want is to have it in 3D.

iPhone takes baby steps ahead in Japan

Ken Worsley — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 15:16:50 +0000

Although Apple’s iPhone has thus far been sold exclusively in Japan by Softbank, Japan Communications intends to launch a service that will allow the iPhone 4 to tun on DoCoMo’s wireless network, according to various sources.

This is good news, until one looks at the price tag. While a new iPhone is supplied for free under multiyear contracts with Softbank, consumers will have to pay about 60,000 yen to buy an iPhone that runs on Japan Communications’ new DoCoMo link.

As with all technologies, prices will eventually fall. Unlocked smart phones and user-controlled SIM cards are the way of the future, and its good to see DoCoMo (reluctantly?) leading the charge toward normalcy.

So much for the IMF

Ken Worsley — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 15:16:34 +0000

‎”(There is) a growing recognition that the dispersion of credit risks to a broader and more diverse group of investors…has helped make the banking and wider financial system more resilient. The improved resilience may be seen in fewer bank failures and more consistent credit provision.”
From the IMF’s (shortsighted) Global Financial Stability Review, April 2006

What rough beast slouches next to Washington to be bailed out?

Cracks re-emerging in Japan’s convenience store industry

Ken Worsley — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 14:00:17 +0000

A Nikkei report published today told us that Japan’s convenience stores experienced their second lowest annual growth in financial 2009 since 1978 as sales booms derived from the introduction of the TASPO card wore off. According to the paper:

Overall sales at domestic convenience stores edged up 1.1% in fiscal 2009 to mark their second-weakest rise since tracking of comparable data began in 1978, according to a survey by Nikkei Inc.

Overall sales came to 8.31 trillion yen, with the number of convenience stores growing by 1,075 to reach 46,069.

While sales are still on the rise, a 1.1% increase is not much to boast about; sales increases were below 2% in both FY2006 and FY2007. With the number of convenience store locations still increasing, it looks as though the sector is bound for price wars and the survival of the fittest (richest). On a daily basis, customer traffic per store fell 0.6% to 1,025 people in FY2009, while average sales per store dropped 2.4% to 487,000 yen per day. There were 8.6% more convenience store locations open in FY2009 than the year before.

The industry, however, clearly understand the problem:

Of the 27 convenience store operators offering responses on business conditions, 20 said the business environment has worsened. The most cited reasons were a glut of stores in urban areas and the expansion of store networks

Makes sense.

Many of the large convenience store chain operators now intend to slow their expansions this fiscal year while shutting down or relocating unprofitable stores…The four big players — Seven & i Holdings Co. (3382) unit Seven-Eleven Japan Co., Lawson Inc. (2651), FamilyMart Co. (8028) and Circle K Sunkus Co. (3337) — plan to open a total of 2,320 new stores, down 3.5% from last fiscal year. This figure excludes the 350 stores of the former am/pm Japan Co. that will be rebranded as FamilyMart stores. Meanwhile, store closings are projected to rise 7.8% to 1,540.

The Nikkei article fails to mention overseas expansion as the only viable growth model.

Why aren’t Japan’s megabanks joining the US on financial sanctions against Iran?

Ken Worsley — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 13:26:28 +0000

Earlier today, U.S. Assistant Secretary of Treasury David Cohen visited Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Mizuho Financial Group and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group to outline US financial sanctions against Iran. These sanctions were signed into law by US President Barack Obama on 1 July.

The fact that Japan’s megabanks have yet to comply with US sanctions is disturbing, to say the least. With Iran attempting to build nuclear weapons, its access to the global financial system clearly needs to be shut down. Japan, as a nation that stands for nuclear non-proliferation, needs to support the US government in its attempts to ensure that Iran does not use the international financial system to acquire nuclear materials.

The story behind the story: Japan may be bringing in PetroEuros from Iran, which is unacceptable. Iran was part of a consortium of nations that wanted oil traded in euros rather than dollars. The US needs to ensure that its closest ally, Japan, is paying for oil in dollars, while its banks are not allowing Iranian funds to be moved under the radar.

Cohen’s visit is an affirmation of the fact that finances have been observed moving in a way that is not advantageous to US interests and that such flows of funds must be stopped.

Nikkei: Western firms buying overpriced property in Japan

Ken Worsley — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 15:55:58 +0000

On Monday, the Nikkei published an article asserting that Western firms “are returning to the Japanese real estate market, taking proactive steps in the hope of big gains once the market improves.”

This, of course, means that they are paying too much for real estate investments that will turn sour. The Nikkei article has a picture of an office building that Deutsche Bank Group recently overpaid about 4.1 billion yen for. The building itself is aggressively unimpressive, not to mention that it’s located in Shibuya ward. (more…)