Recently in Japan Category

Yellow Magic Orchestra - Technopolis & Rydeen (back-to-back)

Stephen O'Grady will be very jealous.

I get to see the Sox vs. the Hanshin Tigers here at the Tokyo Dome today thanks to a good friend.

Gyao, a subsidiary of Japanese broadband ISP Usen, looks to be jumping on the YouTube bandwagon. magibon is the faux-Japanese lonelygirl15, who has a huge following (many of her short videos have over 1 million views on YouTube) among otaku worldwide.

A few months from now, we'll see magibon with representation in Japan and then all over the mainstream media like Leah Dizon.

I don't ever use Gyao because their platform requires Windows/Internet Explorer.

Asiajin reports that anti-virus software vendor, Trend Micro's website was hacked recently, and the hackers were then serving various viruses for 3 (!!!) days, March 9-12th) from the Trend Micro website. There's a statement on the Japanese website but no statement on any of the English or other language news sites.

If a security services/software firm can't keep their own web servers secured, and left their own hacked website up for 3 days, there's no logical reason to expect that their own security services are any better.

HEY TREND MICRO! DISCLOSE THE BREACH IN ENGLISH ASAP! TRYING TO HIDE THIS WON'T WORK!

The probable reason Trend Micro's website was hacked? They're running Windows 2000 (is Microsoft even supporting Windows 2000 Server anymore?)

Richard Katz of The Oriental Economist has a very good op-ed in the WSJ, Japan's Stress Test, on the topic of the challenges facing Japanese economic reform. Katz summarizes his points in a recent post to NBR.

To quickly summarize my views, I see two obstacles to growth, one on the supply side and one on the demand side.

1) Supply side obstacles. Growth is the sum of how many additional people are working plus how much more each person can produce. With the working age population falling and more people working only part-time, the sole source of GDP growth has been productivity growth. Reforms that exposes firms to fiercer Darwinian competition will bring Japan's myriad backward sectors up to world benchmarks, and improve overall potential growth. This can certainly be combined with social safety net features and other measures so that, while some current firms and jobs will disappear, individuals are protected, true security is enhanced and income equality is restored.

2) Demand side obstacles. In my view, anemic consumption is not the result of culture, but of lack of money. Real wages per worker have fallen 2.7% since 2002 and so people have lowered their savings rate drastically to maintain consumption. This problem is simply the exacerbation of a longterm structural problem stemming as far back as the mid-1970s. The household share of disposable income--e.g. wages, interest, dividends, rent, income of self-employed--has been too low a share of national income relative to support consumer-led growth. Give them money and they will spend.

Jason Gray, who writes for Screen International and does other work in the film industry in Japan, covers the Kazuyoshi Miura cold case very comprehensively on his blog: L.A. Giwaku: Two-Bit Celebrity Kazuyoshi Miura & The Homicide Case That Was Never Properly Laid To Rest. While there is no smoking gun, there's so much circumstantial evidence that points to Miura's responsibility in his wife's death that I do hope that the LA police have new evidence (or new techniques) that can put him away for what he did to his wife (and potentially other women as well.)

Having spent a decent amount of time enjoying the cuisine of both Italy and Japan, this is good news!

A farm near Milan is raising Japanese Wagyu cows to woo meat-loving Italians with the world's most expensive Kobe steaks.

The Italians are hoping the tender, marbled beef will revive falling beef consumption and give their profits a boost.

Described by one chef as "the Ferrari of meat," Kobe has been making inroads in Italy even though it costs about 100 euros ($148.2) per kg to buy. That's twice the price of Italy's Fiorentina T-bone steaks from Chianina cows.

Italian farmers pin beef hopes on Japanese cows - Yahoo! News

Steve Lohr of the New York Times would have us believe that there are lessons to be learned from Japan's decade+ recession [From Japan’s Slump in 1990s, Lessons for U.S.] but I know that Richard Katz of the Oriental Economist knows better and Katz's commentary in the WSJ Asia is a more compelling read: Crisis Comparisons.

Three factors define the difference between today's American subprime crisis and Japan's lost decade: the source of the crisis, the magnitude of the strain and the response of policymakers.

More good news on the healthy Japanese economy from Takehiro Sato of Morgan Stanley: Be Prepared for Dual Recession

Stuff like this is always great to start the day with:

The risk of dual recession is mounting. Our US economics team is already calling for capex-induced negative GDP growth in successive quarters (Jan-Mar, Apr-Jun), for a technical minor recession in the first half of the year by definition. We are forecasting that Japan will cling on to a modicum of growth in the Oct-Dec 2007 quarter, boosted by external demand, but there is a possibility that, like the US, that quarter will mark the peak and the economy will retreat in Jan-Mar.

Our China team believes that if signs of a pullback appear, the authorities could loosen their tight monetary policy and there is still ample scope for fiscal stimulus. The problem though is that taking macro measures once demand has already headed down is like pushing on a string, and frequently fails to achieve the intended effects. If China does fare worse than expected, the risk that a dual recession could escalate into a triple recession would come into play.

From Robert Alan Feldman of Morgan Stanley:

Museum Piece: Japan at Macro Vision

During client visits in the US last week and at the formal session of Macro Vision (Morgan Stanley’s annual conference in New York on the global macroeconomic outlook), the word ‘Japan’ was virtually absent. When discussed at all, Japan was mentioned as a museum piece , i.e., an example from history, relevant to the current world only as a lesson about what happens when there are severe and prolonged policy failures. Indeed, the most common question was whether the US is repeating Japan’s errors that led to the lost decade.

The similarities between the US subprime problem and Japan’s financial meltdown are eerie, but there are many differences too. In both cases, there were imprudent borrowers, imprudent lenders and unprepared regulators. Disclosure was inadequate, and financial innovations worsened the problems – since neither markets nor regulators fully understood the implications of the new instruments. The differences are important as well. In the US (and in Europe), institutions have been relatively quick to admit problems and to raise new capital. Broad and deep capital markets, clear standards on capital adequacy and regulator scrutiny have been contributors to this swifter response. Hence, most investors concluded that it will not take the US a decade to correct the subprime/credit problem.

Follow the link for the whole comment from Feldman. It's depressing.

Also my comments are still broken. That's (relatively less) depressing, but still an annoyance.