Every crash/collapse brings with it an equivalent market chance if you are early informed and equipped, I've seen folks amass up to $1m amid economy crisis, and even pull it off easily in favorable conditions. Unequivocally, the collapse is getting somebody somewhere rich
I do not disagree, there are strategies that could be put in place for solid gains regardless of economy or market condition, but such execution are usually carried out by investment experts with experience since the 08' crash
@@じゅげむちょうすけ-c9uusage rate of what? Paper? In businesses only? And not for physical backups or contracts but literally for things like messages and letters?
Its worse here, our economy is like a flailing fish, fighting for its life. The normal state of the U.S. economy is actually very bad. Because of this it goes into convulsive spasms fighting to grow any way it can out of desperation. Tricks, gimmicks, rule changes try to stimulate the economy and prevent it from falling but they only bring temporary relief to people since, when you factor in inflation we are declining.
People believe their currency has the worth it does because they have no other option. Even in a hyperinflationary environment, individuals must continue to use their hyperinflationary currency since they likely have minimal access to other currencies or gold/silver coins.
Inflation is gradually going to become part of us and due to that fact any money you keep in cash or in a low-interest account declines in value each year. Investing is the only way to make your money grow and unless you have an exceptionally high income, investing is the only way most people will ever have enough money to retire.
@@ThomasChai05I've tried investing in the stock market several times but always got discouraged by fluctuations of stock value. I would be happy if you could advise me based on how you went about yours, as I am ready to go the passive income path.!!
@@ThomasChai05I've tried investing in the stock market several times but always got discouraged by fluctuations of stock value. I would be happy if you could advise me based on how you went about yours, as I am ready to go the passive income path.!!
In fact, I had no prior experience or understanding when I began investing in 2020, but by the end of 2023, I had made a profit of almost $850k. All I had been doing was going by what my financial advisor had told me. This demonstrates that all you truly need is a professional to assist you; you don't even need to be a great investor or put in a lot of work.
Japan's lost decades were largely triggered by the USA who were in the late 80s downright paranoid about that country's ascendance in manufacturing. Those old enough to be an adult then will remember it well. In the 1980s the yen was 220 to the USD and it was an export led economy that had eye-watering trade surpluses with every developed country in the world. Through a combination of political pressure and currency manipulation (which the USA was uniquely able to do due to the power of the petrodollar, especially in those days), they forced the YEN to appreciate to 110 to the dollar making Japanese goods twice as expensive to crater its exports, and crater it did. With corporate profits tanked, companies stopped investing. Whereas this would normally result in a deep recession and high unemployment for a few years before growth returned again, _as Japanese culture view lay-offs as anathema,_ they retained their employees and depressed wages instead. So we have this unique scenario of consistent near full employment with deflationary pressure instead. Lower energy prices (stronger currency buys more barrels for the same amount) also put deflationary pressure on goods manufactured for the domestic market. Stagnant wages + deflation, of course people are gonna tighten belts. With C & I & X gone for ye old C+I+G+(X-M) formula, of course doemstic asset prices and financial markets also crash and a vicious circle occurs. As a side note, Japan's lost decades helped open the door for Korea and China rise. Once upon a time, you can't go to the electrical section and find it filled 90% with Japanese products, now it's filled with Korean and Chinese TVs and refrigerators. In the case of the latter, perhaps the tale will have an ironic twist whereby America's fear of Japan helped a create a bigger dragon to rise and this was one is nowhere near as friendly to the US as Japan was/is.
You ultimately lay the blame on the US and yet you yourself mention numerous serious mistakes that the Japanese themselves engaged (and continue to engage) in that have greatly worsened and prolonged their recession.
Every Asian knows that the collapse of the yen is because the United States is harvesting yen to fill the domestic deficit. In fact, Japan also knows this, so it sold some US bonds. Only the naive Westerners don't know that the United States is so shameless.
@@yuyutubee8435i wouldn’t say they’re mistakes. Japan still maintained a high standard of living (maybe even higher than that of the US when you account for things like healthcare, public safety, housing affordability, and public transit) low unemployment and is home to some of the biggest companies on this planet. Hardly mistakes, any other country would be glad to have this standard of living and worldwide recognition in various fronts such as entertainment and technology.
A Japanese living in Japan here. Around March, I was checking Amazon for various products to put down a lawn in my yard, and where the Gardena sand rolling tool was in the 6000 yen range, I see now that it is in the 8000 yen range. The price of other tools must have gone up as well, so I have given up on putting up the lawn this year for now. I'll see how it goes and do it next year, but there is no guarantee that it will be in better condition by then.
Your government has connections to Boko Haram 😂 what do you expect. Who was the guy who said "an ex boko Haram can do everything in Nigeria even become president, opportunities are there for them" 🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️
pacing is SO important there are a lot of videos that I can't watch because all of the information is disorganized and spewed out at once this video has a VERY steady pace, easy to metabolize, really appreciate that!
The central bank holds more than half of the Japanese government's debt, and it is a lie that interest rates cannot be raised because interest payments will increase. Looking at the Japanese government's consolidated balance sheet, its finances are extremely sound. There are other reasons not to raise interest rates.
Standard of living is extremely high in Japan. Food and drink are fairly inexpensive. Low growth is still progress, and people like stability and predictability. Japan reached its "mature economy" status quickly.
They prioritize quality of life over economic growth. If you're an investor, this is terrible. If you're a human being, this is the best case scenario given the situation
@@everythingisfine9988 Yeah, QOL is much better for the people, but it still needs to be handled properly or there could be more dangerous consequences for the people. Still better than focusing on Economic Growth all the time and sacrificing your people.
problem is what to do when most of your population is living off pensions, as they're currently almost reaching in Japan. Maybe they can make it work, but in any case it will be interesting and informative for the rest of the low-birthrate world
it was Reagan causing yen to rise in value because Detroit cant compete with the Japanese auto. So the yen was political force to stay below 120 until Covid when the interest differential with US expanded .
The UK is very dependent on imports too, particularly for energy, and has done a lot of QE recently followed by a period of stubbornly high inflation. People in the UK have also been more focused on paying off debt than taking on more over the last year or so and house prices are falling - all sounds familiar then!
The lost decade of Japan was due to the Plaza Accord between the US, France, Germany and the UK, and more importantly by the forced ending (demanded by the US) of the Window Guidance state credit system in Japan. Window guidance (credit lending by the state via the Bank of Japan and not by private lenders via private stock exchange) is seen as the most important financial and monetary policiy that made the Japanese economic miracle possible.
Of course it was the US, as is the monetary problems of Canada and Mexico via NAFTA. Any trade deals with the us are disproportionately advantageous to the US. And now they’re trying it with China. Rapid development of theirs works countries will make the US market obsolete and they won’t be able to do this anymore….
I was about to post this! So often channels just say "and then the economy busted!" and leave out the fact that it mostly stalled and crashed due to a forced policy between other nations that were scared of losing their place as economic powers.
Western countries have made the choice to accept large numbers of immigrants in order to boost their GDP figures. While this policy may initially seem to promote economic growth, the costs associated with it are all too real and significant. Problems such as the collapse of public safety, the destruction of culture, political chaos, and streets filled with the homeless and garbage have all become evident. In contrast, Japan has chosen a different path, achieving development without relying on immigration and maintaining its unique culture and public safety. In this regard, Japan can be said to be far more developed than Western nations. When a society reaches a certain level of development, many services become free or low-cost, which tends to result in a decline in GDP. This occurs because the maturity of society and rising living standards lead governments and businesses to focus on providing comprehensive services to citizens while keeping costs down. However, in Western countries, nearly all services are paid for, and the quality is often low. For example, there are countries where even public restrooms are not free to use. Japan has reached the world’s second-largest GDP without relying on immigration, maintaining that position for several decades as the only country to do so. This success stems from an efficient social system and the preservation of cultural identity, making it impossible for other Western countries to achieve similar success. Japan's development goes beyond mere economic achievement; it serves as a model for ensuring the overall health and stability of society. In this sense, Japan is undoubtedly a far superior nation compared to the West.
As a manga/doujin collector, the yen being 168yen for one euro has been a blessing. I've been buying SO MUCH STUFF. (I'm also keeping an account in yen just for this, so if the yen bounces back up i'll still have some cushion) I hope hope they'll get better though, because i know locally it's awful.
I’m Japanese living in UK and recently went back to my country, I was shocked people have a good life in Japan there is lots of cheap and delicious food all over the places so they can eat out almost every day( in fact cheaper eating out than cooking it yourself) goooooood health care service in Japan. ❤
こんにちは😊I'm a British but my wife is Japanese and have lived there for many years, we joked in 2019 that it would become 200 yen for £1 eventually and now it nearly is 199, I want to buy a house in Japan to take advantage of the cheap yen
@@Whatshappening2024 Japanese taxes the living hell out of foreigners that move there. You wont find a cheap place unless you move out to the middle of nowhere.
Tesla stock dipped severally , resulting to about 23% drop in the shares value this month. I seriously need suggestions on how to diversify my $400k portfolio made up of volatile TSLA.
Investing without proper guidance can lead to mistakes and losses. I've learned this from my own experience.If you're new to investing or don't have much time, it's best to get advice from an expert.
A lot of folks downplay the role of advlsors until being burnt by their own emotions. I remember couple summers back, after my lengthy divorce, I needed a good boost to help my business stay afloat, hence I researched for licensed advisors and came across someone of utmost qualifications. She's helped grow my reserve notwithstanding inflation, from $275k to $850k.
How can one find a verifiable financial planner? I would not mind looking up the professional that helped you. I will be retiring in two years and I might need some management on my much larger portfolio. Don't want to take any chances.
Svetlana Sarkisian Chowdhury is the licensed fiduciary I use. Just research the name. You’d find necessary details to work with a correspondence to set up an appointment..
Thank you for this tip. it was easy to find your coach. Did my due diligence on her before scheduling a phone call with her. She seems proficient considering her résumé.
The US wanted Japan to fail since the 90's when the Yen value was so high for Americans to afford to buy Japanese cars. The US then asked Japan to drop its currency value down to almost nothing. So Americans can afford to buy Toyotas. Since then, the Yen has never gained it value. That's how America get rid off its competition. Do America want the EU to fail? The answer is YES.
Alright, everyone, let's remember these facts: Here are the global rankings for Net International Investment Position (NIIP) in 2023: Japan: Holds the largest NIIP, approximately $3.9 trillion. Germany: Around $3.7 trillion in net international assets. China: About $2.7 trillion in net international assets. Hong Kong: Approximately $1.8 trillion in net international assets. Switzerland: Around $1.4 trillion in net international assets. Japan has been the world leader in NIIP for many years, with its total far surpassing that of other countries. Germany, China, Hong Kong, and Switzerland also rank highly, reflecting their economic size and trade balances (Wikipedia). For reference, Japan has held the top NIIP position for 33 consecutive years. While it's true that Japan, like any other country, has its share of issues (especially related to policies by politicians), it still attracts over 3 million international tourists each month. (Personally, I think that's too many, but the government aims to increase this number.) By the way, instead of worrying about Japan's economy, maybe everyone should focus more on their own country's issues, don’t you think?
The yen dropping is hurting us SO BAD... seriously. Imports are basically impossible, gasoline prices, although kept at a reasonable value, are 40% higher than they were before the pandemic, and all food has gone up in price 15 to 45%, and add to that massive amounts of shrinkflation (sometimes the amount of food per price has dropped by 40% too) and skimflation (worse quality of products). It's getting ridiculous. They make things smaller and of worse quality so that people don't get scared of increasing prices, but people aren't stupid and buy less because they notice the prices actually increasing all over, so they buy less. I have had to stop buying half of the stuff I would easily buy before the pandemic because they feel like a luxury now. People are eating less and worse. Not saying it's starvation levels, but I imagine if people in the lower part of the income spectrum are actually low-key starving or not (and yes, there is poverty in Japan, there has been a lot of it for like 20 years or so; privatizing all access to schools and colleges, and the postal system hurt the pockets of vast swathes of the population, condemning poor people to cross-generational poverty: kids of poor people could, if they worked hard, get proper education before, but it's much, much worse and harder now. Japan did not have a higher and lower class before 2004, but now it does). I don't give a rat's ass how much Nissan or Toyota or whatever are making selling cars abroad: that income does NOT trickle down the rest of society. Trickle-down economics are a scam and it's been known for decades. Reaganomics are a scam. Abenomics (rest in peace) are a scam. And tourism money, well, I'm happy that people who could not come to Japan during the pandemic are being able to come and visit the nation and dropping money, alright, but Japan needs to find a way to monetize that and to keep antisocial tourists out, because there are always a few bad apples that give the rest a bad name.
Curiously Japan rely a lot on its identity for tourism, kinda proud of their traditions and history but at the same time they abandon it. Countryside is left to die and everyone is going to urban centers. I believe Aomori and Akita for instance are going to be almost empty by the end of the century. The agriculture is relying on 70+ grandpas who are not being replaced so imported food is going to increase and bring even more inflation and it's not like we can't see it coming but politicians do nothing. Everything is being centralized to big cities and big companies but imo Japan is much more than that... My plan was to move there but i have second thoughts, not to mention going to Japan to work coming from the west isn't exactly appealing with the poor work-life balance.
Can you please elaborate on what you mean by keeping “antisocial tourists” out of Japan, please? Who are these people that you’re referring to? Are they people that don’t spend as much money as the other tourists?
@@EhCloserLook lol, no. There are a lot of people coming to Japan causing problems. Johnny Somali was in the extreme end - but then you get the general tourists acting up that resulted in parts of Kyoto now off limits to tourists.
@@zoeherriot That's a valid point. But how are you so sure that that was exactly what the OP was referring to? I would rather hear a direct answer/reply back from him/her in order to better understand what he/she meant.
But then I pretty well remember around 1996 I just arrived in Japan from Brazil as a manual laborer. And there was this Brazilian in my workplace who was going back to Brazil with like 70,000 US dollars saved. He already exchanged at 152 yen because, as everybody at that time thought, the tendency is to ONLY devalue and the sooner the better to dollarize it. And then in a matter of weeks it went below 130... Bottom line is you never ever know.
@@kevink7529 I'm confused. If Japan's current economy is the highest in 30 years, then why is its GDP still lower than it was in 1995? Last time I checked, it's only around $4 trillion now, compared to the $6 trillion peak in 2012. Also, during my five years in Japan, I've seen more and more people here getting fed up with their salaries, especially as everything keeps getting pricier.
Not their argument, they said the currency weakening is a major problem because Japan imports almost all its energy and resources. Those trades are usually denominated in USD not Yen
Well, everybody knows that US medical bills are legendary! It's more about the products you buy, especially tech, tech prices have definitely gone up by tens of thousands of yen.
As a Turkish person living in Japan for 3 years, I can easily say that it's really similar to the beginning of the Turkish economic crisis, and LDP keeps postponing to act for a real fix or solution for their own political benefits. It would be so sad if they kept postponing taking the required steps as the Turkish government did and let this problem get worse and worse.
There is a difference. Japanese debt is 90% owned domestically. Japan is the only economy that run on the principles of a collective capitalist model. Furthermore, Japan has 17 trillion USD in private savings and assets. Not to mention it is the world's largest creditor nation. What can be deemed a crisis from a western perspective garnered from a western understanding of parameters and benchmarks that determine such a crisis to occur, may not actually be the case for Japan. Not to mention Japan doesn't have the luxury of a popular government to enforce any kind of change anyway.
@@verushistorie17 trillion??? What a joke. Japan never had this amount of money, even at their peak. Stop spitting LDP propaganda and just acknowledge that Japan is little by little destroying itself. The economy is now the 4th, most domestic companies don't want to convert their dollars for yen and the government doesn't want to do anything.
@@verushistorie17 trillion??? What a joke. Japan never had this amount of money, even at their peak. Stop spitting LDP propaganda and just acknowledge that Japan is little by little destroying itself. The economy is now the 4th, most domestic companies don't want to convert their dollars for yen and the government doesn't want to do anything.
I'm not an expert but I would suggest that Japanese economy mostly follows the population trends in the country. Japanese population has actually been shrinking every year since 2007 and even before it started shrinking it started to stagnate around 1990. Besides getting smaller, Japanese population is also getting significantly older. I believe the projection is that by 2050 over a quarter of Japanese will be 65 years old or older. Thinking about it that way, the fact that the Japanese economy can still post growth most years despite a smaller and smaller and older and older population is actually quite a good performance.
I am guessing that soon Japan's population might bounce back, when things get cheaper cause there is no Immigration, so things like housing will become very cheap even in places like Tokyo.
similarly the main reason US GDP keeps growing is immigration-fueled population growth. take that out and we'd have stagnant growth too. explains why both parties want mass immigration......it's a ponzi scheme
Frankly, I think this will last another 20 years. A systemic transition cannot be implemented until after a generation of strong and successful systematization. For now, Japan is entering the beginning of the end of Japan's unique employment system of lifetime employment and seniority, but it will take time before the next new system or practice is built.
@user-hz6fj9xy4y Sure technology can increase the theoretical cap but unless technology can literally produce raw material out of thin air, GDP will always be finite.
@@googane7755 finite yes, but we may have a few years to go before everything is set to stagnate. If we had 200 years of growth it would be practically infinite for any single human being, while if it was something like 10 or 50 it would actually be a fair point. Although with things like AI and fusion energy still left largely undiscovered, i kind of think we have at least 100 years (when fusion is finally ready lol).
@@Broniath We have enough resources for everyone on earth right now to live a life of abundance. You can Infinite growth but still have beggars, it's how its distributed that's important.
Yeah, it does make you wonder if the US is going in hard on China because they see them as a threat to its own power around the world, a bit like they did with Japan in the past, which is probably why others like Europe and much of the world don't listen as much when it comes to policies on China, in other words, they have concerns on China, but nothing to the degree the US has got, probably because China is by far a bigger threat to the US. You also get a sense that if the EU were to integrate a lot more, the US would see them as a threat in the same way they saw Japan and see China today, it's about power, not the policies or the political system they live under. I suspect because of the way the world is reshaping, China will likely continue to grow, the EU will eventually get its act together, the US will likely become more hostile to many of these powers, the US is a friend to the Europeans to a degree, but only to a certain level, hence why Europeans need to wake up and do what's in there interest, not US interest, because the US rarely cares about the interest of the rest of the world unless they stand to gain from it, Japan found that out in the 80's.
They explained that situation really badly, the main issue was the rampant patent theft that Japan's tech conglomerates were engaging in, while their government helped them avoid any consequences. Similar to what China does nowadays.
You have to remember that that even up into the 80s, the pacific front of WW2 hadn't really left the American psyche. Some level of anxiety, after that experience, seems quite natural.
My American colleague here in Japan has to pay his student loan, and with such a low Yen, he's really struggling to do so. So an unexpected consequence is that young educated Americans won't come to live in Japan for a while.
Lots of talented people leave Japan due to the falling yen... Especially Software engineers and AI researchers. Japan already had small salaries, but now... That's sad...
Part of the reason why Japan's economy is stagnant is that Japan's Banks are very risk-averse. That is to say they want better than 100% certainty that the money they lend will be paid back. Many small businesses which are financially sound and would be a good bet in the western world are considered too risky. So small businesses cannot get the Business loans to grow their businesses. They have to rely on investors to put money into their companies. And many investors are unwilling to invest in small companies because of the length of time it would take to get a significant return. Also many of these small companies are run by a family and if the family passes away who takes over. These are some of the problems Japan has that needs to address if they want their economy not to shrink. Because many of these sole proprietors when they retire, there's no one to replace them or their products.
This is not true. Getting a business loan in Japan is not that difficult. While many banks are risk adverse they’ve had negative interest rates meaning banks were penalized for not loaning enough. Even now you don’t need much to get a business loan. The main problem is inflation is low, the aging population isn’t spending/producing enough shrinking the economy, and the manufacturing for shipping building electronics, semiconductor, has moved to other Asian countries.
The Market have been suffering over the past month, with all the three indexes recording losses in recent weeks. My $400,000 portfolio is down by approximately 20%, any recommendations to scale up my returns before retirement will be highly appreciated.
Investing without proper guidance can lead to mistakes and losses. I've learned this from my own experience.If you're new to investing or don't have much time, it's best to get advice from an expert.
A lot of folks downplay the role of advlsors until being burnt by their own emotions. I remember couple summers back, after my lengthy divorce, I needed a good boost to help my business stay afloat, hence I researched for licensed advisors and came across someone of utmost qualifications. She's helped grow my reserve notwithstanding inflation, from $275k to $850k.
How can one find a verifiable financial planner? I would not mind looking up the professional that helped you. I will be retiring in two years and I might need some management on my much larger portfolio. Don't want to take any chances.
Svetlana Sarkisian Chowdhury is the licensed fiduciary I use. Just research the name. You’d find necessary details to work with a correspondence to set up an appointment..
Thank you for this tip. it was easy to find your coach. Did my due diligence on her before scheduling a phone call with her. She seems proficient considering her résumé.
Great video, very informative. Consider changing the typography for definitions and graphics - it’s difficult to read when it’s all written in capitals and lettering isn’t adequately spaced. Thanks
I am a Japanese student who will go to US grad school in July. A weak Yen has negative effects on those who study abroad, such as the rising cost of living and tuition there...
I have been living in Japan for over twenty years. I remember the economic collapse of 2008 when the US dollar dropped to 72 Yen. Fortunately, I had a job that paid me in Yen. Today, I am retired and the US dollar is worth 161 Yen. Yahoooooo!! I hope it lasts but if there is one thing I have learned, it's that nothing lasts.
It’s been reported that Nintendo has some really huge cash reserves. Maybe it’s for the day the yen bounces back up, as then they’ll have lots of capital to maybe invest big again.
I’m sure many of the comments here nailed it. There are always international, political goings on in the background, in these types of situations, that are rarely publicly known or considered. To try and make sense of these situations or give whys and wherefores without all the cards being played, or the players involved, known is folly.
This is easy to understand. Yen is going down because they have exports like before. Japan used to be a leader in electronic gadgets. I don't even know what are leading Japanese products now.
I think the thing that isn't talked about enough in these quick youtube videos on Japan's economic challenges is that the vast majority of mortages in Japan currently are variable interest rate loans. It's not just that the government of Japan would have trouble servicing it's debt it's citizens would as well. This would only accelerate the effects of inflation on the economy as people's homes would be even more expensive without a comparable increase in wages. Right now I can get a mortgage in Japan on a 0.7% variable interest rate loan or I could get a 1.5% fixed rate loan. Given how long interest rates have been this low most people have opted for the loan that gives them a mortage for half the interest. Japan would have to undergo a massive migration to fixed rate mortgages prior to attempting to raise interest rates as a mechanism to fight inflation. Knowing how the government works here and how slow they are to do anything it's almost unthinkable that they'd do this but as this video states the day may come soon where there are only bad options available to them. That day seems to be rapidly approaching.
Is the quality of life in Japan really so low? Food: The food is high quality, cheap, and diverse. You can eat anything for about 800 yen. Foreigners are surprised at the food available at convenience stores. Environment: The city is clean, the toilets are clean, the customer service is polite, and people keep order, so you won't feel uncomfortable going out. Medical care: Japan has the most MRI machines in the world, so you never have to wait for treatment, and with universal health insurance, the entire nation can receive medical care at low cost. Public Safety: Japan has very good public safety even by global standards, and women walking alone at night rarely encounter crime. Housing: In developed countries, inflation has made it difficult for ordinary people to buy a home, but in Japan, housing prices are low and it is easy to buy a home in rural areas. Convenience: Convenience stores and trains are well developed, so you can shop 24 hours a day. If you live near a station, you can walk or bike, and you can get anywhere in Japan by train. Work: The annual work hours are 1,607 hours, which is below the OECD average. It is significantly lower than South Korea's 1,901 hours and the United States' 1,811 hours. Entertainment: There are plenty of facilities to enjoy, such as karaoke, arcades, and concept cafes, and there are many independently-run shops that consumers will love, unlike in the US, which is dominated by chain stores. Tourism: From snowy Hokkaido in the north to tropical Okinawa in the south, traditional Kyoto, beautiful and sophisticated Tokyo, theme parks such as TDS and Universal Studios Japan, hot springs in various places, and mountain climbing, there is an abundance of tourist resources. Finances: Most of the debt is denominated in the country's own currency, and the country also has the right to issue currency. Net external assets are 471 trillion yen, the highest in the world. How many countries on this planet are there with more than this? I hear that recently, especially in other developed countries, global inflation has made it difficult to enjoy eating out and even to buy a house.
It's money, after all. Japan has to take into account that even though goods and services are cheaper than other developed countries, the Japanese who work there and earn money are also less paid. Japan's salary level is $20,000, which is lower than that of the Czech Republic and Poland, according to the OECD's median disposable income statistics. It is quite poor compared to $50,000 in the United States (4th) Korea (30,000 in 15th) and $25,000 in Italy (20th). They are even considering a dual-price system that charges extra foreign tourists. They are what so-called third-world countries have done.
@@niean-u8r I'm not a renter myself. But there are a lot of Japanese real estate managers/owners who advertise on TH-cam. You can find them by putting "Japanese real estate rentals" 「日本の不動産賃貸」or something in the search field. These are in Japanese, but there might be English subtitles for non-Japanese speakers. They probably have English vids you can look through too.
"no growth." The only people that say no growth is bad are people that want to sit back and do nothing to make money. Ive been in japan for 16 years and it's a wonderful country. It's been fantastic having prices not chsnge. Vending machine drinks cost the same in 2005 as they do now. Its awesome. If prices don't go up, it doesn't matter if your paycheck doesn't go up. Growth, it's for the greedy people who just want to invest and make money doing nothing
It's going back to Pre Plaza Accords levels, when they very bullied to almost double the exchange rate of the yen (the underlying cause of the crisis that followed). Yen weakness, combined with the productivity, is in my opinion a very good thing for Japan.
Their broken and old society cannot reach that kind of productivity needed to take advantage of that. They gonna start accepting millions of low wage foreign workers if that to happen.
Lol at bullied. Japan was manipulating the dollar for years to maximize profits. All while it was under the American security umbrella and could get away with spending nothing on defense despite having neighbors that wanted it's head and had complete access to the US consumer market. No shit the US government wanted them to stop manipulating.
So Japan is in a catch 22? Only, you can't raise interest rates , for the cost of servicing debt is untenable. Just, the UK and most other so-called developed countries are also in this position, and especially the USA. My point, imagine having to print a trillion dollars of annual debt interest for the foreseeable future , wtf!?😮
Hate to burst your hate boner for the US, but American debt is only 120% of GDP. Much lower than Japan. About 3 times less The US can easily afford higher interest rates than Japan due to the US having much higher GDP growth rates than Japan When you look at debt, the absolute amount doesn’t matter. The larger the economy, the higher the absolute debt amount will be. You have to look at Debt to GDP ratio. Most developed countries have a debt to GDP ratio of around 100%. Which is very manageable so long as your economy grows more than the interest rate. Debt is only a problem if it starts to get above 150% of GDP
@@tylerclayton6081 That's because you know the US.can make the world absorb that debt😂 Maybe he doesn’t hate the US, just hates the hegemonism that restricts the development of human diversity.😅
Japan has the lowest inflation out of the developed world, this is so silly. Even if in the short run inflation increases, Japans exports will be favourable and will improve even more into the positive. Absolute beat up by foreign traders who have vested interests in the BoJ raising rates, look at the sources and who benefits.
The other thing most Western people do not understand - house prices go down the older and more used the house is - living in a house greatly reduces its value over time - due to this and the demographics of Japan it is possible to buy a worthless house for the price of the paper work to transfer ownership - but have fun renovating it and esp disposing of materials as you do upgrades and other things to it - thus increasing and decreasing interest rates are not that effective
You can get houses for free even in Japan, however the main problem is that the places where these free or very cheap houses are located aren't exactly the places offering great job opportunities. That's a far bigger issue than the renovation costs. It's nigh economical suicide for Japanese people or foreigners to move into these houses if they still need to work and the people who don't require a job either constitute a large part of the population of the places with these houses already (retirees) or don't tend to want to live there, (rich foreigners, rich Japanese)
@@mr.netflix9149 the western world (and many, many other countries outside of the west) has a continous housing bubble that bursts every couple of years but inflates itself, wherein housing and land cannot really depreciate
It's true that Japan's economy is worsening. But poverty rarely leads to crime or death because Japan is a country that is kind to the weak. This leads to other problems, but for the most part it's a positive thing.
Some people just don’t get Japan and they began comparing Japan with failed and bankrupt economies like Turkey or Argentina. First, Japan is always in huge trade surpluses to this day which means BoJ has been getting forex reserves and stockpiling it for quite sometime now. Second, Japan is in literal deflation for decades now and it’s suicidal for every government and Japanese people ain’t known for huge spenders either and seeing prices decreasing, made Japanese ppl to spend even less as this video talked about so what Japan did? The last resort which is interest rates and Japan is living in negative interest rates for 20 years now but it didn’t bother the budget conscious Japanese to keep saving their money. So seeing the depreciating ¥ is actually a blessing for the govt which is finally experiencing some inflation after decades of deflation and prompting people to spend more for their basic goods which in turn is boosting spending in the economy. But despite all that, of course BoJ won’t want to see ¥ set historic lows against $ and neither will the United States allow such privileges to Japan and Japan unlike third world mess like Argentina, Turkey or Africa, Japan can actually afford to pump $$$ in the economy the keep the value of ¥ stable until U.S. lowers its interest rates.
I was hoping for videos going deeper into what you just wrote Instead you get moronic videos like this by the shovel load. People just dont understand that Japan has remained a highly developed country yet kept it's secondary manufacturing industry while doing so. It has a very diverse ownership for food making domestic production stable, competitive and cheap. The country will remain stable while other developed countries are counting on immigration for sustained grwoth
Eh, not really. Plaza Accords did what exactly? Depreciate USD relative to JPY, FRC, and DM. The idea was to increase American export competitiveness and reduce the trade deficit the US had with the rest of the free world. Exporting economies tend to see their currency strengthen, and this can also be the downfall of their own export competitiveness. Hence why the rest of the Free World was willing to cooperate with macroeconomic interventions to reverse the trade deficit. With Europe, this was successful. This failed to reduce US trade deficit with Japan, which only strengthened the Yen further. Unfortunately the Japanese reaction to the strengthening yen (bad news for a major exporting economy) is what led to the lost decade. Japan was in between a rock and a hard place. Being the king of industrial exports brought them money bags, but also strengthened the Yen and risks making their exports uncompetitive. The solution to this problem (in hindsight) would've been to sell shit ton of JPY for USD and other currency (like what China did, since the Lost Decade essentially served as a warning for China). Instead, Japan didn't had hindsight working in their favor. They basically had the same thing that happened in America in 2008 with real estate due to a policy of "window guidance", which effectively created target quotas for mortgages, essentially encouraging subpar mortgages. The second double whammy was the decision to raise interest rate on inter-bank loans just as the subprime mortgage bubble bursted, which basically bankrupted Japanese banks and turned them into zombie banks. This trapped Japan in a balance sheet recession for the next 3 decades. Contrast this with West Germany, where none of this expansionary policy took place. Germany, too, is a major industrial exporter. Yet, no lost 3 decades. Germany's self inflicted woes are largely attributed to piss poor energy policy.
A very good narrative. Just a detail on the Plaza Accord of 1985, where the US and other central banks spiked the Yen to curb J exports. BOJ then panicked and lowered interest rates in response to stimulate the economy, and this led to the real estate bubble. It collapsed in 1990 when BOJ spiked interest rates to rein in the bubble. All is not lost; the cheaper Yen has made Japan a top tourist destination; they are selling property assets to foreigners to repay debt; and birth rates have plummeted because young Japanese adults know there is no future for a family to continually paying off its debt for a child's education, etc. The sun also sets.
Great video in general, but there is some economic misconceptions, which journalists always does cause they follow the common sense about things that they don't know.
The US rate hikes are there to counteract inflation -- so the USD losing value against the price of goods is the cause of it gaining value against other currencies. If that sounds like it makes no sense, that is because it doesn't, at least long term. What has happened is that people have taken out cheap JPY loans, converted that to USD, and invested that in the US markets for greater yields. These loans will need to be repaid in JPY though, and that will trigger the market correction.
Ironic how this video comes out a day after it was announced that Japan's inflation has hit record lows, productivity has gone up, salaries have gone up, GDP growth has increased more than in the past two decades... Japan is not collapsing, Japan just keeps going as it always has.
Correct, but Japan has been miserable for decades. Inflation has gone up more than anything else, everyone is depressed from the economy, and I believe that even if the economy was good (which it isn't---you can't when your currency collapses by over 25% in a few months)....the Japanese wouldn't know it....they are conditioned to misery.
@@doctordetroit4339 The average Japanese person just pays no interest in these things. They complain when their favourite thing gets more expensive but we can still eat well for $3 and rent/houses are cheap. It's amazing how many people don't care.
This is all relative. What they dont tell you is that Japan's debt is to themselves. They do not owe money to China or the USA or Russia, the central bank of Japan has borrowed from the corporations and the people of Japan.
Why do western channels always gloss over the Plaza Accords. America MADE Japan strengthen its currency against the dollar, which led to speculation, which led to the 80s/90s bubble.
The Plaza Accords were signed to end the special benefits that Japan got to rebuild their economy post WWII. Removing the peg and allowing the currency to actually move in value relative to the Dollar is perfectly reasonable when Japan was taking advantage of the policy to export luxury goods at extremely favorable rates and creating a massive trade deficit that shouldn't ordinarily exist. And what killed growth in the economy after was the Bank of Japan's absurd mismanagement of the Japanese Housing Bubble, not the Plaza Accords. This Bubble likely would have happened regardless of US trade policy, and was exacerbated by a bunch of junk investment loans being given out (and then these loans being cut off all at once for the crash). The same Bubble occured in both South Korea and China (with the Chinese Bubble still ongoing technically), and appears to be a result of Cultural preference to rest investments into property rather than Stock or other Investment vehicles.
@bilboborbins The short answer is: There is nothing wrong with property investment, as long as those prices remain based in reality rather than speculation. The issue that all 3 of the Asian Property/Asset Bubbles had were that long lines of credit were being taken out to finance property price purchases that couldn't be realized (since selling them eventually became impossible at the inflated price.) In Japan's case, the moment that the inflated investment loans started being corralled in, the inflated property and assets couldn't be flipped for a profit anymore by investors. This caused the speculative value of these assets to collapse, leaving individuals so horribly in debt relative to wealth that it is impossible to recover in a practical fashion. Now, it is technically possible to overcome this. In the 06-07' property crisis in the US, junk loans caused a similar wealth/debt ratios that became massive liabilities to banks, which dried up investment loans. The solutions was Quantitative Easing, though unlike Japan the damage was small enough (proportionate to the US Economy) that it could be fixed with reasonable amounts of QE proportional to GDP. The issue if you can't fix this is now you have investors that either cannot afford to do risky investments again, or will be so cautious with their wealth that they refuse to invest at all, stockpiling wealth into bank accounts or other low-risk holding areas. The US also saw this effect, and is why the 08' stimulus from the Bush administration wasn't enough to return investor behavior to a healthier state, and required the '09 and '10 stimulus packages to get investors back to relative normal. TLDR: Property/Asset Investment isn't bad, but when investment value becomes detached to the real value of an asset, any disruption will cause the speculative price to align more to real price and destroy the wealth of the investor. When an entire society does this, the resulting destruction of wealth can cause massive long-term damage to all investments as all investors become less likely to invest.
@bilboborbins Investing in property is perfectly fine, but when speculation makes the value of land diverge from its actual value, then it can cause some economic issues. Hence why specifically for Japan, the investment loan market caused prices to balloon unrealistically for a while... until the loans ended and it all crashed down at once. After that happens big investors tend to get spooked and stick with low risk investments, and small investors begin to save because they lost all their money. In both cases, growth was hurt because suddenly the extra money needed to grow companies dried up.
Greetings from Japan. There are some erroneous points and omitted incidents. 1)The BOJ did not rise interest rate post Covid NOT because it would affect the interest on government debt, but because the inflation post Covid was mainly due to Russian invasion of Ukraine causing higher commodity prices, and due to supply chain disruption during and post-Covid. Higher demand was not its main cause unlike in the U.S. and Europe and others. 2)The Plaza accord imposed by the Reagan administration on Japan (frequent intervention by Japanese MOF causing the yen exchange rate to be dubbed "the dirty float" was one cause of the Plaza accord) led to dramatic appreciation of yen, causing higher government spending to support the economy in mid 1980's that in turn led to the property and stock market bubble.
In fact, your explanation is very accurate as to why the Bank of Japan (BOJ) did not raise interest rates after the epidemic. Indeed, inflation in Japan has been driven primarily by higher commodity prices and supply chain disruptions caused by the Russo-Ukrainian war, rather than by increased demand as in the United States and Europe. The Bank of Japan's policy decisions appeared more cautious and targeted in this context, and the Plaza Accord did lead to a significant appreciation of the yen, which to a certain extent forced the Japanese government to increase spending to support the economy, thus triggering the mid-1980s. real estate and stock market bubbles. This historical context is important because it illustrates how policy decisions can have profound effects on the economy
“Understanding these kind of economic theories are difficult, and honestly even politicians don’t seem to understand them” That has to be the most diplomatic phrasing of politician’s capabilities I have ever heard. I wouldn’t trust them to know which way to turn a screwdriver.
No, Japan should have lowered their rate. The bank of japan didn't. The national debt means nothing in japan, because japanese government has so much assets. When the yen was 70 per dollar. They have printed ginormous amount of yen to buy us dollars. Now they can sell that at 100% profit to buy back the yen. Thir economy should do well if the exchange rate stay like this even lower yen.
the predicament japan's long been thru can be explained as one phrase; the 3 lost decades. japanese are now overtaken by korean and taiwanese in terms of gdp per capita both ppp and nominal. yen/dollar is like above 160, which mean the japanese gov't is boosting conglomerates at the expense of life of average people. i don't even understand how they are not thinking of endless strike for that.
Never mid Politicians not understanding this stuff (they don't understand much about anything) Senior Bankers don't fully understand it. There are too many moving parts and too many variables and QE is just another new and huge moving part that no one really understands. When QE was used in the Financial Crisis no one really knew what the consequences of it would be, it was used in panic and desperation.
This is simply the most brilliant video. I have seen on the subject of Japanese economy in particular, but economy in general. It’s absolutely on another level in terms of quality. It is this, which is the future journalism you beat the economist hollow
BTC can disregard techincals when in a bull, did that in 2020 when it crossed previous ATH... stayed there a few weeks and continued pumping like crazy to 60k. Also, there is one constant... when around 90 on monthly RSI, the end is near. And don't expect crazy price targets of 500k... expect around 100k at most and be happy if there's more after that. If you believe big boys and CEOs of big investment firms are saying targets like 1M this cycle.. you deserve to be their exit liquidity. It's not about guessing the market's next move; it's about playing it smart and steady during trading...managed to grow a nest egg of around 2.3B'tc to a decent 21 B'tc in the space of a few months...I'm especially grateful to Lia Lorenzo whose deep expertise and traditional trading acumen have been invaluable in this challenging, ever-evolving financial landscape
Profitable trading requires experience, a solid strategy, and preparation, which many lack. Understanding buy/sell ratios, identifying market leaders, and diversifying are key to reducing risk.
TLDW; Not sure if yen declining is a financial crisis though. I personally think JPY has always been overpriced until the correction finally happened/is happening. For example people who barely made their ends meet all had several overseas trips in their life. Imported tomatoes, bananas and oranges even from the USA are cheaper than home-grown ones. May be Japanese residents will be happy about this in the long term.
Sadly even tho it's very interesting and high tech vertical farming not worth it right now economically. I read news and saw videos talking about they are not performing well in this economy right now.
I would assume the reason they import so much stuff is that Japan is a more developed country surrounded by less developed countries so the labour costs are cheaper over seas meaning it was cheaper to import. So I guess vertical farming may only work if it's also using automation to make it cheaper than foreign labour.
@@RF1702 The problem with vertical farms is, the biggest cost not even the equipments or the electricity, but the people. You need highly educated people there.
@@ms.carriage6867 Tidal energy is cheap but you need a certain type of coastline, I don't know enough about Japan's coast to say if that is suitable. Geothermal would probably be a better option, Japan is full of hot springs which could be used to produce cheap power
Its vindicating, but annoying, that I wrote a thesis about balance sheet recessions in Japan over 20 years ago and that was read by basically no-one. Then this crowd comes along, and damn near half a million people now know about balance sheets in 2 weeks. Oh well, kudos, chaps.
The Bank of Japan has kept its interest rate pegged to negative for years now. However, the fact that the Yen depreciated so much really galvanized the BoJ into actions. Hence, it had to rachet up the interest rate to 1.0% 😂😂😂. If you compare the usd/yen exchange rate in 2011 to now, it has shockingly doubled.
Not really. While Japan trade ministry was panicky trying to talk down the speculative market with threat of intervention, the BOJ chief in the same day hold a press conference telling the world that BOJ only interested in the inflation number and more importantly, they are happy with the inflation number NOW and see no further cause for any remedial monetary action. And to add oil to fire, he further add that BOJ monetary policy don't target Yen currency value, basically telling the speculator we are not going to fxcking care, so don't worry are keep selling Yen. You can tell the trade ministry was not too happy with BOJ as in their statement you see terms like "expects BOJ to cooperate with the government to address the issue" etc etc. BOJ is part of the problem and not the solution to the problem as quite evidently they add oil to the fire.
As a Japanese, I think Japan is dependent on the US too much both in good ways and bad ways. When I stay in the house and want to buy something, I would search Amazon on Google. When I am out and get a little hungry, I stop by Macdonald. When I am out and feel being relaxed for a while, I drop into Starbucks with watching Netflix. When I am back home, I stay in bed while watching Twitter, Instagram or Facebook. And I comment above things on TH-cam like this. If America economy is fallen down, Japanese economy is also down at the same time.
I would be glad to hear an explanation on how a US recession would be a terrible thing for Japan, and if so, how impactful can it be? As a native yourself, I am willing to hear your take.
Every crash/collapse brings with it an equivalent market chance if you are early informed and equipped, I've seen folks amass up to $1m amid economy crisis, and even pull it off easily in favorable conditions. Unequivocally, the collapse is getting somebody somewhere rich
I do not disagree, there are strategies that could be put in place for solid gains regardless of economy or market condition, but such execution are usually carried out by investment experts with experience since the 08' crash
I looked up her name online and found her page. I emailed and made an appointment to talk with her. Thanks for the tip.
Japan has been living in the year 2000 since the 1980s
they're still living in the future compared to countries that think they can go broke in their own currencies
@@grimaffiliations3671and those countries are?
Ye they still youse fax on work and not mail
@@Zunken12その西洋プロパガンダってそんなに君達の自尊心を高めるの？ちなみに米国の方が使用率高いよ。
@@じゅげむちょうすけ-c9uusage rate of what? Paper? In businesses only? And not for physical backups or contracts but literally for things like messages and letters?
Its worse here, our economy is like a flailing fish, fighting for its life. The normal state of the U.S. economy is actually very bad. Because of this it goes into convulsive spasms fighting to grow any way it can out of desperation. Tricks, gimmicks, rule changes try to stimulate the economy and prevent it from falling but they only bring temporary relief to people since, when you factor in inflation we are declining.
People believe their currency has the worth it does because they have no other option. Even in a hyperinflationary environment, individuals must continue to use their hyperinflationary currency since they likely have minimal access to other currencies or gold/silver coins.
Inflation is gradually going to become part of us and due to that fact any money you keep in cash or in a low-interest account declines in value each year. Investing is the only way to make your money grow and unless you have an exceptionally high income, investing is the only way most people will ever have enough money to retire.
@@ThomasChai05I've tried investing in the stock market several times but always got discouraged by fluctuations of stock value. I would be happy if you could advise me based on how you went about yours, as I am ready to go the passive income path.!!
@@ThomasChai05I've tried investing in the stock market several times but always got discouraged by fluctuations of stock value. I would be happy if you could advise me based on how you went about yours, as I am ready to go the passive income path.!!
In fact, I had no prior experience or understanding when I began investing in 2020, but by the end of 2023, I had made a profit of almost $850k. All I had been doing was going by what my financial advisor had told me. This demonstrates that all you truly need is a professional to assist you; you don't even need to be a great investor or put in a lot of work.
Japan's lost decades were largely triggered by the USA who were in the late 80s downright paranoid about that country's ascendance in manufacturing. Those old enough to be an adult then will remember it well. In the 1980s the yen was 220 to the USD and it was an export led economy that had eye-watering trade surpluses with every developed country in the world. Through a combination of political pressure and currency manipulation (which the USA was uniquely able to do due to the power of the petrodollar, especially in those days), they forced the YEN to appreciate to 110 to the dollar making Japanese goods twice as expensive to crater its exports, and crater it did. With corporate profits tanked, companies stopped investing. Whereas this would normally result in a deep recession and high unemployment for a few years before growth returned again, _as Japanese culture view lay-offs as anathema,_ they retained their employees and depressed wages instead. So we have this unique scenario of consistent near full employment with deflationary pressure instead. Lower energy prices (stronger currency buys more barrels for the same amount) also put deflationary pressure on goods manufactured for the domestic market. Stagnant wages + deflation, of course people are gonna tighten belts. With C & I & X gone for ye old C+I+G+(X-M) formula, of course doemstic asset prices and financial markets also crash and a vicious circle occurs.
As a side note, Japan's lost decades helped open the door for Korea and China rise. Once upon a time, you can't go to the electrical section and find it filled 90% with Japanese products, now it's filled with Korean and Chinese TVs and refrigerators. In the case of the latter, perhaps the tale will have an ironic twist whereby America's fear of Japan helped a create a bigger dragon to rise and this was one is nowhere near as friendly to the US as Japan was/is.
You ultimately lay the blame on the US and yet you yourself mention numerous serious mistakes that the Japanese themselves engaged (and continue to engage) in that have greatly worsened and prolonged their recession.
The US, fncking countries over since after World War 2
@@yuyutubee8435but it's true. US been fncking countries over.
Every Asian knows that the collapse of the yen is because the United States is harvesting yen to fill the domestic deficit. In fact, Japan also knows this, so it sold some US bonds. Only the naive Westerners don't know that the United States is so shameless.
@@yuyutubee8435i wouldn’t say they’re mistakes. Japan still maintained a high standard of living (maybe even higher than that of the US when you account for things like healthcare, public safety, housing affordability, and public transit) low unemployment and is home to some of the biggest companies on this planet. Hardly mistakes, any other country would be glad to have this standard of living and worldwide recognition in various fronts such as entertainment and technology.
A Japanese living in Japan here. Around March, I was checking Amazon for various products to put down a lawn in my yard, and where the Gardena sand rolling tool was in the 6000 yen range, I see now that it is in the 8000 yen range. The price of other tools must have gone up as well, so I have given up on putting up the lawn this year for now. I'll see how it goes and do it next year, but there is no guarantee that it will be in better condition by then.
yeah thats part weak yen and just inflation. our prices for things has gone up 40% or more too.
I would trade expensive gardening tools for affordable, housing here in California. 😭
Prices have increased all around from high inflation. Insurance, housing and gas are the ones that worry me the most.
You can blame Russia. The world had just left covid crisis and slowing recovering when Russia decided to launch a war in Europe.
C
If Japan’s economy is considered “collapsing” then what does that make my country 😭🇳🇬 we must have collapsed to the depths of hell at this point
Zimbabwe🇿🇼 : _"Hmph... Amateurs 😏 "_
Your government has connections to Boko Haram 😂 what do you expect.
Who was the guy who said "an ex boko Haram can do everything in Nigeria even become president, opportunities are there for them"
🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️
the yen is considered collapsing, not the economy. if wages and prices keep up noting much really changes.
Me a pakistani looking at my country's economy:
IT'S OVER😔.
@@IK_MKtrue, it could be worse we could be Zim or Venezuela
pacing is SO important
there are a lot of videos that I can't watch because all of the information is disorganized and spewed out at once
this video has a VERY steady pace, easy to metabolize, really appreciate that!
Lies again? Grab Grammy Berita Minggu
The central bank holds more than half of the Japanese government's debt, and it is a lie that interest rates cannot be raised because interest payments will increase. Looking at the Japanese government's consolidated balance sheet, its finances are extremely sound. There are other reasons not to raise interest rates.
Standard of living is extremely high in Japan. Food and drink are fairly inexpensive. Low growth is still progress, and people like stability and predictability. Japan reached its "mature economy" status quickly.
They don't allow inflation.
They prioritize quality of life over economic growth. If you're an investor, this is terrible. If you're a human being, this is the best case scenario given the situation
@@everythingisfine9988 Yeah, QOL is much better for the people, but it still needs to be handled properly or there could be more dangerous consequences for the people. Still better than focusing on Economic Growth all the time and sacrificing your people.
problem is what to do when most of your population is living off pensions, as they're currently almost reaching in Japan. Maybe they can make it work, but in any case it will be interesting and informative for the rest of the low-birthrate world
it was Reagan causing yen to rise in value because Detroit cant compete with the Japanese auto. So the yen was political force to stay below 120 until Covid when the interest differential with US expanded .
2:38 "The bubble burst, and continued to burst for a while"
I don't know why that caught me off guard
That's the most confusing statement that I've ever heard.
More like, it never reflated.
It surprised the Japanese too
Japan copied Bangladesh flag 🇧🇩
Rich country, poor people. This is Japan.
The UK is very dependent on imports too, particularly for energy, and has done a lot of QE recently followed by a period of stubbornly high inflation. People in the UK have also been more focused on paying off debt than taking on more over the last year or so and house prices are falling - all sounds familiar then!
I was there during the peak, first weekend of May. It was cheaper to stay in Tokyo than it was in Mexico City. Amzing.
The lost decade of Japan was due to the Plaza Accord between the US, France, Germany and the UK, and more importantly by the forced ending (demanded by the US) of the Window Guidance state credit system in Japan. Window guidance (credit lending by the state via the Bank of Japan and not by private lenders via private stock exchange) is seen as the most important financial and monetary policiy that made the Japanese economic miracle possible.
Of course it was the US, as is the monetary problems of Canada and Mexico via NAFTA.
Any trade deals with the us are disproportionately advantageous to the US.
And now they’re trying it with China.
Rapid development of theirs works countries will make the US market obsolete and they won’t be able to do this anymore….
I was about to post this!
So often channels just say "and then the economy busted!" and leave out the fact that it mostly stalled and crashed due to a forced policy between other nations that were scared of losing their place as economic powers.
Rich country, poor people. This is Japan.
We shoulda never bothered the Pearl Harbor back then.
@@tatsumasa6332 why? You’re gonna take over Hawaii anyways cause of it…
Keep the faith.
Western countries have made the choice to accept large numbers of immigrants in order to boost their GDP figures. While this policy may initially seem to promote economic growth, the costs associated with it are all too real and significant. Problems such as the collapse of public safety, the destruction of culture, political chaos, and streets filled with the homeless and garbage have all become evident. In contrast, Japan has chosen a different path, achieving development without relying on immigration and maintaining its unique culture and public safety. In this regard, Japan can be said to be far more developed than Western nations.
When a society reaches a certain level of development, many services become free or low-cost, which tends to result in a decline in GDP. This occurs because the maturity of society and rising living standards lead governments and businesses to focus on providing comprehensive services to citizens while keeping costs down. However, in Western countries, nearly all services are paid for, and the quality is often low. For example, there are countries where even public restrooms are not free to use.
Japan has reached the world’s second-largest GDP without relying on immigration, maintaining that position for several decades as the only country to do so. This success stems from an efficient social system and the preservation of cultural identity, making it impossible for other Western countries to achieve similar success. Japan's development goes beyond mere economic achievement; it serves as a model for ensuring the overall health and stability of society. In this sense, Japan is undoubtedly a far superior nation compared to the West.
As a manga/doujin collector, the yen being 168yen for one euro has been a blessing. I've been buying SO MUCH STUFF.
(I'm also keeping an account in yen just for this, so if the yen bounces back up i'll still have some cushion)
I hope hope they'll get better though, because i know locally it's awful.
Where do you buy them from? Asking for a friend😂😂
@@vijaz5559 mostly Mandarake and booth (I have a local address for shipping, but Mandarake ships internationally)
@@Arthur19701 physical!
Do you make Hent@i?
Just asking.
(Ps: doujinshi aren't all dirty or NSFW lol I mostly buy story or gag doujins haha)
I’m Japanese living in UK and recently went back to my country, I was shocked people have a good life in Japan there is lots of cheap and delicious food all over the places so they can eat out almost every day( in fact cheaper eating out than cooking it yourself) goooooood health care service in Japan. ❤
こんにちは😊I'm a British but my wife is Japanese and have lived there for many years, we joked in 2019 that it would become 200 yen for £1 eventually and now it nearly is 199, I want to buy a house in Japan to take advantage of the cheap yen
@@Whatshappening2024 Japanese taxes the living hell out of foreigners that move there. You wont find a cheap place unless you move out to the middle of nowhere.
There you go.
Well, you have to admit there is a big difference between a third-world country like the UK, and Japan. 😊
Then why dont you go back to Japan? Where you Yen is worth half the value of the pound...
Tesla stock dipped severally , resulting to about 23% drop in the shares value this month. I seriously need suggestions on how to diversify my $400k portfolio made up of volatile TSLA.
Investing without proper guidance can lead to mistakes and losses. I've learned this from my own experience.If you're new to investing or don't have much time, it's best to get advice from an expert.
A lot of folks downplay the role of advlsors until being burnt by their own emotions. I remember couple summers back, after my lengthy divorce, I needed a good boost to help my business stay afloat, hence I researched for licensed advisors and came across someone of utmost qualifications. She's helped grow my reserve notwithstanding inflation, from $275k to $850k.
How can one find a verifiable financial planner? I would not mind looking up the professional that helped you. I will be retiring in two years and I might need some management on my much larger portfolio. Don't want to take any chances.
Svetlana Sarkisian Chowdhury is the licensed fiduciary I use. Just research the name. You’d find necessary details to work with a correspondence to set up an appointment..
Thank you for this tip. it was easy to find your coach. Did my due diligence on her before scheduling a phone call with her. She seems proficient considering her résumé.
imagine being argentinian and not being mentally prepared for that burn within 3 secs
The US wanted Japan to fail since the 90's when the Yen value was so high for Americans to afford to buy Japanese cars. The US then asked Japan to drop its currency value down to almost nothing. So Americans can afford to buy Toyotas. Since then, the Yen has never gained it value.
That's how America get rid off its competition.
Do America want the EU to fail? The answer is YES.
Alright, everyone, let's remember these facts:
Here are the global rankings for Net International Investment Position (NIIP) in 2023:
Japan: Holds the largest NIIP, approximately $3.9 trillion.
Germany: Around $3.7 trillion in net international assets.
China: About $2.7 trillion in net international assets.
Hong Kong: Approximately $1.8 trillion in net international assets.
Switzerland: Around $1.4 trillion in net international assets.
Japan has been the world leader in NIIP for many years, with its total far surpassing that of other countries. Germany, China, Hong Kong, and Switzerland also rank highly, reflecting their economic size and trade balances (Wikipedia).
For reference, Japan has held the top NIIP position for 33 consecutive years. While it's true that Japan, like any other country, has its share of issues (especially related to policies by politicians), it still attracts over 3 million international tourists each month. (Personally, I think that's too many, but the government aims to increase this number.)
By the way, instead of worrying about Japan's economy, maybe everyone should focus more on their own country's issues, don’t you think?
The yen dropping is hurting us SO BAD... seriously. Imports are basically impossible, gasoline prices, although kept at a reasonable value, are 40% higher than they were before the pandemic, and all food has gone up in price 15 to 45%, and add to that massive amounts of shrinkflation (sometimes the amount of food per price has dropped by 40% too) and skimflation (worse quality of products). It's getting ridiculous. They make things smaller and of worse quality so that people don't get scared of increasing prices, but people aren't stupid and buy less because they notice the prices actually increasing all over, so they buy less. I have had to stop buying half of the stuff I would easily buy before the pandemic because they feel like a luxury now. People are eating less and worse. Not saying it's starvation levels, but I imagine if people in the lower part of the income spectrum are actually low-key starving or not (and yes, there is poverty in Japan, there has been a lot of it for like 20 years or so; privatizing all access to schools and colleges, and the postal system hurt the pockets of vast swathes of the population, condemning poor people to cross-generational poverty: kids of poor people could, if they worked hard, get proper education before, but it's much, much worse and harder now. Japan did not have a higher and lower class before 2004, but now it does).
I don't give a rat's ass how much Nissan or Toyota or whatever are making selling cars abroad: that income does NOT trickle down the rest of society. Trickle-down economics are a scam and it's been known for decades. Reaganomics are a scam. Abenomics (rest in peace) are a scam.
And tourism money, well, I'm happy that people who could not come to Japan during the pandemic are being able to come and visit the nation and dropping money, alright, but Japan needs to find a way to monetize that and to keep antisocial tourists out, because there are always a few bad apples that give the rest a bad name.
Curiously Japan rely a lot on its identity for tourism, kinda proud of their traditions and history but at the same time they abandon it. Countryside is left to die and everyone is going to urban centers. I believe Aomori and Akita for instance are going to be almost empty by the end of the century. The agriculture is relying on 70+ grandpas who are not being replaced so imported food is going to increase and bring even more inflation and it's not like we can't see it coming but politicians do nothing. Everything is being centralized to big cities and big companies but imo Japan is much more than that...
My plan was to move there but i have second thoughts, not to mention going to Japan to work coming from the west isn't exactly appealing with the poor work-life balance.
All food has gone up 15%-45% - has it? I haven’t noticed that.
Can you please elaborate on what you mean by keeping “antisocial tourists” out of Japan, please?
Who are these people that you’re referring to? Are they people that don’t spend as much money as the other tourists?
@@EhCloserLook lol, no. There are a lot of people coming to Japan causing problems. Johnny Somali was in the extreme end - but then you get the general tourists acting up that resulted in parts of Kyoto now off limits to tourists.
@@zoeherriot That's a valid point. But how are you so sure that that was exactly what the OP was referring to? I would rather hear a direct answer/reply back from him/her in order to better understand what he/she meant.
I love this Woman's delivery vs the previous host. Tone, Cadence, Pitch, Pronunciation etc. all improved for the channel with this woman
The other host feels like he’s yelling all the time.
Yes. No more pronouncing "assume" like "ashoom".
tbh she feels too good, she feels more like a tv presenter than a yt presenter.
Yeah, she's the best news presenter on TLDR.
Too monotone
But then I pretty well remember around 1996 I just arrived in Japan from Brazil as a manual laborer. And there was this Brazilian in my workplace who was going back to Brazil with like 70,000 US dollars saved. He already exchanged at 152 yen because, as everybody at that time thought, the tendency is to ONLY devalue and the sooner the better to dollarize it. And then in a matter of weeks it went below 130... Bottom line is you never ever know.
A boom is always followed by a bust because the boom is never controlled properly, which means the bust can't be either.
They make the best kitchen knives in the world though I have to say.
Now Japan is the number #1 owner of US debt. Sounds like Economic Revenge like the Germans did in 2008.
"Even politicians often don't understand it......" - a rather generous statement!
All the QE we did went to overseas (especially the U.S.) through the market.
It is the currency collapsing, not the economy.
Which will lead to the economy collapsing as well.
As was seen with turkey.
@@kevink7529did you forget about GDP per capita.
Or housing prices.
Or the price of food and various other essentials.
@@insanebe1and said population crises will inevitabily lead to an economic collapse.
@@kevink7529 I'm confused. If Japan's current economy is the highest in 30 years, then why is its GDP still lower than it was in 1995? Last time I checked, it's only around $4 trillion now, compared to the $6 trillion peak in 2012. Also, during my five years in Japan, I've seen more and more people here getting fed up with their salaries, especially as everything keeps getting pricier.
Not their argument, they said the currency weakening is a major problem because Japan imports almost all its energy and resources. Those trades are usually denominated in USD not Yen
I mean, my medical and utility bills here in Hokkaido are less than half for what I paid in America just a few months ago.
Well, everybody knows that US medical bills are legendary! It's more about the products you buy, especially tech, tech prices have definitely gone up by tens of thousands of yen.
Check the prices at Uniqlo since they are usually pegged to the US dollar not the yen.
then stay there
As a Turkish person living in Japan for 3 years, I can easily say that it's really similar to the beginning of the Turkish economic crisis, and LDP keeps postponing to act for a real fix or solution for their own political benefits. It would be so sad if they kept postponing taking the required steps as the Turkish government did and let this problem get worse and worse.
Japonya'nın kendini tekrardan kalkındıracak gücü ve enstitüleri var ama ben de bazen Japonya'yı Türkiye'ye çok benzetiyorum.
There is a difference. Japanese debt is 90% owned domestically. Japan is the only economy that run on the principles of a collective capitalist model. Furthermore, Japan has 17 trillion USD in private savings and assets. Not to mention it is the world's largest creditor nation.
What can be deemed a crisis from a western perspective garnered from a western understanding of parameters and benchmarks that determine such a crisis to occur, may not actually be the case for Japan. Not to mention Japan doesn't have the luxury of a popular government to enforce any kind of change anyway.
Japan doesn't have triple digit inflation like turkey did. Istanbul is more expensive than western European capitals now
@@verushistorie17 trillion??? What a joke. Japan never had this amount of money, even at their peak. Stop spitting LDP propaganda and just acknowledge that Japan is little by little destroying itself. The economy is now the 4th, most domestic companies don't want to convert their dollars for yen and the government doesn't want to do anything.
@@verushistorie17 trillion??? What a joke. Japan never had this amount of money, even at their peak. Stop spitting LDP propaganda and just acknowledge that Japan is little by little destroying itself. The economy is now the 4th, most domestic companies don't want to convert their dollars for yen and the government doesn't want to do anything.
It’s quite sad for a great country like Japan and Korea to be under control from US government.
I'm not an expert but I would suggest that Japanese economy mostly follows the population trends in the country. Japanese population has actually been shrinking every year since 2007 and even before it started shrinking it started to stagnate around 1990. Besides getting smaller, Japanese population is also getting significantly older. I believe the projection is that by 2050 over a quarter of Japanese will be 65 years old or older. Thinking about it that way, the fact that the Japanese economy can still post growth most years despite a smaller and smaller and older and older population is actually quite a good performance.
I am guessing that soon Japan's population might bounce back, when things get cheaper cause there is no Immigration, so things like housing will become very cheap even in places like Tokyo.
@@Yagami2027 but the cultural problems behind the low-birthrate doesn't seem to have changed, at least not yet. Not everything is economics.
So...the tide is receding for now.
similarly the main reason US GDP keeps growing is immigration-fueled population growth. take that out and we'd have stagnant growth too. explains why both parties want mass immigration......it's a ponzi scheme
Thanks! Japan is a beautiful country. May it prosper!
Great, do you live in Japan too?
Frankly, I think this will last another 20 years. A systemic transition cannot be implemented until after a generation of strong and successful systematization.
For now, Japan is entering the beginning of the end of Japan's unique employment system of lifetime employment and seniority, but it will take time before the next new system or practice is built.
The quest for infinite growth on a planet with finite ressources. What could go wrong?
Profile pic fits comment.
@user-hz6fj9xy4y Sure technology can increase the theoretical cap but unless technology can literally produce raw material out of thin air, GDP will always be finite.
@@googane7755 finite yes, but we may have a few years to go before everything is set to stagnate. If we had 200 years of growth it would be practically infinite for any single human being, while if it was something like 10 or 50 it would actually be a fair point. Although with things like AI and fusion energy still left largely undiscovered, i kind of think we have at least 100 years (when fusion is finally ready lol).
@@Broniath We have enough resources for everyone on earth right now to live a life of abundance. You can Infinite growth but still have beggars, it's how its distributed that's important.
@@googane7755 Probably true, has nothing to do with the original topic though lol.
2:15 The US only sees you as a friend if you're helpfull and deppendent.😂
Dodge line comin in to save the day again lol
Yeah, it does make you wonder if the US is going in hard on China because they see them as a threat to its own power around the world, a bit like they did with Japan in the past, which is probably why others like Europe and much of the world don't listen as much when it comes to policies on China, in other words, they have concerns on China, but nothing to the degree the US has got, probably because China is by far a bigger threat to the US.
You also get a sense that if the EU were to integrate a lot more, the US would see them as a threat in the same way they saw Japan and see China today, it's about power, not the policies or the political system they live under.
I suspect because of the way the world is reshaping, China will likely continue to grow, the EU will eventually get its act together, the US will likely become more hostile to many of these powers, the US is a friend to the Europeans to a degree, but only to a certain level, hence why Europeans need to wake up and do what's in there interest, not US interest, because the US rarely cares about the interest of the rest of the world unless they stand to gain from it, Japan found that out in the 80's.
But it's not how all powerful countries behave? People generally are only as nice as they have to be. Same goes for all countries
They explained that situation really badly, the main issue was the rampant patent theft that Japan's tech conglomerates were engaging in, while their government helped them avoid any consequences. Similar to what China does nowadays.
You have to remember that that even up into the 80s, the pacific front of WW2 hadn't really left the American psyche. Some level of anxiety, after that experience, seems quite natural.
My American colleague here in Japan has to pay his student loan, and with such a low Yen, he's really struggling to do so.
So an unexpected consequence is that young educated Americans won't come to live in Japan for a while.
Lots of talented people leave Japan due to the falling yen... Especially Software engineers and AI researchers. Japan already had small salaries, but now... That's sad...
The same thing has happened to the UK. In 2007 £1 was $2.05 and now it's 1:1
It took me a bit to figure out the colleague had studied in the US and moved to Japan afterward. Maths weren't mathing until then ^_^'
Lol. He should be taking online classes and getting an in school deferment
There may be less Americans moving to Japan for work, but more tourists will come to spend money since the exchange rate is in their favor.
The answer is always the money printer, the gov never cut spending to pay debts
Part of the reason why Japan's economy is stagnant is that Japan's Banks are very risk-averse. That is to say they want better than 100% certainty that the money they lend will be paid back.
Many small businesses which are financially sound and would be a good bet in the western world are considered too risky. So small businesses cannot get the Business loans to grow their businesses.
They have to rely on investors to put money into their companies.
And many investors are unwilling to invest in small companies because of the length of time it would take to get a significant return. Also many of these small companies are run by a family and if the family passes away who takes over.
These are some of the problems Japan has that needs to address if they want their economy not to shrink. Because many of these sole proprietors when they retire, there's no one to replace them or their products.
This is not true. Getting a business loan in Japan is not that difficult. While many banks are risk adverse they’ve had negative interest rates meaning banks were penalized for not loaning enough. Even now you don’t need much to get a business loan.
The main problem is inflation is low, the aging population isn’t spending/producing enough shrinking the economy, and the manufacturing for shipping building electronics, semiconductor, has moved to other Asian countries.
What does reserve meaning...Do it mean a hand out or to reserve ....Meaning all paper currency is not backed by gold if it was there will be no crisis
Props to the news reader - well presented. Clearly spoken and well paced delivery.
The Market have been suffering over the past month, with all the three indexes recording losses in recent weeks. My $400,000 portfolio is down by approximately 20%, any recommendations to scale up my returns before retirement will be highly appreciated.
Investing without proper guidance can lead to mistakes and losses. I've learned this from my own experience.If you're new to investing or don't have much time, it's best to get advice from an expert.
A lot of folks downplay the role of advlsors until being burnt by their own emotions. I remember couple summers back, after my lengthy divorce, I needed a good boost to help my business stay afloat, hence I researched for licensed advisors and came across someone of utmost qualifications. She's helped grow my reserve notwithstanding inflation, from $275k to $850k.
How can one find a verifiable financial planner? I would not mind looking up the professional that helped you. I will be retiring in two years and I might need some management on my much larger portfolio. Don't want to take any chances.
Svetlana Sarkisian Chowdhury is the licensed fiduciary I use. Just research the name. You’d find necessary details to work with a correspondence to set up an appointment..
Thank you for this tip. it was easy to find your coach. Did my due diligence on her before scheduling a phone call with her. She seems proficient considering her résumé.
Does "Plaza Accords" ring a bell? This lop-sided accord basically handcuffed the Japanese.
Great video, very informative. Consider changing the typography for definitions and graphics - it’s difficult to read when it’s all written in capitals and lettering isn’t adequately spaced. Thanks
Kanda is pissed. He is been throwing a couple of tantrums lately with yen intervention and denying it.
Many people worry about Japan, but they should worry about their own country first.
Daaaaaa
Daaaaaa
I am a Japanese student who will go to US grad school in July.
A weak Yen has negative effects on those who study abroad, such as the rising cost of living and tuition there...
You should get an American job while living there, then you can be well off when you go back to Japan.
@@falco830yeah that’s against the law
time to do some trading
Just make sure you dont go to grad school in NY or CA or you wont be able to afford anything
I have been living in Japan for over twenty years. I remember the economic collapse of 2008 when the US dollar dropped to 72 Yen. Fortunately, I had a job that paid me in Yen. Today, I am retired and the US dollar is worth 161 Yen. Yahoooooo!! I hope it lasts but if there is one thing I have learned, it's that nothing lasts.
It’s been reported that Nintendo has some really huge cash reserves. Maybe it’s for the day the yen bounces back up, as then they’ll have lots of capital to maybe invest big again.
Probably $50 DLC packs for $60 games.
I’m sure many of the comments here nailed it. There are always international, political goings on in the background, in these types of situations, that are rarely publicly known or considered. To try and make sense of these situations or give whys and wherefores without all the cards being played, or the players involved, known is folly.
And the relation between the US 'containing Japan' and its bubble bursting? Aren't you missing out a rather important part of the story?
The plaza accord....
western channels never talk about the forced plaza accords, that was obviously aimed at japan and its currency
@@Learner5555 japan changing their import controls was a bigger cause
This channel reports Anglo-centric perspectives only, nothing to see here. If you want a global perspective you'll need to seek content elsewhere.
I got muh tinfoil hat on too uncle Titus!
This is easy to understand. Yen is going down because they have exports like before. Japan used to be a leader in electronic gadgets. I don't even know what are leading Japanese products now.
I think the thing that isn't talked about enough in these quick youtube videos on Japan's economic challenges is that the vast majority of mortages in Japan currently are variable interest rate loans. It's not just that the government of Japan would have trouble servicing it's debt it's citizens would as well. This would only accelerate the effects of inflation on the economy as people's homes would be even more expensive without a comparable increase in wages. Right now I can get a mortgage in Japan on a 0.7% variable interest rate loan or I could get a 1.5% fixed rate loan. Given how long interest rates have been this low most people have opted for the loan that gives them a mortage for half the interest. Japan would have to undergo a massive migration to fixed rate mortgages prior to attempting to raise interest rates as a mechanism to fight inflation. Knowing how the government works here and how slow they are to do anything it's almost unthinkable that they'd do this but as this video states the day may come soon where there are only bad options available to them. That day seems to be rapidly approaching.
Is the quality of life in Japan really so low?
Food: The food is high quality, cheap, and diverse. You can eat anything for about 800 yen. Foreigners are surprised at the food available at convenience stores.
Environment: The city is clean, the toilets are clean, the customer service is polite, and people keep order, so you won't feel uncomfortable going out.
Medical care: Japan has the most MRI machines in the world, so you never have to wait for treatment, and with universal health insurance, the entire nation can receive medical care at low cost.
Public Safety: Japan has very good public safety even by global standards, and women walking alone at night rarely encounter crime.
Housing: In developed countries, inflation has made it difficult for ordinary people to buy a home, but in Japan, housing prices are low and it is easy to buy a home in rural areas.
Convenience: Convenience stores and trains are well developed, so you can shop 24 hours a day. If you live near a station, you can walk or bike, and you can get anywhere in Japan by train.
Work: The annual work hours are 1,607 hours, which is below the OECD average. It is significantly lower than South Korea's 1,901 hours and the United States' 1,811 hours.
Entertainment: There are plenty of facilities to enjoy, such as karaoke, arcades, and concept cafes, and there are many independently-run shops that consumers will love, unlike in the US, which is dominated by chain stores.
Tourism: From snowy Hokkaido in the north to tropical Okinawa in the south, traditional Kyoto, beautiful and sophisticated Tokyo, theme parks such as TDS and Universal Studios Japan, hot springs in various places, and mountain climbing, there is an abundance of tourist resources.
Finances: Most of the debt is denominated in the country's own currency, and the country also has the right to issue currency. Net external assets are 471 trillion yen, the highest in the world.
How many countries on this planet are there with more than this?
I hear that recently, especially in other developed countries, global inflation has made it difficult to enjoy eating out and even to buy a house.
It's money, after all. Japan has to take into account that even though goods and services are cheaper than other developed countries, the Japanese who work there and earn money are also less paid. Japan's salary level is $20,000, which is lower than that of the Czech Republic and Poland, according to the OECD's median disposable income statistics. It is quite poor compared to $50,000 in the United States (4th) Korea (30,000 in 15th) and $25,000 in Italy (20th). They are even considering a dual-price system that charges extra foreign tourists. They are what so-called third-world countries have done.
I’m from the US and just went to Japan for vacation. Everything was dirt cheap there thanks to the USD to Yen conversion. Def a great time to go
If the birth rate is insanely low in Japan that’s a clear sign the economy is not good.
or that it will get worse....
Residential property fell by 50 percent? I think I'm moving to Japan.
But the income in Japan is very low
You can get a decent, if rather old, studio/one bedroom apartment in a Japanese city for as little as $300/month now.
@@dynamiteiwakura Really? Are you in Japan too? Or do you have a house to rent?
@@niean-u8r I'm not a renter myself. But there are a lot of Japanese real estate managers/owners who advertise on TH-cam. You can find them by putting "Japanese real estate rentals" 「日本の不動産賃貸」or something in the search field. These are in Japanese, but there might be English subtitles for non-Japanese speakers. They probably have English vids you can look through too.
"no growth." The only people that say no growth is bad are people that want to sit back and do nothing to make money.
Ive been in japan for 16 years and it's a wonderful country. It's been fantastic having prices not chsnge. Vending machine drinks cost the same in 2005 as they do now. Its awesome. If prices don't go up, it doesn't matter if your paycheck doesn't go up. Growth, it's for the greedy people who just want to invest and make money doing nothing
It's going back to Pre Plaza Accords levels, when they very bullied to almost double the exchange rate of the yen (the underlying cause of the crisis that followed).
Yen weakness, combined with the productivity, is in my opinion a very good thing for Japan.
Their broken and old society cannot reach that kind of productivity needed to take advantage of that. They gonna start accepting millions of low wage foreign workers if that to happen.
their export and gdp growth plummeted last quarter
Lol at bullied. Japan was manipulating the dollar for years to maximize profits. All while it was under the American security umbrella and could get away with spending nothing on defense despite having neighbors that wanted it's head and had complete access to the US consumer market. No shit the US government wanted them to stop manipulating.
No mention that lower yen value helps exports ? Is that because the debt cost is higher than export revenue ?
So Japan is in a catch 22? Only, you can't raise interest rates , for the cost of servicing debt is untenable. Just, the UK and most other so-called developed countries are also in this position, and especially the USA. My point, imagine having to print a trillion dollars of annual debt interest for the foreseeable future , wtf!?😮
Hate to burst your hate boner for the US, but American debt is only 120% of GDP. Much lower than Japan. About 3 times less
The US can easily afford higher interest rates than Japan due to the US having much higher GDP growth rates than Japan
When you look at debt, the absolute amount doesn’t matter. The larger the economy, the higher the absolute debt amount will be. You have to look at Debt to GDP ratio. Most developed countries have a debt to GDP ratio of around 100%. Which is very manageable so long as your economy grows more than the interest rate. Debt is only a problem if it starts to get above 150% of GDP
@@tylerclayton6081 That's because you know the US.can make the world absorb that debt😂 Maybe he doesn’t hate the US, just hates the hegemonism that restricts the development of human diversity.😅
Japan has the lowest inflation out of the developed world, this is so silly. Even if in the short run inflation increases, Japans exports will be favourable and will improve even more into the positive. Absolute beat up by foreign traders who have vested interests in the BoJ raising rates, look at the sources and who benefits.
The other thing most Western people do not understand - house prices go down the older and more used the house is - living in a house greatly reduces its value over time - due to this and the demographics of Japan it is possible to buy a worthless house for the price of the paper work to transfer ownership - but have fun renovating it and esp disposing of materials as you do upgrades and other things to it - thus increasing and decreasing interest rates are not that effective
How is this different from the West?
You can get houses for free even in Japan, however the main problem is that the places where these free or very cheap houses are located aren't exactly the places offering great job opportunities. That's a far bigger issue than the renovation costs. It's nigh economical suicide for Japanese people or foreigners to move into these houses if they still need to work and the people who don't require a job either constitute a large part of the population of the places with these houses already (retirees) or don't tend to want to live there, (rich foreigners, rich Japanese)
@@mr.netflix9149 Land is an appreciating asset in the West.
@@mr.netflix9149 the western world (and many, many other countries outside of the west) has a continous housing bubble that bursts every couple of years but inflates itself, wherein housing and land cannot really depreciate
You don't want to buy an old house in Japan.....you just don't.
It's true that Japan's economy is worsening. But poverty rarely leads to crime or death because Japan is a country that is kind to the weak. This leads to other problems, but for the most part it's a positive thing.
Some people just don’t get Japan and they began comparing Japan with failed and bankrupt economies like Turkey or Argentina.
First, Japan is always in huge trade surpluses to this day which means BoJ has been getting forex reserves and stockpiling it for quite sometime now. Second, Japan is in literal deflation for decades now and it’s suicidal for every government and Japanese people ain’t known for huge spenders either and seeing prices decreasing, made Japanese ppl to spend even less as this video talked about so what Japan did? The last resort which is interest rates and Japan is living in negative interest rates for 20 years now but it didn’t bother the budget conscious Japanese to keep saving their money.
So seeing the depreciating ¥ is actually a blessing for the govt which is finally experiencing some inflation after decades of deflation and prompting people to spend more for their basic goods which in turn is boosting spending in the economy. But despite all that, of course BoJ won’t want to see ¥ set historic lows against $ and neither will the United States allow such privileges to Japan and Japan unlike third world mess like Argentina, Turkey or Africa, Japan can actually afford to pump $$$ in the economy the keep the value of ¥ stable until U.S. lowers its interest rates.
finally somebody who knows something right
I was hoping for videos going deeper into what you just wrote
Instead you get moronic videos like this by the shovel load.
People just dont understand that Japan has remained a highly developed country yet kept it's secondary manufacturing industry while doing so. It has a very diverse ownership for food making domestic production stable, competitive and cheap. The country will remain stable while other developed countries are counting on immigration for sustained grwoth
Don't tell the truth.
The Japanese government has the ability to intervene, but they dare not intervene.😂
@@Jimmyli0426 Japanese gov’t is actually happy that they’re finally experiencing some inflation but the BoJ won’t tolerate inflation of more than 2%.
3rd option, sell US bonds and buy yen if US allow.
another western channel, skipping over the VERY IMPORTANT "Plaza Accords" that the US basically forced on Japan and its currency.
History is too difficult for this channel audience.
😂😅@@doc0core
Plaza Accords - I've heard of them. Perhaps you can elaborate and explain how that affects the current economic situation.
Eh, not really. Plaza Accords did what exactly? Depreciate USD relative to JPY, FRC, and DM. The idea was to increase American export competitiveness and reduce the trade deficit the US had with the rest of the free world.
Exporting economies tend to see their currency strengthen, and this can also be the downfall of their own export competitiveness. Hence why the rest of the Free World was willing to cooperate with macroeconomic interventions to reverse the trade deficit. With Europe, this was successful.
This failed to reduce US trade deficit with Japan, which only strengthened the Yen further. Unfortunately the Japanese reaction to the strengthening yen (bad news for a major exporting economy) is what led to the lost decade.
Japan was in between a rock and a hard place. Being the king of industrial exports brought them money bags, but also strengthened the Yen and risks making their exports uncompetitive. The solution to this problem (in hindsight) would've been to sell shit ton of JPY for USD and other currency (like what China did, since the Lost Decade essentially served as a warning for China). Instead, Japan didn't had hindsight working in their favor. They basically had the same thing that happened in America in 2008 with real estate due to a policy of "window guidance", which effectively created target quotas for mortgages, essentially encouraging subpar mortgages. The second double whammy was the decision to raise interest rate on inter-bank loans just as the subprime mortgage bubble bursted, which basically bankrupted Japanese banks and turned them into zombie banks. This trapped Japan in a balance sheet recession for the next 3 decades.
Contrast this with West Germany, where none of this expansionary policy took place. Germany, too, is a major industrial exporter. Yet, no lost 3 decades. Germany's self inflicted woes are largely attributed to piss poor energy policy.
And the line was supposed to go up eternally right?
Ha ha. Japan wont tell you how rich the country they still are. 🤦
A very good narrative. Just a detail on the Plaza Accord of 1985, where the US and other central banks spiked the Yen to curb J exports. BOJ then panicked and lowered interest rates in response to stimulate the economy, and this led to the real estate bubble. It collapsed in 1990 when BOJ spiked interest rates to rein in the bubble. All is not lost; the cheaper Yen has made Japan a top tourist destination; they are selling property assets to foreigners to repay debt; and birth rates have plummeted because young Japanese adults know there is no future for a family to continually paying off its debt for a child's education, etc. The sun also sets.
“Work until your bank account looks like a phone number.” -Unknown
Great video in general, but there is some economic misconceptions, which journalists always does cause they follow the common sense about things that they don't know.
The US rate hikes are there to counteract inflation -- so the USD losing value against the price of goods is the cause of it gaining value against other currencies. If that sounds like it makes no sense, that is because it doesn't, at least long term.
What has happened is that people have taken out cheap JPY loans, converted that to USD, and invested that in the US markets for greater yields. These loans will need to be repaid in JPY though, and that will trigger the market correction.
Ironic how this video comes out a day after it was announced that Japan's inflation has hit record lows, productivity has gone up, salaries have gone up, GDP growth has increased more than in the past two decades... Japan is not collapsing, Japan just keeps going as it always has.
Don't know where you get your news. From what I've read its better than expected (which was God awful), but that was for the previous quarter.
Doesn't feel like that here! (Saitama, Japan)
Correct, but Japan has been miserable for decades. Inflation has gone up more than anything else, everyone is depressed from the economy, and I believe that even if the economy was good (which it isn't---you can't when your currency collapses by over 25% in a few months)....the Japanese wouldn't know it....they are conditioned to misery.
@@doctordetroit4339 The average Japanese person just pays no interest in these things. They complain when their favourite thing gets more expensive but we can still eat well for $3 and rent/houses are cheap.
It's amazing how many people don't care.
Uh... this video isn't about literally any of those metrics. It's explaining *only* why the value of the yen is collapsing. That's all.
This is all relative. What they dont tell you is that Japan's debt is to themselves. They do not owe money to China or the USA or Russia, the central bank of Japan has borrowed from the corporations and the people of Japan.
Why do western channels always gloss over the Plaza Accords. America MADE Japan strengthen its currency against the dollar, which led to speculation, which led to the 80s/90s bubble.
The Plaza Accords were signed to end the special benefits that Japan got to rebuild their economy post WWII. Removing the peg and allowing the currency to actually move in value relative to the Dollar is perfectly reasonable when Japan was taking advantage of the policy to export luxury goods at extremely favorable rates and creating a massive trade deficit that shouldn't ordinarily exist.
And what killed growth in the economy after was the Bank of Japan's absurd mismanagement of the Japanese Housing Bubble, not the Plaza Accords. This Bubble likely would have happened regardless of US trade policy, and was exacerbated by a bunch of junk investment loans being given out (and then these loans being cut off all at once for the crash). The same Bubble occured in both South Korea and China (with the Chinese Bubble still ongoing technically), and appears to be a result of Cultural preference to rest investments into property rather than Stock or other Investment vehicles.
@bilboborbins The short answer is: There is nothing wrong with property investment, as long as those prices remain based in reality rather than speculation.
The issue that all 3 of the Asian Property/Asset Bubbles had were that long lines of credit were being taken out to finance property price purchases that couldn't be realized (since selling them eventually became impossible at the inflated price.) In Japan's case, the moment that the inflated investment loans started being corralled in, the inflated property and assets couldn't be flipped for a profit anymore by investors. This caused the speculative value of these assets to collapse, leaving individuals so horribly in debt relative to wealth that it is impossible to recover in a practical fashion.
Now, it is technically possible to overcome this. In the 06-07' property crisis in the US, junk loans caused a similar wealth/debt ratios that became massive liabilities to banks, which dried up investment loans. The solutions was Quantitative Easing, though unlike Japan the damage was small enough (proportionate to the US Economy) that it could be fixed with reasonable amounts of QE proportional to GDP.
The issue if you can't fix this is now you have investors that either cannot afford to do risky investments again, or will be so cautious with their wealth that they refuse to invest at all, stockpiling wealth into bank accounts or other low-risk holding areas. The US also saw this effect, and is why the 08' stimulus from the Bush administration wasn't enough to return investor behavior to a healthier state, and required the '09 and '10 stimulus packages to get investors back to relative normal.
TLDR: Property/Asset Investment isn't bad, but when investment value becomes detached to the real value of an asset, any disruption will cause the speculative price to align more to real price and destroy the wealth of the investor. When an entire society does this, the resulting destruction of wealth can cause massive long-term damage to all investments as all investors become less likely to invest.
@bilboborbins Investing in property is perfectly fine, but when speculation makes the value of land diverge from its actual value, then it can cause some economic issues.
Hence why specifically for Japan, the investment loan market caused prices to balloon unrealistically for a while... until the loans ended and it all crashed down at once. After that happens big investors tend to get spooked and stick with low risk investments, and small investors begin to save because they lost all their money. In both cases, growth was hurt because suddenly the extra money needed to grow companies dried up.
@bilboborbins Investing in property is bad when it's the only thing getting investment. Real estate doesn't stimulate the economy like industry does.
OMG no one cares about the palza accord.
Greetings from Japan. There are some erroneous points and omitted incidents. 1)The BOJ did not rise interest rate post Covid NOT because it would affect the interest on government debt, but because the inflation post Covid was mainly due to Russian invasion of Ukraine causing higher commodity prices, and due to supply chain disruption during and post-Covid. Higher demand was not its main cause unlike in the U.S. and Europe and others. 2)The Plaza accord imposed by the Reagan administration on Japan (frequent intervention by Japanese MOF causing the yen exchange rate to be dubbed "the dirty float" was one cause of the Plaza accord) led to dramatic appreciation of yen, causing higher government spending to support the economy in mid 1980's that in turn led to the property and stock market bubble.
In fact, your explanation is very accurate as to why the Bank of Japan (BOJ) did not raise interest rates after the epidemic. Indeed, inflation in Japan has been driven primarily by higher commodity prices and supply chain disruptions caused by the Russo-Ukrainian war, rather than by increased demand as in the United States and Europe. The Bank of Japan's policy decisions appeared more cautious and targeted in this context, and the Plaza Accord did lead to a significant appreciation of the yen, which to a certain extent forced the Japanese government to increase spending to support the economy, thus triggering the mid-1980s. real estate and stock market bubbles. This historical context is important because it illustrates how policy decisions can have profound effects on the economy
“Understanding these kind of economic theories are difficult, and honestly even politicians don’t seem to understand them”
That has to be the most diplomatic phrasing of politician’s capabilities I have ever heard. I wouldn’t trust them to know which way to turn a screwdriver.
If it (monetary policy) doesn't hurt, it doesn't work.
Funny how you didn't mention plaza accord US destroying japan economy otherwise they would have over taken US gdp
Right!
Great point!
Funded by English people. Five eye countries
Yes and no. It didn't help, but it wasn't the sole reason.
@@Anonymous-hp1tgFrance and Germany were also party to the Plaza Accords, and are neither English speakers or Five Eyes members.
The plaza accord isn't the sole reason, Japan's economy would still be expected to struggle even without it
Do not borrow money. Having a debt is the worst thing possible.
Indeed, it is the same for any country. Blindly borrowing money will only bring more harm to the people
The term is “Quantitative Easing” not “Quantitive Easing” 4:29
Was looking for this comment
No, Japan should have lowered their rate. The bank of japan didn't. The national debt means nothing in japan, because japanese government has so much assets. When the yen was 70 per dollar. They have printed ginormous amount of yen to buy us dollars. Now they can sell that at 100% profit to buy back the yen. Thir economy should do well if the exchange rate stay like this even lower yen.
what if dollar plunge and 100 prozent profit turns into 0 percent. who will suffer most then? USA or Japan?
the predicament japan's long been thru can be explained as one phrase; the 3 lost decades. japanese are now overtaken by korean and taiwanese in terms of gdp per capita both ppp and nominal. yen/dollar is like above 160, which mean the japanese gov't is boosting conglomerates at the expense of life of average people. i don't even understand how they are not thinking of endless strike for that.
Never mid Politicians not understanding this stuff (they don't understand much about anything) Senior Bankers don't fully understand it. There are too many moving parts and too many variables and QE is just another new and huge moving part that no one really understands. When QE was used in the Financial Crisis no one really knew what the consequences of it would be, it was used in panic and desperation.
You just described Canada's economy in this video. i didn't realize we were so similar to Japan.
In the past, when the Japanese economy was second in the world. There were geopolitical expectations for a war between the US and Japan.
Isn't it spelled "quantitative" easing? You spelled (and pronounced it) "quantitiive" at about 4:27
You are correct, it is Quantitative Easing. Quantitive is not a word in the English language.
This is simply the most brilliant video. I have seen on the subject of Japanese economy in particular, but economy in general. It’s absolutely on another level in terms of quality. It is this, which is the future journalism you beat the economist hollow
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TLDW;
Not sure if yen declining is a financial crisis though. I personally think JPY has always been overpriced until the correction finally happened/is happening. For example people who barely made their ends meet all had several overseas trips in their life. Imported tomatoes, bananas and oranges even from the USA are cheaper than home-grown ones. May be Japanese residents will be happy about this in the long term.
They should invest most in tidal energy harvest and vertical farming, to reduce import levels.
Sadly even tho it's very interesting and high tech vertical farming not worth it right now economically. I read news and saw videos talking about they are not performing well in this economy right now.
tidal energy is expensive and uncertain and is environment based
I would assume the reason they import so much stuff is that Japan is a more developed country surrounded by less developed countries so the labour costs are cheaper over seas meaning it was cheaper to import. So I guess vertical farming may only work if it's also using automation to make it cheaper than foreign labour.
@@RF1702 The problem with vertical farms is, the biggest cost not even the equipments or the electricity, but the people. You need highly educated people there.
@@ms.carriage6867 Tidal energy is cheap but you need a certain type of coastline, I don't know enough about Japan's coast to say if that is suitable. Geothermal would probably be a better option, Japan is full of hot springs which could be used to produce cheap power
My salary as a teacher in Japan in 2024 is exactly the same as it was in 1989. I am noticing significant inflation in Japan now.
Countries: ''We are growing! Let's innovate and move foward!"
USA: "Noooo! You can't!!!!"
Its vindicating, but annoying, that I wrote a thesis about balance sheet recessions in Japan over 20 years ago and that was read by basically no-one.
Then this crowd comes along, and damn near half a million people now know about balance sheets in 2 weeks.
Oh well, kudos, chaps.
quantative easing is a one way road to killing your currency.......Zimbabwe is a prime example of crazy money printing
The US isn't far behind
@@doctordetroit4339still everyone uses USD for international trade... I'm not American, but they did something cunning.
Deflation is bad, but then inflation is also bad, AND THEN you also got stagflation which is also bad, THEN what the heck is good here!!!???
The Bank of Japan has kept its interest rate pegged to negative for years now. However, the fact that the Yen depreciated so much really galvanized the BoJ into actions. Hence, it had to rachet up the interest rate to 1.0% 😂😂😂. If you compare the usd/yen exchange rate in 2011 to now, it has shockingly doubled.
0.1 ???
Its 0.1% smart pants. If BoJ raises its interest rates as the same like other countries did, ¥ will raise its value significantly.
Not really. While Japan trade ministry was panicky trying to talk down the speculative market with threat of intervention, the BOJ chief in the same day hold a press conference telling the world that BOJ only interested in the inflation number and more importantly, they are happy with the inflation number NOW and see no further cause for any remedial monetary action. And to add oil to fire, he further add that BOJ monetary policy don't target Yen currency value, basically telling the speculator we are not going to fxcking care, so don't worry are keep selling Yen. You can tell the trade ministry was not too happy with BOJ as in their statement you see terms like "expects BOJ to cooperate with the government to address the issue" etc etc. BOJ is part of the problem and not the solution to the problem as quite evidently they add oil to the fire.
@@kwoowoo828 high interest rates are temporary measures to ease inflationary pressures. It will eventually go down and Yen will get back to its value.
Japan has options to recover. It can raise interest rate upto 1 percent now and up to 3 percent in three months time. It can buy Yen and sell Dollar,
As a Japanese, I think Japan is dependent on the US too much both in good ways and bad ways.
When I stay in the house and want to buy something, I would search Amazon on Google. When I am out and get a little hungry, I stop by Macdonald. When I am out and feel being relaxed for a while, I drop into Starbucks with watching Netflix. When I am back home, I stay in bed while watching Twitter, Instagram or Facebook. And I comment above things on TH-cam like this.
If America economy is fallen down, Japanese economy is also down at the same time.
I would be glad to hear an explanation on how a US recession would be a terrible thing for Japan, and if so, how impactful can it be? As a native yourself, I am willing to hear your take.