Very Interesting Take on "Flyjin" & One More

The Flyjin phenomenon in Japan has many facets. Generally speaking, Flyjin is a term used as a play on words in Japan. Gaijin is the word for foreigner. "Gai" means "outside" and "jin" means "person." So Gaijin means outside person or foreigner.

お江戸の火消し

SMOKE ON THE WATER

The Flyjin came in as an insult and joke deriding many of these foreigners who panicked and left places like Tokyo and Nagoya during the Fukushima accident. It is especially a dig at those who panicked and left co-workers, friends and neighbors (lovers too) holding the bag. It is not targeted at the foreigners who were in the disaster areas who left Japan. Only foreigners who were hundreds of miles away who panicked and fled - many even though their own embassies told them Tokyo was safe.


Nikkei Newspaper, though, has an article about foreigners who have left Japan that is looking at the problem from a totally different perspective. Even though many Flyjin get their feathers ruffled at the insinuation that they showed poor leadership and weak crisis assessment abilities, this article deals with a completely different segment of the foreigner in Japan market. It actually deals with a much larger workforce in Japan than the few westerners (who will most assuredly get angry about this article) that have been brought up in a society that makes people think they are entitled to everything.    
    
The title of the article asks Japanese people, "Do you think that only Japanese workers can protect your workplace?" From Nikkei:

消えた外国人労働力　日本人だけで職場は守れるか：NBonline(日経ビジネス オンライン)

business.nikkeibp.co.jp

震災と原発問題で日本を離れた外国人労働者たち。そこで突きつけられた問題がある。多くの職場で外国人が不可欠である現実と、彼らを身勝手に使ってきたという事実だ。外国人労働力を日本社会でどう位置づけるか。この問題に今こそ正対する時だ。...

Translation:

Many foreigners left their workplaces after the earthquake and due to (Fukushima) nuclear problems. This leaves us with many issues to consider. The reality of the situation in the workplace is that we (Japanese) have been using this (cheap) foreign labor selfishly. Perhaps it is time to consider how these foreign laborers are placed and viewed in Japanese society. Now could be a good time to consider this issue.

Japanese factories have a serious problem without cheap foreign labor

The article goes on to discuss how, due to a rapidly aging population and declining birth rate, Japan desperately needs these people to perform manual labor duties in order for the Japanese economy to run.

While many foreigners might cheer and raise their fists reading this and scream, "Right on! We are taken advantage of in the workplace!" This article is generally not about the highly paid westerners working in Japan. No. Not hardly. It is an article discussing a much larger and much more important labor force in Japan: cheap manual labor from China, Pakistan, Iran and many other southeast Asian nations.

It continues on talking about how Japan must open up more and take better care of these people who come to earn a living in Japan. They are not just cheap labor, they are a critical and important part of the labor equation for a healthy Japanese economy. They deserve to be treated better.

The other story I wanted to mention was about a president of a factory in the Fukushima area that hired many of these people as cheap labor from China.

Because of a bad past history and, in many cases, the Japanese management taking advantage of cheap foreign labor like mentioned above (but, then again, in what country don't they do that?) Japan and Japanese companies often have a bad reputation amongst Chinese workers. 

It is most likely deserved in many cases.

But there's a story about a Japanese president of a factory that risked his life to save some Chinese factory workers who were staying at the company dormitory near Miyagi or Fukushima when the earthquake and  tsunami hit. 

Anyway, this president heard about the tsunami warnings and realized that he had several Chinese workers staying at the company dormitory and that this dormitory was in the path of the tsunami. People were told to evacuate immediately and head for higher ground. But the president knew that these workers wouldn't understand the announcements and so he risked his life and drove full speed ahead to the dorm and got those workers out of there and saved their lives.

Soon after the Chinese workers left Japan (because of Fukushima) but, according to the article, they reported back in China that, "Not all Japanese company president's are bad guys" and that their company president risked his life to save theirs and they were grateful.

I looked for the article about this story, but am unable to find it. If I find it later, I will paste it into this post.

The moral of the story? Not all Japanese bosses are bad guys. Not all Flyjins are westerners and not all of them are bad guys either.

Japan Economy in BIG Trouble

Mish Shedlock from the Global Economic Trend Analysis Blog has sent me a link to his latest post showing a shocking one-two double punch whammy of extremely bad news for the Japanese economy. If you are interested in money and the economy, the Mish's blog is a daily must-read.

Yo Yo Hashi - Yo Yo's Pad

In his most recent posting: Japan Retail Sales Plunge Most in 13 Years; S&P Cuts Japan Debt Outlook to "Negatibe"; 30,000 Dead or Missing, How You Can Help, Mish writes up, and links to, articles and data that point to a very bad future for Japan.


Immediately after the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami, foolish Japanese politicians told the Japanese public that we should not be trying to live our lives normally. Shintaro Ishihara, the mayor of Tokyo, even told people that the traditional "Hanami" celebrations should be cancelled this year. 

Hanami is an old tradition whereby the Japanese go to park and eat and drink with friends under the cherry blossoms. 


Due to these sorts of short-sighted pronouncements, many famous Japanese festivals were cancelled and the country went into a sort of mourning like that of a funeral. Things still haven't gotten 100% back to normal. Now, because of these ill considered pronouncements, the Japanese people, businesses and the economy are paying the price.


The best thing the people could do is try to get their lives back in order as soon as possible as get back to work and get the economy back on track. In that way, with a strong economy, can we help those poor people who suffered in Tohoku in this terrible tragedy. But, no! The government wonks made their dumb announcements and now we are paying the price.


Japan prime minister Naoto Kan has announced his idea for reconstruction but he's not said how he will pay for it. The idea to raise taxes was floated but that died a quick death - especially after Kan's party got trashed in local elections this last Sunday. Now, ratings agencies suspect what I fear; more Japanese government debt.


That's the last thing we need. Mish writes:


Japan’s sovereign-rating outlook was cut to “negative” by Standard & Poor’s as the nation’s reconstruction needs following last month’s earthquake will likely add to what’s already the world’s biggest debt load.

The outlook on Japan’s local-currency debt rating, at AA-, the fourth-highest grade, was lowered from “stable,” S&P said in a statement today. The company had reduced the rating by one step in January in the first cut since 2002. Moody’s Investors Service said last month the disaster may bring forward the “tipping point” for the country’s bond market.

Today’s decision adds to pressure on Prime Minister Naoto Kan, who has yet to detail how the rebuilding will be paid for and how he plans to rein in longer-term fiscal deficits. As public spending increases, revenue will likely decline because of the economic hit from the disaster, with a report today showing retail sales tumbled the most in 13 years last month.

Moody’s today reported no change to its negative outlook for Japan's Aa2 grade rating, the third highest, after a reduction from “stable” in February because of political gridlock. Japan’s public debt will probably increase 5.8 percent to 997.7 trillion yen ($12.2 trillion) in the year started April 1, from a projected 943.1 trillion yen last year, the Finance Ministry said in January.


As I predicted in December of 2010, Naoto Kan will be gone by summer. That's the good news. The bad news? That will do nothing for Japan's political stability and our credit rating and economic outlook.


The only thing we can say for certain is that it looks to be a long hot summer in 2011.


Read the rest of Mish's post here: http://bit.ly/kOqL8i

Japan's Insane Tax-At-All-Costs Political Class

This will be my 800th posting on this blog. I think it is fitting that, after all that has happened, as through the short history of this blog, the economy of Japan and most western nations are close to collapse, as Japan's national debt is over 200% of GDP, as the US government has surpassed the legal limit on the debt ceiling for that nation and into de facto bankruptcy, as silver hits a new 31 year high to nearly $44 USD an ounce and gold is knocking at the door of $1500 dollars an ounce, that this 800th blog should be about taxes and the economy.

BEATLES CARTOON - TAXMAN

Once again, the news shows that our rulers never learn their lessons when it comes to taxation and debt. After the disastrous events of the last month starting on March 11th and continuing today, once again, the government of this country shows that their only answer to our financial problems is to raise taxes.

Jiji Press reports:

Tokyo, April 18 (Jiji Press)--Japan is considering raising the consumption tax by 3 percentage points for a limited period of some three years to secure funds to rebuild areas devastated by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, officials said Monday.

   Japan will be able to secure 7.5 trillion in annual tax revenue by raising the tax rate to 8 pct from 5 pct, government and Democratic Party of Japan officials said.

   The nation is preparing the first supplementary budget for fiscal 2011 with the spending amount of some 4 trillion yen. The budget will be covered without new debt issuance.

   Tokyo is likely to compile more budgets for the current year, as many in the government and the ruling party believe that more than 10 trillion yen should be spent in total on the reconstruction of the disaster-devastated areas.

   To finance the second and later budgets, the government will issue reconstruction bonds. Many think that the revenue from the envisioned tax hike should be used entirely to redeem the reconstruction bonds, the officials said.

It says in the first paragraph, "Japan is considering raising the consumption tax by 3 percentage points for a limited period of some three years..." Sure. Only three years, right? And after that, we're supposed to believe that the Japanese government will have their financial house in such good order and fine shape that they can cut taxes? What planet are these people living on? Has the Japanese government ever cut taxes? How, pray tell, are they supposed to be able to do that when the economy is so bad and, as I mentioned, our public debt has surpassed 200% of GDP?

History also shows us what happens when sales taxes are raised. There will be a correlating drop in sales equal to the percentage of the sales tax; raise taxes by three percent and sales will drop by three percent. And who winds up paying for this kind of sales tax hike? Not the ultra-rich or corporations who have all sorts built-in tax advantages. The rich only have to spend a few percentage points of their income for basic foodstuffs. The average middle class household is spending 15~25% or more just for survival. Hit them with a sales tax increase and you hit them below the belt. 

The good example goes like this: Say, average millionaire wants to buy a new yacht? No problem. It's needed to entertain guest so it is a business and tax write-off. But, say, the single mother with a two kids whose husband has run off and doesn't pay any alimony, is not buying yachts and diamond necklaces, she is scrimping and saving to buy milk, eggs and rice. and the basics she needs to survive.

A 3% hike in her grocery bill hits hard. 

The average household is is also expected to carry the burden of massive public debt created by the government. It is this government who arbitrarily decides to tax one class of poor people to give to another class of poor people (in this case, the average Japanese family gets taxed to pay for the suffering and reconstruction of the poor who suffered in the Tohoku disaster) all the while the government takes a margin for delivering these services and gives no-bid reconstruction contracts to their cronies.

Nikkei 225 at ¥9441 on April 19, 2011

The economy is already in desperate shape. Japan's credit rating has been downgraded in the last year and the Nikkei 225 is wheezing away at under 9,500 (it is at 1/4 the amount it was at the height of the bubble economy) and it has also been reported that 15.7% of Japan's population now live below the poverty level. Think about that. 

And, with all of that, with all of this suffering and misery caused by badly thought out government policies, these people want to raise taxes? They must be completely insane.


Japan owns trillions of dollars in US government bonds that were bought with tax monies taken from the public. The value of these bonds have lost some 40% over these last 10 years due to the rapid decline of the US dollar, yet, even with this, the Japanese government has painted Japan into a corner whereby we cannot unload this debt without causing a quick rise in the yen and hurting Japan's export economy.

Silver & gold price explosion is flashing warning signs about the economy

Gold breaks new record to $1503 the day of the posting of this article

Not only that, at least twice in the last 365 days, Japan (and most recently foreign central banks) has intervened in the dollar x yen rate and flushed billion of yen (billions of US dollars) in foolish attempts (that haven't worked) in order to lower the value of then yen.


The fact of the matter is that, for reconstruction, as Peter Schiff points out, Japan should want a stronger yen as that would make our buying of oil and raw materials as well as other items needed to rebuild the ravaged areas cheaper.


But, no! As usual, when it comes to doing something about the economy, the government cannot admit its errors and try to strip them away. As is the case now, and has always been the case, the government of Japan's answer to financial problems is not to cut spending or to sell poorly valued and foolishly bought US government backed securities (that lose value every day), but the answer is, and always will be to spend and raise taxes.


That is why our economy has been so messed up for this last 20 years and that's why is is so easily predictable that our economy will be messed up for at least the next decade or more as Mish Shedlock so skillfully points out.


The politicians who live on dead and proven failure Keynesian economic policies are leading this country down the road to ruin. It will be soon enough, at this rate, that Japan will be like the Philippines. Throw this situation in with how the youth of this country have no where near the dedicated and hard work ethics of their fathers and grandfathers and you have a chemistry that spells out for a very grim economic future indeed


When we look back at what happened in twenty years from now, we'll not be surprised for a second that Japan will be jokingly referred to as the Northern Philippine archipelago. 

Why Write a Blog?

I think I should entitle this blog, "Japanese Smokin' Babe's Big Boob's Versus the Political and Economic Environment in Japan."

Gee, I'll give you one guess which title will get this blog thousands of hits... And which blog will garner this blog only a few hundred hits for the day...

Duh!

Why write a blog? It's a good question. Writing a blog can be a thankless job. But, then again, you wouldn't write a blog if you wanted thanks because you'll get little, if any... (But thank you so much for the few people who have said, "Thanks!" You are super!)

No, you write a blog because you feel that you have a purpose or a mission. If you didn't feel that way, you'd quit after 3 months.

Why would you quit after 3 months? Because it would get very depressing very quickly when you realize that, after spending 3 or 4 hours a day agonizing over what you write - if you have the willpower to force yourself to write at all - that only 20 or 30 people bother to read what you wrote.

It's even worse if you open yourself up for criticism by having a "comments" section whereby illiterates can insult you and tell you to "f*ck off!" And, even at that, you only get one or two comments per day...

Oh, what we "writers" do for "art." (I can hear you snort, "Guffaw" right now!)

I've been writing this blog for 7 months now. It is a science and economic experiment. I am integrating Twitter and Facebook (as well as other Social Media) in promoting what I write on this blog. I have been trying different things to see what garners many hits (readers) and what goes "viral."

I also write this because I have been advising some companies on how to better market using the Internet, so, I guess if I am going to talk the talk, I'd better walk the walk.

You'd be amazed at how many people I meet who claim to be "experts" on Social Marketing, but they do not blog, they do not Facebook, nor do they use Mixi... How can they claim to be experts if they don't do this for themselves?

Social Media and Social Media Marketing are such new subjects that it's not like you can just go buy a book (there aren't that many good ones) and become an expert just by reading... Tell me, could you become an expert baseball player from reading books?

But I digress.... Back to what kind of content gets many readers? Of course, content is important, but I have also found that titles really do matter.

I've been experimenting with different blog titles; different Twitter teaser titles; different ways to entice people to come read the scribbles that I have written.

Unfortunately, it occurs to me that, if I write what I think are  thought provoking articles about our world as it relates to Japan, my readership drops at a surprising rate.

But, if I write about something that doesn't affect any one's life at all, like how a Japanese woman with big boobs makes $3 million dollars a year doing porn, or a blog about how Japanese girl's are mountain climbing in miniskirts, I will receive a massive hit count that day the article is uploaded.

Of course, said article will require at least one cheesecake photo.

Gratuitous photo... Nothing to see here... Move along...

The one thing that really bothers me the most is how easy it is to sensationalize titles of blogs and promote them on Twitter. But, I guess I shouldn't be surprised, I have worked in the mass media for decades and am never surprised by how easily people's minds are influenced by the media...

If the blog is about, say, how Japan's political environment is making a mess of the world's #3 economy... Then I will get a few hundred readers for that.... But, like I said, if I write, about porn, boobs, or sex, that blog will get thousands of hits....

Just something to consider about the Internet that I have discovered.

By the way, of course, I will insert words such as, "economy," "politics," "economics" and "boobs" in the keywords for search engines.... Give you one guess which word will be searched the most on the Internet....

But, then again, putting photos up of girls is a lot easier than writing a long dissertation.