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[Upsidedown Fuji]

something between countryside and suburban I suppose. New York is quite a unique case in itself I guess it's kind of closer to Tokyo prices.

 

[Shouta]

I don't remember my kwh but when I moved to Tochigi after the earthquake, I was getting 10000+ yen for heating and my computer per month pretty easily. It was really pricey for just me.

 

[TheLaughingStock]

Sweet baby jesus people in charge these days only seem know how to go back into recession via tax increases/spending cuts. They have no clue how to combat deflationary pressure. Additionally, Mr. Kuroda is in lala land if he thinks Japan is going to close its output gap next year and sustain that when folks in the finance ministry want to practice fiscal discipline no matter what in 2017 or worse balance the budget by 2020-2022. I think Japan maybe trying to shoot for 3 or 4 decades lost vs. two and some change.

 

[Zornica]

It's not just about giving Tokyo less power but about lowering the demand of real estate in those areas. One of the biggest problems I see in Japan is that while the price of goods is not bad at all, the cost of utilities, rent, and are enormous while the earning power of regular Japanese people haven't scaled up to match. What happens is that folks need to save more to feel secure and divert spending to necessities thus they need to work more and spend less as a whole. More time at work means less time for socializing and more pressure on each individual so there are less couples being made and more folks feeling like they can't support anyone but themselves, etc. It leads into all the other issues that Japan is facing.

I mean really, living in Japan is actually not that bad once you move out of the huge cities. The cost of rent and land is a fair bit more reasonable because well there aren't as many people there and it's not as in demand. Yet everyone still insists to moving into those crammed giant cities where renting a place is a near impossibility without living with multiple people, reducing your spending etc. That's why developing other areas of Japan would really be helpful.

you wouldn't even need to push people out of the cities. There are a few other options that may work just as well. For starters, a large scale government housing program could be a good choice. Not only would it offer cheap and good apartments (basically non profit housing - or at least enough profit to become self sustainable) for young families, ofc projects like that would also stimulate the economy. As a bonus it would also bringing down market prices as the supply goes way up. Additionally, anti speculation laws may help as well. There are enough areas in and around Tokyo, Kawasaki and Yokohama that could benefit from heavy redevelopment.

Remember when everyone in the western world looked at Japan and said "wow they have the most amazing cell phones, their technology is 5 years ahead of us!"


yeah.

was it a software thing holding them back from staying a contender?

there is still a lot of great and innovative stuff (that hardly ever gets brought over...) I guess they may have lost confidence in their stuff, or have just given up?

 

[ponpo]

Surprised people here have tepco bills that high. Mine only get crazy if it's winter and the heat + electric kettle are on for like 10 hours. Thanks, Ibaraki.

 

[Dunan]

Cvxfreak, excellent post and, being in a similar situation to yours (but with just a few more years in Japan), I agree almost word-for-word and couldn't have put it better myself.

This section in particular is something that I've often felt but rarely see in mainstream analyses of Japan's situation:

I honestly find the generation of Japan currently in their early 40's through early 50's, to be woefully ineffective as a collective (they're not bad people at all -- they're just worthless in the sense that they will not be the ones to pull Japan out of its mess). They're a limbo generation; they were around college age when the bubble popped, and were indoctrinated by the more successful generation above them, yet too young to have experienced Japan's postwar recovery and their associated agonies and triumphs, and yet too old to have experienced the internet during their formative years, thus are not highly influenced by global developments (social media, social movements, etc.) like the generations that came after them are; but then they also became the dominant workforce when Japan's economy began its 20 years of stagnation. To put it bluntly, they don't have values that are useful in the modern day. They will prioritize things like age differences over doing the right thing because their egos can't take it. If these people disappeared tomorrow, I'm convinced Japan wouldn't suffer in the least. That's what the recent argument with the older person made me wonder.

Absolutely true. It sometimes seems like anyone who experienced the Bubble, even as young adults, is forever blinded by nostalgia for those years and wants to go back to them by hook or by crook.

If you were born after the early 1970s, you never had a chance in the job market (thus the term 雇用氷河期 koyou hyougaki 'employment ice age' which is now in its second phase with the post-1990 cohort), but at least over the past decade, until the current money-debasing LDP came along and stabbed you in the back, you had a chance to save some money, maybe buy a home, and live a decent no-frills life. You learned how to use a computer from a young age and are much more equipped for the modern world than someone even ten years older, to say nothing of the rich baby boomers.

I'm really worried about what Japan will be like, socially, two decades from now when the LDP has widened the gap between rich and poor far beyond what it is now. A whole generation of underemployed people barely able to save and whose savings are steadily devalued each year, against a numerically larger generation of property-owning rich elderly, protected from inflation by their indexed pensions and secure in the knowledge that the politicians always have their backs.

Because this is what Abe and his 1950s-born cohorts are setting Japan up for. Today the young's hatred and envy of the old is tempered by the fact that today's elderly -- to whom I'm glad to pay pension money; they7ve suffered and they deserve it -- had to live through WWII, which was harsher than anything that has come after, and then they built Japan back up in the years after.

But what happens when that generation is gone and it becomes plain that government policy favors a generation that has always had every advantage in life compared to their parents, their children, and their grandchildren? I remember reading about the word oyaji-gari ('hunting for an elderly man to rob') among juvenile delinquents in past decades; watch this come back in a big way, and this time the disaffected young will have the righteous indignation of the oppressed on their side.

And can you blame anyone under 40 for actively planning to leave this sinking ship?

 

[Spinluck]

Isn't Japan('s economy) desperate for young people and/or immigrants?

They need to be more welcoming to that bunch. They still haven't gotten with the times in that regard.

 

[I'm new be nice]

They need to be more welcoming to that bunch. They still haven't gotten with the times in that regard.

I've read this entire thread and seen this sentiment stated countless times throughout.

Why is there such a prevalent history of xenophobia in Japan?

 

[Ether_Snake]

I've read this entire thread and seen this sentiment stated countless times throughout.

Why is there such a prevalent history of xenophobia in Japan?

It's not just xenophobia. It's cultural conservatism. You know all those good manners and politeness? They come at a price. Companies need to be dynamic to react to an ever changing world, but Japanese culture prevents that from happening. Look at Silicon Valley; that could never work in Japan, but it's precisely what Japan needs. They need rebels, rule breakers, etc., but they can't, which makes attracting foreign labor skilled and educated labor in high growth sectors difficult. Who wants to go to Japan to be a yes man?

Then add to this the cultural conservatism outside the work environment.

 

[Succinct Verbosity]

I imagine demographics are a big part of the problem. No easy, quick solutions for that.

A more open immigration policy would be a start, at least.

 

[Shouta]

I've read this entire thread and seen this sentiment stated countless times throughout.

Why is there such a prevalent history of xenophobia in Japan?

It's complicated but you can probably boil it down to Japan having a collectivist mindset and being conservative as a culture. The culture usually fosters identity not individually but with the group you are associated with So individuals that don't assimilate quickly and understand the rules of the group aren't treated the same as someone that's melted in perfectly. This really permeates Japanese society thoroughly from school to corporate culture. A lot of their cultural practices are specifically established to promote this. This becomes troublesome for folks that have a different mindset from being a different cultural or simply don't understand it because they're not informed.

Japan's mindset has pluses, of course, but it's just really hard for them to really tackle their current issues without them jumping out of the box they usually stand in.

 

[Zissou]

It's not just xenophobia. It's cultural conservatism. You know all those good manners and politeness? They come at a price. Companies need to be dynamic to react to an ever changing world, but Japanese culture prevents that from happening. Look at Silicon Valley; that could never work in Japan, but it's precisely what Japan needs. They need rebels, rule breakers, etc., but they can't, which makes attracting foreign labor skilled and educated labor in high growth sectors difficult. Who wants to go to Japan to be a yes man?

Then add to this the cultural conservatism outside the work environment.

Agreed on this. Japan is a sinking ship, and I'd prefer not to go down with it.

 

[mujun]

It's complicated but you can probably boil it down to Japan having a collectivist mindset and being conservative as a culture. The culture usually fosters identity not individually but with the group you are associated with So individuals that don't assimilate quickly and understand the rules of the group aren't treated the same as someone that's melted in perfectly. This really permeates Japanese society thoroughly from school to corporate culture. A lot of their cultural practices are specifically established to promote this. This becomes troublesome for folks that have a different mindset from being a different cultural or simply don't understand it because they're not informed.

Japan's mindset has pluses, of course, but it's just really hard for them to really tackle their current issues without them jumping out of the box they usually stand in.

Add to that that it's an island nation and their attitude to foreign influence for over 200 years.

 

[Upsidedown Fuji]

Sometimes I wish I didn't know much about the finer details of Japanese politics and economy so I could live here in ignorant bliss. I could use a break from knowing Japan is sliding down the wrong path. I want the best for this country as I've got a livelihood and family invested in this country but man, knowing the government is more interested in staying in power, holding a meaningless snap election in December, rather than staying the course and trying to right things makes me very sad. Instead of proposing lowering taxes on food and other non luxury goods in 2017, why not enact it for fiscal year 2015? It's dumb. Abe just wants to dangle that carrot but won't commit to his own plans. Ugh