Japan still has great influence on global financial markets

https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/08/02/japan-still-has-great-influence-on-global-financial-markets

by known • 8 years ago

138 69 8 years ago

ttul• 8 years ago

tl;dr Japanese investors have been splurging on overseas assets because returns at home are so poor. This has ballooned their influence on prices globally.

jcousins• 8 years ago

Good ol' Mrs Watanabe![1]

[1]https://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/mrs-watanabe.asp

joefranklinsrs8• 8 years ago

Just this morning Japan overtook China as the number two stock market in the world. Also, with the US interest rate going up and trade wars, money is flowing out of emerging markets back to stable economies. In this case, the Japanese savings that left Japan 25 years ago can start to come back to Japan. That capital inflow might start to help Japan with some inflationary pressure. Especially if Japan’s plan to allow 500,000 foreign workers this year. Japan has also been importing foreign workers for years now.

We talk about Japan as if it’s dying sometimes, but when you visit Japan, it is amazing how high of quality they all live in. Great food of all cuisine, clean streets, easy transportation, high tech buildings, friendly population, and most recently, cheap food and lodgings.

louthy• 8 years ago

friendly population

Is that really the case if you're not from Japan? I have read and heard a number of horror stories over the years [1]

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/31/japan-racism-s...

geoalchimista2• 8 years ago

Racism in Japan is nowhere comparable to racism in China.

rangibaby• 8 years ago

I would say yes on the whole. There are racist or mean people in every country

joefranklinsrs8• 8 years ago

This is purely anecdotal of course, but I have never had anything but the friendliest and warmest encounters in Japan while I lived there on and off for a few years. None of the gaijins (foreigners) I met had any issues neither. They are almost too friendly to a fault. Of course after you get to know them, they drop some of the cultural barriers, especially Kansai (western Japan) folks.

I highly recommend anyone who haven’t been to Japan to go now :). Beautiful landscape and architecture, smart and cultured folks, and of course, sushi!!!

r00fus• 8 years ago

Sounds pretty par for the course. 1/3 to 2/5 of respondents but only 4.5k out of 18k responded.

So assuming the non-respondents were predisposed to be generally positive (otherwise why didn't they reply) if you divide the numbers by 2 (conservative figure)then you have 15-20% of the foreign population with negative experiences.

I'd say that's probably better than I'd have expected.

nikanj• 8 years ago

The way this was explained to me, and this is fourth-hand knowledge by now, is: In japan, foreigners are treated like cute puppies. Mostly everyone wants to play with you, and people don’t mind you in their everyday lifes.

If you learn to speak japanese, you become a dog that can talk. Even cuter! People who know this talking dog for some time might start to accept that it has human-like intelligence, and actually treat you as a fellow human being.

However, as soon as you meet new people, you’re moved back to square dog.

AnimalMuppet• 8 years ago

Two years ago, I talked to an American who is ethnically Korean and lives in Japan. I asked him if Japanese were still prejudiced against Koreans. He said that he would have said "no" in the past, but now he thinks that they're prejudiced against Korean culture, and he escaped because he was culturally American.

Just one data point...

ThrustVectoring• 8 years ago

From what I understand, Japanese culture isn't particularly hostile to foreigners. It's just impossible to become Japanese without being born into the culture.

sdljfslkjfdsj3• 8 years ago

All it took was quantitative easing since 2001 resulting in ownership of 40-50% of the entire japanese bond market (which isn't really a market any more because some days 0 transactions take place due to the complete hijacking of the BOJ & a guaranteed 0% yield) & 5-10% ownership of the entire japanese stock market.

The BOJ is a top holder of many largest Japanese corporations shares outstanding which is kind of weird because the BOJ doesn't really have any money they just "create" it. Color me bearish if that kind of monetary extremism can't even get the Nikkei 225 near prior all time highs or any meaningful inflation. I guess they could buy every bond in existence both public & private plus take the stock holdings up to 30% of the entire float.. maybe that's what is needed? It kind of seems weird to trust any of the statistics on inflation, rates, economic prospects for the country with such an active price insensitive manipulator in the market place every day.

joefranklinsrs8• 8 years ago

Well, you could say the same about China, where the Chinese government is a major stakeholder, directly or indirectly of all the state enterprises and some of the biggest individual companies. Alot of the purchases of foreign companies and technologies is done by the Chinese government. Also, China engaged in huge QE from 2008 to today, resulting in massive debt taking.

At least the financial numbers coming out of Japan is reliable and transparent. Also, alot of soverign funds around the world considers Japanese Yen and Bonds one of the safest investments.

RobertoG• 8 years ago

Reading your comment, comes to mind that the case of Japan demonstrate that bond markets are not so essential after all and that "creation" of money doesn't necessarily generate inflation.

ng122• 8 years ago

We talk about Japan as if it’s dying sometimes

I find this is mostly because the West can't fathom that Japan might have different values -- for example their unwillingness to sacrifice cultural homogeniety on the altar of economic growth.

krapp3• 8 years ago

or example their unwillingness to sacrifice cultural homogeniety on the altar of economic growth.

Every time I hear this argument (and it comes up in just about every thread about Japan's economy or culture) I can't help but hear an alt-right dog whistle.

Because, of course, Japan has a long history of incorporating culture from elsewhere - both from their Asian neighbors and the West, but when you talk about "homogeneity" in relation to Japan, people tend to think first about ethnicity and race, since they're ~98% ethnically Japanese.

And I'm not entirely certain can I see the link between "cultural homogeneity" and "economic growth" ... until I realize you're talking about immigration. Which is odd because most immigrants to Japan are Asian, and not likely to disturb their "cultural homogeneity" much, and the tiny, tiny fraction from elsewhere are definitely not likely to do so.

Maybe that's just me and my cooling fan is acting up, though.

chrischen3• 8 years ago

Actually growing up in America we were taught that America is literally the most advanced and developed nation. And having visited Mainland China a few times helped cement that belief that the rest of the world was underdeveloped... until I actually visited Japan and some other Asian places like Hong Kong. Japan is probably miles ahead of the US objectively in infrastructure (social and physical), standard of living, and societal harmony. It's sometimes hard to observe and appreciate because Western values differ from Japan in certain key areas that make it look like they are behind (overemphasis on toilet hygiene seems weird to Americans, but is really just an advanced standard of hygiene—the romans would have thought us weird using clean toilet paper instead of a communal vinegar-soaked sponge).

You can't really fully absorb their advancement unless you understand their culture and why certain things are the way they are.

lechiffre10• 8 years ago

Cheap food and lodging is mainly a sign of a strong US dollar though. I've been to Japan 5 years ago and while it wasn't as expensive as people told me it would be the Canadian dollar was very strong.

adventured2• 8 years ago

Speaking of Japan's capital, this made me excited that someone might finally do something toward investing in US infrastructure (the headline was slightly walked back later, saying there were no concrete plans just yet):

"Japan weighs sovereign wealth fund for U.S infrastructure investment"

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trade-japan/japan-wei...

If the US were smart about it, it would offer to go an easy route in resolving any trade issues with Japan. Part of the deal would be Japan working with the US to put together a $250 billion fund over time specifically to do high speed rail across the US. The Japanese are arguably the masters at that, their companies would benefit (and they'd earn a return on their deployed capital), and US would get some employment and know-how out of it (and obviously the transport system). Japan can borrow at great scale domestically at among the lowest rates of any nation. A big win all around.

ekianjo2• 8 years ago

high tech buildings

You forgot to mention fax machines :) And useless pepper robots in about every shop that tries to look futuristic.

discordance• 8 years ago

Pepper is indeed pathetic. Aldebaran Robotics must be laughing post acquisition.

Nadya• 8 years ago

That great quality of life comes largely from a monoculture focused on group harmony and letting those who don't jive with the culture falling through the cracks. Maybe a bit controversial, but I don't think mass importing foreigners who won't mix with the culture will be good for the country in the long term.

The U.K and Germany are full of internal strife entirely through their unchecked mass importation of foreigners and refugees. It needs to be done in a controlled manner allowing the foreigners to integrate with the culture, bringing amount small changes over time rather than drastic cultural changes quickly.

The foreigners and tourists are always the most obnoxious and least friendly people I interact with while in Japan.

tomatotomato37• 8 years ago

Japan has the third largest GDP in the world, and the first two are continent sized superpowers; I'd be surprised if they didn't have global influence.

Japan still has great influence on global financial markets

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