http://blog.kms-japan.com/ News, Views Comments ja http://blog.kms-japan.com/?eid=126871 http://www.japanaquaponics.com/ http://urbanfarmers.ch/ The combination of aquaculture (fish farming) and hydroponics (growing plants in water) has led to a holistic and sustainable method of plant and fish growth, that uses approximately 90% le... http://urbanfarmers.ch/

The combination of aquaculture (fish farming) and hydroponics (growing plants in water) has led to a holistic and sustainable method of plant and fish growth, that uses approximately 90% less water than traditional agricultural methods; needs no artificial and chemical based additives such as fertilizer; and which can provide impressive yields year-on-year.

Taking its cue from natural ecosystems, aquaponics aims to mimic nature rather than fight against it, and offers the additional benefit of providing you with both fish and vegetables, fruits or herbs.
Looking for sponsors for show models to introduce this systems to Japanese families and farmers. ]]> KMS Messages 2011-07-15T08:00:15+09:00 kappeler kappeler http://blog.kms-japan.com/?eid=126850 (this is still just a rough idea) As Kamishi is famous for its rugby team, which won the National title 7 times in a row at their peak, this would be an ideal theme to revive the area. The village of Nebama, a beach resort, had all its 60 family ho... (this is still just a rough idea)
As Kamishi is famous for its rugby team, which won the National title 7 times in a row at their peak, this would be an ideal theme to revive the area.
The village of Nebama, a beach resort, had all its 60 family houses and tourist facilities destroyed. The beach has completely disappeared, as the coast land sunk by at least 3 meters.
The new village could be built on the nearby hills, and the flatland near the sea would be changed into sport fields/park and facilities, having all escape route stairways to the safety zones on the surrounding hills.
The villagers would find jobs at the sports-park.
]]> KMS Messages 2011-07-14T21:14:23+09:00 kappeler kappeler http://blog.kms-japan.com/?eid=126849 Several NPO and NGO organizations are looking at the next situation, when all 80.000 emergency homes will be built. When the people are shoved into these little boxes, all moral and material support they had in the shelter taken away, all the socia...
When the people are shoved into these little boxes, all moral and material support they had in the shelter taken away, all the social life support they had there taken away. Without any doubt, the loneliness and after shock syndrome will set in, and especially older persons will fall into a kind of coma, realizing their loneliness and helplessness, with out any outlook on jobs, young people leaving the “dangerous” areas, and fall into the abyss of their tragic losses.
So, several organizations are looking at how they can help in the next phase. They are planning free car pools at community centers near the emergency homes, community buildings for medical-, administration-, education-, services, and community bath houses (traditional “sento”), self cooking kitchen/restaurants, sports and entertainment facilities, shopping centers etc. There will surely some opportunities to present new ideas and concepts from Switzerland.

Minna no Ie (house/room for all)
Japan Loghouse Association Tohoku office, 024-952-0452,Mr. Nemata n@haryu.co.jp is trying to offer community centers to emergency home parks, where people are forced to live in small boxes, with neighbors they do not know, and where the loneliness and awareness of loss is coming down on individuals, who have lived until moving in there, in shelters, where they shared a community feeling. He calls these community buildings “Minna no Ie” and “LOHAS”, where they want to use low energy sources like Solar, Chinetsu (earth-heat), Wind turbine power, and rainwater usage.
3 such buildings is needed in Kamaishi, donors are welcome.
One such community house will cost Yen 10.000.000.
]]> KMS Messages 2011-07-14T21:10:40+09:00 kappeler kappeler http://blog.kms-japan.com/?eid=126845 The building has been completely destroyed by the Tsunami. The Houikuen offered “free of charge” day care for children from 1 ½ year of age. Status; Pfarrer Max Enderle, a missionary of Immensee/Bethlehem, living in Japan since 1954, is helpin... The building has been completely destroyed by the Tsunami. The Houikuen offered “free of charge” day care for children from 1 ½ year of age.
Status;
Pfarrer Max Enderle, a missionary of Immensee/Bethlehem, living in Japan since 1954, is helping the rebuilding efforts. They are waiting for the city decision of the new location, and the Swiss village Heiden AR is considering financial support through their Henry Dunant (spiritual founder of the Red Cross) foundation. August Sidler (having lived 30 years in Japan) is also trying to involve Caritas Lucerne and Sendai.

]]> KMS Messages 2011-07-14T20:50:24+09:00 kappeler kappeler http://blog.kms-japan.com/?eid=126843 NPO organization lead by Matsuda Yusuke. They provide free education to children living in shelters or emergency homes and are looking for corporate sponsors. As they are a private organization, not depending on the Ministry of Education, they can r... NPO organization lead by Matsuda Yusuke.
They provide free education to children living in shelters or emergency homes and are looking for corporate sponsors. As they are a private organization, not depending on the Ministry of Education, they can reveal names of students and report their progress. Direct correspondence between student and sponsor is also possible.
Status;
Waiting for the English webpage with explanation and payment method information, and you are free to donate. The full sponsorship of one child is Yen 250.000 a year, but of course, smaller donations are also welcome.
]]> KMS Messages 2011-07-14T20:24:19+09:00 kappeler kappeler http://blog.kms-japan.com/?eid=126842 Model Organic Farm Park for Children's Education This project will set an example of what private and corporate sponsored projects can do compared to slow moving government projects. A special “ShaDan-Houjin” Organization has been put up to build ... Model Organic Farm Park for Children's Education

This project will set an example of what private and corporate sponsored projects can do compared to slow moving government projects.
A special “ShaDan-Houjin” Organization has been put up to build and operate this project; high media coverage is expected. They are planning to have 80% of the park’s employment filled by handicapped, and socially “disadvantaged” people suggested by the Halo Work program of the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Labor.

They are looking for corporate sponsors for a wooden two story building, 10mx24m,
1st Floor; wood oven bakery, shop of own grown vegetables, and own made gelato.
2nd Floor; Family Café/Restaurant

HP Kappeler will propose “Swiss Building Components” technology, but they need support and sponsorship.

Aquaponics and other Swiss Farm technology proposals are welcome too.

The same team is working on a larger project in Tagajo City, where they already have convinced the community to build a New Garden City with a completely new concept. (50 homes with community centers, government, medical, education, sports buildings, self-sustainable vegetable farming, shopping centers etc.).





]]> KMS Messages 2011-07-14T20:20:26+09:00 kappeler kappeler http://blog.kms-japan.com/?eid=126841 Status; building completed 2011 August 10th watch the video; 4min http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOFTT5gAmHc Loghouse is an additional building for children moving in from destroyed areas and emergency home centers. Project privately sponsored ... building completed 2011 August 10th
watch the video; 4min
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOFTT5gAmHc

Loghouse is an additional building for children moving in from destroyed areas and emergency home centers.
Project privately sponsored by HP Kappeler,
but if anybody would like to donate another such community house, for children or emergency home villages etc. please contact me.

]]> KMS Messages 2011-07-14T20:16:49+09:00 kappeler kappeler http://blog.kms-japan.com/?eid=124760 11/March – 11/June in Japan (a personal story of an effort to help and give back after 40 years in Japan) 3 months passed, and the rubble is still there, the rebuilding has not started yet, U$ 2.5 billions of foreign aid still have not ...
(a personal story of an effort to help and give back after 40 years in Japan)

3 months passed, and the rubble is still there, the rebuilding has not started yet, U$ 2.5 billions of foreign aid still have not been distributed yet, and some organizations in Europe have not even sent anything of their collected money yet.
These tragic events showed the Japanese people from their best side, but the government from its worst. Catastrophes often reveal the true nature of things.
People are still living in shelters, but politicians are in full swing power games, and the over regulated and rigid bureaucracy again shows that it has no function to help its people, and is only able to protect its self interests. Each one of them brainwashed to obstruct or restrict imports at all price, which often hinders foreign help as well.
Lufthansa flew in 6 tons of wool blankets two days after 11/March, all perfectly new and properly wrapped, but the customs found an ingredient not allowed in Japan, and the whole load had to be flown back!
Even though everybody knows that there are not enough emergency homes, imports are restricted, application windows opened pro forma, but only for companies with a local builder partner, which is impossible to find, as they all have been damaged as well. There is no feedback from this window, and its office has disappeared without a trace. The so called iron triangle of politicians, construction companies and mafia are again, like in Kobe, determined not to let any “outsiders” in, especially no foreigners, even if their houses are cheaper and better, and even if it means people still have no idea when they can move out of the shelters.
A high ranking professor, head of department of architecture at Waseda university, told me straight that no imported homes or parts were allowed for emergency homes. He also tried to make me believe that all 80.000 units were built with donation money, and that nothing came from the government. He probably was afraid that some government budget might go to foreign imports.

At the education ministry I was shown lists of damaged schools and missing teachers, but they did not knowing how many students are in need of help, having lost their parents or homes. This seems not their problem. Nor do they think of how to bring education to the children living in shelters far away from home (some are in Tokyo, others all over the country). These children might loose their connection to a proper education and end as drop outs, when nobody cares about this disaster anymore.
I can go on and on with such stories, but lets look and what can be done for the people in need.
For months now I have tried to connect aid projects to the disaster areas. This is not easy, because in all the small, completely swept away villages on the coast that I visited, there is nobody there to talk to. And the long line over central, prefectural, city etc. government seems just an impossible avenue, all with a dead end.
When trying to find information about children in need, who lost their parents, their home or their life and education support, one is told about personal information protection laws, or that only aid offered equally at all schools could be accepted, etc.
It is true that in the still traditional Tohoku areas, such children are often taken care of by relatives or neighbors. But some offerings for school and living in Tokyo have been refused because of fear, that those youngsters would never come back, and would enhance the trend of the rapidly ageing population syndrome of those areas.
Trying hard to answer to an old friend back in Switzerland, who asked me to find two children in need that he wants to help through education as a thank you to Japan for starting his very successful career, I started to look at all the website who shoot up like mushrooms in the rain, and to look at all the NPO and NGO organizations with their various purposes, rapidly increasing also.
I found that none of them really was able to let victims and willing donors take contact directly. There are some legal obstacles, sure, and dangers of misuse or abuse sure, but still, I was wondering, and decided to look at creating an own website doing just that.
As I was talking to several website gurus, I met a fine young Swiss man who is working on a wonderful site since 2009, that units NPO organizations and makes visible all the different donation opportunities. His site www.ikifu.org will come up as a beta version soon, and later this year in full force. It was him who let me to another young man with a vision already in full action.
His name is Matsuda Yusuke, and he is organizing education for children in shelters, which nobody else does. His website is only in Japanese www.learningforall.jp . As he is not acting under the ministry of education, his NPO organization goes freely, directly to the shelters, talking with the parents first, without all the restrictions of official government channels, and offers free education to the needy.
“BETTER THAN GIVING A FISH, IS TO LEARN THEM FISHING”
This organization is able to give the names of children, allows correspondence, can send educational progress reports to the donors, etc.
We decided to add a page in English to his existing website if possible, and open it for donors around the world. He has international corporate sponsoring from UBS etc., but not from private donors abroad. All amounts of donations will be welcome of course, but to sponsor one child’s education for a year will cost Yen 250.000 (to be confirmed).
Please, be ready to give, open your hearts, this is the best and most direct way of donation that I could find in my search for over three months, and I fully believe we can make a difference here, which will also lead to further direct contact with the areas, and bring further opportunities to bond without all the big government and big NPO organizations.
I will contact you all again when we are ready, but please feel free to give me your comments and ideas before that too. Everybody’s input is necessary and welcome.

Other projects I am still working on;
I have also attended symposiums for Aquaponic greenhouse vegetable and fish farming, and symposiums to protect and help the traditional business of the areas. nick.savidov@gov.ab.ca ; http://shibuya.jue.ac.jp/symposium/ustream.html
Am also in contact with the SCCIJ, which is shifting its efforts from emergency help to sustainable long term help by Swiss companies. http://www.sccij.jp/
One professor in Switzerland is also trying to bring together some scientific and technological offerings for a sustainable reconstruction project, which he will present here end October with the help of ETH Zurich, Hosei- and UN-Universities. http://www.global.ethz.ch/stc/japan/support ; http://hosei.ch/supporttohoku
The village Heiden AR is also looking for opportunities to help young people, through its Henry Dunant Museum project etc. www.dunant-wissen.ch
There is also a British log house company, who can deliver good quality houses at affordable prices, still struggling with all the import restrictions and construction regulations, most of them protecting against import offerings. www.surelockhomes.jp
Also waiting for more information from the Swiss Building Components Company, who has a good quality offering for public and private wooden buildings, developed, registered and tested in Japan already. http://www.swissbuilding.com/index_e.html
Urimat, the Swiss men’s toilets (pissoirs) without waterflash has also donated 250 units in an event at the Swiss embassy. www.urimato.co.jp . 30 of those will go to a Keizai Sangyou Sho project to build a shopping area near emergency homes areas.

End of memo, Hanspeter Kappeler 2011.06.11

]]> KMS Messages 2011-06-12T11:10:29+09:00 kappeler kappeler http://blog.kms-japan.com/?eid=117148 By JEFF KINGSTON CONTEMPORARY JAPAN. Journal of the German Institute for Japanese Studies Tokyo. Mind the Gap: Stratification and Social Inequalities in Japan. Editor Florian Coulmas. Volume 22. Number 1/2. De Gruyter, 2010, 221 pp., (hardcover) ...
CONTEMPORARY JAPAN. Journal of the German Institute for Japanese Studies Tokyo. Mind the Gap: Stratification and Social Inequalities in Japan. Editor Florian Coulmas. Volume 22. Number 1/2. De Gruyter, 2010, 221 pp., (hardcover)

The launch of this journal is cause for celebration by anyone interested in Japanese studies. "Contemporary Japan" (CJ) is a biannual, peer-reviewed interdisciplinary journal that provides a valuable forum for leading specialists to publish their findings.
The plan is to have individual volumes focus on particular themes. The German Institute for Japanese Studies (DIJ) in Tokyo deserves kudos for revamping their journal "Japanstudien," principally an outlet for German scholars who published in German.
By switching to a mostly English language format, and focusing on modern Japan, the DIJ has greatly broadened both its audience and potential pool of contributors. This is an invaluable resource for libraries and readers interested in what is happening in Japan.
In his editorial introducing CJ, Florian Coulmas points out that Japan is in the midst of far-ranging changes involving population decline and aging, globalization and ideology that can only be adequately explored from a cross-disciplinary perspective. He writes, "Only by observing and investigating how society, the economy, government and culture adjust to these changes can we hope to gain a sense of where Japan is headed."
The journal also welcomes unsolicited contributions in the social sciences and humanities with a focus on empirical research and theory. The main theme of the volume under review is stratification and inequality in Japan. There is vigorous debate concerning poverty, the extent of income disparities, marginalization of youth, a growing precariat (class of nonregular workers) and Japan's future prospects. The articles presented here offer a variety of methodologies and conclusions and vastly deepen our understanding of Japan's current malaise.
Yoshimitsu Sato, Director of the Center for the Study of Social Stratification and Inequality at Tohoku University, explains that there is growing bifurcation in the labor market. Favored employees in the core workforce enjoy security, better pay and benefits while the growing number of nonregular workers, now one-third of the workforce, is disproportionately young and female. Poorly paid and with little job security, they are helping firms lower costs and gain greater flexibility while subsidizing the privileged core workers.
Sato finds that higher education confers significant advantages on job-seekers and has become a major factor in creating a self-perpetuating elite. It is also significant that young job seekers who begin with a nonstandard job have little chance to shift into the core workforce, meaning they will remain trapped on the periphery with implications for widening income disparities.
Shinji Kojima, a doctoral candidate at the University of Hawaii, examines the sudden easing of dismissal regulations and how the risks and the costs thereof have been shifted from companies to workers. Dispatched workers have become especially vulnerable due to legal reforms enacted between 1999 and 2004, with devastating results since the 2008 Lehman Shock. Dismissed contract workers gathered in Hibiya Park at a tent village in early 2009, focusing national attention on the their plight and the inadequacies of Japan's social safety net.
Labor outsourcing proved a boon to firms adjusting to the consequences of globalization, but suddenly Japanese workers came to understand the true meaning of Koizumi's deregulation- ratifying mantra of jiko sekinen (self-responsibility): When you are in trouble you are all on your own.
David Chiavacci's superb article examines the political consequences of public concerns about growing disparities and insecurity, arguing that these factors played a key role in the Liberal Democratic Party's thrashing in the 2009 elections. As architect and beneficiary of the "universal" middle class society, the LDP also became the target of public anxieties about the sudden sharp rise in risk and disparities.
The rural-urban cleavage, and over representation of rural voters, helped sustain LDP rule since it was established in 1955. However, in 21st-century Japan, the political landscape shifted and the LDP found itself on the wrong side of the divided society debate.
Chiavacci notes that the problems of a divided society are overstated from a comparative perspective and that growth of disparities preceded Koizumi's deregulatory policies, but voters punished the LDP anyway.
Chiavacci credits Ichiro Ozawa with developing a Democratic Party of Japan campaign designed to tap into these anxieties and repositioning the party to convince voters that it was best able to mitigate the problems of a divided society.
Alas, it has not been able to deliver fast enough to convince impatient voters, explaining the resurgence of the LDP in the 2010 elections.
The examples I discuss above do not do justice to the intellectual cornucopia on offer; there are other intriguing essays on art, film, burakumin and Okinawan and zainichi literature.
This impressive first volume of "Contemporary Japan" generates high expectations for future issues and is well worth checking out.

Jeff Kingston, director of Asian Studies at Temple University Japan, is the author of the book "Contemporary Japan" (Wiley, 2010), which explores many similar themes.

]]> Books 2011-02-13T10:30:15+09:00 kappeler kappeler http://blog.kms-japan.com/?eid=106963 TOKYO (Kyodo)--The average annual salary earned in 2009 by workers at private companies shrank by a record 237,000 yen, or 5.5 percent, from the preceding year to 4,059,000 yen, the National Tax Agency said Tuesday. The sum marked the sharpest decline... The sum marked the sharpest decline also in percentage terms since 1949, when the agency began the annual survey, and signifies a fall of 614,000 yen from the record high of 4,673,000 yen paid in 1997, the agency said.
The latest margin of fall dwarfs the previous record falls of 76,000 yen and 1.7 percent posted in 2008, and highlights the aggravation of the economic doldrums that have been hounding the Japanese economy.
Of the annual average, bonuses accounted for an average 561,000 yen, down 85,000 yen or 13.2 percent.
By industrial sector, electric power, gas and water utilities paid the highest average of 6.3 million yen, down 6.7 percent, followed by financial and insurance companies, which paid 6.25 million yen, down 3.7 percent, according to the agency, which classified Japanese firms into 14 sectors.
Among the 14 sectors, the sole sector that posted a year-on-year gain was real estate and leasing companies, which paid 3.89 million yen, up 3.2 percent.
The sector which suffered the steepest drop was manufacturers, which paid 4.44 million yen, down 10.3 percent.
Japan had 53.9 million salaried earners as of Dec. 31, down 1.6 percent. The total of salaries paid by Japanese private-sector companies in 2009 came to 192.47 trillion yen, down 4.4 percent, according to the survey.
The agency made the estimates on the basis of its survey of 20,534 companies it selected as samples, at which more than 282,000 work as regular and nonregular employees.
]]> Market Trends 2010-10-02T08:59:20+09:00 kappeler kappeler http://blog.kms-japan.com/?eid=105023 KMS comments; Marui, Lumine, Abercrombie, H&M, Forever 21, Uniqlo…..Ginza is rejuvenating. Department stores are fighting for their life, and Ginza will show if they are able to. TOKYO (Nikkei)--Amid a spate of refurbishments, Tokyo's bustling Ginza... KMS comments; Marui, Lumine, Abercrombie, H&M, Forever 21, Uniqlo…..Ginza is rejuvenating. Department stores are fighting for their life, and Ginza will show if they are able to.

TOKYO (Nikkei)--Amid a spate of refurbishments, Tokyo's bustling Ginza district is turning into a battlefield for department stores hoping to attract 20- and 30-somethings, a departure from its past as the shopping hotspot for middle-aged and older women.

Mitsukoshi's expanded Ginza store offers a more varied shopping experience.
Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings Ltd. (3099) unveiled its Mitsukoshi store in the ritzy neighborhood to the media on Wednesday after having expanded its floor space. It removed walls separating the shops, allowing customers to weave in and out of stores and browse the various brands with ease.
Tapping the expertise of group firm Isetan Co., the department store will feature a new apparel section targeting women in their 20s and 30s. A coffee shop inside the store will offer fashion information to customers' cellular phones, another gimmick intended to appeal to young people.
Sogo & Seibu Co. plans to close its Seibu store in the adjacent Yurakucho district at the end of the year, with Lumine Co. expected to open up shop in its place. Lumine is known to attract women in their 20s and 30s not only by featuring such apparel shops as United Arrows Ltd., but also for its ability to turn small fashion businesses into famous brands.
J.Front Retailing Co.'s (3086) Matsuzakaya store in Ginza will create an area just for 20-something women through renovations taking place next month.
According to an official at a major department store, the launch of low-priced apparel stores such as H&M and Uniqlo is helping draw more young people to Ginza.
]]> Distribution 2010-09-09T08:10:46+09:00 kappeler kappeler http://blog.kms-japan.com/?eid=105021 By MARIKO SANCHANTA (excerpts) TOKYO--For decades, the model for selling luxury imported goods in Japan has been simple: plush surroundings, attentive service - and the "Japan premium." Taking advantage of the luxury-goods appetite and high incomes ... By MARIKO SANCHANTA (excerpts)
TOKYO--For decades, the model for selling luxury imported goods in Japan has been simple: plush surroundings, attentive service - and the "Japan premium." Taking advantage of the luxury-goods appetite and high incomes of Japanese consumers, foreign high-end retailers have been able to charge much more than in other markets for the same goods.
But the cozy system may be cracking, thanks in part to a surging yen - it hit a fresh 15-year-high against the dollar Tuesday - that's encouraging third-party websites to jump in with deep discounts.
Late last month, Yahoo Japan Corp. quietly launched an endaka ("strong yen") sale on its shopping portal, covering imported goods that include shoes, TaylorMade golf clubs and Coach and Gucci handbags. Coach's Heritage striped tote bag, for example, which goes for 63,000 yen (about $747), cost 25,800 yen (about $306). Yahoo says sales of the discounted goods in the week of Aug. 22-28 were five times that of the corresponding week in July.
Rakuten Ichiba, Japan's leading e-commerce site, launched a similar discount site in late August. It reported a 45% increase in sales of high-end watches compared with the corresponding July period; sales of men's imported wallets have more than doubled.
Over the years, luxury-goods retailers such as LVMH's Louis Vuitton and Chanel poured millions of dollars into building striking, massive flagship stores.
But with deflationary pressure, a weak economy and a shift in consumer tastes, sales of luxury goods in Japan have actually been on a decline. The market for imported brand items - a rough proxy for luxury goods - shrank to $9.94 billion in 2009, down 16% from 2008 and half its 1996 peak, according McKinsey. Coach, the leather-goods maker which is based in New York, said last month that its sales in Japan for fiscal 2010, which ended in July, were essentially flat on a constant-currency basis, which strips out currency fluctuations.
Still the luxury retailers have hung on to the premium - and continue to do so even as the yen has climbed to a 15-year high against the dollar and a seven-year high against the euro.
Coach's Japanese Web site sells its Kristin leather hobo bag for 59,850 yen, or about $710. In the U.S., the same bag sells for $298. A Marc Jacobs Gilda fur and sequin flap bag that sells in Japan for 249,900 yen, or $2,963, is $1,995 in the U.S.
Abercrombie & Fitch Co., the Ohio-based purveyor of preppy polos and jeans, opened its first Asian outlet in December in Tokyo; prices in some cases are double those in the U.S. A Celeste sweatshirt, for example, costs 10,800 yen, or around $128, compared with $60 in the U.S.
Online e-commerce sites are pouncing on these pricing differentials. "Thanks to the strong yen, now's your chance to buy foreign brands!" reads Yahoo Japan's strong yen sale site.
]]> Distribution 2010-09-09T08:08:00+09:00 kappeler kappeler http://blog.kms-japan.com/?eid=102376 It has been said before,but part of the blame for the lack of consumption in Japan can be put squarely on the shoulders of corporations which have spent the last decade squeezing salaries and bonuses in pursuit of higher profit. While some have made ... It has been said before,but part of the blame for the lack of consumption in Japan can be put squarely on the shoulders of corporations which have spent the last decade squeezing salaries and bonuses in pursuit of higher profit. While some have made substantial progress on restructuring to become more efficient, many firms have turned their gaze
to the much easier task of just cutting staff remuneration, a move made easier to justify by the fall in retail prices. Salaries have fallen by 10% in nominal terms since peaking
in 1997 according to government figures and the impact on household income is clear.
According to a report in Nikkei, Dai-ichi Life Research did research on household income over the last decade and found that the number of households with annual income of ¥8-9 million – higher than the ¥6.21 million average for households where the head is in employment – fell 18% between 2000 and 2009.
Households with incomes of ¥15 million
plus fell by 30% and ¥10-15 million by 19%.
This can partly be explained by the increase in the number of retirees but is also the result of falling incomes and bonuses.
That incomes have fallen both on average and overall is
confirmed by the startling finding that households
with income of just ¥2-3 million and ¥3-4 million increased by more than 50% in the same period.
]]> Social Issues and Trends 2010-08-04T17:03:56+09:00 kappeler kappeler http://blog.kms-japan.com/?eid=95551 HANGZHOU, China (Nikkei)--Yahoo Japan Corp. (4689) and Taobao, operator of China's leading shopping Web site, aim to create the world's largest online shopping marketplace through their alliance, Yahoo Japan Chairman Masayoshi Son, who is also presid... HANGZHOU, China (Nikkei)--Yahoo Japan Corp. (4689) and Taobao, operator of China's leading shopping Web site, aim to create the world's largest online shopping marketplace through their alliance, Yahoo Japan Chairman Masayoshi Son, who is also president of Softbank Corp. (9984), told The Nikkei on Monday.
Excerpts from the interview follow.
Q: What is the significance of the tie-up?
A: We first invested in Alibaba just shortly after its establishment by (Chairman and Chief Executive Officer) Jack Ma. The tie-up between Yahoo Japan and Taobao, a member of the Alibaba group umbrella, will produce real synergies. Combined, they handle 450 million products and serve 260 million customers, with total transactions of 3.8 trillion yen.
Yahoo Japan boasts 60 million customers, but that figure will be doubled through mutual links that will allow visitors to each site to buy products displayed on the other. This powerful alliance will facilitate the creation of the world's largest marketplace for Internet shopping.
Q: How do you view the Chinese market, which has an online population of more than 400 million?
A: I have extremely high hopes. Yahoo Japan competes with Rakuten Inc. (4755) in Japan. The tie-up with Taobao will strengthen our product offerings, making us more attractive to customers. Companies that had been selling their wares on Rakuten's virtual mall could end up changing their minds.
Q: How will Japanese customers benefit from the alliance?
A: Users will be able to, with a single click like you do when shopping on Yahoo, order and purchase Chinese goods with yen. And because trading firms won't be involved, customers will be able to buy items at lower prices than they would be able to domestically.
Q: How will you tackle the issue of counterfeit products, which pervade the Chinese market?
A: The site will be set up so that orders for famous brand bags and other products with intellectual property rights cannot be placed from Japan.
Q: But there is still a possibility that some counterfeit products could make their way into Japan. What will you do to counter that?
A: Individuals or online retailers that break the rules will be prohibited from opening stores. We'll address customer damages incurred from fake products on a case-by-case basis.
]]> Distribution 2010-05-13T06:31:05+09:00 kappeler kappeler http://blog.kms-japan.com/?eid=91884 KMS Comments: Who accuses China of keeping its currency down?? TOKYO (Nikkei)--Speculation is intensifying among experienced currency traders that the yen is unlikely to rise above its current level due to the presence of a gigantic financial instit... KMS Comments: Who accuses China of keeping its currency down??

TOKYO (Nikkei)--Speculation is intensifying among experienced currency traders that the yen is unlikely to rise above its current level due to the presence of a gigantic financial institution.
The yen has hovered around 90 to the dollar during the Greek financial crisis, prompting traders to sell euros for yen. Meanwhile, Japanese companies have converted overseas earnings into yen for book-closings at the end of March.

But the Japanese currency stopped rising at 88.14 per dollar March 4, due to a dollar-buying order from "a bank," according to a dealer at a securities house.
The financial institution currency market participants refer to as "a bank" is Japan Post Bank, which holds assets totaling 193 trillion yen. The postal bank manages more than 80% of them in yen-denominated vehicles, especially Japanese government bonds.

The currency market would be enormously affected if the bank shifted 1% of its huge assets into foreign currencies, said Yuji Saito, director of the foreign exchange department in Tokyo at Credit Agricole CIB.
The postal bank seems to have considered the dollar undervalued and bought the currency on a massive scale for investment in U.S. government bonds.

A number of developments support such a view.
When the currency market heard about the postal bank's purchase of 300 billion yen worth of U.S. government bonds in the last quarter of 2009, many traders responded with an "I knew it" attitude.
That reaction can be traced to a hint from Shizuka Kamei, minister of state for financial services and postal reform, during an interview with a British newspaper in February that the postal bank would expand investment in U.S. government bonds.
Book-closing data the postal bank has released shows a 1 trillion yen rise in its holdings of "other securities," including foreign ones, in the October-December period of 2009 over the previous quarter. The balance of foreign bonds held by the bank may have further increased as it allegedly bought 7 billion dollars with yen in the January-March period.

Government tool
The issue has drawn market attention due to widespread speculation that the government is using the postal bank a tool for yen-selling, dollar-buying market intervention. The bank's purchase of U.S. government bonds is intended to prevent the yen from strengthening, some market insiders said.
The accuracy of this view is unclear. But there is circumstantial evidence to support it. A dealer at a Japanese bank, for instance, said that the postal bank's dollar-buying prevented a further rise in the value of the yen when it soared to the 84 level in November.
There is even a dealing-room joke that dollar-buying orders come from the postal bank and Japan Post Insurance Co. when the yen appreciates above 90 to the dollar.
The postal bank is said to have bought dollars in February and March at 90 yen to the dollar, the lower limit Finance Minister Naoto Kan described in January as "appropriate" for the Japanese currency's exchange rate.
In addition, Kamei, who advocates a weaker yen, has continually called for yen-selling market intervention since the currency appreciated sharply last autumn.
The postal bank declined to comment on its asset management when asked whether it had been used to intervene in the currency market.
But it is plausible that dollar-buying on the part of a wholly government-owned bank when the yen appreciates is a "price-keeping operation."
Pundits say the Japanese government resorts to such an indirect measure because other major currencies, such as the dollar and euro, are not subjected to market intervention.
Masafumi Yamamoto, chief foreign exchange strategist in Tokyo at Barclays Bank, said it is unclear whether the postal bank bought dollars.
But "foreign exchange intervention should be implemented through a special account for the sake of currency stabilization in disregard of profit," Yamamoto added. "If the postal bank is used as a sovereign fund, it should avoid financing (intervention) with deposits collected from the public."
Faced with decreasing deposits, the postal bank may be buying dollars and U.S. government bonds with funds from the sale of Japanese government bonds.
The government is considering raising the upper limit on postal savings "probably to secure funds for covert market intervention," said a strategist at a foreign bank.
Emerging economies often use sovereign funds to steer their currencies lower, and an increasing number of overseas investors is starting to regard Japan as employing the same tactic.


]]> Financials and Investments 2010-03-27T07:31:40+09:00 kappeler kappeler