Strong recovery in Japanese tourism since March 2011 earthquake/tsunami

The decision of the Abe administration to opt for monetary and fiscal stimulus in Japan is destined to see an increase in tourist numbers to Japan. Tourism collapsed in the wake of the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in northern Honshu. The tsunami crippled the Fukushima nuclear power station, resulting in a melt down of a reactor, as well as severe and irrepairable damage to other reactors, closing the plant permanently. Today, there is a 'no-go zone' of 12km2 around the plant, as well as problems containing the contamination from the plant. High radioistope counts in the river and offshore have sparked import restrictions from countries like Korea. The concern of course is that Japan will dump contaminated food in foreign markets. 

On the positive side, the weakness is the Yen has prompted many people to travel to Japan. Perhaps they are avoiding the 'nuclear zone', located about 100km north of Tokyo's Narita International Airport. In any respect, Japan is 'cheap' because:

1. It has not experienced inflation thanks to weak wages growth and growing competition

2. Travel is still appealing with the Japan Rail Pass

3. The weak Yen, which is the result of low interest rates, a falling savings rate over the last decade

4. Expansion of the monetary base in recent times, which has effectively debased the currency.

Japan will of course be looking to strong exports and tourism to make up for the difference. It is a very attractive policy for the Japanese for several reasons:

1. There is still strong support for opening up Japan to immigration. Tourism helps to familiarise Japanese people with foreigners, because they still carry a great deal of apprehension. 

2. The influx of foreigners can be expected to contribute to the Japanese economic recovery, and thus, rather than being associated with high crime, they might instead be associated with a strong economy and prosperity. 

Nationalists will of course lament the 'selling out' to foreigners. This of course more likely a point of vulnerability when the Conservatives are in fact in power, so they will need to offset disgruntled Nationalists by sustaining the support of former Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) supporters. This seems likely.

To date the policy is working for tourism, given that tourist arrivals at Narita alone have grown from 321,625 in April 2011 (right after the quake/tsunami) to a 30-month high of 834,089 (March 2011).* The implication is that tourism levels have normalised; so it remains to be seen whether this trend will be sustained because globally tourism is weaker. There is of course the concern of Japan 'stimulating' its economy when the rest of the world is struggling with difficult trading conditions. This will of course mean that Japan just sucks in more imports. Greater tourism from Asia might be the saving 'grace' for the country. 

Japan has a lot to offer. I spent a month in Japan at my holiday home; a foreclosed property I bought some 10 years ago now. Japan surprisingly has the cheapest property in the world. My property was purchased for $28,000 at the time, and it costs me just $300 per annum in fees. The land is more valuable. I bought 7km from a major city centre and rail head, and its just 36 minutes by express train to Ikebukuro, on the edge of Tokyo city. There are smaller cities like Tokorazawa which are even closer. My local city however has plenty of restaurants, bars and department stores, so I need only go to the city to meet foreigners, and perhaps to buy electronics. I bought the property as a tourist, however home ownership is not a basis for staying in the country. You need to leave every 90-days...so I generally fly to the Philippines or HK and return. It is common to seek sponsorship to work in Japan with an English school in the country. If you want more information on foreclosed property, you might want to view this page. For more information on Japanese tourism, read my other posts, or you can ask me questions, and I'll respond on this blog by directing you to the update. 

* “Narita to retire inter-terminal buses, use walkways” by Tomohiro Osaki, Japan Times, website, SEP 20, 2013.

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Author Andrew Sheldon| Applied Critical Thinking | www.SheldonThinks.com

Japan liberalises visa restrictions on immediate family - Thai, Malaysians, Filipinos, Vietnamese

Prime Minister Abe - you nice guy you! Asian immigrants thank you

The Japanese government has taken a ground-breaking step towards the liberalisation of its visa restrictions for citizens of emerging market countries who are immediate family of residents of Japan. This move follows similar measures by NZ, which allowed Filipinos to travel to NZ as long as they could demonstrate sufficient financial resources. 

In the case of Filpinos, Vietnamese, Thais, Malaysians travelling to Japan, they are now able to get a 1-3 year multiple-entry visa if they are immediate family members (spouse or sibling) of a Japanese resident, who of course will be on a recognised resident visa. Filipinos can find further information at their embassy website.

These are very interesting developments because people might be interpreted with a degree of apprehensions in terms of his policy direction. In some respects, he might be construed as placating nationalist sentiments by canvassing military pre-emption, but on the other hand he is canvassing liberal policies such as these. Is he attempting to be all things to all persons, or is he secretly, just a nice guy? 

The reality is I suggest that Japan is passing through another period of reawakening and this is just another step/sign that this is the case. This is not a 'nationalist' measure by any means. This is contemporaneously the type of policy we would expect of a third world country, and the fact that Japan has belatedly joined the trade negotiations is another sign. Its 'pragmatic' exclusion of rice from trade protectionism might be construed as contrary to these steps, but I simply see rice as Japan's welfare state for its aging population. Why would you not want to keep your aging population gainfully employed? Too many anti-intellectual 'conservative' libertarians would deplore such a policy, but in the context of an aging population that needs work, if their pay was not sucking in imports, as its not, its hard not to sanction such measures as supportive of domestic economic activity. In this sense, I have always welcomed the common-sense public policy that develops in Japan. Japan does not readily sink into the liberal-conservative false dichotomy. Some parties of course appeal to anti-intellectual constituencies. 

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Author Andrew Sheldon| Applied Critical Thinking | www.SheldonThinks.com

Mixed nuts anyone?

One of the pleasures of living in Japan is the food. Japanese people are passionate about food. As it will be demonstrated; all types of food. There was an interesting story in Japan Today about a group of asexual men who served up their testicles to a group of attendees to a party.
There is no law against such practices in Japan, so you might wonder whether they should be charged. The police finally came up with a charge for 'the display of obscene objects'.
Since I lean towards the plant-variety of nuts, I was more interested in the ethical aspects of this story. It raises interesting questions about the efficacy of the law. Consider:
1. The apparent arbitrariness of laws that people can cause injury to others and seemingly get away with it because there is no historic case to draw a 'precedence' or no 'provision' for such an act, merely because there was no anticipation of the act.
2. The spectre of a police force charging a person with a dubious law merely because they are incensed by the act, or because it caused public outrage

The problem of course is that this act is indeed immoral; even if it is not illegal. The law ought to reflect legal concepts. This case illustrates the fact that there is no link. The problem with the acts of these men is clearly that they deceived the attendees of this event. Would there be so much outrage if the host had served water buffalo meat? Probably not. What if it was cow's testicles? What if the consumers were very pleased with the delicious taste of their 'mixed nuts' and only became incensed by the nature of their act, i.e. There is of course a psychological implication to their act. There is of course a difficulty defining exactly what is appropriate and what is not. Frog testicles are probably less controversial.
Certainly given the nature of the crime, the hosts intended to cause a spectacle. They did seek to determine whether their acts were illegal, but apparently they thought legality was a substitute for morality. There was no physical consequence; though there might well be a psychological impact. What punitive measure should be taken for such a deception:
1. Self-funded counselling and psychological admittance
2. Fine of Y2.5mil as indicated
3. Criminal incarceration
4. Refund for non-performance
5. Another appetizer?
I personally think the psychological counselling is an appropriate measure as well as a refund.

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Author Andrew Sheldon| Applied Critical Thinking | www.SheldonThinks.com

Longer 5-year working visa for expatriate residents of Japan

For Westerners getting a working visa in Japan, the terms are getting sweeter. It is now possible to get a 5-year visa, with an automatic multiple re-entry....well I'm assuming that is only if you have a job, but I'm not sure about that. What I can tell you is before that many people struggled to even get a 3-year visa. I had no problem, but that might be because my first visas to Japan were sponsored by two of the largest corporations in Japan - Sumitomo Group and Mitsubishi Materials. I've spoken to Americans who've said that they were only ever given 1-year visas, and that they had to go to Immigration to update them each year.
The new system will be much appreciated. Read about the revision of policy in this Japan Times article.

I fully recommend taking the opportunity to work in Japan - the most popular areas are English teaching, finance and recruitment. It is relatively hard to get a business visa. You need to set up a business, prepare a business plan, etc. Sounds reasonable, but for some the process will be too onerous.

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Author Andrew Sheldon| Applied Critical Thinking | www.SheldonThinks.com

Full circle for Japan on intellectual property

There was a time when Japan was greatly criticised for copying American and European designs in the 1960s and 1970s. Very little evidence emerged to castigate Japan's practices. So it is interesting in the modern era to observe a case where Japanese employees are being accused of selling intellectual property to Chinese competitors. One has to wonder whether these 'accused' parties learnt their moral convictions from their fathers - who plausibly sought out American engineers to pay off for American secrets. There is of course the sordid paradox for Japan to deal with. Are Japanese people guilty of doing what Chinese nationals are doing today? Would not the Chinese government feel entitled to ignore the accusations of the Japanese government, as the Japanese government did years ago? 

OR....we could accept that moral imperatives are not subjective or pragmatic; and that intellectual property serves a very important 'conceptual' value in rewarding minds; notwithstanding the flawed regime which has a tendency to protect 'monopolies' than reward ideas. 

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Author Andrew Sheldon| Applied Critical Thinking | www.SheldonThinks.com

A symbol of Japanese arrogance?

I note that Tokyo has completed the tallest tower in the world. You might ask what is the purpose of this structure? Is it a symbol of mankind's greatest; a testament to the financiers arrogance? Or simply a person's desire to make money. In fairness, I am not sure. Maybe this structure is constructed of superior high-strength tensile steels, and will ultimately advance building construction. It is questionable whether such a structure would be commercially sensible; though it might be given the cost of land in central Tokyo.

One is however left with the apparent motive of this building - a rather ambitious structure given that Japan has been struggling to get out of recession for the last 20 years? A supreme act of arrogance. We need only look at the football stadiums built for the World Cup, which are barely used. Hard to justify when the nation even shared the hosting with South Korea.

In any respect, I know someone working in this building. Personally, I think I would resign if my employer's office was in such a building. Why? The structure is untested in a severe earthquake. Now, as a conceptual thinker, I would argue that ideas help us to see around corners. The problem I have with people is that they tend to assume too much. So when you start building structures seemingly 4x taller than any other in the region, I start to wonder whether its sensible assumptions underpinning their thinking. Might this be a testament to the same type of arrogance and evasion that saw Tokyo Electric expose the Japanese people to radiation in the recent earthquake. All it takes is an engineering design flaw; notwithstanding towers will sway; minds sway too when their decision-making is governed by arrogance. All the more common in collectivist countries...which is pretty well all countries, but Japan is among the most collectivist.

One has to ask is this a befitting symbol for Japan? Might the next 'Twin Towers' scandal be an act of incompetence rather than a malicious act. Well, it might be years before we know. One would fully expect 20,000 people to die if this structure fell. This would depend on how it fell. I know nothing of its construction; and broadly I support advancement, but I would first question the underlying motives for building these structures....and nothing I hear tells me they are sound.

Source: Sydney Morning Herald

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Author Andrew Sheldon| Applied Critical Thinking | www.SheldonThinks.com

DPJ elects Yoshihiko Noda as party leader and PM

The Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) has a new prime minister and party leader Yoshihiko Noda. The 'anti-Ozawa' member of the party will need to appoint a new cabinet which is likely to include some members of the other 'Ozawa faction', in order to satisfy both sides of the party which have been struggling with disunity. With a general election 2 years ago, Noda will need to offer in this period to give the party the best possible chance in the election.

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Author Andrew Sheldon| Applied Critical Thinking | www.SheldonThinks.com