The Japan That Is Depressing

choi

Only the first half of the article is interesting.


Mitsuru OBE, The money pushers: The World Is Embracing Japan-Style Economics. Nikkei Asia, June 23, 2021.
https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotligh ... pan-style-economics

Note:
(a)
(i) Mitsuru ŌBE  大辺 暢 (The mitsuru is neither Chinese nor Japanese pronunciation of kanji 暢, but its pronunciation used in names only
(ii) caption of an illustration: "The decades Japan spent experimenting with massive government borrowing and spending offer the world a cautionary tale.   © Illustration by Chuan Ming Ong"
(A) The illustrator's website, www.chuanmingart.com, says, "I am a Dutch illustrator living and working in The Hague, the Netherlands."  His English-language Instagram page shows a middle-aged Asian man, and his Chinese name 王泉明 (no other language).
(B) Ong (surname)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ong_(surname)  
("Ong is a Hokkien romanization of several Chinese surnames: 王, 汪, or 黄 * * * In Singapore, Ong is the fifth-most-common surname among Chinese residents")

(b)
(i) Japanese surnames in this article:
* Arai  荒井
* Kitaguchi  北口
(ii) Japanese-English dictionary:
* gyōmu 業務 【ぎょうむ】(same meanings as in Chinese)
* プロ, pronounced poro, is the first two syllables of professional. Arguably プロ is also the first two syllables of proletarian, Japanese does not have this use.
* chisō 馳走 【ちそう】 (n): "treat; banquet; feast"
* sōzai 惣菜 【そうざい】 (n): "side dish"  (sai, the Chinese pronunciation of 菜, is softened to zai, as the syllable sai is not the first syllable of the term sōzai.

(c) "Throughout the period of restrictions [during the Covid-19 pandemic], as always, cavernous wholesale supermarket Gyomu Super in downtown Tokyo bristled with people * * * Gyomu Super opened its first store in 2000, after the burst of a property bubble in 1990 was chased by a banking crisis in 1998. As the economy slumped, Gyomu rose, its low prices irresistible * * * It eventually entered the restaurant business with all-you-can-eat and Korean barbecue eateries. Kobe Bussan Co, Gyomu Super's owner * * *  * * * Kobe Bussan Co, Gyomu Super's owner * * * Japan became the birthplace of zero-interest rates, introduced in 1999, and of quantitative easing, launched in 2001 -- both radical ideas at the time. * * * Twenty years later both policies have become standard central bank practice around the world, first with the global financial crisis [presumably the one that peaked in late 2008], and now in an effort to defray the economic cost of the pandemic. But in Japan, two decades of 'magic money' -- as this combination of policies was dubbed last year by the journal Foreign Affairs
(i) Kobe Bussan Co, Ltd  株式会社神戸物産 (based in Kobe), whose website
https://www.kobebussan.co.jp/english/
says, at the bottom of the home page, its bands are: Gyōmu Super 業務スーパー | プロの品質とプロの価格 (which is the supermarket chain slogan, where と means and); Kobe Cook World Buffet; and Chisouna 馳走菜 | お惣菜・お弁当

馳走菜 is probably a term coined by the chain of the same words, where the English name Chisouna is just another method to romanize/transliterate 馳走菜 -- besides chisōna (the ou and ō means the same: a long vowel of o; sai and na are, respectively, Chinese and Japanese pronunciations of 菜).
(ii) Sebastian Mallaby, The Age of Magic Money; Can endless spending prevent economic calamity?  Foreign Affairs, July/August 2020.
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/a ... ic-financial-crisis


(d) "Japan's public debt as a share of gross domestic product now exceeds 260%, the highest among major economies * * * Today 15.7% of the Japanese population lives in relative poverty, the second-highest level among Group of Seven nations after the United States. * * * Yōsuke YASUI [康井 洋介], a senior economist at Japan Research Institute,  and former Bank of Japan [(BOJ)  日本銀行: central bank of Japan] official * * *"
(i) I failed to find a governmental report on "public" debts in US -- including debts of federal, state and local governments.
(ii) "lives in relative poverty":  I have not seen the term before and am unaware of its definition.
(iii) Jessica Semega, Mellisa Kollar, Emily A Shrider and John Creamer, Income and Poverty in the United States: 2019. Census Bureau, Sept 15, 2020 (report number P60-270)
https://www.census.gov/library/p ... 0/demo/p60-270.html
("Median household income was $68,703 in 2019 * * * The official poverty rate in 2019 was 10.5 percent * * * This is the fifth consecutive annual decline in poverty. Since 2014, the poverty rate has fallen 4.3 percentage points, from 14.8 percent to 10.5 percent")
(iv) Japan Research Institute. Ltd  (JRI) 日本総合研究所  (1969- ; nongovernmental; conduct research for pay)

(e) "Kōzō Yamamoto 山本 幸三, a lower house member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and the architect of Abenomics. * * * Dai-ichi Life Insurance [ Co, Ltd  第一生命保険株式会社], a top manager of Japanese corporate pension funds * * * Kidsdoor, a support group for low-income familie [and therefore kids in those families] * * * But Yumiko Watanabe [渡辺 由美子], Kidsdoor chief [title: board chair] * * * South Korea's growth rate has fallen from above 4% during the 2000s to 2% to 3% in the 2010s * * * Hidehiko MUKŌYAMA 向山 英彦, South Korea analyst at the Japan Research Institute * * * Kosuge got his job at the hydrogen refueling station from Koureisha, a staffing agency specializing in job placement for the elderly. * * * The Tokyo-based company [Kōreisha] has some 1,100 job-seekers on its roster. Their average age is 70, and many used to work at large corporations, such as Tokyo Gas and Panasonic. About 350 of them have actually landed employment, typically part-time. Elderly contract workers earn only slightly above the minimum wage, unless they have very special skills, says Koureisha President Fumio MURAZEKI [村関 不三夫] * * * Murazeki is a former Tokyo Gas [東京 瓦斯 （ ガス ） 株式会社] executive [actually chief executive officer (CEO) 社長]"
(i) 特定非営利活動法人キッズドア   NPO Kids' Door (キッズドア is katakana for "Kids' Door"/ NPO = nonprofit organization)
(ii) Kōreisha Senior Care & Advocacy (KSCA)  高齢者を守る会