Japan

Dr. Takahiro Miyao, Professor: International University of Japan. He is the head of the GLOCOM Platform (www.glocom.org) and was very gracious and friendly. He sat next to me in the earlier presentation and before it began we chatted very casually. His discussion of all things economics was informative and far from dull or boring! He began rather humorously by telling us how to pronounce his name: like the sound of the cat, "Meow."

• Japan is gradually growing again. Growth is essential because of huge budget deficit, social security burden, low birthrate and shrinking population, and the tax hikes to come.
• Prime Minister Abe (pronounced Ah bay) is emphasizing supply side growth through innovation, but the question is how.
• Japan's rate of new business creation is less than one third that of the USA.
• While this is true, many new USA businesses fail, not so in Japan
• Widening gap between rich and poor in Japan is a growing concern
• Many young people are losing hope for having a better life and are giving up in despair, making this a serious issue
• Income redistribution is not a popular answer to this problem in Japan
• Lack of challenge spirit may be a focus so as not to create demand by economic redistribution
• Not in Education/Employment/Training (NEET) coined in Europe--young people who do nothing
• They are not in ed, employment, training and this is very visible in Europe. In Japan they stay with parents and do not show up on the street as street people. (This seems to be what we call boomerangers in the USA.)
• Freeters: Living on Short-Term, Temporary Jobs...transient workers: working as cashier for a couple weeks at the 7/11 then quit for a while, spend their money and look for another job
• More than 3,000,000 young people in Japan are Freeters and Neets committing more crimes and becoming an economic burden
• This is becoming a problem because these people resist reform efforts until this issue is addressed
• Gradually creates an obsticle to growth as the Neets and Freeters lack skills
• They are already a burden to the government, especially as they get older
• This is why Prime Minister Abe's emphasis is on this issue
• National savings rate for businesses in Japan is 25% of income. In the USA it's 15% but the household savings is negative. In Japan the household savings rate is 15%.
• The wealthy Japanese do not use their equity, they live in small houses. The Japanese reach the peak of their savings when they die. This is the topic of conferences and one of the 7 wonders of the economics world. They use their money to keep their children interested in taking care of the needs in their last years.
• So Japan needs to teach responsible risk taking behavior in the challenge spirit.

He gave us his blog and email address.

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