June 25, 2004

DON'T TELL THE VALETUDINARIANS:

Japan's soaring debt now more than 700 trillion yen (Japan Times, 6/26/04)

Japan's outstanding debt rose 4.9 percent from a year ago to a record 703 trillion yen as of March 31, the government said Friday.

At 1.4 times gross domestic product, Japan's public debt burden is the highest in the industrialized world. Per person, the government's liabilities total 5.5 million yen.


In other words, Japan's debt is double ours.

Posted by Orrin Judd at June 25, 2004 8:00 PM
Comments

Ahh! Back to the good old 80's when the CW was telling us Japan, Inc. would both bury and buy us!
LoL.
Mike

Posted by: Mike Daley at June 25, 2004 9:06 PM

If the Japanese were only willing to liquidate the debt from the 80's bubble, they might have. And many Japanese companies still perform brilliantly. Toyota just passed Chrysler's sales in the US, is bigger than Ford, and many analysts think will soon pass GM as the biggest car company.

Posted by: Chris Durnell at June 26, 2004 2:08 PM

So is its savings.

I have been reading an anthropological/economic study of the world's biggest fishmarket ('Tsukiji,' by Theodore Bestor). Very different from any American market, very successful.

The Japanese appear to be achieving a different approach to private business that suits them just fine.

In my review, I plan to compare US business theory to a person with extreme bipolar disorder and mild sociopathic tendencies, Japan business to bipolar disorder with lithium and moderate obsessive/compulsive disorder.

Posted by: Harry Eagar at June 26, 2004 2:45 PM

Harry:

Their savings are a fraction of ours.

Posted by: oj at June 26, 2004 2:59 PM

Chris:

Hyundai will pass them soon.

Posted by: oj at June 26, 2004 3:02 PM

BTW, Nissan is now owned by Renault (and doing much better over the past 2-3 years), and Honda is in the dumps.

I suspect the reason the Japanese appear to be medicated (to follow Harry's analogy) is that if they opened their eyes, took a good long look at their demographics and balance sheet, they would scream, vomit, and jump off Mt. Fuji.

Posted by: jim hamlen at June 26, 2004 10:43 PM

Toyota is a very smart, very competent company. It is also moving its sales and production out of Japan as fast as it can.

Posted by: David Cohen at June 27, 2004 8:04 AM

If US car makers get twice as good as they are now, they still won't be as good as Toyota.

Japan has been investing offshore for a generation.

Same strategy as the Netherlands.

The Netherlands was very successful at it, still is. You'd be surprised how much of the US is owned by the Dutch.

Posted by: Harry Eagar at June 27, 2004 8:19 PM
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