
In Japan’s Slow Economy, Rare Price Rise Prompts Surplus of Remorse - protomyth
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/19/business/international/japan-economy-deflation-prices.html?_r=0
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Olscore
When I first saw this ad I really enjoyed the concept of it (work in video
production.) Not something you see often. Maybe that will change. To me, it's
interesting because [1] the consumer has to be familiar enough with the
product so much that even its price is memorized, and [2] just seeing a
company apologize for a price increase is rare in American culture.

~~~
a3n
I'm looking forward to the Volkswagon version, complete with spanking paddles.
(And I shouldn't be surprised anymore, but, these are sold on Amazon.)

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rangibaby
I did see Volkswagen's "sorry" ad on Japanese TV about a month ago!

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wrong_variable
If there is any person who finds this funny - and it is funny - know that is
this is where the WORLD economy is heading.

Europe is already half-way there, america is stalling it due to immigration,
China is going to be there once it hits the demographic cliff.

~~~
pcurve
Very true. These countries are all showing syptoms of first-world economy
disease; low-birth rate, government budget deficit, high healthcare
expenditure, bureaucracy, gutting of manufacturing jobs, and local labor
market and education systems that fail to recognize that not everybody has IQ
of 120+ and benefit from getting bachelors and masters degrees.

America can thank its dollar as world reserve currency. Billions it spends on
military bases around the world and foreign aids is part of its effort to keep
its reserve currency status. But at some point, the party is going to be over.
American labor force is already very uncompetitive and overpaid compared to
its European and Asian counterparts. Yet we enjoy one of the highest standards
of living. That gravy train won't last forever.

The only thing that will get the developed countries out of their impending
doldrums is 10/100x energy and technological breakthrough.

Until then, we'll get our own version of 60 yen Garagari-kun.

And don't think deflation hasn't been happening already in the U.S. The only
difference is, unlike Japan, unscrupulous U.S. food companies have been
cutting ingredient quality and content size, rather than raising price for the
past 10 years.

Check out Breyer's fake ice cream, Haagen Daaz, McCormick pepper content size,
Mars shrinking chocolate bar sizes.

[https://consumerist.com/category/grocery-shrink-
ray/](https://consumerist.com/category/grocery-shrink-ray/)

[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3037688/Shrinkflat...](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3037688/Shrinkflation-
sneaky-firms-making-favourite-products-smaller-NOT-shrinking-price.html)

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TheSpiceIsLife
> Yet we enjoy one of the highest standards of living

The US ranks 16th on the Where-to-be-born Index.[1]

1\. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Where-to-be-
born_Index](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Where-to-be-born_Index)

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Bahamut
The index seems to conflate countries to be born in and countries to be raised
in. For example, if there is one country in the world to be born in, I would
absolutely pick the US, if only for the ease of travel/migration to many
desired countries in the world. For countries to be raised in, the index seems
to be more relevant, at least judging by the metrics used.

~~~
howlingfantods
There are many countries with more visa free travel than the US. And these
countries don't have international income tax.

~~~
distances
US seems to be quite close to the top with 154 visa-free countries, while the
top spot is held by Germany and Sweden with 157 countries.

[https://www.passportindex.org/byRank.php](https://www.passportindex.org/byRank.php)

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norea-armozel
I just wonder if they can ever get out of this death spiral for their country.
I remember watching a bit of an documentary of men (young and old) who
literally live out of net cafes in Japan. It was disturbing to since the same
documentary mentioned that it's the norm now for people to be working just
temp work (I use to do the same in manufacturing years ago) which can go away
at a moment's notice. At some point this has to change, if there's X percent
of wealth being generated in a country (and Japan has to be making some gains
in that regard) but Y percent of the population that's un/under-employed then
I wonder if the question shouldn't be about how we get these people to work
but rather how we distribute the wealth to ensure everyone has their
necessities met (housing, healthcare, food, education, etc)? I'm not proposing
UBI, social democracy, or anything. I'm just posing this as a question because
honestly I can't see this situation lasting for long unless there's a massive
die off of the population (possibly literally).

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roflchoppa
Was not aware the Japan's economy is slowing down, i would totally be down to
boost their economy by importing Nissan Skylines into the US. Damn Dept. of
Transportation and their safety laws ;(

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HeyLaughingBoy
I've seen at least two Nissan GTR Skylines here in Minnesota. Don't know if
they're detuned or otherwise modified. First one I saw was at a gas station
last year and I was so astounded I had to ask the owner if it was really what
I thought it was.

Crawled back into my 350Z still drooling :-)

~~~
roflchoppa
was it an R32? I think the law has slightly laxed on them due to being 25yr
now. i see R35's here in the bay area every now and then.

~~~
HeyLaughingBoy
They were both current model year or at most a year old. Well, I use the term
"Skyline" loosely. I don't think Nissan actually calls them that anymore.

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fiatjaf

      > Japanese policy makers have long identified
      > deflation as enemy No. 1 for the economy.
    

It is crazy when policy makers try to make prices increase, prices DO
increase, and everyone complains after the fact, including the people who
wrote that article and commenters here.

~~~
partiallypro
Prices increasing without increase in economic output though, stagflation
becomes a danger. Deflation is very dangerous, stagflation is dangerous,
runaway inflation is dangerous. Monetary policy isn't easy.

~~~
eru
Just set a level target (eg 5% increase in NGDP each year), and follow it.
Very easy.

If market forecasts are below target, do QE (= print money), if above, slow or
stop the creation of extra money.

(One can target the market forecast of ngpd in a years time or two, instead of
current ngdp.)

~~~
Gustomaximus
If only it was that easy. On the broadest strokes monetary policy effects tend
to be delayed and do minor changes until you hit a tipping point then effects
rocket on a direction. No-one really knows where the tipping points are as
there a bunch of variables and unknowns in every scenario so you dont really
know until you 'found it'. The old quote something like "economics is someone
looking backwards telling us why stuff happened".

Secondly, policy makers should manage monetary policy in conjugation with
fiscal policy. But fiscal policy can a much harder political fight or have
different groups/ideologies controlling it. So monetary policy often runs as a
solus activity making its effectiveness limited.

~~~
eru
If long lags where a thing, wouldn't that lead to major arbitrage
opportunities?

See
[http://www.themoneyillusion.com/?p=6197](http://www.themoneyillusion.com/?p=6197)

Monetary policy can always produce inflation, if the central banks wants it
badly enough.

You are right that better fiscal policy can be useful for the economy, too.
(I'd like to see Georgism given an honest try again. Funny enough, that's a
very orthodox economic suggestion. Just like free trade and free movement of
labour.)

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fiatjaf
25 years of governments pumping money into the economy to see if it "grows"
again. When will they recognize the policy is failing and the solution is not
"more of the same"?

Give me a date.

~~~
skylan_q
They kept the monetary base pretty steady for a while in the mid 2000's. It
ended up hurting their ability to export and made it easier to import. They
were unhappy with the slightly higher unemployment, the slight and constant
price deflation, and the lack of GDP growth. Otherwise, things actually
weren't that bad.

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kchg
This article is painting the wrong picture, exaggerating this paltry 10 yen
rise.

At least from a normal household point of view living in Tokyo, I see rising
prices all around - rent getting more expensive, the same type of fish (as an
example) I've been buying in supermarket getting more expensive.

Recently I was shopping for a bicycle bag. I saw some blog reviews from 2
years ago stating the price was around 5000 yen; But I see all the shops are
now selling it for over 7000 yen!

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mcphage
> But in Japan, businesses that face rising costs feel they have less ability
> to do so because wages are flat. Instead, they take a hit to their profits
> or cut back rather than alienate consumers.

Won't that just flatten out wages even more? There's no money to give out
raises if nobody's making any money.

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hkmurakami
Hm. Well the bottled drinks in vending machines was 100yen back in the 90's
when I was a child, and is now 120 yen, so many things have increased in price
or have followed the American CPG way of maintaining sticker prices but
decreasing the payload in the package.

~~~
nihonde
You have to factor in an 8% consumption tax (~4 point increase over late
1990s) on that (meager) price increase.

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fiatjaf
So prices are sticky upwards now?

