日本の不景気

In 2008 Japan's exports fell by 27% on the previous year.

Japan's soverign debt stands at 195% of GDP.

Japan's current account surplus fell 34.3% in 2008 to 16.28 trillion yen - a record drop.



The IMF predicts Japan's economy will contract 2.5% this year.

Industrial production fell 8.1% in the 2008 October-November period - the largest fall since records began in 1953.

Domestic sales of automobiles in Japan are the lowest for 34 years. January 2009 sales of new cars dropped 27.9% to 174,281 units. Of the big 3 Japanese car manufacturers, Toyota Corp sales were down 22%, Honda 31% and Nissan 31%.

In response to the recession, the LDP government of Prime Minister Taro Aso will offer every person in Japan a 12,000 yen (US$131) handout as part of a larger 75 trillion yen economic stimulus package.

The world's number one automaker, Toyota, announced an expected operating loss of 450 billion yen for the financial year ending in March 2009.

Japan Airlines (JAL) predicts a 37 billion yen loss for the year. The electronics giants Pioneer, Toshiba, Panasonic and NEC forecast group operating losses of 17 billion yen, 280 billion yen, 100 billion yen and 30 billion yen respectively.

The BOJ survey of the nation's largest manufacturers sees business confidence at a rate of minus 24.

An estimated 6,000 full-time workers will lose their jobs in the six-month period through March 2009 in addition to 124,800 non-regular workers.

Retail sales fell 2.7% in December 2008 and again in January 2009 with five of the major Japanese department stores reporting a drop in consumer spending. Daimaru, Matsuzakaya, Takashimaya, Isetan and Mitsukoshi all reported feeling the "Toyota Shock" - the fallout from the negative numbers at Japan's largest automaker.

Japan's food self-sufficiency is 40%; energy self-sufficiency 4%. Japan has 2% of the world's populationand 0.2% of the world's land.

Sources: Daily Yomiuri, Japan Times, Kansai Time Out, Japan Inc

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日本不景気の原因

The Japanese government formally acknowledged last November that its economy had fallen into a recession.

This recession - two quarters in a row of negative growth - has witnessed the world's second largest economy's GDP contract by 0.4 percent from July to September of last year.

Japan's last recession was in 2001, following the collapse of the dot-com bubble in the USA.

In Japan, there is no doubt as to why the recession is happening. All fingers point across the Pacific at the United States.

Following the subprime lending and banking crises in the US, consumers there stopped purchasing with their usual zeal - or with any zeal at all.

Japan remains heavily dependent on exports, mainly to the US, and this is hurting sales.

Blue chip firms like Toyota, Honda, and Canon have seen profits dip by as much as 70 percent.

Making things even worse is the dollar - yen rate. Most major manufacturers generally budget $1 to 110 yen for their exports. Of late, however, the yen has been trading in the high 80s.

This makes the few Japanese who do travel abroad close to kings (or, more likely, queens) with their tremendous purchasing power. However, for Japanese companies trying to sell from Japan to the US, the strong yen - weak dollar makes Japanese goods in the US more expensive and is a nearly fatal blow.

Hard to believe, but there is still more bad news.

Worse still is the hangover from Japan's "lost decade" of the 1990s: huge public debt. Japan is saddled with the highest amount of debt of any developed nation. This curtails its spending options.

The reaction of the Aso government? A 12,000 yen (roughly $140) handout to all adults, including foreigners with a permanent visa, this spring. This stimulus package is however opposed by a majority of Japanese.

Even for a nation of chicken littles, this is all a bit too much to take.


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日本の不景気

As in the USA and Europe, the car industry in Japan has felt the full force of the present recession.



Toyota Corp, Japanese largest company and the world's largest automaker, has been particularly hard hit.

This month, Toyota announced the closure of all 11 of its factories in Japan for a period of 11 days to reduce stocks of unsold vehicles. This move came after the company declared in December an annual operating loss (of US$1.7 billion) - the first-ever in its 70-year history. This unprecedented loss follows a record profit for the Aichi-based company only the previous year. 3,000 temporary workers are to lose their jobs this year in Japan, as the company moves to shed all its workers on fixed-term contracts.

The shockwaves have spread to Toyota factories overseas, with shifts being cut and job cuts threated in Europe, Thailand and the US with new manufacturing and research projects delayed or canceled. Domestic production in February and March will be halved compared with the same period last year.

Toyota is not alone among Japanese carmakers feeling the pain. Honda Motor Company, Japan's number two automaker, saw annual profits fall by 67% this year and will also reduce its non-regular workers in Japan to zero during 2009. Honda also pulled its team from Formula One due to the present economic downturn.

Nissan has already axed 1,200 jobs at its plant in Sunderland in the UK and will not renew the contracts of upto 2,500 temporary workers at its other overseas factories in Spain and the US.

Smaller Japanese producers Suzuki, Subaru and Daihatsu all announced substantial production cuts for the end of the financial year in March.

Related Japanese automotive industries are also suffering with Bridgestone, Japan's largest tire maker declaring falling profits on the year.

The "unprecedented crisis" in the automotive industry may get worse in what is looking like a brutal year for global car sales.



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