with debt at 195% of gdp and totally insolvent banks etc. things look very gloomy. i don't see a way out of this mess. japan govt has really fu-ked up up a great country.

It's matter of time Japan's economy crushes. US ally, like Japan and South Korea, will have no choices other than to beg China to save their messes, and become a vassal and protectorate of China.

is japan going to collapse financially?

not at all...

june26th 2006
Ministry of Finance of japan anounced that japan's debt became $8trillion in 2005.
it is debt that is $60,000/preson in japan(GDP $5trillion, 156%debt/GDP)
it seems a big bloblem for japanese bacause it is so much debt.
everybody said " japan is going to ruin"
however japan is still getting better condition
in USA GDP $13 trillion, debt is ＄830 billionin a year
6.4% debt/GDP in a year.
it means it takes 15 years until 100%

If I compare with USA, japanese debt is too big.
and everybody is worry about that.

However in case of japan , all creditor of japan's debt is the japanese citizen.
there is no foreign creditor at all.
50% crediter of USA's debt is foreigner.

the japanese ppl's financial asset is $13 trillion.
it means a limit of japan's debt is $13 trillion.
that is ,japan's debt is still little

An increase in the debt of the United States is limited to an increase in the
rating to another country.
that is , incresing of net worth(total assets) in a year
american net worth is incersing $3 trillion in a year since 1955
so i can say ＄830 billionin is little.

recentry ,0 interest rates was ended.
japan's interest payment is increased.
japanese citizen can get more interest payment
incresing of USA's debt means increasing of japan's net worth because japan is creditor of USA
Japan also has increased net worth several times the increase rate of the debt of the country every year.
even now japanese citizen is richest in the world.
If the debt of the country of japan becomes $13 trillion, the people in
Japan monopolize money in the world.
Inside and outside net worth of Japan will become threats in the world.

the truth is.......
As for the child in Japan, it can be a property person of 6.48 million yen
(creditor) at the same time as giving birth.

There definitely IS a stagnation among the japanese economy, and there is also the fear of impending recession, which by the cheap way of assessing right now through stock prices, seems pretty plausible in the coming future. Most core companies of the topix have sustained a loss from previous years q2 results (except for matsu$hita elec, which btw is a GREAT company to invest in right now lol), but only time will tell i guess...

doubt it. i thought they were the richest in Asia :/

I'd heard before from some Japanese that Japan was in a bad way financially (though maybe they were just scare mongering).

Is Japan in a worse financial position than the US (ignoring the temporary credit crunch and housing crisis)?

They are. Same way America is still richest in the World despite what's going on. Governments have to let the recession happen and pay off their debts.

not atm

it doesnt matter if u are 'richest' if prices go up (inflation) u still suffer.

China does not need Japan, China has come along way by herself and turning the page. After the destruction caused by the Japanese dureing WWII.
While Japan may have the Honda's and Toyota's, China will in time in the future surpass Japan in makeing fine cars also and everything else included that are electronics.

Japan will only be a buffer zone for China and U.S.A, possibly a battle zone.

Are you sure about this?

It has to do with economics, not how much money a country holds.

Despite that, I doubt Japan will collapse financially. They're smart people.

2/3 of $8trillion is foreign bond that Japan is lending

I apologize for saying this, that statement is the most stupid thing i read this past 2 months.
Japan's tech is 100 yrs ahead of china, china will past Japan in term of GDP.

when did japan accumulate 8 trillions..... wtf... i never heard of this till now... well at least the debt holders are Japanese citizen. Unlike the US which is hold by foregeners and private investment banks.

Why not learn from each other? I am sure Japan and China have something that they can learn from each other. Japan did not become wealthy for no reasons. That is to be admired and learnt from. China deserves admiration as well.

In the short term Japan will not collapse, but Japan still needs to fix the problems that led to the original crash. Japanese continue to save more than twice what Americans save, but get about the same absolute return on that investment. A strong economy must be able to efficiently allocate capital. Japan's institutions must learn to do this.

In the medium term I think Japan looks good, if the Japanese can overcome the structural problems of their lending institutions. Automation and robotics are going to be growth industries and Japan is uniquely positioned to exploit that fact, but...

In the long-term that is a problem. The reason the Japanese need robots is that they don't have babies. Japan must either encourage Japanese to have children or start letting a lot of immigrants in. If they let lots of immigrants in, it is not clear that they will retain their current advantages, as those immigrants will not share the culture. And I think it might be too late to encourage Japanese to have babies. So the long-term outlook depends on how Japan deals with the demographic collapse that is coming.

Japan is clinging on, but Japan's glory days of the 80s and early 90s (where American media hyped the Japanese as some sort of super model minority race composed of wealthy and super-intelligent individuals, think Masi Oka times ten) are definitely over. Japan's economy is very stagnant and I fear things are gonna get worse for the Japanese economically.

The problem with Japan lies in its future generations. I'm sorry, but Japanese youth have embraced a slacker mentality that's not only damaging to them -- it's damaging to the Japan's own future. In the 80s and early 90s, Japanese children studied 24/7 and were very ambitious. They had nothing but aspirations to attend the most prestigious universities (Harvard, Oxford, all the prestigious big brand name schools). But after the economic crash of the late 90s, Japanese youth somehow stopped caring.

Of course it doesn't help that the Japanese school system became very lax. Whereas Japan once embraced the strict-but-ultimately-successful Confucian model, Japan's emphasis on strict discipline gave way to a more softer, "holistic" approach (as well as more emphasis on vocational training).

There's a psychological element involved in all this, yes, but simply put, Japanese youth of today are lazy and depressed. Yes, there are a few gems here and there where you will see an occassional Japanese student break the mold and get into Harvard (and the Western media will overhype the Japanese overachiever and claim that all Japanese students are like that Harvard-bound Japanese overachiever), but the vast majority of Japanese youth of today are apathetic, lazy, depressed, and in denial of all three.

Japan should be happy that Western media still thinks Japanese people are prosperous and super-intelligent, but I know the real Japanese people of today are struggling hard.

Yes they are, pretty soon we will see the Japan come bagging to China to save them.

I don't think Americans ever considered individual Japanese wealthy. I know that I was aware, in the mid-80s, that the average Japanese family had to spend several months salary to buy a television. At that time even poor Americans could buy a television with a day or two of wages (the average American can now buy a TV with 2.5 minutes of work).

On the other hand, the Japanese were certainly considered a super-model-majority. Unthinking, hive-minded bastards bent on taking American jobs... thank god your economy collapsed so we could see you as humans who suffer the same travails Americans suffer.

At any rate I do think Japan has a leg up in terms of automation. And automation will be the next big thing, once people figure out that internet sites where people insult each other are not actually economically productive. I just hope there will be enoughJapanese left to take advantage of that.

Japan is not going to collapse financially because the country and people have a lots of money. Please check the article below.


http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/20/business...ml?ref=business

The country sits on a $14 trillion pile of household savings, the product of decades of trade surpluses and frugal lifestyles. This has allowed Japan to finance its immense $8.1 trillion fiscal deficit and still have enough money left over to be the world’s largest creditor nation for the last 17 years.