Financial Environment
When it comes to Japan’s financial environment one of the first things to note is the vast pile of debt that Japan has accumulated over the years. Japan’s gross debt-to-GDP ratio stands above 240 percent, which is the highest of all OECD countries (The Economist, 2014). In contrast, in 2010 the ratio was ‘only’ 178.4 percent. The reason for this huge debt pile is that Japan has had twenty-two consecutive budget deficits (OECD, 2015). And in recent years these deficits were often over 8 percent of GDP. The main reasons for the rising budget deficits are that government revenues have been stable as a percentage of GDP, whereas government expenditures have increased steadily (The Economist, 2014). For now, the burden the debt due to interest payments is limited due to the low interest rates at which Japan is able to borrow. However, an ageing population will make repaying debt in the future ever harder (OECD, 2015).
The Nikkei 225 Stock Average is Japan’s most important stock index. The Nikkei 225 index declined as a result of the Global Financial crisis and hit a low in February 2009. It was only after Abe took office as prime minister and announced ‘Abenomics’ that send the Nikkei index up with 57 percent during 2013 (Pattekar, 2015). In 2014 the Nikkei increased with another 5.7 percent and in June 2015 the Nikkei reached a 15-year high. However, due to economic growth concerns in China, and the effect of that on exports of Japanese companies caused
The economies of the U.S. and Japan are very integrated in terms of trade in goods and services. As stated in the article the article, “Japan-U.S. Relations: Issues for Congress,” of the Congressional Research Service, the U.S. is the world’s largest economy and Japan is the world’s third-largest economy. This status makes the U.S. and Japan valuable trading partners, considering the U.S. was Japan’s second-largest source of imports and their largest export partner as of 2014 (Chanlett-Avery, Manyin, et.al). One can see through examining past economic crises in Okinawa and the U.S. that such incidences impede healthy global relationships. In the article, “U.S.-Japan Economic Relations: Significance, Prospects, and Policy Options,” William H. Cooper, specialist in international Trade and Finance, explains ways in which two specific Japanese economic crises affected global relations. One financial crisis occurred in 2008, when the economies of the U.S. and Europe were declining, leading to a decline in global demand for Japanese exports. Another occurred in 2011, following the tsunami, earthquake, and a nuclear incident in northeast Japan. These exigencies lead to great deficits, specifically in U.S. and European trade (Cooper, 2014). As previously mentioned, Okinawa has been unable to develop a self-sufficient economy. These past economic crises show that when Japan is economically
In the 1900s, Japan faced a lot of economic obstacles. Due to its location on four moving tectonic plates, Japan experiences earthquakes more often than most other countries, Banks, at the time, struggled to keep economic activity stable after earthquakes and even attempted to regulate the flow by granting companies the ability to sell their products without having a drastic change in price. Following the discussion of earthquake bills and such, news was brought to the attention of the Japanese government that a bank in Tokyo had finally gone bankrupt. This sent many into a frenzy trying to get a hold of their money from banks, and in turn, many banks closed. However, this Japanese bank was indeed, not bankrupt, it was only struggling,
When α government spends more thαn the revenue collected from tαx, tαriff, αnd other fee revenues, it must borrow to cover the deficit it fαces which when αccumulαted over the yeαrs becomes the nαtionαl debt. Internαl αnd externαl debts αre the two types of nαtionαl debt. Internαl debt includes the αmount borrowed from sources within the country. The government rαises this money by selling securities, government bonds, αnd bills. While externαl debt is the money borrowed from foreign sources. These sources mαy include privαte sources, other countries, αnd the Internαtionαl Monetαry fund. This pαper will explore the reαsons αnd consequences of the high nαtionαl debt fαced by the United Stαtes of αmericα. Furthermore it will αlso discuss wαys the reαson for this excessive spending cαn be eliminαted or reduced. economists forecαst thαt by 2030 the current αccount deficit would surge up to $5 trillion on αnnuαl bαsis which would constitute up to 15% of the country’s GD. This entire deficit will cumulαtively contribute in further inflαting the level of foreign debt thαt would burden the economy which would imply greαter imposition of bαck-breαking tαxes on the people of the country.
By contrast, Greece’s public debt is valued at about 130 percent of it's GDP at the beginning of it's present default misfortunes. While Japan may well be able to service this substantial debt without the risk of sovereign default, making the assumption that it's low-interest-rate climate is maintained, it's difficult to see how conditions for fast or even moderate economic growth could be generated with these circumstances
Japan’s unemployment rate of about 4% opposed to the U.S. unemployment rate of close to 10%. Even the financial debt to GDP ration is an advantage, and debt in the private sector has not increased unlike the U.S. and European countries, (Time, 2009). In addition, since Japan is a huge exporter and with the U.S. demand going downward, the international balances and growth declined especially as the dollar value dropped and the yen surged. •
A world-class manufacturing power was lead into a deep slump. Japan has traditionally possessed a remarkably high savings rate and a moderately low consumption rate. Throughout the previous two decades of recovery and high-speed growth, this ‘savings surplus’ provided greatly needed capital to private industry in the form of bank loans. This money was used to build and expand Japan’s industrial infrastructure power. However, during the 1990’s the ‘savings surplus’, once the essential fuel for high-speed development became a stern obstruction, leading to a severe collapse in demand and causing a heavy drag on Japan’s economic recovery.
Today in Japan, a reinvention is necessary. There are many struggles with the young generation, the old generation, and catastrophic events which should be addressed. Specifically, the Japanese economy has been experiencing deflation for the past twenty years. In an article, the results of the deflation were described. The authors said, “Because of fewer available jobs and lower
The graph of economic growth look so nice and strong. People were being very optimistic about the economy, making Japan in the emotion of euphoria, which started a trend of investing.
The growth advanced Japan to rank as the 2nd largest economy in the world rivaling the United States. However, this economic growth started slowing in the 1970s and in 1990 real estate and stock prices crashed and “the bubble burst” (Drogus and Orvis 240). Luckily, the government managed to get the economy back up and running in 2003 when Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi reduced regulation, privatized the postal service saving system, and lowered deficit spending.
Since the Second World War, the Japanese economy had experienced remarkable growth, transforming from a developing to an advanced developed economy in a single generation. However, on the edge of a three-decade long “Economic Miracle,” in the late 1980s, Japan faced its regrettable “bubble economy” in which asset prices rapidly soared, money supply and credit underwent sizable increase, and economic activity overheated for a prolonged period (Okina p.396). At the bubble’s peak in 1989, the Japanese stock market obtained a value of around $4 trillion, reaching the benchmark Nikkei 225 stock average of ¥38,915 (four times the level they had been in 1983) (Siebert p.9). This was approximately 44 percent of the world’s equity market capitalization (Stone p.149). At around similar time frame, Japan also saw a spectacular surge in land prices with the land values five times that of the United States (Stone p.149). Hence, during this time, the economy relished an investment and consumption boom to the extent that Japan rapidly became known as the world’s largest creditor country. However, such record growth fell drastically with the burst of the bubble: the stock market plummeted by over 60 percent from its peak in 1989 to 1992 while speculative land prices fell over 50 percent and essential land prices declined by about 15 to 20 percent (Okina p.397). Overall, the bursting of the bubble resulted in a detrimental decline in asset prices, the accumulation of enormous
Since the beginning of the 1990s, Japan has experienced significant declines in household net savings rates. The 90’s was a decade of slow growth, and households devoted a large portion of their incomes to maintaining consumption levels. “Large amounts of liquid savings in postal savings accounts and in banks meant the majority of the population did not feel they had to increase saving in order to rebuild assets.” (Feldstein, 2010)
The deregulation of financial markets catalysed by Globalisation worldwide has impacted on the amount of trade within the Japanese economy beneficially allowing easier access to foreign currencies, facilitating a higher flow of goods between nation, by relaxing laws that severely prevented foreign buying of currency, and floating the yen. These drivers have helped boost Japan's trade and recovery from its recession. Technology has allowed finances to be traded and communication to be near to instantaneous. This has increased dramatically the amount of FDI into Japan largely thanks to the numerous strategies the Japanese government has taken to promote economic growth and hence development. Finance and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) have increased as a direct result of globalisation doubling from $63 billion in 2001 to $144 billion in
The growth performance in Japan has been increasing over the past couple of years. The growth in
With the country’s current birth rate, Japan’s population of 127.5 million is expected to decrease by 25% within 35 years. The slowly shrinking country is also met with the problem that its population is also the oldest in the world, with over 25% of residents over the age of 65. These two facts combine to make a very unique and awkward situation in Japan in which no other country has ever been in before. Many changes are expected to occur in Japan, and efforts are being made to maintain the country’s economy, however its unclear if enough efforts are being made. I predict that In the future, Japan’s economy will be affected by its both declining and aging population, and certain government reforms are necessary to fix the population
Japan ranks as the third largest economy in the world as of 2010. The GDP at current prices in US dollars in Japan was reported at 5068.06 billion in 2009, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Japan’s resurgence after World War II has however reached an inflection point in yearly 1989 after the burst of Japan’s asset price and real estate bubbles. As can be seen from the graph below, Japan’s GDP has hovered around the same level through more than 20 years of economic stagnation. The GDP’s slow growth has been exacerbated by the world financial crisis of 2008. A major landmark of Japan’s stagnation has been the BOJ’s fight against deflation.