Lists all of the journal entries for the day.

Tue, 17 Jan 2012

10:04 PM - Japan's Ruthless Recovery

The most popular online cheap air jordan shoes,Haruko Sakaida has dressed Japanese beauties for half a century, but these days the 75-year-old kimono maker frets that a critical accessory--her preferred brand of crisp white socks, known as tabi--might soon vanish in the shelves. In June, she says, she was shocked to discover that the Meiji-era stocking manufacturer Fukusuke had filed for bankruptcy protection following 121 many years in business--joining a lengthy checklist of venerable companies to possess failed lately in Japan. It was explained to us that absolutely nothing is going to change and that the company will continue to make superior tabi, she says amid bolts of ornate cloth that fill her Tokyo store. To be honest, although, I am worried.Once famous Japanese brands are foundering like never prior to. Because the starting of 2002, the casualty list has included Secaicho, maker of the Panther running shoes popular throughout the '64 Tokyo Olympics; Tsukuda, a toy wholesaler that turned goods like Dakko-chan dolls and the Rubik's Cube into national sensations; Tohato, a confectionery famed for its caramel corn and raisin tarts, and Toh Toh Shu Honpo, a distillery established in 1690. Whilst such failures evoke a sense of loss among tradition-minded Japanese customers, they are more essential for what they say concerning the hollowness of the nation's widely touted economic recovery.A globe desperate for economic well being is eager to locate signs that Japan is back, however the optimism is premature. Japan might be the fastest-growing large economy within the globe last quarter, as one Morgan Stanley currency analyst wrote final week, but that does not necessarily mean it's on the mend. Accurate, Japan has now enjoyed six straight quarters of development, but the recovery story is primarily based primarily on robust exports and a 30 percent bump at Tokyo's lowly Stock Exchange. It ignores persistent deflation (Japan's consumer price index slumped 0.four percent in June, year on year), falling domestic consumption (supermarket revenue shrank 5 percent in July) and huge overcapacity in virtually every industry.The roll contact of bankrupt businesses is convincing proof with the deep disrepair in Japan's economic climate. Established businesses are failing at an unprecedented rate in Japan, according to new statistics from Teikoku Databank, which found that companies in business for over 30 many years now account for more than a quarter of all bankruptcies, up from just five percent in the late 1980s. Japan remains far more hostile to mergers and acquisitions than the United states or Europe, so there is no cycle of corporate death and rebirth. While Secaicho has folded its doors in Japan, a comparable American sneaker business, 80-year-old Converse, is becoming acquired by Nike for $305 million. The collapse of time-honored companies, argues Kan Tsutagawa, financial news editor for the Yomiuri Shimbun, is of symbolic significance towards the gridlock facing the Japanese financial program as a entire.The death rate for venerable Japanese brands is increasing to get a number of factors: inability to adhere to trends, debt overhangs from the 1980s, competitors from China and other emerging markets and, maybe most important, the fact that most of them served a domestic market ravaged by many years of recession. The bulk with the fallen elders were primarily based outside main cities, and therefore were vulnerable to anemic regional economies: Fukusuke was based in Sakai in western Japan, for example. None was big enough to fall within the infamous class of Japanese zombie companies: debt-laden major producers or national retailers of the sort deemed too large to fail by creditors or the government.None of the bankrupt brand names is really a mere victim of circumstance, although. At Tohato Inc. a second-generation president borrowed heavily to broaden into golf-course improvement prior to his otherwise viable business collapsed in March with unpaid loans totaling 46 billion yen. The issue isn't that the program lets these companies fail: it is the way they fail. Japan lacks the network of buyout specialists, M&A lawyers, deal making bankers, and other vulture capitalists who in most modern economies help businesses devour struggling rivals whilst they're still viable--if only to buy the brand name and poach loyal customers. I don't recall a single instance of a competitor buying a famous brand in Japan, says Shiro Abe of Teikoku Databank. With no buyout industry, struggling companies end up as bankrupt wards of their bankers.The outlook for these golden oldies remains poor. New tax data show that seven in 10 Japanese companies are losing money. Small and medium businesses are particularly hard hit because they cater to Japanese consumers, who have shown no sign of changing their miserly spending habits of late. Looking at the corporate universe, I don't see any marked improvement, especially in the lower-rated categories, says credit-ratings expert Akio Mikuni. His forecast: more nonperforming loans, more bills picked up by the government and increased indebtedness. As far as we are concerned, the picture hasn't brightened at all.Even as Japan tosses out venerable brands, it is still less likely than other nations to let businesses die, or to create new ones. Based on numerous surveys, Japan ranks at the bottom of all industrialized states for the rates of both corporate failure and new business creation. High entry costs, tax rules that penalize venture capital and excessive regulation make launching new companies a riskier affair in Japan than almost anywhere else in the industrialized globe. Masaaki Kanno, chief economist for JP Morgan in Tokyo, calls the low corporate birthrate one of Japan's biggest structural problems. We don't have a lengthy tradition of being independent or taking risk.There's 1 gargantuan exception to this rule: the government. Many economists now warn of creeping financial socialism, whereby Tokyo is taking control of all major banks and their weakest clients. In this view, the government's recent 2 trillion yen bailout of Resona Bank, Japan's fifth largest lender, signaled a willingness to pass risk onto taxpayers. The result: Resona has kept up lending towards the small and medium enterprises that most creditors now shun. Now, another main bailout looms. Final week Japanese media reported that Mitsui Mining, with a negative net worth of some 35 billion yen, would be the first to seek protection from the Industrial Revitalization Corp. of Japan, established in May 2003 to rehabilitate heavily indebted companies. It's as if 'Too Big to Fail' has become our national doctrine, says Kanno.Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has challenged this doctrine, but, up to now, he has been fighting a losing battle to slow its advance. That could change following ruling-party elections later this month, and national elections that will follow. Polls suggest Koizumi will win easily, bolstering his power to reform a program that allows beloved old brand names to die, creates few new ones and shifts economic power into government hands. So even the weak indicators of recovery might have 1 profound effect: they are getting a lot of positive press, which can only raise Koizumi's chances of making real change.I like air jordan 7.

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