Japan’s economy gets a major boost from weak currency

18 comments

1. rich are more rich poor are more poor..

2. Weird, everything where I live in Japan is just getting more expensive and my salary isn’t increasing. Doesn’t feel like a great economy.

   I guess it is great if you are rich and can price gouge, oops, I mean raise prices and blame it on “inflation.”

3. At least one side of the economy seems to be doing well

4. The LDP has a history of juking the data.

   [Kishida Confirms Japan Overstated Construction Data Used in GDP](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-12-15/kishida-confirms-japan-overstated-construction-data-used-in-gdp#xj4y7vzkg)

   Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida apologized for the government’s mishandling of economic data after media reports said it overstated construction order figures, a key numbers set used to calculate economic growth, for years.

   “This is extremely regrettable and we need to examine how it occurred to ensure it doesn’t happen again,” Kishida said in parliament Wednesday.

   The transport ministry had been double counting some data in its monthly construction orders survey, public broadcaster NHK reported, citing unidentified people familiar with the matter. The monthly release of orders from some 12,000 contractors is of particular importance for the government given that it feeds directly into the calculation of gross domestic product.

   The overstating of the data goes back as far as eight years, according to the Asahi newspaper. Kishida said in parliament the ministry has corrected last year’s figures. It’s not the first time the government has mishandled data — the health ministry published erroneous wage figures in 2018, leading to a massive reassessment of other economic releases.

   “The accuracy of data is an important issue we need to take seriously,” Kishida said.

   Flawed Wages Report Undermines Credibility of Japanese Data (2)

   Japan said in 2019 it would review the handling of all its economic statistics after incomplete wage data saw it shortchange some 20 million welfare recipients by around $525 million in total.

   While it’s still unclear how much data revision may occur this time from the overstated construction figures, economist Harumi Taguchi at IHS Markit said developments point to strains in Japan’s system to collect statistics.

   “We’ve already had this problem in the past with wages data, but we need to ask why do these things happen, how was it not noticed for so long, and why haven’t past problems led to improvements,” said Taguchi. “Unless the country becomes really serious about this, the system will face institutional fatigue.”

5. The weaker Yen means that every single salary in Japan went down. The whole country is on sale. As far as people outside of Japan are concerned, it’s fantastic. And the Chinese will *continue* buying up Japanese real estate.

   But is Japanese land a good investment? The fundamental problem in Japan is lack of young workers, and the government is very quietly trying to bring in a huge army of cheap foreign workers. But Japan’s work culture sucks, and there’s some pretty serious xenophobia here, too. Sure, it will get better—maybe in 20 years.

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7. My company has been helped by the weak yen. Payments in foreign currency = a boost in profits

8. Uhm.. not for us sad sacks living here.

9. month to month i’m sure that doing vasectomy was the right choice, can’t imagine having children on this scenario

10. Great news! Pay raise coming in, look out!

11. Cleared 100M for my annual bonus for the first time, this year. Don’t know why other, more middle class redditors are celebrating our ‘new economy’, but I’ll take it, I guess. If I were in their shoes, I’d be looking to get out of here.

12. What does “economy” mean anymore?

13. I’ve been here for 2 weeks and I’ve bought so much stuff, it’s actually crazy how cheap it is compared to the UK

14. Japan companies are abusing workers at a terrifying rate, not paying them on time or at all, especially foreign workers. NHK recently published an article on this. Labor is in a bad way in Japan if you aren’t Japanese or in finance, tech, or an MBA. Entry level tech workers are also getting the shaft, the yen is weak and there are less and less edible widgets in your well designed package. Something needs to give soon.

15. Real wage is still falling down.

    My Japanese friends told their salary are up by 2 or 3% but deduction also went up and food price is soaring. So disposable income went down.

    On the other hand, Nikkei is so healthy where much of participants are seniors.

16. Outside investors / vultures believe this is great news and will do whatever they can to make you think so too. Everyone living there doesn’t get a voice because that’s the Japanese way. Anything goes that is anti-foreigner.

    Meanwhile, foreigners questioning wtf they moved to Japan come here and post the realities of their finances and are met by economist sellouts and delusional Japanophiles.

17. 7-11 onigiris costing nearly 200 yen lol

18. Government subsidies on just about everything seem to be shielding folks in Japan from the worst effects of inflation and the weak currency. I’ve been curious how surrounding countries have been doing. Japan’s going to need immigrants to keep the country running but if their immigration laws don’t slacken, working conditions don’t improve and if the yen stays as low as it’s been, I wonder if another country in the area will become a more attractive destination for immigrants to work.