i don't know if i maybe missed something, but it does not seem like the inequality argument has been contested by anything in the text. in fact, the author states that in Japan, like elsewhere, despite a struggling economy, the rich are still getting richer. if all the other possible explanations do not work, then Japan is perhaps the best example of what Piketty wrote about.
Japan's Growing Poverty Defies Glib Explanations
81–90 of 159 posts
Re: Japan's Growing Poverty Defies Glib Explanations
#82"The survey compared the incomes of the bottom 10 percent of households with children to the average income of 41 countries who are members of the OECD or the European Union. The income gap in Japan was found to be 60.21 percent, meaning the household income of the nation’s most underprivileged families with children was less than 40 percent of the average." I'm not sure how to read this. Income gap be damned, what i…
¥900,000 is almost exactly what I spent on average over a 5 year period from 2007-2012 living in rural Japan (Shizuoka prefecture). A couple of caveats: I was single at the time. I had subsidized housing (worth about ¥250,000 yen a year). I didn't have a car. That was the money I spent , and I made considerably more than that so was able to save quite a lot. However, I was very comfortable with that level of expendit…
I agree ¥900,000 is not much and it would be very hard to live on that money. They say though it's the income of the poorest. So I'd hope a typical family would do better.
Re: Japan's Growing Poverty Defies Glib Explanations
#83The author says: unemployment is low in Japan and poverty is growing.
A normal person would think automatically that wages are low or/and public spending in automatic stabilizers is low.
It seems a professional economist prefer more exotic explanations.
It's specially puzzling that Japan government prefer to buy financial assets that invest in their own people when, both, rates are very low and they are suffering deflation.
But, of course, that would be redistributive and, even worst, it could work and create a bad precedent.
Re: Japan's Growing Poverty Defies Glib Explanations
#84Earlier quoted context omitted.
I was teaching English at the time. I'm currently in the same area programming on contract. It is quite wonderful. To be honest I'm hoping to expand and hire people, but haven't got everything sorted out yet. It occurred to me that it might be possible to find good people who want to live in rural Japan :-). Probably won't get my act together for another year or so...
Write me an e-mail when you do, please: adrian_neumann@gmx.de.
Sent you an email. If you don't get it, check your spam :-)
Re: Japan's Growing Poverty Defies Glib Explanations
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
I was teaching English at the time. I'm currently in the same area programming on contract. It is quite wonderful. To be honest I'm hoping to expand and hire people, but haven't got everything sorted out yet. It occurred to me that it might be possible to find good people who want to live in rural Japan :-). Probably won't get my act together for another year or so...
Currently living in Tokyo (8 years) .. Interested in hearing from you when you have something more solid worked out!
I'd be interested to chat anyway. Please send me a email to my userid @gmail.com. I'm especially interested in people who are already in Japan because part of my delay is that there is a capital requirement for sponsoring visas. I have work available for the right candidate(s). I'd be happy to provide more details privately.
Re: Japan's Growing Poverty Defies Glib Explanations
#86It's depressing to read all the misguided commentary about Japan in western media. We're talking about one of the world's oldest continuous civilizations, which currently has the longest life expectancy, and one of the lowest crime rates. Japan will endure, as it has for thousands of years. I'm more worried about where America and Europe are headed. Prosperity is one thing. Greed, corruption, and exploitation are ano…
While I want to agree with this sentiment, the problem I see is that Japanese government has largely functioned as a client state of the American empire you're contrasting it with. There was a brief moment of true democratic impulses in the post-occupation period, but this was arguably quashed by the passing of ANPO and the rise to power of the CIA-backed LDP.¹ The peace and stability you prize seems premised on cowing to American interests that undermine it as they see fit(TTP and constitutional revisionism come to mind), or America being all in (and successful) at checking the imperial ambitions of China.
1. http://www.nytimes.com/1994/10/09/world/cia-spent-millions-t...
Re: Japan's Growing Poverty Defies Glib Explanations
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
> which currently has the longest life expectancy, and one of the lowest crime rates lowest reported life expectancy, lowest reported crime rate.
Hilarious. Any evidence? even the slightest? Look, yes, it may be the case that there is widespread corruption in the reporting of those statistics. But really, this is the same culture that produced the joke: no more that 1% failure rate in product, that ships 9900 perfect products and another box with 100 failures. Yes, salarymen may not tell the whole truth, but pervasive corruption seems, well, unlikely
"Hilarious"? Is that a glib response?
In any case, you want me to provide evidence? of what? Why? It's not my job.
My statements are perfectly true. If we take reported stats at face value, the UK has one of the highest rates of sexual assault in the world. In reality, they have the highest reported rate of sexual assault.
The most problematic of the stats you mention is the crime rate - Japan also has a fairly high "suicide" rate:
"The NPA has admitted that in Japan only 10 percent of suspicious deaths result in an autopsy. However, when a death initially appears to be due to suicide, only 5 percent are autopsied. The lack of a comprehensive use of autopsies was only brought to the public’s attention after several cases of “missed murders” came to light. The 45 known cases may just be “the edge of the graveyard” as some cops have put it."
-- http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/02/03/national/media-n...
Re: Japan's Growing Poverty Defies Glib Explanations
#88It's depressing to read all the misguided commentary about Japan in western media. We're talking about one of the world's oldest continuous civilizations, which currently has the longest life expectancy, and one of the lowest crime rates. Japan will endure, as it has for thousands of years. I'm more worried about where America and Europe are headed. Prosperity is one thing. Greed, corruption, and exploitation are ano…
"They've seen first-hand the folly of chasing America and Europe on their imperialist fancies." Interesting view on history.
Although this may be true for a wide swathe of Japanese citizens, the ruling party of Japan has a long history of whitewashing Japan's imperialist past, making this argument tenuous at best. Abe Shinzo's government has been actively dismantling press freedoms to quell anything resembling dissent on this front as well, while his colleagues openly reference the Nazi's rise to power as an exemplar.
http://www.latimes.com/world/asia/la-fg-japan-press-freedom-...
Re: Japan's Growing Poverty Defies Glib Explanations
#89Earlier quoted context omitted.
> which currently has the longest life expectancy, and one of the lowest crime rates lowest reported life expectancy, lowest reported crime rate.
Is there reason to believe they are both significantly misreported in Japan, compared to the US and EU? Genuine question as I've never seen otherwise but would be interested in reading about it. ===== I found this article about under reported crime, but couldn't find anything about the life expectancy being wrong. Japan's Police See No Evil (LA Times) http://articles.latimes.com/2007/nov/09/world/fg-autopsy9
This is certainly reason to doubt it; or at least specify that this is a self reported statistic when singing Japan's praises.
Re: Japan's Growing Poverty Defies Glib Explanations
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not exactly true. You'll see a weird mechanical contraption shaped like a person waving the stick. After living in a number of countries where construction works usually involve two or three people making loud mess for days I'm astonished how things work in Japan: a team of people shows up quietly, does the job efficiently and then disappears. You won't even notice them. There's a big-ish construction (they have heav…
I guess it depends on the prefecture and the type of construction site - the guys I've seen were always humans, no machine can copy that bored face...
There are a lot of safety personnel in larger London construction sites as well. I've seen men basically acting as barriers while their mate does work above a footpath.
Also there are always people directing traffic in and out of a site, washing down every truck that leaves so there is no mud on the road, etc.
I would assume it is more a case of construction in a large city is more difficult logistically as there are stricter standards for noise, mess and pollution.
It was always my assumption that these type of jobs were on a rota. It would be pretty bad to make someone work the "human barrier/traffic light" job 52 weeks a year.