Japan, INC. may be in real trouble...

[A Horse With No Name]

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/081226/as_japan_economy.html

Enjoy. I don't like seeing anyone suffer, but it seems the Japanese might be in for some real trouble.

Chris

[ZL-1]

EVERYBODY should repare for a tough couple of years, and of course Japan is no exception given the degree of integration between national economies. Part of me is worried, and part of me is

[HarleyEarl]

They seemed untouchable. Of course when the recovery happens, they will start to rebound. I makes me wonder if the Americans and Canadians will rethink their vehicle purchases when that time comes. Maybe not so blindly supportive of offshore car companies. I hope so anyways.

[A Horse With No Name]

I actually like Japan and have been there twice, once for two weeks and once for a month.

They seem to have a low quality of life...they work VERY hard and VERY long hours, have commutes that would be well in excess of someone in Atlanta or L.A., etc.

It would be nice to see them be less workaholic and more human. They would enjoy life more, I think.

Chris

[Robert Hall]

I've been IMing with a friend of mine who is in Tokyo for the holidays...his wife's brother lives there and works for the US government. Says it's hideously expensive and very crowded and busy all the time in the city.

[Drew Dowdell]

They seemed untouchable. Of course when the recovery happens, they will start to rebound. I makes me wonder if the Americans and Canadians will rethink their vehicle purchases when that time comes. Maybe not so blindly supportive of offshore car companies. I hope so anyways.

Japan was in a slump for about 10 years. They only recently recovered and now they're back to this.

We're actually duplicating what their economy did 15 years ago. I'm kinda drunk right now or I'd 'splain better

[Z-06]

Japanese economy was experiencing deflation back in late 90's and early 2000's. As much as we clamor about outsourcing, most of Japanese products were already outsourced to Malaysia, Taiwan, Singapore and Indonesia. The strong demand for the electronics and automobiles kept Japan from hitting the curb. As a matter of fact I still remember an excellent post from WSJ back in 2001 when it said how US kept Japan going.

There was an article in Autoblog last week, which mentioned that Honda blatantly asked the Japanese government to rig the Yen which the government was not doing for a while. Honda clearly stated that the high Yen was hurting its bottom line. The strong demand from US afforded Japan to keep the Yen low, but now with US in recession, Japan will definitely be hit hard.

[Intrepidation]

[siegen]

They seemed untouchable. Of course when the recovery happens, they will start to rebound. I makes me wonder if the Americans and Canadians will rethink their vehicle purchases when that time comes. Maybe not so blindly supportive of offshore car companies. I hope so anyways.

I guess they would seem untouchable for the people who thought our automakers were super-efficient business models by comparison.

[FUTURE_OF_GM]

Burn m*********er, burn...

[MyerShift]

Well, I'm certainly glad they aren't invincible.

I'm not a fan of Japanese automobiles, but I do respect some of the companies such as Honda, Mitsubishi, and Subaru much more than I do the others such as Toyota.