Ten years ago I started my little Journey into the Bloggosphere. To be honest, the experience of running the blog in the current form has been rather sobering. The main reason? Limited interest in general and little engagement of the audience in form of comments, links on social media, etc. Actually, the blog vindicated my deep- rooted antipathy towards social media! Be it as it may! I still ..read more

 ArticlesWill TSE reform stop overseas investors from fleeing Japan? - Nikkei AsiaWhy Is Japan So Cheap? by Takatoshi Ito - Project Syndicate (project-syndicate.org)What Ukraine Means for Japan – The DiplomatFlurry of asset sales in Japan as firms hit by Covid-19 shore up books | The Straits TimesCan Japan Become a Multicultural Country? – The DiplomatAnalysisThe Japanese Economy Has Reinvented ..read more

ArticlesBOJ's stealth taper: Bond holdings shrink for 1st time under Kuroda - Nikkei AsiaOpinion | What Japan Got Right About How Covid-19 Spreads - The New York Times (nytimes.com)Crunchtime: Japan 'miracle' snack in first price hike since 1979 - Nikkei AsiaJapanese snack maker apologizes for commotion caused by 2-yen price increase - Japan TodayAmericans are now working more hours than any ..read more

Articlesnikkei business 210423 (hermannsimon.com)Interest in anime and K-pop drive boom in Korean and Japanese degrees | Modern languages and linguistics | The GuardianJapan’s Coming Wave of Reform (harvard.edu)Yen's lost decades: Japanese buying power sinks to near 50-year low - Nikkei AsiaHas Sony become the entertainment group it always wanted to be? | Financial Times (ft.com)Sony's lack of ..read more

Something ridiculous is going on in the Yen exchange rate versus its major pairs. Although the nominal exchange rate barely changed over the last 27 Years, the real yen/ dollar and real trade weighted yen has depreciated to levels not seen since before the Plaza Accord of 1985. Depreciation against the US Dollar came mainly due to inflation differentials. Given the systematic underreporting of ..read more

Why Even a 40% Tax Break Won’t Move Japan’s Employers to Raise Pay - The New York Times (nytimes.com) Rail privatisation: the UK looks for secrets of Japan’s success   | Financial Times (ft.com) Japan Keeps The Defunct Kyu-Shirataki Train Station Open for Just One High-School Girl - Bloomberg Toray and Shin-Etsu take microLED production to the next level - Nikkei Asia The Rise Of Nintendo ..read more

Chancellor: Japan tortoise will outpace U.S. hare | Reuters Nintendo Comes to a Fork in the Road | Intrinsic Investing | A publication of Ensemble Capital Management, LLC The hidden power of Komeito on Japanese politics | East Asia Forum Omicron shelves Japan’s reopening, but in post-Chinese tourism era, businesses are back in blossom | South China Morning Post (scmp.com) Pacifist Japan is ..read more

Many misconceptions and faulty narratives about Japan’s economic trajectory after the burst of its bubble economy exist. The one most confusing is Japan’s Deflation. Pundits twisting the deflation story as if Japan suffered a deflationary death spiral, are obviously getting it all wrong. But also the fraction claiming that Japan’s deflation, although prolonged, was very mild err. Busting this ..read more

 Imagine a pinball machine having a romantic tête-à-tête with a slot machine. The result? Pachinko: An unbearable noisy little bastard that resembles a vertical pinball machine and never stops blinking. Entering a pachinko parlor, the first thing players do is exchanging their hard-earned stash for a tray of small steel balls costing ¥4 each. For western observers Pachinko is difficult to grasp ..read more

 Podcasts54: Ken Shibusawa, President, Shibusawa And Company, Inc. Japan's Top Business Interviews Podcast By Dale Carnegie Training Tokyo Japan podcast (player.fm)Utak Kojima & Aya Weissman: Special Situation Investing In Japan by Value Hive Podcast (anchor.fm)ArticlesHow Japan’s stakeholder capitalism is changing | The EconomistCultured Milk, Corporate Culture and Investor Activism in Japan ..read more