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Japan's collision course

MARCUS GEE

From Saturday's Globe and Mail

Latest comment posted at 6:54 AM EDT 12/05/08

After its near-death experience in the 1990s, the land of the rising sun is slowly on the rebound. ...Read the full article

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  1. Winston Smith from Canada writes: Japan should benefit a lot more from its geographic proximity to China's booming economy. However, thanks to its refusal to recognize and apologize for their nation's war atrocities in China they will never fully reap the benefits of trade with China.
  2. Dick Garneau from Canada writes: We Canadians need to watch closely the other G-8 nations and emerging nations to learn to sail our ship on a steady course. If not we might follow a similar up and down path. Don't mortgage our future!
  3. Syed Abbas from Toronto, Canada writes:

    Geriatric Japan will not die with a bang, but with a whimper.

    No babies, no future.
  4. Alastair james Berry from NANAIMO BC, Canada writes:
    I think the world does not understand what JAPAN is doing.

    Japan is controlling it's population to avoid the catastrophy ahead when the rest of the world finally wakes up to the fact that the WORLD IS VASTLY OVERPOPULATED......And if the human race is to survive at a sustainable level, depopulation of the ENTIRE WORLD by a factor of perhaps 90% is required!

    Japan is already dropping it's total population and the rate of the decline is steepening. To control the situation JAPAN MUST ALLOW NO IMMIGRANTS TO SETTLE PERMANENTLY.

    Japanese welcome foreign tourists who come to marvel at the standard of living a few islands with few natural resources can support........but suggest you'd like to settle and the attitude changes.

    The Japanese are doing very well for themselves but are at the mercy of coal and oil exporters and the Geopolitical games that affect them!
  5. robert quinn from Japan writes: I AGREE with Alistair James BERRY. Mongrel nations like Canada, with an imported culture no one respects and a subsidized culture no one likes, have been swamped beyond repair. Japan ain't never gonna take that route. Call it selfless national suicide or a deep-seated loathing for uncouth barbarians, mass immigration is a non-starter here...thank God.
  6. Tristan Lee from Toronto, writes: I don't think Japan should be following the reforms recommended. What makes Japan special is its culture, and mass immigration would destroy the Japanese culture by diluting it. I would be wary of accepting economic reforms suggested by Western economies (e.g. US and UK) that are heading into a financial disaster (subprime, deficits) greater than the one Japan faced twenty years ago. I think the main problem for resource-poor Japan is securing energy supplies to fuel its economy.
  7. Brian Bailey from North Vancouver, Canada writes: Funny but when I went to Japan in 1991 my salary immediately doubled from what I was being paid in Toronto at the time. My tax rate was 10%! By the time I left Japan in 1997 my salary was $150K as a teacher! As soon as I went back to Canada it dropped to $50K and I was taxed at 40%! I know many people who stayed in Japan and are making far more money than they would in Canada and being taxed at a lower rate. Japan's demise is greatly exaggerated by those who don't really understand it.
  8. REV eighteenseventeen from Canada writes: Alastair james Berry from NANAIMO- You sound like a blooming Nazi out to kill the world's people. Sounds like racism Alastair. Something like the venom Henry Kissinger spews. Bitterness from the pit of Hell.

    The WORLD IS VASTLY UNDERPOPULATED! The issues that exist that cause it to appear overpopulated are GREED, FEAR, LOVE OF MONEY, RACISM, HATE, AND A WHOLE PACK OF LIES. Look at history , Mao, Stalin , Hitler and others that wanted to destroy masses of a certain people group under the guise of ethnic cleansing or other lie. It all started with a massive propaganda campaign as we are seeing today. LIES, LIES, LIES!

    Do you not have children you love or love you? You sound like a bitter old man.
  9. Rob V. from Canada writes: I doubt Japan will be able to change. It is a conservative country at hart with a xenofobic tendency. I think in 50 years we will look back at this country with amazement how a rich country can go back to becoming a second world nation. Probably it will be at similar GDP per person levels as China.
  10. Globe Insider subscriber content
    John R Harris from Onjuku, Japan writes: Brian Bailey posted the one insightful comment here. You can enjoy a better standard of living here than you can in Canada. Last week the Globe reported that middle class incomes in Canada haven't risen in 20 years. It was amusing to see how Gee swallowed Ken Courtis's every utterance as gospel. The former University of Sherbrooke economist has been consistently wrong in almost every prediction he's made since the '90s. Counting Japan out is a mistake made over and over again. You could easily and perhaps more persuasivelly put together the same kind of hatchet-job on Canada... the branch-plant economy sliding back to being nothing but a hewer of wood. Unfortunately, The Globe has never had good Japan coverage.
  11. J Kooman from Canada writes:

    Japanese paid for the luxury of their living standard with a one-party government since the WWII. Their democracy is: They get to vote but have no choice in the government.

    That is the same model followed by China - a strong government providing consistent long term guidance and support to economic development - not like in Canada, we bought and then not bought helicopters for our navy.

    On the other hand, unless Japan re-courses to its pre-WWII mode of territory expansion, downsizing of its population is natural and is necessary for further improvment in living standard and space allotment - same token as normal course buy-back of shares.

    ...
  12. Doktor Faustus from Germany writes: REV eighteenseventeen from Canada writes:The WORLD IS VASTLY UNDERPOPULATED
    Have you been eating mad cows, REV, or have you always been stupid? Check out Thomas Malthus' work, REV, before you disappear into a pile of the world's guano.
  13. Humble Opinion from Toronto, Canada writes: This article is not talking about the standard of living today, which is very high in Japan. Many of you are arguing an issue that is not being discussed. Japan is getting old......people are dying and if you believe a country of 70 year old workers in quick service restaurants will sustain a G8 nation, you clearly don't understand economics.

    Add on the huge deficit and you have a recipe for a steep decline in productivity and competitiveness. For those of you who rave about the high salaries in Japan, why are there no cost of living references? If you think that a closed society that dies is better than an open one that thrives, you are likely an old, miserable individual whose life mirrors that of Japan itself....in decline, unable to adapt and no longer a positive contributor to society. No wonder you hold Japan's stance in such high regard.
  14. saucer mcsaucerton from Canada writes: Did those deriding immigration or change even read the article?

    Economic concerns trump cultural concerns. Food > origami.
  15. Globe Insider subscriber content
    Jimmy K from Toronto, Canada writes: It's all about demographics.
    They may have a great standard of living, but it can't last with such a rapidly aging population.

    Canada is heading in the same direction, but Japan is about 20 years ahead. We should get the government to start handing out a baby bonus. Like 50k per kid. Cost about 5 billion a year, not cheap, but that's less money than we spent on one percent of the GST cut.
  16. Will Hoaccio from Toronto, Canada writes: I don't think Gee was "counting out the Japanese", just acknowledging that some kind of reform is necessary, two very different things. As for the "necessity" of those changes, I don't fully see how anybody could disagree. A poster above noted "food > origami" and he couldn't be more right. The amount of effort being pilled on lemon technologies in Japan just to avoid even modest levels of immigration is ridiculous.

    Rice cookers designed to monitor the elderly via the internet, synthetic muscle suits to allow nurses to carry patients, toilets designed to automatically clean the infirm, robots not only to care for the elderly, but to entertain them and so forth. Worst of all, almost all of these technologies are proprietary and have no hope of being marketed globally (think mini disc all over again). It's mind boggling!

    Even the Japanese gaming industry, long thought of as the king, is playing an increasingly secondary role. PS3, for all it's technical quality, is a business failure that has lost nearly all of it's exclusive titles. Major firms like Capcom, Namco & Bandai produce increasingly mediocre titles, more and more for the 360. Japanese TVs and electronics are also going downhill. Taiwanese & Korean brands produce better value for money. Even Blu-ray could become a failure as internet services become more well known.

    As for a comparison to Canada, I don't know how good that is. Canada will have the "aging" problem, but nowhere near the same scale. Our debt, public & private, is small by comparison to other G8s. Quality of life is likely going to decline all over the "first world". The issue with Japan (and some Euro countries) is that it could collapse. Ambitious people from these countries (Canada incl.) will relocate to massive global centers (London, Shanghai, NYC, Dubai, ect..) rather than be stuck in retirement home countries, regardless of how much "culture" they have.
  17. John McMortimer-Boyles from Undisclosed Underground Location Safe From Nuclear Attack, Canada writes: Humble Opinion from Toronto, Canada writes: "Many of you are arguing an issue that is not being discussed. Japan is getting old......people are dying and if you believe a country of 70 year old workers in quick service restaurants will sustain a G8 nation, you clearly don't understand economics."

    And it's not even just Japan. While it's been a couple of years since I checked the numbers, all the major G8 nations have a birth rate that is below replacement rate. Japan may just be a few years ahead of the rest of us. And that means an aging workforce supporting a larger number of retirees.
  18. B F from Toronto, Canada writes: Will Hoaccio has put it perfectly. The key to Japan's future demise is demographics. The human race has yet to come up with a level of technological growth which is able to outpace a declining population, so therefore an economic decline is unavoidable so long as Japan's population is shrinking. As well, all Western nations will face this issue as well, but Jimmy K is correct -- we are at least 20 years behind Japan in this regard, if we are even to reach Japan's level (remember, we actually allow immigrants into this country).

    As for Brian Bailey & John R Harris, you're beating down a strawman here. Yes, it is possible to enjoy a better standard of living in Japan than in Canada, but I can also enjoy a better standard of living in Canada than in Japan. What's your point? There are rich and poor people in all countries.

    Also, for the record, the Canadian HDI ranking (which is the UN's measurement for standard of living in all UN member countries) is higher than that of Japan (ours places fourth in the world as opposed to Japan's eighth) and we have also topped the world in HDI more than Japan (ten times as opposed to Japan's two). And finally, to Brian, you clearly haven't been watching Japan ever since you left in the late 1990s, otherwise you would have known how many Western teachers like yourself would've been thrown out on the streets thanks to the NOVA school failure of the past year (and you should've know that John R Harris -- you live in Japan!).
  19. Dan Green from Palm Beach Gardens Florida, United States writes: Could just be, the Japanese society, is evolving into what they want it to be, not what the Globalization crowd want it to be. The Japanese want a homogenous society, no immigration, that has to tell you something. They once were the big emerging cheap labor society. I can remeber when they starting making cheap toys, etc. They could end up being a Switzerland. The Chinese will have infrastrucutre problems they cannot even comprehend, at this juncture.
  20. Jo Ingblat from Canada writes: John R Harris from Onjuku, Japan writes: "You can enjoy a better standard of living here than you can in Canada. " --- You might be right if you're talking about income as the bottom line, but NO ONE in Canada would ever put up with the way Japanese live--especially in terms of work! Never mind the differences in education, governence, familial relations etc. Things are different, and I'm not sure I'd say that higher incomes really make up for all the other things.
  21. Kat Wilson from Canada writes: Both China and Japan continue to suffer from insular xenophobia and racism. Although western culture has influenced both societies, neither country warms to outsiders.
  22. Alastair james Berry from Nanaimo BC CANADA, Canada writes: So this is the solution according to the long and condescenting article.......................... "The country has to make up for the coming labour shortage by BRINGING IN MORE IMMIGRANTS and encouraging more women to enter the work force" What sort of NONSENSE is this? ............. Sure there may be a shortage of workers at present but in a few years a balance will be struck when the POPULATION reaches a level that is sustainable within their own means! " You cut your coat according to your cloth!!" and this is precisely what Japanese society is doing AND IS WHAT THE REST OF THE WORLD WILL SOON BE FORCED TO DO, TOO!! The rest of the G 8 are no example of a happy contented family any way! The inflationary spiral that the collapse of the YANKEE DOLLAR's purchasing power, has initiated, has completely UPSET the world's commerce and it seems to me the WORLD IS HEADED DOWN into a deep DEPRESSION until a true value for circulatiing currency is FIXED against GOLD! By that time, I reckon about 6 years hence, we may look at Japan and envy their quiet but stable rather introverted self sufficient system.
  23. Will Hoaccio from Toronto, Canada writes: Alastair james Berry from Nanaimo BC CANADA, Canada writes: "So this is the solution according to the long and condescenting article.......................... "The country has to make up for the coming labour shortage by BRINGING IN MORE IMMIGRANTS and encouraging more women to enter the work force" What sort of NONSENSE is this?"

    What?! The solution to a declining supply of labor combined with increased demand for labor is to enlarge the supply of labor?! WHERE IS YOU'RE GOD NOW!?!?! I would have suggested robotic rice cookers. The REAL solution for a country which is fast turning into a hospital. Robotic bloody rice cookers. Don't forget robot dogs. Robot dogs are key to a labor crisis.

    " You cut your coat according to your cloth!!"

    Or you could, you know, get more cloth so you don't have to run around naked.

    "By that time, I reckon about 6 years hence, we may look at Japan and envy their quiet but stable rather introverted self sufficient system."

    Of course, a world facing a recession should look to the country which has been in a decade long recession for inspiration. Brilliant!

    Dan Green from Palm Beach Gardens Florida, United States writes: "Could just be, the Japanese society, is evolving into what they want it to be, not what the Globalization crowd want it to be."

    Globalization isn't some conspiracy. A group of executives don't sit around brooding about how to get Japanese women out of kimonos and into Nikes. Japanese women, by and large, want to wear Nikes.
  24. David C from Japan writes: Mr Bailey claims to have earned a salary of $150,000/year for teaching in Japan in 1997. That translates to about 13 million yen per year at 1997 exchange rates. I don't know where Mr Bailey was teaching but I would certainly like a position there. I presently earn slightly over a third of Mr Bailey's purported salary teaching 25 hours per week (contact time) at the university level (which is pretty much at the top of the ladder in terms of pay in education). Tax rates are lower here, about 15%, until you factor in health care at 10% (all residents are required by law to participate in the national health plan), and pension plan at 5% (again, all residents are required by law to participate in the national pension plan). That all adds up to 40%. In short, the situation in Japan is not as rosy as Mr Bailey portrays it to be.
  25. REV eighteenseventeen from Canada writes: Doktor Faustus from Germany- Consider where you are from. Your world view is molded by your suroundings.

    Alastair james Berry from Nanaimo-Some good points in your last post. A well orchestrated downturn in the economy. It sounds like Harmac is shutting down. Do you know if that is permanant?
  26. Karl Junkin from Tokyo-Toronto, Canada writes: This is kinda the reason I'm getting out of here and heading back to Toronto. You can't make money in Tokyo. I've been here for over 4 years, it'll be 4 and a half to the day when I leave. Life here is very different. This culture is not going to open up to immigration within 40 years, unless all immigrants speak fluent Japanese on arrival. After 25 years, there may be some dialogue as the current conservatives pass on the torch to the next generation which is less traditionalist and more open to new directions and viable solutions regardless of their origin. How can a country re-invent itself when it is in a state that fears change? The close ties this country has to the U.S. does not help its economic outlook either. It's possible the two may go down together.
  27. Globe Insider subscriber content
    John R Harris from Isumi, Japan writes: It's always amusing to read comments about Japan from people who've never been here. Where to start? Doktor Faustus, the cost of living has plummeted massively over the past 10 years -- due to massive change in the distribution system. When I came here in the '80s the normal final wholesale transaction for cans of Campbell's soup was 6 cans on consignment to a tiny shop after 12 layers of wholesalers. Today, I see the remaining small shopholders next to me at Costco in Makuhari. Come and see, Japan is now cheaper than Europe! The other thing no one has discussed is Japanese engineering. Who do you think keeps all the assembly lines running in Wuhan and Guangzhou, China? Fat, loudmouthed white guys from Calgary? No, Japanese engineers do that... and fly home for the weekend. The Japanese can still whip anyone's oshiri in mfg. engineering. Canada, meanwhile, can't even bag the Stanley Cup. Oh, and as for all the comments about English teachers? Nova is a way to pay off your student loan. If you are still working for an English-teaching sweatshop after four years -- be thankful for any way you can escape. There are a lot of Cdns. successfully doing many different things in Japan. Even Ken Courtis still manages to convince the odd person that he knows which way is up. Bottom line is that M. Gee did not contribute to a greater Cdn understanding of Japan. And most of the comments prove how far there is to go.
  28. Karl Junkin from Canada writes: Nova WAS a way to pay off your student loan, the company collapsed, it was like a bubble in its own right. G.-Com or something bought what was left of it after the fall.
  29. B F from Canada writes: John R Harris: I think the teachers would have preferred to keep working for Nova if it meant they got paid. Something tells me they wouldn't have been so desperate as to forfeit 6 months pay (Nova teachers still haven't received back pay) in order to get an excuse to leave (the company being bankrupt).

    And I also still don't understand your point -- of course you can still find success in Japan. It is still the world's second-largest economy. What all the rest of us are talking about (including this article) is 20 years down the road.
  30. Jib Halyard from Tokyo, Canada writes: Sure you can still make a lot of money in Japan if you're in the right industry, as i am, but is it worth while? Not even close. There is no level of income -- none -- at which a person in Japan can replicate a middle-class Canadian standard of living. And that's without even considering the overcrowding.
    Japan's "education" system elevates the vice of mindless conformity to the level of a virtue, to a degree seen in no other country. Its "free market" is riddled with cartels and statism, its "justice" system functions quite efficiently at keeping gangsters out and innocent bystanders in prison. Its "news media" is nothing more than a one-way conduit for official statements.
    With one of the world's highest suicide rates, Japan is nothing short of a mental health disaster.
    The only surprise is that the economy of this dysfunctional society has managed to hold on as long as it has.
    Let Japan slide into irrelevancy, if that's what it wants. The world will go on.
    As for myself, I can't wait to get home to the freedoms and healthy environment of my dear old "mongrel" Canada.
  31. Cycling Commuter from Canada writes: Automation is better than immigration. In the 1960s, Japan was first to use welding robots etc. to do repetitive, unpleasant, unhealthy jobs such as welding and painting of car bodies. Now they're doing the same with health care - developing self-cleaning toilets, automatic floorsweepers and lawnmowers etc. instead of importing and exploiting immigrants to do such work. A friend recently visited Japan with his Japanese wife. He was amazed at how active, healthy and productive Japanese people are - even in their 80s. Instead of abruptly quitting work entirely at 65 and sitting in front of a TV set watching sports, it is both physically and emotionally healthier to gradually cut back hours worked per week and focus on jobs that are enjoyable. Japan has a very low crime rate. That will end if they bring in immigrants to do the toilet-scrubbing jobs instead of letting machines do those jobs. You can't blame immigrants for being angry about being permanently stuck with low-status work as a result of local unions and professional associations not recognizing their foreign credentials as happens so often in Canada, France and other western countries. The whole world is overpopulated. It's better to gently reduce the population the Japanese way until new clean, efficient energy resources are fully adopted instead of facing global starvation and nuclear wars fought over inadequate resources to support a skyrocketing population.
  32. L Harder from Canada writes: What I noticed when I was living there was a huge amount of redundancy in the labour market. I figure they can get by with half the number of workers if they started to work efficiently. They may work overtime, but a large number of hours are wasted and managers seem determined to waste their employees time.

    A Japanese co-worker of mine (who was very industrious and innovative) summed up the problem as 10 percent of the population doing 90 % of the work. He and I had very high productivity and still went home at 5 o'clock. Other teams would be unfocused for much of the day, ended up staying late, and didn't produce as much as our team.

    So, the labour shortage isn't as bad as it looks. There is still lots of slack in the system.

    Those suggesting that Japan increase its population are nuts. Their food security is tenuous at best. The Japanese are going down a different road that may be more sustainable in the long term. Stable population with a 0 growth economy.
  33. Cosmo Spacely from Canada writes: Japan's labor shortage will be solved by a couple of million Chinese soldiers...
  34. T G from Canada writes: It seems that most of the posters here have focused on the demographic issue in the author's thesis. However, the bigger crisis is the debt bomb. The demographic crisis only exacerbates the debt issue because falling productivity and higher government costs will complicate efforts to bring it under control.

    According to the IMF, the gross government debt now stands at 195%. These places the Japanese in impressive company for world number 1 status with Zimbabwe and Lebanon. There are inevitable tax increases, government services reductions, and falling standards of living ahead for the Japanese (and possibly default?). No amount immigration reform or technological innovation will avert the amount of economic pain ahead.
  35. Cycling Commuter from Canada writes: T G writes:

    "gross government debt now stands at 195%."

    The effect of this depends on whether things this debt bought are earning their keep and will be economically useful for a long time or whether they produce no long-term economic benefit.

    For example, if Canada ran up debt to teach seasonal fishing industry workers how to heavily insulate taxpayers' homes during the off-season instead of paying them pogey to sit around unemployed doing nothing during that time, the long-term financial payback of lower EI premiums, massively reduced heating bills for taxpayers and extra energy freed-up for export could more than cover the interest and principal of the extra debt.

    But if a huge debt was incurred in order to give drug addicts more money to buy more imported drugs (as the NDP loves to do), there would be no long-term economic benefit for taxpayers, only increased violent crime in the streets.
  36. Carlos Mahabir from Hamilton, Canada writes: Yes- Japan has a fiscal crisis but this must be viewed in context: 1.High domestic savings rate - Japanese are not addicted to credit cards. Recent financial reforms include privatization of post office which has Us $3 trillion is cash 2.The country is still a net international creditor -The USA alone owes Japanese institutions $750 billion US With respect to China- there has been a growing thaw in relations with Chinese Communist leader calling for even deeper economic ties. Japan is largest single direct investor in China with a large portion Of China's trade surplus coming from Japanese transplants. Japan has responded to China's economic emergence by developing products that are highly specialized. FOr Japanese companies- China is a bit passe with India being the next frontier As for the USA- US consumers are still addicted to Japanese goods.Japanese companies are making forays into aviation/aerospace with US companies. The two countries have a deepening military alliance -Japanese scientists are at the forefront in missle defence and Japanese companies remain the largest suppliers of hi-tech to US military. Japanese companies have developed internet downloads twice the speed of anything available in USA and as for robotics....... Japan is also setting international trends in terms of fashion,culinary area, pop music,anime Japan has an aging population but does not want immigration. It has avoided alot of social problems as we have in North AMerica by disallowing immigrants - crime. Canada is a violent society by Japanese standards and we have lost being a civil society. How Japan deals with this problem of aging may become a model for other Asian countries. Ah yes Canadian problems------branch plant, QUebec nationalism,the migration of our Canadian born, underemployment, companies that are unknowns south of the border- ethnic ghettoes in our cities which have now become a haven of crime
  37. SN Dream from Canada writes: There's a lot of inefficiencies in the Japanese work culture, too much formalities and over emphasis in seniority is wasting enormous amount of time. Especially in middle management, you can find bloomer that basically did really little all day long, but even after work. In the name of building team spirit, every one is expected to go to pub for drinks. So party don't go home till near midnight.
  38. The Seeker from Toronto, Canada writes: Syed Abbas from Toronto, Canada writes:

    Geriatric Japan will not die with a bang, but with a whimper.

    No babies, no future.

    What's the point of having babies if you can't afford to feed and clothe them?
  39. SN Dream from Canada writes: Carlos Mahabir from Hamilton, Canada writes: Yes- Japan has a fiscal crisis but this must be viewed in context: 1.High domestic savings rate - Japanese are not addicted to credit cards. Recent financial reforms include privatization of post office which has Us $3 trillion is cash 2.The country is still a net international creditor

    Ah yes Canadian problems------branch plant, QUebec nationalism,the migration of our Canadian born, underemployment, companies that are unknowns south of the border- ethnic ghettoes in our cities which have now become a haven of crime
    ---------------------------------------------------------
    Yes, Japanese did save a lot more than we do. But the return for their saving are tend to be really low since the 90's. To pop up the economy, Japanese had a negative interest rate for more than a decades. And for the 3 Trillion in the post office system, the funny thing is that those money have been tapped by elected official to fund pork barrel project that generate little to no return. And 3 trillion dollar is a lot of money, but take this into consideration, Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan have over 108 billion dollar, it only have 100K retiree and 160K active remembers. That 3 trillion will run out real soon if people start using it for retirement.

    Also, aside from a few bad apple countries, most of the LEGAL immigrant are more educated and less likely to commit crime than native born Canadian. As a matter of facts, if you look at the statistics, most of the crime problem are home grown.
  40. SN Dream from Canada writes: The Seeker from Toronto, Canada writes: Syed Abbas from Toronto, Canada writes:

    Geriatric Japan will not die with a bang, but with a whimper.

    No babies, no future.

    What's the point of having babies if you can't afford to feed and clothe them?
    ----------------------------------
    Then you keep on blaming others for you incompetent of not able to take care of your babies until some activist demand the government to give the taxpayer money to them so that they can gloat how generous and great they are.
  41. MKK Flatron from Canada writes: robert quinn from Japan writes: I AGREE with Alistair James BERRY. Mongrel nations like Canada, with an imported culture no one respects and a subsidized culture no one likes, have been swamped beyond repair. Japan ain't never gonna take that route. Call it selfless national suicide or a deep-seated loathing for uncouth barbarians, mass immigration is a non-starter here...thank God.

    So, is that what the Japanese call Canada, a 'mongrel nation'? You've been doing a bit of sucking-up to the Japanese at the expense of where you come from, haven't you? And what, 'uncouth barbarians'? The last time I checked, immigrants accepted by Immigration Canada were mostly courteous folk with considerable financial resources and a great deal of education.

    And what I really wanted to talk about. Brian Bailey, how can you earn 50k and be taxed 40%? Even in Canada that'd count as injustice. And 10% tax rate in Japan with an income of 150k? If I understand anything about Japan, their income tax rates are low but not THAT low, and they have some other taxes to pay.
  42. Will Hoaccio from Toronto, Canada writes: All of the work Japan is putting into fixing it's screwed up demographics would be hellishly funny, if it wasn't so tragic. I wouldn't even say the debt or aging issues are THAT big of a deal in that they are very solvable. The issue is this totally misplaced cultural pride Japan seems to have. I don't mean pride in culture, as in admiring Noh theatre, but stalwartly believing in the superiority of Japanese products for no particular reason.

    I have no idea why, but Japan is the king of proprietary software and electronics. There is a fetishism for it. Sony has turned from a electronics king pin to a basket case because of it. The only division that was turning a profit was SCE, and thanks to PS3 even that is loosing now. Rather than using industry standard Flash MP3 players, Sony opted for lemon MiniDisc and A-Trac3 mediums, essentially boxing itself out of the digital media player industry.

    Same for this "retirement" technology. Rather than build on robotic technologies from the USA & Europe, Japan started from scratch. It's impressive where they have gotten, but at what cost? Honda has poured billions into expensive paperweights like Asimo & Qrio just to avoid having kids.

    Ohh! The best example of useless Japanese technologies that have no hope of being marketed outside of that pygmy land? The Rolly! Seeing the rising popularity of IPods in N.America, Sony decided to make a competitor. What did it make? A 400$ 6gb dancing Egg! It's incredibly advanced, but it's as if they never realized consumers don't want their Mp3 players to dance.

    Or the amount of money spent on "love doll" technologies. They have, basically, made synthetic prostitutes. I can't figure it out. Rather than just import prostitutes from Thailand, they build silicon bloody robots! What is this country thinking? They have virtualized almost every aspect of sex.

    I could go on with lists of stupid technologies that originate there.
  43. Will Hoaccio from Toronto, Canada writes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTxdKi77G20

    I mean, what the hell is it? Who wants a ONE gb Mp3 player? Who in their right mind wants their Mp3 player to dance? What idiot RD director would have cleared funding for it?

    The Sony Rolly is symbolic of Japan. Reinventing the wheel. No sense of what is happening in the rest of the world (you know, where everyone else lives).
  44. T G from Canada writes: Just a comment on immigration reform. There is an article on this page in the Technology section entitled "Wii turns Yamauchi into Japan's richest man" that refers to list of Japan's 40 wealthiest according to Forbes magazine. It is interesting to see the extraordinarily high proportion of ethnic Koreans on this list. Sure, in many of these cases, to say that they descend from immigrant stock is a bit of a stretch (sadly ironic that many descend from those who "immigrated" when Japan faced another kind of labour shortage) but can there be a better argument for immigration than noting that a disproportionate number of your successful entrepreneurs come from elsewhere?

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