>>>...things won't happen fast--the changes will happen anyway driven by the markets
....now that dereg of financial has happened all of those japanese economists/bankers/stock analysts
are bombarded by goldman, merril, fidelity, etc.
....the era of top down government is over--the free markets will force the change even if the old farts
at the MOF don't like it.<<<
Curtis, you are quite right about change happening without the old farts. As far as I see it from here, already change is happening very fast at the corporate and private level. A shift in mentality is taking place and the politicians are only trying to keep up. I am not sure the LDP will manage to stay with the times, dinosaures disappeared almost overnight apparently and that could happen to them too. In a best case scenario for the LDP, it answers the call for thorough change and stays in power. Worst case is they try to maintain the status quo while putting a fresh coat of paint and get voted out the next time around. Either way , sooner or later things will turn around, and the market seems to have a hard time pushing lower while it is not exactly beating records on the way up either, I feel most of the bad news is discounted already. More bad news might just get shrugged from now on, as a what else is new attitude sets in. The people I work with are pissed off at the ldp and most are not afraid to say it quite bluntly. As a political analyst was saying a couple of weeks ago, people understand change will be painful but they know it is inevitable. Right now they are just getting the pain part without the change part.
While I read quite a few mainstream english language business magazines, I find that they often missed the mark as to the extent that subtle changes are happening relentlessly at the societal level here. They have focused overwhelmingly on the govvernment, which is in any country is usually the last one to change. While it is true that only the government can fix the bad loan mess, companies are changing the way they operate or are just plain disappearing... gone, entirely. Sanyo Brokerage just announced it was closing down in a month after failing to find a buyer to take them over ... Hell, Barings was sold for a dollar... Nevertheless, I think that most Japanese people are happy to see competition come in because it gives them so much more choice. For six years I wondered why ATMs at banks opened at 9:00 and closed down at 19:00 pm and there was only one open in my city on Sunday. Wonder no more, they are open from 8:00 to 21:00 now, 7 days a week since April 1st. Big Bang? I don't know, but there seems to be a lot done for consumers these days that wasn't there before. Nomura Securities also has its own ATM system now and it will have the same banking hours as the banks. They pay more interest too (well, 0.8% compared to .25%, still better...)
It will be interesting to see what happens next , that's for sure.
sg |
