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Strategies & Market Trends : John Pitera's Market Laboratory -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: nspolar who wrote (7958)	6/16/2007 1:37:27 PM
From: Hawkmoon	Respond to of 33421

A real key to Japan's problems may be Japan itself. Racism is probably a bit strong, but the government seems to promote policies consistent to those of a closed country. I think you may be hitting on something here. Historically, Japan has always been an insular culture. Commodore Perry had to bring a huge modern fleet to make the Japanese Shoguns recognize how vulnerable they weree vis-a-vis the rest of the world. It might require something similar on an economic and financial front in order to bring down the established power of the Keiretsu and change the culture to encourage foreign immigration to expand their demographic (tax/consumer) base and respark domestic spending. But I don't see how that is going to happen. But with regard to racism, you're definitely correct, according to my Japanese girlfriend. It's not always obvious, but as a culture there is a fear of losing their homogenous culture and inviting foreigners to live there as citizens. The only other solution is a major government initiative to subsidize larger families to prevent a shrinking tax base in coming years. But obviously that would require a 20 year plan to have an impact. I just don't think enough attention has been paid to the demographic problem that Japan faces and it remains the "elephant in the living room" that eventually will no longer be able to be ignored. Hawk