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Strategies & Market Trends : Asia Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Stitch who wrote (2892)	4/4/1998 3:31:00 PM
From: GuinnessGuy	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 9980

Stitch, I've been checking out the postal bonds/savings question but haven't yet found an answer. I tend to think though, that the funds aren't all restricted in terms of when and how much one can withdraw. In the article below it states that there are $10.6 trillion at stake. Anyway, here's a story that sheds a light on the subject: [SNIP] "Harada said the deregulation measures will spur financial institutions to develop new services and products that will draw Japan's aggregate 1,200 trillion yen ($10.6 trillion) in personal financial assets into new investment channels." [SNIP] mercury.nikkei.co.jp Great article IMO... Still digging...Craig

To: Stitch who wrote (2892)	4/4/1998 3:59:00 PM
From: Tommaso	Respond to of 9980

Hi Stitch! I have been studying all articles on Japan in the last three issues of The Economist, including one that just came today. I knew that the Japanese used postal savings accounts--I wonder if they were my any chance modeled on what the U. S. used to have. In the depths of the Depression my father supplemented his tiny allowance as an intern by teaching anatomy at an undertaking school three hours a week--two classes one right after the other. As he left they would hand him a $5 bill and on his way back to his dorm he would deposit it in postal savings. OOPS! should have read other responses first--some of my questions are answered. The interest rate was very low but it was guaranteed by the government. I think the current postal savings rate in Japan is 0.5%, and there seems to be an awful lot of personal savings there. Whether such savers would be tempted to venture that money in a mutual fund made of U. S. stocks (which I suppose they soon will have the right to do) is a big question. One would think that with the ongoing spectre of the Japanese equity market, they would be cautious. I was disappointed by the scarcity of exact figures in the Economist articles. I suppose what one wants to know is: 1. How much money is controlled by individuals in individual postal savings accounts? 2. Where has the money been invested up to this point? 3. How much money do individual Japanese investors have at their disposal elsewhere? 4. Just exactly how are Japanese savings intermediated into U. S. treasuries, and how much is there? 5. What are japanese holdings (whether by individuals, insurance companies, banks, or whoever) in U. S. stocks right now? In European stocks? Also, less easily measureable information would be valuable, such as the Japanese perception of the soundness of the American economy and of American companies. Some of this I could probably glean from various publications and newspaper stories, but I haven't tried to accumulate a file of such information. So I pose these questions in case anyone knows the answers or knows someone who does. There must be American economists who are following Japan as closely as possible. Worswick's raising the issue of whether Japanese savings might come piling into the American market with the changes that are occurring makes a bear tremble.