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

To: Step1 who wrote (4286)	6/9/1998 3:15:00 AM
From: Thomas Haegin	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 9980

Stephan, thanks for your insights on Yen weakness perception in Japan. I want to encourage you to stay around, as you are a valuable addition to our net of correspondents in the region, the first one from Japan, if I remember correctly. How long have you been there already? Are you living there permanently or are you "on assignment"? Just being curious, Greetings, Thomas

To: Step1 who wrote (4286)	6/9/1998 8:35:00 AM
From: MikeM54321	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9980

>>Mitsubishi Motors had a spokesperson on National TV last night (the Yen/Dollar rate was the top news, graphs, experts and all the works...) saying that they do not think a weak yen is good for them. He said that after the bubble and with the strengthening of the yen J companies took steps to off set the stronger currency.<< Stephan, Thanks for your very insightful post. I didn't quite understand what the Mitsubishi spokesperson said. I understood he said a weak yen is not good for Japan, but I don't understand why? It seems like to me that it would be difficult for a big exporter like Mitusbishi to say a weak yen is bad? I went back and did a search and found the article about the business leaders statements. To me, their statements make more sense from the Japanese perspective. Here it is. I think you will find it interesting: Message 4623049 >>Japanese still can't understand why this is happening to them. An important businessman friend of mine was telling me how he couldn't understand why Japan with such a good habit of saving religiously, good work ethics and such a formidable trade surplus could be in such a dire situation while the biggest nation of borrowers on earth was doing so good.<< Stephan, On the surface of things I would absolutely agree with the Japanese! I've read quite a few times, little jabs at the US economy. That the US has spent it's way into debt and prosperity. It must be a real puzzle to them (me too sometimes). Now that brings up another question that I have been wondering about. From the Japanese perspective, if you know, what do they think about the articles written about their, alleged, overwhelming debt problems? Let me link you to a quick summary I did of a very long Business Week article. My question is, does the average Japanese citizen know anything about this alleged $11 trillion national debt? Or do you even feel it is personally accurate? For reference, the US national debt is estimated to be around $5 trillion. Here's the link: Message 4445966 Thanks, MikeM(From Florida)