Tag Archives: Japan

How a Country Goes Bankrupt, In 10 Steps, by John Rubino

Posted on March 7, 2023 | Leave a comment

The Japanese are giving a pretty good demonstration, to be followed by Europe and the U.S. From John Rubino at rubino.substack.com:

Gradually then suddenly (2024?)

The past few decades of unnaturally easy money have created a world of “moral hazard” in which a ridiculous number of people borrowed far more than they should have. Now, with money getting tighter, not just businesses and individuals but some governments are staring at the “suddenly” part of that old saying about bankruptcy.

Japan is the poster child for this slow walk towards – then quick rush over – a financial cliff. Here’s how it works for a government, in 10 steps.

Step 1: Build up massive debt. A bursting real estate bubble in the 1990s confronted the Japanese government with a choice between accepting a brutal recession in which most of that debt was eliminated through default, or simply bailing out all the zombie banks and construction companies and hoping for the best. They chose bailouts, and federal debt rose from 40% of GDP in 1991 to 100% of GDP by 2000.  

Step 2: Lower interest rates to minimize interest expense. Paying 6% on debt equaling 100% of GDP would be ruinously expensive, so the Bank of Japanpushed interest rates down as debt rose, thus keeping the government’s interest cost at tolerable levels.

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kyoto university professor sues japan’s health ministry over covid vaccine, by el gato malo

Posted on February 7, 2023 | Leave a comment

The Japanese are not generally considered boat rockers, but one professor is certainly doing so. From el gato malo at boriquagato.substack.com:

accuses health ministry of fraud

professor emeritus fukushima (an infectious disease expert) of kyoto university is suing the japanese government/health agencies over the covid vaccines.

his points are bang on and the similarities to the shenanigans of western health agencies are more than passing:

  • it is a matter if fundamental importance for the government to collect and disclose accurate data
  • “witnessed fraud scandal committed by the health ministry”
  • this is a historically serious problem that threatens the very existence of the nation of japan.
  • “as a medical doctor and a scientist, i had no choice but to dare to take legal action”
  • it is of absolute importance to disclose the real world efficacy and safety of vaccination against covid. it is linked to people’s healthcare, livelihood, and the economy.

some of you may have heard this next point before as it aligns tightly with what i calculated using ONS data for UK last year (before they discontinued it) yup, 4X risk ratios for infection…

back in sept 2021, the fatality rate for those over 65 and vaxxed was lower than the unvaxxed, however for all ages, vaccination has demonstrated the opposite effect causing higher fatality rates. (note that this is pre-omicron and seems to refer only to covid and not all cause deaths)

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Japan Reenlists as Washington’s Spear-Carrier, by Patrick Lawrence

Posted on January 26, 2023 | 1 comment

Japan is now a paid-up U.S. vassal. From Patrick Lawrence at consortiumnews.com:

Patrick Lawrence reflects on Prime Minister Kishida’s radical turn toward the militarism his country’s pacifist constitution forbids.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida with President Joe Biden at the White House on Jan. 13. (White House, Cameron Smith)

It is always the same when Japanese premiers travel to Washington to summit at the White House. Nothing seems to happen and nobody pays much attention even when important things happen, when we should all pay attention, and, when we do pay passing attention, we usually get it wrong. In January 1960, when Premier Nobusuke Kishi visited Washington, President Dwight Eisenhower blessed a war criminal and signed a security treaty the Japanese public vigorously opposed. That week Newsweek marked Kishi down as “that friendly, savvy Japanese salesman.”

Kishi proved a salesman, all right. Three years later he used armed police to clear the Diet of opposition legislators and force ratification of the Anpo treaty, as the Japanese call it, with members of his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) the only ones present to vote on it. “A 134–pound body packed with pride, power and passion — a perfect embodiment of his country’s amazing resurgence,” TIME wrote of the man who ought to have been hanged a decade earlier.

Now we have Premier Fumio Kishida, who summited with our asleep-at-the-wheel president in the Oval Office a week ago. I do not know how much Kishida weighs or how proud of himself or his nation he is, but, in an uncanny echo of the Kishi–Eisenhower summit, Joe Biden blessed his radical turn toward the militarism Japan’s pacifist constitution forbids.

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Japanese Emeritus Professor at Kyoto University, Dr Masanori Fukushima, Blows Up Over the Covid-19 Vaccines and His Government’s Covid-19 Response. By 2nd Smartest Guy in the World

Posted on December 2, 2022 | Leave a comment

Far too slowly, but surely, all the suppressed issues with the Covid response and the vaccines are surfacing, even in a compliant country like Japan. From 2nd Smartest Guy in the World at 2ndsmartestguyintheworld.substack.com:

He speaks to the world: “this vaccine was scientifically misconceived”, “the harm caused by vaccines is now a worldwide problem”, “billions of lives could ultimately be in danger.”

 

This Biography lists him as an infectious diseases expert. He is an oncologist with over 25 years’ experience. He is amply qualified to speak.
 

Japanese come across typically as polite, restrained, and understated. This should make Dr. Fukushima’s callout all the more shocking and convincing.

Japan is among the most heavily Covid-19 vaccinated nations in the world.

Their cases though are rising, again, along with deaths. This does not make sense if the jabs were effective. Clearly, they were not!

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Anti-Russian Alliance Fractures After Japan Decides To Stay In Russia’s Sakhalin-1 Energy Project, by Tyler Durden

Posted on November 1, 2022 | Leave a comment

Unlike the Europeans, the Japanese have chosen not to freeze in the dark this winter. From Tyler Durden at zerohedge.com:

While Europe continues the unvarnished hypocrisy of pretending it is imposing draconian sanctions against Russian oil and gas, when instead it is merely buying the country’s natural resources via such middlemen as India and China (an exercise in virtue signaling that costs it a 20% mark-up to Russian prices), less than a year since the start of the Ukraine war, some countries have had enough of pretending.

Today, the Japanese government decided to officially screw the sanctions, and remain involved in the (formerly Exxon-led) Sakhalin-1 oil and gas project in Russia, as it seeks a stable supply of energy (who doesn’t) despite international sanctions on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine, the Nikkei reported.

ExxonMobil, which held a 30% stake in Sakhalin-1, announced in March that it would withdraw from the project. But after vacillating for more than half a year, Japan decided not to follow in Exxon’s footsteps.

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The Hiroshima Myth, by John V. Denson

Posted on August 6, 2022 | 1 comment

The decision to drop the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Japanese surrender were both motivated more by the Soviet Union than the exigencies of warfare. Japan was on the verge of surrender anyway and was more afraid of a Soviet invasion than they were of more bombs. The U.S. was positioning itself for postwar domination; most of the military brass was against the bombings. From John V. Denson at mises.org:

Every year during the first two weeks of August the mass news media and many politicians at the national level trot out the “patriotic” political myth that the dropping of the two atomic bombs on Japan in August of 1945 caused them to surrender, and thereby saved the lives of anywhere from five hundred thousand to 1 million American soldiers, who did not have to invade the islands. Opinion polls over the last fifty years show that American citizens overwhelmingly (between 80 and 90 percent) believe this false history which, of course, makes them feel better about killing hundreds of thousands of Japanese civilians (mostly women and children) and saving American lives to accomplish the ending of the war.

The best book, in my opinion, to explode this myth is The Decision to Use the Bomb by Gar Alperovitz, because it not only explains the real reasons the bombs were dropped, but also gives a detailed history of how and why the myth was created that this slaughter of innocent civilians was justified, and therefore morally acceptable. The essential problem starts with President Franklin Roosevelt’s policy of unconditional surrender, which was reluctantly adopted by Churchill and Stalin, and which President Truman decided to adopt when he succeeded Roosevelt in April of 1945. Hanson Baldwin was the principal writer for the New York Times who covered World War II and he wrote an important book immediately after the war entitled Great Mistakes of the War. Baldwin concludes that the unconditional surrender policy

was perhaps the biggest political mistake of the war….Unconditional surrender was an open invitation to unconditional resistance; it discouraged opposition to Hitler, probably lengthened the war, cost us lives, and helped to lead to the present aborted peace.

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High Noon for Japan, Asia’s Toothless Tiger, by Declan Hayes

Posted on April 6, 2022 | Leave a comment

The Japanese will wind up in China and Russia’s Eurasian axis. From Declan Hayes at strategic-culture.org:

Japan’s future, whether she likes it or not, will be with its East Asian neighbors’ Belt and Road Initiative when the U.S. 7th Fleet scuttles back to Pearl Harbor.

Although it is now 20 years since the English edition of my Japan: The Toothless Tiger best seller first appeared, everything that has since happened has confirmed its thesis that East Asia is a powder keg that Japan cannot contain.

Although China’s Belt and Road Initiative is inexorably falling into place, so too is the South China Sea. Although a British convoy, supported by German and American cruisers, recently sailed through the area, they, like the Australians, who are being butt hurt by Chinese sanctions, are not serious players.

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Japan drops vax rollout, goes to Ivermectin, ENDS COVID almost overnight, by Hal Turner

Posted on October 28, 2021 | 1 comment

Put another one in the Ivermectin Success Stories file. From Hal Turner at halturnerradioshow.com:

World NewsDesk Hits: 56432

The ongoing COVID-19 nonsense here in the United States exists solely and exclusively because our governments have failed to use the correct treatment.  They used so-called “vaccines” when Japan has just proven, in less than ONE MONTH, that Ivermectin can wipe out the disease.

Sweden’s Public Health Agency on Wednesday recommended a temporary halt to the use of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine among young adults, citing concerns over rare side effects to the heart. It said the pause should initially be in force until December 1, explaining that it had received evidence of an increased risk of side effects such as inflammation of the heart muscle (myocarditis) and inflammation of the pericardium (pericarditis). {link to CBS News (Secure)]

Finland, Denmark and Norway have also moved away from the COVID vaccines.

Finland last Thursday joined Sweden, Denmark and Norway in recommending against use of Moderna Inc.’s Covid-19 vaccine in younger age groups, citing risks of rare cardiovascular side effects they said warranted the precautionary steps.

Finland’s Institute for Health and Welfare said last Thursday it would pause use of the Moderna vaccine among men under the age of 30, following a similar step last Wednesday by Swedish regulators. Denmark last Wednesday said it wouldn’t offer the Moderna vaccine to under-18s as a precautionary measure.

Norway on Wednesday advised that all under-18s shouldn’t be given the Moderna vaccine, even if they had already received one dose, and recommended that men under 30 consider getting the vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech instead. Norwegian officials cited U.S., Canadian and Nordic data, saying the absolute risks remain low and calling the advice “a precautionary measure.”

The European Medicines Agency said Thursday that new preliminary data from the Nordic countries supports a warning the agency adopted in July that inflammatory heart conditions called myocarditis and pericarditis can occur in very rare cases following vaccination with Covid-19 shots made by Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech.

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Japanese Pot Calls European Kettle Black, by Doug Bandow

Posted on June 26, 2021 | Leave a comment

What Japan and the Europeans really want is to outsource their defense to somebody else, that is, the United States. From Doug Bandow at theamericanconservative.com:

Tokyo wants Europe to do more about China. But neither Japan nor the E.U. pull their own weight.

(Bill Chizek/Shutterstock)

Japanese Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi told European leaders that they should increase the continent’s military presence in Asia to help Tokyo put “tremendous pressure” on the People’s Republic of China. In return Kishi proposed sending two armored divisions to Europe to help face down a revived Russian Federation.

Hah, hah, hah! Only kidding about the latter. Japan isn’t in the armored division business. Or inclined to send Japanese troops overseas. Or even to do that much to constrain Beijing. After all, Tokyo believes that confronting China is primarily America’s job. However, the minister would like Europe to join America in helping to defend Japan. Such a deal!

 

Kishi testified before the European Parliament’s committee on security and defense. He urged the European Union to “continue and expand” security cooperation with Japan in the “Indo-Pacific region.” He advocated cooperation “against authoritarianism,” telling the panel that “I highly commend the point that the EU strategy sets out the strengthening of presence and action in the Indo-Pacific.” An unnamed Japanese official told the South China Morning Post: “Japan hopes to use this opportunity to get more involvement from the EU in the region.”

Apparently, Tokyo isn’t satisfied with the defense welfare that it receives from the U.S. Now it hopes the Europeans, who have been as shameless as the Japanese in forever cheap-riding on Washington, to “visibly increase their military presence” in the Indo-Pacific. If Europe went along with his proposal, Japan would become a double-dipper, a notable achievement since it long has devoted less effort to the military even than the Europeans!

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#MacroView: 5-Reasons The Fed’s New Policy Won’t Get Inflation, by Lance Roberts

Posted on September 6, 2020 | Leave a comment

Why unlimited fiat debt doesn’t create unlimited price inflation. From Lance Roberts at realinvestmentadvice.com:

At the recent Jackson Hole Economic Summit, Jerome Powell unveiled the Fed’s new monetary policy designed to create inflation. In today’s #Macroview, we will discuss the 5-reasons why the Fed will not get inflation, and why deflation is the bigger risk.

The current assumption is that the Fed’s new policy will lead to higher inflation.

“The new policy regime is an important evolution in our thinking about how to achieve our goals and another step toward greater transparency, The policy change positions us for success in achieving our maximum employment and price stability goals in the future.” – Fed Reserve Bank of NY, John Williams, via WSJ 

What exactly is this new policy? Well, that’s the interesting part, no one actually knows. However, as noted by the WSJ:

“The Fed said it would now seek to hit its 2% inflation target on average, and that it wouldn’t raise rates just to ward off the theoretical threat of inflation posed by a strong job market. The Fed, however, didn’t say how it would determine the average, and several regional Fed officials suggested that a 2.5% jobless rate was as much as they would tolerate. At the same time, with the economy in deep trouble, there is little expectation inflation will test the Fed’s target for years.”

So, to be clear, the Fed’s new policy is simply to “average the inflation rate” over a period of time and let the unemployment rate fall to as low as 2.5%. The last time the unemployment rate was at 2.5% was for one quarter in 1953 just before the 1954 recession set in.

Fed's New Policy Inflation, #MacroView: 5-Reasons The Fed’s New Policy Won’t Get Inflation

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