Japan mulling another FX intervention: report – Yahoo! News
Update: TOKYO (Nikkei)–In line with the yen’s rise to the 76 level to the dollar, the government account used for currency interventions is believed to have seen its foreign exchange valuation loss balloon to about 40 trillion yen. This fund has about 20 trillion yen in reserves, so it is effectively some 20 trillion yen [...]
Public hoarding old rice over fallout fears | The Japan Times Online
“The buying spree indicates deep public distrust in the government’s handling of the food safety issues…” I disagree. It’s simply common sense. The public realises that the government is physically incapable of guaranteeing the edibility of rice all over the country. To do so will mean checking for radioactivity in every rice stalk in Japan. [...]
Japan throws out its conservative government after 50 years
Image by Getty Images via Daylife Here are some links I found today: From the Telegraph: Japanese election: Hatoyama’s agenda includes tax breaks and distance from the US Yukio Hatoyama wooed the Japanese electorate with an agenda for change, but the 62 year-old nicknamed the Alien is an unlikely revolutionary. Japan votes for a new [...]
Stand up! Stand up, for the Emperor!
Image via Wikipedia I used to feel sorry for these people, and I do feel a lingering sympathy, but not much and it’s ebbing away quickly. Why are these people surprised? What were they expecting? The state is often institutionalized coercion: if they can make everyone study the same subjects, from the same textbooks, why [...]
Japan’s food statistics
A friend’s shared Google Reader feed alerted me to this video created for the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF). It contains some interesting statistics, and begs some interesting questions. E.g.: Japan only produces about 40% of the food it consumes. This is the lowest among all major developed nations. This is the [...]
