Mutually Exclusive Actions As One

The Prime Minister of Japan Shinzo Abe, who not to long ago engaged in one of the largest fiscal infusions in modern economic history with the hope of jump starting Japans economy that has been ailing for the last 20 years, has announced two mutually exclusive actions.  Japan is the most indebted nation in the world in terms of public debt and even many economists, the ones who argue that debt can create higher marginal growth rates, state that there is little good adding additional debt will do and that they have probably crossed the terminal point at where there is no way humanly possible that Japan could ever pay of it's debt.

Closing the Gender Gap Isn't Going to Help Japan

Goldman Sachs with an utterly fanciful report about how closing the 'gender' gap in the workforce will help move Japan's economy forward.  Increasing the number of women in the workforce will yield no long term benefit for Japan, and the same can be said for western countries. At best such a move will be a net neutral. The reason is that technological innovation, the regulatory environment and demographics matter far more for the prospects of long term economic growth than the percentage of your workforce is men or women*.

Abenomics is Economic Seppuku

Girlfriend forwarded me an article from the New York Times on Abenomics and asked what I thought of it.  I replied by forwarding a video posted on After the West  that covers one of the major problems with Abenomics. Abenomics is essentially a three pronged approach towards jump starting Japans stagnant economy. 

The first prong, massive government investment, is nothing new for the Japanese.  Every Prime Minister of Japan since the early to mid 1990s as tried government investment to little effect.  There is little reason to think that Abe's economic stimulus is faring any better.

Biggest Stimulus Yet

Japan has announced a stimulus bill that amounts to a whopping 10% of their current GDP.  To put this in context, the President's stimulus was a between 5-6% of the US GDP back in 2009 depending on which numbers you use, which many Keynesian's argue wasn't large enough to adequately stimulate the private sector.

Any takers on how successful Japans latest round of stimulus will be? Considering that Japan has a history of pumping debt into their economy resulting in nothing more but burgeoning their liabilities section of their balance sheet; I will bet against the addition of any more debt helping. But this does signal something important.

What is signals is that Japan isn't going to even attempt to pay back their debts since they have already passed the event horizon it's time to abandon all pretext of fiscal responsibility. Japanese politicans', and perhaps much of the Japanese population by virtue that they elected their leaders, have signaled that they don't give two craps about weighing down their unborn children with debt that can never ever be repaid.  Japan has a debt to GDP level in excess of 200%, or a debt level almost as large as our own considering they have a $ 5 trillion dollar economy. Considering that Japan has struggled even to maintain growth rates above 2% I'm not optimistic about their ability to grow outside their debt levels, or even attract foreign debt buyers once their domestic sources have dried up.

Add in the fact that Japan's population has peaked and they will soon enter demographic decline, baring major technological advancements, it's game over for Japan.

The Rewards of Progressivism: Kudokushi

Joel Kotkin writes about the growing trend amongst SWPL urbanites to forgo having children all together.  America has been atypical compared to much of the west insofar as demographic population growth.  While birthrates had dropped in America like everywhere else in the west the replacement rate has remained positive.  But as it stands now, outside of population migration into the cities, urban Americans are not having families, and they don't seem to mind.

Many of us how absolutely foolish the urban cohorts flippant attitude towards having families are. Demographic decline is not a pretty sight and many of these individuals who are eschewing children now will regret it in old age.  Japan, which in many ways has been the canary in the coal mine, is a perfect example of the most personal impacts of demographic decline.  And that is the every growing instance of individuals dying alone and their bodies being found days if not months later.  The Japanese call it Kudokushi, the lonely death, and it has been a growing issue in Japan.

So in the end, not only is progressivism demographically unsustainable, but their most ardent cohorts will find themselves personally betrayed by it in the end. You don't destroy the familial bond and not suffer unfortunate consequences, and for many those consequences mean Kudokushi.

Japan Plans on Joining Trans-Pacific Partnership

Japan is planning on joining the trans-pacific partner ship.  It is a large trade agreement between twelve nations, including the United States.  Japan sees that it cannot continue the trade policies it has of the last half century, with significant tariffs on foreign imports in order to protect domestic industries. This policy was largely tolerated by the U.S because Japan was one of the few stable allies in Asia, and also one of the few allies that could supply the goods and materials it desired. This has changed.

With the growth of, not only China, but of Korea and other south east Asian nations, Japan is no longer in the position it once was.  Japan must join free trade agreements lest they find themselves out maneuvered economically. There is a geopolitical aspect of this as well.  No other nation is more nervous about the rising belligerency of China, and also of North Korea, than Japan.  As the Stratfor video below will illustrate, Japan has quietly put together one of the most robust militaries in the East. In fact, outside of the United States, they may very well be the strongest military power in the region. 

There are potential ramifications far down the road that may affect the relationship between the U.S and Japan negatively, however, in the short term, say the next decade or so, this is exactly what the U.S wants. Japan's robust navy, which has always been closely aligned to the U.S since the end of WII, further complements American naval power and constrains China's in the northern pacific.

Now none of this is unexpected. The U.S has been putting pressure for greater Japanese military involvement for at least a decade now, if not longer, and there was little doubt that Japan would side with the U.S as China grew in militarily. The good news for the United States is that Japan also has interests in the South China sea, and with the relative weakness of the nations, such as the Philippines, it further compliments American military capabilities. Stratfor video below.

Do You See What I See?

I found this on reddit/redpill. I never go onto Reddit, never cared for it, but I ended up over there because some blogger or another was doing some sort of ask my me anything. It had already happened by the time I got on, but I noticed this sub-reddit and decided to take a look. There is something very wrong about this video, and no, it isn't the girl turning into an ugly old man, but it ties into a cultural post I made about Japan earlier.

The Decline of Japan in Two Pictures

Japanese manly ideal then:

 

Japanese mainly ideal now:

 

 

 

 

What Happens When You Destroy A Culture

You want to see what happens to  a society when its cultural roots are torn asunder and replaced with the morass that tries to pass itself off as culture today?  Just look at Japan, a society that was once the epitome of manly virtue reduced to this pathetic state. Where a women who married a man, probably a former otaku, forced him to 'murder' his virtual girlfriend.  This just symbolizes what is wrong in that nation today, and in many ways this anchorless society we live in today.

1. That a man would be so committed to a virtual person, scratch that just a collection of programmed responses for a game, to invite it to a wedding. Shows the result when you completely emasculate male culture.
2. That a women would be so insecure to force her new husband to destroy his video game.
3. That the man reportedly shed tears when he committed the act. Need I remind you that this is not a sentient being but just a collection of pre-programmed responses.
4. That they photographed, probably at the brides insistence, the event for posterity. Yes lets keep records of your husbands pathetic attachment to a video game character for posterity. I can just imagine this being used as fodder to emasculates him further.

Japan at least has the excuse of undergoing a two terrible nuclear bombings that fundamentally shook their culture to the core and an occupying nation that simply sought to replace the Bushido culture with an amalgamation of pseudo-democracy and capitalism. Frankly, I don't blame America, you start wars and you run the risks of having something like this happening. America put a system in place to benefit her against her fight against the Soviets, and frankly they handled the occupation far better than any of Japans neighbors would have. But that is another discussion.

Japan managed to muddle along, focusing its energies into becoming an economic super power. The salaryman work ethic replaced the Bushido code in Japanese society. What Japan had was a culture, neither anchored in the fundamental values of the west, nor the value of the east; rather, I would say it is the closet approximation of the cultural point that certain powers are trying to push America towards today. And when the sole remaining reason for being and anchor of this culture dissipated, their drive to become an economic power equal to that of the US, their culture went into a rapid nose dive.  Sad, sad, state of affairs it is to go from warrior society to nihilistic pantywaist.