An excerpt from Kinoshita Terunobu’s (木下 晃伸) latest e-newsletter discussing the length of women’s hair and its relationship to the Japanese economy :
「。。。 景気が良いほど髪の毛が長くなり、不景気になると髪の毛が短くなっている 。。。」
Essentially, the better the economy, the longer the hair; a weaker economy brings shorter hair styles…
• 1997 花王 survey shows trend of shorter-hair among 20-year old women; 山一証券 goes bankrupt the […]

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The WSJ’s daily Asia news alert features a story with the headline: FALLING DOLLAR NOT SO OMINOUS: Though the falling dollar has led many to believe inflation is imminent, research suggests that the dollar does not drive U.S. inflation like it used to.

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May machinery orders +5.9% sequential vs. consensus estimate of 2.6% and high-end estimate of 5.0%.
Nikkei 225 Stock Average up ~100 yen to ~18,240. Yen also weakening towards 123.5/US$, supporting exporter stocks. Nikkei could test ytd & multi-year intra-day and closing highs above 18,300 and 18,240, respectively.

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Look at these two Bloomberg article headlines:
1. Japan’s Wages Drop, Limiting Consumer Spending Growth
2. Japanese Stocks Decline, Led by Sony, on Slower U.S. Consumer Spending

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Watch the yen-U.S. dollar: we could see 119 for the first time since stocks sold-off globally back in late February. Yen weakness bodes well for Japanese exporters and Japanese stocks in general, despite the fact import costs rise. That is mostly overlooked, at least on the surface level. The yen carry trade remains too […]

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You read the title correctly. In fact, household spending increased 2x the amount analysts expected, +1.3% in Feb. And, industrial production declined less-than-expected. The unemployment rate held steady at 4%, for the fourth consecutive month. Unfortunately, we aren’t seeing the wage growth that is necessary for consumer spending to really take off and pick up […]

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