If you haven’t heard yet, then you probably will some point on Monday: Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average closed in the red on Friday, marking its 12th consecutive decline, the longest since a 15-session losing streak in April-May 1954 during a time of “economic uncertainty” after the end of the Korean War.
However, the current […]

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In “Hollowing Out, Tokyo Style,” FT Alphaville’s Gwen Robinson does a fine job of capturing an ongoing, and now accelerating human resources conundrum. While it seems like there’s no shortage lately of fake Japundits (not to be confused with the real Japundit, who is simply trying to keep it real on the cultural front) […]

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Thoughts on the Nikkei 225 Stock Average:
Japanese stocks have been rallying over the past several weeks and the benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average is now at a 2-month-plus high; the N225 recouped 14,000 last Friday in spite of thin trading of late, due to the extended holiday that continues through this Tuesday. Short-term, sentiment has […]

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It’s no big secret that growth in real demand for commodities is nowhere near as much as the growth in daily trading of derivative contracts. Still, UBS Global Asset Management’s Tom Digenan (by way of USAA Financial Newsletters) has a chart showing actual oil demand grew to 85.9 million bpd in 2007 from 74.6 million […]

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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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