It seems like only yesterday that we were constantly hearing stories about how the Japanese people saved “too much” and about how something “had to be done” in order to pry some of the cash out of the nation’s bank accounts and get it back into circulation.
Now it’s the other way around, and economists are predicting dire days ahead as the rate of savings in Japan has followed the nation’s finances in general down a long, steady slide.
What a difference an economic bust makes.
Now Japanese toy maker TOMY claims to have an answer to Japan’s savings drought with its new “Savings Bomb” bank, which is slated to go on sale here next week.
The Savings Bomb is designed to “explode” and scatter its contents all over the place if it is not fed coins over some preset interval.
The battery-powered toy — designed as a cartoon-style, ball-shaped black bomb with a skull and crossbones logo — lights up, makes a noise, shakes violently and scatters coins if it is not topped up for a long time.
“Users must pick up and collect the scattered coins and reflect on their laziness,” the Japanese company said.
Here’s hoping that TOMY’s new toy will lead to an economic boom.
Price: Around 3,000 yen
what alternative do the Japanese have? unlike their near rivals Belgium and China.
http://www.theglobalist.com/storyid.aspx?StoryId=6533
with almost zero-return on their savings, pretty much the only alternative is to get a Citibank account,play the currency market,emigrate…marry a gullible naive gaijin..and other fings i won’t go into here.
I just wish Japan would STOP doling out money to China - who keep pretending they are a developing nation,wont float their currency,wont reform their banking system,actively encourage copyright piracy,flout enviromental regulations and human rights conventions thumb their nose at the UN (pay back-fees) and the rest of the world…and last but not least, pay back those damned soft loans that Japan has kindly been dishing out to them over the last 20 years.
“China, if you want to be treated as a first world country, start acting like one” - Quote: Lee-Kwan Yu (Harry Lee) ex-PM Singapore.
rem.
remora that was pathetic
first of all, no country floats their currency completely, even the United States and Britain keep currency reserves on hand to prevent monetary crashes and unwanted corrections to their respective currencies. Japan itself has a long and proud history of undervaluing the yen through purchasing US dollars and keeping them in reserves for the explicit purpose of strengthening their export industries. Its called a managed float exchange regime.
secondly virtually all advanced economies have ridiculous amounts of banking regulations designed to provide levels of obscurity for no apparent reason other than spy on their own citizens and make life a pain in the ass. (See enhanced “know your customer regs in the US which disallow me from taking over $1000 out of bank account at one time.
third, international patent laws are a crock designed to force developing countries to compete on a skewed playing field with developed nations where most patents are legally created. they force developing countries to pay premiums on products that they cannot afford. the “subsidy in effect” of piracy allows these nations the quick distribution of intellectual property that is easily justified through the positive externalities of enhanced economic growth.
forth who cares if they don’t follow the environmental regulations and UN mandates. Last time I checked most developed countries are sponging of the UN in some way, the US alone withholding general operation funds. Even the Japanese with their Kyoto protocol can’t even meet their pollution reduction requirements.
finally if Japan wanted to halt the Chinese taking advantage of their loans all they have to do is stop making them.
Nice quote though here’s mine:
Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else’s opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.-Oscar Wilde
according to the law of inertia EssoC. (Newton 2).
*I am That*
you took the bait first time - lets hope you don’t get re-incarnated as a fish - it’ll be short,brutal and wind up in a C-A-N.
(*_*)
g’nite.
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