Word: japanism
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...heavily subsidized arts institution but by a few knowledgeable guys from Brooklyn who want to share their enthusiasms with the fanboys of the tristate area. The playlist has grown from 11 features in 2002 to more than 50 this time, and includes movies not just from Japan and China but also Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Tamil state of India. Few of these titles are likely to get a U.S. release, which is a shame, but there's always the Internet. Be a cinema sleuth and track down some of these titles...
...Japan's hard-hit economy this week got a double dose of mildly good news. According to official figures released June 29, Japanese industrial output jumped nearly 6% in May, matching the largest monthly increase since 1953. And on July 1, the much-watched tankan survey, which measures sentiment among Japan's largest manufacturers, improved for the first time in two-and-a-half years, indicating confidence in the country's economic prospects is starting to grow...
...while it may be true that Japan has seen the depths of its worst postwar recession, economists say things are still far from good - and a "double-dip" recession is an increasingly likely outcome. "It will take several years, not one or two years, before Japan's output gap, or economic slack, disappears," says JPMorgan chief economist Masaaki Kanno. "Deflation and high unemployment will last for a long time. The question is whether the economy will continue to grow for several years without having the double dip." (See pictures of Japan in the 1980s and today...
...Analysts had anticipated some improvement in business confidence in the quarterly tankan survey results released by Japan's central bank. However, the survey, which polls 1,215 large manufacturers as well as thousands of other businesses, indicated companies remain more pessimistic than optimistic and are still reluctant to make capital investments. According to Kanno, the results confirm "the upside momentum is getting stronger, but the level of the economic activities is still very low." Japan's unemployment rate rose for the fourth straight month to 5.2% in May, up from 5.0% in April. Job availability is at a record...
...risk could be reduced if U.S. consumer demand for Japanese products began to strengthen, or if the government introduced additional stimulus spending. Due to budget constraints, says Shirakawa, the latter is unlikely. Japan currently spends 4% of GDP, an unusually high ratio for a developed country, to service its burgeoning debt. But a pickup in consumption is possible, he says. The savings rate in the U.S. has increased in the past few months, and consumers may be feeling more confident that they can now spend a little more. That could provide some relief to Japan's battered export sector; Japanese...