Word: sakakibara
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Another factor holding back structural reform is the acknowledgement from all parties that it would almost certainly bring about lots of short-term pain, including numerous bankruptcies and high unemployment. "There's no doubt that the structure needs to be changed," says former Finance Vice Minister Sakakibara, "but people are afraid of the costs." Many Japanese wince just discussing joblessness; they speak about acquaintances who have been fired as if they'd been afflicted with a horrible disease. Many Japanese commentators claim that high unemployment is unacceptable because the nation does not have a well-developed social-welfare system...
...smashed infrastructure, provide jobs and spur internal demand. For the domestic industries, Japan pursued consistently protectionist, anti-competitive policies, with the intention of keeping as many companies afloat as possible. "Ten percent of the country was allowed to be capitalist, and the other 90% was socialist," says Eisuke Sakakibara, director of the Global Security Research Center at Keio University and a former vice minister of finance. He's not really joking. Antitrust laws were virtually nonexistent, cartels flourished and high tariffs pushed away foreign entrants...
...long time," Sakakibara continues, "the dual economy worked." Throughout the 1960s, 1970s and most of the 1980s, Japan's unique form of bureaucratic capitalism was spectacularly successful. Beginning in the late 1980s, however, the world began to change. International competition has intensified dramatically, trade barriers elsewhere have fallen, China snapped out of its slumber, and Southeast Asia and South Korea have proven that they can match Japan as high-tech manufacturers and exporters. But rather than confront a new competitive landscape head on, Japan still acts as if it is a developing country that needs to be protected...
...particular urgency. "Interest rates were so low, there was no reason to keep my money there," she says. " I just have enough saved to pay for my funeral." That's becoming a kind of national mantra. "We are rich enough to sustain ourselves for another five years," says Sakakibara. That, he says, is the problem - an excuse for not acting. "Because we can do nothing, that's what we'll do. And that will only make things worse." Like the individuals who draw on their savings accounts to pay the rent and buy food, Japan is tossing money at propping...
...national 5% sales tax. (Yufuin itself doesn't have a local sales tax.) So far, tax authorities in Japan are looking the other way. "This kind of activity is not large enough to attract our attention," says Masaki Omura, a spokesman for the Ministry of Finance. Says Eisuke Sakakibara, the former Vice Finance Minister known as "Mr. Yen": "There's no deep implication to this. If it helps strengthen solidarity in a local community, that's probably good. In the end I think people want real money." Sometimes, though, the pretend money will do just fine. "It's all based...