Here's what your slightly smarter than my pet rock commentator fails to grasp. A slide in JGB's impoverishes the 91% of Japanese institutions including the biggest pension fund in the world and may well make a few dollars for the foreigners who have derivative insurance backing any losses. If the BOJ looses control of the bond market it's game over. I've seen estimates that suggest super funds could loose 30 – 50% nominal and much higher in real terms as the Y sinks faster. The implied target is USDJPY 120. Loosing control could see a run to 150+. At that point it would be game over. Some are speculating the Y could go to 200 and beyond.

The general consensus is to get out of Y and Japanese assets and buy foreign currency or foreign productive assets. There are already indications of capital flight that are further pressuring the Y. 

Throwing fuel on the fire is China's and S Korea's somewhat negative reaction to put it mildly. SK has to go in all guns blazing because it can't afford to be snookered by Japan when 60% of its GDP is exports. China's kinda hamstrung with food inflation issues so can't realistically devalue. That suggests other forms of punishment in retaliation.

This is absolutely not going to end well for Japan.

zmagen wrote:

You've truly digressed there, Freckle.

Who me? Never! Every serious subject should have a little humor or we'd all have to slash our wrists.

You've been letting the side down mate..

I can understand a pullback from the Fukushima region as a whole shunting some pressure on other areas but foreign investment begs the question.. Why would anyone in their right mind invest in depreciating assets (historically) in a currency with quite clear intentions of devaluation? Insanity or just plain stupidity. Somebody's getting sucked in here that's for sure. Even the questionable appreciation in property prices does not outweigh currency risk by a long shot.

So you've seen a small claw back of an asset (land) at this point in time. Are we back to break even yet or even close to break even? While  an increase in rental income is always welcome given the inflation in living costs (food, fuel, energy) is this adequate compensation or will rents be suppressed eventually as inflation of basic living costs bite with devaluation?

Abe like the rest is behaving like all politicians. Simply extend and pretend. Extend the misery and pretend it all gets better if we pull the blanket over our heads. It's a poor excuse for leadership. He's just another muppet who'll decimate the wealth (or what' s left of it) of the populace to play one more hand. 

There will be no true revival of any property market anywhere as long as central banks think they can manipulate and control economies without peripheral damage. The best you can do is understand the dynamics of manipulation and play the game accordingly.

The bottom 90% are trapped. They have insufficient wealth to grow faster than the deflationary (assets wages) inflationary (living costs) squeeze. 

One very small glimmer of hope for Japan is the methane gas fields off its coast. The problem may be time. This is a known source of energy but the tech to unlock it is not well developed therefore risky. Japan thinks it maybe able to bring these fields to production in 6 years. Optimistic by all accounts, however, timing aside it still offers huge potential for Japan in two ways. Possible future energy independence (note production cost may be a spoiler here yet) and the IP value involved in this technology could be substantial.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/energy/2013/03/pictures/130328-methane-hydrates-for-energy/

They certainly need a winner from somewhere after virtually destroying their fisheries with radioactive contamination. 

Simulated spreading of the contaminated Fukushima waters in summer 2012, 16 months after the nuclear disaster.

A slightly more technical explanation of Japan's predicament but understandable for most people. Take notice where Japan sits on this chart and who its close neighbors are. Reveling to say the least

Why Japan Can’t Fund Itself Any Longer [Global Sectoral Balances Chart]       Read more…

A great little Addogram that visualises Japans debt problem.

Nuclear war with China or Korea could be problematic to say the least.

California Slammed With Fukushima Radiation

• 3/30/12 Fukushima Radiation Plume Hit Southern and Central California

  The Journal Environmental Science and Technology reports in a new study that the Fukushima radiation plume contacted North America at California “with greatest exposure in central and southern California”, and that Southern California had 2,500 Bq/kg of iodine-131 in seaweed … over 500% higher than other tests in the U.S. and Canada: "Projected paths of the radioactive atmospheric plume emanating from the Fukushima reactors, best described as airborne particles or aerosols for 131I, 137Cs, and 35S, and subsequent atmospheric monitoring showed it coming in contact with the North American continent at California, with greatest exposure in central and southern California. Government monitoring sites in  Anaheim (southern California) recorded peak airborne concentrations of 131I at 1.9 pCi m−3. Anaheim is where Disneyland is located.

This graphic produced by Swiss media outlet 20 Minuten Online is aparently based on recordings that

show high levels of radiation had reached Western Europe and Northern Africa by the end of March 2011.