Japan is not dead
Interesting read at Japan Today by Chuck Olson about the current state of Japan’s economy. Paints a mixed picture, and seemingly leaves it fairly open on which way things may turn.
Here’s a quote:
It is hard to say, but Japan still has an economy large enough to bear even further pain and still provide income to those who are perfectly happy to spend it on a good meal or a designer bag, or for that matter a lot of other goods and services that can be purchased in this large economy.
The other day, my cubical-neighbor — who’s 3-4 years older than I — told me he has a website and has been paying 20,000yen a month for two years to provide a service that only 4 people have used (he writes software on the side, and the service allowed US people to purchase his stuff via the net so that he gets paid in yen); that’s roughly $2,000/year for hardly a return! And then in a separate conversation, a different lab-mate who has been with Sony for a number of years (he’s probably early to mid 40s) commented how he could only dream of staying in a $400/night hotel in NYC. Where are these peoples’ priorities?? Bizaare.
June 5th, 2003 at 12:38 am
I’ll tell Chuck you liked it. I used to work with him. He was surprised by some of the comments on Japan Today.