Japan's Newest Nanny State Laws are a Hidden Tax

The Japanese government keeps enacting new laws to "protect the public" but they are actually new taxes to help municipal governments cover their fast growing red-ink. Here is another story about a new law that was just enacted about two months ago..


In yesterday's news report, Japan took a huge jump towards the victor in the title of Nanny State of 2011 by ticketing a cyclist for viewing photos on a cell phone! She wasn't talking on a cell phone, she was viewing photos!!!???... This is really getting ridiculous. But the devil is even worse in the details. Read on!

Japan Today reports

KANAGAWA —

Police have charged a teenager for using a cell phone while cycling, in the first such case of its kind in Japan, Nikkan Gendai reported on Wednesday.

Around 9:30 p.m. last Sunday, a patrolman in Hiratsuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, cited a 15-year-old female high school student for a traffic offense. The girl had been riding her bicycle while viewing images on a cell phone and repeatedly disregarded warnings to desist viewing the phone.

The cop was yelling at this girl to stop looking at her cell phone? Hell yes, she'd ignore the cop. Who wouldn't? I'd think he was nuts.

"Don't look at me! Don't you F*cking look at me!"

The incident marked the first time for Kanagawa police to invoke the revised traffic ordinance, aimed at discouraging so-called “nagara unten” by cyclists who talk on cell phones or listen to music players while in motion. It went into effect on May 1.

“She apparently thought cyclists were not subject to traffic regulations,” the source was quoted as saying, adding that violators may be fined up to 50,000 yen.

Catch that part: "...listen to music players while in motion...." This means drivers of cars, bikes, whatever. Next obvious step is to make it a fine to wear headphones while jogging or walking on crowded public sidewalks. But wait a minute!!! What law did this girl violate? She wasn't listening to music and she wasn't talking on a cell phone. She was allegedly looking at photos!!! 


Any competent lawyer should be able to throw this crap out in a second... But it won't go to that. This girl will pay the fine and the cop will go on his merry way interpreting the law anyway he sees fit. Is this arbitrary or what?


And, get serious, ¥50,000 yen (about $600 USD) for looking at a cellphone or listening to an ipod while driving or riding a bike? Really? This is "protecting the public"? Doubtful. 


This is beginning to sound a lot like the stupid arbitrary laws in the USA. Like the new law that, if enacted, will make it illegal to upload a song to Youtube that has you lip-syncing to a track sung by a famous artist... That would include your eight-year-old girl who does a great Lady Gaga impression too. 

Still, Japan only fines people for dumb laws. The penalty for uploading a lip sync video to Youtube in the USA would be a maximum five years in prison. Japan may be f'ed up with these idiotic laws too, but we're still way behind - and a much freer nation - than the USA is.

But being a freer nation than the USA is not much to brag about these days. This cell phone while cycling law is ridiculous. 

These kinds of stupid laws are supposedly enacted by the government to "protect" the public but they are defacto another tax and a new way for the government to collect monies from us.

It is the same with seat belt laws, motorcycle helmet laws, smoking laws, and a whole litany of other ridiculous laws that the government creates ostensibly to protect us (From who? ourselves, of course).

In the case of seat belt laws or helmet laws, it should be obvious to anyone who is still awake that we don't need these types of laws to "protect us" as there is such a thing as "insurance" in case something happens to us... And if some guy wants to drive his car without a seat belt, is he hurting you or me? Why are we being taxed to stop a guy like that? It's absurd. 

Everyone knows that not waring a seat belt or a helmet might be dangerous. Everyone knows that using a cell phone while riding a bike might be risky, but - with or without these laws - people will still do it. And why not? It is their life. Putting a fine on this girl, for example, certainly will not stop her from riding her bike and using her cellphone, she'll just be more careful to make sure the gestapo doesn't see her doing it next time. 

"Papers please!"

If we really want to prevent accidents, then let's take this type of nanny state mentality to its logical conclusion and outlaw all behavior that is even a tiny bit risky as that way we can alleviate all accidents and abolish accident, car, boat and fire insurance forever.

Of course, that is an impossibility.... But it is an excellent way to raise revenues!

People who do not see the absurdity of these taxes disguised as laws to protect society shouldn't be surprised when the new taxes come in on other ridiculous stuff, like, say, using a headphone or iPod like device in a public place.

Say, great idea! In order to "protect" us the government institutes a new tax on little white earbud headphones and uses the money for research to prevent hearing loss!

Laugh now, if you will, but you "heard" it here first. 

Politics and Power: Creating Bankruptcy and a Real Nuclear Disaster in Japan

The only thing we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history - Friedrich Hegel (1770 - 1831)


A couple of recent articles on Japan have hit my eye. They both have to do with money and how poorly the Japanese government have handled the economy and how the regular Japanese is paying the price.


The first article is about another doofus who thinks that a Japanese government takeover of TEPCO, the company that owns the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant, is the answer to our problems. Read this article and wonder no more how this guy never got a job in the real world.

The traditionally left wing Asahi Newspaper reports about how Tadashi Maeda, an adviser to Prime Minister Naoto Kan, has proposed the nationalization of all nuclear power plants in Japan as a means to secure the long-term viability of atomic energy:

(Tadashi) Maeda, chief of the Corporate Planning Department of the Japan Bank for International Cooperation, said during a recent interview with The Asahi Shimbun that the risk of a disastrous nuclear accident resulting in a tremendous amount of monetary compensation argues for the nationalization of nuclear power generation.

Tadashi Maeda is a

blood sucking tax feeder or just plan stupid?

Question: Why should nuclear power plants be nationalized?

Answer: Atomic energy should be in the hands of a state-run operator of nuclear power plants. It is important for the government to assume full responsibility for (their safe operation). The state-run company would acquire the nuclear power operations from utilities and sell electricity to TEPCO and other electric power suppliers as a wholesaler. The profits from the power sales would be used to pay compensation for the nuclear disaster. This way, the financial burden imposed on the public through higher electricity bills and other forms would be minimized. This system would also contribute to ensuring a stable power supply.

Riiiiight! Get that? What he means to say is that the state run company would be a middle man and sell the electricity to TEPCO who would then sell it back to you and me. Now, how in the world will having the idiots in government as a middleman, and taking a cut off the top, going to keep costs low? Isn't this the very same government that wants to double our Sales Taxes? 


This sounds like another sham to try to get more money from the public and private enterprise without it looking like what it actually is: Another tax guised in the mask of protecting the public.   


Now, who in their right mind would recommend such a thing? How could anyone think that the government could run anything and not turn it into a boondoggle with massive red ink? How could anyone think that adding a government run middleman will do anything except increase costs and prices?


TEPCO didn't get to be the biggest power company in all of Asia and the 4th largest power company in the entire world by having a bunch of lazy, useless bureaucrats running their organization.


Who could possibly think it would be beneficial to anyone to have the Japanese government running our nuclear industries? Look at how well the Japanese government has done at running the economy and the social welfare programs over these last 20 + years! What a marvelous job they've done there. Why, we're only at debt that is 225% of annual GDP.


Imagine the work of wonders these geniuses can do if they get a hold of the nuclear industry. If having the Japanese government run the nuclear industry is such a good idea, why stop there? Why doesn't the Japanese government just nationalize all industry, from cars, to electronics, to farming, to broadcasting, to the Internet, and even to production of candies for kids in order to protect the public and companies from high costs?


Hell, nationalize everything and we'll have a workers paradise!


Just like North Korea or the old Soviet Union. Paradise!


How could I have been such a fool not to realize it all this time? That's it! The answer to our problems! Nationalize everything!


You see, I'm married and my wife gives me an allowance to live on, like most Japanese wives do for their Japanese husbands. But, darned if this allowance hasn't been going down annually over these last twenty years. This situation is really getting desperate.


Bloomberg reports:


Japanese men have seen allowances wither to the least in three decades as their wives pare household spending in an economy mired in deflation. Known in Japan as salarymen, the workers receive 36,500 yen ($452) per month for pocket money, amounting to $15 a day and the smallest amount since 1982, according to a survey by Shinsei Financial Co. released today. Japanese wives typically manage their husbands' earnings. Japan's growth of less than 1 percent per year in the past 10 years has crimped pay, forcing housewives to cut back on pocket money and exacerbating the deflation that has plagued the economy for more than a decade. Wages have been dropping since the March 11 earthquake and household sentiment is near a two- year low, making a consumer-driven economic rebound less likely.  


In my case, I used to get about $50 for a night's out at the pub. But recently, over these last ten ~ fifteen years,  that has dropped to about $35 a night as well as cut from four night's a week to two.


This has been during the bursting of the so-called Japanese Bubble Economy. Just like the west and the USA has done over the last three years, the Japanese government has blown hundreds of billions of dollars propping up Zombie banks and defacto insolvent institutions. They did this by borrowing and using tax money.


They used our tax money and have now borrowed us and our children into a debt that they can - we can - never repay. 


One day soon the piper will need to be paid. 


That is the day Japan goes bankrupt....


And idiots like Tadashi Maeda think the Japanese government should take over our industries? See? We never do learn from history. 

Japanese Prime Minister vs. US President - It's nice to know that there's still someone who's worse off than you are!

Oh well.... That loser Naoto Kan survived his vote of confidence the other day. I was quite unhappy about that... But I was very happy with how he did it. He lied and tricked his fellow crooked politicians. In that way, it does make me chuckle. 

THREE STOOGES MOST VIOLENT SEQUENCE EVER!

Moe says, "Power company probably got their wires 
all tangled up. Go up there and straighten out the mess!" Indeed.

 It seems he made deals with other politicians to not vote against him in the vote of no confidence motion. He promised them, that if they'd cooperate, that he'd quit soon if he survived with their help. Then, after he survived the vote, he reneged, and went around telling a different story about leaving office much later (or that he hadn't yet decided) and now other idiot politicians are angry that he lied to them? Ha!Ha!Ha!Ha!Ha!Ha!Ha!

Talk about the kettle calling the pot black! What a comedy of morons.


Reuters reports:


Ruling and opposition lawmakers slammed Prime Minister Naoto Kan on Friday, as he hinted that he would remain in power until around January although he promised a day earlier to quit once the country's recovery from the March disaster takes hold. Former Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, who supported the premier and voted against the no-confidence motion against his Cabinet on Thursday on the condition that Kan would quit soon, denounced Kan for backpedaling on his word. 


Isn't that just hilarious? One liar, in a room full of liars, lies and the rest of the liars are angry?   Don't look now, but doesn't this sound like that place in the movie, "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest"?

Jack Nicholson stars as leader of unspecified organized political group

Sure, it's humorous. But there's a part that is not humorous about all this. Sydney Morning Herald reports in Japan Faces Downgrade as Economic Turmoil Goes On:


Japan's hopes of bouncing back from the economic turmoil caused by the earthquake and tsunami in March have been knocked by the threat of a credit rating downgrade from Moody's, and a rise in unemployment. Moody's warned that the devastation that struck Japan nearly three months ago is making it even harder for the country to recover from the financial crisis. It put Japan's Aa2 rating - the agency's third-highest grade - on review for a possible downgrade, adding there was a "low chance" of a multi-notch downgrade.


OK. This isn't funny. I suppose people who own lots of golf and silver might find this comforting or funny.... Unfortunately, I'm one of these people who don't believe it is possible to ever have too much gold or silver.


Depressing news. Depressing news, indeed... But then, my good friend Mark, from Diamonds.co.jp (highly recommended) sent me this. 


Mark sent this about Obama (click on image for full size):

Our prime minister, Naoto Kan, is an incompetent clown. But could he possibly be worse than Bush or Obama? No way. Japan is messed up, but we have the luxury of booting out our prime ministers every year. ... Hopefully every six weeks. You guys in the USA get stuck with these clowns for 4 ~ 8 years.

It's always comforting to know that there's still someone who is worse off than you are....

What a Difference a Day (25 Years) Makes

If Japan fails to end industrial policy, its postwar developmentalism may be judged a failure.
--Yasusuke Murakami, 1996

Maria Grever - Cuando Vuelva A Tu Lado

You might recognize the melody. It is "What a Difference a Day Makes." 

This song was written by a Mexican composer named Maria Grever 

and it was originally in Spanish!

"How could this have happened?" Japan, the nation that just 25 ~ 30-years ago was predicted by many to dominate the world spent most of the 1990's and the 2000's just struggling to stay afloat. In fact, the only reason why Japan did stay afloat was massive government spending on useless public works projects and the like.

Today, Japan's debt stands at 225% of GDP. The cupboards are laid bare and with the continuing troubles all around the world with rising food and oil prices, not to mention the recent disaster in Japan do not bode well. Things are headed for a clash this year, I predict.


Mike Whitney says:


....(USA) unemployment is on the rise (Initial claims rose to 424,000 on Thursday), GDP is falling (1Q GDP revised to 1.8%), durable goods are down 3.6 percent in April, the market is topping out, business investment is flat, Europe's on the ropes, Japan is in a historic slump, China is overheating, the output gap is as wide as it was 6 quarters ago, bank balance sheets are bleeding red from falling home prices and non-performing loans, and the housing market is crashing.

Most of the rest of the article that Whitney wrote is pure Keynesian nonsense but he had the above information correct. Even a broken clock is right twice a day.


I have recommended stocking up on food and water and think you should do the same.... Especially if you live in an earthquake prone country like Japan. Because if something happens, all the stores will sell out of water and most foods within a day, if that long.


The store shelves always look full because they are constantly restocked throughout the day. What's going to happen when something bad happens and the delivery trucks stop running?

Japan, in particular is in a very precarious position today. 


In 1998, Richard Katz wrote a book entitled, Japan: The System that Soured (The Rise and Fall of the Japanese Economic Miracle). It was one of any books at the time that speeled out what went wrong with the Japanese economic miracle. I bought the book when it first came out and still have it. I am amazed at how much this writer had predicted that has come true. 

He wrote: 

"Without sweeping structural reforms, Japan will continue to stagnate. Japan's productivity growth is so dismal these days that, even if it operated at full capacity, economists say the fastest it could grow is around 2 percent or so. That's half the 4 percent rate it averaged from 1975 to 1990. And yet; because of Japan's myriad macroeconomic problems, Japan has commonly been unable to operate at full capacity. In four out of the six years since fiscal 1992, Japan has grown less than 1 percent, and in three of those four years less than 0.5 percent. Japan grew less over the entire five-year period from mid-1992 through mid-1997 than it did in the single year of 1990. Unless there is massive budgetary stimulus, this negligible growth is expected to continue through at least 1998 and 1999 (see Figure 1.1). By the dawn of the new millennium, Japan will have spent an entire decade growing more slowly than the United States, the nation it was supposedly "on track to overtake by the year 2000."


"Nor is this a temporary slump. According to official forecasts, without reforms, even at full capacity, the fastest growth Japan could sustain between now and 2010 is only 1.8 percent a year. After 2010, says the normally optimistic MITI, the combination of poor productivity and a declining labor force means it will get worse. Japan's growth potential will plunge to only 0.8 percent a year."

It astounds me that this writer was so aptly able to predict the future growth rate of Japan.

I remember when I first read this, I thought, "Japan will recover!" Now, I am not so sure.

As the quote at the top of this post suggests, if Japan cannot reform its postwar industrial policy, it will be deemed a failure. The only way that is ever going to happen is that the political system that strangles Japan must collapse. The Good Old Boys and vested interests must go.

The only way that the people are going to rise up and demand that is the bottom is going to have to fall out. Just as a drug addict or alcoholic must hit rock bottom before he will admit his problems and seek help, this country will have to collapse under the strain of a massive debt to GDP ratio.

Japan is headed for some very tough times and some very difficult decisions... It's rainy season now in Japan and the weather is cool.... But in about six weeks, it's going to start getting very hot. And I don't think that is just the temperature of the summer days... I think things are all falling into place for some very difficult times for everyone. Not just Japan.

Police Start Shooting Protestors in Spain w/Rubber Bullets- Still Not News in Japan

Astounding. The peaceful demonstrations in Spain are over. The people have begun beating people and shooting them with rubber bullets. As usual, Japanese news is eerily silent on the matter. What's going on here? 

THE CLASH - REVOLUTION ROCK

Google reports that the government has sent in police in Barcelona with truncheons and they are beating peaceful demonstrators and shooting them with rubber bullets. Google reports:

Police fire rubber bullets at protesters in Barcelona

BARCELONA — Spanish police fired rubber bullets and swung truncheons to disperse anti-crisis protesters in a Barcelona square Friday as cleaning crews cleared their tent camp.

Catalan police in anti-riot gear moved in after about 50 protesters sat down on the street to block a convoy of cleaning trucks leaving the Plaza de Cataluna square with remnants of the encampment.

Police, some with plastic shields, were shown on television dragging protesters along the street and swiping with truncheons at activists, who had been chanting: "They shall not pass."

An AFP reporter at the scene saw rubber bullets fired.

The protest blockade was broken up within minutes but about 100 protesters regrouped in the square. They were surrounded by two police cordons blocking hundreds more people from entering from nearby roads.

Demonstrators chanted: "The people, united, will never be defeated!" and "No to violence!"

Cleaning crews with 10 lorries dismantled the last of the tents under police surveillance. Later, police left the square and let thousands of demonstrators flood in.

By the evening, at least 5,000 people were in the square protesting against the police intervention, some having put up tents. A dozen police vehicles were in streets leading to the square.

"What happened today was awful but it is a warning" for the country's leadership, said Ramon Deltran, 50, a psychiatrist.

I predict that this situation is going to seriously escalate and, like I wrote on May 21 in Massive Anti-Government Protests in Spain Spreading to Italy! No Mention at all in Japanese Press, the exact same thing is going on now! 

Ultimately, unemployment, taxes and austerity measures have caused these huge demonstrations that are, as one protester said, "... against the criminal behavior of the central bankers and IMF. Taking tax money from the people and giving it to rich bankers have finally made the people take to the streets...."

Yet, this news is nowhere to be found in the Japanese news services in English or in Japanese.

I predict that this demonstration in Spain will collapse the Spanish government.

There's no way unemployment or the situation with government debt, which will lead to higher taxes and more austerity measures in Spain is going to go away anytime soon, so these demonstrations are going to go on. The government, by taking a heavy hand are just escalating the situation. They are toast.

But, once again, not a word about it in the Japanese press! I checked both Yahoo! Japan and NHK and cannot find any mention of this news!

Here's a screen capture of NHK news site:

Quick translation from top to bottom:

Anti-Nuclear Demonstrations Prompting Closure of Nuke Plants

President Expected in Poland

Tourism promotion delegation sent to China

U.S. envoy continuing investigation of food shortages in North Korea 

Honda in Canada leaks personal information

The state of the last shuttle maintenance announced

"The strange quiet of territorial negotiations"

Syrian crackdown as police fire at protesters

Democratization and  assistance in the Middle East

Massive demonstrations protesting the army in Egypt

U.S. Secretary of State visits Pakistan

......Nothing about police shooting people with rubber bullets in Barcelona Spain. How about Yahoo! Japan?

Well, what do you know!? Yahoo! Japan does come through and has a story about Barcelona! (Marked in red)... Yippee... Er, well, not exactly about demonstrations and the police rousting people out like the Nazi Gestapo, but about how some soccer team from Barcelona won a soccer championship for the fourth time beating Manchester United..... .....Yawn!

Unemployment in Spain is the highest in the EU at over 21%, the entire country is about to go bankrupt and these stupid people care about who wins some professional sports title? Are you kidding me? Morons. 

Who was it that wrote something about "Bread and Circuses for the masses"? 

Nuclear Crisis in Japan? When the Cure is Worse Than the Disease

I recently concluded an interview with a new publication that is under the support of Casey Research and that publication s called the International Man. It is a publication geared towards the expat or people thinking of expatration out of the USA or other western nations into the developing world in order to find their success and new opportunities.


You can subscribe to the International Man here.

BING CROSBY - BROTHER CAN YOU SPARE A DIME?

We spoke of many things related to Japan and one of the most difficult questions dealt with the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami and subsequent Fukushima nuclear accident. I was asked how this chain of events would affect the Japanese and world economy.


Not to belittle a serious situation, I replied that, in and of itself, the disaster followed by the nuclear accident at Fukushima is, in the long run view of things in Japan, a blip on the screen. The nuclear problems in Fukushima are serious to be sure, but for the over-all view of Japan, that alone is not such a huge event. It is the ping-pong effect that this incident is going to have on Japan that is difficult to access the total damage that it will cause. Specifically, how much bungling will the incompetents running this country into the ground will cause with their ill-conceived and poorly considered "solutions".


Consider: There are only 750,000 people living in the Miyagi area where the earthquake and tsunami struck hardest. This disaster and the nuclear power plant accident has displaced about 400,000 (if anyone has exact figures, please send along!). Had this accident happened in Hamaoka or Tokai, south of Tokyo, it would have been an entirely different story. There are 35 million households in the Tokyo area alone.


At the end of World War II, Japan had over 2 million dead soldiers. Almost 1 million dead civilians and her cities were carpet bombed into ruin. Yet Japan recovered. This earthquake, tsunami and nuclear incident is in a small corner of Japan. Once again, not to belittle a very dire and serious situation, but it is the aftereffects of this situation - combined with Japan's debt versus GDP and a rapidly aging society - along with an exodus of cheap foreign labor that's what's really going to hurt this country.


The actual disaster is bad enough. But it is the after effects that are going to kill us. You've heard the expression that the "Cure is worse than the disease?" Well here is a case example happening in slow motion right in front of our faces.  It is the "ping-pong" effect. And the repercussions of this ping pong effect are spreading wider and wider and everyday brings a new facet to this problem as it continually evolves.  


That ping-pong effect could have very serious and long term effects and cause huge damage to the Japanese economy and, in turn, seriously hurt the world economy.

One of the worst things to come out of the Fukushima accident is, not only radiation leaking out into the ocean is - quite surprisingly -  the fact that radiation has been detected in unsafe levels in tea leaves in farms in Odawara - south of Tokyo. This is very bad for those farmers and a real head scratcher as to how this has come about. It also, on the other hand, dampens complaints that some people have about the government covering up and lying about the radiation levels. If the government were always lying and covering up as some claim, then this information would have never seen the light of day. I'll be the first to suggest that everyone should be skeptical of everything they hear and see on the mass media or from what the government says, but I also have always said that each person needs to research facts. This is why I list the radiation levels in Tokyo that are published daily by a non-governmental, science research group, the Advanced Science and Technology Unit. on this blog. See here. This group does not publish conjecture and just facts as to daily radiation levels. (The fact that a government group has also researched a published results of radiation levels in food in Fukushima, Miyagi and now Kanagawa proves that there are reliable reports coming out about radiation levels of concern to the public well-being.)


But, in the long run, and for the over-all view of the health of the nation, let's examine briefly the shockingly great deal (poor deal for the public) the Japanese government has given to TEPCO, the owners of the nuclear power plant, to bail out that company. First off, any thinking person should be dead set against a government bailout of any privately owned company. Why do privately owned companies get to enjoy profits (TEPCO charges the highest utility rates in the region and owns 44% of the market and is the #1 energy company in all of Asia) and pocket them but when they lose money, they get bailed out by the public? It is also a crime that TEPCO carried no casualty insurance. (Global Research has a great article on this here.) You or I lose our drivers license if we have no car insurance but a big company in bed with the government can run a nuclear power plant without insurance!?


The bailout package is $62 billion (USD).  Japan cannot afford this bailout. It is, also, not really a bailout as such. There will be no bonds issued. TEPCO has 30 years to repay so the actual plan is to have the Japanese government print our way out of this mess.


Throw on top of that the point that a privately owned company is giving up some control to the government and you really have to wonder what people are thinking about. Why in the world would anyone want such an inept and useless bunch of people like the Japanese government - a government who has nearly bankrupted this nation - to take over a privately owned corporation? I think this is beyond comprehension. 


Think about it folks, we are already at 225% debt to GDP. This debt is growing like a dangerous anuerism near the heart of the public. Giving this government more control and more leeway to spend and throw money at problems is not the solution. Adding another $62 billion dollars to Japan's debt mountain is not going to help us at all. The public has shown a willingness to save, but the government has not shown a willingness to stop the spend and the printing. This, plus a recession, deflation, aging population, exodus of cheap foreign labor, and some more problems that will surely pop up as we go - just as sure as the sun will rise in the east - shows that it is not the actual disaster that is going to kill us. 


The thing that is going to do us in is not the disease (all of our problems). It's the cure prescribed by the fools running Japan's government (easy credit, printing money and more debt) that will surely kill us all.


Judging from the way things are going and how the government's answer to problems is always the same, it shouldn't come as any surprise to anyone when the day soon comes that Japan's debt to GDP nears 250% ~ 300%. Could it be that far off? I don't think so.


The cure is certainly worse than the disease.