Is Japan in a Depression

My very simple answer is ... YES
The government last year acknowledged that Japan is in a RECESSION.
Just in. New car sales for 2022 dropped by 6%. This and in the year 2021 car sales also dropped.
One only has to look around in any major city to know that a REAL DEPRESSION is at the front doors of the mom and pop stores, but here is the real kicker. You know all them high class fancy department stores, well, the foot traffic is way down also. I don't have the current "sales" for department stores at the moment. But I have posted here with a few pictures of empty shelves. I think people realize sometime last year that after the government came out and said, " RECESSION ", people panic and quit spending money which made matters worse.
Here we have community type gardens and people rushed in to see if they can get any vacant spaces available. Nope, nothing. Usually some spaces are vacant. People here ( those that are making less than 2.5 million yen a year are in dire straits ), me too as I posted. Every yen is going out the door so fast, one can't save money these days.

We all know by now that Biden, next week will go to the border, but why... As I've mentioned before, America is about 45 days behind Japan in most events.

So is he there to get the minds off that America is really going to be in a Depression of possibly "no return".

You all don't know this, but Japan does have a lot of freedom of the press when it comes to reporting on America and what is happening there. The stuff we see, well, maybe you can see it also, but most likely not is that we see American cities falling apart. It's terrible. Filth, crime, drug and alcohol use openly on every major city streets. Tent cities that look like the Philippines garbage dumps.
MIM's Street Talk for May of 2023, is it going to be about an America that is collasping within .
We all are reading of the thousands getting laid off in America these days and Amazon layoffs is one of the biggest morning news here. Something bad is cooking behind them closed doors in DC.

I think the whole world has been in a depression for some time now; we just haven't been given the official announcement yet.

originally posted by: nugget1
I think the whole world has been in a depression for some time now; we just haven't been given the official announcement yet.

Yep. Very true.

So much is being hidden, right in plain sight. I am in Central IL USA. A short two hundred miles from Chicago. My city has 100 000 plus population and actually very clean. Some crime is up but it is not seriously so. However, I wouldn't go within fifty miles of Chicago. Nor would I go near St Louis or East St Louis.
Problem is the interstates intersect here and the drug dealers do stop off from time to time to get gas and steal an occasional item. We don't have smash and grabs, nor do we have a dramatic increase in violent crimes here. More conservative. So what gives in the US? Its the democratic run cities and a lost generation.

We are impacted here in downstate IL with massive price hikes. Some food prices are more than double that of just 12 months ago.
Biden continues to dump our oil reserves so we cannot defend ourselves in case of war. In fact, all food products are very high. Most double and some even triple the cost of a year ago.

So are we in a depression? Not yet. A recession? yes and now for more than six months. If this continues and I doubt congress will be able to turn it around now, even with Republicans at work. [if they get their act together ] Well some say America is done for. I say.....not. The world will go down with America. And it seems to be heating up to a crescendo that no one can stop. But not quite yet.

When a football player recently collapsed on the field the teams and many in the stands stopped to pray for this man. The teams even knelt and prayed for him right there on the field....

But who is praying for America? For the world? I see that as Americas single most serious problem. Not that we pray for someone, but rather we do not pray for other things that are also so very serious.

We have a lost generation that does not understand priorities. And so we are not yet in a depression, but rest assured if we do nothing about it...including what we did for one football player recently....then nothing will be done....about it. And America will fold...and the world with it

I read somewhere yesterday (can't find the article, sorry) that Japan was paying residents to move out of Tokyo and into "rundown depopulated areas" of Japan. Seems like it was about 7500$ (US) per child to move. The article said that Tokyo was becoming overpopulated while a lot of the surrounding region was rundown and unused.

I'll look again and see if I can find the article for you, but it struck me as odd for some reason.

I think the entire world is in a recession now, even though none of our world leaders want to admit it.

It feels like everything is about to crumble for all of us "common folk" around the world. It might just be all the gloom and doom news we see over here in the USA. It feels like a recession though (by definition at least) here. It's getting hard to just feed ourselves now. Most of us have had to cut back on spending. Which if I read it right, that's one sign of a recession.
Either way, things are looking darker and darker for us all. I've been seeing whats going on in Japan since I look at a lot of different news mediums from around the world. Hope you all will be alright. And I hope that for the rest of us as well. I have a real bad feeling that things are about to change in a way that's gonna rock the whole world.





www.moneycontrol.com...
Found it.

originally posted by: AOx6179
I read somewhere yesterday (can't find the article, sorry) that Japan was paying residents to move out of Tokyo and into "rundown depopulated areas" of Japan. Seems like it was about 7500$ (US) per child to move. The article said that Tokyo was becoming overpopulated while a lot of the surrounding region was rundown and unused.

I'll look again and see if I can find the article for you, but it struck me as odd for some reason.

I think the entire world is in a recession now, even though none of our world leaders want to admit it.

It feels like everything is about to crumble for all of us "common folk" around the world. It might just be all the gloom and doom news we see over here in the USA. It feels like a recession though (by definition at least) here. It's getting hard to just feed ourselves now. Most of us have had to cut back on spending. Which if I read it right, that's one sign of a recession.
Either way, things are looking darker and darker for us all. I've been seeing whats going on in Japan since I look at a lot of different news mediums from around the world. Hope you all will be alright. And I hope that for the rest of us as well. I have a real bad feeling that things are about to change in a way that's gonna rock the whole world.



www.moneycontrol.com...
Found it.

Thanks for your comment about Japan. Japan is an island which at one time had a striving economy. I know since I've been here on and off since the early 70's. I've seen the luxury stores in Tokyo and even high class department stores around my area over the last 30 years change to where they now have the dollar stores as tenants. THAT would HAVE NEVER HAPPENED 30 years ago.
Tokoy lost over 50000 residents last year. How do I know, because when you leave a city here, one must register to live and get their tax papers from the tax office. So these figures are not made up.
The national government to the best of my knowledge is NOT paying people to move to the rural areas.
These are two things you might research.
1. The local governments are paying families with children to move into the rural parts of Japan. The problem with this is, many of the schools are far away or have closed due to NO children. These families with old kids then have to have their kids stay at school dorms far away and many are off the small islands. Although if I were young and still had our child, I would jump at the opportunity. Why, with the net, one can get into farming and grow specialty vegetables to sell at restaurants at a good profit. ( this is happening today ) I also have a garden, but my lot is too small to grow big, but I do give away some potatoes that I grow. Garlic is a good item to grow here.
2. Young people are actually going to universities here to learn to farm and fish. They marry with their spouses of same interest , have children. You see this a trend now. Live is hard in the rural side. ( I live only minutes away from villages ). But farming, growing wasabi and other edibles is the future for young couples that want to escape the city life. Also local govt. are there to assist in buying the equipement. I sure wish I was 30 years old again. I would jump fast. Life is so cool out in the countryside. But NO convenient stores or markets. One goes shopping once a month here. It really is country, you see we have a lot of villages out in the mountains. Mountain spring water would be another good business too.

Come to Japan and start a new life. Bring your bicycle though. LOL

a reply to: musicismagic

That is really awesome that the young people are learning to farm. We are losing farms here left and right, and our young ones have no interest in labor intensive work like farming. Thats a page the US should take from Japan. We will need farmers in the future (hopefully, with our farming industry being overtaken).
I live out in the country as well. I grew up in a huge city and moved out to the middle of nowhere about 15 years ago. It was a culture shock at first, but have grown to love the quiet country life. Things move real slow here, but it's nice to step away from all the hustle and bustle in our big cities.

And I'd have no problems with getting around by bike. I have a cousin who lived in the mountains of Japan (while in the military) and he loved it. If had a passport I could've been flown out and seen your beautiful country. I've always wanted to see Japan. The cherry blossoms blooming is so beautiful. And I hear that surfing is pretty popular there and Japan's coast gets some pretty good waves. I missed the opportunity to come see Japan, and I kick myself for missing it. I'm sure I would have loved it there, and might never have left.

a reply to: musicismagic


Maybe that old late 1980's action movie "They Live" is being played out now? I can hear the theme music being played in my head, doom-doooooooom-dooooom-doom! Perhaps those ugly looking space aliens that look like us humans without our special sun glasses on are real and turning Earth into their third world soon? Save us MiM! 😎 🕶️

I have one here that can see! 🧐⌚