The economy is getting really bad here very quickly. Today the Nikkei 225 declined for the 4th day in a row. The yen is nearing an all-time high.
On top of all this bad economic news, the thing that is even worse is the mood of the people. I spoke today with a young 27-year-old company worker who works in the music industry and he told me that there was talk at his company that they weren't going to last the year.
Later, I spoke to the vice president of a large Japanese music publishing company and even he told that, "Things are bad. Everyone is cutting staff and budgets... And it's only going to get worse."
Certainly, the economy is bad and there is no good news on the horizon but, it's also the mood of the people that makes things worse. A vibrant economy needs people with confidence and a positive attitude. Japan certainly doesn't have that now.
It's gotten so bad that even Japan's modern samurai are out of work and that is not a joke.
This report from Al Jazeera:
Samurai movies once made Japanese cinema famous worldwide.
In the 1950s, films such as the Seven Samurai by Akiro Kurosawa were extremely popular both in Japan and abroad.
But waning interest is now leaving many of Japan's silver screen swordsmen out of work.
Cinema and music are escapes for people. They are a cheap way for people to forget their cares.
When people working in these industries start screaming for help then it's probably long past the "canary in the coal mine."
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