Japanese Gov't Plans to Double Sales Tax - Will it Matter? To You & Me, Yes! To the National Debt? No!

Once again the clamoring for a raise in sales tax is in the Japanese news recently. It conveniently coincides with the news about the emperor of Japan having to enter the hospital for heart surgery.


Actually, before you jump to conclusions, I think this guy is OK. He's never invaded China or Asia, or even Ezo, so, as Japanese emperors go, he seems like a cool dude. 

Of course, in matter of national importance, in Japan, the medical condition of a "well known and loved man" who is nearly 80-years-old will be the top page news in all publications; the doubling of our sales tax that affects everyone slides in second.


I suppose though, that might be a tad bit better than the USA, a country with very poor press freedom that ranks 47th in that category along side beacons of liberty nations such as Argentina, Taiwan and Romania whereby regular important news is completely dropped down the memory hole like a day's work by one Winston Smith.


Seems to me that something very important happened to the American body-politic about the time Whitney Houston died... I believe it had to do with a scandalous and corrupt voting process in a country that has fought and spilled blood to bring democracy to many middle eastern nations... Nevertheless, the main stream media ignored this corruption and, instead, chose to focus all its attention on poor Whitney and how much we all loved her, owned all her albums, and how everyone's life was changed forever by her seven #1 hit songs between 1985 ~ 1987.


But I digress... 


Google News reports on how Japan's current prime minister and cabinet (soon to be ex-prime minister and cabinet) are so mathematically challenged that they are actually dumb enough to propose a sales tax increase:

TOKYO — Japan's cabinet on Friday approved a plan to double sales taxes as part of the government's move to rein in public debt as the rapidly ageing nation faces rising social welfare costs.

If agreed by parliament, the package of reforms will see consumption tax rise to 8.0 percent in April 2014 and to 10 percent in October 2015 from the current 5.0 percent.

Finance Minister Jun Azumi told reporters that the government planned to submit related bills to parliament in March.

But the legislation is expected to face a rocky road as opposition parties, as well as some lawmakers in the ruling Democratic Party of Japan, are against it.

The opposition bloc controls the upper house of parliament.

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has warned the future of the world's third-largest economy depends on reversing the rising public debt, arguing Japan has "no time to spare" in reducing its fiscal burden.

In an online message after the decision Friday, Noda noted Japan's social security costs would increase by one trillion yen ($12.6 billion) every year as the population gets older.

"If you pile up one trillion yen in 10,000-yen bills, it reaches the height of 10,000 metres, which is taller than Mount Everest," he said.


Laughable, really. This is the intelligence level of these people. That someone has pointed out that the bills of the national debt, if stacked up, will be "taller than Mount Everest"??? That is their motivation to action? Bwa! Ha! Ha! That's just hilarious, folks. 

Left: OK. Right Dame desu.

Have a laugh on that one. Wow! Mount Everest!? What!? Can't have that! What about our samurai spirit? This is Japan! We are Nipponjin! We can't have our debt looking like a foreign mountain! It's got to look like Mount Fuji or nothing at all!


In Japan, we have our own rock stars, and we have our own dolts and political calamities. The current group of mathematically challenged fools want to raise the sales tax to 8% and then to 10% within the next 3 years? Seriously, folks. It doesn't get better than this. 


See? I told you. The fools who ostensibly "run" this country are unable to complete simple 1st grade mathematics. They are incapable of recognizing a basic rule of fundamental first grade math.


Let me explain two very simple ideas: 


1) First: A Fundamental Rule of Math. Let me make this easy so that even a politician can understand: Say, you have five marbles in a can. Can you take out six marbles from that can? No. You cannot. Why? Because there are only five marbles. 


Meaning: The government can raise sales taxes for ever and ever but, if they don't cut spending to less than revenue, they will never get out of the hole. Spending must be kept in line with revenue. It's the same for you and me: If you have debt, then your spending must take into account interest payments on that debt. Your total spending must be under your total revenue.


2) Since most people's incomes do not rise with expenses, then an increase in taxes will cause a decrease in spending. Meaning, I have a dollar. If I use that dollar to buy food, I buy a dollar's worth of food. If you tax me 20% then I can only spend 80 some cents on food as I have to pay tax. The increase in tax will correspond with an equal decrease in spending. 


People have short memories so they don't remember that when the 3% sales tax was started, the government then said that it would fix our debt problem. They said the same thing when it was raised to 5%.


But, alas, the sales tax increases didn't help. Why because spending kept speeding along. 


My good friend, Marc Sheffner who runs the Accurate Maps blog has an interesting post on Japan's current debt crunch. Marc shows us that Japan's debt has now surpassed 500% of GDP. He writes:


"If you're holding a hot beverage, you might want to sit down before looking at this. You might need a stiff beverage afterwards. (See bottom of the post for US/UK total debt horror story, but after seeing the Japan one, hey! That's nothing!)"

Thanks Marc! 


But once again, though, I think Marc over-reacts. I'm thinking of running for Japanese political office. I can be just as mathematically challenged as these clowns we have in office now. In fact, I can do better! 


Here's my platform and my message:

Citizens of Japan! Worry not! It’s all under control. Just as soon as you elect me to prime minister I will fix the budget by the tried and true methods of the great Japanese prime ministers who have come before me! I promise to pay everyone and all Japanese government obligations! To do so, I plan on raising our sales tax to 10% in 2015… Then 20% in 2016... Then 25% in 2018… Then 40% in 2020… Then 60% in 2025… Then 80% in 2027… 90% in 2030… Then 100% in 2032… Then 115% in 2035… Then 125% in 2037… Then 135% in 2040. Then 146% in 2042…Then 160% in 2045... Then 185% in 2047… 220% in 2050… 245% in 2052... 270% in 2055....And so on…. Well, you get the picture. Everything’s under control. Vote for me and the New Party Party! Don’t worry!…. Kampai!

MY PARTY THEME SONG:

MY PARTY PLATFORM POSTER:

Remember these good old days? Well, neither do I. 

(But, ♫ Yo-ho, yo-ho, it's a ladies life for me!♫ )

Japan's Crisis Has Arrived? Japan Has First Trade Deficit in 32 Years!

The floodgates are creaking. If Japan needs foreign loans to float the government debt, the country is sunk. The other option is to destroy the value of the yen.

Will the Japanese public stand hyperinflation? If interest rates go to just 3% they would consume ALL of Japan's tax revenue. Even doubling the Sales Tax won't help.


Mish Shedlock reports in Japan Faces Moment of Truth:

Japan is in deep serious trouble the moment it enters a sustainable period of negative or neutral current account balances. If Japan becomes dependent on foreigners to finance rollovers on its debt either the Yen sinks or interest rates rise. Interest rates at a mere 3% would currently consume all of Japan's tax revenue.

Bloomberg reported; “Japan’s government said it will probably miss its goal of balancing the budget by 2020 even with its proposed doubling of the sales tax, underscoring the scale of the nation’s fiscal challenges.

The primary budget deficit, which excludes the cost of servicing debt, will be the equivalent of 3.1 percent of gross domestic product for the year through March 2021, the Cabinet Office said in Tokyo today. Hours after the release, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda reiterated his call for opposition lawmakers to engage in talks on boosting the sales levy.

‘To balance the budget, the rate needs to rise further.’”

What did I tell you the last time I wrote against an increase in Sales Tax? No matter how much the taxes go up, the government will always spend what it takes and, no matter how much it is raised, it will never be enough. History shows us that! When the first Sales Tax came in at 3% in the early 1980s they said that was going to fix the budget problems. Guess what? Surprise! It didn't.


Why didn't it? Because they spent the money!

The article above really goes into how stupid and into the outer limits of insanity the current government of Japan is by stating that there are some who think Japan should have a 25% Sales Tax.

Like I predicted, this prime minister, Noda something or other (no need to remember his name, he is a goner) will be gone this summer. Bank on it.

Instead of raising taxes, how about cutting spending?

Meeting the Rich and Famous in Japan? Sure. No Problem. Happens All the Time

There's not a foreigner in this country who won't tell you that Japan is a very weird place. When I say that, I mean it in a good way. The other foreigners you talk to may not.

Japan is just, well... Japan. That's the best explanation I can come up with. Things happen in Japan that just would never happen in a million years in another country. That's just the way it is.

Here's an example of something weird that happened to me. Just one of a very many.... 

But, first, some background; in the late 70's and early 80's, I was in a one-hit wonder punk bank and then ran one of the first punk underground "zines" back in those days. Underground free papers were quite the rarity at that time. But we made one. It was called, "Sixty Miles North." I won't embarrass myself by telling you the name of my band.

June 27, 1984 Sixty Miles North. Yours truly on the cover.

Sixty Miles North was pretty popular at that time and there's even a webpage for it with someone selling back issues fer chrissakes!

Anyway, we used to distribute these magazines at record stores, etc. back in those days. 

One particularly well-known record store chain was owned by a now multi-millionaire guy by the name of Jim Salzer. One day, when I went to his then tiny record store, I took magazines and asked him if he'd put them on the racks and give them away for me. He eagerly agreed and thought the magazine was extremely cool. I was happy. I think that one time was one of the few times I had ever met him in the USA and I had only ever met him when he was at his shop. Keep in mind that this was a suburban area and not a big city.

Fast forward several months. I moved out of the USA and left the magazine for my useless friends to run into bankruptcy, which they did. Soon. I was then living and working in Japan.

My very first job in Japan found me working in Shinjuku in Tokyo. One of the biggest cities and most crowded places in the world. On my very first day of work, my new friend Stephen asked me to go have dinner with him at a KFC near the station. Even though I generally hate KFC, I said "OK" as I didn't know any good places to eat; I had no friends (Stephen was my first) and I had only been in Japan for one week. I also didn't have a clue as to where I was (really) or where to go.

So we go to this KFC at the west exit of Shinjuku station and are standing on the street eating chicken. There's a million and a half people milling around us. A guy walks up to me and says,

"Mike! Mike! There you are!" At first, I didn't recognize him... It was Jim Salzer. Jim Salzer in Japan, no less, and he doesn't seem the least bit surprised to see me. My jaw drops. WTF!? I've never met him randomly on the street in my own hometown and I had lived there for over 15 years. Here I am in Japan for a week and he walks right up to me like it's no big deal. 

Jim realized the shock on my face and said, "Mike! Mike! Don't you recognize me? It's me, Jim!"

I snapped out of it. "Oh? Er, sure! Jim? Jim Salzer! Hi. How are you?"

Jim said, "I'd been wondering where you went to..." He then slapped my back and said, "Say, Mike, I'd love to talk, but I'm late. Where the heck is the train station?" I didn't know either but my friend pointed him in the right direction and off he went as if there wasn't anything the least bit unusual like this sort of chance encounter.

Here I am in one of the most crowded places in the world and, by pure coincidence, I meet an aquaintance from back home that I had never met by chance on the street there (and even at that I had only met him three or four times!)... There's 60 million people in this town and he walks right up to me! And he acts like it's no big deal... Just like meeting a co-worker at the water cooler at the office!

I am still amazed about it. I wish I had a picture to prove it.

Like I said, the weirdest sh*t happens in Japan. My friend George Williams agrees with me, "You can meet people in Japan that you'd never ever meet in a hundred lifetimes in the west. Hell, in the west, you couldn't get within 5000 meters (yards) of these people. But in Japan, you can meet them walking along on the street!" It's true. I've met Eric Clapton twice walking along a street in Harajuku. At first I thought he was some scraggly-looking dumpy foreigner just hanging around looking for a job.... That's probably what everyone else thought too! 

My friend George even has a cool photo of the time he met Jimmy Page when Jimmy came to Japan in the 1980's! George is standing there next to Jimmy looking like he's standing next to his mom or something. It's pretty cool... I mean, if you like Led Zeppelin... 

Now, let me drop some names.

Since I've been in Japan, I've met many extremely famous people, multi-millionaires and world famous politicians... Just to name a few...

I've met Richard Branson, George H. W. Bush (Daddy Bush), Yoko Ono, Elvis Costello, Siouxsie Sioux (not well known by most, but I am a big fan), at least 7 Japanese Prime Ministers and a bunch of other countries prime ministers - so many - that I can't remember. Along with the some many others that I've met who I can't remember either.

Of course my job makes a big difference, but meeting guys like Richard Branson or these prime ministers and George Bush had nothing to do with my radio & TV work.

In fact, meeting George H. W. Bush had nothing to do with radio but everything to do with... Amway. You can read that true story here.

With Yoko Ono

I'm not in this photo with Siouxsie Sioux (her former hubby, Budgie next to her) but I took the photo. You get to see

how hot my wife was just when we married (though why she married me is anyone's guess). At right, front, is George Williams.

Former prime minister Yoshiro Mori (I think I'm going to 

start a collection of prime ministers I've taken photos with).

George H. W. Bush at an Amway convention. Don't believe me?

Here's the proof. 

Read:  Japan, Amway, George H.W. Bush, and Diana Ross – Your Tax Dollars at Work! to read more bizarre adventures that could only happen in Japan!

White Stripes way before they were famous

Menudo in 1984. I'm wearing the white shirt. See the kid in blue in front second from left? That's 

Ricky Martin at about age 10. No kidding!

Some wankers in a crap band named Linkin Park.

Elvis Costello is a very nice guy.

   
Anyhow, I hope it doesn't seem like I am bragging (well, I am kind of... Now that I look at all these pictures)... The real point is that, in Japan, the weirdest things happen. I have hundreds more photos to prove it too! I have photos with lots of movie-types like Arnie Schwarneggar, but can't be bothered to find them...

Last night I met one of the most famous Korean singers in all of Asia and one of my other blogger friends wrote about his hospital stay and the doctor smoking cigarettes (Hey! Do we have the same doctor? Wow! Small world, eh?) So that inspired me.

Have a good day... Oh, and don't forget to always have a camera! You never know who is going to walk up to you and ask directions.

Japanese PM Kan is out on August 30, 2011!!!

Jeez. It's about time! Zero Hedge is reporting that, according to Reuters,  Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan will step down on the 30th!


Zero Hedge reports:

Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan told his cabinet ministers on Tuesday that they are likely to resign on Aug. 30, Japanese Economics Minister Kaoru Yosano said on Tuesday.

The unpopular prime minister's comments effectively confirmed his intention to resign in coming days, clearing the way for Japan to select its sixth prime minister since Junichiro Koizumi ended a rare five-year term in 2006.

The ruling Democratic Party of Japan is planning to pick a new leader on Aug. 29, setting the stage for parliamentary confirmation of a new premier and the selection of a new cabinet.

Yosano also told a news conference that the government needs to devise steps to cope with the negative effects of the yen rise in the coming third supplementary budget for this fiscal year.

It's good news and bad... If history is any example, the next guy will be just as much of an idiot too.

Hilarious Announcement About Japan's Dead PM Visiting Controversial Site

I can imagine that the headline read, "Japanese Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka Visits Yasukuni Shrine" and people got all ruffled. Yasukuni is the shrine in Japan that memorializes Japan's war dead and a few Japanese generals and soldier who were convicted of WWII war crimes are enshrined there.

This usually gets the Koreas and China up in arms.

This time, the South Korean press has reported these same types of shenanigans... Excepting this, time, it couldn't have happened. This Japanese prime minister died in 1993!

Funny stuff.

Thanks to Ira Hata and Steven L. Herman!

Yen to hit ¥78 to the US Dollar!? Thank you Japanese politicians

By Mike in Tokyo Rogers

AS I wrote last night, I am shocked that Naoto Kan was reelected as President of the DPJ and, hence, remains as Prime Minister of Japan. Most everyone else I know is also stunned at this news.

How could that have happened?

How could the DPJ members have voted to keep a guy that got them so badly beaten in the last general election? How could they have reasserted their backing to a guy that sits back and does nothing while the Japanese yen continues to rise and damage japan's export economy?

There are now reports that predict a yen rise to as high as ¥78 to the US dollar. As Bloomberg reports:

The yen is poised to rise as high as 78 per dollar as the victory of Japan’s Prime Minister Naoto Kan in a ruling party election damps the likelihood of intervention, Bank of America Merrill Lynch said.

I used to think that Japanese politics were much better than American politics as, in America, when we have an election for president, we get stuck with some fool who raises our taxes and starts wars and gets us farther into debt and we can't get rid of that guy for at least 4 years. In Japan, the merry-go-round that is Japanese politics has our prime minister changing every few months.

This is much better as, since the Japanese Prime Minister always changes, they haven't the time or chance to raise taxes and enact too many new laws.

This allows Japanese politics much more inertia. This is much better.

If we cannot abolish government, then the next best thing is government in deadlock or government that doesn't survive for long enough to pass any new laws or taxes.

It's too bad that, perhaps finally, Japanese politics are becoming more and more like America's.

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Keywords: Politics, Naoto Kan, Prime Minister, president

Japan's Dysfunctional Government is Best!

By Mike in Tokyo Rogers


Japanese people are very embarrassed by their government. I often hear people say ridiculous things to me like, "I wish we Japanese had a good government like you do in America" or, "Japanese politics is such a joke, all they ever do is care about themselves."

"Who voted for this Asoh?"

Laughable, isn't it? I mean, ow could anyone think the US government is "good" is well beyond my comprehension. I think, in some ways, the Japanese government is head and shoulders above the US government.


Take the recent news...


The newspapers read:


Japan Leadership Battle Kicks Off!


Japan's Prime Minister Naoto Kan and his rival, powerbroker Ichiro Ozawa, kicked off a leadership battle Wednesday that threatens to divide the ruling party only a year after it took power. Their contest to run the governing centre-left Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) comes as its economic recovery is slowing, Japan's debt mountain is growing and exports are threatened by the yen trading near a 15-year high. The rivals, who both formally declared their candidacy for the September 14 party election, represent the two different wings of the party which a year ago ousted the conservatives after more than half as century in power. 


That's what the papers are all saying. To most Japanese people who care about this sort of thing, it is an embarrassment. It looks like Japan can't have a stable government. I mean, it is possible that, very soon, Japan will have their seventh prime minister in six years if things keep going at this rate. 


Seven prime ministers in six years? I think that's great. 


Why do I think that's good? Well, you see, in the USA we get some moron into the presidency and we are stuck with him for at least 4 years (usually 8). This allows that fool to do all sorts of stupid things like start wars, raise taxes, pass new and destructive laws... And we are stuck with it....


In Japan? Nope. We don't have that problem... When the prime minister's job is like a revolving door, with the prime minister changing every few months, then that's the best result we can possibly hope for short of abolishing the entire government.


Why? Well, if we are changing government constantly, then they cannot pass new laws nor can they raise our taxes. See? It's the best!


It's the most optimum outcome possible! So three cheers for the dysfunctional Japanese political system! Let's hope it spreads around the world and puts and end to tax increases and wars! 


Besides that, I have "10 prime ministers in 8 years" in the pool at work and I have my eye on that money!


Go dysfunctional government! Rah! Rah!





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Keywords:


prime minister, Naoto Kan, Ichiro Ozawa, Marketing Japan, Mike Rogers