Japan: Samurais at Economics

 

While the stagnation of Japanese economy has flummoxed economists around the world, it is a surprise that the root cause was identified by an amateur. I have no qualms in admitting that my economics principles are only a touch stronger than my command over the language of the ancient Aztecs. Pray read on for this tale of supernatural interventions for addressing economic problems.

 

It all started with a dream. In this dream, I was chaperoned by a group of heavily armored warriors. The swords they wielded and their determined looks made it clear that I ought not make an intervention or ask silly questions. This hunch was right: I was now marched into a castle and was being presented to a court. The court silenced as the nobility arrived and took note of my presence. We were all then seated on a wooden floor.

Realization struck: It was the Tokugawa shogunate!

In accented English, The Shogun showered a few good words on my attempt to learn of the Japanese history. Now they had a job for me: I was being chosen for an important mission and was to be bound by the Bushido code. Two swords were presented: a big and a small.

 

Now as you may agree: there are several problems with this situation. I am not a good swordsman: taking my 5 year old to his taekwondo class hardly qualifies to spar with Samurais or Ninjas.

To be or not to be: A Samurai

 But the bigger problem is the smaller sword. While the battle sword of a Samurai is the main kill weapon, the smaller sword has a greater purpose. It is a mark of royalty. And in Samurai scheme of things, you don’t walk up to your lord and say you’re sorry, that you made a mistake. Or I’m sorry: what the master said can’t be done. In such cases: You go to your master and slit your stomach in their presence if you fail him/ her. The small sword is a reminder of your loyalty and adherence to the Bushido code.

 

As per above, I stated these facts and apologized. Clearly there had been a misunderstanding. I don’t kill; and I have no immediate plans to get myself killed either.

 

State of Nikkei: Bloomberg

However, the Shogunate would have none of it. One warrior whispered in my ear. The mission this time was different for modern day Japan. The weapons were not the swords of the Shogunate or canons of the Imperial Japanese Navy. This time the weapon was investigative economics, for the Shogunate was disappointed in the last few decades of modern Japan. I got it now.. The way the rest of the world had been going, and the way Japan’s growth rate was stagnating: it made sense that even stakeholders from the supernatural were disappointed.

So they wanted me to investigate and make recommendations??!! 

I woke up sweating. Got my senses back, then I laughed at the dream. Any sense here? Shogunate time traveling for modern Japan?!! To save the economy?! Me?! Hark hark the lark..

 

Mighty Akagi

The only problem was: the dream came back again. And again. Until the sight of blades started scaring me. Then I had variances: once, where General Yamamoto was discussing with me whether the mighty Akagi’s Mitsubishi Zero fighters be fitted with bombs for penetrating the American aircraft carriers; or should they don air combat weapons for those pesky American Hellcat fighters at the battle of Midway.

 

I could not stand this situation. So our family planned a trip to Japan. And then once more.

 

And here’s what we found:

But first, some tourism tips before we delve into heavier matters of economics and GDP growth.. 

Tokyo:

·       I was initially not excited about getting to Tokyo (just a city, bah..). I was proven horribly wrong. Thanks to advice of a friend to stay in Shinjuku area.

·      

Shinjuku: the real spirit..

Tokyo is a city: yes; but Shinjuku / Shibuya is where the vibe is. Though our PhD in online research will never discover this (there will be some stuff online to put you away), but Shinjuku is the soul & heart. Perennial gay & merry crowd, perennial party, and guess what: three generations amongst us spanning from age 5 to 60 loved the spirit. Everyone in the world seemed to be going to Shinjuku for something: all the time! No we did not go to the crazy bars, but the potpourri of things happening around us just baffled us. Never have I done this: just sit and watch the volume of people in great spirits and soak in the human spirit. 

·       I don’t have a lot to say about the other places in Tokyo. Part of the blame is attributable to where we live : we have witnessed grandeur of temples and palaces in China and nothing impressed us here. Ginza is a chic area but an hour or two is what we needed.

 

Kamakura/ Enoshima:

·       Though not in our itinerary, this turned out to be a pleasant surprise thanks to good advice from friends

·       The views are brilliant. The weather was kind to us on the day: to the extent that we got to worship Mt. Fuji again from the island.

 

Mount Fuji:

·       There are poems paintings and what not on the great Mt. Fuji. A stratovolcano topped with snow. It is a mystical marvel indeed: standing strong alone there in its majesty.

·       Tip: there are ample things online on Hakone vs. Kawaguchiko question. We would strongly recommend the latter. Kawaguchiko is tougher to get to; but our decision was based on horror stories of many travelers who could see Fuji partially or could not see it at all from Hakone. Weather here can vary a lot.

Kyoto:

·       Kyoto has its culture, heritage and architecture. Our itinerary included:

·      

Gion

Gion: This is more of an area, than a specific destination. Old time charm and history preserved beautifully. We did witness a situation, where we saw a Geisha and tourists chasing (can hardly say dignified/ polite manner) her with cameras. There is a proposal to restrict tourists here and now we know why.

• 
   Railway museum: Rail: something that the country prides itself. This could be in your itinerary to humor kids. The views from the terrace are good enough to keep adults entertained. Japan is known for taking good care if it’s heritage and the museum shows it does this for its recent history as well. There is a beauty in the old trains maintained here and seeing the operational steam train is surreal. 
• Fushmi Inari: Shrine: The area has its charm. The 1000 gates and the area is overhyped in our opinion, but the little street side restaurant astonished us and we had an unforgettable meal.
• 
  
  

·       Arashiyama: This happens to be the best area and one where reality does live up to the hype. This is where we erred: we had kept half a day to it and had to rush through it. While bamboo forest is a lull, it is the village environment that left a marked impact.

·      

Nishiki market: Absolutely brilliant: if you are fine with street food. Our tip: avoid the expensive shops and stick around the ones that lure you with cheap sake shots ( 100 yen/ usd 0.x ).

·      

Samurai and ninja museum: Not to expect live action or lessons to transform you to a ninja. This is a nice storytelling in small areas surrounded by samurai artifacts. An intro to the way of life of Samurais, but more importantly: lessons on the social structure on Japan, the shogunate, hierarchy, weaved with the history of the country. Though a bit expensive, we recommend it more so as a important lesson on history and of the country. The artifacts are nice and you do get to try out some of the stuff.

 

Nara:

• ·       A trip from  Kyoto or Osaka is all you need
• ·       The temple is huge and the complex is beautiful
• ·       But the real pull are the deer. Correction: well mannered deer. These fellows have a courteous habit of bowing when greeting.
  

 

 

Osaka

·    

They say Osaka is a city which can eat itself into poverty. The passion for food is incredible. The star here is the food and this was where we perhaps maxed out food trials. All unpronounceable options.

·       The heart and highlight of the city is Dotonbori. Like Shinjuku, it feels as if all humanity is flocking here for food and joy.

·       Most of the top things to do are walkable around Dotonbori area.

 

Kobe:

·       We would describe it as a pleasant port town with European architecture.

·       The Bay Area exudes good vibes and made the trip from Kyoto worth it.

 

Nagoya:

·       This is the only castle we went to and found the reconstructed section incredibly beautiful.

·       Use of gold as a background paint for glow of the picture/ palace: it is something to be witnessed in person.

·       Market: after Shinjuku in Tokyo and Dotonbori in Osaka, this seemed to be a a lot more peaceful. We strolled around the market and had a meal here.

 

Now coming back to the original problem at hand – what we started with: Why the Japanese economy is (was) in a flux.. What answer do I have as a Bushido nominee for the clan?

 Such are the ways of fate that it chose my family to identify and bring you the root cause for the Japanese economic and markets underperformance.

 Ladies and gentlemen: the answer is simple to this economics mystery:

 

Dustbins

Or rather: lack of dust bins

Our investigative journalism and economic analysis did work smarter than one may think. 

Let me explain:

Endangered in Japan: Dustbins

We may have had a snack, and perhaps a packaged coffee. But then, we had no clue on what to do with the wrapper or the coffee can. We had bought this & that at sunrise at Tokyo, switched three trains to get to Kawaguchi; worshipped the Mt. Fuji and got back to Tokyo. The four of us traveled 600 Kms+ in the day and so did the wretched wrappers and coffee can, only to be strengthened in population, as company of other rubbish was added with other consumption along the way.

No kidding: one could travel hundreds of Kilometers and return without seeing a dustbin.

This menace had a lasting effect on psychology: Buying anything became a nerve racking experience. When buying something, one thought occurs, another nerve gets activated, followed by another: until one starts hyperventilating: what if I don’t find a dustbin to dispose this disposable cup of coffee / this lollipop/ ice cream stick? Will I carry it back? Even restaurants/ hotels have strict policies on not accepting your garbage from outside..

What if I finally have to accumulate all my rubbish and check it in my flight, pay excess baggage and carry it back home? Only to be laughed at for smuggling rubbish.

No way. Back to the present at the convenience store: my mother told me- do not buy that silly stuff, there is no way we could manage the trash generated. It is easier to stay hungry, choose peace of mind instead that buy something and start begging for dustbins.

Such was the experience and impact on consumption/ buying things for 4 people across three generations. Now multiply that psyche for an entire nation. Simple economics says that loss of consumer spending/ money to circulate -> will lead to stagnation and disinflation.

Hypothesis proven, you can thank me later dear economists.

And as you see, the dream was not a mumbo jumbo: kindly observe the stellar results that my report submitted the Shogunate did to the economy a year later:

Bloomberg - Nikkei post visit - After recommendation submitted

Malaysia: the nation

I was still high on the smoking rubber, monstrous sounds of the F1 engines I had greeted the last evening. Now we were heading towards Johr Bahru: the border town in Malaysia. It took us almost 30 minutes to clear the immigration.

The GPS took us through the city and we blinded followed. However, this is not what I'll regret. I got to see the Johr city. The cities in Malaysia are a unique blend of classic and modern characteristics. There's a majestic town hall, city centres to take care of the classic part. Parallely, the cities are powered by a grand infrastructure. The highways, city roads, superstructures: you've got 'em all. We spotted an Indian restaurant just outside Johr and stopped here. Surprisingly, the only thing they had for vegetarians here was a meal with the main star as ghee rice. Nevertheless, after the meal we were singing about this.

We continued on the Kuala Lumpur highway and made a stop to switch the wheel. Mama offered me to drive. I was ecstasic! On a highway in Malaysia with the might of the Nissan Sunny. My excitement soon wore off as I neared boredom in a while.

2 reasons:

First, the highway was too good. I could have slept on the wheel and we would have reached our destination in the same time safely. I mean, at least give the driver a chance! At places, even the slight turns were banked in such a manner that you'll hardly need to turn the wheel.

Second, the Sunny: mighty as it may be was still automatic transmission. So while overtaking (one of the few tasks demanding the driver's brain here), I miss the sequence: Clutch, shift, release, accelerate. All this was compressed to a single step: press the accelerator.

However driving is a pain thanks to all the rules and regulated humans here. If you change your lane without announcing to the world you’ll create havoc. Rear view check, indicator, steer, indicator off. The driving method we're used to is: every man for himself; expect the worst from everyone. The game is fundamentally different here where every other driver depends on you and that thou shall never break the regulations or deviate from the text book rules. That thou shall not change lanes, thou shall stop from 100kmph just to let one pedestrian cross, thou shall not be reckless. Quite a challenging proposition for the Indian drivers.

The beauty of the countryside is just unbelievable. One of the big advantages the nation has is its population. The population density figures are absymally low. Credit also goes for the people and the government for conserving their resources and vegetation. I have seen endless green lands in some of the remote places I've been to in India. But out here, the sheer size and density of vegetation creates a different effect. Not a spot of brown or even a shade deviating from lush green was found in the 100Kms we covered. There are also several 'Rehats' spaced at appropriate distances on the highways. Imagine a structure with a well planned mall, fuel station and a food court every 50 Kms you travel! We reached the Melaca district in 2 hours (A few sign boards declared that we had; the scenery was still the same). After exiting the highway, a complicated set of roads took us to A'FaMosa resort. The resort is visible from a distance thanks to its size.

We checked into the 'room'. To my surprise, what they called a room was a fully furnished retreat with 2 rooms, a drawing-dining, a kitchen and picturesque balconies.

As the sun went down, we headed for the 'cowboy town'.

There was a 4-D movie. We managed to catch 'Horror stories in the office'. We then headed for the 'Red Indian' show. The performers were spectacular. Lots of fire breathing, a small play involving the audience.

This was followed by the carnival. This is something that is very very hard to put in words. The number of things that happened in the next 40 minutes is too much. The camera ran out of battery, my fingers might faint with exhaustion if I start writing. The highlights were the animals, Malay ladies in lovely attires, vehicles, planes, birds and everything else you can think of. The firecracker show was the grand finale.

But more than that what touched me was seeing the Malaysia flag at the event. Agreed, carrying a flag is not a decree of being patriotic. But talking to people, you generally get the idea that the people love their country. More than that, they are nice to you and tell you how tourism is important for their country and eventually for the people. Thinking from your country's perspective and then about yourself- that's something that needs a lot of deep thought.

Since we were assured that we won't get anything vegetarian here at this middle of nowhere resort, we headed for the Melaca town in search for food. The drive was somewhat scary since I'm so used to seeing traffic or people or some fool while driving. Out here, we were just a car, 2 headlamps and zillion trees around us lit by the moon in a spooky manner. We found a Pizza hut in this tiny town called Melaca and gorged all that was veg on the menu.

The next day, we had breakfast in one of the restaurants of Cowboy town and headed for animal world. Now the size of the resort found its true identity. It took us almost 15 minutes of driving at decent speeds within the resort to reach the place. We came across lovely lakes, golf courses (yes, there's more than 1), paintball, paragliding and other adventure sports area.

At animal world, we attended the elephant show, the animal show and the bird show. I do not very much enjoy this but they put up a great show. Though I am very much against such kind of training for animals but I have to admire the platform the people and animals get.. I can't help comparing the state in my country. I've read of the condition of the bhallu dance, bandar dance wallahs once this kind of stuff was banned. Of course, animals belong in the jungle but what if they can't be protected the outlaws or poachers? Here we have the second best option that comes into picture. The animals are protected and the people make a living. And yes, art or skill gets a stage, where it can be appreciated by the world.

We then went for the safari. They put us in a caged van and took us to the animals' habitat. The lions were shouting to their cubs- ‘who dekho aadmi, who dekho aadmi ka cub’. There were giraffes, tigers, bears, leapords but the cute girl sitting in front of me was interested in antics of some other creature. ME.

Lastly was the monkey island. We took a boat to this place and came across a humorous board.

Among other creatures, I noticed one peculiar kind. These monkeys are the most disciplined creatures I've ever seen. They were eating in a proper manner. Never did they attempt any mischief, just accepted food in an orderly fashion from us.

In the evening, we headed back for Singapore. I saw families driving cheerfully around in their tiny Perodua's and Protons. I recalled Proton motors as the company which recently bought the prestigious British Lotus cars. The Malaysian government is the majority stakeholder in Proton. Even I'm proud of the PSU's of my nation: DRDO, ISRO, BHEL, Coal India. But looking here, I see there could have been more. The government here had the hindsight to create highly competitive (export oriented as well) companies to create wealth and providing employment. This backed by rapid infrastructure development brought in investors as well. The result is right in front of us: A country that gained independence 10 years later than us, had a lot more to worry than what we had at the same time grew rapidly to be an industrial superpower.

Everybody has a car here, I mean everybody. Be it a nurse, shopkeeper, janitor. Difficulty in finding people to attend to at gas stations and restaurants led to the so called 'brainy' Indians to take up these jobs. The local people are happy working for their nation. Come on, you can't say you've never heard of PETRONAS (does Sauber- Petronas F1 team ring a bell) and I can assure you that you'll hear of Proton soon. Also, the efforts of leadership have finally paid off with investors lining up creating more jobs.

I could not help contemplating: While the Gandhi family was busy convincing people that infrastructure is meant for rich 'seths' and their motor cars, implementing schemes based on populist measures to take care of immediate problems and votes. Not far away, Mahathir Mohammed was working to give people what they deserved: a better future. I can't help saluting to this man who truly describes the power of human nature. One man can build a nation!!