I was asked by the Economist Group as a guest delegate to an Economist Conference held at the Hotel Okura in Tokyo on May 16, 2012. I always enjoy the Economist magazine but their conferences (which I participate in from time-to-time) are put together very well.
Anyway, I thought I ‘d blog about some points I found interesting during the conference. Obviously, to those who know me, I talk about many of these topics on a continual basis.
- Interesting answer to when JGB holdings becomes a problem (“clear and present danger”) is when the Japanese economy actually recovers. Interesting/good point since the capital requirements of a growing economy would increase interest rates. (Ken Takamiya, Nomura Securities)
- ‘X-day’ would come in about 5 years. While it won’t be as severe as Greece, it will come. But the bigger problem is political deadlock in not being able to do anything. (Toshihiro Ihori, Tokyo University)
- The ratio of national civil servants = 90:1 in France (highest), 30:1 in Japan = low. Interesting point. (Dan Slater, Economist)
- Not a single hand raised in terms of the audience feeling that ‘X-day’ would occur in the next few years.
- As a growth strategy, Japan should lead to create a platform to increase economic benefit within Asia. Government should help banks and industry to expand into the growing Asian market. We also need to change the ‘mindset’ in regards to entrepreneurship and how failure is interpreted. In a recent visit to the US, Furukawa heard that people tend to get follow-on investments if they failed a few times because of the experience they gained and that they have a higher probability of succeeding the next time. [sounds familiar -ws] (Motohisa Furukawa, GoJ)
(To be updated)