Nothing says it’s better to be lucky than good (knock on wood, LDP) than the state of the Japanese financial industry, whose difficulties in the 90s and early 00s have put it in position to snap up choice real estate occupants—actually pieces thereof. Among other things, this puts the Aso administration in the position of claiming that Japan is in an exceptional position within the G-7 and that it would not have to resort to the extreme measures that other OECD member countries have to undertake. Now normally, the Japanese authorities would be the first major financial market to be put to the test. However, this Monday happened to fall on a national holiday, so the markets will only open on Tuesday. In the meantime, the inexorable rotation of our planet has forced the U.K., Germany, and France to come up with multi-hundred billion dollar rescues plans for their financial institutions. This coordinated effort has pushed up the Monday financial markets worldwide, giving more confidence to the Aso administration to come out on Monday and claim that LDP-New Komeito coalition’s management of the post-bubble economy has enabled Japan to position itself to weather the fallout better than any of its OECD colleagues.
Maybe it is better to be lucky than good after all.
3 comments:
Okumura-san -
Nicely put. I am sure this is the way it will be played.
Taking a day off can be a good thing, after all.
For what it’s worth, Mr. Takada also appears to have benefited from the crisis-heavy weekend. Asahi, which broke the story, is hot on his trails, but Yomiuri hasn’t taken it up yet. You know what? If the DPJ had really wanted to deep-six the story, it should have leaked it to Akahata before the news went national. I guess its Asahi contacts didn’t work.
oops, it's in the evening Yomiuri. Now all the four majors have taken it up. Next, the tabloids and morning wide shows. It should have a short shelf life, though. none of the DPJ leaders have been dragged in, although second-tier Kenji Yamaoka might be implicated.
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