The trouble is that parts of the blowfish are highly poisonous causing paralysis and death by suffocation.
Still it is a popular dish and as recently as 2009 seven people fell victim to the poison in Tokyo following a poorly prepared batch and ended up eating the testicles of one fish. Recently the regulations have changed and chefs will no longer have to complete the full two years training in order to serve this dish to the public.
The Japanese have likewise made plans to cover the area irradiated by the Fukushima nuclear plant in tents and will start burning radioactive debris. Of course you cannot destroy radioactive debris in this way, but it will spread it around the globe having released the settled debris from the ground back into the air. The tents will have the effect also of funnelling the radioactivity straight into the air. But radiation is not the only toxic substance that Japan has spread round the world.
Japan of cause has previously spread a toxic waste around the world, namely the idea of Quantative Easing and 0% interest rates (the lost decade is now closer to three decades). People began borrowing Yen at low interest rates and converting it to other currencies where they earnt more interest (particularly from Iceland) effectively earning money for nothing.
So who you wonder was paying for this? Well Japan has the largest public pension fund in the world of $1.3 trillion dollars two thirds of which must be invested in government bonds (yielding less than 1% per year). Savings rates in Japan have been gradually drained and are less than 2% of the GDP, very soon there will be nothing left and Japan will soon have to look outside for buyers of its debt.
Until recently Japan has a massive trade surplus year on year and the 'profits' were lent to the United States in order to keep the value of the Yen relative to the dollar, a policy which was duplicated by the Chinese.
The reason was that in order to allow Americans to continue to buy Japanese goods the exchange rate had to be prevented from rising in order to keep the goods at the 'right price'.
Since Fukushima, Japan has become a net importer - it has switched off its nuclear plants and is importing oil, it is importing resources to re-build etc. The yen rallied strongly post the explosion as the dollar sank, as Japan was now an importer rather than an exporter this was good for the economy, but Japan has long sacrificed itself to the American economy and once again printed more money and propped up the ailing dollar.
Now though Japan is exposed to externalities - a surge in oil prices not the least of them. One of these externalities is bound to hit and soon. The Japanese economy is feasting on fugu and soon enough the Japanese government will have to eat a mouthful of poison.
Japan is inevitable going to experience inflation, the interest rates will have to rise and with it the cost of servicing its debt. Fortunately most of the people who own the debt live in Japan and so the money will stay in the economy, unlike what will follow in the United States, where most of the debt is owed to China.
Nice post, very interesting. The costs of clearing up the mess of Fukushima must be enormous but it sounds as though the Japanese government have gone for a nice cheap answer and as per usual with the Japanese (government at least) its we will do as we please.
ReplyDeleteThere is an intrinsic problem with the Japanese culture in that they always think they know best or alternatively just won't listen to any other countries government because of the way they are brought up and indoctrinated to believe Japan can do no wrong and the rest of the world is causing problems for them which according to Japan dont exist.
Similar to how the USA portrays themselves in war movies as the reason most wars were won and does not portray much of the truth or at least bends it for movie purposes the Japanese do not admit any responsibility for their own past and attrocities they have caused. The difference with the Japanese governement though is that they seem to think that provided they dont teach it to their youth then it simply never happened, whereas the USA nowadays admit such things, even if it took a long time to get to that situation.
The youth of Japan these days are become more knowledgable however, at least thats from what I have read and accept that what they are taught in history lessons etc is often what their government want them to think until they start doing a bit of research for themselves.
As the new generation gets older Japan should recover from this denial of their own responsibilities to the world outside their own country.