Global woe brings Japanese local pain

FT ^ | 02/15/09 | Mure Dickie

[TigerLikesRooster]

Global woe brings Japanese local pain

By Mure Dickie in Tokyo

Published: February 15 2009 17:54 | Last updated: February 15 2009 19:38

Hidenobu Ishikawa, a marketing manager, yearns for a new camera but dares not broach the matter with his wife. Soh Aoki spent the new year in a tented village for the homeless and unemployed after the temporary jobs that sustained him for years suddenly ran out. Mayumi Sakuma, a freelance writer, went without hot water for a week to save money on a gas repair. Hisao Onuma, a second-hand machinery trader, has asked staff to each cut costs by a Y1,000 ($11, €8, £7.50) a day.

Across Japan, people are adjusting to the harsh realities of a downturn that has been underscored on Monday by the release of data showing that the world’s second largest economy contracted by 3.3 per cent quarter on quarter in the last three months of 2008 – its worst showing since the 1970s oil shock.

“The impact of this crisis is like three or four atomic bombs exploding in the world,” says Toshiaki Sumita, the third-generation scion of family-run Sumita Optical Glass, where sales recently fell by half month on month and the furnaces that melt glass have sat cold since the start of the year.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Ping!

[borntobeagle]

bookmark

[antiunion person]

I have local pain too. Her name is Nazi Pelosi. Every time she flies her 757 to and from California, global warming is effected. Every time she opens her mouth, more CO2 gases are expelled causing further global warming. See, we all have our crosses to bear, I just wish we here in the Socialist State of California and the land of nuts and illegals could hang Pelosi on that same cross.

[skinkinthegrass]

thanks, for the ping!...even if, you didn't ping me. *grin*

[Tainan]

“The impact of this crisis is like three or four atomic bombs exploding in the world,” says Toshiaki Sumita, the third-generation scion of family-run Sumita Optical Glass..."

No...No Toshi...it is not even vaguely similar. You are still alive, your workers are alive and your buildings are intact.
You analyze the situation. You adapt to the new circumstances. And you overcome.

Now knock-off the school-girl hysterics and move forward.

[Marie2]

“The impact of this crisis is like three or four atomic bombs exploding in the world,” says Toshiaki Sumita”

I was going to comment on the same thing. What an insensitive comparison for a Japanese person, of all people, to make!

Would you rather be in an atomic explosion or a recession? Tough call. /s

[flowerplough]

Women, minorities, Japaneseies hardest hit?

[dennisw]

http://zerohedge.blogspot.com/ <<<<<<——— Good website