Will Japan's Koizumi Soon Be Ex-Prime Minister?

Barron's ^ | 10 September 2001 | By Neil A. Martin

[shrinkermd]

Koizumi came across as something of a Japanese version of Tony Blair or Bill Clinton. And like his two Western contemporaries, he enjoyed unusual popularity, with his approval rating soaring in some polls as high as 90%.

More important, almost overnight he became the darling of the global media, which with the notable exception of Barron's, uniformly hailed Koizumi as a great reformer and populist who could save his party, his country and the stock market. Indeed, during his first few weeks in office, Japan's stock market soared on hopes for the self-styled reformer, with the benchmark Nikkei 225 index hitting its high for the year of 14,529.41 on May 7.

[shrinkermd]

FYI. Japan's problems keep getting worse. Tonight at 20:00 EST the Nikkei is down again to about 10,200.

[Junichiro Koizumi]

I don't think it's as bad as this article tries to make it look. It is true that I was laid off last month, however, I got a better paying job within two weeks and my previous companies problems are mainly the result of lack of sales in the US, the Japanese office was profitable.

Maybe someone will enlighten me on why deflation in Japan is such a problem. Everything is already too expensive as it is. It's still got a ways to go for prices to be comparable to the US.