Japanese Video Game Industry

Hello everyone! I've decided to take a different turn onto these blog posts this week. For the past few posts, I've talked about deflation, which is rather depressing. I haven't seen any real updated information that's any different, so this time, I'm going to talk about the impact of the video game industry in Japan.

Since the last 20th century, Japan's video game industry has been successful in many areas including: desktop gaming consoles (Nintendo GameCube, Sony Playstation) and portable gaming consoles, like the GameBoy. The American video game industry isn't as successful as the Japanese industry. The Japanese were the creators of the video game companies like Sega, Sony, and Nintendo. Nintendo released the Nintendo Entertainment System, Super Nintendo, Nintendo 64, Nintendo GameCube, and the Nintendo Wii, along with the portable GameBoys and the Nintendo DS. Sega created the Sega, Sega Saturn, Sega Genesis, and Sega Dreamcast; however, Sega fell apart shortly after the Dreamcast was made in 1998. Sony released the Playstation, Playstation 2, and Playstation 3. The three companies have tried to battle out with competition.

Now we're going to look at the Global Japanese Video Game shipments. In hardware, the Japanese made 510 billion yen, and they made 538 billion yen in software in 1997. That number has increased in 2005. In hardware, the Japanese made 873 billion yen and in software, the Japanese made 487 billion yen in 2005. Hardware is like the system, controllers, and so on. The software is the games. Therefore, to say, the video game culture has been very profitable for the Japanese. In the modern days, playing video games was not something that the "nerds" do. Since the launch of the Nintendo Wii, females and older people have found fun in the interactive experience.

In my opinion, the video game industry is going to keep growing and growing. Being a gamer myself, I find great joy in playing video games on my spare time. It relaxes me. These companies keep battling out the competition with different targets. Such an example is the Playstation 2. Sony put the DVD player in the Playstation 2 so that people who did not have a DVD player would buy their product, for a gaming system and a DVD player. The same has been happening with the Playstation 3 and the Blu-Ray player. Thus, nothing is going to stop the profitable industry.

Source:

JETRO (2007). Japanese Video Game Industry. Retrieved on March 27, 2010 from

Japan easing its monetary policy

Hello all! A couple posts ago, I discussed monetary policy within Japan, and what the bank notes represent. I discussed that the monetary policy is much like the United States, yet somewhat different. I've also discussed the current economic status in Japan. I was browsing the Internet looking for topics for today's post, and I stumbled across an interesting current event that ties a couple blog posts ago with this post from the New York Times.

The New York Times reports that the central bank of Japan is increasing the loan programs for banks in order to improved their "deflation-plagued" economy. Other countries in the global economy, including the United States, have been putting out stimulus packages with hopes to stimulate the economy, so that those countries can get out of the world-wide recession. However, Japan wants to consider flooding the country with cash in order to stimulate the economy. This would be a logical move; however, with its debt, Japan is very cautious at this point in time. The country really doesn't have the money to stimulate its economy. However, on March 17, The Bank of Japan agreed to double the loan program in order to "increase the liquidity in the Japanese economy". Dictionary.com defines liquidity as "available cash or the capacity to obtain it on demand". Therefore, since the liquidity is low, the loans will increase the liquidity hopefully to 20 trillion yen, which is approximately $222 billion dollars. The New York Times reports that Japan's action will allow financial institutions to borrow up to 20 trillion yen in three months with 0.1 interest rate. The New York Times also reports that the Japan officials hope to beat deflation by the end of this year.

My opinion on this matter is that they should pump this money into the monetary system. People are not spending much in a deflated economy, when prices are low, because they know that the price will only get cheaper and cheaper. In essence, the average consumer of Japan is "cheap". Even though Japan really doesn't have the funds for such an operation, it seems logical that, in the end, the "money-pumping" will pay off. That is my opinion; however, the reader's opinion may differ. The concept of the stimulus packages is a controversial issue, even in the United States. Some people think it's a good idea, because it's free money that they can spend on what they want. Other people think it's a bad idea, because they feel they will end up paying it back later. In the long term, this idea may not be such a good idea, because there will have to be somewhere where Japan gets all that money, and they will pay it back later. However, in the short term, I believe that this is absolutely necessary to beat deflation. Thank you all, and have a wonderful week.

Sources:

Tabuchi, H. (2010). As deflation fears persist, Japan eases monetary policy. The New York Times. Accessed on March 20, 2010 from NYTIMES.COM

Referenced the definition of liquidity from DICTIONARY.COM

Japanese Anime

Everyone has heard about Pokemon right? I'm sure you knew about the impact it has on Japan and other countries, including the United States. Well Pokemon is one of many anime from Japan. However, over time, the Japanese Anime Economy has been falling. The Japanese Anime Investment Group was created in 2008 in order to increase the economic factors of Japanese Anime. Lately, it's been just the same vendors and the same customers, and there is not as much economic profit. They want more people to come to conventions and invest in their profits.

With Japanese Anime, it has only been the same group who have been buying comic books in order to relieve their burning addiction/obsession. They have been given the title "Otaku". Shonen Jump, the most profitable anime company, sells millions of their copies each week to these otaku. The otaku hold anime conventions and spend their hard-earned dollars on anime, comics, DVDs, games, and action figures. Even though that this used to be a fad, it has actually started becoming an economic power in Japan, with these otaku spending $2.5 billion a year on anime. That much money could feed a small country for a long time.

This "anime-frenzy" traveled to the United States in 2000, where children were buying and trading Pokemon cards. Ten years ago, even I was doing that. My parents would give me some money, and I would buy a pack of Pokemon cards like they were solid gold. Now I know that they were just a piece of paper, but it was a wonderful memory. People do not only like anime in Japan, but it's also popular in the United States. I think this is a good way to have global unity, by sharing interests across nations.

Sources

http://www.japaneseanimeinvestmentgroup.com/
http://www.yoursdaily.com/money/japanese_anime_fans_gain_economic_power
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/717948.stm

Cost of Living in Japan

Someone once told me the other day that I should blog about the cost of living in Japan. From researching the cost of living, I noticed that it is actually really high. It's expensive to live in Japan. There are three factors that have to be considered in the cost of living in Japan: housing, food, and transportation.

Like New York City, the housing situation in Tokyo is very expensive. Since Japan is very populated, there aren't enough housing accommodations for just everyone. Therefore, even the smallest apartments are very expensive. They can be as cheap as 39,000 yen and as high as 125,000 yen. In United States dollars, this is anywhere from $418 a month to $1339 a month, for just a small apartment. That, in my opinion, is outrageous. However, houses in the suburbs are less expensive. We rent our house in Palm Harbor and only pay $1000 a month, but it's a house, not an apartment. However, even though housing is cheaper in the suburbs, the commuting costs to work can supplement the saving.

With food, it isn't so bad if you actually eat Japanese food like vegetables and rice. If you eat at a small restaurant, you can get a full meal for 500 to 1000 yen which is a little more than $5 to a little more than $10. However, at a more average restaurant, the meal would cost anywhere from 1000 to 3000 yen, which is about $10.70 to $32. As usual, the prices would be much higher if it was at a more "nice" restaurant. With supermarkets, it is advised by "Japan Guide" to get food at night right before closing to get discounts on perishable items.

With transportation, it is really expensive to own a car. The cars themselves are inexpensive, especially with them being made close to own. However with the safety regulations, it makes it expensive. Train tickets are what most Japanese use to travel from day to day. However, usually Japanese workers invest in an unlimited travel train pass, which saves them money from buying tickets every day.

Now you know how much it costs to live in Japan, so if you are interested in Japan, or you might like to visit, you have a brief overview on how expensive.

Sources

http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2202.html
http://www.all-about-teaching-english-in-japan.com/Tokyoapartment.html