Jan 14

WIT LIfe #225: Tofu Barrel Politics

Translating/Interpreting, WIT Life, Writers Comments Off on WIT LIfe #225: Tofu Barrel Politics

WIT Life is a periodic series written by professional Writer/Interpreter/Translator Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken CIR, 2000-03). She starts her day by watching Fujisankei’s newscast in Japanese, and here she shares some of the interesting tidbits and trends together with her own observations.

Last week Japan’s new prime minister Shinzo Abe announced a $116 billion stimulus package consisting of public-works spending (with an emphasis on Fukushima), investment tax credits and increased spending on education and health care.  This is a great departure from the fiscal austerity practiced by the DPJ, but Paul Krugman takes the announcement with a grain of salt, saying “Now, people who know something about Japanese politics warn me not to think of Mr. Abe as a good guy. His foreign policy, they tell me, is very bad, and his support for stimulus may have more to do with old-fashioned pork-barrel (tofu barrel?) politics than with a sophisticated rejection of conventional wisdom.”  I love the “tofu barrel” reference, and plan to use it going forward.

There was also an editorial in the Times today on the same subject, praising Abe’s fiscal plan as a start but at the same time stressing the need for structural reforms to accompany it if Japan wants to be able to achieve economic recovery.  It offers the stunning statistic that Japan’s “public debt (is) equal to 220 percent of national output,” making the sizable stimulus package not be more than a short-term solution.  The structural reforms the piece advocates are “letting zombie companies go bankrupt, phasing out costly agricultural subsidies and raising Japan’s low rates of legal immigration to expand the working-age population.”  The last one in particular is a must, considering Japan’s declining birth rate and the aging of the population.  The whole world is watching to see how things play out on Japan’s economic stage.