Restaurant and Pub Sales down 1.9% in 2009

Restaurant sales shrank 1.5% on an absolute basis in 2009, according to data released Monday by the Japan Food Service Association, the first YOY fall since 2003. While customer traffic rose 0.2%, per-customer spending dropped 1.7% amid a brutal price war.

Family restaurants saw a 4.7 percent drop in customers, marking the second consecutive year of decline.

Pubs including "izakaya" Japanese-style food and drink outlets saw a 5.8 percent fall in sales, while sales at coffee shops tumbled 5.1 percent.

Fast-food chains, which generally offer low-price menus, logged a 2.5 percent rise in revenues and a 2.7 percent gain in the total number of customers with average spending down only 0.1 percent.

It is not surprising that family restaurants, coffee shops and pubs have suffered a decline in sales as discretionary consumer spending has been impacted by economic conditions; and as has been previously seen fast food chains have benefited as customers have shifted to lower priced food.

http://www.nni.nikkei.co.jp/e/fr/tnks/Nni20100125D25SS515.htm

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9DEMQ2O0&show_article=1

Tokyo Residential Prices May Have Bottomed Out

According to Mitsui Real Estate Sales Co., land prices in residential areas of the Tokyo metropolitan region dropped at a slower pace in the October-December quarter of 2009 amid emerging signs that the economy is bottoming out.

Land prices fell 0.3 percent on average from the preceding quarter, which witnessed a decline of 0.7 percent.

Mitsui also said prices of existing condominiums in the region rose 0.5 percent in the reporting period, marking the third consecutive quarterly increase.

Residential land prices in the greater Nagoya and Osaka regions declined 0.6 percent and 0.9 percent, respectively, while existing condo prices fell 0.2 percent in both of the regions.

The prices of land and existing condos in the three metropolitan areas are expected to remain flat for the time being, Mitsui said.

In 2009, residential land prices decreased 4.5 percent from the previous year in both the Tokyo and Osaka regions and 3.6 percent in the Nagoya region, the company added.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9DC34481&show_article=1

No Punishment for Japanese Content Downloaders

The Yomiuri reports on the ineffectiveness of Japan's recent "beefed up" copyright laws designed to discourage illegal downloading of copyrighted product (music, videos etc) and notes that the lack of a penalty prescribed for illegal downloaders has made the laws ineffective.

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20100124TDY03102.htm

Jobless Using Capsule Hotels as Accomodation

A report from the Scotsman describes how out of work Japanese are using capsule hotels as a form of accomodation.

During Japan's boom times, the capsule hotels were a popular choice for salarymen in the large urban centres, who had missed the last train home and couldnt afford the cabfare home. However, over the last few years, corporate entertainment has dried up and with it the market for the capsule hotel operators.

Now, these operations have re-invented themselves as budget accomodation for the unemployed and provide discounted rates for monthly or longer stays.

http://news.scotsman.com/world/Home-is---a.6008912.jp

Japanese Supermarket Sales fall by 4.9% to a 21 year low in 2009

Supermarket sales in Japan in 2009 dropped 4.3 percent on a same- store basis to a 21-year low of 12.83 trillion yen amid the anemic economy, the Japan Chain Stores Association said Friday to record a 21 year low point.

The number represented the 13th consecutive year-on-year drop on a same-store basis and December was down 5% on a YOY basis.

This tendency led supermarket operators to cut back on the unit prices of commodities, with their sales performances plunging despite their efforts to hike sales, it said.

Sales of foodstuffs, the biggest revenue-earning sector for supermarkets, fell 2.6 percent to 8.07 trillion yen, while those of clothing dived 10.8 percent to 1.37 trillion yen.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9DCKM600&show_article=1

Poverty in Japan

Japan Times editorial today talks about Japan's poverty rates. It reports that Japan's relative poverty rate as of 2007 stood at 15.7 percent; up from 14.9 percent in the 2004 making Japan the fourth-highest among OECD's 30 member nations.

This means that nearly one in every six, or 19 million Japanese are living below the poverty line - defined as half the median income for all income earners.

Japan may imagine itself as middle class and, compared with other OECD countries, the distribution of income before redistribution has remained better than many, but Japanese society is increasingly becoming pear-shaped. The elderly, older workers, recent unemployed graduates and especially single mothers and their children make up an ever-larger portion of those in poverty. According to the OECD survey, some 59 percent of those below the poverty line are single parents. This figure was one of the worst of all OECD countries in 2004.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/ed20100125a2.html

Japan being overtaken by China not all bad

Bill Emmett writes an interesting article where he describes China's economy overtaking Japan's as a matter of course; and he sees this as a positive development for Japan as Japan runs a balance of trade surplus with China.

However, Emmett is quick to point out that it is not the manufacturing strength of Japan which will provide the positive; noting that -

... manufacturing strength has done nothing to save Japan from nearly two decades of stagnation. If anything, Japan’s own manufacturing obsession has made things worse: to help to reduce labour costs and stay competitive, Japanese governments in 1997-2005 made repeated reforms to create a two-tier labour market. The second tier, of part-time and non-contract workers, get much lower wages, less employment protection and no benefits.

That group now makes up one third of the labour force. It is Japan’s “working poor”, and is the reason why the once famously egalitarian country now matches British levels of income inequality. Japan is the only OECD country to have seen its level of absolute poverty rise in the past two decades. Meanwhile, wages are declining, and not just those of the working poor: last Friday the Japanese Government forecast that nominal wages will decline in 2010 for the fourth consecutive year.

Emmett sees the opportunity for Japan to reform the services sector of its economy and seems to believe that the new Japanese Government will have the political will to introduce reforms into this sector.

It is less clear that Japan's Government will do much at all in this sector and if Emmett is correct; it is more likely that the Japanese private sector will be the driver of the positives from China's expansion.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/bill_emmott/article7000839.ece