From: cmr@world.std.com (Charles M Richmond)
Subject: Some bankrupt and some rich in Japan
Organization: Integrated International Systems Corp. One Longfellow Place, Suite 3309, Boston, Ma.
Date: Sun, 15 Nov 1992 16:30:56 GMT


One of the ways to maintain a strong international position is to force
a high cost of living on your own people, thus one can have a moribund
home economy and simultaneously am extremely favourable balance of trade.

Charlie 

	TOKYO (UPI) -- Japan's sinking economy continued to drag companies
under in October, a private credit agency said Friday, as bankruptcies
hit their highest one-month level in nearly six years.
	The Teikoku Data bank recorded 1,294 bankruptcies last month, 20.9
percent more than in the same month last year. Failures were led by
construction, wholesale and retail companies crushed under the weight of
the beleaguered Japanese economy.
	It was the highest number of bankruptcies in one month since December
1986, when the central Bank of Japan was making the last of a series of
cuts in the official discount rate that put it at its lowest level ever.
	The agency tracks failures with liabilities of more than 10 million
yen (dlrs 80,000). Total liabilities in October came to 760.02 billion
yen ($6.08 billion), 3.2 percent less than the year-ago period.
	Hardest hit were construction and other companies affected by Japan's
slumping real estate market. There were a total of 366 failures among
real estate and construction companies last month, 18.1 percent more
than the same month the year before.
	Although Japanese housing starts have shown signs of turning upward,
slow sales of condominiums have made it difficult to be profitable in
the industry, analysts said.
	``Bankruptcies related to the economic slowdown are at a very high
level,'' said Chiharu Shima, economist at UBS Phillips and Drew
International. ``The cautious lending stance of banks to real estate
companies, especially the smaller ones, is having an effect.''
	Retail and wholesale outfits have suffered from a sharp drop in
consumer spending that has put a brake on the entire economy, she said.
	Among wholesalers failures grew 30 percent to 282, while 224 retail
firms went bankrupt, 15.5 percent more than last year.
	Teikoku Data Bank says it expects the year-end total to come in
around 14,000 insolvencies, the most since 1986.


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	TOKYO (UPI) -- Japan's politically sensitive trade surplus shattered
the previous annual record with a massive expansion in October, the
government said Thursday, and threatened to turn the international
spotlight back to Japan's failure to reign in its burgeoning trade
advantage.
	The surplus in customs-cleared trade grew to $10.89 billion in
October from $7.20 billion the same month last year, a jump of 51.3
percent, the Finance Ministry said, and put the surplus for the first
ten months of the year at $88.36 billion.
	That figure topped the balance for all of 1986, the highest year on
record, and economists expect the 1992 figure to well exceed $110
billion.
	Analysts blamed the expansion mainly on Japan's beleagured economy,
which has held growth in imports at anemic levels for most of this year.
	The attention that had recently been directed away from Japan's
surplus and toward the U.S.-EC trade dispute over farm subsidies is
likely to be refocused on Japan's unsuccessful efforts to pare down the
imbalance, analysts said.
	The latest data are expected to add fuel to criticism from the United
States, Europe and Asia alike, but Japanese officials will likely watch
with particular interest the actions of the next U.S. president, Bill
Clinton.
	The trade gap with the United States, which is Japan's largest
trading partner, grew to $4.94 billion from $3.84 billion in October
last year, representing a 28.5 percent increase.
	``(Japan) will come under a lot of pressure to boost its domestic
economy and ease up on monetary policy,'' said Tony Nafte, an economist
at IDEA, a financial analysis service. ``There will certainly be
pressure from the new (U.S.) administration coming in, and (the October
trade figures) will bolster their arguments.''
	Analysts said the weak imports -- which fell 5.1 percent to $21.26
billion in October -- underlined the difficulties Japan will have in
controlling the embarrassing surplus.
	``The volume of imports was a disaster,'' said Geoffrey Barker,
economist at Baring Securities. ``It's the same story we've been telling
for six or nine months.''
	Ecnomists said there will be no change in the import picture as long
as the Japanese economy remains settled in its current slump and
consumer and corporate demand lay stagnant.
	Although exports jumped 9.2 percent to $31.07 billion in terms of
value, the volume of outgoing merchandise rose just 0.7 percent from the
year before, reflecting the exaggerated effects of the yen's recent rise
against the dollar.
	Japan's trade gap with the EC widened to $2.81 billion from $2.25
billion the year before, a leap of 24.5 percent. The surplus against
Asia surged 55.6 percent to $3.94 billion, up from $2.53 billion the
year-ago period.

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*  Charles Richmond 	Integrated International Systems Corporation        *
*  cmr@world.std.com	(Temporary) cmr@koneko.shr.dec.com		    *
*  Specializing in UNIX, X, Image Processing, and Communications.           *
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan