Volume 5 Issue 1

President’s Message

January - February 2019

Tamilnadu Global Investors Meet - 23, 24 January 2019

Dear Friends,
We are in difficult times India's border relationship isin a very tense stage Internationally, the meeting
between President Trump
and Kim Jong-un of North
Korea did not yield results the relationship between the
US and USSR is at an all time low - Brexit is keeping
Europe in turmoil as is France with its yellow shirt
issues.
It is in these difficult times that the sane voice ofindustry globally must prevail. It is therefore happy tonote that business in India is on an even keel. Recently,
the acting Finance Minister presented the Budget withno great changes except some benefits to the commonman. The GST is slowly finding its level. However,
we understand that this change is a big advantage to
Pan-India business.
Now, turning to India, our elections are around thecorner and till they are over, unfortunately, major
policy decisions cannot be taken. I would therefore
appeal to all our Members to be patient for the next
couple of months and continue with their normal
activities so that either the International tensions or thedomestic tensions do not affect us in a major way.
Turning to the Chamber, activities are going on at a
slower pace. However, we had a successful Ikebana
exhibition and I thank the Consul General and his wife
for finding the time to participate and inaugurate it.
Normal activities continue and Indo-Japan
relationship continues to grow.
As I close this letter, I once again request our Members
to be supportive to the country and the Government as
we face its tensed times. JAI HIND !
N. Kumar

Union Defence Minister Ms. Nirmala Sitharaman with Tamil Nadu Chief
Minister Mr. K. Palaniswami, releasing a book. Ambassador of Japan to India
Mr. K. Hiramatsu (1st from left).

• Tamilnadu announces Aerospace, Defence Industrial
Policy; keen to replicate its success in building a strong
automotive base for development of Aerospace andDefence Industrial Parks with attractive incentives.

• Tamilnadu plans to take the lead role in the manufactureof electric cars.

• TN government has signed 304 Memoranda ofUnderstanding (MoUs) and agreements entailinginvestments to the tune of over 3,00,431 crore.

• 12,360 Memoranda were signed in the MSME sector.
• All Nippon Airways will expand its operations in India
by launching a direct flight from Chennai to Narita
airport from October.

New Year get-together on 10th January at Madras ClubMr. N. Kumar,President IJCCI and Council Members with Consul-General of Japan Mr. Kojiro Uchiyama,
Madame Uchiyama, senior officials of the Consulate, JETRO, JCCIC and other well wishers of IJCCI.

Ikebana Exhibition - Ohara School style by Ms. Cherry Venkatesan & Ms. Nita Reddy
at IJCCI was conducted on 19th & 20th January.
Consul-General Mr. Kojiro Uchiyama & Ms. Karen Janette Uchiyama inaugurated the event.

India economic growth
Economic momentum is expected to remain steady in FY 2019. Strong government spending should support growth, apossible sustained lull in oil prices, although weak public finances and global trade protectionism could weigh onprospects. The GDP is expected to be at 7.3% in FY 2019. In terms of industrial sectors, production growth improvedin December due to stronger growth in manufacturing output, which represents approximately 80% of total industrial
production in India. It is expected that the industrial production would be up by 5.9% this year. The Ministry ofCommerce and Industry has identified 12 champion sectors and dedicated funds to help achieve their true potential.
These are information technology & information technology-enabled services, tourism and hospitality, medical value
travel, transport and logistics, accounting and finance, audio visual, legal, communication, construction andengineering, education, environmental services, and financial services.
The Cumulative value of exports for the period April-January 2018-19 was US $ 271.80 Billion (Rs. 18,98,358.83
Crore) as against US $ 248.18 Billion (Rs. 15,98,311.63 Crore) during the period April-January 2017-18, registering a
positive growth of 9.52 per cent in Dollar terms (18.77 per cent in Rupee terms). Non-petroleum and Non Gems andJewellery exports in January 2019 were US $ 19.90 Billion, as compared to US $ 18.40 Billion in January 2018,
exhibiting a positive growth of 8.17 per cent. Non-petroleum and Non Gems and Jewellery exports in April-January
2018-19 were US $ 197.56 Billion, as compared to US $ 183.05 Billion for the corresponding period in 2017-18, an
increase of 7.92 per cent. According to IMF “India will continue to be the world's fastest growing major economy.
India's growth was estimated to be 7.3 per cent for the current fiscal year and forecast to rise to 7.7 per cent in 2020-21.
India's economy is poised to pick up in 2019, benefiting from lower oil prices and a slower pace of monetary tightening
than previously expected, as inflation pressures ease”.

Rental Sisters of Japan
In Japan, ‘Hikikomori’ is a term used to describe theyoung people who withdraw from the society bystaying in their houses for months. The word
hikikomori means ‘withdrawal’ or ‘pulling in’.
Tamaki Saito, a renowned professor and a
psychiatrist considers hikikomori as a social
condition rather than a psychological disorder. The
average age range of a hikikomori is between 15 and32. The reasons behind this social condition are still
undefined. The reasons vary from being bullied, poor
grades, loss of communication with the family andsocietal pressures. Most of the recovered hikikomori
confess that they lock themselves in a room and playvideo games all night long. The Japanese government
has estimated that more than half a million of the
youth population is affected by this condition. It isalso becoming an issue in countries like the US, UK,
Italy and South Kore, observes Professor Saito.
In Japan there are always two sides that oppose one
another. It is both modern and traditional, bustlingand very lonely. Restaurants and bars are always
full, but if you pay close attention, most are packed
with customers eating alone. And in the streets, nomatter the hour, you find exhausted office
employees.
Acording to a social worker in Japan, “an increasing
number of families have only one son and they put all
their hopes and dreams, few of them have male rolemodels since their fathers work day and night,
persistent gender roles continue to ascribe much, if
not all, the economic responsibilities to thehousehold’s patriarch etc. Yet another explanation
could be found in the country’s cultural shift from acollective-minded society to a more individualistic
one, especially amongst the younger generations whoare seeking ways to express their originality. In Japan,
where uniformity is still prized, and reputations andoutward appearances are paramount, rebellion comesin muted forms, like hikikomori. The longer thehikikomori remain apart from society, the more aware
they become of their social failure, and they lose
whatever self-esteem and confidence they had, and theprospect of leaving home becomes even moreterrifying. Locking themselves in their room makes
them feel ‘safe’.”Self-help groups have become a key way of drawing
hikikomori into the wider society. ‘New Start’ is anorganization which provides “rental sisters” to coax
the hikikomori out of their bedrooms and help them
face the real world. These are women who don’t haveany formal medical qualifications and the families pay
them a hundred thousand Yen a month for weekly hourlong visits. At the parents’ request, at a cost of about$8,000 USD per year women like Ayako regularly
contact the recluse, starting with letters. The process
takes months as he goes through the motion of opening
them, writing back, chatting on phone, talking throughthe door, before finally allowing the social worker in.
The Rental Sisters go through a lot of risk andcontribute tremendously in providing a new lease oflife to the victims.
- Jennifer Johnson

Two rare oarfish, giant deep-sea serpents long believed by locals to be aharbinger of earthquakes and tsunamis have been caught off the Japanese islandof Okinawa. Fishermen were stunned to find a pair of the silvery fish -- thebigger one measuring four metres -- alive in their nets, the number of sightingsof the mysterious creature in Japanese waters continues to rise. The fish, caught
off Okinawa's southwest Toya port on January 28, both subsequently died.
“I was quite shocked when I saw them at the port. I had only ever heard stories
about this fish, they looked mysterious and beautiful, looked like real dragons”,
observes an official of Yomitan Fisheries Cooperative Association
More than 12 elusive oarfish -- known in Japanese as "Ryugu no tsukai" or the"Messenger from the Sea God's Palace" -- have washed up on shores in Japanover the past year. Oarfish live between 200 and 1,000 metres below the surfaceof the Pacific and the Indian Oceans and have serpentine bodies with red fins thatgive them a dragon-like appearance. Japanese folklore has it that they move to shallower seas before underwater
earthquakes, possibly due to electromagnetic changes that occur with tectonic activity. Media reported that a spate ofsightings preceded the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that left about 18,500 dead or missing in northeast Japan,
strengthening the myth. The recent oarfish discoveries have sparked renewed debate on social media about
impending doom, although scientists dispute such claims.

Japan GDP Q4 2018 : Economy returns to growth but remains hampered by weak Asian demand
The economy rebounded in the last quarter of 2018, after a series of natural disasters and weak investment caused acontraction in the third quarter. GDP expanded 1.4% in Q4 in seasonally-adjusted annualized terms (SAAR),
sharply contrasting the revised 2.6% (SAAR) decline registered in Q3 (previously reported: -2.5% SAAR) andmatching analysts’ expectations. However, economic activity was flat when compared to the same quarter of theprevious year, following paltry 0.1% year-on-year growth in Q3. This puts economic growth for the full year 2018at 0.7%, a marked deceleration from 2017’s solid 1.9%.
The economy was largely supported by domestic consumption expenditures in the quarter, while investment
spending somewhat recovered from its sharp slump in Q3. On the other hand, the external sector’s performance wasfeeble, dragged down by weak demand for tech products and a regional slowdown in Asia—primarily driven by
China.
Looking at the details, private consumption recovered from Q3’s 0.8% contraction (SAAR) to post 2.4% growth in
Q4, while simultaneously government consumption growth accelerated to 3.2% (Q3: +0.9% SAAR). Fixed
investment growth rebounded to a solid 6.1% in Q4, however this was not enough to offset the larger 8.4%
contraction registered in the previous quarter. Indeed, despite a strong recovery in business investment—ascompanies ramped up efforts to automate production in order to overcome labor shortages—and an acceleration of
investment growth in the residential sector, a sixth consecutive quarter of decline in public investment spending
weighed on the print. Lastly, turning to the external sector, exports failed to make up for Q3’s 5.6% contraction,
growing just 3.7% in Q4 amid tepid regional demand, while conversely import growth surged to 11.3% (Q3: -2.6%
SAAR).
Looking ahead, Nomura analysts expect that the weak external environment will continue to weigh on growth
going forward, although they see domestic demand as resilient. “We have lowered our overall outlook primarily tofactor in slowdowns in external demand and in real capex. We do not anticipate a large fall in overall domestic
demand. We expect the income climate for households to remain favorable, with both hiring and employment likely
to remain on an upward trajectory owing to structural labor shortages. We also expect government policy to lend
support to domestic demand. The government has been looking at relatively aggressive measures to mitigate theimpact of the consumption tax hike scheduled for October 2019. This includes public works designed to prevent or
mitigate damage from natural disasters and make the nation less vulnerable, and these are likely to boost real public
investment.”
The median GDP forecast among BoJ members is 0.9% for FY 2019 and 1.0% for FY 2020. FocusEconomics
Consensus Forecast panelists see GDP expanding 1.0% in calendar year 2019, which is unchanged from lastmonth’s projection. In 2020, the panel sees the economy growing 0.6%.
(Focus Economics)

Significant increase in Greater Tokyo inflow
In 2018 the greater Tokyo region (Tokyo, Saitama, Chiba and Kanagawa prefectures) recorded the 23rdconsecutive year of net population growth with a net inflow of 139,868 residents (135,600 of whomwere Japanese citizens). This is a 16.8% increase from the net inflow seen in 2017 and the second year ina row to record an expansion in the growth rate. Over half of the net inflow were those aged between 20
and 24. The Tokyo metropolitan area saw a net inflow of 79,844 (82,774 if only Japanese citizens arecounted), up 30.6% from 2017. A total of 8 of Japan’s 47 prefectures saw a net inflow in 2018. These
prefectures were Tokyo, Saitama, Kanagawa, Chiba, Aichi, Fukuoka, Osaka and Shiga. The prefecturewith the biggest net outflow was Ibaraki with 7,744. The Nagoya region (Aichi, Gifu and Mie
prefectures) saw a net outflow of 7,376 persons, while the Osaka region (Osaka, Hyogo, Kyoto andNara prefectures) saw a net outflow of 9,438 persons. Both regions recorded the 6th consecutive year of
decline. Nagano Prefecture reported a net inflow for the second year in a row with 230 persons. This isdue primarily to new hires of foreign workers in the region’s ski resort towns, particularly in Hakuba.
Hakuba saw a 2.2% increase in population, putting it in top spot in the prefecture. Nagano Prefecture has
31,141 foreign residents as of 2018, up 8.9% from 2017. If foreign residents are not included in
calculations, Nagano saw a net outflow of 3,603 persons in 2018.
Data: Statistics Bureau, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, January 31, 2019.
Editor : Suguna Ramamoorthy Secretary-General, IJCCI.; Publisher : IJCCI; Designing & Printing : J.G.S. Johnson - 93845 93262
For Private Circulation only.
Indo-Japan Chamber of Commerce & Industry (IJCCI), No. 21, Kavignar Barathidasan Road, Teynempet, Chennai - 600 018, Tamilnadu, India.
Phone : 044-2435 2010 / 2435 4779, Email : indo-Japan@ijcci.com, Web :www. ijcci.com