Afeela
Ichiro Suzuki Near the end of March, Sony Honda Mobility Inc. (SHM) has officially discontinued the development and launch of the Afeela 1 sedan and its second model. It was a project based on Sony’s entertainment and software prowess and Honda Motor’s manufacturing capability. At the 2020 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, NV, Sony made it public its desire to enter car business with a display of an electric vehicle, the Vision S. Then, Sony formed a joint venture with
2 days ago4 min read
Japan’s Defense Policy
Ichiro Suzuki One of the new global trends in the 2020s is growing importance of national security and defense. In Asia, China has thinly disguised geopolitical ambition, with rapidly rising defense budget since the early years of the 21st century and growing frequency of skirmishes in East and South China Sea with neighboring countries. While its ratio of defense budget to GDP is relatively modest at 1.5% reportedly, China’s breakneck economic growth rate until not so lon
Apr 34 min read
Industrial Policy
Ichiro Suzuki Decades ago, when Japan was at the height of its economic might, it was taught in business school classrooms that much of Japan’s success was attributed to the bureaucracy’s policy making. The Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) back then figured out what would be the industries that would define the future and planned what would be promoted. At the time when capital was scarce, the Ministry of Finance made sure that sufficient amount of capital
Mar 314 min read
Will the Chinese Market Boom?
Ichiro Suzuki On February 25, Japan’s Nikkei index closed at 59,583. It was another all time high, and was 50% higher than the once towering high of 38,914 that stood until two years go, for 33 years and 3 months. It has taken the Nikkei only two years to rise 50% once the former high at the height of the bubble era was cleared. When a historic bubble popped at the beginning of the 1990s, Japan went into a long period of adjustments of past excesses. A painful period laste
Mar 144 min read
Normalization of Interest Rates
Ichiro Suzuki Japan’s long-term interest rates are inching up almost daily. Benchmark 10-year government yield has rose to 2.33% on January 20. This level of long-term rates was last seen near the end of the 20th century when Japan was at a relatively early stage of persisting deflation caused by a banking crisis. Several years later, bank balance sheets were finally cleaned up with massive injection of tax payers money for recapitalization. When the Japanese banking sector w
Mar 74 min read
Death of the World Trade Organization?
Ichiro Suzuki In the second quarter of the 21st century, wholesale changes are in progress in the system that has been in place since the end of World War Two. Signs of the system’s fatigue have been rampant over the past few decades and changes were taking place rather slowly. Then, they have gathered momentum. Back in the White House, Donald Trump is wasting no time attacking the global system while promoting his America First agenda. Security arrangements are under intense
Mar 75 min read
Demise of the Left
Ichiro Suzuki Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and the Liberal Democratic Party scored a historic win in the February 8 election for the House of Representatives (the Lower House). Takaichi took the risk of dissolving the House only 16 months into its 4 year term. Her rationale for calling the shots was to ask voters if they really had trust in her or not. She has been enjoying unusually high approval rating since her rise to PM last October. Former PM Shigeru Ishiba was forced
Mar 74 min read
China’s Deteriorating Public Finabces
Ichiro Suzuki An economy growing at 5% is supposed not be considered being in a slump. Such growth rate is an envy of the world, except in India. The Chinese economy grows at 5%, according to the Communist Party. Despite the growth rate, the economy is struggling immensely, as it is widely reported. At best, it is a two-speed economy. The external sector registered exorbitant trade surpluses of $1.2 trillion in 2025, which was over 6% of GDP. Factories are cranking out produc
Mar 74 min read
Foreign Direct Investment
Ichiro Suzuki According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Japan consistently ranks 196th or lower. (198th out of 200 countries in some analysis in terms of total cumulative investments by foreign firms to GDP among the 196 countries surveyed in 2019/20. In fact, Japan was a notch behind North Korea. (Who invests in North Korea? China?) At the end of 2023, FDI stock in Japan stood ¥50 trillion as opposed to ¥600 trillion as the size of the ec
Mar 74 min read
Venezuela
Ichiro Suzuki As soon as 2026 has started, U.S. armed forces attacked Caracas, Venezuela, captured President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores at their house and flew them to New York for trial. The Trump administration has installed Maduro’s Vice President Delcy Rodriguez as interim president. The operation is quite possibly violation of international law. Few countries have expressed outright support for the operation. Trump’s naked territorial ambitions in the weste
Jan 174 min read
Xi Jinping’s Wrath
Ichiro Suzuki On November 7 at the House of Representative’s Budgetary Committee, Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi elaborated what could constitute a situation that threatens Japan’s survival in the event of China’s invasion into Taiwan. She also spoke how Japan might react to such a situation including deployment of the Self Defense Force. Japan’s left-leaning media gleefully reported it as her ‘war plan’. Chinese Consul in Osaka Xue Jian immediately reacted to it in t
Dec 17, 20255 min read
Sanae Takaichi’s Fiscal Policy
Ichiro Suzuki Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has unveiled a ¥19 trillion ($122 billion) supplementary fiscal package to spur growth. This compares to FY2025 budget of ¥115 trillion ($741 billion). Running for the president of the Liberal Democratic Party in September, Takaichi stressed that she was going to seek growth more than anything, advocating ‘responsible fiscal policy’. About two-thirds of the ¥19 trillion package is going to be deficit-financed. The Japanese e
Dec 8, 20254 min read
The World’s Largest Banks
Ichiro Suzuki Bank of America shares have officially returned to where they were prior to the global financial crisis that began in 2007. Its share price peaked at 53, at the height of the housing boom that culminated into an unprecedented crisis. Under CEO Brian Moynihan since then, the bank slowly and persistently worked on restructuring of its businesses and reconstruction of damaged balance sheets. While its share price has recovered the all time high, its equity market c
Dec 8, 20254 min read
Sanae Takaichi’s Diplomatic Debut
Ichiro Suzuki Japan’s House of Representatives (Lower House) elected Sanae Takaichi as the country’s new leader on October 22. Two days later, in her first address to the Lower House, she declared to get Abe’s active diplomacy back again. By the end of the month, the new Prime Minister went through a whirlwind of diplomatic activities. She first flew to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to introduce herself to ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) leaders. While there were no s
Nov 13, 20253 min read
Immigration Crackdown in Japan?
Ichiro Suzuki Newly elected Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has created a new cabinet post, Immigration Minister. The PM appointed an outspoken woman to the post. Former model Kimi Onoda, 42, wears another hat of the Minister of Economic National Security. Appointing a relatively young woman to heavyweight positions displays the new PM’s seriousness in promoting women. In the House of Councillors (the Upper House) election in July, immigration was one of the issues. Though Jap
Nov 13, 20255 min read
Japan’s First Female Prime Minister
Ichiro Suzuki On October 21, Japan’s Diet (Parliament) has elected a woman as the country’s Prime Minister, for the first time ever at last. It is a remarkable feat in a land of persisting male chauvinism to have the first female leader. While female prime minister may have lost novelty elsewhere by now, the United States, France, China and Russia are yet to elect a woman as President. Sanae Takaichi is also the first female president of the Liberal Democratic Party that has
Oct 22, 20255 min read
Indonesians’ Wrath
Ichiro Suzuki Indonesians marched the streets in Jakarta lately, displaying their anger against the new president Prabowo. Rising prices are afflicting their life. Though inflation overall was up a relatively ‘reasonable’ 2.6% in September, food prices rose a more acute 5%. Growth of the Indonesian economy has slowed to 5%, not high enough for a country that aspires to be a middle income country. Indonesia’s per capita income was $5,000 in 2024. Global South is full of promis
Oct 18, 20253 min read
Price to Book Value Ratio
Ichiro Suzuki Upon rising to the post of Japan Exchange CEO in 2021, Hiromi Yamaji didn’t hide his disaffection with low valuations given...
Sep 27, 20254 min read
The Plaza Accord
Ichiro Suzuki On September 22, 1985, G5 (the U.S., the U.K., West Germany, France and Japan) finance ministers gathered at the Plaza...
Sep 15, 20254 min read
A Bull Market in Shanghai
Ichiro Suzuki Shanghai has hit its ten-year high, a headline read in mid-August. After a series of uninspiring and sometimes depressing...
Sep 9, 20256 min read
Japan Slips in Global GDP rankings
Ichiro Suzuki At the turn of the 21st century, Japan was still comfortably the largest economy on earth, outside of the United States. At...
Aug 29, 20254 min read
Campaign Promises
Ichiro Suzuki In the House of Councillors (Upper House) in July, parties made great efforts to appeal to voters on what they were going...
Aug 14, 20253 min read
Rise of Japan’s Hard Right Populists
Ichiro Suzuki “Use tax for Japanese not for foreigners!” shouts Sohei Kamiya, head of Sanseito, a political party he founded only five...
Jul 24, 20253 min read
Enigma of BYD’s Valuation
Ichiro Suzuki The automobile industry is going through the biggest changes since its birth around the turn of the 20th century....
Jul 9, 20254 min read
On Japan’s Car Industry
Ichiro Suzuki President Donald Trump doesn’t hide his displeasure with lopsided trade of cars between the U.S. and Japan. In 2023, Japan...
Jun 26, 20255 min read
Slowly Progressing Structural Change in Japan
Ichiro Suzuki Inflation in Japan is persisting while it is subsiding in many parts of the world. Russia’s Ukrainian invasion caused...
Jun 14, 20254 min read
Kyle Bass’s Prediction
Ichiro Suzuki Kyle Bass is a highly successful hedge fund manager who predicted and effectively bet against the U.S. subprime mortgage...
Jun 11, 20253 min read
Is Samsung Doing All Right?
Ichiro Suzuki South Korea’s electronics giant has not been doing well lately. At the beginning of this decade, Samsung was comfortably...
May 22, 20255 min read
Chinese in Japan
Ichiro Suzuki For centuries, Chinese people have always explored new opportunities outside of the mainland. They often ventured into the...
May 16, 20254 min read
Motivation Exploitation
Ichiro Suzuki The Tramp administration is attacking elite universities in the U.S., demanding changes to the way they are run so that...
May 6, 20255 min read
Does the TPP Save Global Trade?
Ichiro Suzuki In January 2017, as soon as the first Trump presidency started, the 45th President has pulled his country out of the...
Apr 21, 20254 min read
Rising Rice Prices
Ichiro Suzuki Retail rice prices are rising in Japan. Through the final week of March, they are reportedly 108% higher on average than...
Apr 1, 20254 min read
Changing of the Guards
Ichiro Suzuki After a quarter century of printing money almost ceaselessly, the Bank of Japan has reversed its direction under Governor...
Mar 22, 20253 min read
China’s Foreign Exchange Reserves
Ichiro Suzuki Several years ago already, China ceded the status as the largest holder of US Treasury securities. Japan regained the top...
Mar 13, 20254 min read
Nissan’s Reckoning
Ichiro Suzuki In his 1986 book “The Reckoning”, David Halberstam wrote a parallel history and study of the U.S. and Japanese automobile...
Mar 1, 20254 min read
Hollowing-out in China
Ichiro Suzuki Chinese companies are aggressively expanding outside of the mainland, it’s been reported. Amid persisting sluggishness of...
Feb 24, 20255 min read
Crisis at Fuji Media
Ichiro Suzuki Fuji Media Holdings has been caught in an uproar since the beginning of 2025. A number of large advertisers have pulled...
Feb 12, 20255 min read
South Korea Overtakes Japan
Ichiro Suzuki Its official. South Korea, or the Republic of Korea (ROK), has overtaken Japan in per capita GDP in 2024, at $36,132 vs...
Feb 10, 20254 min read
Is Global South Rising?
Ichiro Suzuki Global South is closing in on the North after decades of the latter’s dominance in the global economy and politics, it’s...
Jan 21, 20256 min read
Cost of Modern Monetary Theory
Ichiro Suzuki The Japanese government keeps piling up debt, as it has been well known for a long time. In the aftermath of a spectacular...
Jan 12, 20254 min read
Digital Deficits and Mercantilists
Ichiro Suzuki The next President of the United States shouts about imposing tariffs on all the goods coming into the U.S. Tariff rates...
Jan 11, 20255 min read
The Oriental Witches
Ichiro Suzuki In the summer of 1961, Japanese women’s volleyball national team toured Europe and won stunning 24 consecutive matches. The...
Dec 18, 20244 min read
Does Tourism Save the Japanese Economy?
Ichiro Suzuki Tourists are back. After having been held back for a couple of years by COVID, tourists are traveling around the world once...
Nov 20, 20244 min read
U.S. Equity’ Dominance
Ichiro Suzuki J.P. Morgan Asset Management recently compiled a report on changes in global equity markets weights by region, dating back...
Nov 14, 20244 min read
Japan’s General Election
Ichiro Suzuki On October 27 Japan’s voters gave a blow to the ruling coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and Komeito in the...
Nov 1, 20244 min read
Xi Jinping’s Vision
Ichiro Suzuki China’s stimulus package temporarily boosted optimism toward the end of September. But enthusiasm has cooled down as soon...
Oct 23, 20245 min read
China’s Rebound
Ichiro Suzuki On September 24, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) announced a policy package to help boost the ailing Chinese economy that...
Oct 10, 20244 min read
Germany in Trouble
Ichiro Suzuki Former European Central Bank President and Prime Minister of Italy Mario Draghi has issued a report calling for structural...
Oct 4, 20244 min read
The Age of Tariffs
Ichiro Suzuki The European Union is raising is tariffs on Chinese-made battery electric vehicles (BEVs) up to 38%, in response to...
Sep 23, 20244 min read
Uber in Japan
Ichiro Suzuki In April, 2024, ride share services have kicked off in Japan at long last, more than ten years after Uber and Lyft cars...
Sep 22, 20244 min read