Archive for the 'Japan' Category

What does Japan have going for itself?

For the past several weeks, or ever since Kyle Bass laid out his macro predictions for Japan even more clearly than he did a year ago, I’ve been doing some research on Japan. In a nutshell, it seems very likely that Japan will be the next country to experience a serious debt crisis.

There are many reasons for this, but I’ve looked at some interesting anecdotal evidence that suggests it will be very hard for Japan to make the necessary social and corporate changes to become more productive. For example, read this article about Sony Corporation, which details the rise and fall of the company. Stableboy Selections continues on this subject, arguing that its now Japanese companies (instead of American companies) that are making inferior style electronics. And then, given the recent scandal surrounding Olympus, you have to ask yourself whether there are more Japanese companies that have hidden losses through accounting tricks or fraud as opposed to admitting to mistakes and losses?

Further reading: the latest letter from Hayman Capital provides additional insight into the debt problems around the world.

Finding Gold in Poo

I never knew you can find gold in poo – literally:

TOKYO (Reuters) – Resource-poor Japan just discovered a new source of mineral wealth — sewage.

A sewage treatment facility in central Japan has recorded a higher gold yield from sludge than can be found at some of the world’s best mines. An official in Nagano prefecture, northwest of Tokyo, said the high percentage of gold found at the Suwa facility was probably due to the large number of precision equipment manufacturers in the vicinity that use the yellow metal. The facility recently recorded finding 1,890 grammes of gold per tonne of ash from incinerated sludge.

That is a far higher gold content than Japan’s Hishikari Mine, one of the world’s top gold mines, owned by Sumitomo Metal Mining Co Ltd, which contains 20-40 grammes of the precious metal per tonne of ore.