Voices: Inside Japan’s recession

As business confidence in Japan sinks to a record low, residents describe how the economic downturn has affected their lives, their jobs and their local area.
HIROSHI MASUDA, NAGOYA, 32, AUTOMOTIVE PARTS SUPPLIER

Nagoya city is one of the areas worst hit by the economic crisis in Japan.
The district is famous as the base of automotive giant Toyota.
Over the last couple of years, its successful economic activity has been a major engine of growth in this area.
But because of the shrinking car market, almost all local economic activities have become weak.
In the automotive sector, companies are trying to cut costs from almost all aspects of their activities such as wages, investments, research and development. There has been a sharp decline in production volume.
This is a contrast to recent years when our production facilities were operating at maximum capacity. We were working overtime regularly.
But now, some production lines don’t even operate in the daytime.
In order to get out of this crisis, we need to see the recovery of the global economy, especially our main export target area – Europe and the US.
I feel it. The Japanese economy is already in recession. But unlike UK or US, we have not hit the bottom yet.

YING, 24, FORMER INVESTMENT BANKER, TOKYO

Although I am a Chinese citizen, I have lived and worked in Japan all my life.
I had been working as an investment banker for a year and half before my position became redundant last December.
It used to be that Japan felt relatively calm until last fall. Since then, the pain of economic downturn has become particularly acute. I suppose it was delusional to think that Japan could escape this crisis by some wisdom gained from its „Lost Decade“ [as a result of the last downturn].
In my hometown of Sapporo, Hokkaido, where my parents still live, there have been major local department store closures since the beginning of 2009. I remember that when I was little, in the 1990s, the local Hokkaido Takushoku Bank went bankrupt, and it affected the whole island. It appears today that vulnerable parts of this country such as regional cities are the areas most hit by economic hardship.
I worked for a foreign investment bank’s Japan office. Over the past few years, finance has been a very popular industry for talented new graduates in Japan to seek a job in. Students fought over the few front office positions at top foreign banks, believing that those jobs would open up global and dynamic possibilities that did not exist in traditional Japanese companies.
Now that these banks are shedding jobs all over, we are witnessing the downside of it. I have about as many friends who have lost their finance jobs in Tokyo as those who are still employed.
No wonder students this year are said to be yearning for the safety and comfort of big Japanese corporations and government jobs. So the change has been dramatic.
I believe that I’m beginning to see a light at the end of the tunnel. Or, maybe I just want to say that there is a point in staying positive. I think that this period will make young people like myself more thoughtful and resilient as members of this society.

TATUYUKI YAMAGUCHI, 56, TOKYO, COMPANY DIRECTOR

I run a real estate company and I have lost millions of Euros in this downturn. I was investing in the currencies of Iceland and Turkey. It all happened in a couple of days.
I tried to save my money for days and nights, but the decline was so quick and so large. It was a nightmare. I still have flashbacks to that moment.
In Tokyo, we have more of what we call „internet refugees“ (those who live by small jobs and sleep at internet cafes). Another symptom of the downturn is that I now have less difficulty in finding people who work hard – this is a good thing! Stores are less crowded.
More people want to rent small apartments . My company has small apartments as well as business buildings and the small apartments business is going well .
It seems to me that people are more aggressive and angry now. So you have to be careful. We hear of comedians and stars being blackmailed for no reason. We seem to be getting more jealous and envious of people’s success.
We need hope. We may need a Barack Obama in Japan.

AKI OKUBO, TOKYO, IT WORKER

In some ways, I don’t see much change. I do see less people dining out and going to bars.
I have become a bit more careful in how I spend my money. But to be honest I haven’t really changed too much.
There certainly is an atmosphere. I can feel that. People obviously talk about the downturn. They see the stock market going down. Lots of people who work in the financial sector are losing jobs. But that’s probably about it.
I think we need a completely new government.
The actions the government is taking to stimulate the economy are really basic. Cheaper highway tolls won’t be of much use because they were already too expensive. They are just giving money out to people.
I think the government needs to take things more seriously and not just do things to win votes.
I have concerns about the future. I’m worried about the recession now and I think that in general Japan needs change. „“
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