4 dry gardens in Kyoto where you can find your moment of Zen in the tourist-packed city

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Grey creek stones were cleverly set on edge more than level, giving the flow a stronger sense of direction. Keane installed a driving “river” with this design. The hotel’s “water” appears to fall down like a river from one building to the next, with a wide, smooth steel bridge below, a viewing platform, and a wide, smooth steel bridge that raises the design to life. The bankers on either side are thickly planted with ground-cover moss, woman hands, ferns, and oak trees. Additionally, a huge piece of moss, which Keane interprets as Earth drifting through the cosmos, is carried by a boat-shaped stone.

IF YOU GO, MORE INFO

The flowers at Zuiho- in and the Tofuku- ji Abbot’s Hall yard require reservations. The entrance fee at both is 400 yen ( about S$ 3.60 ) for adults and 300 yen ( about S$ 2.70 ) for children.

General admission to Honen-in is free, with the exception of the spring and fall beginning weeks, which typically occur in the first week of April and the second month of November. They cost 500 yen for the flower and 800 yen for the fall. During those days, the Empty River backyard can be visited.

Visit the free Genji Kyoto resort lawn.

Izusen, a cafe in the Daiji in the Daitoku-ji monastery challenging, offers a variety of local specialties in fixed menus beautifully presented in painted purple bowls that nest when they are full. Start 11am to 4pm by appointment, 4, 370 to 8, 050 renminbi. It is near Zuiho- in.

Even by appointment, Yudofu Kisaki, a cafe between the access to Honen- in and the Philosopher’s Walk, has vegetarians and yogurt specialties. Start 11am to 8pm, previous order at 6pm, 4, 370 to 8, 050 yen.

Nobel Prize-winning author Yasunari Kawabata’s post-World War II book The Rainbow is now available in English as a companion guide for your travels. Some chapters take place in Kyoto, and it can think as if you are travelling along, often in the same landscapes.

Kawabata’s knowledge of plants was fierce, and the convenience of his descriptions both organic and immediate:” On the grass in front of the wall, in the shadows of the oak trees, dandelions and lotuses were in bloom. In front of the bamboo fence, a double-flowered camellia had bloomed.

By Paula Deitz © The New York Times Company

The New York Times published the article at its original publication.

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Turkey’s economy paying the price for years of policy mishaps – Asia Times

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For many years, it was n’t the economy that determined voting behavior in Turkey. The government’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, won almost every vote he contested despite a deteriorating economic outlook.

The importance of identity politics in a nation that has seen polarization from Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development ( AK) Party’s policies over the course of its 22 years in power is frequently explained.

But, Erdogan’s run came to a screeching halt on Sunday, March 31 following Turkey’s regional votes. His AK Party lost the common ballot for the first time since 2002, and the main opposition party won in important locations like Istanbul and Ankara.

The reason why this time was different is largely due to the enormous accumulated fees from years of careless coverage that are now beginning to pay off in a major way.

What was the country’s economic viewpoint as they cast ballots, then?

On March 21, Turkey’s central bank raised interest rates quickly to 50 %. The rate increase was the most recent in a line of price increases to occur since Erdogan’s re-election as president in May 2023. The central bank’s determination to combat runaway inflation, which is currently hovering close to 70 %, was shown in the media.

The rising interest rates have received a lot of positive feedback as a much-needed change from the overly conventional economic plan. Erdogan’s innovative policy stance stemmed from his steadfast belief that raising interest rates may lead to more inflation rather than a decrease.

The pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine caused prices to ascend worldwide. Turkey went on an interest rate lowering binge while nearly every key bank raised interest rates in response. The increase in home prices was attributed to the artificially low interest rates that were kept low, making Turkey an prices champion on par with Argentina and Venezuela.

Decoupling from another emerging markets

Emerging industry have shown surprisingly strong resilience in the face of the world’s economic strain. Some emerging economies, unlike in the past, have avoided significant fluctuations in their exchange rates, have never experienced debt distress, and had managed to maintain prices.

One cause for this is the achievement of emerging economies in enhancing their plan systems, especially by promoting the freedom of their central banks. More particularly, central bankers in these countries have tremendously improved their conversation and accountability, and have become much better at prediction inflation.

In consequence, developed nations like Chile, the Czech Republic, and South Africa have outperformed their rivals.

Unfortunately, Turkey was an exception in this circle. The nation has entirely abandoned its economic policy’s independence to the point where its central bank has had six distinct governors in the last five decades.

Politics also played a disproportional part in the development of monetary policy. Changes to the Greek law, which were put in place in 2018, gave Erdoğan considerable executive powers to press for very nice spending ahead of the 2023 national elections.

The minimum wage increased significantly, and expensive pension plans and subventional cover tasks were implemented. Normally, this increase in public spending was a result of the inflationary pressures that were already brewing.

Turkey’s central banks is then forced to raise rates while others are just beginning the easing period because of its outcast position in loose monetary policy, which cut rates between 2021 and 2023 while everyone else was tightening.

Why does this problem?

Most nations believe that getting economic plan right is important. But it matters more for nations like Turkey, which are incredibly open to trade and financial moves and whose home economy’s exchange price movements are a major factor of fluctuation.

The Turkish lira is one of the biggest losers of Erdogan’s unconventional economic policy. The value of the zloty has significantly decreased over the past six years in relation to the US dollar. In January 2018, you may have needed to part with 3.76 liras to order one US dollars. Now, this number stands at 31.9 liras.

The Greek economy suffers from significant swings in the value of the lira for a variety of reasons.

First, a major component of Turkey’s imports are inputs used in the manufacturing process, especially of vehicles, machinery and electrical devices that make up nearly half of the government’s exports. Any increase in the value of the lira may increase the cost of production and, consequently, the price of exports, which will lower the government’s profitability.

Next, Turkey imports a large portion of its power from abroad. In much the same method, any loss of the lira may increase the cost of importing strength.

Third, Turkey has significant foreign money obligations. This increases the cost of the lira’s loss perhaps more. Any decline in its price increases the amount of resources needed to pay back a certain amount of foreign currency responsibilities.

Turkish lira banknotes and coins.
Over the past six times, the lira’s worth has drastically decreased. Photo: hikrcn / Shutterstock via The Talk

Turkey’s transfer to more conservative economic plan is good news. However, the plan shifts that have been made are insufficient to turn the tables on its business, especially in the fight against inflation because it is so long overdue. Constant inflationary pressures have made it more expensive for people to buy overseas coin, adding even more pressure on the lira.

The government have had to lose significant amounts of foreign currency reserves to stop the lira from depreciating more as a result of a decline in foreign cash inflows. Similar to the sharp increase in interest rates on March 21, and as the cost the nation is willing to pay for its previous coverage blunders, should be seen in this context.

More importantly, Turkey has n’t implemented any substantive institutional reform plans in the last almost a year, which is unacceptable.

You have look no further than the current resilience of other emerging economies for evidence if you need to know whether strong and independent policy institutions improve economic efficiency.

Brazil, for example, has n’t just rebounded strongly from the pandemic. It is able to control inflation and has one of the world’s best-performing economies.

Gulcin Ozkan is Professor of Finance, King’s College London

This content was republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original content.

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China’s big bet on ‘new quality productive forces’ – Asia Times

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Do n’t tell Donald Trump, but his pledge to impose 60 % tariffs on Chinese goods may help Xi Jinping’s efforts to boost the biggest economy in Asia in ways that Washington did n’t expect.

Granted, President Xi has been previewing his buzz- expression of “new excellent successful forces” since at least next September. Though mysterious and a tad confusing, Xi’s interior circle has been selling it as the solution to China’s financial future.

Little did Team Xi know that former US president Donald Trump would be assisting the Communist Party in selling the plan. In the decades since September and the National&nbsp, Women’s Congress in early March, Trump unveiled his plan to make deal war great again.

On top of crushing new import fees, Trump says he plans to withdraw China’s “most popular state” position if elected in November. These steps may produce Trump’s 2017- 2021 tenure in the White House seem calm by assessment.

Trump’s Republican Party is doing so by repeatedly reminding Xi’s celebration of the absurdity of acting consistently to encourage local demand-driven growth.

To maintain development of nearly 5 % year over year, China must encourage its customers to spend more and keep less. That entails boosting incomes and creating stronger social safety nets to stimulate spending.

Additionally, it means developing more reliable capital markets so that the typical Chinese may participate in both stocks and bonds rather than just real estate.

Yet Beijing’s intense concentrate on goosing use time and time again is destructive, some economists say. It makes China vulnerable to boom-and-bust cycles that necessitate immediate interest at the expense of reinvigorating the economy. Additionally, China’s heavy emphasis on exports makes the economy vulnerable to Trump-like trade war tics.

There’s no better option to accelerating and broadening China’s development as a large- technology powerhouse, advancement experts agree. And as 2024 draws near, there are signs that this is the hinge that Xi and Premier Li Qiang are trying to achieve.

In a report pictures, Li Qiang and Xi Jinping. Image: Twitter / Screengrab

Xi’s party stated at the NPC last month that” It’s crucial to support efforts to modernize the business system and promote the creation of new successful forces.”

According to Xinhua, the top priorities are “promoting green successful forces” throughout the country and” spurring revival of north China.” And making China a strong pioneer in semiconductors, electronic- car supply chains, clean energy, advanced infrastructure, aviation and unnatural intelligence.

Justin Yifu Lin, a former World Bank chief economist, argues that China “has enough space for ascent of technological development, business upgrade and performance level”. He cites the nation’s high savings rate, abundant investment resources and government commitment to economic development.

China, Lin says, has certain advantages that often get lost in worries about current economic challenges. As a major developing economy, Lin notes, China is” still in a process of industrial upgrade and still faces a big gap with developed countries, but this creates a latecomer’s advantage”.

During this catch- up stage, other economies including Japan, South Korea and Germany achieved a growth rate of 8 % or above. According to Lin, China has the potential to accomplish that if they can.

China “has yet another advantage in the new economy, which is characterized by artificial intelligence and the digital economy.” China is placed in the same starting position as those developed nations, but it has shown a significant advantage in developing new technologies in the process, Lin claims.

Lin also highlights China’s “abundant human capital” and its massive scale. That is, “any technological advancement or new product development can quickly enter the domestic market and benefit from economies of scale. China can outstrip developed nations in terms of scale thanks to its enormous domestic market size.

Also, China has, in Lin’s view,” the best industrial supporting capability of almost any economy globally”.

Beijing made a number of state-owned companies and conglomerates known on March 29 that it hopes will encourage China’s next big foray into future-oriented sectors and lessen US-led efforts to stop China’s rise. They include AI, neuroscience, quantum computing, nuclear fusion and other tech- driven industries.

This “pioneer” scheme is being overseen by the State- owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission. The goal is to deputize several conglomerates in order to start a boom in startups that will foster a vibrant ecosystem for a new wave of tech “unicorns.”

According to Lin Xipeng, an analyst with China Merchants Securities, the commission “has given a clear mandate that developing emerging and future industries is a crucial task.” ” While cultivating start- ups and units within their ecosystems, SOEs will also tap external investment and merger opportunities”.

The key is to end the West’s” chokehold” on China’s tech development, says Hu Yongjun, an analyst at the State Information Center under the National Development and Reform Commission.

This, of course, raises any number of risks as the US tightens the screws. Current President Joe Biden has sharply restricted China’s access to semiconductors and other important technology while Trump imposed massive tariffs. In addition, Beijing has united allies Japan and South Korea in a close relationship with China. Additionally, he has pledged to make hundreds of billions of dollars investment to rebuild home tech.

For China, it is a clear inefficiency that has hampered Beijing’s up-tech plans by making new high-tech products with less-than-modern machinery. Even so, the quicker China puts innovation and entrepreneurship in the economy’s driver’s seat the better.

China’s semiconductor market faces US sanctions. Image: Asia Times Files / iStock

A segue of this size, according to Xi’s inner circle, will increase Chinese competitiveness to levels comparable to those of its US and European counterparts. Beijing also believes it will replace a high-wage workforce in order to raise living standards and consumption. Then, over time, China’s growth will be self- reinforcing without the need for bursts of traditional fiscal and monetary stimulus.

Not everyone is convinced it’ll work, though. According to Arthur Kroeber, an analyst at Gavekal Dragonomics,” the theory is that all of these investments in high-tech industries will ultimately lead to very successful companies that will be able to employ people at high wages and that will ultimately lead to a lot of employment growth and consumption growth in the future.”

Kroeber warns that” the issue with that is, number one, that no matter how successful they are, will be able to completely replace the lack of demand that you are having from a property sector that is probably shrinking by somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 to 40 %.”

The” second thing,” according to Kroeber, is that even if these investments in high tech pay off, and I honestly believe a lot of them will, it does n’t necessarily mean that productivity will increase across the entire economy.

Kroeber warns that these high-tech companies may end up contributing only a small percentage to the economy’s overall employment. Most employment in the last decade has come from service sectors, largely from consumer- facing industries, and there’s no particular reason for that to change.

” So”, Kroeber argues,” the idea that you are going to create an economy- wide productivity boom that will raise overall wages and consuming power from these high- tech investments, I think is a little bit fantastical, frankly. So when I add all of this up, I believe that looking ahead to the upcoming years, we can anticipate that China will continue to struggle to maintain growth.

Yet, all the more reason for China to forge a new, different path forward. One reason is to address its getting more complex demographic problems. China must act urgently to increase productivity as its 1.4 billion-person population gets older and local government debt levels swell.

According to David Mann, the Mastercard Economics Institute’s chief economist for Asia-Pacific, the mainland had” a lot of growth coming purely from just more people showing up each year” before it was able to ignore economic inefficiencies.

In that context, private sector expansion and disruption have never been more crucial. The key question, as Mann sees it, is how rapidly and reliably Xi’s team is “able to bring in those innovations and introduce them in a way that does keep growth a bit stronger, without needing to resort to, for example, residential real estate investment, which is not as productive”.

International Monetary Fund head Kristalina Georgieva made the adage that China should increase domestic demand-driven growth when she spoke in Beijing last month. She also made a compelling argument for greater productivity and innovation.

” Domestic consumption depends on income growth, which in turn relies on the productivity of capital and labor”, Georgieva explains. The allocation of capital will be improved by changes such as improving the business environment and ensuring a level playing field between private and state-owned enterprises. Higher labor productivity and higher incomes will be achieved when human capital is invested in: education, life-long training, and reskilling.

Georgieva emphasized that these changes are “particularly crucial as China attempts to capitalize on the opportunities of the AI “big bang.” The state of a country’s readiness for the artificial intelligence world is already a problem for today.

But, Georgieva said,” the transformation ahead is not easy. The remarkable development success of China has benefited hundreds of millions of people. The younger generations are going through what many countries have gone through before as economies mature and growth&nbsp, moderates, and have lived their entire lives in an environment with exceptionally high growth rates.

In recent years, Xi’s efforts to champion high- tech industries, particularly cutting- edge manufacturing and service sectors, flowed from his” Made in China 2025″ project. That plan is to lead the global charge on semiconductors, biotechnology, aerospace, renewable energy, self- driving vehicles, artificial intelligence, green infrastructure, logistics and other areas.

This 2025 vision matched efforts to establish a form of” Silicon Valley East” in southern China. Xi’s so- called Greater Bay Area enterprise has sought to group Hong Kong and Macau with Shenzhen and eight other municipalities all angling to become economic powers of their own, namely Guangzhou, Zhuhai, Foshan, Huizhou, Dongguan, Zhongshan, Jiangmen and Zhaoqing.

The 55- kilometer Hong Kong- Zhuhai- Macau Bridge cost more than US$ 15 billion to build. Photo: Xinhua

Municipal leaders across the country are catching up on the innovation-first zeitgeist in a quick move.

In January, for example, the eastern city of Hefei christened the first tranche of a series of big projects in areas including new energy vehicles ( NEVs ), new- generation information technology and photovoltaics. The wave of investment totals 36.7 billion yuan ( US$ 5.1 billion ).

Hefei is on the vanguard of locales for China’s scheme to build 10 national research labs, each charged with a different area of specialization. In the case of Hefei, it’s a quantum computing lab, in Shanghai, its a lab focused on AI pursuits.

ln the eastern Xiamen city, part of Fujian Province, more than 53 billion yuan ($ 7.3 billion ) worth of productivity- enhancing projects in new energy, new materials and biomedicine have been greenlit.

In central Henan Province, contracts for cutting-edge manufacturing facilities and a number of future-oriented emerging industries have been signed for almost 600 billion yuan ($ 83 billion ).

Such efforts are important because they provide a route for local governments looking to leave the land sales industry. Municipal leaders from developing local economies were disoriented by the almost linear focus on selling and leveraging land to generate tax revenue over the years.

None of this will, to be sure, be simple in the long run. Xi’s efforts to deleverage the economy are focused on the provinces of China. Banks are being advised by regulators to repress their use of offshore bond-issuance laws by local government financing vehicles ( LGFVs ).

The$ 9 trillion&nbsp, mountain of LGFVs ‘ debt&nbsp, is a major challenge to Xi’s efforts to pivot toward more productive and sustainable tech- driven growth.

In the interim, Jeremy Zook, an analyst at Fitch Ratings, says that “economically weaker regions may face further deterioration in fiscal revenue and tighten expenditures”. He continues,” It’s quite a balancing act” at the moment when Xi wants to encourage economic growth and reduce rampant borrowing across the country.

Indeed, massive state-led economic transitions of the kind China is attempting to pull off take time and a lot of risk. The key, though, is that Xi and Li ensure that “new quality productive forces” is more than just an empty slogan.

Shifting engines in such fundamental ways&nbsp, without crashing the economy will require, at least for a time, increased foreign direct investment ( FDI), which just fell to a 23- year low of$ 42.7 billion of inflows in 2023.

On March 27, 2024, Chinese leader Xi Jinping meets with US CEOs and academics at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. &nbsp, Photo: Xinhua /
Huang Jingwen

Another issue that many foreign investors are concerned about is that Xi’s blueprint for a more innovative economy is full of soaring rhetoric and promises but is lacking in specific reform measures to increase investor confidence.

True, the$ 7 trillion stock market rout from a 2021 peak to January has seemingly stabilized. It’s worth noting, too, that Xi recently hosted a who’s- who of global CEOs from Apple’s Tim Cook to Blackstone’s Stephen Schwarzman to Tesla’s Elon Musk to Boeing’s Stan Deal to Pfizer’s Albert Bourla to reassure the international business establishment.

However, Beijing’s actions will speak louder than words. Trump hardly deserves praise for all of this. However, the trade war presents a chance for Trump to win the presidency, which supports the claim that China needs to change its economic stances quickly.

Follow William Pesek on X at @WilliamPesek

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China’s ageing population: A demographic crisis is unfolding for Xi

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Huanchun Cao and his wifeLan Pan/ BBC
By Laura Bicker
China Correspondent, BBC News

Huanchun Cao, a 72-year-old producer, responds with a raspy sigh when Huanchun Cao inquires about his pension.

He sucks on his house- rolled smoke, narrows his face and tilts his head- as if the pretty question is immoral. ” No, no, we do n’t have a pension”, he says looking at his wife of more than 45 years.

Mr. Cao belongs to a technology that witnessed the emergence of Communist China. Like his country, he has become outdated before he has become wealthy. He has no choice but to work and keep earning because he has been hampered by a poor social safety net, like some rural and immigrant workers.

A sluggish economy, shrinking government benefits, and decades-long one-child plan have all contributed to Xi Jinping’s China’s creeping statistical crisis.

The state is running out of time to create much of a bank to provide for the growing number of elderly, and the pension pot is running away.

Over the next generation, about 300 million people, who are now aged 50 to 60, are set to leave the Chinese labor. This is the region’s largest age group, roughly equal to the size of the US population.

Who does look after them? The response varies depending on where you go and who you ask.

Chart showing China's population is ageing fast

Mr Cao and his family live in the north- northeast province of Liaoning, China’s former professional homeland.

The major city of Shenyang is surrounded by vast stretches of land and mined hills. The sky is engulfed by fumes from smelting companies, along with some of China’s best-preserved world heritage sites from the Qing kingdom.

Almost a quarter of the population in this place is 65 or older. An increasing number of people in their working years are leaving the center of large industries in search of better employment in bigger cities.

Although Mr. Cao’s children have also moved away, they are also close enough to visit frequently.

When Mr. Cao and his wife returning from wood-collecting, he says,” I think I may just continue doing this for another four or five years.” Inside their house, flames crackle beneath a cooked system- called a “kang”- which is their primary source of warmth.

Mr Cao walking down the street

Xiqing Wang / BBC

The couple make around 20, 000 yuan ( £2, 200,$ 2, 700 ) a year. However, the cost of the corn they grow is declining, and they are unable to manage to become ill.

” In five years, if I’m still physically powerful, even I can walk by myself. However, I may be confined to bed if I’m weak and feeble. That’s it. Over. I’m going to have to bear with my kids, I suppose. They will have to look after me.

That is not the potential 55- season- old Guohui Tang wants. Her sister’s university education was ruined by her husband’s incident at a construction site, and her daughter’s savings were wiped out by their daughter’s success.

The original digging operator saw a need to help pay for her own senior treatment. About an hour from Shenyang, she opened a little care facility.

Guohui Tang

Xiqing Wang / BBC

At the back of the single-story home, which is surrounded by land, the pigs and birds both greet visitors. Mr Tang grows crops to supply her six people. They are also used as supper, no as animals.

As the moon passes through the little pavilion, Ms. Tang points to a group of four playing cards.

” See that 85- season- old man- he does n’t had a pension, he’s relying wholly on his son and daughter. His boy pays one fortnight, his daughter pays the second month, but they need to live to”.

She worries that she will have to rely on her only daughter, saying,” I will now pay my pension every month, even if that means I ca n’t afford to eat or drink.”

For decades, China has relied on filial devotion to fill the gaps in old treatment. It was a son or daughter’s duty to look after ageing kids.

However, there are fewer sons and daughters available for older relatives to depend on. One reason for this is the “one-child” diktat, which forbids couples from having two or more children between 1980 and 2015, which was in place.

Residents at Ms Tang's care home

Xiqing Wang / BBC

Younger people have also abandoned their families, leaving a growing number of seniors to take care of themselves or rely on state aid as the economy has grown faster.

However, the state-run Chinese Academy of Sciences predicts that the income fund will run out of money by 2035. That was a 2019 estimation, before the pandemic shutdowns, which hit China’s market hard.

China may also be forced to raise the anticipated pension years, which has been in place for decades. It has one of the lowest pension age in the world- 60 for males, 55 for whitened- neck women and 50 for working- group women.

However, according to economists, this is just tinkering around the edges if China wants to avoid what some people fear may turn into a humanitarian crises in 25 years.

However, more and more old have been dipping into their incomes.

The Fengs in their room at the Sunshine Care Home

Xiqing Wang / BBC

” Welcome to my home”, beckons 78- yr- old Grandma Feng, who just wanted to employ her next name.

As she frantically races down the corridor to inform her father that visitors are arriving to their place at the Sunshine Care Home, it’s difficult to keep up with her. She had just finished her dawn workout class, where she had been giggling and talking to her friends again in secret.

The home was built to building more than 1, 300 people. In exchange for assisting some of the old, around 20 young people volunteer to sit here for free. Private companies pay a portion of the cost of the home, removing the stress from the neighborhood state.

Officials are looking for solutions to an aged China through this test. These in Hangzhou, in southern China, they can obtain for research.

This is a completely different world from Liaoning, where gleaming new buildings like those found in Silicon Valley house tech firms like Alibaba and Ant, a magnetism for ambitious, younger companies.

The Fengs have resided here for eight times. The nursing home appears welcoming and there is plenty to do, from the treadmill and table tennis to chanting and play.

A man plays table tennis and a woman take a dance class at the Sunshine Care Home

Xiqing Wang / BBC

According to Grandma Feng,” It is very important to be able to accomplish the next phase of life in a good place.” She and her partner have been together for more than 50 years. It was love at first sight, they say.

When their nephew left junior high school, they decided their work was over.

There are” no people of the same age who think like us,” according to Grandma Feng. We appear to care more about having fun with existence. Those who disagree disagree that having a home on their own makes it superfluous to spend a lot of money.

But she says she is more “open- thinking”:” I thought it through. I recently sold my home to my brother. Our income accounts are all we need right now.

The child’s room at the treatment home costs around 2, 000 renminbi a month. Both former state-owned workers have much income to cover the cost.

Their income is much higher than the average in China, around 170 yuan a quarter in 2020, according to the UN’s International Labour Organization.

Residents in the conservatory at the care home run by Guohui Tang

Xiqing Wang / BBC

The Sunshine Care Home is operating at a loss despite having customers who are financially stable. Care properties are expensive to start up, according to the chairman, and take time to succeed.

Beijing has been urging private companies to establish daycare facilities, wards, and another age-related equipment to fill the void left by overburdened local governments. But if the future holds out, did they continue to invest?

Another East Asian nations, like Japan, are even looking for funding to care for a large number of seniors. However, Japan had one of the largest age groups in the world by the time it was already rich.

China, however, is ageing quickly without that seat. Some older people are now forced to make their own decisions at a time when they ought to been planning their retirement.

Chart showing number of workers supporting retirees expected to fall

In an effort to harness the purchasing power of middle-class seniors, fifty-five-year-old Shuishui found a new career in what is being called” the silver-haired economy” ( the” silver-haired economy ).

” I believe what we can do is try to make people around us feel more optimistic and to maintain learning,” she said. Everyone may have varying degrees of household income, but whatever situation you’re in, it’s best to remain optimistic.

Shuishui is aware that she belongs to a wealthy family in China. But she is determined to wait and see what comes. The original woman has received design training.

On the beautiful institutions of the Grand Canal in Hangzhou, she and three other ladies, all over 55, are touching up their make- away and scalp.

Shuishui (first from left) models with her friends

Xiqing Wang / BBC

Each has chosen their own traditional Chinese outfit in red or gold, wearing floor-length silk pattern skirts and fur-lined short jackets to thwart the spring chill. These opulent grandmothers are using social media for modeling.

As a team of social media experts yell instructions, they teeter dangerously in high heels over the cobbled historic Gongchen bridge while trying to laugh and smile for the camera.

Shuishui is eager for the world to see this graceful image of greying, and she feels like she is doing everything she can to help an ailing economy.

However, this picture defies the reality for the many elderly people in China.

Back in Liaoning, the wood smoke rises from chimneys, signalling lunchtime. Mr. Cao is using the fire in his kitchen to heat the water to cook the rice.

Mr Cao's wife

Xiqing Wang / BBC

As he searches for a saucepan, he says,” When I reach 80, I hope my children will come back to live with me.”

” I’m not joining them in the cities. You have to climb five floors to reach their place because it has no elevator. That’s harder than climbing a hill”.

This is simply the way things are, according to Mr. Cao. He must continue to work until he is no longer.

Ordinary people like us live like this, he says, pointing to the still-frozen fields outside. The planting season will return this spring, and he and his wife will have more work to do.

” If you compare it with life in the city, of course, farmers have a tougher life. How can you make a living if you ca n’t bear the toughness”?

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Standard Chartered Bank to lower maximum interest rate on savings account to 7.68% from May 1

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SINGAPORE: Standard Chartered Bank will be lowering the maximum interest rate on its Bonus$aver account to 7.68 per cent per annum from May 1, based on a check of its website on Tuesday (Apr 2).

This is down slightly from 7.88 per cent – the highest offered by the savings account – when the bank last hiked its interest rates in January last year.

Like the high-yield savings accounts offered by other banks, account holders of Standard Chartered’s Bonus$aver need to fulfil several criteria to earn the bonus interest rates.

These include crediting a salary of at least S$3,000 (US$2,217), spending on a card linked to the account and conducting other transactions with the bank, such as investments and bill payments. The bonus interest rates are offered on the first S$100,000 of savings.

With the latest revision, Standard Chartered’s account holders will earn an interest rate of up to 0.6 per cent a year when they spend at least S$500 monthly with their Bonus$aver credit and debit cards, down from the current 1.25 per cent.

The rate for customers who spend at least S$2,000 monthly will also be cut to 1.4 per cent from 2 per cent.

The bonus interest rate for the crediting of salaries is set to be lowered to 2 per cent a year, compared with the current 2.5 per cent.

Account holders also earn bonus interest when they make three eligible bill payments of at least S$50 each in a month via the bank’s online banking platform or Giro. However, this will be reduced to 0.23 per cent from 0.33 per cent.

That said, Standard Chartered is raising the bonus interest for the investment and insurance categories to 2 per cent per annum, compared with the current 1.5 per cent. 

In the same announcement, the bank said it is also revising certain interest rates offered by its Wealth $aver Account, which is exclusively for its priority banking and priority private clients who deposit a minimum of S$200,000, as well as its USD$aver Account.

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Billion-dollar money laundering case: Suspect gets 12 new charges including lying to IRAS, MOM

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SINGAPORE: A man who jumped off a balcony during a raid to arrest suspects linked to a billion-dollar money laundering probe received 12 new charges on Monday (Apr 1).

This brings the total number of charges that Su Haijin faces to 14, and the total amount in suspected criminal proceeds that he allegedly held to about S$3.8 million (US$2.8 million).

Cypriot national Su, 41, was initially set to plead guilty this week on Thursday. Both prosecution and defence confirmed that his plea will go ahead as planned.

He initially faced two charges of resisting arrest on Aug 15, 2023, and possessing about S$4.06 million in benefits from illegal remote gambling offences in a UOB account around August 2023.

On Monday, the second charge was amended to one of possessing nearly S$2.4 million that is reasonably suspected to be benefits from illegal remote gambling offences, and failing to account satisfactorily for how he came by this money.

This amount was allegedly held through an OCBC account belonging to Yihao Cyber Technologies, and received in 10 transactions between Jan 15 and Oct 12, 2021.

The amended charge carries a less severe penalty than that of Su’s initial charge of possessing criminal benefits.

Most of Su’s new charges revolve around Yihao Cyber Technologies.

He was given three charges of allegedly conspiring with Wang Junjie to use Yihao’s forged financial statements to:

  • Open a corporate bank account with DBS on Apr 13, 2022
  • Apply to join OCBC’s premier private client segment in 2022
  • Open a corporate bank account with UOB in or around May 2022

Two of his charges are for possessing benefits reasonably suspected to be illegal remote gambling offences in or around August 2023, amounting to about S$439,000 in Yihao’s DBS account and about S$1 million in Yihao’s UOB account.

Four more charges are for conspiring with Wang to lie to authorities about Yihao’s revenue, gross profits and trade receivables.

These false representations were allegedly made to the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) for the financial years 2019, 2020 and 2021, and to the Manpower Ministry (MOM) for the financial year 2021.

Su also has three charges of helping two women apply for or renew a work pass by making false statements to the Controller of Work Passes.

In 2021 and 2023, he allegedly instructed Wu Qin to sign and declare in a form submitted to the controller that she would be employed by Culbert Management as chairman, when he knew this was false.

In 2023, he allegedly did the same in instructing Chen Yanyan to apply for a work pass with a form falsely stating she would be employed by Culbert Management as a personal assistant.

Su, who was denied bail, appeared via video-link on Monday and followed proceedings through a Mandarin court interpreter.

The former director of restaurant operator No Signboard Holdings is represented by Mr Julian Tay, Mr Anthony Wong and Mr Dominic Kwok from Lee & Lee.

The penalties for resisting arrest are a jail term of up to a year, a fine, or both.

For possessing property reasonably suspected of being the benefits of criminal conduct and failing to account satisfactorily how they came by this property, an offender can be jailed for up to three years, fined up to S$150,000, or both.

If guilty of fraudulently using the forged documents with the banks, Su could be jailed for up to four years, fined, or both.

If convicted of making the false representations to IRAS and MOM, Su could be jailed for up to 20 years, fined, or both.

The penalties for making a false statement to the Controller of Work Passes are a jail term of up to two years, a fine of up to S$20,000 or both.

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Behold China’s consumer paradise – Asia Times

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‘Cause we are living in a material world

And I am a material girl

You know that we are living in a material world

And I am a material girl

– Madonna

China is now the greatest consumer paradise the world has ever known. Before anyone gets all bent out of shape, let us first define what we will be talking about in this piece.

We will not attempt to figure out how much is being consumed, who is consuming, who is not consuming, the growth rate of consumption, consumption’s share of GDP nor whether consumption patterns are morally or ethically virtuous.

Nor will we wax sanctimonious about the plight of sweatshop workers, migrant delivery men or whether ethnic “slaves” are or are not driving cotton harvesters in Xinjiang.  

We just care about shopping. And eating. And drinking. And traveling. And clubbing. And KTV. But we do want value for money. We are not writing this for Saudi princes who have Monte Carlo to race their Bugattis. This is for the rest of us.

Aspirational influencer girls, flexing their swag, showing off their drip and being baddies (on a budget) for their incel followers. Gadget freaks addicted to the latest gizmo that takes spectacular aerial videos, mops the floor or scoots through city streets in eerie silence without breaking the bank. Foodies with hundreds of restaurant choices within walking distance and thousands within shared bike delivery distance.     

Chinese foodies are spoiled for choice. Image: Author Supplied

We are not talking about the countryside, although it can be nice in many places. We are talking about first-tier cities (Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen), the new first-tier cities (Chengdu, Chongqing, Hangzhou, Wuhan, Nanjing, Tianjin, Suzhou, Xi’an, Changsha, Shenyang, Qingdao, Zhengzhou, Dalian, Dongguan, Ningbo), almost all second-tier cities (there are a few stinkers like Shijiazhuang and Baoding) and cool, quirky third-tier cities (Sanya, Qinghuandao, Lijiang, Dali, etc).

The first thing to understand about this consumer paradise is that service in China is now second to none – and we mean you Japan! This applies to everything, from restaurants, to e-commerce platforms, to hairdressers, to banks, to airlines. But this isn’t Japanese service with lots of bowing, scraping and artisanal attention to detail. This is the Haidilao model – industrialized customer service scaled for the masses.

The happiest place in China must be inside Haidilao hotpot restaurants. The mid-priced (US$16 per person) restaurant chain singlehandedly raised the bar for all retail service in China. Customers are ushered through the “Haidilao experience” – a balletically choreographed cascade of thoughtfulness.

Waiting areas have an onsite manicurist, a supervised child playpen, masseuses, table games, shoeshine machine and snacks. Bathrooms are spotless, smell of incense and have bum-washing toilets. Toothbrushes, toothpaste, floss, cotton swabs and lotion are provided by the sink.

Bins for coats are under the table. Warm towels are dispensed shortly after seating. Solo diners are provided a large plush companion. Chefs come to your table to twirl dough into long spinning circular ribbons of noodles. Costumed performers emerge at unexpected intervals to entertain the kids.

Good times at the dinner table. Photo: Author supplied

The “Haidilao experience” has now percolated throughout China’s retail sector. It is now common for malls to devote multiple floors to restaurants, each one crawling over the next trying to differentiate themselves with splashy interiors and creative touch.

Barbers offer hot tea and fruit plates to waiting patrons. Bank receptionists instruct customers on how to use new automated kiosks, ushering the old and the dense to live tellers while serving tea and biscuits.

Bath houses pamper families with hot spring tubs, saunas, massages, tearooms and buffets. The “Haidilao experience” – to envelop customers from entry to exit in a warm embrace of attention – has become the new consumer benchmark. And, of course, no tipping.

In my Hong Kong finance days, I would implore every talented young Hong Konger to take his or her career north – to do time on the mainland. If not, I warned, they would over time feel progressively more boxed-in in their own city. For whatever reason, I never had a taker.

I am now surprised to hear that young Hong Kongers are crossing the border on weekends like herds of migrating wildebeest. They swarm into Shenzhen’s restaurants, hair salons and bath houses to experience a level of service that was never available in Hong Kong at prices affordable to underpaid and checked-out youth. Evidently, Shenzhen’s restaurants and hair salons have greater pull than career advancement – who knew?      

And travel in China. Oh God, the travel. Remember Euro-rail summer backpacking around the continent in highspeed rail, staying in wretched youth hostels, ogling the young lovelies, totally paranoid of pickpockets?

China is Euro-rail on steroids. Faster, cheaper, with more to see, better accommodations and zero safety concerns. You like bright lights, big city? Zip down from Beijing to Shanghai ($92), then make forays into Hanzhou ($10) and Suzhou ($6).

Spicy food? Now go west through Wuhan ($49) to Chongqing ($39) and onto Chengdu ($13). Want to Zen out in Shangri-La? Go south to Guizhou ($42). Stay awhile in a mountain village then go west to Lijiang or Dali ($50) in Yunnan.

Choice of accommodations ranges from $20/night youth hostels to $500/night rooms at the Park Hyatt resort in Sanya during peak season. The trendiest accommodations these days are boutique hotels or Airbnb-type rentals managed by resort operators.

Competition is fierce. Expect free pickup to and from the airport, welcome drinks, a bottle of wine and a professional photo shoot at a splashily decorated boutique beachfront hotel with gimmicky voice-activated room controls ($350 per night during peak season in Sanya). Offseason in Beidaihe, an equally beautiful two-bedroom dog-friendly vacation home rental can be had for $110/night.

Sanya’s beach paradise hotels. Picture: Author Supplied

Don’t like trains? China has 5.3-meter paved roads (versus 5.2-meter in the US) accessing every corner of the country. Barrel down brand-new highways in whatever kind of motor conveyance you like. There are over a million EV chargers in China (versus 160,000 in the US). The putrid American tradition of RV’ing is now all the rage in China. So is the glorious American tradition of the chopper, with its full regalia of leather, tattoos and bottom rocker insignia.

China offers the widest selection of personal vehicles in the world. About 5-10% of Chinese are certifiably crazy, in line with world averages. But in China, that amounts to 70-140 million people, enough to make a market for anything. Every make and model from every corner of the world can be found on China’s highways from the usual suspects to Italian supercars to Ford F150s to Jeep Wranglers to Triumph Motorcycles.

Then there is the explosion of Chinese EVs blinged out with feature-itis which an old car guy like yours truly struggles to keep up with. The topical new Xiaomi SU7 offers a top-of-the-line Max version that goes zero to 100 kilometers per hour in 2.78 seconds, has a range of 800 kilometers and costs $40,000 (versus 3.1 seconds, 640 kilometers and $75,000 for Tesla’s Model S).  

Are you a shopper? With Shein as prelude, Americans are now stupefied by Temu. Those are just tendrils folks. Imagine what the shopping is like at its beating heart source. People, it’s all made in China – whether it’s a $250 pair of PowerBeats Pro earbuds, $55 Xiaomis or a $7.65 as yet generic version sold directly by a contract factory’s retail side operation. The generic earbuds sound no different and have longer battery life than premium versions.

Savvy shoppers can play this game for every consumer product imaginable. Carbon fiber road bikes are now all over Beijing. You can pay $10,000 or more and build a no-apologies Trek frame/Shimano components ride. There are, however, shops all over the city that will build you a custom racing bike with equivalent Chinese parts (e.g. Elves frame, L-Twoo components) for well under $3,000.     

While American tech platforms spent the last decade shoring up their monopolies, China dismantled Alibaba and Tencent’s empires. Is it any wonder that competitors for Amazon and Meta emerged from China and not the US?

While the US Congress has TikTok in its sights (and Shein and Temu have already drawn scrutiny), consumers in China will continue to be spoiled for choice with cutthroat competition between Alibaba, JD and PingDuoDuo in e-commerce and WeChat, Bytedance, Xiaohongshu and Bilibili in social media.

The US and EU are also likely to erect barriers to China’s EVs. This is unfortunate. The US car market has been highly distorted since the 1964 Chicken Tax – a 25% tariff on light trucks implemented to retaliate against European tariffs on US chicken. This has shifted marketing and engineering budgets to pickup trucks, which were once a niche product for farmers and construction crews.

BYD booth at the 2023 Bangkok International Motor Show. Chinese EVs are now the subject of a complaint filed with the World Trade Organization. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Other bailouts like federal loans to Chrysler in 1979, “voluntary” import quotas on Japanese cars in the 1990s and the 2008 bailout of GM and Chrysler (again) does not suggest that barriers to Chinese car imports will lead to a more competitive Detroit (or even Tesla). It, in fact, suggests that the US will become more and more a Galapagos market of overpriced and uncompetitive pickup trucks.

Similarly, European carmakers, without a solid plan to match or exceed China’s EV producers, risk surviving on expensive and poorly performing nostalgia products – like mechanical Swiss watches – forced on a public pining for $20,000 EVs available in Morocco.      

China’s consumer paradise is strictly enforced by brutally influential customer ratings on e-commerce platforms. Yours truly once gave a boutique hotel perfect marks in all categories except one, which I rated four out of five stars. The proprietor called immediately, offering amends. The better half mistakenly scored a free portable phone battery after writing a negative review without realizing that she had not properly read the instructions. Oops.

Right now, China is clearly a buyer’s market. It might not last. But is this an indication of lackluster demand? Or has China unlocked heretofore unappreciated levels of productivity? Is the over-the-top service a sign of business desperation? Or has China upgraded the attitude and responsiveness of its workforce?

Is deflation or GDP growth being underestimated as product quality and services improve while prices stay the same – or are those one and the same? What China’s new consumer paradise says about the economy is probably in the eye of an economist’s biases. What it means for foodies, shoppers, travelers and gadget freaks is heaven on earth.          

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Why Japan’s big rate hike was a resounding dud – Asia Times

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Japan – Central bank rate moves often get philosophical. However, investors are asking: If a price hike falls in a forest and no one is around to speak it because the world markets have ignored the Bank of Japan’s first tightening move in 17 times?

Governor Kazuo Ueda’s next thought trial, which ended 25 years of zero interest rates, was the one it was expected to trigger. It put an end to its experiment with negative yields by raising the policy benchmark from -0.1 % to 0 %.

More than skyrocketing, as some predicted, the renminbi has since weakened to 34- year highs. Alternatively of surging, 10- time Chinese bond generates are also lower today. Why do investors all over the world want to know if the BOJ’s great pivot failed in global trading markets?

The BOJ’s missed opportunity may be one reason. Businesses may have accepted the decision had then-Gouverneur Haruhiko Kuroda abandoned bad produces in late 2022 or early 2023. Buyers may have listened up if Ueda had taken the regulates immediately in April 2023.

The BOJ lost in the woods by putting off easing debate until Japan was avoiding a crisis and the US Federal Reserve was easing guesswork. Worse, it squandered yet more credibility, the only real money that counts in economic power lines.

Traders are now calling their own mountain, knowing for certain that BOJ tightening is no longer a boon for economic conditions. In part because of the decline in the yen over the past nine days, which led to the Tokyo authorities ‘ decision to act in October 2022.

Federal officials are threatening action by speaking in. Finance Minister&nbsp, Shunichi Suzuki says” we are watching business movements with a great sense of urgency”. Masato Kanda, evil financing minister for foreign affairs, &nbsp, says the Ministry of Finance stands ready to pounce on extreme yen- money swings.

If Japan does intervene, strategist Shusuke Yamada at Bank of America thinks the initial purchases will start at around 2 trillion yen ( US$ 13.2 billion ) and go up to 4 trillion yen ($ 26.4 billion ).

Yamada points out that” FX treatment is a practical choice for the Japanese government to fight the yen’s failure.” ” I suspect that action, or threats to perform action, are really just a estimate of buying time until we start to see things change on a more sustained base outside the nation”.

The currency’s exchange rate is now around 151 to the money. According to HSBC’s analysts, “many seem to think a line in the sand” against more yen failure is situated close to the 152 area when treatment occurred in later 2022.”

The problem, though, is that traders clearly do n’t fear the BOJ. Not after a quarter-century of zero interest rates, 23 years of quantitative easing ( QE), eight years of negative yields, and a long, sorted history of bowing to politicians who developed a growing love for the ATM role the BOJ had assumed.

Before leaving the BOJ creating 12 months ago, Kuroda could have attained some form of semblance of authority and independence. He was the government, after all, who turned the BOJ’s easing attempts up to 11 — and then some.

The BOJ dominated the bond and stock markets under Kuroda’s view, and it was with Kuroda that the Group of Seven’s balance sheet expanded beyond the size of its$ 4.7 trillion business.

By plotting an exit, Kuroda could have saved some trust from international buyers. He demurred, passing the penny to leader Ueda in April 2023.

Kazuo Ueda, the government of the Bank of Japan. Image: Twitter / Screengrab

By slow-footing its move in the direction of some sort of leave, Ueda did the BOJ no benefits. Markets were set for a traditional BOJ pivot many times between the middle and the end of 2023. Alternatively, Team Ueda made little tweaks to friendship trading bands.

Yet those minor adjustments were lessened in the days that followed with significant, unforeseen bond payments, indicating that BOJ policy had not fundamentally changed. And that problem is now being repeated.

The BOJ made the announcement right away following the March 19 price change that waves of cash will still be flowing. According to researcher Daniela Hathorn of the trading platform Capital.com,” Ueda’s dovish comments after the meeting were enough to put an end to any post-decided bearish attitude in the Japanese currency.”

On March 27, plan committee member Naoki Tamura, a observed bird, said the “accommodative financial condition will continue”. Tamura did state that the BOJ do” slowly but surely normalize its economic policy.”

But in” BOJ time”, this may mean five times or five years. The BOJ is all wood and no bite, so why would forex investors continue to assume that?

Life things, of program. Consider the earlier standardization attempts of 2006 and 2007. The BOJ at the time ended QE and half raised formal charges. The downturn that followed enraged the democratic establishment. The BOJ after backtracked, returning to zero and restoring QE.

It follows, therefore, that the BOJ’s trust in global industry is lacking. The view is now set to see if Ueda’s team can maintain its tightening pattern even if the situation turns flimsy.

A major test is the conflicting tides complicating Japan’s 2024, including poor Chinese need.

Japan merely sluggishly avoided a recession in soon 2023. In the October-December period, the gross domestic product ( GDP ) increased by only 0.4 % year over year after contracting by 3.3 % between July and September. In January, household spending plunged&nbsp, 6.3 %, the sharpest drop in 35 months.

Meanwhile, prices pressures may intensify as organisations score the biggest increase in 33 years. The 5.28 % pay knock secured during this year’s” shunto” discussions comes amid drum- tight labour markets and waning performance.

According to economist Carlos Casanova of Union Bancaire Privée,” This suggests a robust real wage growth in 2024.” Given the high inflation levels, he points out that “average regular actual cash earnings remained adverse in 2023.”

The BOJ, Cassanova says, “has been waiting for a ‘ noble cycle’ to taking hold. This is a method through which sustained, imported’ cost- drive’ inflation, fueled by Chinese yen depreciation, results in changes to business behavior, quite as rising wages and higher price- setting behavior. In turn, that can boost domestic consumption and fuel endogenous’ demand- pull’ inflation”.

Soft growth, in the context of China’s downshift, might argue in favor of no BOJ rate hikes this year. By contrast, upward wage pressures and the weakest yen since 1990 might support accelerated rate hikes.

Add in a ruling Liberal Democratic Party, which is struggling amid public outcry and economic unrest as a result of a string of political finance scandals. Fumio Kishida, the prime minister, is struggling to keep his approval ratings in the 20s ( he ended 2023 at&nbsp, 17 % ).

Though the BOJ is officially independent, it’s historically not known for bucking the political establishment. With looser and looser policies, BOJ governor after governor enabled change- averse politicians. The BOJ’s largess removed the urgency for Tokyo to reform the economy and increase competitiveness.

Decades of free money took the onus off corporate chieftains to restructure, innovate or increase productivity. With China’s booming corporate welfare system still in place, the BOJ’s haven has become a harder place to revive Japan’s animal spirits.

Devising the monetary policy equivalent of a 12-step plan to deplete Japan’s excess liquidity now falls to Ueda. Step away from QE too fast and the BOJ risks setting up another 2006- 2007 episode. Move too gradually, and the BOJ loses even more street cred from international traders.

As of now, BOJ watchers are unclear on where Ueda might be headed, causing them to parse every word from the governor’s mouth and BOJ statements.

Given the current state of economic activity and prices, and for the time being, economist Takeshi Yamaguchi from Morgan Stanley MUFG says,” we need to pay attention to the expressions.” This” suggests that the future policy path would depend on changes in economic activity and prices as well as financial conditions from the perspective of sustainable and stable achievement of the 2 % price stability target,” according to Ueda.

Others predict that BOJ policy normalization will take a very long time to come into effect. ” Central banks often are compelled to make judgment calls before the desired evidence is in”, says Richard Katz, author of the new book&nbsp,” The Contest for Japan’s Economic Future”.

” Failure to decide is also a decision. But in the case of this BOJ move, there does not seem to be any such compulsion”, Katz says. ” If, when March 2026 comes and both wages and inflation fall short of the BOJ’s forecast, how will the BOJ explain its rush to tweak”?

A woman looks at shoes on sale at an outlet store in Tokyo’s shopping district, Japan. Photo: Asia Times Files / Twitter Screengrab

The fact that Japan’s fortunes in 2024 depend even more heavily on Beijing and Washington than Tokyo are. The Economist Intelligence Unit doubts that China will exceed its 5 % GDP growth goal this year in a new report.

According to EIU analysts,” Consumer sentiment will remain fragile but will continue to recover gradually, supported by a rise in fiscal spending and looser monetary policy.” EIU anticipates that the government will continue to take a cautious approach to addressing pressing issues like the property sector stress and local government debt, even if this undermines market confidence.

That will cause Japan to experience feedback. The changing calculus surrounding US Fed rate cuts will change as well. Japanese officials were persuaded that Jerome Powell’s team would ease more frequently this year as the year approached 2024. Economists are quickly scaling back those forecasts because US inflation is still stubbornly high.

Viewed one way, Ueda’s team may be happy that the long- awaited shift away from QE did n’t panic world markets. However, BOJ officials should n’t be alarmed by the widening gap between perception and reality for March 19. The disconnect between yen sell orders is being expressed by traders.

It implies that the BOJ is at least perceived more as a paper tiger than as a feared authority whose sounds are heard on global markets. To raise the volume, Ueda’s team will have to act bigger and less predictably next time. The BOJ must now venture as far away from its comfort zone as rarely before.

Follow William Pesek on X, formerly Twitter, at @WilliamPesek

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