Free Republic

A gunman at an election rally in Nara ended the life of the longest-serving and one of the most popular prime ministers in Japanese history. On July 8, just before 6 PM, it was reported that former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had died, according to multiple sources and local media. Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe Is Shot During a RallyThis is how the day unfolded.Very detailed account follows at the link>

Once upon a time, the world's biggest government pension fund, Japan's $1.1 trillion Government Pension Investment Fund, or GPIF, was apolitical, and merely focused on preserving the people's wealth. Then everything changed, and with the reckless abandon of a junkie on a crack cocaine binge, aka Abenomics, the GPIF management was kicked out, and its entire mandate was flipped from preserving wealth, to gambling on #Ref! P/E stocks, in hopes of recreating the wealth effect of the super-rich (the only problem: Japan has reached its breaking point and the higher the USDJPY, and thus the Nikkei rises, the more...

Abenomics at make-or-break phase in Japan Published: 4:03 AM, November 7, 2014 TOKYO — Japan’s audacious campaign to reinvigorate its economy is entering a make-or-break phase. After nearly two years of aggressive stimulus under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, joblessness has plunged, big companies such as Toyota are earning record profits and corrosive price declines have been replaced by something Japan has rarely seen in decades — inflation. Yet the benefits of Abenomics, as the programme is known, have been unevenly distributed. Many consumers and businesses simply do not feel better off. The problem threatens to undermine support for the effort...

Japanese Prepare For "Abenomics Failure", Scramble To Buy Physical Gold Tyler Durden 03/28/2014 10:42 -0400 As we reported yesterday, the world's most clueless prime minister, Japan's Shinzo Abe, has suddenly found himself in a "no way out" situation, with inflation for most items suddenly soaring (courtesy of exported deflation slamming Europe), without a matched increase in wages as reflected in the "surprising" tumble in household spending, which dropped 2.5% on expectations of a 0.1% increase in the month ahead of Japan's infamous sales tax hike. How does one explain this unwillingness by the public to buy worthless trinkets and non-durable...