Getting into September, it is just 4 months left for this year. I feel a year elapses quite quickly these days. So it is a fact that I have occasionally spent days with a feeling of fret like “ Oh!? Another March!?” or “Did it pass 6 months already!?”. It can’t be helped if I continue to sigh with it. In some cases time feels long or short. It is the best for us to make days satisfactory for ourselves if time is equal to us who spend days meaningfully or lazily. So in my case I would like to make the customers satisfactory through doing business with them and more successful to share with them. As a result I would like to add more staff of EFI to share such happiness with them.
It is the Prime Minister (PM) Abe that has been living a full life in Japan for people and country at present. He has just started his 2nd cabinet from Sep. 3. He adopted 5 female ministers which is equal to the historical high record. On the other hand he energetically went abroad and acted as the top sale in diplomacy. On Sep 3 he met Bangladesh Prime Minister, which was the 49th visit country since his inauguration one year before. He finally got their support for Japan to be a non-permanent member of the Security Council in the United Nations. It is necessary for him to visit as many countries as possible to get the other countries understand Japan. As a result it will positively ensure them goodwill about Japan.
It is a good chance for Japanese government to make an appeal for many good points about Japan to the world before Tokyo Olympic Games in 2020. I expect the P M Abe will demonstrate his strong leadership for the world peace.
The successive prime ministers (except PM Koizumi) were introverted and poor in diplomacy. It is not too much to say they were lazy. In this respect I would like to yell for him. On the other hand I like to request the opposite parties to support PM Abe administration from a wider view of things and by the principle of being fair and just. If they do so they will be more supportive by people as an alternative.
Yen is rapidly getting weak since Lehman shock in 2008. Yen broke through the wall of $1.00=Yen105 after Yen suddenly dropped against dollar in Sep while Yen stayed steadily at the level of $1.00=Yen102 level till Aug 20. Merit of Yen depreciation is limited due to the hollowing out of industry and increase of exports in terms of Yen. On the contrary it has lots of the minus factors like rise of energy price, cost increase to importing companies and so on. If USA may make an end of the quantitative monetary easing policy in Oct and decide to terminate the zero-interest-rate policy the surplus fund overseas will return to USA and it will cause further Yen depreciation. Shale gas revolution gave USA confidence and the manufacturing industry has started to come back to USA. The unemployment rate for Aug was improved to 6.1%. The number of non-agricultural employment increased 142,000 against the previous month. USA economy has steadily been improving. It is a good news to President Obama who will have a midterm election in Nov.
In order to cope with expectation from the world Japan should materialize growth strategy as the 3rd arrow of “Abenomics” without delay. The nuclear power plants which confirmed safety standards should be approved in operation with a time limit and energy crisis should be gradually solved. Tax cut in corporation tax will strengthen Japanese companies in competitiveness. We should make the best of Yen depreciation. It will lead to the attraction of foreign tourists for Japan and it will make Japan tourism-oriented nation and at the same time it could contribute to local revitalization. It would be difficult for manufacturers to come back to Japan on a large scale but it would be a bit easier for the knowledge integrated type operation related to software of various business fields to come back to Japan. If farm mechanization and farm products of high quality could boost their competitiveness in the world it could make agriculture more attractive to young people. I sincerely request PM Abe to introduce a quick recipe for economic recovery.
The number of new containers in the factories in China would be 550,000teu at the end of Aug. New container price would stay unchanged $2,100 per 20f due to surplus of steel production in China. September is the busiest month to shipping lines. Most container ships should have been fully loaded and it would be hard to find the space. Therefore, the raise of freight rate should be important to shipping lines in this period. Shipping lines have to secure the number of containers required at the demand places to collect cargo. They will secure mainly new containers in China and they depend on depot containers in Asia from leasing companies. They take leasing containers in their system based on their actual demand. I wish more containers required than one shipping lines pre-arranged this year.
K Line decided to order 5×14,000 teu container ships available in 2018. As a result they will have 10×14,000 teu in total adding to 5×14,000 put in service in 2015. So they will increase their transportation capacity by 10% and it could contribute to cut their operation cost by 30% and to add up their competitiveness. On the other hand NYK will move their container loading plan section from Singapore to Kumamoto in Kyushu in Japan by March of next year. It is because of the remarkable rise of personnel expenses in Singapore and because of difficulty in securing capable staff who stay with them long. Therefore, this Yen depreciation is meaningful. With this as a turning point shipping lines and other Japanese overseas companies would come back to Japan. It is a good chance for Japanese companies to seriously consider to come back to Japan in order to capable staff in Japan and it will contribute to increase of job opportunity in Japan. The world is getting closer and closer. Work assignment should be fairly divided by Japan and by overseas under the regional circumstances. Headquarter function should be back to Japan or part of headquarter function should be transferred to Japan in order to make them more competitive in the world, I wish.