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The currencyappreciation has probably a lot to do with it. The USD to JPY exchange went from 160 (the worst I have ever seen) to 140, in like a week. Still needs to recover a lot more to hit the 100:1 rate it used to hover around. A lot of that is in on the back of the BOJ increasing interest rates in the first time in…an extremely long time.
A lot of people don’t invest a whole lot/at all here, so for the average person outside finance people are actually quite happy with the way things are trending. I know a lot of friends who cancelled all plans to travel internationally this year because the yen was so weak that it just wasn’t feasible.
Most interesting, is we are doing basically the exact opposite of what the US wanted us to do. Every time I see us break lockstep with the US, I allow a little bit of hope to flourish.
The part with the market not really affecting regular people is key. I imagine a big part of it is also the fact that people have guaranteed services like healthcare and retirement isn’t tied to the stock market. If the market crash only ends up affecting the rich then it might have a positive effect forcing them to continue breaking with US policy.
Our healthcare system is honestly pretty solid. The annual health checks we have is probably the single biggest reason for our high life expectency. I was surprised to hear a lot of folks in the US never go to the hospital for preventative care.
Retirement eh…well, we will see if a pension still exists by the time (people aren’t sure, and they keep trying to kick up the retirement age). In theory, we have pretty decent retirement options with a public pensions everyone pays into, plus a private pension your employer pays into. I know folks retiring now, and none of them really ever did any investing at all. Especially that generation, there is a pretty common distrust of the financial markets and banks.
I did some calculations a while ago, and assuming (big assumption) that the pension systems remains fairly constant to my retirement, I would be capable of retiring reasonably comfortably. Not going to be traveling the world or anything, but definitely more than enough for me. Especially as I plan to retire somewhere even more rural than I am now, which would lower the cost of living drastically.
That doesn’t sound too bad at all. Just being able to live comfortably in your old age is already than more than most people in US or Canada can hope for.
My annual check-up revealed some health issues, which made me change my lifestyle a lot. I can clearly see how it can promote longevity.
Btw, which inaka would you consider? Looking at the summers this year, I feel the northern parts would still be livable in the future.
I am in the mountains around Mt Fuji now (that is a massive area, I am not significantly doxing myself folks, don’t worry) and it is pretty nice, but I definitely wouldn’t mind more towards Hokkaido. I love the cold though, I will take a snowstorm over Tokyo summer any day.
Oh great, once the stock market goes down here (which it is) western countries are gonna double down on war and genocide. The Dow and genocide graphs are unfortunately directly proportional.
A war with Iran seems to be all but inevitable at this point.
So be it… They are gonna do the genocide regardless… There should at least be some resistance to it. NGL, I am fond of my relatively comfortable life in the west, but if it is at the expense of the global south and the west’s demise is inevitable anyways, then fine. My life and comfort is not more valuable than those in Gaza. They are humans too.
Indeed, people living in the west have to draw a line somewhere, and if genocide is not it then what is.
