COLUMNIST: TOKUMASA YAMASHITA
The Real Economy
Tokumasa Yamashita is an investment analyst at Secured Capital Japan, a real estate private equity firm in Tokyo. He is an active member of the Urban Land Institute, serving as vice-chair of communications for the institute’s Young Leaders Group steering committee. Prior to joining Secured Capital Japan, Mr. Yamashita headed a treasury/financial systems development team in the technology division at Citigroup Global Markets Japan. He holds a bachelor of science degree in electrical science and engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
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January 14, 2010Tokyo, Japan — A key initiative of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan has been to provide families with childcare allowances to help counter the rapid population decline. The government needs to increase the number of daycare facilities and of immigrants to save Japan’s aging society and shrinking population.
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November 23, 2009Tokyo, Japan — After growing in the second quarter of 2009 for the first time in five quarters, Japan’s economy continued to expand in the third quarter by 1.2 percent – or 4.8 percent on an annualized basis. Signs of economic recovery can be observed in increases in public investment, exports and industrial production.
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October 12, 2009Tokyo, Japan — The “2010 problem” in Japan’s commercial mortgage-backed securities market refers to the upcoming wave of CMBS underlying loan maturities where 2010 is the year with the highest concentration of those loan maturities. If the current financial and real estate market conditions persist, a substantial percentage of these loans will become delinquent.
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August 31, 2009Tokyo, Japan — With its GDP continuing to grow rapidly, China has become the first of the major economies to rebound from the global recession. However, the oversupply of commercial and residential properties that resulted from a building rush over the past several years continues to plague China’s property market.
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July 28, 2009Tokyo, Japan — The June Tankan, the quarterly survey of business data by the Bank of Japan, indicated that business sentiment among Japan’s largest manufacturers improved for the first time since December 2006. But the rebound was less than predicted, signaling a slower than expected recovery of Japan’s economy.
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June 08, 2009Tokyo, Japan — Last month the International Olympic Committee completed its inspection of the four candidate host cities for the 2016 Olympics, including Tokyo. If Tokyo is selected it will foster the city’s infrastructure development and boost share prices of construction and railway companies as well as land prices.
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May 13, 2009Tokyo, Japan — Facing eroding support and criticisms related to a political funding scandal, Ichiro Ozawa has announced he will step down as president of the opposition Democratic Party of Japan. His move may come too late to save the party’s first shot at taking over Japan’s Lower House of Parliament.
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April 28, 2009Tokyo, Japan — “I can’t say when but I expect the economy will hit the bottom soon,” said Bunshichi Fujioka, vice minister for policy coordination at Japan’s Cabinet Office. He was speaking at a news conference on Monday, making reference to economic data that were released in recent weeks, such as production outlook.
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April 20, 2009Tokyo, Japan — Japanese media have focused much attention on Noriko Calderon, a 13-year-old Filipino girl born and raised in Japan, whose parents are being deported to the Philippines for illegal entry to Japan. Japan must question the efficacy of its rigid immigration laws from both economic and human rights perspectives.
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March 31, 2009Tokyo, Japan — Japan is planning to establish a 1 trillion yen (US$10.3 billion) investment fund raised from public and private sectors in order to support Japanese Real Estate Investment Trusts, or J-REITs. The move could speed the recovery of the real estate sector and the overall economy.
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March 16, 2009Tokyo, Japan — As the number of financial institutions that want to dispose their non-performing loans continues to grow in Japan, investment management companies are gearing up to actively purchase them at a huge discount.
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March 02, 2009Tokyo, Japan — Despite the clearance of the fiscal year 2009 budget in Japan’s Lower House last Friday, ensuring that a record 88.54 trillion yen (US$912.8 billion) budget will be enacted before March 31, gloomy sentiment haunts the world’s second largest economy, which had been viewed as a “safe haven” by investors.
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February 18, 2009Tokyo, Japan — Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso has caused a stir with his recent remarks regarding the privatization of Japan’s postal services, which have bewildered people throughout Japan. His approval rating has dropped and calls for his departure are expected to swell in the next couple of months.
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January 29, 2009Tokyo, Japan — Financing real estate in Japan has become extremely difficult due to the global financial crisis, which is forcing real estate investment funds into bankruptcy, as they are unable to refinance their maturing loans. Their market capitalization plunged by half in 2008.
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January 19, 2009Tokyo, Japan — Japan’s Lower House of Parliament approved a second supplementary budget last week, which was the highlight of the week for Prime Minister Taro Aso. However, Japan’s deteriorating economy, Aso’s declining popularity and disunity among members of his own party threaten the prime minister’s hold on power.
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December 19, 2008Tokyo, Japan — To reduce the number of bankruptcies among small and mid-size real estate developers, the Japanese government has announced a US$2.80 billion financing program for the real estate and housing sectors. Also, an emergency loan program will provide loans to real estate developers and investment trusts.
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December 12, 2008Tokyo, Japan — Amid the prolonged slowdown in the global economy, the real estate investment market in Tokyo sees a beacon of hope. In the 2009 edition of “Emerging Trends in Real Estate Asia Pacific,” Tokyo ranked first in the Asia-Pacific region in terms of investment prospects and risk ratings.
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December 03, 2008Tokyo, Japan — Following the Cabinet Office’s announcement of Japan’s GDP for July to Sept. on Nov. 17, which officially confirmed that the nation had entered its first recession since 2001, the impact of the global credit crunch continues to grow in the world’s second-largest and “least ugly” economy.
