Invest Intelligence When It Realy Matters
Learning from Japan
I ran across an interesting story about how Japan is using a somewhat innovative approach to deal with its own symptoms of what will eventually be recorded in history books as the global depression.
The Japanese government is paying travel expenses (plus a little extra money), or about $3000 apiece for migrant workers who agree to return back to their homeland. They must agree never to come back to Japan for work.
Critics in Japan have lashed out at the program calling it “inhumane” and “destructive” for the future economy. Maybe the Japanese government realizes just how bad things are going to get.
As bad as things are in the United States, they are even worse in Japan. With expectations of a productivity decline of over 6% for this year alone (more than twice the decline expected in the U.S.), Japanese officials realize that it’s time to take some drastic measures. So they’re willing to help preserve what jobs remain for Japanese citizens. That begs the question…why can’t Washington learn from the Japanese?