2,208 research outputs found
Japanfs Deleveraging since the 1990s and the Bank of Japanfs Monetary Policy: Some Comparisons with the U.S. Experience since 2007
No full textThis paper discusses the backgrounds for the stagnant behavior of the Japanese economy during the last two decades and the failure of the Bank of Japan (BOJ) to turn the economy around. I argue that the policy authorities did not act quickly enough to mitigate the pain of the deleveraging process in the aftermath of the burst of land and stock price bubble in the early 1990s. Thus, the process became overly severe and protracted. The economy increasingly became vulnerable to negative external shocks and the decline in its population. Use of non-conventional monetary policy measures after deflationary expectations became entrenched substantially weakened their power to stimulate the economy. The U.S. economy since 2007 has exhibited many of the features seen for the Japanese economy during the last two decades; hence, the talk of the Japanization of the U.S. economy. There are, however, many dissimilarities as well as similarities between the two episodes. These are also discussed along with the analysis of Japanfs two lost decades.Popular discussions of Japanfs stagnation often focus on persistent deflation. Figure 1 shows core CPI inflation and a representative property price index for Japan and the U.S. since the peak of property prices, with the peak (T=0) assumed to be 1990 for Japan and 2006 for the U.S. In addition, it also plots investment in structures relative to GDP in Japan. Inflation in Japan has been in negative territory since 1998.1 There has been, however, no tendency for the deflation to accelerate. The cumulative decrease in the index since the late 1990s has been only about 5%. Thus, the classic debt-deflation type dynamic has not been a major cause of economic stagnation. In contrast, declines in property prices in Japan since the peak has been large and protracted-cumulating in a 60% decline at the time of writing. They led to significant deleveraging by financial institutions and non-financial corporations, which put downward pressure on aggregate demand for goods and services, especially, investment in structures, the component of aggregate demand most sensitive to property prices. The figure shows that its movements have been highly correlated with those of property prices.2 As may be seen from the figure, this component of aggregate demand alone subtracted about 0.4% per year from GDP growth during the 1990s. Such a negative feedback loop among asset prices, economic activity and, as we discuss below, financial instability has been the key feature of Japanfs stagnation. It is also interesting to note that both CPI inflation and property prices in the U.S. since the recent financial crisis have followed closely that of Japan in the 1990s, but inflation has so far avoided plunging into negative territory. Adjustment in asset prices and real investment were to some extent inevitable given the extent of the excesses created during the bubble period. The deleveraging process, however, became extremely protracted as a result of a forbearance game played by policymakers and financial institutions. Banks kept lending for a while to zombie companies in order to avoid recognition of losses on their balance sheets, and the authority stayed away for years from making the tough decision to recapitalize the banks. This resulted in a huge buildup of bad loans and eventually in a serious credit crunch in the late 1990s, which aggravated the declines in asset prices and deleveraging by banks and nonfinancial corporations. Banks increasingly became risk averse and stopped lending to risky, but promising projects. The economy slowly, but steadily lost momentum and could not grow out of the negative shocks generated by external financial crises in the late 1990s and 2000s, and the declines in its population that started in the 2000s. Deflation of the general price level did play a part in this process as well. It has hindered the effectiveness of monetary easing. This is ironic because monetary policy normally is a tool for avoiding deflation. Either the deleveraging forces outweighed the capacity of monetary policy to stimulate the economy or the BOJ easing came a bit too late. The BOJ tried to reverse the disinflation trend with fairly aggressive rate cuts - a conventional monetary policy tool-- and brought the policy rate to near zero by late 1995, effectively hitting the zero lower bound (ZLB) constraint on interest rates. Deflation, however, developed in response to economic weakness. The real interest rate has stayed at higher levels than desirable, and undermined the power of a zero interest rate to stimulate the economy, although it did not throw the economy into a deflationary spiral. Since the late 1990s, the BOJ has adopted a variety of non-conventional monetary policy measures. They have supported the financial system and prevented deflation from becoming worse, but have not turned the economy around. As I argue below, non-conventional measures work by reducing risk premiums and long-short interest rate spreads. The long period of economic stagnation had lowered these spreads to minimum levels and limited the effectiveness of such measures as was the case for conventional measures. In the following I will describe in more detail the deleveraging experience in Japan and then turn to discussing the experience of the BOJ to turn the economy around. Comparisons with the U.S. experience since 2007 are offered at each stage of the discussion
A successful model of regional healthcare information exchange in Japan: Case Study in Kagawa Prefecture
No full textIn this study, we focused on analysis of healthcare data exchange over the network. For the advance of broadband capability development, many governments expect online medical information exchange between medical institutions. Japanese government also has tried to deploy ICT in the healthcare field. In Japan, many healthcare ICT projects started, but almost of all the projects face many issues and failed to continue. This situation caused us to clarify the success factor of healthcare information exchange network. For inspecting the success factors, we analyzed information access of healthcare systems in Kagawa prefecture of Japan. Kagawa prefecture is one of the most advance areas for healthcare information technology. We analyzed four medical ICT projects in Kagawa prefecture: K-MIX, Critical Pathway for Diabetes, E-prescription, and PHR. In addition, we inspected characteristics of exchanged data in the network, and stakeholder involved in these projects. This analysis lets us find various types of healthcare ICT projects. Characteristic of data processed in the projects caused differences of characteristic of the projects. On the other hand, multiple systems process same data, though the project does not share the data itself. Considering various types of medical information exchanges projects, we propose classification and standard format of exchanged data according to their characteristic are critical for efficient business deployment. --e-Health,regional healthcare information exchange,EHR
Antibacterial Properties of Silver Nanoparticles Embedded on Polyelectrolyte Hydrogels Based on α-Amino Acid Residues
No full textPolyelectrolyte hydrogels bearing l-phenylalanine (PHE), l-valine (AVA), and l-histidine (Hist) residues were used as scaffolds for the formation of silver nanoparticles by reduction of Ag+ ions with NaBH4. The interaction with the metal ion allowed a prompt collapse of the swollen hydrogel, due to the neutralization reaction of basic groups present on the polymer. The imidazole nitrogen of the hydrogel with Hist demonstrated greater complexing capacity with the Ag+ ion compared to the hydrogels with carboxyl groups. The subsequent reduction to metallic silver allowed for the restoration of the hydrogel’s degree of swelling to the starting value. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and spectroscopic analyses showed, respectively, a uniform distribution of the 15 nm spherical silver nanoparticles embedded on the hydrogel and peak optical properties around a wavelength of 400 nm due to the surface plasmonic effect. Unlike native hydrogels, the composite hydrogels containing silver nanoparticles showed good antibacterial activity as gram+/gram− bactericides, and higher antifungal activity against S. cerevisiae
Handwrtitten notes for lease agreement between Dominguez Estate Company and Shigeru Ueda, approximately 1938
No full textSigeru Ueda written as "Bob Ueda."Handwritten notes with description of a lease agreement including eight different plots of land and cost of yearly rent. Shorthand notes are also included at the end of the document. See Item csudh_rsp_0072 for an executed lease agreement describing the same acreage
Letter from Dominguez Estate Company to Mr. Robert S. [Shigeru] Ueda, June 7, 1940
No full textLetter is one of several attempts to acquire from Ueda a lease agreement with his signature for the current year
Land lease statement from Dominguez Estate Company to Robert S. [Shigeru] Ueda
No full textStatement reflects balances due for both 1938 and 1939 leases. An additional note sternly insists Ueda make an immediate payment
Letter from Dominguez Estate Company to Mr. Robert S. [Shigeru] Ueda, May 9, 1939
No full textLetter asks Ueda to sign and return two copies of a lease agreement that was recently sent
Suzaku confirms NGC 3660 is an unabsorbed Seyfert 2
No full textAn enigmatic group of objects, unabsorbed Seyfert 2s may have intrinsically weak broad line regions, obscuration in the line of sight to the BLR but not to the X-ray corona, or so much obscuration that the X-ray continuum is completely suppressed and the observed spectrum is actually scattered into the line of sight from nearby material. NGC 3660 has been shown to have weak broad optical/near-infrared lines, no obscuration in the soft X-ray band, and no indication of “changing look” behavior. The only previous hard X-ray detection of this source by Beppo-SAX seemed to indicate that the source might harbor a heavily obscured nucleus. However, our analysis of a long-look Suzaku observation of this source shows that this is not the case, and that this source has a typical power-law X-ray continuum with normal reflection and no obscuration. We conclude that NGC 3660 is confirmed to have no unidentified obscuration and that the anomolously high Beppo-SAX measurement must be due to source confusion or similar, being inconsistent with our Suzaku measurements as well as non-detections from Swift-Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) and Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE)
Letter from Dominguez Estate Company to Mr. Robert Shigeru Ueda, June 8, 1938
No full textLetter asks Ueda to return his rental receipt book with his upcoming payment to cancel charges for an 18 acre lease previously occupied b Mr. Goto
TrkA機能を拮抗する合成細胞膜透過ペプチドによるマウスにおける神経障害痛の抑制作用
No full text以下に掲載：Journal of Pharmacological Sciences 114 pp.79-84 2010. The Japanese Pharmacological Society. 共著者：
Wei-Ying Ma, Eri Murata, Koyo Ueda, Yoshihiro Kuroda, Ming-Hui Cao, Mineo Abe, Kenji Shigemi, Munetaka Hiros
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