What Does a Weak Yen Mean?

by 51 Comments

For the last couple of months, the world has taken notice of Japan. Ever since Shinzo Abe and the Liberal Democratic Party took power in the last Japanese election, they’ve been pushing a new set of economic policies nicknamed “Abenomics,” a word somehow even less catchy in Japanese than English.

Part of Abenomics has been the weakening of the yen. The yen has been losing value steadily for the last few months, and last week, it even briefly reached ¥100 = $1 USD. Nothing special happens if the exchange rate hits that mark, but it’s symbolically significant. Nice, round, even numbers always make people happy.

Beyond the significance of a ¥100 to $1 exchange rate, there are lots of implications to a weak yen. A lot of people automatically assume that a weak yen is a Bad Thing. After all, it’s weak! Weak is bad, right? It’s a little more complicated than that.

We’ve talked before about the bigger implications of Abenomics but, frankly, I’m sure not many of you care that much. You’re probably not an economist, and not a lot of this affects you directly.

So I thought it might be helpful to take a look at how ordinary people are affected by Abenomics and the weak yen.

To a Foreigner

Chances are, if you’re reading this you probably live outside of Japan. In that case, good news! The weak yen is pretty much an all-around Good Thing for you. Foreigners, for the most part, benefit a lot from the weak yen.

Let’s say that you like to buy things from Japan, whether it’s a book, CD, skein of yarn or anything else. A weak yen means that these things are going to be relatively cheaper for you, so you’ll be able to buy more of your precious, precious anime.

uncle-scrooge

If you’re planning on visiting Japan sometime in the near future, then even better! A weaker yen probably works in your favor. As you exchange the currency from your home country into yen, the exchange rate should favor you and give you more bang for the buck.

The only bad situation for a foreigner that I can think of is if your business depends on people in Japan buying your product. A weak yen means that the exchange rate hurts Japanese people trying to buy foreign products, but I imagine that this applies to few people reading this.

To Somebody Living in Japan

If you’re living in Japan, then the weak yen is kind of a mixed bag. The yen you earn in Japan is worth less abroad, so importing things from overseas is more expensive. Good luck getting those exotic Western animation DVDs!

But the weak yen can also be beneficial to people in Japan. If you work for a company that relies on exporting things outta Japan, then good news—people abroad will be able to buy more of your products since they’re (relatively) cheaper.

This is pretty common. Japan’s economy has historically been export-based, so many Japanese companies benefit from the weak yen. You can see some of the positive effects on Japanese companies as the Nikkei has steadily risen in the last few months.

Where Does It Go From Here?

In a nutshell, that’s how the weak yen should affect you right now.

But this is an incredibly simplified overview of the weakening of the yen. As its value goes down more and more, its more complicated effects will emerge. And who knows? In a few months, the story of the yen might make us all wonder what the hell a Bitcoin is.

Header photo by epSos.de

Newer Comments →
  • DAVIDPD

    I just bought some stuff online for way cheaper than I thought direct from Japan. Indeed, good for non-Japanese…at least for now.

  • Jon

    Yay! Now I can purchase boatloads of otaku gold!

    Oh wait, I’m not an otaku. Eh, I can still be happy with the idea of a cheaper trip to Japan. Not that I’ll be able to afford it, anyway.

  • http://twitter.com/Cupucuups Hamyo

    I really love abenomic!!! well said, i’m not a japanese and the best thing was i’m residing outside Japan. Lots of benefit from abenomic method that affected the foreign people probably that who love Japan so much. the cost of Anime dvd, goodies, and a lot of uniqe stuff from Japan has decreased due the abenomic effect, but yeah… it’s hurt for the japanese people. then after all, the more foreign people buy japanese goods, the more Japan exported their good. The more weaken yen, then japanese people started to use their local product rather than foreign product, so it’s a great way to keep their local brand and throw away the foreign product, also a bad news for a bussiness man that try to expand their product to Japan. nice one Abe!! really the nice one!! XD and…. for you hashi thanks for writing this great article, i’ll be waiting for more abenomic article from you. :D

    http://okonomikatsu.blogspot.com/

  • Justin

    I live in Japan and intern for a Japanese branch of an American company so I get paid in dollars. For me this is EXTREME awesomeness! Especially when your a poor ass 20 year old student…

  • http://appleotaku.com/ Jason

    I still remember the good old days back in 1985 when ¥100 = 40 cents.

  • Henro 88

    There’s a lot more to this than just the exchange rate, though. I’m not going to claim to have technical knowledge of all this, but this is what I’ve been reading.

    American car companies are opposed to Japan joining the TPP because TPP deals with free trade – tariffs. But Japan taxes foreign cars (for no reason; well, they claim for “safety,” but foreign cars are clearly safer than any of the Japanese compact cars on the market, so it’s clearly just a typical Japanese “white lie” based on xenophobia) all the way to hell and back, and no one here wants to buy them. Japan is “cheating” at international trade by using non-tariff barriers to prevent foreign car companies from getting a foothold in the country.

    But tariffs are just generally a problem in Japan, because everything is more expensive here than it needs to be. I bought Nerf guns for my children in the US and they cost literally half what they cost here. That’s not export issues – American beef costs about 20% less than Japanese beef, despite the import costs. So, there’s a lot of weird things going on here economically that I personally don’t fully understand, but, trust me, they will not be fixed by a weak yen. Imported toys cost 200% what they ought to, imported beef and other foods are cheap, and Japanese rice costs 200~300% what it should. Food and toys are naturally what I buy most, so I can’t give my experience with much else.

    The weak yen benefits mostly export companies, and that’s good for Japan as a whole. For the man on the street, I’ve seen little impact on my life so far. Gas prices went up, but that was just because gas companies are vultures and speculators.

    That ISN’T me saying Abenomics is good. The guy also wants to renew the Constitution to allow Japanese military to be more aggressive; he wants to pipe more money into the military (instead of, say, addressing Japan’s looming population crisis); and he wants to release new statements on WWII claiming that Japan totally didn’t do anything wrong. Abe is a known war crimes denialist (Manchuria, Korea, comfort women, &c.). Abe is, overall, going to be bad for Japan. We don’t need a weak yen – we need help having babies, and encouraging foreigners to immigrate here. Of course, to a nationalist like Abe, “more foreigners” isn’t even an option on the table, and as an old man, I doubt Abe even knows where babies come from.

  • Henro 88

    “The more weaken yen, then japanese people started to use their local product rather than foreign product”. Not necessarily, since, in the case of Japanese rice, there is a lot of government protectionism and price gouging – Japanese rice is artificially more expensive than it needs to be, for example, and a weak yen will simply make that problem bigger. Japanese people buying Japanese rice with a weak yen are just going to see their wallets get thinner and thinner and thinner with no benefit to their lives whatsoever.

    Abenomics is macroeconomics – it’s going to be better for the country as a whole. We at the bottom get nothing from it.

  • MrsSpooky

    I’m feeling a bit better about my trip later this year. Anxiety about having enough money, maybe I’ll be in better shape than I thought. Good article! I heard they were weakening the Yen, but didn’t really understand the implications, but it is clearer now.

  • http://twitter.com/Cupucuups Hamyo

    Wow……. eeh… thanks….. eh…. i’m so sorry for my previous comment. I really regret about that, sorry :( Yeah… it’s still lots of negative impact from abenomic, that’s why i said “it’s still hurt for japanese people” After they achieve 2% inflation rate in the next 2 years i wonder what will happen next. I was watched NHK World last week, they said Abenomic got criticized from IMF then the another news said that there are several local store which has increased their cost for several groceries. I don’t know why, but japanese people don’t give any protest for this, if the abenomic step by step crushing their own economy so why they still using it until now?? is they try to crushing their own currency?? so weird.

  • Henro 88

    No, no! Don’t apologize – nothing you said was wrong, I just wanted to give some better context and put your comments in perspective. You’re obviously reading up on it – and I admit that I hadn’t read anything about the IMF criticizing Abenomics. Don’t apologize for being right!

    The reasons the Japanese don’t protest are many – if you put Abenomics in perspective, though – Japanese capitalism is brutal. I think of it as “captive” capitalism. Rice prices are jacked up artificially here by the government. Land prices are jacked up by corrupt land owners. Car taxes are jacked up for “safety.” Tariffs cut us off from the global market, so we have no choice but to buy overpriced stuff.

    So why don’t the Japanese protest Abenomics? All the bad things about Abenomics are already a daily routine for them. They don’t protest over their landlords’ corruption or the overpriced rice, why would they start now?

  • http://twitter.com/Cupucuups Hamyo

    So what about the monetary easing that was declared by BOJ? is that just to attract more foreign investor? because since Haruhiko Kuroda declared the monetary easing it’s a great impact for Nikkei. Just a day after BOJ declared this, Nikkei has increasing rapidly at the market and so on. And then BOJ bought 2billion dollars, i just wanted to know what all of these for? do you have any perspective for this one?

  • Maggie Moor

    The weak yen makes me sad because I’ll be working in Japan next year while paying off Canadian school debts. I hope it starts getting stronger again!

  • Pepper_the_Sgt

    Just to add something else to the list of overpriced things:

    I’m an audio guy, so when I found myself in a store selling microphones and the like, I naturally browsed their items. These were used items, which I normally love because used means cheaper. But these used microphone prices were higher than the cost of the same brand of microphone in America, new. But for what it’s worth, the exchange rate was about 80 yen to the dollar at the time.

    Used video games, however, are stupid cheap. I picked up Super Mario 64, in the box sealed in plastic, for 500 yen, which worked out to $6.00 at the time. Pokemon Yellow was 50 yen.

  • MakuMaku

    This. Good!

  • Yen

    Living in Japan… it’s not just imported luxury items we have to worry about now u.u
    The price of domestically manufactured items with imported raw materials will also rise for us! So that means many of our basic daily goods will become more expensive without more salary. It is also more expensive to purchase gas and so on…
    The trade talks are going on also make me nervous. Of course many Japanese products are expensive (like rice) but if they are not, then rice farmers who already have difficulty surviving are in trouble.

  • http://zoomingjapan.com/ zoomingjapan

    The yen-€ rate is horrible right now.
    I live in Japan and my monthly salary dropped drastically. I usually send some back home (in €), but right now it’s a JOKE! :( …..
    I’m glad I was able to sent a huge bunch home before it got so bad, though! ^____^
    I miss the times when 1€ = 110yen or even less!!

  • Ben Nichols

    Japan puts up taxes and non-tariff barriers to foreign companies because they want to protect the domestic companies from competition. It’s not “fair”, and it keeps Japanese companies from striving to be more competitive in the world market, but you can see why they do it. If they could make the transition smoothly, it would be a good change to make, but I think suddenly removing all of these barriers would be disastrous for many Japanese companies.

    Whether Abe will turn out good overall, who knows… I tend to agree with you, but he may be able to solve one set of problems if his economic plan works out. The social problems of Japan will have to wait for the next PM.

  • Henro 88

    Oh, I agree with that entirely. Protectionism has definitely stagnated Japanese innovation to some degree; it certainly hasn’t encouraged international business out here in the countryside – we have tons of people trying to sell their stuff overseas who just don’t know how. And, yeah, maybe the benefits of Abenomics might reach us small producers and exporters out here in the sticks.

    For now, Abe’s plan is only helping the stock market and the biggest companies. The rest of us aren’t getting anything from this plan. Not yet at least. And Abe might not be done – he wants to put more money into the military, which would take money away from everything else.

    All that said, I think the thing is that it is definitely important for everyone overseas to buy as much Japanese stuff as they can – because if Abe purposefully weakens the yen, and still no one buys Japanese stuff…then it’s all a bunch of economic hardship for nothing. I must have sounded a little cynical before talking about DVD collections, but really – for Abe’s plan to have even the barest positive impact, we need a LOT of people to build up their anime DVD collections. I’d also suggest supporting Kaiyodo, which is an AMAZING company with TONS of local ties and a great deal of impact on their local economy.

  • Henro 88

    I’m not even going to pretend to know much or anything about this. I can say, as an American, I’ve seen this song and dance before; the US stock market is doing better than it ever has in recorded history; yet the economy isn’t picking up.

    In the US we have a barrier between the corporations and the regular people, because the corporations don’t pay decent wages anymore. So stock market success really means nothing for the average American.

    In Japan…there are a lot of corrupt companies here, and labor law violations (look up “service zangyo” to see what I mean), so stock market success probably doesn’t mean much for the average person.

    But…that’s just my personal perspective, and nothing more than a guess.

  • RumyGo

    Can you possibly explain, why having more foreigners is better for Japan ? Here, in the US we are drowning in all the immigrants, with much misery to the locals as a result. Higher medical costs due to immigrants visiting our emergency rooms and not paying the bills, lower educational standards due to overcrowding of schools and second language classes, less jobs for blue collar American workers, overcrowding and creeping rents, urban sprawl, loss of culture, etc.etc.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=694774392 Travis Freeman

    Same boat… Living in Japan now and paying off student loans. I have to send money home every month and was really enjoying the exchange rate of the strong yen..

  • Henro 88

    Wow. First of all, this is incredibly xenophobic and ignorant. None of the problems you list are caused by immigrants – higher medical costs because of immigrants? Give me a break. Lower educational standards because of immigration? Please. Just. Wow, come on. What else do you want to blame on immigrants? Did immigrants cancel Firefly?

    Also, you mention loss of culture – um, sorry, but you obviously know nothing whatsoever about culture. Except in cases of genocide, culture cannot be lost. Culture changes and evolves naturally. Immigration is a major part of how culture changes. Unless immigrants are purposefully wiping out the American people (guess what, they’re not), there is no “loss of culture” happening, only evolution.

    America is a “melting pot.” We absorb and benefit from new cultural ideas. It’s sad – pathetic, in fact – that you find input from new cultures to be a “loss.” It’s actually by definition a massive cultural gain.

    Anyway, I won’t dignify your xenophobic rant any more than that. If you knew even the slightest thing about Japanese demography, you’d know that Japan desperately needs new human beings – and soon. Immigrants are one possibility – babies are another. The government of Japan needs to support one or the other – new immigrants or new babies. They are doing neither. America doesn’t have this problem, so comparing Japanese to US immigration is apples and oranges.

  • Wendy

    The weaker yen has a positive effect for me because I’m paid in dollars. I see a drastic difference in my 180,000 yen rent. I have spoken to my Japanese friends. They take the entire thing hard because they are concerned that their incomes won’t increase enough to match inflation until a few years from now. These are my middle income Japanese friends… I can’t imagine what it is like for people below the average income. The markets gain, the people lose.

  • Henro 88

    Wait, I will dignify your racist rant with one more point:

    It is utterly, pathetically laughable that you would mention “creeping rents” as an argument against immigration in JAPAN. A country where landlords CONSTANTLY extort their tenants for money – calling it “reikin” – and REGULARLY refuse to rent to immigrants out of ignorance and racism. “No pets or foreigners allowed.” As if “creeping rent” could possibly be the fault of immigrants and not 100% the fault of greedy, corrupt landowners – Japanese landowners.

    Seriously, wow, the more I look at your comment, the more your racism dumbfounds and annoys me.

  • RumyGo

    Hey you !

    Don’t resort to politically correct cliches that you learned at your local grade school . Give examples with factual support and stop whining. Now, tell us how new Chinese immigrants will improve Japan and solve its problems.
    This is your first assignment, don’t forget to address issues such as living space, cultural enrichment, effects on sprawl, sanitation, class size, etc. etc. No, Westboro (no idea what the hell are you alking about ?) just personal experience from living in major cities in the US – New York, Chicago, etc.
    Stop shoving me Japanese, this and that – lived in Japan and still do business with Japan. Japanese did quite well without much immigrants and were quite respected for it. Currently are facing same immigration problems as the rest of the industrial world.

  • RumyGo

    “Creeping Rents ” ?

    Learn – supply and demand ! Less immigrants, more available rooms to rent, lesser pool of potential renters drives prices down. Landlords are fed-up with filthy, transitory travelers from ME, retarded English teachers and SE Asia wrecking their places and are quite correct to reject them. Don’t like it, don’t enter Japan. Perhaps greedy landlord, is a creation of an ugly immigrant – without one, there wouldn’t be the other. Its like prostitutes and buyers, both breed each other.

  • http://twitter.com/Musouka Musouka

    I don’t believe it has reached 100 yet. It got (and is getting) very close but has yet to smash the triple-digit barrier.

    I have checked 5 different sources (Nikkei, Bloomberg,Yahoo! Finance, Google and The Japan Times) and the highest it has ever been was 99.87 (4/21 20:51 ET) as reported by Bloomberg.

  • Henro 88

    I’m sorry, do you even know what “burden of proof” means? You’ve made a number of assertions that immigrants cause certain problems without giving a scrap of evidence as to how or why. You also used a xenophobic and stupid term, “loss of culture,” which I explained to you was impossible. Could you please explain to me the difference between “loss of culture” and normal cultural diffusion? One is an actual anthropological concept, the other one was just made up by you.

    Again, it’s not a “politically correct cliche” to point out what a racist ass you are.

  • Henro 88

    Huh. Weird how every apartment building in town has apartments for rent – there’s a glut of apartments, yet the rent is through the roof. Must be the invisible hand at work, huh?

  • RumyGo

    Quickly, apartments and other trade related items come in tiers. There may be many apartments but only some fall into category that are available to lower income residents. Usually, demand is higher for cheaper and readily available rents and not for the other category which may still be oversupplied. Landlords, due to limits of their neighborhood, other tenants and overall quality are not willing to accept transients/immigrants…

  • RumyGo

    Anti-immigration = racism ?

    Stinky, since when protecting one’s borders and keeping your country safe for you population became racism ?

    “Burden of proof”

    You stated it first that “Japan needs more foreigners”, without presenting a single argument to back-up your puffing.
    Genius, so you can’t even find a hint as to why immigrants increase medical costs?
    Perhaps, you should drag your sorry ass to any hospital emergency room in a major US city and see how its filled with guinea pigging baby makers, not speaking a word of English and never concerned with paying a single penny of the medical bill.

    Swine, are you here to lie to us that Japan does not have a Chinese migration swamping their cities ? Here, in the US the Chinese are taking over, and as far as I know, the Japanese are telling me that they have the same.

  • Henro 88

    Japan’s aging population and the predictions for a population crisis in the coming decades is common knowledge and anyone with the barest capability to use a computer could find this out. I’m citing something called COMMON KNOWLEDGE that you should know if you want to come to a discussion about Japan. I shouldn’t have to hold your hand, wipe your nose and change your diaper for you by giving you the BASIC FACTS about Japan’s population.

    But, hey, fine, let me Google that for you since you’re too stupid to figure it out yourself.
    http://lmgtfy.com/?q=japan%27s+aging+population

    As for immigrants being “guinea pigging” baby makers, gee, what could possibly be the connection between anti-immigrant xenophobia and racism?

    The thing is this: any person with the barest knowledge of US healthcare would know that it is not the immigrants who are raising the costs – it’s more to do with corporate control of healthcare and private insurance – little if anything to do with immigrants. If you had even basic knowledge of healthcare around the world, you’d probably mention France or Britain’s NHS. I have heard that immigrants are a problem for THEM. Yet, EVEN IF the UK and France have immigrant problems, their healthcare costs are STILL lower than the US. Care to tell us how THAT works out?

    But, hey, since you’re too stupid to use Google, let me Google THAT for you, too.
    http://lmgtfy.com/?q=healthcare+costs+in+america

    Now, thanks for calling me swine – but, of course, I’d rather be swine than a racist piece of shit. Swine are cute. Am I going to lie about Japan having a Chinese migration problem? Um…no? I’m just going to tell you the fact that that isn’t true? I fucking LIVE in Japan, and I have never once heard of a Chinese migration “problem.” Taking over the cities? What are you even talking about? Who told you this?

    You say, as far as you know, “the Japanese are telling [you] that they have the same [problem].” Oh, so that’s your source? A few Japanese friends? Oh, ok. So you have no data, no sources, no news articles whatsoever to back that up? And, hey, since you’re so racist, do you think maybe your Japanese FRIENDS are racists too? Japan DOES have racists, you know. And they HATE the Chinese. Gee, “a Chinese immigrant problem” is EXACTLY the kind of thing a Japanese racist would complain about. Care to tell us who said this to you?

    Tell you what: I’m stating basic facts here. You’re doing a Gish Gallop (Google that yourself). I’ll sit here and wait patiently until you can send me ONE ARTICLE from a REPUTABLE source that indicates there is an immigration problem in America or Japan. Until then, I suggest you play in the kiddie pool and stay away from the grown-ups table.

  • Henro 88

    I want to amend my comment here to say that, actually, Abe has recently come out saying that we need more support for women and children in Japan, and he will try to do that. Lip service? Maybe. We’ll see, but I was not 100% accurate in saying that Abe has no interest in that.

  • RumyGo

    Asshole, read :

    http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/washington/2008-01-21-immigrant-healthcare_N.htm
    http://www.cis.org/node/464

    There are thousands of reputable articles and research to back my claims. Aging population ? Its funny how the same people turn around and claim that the developing world has a youth problem, etc. There is no problem, a statistic does not show that the retired population in Japan benefits its economy to a bigger extent that one would admit. Although they may be retired, many Japanese are still employed at sectors of economy that are not well defined due them being corporate work. Many older Japanese return to farming and other unregistered sources of income.. Most importantly, research shows that older Japanese have much higher propensity to spend than the younger Japanese, a very important factor to stimulate growth in a country with a notoriously low personal spending level. In addition, lets not forget that the elderly Japanese provide younger members of an extended family to work longer hours and are irreplaceable when it comes in helping to raise kids.

    Culture ?

    Idiot, take a break from your rant and walk into any ethnic enclave in your city to see where the culture is going. Go and see the local stinky Chinatown / Koreatown ! See the congestion, overcrowding, dirt,etc. Mass immigration is short-term answers to country’s labor problems, not even that, if one examines it deeper. Result will be a greater pool of aging people that eventually will need to be taken on an ever decreasing entitlement programs.

  • Henro 88

    http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Center_for_Immigration_Studies

    http://www.splcenter.org/blog/2007/12/11/fair-crossing-the-rubicon-of-hate/

    Your sources have ties to white supremacists and the National Review. They may be giving facts, but they are not reputable. The USA Today article does not support your point that immigrants CAUSE healthcare costs to rise, merely a contributing factor. Try again.

    Your points about Chinatown are irrelevant. Where is the culture being lost?

  • Henro 88

    http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=FAIR
    http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Center_for_Immigration_Studies

    CIS is a group with ties to the right-wing National Review and is an off-shoot of FAIR. FAIR is a certified hate group by the SPLC. Your sources are not even remotely reliable. You cited information from white supremacists. Try again. (Quick hint: any publication that uses the word “illegals” as a noun is NOT reputable.)

    The USA Today article you linked to cites uninsured illegal immigrants as a problem in the healthcare system. It does NOT say that immigrants in general CAUSED the high cost of healthcare – only that illegal immigrants without insurance are a problem. This in no way proves that immigrants caused the high healthcare costs in the US. Try again.

    Your comments on Chinatown are irrelevant. The fact that you find the place “stinky” isn’t a viable scientific theory. I asked you what “loss of culture” means and how it is different from cultural diffusion. Try again.

  • RumyGo

    Asshole, most immigrants have no healthcare insurance and never will. Wipe your fucking eyes and visit any government run program such as medicaid, food stamp offices, emergency rooms, inner city schools, etc. etc. Mostly immigrants, legal and illegal. In fact they are denying assistance to the traditional American poor such as Blacks.

    Scumbag, stop twisting the language because you are a denier and want your view to dominate. The US is going down in any measurable aspect of social and quality of life issue. Schools are hampered from teaching due to need of English as second language classes. Classes are full of Latinos that devalue education and basically are there to waste taxpayers money. Talented kids need to be segregated in special classes in order not to be hurt by mostly parasitic newcomers. Chinese and most of the other Asians are somewhat better but still is a drag for the US and shift education into mindless test-taking as a valuation of talent. For Asians that are successful there is a majority that is an impediment to any urban progress. There is very little left of old immigrant work ethic and start from scratch advancement. Most are rejects and drags from their own countries and come here for illegal activities and start-ups based on fraud. Check who runs medical insurance mills, smuggling of counterfeit product, money laundering, code violations, corruption of city officials and much more than your asshole brain will ever absorb.
    I can go through thousands of sources that will support my claims, but its boring and is not withing the scope or relevance of a dinky little feedback forum.

  • RumyGo

    White supremacists my ass. You don’t have to be one to notice what is happening to the US.

    “Your points about Chinatown are irrelevant. Where is the culture being lost?”

    No they are not. Not sure what hole you are from, but take a little vacation and visit NYC, LA, Houston, etc. and walk into any enclave there. I recommend NY Flushing China City for starters, take some time and contrast it with any middle class populated traditional area (if they are still around ?). Take note on issues of recreational space, congestion, building code violations, courtesy of its inhabitants, etc. …and stop yapping that they are irrelevant – they are huge and fastest growing areas of the city that spread currently for miles (Queens, Brooklyn, etc}. If its not there yet, it will be there shortly. Culture, what culture when you have ducks hanging in the window and people spitting on a sidewalk. Never saw a local Latino read any classics or go to the opera.

  • Henro 88

    “I can go through thousands of sources that will support my claims”

    No, you can’t. If you could, you would have done so already. The only links you’ve given were to white supremacist sites and an unrelated news article.

  • RumyGo

    “The cost at the state level can be overwhelming, especially in
    California, which has more undocumented immigrants than any other state.5
    One source estimated that the net cost of providing government services
    to undocumented immigrants in California was close to $3 billion during
    one year alone.9
    Undocumented immigrants are thought to be responsible for 10% of
    uncompensated hospital care in California and 10% of all ED visits. They
    may incur unpaid hospital expenses of $750 million annually through
    charity care, unpaid bills, and care that is uncompensated by the
    federal government. In addition, undocumented immigrants may account for
    $941 million of Emergency Medicaid spending in California.3
    This deficit may have contributed to the closings of 60 hospitals in
    that state between 1993 and 2003, many because of financial deficits
    from unpaid services.”

    JAAPA

    Journal of American Academy of Physician Assistants
    End of story punk.

  • Henro 88

    Oh, God, you are hilarious. “Undocumented immigrants are thought to be responsible for 10% of
    uncompensated hospital care.” Wow, a whole ten percent? Out of how many percents? So that means NINETY PERCENT of unpaid hospital bills are from native-born citizens and other legal residents. Wow, good job disproving your entire point, there.

    And yet not a single bit of that has anything whatsoever to do with documented, legal immigration, and even more importantly, nothing whatsoever to do with Japan.

  • Henro 88

    You don’t know what culture actually means. “Never saw a local Latino read any classics or go to the opera.” That doesn’t mean they don’t have culture. “Culture, what culture when you have ducks hanging in the window and people spitting on a sidewalk.” It’s called DIFFERENT CULTURES. It’s a DIFFERENT CULTURE from yours. It’s not a LACK of culture. You literally do not even know what the words you’re using mean. Oh, and you are unspeakably racist.

  • RumyGo

    Ludicrous punk, seems that you get stuck in your own semantics and contradictions which have nothing to do with the discussion. Stay on the subject, give your experiences and support your argument why immigration is “beneficial” to society. We are not interested in your immature anthropology which is obviously pretty standard banality that you parakeet. So far, besides foaming at the mouth, you have struggled and avoided to answer anything besides repeating RACISM like a broken record.

  • 古戸ヱリカ

    That was an OK angry rant. Could’ve used a few more personal attacks, though. 6/10

  • Henro 88

    “The beauty of the United States was that it had no culture (which is basically a culture of its own)”

    I honestly have no response to how stupid this statement is. Again, you literally do not know what culture means. “No culture” is 100% impossible and has never, ever happened once in human history. Keep digging your hole there, son.

  • HatsuHazama

    Well, in his/her comments, he managed to have the word ass (including asshole) in there exactly 3 times. You gotta give some credit for that beautifully elegant example of rule of three.

  • 古戸ヱリカ

    Yes, they’re consistent, if nothing else.

  • RumyGo

    If you insist on some sort of semantic precision in definition of culture, then you marginalize your own contributions by signalling
    your narrow-mindedness before the debate even begins. You would do well
    to quit pretending that you don’t know what people mean when they use
    certain terms and move on to make your points based on that
    understanding, rather than bogging yourself down in the semantic details
    of terminology, to the detriment of your own observations.

    If you wish to make some actual commentary as to your definition of culture then do so.
    Otherwise, your comment may be assumed to be made solely for the purpose
    of being inflammatory in a forum and can only be described as simple trolling.

  • Henro 88

    Enlighten me: what is your definition of “culture,” then?

  • RumyGo

    Game over ! I gave you plenty of chances to get into the discussion, but you had stuck to your own didactic responses,foolishly perceiving them as being of erudite nature. You had doggedly chased a definition that was well understood by all as used in this context and had not provided any logical thought stream to “illuminate” a universally understood issue . Perhaps, it would be more of a benefit and entertainment if you can give me a SCIENTIFIC definition of a MORON and only then we can restart our dialogue.

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