Comments on Japanese economic policy

"I'm going to focus mainly on macro-economic policies, which I realize is not necessarily typical of commentary on Japan. The literature - and media coverage - tend to treat monetary policy, especially, as subordinate to notions of "industry policy" in Japan.

Postal banking in the United States and Japan: A comparative analysis

This paper analyzes the experience of the United States postal savings system, and (in less detail) that of Japan, with a view to assessing the past and potential future role of postal savings in Japan. The immense size of Japan's postal savings system - accounting for one-third of household savings deposits and comprising the largest "bank" in the world - means that the question of their disposition is central to any discussion of the future of Japan's financial system as a whole. This study found that demand for postal savings deposits is explained, in both countries, mainly by two variables: price (interest-differentials) and confidence in private banks. Geographical accessibility in rural areas is of less, and diminishing, importance. It is argued that postal banking should be viewed as an alternative to publicly sponsored deposit insurance, as a means to assure households' access to safe and convenient savings and payment services. This implies that reform discussion should focus on the possibility of restructuring postal savings as a "narrow bank", in such as way as to ensure that services are priced to fully reflect costs and risks incurred

Regulation of guanylyl cyclase by a cGMP-binding protein during chemotaxis in Dictyostelium discoideum

Chemoattractants transiently activate guanylyl cyclase in Dictyostelium discoideum cells. Mutant analysis demonstrates that the produced cGMP plays an essential role in chemotactic signal transduction, controlling the actomyosin-dependent motive force. Guanylyl cyclase activity is associated with the particulate fraction of a cell homogenate. The addition of the cytosol stimulates guanylyl cyclase activity, whereas the cytosol plus ATP/Mg2+ inhibits enzyme activity, We have analyzed the regulation of guanylyl cyclase in chemotactic mutants and present evidence that a cGMP-binding protein mediates both stimulation and ATP-dependent inhibition of guanylyl cyclase. Upon chromatography of cytosolic proteins, cGMP binding activity co-elutes with both guanylyl cyclase-stimulating and ATP-dependent-inhibiting activities. In addition, ATP-dependent inhibition of guanylyl cyclase activity is enhanced by the cGMP analogue 8-Br-cGMP, suggesting that a cGMP-binding protein regulates guanylyl cyclase activity, Mutant KI-4 has an aberrant cGMP binding activity with very low K-d and shows a very small chemoattractant-mediated cGMP response; the cytosol from this mutant does not stimulate guanylyl cyclase, In contrast to KI-4, the aberrant cGMP binding activity of mutant KI-7 has a very high K-d and chemoattractants induce a prolonged cGMP response. The cytosol of this mutant stimulates guanylyl cyclase activity, but ATP does not inhibit the enzyme. Thus, two previously isolated chemotactic mutants are defective in the activation and inhibition of guanylyl cyclase, respectively. The positive and negative regulation of guanylyl cyclase by its product cGMP may well explain how cells process the temporospatial information of chemotactic signals, which is necessary for sensing the direction of the chemoattractant

Japan's new central banking law: A critical view

Japan's new central banking law, enacted in June 1997 with effect from April 1, 1998, takes several steps in the direction of assuring greater transparency, independence, and accountability for the Bank of Japan's conduct of monetary policy. But with respect to the other functions of a central bank, it does no such thing. Instead, the approach has been to leave these traditional banking functions which are at least important as monetary policy narrowly defined - as much as practicable under the control of the government's finance ministry. Most disappointing has been the opaque and haphazard process by which the new law was drafted and passed. This reflects badly on the maturity of Japan's democratic institutions, and represents a discouraging start to the government's "Big Bang" program of financial reform. However, the law does not, in itself, preclude the emergence of an independent and successful central bank: That outcome will depend much more on actions taken by BoJ officials over the next few years

Credit channels and the small firm sector in Japan

This study looked for evidence of a "credit channel", amplifying monetary impulses transmitted to the real economy via small manufacturing firms in Japan. It was inspired by several studies that found evidence of such a "financial accelerator" in the United States. The results are largely negative, however: There do not appear to be systematic differences in the cyclical response of small, as compared to large, firms to monetary tightening in Japan. This leads to a look at differing characteristics of the small-firm sector in the two countries: Specifically, one of the main reasons for believing that small firms are credit-constrained is that they tend to be relatively young firms, lacking a track record that helps to overcome informational asymmetries and to lower the cost of external finance. But, there is some evidence suggesting that the strong correlation between age and size of firm may not apply in Japan, which has startlingly low firm turnover rates compared to other industrial countries. The implication is that, while a credit channel may well exist in Japan, it cannot be identified by using firm size as a proxy for credit access; more direct measures need to be employed, probably using cross-sectional data. An appendix to this paper is devoted to data issues relating to the Ministry of Finance's quarterly survey of corporations, including problems with the size classification based on paid-in capital. These data problems, while important, do not explain away the lack of evidence for a "credit channel" through small firms

Credit channels and the small firm sector in Japan

This study looked for evidence of a "credit channel", amplifying monetary impulses transmitted to the real economy via small manufacturing firms in Japan. It was inspired by several studies that found evidence of such a "financial accelerator" in the United States. The results are largely negative, however: There do not appear to be systematic differences in the cyclical response of small, as compared to large, firms to monetary tightening in Japan. This leads to a look at differing characteristics of the small-firm sector in the two countries: Specifically, one of the main reasons for believing that small firms are credit-constrained is that they tend to be relatively young firms, lacking a track record that helps to overcome informational asymmetries and to lower the cost of external finance. But, there is some evidence suggesting that the strong correlation between age and size of firm may not apply in Japan, which has startlingly low firm turnover rates compared to other industrial countries. The implication is that, while a credit channel may well exist in Japan, it cannot be identified by using firm size as a proxy for credit access; more direct measures need to be employed, probably using cross-sectional data. An appendix to this paper is devoted to data issues relating to the Ministry of Finance's quarterly survey of corporations, including problems with the size classification based on paid-in capital. These data problems, while important, do not explain away the lack of evidence for a "credit channel" through small firms

Stimulatory effect of Rho-associated coiled-coil kinase (ROCK) inhibitor on revivability of in vitro-produced bovine blastocysts after vitrification

Inhibition of Rho-associated kinase (ROCK) activity promoted recovery and growth of frozen-thawed human embryonic stem cells. The primary objective was to determine if a ROCK inhibitor (Y-27632) in post-thaw culture medium unproved revivability of vitrified IVP bovine blastocysts. Expanding or expanded blastocysts (7 d after IVF) were vitrified (minimum volume cooling procedure, using a Cryotop) in 15% ethylene glycol. 15% DMSO and 0 5 M sucrose When post-warm blastocysts were cultured in inSOF medium, survival rate (re-expansion of blastocoel at 24 h of culture) was improved (P < 0 05) by the addition of 10 mu M Y-27632 (94 9 +/- 2 4%, mean +/- SEM) compared to a control (78 0 +/- 6 0%) Conversely. after 48 h of culture, there were no significant differences in hatching late (62.8 +/- 11 1 vs 59 6 +/- 9.4%) and mean total cell number (135 2 +/- 13 1 vs. 146 7 +/- 13 3) In non-vitrified IVP bovine blastocysts, the hatching rate on Day 9 was improved by Y-27632 (91 7 +/- 3 8 vs 54 7 +/- 8 9%. P < 0 05). with no difference in mean total cell number of blastocysts (230 0 +/- 23 0 vs 191 2 +/- 22 2, P = 0 23). In an additional experiment, Y-27632 was added to culture medium on either Day 0, Day 2. or Day 4 (and remained present until Day 8). resulting in no improvement in blastocyst yield compared to a control group (7.5 +/- 2 1, 31 4 +/- 2 3, 36 2 +/- 3.2. and 28.6 +/- 6.9%. respectively) In conclusion, adding a ROCK inhibitor to post-thaw culture medium improved revivability of IVP bovine blastocysts after vitrification and warmingArticleTHERIOGENOLOGY. 73(8):1139-1145 (2010)journal articl

Vitrification of ICSI- and IVF-derived bovine blastocysts by minimum volume cooling procedure: effect of developmental stage and age

The objective was to investigate the effects of developmental stage (fully-expanded or expanding blastocysts) and/or age (harvested on Days 7 or 8) on post-vitrification in vitro survival of bovine blastocysts derived from intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) or in vitro fertilization (IVF). Post-warming survival (re-expansion of blastocoele within 24 h) of ICSI-derived fully-expanded blastocysts (80%) was similar to that of their IVF-derived counterparts (88%). However, the ability of ICSI-derived expanding blastocysts to survive vitrification procedures (61%) was lower than that of IVF-derived blastocysts (85%; P < 0.05), although the ICSI- and IVF-derived fresh blastocysts were of similar quality. The age of the blastocysts before vitrification did not affect cryotolerance for either ICSI-derived (73 and 59% for Days 7 and 8 embryos, respectively) or IVF-derived blastocysts (86% for both Days 7 and 8 embryos). At 24 h of post-warming culture, ICSI-derived blastocysts surviving vitrification contained a higher proportion of dead cells than their IVF-derived counterparts (5-13% vs. 2-4%; P < 0.05), but these proportions were not different from those of fresh control embryos. There was an adverse effect of vitrification on the ability of blastocysts to hatch within 72 h of culture only in IVF-derived Day 8 blastocysts (41 and 70% in vitrified and fresh control groups, respectively). In conclusion, the proportion of blastocysts that survived vitrification procedures was similar for ICSI- and IVF-derived bovine blastocysts if the former were cultured to the fully-expanded stage prior to vitrification, with no significant difference between embryos harvested on Day 7 versus Day 8.ArticleTHERIOGENOLOGY. 74(6):1028-1035 (2010)journal articl

High incidence of multiple aster formation in vitrified-warmed bovine oocytes after in vitro fertilization

In vitro-matured bovine oocytes do not tolerate vitrification as well as mature murine or human oocytes. Delayed first cleavage in vitrified and in vitro-fertilized bovine oocytes may be responsible for the decreased yield of blastocysts in vitro. Because formation of sperm-aster and the subsequent assembly of microtubule network play an important role for migration and fusion of both pronuclei, aster formation in vitrified-warmed oocytes was analyzed by confocal laser-scanning microscopy. At 10 h post-insemination (hpi), proportions of oocytes fertilized normally were comparable between the vitrified and fresh control groups (67 and 70%, respectively). Proportions of oocytes that exhibited microtubule assembly were similar between the two groups (95% each), but the proportion of oocytes with multiple asters was higher in the vitrified group when compared with the fresh control group (68 vs 29%, P < 0.05). Both migration and development of two pronuclei were adversely affected by multiple aster formation. In the next experiment, multiple asters observed in 5.5 vs 8 hpi pronuclear zygotes were located near the male pronucleus, suggesting that those multiple asters were not the cytoplasmic asters of maternal origin. In conclusion, multiple aster formation frequently observed in vitrified-warmed bovine oocytes may be related to loss of ooplasmic function responsible for normal microtubule assembly from the sperm-aster.ArticleTHERIOGENOLOGY. 77(5):908-915 (2012)journal articl

Microtubule assembly and in vitro development of bovine oocytes with increased intracellular glutathione level prior to vitrification and in vitro fertilization

Although vitrification is a useful technique for preservation of bovine oocytes, the yield of blastocysts derived from the vitrified oocytes is still low. We have recently reported a new type of cryoinjury, multiple aster formation, by which pronuclear migration and development of vitrified–warmed and in vitro-fertilized bovine oocytes are impaired. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of glutathione (GSH) content of vitrified bovine oocytes on multiple aster formation and subsequent in vitro development. Treatment of bovine cumulus–oocyte complexes with β-mercaptoethanol (βME) and l-cysteine (Cys) during in vitro maturation resulted in 2.5-fold higher GSH content not only in fresh control but also in vitrified–warmed oocytes. The percentage of normally fertilized zygotes exhibiting sperm aster(s) was >95% in all four groups (with or without βME/Cys × fresh control or vitrified). The frequency of multiple aster formation in vitrified oocytes (three-fold higher than that in fresh control oocytes) was not affected by the increased level of intracellular GSH with βME/Cys. Consequently, the migration and development of pronuclei as well as the yield of blastocysts from vitrified–warmed oocytes (17 versus 41%) were not improved. In addition, there was no effect of increased GSH level on the yield of blastocysts in fresh control groups.ArticleZYGOTE. 22(4):476-482 (2014)journal articl