Roaring Yen and Japan's Pensioners

choi

Martin Fackler, Strong Yen Is Dividing Generations in Japan; Pensioners' money goes furtehr, but industry suffers. New York Times, Aug 2, 2012 (front page).
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/0 ... generation-gap.html

Note:
(a) summary: On July 30, 2012 Japan released a new economic strategy that "identifies the heart of the problem as Japan’s aging population and declining export prowess." The two are interrelated, because the latter is rxplained in part by soaring yen since financial crisis (as investors have sought safe haven for their idle money). "A high yen benefits Japan's rapidly expanding elderly population * * * By speeding the flood of cheaper imported products into Japan, the strong yen is contributing to deflation, a broader drop in the prices of goods and services that has helped retirees stretch their pensions and savings." One consequence is: "Last year, the influx of products from abroad contributed to Japan’s first annual trade deficit in 31 years."

(b) Yutaka HARADA  原田 豊

yutaka 豊か 【ゆたか】 (adj; always followed by "na" な): "abundant; wealthy; plentiful; rich; affluent"
(c) Shigeru ONO  小野 滋, whose Twitter account is @shig_ono
(d) The report mentions "Kyouwa, a manufacturer of factory automation equipment in rural Seki, west of the rust-belt city of Shizuoka. Kyouwa's second-generation owner, Ryuji Usuda, said * * *"
(i) Kyouwa  株式会社キョウワ (or abbriviated as (株)キョウワ)
www.kk-kyouwa.co.jp

(A) In Japan, kyouwa usually is 協和, where the "u" is not pronounced but merely signifies a long vowel of "o"--so "ou" or "ō" or "oh" in Japanese is the same as the "oo" in food. See pomanization of Japanese
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanization_of_Japanese
(section 3.1 Long vowels)
(B) The English name of the company is KYOWA Corporation.

(ii) Seki, Gifu  岐阜県 関 市

The ja.wikipedia.org states the city is 40 km from Nagoya 名古屋 市 and that "市名は市内にあった濃州関所に由来" whose translation is: the name of the city came from 濃州関所 formerly within the city.

The Chinese 音読 and Japanese 訓読 pronunciations of the kanji 関 is "kan" and "seki" respectively.  
(iii) Shizuoka City  静岡市
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shizuoka_City
(capital of Shizuoka Prefecture  静岡県)
(iv) Ryuji USUDA  臼田 龍司  

Usuda  臼田 【うすだ】
* usu 臼 【うす】 (n): "mortar"

(e) The report proffers a prescription to tame the soaring yen:

"The Finance Ministry, meanwhile, has taken small steps to drive down the yen * * * A more effective step, economists said, would be for the Bank of Japan to essentially turn on the printing presses, encouraging the currency’s value to drop. The Federal Reserve has done just that in response to the financial crisis and the economic weakness in the United States, keeping down the dollar’s value and helping to foster a strong rise in American exports."

Indeed the Federal Reserve of United States is assessing economic and unemployment data to decide if a third round of quantative easing (QE3) is called for, which is in essence copiously printing the greenback--a third time.