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From: jono9999@hotmail.com (jono9999)
Newsgroups: fj.life.in-japan
Subject: Re: Reagan's funeral
Date: 13 Jun 2004 04:51:10 -0700
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"necoandjeff" <spam@schrepfer.com> wrote in message news:<x5jyc.83729$zt4.15700@newssvr25.news.prodigy.com>...
> "jono9999" <jono9999@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:aa9b03dd.0406110059.16e57a18@posting.google.com...
> > "necoandjeff" <spam@schrepfer.com> wrote in message
>  news:<xs7yc.83247$Lr7.41835@newssvr25.news.prodigy.com>...
> > > <mtfester@netMAPSONscape.net> wrote in message
> > > news:caauhk$n8a$1@news.Stanford.EDU...
> > > > necoandjeff <spam@schrepfer.com> wrote:
> > > > > <mtfester@netMAPSONscape.net> wrote in message
>  
> > > > >> > You may owe debts to us but we owe ours to the Japanese (and
>  others)
>  who
> > > > >> > have been financing our debt using all the dollars they've racked
>  up
>  from
> > > > >> > their trade surpluses.
> > > > >>
> > > > >> Nice shell game, then, as their debt is greater than ours, as a
>  %age
> > > > >> of GDP...
>  
> > > > > But their individual savings rate is much larger than ours in the
>  U.S.
>  so
> > > >
> > > > So, the savings accounts of individual Japanese (with the highest %age
> > > > of +70 year-olds in the world) is going to somehow magically pay off
> > > > the Japanese government's debt????
> > >
> > > Where do you think they're keeping their money, under the mattress?
> >
> > Er... actually... yes.
> >
> > Things are changing slowly, but in most of Japan, having money under
> > the mattress is the only way to ensure 24 hour access to it.  Many
> > ATMs close at night, and nearly all are closed during holiday periods.
> 
> Yes I know all about Japanese ATMs. But we're not talking about just having
> access to some cash here. We're talking about millions or tens of millions
> of yen in life savings. Japanese do not typically keep that as cash sitting
> at home.
> 

I think you'd be surprised.

Perhaps it's not "typical," but older Japanese with memories of the
various chaoses in the first half of the 20th century often keep lots
of money at home.  Also, money that's not in the bank may or may not
be found when it comes time to assess inheritance taxes.  In addition,
there have been a bunch of near-bank failures here in the last few
years.  While bank depsits are insured in the case of bank failure,
it's not clear how long it would take to get access to money deposited
at a failed bank.

Stories like this one: (4 million yen and gold bars stolen from home
safe) http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=news&cat=2&id=297411, or
this one (over 100 million yen in cash and precious metal stolen from
apartments) http://www.mediatinker.com/blog/archives/008032.html seem
to appear once a month or so, and I recently read about the growth in
the home safe market (sorry, couldn't find an online reference to
that).