[ Asahi Shinbun, 22nd June '09 ]
A nationwide survey of the opinions of business owners/managers re: the local economic situation in the regions has revealed that over 70% believe local business conditions are getting worse. This is a considerably worse result than for a similar survey conducted at the same time with 100 top companies. It would seem feeling in the regions is that government talk of things having got as ‘bad as they are going to’ may be a little presumptuous.
A summary of the results :
- 51% of respondents confirm that business conditions are still getting worse;
- that figure rises to 71% when adding the category of those who feel things are ‘gently getting worse’; this up on the 38% of respondents to the previous such survey in June 2008 who felt the economy was in decline, confirming the extent of the effects of the global economic downturn experienced from the autumn last year;
The survey was conducted between 29th May and 16th June in the form of face-to-face interviews with local heads of business/financial entreprises with a total of 94 respondents.
The head of the Okayama Chamber of Commerce commented that “there is no feeling that we have reached the bottom yet – things are continuing to get worse” and “the promised improvements in demand are not to be seen and we expect things to get continue getting worse until the last quarter of the year”; these comments could be said to be representative of the opinions of many of the respondents in the survey.
With major corporations cutting investment in facilities and machinery, 82% of respondents report that demand from their core customer base has collapsed. 63% expect orders to further decrease over the next year.
With regard to the government’s handling of the business situation, 74% report that the lowering of highway tolls has had a positive effect with numbers of tourists increasing. However, 47% report that the recent government cash handout (conducted in the first half of the year; all taxpayers received around ¥10,000 in cash) has not had any effect, against 36% claiming it has.
Asked about the possibility of the dissolution of the current government followed by an election in which the main parties change power, 27% replied that they believed it was ‘possible’ against 13% believing it to be ‘impossible’ revealing a similar trend as the survey of 100 top companies.
44% of respondents stated their belief that the rise to power as regional governors of individuals originally from the entertainment (and other ‘non-political’ ) worlds will lead to reforms in local government. Most rated the performance of Higashikuni (Miyazaki governor) and Hashimoto (Osaka governor, formerly a lawyer) positively.
