economics
Getting Green with Trash Redistribution
Terrie Lloyd writes: “Over the last couple of years, and particularly due to improved awareness of the negative health and environmental effects of pollution, global commercial interest in “clean tech” and “green tech” has been increasing. We believe the turning point for environmentally-sensitive technology becoming a viable business field would have been the recent establishment of carbon-trading organizations and emerging government legislation around the world to force companies to acknowledge their pollutin’ ways. We now have the beginnings of a commercial foundation upon which a whole new industry will be formed.
No where is the hope to make millions by creating new ways to extract energy from garbage, reuse resources instead of manufacturing/mining fresh ones, or make dangerous by-products safe again, bigger than in Japan. But the fact is that while there is a burgeoning interest in such technologies, old habits die hard and green/clean businesses usually require a lot of supply infrastructure — either for the sourcing of the trash or alternative inputs needed, and a motivated distribution network that receives and delivers to the consumers the energy/derivative outputs. Thus, in Japan at least, apart from government and big corporate fundings of trial programs, the real opportunities to make money out of such solutions are still premature. (さらに…)
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Japan’s New 10% Consumption Tax
Consumption tax to be raised to about 10% by around the mid-2010s, says State Minister for Economic and Fiscal Policy Yosano
In connection with Prime Minister Aso’s statement on a hike in the sales tax in three years’ time, State Minister for Economic and Fiscal Policy Hajime Yosano during an NHK TV talk show on November 2 said, “State finances will go bust unless the consumption tax is raised in stages to 10% by around the mid-2010s.” He thus indicated his perception that it is necessary to raise the consumption tax rate by more than 5% in stages in order to stably finance the social security system, once economic conditions improve. (さらに…)
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Black Tokyo Japan 