Japan Reacts

Category: Business

  • Schauessen Shrinks Its Sausages — 5ch: “It’s Turned Into Pork Bits”

    Culinary researcher Ryuji commented on a change to the content volume of Nippon Ham’s popular sausage “Schauessen,” sparking discussion on 5ch. The official Schauessen account cited soaring raw material costs and supply instability as reasons for reducing the number of sausages per pack, while touting an increase in per-piece weight as a “boost in meatiness.” On the thread, reactions split between viewing this as a “de facto price hike” and praising the company’s approach. Many posters also weighed in with comparisons to rival brand “Kaoru” and their own theories on the relationship between price hikes and quality/quantity.

    Mon, Oct 5, 3:09 PM

    Culinary researcher Ryuji (40) updated his official X (formerly Twitter) account by the 5th, commenting on the de facto price increase of a popular product.

    That day, the official X account for Nippon Ham’s coarse-ground wiener sausage “Schauessen” announced that it would be cutting the content volume due to soaring raw material costs and unstable supply. “But we didn’t want to just cut back,” the account told users. “So we increased the weight per sausage and boosted the meaty texture.”

    Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here

    7AnonymousOct 5, 2026 15:37
    Kaoru (a rival sausage brand) has been five-to-a-bag forever, so I'm already used to five wieners per pack.
    14AnonymousOct 5, 2026 15:39
    Re: #7
    Honestly, Kaoru is way tastier.
    The amount of meat juice is totally different.
    If more people caught on, it'd probably knock Schauessen off the top spot.
    66AnonymousOct 5, 2026 15:57
    Re: #7
    Kaoru goes on sale at my local supermarket sometimes, great bang for your buck.
    8AnonymousOct 5, 2026 15:38
    True, eating 5-6 as a family — meaning 1-2 per person — is really the proper serving size for Schauessen.
    I bet a ton of people polish off a whole bag or two solo though.
    9AnonymousOct 5, 2026 15:38
    Why was that exact piece count chosen in the first place?
    Why was that exact weight chosen in the first place?
    There must have been careful, deliberate reasoning behind it.
    Companies should really think hard about whether changing that just "to keep the retail price down" is actually the right call.
    11AnonymousOct 5, 2026 15:38
    Schauessen has turned into pork bits.
    12AnonymousOct 5, 2026 15:39
    People who buy Schauessen will keep buying it up to a point, I guess.
    We go with Kaoru at our place though.
    13AnonymousOct 5, 2026 15:39
    Did this lose its shelf space after the price hike?
    15AnonymousOct 5, 2026 15:39
    If consumers hate fewer pieces and retailers hate the price tag changing, then just shrink the overall amount, make the Schauessens pork-bit sized, and cram a ton of them into the bag.
    16AnonymousOct 5, 2026 15:39
    I always buy the jumbo bag of Schauessen so I'm not sure — is that one shrinking too?
    17AnonymousOct 5, 2026 15:39
    Schauessen's always been pricey for how little you get, even way before this.
    18AnonymousOct 5, 2026 15:39
    Japanese people hate price hikes to an extreme degree.
    No wonder Japan ends up the lone loser, turning into a "cheap country."
    24AnonymousOct 5, 2026 15:41
    Re: #18
    That's because wages barely budge here, to an extreme degree.
    25AnonymousOct 5, 2026 15:42
    Re: #18
    Folks born in the Heisei era (1989–2019) never lived through inflation, after all.
    19AnonymousOct 5, 2026 15:40
    Guess it's just that kind of era now — even my Schauessen is getting scaled down.
    52AnonymousOct 5, 2026 15:52
    Re: #19
    Nice pork bits, lol.
    21AnonymousOct 5, 2026 15:41
    Isn't cutting the amount or raising the price just standard for every product these days?
    22AnonymousOct 5, 2026 15:41
    Just pump the bag full of air, that'll do it.
    23AnonymousOct 5, 2026 15:41
    Japanese real wages haven't budged in 30 years, so product prices have basically stayed frozen the whole time too.
    27AnonymousOct 5, 2026 15:42
    The moment you start cutting the content or the piece count, you've already lost to the times.
    28AnonymousOct 5, 2026 15:42
    Anyway, why can't other makers catch up to Schauessen's flavor?
    No matter how cheap the others are, I'm still eating Schauessen.
    83AnonymousOct 5, 2026 16:01
    Re: #28
    Isn't that just because it's cheap?
    29AnonymousOct 5, 2026 15:43
    Young people probably won't get this, but it was a revolution on par with Asahi Super Dry (the beer that redefined its whole category in Japan).
    31AnonymousOct 5, 2026 15:43
    Wish they'd do something about selling it as a 2-pack bundle.
    32AnonymousOct 5, 2026 15:43
    This price hike is also partly about padding big corporations' salaries.
    35AnonymousOct 5, 2026 15:44
    It's basically like puffing it up and selling you air.
    37AnonymousOct 5, 2026 15:45
    Well, it's best not to eat processed meat anyway.
    42AnonymousOct 5, 2026 15:48
    Re: #37
    That's true.
    I try to avoid sausages and ham as much as I can.
    41AnonymousOct 5, 2026 15:48
    Kaoru's cheap but actually tasty, that surprised me.
    75AnonymousOct 5, 2026 15:59
    Re: #41
    The salt content is pretty intense, but yeah, it's tasty.
    84AnonymousOct 5, 2026 16:01
    Japanese people have turned into beggars who won't pay up but keep making excessive demands of everyone else.
    86AnonymousOct 5, 2026 16:02
    Re: #84
    Can't be helped, poor people have genuinely multiplied.
    92AnonymousOct 5, 2026 16:04
    I can live with fewer pieces or a higher price.
    Smaller size: eh, borderline.
    Tastes worse: no way.

    Any company that does that last one, I'm never buying from again.
    94AnonymousOct 5, 2026 16:05
    Re: #92
    Price goes up, size goes down, and it tastes worse — that's basically the standard combo these days.

    Background and Key Points of the Debate

    “Soaring raw material costs and unstable supply” is an issue facing the food industry at large — price hikes have been hitting everything from Schauessen to potato chips. What split opinion on the thread boiled down to one question: whether to credit the company for offsetting the cut with a heavier per-piece weight, or to see the reduced piece count as a de facto price hike regardless. Another notable feature was the repeated comparison to rival brand “Kaoru,” which drew concentrated attention as a competitor known for its balance of price and satisfaction. Meanwhile, the only thing quoted in the original article is Nippon Ham’s own announcement — the text never actually shows what “true feelings” Ryuji himself expressed. Readers should be careful not to jump to conclusions about the content based on the word “true feelings” in the headline alone.

    *This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Geinou/Sports News+) thread “[Ryuji] ‘Schauessen is apparently getting flamed online’ — his true feelings on the ‘reduced content, effectively a price hike’ thread link.”

  • Labor-shortage bankruptcies hit a record 240 cases — 5ch: “There’s always someone to replace them → Turns out there wasn’t, lol”

    According to a survey by Tokyo Shoko Research, “labor shortage” bankruptcies in the first half of fiscal 2026 (April–September) totaled 240 cases, up 17.0% year-on-year — the highest first-half figure since records began in 2013. Of these, bankruptcies citing “soaring labor costs” as the reason numbered 130, a 1.7-fold increase from the previous year, accounting for 54.1% of all labor-shortage bankruptcies. Small and medium businesses with capital under 10 million yen made up 66.2% of cases. On 5ch, threads mixed takes arguing this is simply companies that relied on low wages getting weeded out, debate over whether AI-driven automation or accepting foreign workers is the more realistic fix, and pushback against the opinion that “NEETs should just be made to work.”

    1AnonymousOct 5, 2026 14:47
    "Labor shortage" bankruptcies in the first half of fiscal 2026 (April–September) hit a record 240 cases, up 17.0% year-on-year. Having bottomed out at 26 cases in the same period of pandemic-hit fiscal 2021, the figure has now exceeded the prior year's first half for five years running. This also breaks the previous first-half record of 205 cases, set just last year, for the highest since record-keeping began in 2013.
    Notably, bankruptcies citing "soaring labor costs" surged 1.7-fold to 130 cases (up 75.6% year-on-year), accounting for more than half (54.1%) of all "labor shortage" bankruptcies — laying bare how wage-hike pressure is accelerating cash-flow trouble at small and medium businesses.
    Among "labor shortage" bankruptcies in the first half of fiscal 2026, companies with capital under 10 million yen accounted for 159 cases (up 33.6% year-on-year, 66.2% of the total) — roughly six in ten. By type, bankruptcy filings (as opposed to other dissolution forms) made up the vast majority at 229 cases (up 23.7%, 95.4% of the total).
    4AnonymousOct 5, 2026 14:50
    It's going bankrupt because there's no work out there that can actually afford to hire people.
    5AnonymousOct 5, 2026 14:50
    This just means the crappy companies that only survived on cheap labor finally got weeded out.
    Up until now they weren't getting weeded out, which is exactly why wages had such a hard time rising.
    6AnonymousOct 5, 2026 14:50
    The bonus era for management — working the Lost Generation part-timers into the ground as much as they wanted — is finally over.
    8AnonymousOct 5, 2026 14:52
    "There's always someone to replace them."

    Turns out there wasn't, lol
    11AnonymousOct 5, 2026 14:55
    Re: #8
    This is just the inevitable endpoint of that approach.
    Without ever reflecting on that "nobody wants to do it" mindset, now they're trying to paper over it by bringing in immigrants instead.
    15AnonymousOct 5, 2026 14:57
    Re: #8
    Of course you end up with a labor shortage 20 years down the line if you work the Lost Generation part-timers to the bone.
    9AnonymousOct 5, 2026 14:53
    (ヽ´ん`) "I'll work…"

    Company: "We just don't have enough people!"

    (ヽ´ん`) "I said I'll work, you know?"

    Company: "Gahh! Not enough people!"

    Why is that
    16AnonymousOct 5, 2026 14:58
    Japan is built on the assumption of low-wage slave labor, so it's full of companies that simply can't handle raising wages.
    Well, the end result is Japan's core small and mid-sized businesses collapse and national strength declines,
    but capable people just keep getting bigger paychecks, and the gap keeps widening.
    17AnonymousOct 5, 2026 14:58
    "We're short-handed" and "we don't want incompetent people" can both be true at once.
    21AnonymousOct 5, 2026 14:58
    Re: #17
    The bar for what counts as "incompetent" is set way too high.
    18AnonymousOct 5, 2026 14:58
    Where's the funding for threads like this even coming from?
    20AnonymousOct 5, 2026 14:58
    How exactly are you supposed to drag NEETs out into society?
    Have some scary-looking guys come haul them off?
    22AnonymousOct 5, 2026 14:59
    Japan today is actually one of the most unequal countries in the world, you know.
    People always point at the US or China to look away from it,
    but the gap here is already at a seriously bad level.
    23AnonymousOct 5, 2026 14:59
    Looked at from society's perspective as a whole, labor-shortage bankruptcies are actually a good thing.
    Once it finally becomes impossible to keep an industry running this way, wages will settle at a fair level.
    50AnonymousOct 5, 2026 15:14
    Re: #35
    There are plenty of estimates saying everything except advanced engineers and manual on-site labor will become unnecessary.
    What math led you to decide there's no way that's enough?
    61AnonymousOct 5, 2026 15:23
    Re: #50
    When exactly does that estimate say jobs become unnecessary? How many people are we talking about? How solid is that projection really?
    Do you even know how many workers short Japan actually is?
    You're just talking like you know stuff when it's all vague. Show your actual sources.
    51AnonymousOct 5, 2026 15:16
    Re: #45
    Even "on-site work" covers everything from heavy manual labor to retail store clerks.
    I don't think those people are going to funnel into manual labor jobs.
    59AnonymousOct 5, 2026 15:22
    Re: #51
    Even those lighter on-site jobs only have so many open seats, and I think the overflow from that will trickle down into manual labor to some extent.
    52AnonymousOct 5, 2026 15:16
    Since interest rates went up, this is probably going to increase even more.
    55AnonymousOct 5, 2026 15:19
    Re: #52
    If you just let companies go bankrupt, unemployment rises and the labor shortage solves itself — problem solved, huh?
    60AnonymousOct 5, 2026 15:22
    Just throw all 1.7 million NEETs onto the front lines for now.
    Maybe about 10,000 of them will end up surviving.
    114AnonymousOct 5, 2026 15:57
    Re: #60
    You're way overestimating NEETs.
    NEETs should just stay home and take it easy.
    70AnonymousOct 5, 2026 15:26
    Re: #61
    I'm not the one doing the math here.
    Plenty of outlets are reporting that white-collar jobs are going to disappear, so if you've got a counterargument, lay out some data.


    AI and robots will wipe out most human jobs by 2045 — though some jobs will survive
    https://www.businessinsider.jp/article/2507-ai-wipe-out-most-jobs-2045-few-still-survive-researcher/
    83AnonymousOct 5, 2026 15:36
    Re: #70
    That's not data, that's just a prediction.
    95AnonymousOct 5, 2026 15:42
    Did they actually do everything they could — raising pay, improving conditions — before going under?
    If they did nothing and then collapsed because no one showed up, I can't feel sorry for them.
    97AnonymousOct 5, 2026 15:44
    Re: #95
    For small-business owners, squeezing people for as cheap as possible is basically the prime directive.
    There's no way they'd ever do that, lol
    99AnonymousOct 5, 2026 15:47
    The Japanese public: "Serves Japan right, lol"

    This is the reality.
    101AnonymousOct 5, 2026 15:47
    Re: #99
    Telling them to work now is probably a case of too little, too late, huh?

    Background and key points of this discussion

    A “labor-shortage bankruptcy” doesn’t mean the work itself has dried up — it refers to cases where a company posts job openings but gets no applicants, or can’t replace departing staff fast enough, and ultimately gives up on continuing the business. Tokyo Shoko Research’s figures show the count has exceeded the same period of the prior year for five straight years since bottoming out in fiscal 2021, and this time the standout feature is that “soaring labor costs” accounted for 54.1% of the stated reasons — suggesting that small and micro businesses unable to secure funds for wage hikes are the ones most likely to get weeded out. In the thread, opinions clashed between those who see AI-driven automation as the fix for the labor shortage and those who favor accepting more foreign workers, though it’s easy to miss that both sides are arguing from future projections rather than hard evidence. The suggestion that “NEETs should just be put to work” was also criticized as a rough argument that ignores the costs of job matching and training — a difference in underlying assumptions that helped split opinion.

    ※This article is compiled and summarized from the 5ch (Nandemo Jikkyo G, a general live-discussion board) thread “[Breaking] Labor-shortage bankruptcies hit a record high — is this the endgame of a country that cast aside its NEETs?“.

  • Minimum Wage Goes Up, But Living Costs Still Out of Reach: Tokyo Workers Face a Tens-of-Thousands-of-Yen Gap

    A survey released in August by the Japan Federation of Local Government Workers’ Unions found that a 22-year-old living alone in one of 10 urban prefectures, including Tokyo, needs ¥231,722 a month (take-home) if male and ¥239,123 if female to cover living costs. Meanwhile, Tokyo’s minimum wage, converted to a monthly salary, comes to only about ¥225,000 even before tax — and the gap widens by tens of thousands of yen more once compared against take-home pay. On 5ch, the figures sparked a divided discussion, with some worried about talent draining out of rural areas, others debating how a minimum wage hike would affect employment at small and mid-size businesses, and still others arguing over the wage gap between cities and the countryside.

    (excerpt) ◆ “The discussion should center more on actual living costs”

    According to a survey on union members’ living costs released in August by the Japan Federation of Local Government and Municipal Workers’ Unions (Jichiroren), in 10 urban prefectures — including the greater Tokyo area, Osaka, and Aichi — a 22-year-old living alone, equivalent to a first-year university graduate, needs ¥231,722 a month if male and ¥239,123 if female to cover living costs, on a “take-home” basis after tax and social insurance deductions.

    Meanwhile, converting Tokyo’s new minimum wage into a monthly salary (22 working days, 8 hours a day) comes to about ¥225,000 on a “gross” basis, before tax and other deductions. Even on a gross basis, that falls short of the required living costs — and compared against take-home pay, the gap widens to tens of thousands of yen.

    Source: tokyo-np.co.jp / Original article here

    3AnonymousOct 5, 2026 07:00
    That's exactly why you've got no choice but to move to Tokyo, where the wages are higher and women outnumber men.
    14AnonymousOct 5, 2026 07:05
    Re: #3
    Prefectures with a high proportion of young women (20s-30s):
    • Kagoshima Prefecture (#1 in Japan for share of women in their 20s-30s)
    • Nara Prefecture
    • Fukuoka Prefecture
    • Miyazaki Prefecture
    • Hyogo Prefecture
    4AnonymousOct 5, 2026 07:01
    Genuine question for anyone who actually knows this stuff: if the minimum wage goes up, will small/mid-size sash (window frame) manufacturers out in the regions lose work? Will they go under?
    15AnonymousOct 5, 2026 07:06
    Re: #4
    No idea if the amount of work itself shrinks, but they won't be able to hire people cheaply anymore, so conditions for existing employees are definitely going to get harder, right?
    9AnonymousOct 5, 2026 07:04
    The only people actually working minimum-wage jobs are high schoolers with part-time gigs and retirees doing 'silver worker' jobs on top of their pension. Even part-time housewives ("paato") get a raise if they stick around for 6 months. And new college grads get bonuses and company-subsidized housing on top of everything else (lol).
    13AnonymousOct 5, 2026 07:04
    Re: #9
    Well, if you're a full-time employee ("seishain") stuck on minimum wage, you should probably just change jobs.
    30AnonymousOct 5, 2026 07:12
    No matter how hard a regional branch works, the Tokyo head office just sucks up all the profit in the end anyway.
    37AnonymousOct 5, 2026 07:16
    Re: #30
    Are you just ignoring the effort of companies that actually headquarter themselves in the regions?
    39AnonymousOct 5, 2026 07:17
    If you raise the minimum wage, all that happens is that vulnerable workers — like the elderly — whose productivity doesn't match that pay level simply lose their jobs.
    222AnonymousOct 5, 2026 09:24
    Re: #39
    And that's exactly how they ended up delivering Yamato parcel mail and handing out flyers instead. And it's not just that — a place that used to hire 3 people at ¥1,000/hr could end up hiring only 2 at ¥1,500/hr. Otherwise, the cost just gets passed straight on to prices.
    45AnonymousOct 5, 2026 07:20
    Direct-hit earthquakes keep striking one after another, and every time, tens of thousands of Tokyoites trapped in elevators keep dying.

    How much longer can public opinion tolerate this over-concentration in one city?
    They should move the capital to somewhere like Nagoya sooner rather than later.
    48AnonymousOct 5, 2026 07:21
    Re: #45
    In reality, the big earthquakes keep happening out in the countryside.
    56AnonymousOct 5, 2026 07:23
    Re: #45
    But when is this 'Tokyo direct-hit earthquake' actually going to happen? For all the fuss about it, it's always the regional areas that end up getting hit by disasters.
    46AnonymousOct 5, 2026 07:20
    People keep saying stuff like 'rural areas are filling their labor shortage with foreigners! The countryside is full of foreigners!' but from what I've actually seen, you don't really spot many foreigners out in the countryside. There are way more of them in the cities. I mean, foreigners want to earn money in the big city too, right?
    53AnonymousOct 5, 2026 07:22
    Re: #46
    Whatever you personally feel, the data backs it up clearly — both rural and urban areas need foreign labor, that's really all there is to it.

    'We don't need bottom-tier Japanese workers!' is basically the mood right now.
    63AnonymousOct 5, 2026 07:26
    Re: #46
    Well, obviously. There's no Chinese or Vietnamese worker out there who actually wants to work in the countryside by choice.
    49AnonymousOct 5, 2026 07:21
    Instead of raising wages, why not just cut taxes?
    65AnonymousOct 5, 2026 07:27
    Re: #49
    Fools earning around minimum wage barely pay any tax to begin with.

    Talking income tax specifically, someone earning ¥15 million a year pays 70 times the tax of someone earning ¥3 million.
    What that means is: every single year, they're paying what it would take a ¥3-million earner 70 years to pay.

    Annual income (multiple) → Income tax (multiple)
    ¥3M (1x) → ¥30K (1x)
    ¥6M (2x) → ¥210K (7x)
    ¥9M (3x) → ¥640K (21x)
    ¥12M (4x) → ¥1.2M (40x)
    ¥15M (5x) → ¥2.16M (72x)
    68AnonymousOct 5, 2026 07:28
    I'm in Osaka on a business trip right now, and the real estate agency windows have tons of single-occupancy studio listings posted in the ¥30,000-something range. By Tokyo standards that's shockingly cheap — at that rate, you could earn ¥150,000 and still live comfortably while drinking yourself silly.
    80AnonymousOct 5, 2026 07:32
    Re: #68
    You probably don't know about 'kodomobeya' (cramped, tiny rooms nicknamed 'kid's rooms'), but no matter how broke you are, go under ¥44,000 and you're in for a living hell.
    82AnonymousOct 5, 2026 07:32
    Re: #68
    That's a sketchy place, lol. If you actually try to rent it, the agent talks you out of it, lol.
    85AnonymousOct 5, 2026 07:33
    Re: #68
    The rooms posted in the window are just for show. Say you want that one, and suddenly it's 'already contracted,' they steer you toward something else, show you around, and you end up with a pricier place in the end — that's the classic Osaka real-estate sales trick.
    91AnonymousOct 5, 2026 07:37
    Tokyoites are supposed to be well-off, right? So why aren't they having kids?
    95AnonymousOct 5, 2026 07:40
    Re: #91
    They're not having kids precisely because they're well-off.
    98AnonymousOct 5, 2026 07:41
    Re: #91
    What are you talking about? It's the place with the biggest concentration of poor people in all of Japan.
    128AnonymousOct 5, 2026 07:53
    It's actually the opposite. Individual ability gaps are widening, yet the minimum wage keeps rising, so small businesses can't afford to hire. We need to let small businesses pay incompetent workers ¥400/hr for menial jobs.
    130AnonymousOct 5, 2026 07:55
    Re: #128
    People too incompetent to pay proper wages should be steered toward becoming employees, not business owners.
    133AnonymousOct 5, 2026 07:56
    Re: #128
    It's actually the other way around — the economy never develops precisely because we keep propping up small, marginal businesses instead of letting them fail.
    208AnonymousOct 5, 2026 09:12
    60 yuan a day (about ¥1,350). That's roughly 8-9 US dollars.
    Not per hour.
    That's the pay for an entire day.
    That's what track marshals were being paid at the China GT Shanghai round.
    https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HRqINKoa4AADmDy.jpg
    209AnonymousOct 5, 2026 09:12
    By the way, executive pay keeps climbing steadily — the number of companies where executive compensation tops ¥100 million a year just hit an all-time high.

    You're all getting played, lol.
    210AnonymousOct 5, 2026 09:14
    Re: #209
    Hmm, you need a source for that?

    https://image-tm.s2mr.jp/i/original/1791159234629.jpeg
    212AnonymousOct 5, 2026 09:15
    Re: #210
    Average employee salaries have barely budged, yet executive pay alone has shot up like crazy.

    Back in the '90s, a ¥100-million executive salary was something only a tiny handful of major corporations had.

    Background and key points of this discussion

    Minimum wage levels are set prefecture by prefecture, with local councils deciding based on guidelines from the Central Minimum Wage Council, and there’s a gap of several hundred yen per hour between urban and rural areas. This Jichiroren survey compares living costs on a “take-home” basis against the minimum wage converted to a monthly salary on a “gross” basis, so it isn’t a perfectly direct comparison — but it’s worth noting that the gap only widens further once tax and social insurance are deducted. In the thread, opinions clashed between concern that wage hikes would raise labor costs for small businesses and shrink employment, and the view that without raising low wages, the outflow of talent from rural areas won’t stop. Rapid minimum wage increases have drawn criticism before for being “out of step with conditions in rural areas,” and this discussion follows much the same pattern.

    ※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (News Speed+) thread “[Minimum Wage] Even After the Hike, the Gap With Living Costs Remains… Voices Warn of Rural “Low Wages” and Accelerating Talent Outflow“.

  • Sukiya and Hama-zushi Adopt ‘Smart Code’ Payments — 5ch: ‘Just Consolidate Already, There Are Too Many’

    On October 1, Zensho Holdings began accepting the “Smart Code” common QR/barcode payment standard at roughly 5,290 of its domestic restaurants (as of the end of August 2026), including Sukiya and Hama-zushi. While this opens the door for payment methods like FamiPay and ANA Pay, it also turns out that six “Pay” services that used the same underlying system — including Hama Pay and Yucho Pay — will be discontinued on December 20, 2026. On 5ch, commenters piled on about the odd order of the announcements and the sheer, ever-growing number of “XX Pay” services.

    Published

    Author: MN Work & Life Editorial Team

    On October 1, Zensho Holdings began accepting the “Smart Code” QR/barcode payment scheme at roughly 5,290 domestic restaurants operated by the group (as of the end of August 2026).

    Source: news.mynavi.jp / Original article here

    2AnonymousOct 3, 2026 22:13
    Wait, is JPQR getting axed too?
    3AnonymousOct 3, 2026 22:15
    Just Yucho Pay, or more?
    4AnonymousOct 3, 2026 22:22
    Re: #1
    >Also, the Smart Code contracts for Bank Pay, OKI Pay, Koi Pay, Hama Pay, Yucho Pay, and YOKA!Pay will all end on December 20, 2026.
    JCB, you announce the shutdowns AFTER you launch the new thing? Come on.
    7AnonymousOct 3, 2026 23:13
    Re: #4
    Yeah, makes zero sense lol
    8AnonymousOct 4, 2026 00:28
    Re: #4
    Guess it's not some open free standard — they're probably charging fees for it
    10AnonymousOct 4, 2026 01:27
    Re: #4 Re: #7
    Uh, that one's getting discontinued ("サ終" = service shutdown). Are you using it without even knowing? Hope you're doing okay…

    Notice to Yucho Pay users:
    Yucho Pay will be discontinued on Sunday, December 20, 2026.
    We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience and trouble this will cause you.
    We will continue to expand our services so that you can keep using them safely and conveniently,
    and we thank you for your continued patronage of Japan Post Bank.
    5AnonymousOct 3, 2026 22:57
    Zensho's restaurant chains:
    Sukiya, Hama-zushi, COCO'S, Nakau,
    Zetteria, Jolly-Pasta, Big Boy,
    Jukusei Yakiniku Ichiban, Olive no Oka, Hanaya Yohei,
    El Torito, Katsuan, Kyubei-ya, Denmaru / Ifu
    9AnonymousOct 4, 2026 01:20
    Pay○Pay: "Even if all you small fry gang up on me, it won't even leave a scratch."
    11AnonymousOct 4, 2026 01:48
    Way too many 'whatever-Pay' services springing up…
    12AnonymousOct 4, 2026 03:49
    Only PayPay, Rakuten Pay, au Pay, and d Barai are going to survive. Any company jumping into the already red-ocean QR payment market at this point is just foolish.
    15AnonymousOct 4, 2026 04:51
    Re: #12
    Isn't TEPPAY actually pretty strong though?
    13AnonymousOct 4, 2026 03:55
    QR payment services keep popping up one after another.
    Meanwhile, IC (contactless card) payments show zero sign of growing… though I guess nobody's pulling out of that either, so no real harm done.
    If NFC has spread this far, you'd think we'd see new Type-A/B services beyond just credit cards too.
    14AnonymousOct 4, 2026 04:02
    As someone living in the JCB economic sphere, I welcome this.
    The only problem is it hasn't actually reached the level of being a real 'economic sphere' yet.
    16AnonymousOct 4, 2026 04:59
    At Hama-zushi, when you use your shareholder benefit vouchers, staff have to scan each ¥500 voucher one at a time.
    Every time I check out, the clerk ends up scanning like 20 of them, and it eats up a ridiculous amount of time for no reason.
    38AnonymousOct 5, 2026 01:05
    Re: #16
    You're a shareholder — bring it up at the shareholders' meeting.
    17AnonymousOct 4, 2026 05:08
    Re: #15
    It'd be strong if every railway operator got on board, but for store payments, Mobile Suica or Mobile PASMO already covers it. Just tap — it's faster than scanning a code anyway.
    19AnonymousOct 4, 2026 07:11
    Re: #17
    Transit IC cards are useless for people who don't use public transportation though.
    18AnonymousOct 4, 2026 06:18
    PayPay's done for, so d Barai is all I've got left.
    25AnonymousOct 4, 2026 12:09
    Re: #18

    PayPay's done for? I had noticed more and more places not taking it lately…
    20AnonymousOct 4, 2026 08:00
    Regarding the discontinuation of the "Hama Pay" service
    s://www.boy.co.jp/kojin/hamapay/service-end/index.html
    21AnonymousOct 4, 2026 08:26
    Barcodes, QR codes, NFC…

    This is way too much of a hassle.
    22AnonymousOct 4, 2026 08:57
    Re: #4
    These six Pay services all run on GMO's "Bank Pay" system, and it looks like GMO is shutting that system down. Each company already put out releases last year saying their service would end this December.
    24AnonymousOct 4, 2026 11:43
    Thought 'ugh, not another new Pay,' but turns out they're actually consolidating a bunch of random minor QR payment services into one.
    26AnonymousOct 4, 2026 12:39
    I only have Suica — guess that makes me tech-illiterate.
    31AnonymousOct 4, 2026 14:26
    Re: #26
    What even is TEPPAY? I just get a vibe of total pointlessness from it.
    27AnonymousOct 4, 2026 12:52
    Re: #25
    'It's done for' among those 18 is just one person's personal opinion, that's all.
    30AnonymousOct 4, 2026 14:19
    The moment Daikokuten Pay and SU-Pay aren't supported, that kind of says it all.
    32AnonymousOct 4, 2026 15:03
    This is so confusing.
    Good old cold hard cash causes the least confusion.
    33AnonymousOct 4, 2026 15:35
    From a user's standpoint, Smart Code is just plain hard to use.
    34AnonymousOct 4, 2026 15:40
    7-Eleven's 'SmaCo' doesn't even support FamiPay.
    35AnonymousOct 4, 2026 17:01
    Just make it regular contactless tap payment already — that's the easiest by far.
    36AnonymousOct 4, 2026 19:24
    The other day I fat-fingered the amount while scanning a QR code with PayPay, and the cashier couldn't handle it alone — someone had to come out from the back to sort it out. By then there was a whole line forming at the register lol. After that, they put up a warning sign at the register about entering the amount correctly.
    37AnonymousOct 4, 2026 19:48
    Just consolidate already, there are way too many.
    39AnonymousOct 5, 2026 01:32
    I only ever use Belc Pay.
    40AnonymousOct 5, 2026 04:49
    There are just too many 'Pay' services out there.
    Unify them into one already.
    41AnonymousOct 5, 2026 05:03
    Just abolish cash already!

    Background and Key Points of This Topic

    At the root of this is the end of the “Bank Pay” infrastructure provided by GMO Payment Gateway. Six services, including Hama Pay and Yucho Pay, ran on this infrastructure, and following GMO’s decision to shut it down, all of them will stop working on the same date, December 20, 2026. Smart Code itself is a common QR/barcode payment standard pushed by JCB, and it has now been introduced at Zensho-affiliated stores as well. Thread opinions diverged over the odd order in which the new standard’s launch and the existing services’ shutdowns were announced, and over the fact that QR payment services keep springing up one after another while NFC (contactless tap) payments show little sign of spreading. Some also pointed out that transit IC cards are awkward for people who don’t use public transportation, and no consensus emerged on which payment method is the real front-runner.

    ※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Business News+) thread “Smart Code Introduced at Roughly 5,290 Stores Including Sukiya and Hama-zushi, Making FamiPay and ANA Pay Usable.”

  • Economic Impact of Nuclear Plant Rebuilds: “¥4.3 Trillion Per Reactor” — 5ch Fires Back: “Fukushima Cleanup Alone Is ¥50 Trillion”

    The Nikkei reported that the Japan Atomic Industrial Forum (JAIF), at a press conference on the 2nd, estimated the economic ripple effect of rebuilding a single nuclear reactor at approximately ¥4.3 trillion. In the 5ch thread reacting to the news, some posters argued rebuilding should go ahead, while others raised a string of doubts about the estimate itself — questioning whether it accounted for the negative impact of a potential accident, comparing it to the cleanup cost of the Fukushima Daiichi disaster (with some citing figures as high as ¥50 trillion), and worrying that construction and decommissioning costs would simply get passed on through electricity bills. The discussion further expanded into comparisons of generation costs by power source and arguments over who bears responsibility for energy policy during the Democratic Party of Japan’s time in government, leaving the thread split between supporters and skeptics.

    Economic ripple effect of rebuilding nuclear reactors: “¥4.3 trillion per unit” — estimate by the Japan Atomic Industrial Forum – Nikkei

    October 2, 2026, 19:18

    JAIF Chairman Masui speaking at the press conference (2nd, Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo)

    Source: nikkei.com / Original article here

    12AnonymousOct 3, 2026 09:37
    I wonder if they actually calculated the negative ripple effect of an accident?
    19AnonymousOct 3, 2026 09:40
    Re: #12
    No way they'd ever say that even if they did calculate it.
    Scammers who only ever talk about the upside use this exact same trick.
    142AnonymousOct 3, 2026 10:26
    Re: #12
    If there's an accident, that's minus ¥100 trillion.
    13AnonymousOct 3, 2026 09:37
    Don't tell me the ¥4 trillion is just the construction cost of the plant itself?

    If it's just about ripple effects, thermal power plants would do the job just as well.
    18AnonymousOct 3, 2026 09:39
    Re: #13
    Because there'll be a landslide over in Nepal, you know.
    I'm all for building nuclear plants.
    But let's see them build one right under Tokyo's nose first.
    26AnonymousOct 3, 2026 09:43
    The whole "economic ripple effect" figure sounds like some sketchy asset anyway, whatever.

    More importantly, just keep rebuilding them one after another.
    They're plenty safe these days.
    And decommission the old ones in order.
    41AnonymousOct 3, 2026 09:50
    Re: #26
    These days a single reactor costs several trillion yen to build, so that comes back to bite you in your electric bill.
    Decommissioning costs money too, so that also gets passed on through electricity rates.
    45AnonymousOct 3, 2026 09:53
    Re: #26
    As long as the basic setup — using nuclear power to generate a massive heat source and just boil water with it — doesn't change, the fundamental danger doesn't change either.
    Even with a "power-independent natural convection cooling system," it's not like failure is impossible.
    146AnonymousOct 3, 2026 10:31
    Re: #26
    Those highly-touted small modular reactors (SMRs) are small enough that they can cool via air cooling even during a total loss of power.

    But because they're small, they don't put out much power.
    Kind of defeats the point of it being a nuclear plant.
    About the only upside is not emitting CO2.
    27AnonymousOct 3, 2026 09:43
    Re: #1
    If it has this much economic benefit and helps energy security too, they should just get on with it already.
    I will never forgive Naoto Kan and the Nuclear Regulation Authority for this.
    Oh, and Chubu Electric Power is a no-go though.
    38AnonymousOct 3, 2026 09:49
    Re: #27
    Naoto Kan: "The LDP's nuclear policy is too soft. From here on it's the Hatoyama Initiative. Under the DPJ government we'll build 14 or more new reactors. Cabinet decision."

    Then Fukushima happened and now he's dodging all responsibility, lol

    > June 2010 (Hatoyama/Kan administration, at the time): Cabinet approved a "Basic Energy Plan" that included building 14 or more new reactors by 2030.

    From Naoto Kan's official website
    ―――
    The DPJ government's track record and Kan's own pledge
    The government's "Basic Energy Plan" gets revised once every three years.
    The most recent plan in place when the nuclear accident occurred was approved by the cabinet in June 2010, right after I became Prime Minister,
    and it called for "raising the combined share of nuclear and renewable energy in the power mix to about 70% by 2030."
    It might be a little hard to follow, but in effect this meant pushing ahead with new reactor construction — at least 14 additional units by 2030.
    Looking back now, it was an outrageous plan.
    33AnonymousOct 3, 2026 09:48
    If we're going to keep using nuclear power at all,
    it's more sensible all around to rebuild the old plants with new ones.
    Unless the plan is actually to say "once the current reactors reach end of life, we're done with nuclear power" instead.
    39AnonymousOct 3, 2026 09:49
    Re: #33
    The rebuilding debate is already happening.
    51AnonymousOct 3, 2026 09:55
    ○Power generation costs
    Commercial solar: approx. ¥8.2–11.8 (per kWh)
    LNG thermal: approx. ¥10.7–14.3
    Nuclear: approx. ¥11.7 and up
    Coal thermal: approx. ¥13.6–22.4
    Onshore wind: approx. ¥9.8–17.2
    Oil thermal: approx. ¥24.9–27.6
    149AnonymousOct 3, 2026 10:32
    Re: #51
    Put offshore wind in there too.
    Don't tell me that was left out on purpose.
    55AnonymousOct 3, 2026 09:55
    Ever since they shut the nuclear plants down, oil imports have risen and we've run a trade deficit.
    And now crude prices are spiking, widening that deficit even further.
    It's one of the causes of the weak yen.
    60AnonymousOct 3, 2026 09:56
    Re: #55
    The nuclear plants are actually running though.
    67AnonymousOct 3, 2026 09:58
    Japan's power mix: thermal 69%.
    We're at our limit. Give us a break with this scorching heat, Japan.
    Save us, nuclear power.
    73AnonymousOct 3, 2026 09:59
    Re: #67
    Sure, let's go scatter some more cesium around then ♡
    It'll cool things right down.
    156AnonymousOct 3, 2026 10:34
    Re: #67
    Offshore wind, floating perovskite solar, and zinc batteries — that combo is Japan's trump card.
    71AnonymousOct 3, 2026 09:59
    Rebuilding reactors is a massive undertaking, so of course it's going to cost that kind of money.
    But the real question is: where are they rebuilding, and can it actually be managed properly?
    What you're dealing with isn't some backyard vegetable patch where nobody minds if you half-ass it —
    it's a nuclear power plant handling radioactive material, you know?
    76AnonymousOct 3, 2026 10:00
    Re: #71
    Who's even funding this in the first place?
    84AnonymousOct 3, 2026 10:01
    Build nuclear plants and you can cut back on thermal power by that much.
    Japan's foreign currency keeps draining away just to buy LNG fuel.
    Uranium is imported too, but it's far cheaper than LNG.
    88AnonymousOct 3, 2026 10:02
    Re: #84
    The nuclear plants have already been back online for a while now, haven't they.
    104AnonymousOct 3, 2026 10:08
    ChatGPT (nicknamed "Chappy" on 5ch) told me nuclear power is way too costly.
    107AnonymousOct 3, 2026 10:09
    Re: #104
    That's probably why there's talk of small modular reactors and the like even in the US.
    112AnonymousOct 3, 2026 10:11
    Re: #104
    With no staff left on site, once something escalates all you can do is run.
    133AnonymousOct 3, 2026 10:21
    Sorry to break it to you, but the cleanup cost for the Fukushima accident comes to ¥50 trillion.
    137AnonymousOct 3, 2026 10:22
    Re: #133
    Unfortunately, even that ¥50 trillion isn't enough.
    The reason being, the cleanup still isn't anywhere close to resolved.
    139AnonymousOct 3, 2026 10:23
    Re: #133
    I really wish they'd stop collecting the cleanup costs through electricity bills in other regions. Just bill Tokyo for it.

    Background and key points of this discussion

    The “¥4.3 trillion” figure here is JAIF’s (Japan Atomic Industrial Forum, an industry group representing utilities, manufacturers, and others) estimate of the ripple effect from construction investment alone — it’s worth noting this does not include safety-measure costs, decommissioning costs, or costs tied to accident risk. As for the Fukushima Daiichi cleanup costs raised in the thread, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry’s 2016 estimate put the combined total for decommissioning, compensation, and decontamination at roughly ¥21.5 trillion, and there has been continued speculation since then that the figure could climb higher still. Generation costs are also a tricky number to compare directly, since the assumptions shift from one power source to another depending on factors like operating rate and how accident risk gets factored in. The thread also drifted into debate over the rights and wrongs of energy policy under the former Democratic Party of Japan government — but that’s a separate historical question from whether the current rebuilding plan itself is sound, and the two shouldn’t be conflated.

    *This article is compiled as an excerpt/summary from the 5ch (News Express+) thread “Economic ripple effect of rebuilding nuclear reactors: “¥4.3 trillion per unit” — estimate by the Japan Atomic Industrial Forum.”

  • Panel Proposes Tougher Tax on Investment Income — 5ch: “Wages Get Taxed at 55% but Investments Only 20%? That’s Absurd”

    On October 2, the Japan Association of Corporate Executives (Keizai Doyukai) released a policy proposal calling for stronger taxation on investment income to help fund a benefits program set for full rollout in fiscal 2029. The plan would prioritize support for child-rearing households earning up to 4 million yen a year and low-to-middle-income seniors — groups said to bear a heavier effective tax and social-insurance burden than their counterparts in the US, UK, and France — with the required funds estimated at around 1.7 trillion yen. Funding would come from scrapping a tax break that promotes wage hikes at small and medium-sized businesses, together with the investment-income tax hike. On 5ch, opinions split between those calling it “absurd” that wage income can be taxed at up to about 55% while investment income faces a flat 20%, and those arguing that having 20% automatically withheld at the source is “already enough.” Many posts also questioned why corporate tax and retained earnings weren’t part of the discussion.

    On the 2nd, Keizai Doyukai released a policy proposal that includes strengthening taxation on investment income to help fund the “Worker Burden Relief Benefit,” a program the government plans to fully roll out in fiscal 2029. It argues that prioritizing payouts to low- and middle-income households — who face a heavier tax burden than their counterparts in the US and Europe — would help boost consumer spending.

    With low- and middle-income child-rearing households in mind, the proposal calls for prioritizing support for households earning up to roughly 4 million yen a year — a bracket facing a substantially heavier tax and social-insurance burden than in the UK, US, and France. Including benefits for low- and middle-income elderly households, the necessary funds were calculated at around 1.7 trillion yen.

    It said the funding could be covered by abolishing the wage-hike tax incentive for small and medium-sized businesses — since pay raises are now taking hold — together with strengthening taxes on investment income.

    Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here

    7AnonymousOct 3, 2026 21:12
    Re: #1
    Do something about the weak yen and rising prices already, you clown.
    Takaichi, you poverty-god reflationist — resign!!
    Get the dollar back to ¥80-120.

    All you weak-yen cheerleaders can get out of Japan already!
    122AnonymousOct 3, 2026 21:31
    Re: #7
    Companies that kept their factories in Japan to protect domestic jobs even through the strong-yen years are finally getting rewarded now that the yen's weak — what are you even complaining about?
    14AnonymousOct 3, 2026 21:14
    Man, people are so all-or-nothing about this. There are already tons of support programs for child-rearing households now that didn't exist in the past.

    Idiots can only think in 0 or 100, that's the problem.
    32AnonymousOct 3, 2026 21:17
    Re: #14
    The weak yen is basically already propping up incomes, you know.
    17AnonymousOct 3, 2026 21:14
    Honestly, even most "okuri-bito" (people with 100 million+ yen in assets) secretly suspect this isn't quite right — if your dividends top 10 million yen, it'd be fair to have about half of that taken.
    57AnonymousOct 3, 2026 21:21
    This gutless country won't even raise corporate tax — I don't care what happens to it at this point.
    66AnonymousOct 3, 2026 21:22
    Re: #57
    Japan's corporate tax rate is already plenty high compared to other developed countries.
    77AnonymousOct 3, 2026 21:24
    Re: #66
    We're basically in a Greece-level crisis here, aren't we? Raising it would be fine, lol
    90AnonymousOct 3, 2026 21:26
    Re: #66
    Right, and the area where Japan is overwhelmingly out of line with other countries is excessive medical spending. Remember during COVID when they pointed out Japan was the only country with this many for-profit private hospitals? That's the root of all evil right there.
    62AnonymousOct 3, 2026 21:22
    Strengthening taxes on investment income? Having 20% automatically withheld at the source without question is already plenty. They tell citizens to invest, then turn around and say they're raising taxes on it — that's going to kill people's motivation.
    91AnonymousOct 3, 2026 21:27
    Re: #62
    Just switch it to comprehensive taxation. Then rich people would get about 55% taken once you add in residence tax. The fact that wage income sits at 55% while investment income sits at 20% is what's absurd.
    99AnonymousOct 3, 2026 21:28
    Re: #91
    By that logic, you'd have to lower rich people's residence tax too.
    115AnonymousOct 3, 2026 21:30
    Re: #91
    Why do these guys get to call 20% too low when they barely pay any tax themselves?

    You don't even hit a 20% income tax rate unless you're earning over 20 million yen a year — that's plenty high.

    Meanwhile you're making 3 million a year and only paying 1%, which is 30,000 yen.
    68AnonymousOct 3, 2026 21:22
    Huh, so a business executives' group is in favor of raising taxes on investment income? How saintly of them.
    74AnonymousOct 3, 2026 21:24
    Re: #68
    From a company's perspective, any tax hike is welcome as long as it's not another hike in social insurance premiums.
    85AnonymousOct 3, 2026 21:26
    Re: #68
    How is that saintly, lol. They're just shifting the burden of their own corporate tax cuts onto individuals while execs rake it in.
    100AnonymousOct 3, 2026 21:28
    Funny how corporate tax never comes up at all.
    107AnonymousOct 3, 2026 21:29
    Re: #100
    Well yeah, that's exactly to avoid using corporate tax as the funding source.
    120AnonymousOct 3, 2026 21:31
    If you're going to start comparing us to the West, then cut lawmakers' pay too — it's absurdly high by global standards. Overhaul every subsidy going to local assembly members and parties while you're at it.
    124AnonymousOct 3, 2026 21:31
    Re: #120
    Exactly 🤣🤣🤣 Isn't it like 3x higher than other countries? lol
    134AnonymousOct 3, 2026 21:33
    Re: #120
    I'm against it — cut the pay and talented people will stop wanting to become politicians.
    128AnonymousOct 3, 2026 21:32
    Re: #115
    It's a crisis for Japan, so help out, rich boy. lol
    129AnonymousOct 3, 2026 21:32
    Re: #115
    This isn't about individuals. The problem is that wage income is progressive while investment income isn't — that's what's absurd. That's exactly why the gap keeps widening.

    Taxation is also supposed to correct inequality, so this is something the government should step in on.
    135AnonymousOct 3, 2026 21:33
    Re: #128
    Re: #129
    You two are only saying this because you know you'll be low-income for life.

    "Take more from people who actually earn money" — that's resentment taken to its absolute peak.
    139AnonymousOct 3, 2026 21:34
    Re: #129
    The progressive tax system itself is what's absurd, honestly.
    136AnonymousOct 3, 2026 21:33
    People will stop investing, stock prices will drop, the economy cools off, and that's the end of it.
    141AnonymousOct 3, 2026 21:34
    Re: #136

    Stock prices and ordinary people's lives have basically nothing to do with each other these days anyway.
    143AnonymousOct 3, 2026 21:35
    Re: #136
    The whole public gets turned into peasants, but in exchange the people who make the rules stay fixed in place — I think that's exactly how they want it.
    178AnonymousOct 3, 2026 21:41
    Go ahead and take a big cut of the money people make off stocks, FX, and Bitcoin. Also, it's about time they created something like a "YouTuber tax" — take a solid 80% out of the money people make from online video streaming and the like. And honestly, white-collar workers should be taxed more while blue-collar workers get a tax cut.
    183AnonymousOct 3, 2026 21:42
    Re: #178
    That's a fair point. For industries that supposedly "can't survive without foreign workers," I'd say cut their taxes before bringing in foreigners.
    193AnonymousOct 3, 2026 21:43
    Re: #178
    How much is "a big cut," exactly? Bitcoin's already taxed pretty heavily as it is.
    204AnonymousOct 3, 2026 21:45
    Re: #178
    > Go ahead and take a big cut of the money people make off stocks, FX, and Bitcoin.

    Then let's start by heavily taxing the stock trading profits of the GPIF (Government Pension Investment Fund), which currently pays zero tax on them. Your own pension would shrink massively too — you're fine with that, right? lol
    201AnonymousOct 3, 2026 21:45
    Companies aren't returning profits to workers or investing it — they're just hoarding it, and corporate retained earnings have ballooned to an all-time high of 637 trillion yen. Just tax that and the problem's solved.
    207AnonymousOct 3, 2026 21:46
    Re: #201
    Do that and the LDP would lose its organized-vote backing.
    221AnonymousOct 3, 2026 21:48
    Re: #201
    Both employee salaries and executive pay have actually risen enormously. Go check your own pay stub and the company's securities report.

    Background and Key Points of This Debate

    Investment income in Japan is currently taxed separately from wage income under a flat “separate taxation” scheme of roughly 20% (15% income tax + 5% residence tax). Wage income, by contrast, can reach an effective rate of around 55% once the top 45% progressive income-tax bracket is combined with residence tax — a gap that has long fueled criticism of the so-called “100-million-yen wall,” where the more someone earns from dividends and capital gains, the lower their effective tax rate becomes. Keizai Doyukai’s proposal uses this gap as a funding mechanism, redirecting the money toward support for low- and middle-income child-rearing households. The thread split between those who see the flat 20% rate as “already heavy enough” and those who see the gap with wage-income tax rates as “unfair,” with some posts noting that investment income is the only thing on the table while corporate tax and retained earnings have faded into the background of the discussion. One point left unaddressed in the thread: raising investment-income taxes wouldn’t necessarily hit small-scale NISA (tax-free investment account) investors hard — the bigger impact would fall mainly on those with large-scale dividend and capital-gains income.

    *This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5ch (News Express+) thread “Keizai Doyukai Proposes ‘Strengthening Taxation on Investment Income’… To Fund Support for Households Earning Up to 4 Million Yen a Year Facing a Heavy Tax and Social Insurance Burden.”

  • Japanese Sweet Shop Bankruptcies on Pace for Record High in 2026 — 5ch: ‘Some Shops Survive Without Customers’

    According to a survey by Teikoku Databank, a credit research firm, bankruptcies of Japanese confectionery (wagashi) shops in Japan from January to September 2026 reached 22 cases (legal insolvency proceedings involving liabilities of 10 million yen or more), putting 2026 on pace to surpass 2025 — previously the worst year on record. The report points to a combination of factors: profit pressure from rising raw material costs, growing difficulty passing down craftsmanship as artisans age, the burden of capital investment in shops and factories, and the weight of repaying loans taken out during the COVID-19 pandemic. On 5ch, opinions clashed between posters arguing “there’s no demand for wagashi anymore, and the flavors haven’t evolved,” and others pointing out that “some shops stay in business through wholesale to department stores and supermarkets even when there’s no one in the store,” sparking a debate over the real state of the industry.

    Released 7:03 AM, Saturday, Oct 3

    Teikoku Databank

    From January to September 2026, 22 “wagashi (Japanese confectionery) shop” bankruptcies occurred (legal insolvency proceedings involving liabilities of 10 million yen or more). This already surpasses 2025, the previous record year, putting the pace on track to set a new all-time high. Rising raw material costs are squeezing profits, while the aging of artisans is making it harder to pass down traditional techniques. On top of that, the burden of capital investment for new shops and factories, plus the weight of repaying loans taken out during the COVID-19 pandemic, are compounding to make the business environment increasingly harsh.

    Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / original article here

    4AnonymousOct 3, 2026 17:29
    Things that declined even as the population got older:
    Period dramas
    Enka (traditional Japanese ballads)
    Wagashi
    Weird, huh?
    9AnonymousOct 3, 2026 17:30
    Re: #4
    None of that stuff is especially popular with anyone younger than the baby boomer generation anyway
    26AnonymousOct 3, 2026 17:34
    Re: #4
    You really think people automatically start loving enka and wanting to watch period dramas once they get old?
    Me, you, anybody — nah, that's not how it works
    71AnonymousOct 3, 2026 17:41
    Re: #4
    It's not that strange, really
    Today's old folks are just what became of the hip young people of the 1980s
    And icons of 80s youth culture like Ryuichi Sakamoto and Akira Toriyama have already passed away
    7AnonymousOct 3, 2026 17:29
    Honestly, wagashi barely has any nutrition, it's basically just sugar — an unnecessary food. We wouldn't really miss it if it vanished
    49AnonymousOct 3, 2026 17:37
    Re: #7
    Anko (sweet red bean paste) wagashi and its juice are actually perfect for a low-fat diet when you're lifting weights
    Clueless amateurs should stay quiet
    8AnonymousOct 3, 2026 17:29
    I'm not into wagashi because it's made with bare hands
    131AnonymousOct 3, 2026 17:51
    Re: #8
    Somewhere, an Indian guy says: "Huh?" (a jab referencing hand-eaten/hand-made food traditions elsewhere)
    153AnonymousOct 3, 2026 17:54
    Re: #8
    These days they use rubber gloves
    19AnonymousOct 3, 2026 17:33
    They say wagashi shops are still in better shape than Western-style confectioners when it comes to funeral offerings, though
    168AnonymousOct 3, 2026 17:57
    Re: #19
    The whole ceremonial-occasions market is dead and gone
    But wagashi shops with one strong signature item are doing fine as ever
    They sell through the internet and wholesale to department stores and supermarkets nationwide
    Western confections have gotten so expensive that customers won't even walk into the store anymore
    25AnonymousOct 3, 2026 17:33
    I once saw a famous Kyoto wagashi artisan on TV making sweets
    He was wetting his hands and kneading the anko by hand, and I thought, yeah, no way
    Same with sushi hand-pressed by an artisan, can't do it lol
    37AnonymousOct 3, 2026 17:35
    Re: #25
    Your "I've been conditioned to find this gross" act is getting old
    40AnonymousOct 3, 2026 17:35
    Chateraise (a budget confectionery chain) is cheap, so that's where people buy
    47AnonymousOct 3, 2026 17:36
    Re: #40
    Chateraise never has enough staff on hand, I always give up and leave
    41AnonymousOct 3, 2026 17:36
    There are tons of wagashi shops around my place — Minamoto Kitchoan, Kameya Mannendo, you name it
    Every time I go, there's no customers. But they haven't gone under in decades.
    It's baffled me, genuinely baffled me.
    Turns out it's not really about selling in the shop — most of their business is wholesale to department stores like the ones in Aobadai and Tama Plaza.
    52AnonymousOct 3, 2026 17:38
    Re: #41
    Never been to Kameya Mannendo, but I've had their Navona (famous cream sandwich) plenty of times
    Navona isn't really wagashi though, is it
    Looks more like a bussé cake to me
    139AnonymousOct 3, 2026 17:52
    Re: #41
    Minamoto Kitchoan makes upscale sweets suited for tea ceremony use
    They probably have a steady customer base from the tea ceremony crowd🙄
    50AnonymousOct 3, 2026 17:37
    Honestly the 100-yen manju or dorayaki from MyBasket (a discount convenience chain) are plenty tasty as far as wagashi goes
    53AnonymousOct 3, 2026 17:38
    Chateraise doesn't actually make its own wagashi, you know
    They just have local wagashi shops around the country make it, then buy it in and sell it
    61AnonymousOct 3, 2026 17:40
    Re: #53
    Seriously?
    So does that mean the flavor varies by region?
    63AnonymousOct 3, 2026 17:40
    That's seriously too pricey
    Skewered dango for over 120 yen a stick
    79AnonymousOct 3, 2026 17:42
    Re: #63
    Yamazaki's mitarashi dango, anko dango, and sesame dango are great value
    Though their artificially-colored "three dango brothers" set is a bad deal
    86AnonymousOct 3, 2026 17:43
    Re: #79
    Yamazaki's stuff is pretty tasty too, honestly
    121AnonymousOct 3, 2026 17:49
    Re: #79
    It's basically all trehalose
    Dango that doesn't even use mochi rice
    Sweetened with artificial sweeteners

    It's over
    149AnonymousOct 3, 2026 17:53
    No, it's because wagashi just doesn't taste good
    That whole "our shop keeps the traditional recipe, generation after generation" attitude means zero evolution
    It's just anko and mochi boiled down with sugar into some dumb one-note flavor
    Western confections have real depth — not just sweetness but the richness of fat, plus a far wider range of ingredients
    Western confectioners compete on technique like it's a death match, so even third-rate shops taste good
    Wagashi shops can all go under, honestly
    162AnonymousOct 3, 2026 17:55
    Re: #149
    That's just you admitting you can only tell obvious, in-your-face flavors apart
    169AnonymousOct 3, 2026 17:57
    Re: #149
    This is a raw-material-cost problem, not a taste problem ʅ（◞‿◟）ʃ
    172AnonymousOct 3, 2026 17:57
    Re: #149
    Sounds like you can't even tell the difference between wasanbon (fine traditional Japanese sugar) and aspartame
    189AnonymousOct 3, 2026 17:59
    Re: #169
    Not being able to raise prices and still get customers ≈ it's not tasty
    These days cake runs 800 yen a piece
    Wagashi is still crawling along at 200 yen a piece because it doesn't taste good enough to charge 800 yen for the same weight
    190AnonymousOct 3, 2026 18:00
    Re: #189
    Western-style confectioners are shutting down too, you know ʅ（◞‿◟）ʃ
    195AnonymousOct 3, 2026 18:02
    Re: #189
    Lol, a guy who judges sweets by price-per-gram

    Background and key points of debate

    Teikoku Databank’s tally is limited to legal insolvency proceedings involving liabilities of 10 million yen or more, so it’s worth noting this doesn’t capture smaller closures or shops that simply stopped operating quietly. The four factors the report cites — rising raw material costs, aging artisans, the burden of capital investment, and repayment of pandemic-era loans — point to a structural problem that can’t be explained away by a simple “falling out of love with wagashi” narrative. The thread’s disagreement centered on whether to blame the rise in bankruptcies on wagashi’s flavor and weak demand, or to treat it as a distribution-structure issue. Those on the latter side pointed to examples like Minamoto Kitchoan, where shops stay in business through wholesale to department stores and supermarkets even with few customers showing up in person, casting doubt on the simple equation “no customers = going under.” At the same time, some posters noted that Western-style confectioners are shutting down at a similar clip, so whether this is a problem unique to the wagashi industry or a trend across the confectionery business as a whole can’t be settled by the thread discussion alone.

    *This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (News Speed+) thread “Wagashi shop bankruptcies keep coming, 2026 on pace for an all-time high as rising raw material costs pile on.”

  • Nike’s June-August Revenue Falls 4%, Stock Plunges 7% — 5ch: ‘Well, What Did You Expect After Ditching the Brand?’

    Nike’s earnings report for the June-August 2026 quarter showed revenue down 4% year-over-year to $11.213 billion (about ¥1.7 trillion), with net income also down 2% to $712 million — both missing market expectations and sending shares down as much as 7% in after-hours trading. While there are signs of a rebound in North America, shrinking sales in Greater China dragged down overall performance. On 5ch, though, the thread cared less about the numbers than about gripes with Nike’s design choices and brand image, with plenty of comparisons to rivals like Asics, Mizuno, and Skechers — the comment that drew the most reactions was: “It sold because of the brand, and then they threw the brand away — well, of course.”

    [New York — Kenji Asada] Nike’s earnings report for the June-August 2026 quarter, released on the 1st, showed revenue down 4% year-over-year to $11.213 billion (about ¥1.7 trillion) and net income down 2% to $712 million. While there are signs of a rebound in the North American market, shrinking sales in Greater China weighed down overall results.

    Because revenue came in below prior market forecasts, Nike’s stock price fell as much as 7% in after-hours trading on the 1st compared with that day’s closing price.

    Nike has been working on its approach to consumers… (continues in the paid edition, 698 characters remaining)

    Source: nikkei.com / Original article here

    10AnonymousOct 2, 2026 19:43
    Isn't this the reason?
    76AnonymousOct 2, 2026 20:05
    Re: #10
    (;゚Д゚) that's genuinely rough… gross
    18AnonymousOct 2, 2026 19:45
    I only wear Skechers slip-ons now.
    Low-cuts are fine, but boots are nothing but a hassle.
    78AnonymousOct 2, 2026 20:06
    Re: #18
    I'm not picky about shoes, but out of everything I've worn, Skechers hold up the best, lol
    23AnonymousOct 2, 2026 19:46
    Can't afford Nike or Adidas anymore.
    Might as well just wear steel-toe work boots at this point.
    54AnonymousOct 2, 2026 19:56
    Re: #23
    It's not that they're unaffordable, I just think the logos and the try-hard designs look tacky.
    155AnonymousOct 2, 2026 20:55
    Re: #23
    I wear Adidas safety shoes — ¥15,000.
    24AnonymousOct 2, 2026 19:46
    There's been a 'Nike is embarrassing' vibe going around for a few years now.
    Their sneakers have been uncool for ages too.
    So many weirdly over-designed shoes that I never even pick one up when I'm in the store.
    28AnonymousOct 2, 2026 19:47
    Re: #24
    Sorry, but I wear the Nike Pegasus Premium.
    147AnonymousOct 2, 2026 20:47
    Re: #24
    Which Nike shoes have the 'try-hard' design exactly?
    Isn't the real problem that Nike doesn't have any bold designs anymore?
    Isn't it actually alarming that they're still cranking out Air Force 1s, Air Jordans, and Air Max in huge numbers to this day?
    25AnonymousOct 2, 2026 19:46
    What era are we even in? Adidas is washed up too, right?
    Don't tell me it's Asics now?
    52AnonymousOct 2, 2026 19:54
    Re: #25
    I'd guess On (the Swiss running brand).
    62AnonymousOct 2, 2026 20:01
    Re: #52
    The sole looks awful, but is it actually trending?

    If that's the bar, PREMIATA is way better.
    66AnonymousOct 2, 2026 20:02
    Re: #52
    Total garbage.
    Pretty much just a product of ad spend.
    29AnonymousOct 2, 2026 19:48
    Asics gets a lot of respect overseas.
    60AnonymousOct 2, 2026 20:00
    Re: #29
    Really?
    I wear Asics a lot too, plus Adidas as a safe pick.
    Saucony got a cheap reputation from being sold at ABC-Mart (Japan's discount shoe chain), but I kind of like them too.
    32AnonymousOct 2, 2026 19:48
    Why not just push Onitsuka Tiger again?
    40AnonymousOct 2, 2026 19:50
    Re: #32
    Or better yet, put 'Asahi Shoes' (a long-running Japanese footwear brand) front and center.
    34AnonymousOct 2, 2026 19:49
    They give you blisters — just not wearable for Japanese feet.
    38AnonymousOct 2, 2026 19:50
    Re: #34
    The Pegasus Premium is actually really comfortable,

    and the new Air Max models have gotten comfier too.
    56AnonymousOct 2, 2026 19:57
    At this point us middle-aged guys might as well just shop at Workman (Japan's cheap workwear chain).
    58AnonymousOct 2, 2026 19:59
    Re: #56
    Being a middle-aged guy myself, I've got my eye on the Asahi Cougar, but it's hardly ever in stock.
    63AnonymousOct 2, 2026 20:02
    It sold because of the brand, and then they threw the brand away — well, of course.
    65AnonymousOct 2, 2026 20:02
    Re: #63
    Isn't Nike not really a 'brand' anymore though?
    67AnonymousOct 2, 2026 20:03
    If it's for resale/speculation, they really need to sort out that sole hydrolysis problem.
    69AnonymousOct 2, 2026 20:03
    Re: #67
    People normally just wear them into the ground, lol
    85AnonymousOct 2, 2026 20:08
    Nike, Adidas, and Puma are the big three.
    Asics is unfortunately a nobody on the world stage.
    Its pride only survives because Chinese makers haven't overtaken it yet.
    103AnonymousOct 2, 2026 20:14
    Re: #85
    Nike and Puma are both washed up though.

    Adidas and Onitsuka Tiger are the ones actually growing.
    204AnonymousOct 2, 2026 22:44
    Re: #85
    What era are you even talking about?
    Puma's a total has-been now — its market cap and earnings are both way below Asics these days.
    90AnonymousOct 2, 2026 20:09
    Sportswear got so expensive I can't afford it anymore.
    Uniqlo's the only option now.
    121AnonymousOct 2, 2026 20:26
    Re: #90
    Sportswear basically always gets dumped at clearance prices once the season's over.
    Sometimes the tags are even cut off, but 90% off on Amazon isn't rare.
    You can grab stuff from ¥1,000 at Alpen or Xebio if you time a sale right, so buying Uniqlo instead is just throwing money away.
    Just like how HeatTech is considered terrible for actual sports use, you should leave specialty gear to the specialists.
    112AnonymousOct 2, 2026 20:22
    Bought Mizuno and it was way better than I expected.
    The design is understated, and the big plus is nobody can tell what brand it is.
    117AnonymousOct 2, 2026 20:24
    Re: #112
    Mizuno's good, right?
    135AnonymousOct 2, 2026 20:35
    Premium sneakers, Kochikame (the long-running manga)
    Nike Air Max 95, a full-blown social phenomenon


    s://i.imgur.com/2LIids3.jpeg
    s://i.imgur.com/bBSW7d0.jpeg
    s://i.imgur.com/8HkfScV.jpeg
    s://i.imgur.com/xvXCjuV.jpeg
    s://i.imgur.com/LOmjQ1N.jpeg
    s://i.imgur.com/rOCLO9Q.jpeg
    s://i.imgur.com/lNLPTCg.jpeg
    s://i.imgur.com/5z00NJk.jpeg
    s://i.imgur.com/HdflRAS.jpeg
    s://i.imgur.com/kOQXEmE.jpeg
    140AnonymousOct 2, 2026 20:41
    School-mandated shoes
    Moonstar (Tsukihoshi Kasei)
    Jaguar Σ 01 (1980)
    144AnonymousOct 2, 2026 20:43
    Re: #140
    I'd want this one in black or navy.
    142AnonymousOct 2, 2026 20:43

    Logo mark: the Nike Swoosh (since 1971)
    The swoosh design is based on the spread wings of Nike,
    the Greek goddess of victory — the brand name itself was taken from 'Nike' too.
    160AnonymousOct 2, 2026 21:02
    Seiko Matsuda, Moonstar (Tsukihoshi)
    162AnonymousOct 2, 2026 21:05
    Mizuno's M-Line series (1980-1986)


    *From 1986 the logo switched to the Runbird mark (a running bird).

    Background and Key Points of This Discussion

    Nike’s fiscal Q1 (June-August) 2026 results showed revenue down 4% year-over-year to $11.2 billion and net income down 2% to $712 million, missing market expectations and triggering a sharp stock drop in after-hours trading. While North America shows signs of recovery, shrinking sales in Greater China dragged down overall performance — suggesting this is less a one-off slump than a structural shift in a key market. Reactions in the thread focused less on the figures themselves than on years of pent-up frustration with Nike’s product and brand strategy, rallying around lines like “it sold because of the brand, and then they threw the brand away” and “the designs are trying way too hard.” A post calling Nike an “antisocial-linked company” was left out of the main article as an unsubstantiated claim. One thing readers should be careful not to conflate: the thread’s energy is directed mostly at personal taste and talk of switching to rival brands (Asics, Mizuno, Skechers, etc.) within Japan, rather than at the actual core issue behind the earnings miss — shrinking demand in the Chinese market.

    *This article excerpts and summarizes the 5ch (News Express+) thread “[Earnings] Nike’s June-August Revenue Down 4%, Stock Briefly Falls 7% — Profit Decline Shows No Sign of Stopping.”

  • Still 60% Haven’t Started NISA — 5ch Debates: ‘Dreaming of a Nursing Home for Retirement Feels Empty’

    A thread on 5ch’s Nandemo Jikkyo G board titled “60% of people still haven’t started NISA” sparked a debate over how to prepare for retirement. Some argued that employee pension (kosei nenkin) alone is enough, while others countered that anyone in their 40s or older today can barely expect any real pension at all. Pro-investing posters pointed to recent stock market gains as reason to keep up regular contributions, but others warned of crashes and a stronger yen, questioning whether small monthly investments of around 20,000 yen even matter. A new graduate even chimed in asking for concrete advice on how much to invest.

    1AnonymousOct 2, 2026 14:17
    Seriously, what are we even gonna do about retirement?
    3AnonymousOct 2, 2026 14:19
    As long as you're paying into employee pension (kosei nenkin), there's no problem.
    That's exactly what creates the retirement gap. OP, your employer's paying half your pension premiums too, right?
    7AnonymousOct 2, 2026 14:21
    Re: #3
    Even some baby boomers are struggling, and you're still thinking like that?
    15AnonymousOct 2, 2026 14:25
    Re: #3
    Anyone 40 or older today is basically getting zero real pension.
    9AnonymousOct 2, 2026 14:22
    'NISA poverty' — talk about putting the cart before the horse.
    11AnonymousOct 2, 2026 14:23
    Re: #9
    Going broke from over-investing in NISA is dumb, but skipping it entirely just means being broke in retirement instead.
    13AnonymousOct 2, 2026 14:23
    Re: #9
    Honestly there aren't many people like that, and the ones who are just enjoy doing it anyway.
    14AnonymousOct 2, 2026 14:24
    I had some land in Tokyo so I built an apartment building on it.
    Turns out it doesn't make any money at all.
    30AnonymousOct 2, 2026 14:30
    Re: #14
    You won't make money unless you actually fill the units and manage it yourself.
    17AnonymousOct 2, 2026 14:26
    Instead of pushing NISA and worrying about a retirement that might not even come, maybe you lot should put that effort into finding a wife.
    20AnonymousOct 2, 2026 14:27
    Re: #17
    Even if it never comes, just having peace of mind is worth it.
    If you think you'll have no money in old age, you end up thinking short-term while you're young.
    23AnonymousOct 2, 2026 14:28
    Interest rates are rising too, so a crash is coming soon.
    25AnonymousOct 2, 2026 14:29
    Re: #23
    People were saying that back in 2022 too, and it's kept hitting new highs ever since.
    31AnonymousOct 2, 2026 14:30
    Re: #23
    The US 10-year Treasury yield is over 5% and there's still no crash at all.
    36AnonymousOct 2, 2026 14:34
    "My dream for the future: a leisurely retirement in a nursing home!!"

    Isn't that kind of empty?
    41AnonymousOct 2, 2026 14:37
    Re: #36
    Isn't it sadder to be an old geezer still working your body to the bone, getting yelled at by your juniors?
    45AnonymousOct 2, 2026 14:39
    Re: #36
    Doing manual labor once you're already elderly is more pathetic.
    37AnonymousOct 2, 2026 14:34
    It'll crash and lose half its value, so I'm not doing it.
    39AnonymousOct 2, 2026 14:35
    Re: #37
    Don't you ever think about your money losing value to inflation instead?
    47AnonymousOct 2, 2026 14:39
    Re: #39
    Classic example of someone getting played by NISA hype.
    You all assume inflation just keeps climbing forever like you say.
    I'm thinking the opposite is going to happen.
    52AnonymousOct 2, 2026 14:41
    Re: #47
    People have been calling NISA risky for five years running now.
    Funny how it's tripled in value since then lol.
    43AnonymousOct 2, 2026 14:38
    55AnonymousOct 2, 2026 14:43
    You All-Country index fund (orukan) and S&P 500 true believers going all-in on NISA —

    a stronger yen is a headwind,
    stocks are volatile so there will be downturns too,
    and life is long, there will be times you actually need the cash,
    yet you're all talking like you can just keep contributing for 10+ years straight without a hitch.

    Not many people have the mental toughness to keep contributing while watching their losses grow during a downturn.
    58AnonymousOct 2, 2026 14:45
    Re: #55
    Even if the yen strengthens all the way to ¥50/dollar, you'd make it back within three years —
    and besides, a weaker dollar is itself one of the things that drives stocks higher.
    61AnonymousOct 2, 2026 14:46
    Re: #55
    Just black out and ignore it till it passes.
    If that's still too scary, put your money into Japanese stocks with market caps over 5 trillion yen and high dividend yields instead — treat it like a substitute for a fixed deposit.
    65AnonymousOct 2, 2026 14:48
    Re: #55
    Forget 10 years — the market's been so monstrous lately that indexes have doubled in as little as 3 years.
    Both the track record of success and the cushion of unrealized gains are huge.
    It doesn't look like it's heading into the red anytime soon.
    72AnonymousOct 2, 2026 14:51
    Re: #65
    The problem is whether that kind of run keeps going forever.
    88AnonymousOct 2, 2026 14:54
    Re: #72
    People keep contributing because they've learned that if you don't stay in, you miss out on the big rallies.
    That's different from the people who never started at all.
    75AnonymousOct 2, 2026 14:52
    I'm mindlessly putting in 20,000 yen a month — does this actually mean anything?
    82AnonymousOct 2, 2026 14:53
    Re: #75
    The amount's just too small.
    83AnonymousOct 2, 2026 14:53
    Re: #75
    You're better off not thinking about whether it means anything and just doing it.
    86AnonymousOct 2, 2026 14:54
    Re: #83
    Money's money though, isn't that hard to just not think about?
    89AnonymousOct 2, 2026 14:55
    Re: #86
    Then try individual stocks instead.
    Even a small loss will be enough to wreck your focus at work.
    93AnonymousOct 2, 2026 14:55
    Re: #86
    You won't feel like you're really doing it until you've put in about 1 million yen in principal.
    So just grind it out until then — and once you do, you start thinking 'wait, this is more than I put in?'
    96AnonymousOct 2, 2026 14:57
    How much in savings do people who use NISA actually keep on hand?
    100AnonymousOct 2, 2026 14:58
    Re: #96
    Really just depends on the person, there's no other way to answer that.
    102AnonymousOct 2, 2026 14:58
    Re: #96
    I make sure to keep one full year's take-home pay in savings.
    104AnonymousOct 2, 2026 14:59
    Re: #96
    Depends on your age, doesn't it.
    If you're in your 30s you'd want at least 5 million yen minimum.
    Honestly, putting around 1 million yen into an index fund isn't going to change much either way.
    122AnonymousOct 2, 2026 15:05
    I'm starting my first job next year — how much should I be putting in?
    My gross salary is apparently 300,000 yen (a month).
    125AnonymousOct 2, 2026 15:06
    Re: #122
    Put 5,000 yen into iDeCo, 50,000 yen into NISA, and keep the rest for living expenses and fun money.
    126AnonymousOct 2, 2026 15:06
    Re: #122
    If you're going all-in on an All-Country fund, you'd want 100,000 yen.
    If it's just NASDAQ, even 40,000 yen is fine.

    Background and Key Points of This Debate

    NISA (Nippon Individual Savings Account, a tax-free investment program) was overhauled in 2024 into the “new NISA” system, which raised contribution limits and made the tax-free status permanent. The thread split between two camps: those who believe that as long as you’re paying into the employee pension system, retirement is nothing to worry about, and those who think you need to prepare through your own investments on the assumption that pension payouts will shrink. Employee pension premiums are split evenly between employer and employee, so phrases like “the company pays it for you” refer to that cost-sharing structure — but it’s commonly misunderstood as a promise that your future payout is guaranteed, which it isn’t. There was also a lot of optimism in the thread based on recent stock market gains, but that optimism is rooted in just the past few years of market conditions, and even posters in the thread questioned whether the same confidence would hold up during a future downturn.

    ※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Nandemo Jikkyo G) thread “The reality that 60% of people still haven’t started NISA lolololol.”

  • Even With a Consumption Tax Cut, Rising Prices Could Cost Households ¥60,000–70,000 More: 5ch Says ‘Not Cutting Might Be the Bigger Loss’

    A widely reported estimate claims that even if the consumption tax is cut, a 3% rise in prices would increase overall household spending by ¥60,000–70,000, resulting in a net “loss” — sparking debate on 5ch’s News Express+ board. The original article took a cautious stance on tax cuts, citing concerns about worsening fiscal health and an accelerating weak yen, but commenters on the thread pushed back repeatedly, arguing that not cutting the tax would make the burden even heavier. The discussion spread from the tax rate itself to broader price-control measures, touching on rampant “tax-cut-excuse” price hikes, fears of a rebound in prices once the two-year temporary measure ends, and the merits of alternatives like wage increases or a refundable tax credit.

    Are Consumption Tax Cuts and Free Healthcare Really a “Good Deal”? The Small Gains and Big Losses Hidden Behind Short-Term Benefits

    (…)

    Tax cuts worsen the nation’s fiscal health, directly undermining confidence in the Japanese government. If that confidence wavers, foreign investors will sell off the yen, further accelerating its depreciation.

    Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here

    4AnonymousOct 2, 2026 11:50
    But if we don't do it, it'll be even worse.
    104AnonymousOct 2, 2026 12:02
    Re: #4
    Exactly. Let's stop with the disingenuous arguments.
    121AnonymousOct 2, 2026 12:03
    Re: #4
    Everyone's using it as an excuse to jack up prices lol
    7AnonymousOct 2, 2026 11:51
    If we don't cut taxes, we lose even more. Are you stupid?
    69AnonymousOct 2, 2026 11:58
    Re: #7
    Just hand out cash instead lol, straight into our My Number (national ID) bank accounts lol
    78AnonymousOct 2, 2026 11:59
    Re: #7
    It'd make sense if the tax cut were permanent, or if prices actually dropped during those 2 years, but once it ends things will just snap back and feel like a massive price hike. Are you stupid?
    11AnonymousOct 2, 2026 11:51
    >However, if overall prices rise 3%, households will face ¥60,000–70,000 more in spending overall, likely resulting in a net "loss."

    That's still better than prices rising 3% with no tax cut at all. This article is just plain stupid.
    21AnonymousOct 2, 2026 11:52
    Re: #11
    This article just wants to bash the tax cut, that's all.
    316AnonymousOct 2, 2026 12:17
    Re: #11
    So I guess if they raised the tax on things like newspapers to 10% (they currently enjoy the reduced 8% rate), that'd fix part of it lol
    407AnonymousOct 2, 2026 12:24
    Re: #11
    Probably because cutting the consumption tax could accelerate yen depreciation, right? And that would push up raw material costs themselves.
    105AnonymousOct 2, 2026 12:02
    Re: #49
    Well sure, some stores might do that, but wouldn't customers just flock to the cheaper ones?
    148AnonymousOct 2, 2026 12:05
    Re: #105
    There's also a chance everyone just colludes cartel-style and nobody lowers prices.
    Raw materials, shipping, and labor costs (minimum wage, etc.)
    really have gone up, and that's
    true whether you're a big corporation or a small business.
    186AnonymousOct 2, 2026 12:07
    Re: #148
    For a cartel to actually work, don't the companies involved need to be an oligopoly first? Seems hard otherwise.
    336AnonymousOct 2, 2026 12:20
    Re: #148
    Go ahead and try, if you think you can beat Don Quijote and AEON (discount retail chains), who'll slash prices even if it means cutting quality.
    For big companies, the trend is more toward merging and pushing efficiency.

    Mid-sized stores that can't streamline at either a small or large scale might just end up failing with no good moves left.
    117AnonymousOct 2, 2026 12:02
    If we don't cut taxes, the consumption tax burden just gets even heavier. Can't these people do basic math?
    125AnonymousOct 2, 2026 12:03
    Re: #117
    In 2 years prices are gonna shoot up like crazy.
    155AnonymousOct 2, 2026 12:06
    Re: #125
    That's when the refundable tax credit system is supposed to kick in, after those 2 years.
    167AnonymousOct 2, 2026 12:06
    Re: #155
    Why go through all that hassle lol
    Just keep it at 0% forever.
    168AnonymousOct 2, 2026 12:06
    Re: #155
    It'd be negligible anyway.
    143AnonymousOct 2, 2026 12:04
    I put down a reservation for a house and a car for next April.
    The chance to buy at 10% off only lasts for these 2 years.
    When you're talking tens of millions of yen, that 10% is huge.
    213AnonymousOct 2, 2026 12:09
    Re: #143
    Sorry, I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about.
    152AnonymousOct 2, 2026 12:05
    That's why raising wages is the only option.
    159AnonymousOct 2, 2026 12:06
    Re: #152
    Then prices go up first.
    455AnonymousOct 2, 2026 12:27
    Re: #152
    Cutting wages would bring prices down, so hurry up and cut wages already \(^o^)/
    207AnonymousOct 2, 2026 12:09
    The only way is to tax the ones making profits. Any other approach is just a waste of time and effort.
    237AnonymousOct 2, 2026 12:11
    Re: #207
    The only people I can picture profiting are old folks currently collecting their employee pension.
    261AnonymousOct 2, 2026 12:13
    Re: #237
    The consumption tax is the one tax you can actually collect from wealthy old people, so maybe it's better not to lower it.
    268AnonymousOct 2, 2026 12:13
    Re: #237
    Taxing financial assets makes more sense. In a globalized society, you can't measure real wealth by age or income alone.
    290AnonymousOct 2, 2026 12:15
    Cut taxes
    ↓
    Ordinary people end up with more money (same effect as subsidies or monetary easing)
    ↓
    Prices rise
    299AnonymousOct 2, 2026 12:16
    Re: #290
    That's just a lame excuse cooked up by people who don't want tax cuts.
    314AnonymousOct 2, 2026 12:17
    ＞Even if we cut the consumption tax, if prices rise 3%,
    ＞that's a ¥60,000–70,000 increase in spending, a "loss"

    Compared to prices rising 3% with no tax cut at all,
    isn't that actually better?
    Are they hiring people without enough brains at the broadcasting station lol
    349AnonymousOct 2, 2026 12:21
    Re: #314
    If the consumption tax goes down, prices just go up even more.
    352AnonymousOct 2, 2026 12:21
    If we don't cut taxes, the burden just gets bigger.
    384AnonymousOct 2, 2026 12:23
    Re: #352
    The consumption tax is designed to collect more from people who spend more, so cutting it just inevitably leaves ordinary people worse off.
    426AnonymousOct 2, 2026 12:25
    Re: #384
    Workers are the ones who actually bear a sales tax, since it's never deducted from labor costs.
    436AnonymousOct 2, 2026 12:26
    Re: #384
    Part of why the economy is stagnant is that rich people aren't spending. Going forward we need to collect more tax from money games (speculative financial trading) instead.
    388AnonymousOct 2, 2026 12:23
    So the idiots who agree with this are fine with keeping the consumption tax as is AND having prices rise 3%?

    Background and Key Points of Debate

    The estimate that “even with a tax cut, rising prices cancel out the benefit, resulting in a loss” depends heavily on what you assume prices would do if the tax weren’t cut at all. The thread split over exactly that assumption: some saw the article’s “¥60,000–70,000 increase in spending” as proof the tax cut fails, while others argued the burden would have been even heavier without it. Other points raised included the fact that the tax cut is a time-limited measure likely to trigger a price rebound once it expires, mixed opinions on a proposed shift to a refundable tax credit, and the view that price hikes are happening regardless of the tax cut — all of which resist a simple loss-versus-gain calculation. It’s worth noting that the “¥60,000–70,000” figure in the article is only an estimate of the added burden from rising prices, not a final picture of the net effect on household finances once the tax cut’s relief is factored in.

    ※This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5ch (News Express+) thread “[Breaking] It’s been found that even if the consumption tax is cut, a 3% rise in prices would mean a ¥60,000–70,000 increase in household spending overall, resulting in a “loss”.”