Japan Speaks for Asia

Of all other highly developed countries in Asia, Japan is the most significant in terms of economic talks aside from China, India, Hongkong and Singapore.

It was recently reported that Japan’s exports fell by 46 percent in January. This is a bad sign. When President Arroyo reported that the Philippines is outside the sphere of global crisis, I was really bothered. How can we be too complacent when everything else falls apart?

Come to think of it, Japan is now losing billions in income because of the economic slump. It was also said that Hong Kong’s economy contracted 2.5 percent in the last three months of 2008. These are serious signs that the economic downturn in Asia is set to drag on through this year.

Economist likewise reported that the Japanese economy was one of the first in Asia to tip into recession last year due to poor domestic demand and decreasing orders from overseas.

Of course, the situation in Japan would eventually affect Philippines. I just hope that it is not that soon. But Japan is the barometer for Asia’s condition as far as economics in concerned. Although Philippines is enjoying alleged surplus from the Overseas Filipino Workers’ remittances, we would never know what will hit us in the future.

Come to think of it, our OFWs from the Middle East are now returning home one by one while many in the United States are now having a hard time maintaining their jobs.

The Obama stimulus bill is expected to help a lot of Filipinos, especially the war veterans. But as it stands now, this is still far from being realized. The processing for the veterans’ payoff is very tedious and would probably take years.