 Okay, I've got one of the most difficult jobs in the world. I am the last Japan optimist and Trust me in my world the world of economics Finance Policymaking being a bull on Japan. It's kind of like someone looking in your eyes and saying hey Elvis Presley the king is still alive The king may be dead Japan is very much alive and Japan actually continues to push the frontier of Economics of the way economics and finance interacts with society and indeed Japan in my view Remains a big big model and overlooking it is a big mistake. I'm not going to revise up economic growth That's the easy thing. Yes 3% gross 4% gross. No, this is about zero gross But attaining stability and happening and happiness here. Look at what's going on in the world Yes, we want high gross, but the reality is it is all and practically everywhere about debt deflation demographics Illusion what I mean by that is policymakers thinking they've got some magic bullet. Japan knows all about this debt We've got we've got more than anybody else 230% of GDP Greece blew up at a hundred and thirty percent of GDP, but Japan is Not Greece Japan's debt is owned only by the Japanese Japan remains one of the world's largest Creditor countries on earth every week. There's about four billion dollars more coming into Japan than going out So a tremendous discipline here what that means is if Japan and I don't think it will But if it does if it were to blow up it would only hurt the Japanese not the world deflation Do you know? deflation You in Tokyo now Well real estate prices here are back down to a level last seen in 1981 the wealth destruction here is tremendous But despite this Japan continues to be one of the wealthiest and richest countries on earth people say Oh China has to pass Japan as the second largest economy Excuse me per capita income is the proper way to look at this and on a per capita GDP basis Japan is about ten times more powerful than the people's Republic of China This is not to belittle anybody, but just to highlight with this deflation pole The country is still standing still has the best restaurants and the nicest city streets that is a wonderful achievement Demographics yes Japan is a big four rider today We've got basically one in four people over the age of 64 How many years before China will have the same ratio? Exactly 12 years so learning from Japan How do I cope with an aging society because an aging society doesn't run fast it runs slow Delusion on the policy side Well, there is no magic bullet and it's important to note what Japan never did Japan never took the easy way out Japan never devalued its currency In fact the yen kept on strengthening Japan also Did conduct real? Regulatory reform in finance the strongest ministry the Ministry of Finance gave up its role as Regulator and Japan in my opinion now. It's the best and most unified Financial regulator in the world that by the way stands in sharp contrast to what is going on in the United States of America Right now self initiative very briefly. What do we have? We've got after the earthquake a dysfunctional government, but the Japanese people being extremely powerful Voluntarism like never seen before and this is really a very strong power Where does the source of strength for Japan lie? one little story my son Japanese kindergarten Five years old sports day the 50 meter dash the gun goes off the boys run and Five meters before the finish line the guy in front slows down holds out his hand and everybody crosses the finish line together don't give up on Japan. Thank you