FINANCIAL MARKETS INFORMATION FORUM LUNCHEON
| Date: |
Friday, June 17, 2005 |
| Time: |
12:00 to 2:00 P.M. |
| Venue: |
Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein (Japan) Ltd. |
“JAPAN's FISCAL STATUS AND OUTLOOK”
This meeting was conducted in English.
Guest Speaker: Mr. Kunji Okue, Managing Director, Fiscal Policy Analyst Japan Research, Capital Markets Japan, Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein (Japan) Ltd.
Japan is the test case for the phenomenon of a graying society. Since data for international comparisons became available in 1950, no other country has seen its population age to such an extent and in such a short time as Japan. Based on his new report “Japan's Fiscal Status and Outlook”, Mr. Okue examined how this demographic swing will impact Japanese health care costs, social security expenditures and and local government tax rates.
With the retirement of the baby boom generation, the central government will be forced to change its course significantly and put more pressure on local governments to make up for the short fall of income tax revenue.
Kunji Okue has worked for close to two decades in Japanese economic research, and is widely acknowledged as a leading authority on government finance in Japan. Kunji joined DrKW in Tokyo in 1993 from W.I. Carr. Prior to that he worked at County NatWest and UBS Trust Bank. He is the author of “Fiscal Policy in Japan” (Diamond-sha, 1998), and holds a Master's degree in Econometrics, Quantitative Analysis and Investment Analysis from Central Missouri State University. He was ranked fourth in the Fiscal Analyst section of the annual Nikkei Bonds & Financial Weekly Analyst/Economist Ranking Survey in 2004 and 2005. Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein (Japan) Ltd. was the only non-Japanese firm to have an analyst ranked in these polls.