Summer is as much the silly season in Japan as well as elsewhere. Nothing much moves forward and the papers struggle to find suitable topics to comment on. So do economists. Here are some thoughts for the season.
There are people who think Alan Greenspan is another name for "Almighty God." Some others have said that the European Monetary Union is "Even More Unemployment" in disguise. Prime minister J.K., that is to say Junichiro Koizumi, enjoys no such following among seekers of alternative meanings in the names of distinguished people and important things. In a moment of inspiration, however, he has been known to refer to himself as "Pure Ichiro." Indeed the kanji for the "Jun" bit of his first name does actually mean pure.
The beauty of being Pure Ichiro, as the prime minister presumably meant to imply, is that he is an even more exalted version of Ichiro, that super-cool Japanese baseball hero who casually performs miracles with his bat and glove in the U.S. major leagues.