This is from CNN link provided by Gary North today:

"Japan has taken other steps as well, such as stockpiling a half-year's supply of oil and printing up an extra 40 trillion yen ($330 billion) in banknotes to hand out in case of a run on banks, Kondo said."

It appears to me that Japan is stockpiling for a more serious scenario than the USA. I recall Koskinen stating that the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve is full and holds about 2-3 months of crude oil. However, the rate of pumping out of the US SPR is about 25% of daily use rate (I think numbers were like - we use 16 million barrels of oil per day and SPR can pump out at 4 MB/day).

It also appears Japan is printing more currency for reserve than the USA.

Given that Japan is a smaller country in population and has no domestic oil reserve, it appears Japan is prepping for a harder hit than the USA.

-- Bill P (porterwn@one.net), May 17, 1999

Answers

Half a year?

That's a lot of oil. And that's a pretty scare-mongering position to have, that world petro could stop flowing for ten minutes, let alone months.

What irritates me about the US SPR is bought with taxpayer dollars, and if we (refiners --->taxpayers) should need it, we have to pay for it again. At 2-3 X the cost of the petro.

This is an amazing disclosure on the part of the Japanese. Thanks, Bill.

-- Lisa (lisa@work.now), May 17, 1999.

Japan is a tiny little country, completely dependant on "just-in- time" for just about everything, except possibly rice-production. More than the USA, Japan can't afford to take a chance.

-- Anonymous99 (Anonymous99@Anonymous99.xxx), May 17, 1999.

Not sure I'm remembering the details accurately, but PNG posted an article a while back that 10-year bank investments are coming due in Japan. Since the interest rate is now so low, he expects that a significant percentage will be cashed out rather than reinvested. This isn't necessarily the same as a bank run, and it needn't be related to Y2K, but it could by itself create a large demand for cash, on top of whatever other reasons the Japanese come up with. I also recall PNG has stated that the Japanese tend to have large amounts of casy on hand anyway.

-- Brooks (brooksbie@hotmail.com), May 17, 1999.

Brooks, Your're recollection is close enough; it's the Japanese Postal Savings System 10 year fixed deposits. For PNG's article, see:

http://www2.gol.com/users/png/postal_savings.html

Jerry

-- Jerry B (skeptic76@erols.com), May 17, 1999.

Due to the cost of living differential, $330 billion in yen has the buying power of about $165 billion. Japanese people do not use checks and rarely use credit cards. It is not all meant for consumers either...cash is a perfectly acceptable way to settle business payments.

I'm not sure about the "half-year supply" of oil. I'm not aware of the storage capacity for that much oil.

-- PNG (png@gol.com), May 17, 1999.