Japan's Economic Slowdown

Lest I give anyone the wrong impression, it's not exactly a land of opportunity I'm headed to at this point in time.

Following the so-called 'lost decade' of the 1990s, Japan's decent (but not remarkable) economic performance of the early 21st century was chiefly export-led. There is, therefore, a great deal of vulnerability to sudden changes in the balance of trade. And not only has global trade been faltering, but the yen has been trading amazingly high over the past year.

The results? The most recent figures show that exports have fallen by a whopping 46% in the first month of 2009 compared with a year earlier. It would be an understatement to say that industrial production has fared poorly in the same period, dropping 10%.

These are kind of like the numbers you'd expect to see coming-out of the Ukraine, circa 1991.

Feh, who cares about the numbers? Here, admire a number of hauntingly beautiful nocturnal pictures of industrial facilities.