Thai unrest has Japanese firms worried about future

[metisdead]

Off topic posts and replies have been removed. A profane trolling post has been removed as well.

[MyFriend You]

The Japanese are enjoying the good life of private Japanese clubs in Thailand, cheap booze and sex, and the profits skimmed out of low wages to Thai workers. The big salarymen assigned to tours in Thailand love it. They have private Japanese schools, private imported teachers, foods, whiskies and all the cheap Thai sex they can bone up for. They are totally detached from everyday life in Thailand and live their exclusionary life. If they continue to reinvest in Thailand and trust the Thai promises, they are fools.

This is true - Japanese women have the absolute worst teeth in Asia, even the Korean chicks have better teeth than the average Japanese girl..........too bad, the rest oif the body is fine, its only when they open their mouth is when I start running..............

[paddyjenkins]

I would think all investors should be worried, not just the Japanese. The protests are disruptive, but that is not really the main issue. The main issue is the apparent lack of rule of law and the possibility that an elected government can so easily be replaced by a mob, with the police and army literally standing back and offering zero resistance. If this happened then could this new form of government be trusted not to renege on previous agreements, or to not become even more xenophobic than currently, or to attack foreign investments such as property to appease popular sentiment, or just fail to protect foreign business interests? Who is to say what a mob would do in a position of power. So unlike previous instability in Thailand, this new phase threatens to usher in an era of much higher uncertainty and undermines any adherence to the principles of law and democracy that Thailand may previously have had.

Investment was neither shaken by the violence instigated by Thaksin in 2010 nor the flapping in 2013. Japanese investment more concerned with the shambolic response to the floods and infrastructure planning (lack of) to protect continuity of industrial production. Japanese investment might raise eyebrows at a government run from afar by a wanted criminal exacting a rental overhead and not averse to utilising mob rule through the reds, but their investment decisions have been made on a longer term basis and so far discounted both Malaysia and Vietnam as practical alternatives. Maybe they will switch but until they do it is mostly business as usual.

We are aware of the past, risk is about looking forward and the current situation is not the same as previous bouts of instability and is worrying japanese investors for good reason.

[Robby nz]

I very much doubt that the present month of protests have much influence on the decisions of the Japanese or any other company to stay or leave Thailand.

Rather any long term decision will be based on past, present or speculated deeds or misdeeds of Govt , where they see the best profits and what they see as the outlook for the short and long term future.

The protests may well be part of the excuse but not part of the reason.

As in : We are to polite to stick it to the Govt and tell them the real reason but its OK to blame the protests"