While the full court press propaganda express in Japan's media [6] that 'Abenomics' is working may be flagging a little in the face of the recent 20% collapse in equity prices, there appears no limit to how low they will stoop. It is not the first time you girls have been used to promote the benefits of buying Japanese bonds (as we discussed here [7]), but, as The Telegraph reports [8], a four-member band of 16-year-old Japanese girls will be raising (and lowering we suppose) the length of their skirts based on the Nikkei 255. The band - Machikado Keiki Japan, which roughly translates as "street corner economic conditions", debut single - Abeno Mix (seriously!) - has karaoke references to quantitative easing and construction bonds.
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Via The Telegraph...
To get an idea of how Japan's prime minister, Shinzo Abe, is faring in his quest to lift his country out of two decades of stagnation, look no further than the skirts of the girl group Machikado Keiki Japan.
The band, whose name translates roughly as "street corner economic conditions", became a bellwether for the health of the world's third biggest economy earlier this year when they promised to shorten their skirts every time the country's stock market made significant gains.
The four-member group's novel economic indicator has raised a few eyebrows – not least because one of the members is a 16-year-old schoolgirl – but there is no faulting their interest in the fortunes of the Nikkei 225 stock index.
Their debut single, Abeno Mix – complete with unlikely singalong references to quantitative easing and construction bonds – takes its cue from Abenomics, an ambitious programme of fiscal stimulus, monetary easing and structural reforms that its chief architect believes will lift Japan out of 20 years of deflationary purgatory.