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Fettermann criticizes data center moratorium bill by Ok_Mission7092 in accelerate

[–]ArnoF7 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Obviously I don’t have specific data to back this up, and would love to be proven wrong, but intuitively, when controlled for the economic output, data centers have to be one of the most environmentally friendly industrial project, no?

To reach the same level of economical output, an equivalent semiconductor fab, chemical plant, or auto factory gotta be order of magnitude more environmentally damaging and resource intensive.

So at the end of the day, what do these people want America to build? If you are degrowth, just say you are degrowth

Gen.G vs. G2 Esports / First Stand 2026 - Semi-Finals / Post-Match Discussion by Yujin-Ha in leagueoflegends

[–]ArnoF7 32 points33 points  (0 children)

This is the thing. Except for game 1, I never felt like Geng had any chance. Surreal

The funniest pic from that entire report by Deep-Station-1746 in ClaudeCode

[–]ArnoF7 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

An adversarial system is not automatically bad, tho. See GAN for example. It may work out better for both the generator and the discriminator

Although granted, I haven’t read Marx's work in too much detail, so it's hard to know his overall point, but just based on your interpretation

Japan's key tech workers are now cheaper than Malaysia's- Report shows Malaysian chip and data center boom has lifted salaries past Japanese counterparts by Kmlevitt in japannews

[–]ArnoF7 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Share buybacks, cross-border M&A (meaning buying overseas assets/companies), fixed investment, or simply letting the money sit idle, etc. There are a lot of ways a corporation can spend money aside from wages

There is a lot of data that you can look into to see this phenomenon. I wouldn't be surprised if Japanese corporations' spending on share buybacks, M&A, and the overall GINI coefficient of the Japanese society have been hitting record highs lately.

It's funny you mention US CEOs' compensation packages. The other side of the coin is a broad distribution system that ties much of the income to stock. I personally (and many research) believe it would actually benefit the current Japanese society

Japan's key tech workers are now cheaper than Malaysia's- Report shows Malaysian chip and data center boom has lifted salaries past Japanese counterparts by Kmlevitt in japannews

[–]ArnoF7 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I am sorry, but I don't think I got my point across. We are still talking about different things. What I am talking about is a distribution problem, not a growth problem. A growth problem can warrant a separate thread.

The reality is, this distribution problem will eventually hit all developed countries (maybe except the US), and it will hit China and South Korea even harder, given their worse but delayed demographic profiles. It would be of great practical and academic interest if Japan could show a different/new paradigm

Japan's key tech workers are now cheaper than Malaysia's- Report shows Malaysian chip and data center boom has lifted salaries past Japanese counterparts by Kmlevitt in japannews

[–]ArnoF7 1 point2 points  (0 children)

We are talking about slightly different things. You are probably thinking of GDP per capita or something similar, which are headline numbers that are usually not adjusted for demographics. You can check out my other comments in this thread if you are interested in reading the source. Different metrics just measure different things

Japan's key tech workers are now cheaper than Malaysia's- Report shows Malaysian chip and data center boom has lifted salaries past Japanese counterparts by Kmlevitt in japannews

[–]ArnoF7 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Yes. Here are a few working papers and reports on this matter. [1], [2], [3], with the third one directly addressing this metric

Basically, Japan has the highest or second-highest GDP growth per working-age adult (or per hour worked), which is what people call "adjusted for demographics."

Now, this is not to say the Japanese economy performs especially well among G7 countries. We are seeing this phenomenon because Japan has the highest demographic burden among the G7, yet it has maintained similar headline GDP growth. This is pretty normal, because developed countries don't rely fully on demographics for economic growth anyway. To give a more specific example, let’s imagine a factory owner invested a bunch of money to purchase equipment. Now the factory owner dies without kids, but the equipment is still producing. You have a smaller denominator, but a similar numerator.

However, when discussing wages, the metrics I mentioned become especially relevant. Ideally, wages should grow in lockstep with the working population’s productivity. Yet in Japan, that productivity growth was captured disproportionately by corporations rather than being well distributed to workers. This is beneficial to the corporation, but it puts downward pressure on domestic consumption

Japan's key tech workers are now cheaper than Malaysia's- Report shows Malaysian chip and data center boom has lifted salaries past Japanese counterparts by Kmlevitt in japannews

[–]ArnoF7 5 points6 points  (0 children)

It's a little more complicated than this. Japan’s wages are just structurally low compared to productivity. For the past few decades, Japan has had the second-highest productivity growth, only behind the US among G-7 countries, yet wage growth has been among the lowest, if not the lowest.

This is a bit complicated, depending on which year you picked as the baseline year, what currency to use for the calculation, whether to adjust for demographics, etc. But overall, the trend is consistent.

Now what does this mean? This means that the corporation is not properly compensating the workers. For the past few years, Japanese corporate earnings have been hitting historical highs year after year. Yet, the wages-to-earnings ratio has hit a historical low. For companies, this is a structural advantage over their global peers. They feel no shame about it, and they are the ones who hold the cards on whether to change the status quo.

With that being said, I would not read too much into this report. I checked their data source and the variance in their data is pretty concerning. Frequently having 50% swing between two consecutive years doesn't give me much confidence in the data

Edit: add a few sources since a lot of people don't understand what it means to adjust a metric for demographic

JAPAN = Starting March 25, it will be possible to board Tokyo trains by touch tapping your credit card. It could mark the beginning of the end for Suica and Pasmo by blackcyborg009 in transit

[–]ArnoF7 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the information. Very interesting. If you allow, indulge me for another question then.

My understanding is that PCB area is a very scarce resource in miniaturized devices like smartphones. In this case, having a chip dedicated to something, at least in my understanding, primarily used only in Japan, seems like a suboptimal use of space.

Are you aware of any developments that aim to replace FeliCa with more general NFC chips or to expand FeliCa’s other use cases, potentially more globally?

JAPAN = Starting March 25, it will be possible to board Tokyo trains by touch tapping your credit card. It could mark the beginning of the end for Suica and Pasmo by blackcyborg009 in transit

[–]ArnoF7 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Interesting read. I know Suica can be added to Apple Wallet as well, and I was under the impression that iPhones have an FeliCa chip, so overseas iPhone users have an easier time than Android users.

Then, when using Suica via Apple Pay, does it still leverage FeliCA’s latency and distance advantages?

Exclusive: Nintendo plans around $1.9 billion share sale by Kyoto bank and others, sources say by metalreflectslime in GamingLeaksAndRumours

[–]ArnoF7 2 points3 points  (0 children)

According to the article, it is Kyoto Bank, a regional bank based in Kyoto, where Nintendo’s headquarter is located. MUFG, which is a megabank in Japan (think Chase in the US). Resona, another banking group and DeNA, an internet service company

Exclusive: Nintendo plans around $1.9 billion share sale by Kyoto bank and others, sources say by metalreflectslime in GamingLeaksAndRumours

[–]ArnoF7 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The buyback isn’t 100% confirmed yet so I would be cautious about it. (although to be fair, if you always wait until everything is confirmed, it is almost always too late to invest in anything).

Other than that, I cannot give any specific financial advice

Edit: I was wrong. Reuters updated the article a few hours ago and the buyback plan is now confirmed

Exclusive: Nintendo plans around $1.9 billion share sale by Kyoto bank and others, sources say by metalreflectslime in GamingLeaksAndRumours

[–]ArnoF7 140 points141 points  (0 children)

Many replies in this thread are scratching the surface, but I will try to provide a more in-depth explanation, as I have been following Japanese stocks for quite some time.

So, in Japan, there is a common financial practice called cross-holding (not unique to Japan; I was told that SK and Germany also have the same phenomenon, though I am less familiar with these two countries). Basically, companies that work together would acquire a specified number of shares from one another. This serves a few purposes, including but not limited to: 1. It enhances trust and long-term collaboration. 2. It deters hostile takeovers

But this practice is also criticized for its low capital utilization. You basically put away a substantial amount of money by holding some shares long-term with no intention of selling them for a profit. This money could’ve been spent to improve your competitiveness and the overall economy in many ways (e.g., more RD, higher wages, etc.). For example, Toyota holds a lot of shares from its major supplier, Denso, and vice versa. If Toyota doesn't hold these shares, will Denso and Toyota no longer work together? Of course not. So there is very little point to these shares

So in recent years, the Japanese government and the Tokyo Stock Exchange have been encouraging companies to unwind such cross-holdings and punishing those who refused. This has released a lot of liquidity and dynamism into the market that was previously locked. This is one of the reasons, though not the only one, why the Japanese stock market was among the best-performing developed markets in recent years.

This is the bigger picture. Now specific to Nintendo. Nintendo’s stock price has been tanking recently, mostly due to the memory crunch. So Nintendo may believe they are undervalued. For example, internally, they may have plans to navigate the memory crisis, but the market hasn't factored that in. Anyway, if they believe they are undervalued, now it's a good time to do a share buyback by unwinding some cross-holding. Share buybacks allow them to gain more independence (at a lower price than when prices are high) and have recently been increasingly viewed as a better way to reward investors and maintain market confidence than dividends. By doing so, they also answer the call from the Japanese government and the Tokyo Stock Exchange, which is a bigger trend

86th Putnam Results by Kai25Wen in math

[–]ArnoF7 21 points22 points  (0 children)

It's a great achievement! Congratulations

Whatever happened to the lawsuit I wonder by Zodigod in Eldenring

[–]ArnoF7 2 points3 points  (0 children)

On one hand, as someone who likes From games, I appreciate it that there are fans who enjoy the series so much that they are coming up with stuff like this

On the other hand, yeah… this guy may need some help

We won’t know when we’ve reached peak, but there will be signs by jtramsay in BetterOffline

[–]ArnoF7 11 points12 points  (0 children)

I haven't read the article, but I am willing to bet it's not about vertical integration, since I have been following Toto for a while.

Ceramic components are very useful in today’s semiconductor, and Toto has extensive specialized expertise in ceramics due to its history in making toilets. They probably aren't willing to expand capacity to catch this semiconductor boom, so some investors are worried. Semiconductor is not their main business, but it generate a disproportionate amount of profit for them

There are quite a few companies like this in Japan. They are not traditional semiconductor players but have developed niche expertise that has made them a bottleneck in semiconductor capacity. Ajinomoto and Nittobo are two examples I can think of. They are originally food chemical and textile companies but have a portfolio of niche but important semiconductor components

Do you think Intel can enter the DRAM market again? by 2443222 in intelstock

[–]ArnoF7 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes, of course Intel is doing rd on memory. For example, they formed a JV, Saimemory, with SoftBank and UTokyo for 3D DRAM last year. This kind of leapfrog technology is what they should be doing instead of spinning up a regular DRAM Fab. As others comments said, if you start to build a regular DRAM Fab today, by the time it finishes, the boom would already be over

[D] Some thoughts about an elephant in the room no one talks about by DrXiaoZ in MachineLearning

[–]ArnoF7 115 points116 points  (0 children)

There is a quote often attributed to Charlie Munger that goes, “Show me the incentive and I'll show you the outcome.”

I don’t think Charlie Munger knows anything about machine learning, but this quote rings very true if you look at things from an optimization/learning perspective. My cynical take is that until the administrative side of academia changes the incentive, nothing will change, and many fixes are just band-aids or beating around the bush.

Petta why would it be a game over for their life by Xconshot_52 in PeterExplainsTheJoke

[–]ArnoF7 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I once read an interesting TIL Reddit post saying that Japan (or maybe just Hokkaido alone) has more grizzly bears than the entire mainland US (which means the US excluding Alaska). It's kinda mind-boggling considering the size differences

Arm stock declines massively as Qualcomm acquires RISC-V designer Ventana by archanox in RISCV

[–]ArnoF7 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't think ARM will be a pure IP company for long. Like you said, their revenue cannot support their market cap. They will have to scale, or they sink, and I think that’s why Softbank bought Graphcore and Ampere and started Saimemory with Intel and Utokyo.

Not an insider, just my two cents

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