Kaiji’s financial stakes in today’s money.

Aug 7, 2023 4:35 AM

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Jan 2023

So, I’m enjoying season 1. Wiki says it was written in ‘97. Back then the British pound was worth about 200 Japanese yen (today the rate is about 160); also, the British pound has inflated in value by about x2.3 since ‘97. So, assuming the yen has inflated in value similarly in proportion with the pound, then 1 million yen in 1997 when converted into today’s money is about £12,000, or about 15,000$. So Kaiji’s initial 3 million debt to the yakuza is about 45,000$ (£36,000); and double that after leaving the ship. Then the 10 and 20 million they risk their lives for crossing the beams is about 150/300,000$ (£120/240,000)… I dunno… would you really risk the apparently horrible, and supposedly lethal, fate of losing on the ship for ‘just’ the price of a brand-new small Toyota? Or would you cross that beam for ‘just’ a third of a million? which with today’s housing prices wouldn’t even get you a high-tier house, let alone set you up for life? (please remember, I’ve calculated with inflation accounted for, so the figures would be even less at the time of Kaiji’s first publication).

Imo, today you’d need at least 2 million British pounds, probably more, to set yourself up with enough capital invested in something low-risk like gold in order to live comfortably with your own house, car and electronics, with an annual pension provided for by the dividends from that stock-investment for the rest of your life, and even then your annual pension to live on would be pretty modest. And the grand prize for crossing the beam is ‘just’ 0.3 million! AND it would be less after the yakuza had taken their debt payment from it.

It’s a good anime though and I’m enjoying it.

Aug 7, 2023 4:52 AM

Nebus789

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Aug 2022

I would do anything for a brand new Toyota.

Aug 7, 2023 7:08 AM

PoisonedSandwich

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Mar 2018

282

Vortrow said:
I would do anything for a brand new Toyota.

frfr, I don't even like driving, and I'd still kill for a new toyota

Aug 7, 2023 7:14 AM

galen_chrom

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Jan 2023

Vortrow said:
I would do anything for a brand new Toyota.

even a little one?

Aug 7, 2023 7:16 AM

Scavendgarr

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Oct 2013

2133

I'd do anything for mitsubishi lancer. Sorry what's the question again?

Aug 9, 2023 12:30 AM

Kockorzo

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Jun 2021

300

Your calculations are fundamentally erroneous as you haven’t taken PPP into consideration but have still reached a somewhat accurate estimate. What you however do not realise given your facile outlook is that the verity or your answer depends on the verity or data used. You probably do know that data is commonly inflated due to outliers so i’ll spare you the details. Economics becomes complicated precisely because of the many adjustments you have to make so don’t be acting the economist when you don’t even know what econometrics is. But whatever you have ended up with and therefore concluded is too riddled in error as you have disregarded demographics and taken a one-eyed perspective. That’s a big no no if you want to even pretend to have a solid argument so I’ll leave you at mention of Japan’s abnormally high suicide rates and the cognitive impairment of the debt-ridden as they are presented an opportunity of salvation. The rest are probably too complicated for you but you really are at error in failing to take even a hint of the author’s intentions. Perhaps you think too high of yourself, you must have had noticed something he didn’t— don’t worry, it’s common folly.

///

Aug 9, 2023 2:10 AM

LostSpectre

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Jan 2013

5782

Surely you're failing to account for the fact that these are very desperate people with little to no prospects in life.

If you reply back to me and I never respond, I lost interest and don't care. Sorry about that.

Aug 9, 2023 7:59 PM

galen_chrom

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Jan 2023

LostSpectre said:
Surely you're failing to account for the fact that these are very desperate people with little to no prospects in life.

Sure that would be a way to explain it. Never having been addicted to money like that myself I guess I wouldn’t know what such an addict would do for it. Another thought I had was how ‘rich’ different countries are: like, the value of a brand-new car to the average person in the West is much less than it would be to the average person in India, say. But then, in ‘97 Japan was indeed a Western country and was designing and producing world-leading tech such as video-games and cars; so I’m not sure really how far ‘behind’ Japan was compared to the rest of the West, in this sense, in ‘97 (as in, the rest of Asia could have been thought of as being economically and developmentally ‘behind’ the West until relatively recently).

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Kaiji’s financial stakes in today’s money.

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