earlier, i spoke to kei 0kamura from investment management firm neuberger berman. by asking him whether or not japan's economy can handle higher rates. the short answer is yes. 0bviously the short answer is yes. obviously this is a pivotal moment for the japanese economy, as it tries to exit out of the lost decade. i think what is important that came out of yesterday's meeting by the central bank was that the doj governor was intent on taking a very cautious and measured approach to raising rates going forward, which we think makes sense —— boj. 0urfew is that if we look into 2024 we are going to continue to seek consumer prices edge up and stabilise, but for the time being, the boj wants to see more data to see whether consumer prices will sustain itself and wage hikes i think is going to be a really important point about that story. let's now talk about the united states and the battle we are seeing in a couple of industries between companies and unions, pay for workers. first it was the car industry and now it is airlines. southwest airlines and its pilots' unio