can I get away with not having a subject in a sentence if the subject is not relevant to the meaning?


I would like to reference a question I have about this thread that I asked a
few days ago: [「思っているようです。」or 「思っている。」 for describing another person's
opinion](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/17986/%E6%80%9D%E3%81%A3%E3%81%A6%E3%81%84%E3%82%8B%E3%82%88%E3%81%86%E3%81%A7%E3%81%99-or-%E6%80%9D%E3%81%A3%E3%81%A6%E3%81%84%E3%82%8B-for-
describing-another-persons-opinion) That question was clearly answered. This
follow-up question results from my studying the given answer.

I wrote this as an example sentence:  
(1) _Bobさんによれば、株価が高いと思っているようです。_

However, this was correction offered by 2 native speakers:  
(2) _ボブさんによれば、XXさんは物価が高いと思っているようだ。_

I translate as:  
(1) _According to Bob's research, **someone** is thinking that the price of
the stock is high.  
(2) _According to Bob's research, **Mr. XX** is thinking that the price of the
stock is high.

Given my intended meaning, the subject of #1 is in fact a meaningless, "no-
op", word that must be there only to conform to the sentence structures of
English. I had to have some subject, even if it is meaningless. In Japanese, I
feel like I have some freedom with regard to sentence structure.

As these sentence are more about "based on whose analysis were stocks
evaluated (ie. Bob)", and not about "who was doing the thinking about the
stock price (ie. someone)", could I just get away with not having any subject
at all? Doesn't that allow the native speaker to sense an implied (not
relevant to the meaning of the sentence) subject? Would not having any subject
in Japanese break the grammar? Make the meaning confusing?




If you don't care about who is doing the thinking, then why not make it much
more natural and use the passive voice?

> ボブさんによれば、株価が高いと思われているそうだ。  
>  According to Bob, the stock price is thought to be high.

Also do you mean: 株【かぶ】価【か】 stock price or 物価【ぶっか】 cost of living?

If you want to omit the subject you **do** need context I'm afraid.

> A: あの会社の株、XXさんはどんな風に考えている？  
>  B: ボブさんによると、高いと思っているそうだ。  
>  A: How's Mr. XX feel about the companies stock price?  
>  B: According to Bob, he thinks it's high.




If you don't care about who is doing the thinking, then why not make it much
more natural and use the passive voice?

> ボブさんによれば、株価が高いと思われているそうだ。  
>  According to Bob, the stock price is thought to be high.

Also do you mean: 株【かぶ】価【か】 stock price or 物価【ぶっか】 cost of living?

If you want to omit the subject you **do** need context I'm afraid.

> A: あの会社の株、XXさんはどんな風に考えている？  
>  B: ボブさんによると、高いと思っているそうだ。  
>  A: How's Mr. XX feel about the companies stock price?  
>  B: According to Bob, he thinks it's high.

