Japan

Japan slashes interest rates to 0.1%

by

The Bank of Japan today cut interest rates to 0.1% in another attempt by central banks around the world to drag the global economy out of recession.

The bank’s eight board members voted 7-1 to lower the basic lending rate from 0.3% to 0.1%, following a cut from 0.5% to 0.3% at the end of October.

The decision comes days after the US Federal Reserve voted for record low interest rates of between zero and 0.25%. This month the Bank of England slashed interest rates to 2%, their lowest level in 57 years, and is reportedly considering another cut when its board meets next month.

The central bank governor, Masaaki Shirakawa, described the decline in the global economy as “the most rapid in our lifetime” and said he could not rule out further cuts.

Read moreJapan slashes interest rates to 0.1%

Japan Will Buy 20 Trillion Yen of Bank-Held Stocks

by

Dec. 19 (Bloomberg) — Japan’s government will buy as much as 20 trillion yen ($223 billion) of shares held by banks, the Cabinet Office said in a statement in Tokyo today.

The amount is part of a stimulus package totaling about 75 trillion yen, the statement said. An additional 10 trillion yen of the package will be devoted to making capital injections into banks.

Read moreJapan Will Buy 20 Trillion Yen of Bank-Held Stocks

Honda Falls After Slashing Earnings Forecast by 62%

by


Takeo Fukui, president of Honda Motor Co., speaks during a news conference in Tokyo on Nov. 17, 2008. Photographer: Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg News

Dec. 18 (Bloomberg) — Honda Motor Co., Japan’s second- largest automaker, fell 3.5 percent after cutting its profit goal as the yen rose to a 13-year high against the dollar and sales in North America and Europe dropped.

Honda declined 66 yen to 1,825 yen at the 3 p.m. close on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Toyota Motor Corp., the country’s largest automaker, fell 2.3 percent, while Nissan Motor Co., the No. 3 carmaker in Japan, added 0.7 percent.

Honda cut its full-year forecast 62 percent yesterday as the global recession cripples sales in the U.S., Japan and Europe. The yen’s 28 percent gain against the dollar and 31 percent rise against the euro this year has hammered Honda’s profit, forcing it to cut jobs, lower management pay and withdraw from Formula One motor racing.

Read moreHonda Falls After Slashing Earnings Forecast by 62%

Japan unveils emergency measures on economy

by

Japan unveiled a package of “emergency measures” for its recession-mired economy on Friday, pledging Y4,000bn ($43.8bn) in spending and tax cuts and Y3,000bn in promised credit for companies as well as raising its limit for public fund injections for financial institutions to Y12,000bn.

The move came as the yen went briefly through the much-watched level of Y90 to the dollar to hit a 13-year-high against the US currency, fuelling concern about the prospects for exporters, the traditional engine of Japanese growth.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 shares average ended the day down 5.6 per cent.

“The market was shocked, and I was shocked to see the dollar fall below Y90 today,” Shoichi Nakagawa, finance minister, told a press conference amid strong speculation that Tokyo would move to hold down the yen.

However, asked if Tokyo might intervene in the currency markets, Mr Nakagawa said: “[Intervention] isn’t in my mind at all.”

Read moreJapan unveils emergency measures on economy

Sony to cut 8,000 jobs, 4 percent of work force

by


Sony Corp.’s showroom Sony Building is seen in Tokyo’s Ginza shopping district, Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2008. Sony is slashing 8,000 jobs, or 4 percent of its global work force, aiming to cut costs by $1.1 billion a year as a global downturn and stronger yen batters profits at the Japanese electronics maker. Sony Corp., which has 185,000 employees worldwide, said Tuesday it will complete the layoffs by the end of March, 2010. (AP Photo/Itsuo Inouye)

TOKYO (AP) – Sony Corp. is slashing 4 percent of its worldwide work force, reining in spending and shutting plants as it tries to ride out a looming worldwide recession that is battering Japan’s export-reliant manufacturers.

Tokyo-based Sony, which is cutting 8,000 of its 185,000 jobs, said Tuesday it will shut five or six plants – about 10 percent of its 57 factories. Sony also plans to reduce its electronics investments by about one-third by the end of March 2010, although it did not give specific numbers.

Read moreSony to cut 8,000 jobs, 4 percent of work force

Japan’s Economy Shrinks 1.8%, More Than Expected

by


A man walks past office buildings in Tokyo’s central business district in Japan, on Oct. 24, 2008. Photographer: Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg News

Dec. 9 (Bloomberg) — Japan’s economy shrank in the third quarter faster than the government initially estimated, after businesses cut spending and slashed inventories in anticipation of a prolonged recession.

Gross domestic product contracted at an annual 1.8 percent pace in the three months ended Sept. 30, the Cabinet Office said today in Tokyo, more than the 0.4 percent reported last month. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg predicted a 0.9 percent decline.

Japan’s first recession since 2001 is deepening as companies including Canon Inc. and Toyota Motor Corp. cut production, jobs and spending. The central bank’s Tankan survey next week will probably show sentiment among large manufacturers fell the most in 34 years, economists predict.

“Big Japanese companies are panicking about the global export market,” said Graham Davis, director of the Economist Intelligence Unit in Tokyo. “There’s almost no good news out there.”

Read moreJapan’s Economy Shrinks 1.8%, More Than Expected

Japan’s Recession Deepens as Factory Output Slumps

by


Containers are stacked at a shipping terminal in Tokyo on July 17, 2008. Photographer: Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg News

Nov. 28 (Bloomberg) — Japan’s recession deepened last month as companies cut production, consumers spent less and fewer people looked for work.

Factory output fell 3.1 percent from September, when it rose 1.1 percent, the Trade Ministry said today in Tokyo. Household spending slid 3.8 percent, the eighth consecutive drop.

Companies surveyed said they plan the sharpest production cuts in 35 years as exports decline in the wake of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Sharp Corp. said it may make fewer televisions and fire workers; Toyota Motor Corp. will lay off half of its temporary staff; and Canon Inc. has postponed building a 100 billion yen ($1 billion) printer cartridge factory in southwestern Japan.

“This is an unprecedented export recession,” said Richard Jerram, chief economist at Macquarie Securities Ltd. in Tokyo. “The world stopped turning for about a month and a half after the middle of September, so it’s not surprising you’re seeing horrendous numbers.”

Read moreJapan’s Recession Deepens as Factory Output Slumps

Toyota woes deepen with rating downgrade

by


Toyota has lost its top credit rating

Toyota Motor, the world’s biggest automaker and a towering icon of Japanese industrial power, has been stripped of its AAA credit rating under the darkening global economic storm.

The downgrade, said analysts at Fitch Ratings, effectively passes sentence on the entire worldwide auto industry, showing that the business of building cars can no longer produce a single player with the sort of cast-iron corporate resilience of Exxon Mobil or Johnson & Johnson.

“This crisis is demonstrating that the auto industry cannot support a triple-A rating,” said Frederic Gits, a Tokyo-based credit analyst at Fitch Ratings, which issued the downgrade earlier today and declared the auto-industry’s problems “substantial and fundamental”.

Fitch Ratings’ downgrade of Toyota’s unsecured debt to AA deals a stunning blow to Japanese corporate pride, but reflects “severe” turmoil across world car markets and the company’s own spectacular profits warning earlier this month.

To demonstrate the extent of the problem, brokers in Tokyo have recently started circulating aerial photographs of a military airfield in Oxfordshire that has become a colossal warehouse for thousands of unsold cars.

Read moreToyota woes deepen with rating downgrade

Toyota Will Cut 3,000 Jobs in Japan as Car Sales Fall

by


Workers assemble engines of Toyota Motor Corp.’s Lexus LS600 hybrid sedan on the production line at its Tahara plant in Tahara, central Japan, on June 28, 2007. Photographer: Kimimasa Mayama/Bloomberg News

Nov. 21 (Bloomberg) — Toyota Motor Corp., Japan’s biggest carmaker, will cut its domestic temporary workforce by 50 percent as vehicle demand slumps globally.

Toyota will cut the number of temporary workers to 3,000 from 6,000 by the end of March, spokesman Paul Nolasco said today in a phone interview.

The automaker follows Mazda Motor Corp. and Isuzu Motors Ltd., which yesterday said they would slash a combined 2,700 temporary jobs in Japan in response to slowing sales. Earlier this month, Toyota forecast a 68 percent drop in full-year net income, the biggest decline in at least 18 years, as a global recession cripples auto demand.

Read moreToyota Will Cut 3,000 Jobs in Japan as Car Sales Fall

Japan-U.S. missile defense test fails off Hawaii

by


A missile is launched from the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force ship Chokai in the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii November 20, 2008. (Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force/Handout/Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A Japanese warship failed to shoot down a ballistic missile target in a joint test with U.S. forces Wednesday because of a glitch in the final stage of an interceptor made by Raytheon Co, a U.S. military official said.

The kinetic warhead’s infrared “seeker” lost track in the last few seconds of the $55 million test, about 100 miles above Hawaiian waters, said U.S. Rear Admiral Brad Hicks, program director of the Aegis sea-based leg of an emerging U.S. anti-missile shield.

“This was a failure,” he said in a teleconference with reporters. It brought the tally of Aegis intercepts to 16 in 20 tries.

The problem “hopefully was related just to a single interceptor,” not to a systemic issue with the Standard Missile-3 Block 1A, the same missile used in February to blow apart a crippled U.S. spy satellite, Hicks said.

Read moreJapan-U.S. missile defense test fails off Hawaii

Ford Sells $540 Million of Mazda Stock to Ease Crunch

by

Nov. 18 (Bloomberg) — Ford Motor Co., reeling from plunging U.S. car sales and a sinking share price, will raise about $540 million selling part of its stake in Japanese affiliate Mazda Motor Corp. to ease cash concerns.

The automaker will sell 20 percent of Mazda tomorrow, reducing its holdings to 13 percent, according to a statement today. Hiroshima-based Mazda said separately that it will buy back up to a 6.9 percent stake for as much as 17.9 billion yen ($186 million). The rest of the shares will be purchased by unidentified “strategic business partners.”

Read moreFord Sells $540 Million of Mazda Stock to Ease Crunch

Japan’s Economy in Recession After Shrinking 0.4% Last Quarter

by


An undated company handout photograph shows Toyota Motor Corp. vehicles bound for export at the company’s Tahara plant in Tahara, Aichi Prefecture, central Japan, released to the media on Oct. 28, 2008. Source: Toyota Motor Corp. via Bloomberg News

Nov. 17 (Bloomberg) — Japan’s economy, the world’s second largest, entered its first recession since 2001 last quarter and the government and economists say conditions may get even worse.

Gross domestic product shrank an annualized 0.4 percent in the three months ended Sept. 30, the Cabinet Office said today in Tokyo. Economists predicted the economy would grow 0.1 percent after contracting a revised 3.7 percent in the previous period.

The slowdown may deepen as the global financial crisis hurts exports, prompting companies from Toyota Motor Corp. to Canon Inc. to slash profit forecasts and cut investments. Japan has the lowest interest rates among the 20 biggest economies and public debt that exceeds 180 percent of GDP, limiting the government’s ability to stimulate growth.

“It’s only going to get worse,” said Masamichi Adachi, senior economist at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in Tokyo. “Japan may be entering its deepest recession in a decade as the global financial crisis cools demand overseas.”

Read moreJapan’s Economy in Recession After Shrinking 0.4% Last Quarter

Poverty, Pension Fears Drive Japan’s Elderly Citizens to Crime

by


Elderly customers shop in a grocery store in Tokyo, Aug. 12, 2005. Photographer: Haruyoshi Yamaguchi/Bloomberg News

Nov. 14 (Bloomberg) — More senior citizens are picking pockets and shoplifting in Japan to cope with cuts in government welfare spending and rising health-care costs in a fast-ageing society.

Criminal offences by people 65 or older doubled to 48,605 in the five years to 2008, the most since police began compiling national statistics in 1978, a Ministry of Justice report said.

Theft is the most common crime of senior citizens, many of whom face declining health, low incomes and a sense of isolation, the report said. Elderly crime may increase in parallel with poverty rates as Japan enters another recession and the budget deficit makes it harder for the government to provide a safety net for people on the fringes of society.

“The elderly are turning to shoplifting as an increasing number of them lack assets and children to depend on,” Masahiro Yamada, a sociology professor at Chuo University in Tokyo and an author of books on income disparity in Japan, said in an interview yesterday. “We won’t see the decline of elderly crimes as long as the income gap continues to rise.”

Read morePoverty, Pension Fears Drive Japan’s Elderly Citizens to Crime

IMF urges radical action to fight global recession

by

The International Monetary Fund has slashed its forecast for the world economy next year, predicting outright contraction for the rich economies of North America, Europe, and Japan for the first time since the Second World War.


Taxi driving through Tokyo at night. Photo: GETTY

“Prospects for global growth have deteriorated over the past month. The financial crisis remains virulent. Markets have entered a vicious cycle of asset deleveraging,” said the fund yesterday.

Britain’s economy will suffer and will see the steepest decline in G7 club of leading powers, shrinking 1.3pc as the crunch in the City of London leads to more job losses. Germany will decline by 0.8pc, The US and Spain by 0.7pc.

Sending shivers through stockmarkets everwhere, the Fund cut its world outlook next year to just 2.2pc, down from 3pc just a month ago. This is a global recession under the IMF’s 3pc rule-of-thumb.

“Financial stress is likely to be deeper and more protracted than envisaged in October. Markets are pricing in expectations of much higher corporate default rates, as well as higher losses on securities and loans,” it said.

“Activity is increasingly being held back by slumping confidence. As the financial crisis has become more entrenched, households and firms are increasingly anticipating a prolonged period of poor prospects for jobs and profits. As a result, they are cutting back.”

Olivier Blanchard, the IMF’s chief economist, called on authorities around the world to respond rapidly with combined monetary and fiscal stimulus, saying risk on an inflationary surge had subsided as commodities prices slump.

Read moreIMF urges radical action to fight global recession

Toshiba drops 99 percent on weak chips, outlook hazy

by


A man looks at laptop computers at an electronics retailer in Tokyo October 29, 2008

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s Toshiba Corp (6502.T) posted a 99 percent plunge in quarterly operating profit on Wednesday, dragged down by weakness in its mainstay chip operations, but stuck to its recently revised outlook above expectations.

Read moreToshiba drops 99 percent on weak chips, outlook hazy

Asian stockmarkets crash again

by


A trader at the Philippines stock exchange as business is halted. Photograph: Cheryl Ravelo/Reuters

Stockmarkets around the world crashed again today as the prospect of a deep worldwide recession continued to haunt investors.

Fears that the financial crisis is spreading to emerging nations sparked another day of panicky selling, despite speculation of another round of interest rate cuts to try to stimulate the global economy,

As the current crisis sparked by the failure of Lehman Brothers entered a seventh week, Japan’s Nikkei index fell 6.4% to its lowest level since 1982, extending its recent slump. It has now lost 20% of its value in the last week.

Hong Kong also saw shares routed, with the Hang Seng index plunging almost 12% in late trading – putting it on track for its biggest daily fall since 1997. And the Chinese stockmarket tumbled over 6%, bringing more pain to small investors who have watched the Shanghai Composite index fall 70% from last year’s peak.

With India’s stockmarket losing 8%, shares across Europe are also expected to fall sharply when trading begins. The Dow Jones index is tipped to fall by another 400 points, or 5%, later today.
(The Dow fell only 2,42% today.)

Read moreAsian stockmarkets crash again

$16.3 trillion in stock value lost since Sept. 1; some brokers fear more drops

by

Signs of slowdown spiral around the world

Pessimism about the global economy deepened yesterday as fresh evidence of a worldwide slowdown showed up in feeble corporate profit reports from Asia, sinking commodities prices, and a scramble by emerging economies to prop up their sagging currencies and avert credit defaults.

The signs of trouble popped up around the globe. Japanese giants Sony and Toyota, as well as South Korea’s Samsung, the world’s largest maker of memory chips, flat-screen televisions and liquid crystal displays, posted weakened profits and sales outlooks. Toyota’s quarterly sales fell for the first time in seven years. Britain reported its first economic contraction since 1992.

Gloom about economic growth translated to low expectations for oil consumption. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries yesterday announced a cut of 1.5 million barrels a day in output – a move that still failed to arrest the slide in crude prices. Meanwhile, copper prices fell to a three-year low.

Investors around the world fled stocks and rushed to the relative safety of the U.S. dollar by pouring money into 30-year Treasury bonds, a refuge in times of uncertainty. That drove down the value of foreign currencies, from the ruble to the rupee and the zloty to the peso, forcing central banks to spend billions of dollars to prevent even further deterioration. The turmoil in currency markets threatened to reorder trade relations and complicate recovery efforts.

Read more$16.3 trillion in stock value lost since Sept. 1; some brokers fear more drops

The International Interphone Study Confirms: The Use Of Mobile Phone Is Carcinogenic

by

The official publication of the first intermediate results of the International Interphone Study from the International Research Centre on Cancer (CIRC) dependent on WHO confirms the increased tumors and cancer cases due to the use of mobile phone.

The Use Of Mobile Phone Is Carcinogenic: Here (PDF)

INTERPHONE Results latest update Oct. 08, 2008: Interphone Results Update (PDF)

Related articles and videos:
– 2 Billion may suffer from Mobile Cancer by 2020: Study
– Dangers of the wireless cell phone wi-fi and emf age – Dr. George Carlo
– The Cell Tower Cancer Link
– Warning: Using a mobile phone while pregnant can seriously damage your baby
– Cook an Egg with Your Cell Phone
– Make Popcorn With Your Cell Phone
– The REAL brain drain: Modern technology – including violent video games – is changing the way our brains work, says neuroscientist

Japan’s Nikkei plunges 9.4 percent on crisis fears

by


A passerby looks at the electronic stock board in front of a Tokyo brokerage Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2008 as Japan’s stock market plummeted 9.4 percent _ its biggest one-day drop in 21 years. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index nose-dived 952.58 points to 9,203.32, a five-year low. (AP Photo/Katsumi Kasahara)

TOKYO (AP) – Japan’s stock market plummeted 9.4 percent – its biggest one-day drop in 21 years – Wednesday as investors rushed for the exits on deepening fears over the global financial crisis.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index nose-dived 952.58 points to 9,203.32, a five-year low. That was its third-biggest drop in percentage terms and the largest plunge since October 1987.

Toyota’s shares fell nearly 12 percent on concerns about its earnings amid a slump in the vital U.S. car market.

The massive sell-off in Tokyo follows a sharp retreat on Wall Street Tuesday, when the Dow Jones industrial average lost more than 5 percent despite steps by the Federal Reserve to reinvigorate dormant credit markets.

Read moreJapan’s Nikkei plunges 9.4 percent on crisis fears

Fed, ECB, Bank of Japan Lead Global Plan to Pump $247 Billion Into Markets

by

Sept. 18 (Bloomberg) — The Federal Reserve almost quadrupled the amount of dollars central banks can auction around the world to $247 billion in a coordinated bid to ease the worst crisis facing financial markets since the 1920s.

The Fed increased the amount of dollars that the European Central Bank, the Bank of Japan and other counterparts can offer from $67 billion “to address the continued elevated pressures in U.S. dollar short-term funding markets.” The Bank of England, the Bank of Canada and the Swiss National Bank also participated.

Policy makers have struggled to revive confidence in markets this week as investors stockpiled money on concern more financial institutions would fail after the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and the U.S. government bailout of American International Group Inc. The cost to hedge against losses on U.S. government debt climbed to a record yesterday.

“There’s a complete lack of faith in the markets,” said Jim O’Neill, chief economist at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. in London. “There’s a lot of cash hoarding and people losing trust in banks, so the central banks are acting to relieve that. This might not be the last time they have to act.”

Read moreFed, ECB, Bank of Japan Lead Global Plan to Pump $247 Billion Into Markets

Two strong Earthquakes hit Japan and Indonesia, but no tsunami

by

Two strong off shore earthquakes have struck Asia, triggering tsunami alerts and evacuations in coastal towns.

Separate earthquakes hit off the coasts of northern Japan and Indonesia, but neither ultimately produced damaging waves and there were no reports of damage or casualties.

The most powerful tremor, with a preliminary magnitude of 7.0, hit off the coast of Hokkaido, Japan at a depth of 12 miles at 9.21am local time.

Read moreTwo strong Earthquakes hit Japan and Indonesia, but no tsunami

Codex Alimentarius: Population Control Under the Guise of Consumer Protection

by

This article is a must read.

Related video:
Nutricide – Criminalizing Natural Health, Vitamins, and Herbs (Dr. Rima Laibow, M.D.)

__________________________________________________________________________

By: Dr. Gregory Damato, Ph.D.

(NaturalNews) Codeath (sorry, I meant Codex) Alimentarius, latin for Food Code, is a very misunderstood organization that most people (including nearly all U.S. congressmen) have never heard of, never mind understand the true reality of this extremely powerful trade organization. From the official Codex website (www.codexalimentarius.net) the altruistic purpose of this commission is in “protecting health of the consumers and ensuring fair trade practices in the food trade, and promoting coordination of all food standards work undertaken by international governmental and non-governmental organizations”. Codex is a joint venture regulated by the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and World Health Organization (WHO).

Read moreCodex Alimentarius: Population Control Under the Guise of Consumer Protection

Japan wholesale prices rise 7.2 percent in August

by

TOKYO (AP) – Japan’s wholesale inflation remained near a 27-year high in August, the government said Wednesday, as the soaring costs of energy and raw materials continued to pressure businesses.

The index for domestic corporate goods prices rose 7.2 percent from a year ago, the Bank of Japan said.

Read moreJapan wholesale prices rise 7.2 percent in August