After months of rhetoric calling for bold monetary easing from the Bank of Japan (BOJ), Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday admitted that the BOJ’s 2 percent inflation target may be difficult to accomplish; and warned the BOJ to not pursue the benchmark “at all cost”, especially if global conditions change.
Despite recent rhetoric by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the Japanese economy remains in dire straits – with ‘Abenomics’ simply the past LDP neo-Keynesian policies on steroids. The time is right for Japan to redistribute its reserves back to its people. Not utilizing the reserves now is like not opening the umbrella in your hand when you are in a downpour.
The Japanese government is propping up the nation’s whaling industry with millions of dollars a year in taxpayers’ money, revealed research by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) this week, despite weak demand for whale meat domestically and little scientific value to its so-called “research.”
Bank of Japan Governor Masaaki Shirakawa will step down on March 19, almost three weeks ahead of schedule, reported Reuters on Tuesday, accelerating Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s push for more aggressive monetary easing, which Shirakawa had staunchly opposed.
The Japanese government hopes to triple its annual supply capacity of wind-powered electricity to 7.5 million kilowatts in the next decade, through development of transmission grids in Hokkaido and the Tohoku region, reported the Yomiuri Shimbun on Monday.
Japan’s annual inflation rate slipped by 0.1 per cent in 2012, showed the latest government data on Friday, placing further pressure on its central bank to introduce greater monetary stimulus following the fourth straight year of sliding consumer prices.
Newly appointed Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday criticised the Chinese government for their failure to protect Japanese businesses operating in their country, and placed full blame on China for any deterioration in their bilateral business ties, after violent anti-Japan rallies broke out over the Senkaku/Diaoyu territorial dispute.
The ascent to power of the Democratic Party of Japan marked the end of Japan’s one-party state, dominated by the Liberal Democratic Party since 1955. However, the DPJ was unable to address the challenges Japan faced, was internally unstable, and spent scarce political clout to support a controversial retail sales tax increase – ensuring the subsequent return of the LDP and Shinzo Abe in the 2012 general election. Given a second chance, how will the LDP fare?
Japan’s population shrank by an estimated 212,000 people in 2012, claimed the nation’s Health Ministry on Monday, as concerns continue to mount the nation’s rapidly aging population and low birth rates.
According to the ministry, as cited by the Japan Times, a record low of 1,033,000 babies were born in Japan last year, compared to 1,245,000 deaths in the country, which resulted in a net drop of 212,000 in the nation’s population of around 126 million people.
Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA), a team set up by the government to draft new safety standards for nuclear reactors following the Fukushima disaster last year, has had its neutrality called into question by the public, reported the Associated Press on Sunday, after four out of the six-member team were revealed to have received research grants from utility companies and atomic industry manufacturers in the past.
