Yukio Edano, whose trade portfolio makes him responsible for energy, couched his remark as a personal and not necessarily realistic view – though it could still anger utilities and industries eager to see nuclear power bounce back.”The government’s policy is now to reduce reliance on nuclear power as low as possible,” Edano said, adding that it should in future account for less than the third of national electricity it supplied before last year’s Fukushima crisis.On March 11, 2011, a massive earthquake and tsunami wrecked the Fukushima nuclear power complex north of Tokyo, causing meltdowns, sending radiation into the air and forcing 80,000 people to evacuate from the area.”I’d like to see the reliance on nuclear cut to zero. I’d like to have a society work without nuclear as early as possible,” Edano told a news conference in energy policy.”I myself think it should be reduced as soon as possible. Continue reading Japan should ideally phase out nuclear power: minister ( Reuters News ) →
Takahiro Mitani, chairman of the GPIF, said the environment for JGBs will remain favorable for some time as the country stays in a deflationary phase and it may take a lot of time for the economy to grow more than 1 percent sustainably.”I don’t think (JGB yields) will fall sharply from the current level. They are near their lows, but the yields are not expected to surge from here,” Mitani told Reuters in an interview on Friday.However, there is a risk for JGBs if the government fails to implement its plans to raise the consumption tax, he said.The GPIF invests reserves of national and corporate pension plans. Continue reading Japan’s GPIF pension fund: unlikely to see JGB yields surge ( Reuters News ) →
TOKYO, April 5 (Reuters) -
The Bank of Japan (BOJ) has two vacancies on its policy board after the opposition-controlled upper house of parliament turned down on Thursday a government nominee who legislators argued would not be aggressive enough about easing monetary policy.The rejection signals the central bank will remain under pressure from members of parliament who want further monetary stimulus or a higher inflation target to pull Japan out of deflation.”This showed that politicians won’t tolerate anyone reluctant toward monetary easing,” said Seiji Adachi, senior economist at Deutsche Securities in Tokyo. Continue reading Japan’s upper house rejects nominee for BOJ board (Reuters News) →
TOKYO, April 5 (Reuters)
- Japan’s government is rushing to try to restart two nuclear reactors, idled after the Fukushima crisis, by next month out of what experts say is a fear that surviving a total shutdown would make it hard to convince the public that atomic energy is vital.Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and three cabinet ministers are to meet on Thursday to discuss the possible restarts of the No. 3 and No. 4 reactors at Kansai Electric Power Co’s Ohi plant in Fukui, western Japan – a region dubbed the “nuclear arcade” for the string of atomic plants that dot its coast.Trade minister Yukio Edano, who holds the energy portfolio, could travel to Fukui as early as Sunday to seek local approval for the restarts, Japanese media said. Continue reading UPDATE 3-Japan govt fears non-nuclear summer will hamper restarts (Reuters News) →
The currency’s strength has eaten into automakers’ margins and made it more costly to build vehicles at factories in Japan.Nissan Motor Co is planning to move output of its Infiniti brand outside Japan, likely to North America or China, Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn said on the sidelines of the New York auto show on Wednesday. He called the yen’s strength a “major handicap” for the luxury nameplate.Toyota Motor Co’s youth brand Scion has also started to explore the option of building cars at one of Toyota’s U.S. assembly plants and is aiming to boost U.S.-made components, an executive said.”It pushes our whole engineering team to look at every item even closer because of the yen situation,” said Jack Hollis, head of the Scion brand, while adding it was “nowhere near a decision point” on its production plans.
Continue reading AUTOSHOW-Strong yen seen accelerating auto production shift from Japan ( Reuters News) →
(Reuters) – Japanese Finance Minister Jun Azumi said on Tuesday he hoped to see progress on whether countries will contribute more to the International Monetary Fund by a summit on April 20, after Europe strengthened its defenses against its sovereign debt crisis.Azumi said Japan had not yet decided whether to contribute more to the IMF, but would coordinate with other countries before deciding its position.”We appreciate the steps Europe has taken so far,” Azumi told reporters.”But the remaining question is whether or not we need to see additional efforts from Europe before the IMF takes a bigger role. We don’t know how other countries view Europe’s polices, so we hope to hear their views.”European nations are pushing for bigger IMF contributions as a backstop in case its two-year old sovereign debt crisis worsens. Some countries say Europe has enough money to contain its crisis and have taken a dim view of pumping more money into the IMF.German Chancellor Angela Merkel called Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda late on Monday, according to Japan’s foreign ministry, after European finance ministers agreed on Friday to raise the combined lending capacity of their two bailout funds to 700 billion euros from 500 billion euros.Finance ministers from the world’s 20 biggest developing and developed economies, the G20, meet on April 20 in Washington to discuss an increase of resources for the IMF.Azumi said Japan and China will hold finance minister-level talks in Tokyo on April 7, focusing on the global economic outlook and areas where the two countries can strengthen economic cooperation.
Source : Reuters News
TOKYO, April 3 (Reuters) -
Japan needs more time to decide whether to restart two offline nuclear reactors, the trade minister said on Tuesday, as concerns about a summer power crunch vie with safety worries in the wake of last year’s Fukushima crisis.Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda will meet three cabinet members on Tuesday to discuss restarting the reactors, but will not make any immediate decision, Trade Minister Yukio Ed ano, who holds the energy portfolio, told reporters.”Safety should be ensured to avoid massive leaks of radioactive materials as occurred in the Fukushima crisis even if an earthquake and tsunami that exceed past expectations occur,” Edano told reporters.”We should also obtain the understanding of local communities in that regard Continue reading REFILE-UPDATE 2-Japan holds off on decision to restart reactors ( Reuters News ) →
Kyodo
SHINGU, Wakayama Pref. — A whale museum in Taiji, Wakayama Prefecture, held a memorial service Monday for a whale that died there shortly after its birth in fiscal 2011.Cetacean ceremony: A monk prays Monday during a memorial service at a whale museum in Taiji, Wakayama Prefecture, for a whale that died last year at the museum shortly after its birth. KYODOKatsuki Hayashi, the general manager of the museum, said that recent improvements in workers’ skills at the facility have minimized the number of animal deaths.The museum keeps 34 whales spanning seven species. The newborn calf was only whale to die last year.”We’d like to make efforts to eliminate the number of deaths for fiscal 2012, too,” Hayashi said.The museum also houses 453 fish covering 52 species and 205 invertebrates from 35 species.Taiji is well known for its tradition of dolphin and whale hunting, and its annual dolphin slaughter has drawn criticism and protests from environmental activists around the world.
Source : The Japan Times
Kyodo
Deputy Prime Minister Katsuya Okada on Sunday acknowledged the importance of the opposition parties in passing social security and tax reform legislation, including the sales tax hike.”The bills will not pass the House of Councilors without the support of the opposition parties, particularly the Liberal Democratic Party,” Okada said on a TV program aired by NHK. “It is quite important to build consensus during the deliberations at the House of Representatives.”The Upper House is still in under the control of the opposition bloc.Okada also said there are “considerable voices within the LDP seeking a tax increase.”Shizuka Kamei, leader of Kokumin Shinto (People’s New Party), the junior coalition partner of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan, repeated that his party will exit the coalition over the issue.”I have already told Prime Minister (Yoshihiko) Noda,” Kamei, a vocal opponent of the levy, said. “It is already decided.”Kamei said he will form a new political party to be headed by Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara.Despite his hardline stance, the majority of his party wants to maintain its partnership with the DPJ. This includes Financial Services Minister Shozaburo Jimi, a Kokumin Shinto member who signed the tax hike bill in a Cabinet meeting last week.The proposal to double the sales tax has drawn fire even from DPJ lawmakers, particularly those close to former party chief Ichiro Ozawa, who is being harangued in a prolonged trial.Among them, Takatane Kiuchi, a Lower House member from the Tokyo No. 9 constituency, is considering leaving the party over the tax bills, sources said Sunday.On Friday, four senior vice ministers and parliamentary secretaries close to Ozawa submitted letters of resignation to the prime minister’s office to protest the Cabinet’s approval of the tax bill. Some DPJ officials who back Ozawa did likewise.
Source : The Japan Times
The government asked former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to visit North Korea in early January and offer Japan’s condolences over the death of Kim Jong Il, hoping to improve bilateral relations, but he rejected the proposal, government sources said Saturday.The ruling Democratic Party of Japan thought the gesture might lead to the resumption of stalled bilateral talks, and its executives sounded out the former Liberal Democratic Party leader, the sources said.But Koizumi, who visited Pyongyang in September 2002 and May 2004 as prime minister to hold talks with Kim, told them that “Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda should do this.In February though, people close to Koizumi approached the prime minister’s office and indicated his willingness to visit the North around March 26, immediately after its national 100-day mourning period for Kim ended, the sources said.The government began making arrangements for the trip with Pyongyang through an informal channel, but the prime minister’s office started expressing reservations about the plan, they said.According to the sources, the prime minister’s office felt uncertain about Koizumi’s motives and feared his visit might only benefit the LDP, now the main opposition party.The plan was abandoned in early March.
Source : The Japan Times
