Japan finmin calls for transparent Greek rescue plan (Reuters)

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese Finance Minister Jun Azumi urged Europe on Tuesday to come up with a transparent scheme to resolve the Greek debt crisis, to help stabilize the world economy and keep the euro from weakening too much against the yen.

Azumi, speaking to reporters after a cabinet meeting, said he had told European Central Bank member Christian Noyer in a meeting on Monday that Europe must swiftly implement measures agreed in July to beef up Europe's bailout fund.

Governments in Europe are passing measures to expand the 440 billion euro ($590 billion) European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) bailout fund by allowing it to make precautionary loans, help recapitalize banks and buy government debt in the secondary market.

"I told Noyer that a sense of uncertainty cannot be dispelled unless (euro zone countries) show a process whereby they will immediately implement rescue measures agreed on July 21 through approval in parliaments of 17 member nations," Azumi told reporters after a cabinet meeting.

"To stabilize the world economy and halt the yen's excessive rises against the euro, I want (Europe) to make the Greek rescue scheme easy to understand and make its process more transparent for market players."

Azumi also said Tokyo share prices are undervalued when looking at Japanese listed firms' actual strength, and renewed a pledge to tackle the yen's rises, saying they are becoming a destabilizing factor for Japanese exporters.

The yen hovered at a 10-year peak of 101 against the euro on Tuesday and held firm against the dollar as fears of a Greek debt default prompted a massive flight to safety that offset worries about yen-weakening intervention by Japan.

The Nikkei average dropped over 2 percent on Tuesday to its lowest in six months below 8,360 as trading companies fell on weaker commodity prices and the financial sector was pressured by fears that Europe's debt crisis is spreading.

Despite ever deeper cost-cutting measures, Greece admitted on Monday that it will miss its fiscal deficit target this year, sparking fresh doubts over a planned second international bailout.

Azumi also said budget requests from Japanese ministries and government offices are expected to top 98 trillion yen ($1.278 trillion), a record amount, for the fiscal year from next April, due in part to calls for funding to rebuild areas devastated by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

(Reporting by Tetsushi Kajimoto and Leika Kihara; Editing by Michael Watson and Chris Gallagher)

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Japan finmin calls for transparent Greek rescue plan

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese Finance Minister Jun Azumi urged Europe on Tuesday to come up with a transparent scheme to resolve the Greek debt crisis, to help stabilize the world economy and keep the euro from weakening too much against the yen.

Azumi, speaking to reporters after a cabinet meeting, said he had told European Central Bank member Christian Noyer in a meeting on Monday that Europe must swiftly implement measures agreed in July to beef up Europe's bailout fund.

Governments in Europe are passing measures to expand the 440 billion euro ($590 billion) European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) bailout fund by allowing it to make precautionary loans, help recapitalize banks and buy government debt in the secondary market.

"I told Noyer that a sense of uncertainty cannot be dispelled unless (euro zone countries) show a process whereby they will immediately implement rescue measures agreed on July 21 through approval in parliaments of 17 member nations," Azumi told reporters after a cabinet meeting.

"To stabilize the world economy and halt the yen's excessive rises against the euro, I want (Europe) to make the Greek rescue scheme easy to understand and make its process more transparent for market players."

Azumi also said Tokyo share prices are undervalued when looking at Japanese listed firms' actual strength, and renewed a pledge to tackle the yen's rises, saying they are becoming a destabilizing factor for Japanese exporters.

The yen hovered at a 10-year peak of 101 against the euro on Tuesday and held firm against the dollar as fears of a Greek debt default prompted a massive flight to safety that offset worries about yen-weakening intervention by Japan.

The Nikkei average dropped over 2 percent on Tuesday to its lowest in six months below 8,360 as trading companies fell on weaker commodity prices and the financial sector was pressured by fears that Europe's debt crisis is spreading.

Despite ever deeper cost-cutting measures, Greece admitted on Monday that it will miss its fiscal deficit target this year, sparking fresh doubts over a planned second international bailout.

Azumi also said budget requests from Japanese ministries and government offices are expected to top 98 trillion yen ($1.278 trillion), a record amount, for the fiscal year from next April, due in part to calls for funding to rebuild areas devastated by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

(Reporting by Tetsushi Kajimoto and Leika Kihara; Editing by Michael Watson and Chris Gallagher)

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Japan PM picks fiscal hawk Okada as finmin: reports (Reuters)

TOKYO (Reuters) – New Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has picked a like-minded fiscal conservative as finance minister and a close ally as his No. 2 minister in his cabinet to be launched on Friday, Japanese media reported.

Private broadcasters TBS and Fuji TV said on Thursday that former ruling party secretary general Katsuya Okada, 58, will take the finance portfolio as Japan's economy grapples with the yen's sharp rise and public debt that is twice the size of its $5 trillion economy.

"Okada was probably the best choice available. He fits the bill for a finance minister: he is well known, knows his financial policies and is trusted by Noda," said Katsutoshi Inadome, fixed income strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities. Okada has also served as foreign minister.

Noda, 54, who was finance minister in the previous administration, was voted in by parliament this week as the nation's sixth leader in five years.

Noda's new government, faces a mountain of challenges: forging a new energy policy while ending a radiation crisis at a crippled nuclear plant, rebuilding Japan's tsunami-devastated northeast and finding funds to pay for that and vast costs of social welfare in an aging society.

"Okada is likely to maintain Noda's fiscal reform drive including the plan to raise the sales tax," said Junko Nishioka, chief economist at RBS Securities in Tokyo.

Noda -- who must unite warring factions in his fractious Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) while reaching out to the opposition in a divided parliament -- also tapped close ally Osamu Fujmura for the key post of chief cabinet secretary.

Fujimura, 61, will become de facto No.2 in the cabinet, combining the role of top government spokesman with responsibility for liaising with ruling and opposition parties as well as different ministries.

In an effort to win opposition support, Noda on Thursday suggested to the main opposition Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its former partner, the New Komeito party, the creation of joint task forces with the Democrats to discuss reconstruction, tax reforms, and economic stimulus measures including steps to cope with a strong yen.

Noda's Democrats and a tiny coalition partner lack a majority in parliaments upper house, where the opposition can block legislation.

Noda's immediate challenge is to draft and enact a third emergency budget to finance reconstruction spending.

The LDP has said would cooperate with the government on reconstruction policies, but wants Noda to call a snap general election once necessary rebuilding steps have been taken. No election for parliament's powerful lower house need be held until 2013.

On Wednesday, Noda filled top party posts with a mix of allies and rivals in an effort to unite party after a divisive leadership contest.

(Reporting by Kaori Kaneko and Kiyoshi Takenaka; Writing by Rie Ishiguro and Linda Sieg; Editing by Edwina Gibbs and Tomasz Janowski)

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Japan's finmin Noda wins vote to become next PM

Japan's finmin Noda wins vote to become next PM Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda, a fiscal hawk, will become Japan's sixth prime minister in five years after winning a ruling party vote on Monday, an outcome likely to please investors worried about a bulging public debt. Noda, 54, who defeated Trade Minister Banri Kaieda in a run-off vote, must cope with a resurgent yen that threatens exports, forge a new energy policy while ending the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl, and find funds to rebuild from the March 11 tsunami at a time when huge public debt has already triggered a credit downgrade. Financial markets, political commentators and the Japanese public are skeptical whether the new leader will have the vision, determination and time to tackle those challenges.
29 Aug A member of a gang group was arrested last week after inflicting damage at the offices of a Tokyo talent agency in while in search of money lent to the father of actor Taiyo Sugiura, reports Nikkan Gendai (August 27). On August 25, a 57-year-old gangster from the Yamaguchi-gumi, Japan's largest criminal organization, burst into the Akasaka offices of Sky Corporation, where Sugiura, 30, is registered, and broke a glass door with a chair. "I lent money to Sugiura's father, and I want to know where it is," the suspect is quoted as saying. (Tokyo Reporter)
29 Aug Japanese comedy gets a bad rap. Foreigners either knock it for being too silly and too focused on slapstick or too pun-based and difficult to understand. The Japanese sense of humor is most definitely different from its Anglophone counterparts. Some things, however, are so funny that they transcend national borders and linguistic barriers. Learn the next few phrases, and you'll soon be laughing it up in Japanese. It's funny to catch people who aren't paying attention. If, for example, a group of friends are having a conversation, and Stan, an affable guy with a paunch and a tendency to daydream, ends up staring off into the distance, the rest of the group can laugh at him when he finally comes back to reality. In English we use NASA-style lingo to try and "contact" people like this who have "spaced out" - "Earth to Stan. This is Earth. Do you copy? Come in Stan!" (Japan Times)
28 Aug The Japanese, once one of the most TV-addicted people on the planet, are drifting away from the tube -- forcing networks to scramble for other sources of revenue, from pic production, satellite services, Internet streaming sites and other new technologies. Daily TV viewing time, which averaged more than five hours in the 1970s, shrank to 3 hours and 28 minutes by 2010, according to figures compiled by the NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute. Males aged 10 to 20 are watching less than two hours a day. Meanwhile, program ratings have been trending downward for terrestrial networks, pubcaster NHK and commercial rivals TV Asahi, NTV, TBS, Fuji TV and TV Tokyo, despite spikes for major sport events and other special programming. (Variety)
28 Aug A local train in Iwate Prefecture collided with a bear Saturday morning and, after restarting, ploughed into a serow goat, East Japan Railway Co.'s Morioka office said. No passengers were injured, but the accidents proved fatal for the two animals, the JR East office said. The disruption to services caused two rapid trains on the line to be canceled, affecting about 220 passengers, it said. (Japan Times)
27 Aug ON a chilly night last November on the tiny island of Naoshima in the Seto Inland Sea of southern Japan, I found myself alone in a dark concrete gallery, a sweater pulled over my pajamas. I was staying at the Benesse House Museum, a 10-room hotel set inside a contemporary art museum, on the island's craggy southern coast, and still battling jet lag. So instead of tossing in bed, I visited the deserted galleries of the museum - guests of the hotel are permitted to wander beyond closing time. Before long, I was transfixed by Bruce Nauman's art installation, "100 Live and Die," a neon billboard of flashing phrases. (New York Times)

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