Wednesday, April 28, 2010

April - McDonalds Differentiates Product

McDonalds has been one of the most successful companies in Japan when it comes to riding the economic cycle - their aggressive cost cutting during the beginning of the economic difficulties was successful to raise sales. However, now there seems to be a different strategy.

McDonald's Japan has opened new shops with increased comfort and higher price settings in a bid to lessen the burden of higher operating costs.

The major fast food chain operator has renovated 13 of its McDonald's shops in central Tokyo, including those in Shibuya and Minato wards, into more spacious and relaxing restaurants with elegant designs.

Designed by a French decorator, the renovated shops feature sophisticated black and brown tones, instead of the chain's trademark red and yellow colors, and a more luxurious atmosphere created using light-emitting diode (LED) lights and new staff uniforms. The company has also installed sofas at the restaurants for more customer comfort.

Meanwhile, the company has set product prices at these shops at 10 to 50 yen more expensive than those for conventional McDonald's outlets.

Despite offering its products at low uniform prices nationwide, McDonald's has been forced to pay high rent for the stores in central urban areas.

"There has been a lack of balance (between costs and prices)," a company official said, explaining that the hamburger chain has decided to embark on the new business model to see "how far customers will accept price hikes based on improved services."

The company will decide whether to increase the number of such outlets after studying their ability to attract customers.

In Europe, there are already over 790 McDonald hamburger shops with similar upscale concepts.


http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/business/news/20100427p2a00m0na017000c.html

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

March - Deflation bottoming out?

Corporate service prices fell in March at their slowest pace in more than a year, backing up BOJ Policy Board members' views that deflationary pressure is easing.

The prices that firms pay for services such as transportation and advertisements slid 1.1 percent from a year earlier, the smallest decline since November 2008, the BOJ said Monday.

The drop in service prices has moderated since August as the export-led recovery spurs corporate profits, reducing the need for them to pare costs, according to economist Azusa Kato.

BOJ policy makers are expected to predict an end to consumer price declines for the year through March 2012 when they release their outlook report Friday.


http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nb20100427n5.html

IMF Raises Japan GDP Growth to 1.9%; warns on deflation

In its World Economic Outlook, the IMF raised its forecast for Japan's growth this year to 1.9 percent from 1.7 percent in January, and for Asia's developing economies to 8.7 percent from 8.4 percent.

It maintained its forecast for China at a 10 percent expansion and said the withdrawal of exceptional monetary stimulus put in place in 2009 would minimize the risks from excessively loose credit conditions.

Japan, on the other hand, may need to ease its already very-loose monetary policy further, the IMF said, warning of the potential damage deflation can do to its fragile economic recovery.


http://in.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idINIndia-47887520100421

March - Consumer sentiment up for 3rd straight month

Japan's consumer sentiment rose for the third straight month in March amid signs of improving employment conditions, the government said Monday, upgrading its monthly assessment on consumer confidence.

The index of sentiment among households made up of two or more people gained 1.1 points from February to 40.9, the Cabinet Office said. The index, however, stayed below the boom-or-bust threshold of 50.

The office upgraded its assessment for the second consecutive month, saying the country's consumer confidence "has recently shown signs of recovery." It had said the confidence became "almost flat" in February.


http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9F5UV200&show_article=1

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Will Japan go Bankrupt

Japan's has a public debt mountain bigger than that of any other industrialised nation.

Public debt is expected to hit 200 percent of GDP in the next year as the government tries to spend its way out of the economic doldrums despite plummeting tax revenues and soaring welfare costs for its ageing population.

Based on fiscal 2010's nominal GDP of 475 trillion yen, Japan's debt is estimated to reach around 950 trillion yen -- or roughly 7.5 million yen per person.

Despite crawling out of a severe year-long recession in 2009, Japan's recovery remains fragile with deflation, high public debt and weak domestic demand all concerns for policymakers.

Japan was stuck in a deflationary spiral for years after its asset price bubble burst in the early 1990s, hitting corporate earnings and prompting consumers to put off purchases in the hope of further price drops.

Its huge public debt is a legacy of massive stimulus spending during the economic "lost decade" of the 1990s, as well as a series of pump-priming packages to tackle the recession which began in 2008.

Standard & Poor's in January warned that it might cut its rating on Japanese government bonds, which could raise Japan's borrowing costs amid the faltering efforts of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's government to curb debt.

The system of Japanese government bonds being bought by institutions such as the huge Japan Post Bank has been key in enabling Japan to remain buoyant since its stock market crash of 1990.

"There is no problem as long as there are flows of money in the bond market," said Kumano.

"It's hard to predict when the bond market might collapse, but it would happen when the market judges that Japan's ability to finance its debt is not sustainable anymore."

"And when that happens, the yen will plummet and a capital flight from Japan's government bonds to foreign bonds will occur," he said.

Yet others argue that there is no precedent for the ratio of debt to GDP nearing 200 percent being dangerous.

Nomura Securities economist Takehide Kiuchi cited Britain's government debt in the post-war period "which reached 260 percent but (the government) didn't face a debt crisis.

"There is no answer to the question of what the critical level of debt is for a government to go bust."

Instead, the most realistic hazard brought by huge Japanese debt is prolonged deflation under a shrinking economy, say analysts.

"Regaining fiscal health needs fiscal austerity, which could weigh on economic growth," said Kiuchi.

"And when the economy is bad, people don't spend money as they are worried about their future, which in turn intensifies the deflational trend," he said.

Continued deflation could further worsen Japan's fiscal health because of less tax revenue and more stimulus spending, stirring fears over big tax hikes, which in turn weigh on demand and again reinforce deflation, analysts said.

The key to breaking the vicious cycle is drafting a feasible economic growth strategy for Japan, they said.

"If the economy grows, tax revenue increases," Kumano of Dai-ichi Life said.

Since 2001 Japan's annual growth rate has peaked at 2.7 percent in 2004.

The economy shrank 1.2 percent in 2008 and 5.2 percent last year.

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's centre-left government has pledged to announce details of its new strategy in June, which aims to lift annual growth to two percent by focusing on the environment, health, tourism and improved ties with the rest of Asia.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100411/ts_afp/japaneconomydebtfocus_20100411061941

April - Gyudon Price War to Pick up customer numbers

Three of the major Japanese restaurant chains specializing in beef-on-rice dishes have launched a price war, vying for customers with offers of cheaper meals.

The chains, Yoshinoya, Sukiya and Matsuya have dropped the price of their beef-on-rice dishes to between 250 and 270 yen, albeit for a limited period.

Yoshinoya apparently lowered its prices after facing stiff competition from its two main rivals. In December last year, Sukiya and Matsuya lowered the price of their regular beef-bowl servings to 280 and 320 yen, respectively. Yoshinoya did not immediately follow suit, pointing out that it was using 100 percent high-priced U.S. beef, but it started to lose customers as a result, with traffic at its existing stores down 22.3 percent in March compared with the same month the previous year.

Yoshinoya's move is a temporary measure to help turn around its performance, but immediately after the restaurant operator launched its campaign, Sukiya and Matsuya announced a limited sale undercutting Yoshinoya's prices once again, meaning the chain could boast of the lowest prices for just two days.

Yoshinoya has remained calm, with a public relations representative stating: "It's convenience stores and McDonald's that we are competing with. The effects (of the price battle) are not zero, but they are small."

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/business/news/20100410p2a00m0na005000c.html

Number of 'freeters' up 80,000 in first rise in six years

The number of freeters, or young workers with nonregular and unstable jobs, came to 1.78 million in 2009, up 80,000 from 2008 and posting the first year-on-year increase in six years

An official of the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry attributed the increase to a difficult employment situation and said the number of freeters could continue to rise this year.

About 20 percent of prospective high school and university graduates seeking employment had not found jobs as of the end of January.

An increase of freeters, whose work is largely unskilled, is considered a problem, as young workers in the category usually find it difficult to obtain job skills and switch to regular jobs.

The internal affairs ministry defines freeters as part-time workers aged 15 to 34, excluding students and married women.

The number of male freeters stood at 810,000, up 50,000 from the previous year, while that of female freeters was 970,000, up 30,000, according to the internal affairs ministry.


http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20100411a5.html

March - Retail Sentiment Improving

CONFIDENCE among Japanese merchants rose to its highest level in almost three years last month, signalling that the benefits of the export-led recovery are reaching households.

The Japanese Economy Watchers index, a survey of barbers, taxi drivers and others who deal with consumers, climbed to 47.4, a fourth straight gain, the Cabinet Office said in Tokyo. That's the highest level since April 2007.

The Cabinet Office report adds to signs that a stabilising job market is encouraging consumers to spend, even as deflation persists and wages continue to fall.

February's unemployment rate held steady at a 10-month low, workers' overtime hours increased and sentiment about jobs led gains in household confidence for a second month.

Consumers are spending on items beyond those that qualify for government incentives. Sales of clothing advanced 8.4 per cent in February from a year earlier, the Trade Ministry's retail report showed last month.

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's government extended programs that provide incentives to buy cars and home appliances. Those measures boosted household outlays on durable goods for a third consecutive quarter (ending in December), even as spending on services declined, the Cabinet Office's gross domestic product data shows.


http://www.smh.com.au/business/household-spending-lifts-japan-20100409-rymr.html

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Anti Yakuza Rules Used in interesting ways

An article on the resignation of Fujitsu's President for alleged joint work with a person who had worked at a company with anti social connections.

Showing how the anti-yakuza measures are being used in interesting new ways

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304017404575165761494852580.html?mod=WSJ_hp_us_mostpop_read

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Deflation Effects in Japan

TOKYO - If you live in Southeast Asia and need cheap clothing, come to Tokyo and check out these prices: 700 yen (US$7.45) for jeans, 1,000 yen for women's boots, and 7,800 yen for men's suits - about a third of what they cost a decade ago, when Japanese used to go to Bangkok and Hong Kong to shop.

For 12 straight months, prices in Japan have been falling, the country's Statistics Bureau said last week, and land prices are roughly half what they were 20 years ago. Prices fell by 1.2% in February from a year earlier. The finance minister and Bank of Japan board members are promising to stem the price slide, and many financial analysts are warning that further "de-flay" could delay any economic recovery.

Declining prices can encourage consumers, expecting further price falls, to delay purchases. That hits company turnover and profits, prompting further price cuts and factory lay-offs to stem costs - further eroding overall consumer purchasing power and sales. Government income from sales and other taxes is also hit in the downward price spiral.

Yet Eisuke Sakakibara, famous as "Mr Yen" when he was a top bureaucrat at the Ministry of Finance in the 1990s, argues that Japan's deflation is not necessarily a bad thing. "We aren't in a deflationary spiral. I do not think mild deflation in Japan is a bad thing," he said at a forum of financial analysts last week in Tokyo. "We should enjoy mild deflation, rather than ponder it as a disease."

Sakakibara says deflation is due to economic integration, as intra-regional trade in East Asia reaches 57% of all the region's trade. "If you import cheap goods from China, then naturally prices will come down, compared to the conventional prices we're used to in Japan. It's very difficult to avoid deflation by monetary policies, when it's because of structural changes. Relatively slow deflation is something given."

Yet many others strongly disagree, saying deflation will further dampen economic growth and lead to an eternally greater burden of debt compared with what the country produces, or gross domestic product (GDP).

"Deflation is a bad thing. People don't want to spend money, that is the big problem," says Masaaki Kanno, a former senior official of the Bank of Japan, currently chief economist at JP Morgan in Tokyo. "Now deflation and the economy are affecting each other. It's not easy to see what is the egg and what is the chicken. Without ending deflation, the government's target of 3% growth is impossible."

The Japanese economy grew by 0.9% in the final three months of last year, or 3.8% on an annualized basis.

"Deflation corrodes the health of your economy long term," says Richard Jerram, head of Asian economics for Macquarie Capital Securities in Tokyo. "Non-manufacturing companies are more pessimistic than they were a year ago. Deflation means it's impossible to fix the fiscal problems in the economy without some nominal growth. If you have persistent deflation for the next five to 10 years, public finances are going to crash."

As prices and wages fall, many Japanese are putting off purchases of appliances or cars, since they might be cheaper next year. Yet when chatting in supermarkets about "de-flay" (deflation) and "in-flay" (inflation), many Japanese say they are kowaii (afraid). After seeing prices spiral too high in the 1980s and subsequently decline, they still don't reflect the real worth of things.

Tokyo consumers, who tend to rent apartments, even when they cost $1,000 for a tiny living space in the suburbs, rather than own homes, are all for cheaper food, clothing and housing in a city where urban parking spots fetch between US$200 to $600 a month. Many feel that prices still have a long way to fall toward "normal" levels.

Things haven't been normal since the early 1980s, when the Japanese currency stood at 300 yen to the US dollar (compared with 93 this week). Back then, a spartan room in a seaside village bed-and-breakfast (minshuku), at 3,000 yen per person, equated to $40 total for a family of four; a fair rate, not unlike a decent motel in America. Since workers could easily afford a 900 yen lunch special of pork on rice with miso soup, thousands of mom-and-pop shops sprouted up to serve them, fostering a culture of full employment, which attracted thousands of foreign workers.

After the 1985 Plaza Accord, major powers intervened in currency markets to weaken the dollar and strengthen the yen. The goal, echoed in present-day international pressures on China, was to open Japan to more imports and slow down its export juggernaut. The yen quickly doubled in value, and property values skyrocketed, to 50 times their 1950s levels in some cases. Even the cramped wooden house where this correspondent lived in the Osaka area in 1989 was worth $1 million at that time.

Expecting Japanese to get wealthier, businesses jacked up their prices to absurd levels, and Japanese kept buying $60 bottles of wine and $100 melons because they feared prices would rise further. But when the bubble burst, and the stock market benchmark index, the Nikkei 225, shrank from 39,000 to 9,000 in the 1990s, prices didn't fall accordingly. Many landlords, farmers, and suppliers stubbornly held their prices firm, believing consumer demand would recover - which it never did.

Today, even amid Japan's worst downturn since the war, minshuku owners still expect a family of four to pay 12,000 yen, despite 25 years of wear and chronic vacancy as city-folk stay home instead of taking weekend breaks.

Any sudden jump in economic growth might not boost prices. During the export boom of 2006, Japanese corporations channeled record profits toward research rather than into rewards for their workers. Employees felt betrayed, and refrained from buying their own company's products. Since wages on average were still 10% lower than 1997 levels, household spending continued to drop.

Suburban property values, meanwhile, have fallen to half of their 1990 peak. Even though home prices are less "stupid" than before - as many Japanese say - many younger workers are either afraid of losing their jobs, or are waiting for prices to sink to a lower bottom. China's boom can't help, because Chinese can't build cheap houses and bring them to Japan.

Given Japan's declining population, policymakers are faced with tough choices on how to turn things around. The Bank of Japan last month doubled a credit program for commercial lenders to 20 trillion yen. Governor Masaaki Shirakawa said he hoped the move would lower borrowing costs and spur growth and prices. Former BoJ official Kanno says the central bank should lead the way out of deflation.

"The BoJ is responsible for ending deflation," he says. "They shouldn't wait for the government. Discussing inflation targeting is simply a waste of time. People's price expectations will not be affected by higher inflation targets."

Kanno says spending 40 trillion to 50 trillion yen might trigger inflation but wouldn't be sustainable and would increase debt servicing costs. "All the best policies are going to have short-term pain to get the best long-term results. Without taking these risks, Japan will fall into a trap which we can't find an exit. The government should let people know how bad deflation is. Japanese journalists don't want to tell the truth to the Japanese public. The current public pension system will not be sustained."

While agreeing with many of Kanno's points, Macquarie Capital's Jerram doubts whether the central bank can fight deflation on its own.

"Deflation everywhere else is a monetary phenomenon, but Japan sees itself as unique, because deflation is due to deregulation," says Jerram, who has been monitoring Japan for two decades. "The tolerance of deflation is extremely unorthodox. The United States for example will take extreme measures to avoid going into the deflation hole. The problem with tolerating it is, you wake up one day and feel the need to do something about it. Japan is in such a deep hole, that a little bit of fiddling around the edges, such as what the Bank of Japan is doing, is not going to make that much of a difference."

Jerram says the politicians should take action instead of telling the BOJ to try harder. "I think the government doesn't understand it well enough. To be fair to them, they just took office six months ago, and they're starting to see how bad things are. You need to tell the public that the last 10 to 15 years have been a terrible mistake. It's a question of whether you want a crisis now or a crisis later."

One solution, he says, is to set short-term interest rates at minus 3 or 4%. "The idea that nothing can be done is a fantasy. If you fight deflation, it appears to hurt pensioners and lower income workers, but it might be better in the long term."

Yet Sakakibara warns that extreme measures could make things worse.

"Just because prices are coming down doesn't mean Japan is in a recession. We just had a recovery combined with deflation. We shouldn't worry about deflation too much," says Sakakibara, now a professor at Waseda University. "Taking actions to solve deflation might have some undesirable side-effect. We need to really worry when deflation comes with a recession."


http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Japan/LD07Dh01.html

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

March - Toyota Japan sales booming despite global recalls

Toyota sales are booming in Japan, up a hefty 50 percent last month, shrugging off any fallout from massive global recalls.

Toyota Motor Corp. sales in Japan totaled 204,514 vehicles, up from 135,700 the same month last year, for the eighth straight month of on-year rise, the Japan Automobile Dealers Association said Thursday.

Japan's auto sales have been recovering, with sales jumping 10 percent in the year ending in March from the same period a year earlier to 3.2 million vehicles, according to the group. It said that was the first year-on-year increase in seven years.

Sales have gotten a lift from government tax breaks and incentives for fuel-efficient vehicles, helping a recovery from a sharp slowdown the past year.

Toyota's U.S. sales surged 40 percent in March, as the automaker offered its biggest incentives ever, including zero-percent financing on models that previously were subject to recalls, low-priced leasing and free maintenance.

Automakers are scheduled to report March U.S. sales on Thursday. Toyota's sales fell 9 percent in February while the broader industry's climbed 13 percent.



http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Toyota-Japan-sales-booming-apf-1881209625.html?x=0&.v=1

February - Wages Fall

Wages slid in February for the 21st straight month, extending their longest losing streak in seven years in a sign that workers aren't reaping the benefits of the export-led recovery.

Monthly wages including overtime and bonuses slipped 0.6 percent from a year earlier to ¥264,456 after dropping 0.2 percent in January, the labor ministry said.

Reports over the past week indicate the resurgence in overseas demand that has bolstered corporate profits has been slow to filter through to households, exacerbating deflation. Firms are concentrating on cutting costs, leaving little leeway to increase pay.

Winter bonuses slumped a record 9.3 percent from a year earlier to ¥380,258, the lowest since the ministry started collecting the data in 1990, Wednesday's report shows. At the same time, gains in exports prompted manufacturers to increase overtime hours by 0.7 percent from a month earlier.

Household spending declined 0.5 percent in February, the government said Tuesday, the first drop in seven months, and a reduction in payrolls kept the unemployment rate unchanged at 4.9 percent. Industrial production also fell, snapping 11 straight month-on-month gains.

The economy will expand at an annualized 1 percent pace in the three months that ended Wednesday, according to the median estimate of analysts surveyed last month. That would follow the previous quarter's 3.8 percent growth, which was driven by exports and consumer outlays supported by government stimulus measures.

Some economists, including Yonosuke Iwata, predict wages will start to improve thanks to a recovery in corporate earnings. Firms are forecasting that profits will rise 32.3 percent in the year starting Thursday, compared with the 14.1 percent drop anticipated in the business year that just ended, a Finance Ministry survey shows.



http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nb20100401n1.html

February - jobless rate unchanged at 4.9%

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate stood at 4.9 percent in February, unchanged from the previous month.

However, overall jobless ranks rose by 250,000 from a year earlier to 3.24 million, the 16th straight monthly expansion.

Of the total, 1.10 million people lost their jobs involuntarily due to the decisions of their employers, up 160,000 from a year before.

The jobless rate, the lowest level since March 2009 when it stood at 4.8 percent.

Some economists are hoping the worst may also be over on the employment front, but a possible slowdown in industrial production in the coming months could create a drag on the recovery.

A report released Tuesday says industrial output in February weakened for the first time in a year, falling a larger than expected seasonally adjusted 0.9 percent from the previous month.

"Signs of a slowdown in output by automakers and high-tech makers, which have played a major role in pulling Japan out of a serious recession, in the April-June quarter is a source of concern to the job market's near future," said Jun Tsukasa, chief economist at Nikko Cordial Securities Inc.

In February, jobholders fell by 800,000 to 61.85 million, marking the 25th straight month of decline, with the manufacturing industry continuing to see big job losses despite a recent pickup in exports.

Employment in manufacturing fell by 540,000 from the previous year to 10.49 million. However, the latest shrinkage was smaller than the 750,000 job losses in both January and December.

In contrast, the medical and social welfare services sector saw a sharp rise in the number of jobholders, up 420,000 to 6.59 million. The rise is the largest since July 2004, according to the ministry.

The jobless rate for men was 5.2 percent, unchanged from January, and that for women fell 0.2 point to 4.4 percent.

Tsukasa said the improvement in the women's unemployment rate is apparently connected to a rise in the number of part-time job offers made to young and elderly women in the retail and social welfare industries.

The ratio of job offers to job seekers was at a seasonally adjusted 0.47, up from 0.46 in January, the labor ministry said. This means there were 47 jobs available for every 100 job seekers.

The ratio, which improved for the second straight month, was the best reading since last April.

The number of job offers jumped 1.5 percent from the previous month and that of job seekers fell 1.9 percent, according to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry.


http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nb20100331a3.html

February - Household spending declines 0.5%

Average monthly household spending in February dropped 0.5% from a year ago in price-adjusted real terms to 261,163 yen, marking the first year-on-year decline in seven months, according to the government.

The preliminary data on spending by households of two people or more were released by the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry on Tuesday.

The ministry attributed the fall in household spending to a lower spending on car purchase, saying that statistics on car purchase tend to volatile.

The ministry therefore believes that the recovery trend in household spending remains unchanged.

On the other hand, the average monthly income of salaried households increased 1.3 percent from a year ago to 464,866 yen in February, marking the first increase in seven months.

The increase is believed to result from the improved employment rates among women and delayed payment of winter bonuses by some small and midsize companies that were unable to pay the bonus at the end of last year.



http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/business/T100330006235.htm

February - retail sales rise 4.2%

Japan's retail sales jumped for the second straight month in February, offering a sign the country's economic recovery is broadening to households.

Sales rose 4.2 percent from a year earlier, driven by higher demand for cars, energy and machinery, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said Monday. Retail sales rose 2.3 percent in January from a year earlier.

But the gains may not mean that demand is strong enough to reverse dangerous deflationary pressures. The country's core consumer price index fell 1.2 percent in February from a year earlier for the 12th consecutive month of decline.

Before January, retail sales had declined for 15 straight months as the world's second biggest economy struggled to emerge from its worst recession since World War II.

Robust export demand from emerging economies like China is helping Japan grow again but the recovery has been slow to reach workers and families as companies continued to cut costs.

In January, wage declines decelerated and the unemployment rate fell to a 10-month low of 4.9 percent. Growing consumer confidence unexpectedly pushed up retail sales 0.9 percent from a month earlier.

Large-scale retailers, which includes supermarkets and department stores, did not fare as well. Sales fell 4 percent from the previous year after adjusting for a change in the number of stores.




http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/business/news/20100329p2g00m0dm018000c.html

2011 graduate job prospects as grim

Graduates from universities or high schools in spring 2011 will face much the same difficulty in getting jobs as this spring's recruits, according to a survey by The Asahi Shimbun.

The survey of 100 companies found that 48 firms plan to hire next year roughly the same number of graduates as they do this spring.

Fifteen companies will hire more graduates next spring, while 21 will take on fewer. Sixteen companies were undecided. A year ago, the corresponding numbers were six firms hiring more, 37 hiring the same, 44 hiring fewer and 13 undecided.

As of February, 80 percent of university seniors had landed jobs. The figure was the lowest since 2000.



http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201003280269.html

February - Exports jump 45.3% on PY

Japan's exports jumped a year-on-year 45.3 percent in February to 5,128.67 billion yen, the third straight monthly expansion, adding to signs that the nation's gradual economic recovery has been driven by growing demand from the rest of Asia and the United States, Finance Ministry data showed Wednesday.

Exports to all regions turned positive for the first time since August 2007, the ministry said, adding that the growth rate is the third largest on record.

Imports rose for the second straight month, up 29.5 percent to 4,477.69 billion yen, registering the biggest growth since February 2006, the ministry said in a preliminary report.

As a result, Japan's trade surplus stood at 650.98 billion yen, up 818.8 percent -- the second largest on record.

Exports to China widened for the fourth consecutive month, up 47.7 percent to 902.42 billion yen, with demand for passenger cars, auto parts and high-tech devices strengthening.

Imports from China, Japan's No. 1 trading partner, grew for the first time in 16 months, up 54.3 percent to 926.98 billion yen, partly because shipments of clothing expanded for the first time since last March.

With its Asian neighbors, Japan's exports rose 55.7 percent to 2,775.59 billion yen, as more semiconductors and electronic components were shipped to such economies as Taiwan and Malaysia.

To the United States, exports increased for the second month running, up 50.4 percent to 837.07 billion yen, as shipments of cars in terms of value ballooned a record 129.9 percent from a year ago.

Finance Ministry officials said the latest figures show that Toyota Motor Corp.'s recall problems did not lead to a slowdown in exports of Japanese cars and other manufactured products to the U.S. market.

However, they noted that the record growth in auto shipments is attributable to a favorable year-on-year comparison.


In February, Japan's exports reached about 70 percent of their peaks before the economic crisis took a heavy toll on almost all kinds of businesses.

Shipments to the European Union rose for the third straight month, up 19.7 percent to 588.02 billion yen. Imports grew for the first time in 17 months, up 7.3 percent to 422.08 billion yen, with more pharmaceutical products and cars entering the Japanese market.

By region, exports to the Middle East, Central and Eastern Europe, and Russia turned positive in the reporting month for the first time in many months, according to the ministry.



http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/business/news/20100324p2g00m0bu034000c.html

2009 - Household assets rise for 1st time in 3 years

The outstanding balance of the nation's household financial assets at the end of 2009 climbed by 2.5 percent from a year earlier, posting its first increase in three years, according to the Bank of Japan.

The central bank's quarterly flow of funds report said the outstanding balance of household financial assets in the October-December period that ended on Dec. 31 last year rose by 35 trillion yen to 1.46 yen quadrillion.

The balance stayed above the 1.4 yen quadrillion mark for the seventh straight year.

An increase in the value of shares and investment trusts thanks to a recovery of stock prices pushed up the value of households' financial assets, the central bank said.

By type of financial asset, shares and other equities, valued at 97 trillion yen, saw a 16.2 percent year-on-year increase, while assets in the form of investment trust and beneficiary certificates rose by 10.8 percent to 53 trillion yen.

Household assets in the shape of cash and deposits, which account for 55.2 percent of the total, rose by 1.5 percent to 804 trillion yen--a record high since the central bank began compiling such data in 1979.

The Bank of Japan said households' efforts to cut back on spending to cope with unchanged or declining incomes helped increase the financial assets.




http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/business/T100323005811.htm

February - Consumer Sentiment up for 2nd Straight month

Consumer sentiment improved for the second straight month in February, amid easing worries about a double-dip recession, the government said Monday.

The index of sentiment among households made up of two or more people gained 0.8 point from January to 39.8, reaching the highest level since last October, the Cabinet office said.

However, the gauge remained below the threshold of 50, indicating that pessimistic views outnumber optimistic ones.

The index is calculated based on whether consumers expect the economy in four areas -- livelihoods, income growth, employment and willingness to buy durable goods -- will "improve," "improve somewhat," "remain unchanged," "deteriorate somewhat" or "deteriorate" over the coming six months.

All the components marked increases. Livelihoods rose 0.9 point to 40.7, income growth grew 0.9 point to 38.8, employment jumped 1.1 points to 34.2 and willingness to buy durable goods gained 0.1 point to 45.4.


http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9EEU0N00&show_article=1