news/notes2009.04.11a

はしもと[TODAY'S TOP STORIES] from [The Japan Times]
[BUSINESS NEWS]
Aso unveils record stimulus
Latest package brings total cost to 57 trillion

By TAKAHIRO FUKADA
Sitaff writer

To combat the deepening economic crisis, Prime Minister Taro Aso（麻生太郎） on Friday unveiled an additional stimulus package that calls for record actual spending of 15.4 trillion, or 3 percent of the country's gross domestic product.

Financed by a fiscal 2009 supplementary budget, the overall size of the package is worth more than 56.8 trillion on a project basis, including increased government guarantees for possible losses on private-sector loans for small and midsize companies.

Part of the financing would come from new state bond issuances worth about 10 trillion, bringing the total amount of new bonds to more than 40 trillion, also the largest-ever.

"This is designed to cope with the economic crisis," Aso told a news conference. Emphasizing the seriousness of the difficulties facing the rapidly-shrinking Japanese economy, he also called on opposition parties to cooperate in getting the budget quickly passed through the Diet.

The three goals of the package, Aso said, are to prevent further economic deterioration, to bolster job security and to invest in the country's future economic growth.

Under the newly announced package, the government earmarked 3 trillion for corporate financing, 2 trillion for health and child-rearing assistance that includes annual benefits of 36,000 for children aged 3 to 5, and 1.9 trillion in employment support.

The package also includes 1.6 trillion in incentives for consumers to purchase energy-efficient cars and home appliances.

No gift tax will be imposed on up to 5 million passed to offspring from their parents to purchase a home.

Aso also said that over the long term, the government must reduce snowballing government deficits and the financial burden on future generations.

He once again stressed that the government will carry out tax reforms, hinting at a hike in the unpopular consumption tax, to boost tax revenues and rebuild fiscal soundness of the national coffers when the economy begins to recover.

While praising the size of the spending, experts remain skeptical of its long-term effects and expressed their concerns over increasing the burden on future taxpayers.

Yasunari Ueno, chief market economist at Mizuho Securities Co., expects the large-scale package to help prop up the ailing economy.

"Since money equivalent to 3 percent of gross domestic product will be spent, there will be certain boosting effects" to the economy, Ueno said.

Keisuke Naito, senior economist at Mizuho Research Institute Ltd., also praised the package overall.

"The package has been relatively well compiled, since it features the environment and disaster countermeasures, directions that will be needed in the future," Naito said. "Also because the scale is big, it will have some effect on supporting the economy for the time being."

Believing it difficult now to attain fiscal reconstruction amid the recession, Naito noted the unprecedentedly large-scale spending indicated the government has temporarily suspended its austere fiscal policy initiated by former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who was in office from 2001 to 2006.

"Since the economic environment has rapidly worsened, fiscal reconstruction had to be delayed," Naito said. "Once the economy recovers, the fiscal reconstruction line will have to be there."

On a fiscal basis, Japan's condition is among the worst of the world's major developed countries. The balance of the nation's outstanding debt was forecast to reach around 170 percent of GDP in 2008.


[NATIONAL NEWS]
Steps against Pyongyang widened

By MASAMI ITO and JUN HONGO
Staff writers

With the U.N. Security Council stuck in debate about how to respond to North Korea's rocket launch, Japan increased and extended its own sanctions Friday to condemn the hermit state, which sent the Taepodong-2 over its territory.

North Korea claimed the rocket was carrying a satellite, but Japan, South Korea and the United States say it was a ballistic missile being tested.

While Friday's decision both strengthens and extends Japan's penalties against Pyongyang for another year, the government may have avoided taking stricter options to avoid jeopardizing the ongoing talks at the U.N.

Stricter steps could have included banning all Japanese exports to North Korea or freezing assets belonging to Pyongyang-related groups in Japan.

"The United Nations Security Council is discussing the sanctions over this missile launch and a violation of the U.N. resolution," Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura told reporters.

Tokyo, which bans port calls by North Korean-registered vessels and all imports from the country, will impose tougher regulations on cash remittances and the physical transfer of cash to Pyongyang.

"We already had sanctions on boats, goods and exchanges of people," Kawamura said.

"And we came to the conclusion that it was necessary to look into the flow of money and that is why we took these additional measures," he added.

According to a government release, Japan will ask people carrying 300,000 or more to North Korea, instead of 1 million, to file prior notifications so it can more closely monitor the transactions. Those making electronic remittances of 10 million or more, down from 30 million, will be required to notify the government as well.


[NATIONAL NEWS]
Ozawa tells McCain he opposes Obama's Afghanistan troop surge

Compiled from Kyodo, Staff report

In a Friday meeting with visiting U.S. Sen. John McCain, Democratic Party of Japan leader Ichiro Ozawa（小沢一郎） expressed opposition to President Barack Obama's decision to send more troops to Afghanistan to fight terrorism, DPJ Secretary General Yukio Hatoyama said.

"Though military force can topple a government, it cannot govern people. I cannot agree with it," the leader of the main opposition party was quoted as telling McCain, Obama's opponent in the presidential election last year.

As part of a strategy to fight terrorism laid out by Obama in March, the U.S. will send 4,000 additional troops to Afghanistan along with hundreds of civilian specialists, including diplomats.

At a press conference later, a delegation of U.S. senators led by McCain urged the U.N. Security Council to adopt a resolution condemning North Korea over its rocket launch Sunday.

McCain expressed concern that the North Koreans, as well as the Iranians, have "either acquired or are on the path of acquiring nuclear weapons," adding that Pyongyang's launch is a clear violation of Security Council resolutions that ban the communist state from any ballistic missile activities.

The 2008 Republican presidential candidate is in Tokyo with Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina on a weeklong Asian tour.

In addition to discussing security issues with Prime Minister Taro Aso（麻生太郎） and Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone（中曽根弘文）, McCain said they also exchanged opinions on Japan's economic stimulus package and the planned future transfer of 8,000 U.S. Marines and their dependents from Okinawa to Guam.

McCain told reporters during a news conference held in the U.S. Embassy that he continues to view the U.S.-Japan relationship as of "paramount importance," McCain told reporters at the U.S. Embassy.


[NATIONAL NEWS]
Hashimoto fan donates 100 million

By MINORU MATSUTANI
Staff writer

Osaka Gov. Toru Hashimoto（橋本徹）'s popularity has earned his prefecture a donation of 100 million from a woman in her 80s, an official said Friday.

Hashimoto has often grabbed attention for making blunt remarks critical of public school teachers and the education ministry as well as for his efforts to reduce Osaka's debts. Before the lawyer became governor, his legal advice was sought after by TV shows.

The mystery woman called the prefectural regional welfare division on the morning of March 17 to say she was Hashimoto's fan and wanted to donate money for him to use for welfare, division official Ayumi Hinaga said.

The woman visited a prefectural building with her daughter and son-in-law before lunch that day carrying a backpack filled with 100 million, the official said. Hashimoto, who took office in January last year, met the family for lunch and took a photo with them.

"I heard (Osaka Prefecture) is in financial trouble," Hinaga quoted the woman as saying.

"We appreciate her and her family very much for visiting and donating to us," Hinaga quoted Hashimoto as saying Friday.

Osaka Prefecture has been calling on the public to donate money for various operations, including decorating ginkgo trees on Midosuji street in Osaka and improving education for children. From last May to March it collected 114 million in donations for welfare-related operations this year, she said.

news/notes2009.04.11b

[Today's Papers] from [Slate Magazine]
Five Soldiers Killed in Iraq

By Justin Peters
Posted Saturday, April 11, 2009, at 4:45 AM ET

The Los Angeles Times leads news of the suicide bomber who killed eight (including five U.S. soldiers) and injured 60 in Mosul yesterday in a grim reminder of the continuing tensions in Iraq. The New York Times leads an article forecasting a potential "showdown" between the banking industry and the government as they tussle over the next stage of the financial bailout. The Washington Post leads a piece on the administration's struggle to assess the extent of the threat posed to the U.S. by Somali extremists with purported ties to al Qaeda. Al-Shabab, the nationalist group in question, is unaffiliated with the Somali pirates recently in the news for assaulting an American merchant ship. The Wall Street Journal tops its world-wide newsbox with word that the American sea captain behing held hostage by those pirates failed in a swim-away escape attempt. (In another, separate Somali pirate incident, a hostage was killed when the French navy attempted to recapture a hijacked yacht.)

Yesterday's bombing in Mosul marks the first time in over a year that this many soldiers have died in one combat incident. The incident comes less than a week after the president's visit to Baghdad, where he reiterated his plans to withdraw all combat brigades from Iraq by 2010. The LAT article notes that Baghdad has seen a marked rise in violence in recent weeks, and subtly but effectively challenges the notion that Iraq has, in fact, stabilized.

Who could've predicted that America's bailed-out banks would eventually resort to petty, unreasonable behavior? Many banks still need the TARP money, but resent being told that they must, at a loss, rush to divest themselves of so-called toxic assets. Some banks, worried that Obama may start demanding Detroit-style management changes, are hastening to return the bailout cash while chastising the government for having the nerve to want a return on its investment. (They're trying to persuade the government not to exercise the stock warrants that it was granted as a condition of each loan.) "Even though the government told us to take this money to increase our lending, the extra charge meant we had less money to lend. It was the equivalent of a penalty for early withdrawal," huffed one bank president. The nerve!

The Post's lead story on non-pirate Somali militants is an odd one, relying entirely on unnamed sources (two named sources are quoted indirectly), yet delivering none of the sensitive information that would seemingly justify anonymity. The gist is that nobody's quite sure whether al-Shabab are terrorists or just plain nationalists, and the administration is reluctant to rush to judgment one way or another. Legitimate lead story material, or just something of a beat-sweetener? Someone's ego is being boosted by this last graf: "But many on the national security team insist that it is their caution and willingness to consider all aspects of the situation that differentiate them from the overly aggressive posture of the Bush administration that they say exacerbated the terrorist threat."

Anyway, back to pirates. The NYT profiles Richard Phillips, the cargo ship captain still being held hostage by Somali pirates in the wake of Wednesday's bungled hijacking. Although the Times tries mightily to find drama in the man's utterly ordinary life (he once broke his neck playing touch football! he occasionally plays the saxophone!), it turns out that there is nothing at all notable about Richard Phillips other than the fact that he was kidnapped by pirates. TP did appreciate this weird quote from a childhood neighbor: '"Never any fanfare out of this guy,' said Mr. Carey, who has not seen the captain in years. 'If you went to a picnic and forgot your lunch, he'd give you half of his."' Eat your heart out, Chesley B. Sullenberger.

An off-lead Post feature finds that George W. Bush is spending his retirement in much the same way that he spent his presidency—by surrounding himself with loyalists and staying inside his house. Although Bush left office with a 66 percent disapproval rating, the Post notes that the former president "lives squarely in the remaining 33 percent." The long, good feature is rife with the sort of sad, telling details that would not be out of place in a John O'Hara story—Laura Bush obsesses over whether the Obamas like the two chairs she left them as a gift; the couple, rather than cooking or eating out, subsist on "prepared meals from EatZi's, a local market."

The NYT fronts an interesting story about the corrupt Chinese coal mining industry, where mine owners bribe local officials and journalists for their help in covering up dangerous conditions and deadly accidents. In one recent and notorious case, it took three months for the central government to learn that thirty-five miners had died in an underground fire 100 miles west of Beijing. '"Everyone in Yu County thinks this accident was very typical,'" said one man. "'If Mao was still in power, these local officials would be executed."'

The WSJ asks the question that's been weighing on all of our minds: How is Loganville, Georgia dealing with the recession? The answer: Badly. It's not all shuttered storefronts and creeping unemployment, though—the LAT goes below the fold with a feature on various small American cities, like Sioux Falls, S.D., that have been relatively untouched by the recession. '"People didn't overextend themselves because they did not have the means to overextend themselves,"' said a local business school professor.