news20090801JT1

[TODAY'S TOP STORIES] from [The Japan Times]

[NATIONAL NEWS]
Saturday, Aug. 1, 2009
Aso unveils LDP policy platform
Analysts criticize far-sighted vows as lacking detail, proper funding
By MASAMI ITO
Staff writer

Key LDP platform points

(Kyodo News) The LDP pledges to:

• Achieve annual economic growth of 2 percent in the latter half of fiscal 2010.

• Boost per capita income to the world's highest level in 10 years by increasing disposable income by an average 1 million.

• Complete legislative action for tax reform by fiscal 2011 and hike the consumption tax once the economy recovers.

• Replace the current prefectural system with regional blocs within six to eight years.

• Resolve the lost pension records fiasco, possibly before 2011.

• Waive fees at nursery schools and kindergartens for children aged 3 to 5 in three years.

• Secure about 2 million jobs in the next three years.

• Boost solar power generation 20-fold by 2020 and 40-fold by 2030 from current levels.

• Raise Japan's food self-sufficiency rate to 50 percent and maximize farmers' income with every possible support.

• Continue the Maritime Self-Defense Force's Indian Ocean duty.

• Return to the black the primary balance of the central and local governments within 10 years.

• Reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 15 percent from 2005 levels by 2020.

• Not endorse or support candidates who inherit the constituencies of family members within three degrees of kinship or the spouses of retiring LDP members in and are retiring in elections after the Aug. 30 poll.

Prime Minister Taro Aso revealed the campaign platform for his ruling Liberal Democratic Party on Friday, pledging to bring about 2 percent economic growth in the second half of 2010 and boost Japan's per capita income to among the highest in the world within 10 years.

In unveiling the LDP platform for the Aug. 30 Lower House election, Aso also mentioned a future consumption tax hike in an attempt to pitch the LDP as a responsible force capable of leading the country to prosperity at a time when it is facing a legitimate chance of losing power for only the second time in decades.

"I have said that once the economy recovers, I will overhaul the tax system including a raise in consumption tax to fund social security and (measures for) the low birthrate," Aso said. "It is the responsibility of politicians to say what needs to be said, even if the public may not want to hear this."

Critics said the LDP's platform lacked punch and many of the promises lacked specific measures and the funding needed to carry them out.

"There were no surprises in the manifesto and it lacked punch," said Tomoaki Iwai, a political science professor at Nihon University. "There is no real change because the LDP is relying on existing methods based on the rules made by the bureaucrats."

One relatively detailed pledge is aimed at abolishing the prefecture system and reorganizing the country into regional blocs. The LDP would enact a fundamental law to form the blocs and aim to launch the new system within six to eight years after enactment around 2017.

Political analysts, however, said the LDP was looking too far into the future and its platform should have instead focused on the next four years — the official term of the House of Representatives.

"A manifesto is not supposed to be talking about such a long term — it should be more about (what the party plans on doing) in the next four years," Iwai said.

Another key pledge is for comprehensive reform of the tax system be "put into practice without delay after the economic situation improves," an apparent hint at the consumption tax hike. It added that necessary legal measures would be implemented by fiscal 2011.

"We must raise the consumption tax in the future and we would turn it effectively into an earmarked tax in the next few years, only using the revenue for social security and measures for the low-birthrate," LDP lawmaker Hiroyuki Sonoda told reporters Friday.

"Until then, we will have to cut annual expenditures and under certain circumstances, we may have to issue more government bonds."

The LDP has criticized the DPJ, claiming the party is introducing policies without any financial backing. As the "responsible" party, the LDP is set to use the tax hike as the source of revenue for a stable social security system and for other measures to support child-rearing.

Sonoda said the LDP's policies, unlike those of the Democratic Party of Japan, were mainly focused on continuing and strengthening existing policies, meaning "We don't plan on explaining how much each pledge is going to cost like the DPJ did."

"Because the DPJ wrote out the details of its pledges, it has higher risks," Nihon University's Iwai said. "The LDP, on the other hand, mentioned a tax hike, but that should not excuse them from explaining the details of the source of revenue" to back up its policies.

The LDP also declared that it would aim to revise the Constitution as soon as possible, promised to finish sorting out the pension record-keeping fiasco that surfaced in 2007 by the end of 2010, and to cut 30 percent or more of the number of Upper and Lower house members in 10 years.


[NATIONAL NEWS]
Saturday, Aug. 1, 2009
PARTY POWERS
Hatoyama disses LDP but is otherwise vague
By ALEX MARTIN
Staff writer

With the pivotal Aug. 30 election looming, Democratic Party of Japan President Yukio Hatoyama said Friday the upcoming Lower House battle will offer the public an opportunity to hand down its judgment on the past four years of Liberal Democratic Party rule.

The poll will also provide voters a chance to realize the DPJ's goal of shifting the government's center of gravity from bureaucrats to politicians, the opposition chief said in an interview.

But while pitching the grand design of a DPJ-led government, Hatoyama remained vague on details regarding how its policies would be introduced, in particular how they would be funded — a major question haunting both the long-ruling LDP and DPJ in their poll platform pledges.

Hatoyama, who could be the next prime minister if the DPJ wins the election, criticized the LDP for "duping the public with false promises and mismanagement" and said the DPJ, if it takes the government's helm, would improve the economy through securing funding by drastically cutting wasteful spending and by investing in social security.

"(The question) is how much of the LDP's manifesto from four years ago has been fulfilled," Hatoyama said.

"It insisted that everything would improve with the postal system privatization — the economy, even foreign policy. But has it? I believe that four years later, that's the question the public is being asked."

Hatoyama said that by investing in social security instead of public works projects, regions hard hit by the economy could experience positive economic benefits.

Eliminating provisional tariffs and highway tolls would expand household budgets and, in turn, boost domestic consumption and thus the overall economy, he said.

Hatoyama stressed that creating a government led by politicians instead of bureaucrats is the way to reflect a public consensus on policies.

On when the various pledges in the DPJ platform would be carried out — including the establishment of a "national strategy office" that would be responsible for coordinating the government's transition from bureaucratic to political rule — Hatoyama said the plans should be legislated simultaneously as the new DPJ-led government starts up.

"There obviously will be strong resistance (especially) from bureaucrats, but I believe it will be possible with the people's support," he said.

On foreign policy, Hatoyama said the DPJ, like the LDP, will still prioritize the Japanese-U.S. alliance, while also placing similar emphasis on relations with the rest of Asia — especially China and South Korea.

With a U.N. General Assembly and Group of 20 summit set to start Sept. 23, Hatoyama said the DPJ would do its best to meet those schedules, vowing to form a Cabinet beforehand.

If the DPJ-led opposition camp wins the Lower House election, it is very likely the DPJ will form a coalition with the Social Democratic Party, which opposes any overseas dispatch of the Self-Defense Forces, including their current missions, and Kokumin Shinto (People's New Party), an arch foe of the postal privatization that started in 2007.

Hatoyama said that although he wound not offer concrete promises now, he believed that to maintain a stable administration — whether the DPJ wins a single-party majority in next year's Upper House poll — it will be important to cooperate with other parties.

"But before anything, we will need to effect a regime change," he said.

news20090801JT2

[TODAY'S TOP STORIES] from [The Japan Times]

[NATIONAL NEWS]
Saturday, Aug. 1, 2009
Will Japan space briefs pass smell test?
Pair worn by Wakata due for re-entry after monthlong trial
By MARCIA DUNN
The Associated Press

CAPE CANAVERAL,, Fla. (AP) In what might embarrass less-adventurous souls, astronaut Koichi Wakata is returning to Earth with the underwear he wore for a solid month during his space station stay, and scientists will check them out.

They're experimental high-tech undies designed in Japan to be odor free.

The Japanese spaceman described his underwear test Thursday as the shuttle Endeavour and its crew aimed for a touchdown the next morning. The astronauts released some minisatellites, their final job before Friday's re-entry, and said it was time to come home after more than two weeks aloft.

Wakata has been off the planet for 4 1/2 months.

"I haven't talked about this underwear to my crew members," Wakata said in an interview, drawing a big laugh from his six shuttle colleagues. "But I wore them for about a month, and my station crew members never complained for about a month, so I think the experiment went fine."

The Japanese underwear, called J-Wear, is a new type of antibacterial, water-absorbent, odor-eliminating clothing designed for space travel. The line includes shirts, pants and socks as well. Wakata tested all of them during his mission; he had four pairs of the silver-coated underwear, a cross between briefs and boxers.

"We'll see the results after landing," Wakata said.

J-Wear is billed as being antistatic and flame retardant, which is especially important for spaceship wear. The cotton and polyester clothes are also seamless, making them lighter and more comfortable, according to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. The goal is "comfortable everyday clothes for life in a spaceship."

Another Japanese astronaut wore some J-Wear items during a shuttle flight last year, but had only 16 days in orbit to try them out.

NASA's space station program manager, Mike Suffredini, stressed the importance of testing new products, especially those aimed at improving astronauts' quality of life. There's no way to wash clothes in space. Station residents simply ditch dirty outfits, along with other garbage, in no longer needed cargo ships that are sent plunging in flames through the atmosphere.

"Eventually, we're going to do exploration. We're going to go to the moon. We're going to go beyond the moon someday, and little things like this will seem like really, really big things when you're far away from Mother Earth," Suffredini told reporters.

Good weather was forecast for Friday's late morning landing, with the rain expected to hold off until afternoon at NASA's spaceport.

On Thursday afternoon, NASA cleared Endeavour to come home, after analyzing wing and nose images beamed down by the crew Wednesday in one final sweep for micrometeorite damage.

"I'm ready to get back . . . I think I have a landing in me, so don't want to get anybody on the ground worried about that," commander Mark Polansky told AP.

In one of NASA's longer shuttle flights, Polansky and his crew put a new addition onto the international space station — a porch for Japan's massive $1 billion lab — and freshened up the place with batteries, experiments and spare parts. They rocketed into space July 15.

Thursday marked Day 15 in space for Polansky and all but one of his crew. For Wakata, Thursday marked Day 137. He flew to the ISS in March, becoming the first person from Japan to live at the orbiting outpost.

Wakata said he's longing for sushi.

"That's the first thing that I'd like to have, and also a hot spring in Japan sometime in the near future," Wakata said.

Earlier in the day, the shuttle astronauts released a small canister containing a navigation and rendezvous experiment. Five hours later, the crew launched an atmospheric density experiment so scientists can better understand how orbiting objects move and eventually come down.

Over at the space station, meanwhile, the major air-purifying system on the U.S. side failed again, and the crew spent the day trying to fix the equipment. Engineers suspect a heating element is causing a short.

A carbon dioxide-removal system on the Russian side is still operating properly, and the six astronauts have backup methods for cleansing the cabin atmosphere. But the American system is critical for long-term space station operations. It overheated over the weekend and shut down, but flight controllers managed to work around the problem, at least for a few days.

As for NASA's next station visit, officials are targeting an Aug. 25 launch for Discovery, provided that a few remaining tests of the fuel tank shows the insulating foam is attached properly.

An unusually large amount of foam broke off Endeavour's fuel tank during liftoff. Deputy shuttle program manager LeRoy Cain said dust or other debris may have gotten on the tank and not been cleaned off prior to the foam application. Some of the workers may not have been familiar enough with the job, he noted.


[NATIONAL NEWS]
Saturday, Aug. 1, 2009
Six of 12 U.S. deserters since 2008 still uncaptured, ministry reveals

YOKOSUKA (Kyodo) At least 12 U.S. service members have deserted in Kanagawa, Nagasaki and Okinawa prefectures since May 2008 and six remain unaccounted-for, it was discovered Thursday from information gathered from U.S. forces, according to the Foreign Ministry and local-level authorities.

Japan and the United States agreed in May 2008 that Japanese authorities would detain U.S. deserters at the request of the U.S.

While the latest finding shows finding deserters isn't easy, the information has not been disclosed to the public.

From September 2008 to June, Japanese authorities received requests to detain seven deserters from Yokosuka base in Kanagawa Prefecture, of whom five have been caught and the remaining two are still at large.

At Sasebo base in Nagasaki, three service members have been unaccounted-for since 2008, while in Okinawa, two are believed to have deserted last October, of whom one was captured in February.

Under the bilateral agreement, the U.S. provides information on deserters to the Japanese and requests prefectural police forces to detain them. Once they are in custody, deserters are turned over to the U.S.

Information on deserters is shared among ministries and agencies as well as local authorities so they can work to confirm their whereabouts and prevent them from leaving the country, but the information is not disclosed to local residents.


[NATIONAL NEWS]
Saturday, Aug. 1, 2009
Japan still keen on F-22 despite U.S. obstacles

(Kyodo News) Japan will keep seeking information on the U.S. F-22 fighter jet as it looks for a candidate to replace its aging F-4EJs, a Defense Ministry spokesman said Friday, shrugging off the decision by the U.S. House of Representatives to end funding for the stealthy aircraft that is barred from export.

Katashi Toyota, the ministry's press secretary, told reporters that Tokyo hasn't quite given up on its hope of acquiring the F-22, which is one of six candidates under consideration. The House passed a defense spending bill Thursday that scuttled the F-22 program.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura said earlier in the day that Tokyo should consider "an alternative plan," but Toyota said the remarks don't indicate Japan intends to stop exploring the option.

"We recognize the F-22 as one of the world's most advanced aircraft and will continue to gather information on it as well as on other candidate models," Toyota said.

Tokyo has been eager to make the F-22 its next-generation mainstay fighter in light of its radar-evading stealth capabilities. Export of the F-22 is prohibited by U.S. law, and Defense Secretary Robert Gates in April proposed halting its production.

Under Gates' proposal, F-22 production would be halted at 187 planes. The Pentagon instead wants to produce 500 of the more modern F-35 fighter over the next five years, with an eye to eventually producing 2,400 of the planes.

The five other models Japan is studying are the F/A-18 and the F-15FX, both produced in the U.S., the F-35, which is being jointly developed by the U.S., Britain and other countries, the Eurofighter, made by a consortium of European manufacturers, and the Rafale of France. Only the F-22 and F-35 are stealth fighters.


[NATIONAL NEWS]
Saturday, Aug. 1, 2009
Half of colleges unable to fill classes

(Kyodo News) Nearly half of all colleges nationwide failed to meet their enrollment quotas for the academic year that began in April as the shrinking birthrate continued to deprive them of students, a survey by a school support group showed Thursday.

Of the 265 private four-year colleges that came up short, 31 didn't even get half of their fixed numbers, said the survey conducted by the Promotion and Mutual Aid Corporation for Private Schools of Japan.

"The gap is widening between schools that devote managerial efforts and those that do not," an official of the group said.

The group of 265 represent 46.5 percent of all such colleges in Japan.

Among 356 two-year private junior colleges in the survey, 69.1 percent were underenrolled, marking the third consecutive year in which more than 60 percent of such schools suffered from poor enrollment, the survey said.

news20090801JT3

[TODAY'S TOP STORIES] from [The Japan Times]

[BUSINESS NEWS]
Saturday, Aug. 1, 2009
Jobless rate hit six-year high of 5.4% in June

(Kyodo News) Japan's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate reached a six-year high of 5.4 percent in June, clouding prospects for a real economic recovery anytime soon, as the largest-ever number of people were axed, government data showed Friday.

The rate rose from 5.2 percent in May at a time when industrial production and exports are in a recovery phase. The rate is at its highest level since April 2003, when it hit a record-high 5.5 percent.

The number of jobless people increased by the largest figure ever — 830,000, or 31.3 percent — from a year earlier to 3.48 million for the eighth straight monthly increase, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said in a preliminary report.

Of the total, 1.21 million had been laid off, up 620,000 from a year ago, the biggest increase since comparable data became available in January 2003, the ministry said.

Separate data, released by the labor ministry, said the ratio of job offers to job seekers in June was at a seasonally adjusted 0.43, the lowest on record for the second straight month.

The latest ratio, down from 0.44 in the previous month, means there were 43 jobs available for every 100 job seekers.

Though economists and policymakers think the worst of the downturn is over, continuing layoffs and shrinking incomes could act as a drag on domestic demand and consumer spending — which makes up more than half of the economy — for some time to come.

The jobless rate has been rising every month since January's 4.1 percent figure, while manufacturers, hard-hit by the global economic crisis, have been drastically trimming their workforces.

Many economists believe it is just a matter of time before the rate tops the current postwar record high of 5.5 percent.

"The outcome was no surprise as an unemployment rate, a lagging economic indicator, normally continues to rise for about one year after industrial production bottoms out," said Takuji Aida, senior economist at UBS Securities Japan Ltd.

"The rate will worsen at least through the end of this year," Aida said. "It is projected to reach nearly 6 percent by that time."

The Cabinet Office said last week Japan now has millions of hidden jobless people, who are not counted in official labor figures.

Its annual report said the number of excess workers at Japanese companies during the first three months of 2009 is believed to have swelled to up to 6.07 million, and that the capability of these workers to remain employed under severe business conditions is reaching its limits.

If 6.07 million people lose their jobs, Japan's jobless rate would reach around 14 percent, according to Cabinet Office officials.

In June, the jobless rate for men grew 0.3 percentage point from the previous month to 5.7 percent, while that for women grew 0.1 point to 5.0 percent.

Jobless males numbered 2.14 million, up 540,000 from a year before, an all-time high, the internal affairs ministry said.

Jobholders amounted to 63 million, down 1.51 million from a year before, the largest drop on record. The number contracted for the 17th straight month.


[BUSINESS NEWS]
Saturday, Aug. 1, 2009
CPI takes record 1.7% fall as deflation returns

(Kyodo News) The key consumer price index fell at the fastest pace on record for the second straight month in June, the government said Friday, boosting concern about increasing deflationary pressure amid falling energy costs and sluggish demand in the recession-hit economy.

The core nationwide CPI, which excludes volatile fresh food prices, fell 1.7 percent in June from a year earlier to 100.3 against the base of 100 for 2005, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said in a preliminary report. It was the biggest fall since comparable data became available in 1971.

The headline reading marked the fourth straight month of decline, and the fall matches the average market forecast of a 1.7 percent drop in a Kyodo News survey.

Contributing to the drop, gasoline and other energy prices fell sharply from a year earlier, when crude oil prices soared to record highs. Though the gas price is on the rise on a month-on-month basis, it is still nearly 30 percent lower than the level it was at a year ago.

As well, the price of heating oil plunged 40.7 percent from a year earlier, and overseas package tour prices fell amid lower fuel costs.

Consumer appliance prices continued to fall sharply, with prices of flat-screen televisions dropping 27.9 percent and that of notebook computers down 48.4 percent. Reflecting lower grain prices, bread and spaghetti also cost less.

"Deflationary pressure is likely to continue," said Naokazu Koshimizu, a Nomura Securities Co. economist.

How deeply Japan may fall into deflation and how long it will last after the summer will depend largely on consumer demand, he added.

"If consumer demand remains weak, companies will have to cut excessive employment, and that would lead to lower income," and then firms will cut prices to cope with weaker demand, he said, adding the possibility of this scenario is "high."

The core CPI for Tokyo's 23 wards in July fell at the fastest pace — 1.7 percent — to 99.7, the ministry said. That was bigger than the average projection of a 1.6 percent drop.


[BUSINESS NEWS]
Saturday, Aug. 1, 2009
747 vet rues exit of early jumbo jets

(Kyodo News) With the departure of early model jumbo jets from the air in Japan, veteran flight engineer Kanemitsu Nakagawa is filled with a sense of loss for his longtime "girlfriend."

"I feel lonely," Nakagawa, 52, said before the last flight of a Boeing 747-300 Friday. Looking back on his nearly 30-year career at Japan Airlines Corp., he reveals his deep affection for manually controlled airplanes.

On July 24, Nakagawa was seen in the cockpit of a Boeing 747-300 flying to Honolulu. The plane was one of the so-called Classic Jumbo Jet models. The first such model, a 747-100, made its commercial debut in the United States in 1969.

During the flight, Nakagawa helped the captain hold the throttles with his outstretched left hand from his seat behind the copilot's.

The captain released his grip after the airplane leveled off. But Nakagawa's fingers were fixed to relevant equipment to make slight adjustments to the four engines.

"Every engine has its own characteristics," Nakagawa said, citing the difficulty of manually controlling the huge mechanism despite his long professional career. "One engine gathers power quickly while another goes slow."

Helping the captain and copilot during the flight, Nakagawa was also busy manipulating about 100 switches on panels in front of him, moving his arms up and down in a flurry, a movement dubbed the "octopus dance."

Nakagawa reacted strongly when JAL introduced the computerized high-tech 747-400, which only needs a pilot and copilot, saying, "What's the good of using something like automatic cars?"

He confessed he still feels uneasy about the situation in which computers cover the job of flight engineers.

It is common for crew members to say "she" when referring to an airplane. "So, it's something like, I've lost my girlfriend," Nakagawa said, referring to the decommissioned older 747s.

Nakagawa recalled the Aug. 12, 1985, crash of one early-model jumbo in the mountains of Gunma Prefecture in which 520 people died. The flight engineer of the doomed JAL jet, Hiroshi Fukuda, was Nakagawa's flight simulator instructor.

Japan's flagship carrier used to own 60 Classic Jumbo Jet series planes 20 years ago. But it now has two 747-300s, both of which will be painted white for sale overseas.

All Nippon Airways Co., JAL's archrival, replaced all of its Classic Jumbos models with newer ones in 2006.


[BUSINESS NEWS]
Saturday, Aug. 1, 2009
Toshiba unit buys nuke-related firm

(Kyodo News) Toshiba Corp. said Friday its U.S. unit Westinghouse Electric Co. has acquired CS Innovations LLC, a U.S. maker of instrumentation and control systems used in nuclear plants.

The transaction, involving the purchase by Westinghouse of all CS Innovations shares by the end of August, is estimated at billions of yen.

news20090801JT4

[TODAY'S TOP STORIES] from [The Japan Times]

[BUSINESS NEWS]
Saturday, Aug. 1, 2009
Household spending up 0.2%

(Kyodo News) Average Japanese monthly household spending rose an inflation-adjusted 0.2 percent in June from a year earlier to ¥277,237 for the second straight month of increase due partly to a rise in expenditures on eco-friendly cars using government subsidies, the government said Friday.

The average monthly income of salaried households came to ¥700,239, down 3.2 percent in real terms, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said in a preliminary report.

Despite the two straight months of spending increase, a ministry official maintained a cautious view on consumer spending.

"We have not yet moved out of a situation in which household outlays are moving at low levels," a ministry official said.

Expenditures in the transportation and communications sector, including automobiles, rose 7.5 percent due to recently introduced government tax breaks on the purchase of eco-friendly vehicles, according to the ministry.

It said spending on utilities increased 1.1 percent partly because temperatures in the reporting month were relatively high.

In May, average household spending rose 0.3 percent from the year before, up for the first time since January 2008.

The increase was attributed to the cash handout program of up to \20,000 per person and the start of the Eco-point incentive program designed to spur the purchase of energy efficient consumer electronic appliances under the government's economic stimulus measures.

Household spending figures are a key indicator of private consumption, which accounts for nearly 60 percent of gross domestic product.


[BUSINESS NEWS]
Saturday, Aug. 1, 2009
Nippon Life may log 10% hedge-fund gain

(Bloomberg) Nippon Life Insurance Co., the nation's biggest life insurer, may post a 10 percent return on hedge-fund investments this year as it shifts to strategies better suited to a market recovery.

The insurer, with ¥44 trillion in assets and about \100 billion in hedge funds in the fiscal year that ended March 31, may increase investments in so-called long-short and global macro funds, said Hideya Sadanaga, deputy general manager of the company's Credit & Alternative Investment Department. A 10 percent gain in the calendar year would nearly reverse an investment loss of about 15 percent last fiscal year.

"We're yet to be convinced that what we're seeing is a fully fledged economic recovery globally, so strategies with enough liquidity would be the ones we would be shifting our cash positions to," Sadanaga said in an interview in Tokyo Thursday. "This isn't the time to turn completely aggressive."

Nippon Life will maintain its investments in funds of hedge funds this year in contrast with rivals, including Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co. and Tokio Marine Holdings Inc., that plan to reduce allocations and seek steadier returns.

Nippon Life, which has joint head offices in Tokyo and Osaka, began investing in hedge funds in 1998. Global hedge funds posted an average 19 percent loss last year, the most on record, according to Hedge Fund Research Inc. in Chicago. Nippon Life targets an annual return of 6 percent to 7 percent on its hedge-fund investments.

The insurer increased investments in Asia-focused hedge funds to diversify allocations last year, Sadanaga said. It trimmed holdings in credit-related hedge funds and increased cash positions as the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. froze credit markets and worsened the global recession, he said.

Nippon Life "stopped investing new money into hedge funds, but we never reduced our exposure to the industry even amid the entire crisis," Sadanaga said. "In the long run, we realize the importance of diversifying our portfolio as long as we invest in hedge funds, and that goal didn't change."

So-called long-short funds, which bet on rising and falling stock prices, will be an attractive investment amid the recovery in global equity markets, Hiroshi Aikawa, head of the alternative investment office at Nippon Life's Nissay Asset Management Corp., said in the interview. Nippon Life invests in hedge funds through its asset-management unit.

Hedge fund managers are outperforming global benchmarks this year after suffering their worst year on record in 2008. The Eurekahedge Long-Short Equities Index has gained 12 percent in the six months through June, while the MSCI World Index rose 4.8 percent in the period.

Macro funds that wager on trends in stocks, bonds and currencies worldwide will be a good strategy to invest in because it has a low correlation to movements in stock markets, Aikawa said. A measure tracking macro funds has gained 6.6 percent through June, according to Eurekahedge Pte in Singapore.

Insurers' holdings in hedge funds and private equity shrank 10 percent last year to $44.7 billion as companies pared riskier investments amid the global stock decline and slowdown in leveraged buyouts, according to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, which collects data on firms' U.S. holdings.

Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance Co., a unit of Tokyo-based Tokio Marine Holdings Inc. with ¥8.4 trillion in assets, said earlier this month it will trim its holdings in hedge funds "slightly" in 2009 from about ¥100 billion at the end of March. To minimize fees and amplify profit, Tokio Marine plans to focus on single-manager funds and shift more of its portfolio to strategies such as macro and long-short equity funds.

Meiji Yasuda, Japan's third-largest life insurer with ¥23 trillion in assets, will reduce its allocation by "several tens of billions of yen" from ¥64.6 billion as of March 31, Shinji Makino, manager of the company's investment planning division, said July 16. Meiji Yasuda slashed its hedge-fund holdings by more than ¥40 billion last year.

Hedge funds are mostly private pools of capital whose managers participate substantially in the profits from their speculation on whether the price of assets will rise or fall. This year they've gained 11 percent through June, according to data compiled by Eurekahedge.


[BUSINESS NEWS]
Saturday, Aug. 1, 2009
Mizuho books fourth consecutive quarterly loss

(Bloomberg) Mizuho Financial Group Inc., the nation's third-biggest bank by market value, booked an unexpected fourth straight quarterly loss on bad-loan and credit costs.

The \4.5 billion loss in the three months that ended June 30 compares with a \133 billion profit a year earlier, and a \538 billion loss in the preceding quarter, the Tokyo-based bank said in a statement Friday.

Bad-loan and credit charges surged 16-fold to \76 billion from a year earlier as corporate bankruptcies continued to rise in Japan. Mizuho had the lowest core capital ratio of the nation's three megabanks at the end of the previous financial year, according to Macquarie Group Ltd. analyst Ismael Pili.


[BUSINESS NEWS]
Saturday, Aug. 1, 2009
Oil imports tumbled 8.3% in June

(Bloomberg) Japan, the world's largest consumer of oil after the U.S. and China, said crude imports plunged for a ninth consecutive month in June, as Nippon Oil Corp. and other refiners continued to cut output on weak demand.

Crude oil imports fell by 8.3 percent to 15.4 million kiloliters last month, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said in a report released Friday.

news20090801GCU

[Environment] from [guardian.co.uk]

[Electric Cars]
The all-new Toyota Prius – silence of the lanes
Green cars have been branded overpriced, sluggish and ugly. Today, the most famous eco-car, the Toyota Prius, enters its third generation. Will the cleaner hybrid tempt buyers? Novelist Toby Litt took a test drive
Toby Litt
guardian.co.uk, Friday 31 July 2009 16.51 BST
Article history

I drove it down to Brighton, because it seemed a very Brighton sort of car – a hybrid vehicle for a transition town. I was expecting it to receive admiration, affirmation, perhaps even sly congratulation. But did it get envying sideways looks from cyclists? Thumbs up from Green activists? Tranced out nods from dog-on-string trustafarians?

No, not really. In fact, it was much better at passing unnoticed, particularly at passing unheard. When running only on its self-recharging battery, the thing is virtually soundless. (I usually drive a P-reg Audi A4, the cassette-player in which – when rewinding – is louder than the Prius.)

And so, while trailing a bearded, grey-haired man for about a minute down one of Brighton's narrow lanes – him in the middle of the road and blithely unaware of the 5-door hatchback breathing down his neck – I had a realisation: the Prius might just be the best car ever for playing What's the Time, Mr Wolf?

Once I realised this, there was a great temptation to spend the next half-hour sneaking up on crusties and giving them a friendly bump in the tattooed calves. But this would, of course, be foolish, dangerous and, most of all mischievous. And there's not a smidgeon of any of these qualities about the Prius. It's sensible, safe and – you might almost say – puritanical. This is a car that doesn't just go, it also makes a stand. Driving it made me feel slightly chastened, as if I had my old RE teacher in the back seat.

Over and above a fuel-saving "Eco Mode", you can put the Prius into EV (Electric Vehicle) Mode, where it stops being hybrid and runs entirely on its battery. This only lasts for a couple of miles before it reverts to mere Eco, but if you do anything even mildly aggressive – get up to entry velocity on a busy roundabout, say – the display will, more in sadness than anger, tell you" "EV Mode has been turned off due to excessive speed."

I was almost surprised it didn't follow this up with, "Hey, compadre, why don't you just take a chill pill?" When I first turned the radio on, it had been set to Smooth FM. The advice sheet on "better driving" in the glove compartment perplexingly but characteristically read: "When driving at high speed, drive at a moderate and constant speed." Okay, I get the point.

But it is this very moderation that is the Prius's unique selling point. The car gently forces you to drive in an environmentally responsible way, and that means you don't have to feel so guilty about the fact you are transporting yourself to buy a pack of decaf tea from Tesco's in three tonnes of hi-tech metal. And products like this, ones we buy knowing they will gently force us to mend our ecocidal ways, are being marketed as the future – the future that tries to preserve the future of the future.

Although its looks are distinctive (a bit like a snowglobe-on-wheels that's been semi-flattened, aerodynamicised and had an aerofoil added on the back), the Toyota Prius isn't as much a statement here as in the US.

There, the "Pious Prius" has become a symbol of white-collar eco-smugness. You can join the Facebook group "I hate the Toyota Prius, and the liberal tree-huggers that drive them!" You can laugh at parody advertisements – one of which shows a man dragging a bagged up, weighed down corpse from the car's trunk towards a lake above the slogan, "Well, at least he drives a Prius." In California, it seems, you can attack them with rocks or by ramming them with less fuel-efficient cars, with impunity.

All of which seems to show how threatened some people feel by anything that appears unthreatening.

With more than 1m units sold, the Prius really is silently creeping up on American – and world – car culture.

It is, whisper it, a very sensible vehicle. A lot of intelligence has gone into its design. For example, the mph and SatNav arrows are displayed, by reflection, in the lower part of the driver's side windscreen – in plain view but not obtrusive. The question it poses, though, is whether sensible, unobtrusive, intelligent measures can save us as we plunge down the steep slope the other side of peak oil. As for me, I've seen the future, and it walks.

news20090801NTR

[naturenews] from [nature.com]

[naturenews]
Published online 31 July 2009 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2009.760
News
Birds born to fear red
Colour intimidation in finches is innate, not learned.
Matt Kaplan

The red-headed finch: avoided by instinctSarah PrykeFinches instinctively avoid competitors coloured red, rather than learning to fear the colour during their upbringing, Australian research concludes.¹

The results are tempting researchers to suspect that in other animals, including ourselves, red's aggressive and intimidating character might also be hard-wired into brains from birth.

Dozens of experiments have shown that red intimidates competitors. In humans, wearing red improves chances of winning at sports.² Studies have also revealed that red is associated with aggression and dominance in fish, reptiles and birds.^3,4 But whether fear of red is innate or learned is an "unresolved mystery", says Robert Barton, an anthropologist at the University of Durham, UK.

Sarah Pryke of Macquarie University in Sydney tested this question in Australian Gouldian finches (Erythrura gouldiae). As adults, the finches develop either red or black heads, a genetically determined trait. The red-headed birds are aggressive, dominant and avoided by others.

To find out whether these traits were learned or inborn, Pryke examined competition between young Gouldian finches — whose heads, yet to blossom into coloured adulthood, are all dull grey.

Red destiny

She first raised finches that were genetically destined to be red-headed with black-headed parents, raised others that were genetically destined to be black-headed with red-headed parents, and left still other finches to be raised by parents of the same colour group. In contests staged between these young birds over food, it was body size rather than genetic destiny or rearing environment that decided the winner.

The still-uncoloured juveniles were then either allowed to mingle with adult red- and black-headed birds, or placed in isolation. They finally had their heads randomly painted red, black or a blue control colour.

Pryke again set pairs of hungry birds to fights over food. After the conflict, she inferred stress in individual birds by measuring blood levels of the hormone corticosterone.

Red-painted juveniles won contests with non-red juveniles 81.5% of the time, Pryke reports, regardless of what coloured head they would ultimately grow up to have. And juveniles facing red-painted opponents showed corticosterone levels 57.6% higher than those of birds that faced blue or black-headed opponents.

Don't mess with a redhead

"How the experimentally reddened finches won contests was interesting: their opponents simply moved out the way. It was not that the birds with fake red heads were suddenly more aggressive," recalls Pryke.

The results suggest that birds don't just avoid red because they have learned from experience to fear it. Rearing conditions and prolonged experience with aggressive red adults made no difference to an individual's aggressive response or stress levels.

"This suggests that Gouldian finches hatch 'knowing', as it were, that birds with red should be avoided," says Pryke.

"There are numerous examples in the literature suggesting an evolutionary bias towards red as an innate signal of aggression, [but] Pryke is the first to show explicitly and experimentally that this is indeed true … regardless of genetic and environmental background," says Mats Olsson, who works on evolutionary ecology at the University of Wollongong in New South Wales, Australia.

Red for a reason?
What remains unclear is why red is the colour of intimidation. White and blue are as commonly used as warning colours in plants and animals as red, says Pryke — so it's surprising that an innate fear of red should emerge from natural selection.

"There could be something about red that is particularly costly to produce or maintain, therefore making it very likely to be an 'honest' signal that other animals have to respect," thinks Barton. Many primates, including humans, show anger or dominance by bringing oxygenated blood to the surface of the skin. This creates a red colouration but at the cost of shunting blood away from core tissues.

Barton also suggests that the high visibility of becoming red, which increases the risk of being picked out by predators or rivals, may suggest to others of the same species that an animal is tough enough to cope with being more noticeable.

"Considering this study and all of those associated with red uniforms in games2, it is tempting to suspect that in humans, as in birds, it is also innate for red to signal aggression and intimidation," adds neuroscientist Mihai Moldovan, at the University of Copenhagen.

References
1. Pryke, S. R. Anim. Behav. published online. doi: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2009.05.013 (2009).
2. Hill, R. and Barton, R. Nature, 435, 293 (2005)
3. Healey, M. et al Animal Behaviour, 74, 337-341 (2007)
4. Pryke, S. et al , Behavioural Ecology, 13, 622-631 (2002)

news20090801SLT

[Today's Paper: A summary of what's in the major U.S. newspapers] from [Slate Magazine]

Coming Out of the Nosedive
By David Sessions
Posted Saturday, Aug. 1, 2009, at 5:54 AM ET

The New York Times (NYT) and the Washington Post (WP) lead with, and the Los Angeles Times (LAT) and Wall Street Journal (WSJ) front, the government's announcement that the U.S. economy contracted at a much slower pace in the second quarter of 2009, laying ground for growth in the next half of the year. The LAT leads with a House committee's 31-28 passage of a health care bill that sets the price tag at $1 trillion over 10 years and incorporates conservatives' demands for more exemptions. The WSJ leads with the House's other major accomplishment of yesterday afternoon: a motion to put $2 billion into a car-repurchase program known as "cash for clunkers."

The United States' gross domestic product shrunk only 1 percent from April-June, a decrease of more than 5 percent from the first quarter and a slight improvement on predictions of a 1.5 percent contraction. The smaller contraction means the economy will likely grow in the second half of this year, but all the papers worry that consumer spending, responsible for about 70 percent of all economic activity, will remain on lockdown. The upturn is mostly the work of an 11 percent increase in government spending, a reality the NYT observes could wear on President Obama and the Democrats if they have to keep spending to fuel the recovery. And there's no good news on the job front yet: Double-digit unemployment looms for at least several more months.

All four papers give prime placement to Congress' emergency salvation of "cash for clunkers," a new program that offers consumers up to $4,500 to give up their old car for a more fuel-efficient model. The program "burned through" $1 billion in its first week, as dealers experienced a surge in sales but had technical difficulties reporting them through the Department of Transportation's Web site. It was originally scheduled to run through October.


In another significant move in the House yesterday, a health care bill emerged from the energy and commerce committee that is "sure to draw fire from a variety of interests, but also shows the beginnings of a consensus," the NYT reports. Voting after 9 p.m. last night, five Democrats joined all 23 Republicans in opposing the bill. Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., complained that members of his party were only allowed to "pick the color of the lipstick on this pig." Democrats will now "fan out" over the country to help Obama sell the plan during the August recess, hoping to combat the impression that the overhaul is a government takeover.

In a separate front-page story, the WP reports on a conservative talk-radio campaign to brand the Obama proposal as "death care." Obama has called for controls on excessive medical bills, and right-wing pundits are telling listeners that his plan to counsel senior citizens about cost-effective treatment amounts to "euthanasia."

A WSJ essay dives into the growing tensions between the United States and Israel, indicated by the fact that only 6 percent of Israelis view President Obama as "pro-Israel," while 88 percent saw George W. Bush that way. The relationship has always had its share of friction, but now Iran forms the core of Israel's nervousness. Obama is trying out a pro-engagement critique of the Bush administration that Israel sees as naive. "U.S.-Israel tension will grow as Israel watches the clock tick and sees its options narrowed to two: live with an Iranian bomb, or strike Iran soon to delay its program long enough for real political change."

The heavily blogged feud between MSNBC's Keith Olbermann and Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly was so intense that network executives had to step in and pull the two apart. Officials from both networks attended a Charlie Rose-hosted meeting in May to defuse tensions between their channels. The feud increased ratings for both prime-time shows, but executives were apparently relieved to have it behind them.

For only the second time in 140 years, the temperature failed to reach 90 degrees in New York City in June or July. If August follows a similar pattern, this will be the city's coolest summer on record.

A NYT editorial argues that President Obama and Congress have "an obligation to make a down payment on high-speed-rail corridors across the nation."