Friday, December 30, 2011

November - industrial output down, unemployment flat, CPI down

Japan's industrial output dropped last month — with production, shipments and inventory figures all decreasing — but government forecasters had manufacturing and production looking for a rebound this month and next, officials said Wednesday.

The unemployment rate adjusted for seasonal differences was unchanged in November from the previous month, at 4.5 percent, the government also announced.

Industrial output dropped a seasonally adjusted 2.6 percent in November, according to the Ministry of Economics, Trade and Industry. It was the first decline in two months.

It said industries contributing most to the decrease were transport equipment, information and communication electronics equipment and iron and steel. Large and small passenger cars and cellphones were among the commodities adding to the decline.

The ministry described the data as "flat," and said manufacturing and production were expected to increase 4.8 percent in December and to increase 3.4 percent in January

In other economic data announced Wednesday, the government said the core Consumer Price Index fell 0.2 percent in November from year-earlier figures, its second consecutive monthly fall. The index, which does not include fresh foods, was 99.6 against the 2010 base of 100.

Core CPI for Tokyo in December — considered an indicator of future trends for the entire country — fell 0.3 percent.

In recent years, Japan has wrestled with deflation, or falling prices, which can drag on economic growth.
The ratio of job offers to job seekers was 0.69 in November, an improvement from 0.67 the previous month.

Figures released by the Ministry of Internal Affairs said there were 2.80 million people unemployed in Japan in November.


http://old.news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111228/ap_on_bi_ge/as_japan_economy

Monday, December 26, 2011

November - Exports Fall 4.5%; 2nd Straight Month

Japan's exports fell for the second straight month in November, hit by faltering demand from Asia and Europe.

Exports shrank 4.5 percent from a year earlier to 5.198 trillion yen ($66.7 billion), according to a finance ministry report released Wednesday. The result is steeper than October's 3.8 percent decline.

The data underscore the growing pressures facing the world's third-largest economy, which relies heavily on exports to drive growth. A persistently strong yen, Europe's debt problems and the recent flooding in Thailand are eroding gains made since the March earthquake in Japan disrupted manufacturing.

Economists predict economic growth will slow this quarter after the economy expanded at an annualized rate of 5.6 percent in the July-September period.

Shipments to Asia — usually a source of robust demand — fell 8 percent in November. Exports to the European Union and the Middle East also retreated, while those to North America rose slightly.
Goldman Sachs economist Chiwoong Lee described the falloff in shipments to Europe as "especially pronounced."

"This suggests that the deterioration in financial conditions in Europe may be having a negative impact on demand there," he said in a research note.

By sector, electrical machinery exports took a 10.7 percent hit as demand for semiconductors and audio equipment tumbled. Motor vehicles shipments slipped 0.6 percent from a year earlier.

Meanwhile, imports jumped 11.4 percent to 5.882 trillion yen as Japan bought more fossil fuels to meet electricity demand.

That resulted in a November trade deficit of 684.7 billion yen. It was the second straight monthly deficit.
The turmoil in Europe and the U.S. has driven up the yen as global investors flock to the currency as a relatively safe haven. The yen hit multiple historic highs against the dollar this year.

A rising yen shrinks the value of overseas earnings when repatriated and makes Japanese products less competitive in overseas markets. The yen has weakened to around 78 to the dollar recently, but exporters say it is still too high.

The currency levels have forced manufacturers including Nissan Motor Co. and Panasonic Corp. to shift some production overseas, a trend that could further undermine Japan's exports.


http://old.news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111221/ap_on_bi_ge/as_japan_economy

Toyota Plans Comeback; tagetting record sales in 2012 and even bigger 2012

Toyota is aiming for a comeback, targeting record global sales of 8.48 million vehicles in 2012 and an even bigger number in 2013, after being battered this year by the March disaster in Japan and flooding in Thailand.

Toyota Motor Corp., Japan's top automaker, relinquished its title as the world's biggest in global vehicle sales for the first half of this year, sinking to No. 3 behind U.S. rival General Motors Co. and Volkswagen AG of Germany.

Toyota's global vehicle sales for this year totaled 7.9 million vehicles, including group companies, down 6 percent from the previous year, it said in a statement Thursday.

General Motors Co. spokesman Jim Cain said it will release its full-year global sales totals in January.
The Detroit-based automaker had been at the top for more than seven decades until Toyota took the crown in 2008.

After the first three quarters, GM sold 6.788 million vehicles worldwide, according to its filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. If fourth-quarter results are consistent with prior months, it will sell just more than 9 million vehicles in 2011. Last year, GM sold 8.39 million vehicles around the world.

Volkswagen also has not released its 2011 tally but said earlier this month it delivered 7.51 million vehicles globally during the January-November period.

Toyota's targets for 2012 and 2013 do not include group companies such as Daihatsu Motor Co. and Hino Motors, and so aren't directly comparable with numbers from GM and Volkswagen.

Toyota said its sales target for calendar 2012 is based on achieving 20 percent growth from its global sales this year and would be a record high for the company, underlining its turnaround ambitions.
The automaker's current sales record of 8.43 million vehicles was attained in 2007.

"It won't be a surprise to me if Toyota reaches a new record in global sales," said Mamoru Katou, auto analyst at Tokai Tokyo Research. Hybrids remain popular in Japan, the Camry sedan is doing well in the U.S. and demand is robust in emerging markets, he said.

Toyota has been making up for sales declines in North America and Japan with momentum in relatively new but booming markets such as China and India.

The manufacturer of the Prius hybrid and Lexus luxury models said it plans to sell 8.95 million vehicles around the world in 2013, not including group companies.

Toyota said it had not yet figured out forecasts for the group companies. It is possible the target might exceed 9 million vehicles, had they been included.

Targeted overseas sales of 6.95 million vehicles this year, up 19 percent year-on-year, would also be a new record for Toyota, if attained.

Toyota acknowledged many uncertainties, which could push the numbers in either direction. One possible plus is the extension of Japanese government incentives for green vehicles, according to Toyota.
Toyota, with its strong hybrid lineup, has been a major beneficiary of such incentives.
Still, Toyota has gone through some hard times lately.

The global financial crisis in 2008 was behind a serious sales plunge in the key North American market.
Then came massive recalls, mostly in the U.S., that tarnished Toyota's once pristine reputation for quality amid speculation it had not been as forthright as it should have been about defects.

Toyota was on a gradual recovery track when the March 11 earthquake and tsunami struck in northeastern Japan, damaging suppliers and disrupting production because of a severe parts shortage.
Production got slammed again later in the year, although on a smaller scale, from flooding in Thailand.
Toyota also said it expects to produce 8.65 million vehicles next year, up 24 percent from 6.97 million this year. It expects to produce 8.98 million vehicles in 2013, it said. Those numbers do not include group companies.

Michael Robinet, managing director of IHS Automotive Consultants in Northville, Michigan, said a global sales lead doesn't matter as much as how much money the company makes per vehicle, its model portfolio and overall profit.

A difference of several tens of thousands of vehicles is not significant for automakers that sell millions of vehicles like Toyota and GM, he said.

"It doesn't matter all that much when you're already in the 9 million to 10 million unit range," Robinet said.


http://old.news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111222/ap_on_bi_ge/as_japan_toyota

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Anti-Yakuza Laws Begin to Bite VI - Movie Studio Toei Cuts Yakuza Links

In their movies, if Toei Studios Kyoto tried to break off ties with the yakuza organized crime syndicates, the story wouldn't have a happy ending.

But in this real-life drama, the movie company announced on Nov. 21 that it will not have any further social or professional connections to the yakuza.

"Eradication of gangsters is a social requirement," a Toei Studios Kyoto official said. "Even if we make yakuza movies, we will be committed to not having relations with them in real life."

The company, which has produced popular gangster movies including the "Jingi Naki Tatakai" (Battle Without Honor and Humanity) series, said its employees will not attend parties held by crime organizations and not accept illegal requests for money.

According to sources related to the film-making industry, Toei Studios Kyoto staff members solicited advice from yakuza members in regards to movies in the past that needed some realism.

On Nov. 21, however, about 50 actors, actresses and production staff promised not to do so again.
They vowed to "not be afraid of," "not to give money to" or "not to take advantage of" gangsters.
On their part, some yakuza syndicates are trying to distance themselves from society.

Yamaguchi-gumi, a Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture-based organized crime syndicate and the biggest in Japan, said that it will refrain from an annual New Year's visit to the Kobe Gokoku Jinja shrine, according to sources.

In September, Hyogo prefectural police requested in writing that the prefecture's association of Shinto shrines and Gokoku Jinja shrine--a shrine designated as a place for worship for those who died in the war--to not allow the gangsters to visit on New Year's Day.

Yamaguchi-gumi's top officials have been visiting the local shrine near the syndicate's headquarters in Nada Ward every year before dawn on New Year's Day.

"We have not been told of the reason for the syndicate's voluntary restraint," a shrine official said. "But we will not refuse private visits by the members as we respect freedom of religion."

With all prefectures having enacted anti-yakuza ordinances by October, the Association of Shinto Shrines sent a written request to prefectural shrine associations on Nov. 9 requesting that they deal with matters related to the crime syndicates with care.

The Hyogo prefectural association of Shinto shrines decided Nov. 17 to reject group visits and notified the prefecture's 3,800 shrines.


http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/social_affairs/AJ201111240080a

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Anti-Yakuza Laws Begin to Bite V - Tips on whats acceptable and whats not

With the passing of nationwide legislation in October that prohibits ordinary citizens from having business dealings with criminal organizations, Sapio (Nov. 16) offers tips on what is acceptable and what is prohibited.

For assistance, the weekly magazine has turned to lawyer Hideyuki Takashima for some insights on such queries as: If one unknowingly engages in a contractual agreement with gang members, is that a violation of the law? If gangsters purchase certain items and one offers similar items to regular customers, is that a violation? How far can one take “associating” with criminal organizations before there is a violation?

To summarize, a problem will typically arise when one knowingly assists in promoting the businesses of gangsters.

In the operation of an izakaya, Takashima says that if a few gang members arrive to eat and drink at the counter or at tables with other customers, it is probably allowable. “However, if group, numbering a few dozen, turn up to use a private room, there might be a problem since it looks like a formal meeting,” the lawyer says. “The boundary line is whether one is fostering their activities.”

The size of the purchase is the key for the delivery of bento boxes, pizzas, and supermarket and convenience store orders. “If it is a personal purchase and does not appear to be an official catering order, it is acceptable,” the lawyer says.

For printing, markings denoting a yakuza organization or title on greeting cards or business cards are not allowable. “The printing of a gang name or title is promoting their activities,” Takashima explains. “Personal cards and private orders are probably acceptable.”

Hoteliers need to take every effort to confirm the identity of anyone using the hotel facilities, Takashima advises. “If they don’t know gangsters are behind a request to rent a room, or find out later, they are probably safe,” he says. “Whether or not a hotelier decides to cancel a party or banquet arrangement after learning that gang members are involved is a matter that is up to the discretion of the staff members.”

http://www.tokyoreporter.com/2011/11/07/tokyo-times-guide-for-dealing-with-yakuze-following-enactment-of-new-legislation/

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Gas Panic Bar Raided by Police for "illegal dancing"

Tokyo Metropolitan Police raided two popular nightclubs within the Gas Panic chain in the Roppongi entertainment district early Sunday morning for improper licensing and took two employees into custody, reports TV Asahi (Nov. 28).

Police arrested managers Hidenori Wakita, 36, and Nishihata, 35, for allowing dancing at clubs Gas Panic Bar and Club 99 after 1 a.m. — a violation of the Law Regulating Adult Entertainment Businesses.

Nippon News Network reports that 150 customers were inside the two clubs when police arrived.
This is the second arrest in two years for Wakita. In 2009, police found similar violations at Club 99 and GP Bar, which is also within the Gas Panic chain, and took the manager into custody.

TBS News reports that average monthly revenues for Gas Panic Bar total 10 million yen.

According to police, the club installed a security camera at the door to alert management to turn the music down if police appeared.

“I realized that it is against the law, but I operated in this way to meet the needs of the customers,” Wakita is quoted by police.

http://www.tokyoreporter.com/2011/11/28/gas-panic-clubs-in-roppongi-raided-for-improper-licensing-two-arrested/


The weekend bust of two popular nightclubs within the Gas Panic chain was due to the presence of undesirable foreigners, reports Nikkan Gendai (Nov. 30).

Early Sunday morning, Tokyo Metropolitan Police entered clubs Gas Panic Bar and Club 99 in the Roppongi entertainment district and arrested managers Hidenori Wakita, 36, and Fumiki Nishihata, 35, for allowing dancing after 1 a.m. — a violation of the Law Regulating Adult Entertainment Businesses.
A journalist who covers the adult entertainment industry says the chain of foreigner-frequented bars is popular for those on low budgets, but in recent times police have been taking notice of trouble.

“Recently, poorly behaving foreigners from the Middle East and South-East Asia have started showing up,” says the source. “They make others not want to come around, and maybe some neighbors complained.”

The tabloid says that the raid of Gas Panic Bar occurred just before 2 a.m. “There were close to 200 customers in the place,” says a salaryman present at the time. “As the name says, it was a panic. At first, I thought they were targeting drugs or gangs. I was stunned that it was due to licensing problems since this sort of thing has been going on for 20 years.”

The issue concerns the type of license. Establishments within the Gas Panic chain are licensed as bars, which under the Law Regulating Adult Entertainment Businesses are not allowed to provide entertainment, such as dancing, after 1 a.m. without special authorization. Only drinking, however, is permissible.

This was the second arrest in two years for Wakita. In 2009, police found similar violations at Club 99 and GP Bar, which is also within the Gas Panic chain, and took the manager into custody. After that, Gas Panic Bar installed a security camera at the door to alert management to turn the music down if police appeared.

Wakita was eventually convicted.

This latest bust sends a message, continues the adult-entertainment journalist. “The crackdown will expand,” the writer says. “There are tens of thousands of improperly licensed clubs. Gas Panic is a big name, and they have continued to ignore warnings. Perhaps the police are taking a step forward to show the serious consequences to everyone else.”

http://www.tokyoreporter.com/2011/12/01/bust-of-gas-panic-bars-in-roppongi-due-to-poorl-behaving-foreigners/ 

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

October - Industrial Production up 2.4% - but outlook weak

Japan's government says industrial production rose 2.4 per cent in October from the previous month.
The reading marks the first climb in two months, though the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry expects it to dip again in November.

It describes industrial production as "flat."

Japanese manufacturers have been contending with multiple headwinds including a strong yen and a weak global economy that threaten exports.

The ministry's report on Wednesday said transport equipment, general machinery and chemicals drove October's expansion in factory output.

Shipments rose 0.6 per cent from September, and inventories climbed 0.8 per cent.

http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-business/japan-industrial-output-rises-in-october-20111130-1o61a.html


Japan's factory production rose for the first time in two months as auto and machinery makers expanded output while bracing for global headwinds.

Factory production in October rose 2.4 percent from the previous month, the government said Wednesday. In September, it slumped 3.3 percent.

Autos, general machinery and chemicals drove the latest increase, according to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry's preliminary report.

It described industrial production as "flat" and expects another dip this month. It estimates a 0.1 percent decline in November and a 2.7 percent rise in December.

Masamichi Adachi, senior economist at JP Morgan Securities Japan, said the government's forecasts for the last two months of the year are "too optimistic" given rising inventories.

A strong yen and a weak global economy has been challenging for Japan's exporters. Along with the debt turmoil in Europe, the recent flooding in Thailand that has disrupted auto production has compounded worries.

A deputy governor of Japan's central bank underscored those concerns in a speech Wednesday in Kyoto, western Japan. Europe's sovereign debt problems represent the biggest concern for the global economy and could lead to lackluster growth around the world, Kiyohiko Nishimura said.

The yen has strengthened as a result, with global investors flocking to the Japanese currency as a safe haven. The yen has hit multiple historic highs against the dollar this year, forcing major manufacturers like Panasonic and Nissan Motor Co. to shift some production out of Japan.

Barclays Capital expects growth in industrial production to slow through the first quarter of 2012. But its chief economist in Japan, Kyohei Morita, does not believe that will lead to recession for the world's No. 3 economy.

Starting the second quarter, domestic demand will fuel growth as reconstruction after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami gains momentum, Morita said in a research note.

Shipments rose 0.6 percent from September, and inventories climbed 0.8 percent

http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2011/11/30/japan_factory_output_rises_but_outlook_weak/

October - Unemployment up, household spending falls, recovery waning?

Japan's jobless rate climbed for the first time in three months in October while household spending and incomes fell, adding to evidence that the country's post-disaster rebound is waning.

Government figures released Tuesday showed the unemployment rate adjusted for seasonal variations had jumped to 4.5 percent from 4.1 percent in September. Other recent indicators show slowdowns in exports and industrial production in the face of a strong yen and a sputtering global economy.

Japan's economy expanded at an annualized rate of 6 percent in the July-September quarter in an impressive comeback from the March earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident. But economists have said such robust growth in the world's No. 3 economy is unsustainable.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said in a report Monday that Japan's "pace of recovery is now moderating."

The latest labor report is the second since September to include data from the three prefectures hardest hit by the disaster — Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima. Between March and August, the government omitted the regions because of difficulties in gathering data.

Separately, the government's monthly report on households showed that families are tightening their budgets.

Average household spending in October retreated 0.4 percent from a year earlier to 285,605 yen ($3,650). Average monthly household income declined 1.8 percent in real terms to 479,749 yen ($6,135).

The OECD said Japan's economy should benefit next year from improved financial conditions and the government's planned reconstruction spending. It expects the gross domestic product to grow 2 percent in 2012.

"Soft global growth and the appreciation of the real exchange rate are, however, likely to check the pace of the upturn," the OECD said.


http://old.news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111129/ap_on_bi_ge/as_japan_economy

Monday, November 21, 2011

Warren Buffet sees Japanese investment opportunities

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett said he’s unfazed by the recent scandal at Japanese camera maker Olympus Corp. and is looking for investment opportunities in the nation’s companies.

“We’re looking for companies that have some kind of sustainable competitive advantage,” Buffett, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., said today at a news conference in Fukushima prefecture, northern Japan. “The fact that Olympus happens here or Enron happens in the U.S. doesn’t affect our attitudes at all.”

Buffett, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., is visiting Japan for the first time to tour a plant of took maker Tungaloy Corp., after canceling his trip in March when the country was struck by a record earthquake. Olympus said this month that it concealed losses by paying inflated advisory fees, raising concern among investors about corporate governance in Asia’s second-largest economy.

“There are lots of opportunities in Japan,” Buffett, 81, said in Iwaki city, adding that the earthquake hasn’t changed his view on investing in the country. He said he is interested in “businesses that will be around for many, many decades.”

Iwaki is about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant that leaked radiation after it was crippled by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. Buffett, who became the world’s third-richest person through long-term value investing, said earlier this year that the disaster created a “buying opportunity.”

“The fact that a renowned investor like Mr. Buffett is actually coming all the way to Japan and to the very place that became the center of the disaster means a lot and may shine a light,” said Shuhei Abe, president of Tokyo-based Sparx Group Co., Asia’s second-biggest hedge fund. “There are expectations that Mr. Buffett may invest more in Japan.”

Iscar Metalworking Cos., an Israeli company that was Berkshire’s largest acquisition of a non-U.S. firm, in 2008 bought a 71.5 percent stake in Tungaloy, which makes tools for cars and planes.

Japan’s stock benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average fell 0.3 percent today, extending losses to 18 percent this year. The gauge is set for the worst annual decline since 2008, as Europe’s escalating debt crisis and a global economic slowdown roil markets worldwide. Buffett, who is also Berkshire’s chief executive officer, has made bullish bets on the index through derivative contracts.

The earthquake and tsunami left more than 19,000 people dead or missing and led to an overall economic loss of $210 billion, making it the costliest natural catastrophe on record, Munich Re has said. Losses assumed by insurers, which Munich Re estimates at $30 billion, won’t reach the $62.2 billion caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, it said.

“Buffett’s investment is beautiful,” said Yutaka Kobayashi, president of Star Mica Asset Management Co., a boutique Japanese private bank. “Looking at the way he invests in this current market, it may well be a good time to be buying. His style of long-term investment makes sense under the current market climate.”

Buffett also said today that Europe will eventually emerge from a crisis that has been amplified by the inability of euro- zone members to print their own currency.

“One way or another, Europeans will solve their problems,” he said at the briefing. “But in the process of solving them there already have been very important dislocations and they will have effects on individual countries” and banks in the region that need capital, he said.




http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-11-21/buffett-sees-investment-opportunities-in-japan-after-olympus.html

Q3 - Japan Leads Developing Growth in Growth

Advanced economies across the world grew by 0.6 per cent in the third quarter on a particularly strong showing of 1.5 per cent in Japan, the OECD says.

This is broadly in line with recent data from other leading economic bodies, pointing to weak overall growth except in some still robust emerging economies.

The overall data points to activity holding up in the third quarter, but probably a further weakening into 2012.

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development said the Japanese figure, compared with output in the second quarter, reflected a surge in activity after the country got over the worst of the effects of the earthquake and tsunami earlier this year.

The rebound followed three quarters in a row of falling output in Japan, meaning the country was in recession.

Growth of the US economy picked up slightly in the third quarter to 0.6 per cent, the OECD said, but growth in both the 17-nation eurozone and 27 members of the European Union remained at 0.2 per cent.
This was despite a stronger performance of 0.5 per cent by Germany, 0.5 per cent by Britain and 0.4 per cent by France.

On a 12-month comparison, rather than a quarterly one, growth in the OECD area was 1.8 per cent, showing the same increase as in the second quarter.

The biggest expansion over 12 months was by Germany, with 2.6 per cent, and the weakest by Japan, at minus 0.2 per cent.


http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-business/japan-props-up-growth-in-leading-economies-20111118-1nlko.html

October - Exports fall for 1st time in 3 months

Japan's exports fell for the first time in three months in October, eroded by a strong yen and a sputtering global economy.

Exports declined 3.7 percent from a year earlier to 5.51 trillion yen ($71.7 billion), the finance ministry said Monday. Shipments to key markets such as China, North America and the European Union weakened.
The world's No. 3 economy relies heavily on overseas demand to drive growth. The slowdown suggests that its recovery from the March 11 tsunami and earthquake may be fading in the face of global headwinds.



Meanwhile, rising energy prices pushed imports up almost 18 percent to 5.79 trillion yen ($75.3 billion). That resulted in an unexpected trade deficit of 273.8 billion yen ($3.56 billion).

By category, exports of electrical machinery, including semiconductors and audio goods, fell 12.3 percent. Transportation equipment slipped 0.2 percent.

"Narrowing growth for auto-related categories suggests the post-quake supply recovery is tapering off," said Goldman Sachs economist Chiwoong Lee in a research note.

Economists predict Japan's gross domestic product will contract in the last quarter of the year after a recovery in exports helped it surge 6 percent in the July-September period.

The momentum is now being sapped by a strong yen, which shrinks the value of overseas earnings when repatriated and makes Japanese products less price competitive. The Japanese currency has hit multiple historic highs against the dollar this year as global investors flocked to the yen as a safe haven amid turmoil in the U.S. and Europe.

The currency levels have forced manufacturers including Nissan Motor Co. and Panasonic Corp. to shift some production overseas, a trend that could further undermine Japan's exports.


http://old.news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111121/ap_on_bi_ge/as_japan_economy

Anti-Yakuza Laws Begin to Bite IV- Uncertainties for foreign business from new laws

A prediction: if Japan ever becomes a police state, it will come about not by national law but municipal ordinances. And the war on organized crime could be the engine that drives the process.
With the coming into force of its Organized Crime Exclusion Ordinance on Oct. 1, Tokyo joined every other prefecture in Japan in having a set of local regulations intended to make life miserable for yakuza and other organized crime groups. With so much international commerce being done through Tokyo, perhaps the foreign business community may start to take note of what these ordinances mean, since they affect businesses of all types. They also grant the police potentially significant powers to interfere in commercial affairs.
As with those of other prefectures, the Tokyo ordinance has the commendable goal of making it harder for mobsters to function in society. Recent revelations about allegedly improper expenditures by Olympus, which some have speculated could be evidence of ties to "antisocial forces" (code for mobsters), have focused a great deal of attention on this policy goal.
As is often the case in Japan, however, the question is whether a top-down approach will work in practice. As written, the Tokyo ordinance seems to be aimed primarily at preventing businesses from using the threat implicit in mob associations to gain commercial advantage, as well as both making it easier for members of crime syndicates to leave and harder for youngsters to be enticed into joining. It also seeks to hinder the ability of criminal groups to engage in any sort of legitimate commercial activities that might benefit their unlawful ones. It is here that the ordinance imposes some potentially significant burdens on businesses of all kinds.
First, the rules prohibit companies from knowingly engaging in business transactions that benefit organized crime groups.
Second, they impose on apparently all businesses in Tokyo an obligation to confirm that the people and companies they enter into contracts with are not mob-related. How an entrepreneur is supposed to do this is not explained ("Say, can everyone in your company use their fingers to count to 10?" "Is that white belt a 'cool biz' thing?" etc.). It would also seem difficult to do given Japan's recent ardor for privacy protection laws.
Third, and perhaps most significantly, all businesses in Tokyo are supposed to endeavor to include in all of their written contracts a clause that allows them to be canceled immediately if it is subsequently discovered that one of the other parties is a mob-related person. Additional rules apply to construction contracts and those for the sale or lease of real estate that might be used as a mob office.
Who exactly is a "mob-related person"? The helpful definition in the ordinance essentially says "someone who has a close relationship with a mobster or a mob group." For more clarity, one could look at other police regulations on organized crime, which include lineal blood relatives of mobsters. If applied to the ordinance, it would mean people could be subject to legally sanctioned discrimination in business merely because of the family into which they were born, a result that would seem unconstitutional. (The Japanese Constitution specifically prohibits discrimination based on family origin, but perhaps anything goes in the War on Crime.)
The ordinance's provisions on contracting seem to have been drafted by people who know very little about business, which is a shame because so much business gets done in Tokyo. While the metropolitan police have not done so yet, the Miyagi police have prepared a helpful set of model contract provisions to use in connection with that prefecture's anti-organized crime ordinance. Their model language fills an entire page, and suggests that contract parties sign an oath confirming they are not mobsters. This may be asking a lot in a country where a contract of six or seven pages may still qualify as "long" and simply the order in which contract parties appear in the contract can involve issues of corporate etiquette.
While the notion of chopping off ties with anyone bearing the yakuza taint may be simplistically pleasing in the abstract to local politicians and police bureaucrats, it adds a potentially significant element of risk allocation to all manner of business dealings — i.e., who gets left holding the bag if it turns out that one of the parties to the deal has a really intricate tattoo? In a complex multiparty transaction where hundreds of millions of yen are at stake, the ability to cancel a contract at any time for any reason may be a tough sell, particularly for foreign parties who are just trying to do business in Japan rather than solve its social problems. Even if all of the parties are comfortable that they are yakuza-free when they sign the contract, they still all have to live with the risk that somebody will later enter into some relationship that, perhaps inadvertently, makes them "mob-related," and renders the contract instantly terminable.
Some Japanese businesses are reportedly already feeling stymied by the new regulations. According to a recent article in the Tokyo Shinbun, the police have been providing helpful advice like "having the occasional drink with a childhood friend who ended up in a criminal group will not make you 'mob-related' "; "preparing a small funeral service for a mob boss and his immediate family is OK, but a huge memorial service attended by the whole syndicate is not"; and, "delivering a few bento boxes to a mob group for lunch is OK, but catering to a bigger meeting is not permitted."
While these examples are doubtless intended to reassure entrepreneurs, the mere fact that the ordinance seems to grant the police such sweeping powers to make almost completely subjective interpretations about the legality of commercial decisions seems disturbing.
Similarly, while these examples of guidance illustrate that the intended focus of the ordinance is to make it even more difficult for crime syndicates to eat, drink or work openly on a local level, the rules themselves contain no clear parameters as to their scope. Thus, as written the ordinance applies to all businesses equally, whether it is the neighborhood funeral parlor or a foreign multinational trying to buy a Japanese company headquartered in Tokyo.
If a private equity fund launches a tender offer for a major Japanese company, does it have to get all the shareholders to swear they are not mobsters and cancel the whole transaction if it turns out one of them is? Can "clean" shareholders who oppose the bid use an unsupported claim that other shareholders are mob-tainted to argue that an investment fund should go away? Indeed, how can businesses get rid of yakuza shareholders or partners if they can't even buy them out using arms-length, commercially reasonable contracts? One wonders what sort of advice the metropolitan police would give on these types of questions.
Even if the contract provisions function as expected, one has to question the wisdom of requiring businesses to terminate commercial contracts that are otherwise legitimate because of suspected mob connections. Aggressively asserting legitimate legal rights for extortionate purposes, whether as shareholders, tenants or otherwise, has long been a line of business for some mob groups. Since Japanese law has the concept of "abuse of rights," even if the contract provides a right of termination, the other party can claim that it was abused. Thus, a system that could give mobsters a steady stream of breach of contract claims might actually prove counterproductive.
What is a business to do about this new ordinance? Ignoring it may prove to be a viable strategy (not one that I am recommending, mind you). The rules only require businesses to "endeavor" to have contracts with the required language, and there are no direct penalties for failing to do so. Thus, the regulation could become one of the many Japanese laws and regulations everybody ignores until the police want to arrest someone or the media needs a shame story.
However, the strategy of ignoring the rules may not work for all companies, such as those that place a heavy focus on corporate social responsibility, or are subject to constitutional or contractual mandates that they conduct their businesses in accordance with applicable laws and regulations.
Even without penalties, the ordinance could have ramifications for corporate governance. Corporate directors have an obligation to ensure their companies are not fostering criminal conduct. Does failure to have the "suggested" language in all of their contracts constitute a breach of duty? What if they have the contract language but fail to terminate a major contract with a strategic partner based on a media report suggesting that the partner might have connections to someone who might be mob-related?
Ignoring the new regulations may not also work for the police, who are apparently now empowered by the ordinance to conduct warrantless "inspections" of all business premises and demand documents and other information. This power to engage in what would seem to be potentially wide-ranging infringements of basic civil liberties (not to mention interference with business) is softened by a requirement that the police officer conducting the inquiries show ID (er, don't they have already have to do that anyway?) and a provision stating that the process should not be considered a criminal investigation — very comforting indeed!
Companies might try to refuse on principle, but noncooperative businesses would apparently risk having their names publicized on a police-administered list of mobsters, mob affiliates and mob sympathizers. Will appearing on such a list make your business "mob-related" according to the new ordinance, and all your contracts thus terminable? The rules are not clear, but a lot of your customers and vendors may not want to take chances.
That the ordinance was not drafted with much consideration for the potential burdens it may place on business in a metropolis that aspires to be a global financial center is obvious. As for its effect on organized crime, it may just drive the mobsters deeper underground, a questionable result, particularly if it leaves the police as the only readily identifiable organized crime-related group making unreasonable demands on businesses.


http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/fl20111115zg.html


Another article which discusses the new laws -

http://www.japansubculture.com/2011/10/october-1st-nationwide-in-japan-anti-yakuza-laws-go-into-effect-do-tell-we-wont-ask/

Anti-Yakuza Laws Begin to Bite III- Famous Temple Bans Yakuza, Police Anti Mob Squad joins Olympus Investigation

Enryakuji Temple, one of Japan's most prestigious temples near the ancient capital Kyoto, has refused to allow members of Japan's biggest organized crime syndicate to pay their respects there, an official said on Saturday.

The temple's refusal follows a request from police, who are cracking down on yakuza gangsters nationwide. News of the temple's refusal was reported widely by Japanese media amid speculation that organized crime was somehow involved in an accounting scandal at Japan's disgraced Olympus.

Members of Yamaguchi gumi group have made annual visits to the temple each August. In June, the temple in the Shiga prefecture of eastern Japan told the group they would not be welcome this year, said an official from the temple.

The Enryakuji temple keeps spiritual tablets from Yamaguchi gumi's late leaders, the official said. The tablets are wooden bars on which the Buddhist names of sick members are printed and are used for memorial services.

"We allowed them to visit the temple because we wanted to give family members ... an opportunity to pay a visit," said the official, who asked not to be named. "But in the past four years we have only seen the group members visiting, which is different from the original purpose," he said.

The temple also wanted to cooperate with police in cracking down on organized crime groups, he said.
Japanese authorities are investigating Olympus after the maker of cameras and endoscopes admitted it hid investment losses for decades using funds from acquisition deals.

A unit from the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department's organized crime division has joined the investigation, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Links between companies, "yakuza" gangsters and politicians have a long tradition in Japan. Authorities have been trying to crack down for decades, most recently with laws targeting not only crime syndicates but firms that do business with them.

A 2010 report by the National Police Agency listed 22 designated crime syndicates, complete with their logos and the addresses of their headquarters.

Full and "associate" members totaled 80,900, down from 88,600 in 1990, of which almost half were members of the Yamaguchi-gumi, which is based in Kobe in western Japan.


http://old.news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111119/wl_nm/us_japan_temple

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Land in Disaster Areas Worthless

Land prices in areas devastated by the March 11 disasters have plummeted in terms of inheritance and donation tax calculations, and are effectively worthless in the immediate area of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, the government said Tuesday in releasing new price adjustment rates.






The rate stands at 0.2 for locations in Miyagi Prefecture hit by the tsunami, indicating an 80 percent fall in land prices, the National Tax Agency said.

For the vicinity of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, the agency said it assigned a rate of zero because it is difficult to make a determination. This means land in the area has no value in the absence of transactions.

Although the agency assigned the negative adjustment rates to reduce the burden on taxpayers, the rates are expected to affect future land transactions.

They will be applied to people who acquired land through inheritance or donation prior to March 11 and were required to file tax returns by that date or later.

The rates cover disaster-affected locations in 10 prefectures, including Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima, which were hit the hardest by the disasters. They cover around 65,000 sq. km, accounting for 17.1 percent of Japan's total land.

The tax agency based the rates on such factors as the scale of destruction, damage to essential services and the adverse impact on a region's image.

The rates range from 0.2 to 0.3 for coastal zones of Miyagi Prefecture and 0.3 for similar zones in Iwate and Fukushima prefectures.

Some locations in Urayasu, Chiba Prefecture, where liquefaction caused by the earthquake destroyed roads and water and gas mains, were assigned rates of 0.6.

After the 1995 Kobe earthquake, the lowest land price adjustment rate was 0.75, indicating a maximum land price fall of 25 percent. Negative adjustment rates were set at the time for around 2,000 sq. km.


http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20111101x1.html?

Friday, October 28, 2011

Yakuza Arrested for 2006 Omote Sando Real Estate Exec Slaying

http://www.tokyoreporter.com/2011/10/26/yamaguchi-gumi-offices-raided-over-2006-aoyama-killing-one-gangster-arrested/

Anti-Yakuza Laws Begin to Bite II- No Life Insurance

Life insurance companies will include a provisional clause in their guidelines which allows them to deny coverage to the yakuza, Japan’s organized crime groups, according to life insurance industry officials.

The Japanese insurers will need approval for the provision by Japan’s Financial Service Agency (FSA), which they are expected to receive. Once the provision is approved, it will be implemented immediately.
The clause will allow insurance companies to cancel payments for injuries or death if the person is a member of a crime group. In other words, the insurer will have the right to refuse to cover anyone who belongs to a gang, which is involved in fraud or other criminal activities. They could even refuse to cover a person with a tattoo that is recognized as a symbol of gang membership.

Additionally, they can also deny or cancel a policy if it is learned that the person has provided false information about being a gang member.

In the past, if a person who was a gang member signed a contract with an insurance company, the company would be obligated to pay.

About 45 major life insurance companies who belong to the Life Insurance Association in Tokyo created the provision to deny life coverage to members of crime groups. They describe these groups as anti-social elements of society.

Once approved, each company will implement the provision, allowing companies to refuse payment or unconditionally cancel an individual’s policy.

In addition, insurance policy holders or beneficiaries will not be able to collect life insurance if it is learned that they are involved in organized crime.


http://www.majiroxnews.com/2011/10/26/no-life-insurance-for-yakuza/

Anti-Yakuza Laws Begin to Bite - Printers no longer printing business cards

http://www.tokyoreporter.com/2011/10/27/printers-in-hyogo-break-off-relations-with-gangsters-refuse-to-print-business-cards/

2010 - Population Marks slowest growth ever

Japan's population stood at 128,057,352 as of Oct. 1, 2010, up 0.2 percent from five years earlier, marking the slowest growth since the once-in-five-years census began in 1920, the final results of the survey showed Wednesday.

When non-Japanese residents are excluded, the population dropped by about 371,000, or 0.3 percent, decreasing for the first time since 1975, when it began compiling the population of Japanese citizens separately from non-Japanese, the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry said.

"While Japan has entered an era of population decline, its total population has been flat because of an increase in foreign nationals," a ministry official said.

The number of non-Japanese residents rose 5.9 percent, or about 93,000.

Japan remains the 10th most populous nation, accounting for 1.9 percent of the world's population, according to a U.N. population estimate for 2010.

The male population stood at 62,327,737, while the female population came to 65,729,615.

Those aged 65 or older numbered about 29,246,000, accounting for 23.0 percent of the total population, up from 20.2 percent in the previous census. The country's graying trend stayed at the top level in the world, surpassing Germany and Italy.

In contrast, those below 15 accounted for 13.2 percent of the population, down 0.6 percentage point, confirming that the population of the young is shrinking as the country grays rapidly.

The number of households rose 4.8 percent from 2005 to 51,950,504, topping the 50 million mark for the first time ever, but the average number of members per household hit an all-time low of 2.42, the report showed.

The number of single-member households stood at around 16,785,000, comprising more than 30 percent of the total households for the first time.

Of Japan's 47 prefectures, population increased only in nine -- including Tokyo and Okinawa -- while it declined in the rest. Six prefectures -- Tochigi, Shizuoka, Mie, Kyoto, Hyogo and Okayama -- saw their population growth turn negative.

At the municipal level, population decreased in 1,321 cities, towns and villages, or 76.4 percent of all the country's municipalities.


http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20111027p2g00m0dm003000c.html

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

H1 2011/12 (April - Sept) - First Trade Deficit since Lehman Shock as 3/11 EQ Impacts Exports

 Japan registered a 1.67 trillion yen trade deficit during the first half of fiscal 2011 as exports fell sharply due to the Great East Japan Earthquake, according to data released Monday by the Finance Ministry.
The nation's trade balance fell into the red for the first time since the second half of fiscal 2008, when the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. of the United States triggered the global economic downturn.

The 1.67 trillion yen deficit in the April-September period is the second-largest on record, after the 2.35 trillion yen deficit registered during the second half of fiscal 1979 when crude oil prices soared in the wake of the second oil crisis.

Exports of automobiles and semiconductors plunged after the March 11 quake, while imports of liquefied natural gas and other fuels increased as the electricity industry relied more on thermal power generation due to the suspension of many nuclear power plants after the quake.

Overall, exports dropped 3.8 percent from a year earlier to 32.81 trillion yen. The automobile industry slumped 18.4 percent over the period, although its exports did increase in August and September from a year earlier.

Exports of semiconductors and other electronic components declined 15.8 percent, due to a sluggish market and the aftereffects of the March quake.

In contrast, imports expanded 12.1 percent to 34.48 trillion yen. LNG and crude oil imports increased 40.3 percent and 24.9 percent, respectively, as a result of stronger demand.

Higher prices for natural resources also contributed to the increase.

The September trade balance recorded a surplus of 300.4 billion yen, moving into the black for the first time since July. Exports increased 2.4 percent from a year earlier to 5.98 trillion yen, while imports grew 12.1 percent to 5.68 trillion yen.

However, the trade surplus decreased 61.2 percent from a year earlier with growth in imports exceeding that in exports.


http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/business/T111024003843.htm

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Financial Firms and Brokers Cutting Staff

Major domestic securities firms as well as overseas brokerages with operations in Japan are all cutting back because of dropping profitability due to the worldwide constriction of the stock and bond markets. The waning investment activity has resulted in foreign firms shrugging off the high yen and seeking easier markets, forcing security companies across the board to cut employment.

Mitsubishi YFJ Morgan Stanley Securities will let go of about 20% of its employees in October as “early retirement.” This follows a similar cutback in February of this year. This means that somewhere between 1,200 and 1,300 employees will leave the company.

Mizuho, Merrill Lynch and UBS AG are also all cutting back.

“We’ve noticed a recent increase in the number of candidates from these firms who have placed their resumes on some of the job boards that recruiting firms use,” said Joe Peters, a Tokyo-based recruiter and managing director of an executive search firm.

Some firms have also begun to close down branch offices. Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley, which by May of 2010 had already reduced its number of branches from 103 to 75, is looking to close another 5 to 10 locations.

At the same time, Japanese and foreign firms continue to move Asian area operations out of Japan to locations with greater growth potential.


http://www.majiroxnews.com/2011/10/17/global-downturn-means-brokers-in-japan-cutting-workforce/

Electronics Makers Slashing Jobs, Closing Plants

Panasonic closing TV Plasma plant and losing 1000 jobs in Amagasaki and looking to sell LCD plant in Mobara
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/world/8363070/panasonic-to-trim-tv-side-cut-1000-jobs-report

Sanyo slashing 800 jobs in Gunma from industrial a/c plant
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nb20111020a4.html

Olympus Pays Huge Advisory Fees for M&As

In what is becoming a major scandal for Oympus - the company confirmed it paid over $600m in advisory fees for an $2bn acquisition to an unknown advisor registered in a tax haven

The foreign CEO has been fired after asking the Board to step down for sanctioning the deal; and there have been threats of legal action

Olympus's share price has fallen 44% since the scandal broke

http://old.news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111019/ap_on_bi_ge/as_japan_olympus

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

April - Sept - Disney Customers 17% down

The combined number of visitors to Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea in the April-September period dived 17.1 percent from a year earlier to 10.74 million, the sharpest fall on a half-year basis since Tokyo Disneyland opened in 1983, the operator of the theme parks said Monday.


But the number of visitors in the July-September period was the highest on record for the three-month period, Oriental Land Co. said.

It attributed the plunge for the six months to September to the theme parks' temporary closure following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. The number of visitors for the six-month period was the smallest since the year from April 2002, just after DisneySea's opening in September 2001.

Oriental Land attributed the strong recovery in visitors in the July-September period to the nightly Fantasmic! attraction on the waters of the Mediterranean Harbor area of DisneySea, introduced this spring, which proved to be a megahit.

The number of visitor "is now on track to recovery," an Oriental Land official said.

The company did not release a projection for the number of visitors for the entire financial year to next March on the grounds that it is necessary to continue monitoring the impact from the March 11 calamity.

Luxury Market Grows for 1st time in 4 years

Japan's luxury market is set to grow for the first time in four years as status-conscious consumers help rebuild the economy, encouraging expansion by Gianni Versace SpA and Mulberry Group PLC.
Sales of luxury goods here may rise 2 percent in 2011, following a contraction that started in 2007 and wiped 14 percent off the industry's value, Bain & Co. estimates.

Confidence is returning after the March disasters. As growth resumes, deflation ends and tourists visit from China, Japan is drawing investment from companies including Mulberry, the British maker of ¥485,000 Bayswater bags. Versace returned this year after closing its Japan operations in 2009.

"Consumers are back in stores," said Claudia D'Arpizio, a Milan-based partner at Bain. "Japan is still a market where you need to be present because it's a big chunk of the pie and also because the young generation are becoming more and more trendsetters."

Renewed optimism in Japan, boosted by reconstruction after March 11, and a desire to control distribution is spurring investment. Cavalli Group, the Italian fashion house known for its animal-print clothing, opened its first directly operated store in Tokyo last month.

Mulberry is close to signing a distribution deal in Japan with a joint venture owned by Club 21 and a subsidiary of Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings Ltd. The 10-year accord anticipates the opening of multiple shop-in-shops within the IMH network as well as new flagship stores in Tokyo and Osaka, Mulberry said at the beginning of October.

Luxury is almost a mass-market business in Japan with a large consumer base that is more value conscious than in other countries, D'Arpizio said. Direct distribution allows companies to control pricing and target customer groups, she said.

Mainstream consumers shelled out 26 percent more on luxury clothes and accessories in the first half, according to American Express Business Insights. By comparison, shoppers that make up the top 5 percent of annual purchases in Japan cut spending by 22 percent in the period, the researcher said Sept. 20.

"I buy whatever I want even right after the March 11" quake, said Kumiko Tominaga, a 42-year-old working at her family's business who bought a Cartier bracelet for ¥800,000.

Almost 50 percent of all Japanese women over 20 own a Vuitton handbag, MF Global estimates.
Japan's share of worldwide sales of items like sapphire and diamond necklaces and calf leather handbags retreated to 11 percent in 2010 from 12 percent a year earlier, while demand surged by a third in China, Bain estimates. Japan's luxury market will reach about ¥1.9 billion, or 10 percent of the total, this year, according to the consultant.

Greater China is set to replace Japan this year as the second-largest market for luxury goods behind the U.S., rising to ¥2.4 billion, according to Bain. Chinese tourism into Japan is helping to boost growth.
"We see Chinese shoppers going to Japan, mainly in Tokyo in the Ginza area," said Alexis Babeau, deputy chief executive officer of PPR SA's luxury division. Chinese consumers spent as much as $20.6 billion on luxury goods outside their home market, according to Bain.

Tourists from mainland China "will continue to be a major contributor to retail sales in the Asia region," HSBC analysts including Erwan Rambourg said in a report this month. "These 'walking ATMs' are spreading across the region."

Worldwide spending on luxury goods may rise 10 percent this year before slowing to a "solid single-digit" percentage increase in 2012, Bain estimates. Global sales reached $238 billion in 2010, according to the consultant.

After more than 20 years of growth fueled by status-seeking and the perceived need to fit in, Japan's luxury market lost its luster in the last decade. Consumers curbed spending on products as they got older, the young rejected the global brands worn by their parents and prices, which were once as much as three times higher than in Europe, stayed the same or fell.

Japan's economy may expand 2.5 percent in 2012 after contracting this year, according to estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Unemployment is expected to be 4.4 percent, about half the rate in the U.S. and eurozone.

Even before the earthquake, which forced some luxury companies to close stores in Tokyo for more than 10 days, there were signs that Japanese demand was stabilizing.

Salvatore Ferragamo SpA has said its Japanese sales, which account for 13 percent of the shoemaker's total, were growing in the first quarter until the earthquake struck. While the disaster caused a "significant" slowdown in sales in March as well as a store closure, revenue growth resumed in the three months through June, the Florence, Italy-based company, said.

Ferragamo's 1 percent increase in first-half sales in Japan was "better than expected," Chairman Ferruccio Ferragamo said. "The trend can continue."

PPR, owner of the Gucci and Bottega Veneta brands, has posted single-digit percentage revenue growth in Japan since May, Chairman and CEO Francois-Henri Pinault said in September. Cie Financiere Richemont SA reported a 7 percent increase in Japanese sales in the five months through August, which is "an encouraging trend seen in the broader luxury sector," according to Thomas Chauvet, an analyst at Citigroup Inc.

Burberry Group PLC said last week it sees no signs of a slowdown in any markets, echoing PPR and LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA, the world's largest maker of luxury goods. LVMH, gets about 9 percent of sales in Japan.

The Tobu department store in Ikebukuro, Tokyo, sold timepieces priced between ¥2 million and ¥3 million during an August promotion that generated sales of more than ¥500 million in a week, according to managing director Keiji Hashimoto. Though that was more than last year's campaign, "we didn't see customers who bought a ¥10 million watch," he said.

Masako Ide was shopping for Louis Vuitton in Ikebukuro after shunning purchases in the weeks after the earthquake and tsunami.

"I'm still very cost-conscious and select luxuries carefully," said the 52-year-old, who had already bought Gucci and Coach handbags at a discount outlet. "I want to buy more, but it may lead to the bankruptcy of my family."


http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nb20111019n2.html

July 1 - Land Prices Continue to Decline

The land, infrastructure and transport ministry has found that as of July 1, the nationwide average residential land prices went down 3.2 percent from a year before — the 20th straight annual drop — and average prices for commercial areas fell 4 percent — the fourth straight decrease. The trend points to the effects of deflation, although the rate of decrease in land prices in the Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya areas narrowed. The effects of the March 11 quake and tsunami were also large.


The ministry said that the disasters' effects offset the effects of tax reduction measures for households paying housing loans. It also said that high vacancy rates in office buildings and postdisaster decreases in sales at shops caused land prices to fall.

The effects of the disasters and the nuclear crisis at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant are clear in Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures. The land price surveys had to be given up at 93 points in these disaster-hit prefectures, 50 of them inside evacuation zones in Fukushima Prefecture set up after the nuclear accidents.

In Fukushima Prefecture, residential land prices fell 5.4 percent and commercial land prices 7.5 percent on average. Respective rates of decrease were 2.3 and 2.9 percentage points bigger than a year before. These figures show what effect the nuclear fiasco has had on land prices in the prefecture. The government needs to earnestly tackle the tasks of bringing the nuclear accidents under control and of decontaminating areas affected by radioactive substances from the power plant.

The land price for a spa in Koriyama, Fukushima Prefecture, dropped 15 percent, the largest drop in commercial areas across Japan, due to a sharp decrease in the number of tourists visiting there after the nuclear accidents.

Land prices for a residential area in Rikuzen Takada, Iwate Prefecture, fell as much as 16 percent. Safe and commercially vibrant communities must be built in the disaster-hit areas. Moving residences to highlands may be necessary. In some parts of western Japan, land prices fell more than a year before because of fear of possible major earthquakes. Both the central and local governments need to move up sufficient preparations against such quakes even outside the Tohoku region.


http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/ed20110930a2.html?

September Cabinet Report downgrades outlook

The government gave the economy its first downgrade in six months Monday as the slowdown in overseas economies continued to weigh on industrial production and exports last month.


"The Japanese economy is still picking up although the pace has decelerated, while difficulties continue to prevail due to the Great East Japan Earthquake," the Cabinet Office said in its October report.
The September report did not mention that the recovery was slowing.

Production and exports were also downgraded, with the report saying that the recovery in production is decelerating and that exports are leveling off.

The Cabinet Office's report said economic conditions abroad overshadowed the two components.
It also touched on the need to pay attention to the yen's persistent strength, which is generally unfavorable for exporters as it erodes the value of their earnings when repatriated.

"The global financial markets, the European economy (struggling under the sovereign debt crisis) and Japan's exports have shown a downturn larger than expected in these two months," a government official said, explaining why the overall assessment was downgraded just two months after upgrading it.

Automakers responded firmly to demand they couldn't meet when the nationwide supply chain was disrupted by the March 11 disasters, but such products as semiconductors did not see exports grow as expected, the official said.

The report, meanwhile, was more upbeat in assessing such components as public investment and employment.

The report said that public investment has been "holding steady recently," partly supported by demand for rebuilding the disaster zone. In the previous month, investment was seen as basically sluggish.
In its evaluation of overseas economies, the government maintained for the second consecutive month its view that the recovery of the global economy is "weakening as a whole."

"The U.S. economy is extremely weak and the pace of recovery in Europe is becoming slow. As for the outlook, it is expected that a weak recovery will continue, but there are risks that economic conditions will take a downturn."


http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nb20111018a2.html

Reconstruction Taxes to impose heavy burden

Families headed by salaried workers will lose as much as ¥600,000 in take-home income in 2013, when the government raises taxes to fund disaster reconstruction and hikes pension premiums, estimates by a private research agency show.


A family with a gross annual income of ¥4 million will see ¥132,900 less in take-home income, the Daiwa Institute of Research said.

But a family that is generating an income of ¥8 million a year will receive ¥151,500 less.

Meanwhile, families with an income of ¥10 million could see take-home pay fall by ¥407,700 per year, while a family earning ¥20 million will get ¥601,100 less, the institute said.
In addition to tax hikes and pension charges, the calculation includes reductions in child allowances being given to families with a wage earner, spouse and two elementary-school-aged children.

But the drop will be bigger for wealthier households, especially because those who make more than ¥9.6 million a year will not be eligible for child allowances starting in June 2012.

The calculations, however, do account for a possible jump in the consumption tax, which is being discussed as part of integrated reforms to the tax and social security systems.

According to separate projections worked out by Dai-ichi Life Research Institute, should the consumption tax be hiked to 8 percent from the current 5 percent, a family of four with two children and an annual income of ¥4 million would pay about ¥71,000 more per year in taxes alone, and a similar household earning ¥8 million would have to shell out an additional ¥117,000.


http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20111017a1.html

Japan Cayman Tax Treaty Comes into effect 13 Nov

A tax information exchange treaty between Japan and the Cayman Islands will come into effect Nov. 13 due to the completion of necessary domestic procedures by the two governments, the Foreign Ministry said.

The treaty was signed Feb. 7 to prevent international tax evasion between Japan and the Cayman Islands.
The British territory in the Caribbean is the fourth tax haven that Japan has concluded such a treaty with after Bermuda, the Bahamas and the Isle of Man.

Enhancing information exchange on taxes has emerged as an important international issue in the wake of the global financial crisis in 2008.


http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nb20111019a5.html

Monday, September 19, 2011

Oasis and CIO Seth Fischer Receive Record Fine for JAL Trades

Today SFC publicly reprimanded Oasis Management (Hong Kong) LLC and its Chief Investment Officer, Mr Seth Hillel Fischer, and fined each of them $7,500,000 for their trading in the shares of Japan Airlines Corporation (JAL) on the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) in 2006.

This disciplinary action relates to trading by Oasis in JAL shares on the TSE on 19 July 2006 on behalf of two investment funds after JAL announced a plan to issue new shares via a public offer.  Under JAL’s plan, the offering price for the new shares would be priced between 90%-100% of the closing price of JAL’s shares on one of the days from 19 July 2006 to 21 July 2006.  This type of pricing mechanism is common in the Japanese market and usually the offering price determination day is the first day of the selected range which was 19 July 2006 in this case.

Oasis entered a series of orders for JAL shares in the last 15 minutes before the market closed on 19 July 2006, including:

  • market-on-close buy orders and cancelling them subsequently; and
  • a large volume of short sell orders during the last five minutes before market closed on the TSE (some orders were incorrectly labelled as short sell exempt orders, such that the funds were able to enter sell orders at prices lower than the latest executed prices).
On the settlement day for the short sell orders, Oasis failed to deliver shares in nearly 70% of the shares they had short sold with approximately 50% of these transactions having to be covered by new shares issued by JAL in the public offer.

Oasis' trading strategy, which originated in Hong Kong and was executed by Fischer, appeared to have been designed to drive down the closing price of JAL on 19 July 2006 to the detriment of the market for JAL shares.  A lower closing price would benefit the funds as subscribers for the new shares.

Oasis and Fischer do not admit their strategy was designed to mislead the market for JAL shares.  However, they have agreed to accept these sanctions which SFC regards as a sufficient expiation for SFC's concerns about their conduct on 19 July 2006.

This was actually a market manipulation case happened in Japan, referred by Japanese Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission to SFC for cross-border enforcement.

http://complier.blogspot.com/2011/09/sfc-records-historically-high-fine.html 
http://www.sfc.hk/sfcPressRelease/EN/sfcOpenDocServlet?docno=11PR108
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/business/news/20110916p2g00m0bu055000c.html 
http://www.fsa.go.jp/sesc/news/c_2011/2011/20110915-1.htm 
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/feedarticle/9847697

Seth Fischer has launched a new fund which started trading on 20 Sept -
http://www.hedgefundintelligence.com/Article/2902778/News/Fischers-Oasis-fund-starts-trading.html

Oasis was recently also in the news in regards to its disposal of its interests in AIM listed Japan Leisure Hotels

http://japanrealestatecommentary.blogspot.com/2011/06/japan-leisure-hotels-minority.html
 

Sunday, August 28, 2011

TEPCO Requests 10% Electiricty Price Rise

Tokyo Electric Power Co. has asked a third-party panel tasked with assessing its financial standing to approve an increase in electric charges of at least 10 percent, but the panel plans to reject the request, it was learned Saturday.
The panel, which the government appointed in June, will instead ask TEPCO to work harder to cut costs.
TEPCO wants to raise electricity fees as it has had difficulty coping with the surge in fuel costs for its thermal power plants, according to sources.
The utility is operating its thermal power plants at full capacity to offset shortfalls in electricity following the outbreak of the nuclear crisis at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
Taking the month of August as an example, TEPCO calculates the rate hike would increase the financial burden of a standard household by 660 yen.
TEPCO expressed its wish to the panel to raise the electricity charges by a fixed amount of 10 percent or more, rather than an amount proportionate to the change in fuel costs every three months, the sources said.
The power company told the panel it planned to raise the electricity charges temporarily until the nuclear reactors that have been suspended for routine checkups at Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in Niigata Prefecture are restarted. Only two of the seven reactors at the power plant are now operating.
Expecting its fuel costs to rise about 700 billion yen over a one-year period, TEPCO is believed to have decided the rate hike is inevitable as the rise in fuel costs will squeeze the company's profit, making it difficult to compensate the victims of the nuclear crisis.
According to a government estimate, TEPCO needs to raise electricity charges by 16 percent to cover the losses caused by the rise in fuel costs. The company refrained from requesting that big a hike, as it plans to fill the gap by trimming labor costs, according to the sources.
According to TEPCO, a standard household normally would be expected to pay about 6,683 yen in electricity charges for the month of August. If TEPCO's plan to raise electricity charges were approved, the figure would rise to 7,350 yen, or more.
However, the third-party panel, which is assessing TEPCO's ability to cut costs and examining the power company's assets to be sold, is believed to have judged that TEPCO can do more to trim its costs.
The panel is also concerned that the electricity charge hike will be prolonged, as it is unclear when the nuclear reactors of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant will restart.


http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110827003536.htm

Japanese Watching TV less - Down to 3.5 hours per day

The Japanese, once one of the most TV-addicted people on the planet, are drifting away from the tube -- forcing networks to scramble for other sources of revenue, from pic production, satellite services, Internet streaming sites and other new technologies.

Daily TV viewing time, which averaged more than five hours in the 1970s, shrank to 3 hours and 28 minutes by 2010, according to figures compiled by the NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute.
Males aged 10 to 20 are watching less than two hours a day.

Meanwhile, program ratings have been trending downward for terrestrial networks, pubcaster NHK and commercial rivals TV Asahi, NTV, TBS, Fuji TV and TV Tokyo, despite spikes for major sport events and other special programming.

In June not one show on commercial TV in the 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. "Golden Time" slot won a rating of 10 or above -- once considered the minimum for survival.

Various causes have been advanced for the ratings slide. Like other countries, Japanese families no longer sit around the TV watching the same show, as viewers did in the industry's 1960-to-1990s heyday. The Japanese now consume entertainment on a range of platforms, including PCs, smartphones and game consoles.

Also, an estimated 100,000 households, failed to make the switch from analog to digital in July, and have effectively given up TV entirely.

But the biggest cause, says Hiro Otaka, a media analyst for the Bunka Tsushin entertainment news services, is that "the programs have become boring."

Otaka blames network execs who have responded to falling ratings by cutting costs and hedging their bets.

"They don't put as much money or creativity into the shows as they used to, so program content has declined," he says. "You have so many of these cheaply made variety shows with comedians, it's hard to tell them apart. Viewers have just become tired of the same thing again and again."

At the same time, well-paid network execs are becoming "salarymen," Otaka says, using a Japanese-English term that has a negative connotation of conformist timeclock-puncher.

Innovation could come from the burgeoning satellite sector. Using frequencies freed up by the end of the analog broadcasts in July, the number of broadcast satellite channels is skedded to grow from 12 to 31 by March.

Otaka, however, is skeptical that Japanese versions of high-quality shows like "The Wire" will emerge from such strands.

"They don't have the money for one thing -- Japan is a small market compared to the U.S. Also, only the terrestrial networks have true nationwide reach. The satellite channels and local stations can't compete."

Imported shows are a potential source of stimulus, but there are few on skeds. Fuji TV broadcasts "Mad Men" at 2:30 a.m., while TV Tokyo airs "24 Hours."

Fuji TV has drawn flack for programming too many Korean dramas -- part of the so-called "Korean Wave" (in Japanese, hanryu) of pop culture that has been sweeping the country in the past few years.
An estimated 6,000-10,000 demonstrators protested against Korean content outside Fuji's headquarters Aug. 21.

"Fuji is overdoing it," says Otaka. "It needs to be more selective about the quality of the Korean shows it programs. Right now, it's airing so many because they're cheap -- but that only contributes to the downward spiral."

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118041846?refCatId=19

Monday, August 22, 2011

45% of Kids tested around Fukushima Show traces of radiation in Thyroid

In a terrible piece of news - but of course, the Government is not alarmed - levels "not problematic" and that they wouldnt be telling the parents.....

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Forty-five percent of children tested in the region around Japan's stricken nuclear plant were found to have traces of radioactive elements in their thyroid glands, an official said Thursday.

The official said that the iodine concentrations -- found in tests that the government carried out about five months ago in Fukushima prefecture -- were not considered alarming in terms of their health impact.

"The government's official position is that none of the children showed radiation levels that would be problematic," he told AFP.

The government's nuclear accident taskforce tested 1,149 children aged up to 15 about two weeks after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami triggered meltdowns, blasts and fires at the Fukushima plant.
Radioactive iodine tends to gather in the thyroid glands of minors in particular, increasing the risk of developing cancer later in life.

Of the valid test results collected for 1,080 children, 482 or 44.6 percent were confirmed to have some level of radioactive contamination in their thyroid glands, the government official told AFP.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said none of the children suffered contamination beyond the equivalent of 0.2 microsieverts (mSv) per hour, the standard set by Japan's Nuclear Safety Commission.

"Only one child showed a contamination level of 0.1 mSv per hour, the highest of the group," the official said without giving the child's sex or age.

The commission recommends that children, especially young ones, whose thyroid gland is contaminated beyond the 0.2 mSv limit undergo an in-depth physical checkup, citing international standards.

The commission is considering tightening its safety standard to 0.1 mSv.

The children tested came from three municipalities -- Iwaki city, Kawamata town and Iitate village -- where especially high levels of radiation had been estimated after the accident, the official said.

The Fukushima government plans to conduct life-time medical checks for the estimated 360,000 people aged 18 or younger who were in the prefecture at the time of the nuclear accident.

The taskforce medical team began sending test results to the families of the children last week and gave a briefing on Wednesday to a group of parents and guardians in Iwaki city.

Some participants complained that the team took months to inform them of the detailed results despite the gravity of the nuclear accident, the world's worst since Chernobyl 25 years ago, the Asahi Shimbun daily reported.

The government official said the taskforce did not consider informing the families of the details results as a priority since no child had shown contamination levels beyond the safety limit
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jn5dpQ-4-LeFD6NZ_yzv2njTZ5aA?docId=CNG.de226b3f8ca77186559071adc6e480e0.4c1