Japanese Women Cut Salaryman's Allowance to least in 30 years

Japanese men have seen allowances wither to the least in three decades as their wives pare household spending in an economy mired in deflation.

Known in Japan as salarymen, the workers receive 36,500 yen ($452) per month for pocket money, amounting to $15 a day and the smallest amount since 1982, according to a survey by Shinsei Financial Co. released today. Japanese wives typically manage their husbands’ earnings.

Japan’s growth of less than 1 percent per year in the past 10 years has crimped pay, forcing housewives to cut back on pocket money and exacerbating the deflation that has plagued the economy for more than a decade. Wages have been dropping since the March 11 earthquake and household sentiment is near a two- year low, making a consumer-driven economic rebound less likely.

“This makes me a little sad,” said Hiroshi Miyazaki, chief economist at Shinkin Asset Management Co. in Tokyo. “It’s a result of a very long period of deflation. Unfortunately, this trend’s going to continue.”

Workers’ allowances peaked in 1990 at the height of the country’s asset and real-estate bubble, with men receiving a monthly 76,000 yen, more than double what they get today, according to the survey. Respondents in today’s report said they spend the greatest proportion of the money on lunch, dispensing an average 490 yen. That matches the price of a double cheeseburger with small fries and a drink at McDonald’s.

“People are becoming increasingly austere in their attitudes toward money,” Shinsei said in the report. It has been conducting the survey since 1979, covering responses from about 1,000 men between their 20s and 50s.

To save money, workers said they bring their own lunch to work and eat out less. Men ate out 2.9 times a month after work and spent an average 3,540 yen each time, according to the survey. That compares with more than 6,000 yen in 2009.

Pub chain Watami Co. is among businesses taking the hit from consumers’ intensifying drive to spend less. The company’s same-store sales dropped 6.4 percent in May from a year earlier, marking the fifth straight month of declines.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-27/japan-s-men-survive-on-15-a-day-as-wives-tighten-purse-strings.html

Japanese Retail Investors Going for High Yield Real Estate and Foreign Mutual Funds

The aftermath of Japan's earthquake and tsunami has seen a rare flow of money into mutual funds based on domestic equities as a bargain-hunting mood took hold, but retail investors are more focused on foreign and property-linked funds with higher returns.

Japanese retail investors, who hold some $15 trillion in personal assets, are keen to diversify so as to obtain higher returns and are showing interest in currency-select funds and those related to Brazil or offering monthly dividends.

"We've seen flows by Japanese retail investors into foreign funds since the March disaster. I don't think the general trend has changed before and after the disaster," Naohika Baba, chief Japan economist at Goldman Sachs, told the Reuters Rebuilding Japan Summit in Tokyo this week.

"A trend of retail money flowing into such funds as Brazilian funds and REIT funds is continuing," Baba said.

Japanese retail investors have poured about $5 billion into North American real estate mutual funds since March, their biggest net investment in any category of funds tracked by Thomson Reuters Lipper, boosting total assets of such funds to $20.7 billion at the end of May.

North American real estate funds domiciled in Japan produced average returns of 11.56 percent in the first five months of 2011, the data showed.

Property funds have generated strong interest in Japan's $818 billion mutual fund market over the past year, with such funds showing a strong performance as ample liquidity in the global market saw money pouring into oversold property-related funds after the Lehman shock, analysts said.
Inflows have persisted into REIT (real estate investment trust) funds, especially after the Bank of Japan started an asset buying scheme to spark the economy last year, giving a boost to shares in REIT-related companies, distribution sources said.

The asset size of REIT fund reached an all-time high of 5.0 trillion yen ($62 billion) in May, the Investment Trusts Association of Japan said in data released last week.

High-yield U.S. dollar bond funds have been the second most popular category since March, with net inflows of $4.7 billion, followed by global real estate funds, which attracted net inflows worth $4.3 billion, Lipper data showed.

"High-yield foreign corporate bond funds and currency select funds continue to draw strong interest as investors closely focus on places that are performing well," said a distribution source who spoke on condition of anonymity.

FLOWS IN JAPAN EQUITIES FUNDS
In a rare move, mutual funds that invest in Japanese equities saw their first net inflows in two years, with investors pouring money into themed funds such as those investing in firms with products related to clean energy.

Japanese equities funds that donate part of their proceeds to areas hit by the March 11 disaster also drew strong interest.

Asset managers regard retail investors as important to their business, and say they are focused on offering products that meet such demand.

"Retail investors are expected to diversify their investments by seeking opportunities abroad. We want to think how we could meet their interest," said Koichi Miyata, president and chief executive of Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group.

"With regard to products, for instance, we may focus on offering foreign funds. For Japanese products, we may offer funds that focus on businesses with growth potential, and our customers also are seeking funds related to the rebuilding of Japan. Our key goal is to broaden our client base."

The $52.8 billion Japanese equity funds category has seen a revival, with investors pouring nearly $2 billion into it since March, data from Thomson Reuters Lipper showed.

The fund category had seen outflows worth about $1.5 billion in the previous nine months. Meanwhile the net asset value of these funds has fallen 9.3 percent since March.

Still, it is premature to say the market will see steady money flows into Japanese equity funds in the coming months as a stronger yen and unclear global economic prospects were expected to limit gains in Tokyo share prices, analysts said.

Uncertainty in the long-term prospects of the Japanese economy were also expected to keep curbing the enthusiasm of retail investors for domestic equity funds, they said.

The asset size of Japan mutual funds stood at 65.8 trillion yen as of May, but that was still 20 percent below the peak of 82 trillion yen set in October 2007.

"As long as the Japanese economy remains this way, the size of Japanese mutual funds is expected to stay near where it is now," Goldman's Baba said.

"But if the Japanese and global economies improve and push up share prices then they will have more room to invest. If share prices rise then investors can be more keen about taking risks and invest more," he said.


http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/06/24/us-japan-summit-retailinvestors-idUKTRE75N0OA20110624

Kawashima - Iitate and Kawamata - Residents Confirm Internal Radiation Exposure

More than 3 millisieverts of radiation has been measured in the urine of 15 Fukushima residents of the village of Iitate and the town of Kawamata, confirming internal radiation exposure, it was learned Sunday.

Both are about 30 to 40 km from the Fukushima No. 1 power plant, which has been releasing radioactive material into the environment since the week of March 11, when the quake and tsunami caused core meltdowns.

"This won't be a problem if they don't eat vegetables or other products that are contaminated," said Nanao Kamada, professor emeritus of radiation biology at Hiroshima University. "But it will be difficult for people to continue living in these areas."

Kamada teamed up with doctors including Osamu Saito of Watari Hospital in the city of Fukushima to conduct two rounds of tests on each resident in early and late May, taking urine samples from 15 people between 4 and 77.

Radioactive cesium was found both times in each resident.

Radioactive iodine was logged as high as 3.2 millisieverts in six people in the first survey, but none was found in the second survey.

The data indicate accumulated external exposure was between 4.9 and 13.5 millisieverts, putting the grand total between 4.9 to 14.2 millisieverts over about two months, they said.

"The figures did not exceed the maximum of 20 millisieverts a year, but we want residents to use these results to make decisions (to move)," said Kamada.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110627a2.html

Cumulative Radiation Exceeds 4x Annual Limit in some area outside Fukushima exclusion zone

Cumulative radiation outside the 20-kilometer radius of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in the past three months has reached as high as 82 millisieverts, more than four times the yardstick of 20 millisieverts a year, a science ministry estimate showed Tuesday. 


The highest level was detected in a part of Namie, Fukushima Prefecture around 22 kilometers northwest of the nuclear plant crippled since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, according to the data compiled by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.

Namie is among the designated evacuation areas lying outside of the no-entry zone where radiation levels are feared to exceed the annual limit of 20 millisieverts.

Of 160 monitoring sites in the designated areas outside the no-entry zone, 23 registered radiation levels exceeding 20 millisieverts over the three-month period, the ministry said.

Outside the areas subject to evacuation, an area in the city of Minamisoma had an estimated cumulative radiation level of 20.4 millisieverts a year since the start of the crisis.


http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9O0AP581&show_article=1

May - Visitors to Japan Plunge 50%

The number of foreign visitors to Japan in May plunged 50.4 percent from a year earlier to 358,000, the second-sharpest year-on-year fall following April's 62.5 percent drop, in the wake of the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster in March, the Japan National Tourism Organization said Thursday.

The rate of decline, however, has been narrowing since reaching 73 percent in the March 12-31 period following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, with foreign governments lifting advisories on travel to Japan, according to the organization.

The rate of decline in foreign visitors also slowed as travel agencies organized cheaper group tours to Japan and foreigners including those who were studying and undergoing vocational training in Japan returned to the country.

Of foreign visitors in May, the number of South Koreans plummeted 58.3 percent to 84,100 and that of Taiwanese tumbled 40.4 percent to 68,000 while that of Chinese decreased 47.8 percent to 58,700.
Comparable data has been available since January 1961.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9NST9O00&show_article=1

Tokyo starts radiation checks at 100 locations

The Tokyo metropolitan government kicked off Wednesday a weeklong program to measure radiation levels in the air at 100 locations in the metropolis in a bid to address fears over the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant. 


There are one to three check points per 4 square kilometers across Tokyo, excluding mountain areas. Two groups of metropolitan government employees will take measurements at six to seven locations a day during the week, with the results published basically everyday on its website after each measurement, it said.

At a park in Toshima Ward, the first location under the program, three employees measured 0.06 microsieverts of radiation one meter above the ground and 0.07 microsieverts at five centimeters above ground, against the legal limit of 1 millisievert per year for the general public.

The move came after a number of requests from cities, towns and villages in Tokyo asking for expanded coverage of radiation measurements to the metropolitan government, as it has conducted measurements only in Shinjuku Ward.


http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9NS2S2O0&show_article=1

Yakuza Trying to Get Post EQ Fukushima Contracts

The government and law enforcement authorities appear to be fighting an uphill battle to prevent gangsters and other "antisocial" groups from cashing in on disposing of huge amounts of debris generated by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, which played havoc with large areas along the Pacific coast of northeastern Japan.

These groups, including not only Japan's indigenous organized crime syndicates known as "yakuza" but a mafia based in China, are seeking to win a chunk of more than ¥15 trillion estimated to be poured into reconstruction of the areas.

On May 5, in the midst of an annual holiday season in Japan, an officer of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, on his visit to Minami-Soma City in Fukushima Prefecture, which was hard hit by the calamities, was flabbergasted to find a Chinese man known as a leading figure in the "China mafia."

This man (who will be referred to as "Mr. X" in this article) is a naturalized citizen of Japan, and is engaged in the business of treating industrial waste in both Japan and China. He was giving gyoza dumplings to evacuees in shelters in an apparent bid to impress the local people with his benevolence.

But his ulterior motive is to win a contract for collecting and disposing of mountains of debris that local authorities are finding difficult to handle. Making matters worse for local residents, some of the debris near the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power station are contaminated with radioactive substances and therefore cannot be moved to other prefectures.

Indeed, on April 17, the municipal government of Koriyama City, Fukushima, removed contaminated surface soil from the grounds of a public school but was prevented from dumping the radioactive soil at a disposal site by local residents.

According to the Tokyo police officer, Mr. X recently visited the mayor of Minami-Soma with a DPJ Diet member apparently in a bid to win business contracts. The mayor is said to have been unaware of Mr. X's background. The same police officer says Mr. X has sites in inland China where he can dump waste. This means that should he be awarded a contract, debris, including materials contaminated with radioactive substances would be shipped to China.

The China mafia is not the only group seeking to win a deal in the debris disposal projects. On April 21, a member of the yakuza group Kodo-kai was found to be distributing cash to earthquake victims in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, and the police believe this was part of an attempt to get a contract for debris disposal. Kodo-kai is the largest group under the umbrella of Yamaguchi-gumi, which is the largest of Japan's "Big Three" organized crime syndicates.

The other two Big Three members — Sumiyoshi-kai and Inagawa-gumi — are also stepping up their activities in the disaster region, which gives rise to the difficult question of how the three groups would split the pie in the event they win contracts, according to a newspaper reporter well versed in their actions.

Another category of "antisocial" groups is groups of people known as sokai-ya, which are corporate blackmailers unique to Japan. They extort money by threatening to publicly humiliate or embarrass companies and their executives at annual meetings of stockholders (kabunushi sokai).

One such group is said to have dispatched more than 30 workers to the stricken nuclear power station in Fukushima to work on disposal of contaminated debris. Each worker carries a Geiger counter to measure and records the levels of radiation. The group's aim, of course, is to threaten Tokyo Electric Power Co., the operator of the nuclear station, and win compensatory money by proving that these workers have were over-exposed to radiation.

The government and the police have already launched steps to counter these antisocial forces, but their task is not easy to say the least. In late March, the National Police Agency instructed the police departments in the earthquake-hit prefectures to take measures to prevent yakuza and other antisocial groups from taking part in reconstruction projects.

On May 8, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshito Sengoku said in an NHK-TV program that disposal of debris, which he noted was primarily the task of the municipalities, would not work unless the central government takes direct control.

But even these steps taken by the government and the police might not prove sufficient because the sheer size of the debris and the work required could enable the yakuza to edge their way in.

One case to illustrate this point is found in a construction company in Iwate Prefecture, which was on the verge of bankruptcy prior to the March 11 disasters due to insufficient work. Although the company is now getting more work than it can possibly handle, it knows that the boom is temporary, and that, therefore, it is refraining from hiring more workers. Other construction companies are in a similar position, and, as a result, each has more work than they can handle.

In this kind of situation, the national and municipal governments cannot devote much time to carefully choosing contractors to undertake debris disposal.

The police authorities are also facing difficulties in clamping down on the yakuza groups because many of them take the form of normal business entities engaged in legitimate enterprises.

The National Police Agency is said to have distributed to prefectural police departments a list of antisocial individuals but it is not clear if the police department can fully make use of the lists in their efforts to exclude gangsters from contracts.

It appears to be an uphill battle to prevent yakuza and other crime syndicates from benefiting from the multitrillion yen reconstruction-related projects.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/eo20110615a3.html

Osaka Real Estate Market Still Flat - No lift from Kanto EQ

Osaka has not received any relief in its trouble real estate sector from a previously expected movement of companies from Tokyo to Osaka which has not occurred

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/16/osaka-idUSL3E7H806Y20110616

Government to Monitor for Cesium on Swim Beaches this Summer

The government will ask municipalities to check radiation levels at bathing areas this summer in assessing their water quality in the wake of the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant, government officials said Tuesday.
The Environment Ministry will notify local governments of a guideline this month for monitoring radioactive cesium in seas, rivers and lakes in addition to regular screening for coliform bacteria and other contaminants.
The decision comes in response to requests from municipalities for a national guideline for water safety in the light of radioactive contamination of water, soil and food.
Independent inspections of 34 bathing areas by Chiba, Tokyo, Kanagawa and Shizuoka prefectures since May have not detected any radioactive materials. There are about 850 bathing areas in the country. 




http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9NRK6DG0&show_article=1

Cesium Detected in Whales

Radioactive cesium was detected from two minke whales caught off the coast of Kushiro, Hokkaido, in Japan's so-called research whaling, a whalers' association said Tuesday. 


While the level of the radioactive material remained below the temporarily set upper limit, the association officials said during a press conference in Kushiro that the contamination must have been caused by the continuing nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant and that they will closely monitor future developments.

During the research whaling that started in late April, 17 whales were caught, and researchers examined six of them. Of the six, two were found tainted with 31 becquerels and 24.3 becquerels of cesium per kilogram of whale meat, they said.

The upper limit tentatively stands at 500 becquerels per kilogram.


http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9NRIS780&show_article=1

June - Radioactive strontium detected 62 km from Fukushima

Minute amounts of radioactive strontium have been detected in soil at 11 locations in Fukushima prefecture, including the city of Fukushima located 62 kilometers from the crippled  Daiichi nuclear power plant, according to the science ministry. 


The Nuclear Safety Commission said they are unlikely to pose an immediate threat to human health but warned people about the intake of radioactive strontium into their bodies.

According to the Government 54 becquerels of strontium 89 per kilogram were detected in soil collected in the city of Fukushima on April 27.

The highest amount, 1,500 becquerels of strontium, was detected in soil collected on May 6 in the town of Namie located 24 km northwest of the nuclear plant, which was severely damaged by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

The ministry also detected 1,000 becquerels of strontium in the village of Iitate, 220 becquerels in the town of Kawamata and 30 becquerels in the town of Hirono
 
The commission said it will investigate to see if the strontium has been released into the air from the soil.

Strontium tends to accumulate in bones and is believed to cause bone cancer and leukemia.

The ministry was investigating samples of soil collected in the prefecture from March 21 through May 6.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9NO5N3G0&show_article=1

June - 4 New Areas - 50kms From Fukushima - added to Radiation Impacted areas

Four new areas in northern Japan have been added to the list of places affected by radiation originating from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, authorities said Friday.


Three of the four are in the Ryozenmachi area, including about 180 households some 50 kilometers (31 miles) from the Fukushima plant, said Takayuki Sato, a Date city official

Government data of the three hot spots showed an estimated radiation level between 20.1 to 20.8 millisieverts per year.

By comparison, the average resident of an industrialized country receives a dose of about 3 millisieverts per year.

The fourth spot is in the Haramachi neighborhood of Minamisoma, 33 kilometers away from the plant but outside of the area where the government has ordered targeted evacuations.

The four new areas are outside the evacuation zone.

Officials have been battling a nuclear crisis at the Fukushima plant following an earthquake and subsequent tsunami on March 11. 

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/06/10/japan.radiation/

CBRE Says EQ will cause office rents to soften and retail to stay flat

JAPAN'S earthquake and the resulting tsunami are likely to hit office and luxury retail rents in Tokyo, but the long-term impact on the country's industrial sector remains uncertain, according to CB Richard Ellis.

In a preliminary assessment of the quake's impact on Japan's real estate markets, CBRE found that demand in the industrial market could temporarily lift, but the long-term effects on industrial rents were still unclear.

CBRE's Asia Pacific and Japan research team also concluded:

■Tokyo office rents may soften amid the uncertain economic environment.
■Tokyo prime retail rents are expected to remain flat.
■Japanese investors and funds are likely to lead the recovery in transaction volumes, supported by domestic banks.

Nick Axford, CBRE's head of research, Asia Pacific, said it was too early to assess the full impact of the quake on Japan's real estate market.

''On the investment side, we anticipate that Japanese investors and funds will lead the recovery in transaction volume,'' he said.

''Though some overseas investors have adopted a 'wait-and-see' attitude, others are viewing this is as a possible purchasing opportunity.''

According to the report, the Japanese government estimated infrastructure losses at ¥16 to ¥25 trillion ($A189 to $A295 billion).

Economic growth would be a ''tug of war'' between rebuilding efforts and stagnant activity in the earthquake area of Tohoku, decreased production in other regions caused by production halts in Tohoku, and weakened consumer confidence.

The CBRE report said public finances were a concern, with Japan's net public debt at 120 per cent of gross domestic product and a national budget deficit of 10 per cent. However, ''Japan's strong sense of civil service, underscored by hard-working patient people with a strong will to rebuild, will fuel restoration efforts'', it said.

Mr Axford said office buildings in major cities near the affected area suffered relatively minor damage, while some bayside locations in Tokyo and Chiba faced liquefaction, shifting ground levels and infrastructure damage.

Demand for prime office space was expected to weaken while companies assessed the economic outlook and potential impact on business performance, he said.

''Prime office rents could dip by as much as 5 per cent while the lull in occupier activity persists.''
Longer term, prime office buildings were likely to benefit from occupiers placing greater emphasis on a building's earthquake resistance capabilities.

On the industrial front, Mr Axford said, two trends had emerged in greater Tokyo: disaster-affected companies were leasing short-term warehouse space - filling long-time vacancies, and demand for large-scale logistics facilities had risen.

''If repairs to damaged manufacturing bases in northern Japan are delayed, tenants may consolidate existing facilities in greater Tokyo,'' he said. ''However, if short-term demand fails to translate to longer-term requirements, there is unlikely to be any significant benefit to rents.''

He said high street retailers in metropolitan Tokyo suffered minimal physical damage, but were affected by consumers spending less and limited operating hours due to potential power cuts. Some retailers, especially foreign apparel and luxury brands, temporarily moved headquarters to Osaka or shut down completely. Japanese retailers, on the other hand, tended to stay put. ''By late April, all but a few retailers reopened for business,'' he said.

Mr Axford said rents would remain flat or soften slightly in the coming six months, but would begin to recover as the nuclear situation was brought under control and tourism began to recover.

On the investment market, most transactions scheduled to close in March and April were unaffected, but some deals were postponed or cancelled. This was mainly due to lenders taking a more cautious stance after the earthquake.''Overseas funds are adopting a 'wait-and-see' attitude as they re-evaluate the outlook for the real estate sector,'' Mr Axford said.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/business/property/real-estate-pain-looms-as-uncertainty-plagues-japan-20110612-1fz3s.html#ixzz1PDHzjk4r

Japan Leisure Hotels Minority Shareholders Appalled by Directors and DKR Oasis

The shares of Japan Leisure Hotels Ltd were today cancelled from AIM
http://independent.moneyam.com/news/article.php?id=4161281&epic=

The minority shareholders believe that they have been screwed over by the directors of JLH and the main shareholder DKR Oasis (http://www.oasiscm.com/organization.html )
http://www.mynewsdesk.com/uk/view/pressrelease/japan-leisure-hotels-limited-japan-leisure-hotels-limited-jlh-or-the-company-statement-by-minority-shareholders-647100

We are minority shareholders in the Company, and have been since launch, owning in total 5.5% of the issued share capital. We are appalled at recent events culminating in the Board disposing of the Company's six hotels at a price equal to 28.4% of their net asset value. This represents a cap rate of almost 30%, a price per room of GBP44,000 or GBP67 per square foot of gross floor area. This is an historic low valuation in the leisure hotel market according to Alchemy Japan, a competitor of the Company.

Despite the difficulties of dealing with an 87.5% majority shareholder, the Board must take its share of the blame for this disastrous outcome. The Board knew in early 2010 that the DKR Oasis hedge fund was to be liquidated and that its shares in the Company were a significant part of that portfolio. However the Board failed to retain the services of a broker who could market the company to a wider range of investors than those institutions who had been contacted during the IPO process. In fact no significant marketing of the Company has been undertaken in Europe since 2009.

The Board says that the current business is not large enough to support the central overheads but the Company bought a hotel out of operating cash flow in 2008 and paid a 1p per share dividend in 2010, with a higher figure projected in 2011 according to independent research. Since the IPO in 2008, the Company's net asset value has risen by 62% in sterling terms, a record of some merit compared to many international funds listed in London. That the share price has fallen by 54% during the same period is evidence that the Board has failed to promote the Company adequately.

When it came to the current transaction, the Board failed to engage a financial adviser to manage the process and advise on tactics, relying on the Nomad to advise on the AIM rules and the Majority Shareholder to conduct an auction, a job for which he was clearly unqualified. We believe the erratic conduct of this process led to a number of credible buyers withdrawing, when they might have made proposals more favourable to the minority shareholders.

We made it clear to the Board that the minority shareholders did not wish to participate in a fire sale of assets and preferred to retain a shareholding going forward. Our preference was to leave the Company listed and obtain finance for the Company to buy in the DKR Oasis fund's shares for cancellation. Alternatively, the DKR Oasis fund's JLH shares might have been distributed to their investors in specie, leaving them to sell shares in the market, should they wish to exit for cash. Either of these outcomes would have been better for all the minority investors.

The minority shareholders refer to a comment about the low valuation for the JLH transaction -
http://japanrealestatecommentary.blogspot.com/2011/05/q1-2011-japan-leisure-hotel-operator.html

We have been following this story for a while - apart from the conduct of the DKR Oasis and the Board; which raise serious issues for the minority shareholders - there are also large questions raised about the Colliers Valuations which were used to support valuations for this company -  http://japanrealestatecommentary.blogspot.com/2011/05/investegate-japan-leisure-hotels.html

The Japanese leisure hotel sector is a sector that seems attractive and may offer high returns
 http://japanrealestatecommentary.blogspot.com/2010/06/foreign-investors-in-japanese-leisure.html

But JLH has been another story of investors having issues in this sector -
http://japanrealestatecommentary.blogspot.com/2010/01/japanese-retail-investors-look-to.html
http://japanrealestatecommentary.blogspot.com/2010/09/love-hotel-fund-freezes-redemptions.html

However, some players seems to be doing well in this sector - 
http://japanrealestatecommentary.blogspot.com/2011/08/japan-leisure-hotel-operator-announce.html

2010 - 30.4% of 15-24year olds are Casually Employed

Nonregular employees accounted for 30.4 percent of workers aged 15 to 24 in calender 2010, up 0.4 percentage point from the previous year, the government said Tuesday.

While last year's overall jobless rate stood at 5.1 percent, unchanged from 2009, the unemployment rate for people aged 15 to 19 rose to 9.8 from 9.6 percent, while the rate for those aged 20 to 24 expanded to 9.1 from 9.0 percent, according to a white paper on children and the young approved by the Cabinet.

The number of so-called young freeters — part-timers who frequently switch jobs — aged 15 to 34 increased for the second year running to about 1.83 million, the paper said.

It also reported that child counseling centers nationwide received a record 44,211 inquiries over child abuse in fiscal 2009 through March 2010, up 3.6 percent from the previous fiscal year.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nb20110608a3.html

Tokyo Residents Worried about Radiation Levels

A group of Tokyo parents filed a request Tuesday asking the metropolitan government to change the way it determines radiation levels in the capital after their own study found relatively high levels of contamination around Koto Ward.

"No! Hoshano Koto Kodomo Mamoru Kai" ("No! Radioactivity — The Group to Save Children in Koto") found that some areas in Koto Ward, located in the eastern part of the capital, had a maximum hourly reading of 0.18 microsievert of radiation.

That number is a fraction of the level in Fukushima Prefecture, which hit about 1.6 microsieverts per hour on Tuesday.

Nevertheless, the group warned, their findings indicate that some Tokyo children are in danger of being exposed to more than 1 millisievert of radiation per year, the nonbonding limit set by the education ministry for Fukushima Prefecture students.

"This should be taken as a sign that a grave (contamination) is in progress in Tokyo," Ayako Ishikawa, the leader of the group, said during a news conference.

The metropolitan government checks levels of radioactivity at an elevation of 18 meters in Shinjuku Ward, where the maximum hourly reading was about 0.06 microsievert on Tuesday.

But Ishikawa insists such readings are unreliable and should be taken at about 1 meter above the ground.

"We request that the Tokyo government and Koto Ward properly check the radiation levels, especially around school areas and parks," she said.

According to Ishikawa, her group, which has about 35 members, checked the soil and air in Koto Ward for contaminants between May 21 and 25 with the help of Kobe University professor Tomoya Yamauchi.

Yamauchi, an expert on radiation physics, said high levels of contamination were detected in soil, especially around a plant in Koto Ward that produces sludge, an ingredient in cement, where the level reached 2,300 becquerels per kilogram.

That level is about a third of the 6,550 becquerels per kilogram detected at a schoolyard in Fukushima Prefecture in April.

"But I can say that I wouldn't let my child play baseball at the ballpark, which is located near the sludge factory," Yamauchi said, adding there is concern the factory itself could be releasing radioactive particles.

"The metropolitan government should reveal the safety measures taken in the factory, and conduct proper radiation level checks at the facility, including the chimney," Yamauchi added.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110608a6.html

April - Japan Hotel's RevPAR Down - Sendai Up

According STR Global, Japanese hotels have reacted with composure in the aftermath of the recent earthquake, tsunami and the related radiation issues from the Fukushima nuclear plant in the Tōhoku region of northeastern Honshu. In solidarity with the Japanese people and business communities, the hotel industry has shown admirable commitment to helping those affected by the disaster.

For example, several of Tokyo's three- and four-star hotels have made themselves available as public shelters to help cope with the influx of displaced people and those seeking to distance themselves from the possibility of radiation exposure. The Grand Prince Akasaka, one of the city's most prestigious addresses, was due to close at the end of March, but has stayed open to offer accommodation to some of the 30,000-plus evacuees from the Fukushima Prefecture. Solare Hotels & Resorts, which manages hotels in 73 destinations across the country, is offering 10,000 roomnights free of charge in its Chisun and Loisir-branded hotels. Additionally, many hotels have waived cancellation fees.

Data from STR Global shows that hotels in Sendai, the city nearest the earthquake's epicenter, Sapporo and Tokyo have borne the brunt of the impact of the disaster. Cities further from the centre of the catastrophe were generally impacted less.

Revenue per available room performance (JPY) and year-on-year percentage change



Occupancy in Japan was down 21.3 percent for March 2011 and 27.6 percent for April 2011 compared with the same months in 2010. Tokyo and Sendai showed greater falls in occupancy of 33.6 percent and 36.7 percent for March, respectively, compared to the nationwide occupancy decrease.

Sendai's RevPAR declined 22.7 percent in March 2011 before increasing by 77.2 percent in April 2011. Demand is expected to remain firm with, firstly, the resumption of the normal operation of the Tohoku Shinkansen express train helping volunteers, relief and reconstruction teams get to the affected area and, secondly, with insurance companies sending plenty of staff to the Sendai area to assess claims.

By comparison Tokyo, some 300 kilometers to the south of Sendai, saw plummeting occupancies that fell from 83 percent in March 2010 to 55 percent in March 2011, as people sought to move away from the threat of radiation exposure. Further south, Osaka saw only a small reduction in occupancy (-2.8 percent) whilst Kobe actually experienced a rise of 6 percent.

"Our deepest sympathies go to those affected by the dramatic earthquake and tsunami in Japan," said Elizabeth Randall, managing director of STR Global. "Declines in RevPAR are nothing against the overall suffering of the country and the loss of life. With the resilience of the Japanese people, the country and industry will surely recover."

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2010- Japan's Fertility Rate Edges Up

Japan's fertility rate rose 0.02 point to 1.39 in 2010, after leveling off for two years, thanks to an increase in births among women in their late 30s and a rise in the number of women with more than one child, population data released by the health ministry showed Wednesday. 


The total fertility rate -- the average number of children a woman will bear over her lifetime -- rose after hitting a record low of 1.26 in 2005 and remaining flat at 1.37 in 2008 and 2009, according to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.

In 2010, birthrates among women in their late teens and early 20s dropped but rose among those between their late 20s and late 40s, it said.


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