The yearly drop was the largest since 1987, when the current counting system was introduced, according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.
Meanwhile, the number of passengers boarding Japanese airlines' international flights last year fell for the second straight year, down 6.3 percent to 15.39 million, the ministry said.
Land prices announced by the government Thursday revealed a drop in the value of property in prime locations, including Ginza and Omotesando in Tokyo, which had experienced a substantial increase during a period of rising land prices that lasted until 2008.
Many designer brand shops closed down and offices have scaled back in commercial locations while condominium sales remain sluggish in residential areas. The latest survey of prices as of Jan. 1 indicates land prices, which again started to decline following the global financial crisis in autumn 2008, have been falling at an accelerated pace.
Land prices dropped in most residential locations with prices in Ichikawa and Urayasu, both in Chiba Prefecture, registering more than 10 percent falls. These areas were popular because of their convenient location--within 20 kilometers of JR Tokyo Station--and land prices there increased an average of more than 5 percent in 2008.
"The supply of homes in those areas increased during the mini-bubble period and expensive homes now remain unsold," said Takashi Ishizawa, chief real estate analyst at Mizuho Securities Co. This has had repercussions for home prices in some areas. In Koto Ward, prices of some new homes were cut by 20 percent from the initial offering, according to Ishizawa.
In some areas, however, land prices increased. In Midori Ward, Nagoya, land prices rose at five locations ahead of the opening of a new train station on the Sakuradori subway line in March next year. The new station will be linked to JR Nagoya Station, giving residents in the areas better access to the city.
Land prices increased also in two locations in Nagaizumicho, Shizuoka Prefecture. This is because the areas are close to JR Mishima Station on the Tokaido Shinkansen line and populations rose as many high-tech companies were invited to relocate to the area with the Shizuoka Cancer Center as its core.
The price of land near JR Ikebukuro Station's East Exit in Toshima Ward, Tokyo, significantly narrowed its margin of fall from last year. This is because the number of shoppers in the area increased after major department store chain Mitsukoshi, Ltd. closed its outlet and was replaced by major electrical appliance retail chain Yamada Denki Co. in October, triggering an "electrical appliance war" with nearby Bic Camera Inc. stores.
Although the rate of decline in land prices is large compared with figures a year ago, land prices in popular residential areas and some other places showed signs of picking up in the latter half of 2009.
For example, "Style House Meguro Midorigaoka" homes in Tokyo's Meguro Ward, which were developed by Mitsubishi Estate Co., sold out on the first day they went on sale in October despite costing between 70 million yen and 79 million yen.
According to the Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry, land price declines slowed from 3.2 percent in the first half of last year to 2 percent in the second half in Tokyo and its surrounding areas when compared with land prices as of July 1 last year reported in another survey.
In 2008, the latest year for which data are available from the Ministry of Labor, Health and Welfare, Tokyo had the nation's lowest birthrate, at 1.09 children per woman.
Elsewhere in the world's second-largest economy, the situation is similarly worrying. The national birthrate in 2008 was 1.37 children per woman -- up from a record low of 1.26 in 2005, but still nowhere near what the country needs to replenish its population. If current trends continue, Japan's population will fall to 95 million by 2050, from about 127 million now.
Japan's average life expectancy at birth was the highest in the world in 2008, at 86.05 years for women and 79.29 years for men.
But the ratio of the dependent population -- the sum of the elderly and young population, divided by the working-age population -- was 55.2% in 2008, according to the Statistics Bureau. The proportion of elderly in the total population has remained above that of the younger age group since 1997.
The Democratic Party of Japan was swept into power last August on a platform that vowed to shift the government's focus to boosting domestic demand, while postponing a hike in the country's 5% consumption tax -- despite Japan's burgeoning public debt.
Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama vowed in January to "work to enhance the provision of childcare services."
The DPJ's plan includes paying cash allowances of more than $3,000 per child to families, with monthly payments for children under high school age to help defray child-rearing costs.
Japan's lower house of parliament passed the child allowance bill Tuesday, and it is widely expected to clear in the upper house -- where the DPJ holds a majority -- before the end of this month.
But some say the policy is aimed less at propping up the country's sagging birth rate and more at giving anemic consumption an immediate shot in the arm.
"I view child allowance as a tax break for people aged 35," said Hajime Kitano, chief Japanese equity strategist at J.P. Morgan in Japan.
This lost generation, he said, is now reaching the 35-44 peak age range for consumption."Although child allowance appears on the surface to be about children, upon closer examination it seems more like assistance for this generation," Kitano said.
Department store sales fell 5.4 percent in February YOY, marking the 24th consecutive month of decline, the Japan Department Stores Association said.
Although consumers continued to tighten their belts amid the economic downturn, sales were recovering slowly due to the government's fiscal stimulus measures and other factors, according to the association.
Purchases by foreign visitors, including Chinese who traveled to Japan during the Lunar New Year holidays, rose 120.5 percent at 41 of the outlets surveyed, the association said.
Being a temp comes with a number of drawbacks: a lack of job security, often low pay — and if you're a man, anyway, little chance of tying the knot.
So says the latest The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry survey, which found that out of some 700 single, male temporary workers aged 20 to 34 who responded, only 17.2 percent of them got married between 2002 to 2008, while the marriage rate for male regular employees was nearly double that at 32.2 percent, according to the survey.
Among the male temps in the 20-34 age group, only 4.8 percent had had children over the six-year period. Their regular-employee counterparts were more than 2 1/2 times more likely to have had kids, with 12.8 percent having done so.
According to the ministry, female temps are much more likely to quit their jobs after having their first child than regular workers with some 75 percent with temporary jobs quit after giving birth, compared with 36.4 percent of women with regular employment.
Unsurprisingly, firms that provide maternity leave had more luck retaining mothers.
Some 81 percent of the regular workers who kept their jobs after childbirth said their companies offered leave, while only 48 percent of temp workers who kept their jobs said their companies did so, the survey found.
Among all female respondents, 52.8 percent said their companies have a maternity leave system. The gap in maternity leave was particularly wide between temporary and regular employees, with 83.3 percent of regular employees saying they were eligible for time off; among nonregular workers, the figure was only 19.1 percent.
A man has been found guilty of defamation for insulting a restaurant chain operator on the Internet after the judge ruled that online slandering is as influential as any other means of expression, it has been learned.
The Supreme Court's First Petty Bench on Monday upheld a lower court ruling that convicted Kengo Hashizume, 38, of slandering a ramen noodle shop chain operator online and ordered him to pay 300,000 yen in fines, after dismissing his appeal.
It is the first time that the Supreme Court ruled in favor of a victim of online slandering.
Hashizume, a corporate employee, was charged with making a libelous statement about the restaurant operator on his Web site in 2002 by saying that the company was affiliated to a cult.
During the first ruling in February 2008, the Tokyo District Court acquitted Hashizume, pointing out that online defamation issues should be handled differently from those involving media reports and publications, as the Internet allows users to rebut each other and many people think that online information is less credible.
The Tokyo High Court, however, overturned the lower court ruling and convicted Hashizume in January last year, saying that the judging criteria should remain the same for Internet issues.
"Online information is available to the general public very quickly, and it can cause serious damage in some cases. There is no reason to separate online expression from other means of communication," said Presiding Judge Yu Shiraki. "The defendant did not confirm the facts with the company, and he should be held responsible for that."
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/national/news/20100317p2a00m0na009000c.html
More than 2,000 gas stations have been closing down annually in recent years, but this figure looks set to jump as more drivers opt for green cars that run on less fuel--or none at all.
The Federation of Petroleum Product Dealers Associations (Zensekiren) estimates that if eco-friendly vehicles account for half of new car purchases and 20 percent of all vehicles in fiscal 2020, annual demand for gasoline will plunge to 40.88 million kiloliters, down 29 percent from fiscal 2008, while demand for light fuel oil will fall 15 percent to 28.66 million kiloliters.
"In the worst-case scenario, only about 12,500 of the nation's gas stations, or fewer than one-third of the current figure, would still be operating in fiscal 2020," said an executive of Zensekiren, a nationwide body with a membership of about 20,000 petroleum product retailers.
The demise of gas stations would be felt particularly keenly in mountainous areas and rural regions, where people tend to rely on vehicles for getting around during their everyday life. Gas stations are often at the heart of communities as the sole suppliers of kerosene and fuel for farm equipment.
The central and local governments have started studying ways to stop gas stations from falling by the wayside in communities where their absence could endanger people's livelihoods.
The village government of Hinoemata, Fukushima Prefecture, has been extending financial support to the village's lone gas station. If it closed down, the nearest gas station would be 30 kilometers away.
Many towns and villages face a similar plight--and their very existence could be at stake.
"Lots of local communities would become uninhabitable if they had no gas station," Toyo University Prof. Masatoshi Kojima of the school's business administration department has warned.
Representatives of the private and public sectors, including officials from the central government, held a meeting Feb. 25 to discuss the endangered gas stations and support measures some local governments are providing to keep the gas pumps pumping in their areas.
Installing battery rechargers for electric vehicles and repairing green cars at gas stations--in effect, turning eco-vehicles from foe to friend--could be one option for the petroleum product retail industry.
However, a high-speed recharger costs about 10 million yen to install and at least 1.9 million yen a year to maintain. That is a big outlay many gas stations are reluctant to make considering they can only expect to set recharging fees at about 500 yen per vehicle.
March 15 - Japan's output gap, a gauge of price pressures, for Q4 2009 stood at minus 6.4 percent nudging towards the record minus 8.0 percent seen in Q1 2009 amid the financial crisis.
It was the seventh straight quarter of negative readings.
The output gap measures how much gross domestic product deviates from potential GDP, or the volume of activity when the economy is running at full capacity. A negative reading means supply capacity is ahead of demand, leading to deflationary pressure.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTOE62E06020100315?type=usDollarRpt
The world's number two economy expanded at a pace of 0.9 percent in October-December from the previous quarter, revised down from an initial estimate of 1.1 percent growth, the government said.
And a revised figure for July-September showed a contraction of 0.1 percent, illustrating how Japan's nascent revival stalled in the third quarter.
Gross domestic product (GDP) expanded at an annualised pace of 3.8 percent in the fourth quarter of last year, less than the 4.6 percent previously thought and missing analyst expectations.
Japan's economic output dived last year as exports and factory production collapsed during the global economic downturn.
The country's economy contracted 5.2 percent for the whole of 2009, even worse than an initial estimate of a 5.0 percent decline, the latest figures showed.
The benefits of Japan’s export-led recovery have been slow to spread to the country’s smaller businesses, which employ 70 percent of the nation’s workforce. Tokyo Shoko Research said, however, that recession-linked factors such as slumping sales accounted for a record high 83.4 percent of all failures, reflecting the impact of deflation.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601101&sid=aal1O1PT42EY
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9EAC3V00&show_article=1
The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry attributed the increase to an upswing in overtime pay, which slumped sharply in January 2009 amid the global financial crisis following the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in September 2008.
Monthly overtime hours in the manufacturing sector, a key gauge to assess the overall economic trend, surged 30.1 percent to 12.1 hours in January. Overall, overtime hours averaged 9.4 hours, up 3.4 percent.
Of the total wages paid in the reporting month, scheduled pay, including basic salary, decreased 0.5 percent to 243,861 yen for the 18th consecutive month of decline, the ministry said in a preliminary report.
Nonscheduled pay, including overtime pay, grew 2.2 percent to 17,535 yen for the first increase in 18 months, the ministry said.
The combined number of workers who are employed under contract for at least one month and those employed for an indefinite period of time inched down 0.2 percent to about 43,887,000.
The number of full-time employees dipped 0.4 percent to about 31,872,000, while that of part-timers increased 0.5 percent to about 12,015,000, the ministry said.
The jobless rate fell to 4.9 percent from a revised 5.2 percent in December, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said Tuesday.
The jobless rate reached a record high of 5.7 percent in July last year.
The number of jobless people in January, however, rose by 460,000 from a year earlier to 3.23 million.
In a separate report, the Ministry of Labor said Tuesday that the average ratio of job offers to job seekers came in at 0.46 in January from 0.43, where it had been steady since
Along with the improving labor market,
Household spending in January expanded 1.7 percent from a year earlier, marking the sixth straight month of increase, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said in a separate report.
The figure represents a key indicator of private consumption, which alone accounts for around 60 percent of
Spending on cars, including vehicle purchases, jumped 11.3 percent in January from a year earlier. The ministry said government incentives for consumers buying eco-friendly cars helped boost demand.
Spending on food, including eating out at restaurants, grew 2.3 percent.
The ministry added that average monthly household income in January fell 0.5 percent to 434,344 yen ($4,900), marking the six consecutive month of year-on-year decrease.
The latest data come after the government announced Friday that industrial production in January rose for the 11th straight month amid demand in China and elsewhere in Asia, while retail sales increased for the first time in nearly a year and a half.
The country's key consumer price index, however, fell in January for the 11th straight month in a worrisome sign that consistently falling prices -- known as deflation -- still weighs on
Industrial shipments in January rose 2.4 percent month-on-month, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said Friday, led by general and electronics machinery. Industrial inventories expanded 1 percent.
Economists said rising demand in China and other Asian countries has helped spur production of mainstay Japanese exports like cars and consumer gadgets.y."
But in a sign of further worry for Japan's economy, consistently falling prices showed little sign of improvement in January.
Japan's key consumer price index, which excludes volatile fresh food prices, fell 1.3 percent from the same month last year, declining for an 11th straight month, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.
Posting a surprise trade surplus, Japan said exports soared at their fastest pace since February 1980 at 40.9 percent to 4.90 trillion yen, backed by a rebound in demand from the rest of Asia as well as from developed countries.
Japan's average monthly household spending in 2009 dropped 1.4 percent from the previous year in real terms for the second consecutive year of decline under an economic slump, the government said Tuesday.
In nominal terms, household spending fell 2.9 percent to 253,720 yen as spending on entertainment and food declined, said the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.
Average spending decreased 3.8 percent in real terms at single-member households and 0.2 percent at those with two or more members.
Data released Monday by Japan's Cabinet Office show the country's inflation-adjusted gross domestic product grew at 1.1% in the fourth quarter and 4.6% on an annualized basis.
On a nominal basis, before adjusting for inflation, Japan's GDP last year totaled $5.09 trillion compared with China's $4.91 trillion.
In the latest quarter, Japan's exports rose 5% compared with the previous quarter, driven by recovering demand from neighboring Asian nations. Consumer spending, which makes up more than half of the Japanese economy, has also climbed for three consecutive quarters, helping lift the economy out of a severe recession. Government incentives for purchases of cars and electronics fueled consumption, analysts say.
But the recent improvement wasn't enough to reverse the economy's dismal 2009 results: Japan's inflation-adjusted GDP for the full year dropped a record 5%.
Going forward, "deflationary pressures are expanding while the economy is recovering," says Takahide Kiuchi, chief economist for Nomura Securities in Tokyo. Deflation, a period of sustained, declining consumer prices, drags down corporate profits, affecting employers' ability and willingness to hire workers and raise their pay.
Experts also warn that Japan's ballooning debt could undermine the country's growth. In late January, ratings agency Standard & Poor's revised downward the outlook for Japan's long-term credit rating to negative, due to rising "government debt, persistent deflation and a prospect of continued sluggish economic growth."
Economists believe it's only a matter of time before China overtakes Japan as the second-largest economy in the world.
"In 2010, Japan may fall to number three behind China," says Kiuchi, who expects Japan's economy to grow less than 1% in 2010 compared with an estimated 10.5% growth in China. "There's a huge gap between Japan and China."
In 2009, China posted strong GDP growth of 8.7% while other nations were eking out much smaller gains. China also overtook Germany last year as the world's largest exporter and the U.S. as the largest auto market in the world.
