As police strengthen their efforts to crack down on fund-raising activities by organized crime groups, they are seeing a rising trend in groups trying to push overpriced products such as Viagra tablets on convenience store owners.
The Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) suspects that organized crime groups are now trying to tap into community-based businesses as they find it more difficult to collect money through the old-fashioned way -- "protection money" from restaurants and bars -- amid the lingering economic recession.
According to investigators, a 51-year-old gangster affiliated with the Inagawa-kai crime syndicate visited a total of 11 convenience stores, beauty salons and drug stores in Tokyo's Setagaya and Shibuya wards in February this year. The man reportedly showed a business card with the name of his yakuza clan printed on it in front of shop assistants, and then showed a flyer which read: "We accept telephone orders for Viagra, available for 12,000 yen for five tablets; 20,000 yen for 10 tablets and 38,000 yen for 20 tablets."
When one of the shop clerks rejected his offer, the man insisted, saying "Customers will appreciate it if you give them the tablets secretly, and more people will come to visit your shop through word-of-mouth. We have underground porn videos too." But no one at the 11 stores bought anything from the man, police said.
After receiving a series of similar complaints, the MPD's Organized Crime Control Section in April ordered the man to halt his soliciting under authority of the Act on Prevention of Unjust Acts by Organized Crime Group Members (Anti-Organized Crime Act).
The Viagra he offered to the shops was about 40 percent more expensive than products out on the market, and police suspect that the price difference was meant to function as protection money.
According to the organized crime control section, in addition to established fund-raising practices such as forcing restaurants and bars in their territory to buy commodities such as New Year's decorations and air fresheners and demanding protection money, gangs have recently begun inviting shop clerks to join events such as expensive dinner cruises on private houseboats. Crime organizations seem to be adopting a strategy of collecting smaller amounts of money, but from a broader range of businesses.
In 2009, the MPD issued a record 532 orders to gang members who demanded protection money from food service operators and other businesses in Tokyo to halt such activities -- an increase of 62 cases from 2008. It was the highest number among all prefectures. Without the orders, an estimated 340 million yen could have filtered through to crime groups.
A 2008 revision to the Anti-Organized Crime Act stipulates that if a gang member tries to extort money under the name of a crime syndicate, its leader will also be held responsible for the act and ordered to pay damages. Several crime groups have reportedly invited lawyers and other experts to hold study sessions about the revised law.
One organized crime group created a list of shops they have been ordered by police not to visit again and instructed its members to stay away from the shops on the list. Another organization has reportedly drawn up guidelines for its members, telling them to "avoid wearing yakuza-like clothing" and that "mistakes by members will be settled financially rather than by cutting off fingers."
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/national/news/20100529p2a00m0na010000c.html
Monday, May 31, 2010
April - Housing starts up for 1st time in 17 months
Japan's housing starts in April edged up 0.6 percent from a year earlier to 66,568 units for the first increase in 17 months, the government said Monday.
The rise is attributable to increased starts on large-scale condominiums for sale in Tokyo as well as a rebound from the year before's 32.4 percent plunge amid the global recession, according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.
The ministry said the housing market has shown signs of recovery as a whole but it is continuing to seesaw.
Starts on condos for sale by property developers jumped 35.8 percent to 9,668 units for the first rise in 16 months, while those on single- family houses for sale rose 19.0 percent to 8,363 units for the fourth straight month of rise.
By region, housing starts rose 7.2 percent in the Tokyo metropolitan area, 1.0 percent in the Chubu region centering on Nagoya and 4.6 percent in the Kinki region including Osaka.
However, the rest of Japan saw a decline of 8.0 percent.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9G1ME8G1&show_article=1
The rise is attributable to increased starts on large-scale condominiums for sale in Tokyo as well as a rebound from the year before's 32.4 percent plunge amid the global recession, according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.
The ministry said the housing market has shown signs of recovery as a whole but it is continuing to seesaw.
Starts on condos for sale by property developers jumped 35.8 percent to 9,668 units for the first rise in 16 months, while those on single- family houses for sale rose 19.0 percent to 8,363 units for the fourth straight month of rise.
By region, housing starts rose 7.2 percent in the Tokyo metropolitan area, 1.0 percent in the Chubu region centering on Nagoya and 4.6 percent in the Kinki region including Osaka.
However, the rest of Japan saw a decline of 8.0 percent.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9G1ME8G1&show_article=1
April - Industrial output up 1.3%
Japan's industrial production rose a seasonally adjusted 1.3 percent in April from the previous month for the second straight month of growth, partly due to brisk exports of equipment used for flat-panel televisions, the government said Monday.
The headline reading was worse than the average market forecast of a 2.5 percent rise in a Kyodo News survey.
The index of output at factories and mines stood at 96.0 against the base of 100 for 2005, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said in a preliminary report.
The index of industrial shipments gained 1.6 percent to 98.2 and that of industrial inventories was up 0.3 percent to 94.3.
On production, the ministry left its basic assessment unchanged, saying "Industrial production continues to show an upward movement."
By sector, output by general machinery makers climbed 12.0 percent, while transport equipment makers, including automakers, grew 0.3 percent.
Looking ahead, the ministry is projecting industrial production will rise 0.4 percent in May and grow 0.3 percent in June.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9G1GQ8G0&show_article=1
The headline reading was worse than the average market forecast of a 2.5 percent rise in a Kyodo News survey.
The index of output at factories and mines stood at 96.0 against the base of 100 for 2005, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said in a preliminary report.
The index of industrial shipments gained 1.6 percent to 98.2 and that of industrial inventories was up 0.3 percent to 94.3.
On production, the ministry left its basic assessment unchanged, saying "Industrial production continues to show an upward movement."
By sector, output by general machinery makers climbed 12.0 percent, while transport equipment makers, including automakers, grew 0.3 percent.
Looking ahead, the ministry is projecting industrial production will rise 0.4 percent in May and grow 0.3 percent in June.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9G1GQ8G0&show_article=1
Oct 08 - June 2010 - 277,000 nonregular workers to lose jobs - Aichi worst hit
A total of 277,674 nonregular workers at 5,252 business offices lost or are expected to lose their jobs in the period from October 2008 to June this year, a labor ministry survey showed Friday.
The figure, including workers whose labor contracts with manpower agencies were not renewed after expiration, grew by 2,660 from the previous survey in April, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said.
"Employment conditions for nonregular workers have stabilized" compared with past periods when companies terminated contracts for dispatch workers, a ministry official said, however.
By prefecture, Aichi, the home of Japan's auto industry where Toyota Motor Corp. and affiliated component suppliers are based, remained top of the list with 45,355 nonregular workers who lost or are expected to lose their jobs, followed by Tokyo with 16,581 and Shizuoka with 11,342.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9FVHM2G0&show_article=1
The figure, including workers whose labor contracts with manpower agencies were not renewed after expiration, grew by 2,660 from the previous survey in April, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said.
"Employment conditions for nonregular workers have stabilized" compared with past periods when companies terminated contracts for dispatch workers, a ministry official said, however.
By prefecture, Aichi, the home of Japan's auto industry where Toyota Motor Corp. and affiliated component suppliers are based, remained top of the list with 45,355 nonregular workers who lost or are expected to lose their jobs, followed by Tokyo with 16,581 and Shizuoka with 11,342.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9FVHM2G0&show_article=1
April - Japan's exports jump 40 percent
Japan's exports jumped 40 percent in April, rising for a fifth straight month, fueled by brisk overseas demand for cars and high-tech goods in a fresh sign that the global economy is recovering.
Led by shipments of cars and semiconductors, exports rose to 5.9 trillion yen ($65 billion), the Ministry of Finance said Thursday. Automobile exports more than doubled from a year earlier, while semiconductor shipments rose 35.5 percent.
Robust global demand, particularly in Asia, is feeding a turnaround in Japan's economy — the world's second-largest — offsetting weak demand and falling prices at home. Japan's exports to Asia alone account for 56 percent of total shipments.
A recovery in global auto sales, which plummeted during the global economic crisis in the wake of the 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers, is vital to Japan's economic recovery.
Recent economic signals from Japan have been fairly upbeat. Gross domestic product grew at an annual pace of 4.9 percent in the first quarter, the fourth straight quarter of expansion on the back of soaring exports to China.
Thursday's trade figures showed that U.S.-bound exports rose 34.5 percent, while exports to Asia surged 45.3 percent in April. Exports to China alone jumped 41.4 percent, while shipments to the European Union grew 19.8 percent.
Europe-bound exports rose for a fifth consecutive month, but Hideki Matsumura, senior economist at the Japan Research Institute, warned a slump in demand from the region is around the corner because of the debt crisis in European countries that use the euro.
"The crisis could dent demand for Japanese products. But its impact will be limited because Japanese exports to Europe are much smaller than those to the United States and Asia," Matsumura said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100527/ap_on_bi_ge/as_japan_economy_3
Led by shipments of cars and semiconductors, exports rose to 5.9 trillion yen ($65 billion), the Ministry of Finance said Thursday. Automobile exports more than doubled from a year earlier, while semiconductor shipments rose 35.5 percent.
Robust global demand, particularly in Asia, is feeding a turnaround in Japan's economy — the world's second-largest — offsetting weak demand and falling prices at home. Japan's exports to Asia alone account for 56 percent of total shipments.
A recovery in global auto sales, which plummeted during the global economic crisis in the wake of the 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers, is vital to Japan's economic recovery.
Recent economic signals from Japan have been fairly upbeat. Gross domestic product grew at an annual pace of 4.9 percent in the first quarter, the fourth straight quarter of expansion on the back of soaring exports to China.
Thursday's trade figures showed that U.S.-bound exports rose 34.5 percent, while exports to Asia surged 45.3 percent in April. Exports to China alone jumped 41.4 percent, while shipments to the European Union grew 19.8 percent.
Europe-bound exports rose for a fifth consecutive month, but Hideki Matsumura, senior economist at the Japan Research Institute, warned a slump in demand from the region is around the corner because of the debt crisis in European countries that use the euro.
"The crisis could dent demand for Japanese products. But its impact will be limited because Japanese exports to Europe are much smaller than those to the United States and Asia," Matsumura said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100527/ap_on_bi_ge/as_japan_economy_3
2009 - Wages fell a record 3.3%
Monthly wages took their largest drop ever — 3.3 percent — in fiscal 2009 ended in March as the global financial crisis and recession took their toll, the labor ministry said Monday.
Wages came to ¥315,311 on average, down for a third consecutive year and the sharpest year-on-year drop since fiscal 1991, when the survey's current statistical methods were adopted.
The drop emerged in the form of declining semiannual bonuses and overtime pay as companies struggled to cope with the weak economy, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said.
Bonuses and other nonbasic pay tumbled 10.8 percent to ¥53,046 per month, while nonscheduled remuneration, including overtime, slumped 7.9 percent to ¥16,987. Basic salaries fell 1.1 percent to ¥245,278.
Overtime hours came to an average of 9.4 hours per month in the reporting year, down 8.5 percent from a year earlier.
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nb20100518a3.html
Wages came to ¥315,311 on average, down for a third consecutive year and the sharpest year-on-year drop since fiscal 1991, when the survey's current statistical methods were adopted.
The drop emerged in the form of declining semiannual bonuses and overtime pay as companies struggled to cope with the weak economy, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said.
Bonuses and other nonbasic pay tumbled 10.8 percent to ¥53,046 per month, while nonscheduled remuneration, including overtime, slumped 7.9 percent to ¥16,987. Basic salaries fell 1.1 percent to ¥245,278.
Overtime hours came to an average of 9.4 hours per month in the reporting year, down 8.5 percent from a year earlier.
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nb20100518a3.html
2012 D-Day for Japanese National Debt Crisis?
Japan may lose its ability to domestically finance its debt “in a few years” because of a surge of retirees in 2012, according to an analyst at Dai-Ichi Life Research Institute.
“The key year for public finances will be 2012, as the baby boomers retire and begin collecting their pensions en masse,” Toshihiro Nagahama, chief economist at Dai-Ichi Life Research Institute, said yesterday in an interview in Tokyo. “That may be when Japan’s sovereign risk becomes evident.”
Japan, the largest borrower among developed nations, has yet to face a Greece-like fiscal crisis because it has been able to finance most of its spending at home, Nagahama said. The first of Japan’s baby boomers will turn 65 in 2012, making them eligible for pension payments.
About 8 million, or 6 percent of the population, were born between 1947 and 1949, regarded as the baby boomer generation in Japan, government data show. Almost 23 percent of the nation’s 126 million people will be older than 65 this year, the highest proportion in the world, according to Bloomberg data.
More retirees will lead to a “rapid” surge in the natural growth of the government’s social security burden, which tracks the yearly increase of costs as a result of the aging population, Nagahama said. Costs will rise 2.5 trillion yen annually by 2013, he forecasts, more than double the 1.09 trillion yen growth the government is projecting for this fiscal year.
Retirees will also begin to draw on their savings, according to Nagahama. “If the value of household assets drops, or if it doesn’t fall but doesn’t rise either even as public debt continues to grow, the Japanese won’t be able to finance” government spending on their own, he said.
More than 90 percent of Japan’s government bonds are held by domestic investors. Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama’s Cabinet is scheduled to unveil in June a plan to reduce a debt burden that the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development estimates is at twice the size of the economy.
Public debt totaled a record 882.9 trillion yen ($9.5 trillion) as of March 31, up 4.3 percent from a year earlier, the Ministry of Finance said this week. Households’ financial assets stood at 1,456 trillion yen as of Dec. 31, Bank of Japan figures show.
Japan may need to depend more on foreign buyers of its bonds in the long term, a Finance Ministry official said today.
“Given Japan’s demographics, the current account surplus may decrease and some even say it will go into deficit, although it’s hard to predict when that would happen,” Masaaki Kaizuka, director of debt management at the ministry, said at a conference in Tokyo. “We may see the need to increase reliance from abroad whether we want to or not.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?sid=aFLZv1XQPInU&pid=20601087
“The key year for public finances will be 2012, as the baby boomers retire and begin collecting their pensions en masse,” Toshihiro Nagahama, chief economist at Dai-Ichi Life Research Institute, said yesterday in an interview in Tokyo. “That may be when Japan’s sovereign risk becomes evident.”
Japan, the largest borrower among developed nations, has yet to face a Greece-like fiscal crisis because it has been able to finance most of its spending at home, Nagahama said. The first of Japan’s baby boomers will turn 65 in 2012, making them eligible for pension payments.
About 8 million, or 6 percent of the population, were born between 1947 and 1949, regarded as the baby boomer generation in Japan, government data show. Almost 23 percent of the nation’s 126 million people will be older than 65 this year, the highest proportion in the world, according to Bloomberg data.
More retirees will lead to a “rapid” surge in the natural growth of the government’s social security burden, which tracks the yearly increase of costs as a result of the aging population, Nagahama said. Costs will rise 2.5 trillion yen annually by 2013, he forecasts, more than double the 1.09 trillion yen growth the government is projecting for this fiscal year.
Retirees will also begin to draw on their savings, according to Nagahama. “If the value of household assets drops, or if it doesn’t fall but doesn’t rise either even as public debt continues to grow, the Japanese won’t be able to finance” government spending on their own, he said.
More than 90 percent of Japan’s government bonds are held by domestic investors. Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama’s Cabinet is scheduled to unveil in June a plan to reduce a debt burden that the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development estimates is at twice the size of the economy.
Public debt totaled a record 882.9 trillion yen ($9.5 trillion) as of March 31, up 4.3 percent from a year earlier, the Ministry of Finance said this week. Households’ financial assets stood at 1,456 trillion yen as of Dec. 31, Bank of Japan figures show.
Japan may need to depend more on foreign buyers of its bonds in the long term, a Finance Ministry official said today.
“Given Japan’s demographics, the current account surplus may decrease and some even say it will go into deficit, although it’s hard to predict when that would happen,” Masaaki Kaizuka, director of debt management at the ministry, said at a conference in Tokyo. “We may see the need to increase reliance from abroad whether we want to or not.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?sid=aFLZv1XQPInU&pid=20601087
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