Tensions brewing between Japan Inc. and new govt
Sep-3-09 1:00pm
From: afp.com
Fresh from a landslide election win, Japan's next government faces signs of an emerging rift with big business, which fears some of its policies could hinder a recovery in the recession-hit economy.
Premier-in-waiting Yukio Hatoyama has vowed to put the interests of people before those of corporate Japan. In a recent essay he criticised "unrestrained market fundamentalism and financial capitalism that are void of morals."
His Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) has irked major manufacturers with a goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent by 2020.
The ambitious target compares with an eight-percent cut promised by the pro-business Liberal Democratic Party, which was swept from power in a landmark election Sunday after governing Japan almost continuously since 1955.
The head of the top business lobby, Nippon Keidanren, has called on the DPJ to review its emission reduction target, telling Japanese media on Thursday that it may be unrealistic and "a burden to the people."
The lobby's head Fujio Mitarai -- chairman of high-tech giant Canon Inc. -- urged the DPJ to consider the "effects on jobs" of the sweeping plan.
Japanese companies have long argued that tighter emission rules would hurt their ability to compete with global rivals, and the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association has also spoken out against the plan.
"We are concerned about its feasibility given its impact on economic activities, effect on employment and significant burden on the Japanese people," said Honda Motor chairman Satoshi Aoki, who heads the association.
The Federation of Electric Power Companies of Japan has described the target as "very tough" and asked the party to be more realistic.
Another bone of contention is the DPJ's proposal to curb the use of temporary workers, who have borne the brunt of jobs cuts by companies struggling to cope with the worst recession in decades.
The party's allies in the labour unions have accused Japanese companies of being too quick to fire contract workers, who played a key role keeping Japan's plants and factories running before the economic crisis erupted.
After decades of cosy ties between the LDP and big business, Hatoyama's DPJ has pledged to shift the focus to households with measures including cash allowances for families, an increased minimum wage, and petrol tax cuts.
Rather than raising taxes, the opposition proposes funding its measures by cutting wasteful government spending.
The DPJ has decided to freeze the unspent portion of the extra budget drawn up by the LDP for this fiscal year and divert the money to its own welfare programmes, the Yomiuri newspaper reported in its evening edition.
Analysts believe the DPJ's proposed measures, worth a combined 16.8 trillion yen (177 billion yen) a year from 2012, could boost consumer spending -- for long a weak link in the economy.
But some are worried that the party is abandoning free-market reforms they see as vital in order to tackle the massive public debt and boost productivity to cope with an ageing and shrinking population.
"The DPJ has failed to point to any clear policies related to job creation, industrial promotion, population problems, deregulation, policy finance methods and fiscal consolidation," said Barclays Capital economist Kyohei Morita.
"This makes it difficult to see how the Japanese economy will develop over the long term."
Experts say, however, that corporate Japan could benefit from assistance from the incoming government in areas such as electric cars and energy-efficient appliances.
The DPJ plan is likely to require individual firms to cut emission, but could also create new opportunities for companies with environmental technologies, said Yoko Monoe, an analyst at the Daiwa Institute of Research.
Showing posts with label Canon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Canon. Show all posts
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Rising poverty looms large in Japan's election
Rising poverty looms large in Japan's election
By Harumi Ozawa (AFP) – Aug 22, 2009
KITAKYUSHU, Japan — Tomoshi Okuda is a man of faith, not politics. But the Japanese pastor has seen enough new faces on his nightly rounds feeding the homeless to persuade him that something needs to change.
He's not the only one eager for a fresh start. With unemployment rising in the wake of the worst recession in decades, voters appear to be deserting Prime Minister Taro Aso's long-ruling party ahead of an August 30 election.
It's a far cry from the 2005 lower house vote when premier Junichiro Koizumi won by a landslide on a platform of harsh economic reforms. These days many people blame his measures for a growing rich-poor divide.
"I'm watching who will offer the most drastic change to the course of Koizumi's structural reform," Okuda told AFP during his rounds on a rainy evening in Kitakyushu, an industrial city in southwest Japan.
The 45-year-old Baptist pastor hands out bananas and rice meals to people sleeping on the streets, including one 68-year-old woman sheltering from the downpour on a flattened cardboard box in a shopping arcade.
"I want to start working again, but I can't with my broken leg," she said.
Thousands of workers have been laid off in the local area, home to plants run by major firms including Nissan, Toshiba and Canon -- which have all been hit hard by slumping exports and Japan's worst post-war recession.
"In April alone, we saw 69 new faces on the street, three times more than in the same month last year. One young man, only 29, was a temporary worker at a Nissan auto parts factory who was laid off in December," Okuda said.
"Another 27-year-old man lived homeless with his wife, 24, and a four-year-old girl. Her apparently pink shoes were black with dust."
Some people are even believed to have starved to death after being refused welfare benefits. In the latest case here, a 39-year-old man was reportedly found dead with nine yen (9.5 US cents) in his wallet and an unposted note saying "help."
Across the country almost 230,000 temporary workers have lost their jobs since the recession began last year, pushing the jobless rate up to a six-year high of 5.4 percent -- within striking distance of its post-war peak.
Although Japan's economy rebounded in the second quarter of 2009, there has been little sign of a bounce in the polls for Aso, whose Liberal Democratic Party has ruled almost uninterrupted for more than half a century.
"Voters are totally fed up with the one-party LDP rule. Nobody believes in it any more and people are really desperately wanting to see a change," said Noriko Hama, a professor of economics at Doshisha Business School in Kyoto.
The LDP and the opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) have both pledged to roll back some of Koizumi's reforms, which were aimed at slimming down the public sector and reducing the huge national debt.
Aso has pledged to break away from "excessive market capitalism," while the DPJ wants to boost spending on child support, education, healthcare and employment measures, and restrict the use of temporary job contracts.
The DPJ's agenda mirrors US President Barack Obama's efforts to increase public spending to boost the economy and medical care, said Yoshinobu Yamamoto, professor of politics at Aoyama Gakuin University in Tokyo.
"What the DPJ is trying to do seems similar to the old style of government intervention in the economy," he said.
Japan once took great pride in having an egalitarian society and life-time employment following its rise from the ashes of World War II.
But many people now fear for the future and are relying on handouts or working longer to make ends meet. The number of households on welfare benefits hit a record high of 1.2 million in April, according to the most recent data.
"The LDP and (its coalition partner) New Komeito have been in government for too long, and look what happened. Things are not good," said 66-year-old Tokyo resident Shigeo Utsumi, who wants to work but cannot find a good job.
"It's probably a good idea to let the DPJ take over, at least once. We're heading for disaster if nothing changes."
Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved
By Harumi Ozawa (AFP) – Aug 22, 2009
KITAKYUSHU, Japan — Tomoshi Okuda is a man of faith, not politics. But the Japanese pastor has seen enough new faces on his nightly rounds feeding the homeless to persuade him that something needs to change.
He's not the only one eager for a fresh start. With unemployment rising in the wake of the worst recession in decades, voters appear to be deserting Prime Minister Taro Aso's long-ruling party ahead of an August 30 election.
It's a far cry from the 2005 lower house vote when premier Junichiro Koizumi won by a landslide on a platform of harsh economic reforms. These days many people blame his measures for a growing rich-poor divide.
"I'm watching who will offer the most drastic change to the course of Koizumi's structural reform," Okuda told AFP during his rounds on a rainy evening in Kitakyushu, an industrial city in southwest Japan.
The 45-year-old Baptist pastor hands out bananas and rice meals to people sleeping on the streets, including one 68-year-old woman sheltering from the downpour on a flattened cardboard box in a shopping arcade.
"I want to start working again, but I can't with my broken leg," she said.
Thousands of workers have been laid off in the local area, home to plants run by major firms including Nissan, Toshiba and Canon -- which have all been hit hard by slumping exports and Japan's worst post-war recession.
"In April alone, we saw 69 new faces on the street, three times more than in the same month last year. One young man, only 29, was a temporary worker at a Nissan auto parts factory who was laid off in December," Okuda said.
"Another 27-year-old man lived homeless with his wife, 24, and a four-year-old girl. Her apparently pink shoes were black with dust."
Some people are even believed to have starved to death after being refused welfare benefits. In the latest case here, a 39-year-old man was reportedly found dead with nine yen (9.5 US cents) in his wallet and an unposted note saying "help."
Across the country almost 230,000 temporary workers have lost their jobs since the recession began last year, pushing the jobless rate up to a six-year high of 5.4 percent -- within striking distance of its post-war peak.
Although Japan's economy rebounded in the second quarter of 2009, there has been little sign of a bounce in the polls for Aso, whose Liberal Democratic Party has ruled almost uninterrupted for more than half a century.
"Voters are totally fed up with the one-party LDP rule. Nobody believes in it any more and people are really desperately wanting to see a change," said Noriko Hama, a professor of economics at Doshisha Business School in Kyoto.
The LDP and the opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) have both pledged to roll back some of Koizumi's reforms, which were aimed at slimming down the public sector and reducing the huge national debt.
Aso has pledged to break away from "excessive market capitalism," while the DPJ wants to boost spending on child support, education, healthcare and employment measures, and restrict the use of temporary job contracts.
The DPJ's agenda mirrors US President Barack Obama's efforts to increase public spending to boost the economy and medical care, said Yoshinobu Yamamoto, professor of politics at Aoyama Gakuin University in Tokyo.
"What the DPJ is trying to do seems similar to the old style of government intervention in the economy," he said.
Japan once took great pride in having an egalitarian society and life-time employment following its rise from the ashes of World War II.
But many people now fear for the future and are relying on handouts or working longer to make ends meet. The number of households on welfare benefits hit a record high of 1.2 million in April, according to the most recent data.
"The LDP and (its coalition partner) New Komeito have been in government for too long, and look what happened. Things are not good," said 66-year-old Tokyo resident Shigeo Utsumi, who wants to work but cannot find a good job.
"It's probably a good idea to let the DPJ take over, at least once. We're heading for disaster if nothing changes."
Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved
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