今日のフィナンシャル・タイムズ紙に、中川大臣のG7での醜態について、その対応に窮する自民党についてレポートされています。
Mr Nakagawa’s slurred and sleepy performance at the press conference – which he blamed on taking too much cold medicine – threatens to become a metaphor for the inability of an embattled administration to effectively counter the effects of the global financial crisis on the world’s second largest economy.
（中川大臣の記者会見における不明瞭で眠たそうな仕事ぶり（彼は風邪薬の飲みすぎと言い訳しているが）は、難問を抱えた現政権が、地球規模の経済危機が世界第2位の経済大国に与える影響をとても処理できそうにないことを暗に示している。）
う～ん。しっかりしてくれよな、大臣。世界中で見られてますよ。海外にいる我々が恥ずかしいじゃないか！
（以下、フィナンシャル・タイムズWebサイトより引用）
Japan’s ruling party struggles for response
By Mure Dickie in Tokyo
Published: February 16 2009 14:29 | Last updated: February 16 2009 18:30
With Japan’s government struggling to survive amid an economic downturn of truly historic proportions, there could hardly be a worse time for a finance minister to appear incoherent and incapable.
On Monday, however, Shoichi Nakagawa, Japan’s finance minister and a veteran heavyweight in the long-ruling Liberal Democratic party, was forced to deny allegations he had turned up drunk for a press conference at a weekend gathering of Group of Seven counterparts in Rome.
Mr Nakagawa’s slurred and sleepy performance at the press conference – which he blamed on taking too much cold medicine – threatens to become a metaphor for the inability of an embattled administration to effectively counter the effects of the global financial crisis on the world’s second largest economy.
The scale of Japan’s problems has been put on stark display by the 3.3 per cent quarter-on-quarter decline in gross domestic product suffered in the last three months of 2008 – and by the fact that few economists expect things to be much better in the first quarter of this year.
“The deterioration in the Japanese economy has been unprecedented and savage. And the data available so far for the first quarter suggest that the economy will post at least as large a decline in the first three months of 2009,” wrote Grant Lewis of Daiwa Securities in a research note.
“Without further aggressive action, what looks certain to end up as Japan’s worst postwar recession risks ending up something much worse altogether.”
Indeed, some economists say that if GDP declines persist through most of this year and deflation takes hold – both mainstream assumptions these days – the downturn will justify the title of depression rather than recession. In Japanese, some people have for a while been adding the modifier “big” to the word fukyo – a general term for slump that can be translated either as recession or depression – to stress the seriousness of the situation.
The government’s ability to influence the eventual definition of the downturn remains highly doubtful. The support ratings of Taro Aso, prime minister, have fallen to ever more perilous lows and he may struggle just to win Diet passage for existing stimulus action in a supplementary budget for the current fiscal year and the full budget for the year from April.
The opposition Democratic party – which on Monday gleefully seized on the opportunity provided by Mr Nakagawa’s poor showing in Rome to demand his resignation – is pushing for an early election that would inevitably delay the introduction of new policies.
Even a new DPJ administration would face difficulty financing any stimulative action, given that government financial liabilities are already equivalent to a stunning 173 per cent of annual GDP by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s count.
Still, Masaaki Kanno, head of economic research at JP Morgan in Tokyo, says the need of all parties to be seen to be willing to act for the economy ahead of the next general election, which must be held by September, could smooth passage of a further round of stimulus early in the next fiscal year.
In the meantime, pressure will grow for more aggressive action from the Bank of Japan, which has cast its role in the crisis so far largely in terms of maintaining market stability and has broadly eschewed the policy innovation embraced by the US Federal Reserve.
Some government officials express frustration at the independent BoJ’s caution. “They have been slow, says one senior official. “It’s time for the BoJ to act in a more decisive manner.”
Few expect such action soon, however.
A bank policy meeting this week is expected only to extend or perhaps expand a programme under which the central bank buys commercial paper in an effort to ease corporate credit conditions.
Any general recovery is still likely to rely on a revival of external demand. Asked for domestic triggers for a return to growth, one Tokyo economist just laughs. “There’s nothing at all,” he says.
Still, while many observers put their hopes more on stimulative action from Washington instead of Tokyo, the world-beating Japanese export sector could be well placed to benefit from any revival in demand for its cars and electronics. A rise in corporate inventories in the last quarter belies the forceful reaction taken by many companies to the crisis, slashing production and laying off temporary staff.
It may also turn out that Japan’s economy can take inspiration from the endurance of its finance minister. Back from Rome, Mr Nakagawa was clearly chastened by his press conference performance and apologised to the nation for “any trouble caused”.
Yet he was chipper enough to win the backing of his prime minister and to promise voters he was ready to “work hard”.
Mr Nakagawa’s slurred and sleepy performance at the press conference – which he blamed on taking too much cold medicine – threatens to become a metaphor for the inability of an embattled administration to effectively counter the effects of the global financial crisis on the world’s second largest economy.
（中川大臣の記者会見における不明瞭で眠たそうな仕事ぶり（彼は風邪薬の飲みすぎと言い訳しているが）は、難問を抱えた現政権が、地球規模の経済危機が世界第2位の経済大国に与える影響をとても処理できそうにないことを暗に示している。）
う～ん。しっかりしてくれよな、大臣。世界中で見られてますよ。海外にいる我々が恥ずかしいじゃないか！
（以下、フィナンシャル・タイムズWebサイトより引用）
Japan’s ruling party struggles for response
By Mure Dickie in Tokyo
Published: February 16 2009 14:29 | Last updated: February 16 2009 18:30
With Japan’s government struggling to survive amid an economic downturn of truly historic proportions, there could hardly be a worse time for a finance minister to appear incoherent and incapable.
On Monday, however, Shoichi Nakagawa, Japan’s finance minister and a veteran heavyweight in the long-ruling Liberal Democratic party, was forced to deny allegations he had turned up drunk for a press conference at a weekend gathering of Group of Seven counterparts in Rome.
Mr Nakagawa’s slurred and sleepy performance at the press conference – which he blamed on taking too much cold medicine – threatens to become a metaphor for the inability of an embattled administration to effectively counter the effects of the global financial crisis on the world’s second largest economy.
The scale of Japan’s problems has been put on stark display by the 3.3 per cent quarter-on-quarter decline in gross domestic product suffered in the last three months of 2008 – and by the fact that few economists expect things to be much better in the first quarter of this year.
“The deterioration in the Japanese economy has been unprecedented and savage. And the data available so far for the first quarter suggest that the economy will post at least as large a decline in the first three months of 2009,” wrote Grant Lewis of Daiwa Securities in a research note.
“Without further aggressive action, what looks certain to end up as Japan’s worst postwar recession risks ending up something much worse altogether.”
Indeed, some economists say that if GDP declines persist through most of this year and deflation takes hold – both mainstream assumptions these days – the downturn will justify the title of depression rather than recession. In Japanese, some people have for a while been adding the modifier “big” to the word fukyo – a general term for slump that can be translated either as recession or depression – to stress the seriousness of the situation.
The government’s ability to influence the eventual definition of the downturn remains highly doubtful. The support ratings of Taro Aso, prime minister, have fallen to ever more perilous lows and he may struggle just to win Diet passage for existing stimulus action in a supplementary budget for the current fiscal year and the full budget for the year from April.
The opposition Democratic party – which on Monday gleefully seized on the opportunity provided by Mr Nakagawa’s poor showing in Rome to demand his resignation – is pushing for an early election that would inevitably delay the introduction of new policies.
Even a new DPJ administration would face difficulty financing any stimulative action, given that government financial liabilities are already equivalent to a stunning 173 per cent of annual GDP by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s count.
Still, Masaaki Kanno, head of economic research at JP Morgan in Tokyo, says the need of all parties to be seen to be willing to act for the economy ahead of the next general election, which must be held by September, could smooth passage of a further round of stimulus early in the next fiscal year.
In the meantime, pressure will grow for more aggressive action from the Bank of Japan, which has cast its role in the crisis so far largely in terms of maintaining market stability and has broadly eschewed the policy innovation embraced by the US Federal Reserve.
Some government officials express frustration at the independent BoJ’s caution. “They have been slow, says one senior official. “It’s time for the BoJ to act in a more decisive manner.”
Few expect such action soon, however.
A bank policy meeting this week is expected only to extend or perhaps expand a programme under which the central bank buys commercial paper in an effort to ease corporate credit conditions.
Any general recovery is still likely to rely on a revival of external demand. Asked for domestic triggers for a return to growth, one Tokyo economist just laughs. “There’s nothing at all,” he says.
Still, while many observers put their hopes more on stimulative action from Washington instead of Tokyo, the world-beating Japanese export sector could be well placed to benefit from any revival in demand for its cars and electronics. A rise in corporate inventories in the last quarter belies the forceful reaction taken by many companies to the crisis, slashing production and laying off temporary staff.
It may also turn out that Japan’s economy can take inspiration from the endurance of its finance minister. Back from Rome, Mr Nakagawa was clearly chastened by his press conference performance and apologised to the nation for “any trouble caused”.
Yet he was chipper enough to win the backing of his prime minister and to promise voters he was ready to “work hard”.
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