from today's Nikkei

「炭素繊維車」を共同開発　東レ・日産など　４割軽量化　１０年代半ば素材を量産　コスト、鋼材並みに

Acoording to sources,Toray, Nissan and others, including Honda and Tokyo University,will jointly develop carbon fiber vehicles.They now indend to establish the technology for mass-producing carbon fiber materials for the vehicle in the middle of the 2010s. They say that introducing the new vehicle component material will enable the weight of the car's body lighter by about 40 % comapred with the present.For realizing it, they are planning to reduce the cost of producing new materials to the level of the present steel.

from yesterday's Nikkei

１０品目で首位交代　国内１００品目シェア調査　軽自動車　ダイハツが初　インクジェットプリンター　キャノン奪回　「値ごろ感」に支持

The Nihon Keizai Shimbun compiled the data of the survey on the major product and service share in 2007,which shows which product or service take how much share in each of the selected 100 items of products or services.According to the data,it has been learnd that in 10 items among the 100 the first runner was changed.In the light-weight vehicle Daihatsu was top for the first time,and in the ink-jet-printer Cannon recovered the top position after a two-year interval.By the words of some critics, the most important factor when the consumer decides to buy or not to buy a product or service is the reasonability of prices.

from today's Nikkei

基礎的財政収支　赤字、最小でも３．９兆円　１１年度時点　内閣府試算　政府目標厳しく　首相「歳出改革を継続」

The Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy, or the government's panel,approved on Tuesday the estimates by the Cabinet Office on the outlook regarding the economic policy by the year of fiscal 2011.According to it, given the situation that expected growth rates from now on are all less than those initially projected,and thus the primary balance of the budgets of both the central and local governments would be in the deficit of about 3.9 trillion yen at least.This means the goal set up by the government itself will be virtually difficult to attain.In these circumstances,Prime Minister Fukuda said we should make an effort to continue expenses reforms.

from today's Nikkei

製造業の税負担率　最低　国内よりも低い税率　海外利益、還流せず　前３月期３８．９％　「税の空洞化」進む

It has been learned that Japanese companies' combined tax burden rate was down 0.3% from the previous period standing at 38.9 % for the period of a year ended at the end of March 2008, which is the lowest ever.The tax burden rate here shows that Japanese manufacturers have paid their taxes for their consolidated profits both abroad and at home.The trend clearly shows that many are realizing the accumulation of their profits in foreign places, where tax rates are relatively low.Given the fact in Japan corporate tax rate is higher than most of other countries, the situation that we should call "tax hollowing" has been proceeding steadily.

from today's Nikkei

日銀、景気「さらに減速」　物価「今年度１．８％上昇」　判断・予測修正　金利は据え置き　成長率は「１．２％」

The Bank of Japan had its financial policy decision meeting on Tuesday and decided to maintain its policy interest rate unchanged.Regarding the conditions of economy,it revised the evaluation of the current economic conditions downward for the first time in three months.It also revised the expected growth rate of Japan's economy this fiscal year to 1.2 %. Bank of Japan's Govenor Shirakawa said at a news conference that economy is further deteriorating with equipment investment and private consumption declining their growth against the background of soaring prices of various materials.