KYODO
The administration may delay its decision on joining talks for the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement for "several months" beyond its self-imposed deadline of around June, economic and fiscal policy minister Kaoru Yosano said Friday.
His comments on the multilateral free-trade agreement talks came as the Cabinet of Prime Minister Naoto Kan is expected to agree on a policy guideline as early as next week by reviewing the national economic growth strategy in such areas as trade, energy and the environment.
"There is impact from the earthquake disaster," Yosano told reporters after a Cabinet meeting, referring to the need for the government to prioritize addressing the damage caused by the March 11 quake and tsunami.
Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Michihiko Kano echoed Yosano's view, saying at a separate news conference the disaster has caused "significant changes" in the economy and that the government must conduct a "new study."
Souce:Japan Times May 14,2011
BY SATOSHI DAIGUJI STAFF WRITER
Five electronics giants suffered losses totaling 354.5 billion yen ($4.4 billion) in fiscal 2010 because of the March 11 earthquake, marring what had been a largely positive year for the industry.
The disaster is expected to affect their performances in fiscal 2011, with four companies opting not to provide forecasts until the full extent of the calamity becomes clear.
Consolidated financial reports for the year ending March 31 showed operating profits of six companies--Hitachi Ltd., Panasonic Corp., Toshiba Corp., Fujitsu Ltd., NEC Corp. and Sharp Corp.-- plunged by more than 100 billion yen in total.
Sharp did not release figures for earthquake-related losses.
Hitachi was the hardest hit by the disaster. Damage to a major plant in Ibaraki Prefecture halted operations and delayed shipments, resulting in a loss of 75 billion yen in operating profit.
Still, Hitachi's sales rose from fiscal 2009, particularly construction machinery and automobiles overseas. It posted a company-record 238.8 billion yen in net profit.
Although Toshiba lost 70 billion yen in income because of the earthquake, it also posted a record net profit of 137.8 billion yen, largely because of strong sales in its core semiconductor business.
Panasonic and Sharp also reported increases in net profit.
In contrast, NEC posted a net loss of 12.5 billion yen for fiscal 2010 due to sluggish sales of the company's cellphone division.
Fujitsu, whose net profit also fell, said it cannot provide a forecast for fiscal 2011 because of successive freezes and suspensions of business deals on information and telecommunications.
Toshiba predicted its sales for fiscal 2011 will drop by 300 billion yen due to the earthquake.
Still, Fumio Muraoka, executive vice president, is hopeful.
"Air conditioners and televisions will be in demand following construction of new houses (in the earthquake-hit areas)," he said.
Panasonic said it expects increases in domestic sales of energy-saving homes and light-emitting-diode systems.
Source:Asahi newspaper May 13,2011
Practical plants stealing spotlight from flowers as consumers brace for possible produce shortages
Home centers and nurseries are seeing strong sales of vegetable plants, as more people take a shine to the idea of growing fresh food for themselves.
A gardening boom appears to be blooming. And in Tokyo and its surrounding area, the focus seems to be on veggies as opposed to flowers - with concerns over possible produce supply problems due to the Great East Japan Earthquake playing a role. Currently, green vegetables are the most popular.
"We are growing vegetables in case of shortages," said one 60-year-old, self-employed woman who stopped by Ozaki Flower Park Co.'s large nursery in Nerima Ward, Tokyo, on April 17. She bought about five pots of seedlings for around 300 yen ($3.70) each - including tomatoes, green peppers and lettuce. She plans to grow the vegetables in a garden on her veranda. "We can grow enough red-leaf lettuce in planters to feed the two of us," she said.
The nursery's sales of vegetable and flower seedlings fell on the year soon after the March 11 earthquake. In the third week of April, however, sales of vegetable seedlings rose from the previous year. Sales of seedlings for tomatoes, cucumbers and different types of lettuce have been brisk, up 10-20% from a year earlier.
Asked about gardeners' reasons for choosing those plants, a clerk said, "They are not vulnerable to bad weather and only take about two weeks before they are edible." One 41-year-old housewife, who lives in the capital's Suginami Ward and plans to start growing vegetables in community gardens, went to the nursery to look for green beans and soybeans. "I want to try gardening with my 8-year-old child," she said.
Packs of bitter gourd seedlings sell for 150 yen each. The vegetable - known as goya in Okinawa Prefecture, where it is used in a range of local cuisine - has become popular among hobby gardeners, as well as people who are eager to save power. It is said that growing goya along a net just outside one's house can help keep indoor temperatures from rising. "We sold out the 10 cases we had in one day," a salesclerk said. DCM Holdings Co., Japan's leading operator of home centers, said that since the third week of April, sales of vegetable seedlings have jumped 50% on the year. Sales of vegetable seeds, meanwhile, are up 30% on the year. The best-selling items are sets of vegetable seedlings and planters, which are priced at about 500 yen.
Sprouting At Komeri Co., another major home center operator, all-store sales of vegetable seedlings rose an average of 30% on the year in the April 1-10 period, with cucumbers, tomatoes and perilla leaves proving particularly popular. Related products have also been moving at a healthy clip. Sales of bags of fertilizer under 5kg rose 10% over the same period at Komeri's stores. At Seria Co., which operates 100-yen shops, sales of gardening poles surged 25% on the year from April 1-15.
Japan's gardening market is valued at roughly 230 billion yen, according to a survey by Tokyo-based Fuji Keizai Co. With vegetable prices having soared in 2010, sales of flower seedlings apparently fell about 10% from the previous year, to 30 billion yen. In contrast, sales of vegetable seedlings likely rose 8%, to 16.4 billion yen. Fears of a possible vegetable shortage appear to be supporting these trends.
"The gardening boom will center more on vegetables than flowers," said Masahiro Yotsumoto, a research director at Dentsu Communication Institute Inc. "They are practical and have the power to heal."
TOKYO (Nikkei)--Marubeni Corp. (8002) is partnering with Vietnam's largest textile maker, Vinatex, to produce dress shirts for sales in Japan and in other regions later.
Vinatex operates 120 production sites in Vietnam and booked sales of roughly 160 billion yen in 2010. Marubeni has outsourced some production to Vinatex in the past, but this new partnership is far larger in scale. The basic agreement, to be signed on Tuesday, calls for Vinatex to manufacture dress shirts for Marubeni in amounts of 4 million units a year.
Marubeni's decision to partner with Vinatex stems from the common problem that companies in Japan's apparel industry now face in China, where rising wages and increased competition from Western giants and China's domestic players make it harder to secure production partners. Japan's apparel industry relies on China for 90% of its output, and Marubeni, like the other firms, needs to reduce its dependency by securing production bases in other countries.
Marubeni now depends on production in China for 90% of the apparel it handles. It aims to boost production in other countries to 30% of the total in 2012. Initially, the shirts made by Vinatex will be exported to Japan. In the future, Marubeni will also have Vinatex manufacture dress shirts for Shanghai Textile Holding Group, with which Marubeni formed a business partnership in April. In addition, Marubeni might also sell the dress shirts inside Vietnam via a chain of roughly 60 supermarkets that are part of the Vinatex group.
Source:The Nikkei May 10,2011
Thursday, May 12, 2011
TOKYO (Nikkei)--The Ministry of Finance will likely slash its fiscal 2011 tax revenue estimate by a few trillion yen when it compiles a second supplementary budget, a downgrading that will reflect the earthquake's toll on the national coffers.
The government had originally projected tax revenue to total 40.92 trillion yen in the initial budget for fiscal 2011. But with inflows from corporate and consumption taxes expected to plunge in the aftermath of the March 11 disaster, revenue could dip below fiscal 2009's 38.73 trillion yen to a level last seen before the economic bubble of the late 1980s.
The MOF plans to cut the projection for the compilation of the second emergency budget, given the importance of having accurate tax estimates for laying out funding plans for reconstruction. By having estimates early, the ministry hopes to promote discussion of additional debt offerings and tax hikes when the government debates the second supplementary budget.
The ministry has begun studying the quake's impact on tax revenue, predicting that estimates will need to be cut in most categories. Corporate tax receipts are expected to decrease as companies see their earnings erode, while revenue from income taxes and other levies in disaster zones will likely drop as a result of tax breaks and other relief measures.
Weakened consumer spending will likely lead to declines in revenue from such sources as consumption and liquor taxes.
Should the fiscal 2011 revenue forecast fall short of the fiscal 2009 figure, it would mark the lowest since before fiscal 1985.
The Diet has not yet passed the fiscal 2011 tax reform plans the government compiled before the quake, including a proposed cut in the corporate tax. Once implemented, the measures were projected to reduce corporate tax revenue by 429 billion yen. Even if passage is postponed, the government nonetheless believes that corporate tax revenue will still take a bigger hit.
Source:The Nikkei May 12,2011
TOKYO (Nikkei)--A number of apparel companies are conducting "Made in Tohoku" promotional campaigns to help their contract manufacturers in the Tohoku region that were hit hard by the Great East Japan Earthquake.
Maker's Shirt Kamakura sells clothing with "Thank you from Tohoku" tags Earlier this month, a shirt shop near JR Tokyo Station started putting new "Thank you from Tohoku" tags on all its products made in Fukushima Prefecture.
Maker's Shirt Kamakura (Kamakura Shirt) has commissioned production to about a dozen factories in Japan. Three are based in Fukushima Prefecture, accounting for 30-35% of the company's orders.
The Kanagawa Prefecture-based clothier decided to create a special tag soon after the March 11 quake, but the shirt makers were wary at first. "We were concerned that the Tohoku tag might hurt sales, due to unfounded rumors about our products," said an official at Okabe Housei, based in Furudono, Fukushima Prefecture. That turned out to be a needless worry for the contract manufacturer; the shirts are selling well.
Doing their part
"I'm glad that I can be of any help to quake-hit areas just by buying my favorite brand's products," said a woman in her mid-30s who has been a loyal customer of Kamakura Shirt for 10 years. Maker's Shirt Kamakura saw its sales climb by about 40% on the year in April.
"The special tag probably has a bigger effect on factory workers than on customers by making them feel that they are not alone when they attach the tag to shirts," said Chairman Yoshio Sadasue.
Tandem attaches the "Made in Tohoku" tags to its jeans.
In early April, Gim Co., a long-established men's knitwear wholesaler, started selling clothing at department stores and other retailers with "Made by Tohoku" tags. "What Tohoku really needs now is stable jobs," said Chairman Tamotsu Yagihara. "We tried to come up with a way to help secure employment and protect the technological know-how in the region through our business transactions."
Hakata Daimaru Inc. is one department store that sells products with the "Made in Tohoku" tags. It set up a special section for the products in late April. "We were able to support quake-hit areas easily by joining the (Gim) project," said an official at the Kyushu-based retailer. "And also, the Tohoku products we handle are of such high quality that we thought they could help stimulate consumption." At the Tohoku fair, Hakata Daimaru has been selling 30-40 pieces of clothing, even on weekdays, nearly as twice as many as usual.
Tandem, which owns the Caqu jeans brand, in April added a "Made in Tohoku" tag to its jeans and other clothing produced in Miyagi and Iwate prefectures. "I thought we needed to think of a way to continue selling Tohoku products under a single (Tohoku) brand," said Naoki Tsurumaru, the company's president. He said retailers have responded favorably to the effort.
The Tohoku fair initiated by knitwear wholesaler Gim Co. has drawn many customers to Hakata Daimaru's Fukuoka Tenjin department store.
Some apparel firms have taken more direct steps to support Tohoku-based manufacturers. Michikazu Kobayashi, executive director at Edwin Co., visited a factory in Miyagi Prefecture and offered financial assistance. He quickly responded to a call for help from the factory, which was forced to suspend operations after the March 11 quake and was running out of funds. The factory's pleas for help fell on deaf ears at local banks.
"The factory needs several million yen at most, for the moment, which is an amount we would not hesitate to lend to it, if it would help protect the business of a factory that we have been dealing with for a long time," said Kobayashi. He advised the factory on how to negotiate with banks by presenting such data as the number of orders it has received in the past and its cash income. In the end, the factory was able to get bank loans.
Meanwhile, Fabricant Co., which markets Lacoste brand clothing in Japan, has been helping plants in Tohoku restore their operations by delaying deliveries of its popular "Biz Polo" shirts. The firm also agreed to raise wages at one plant to help it shore up earnings that have been fallen due to labor shortages after many foreign workers fled to their home countries following the quake.
Source:The Nikkei Marketing Journal May 11,2011
BEIJING (Nikkei)--The stigmatization of Japanese products and the delays hampering customs clearance need to be prevented, Japan Business Federation Chairman Hiromasa Yonekura said during a meeting here Thursday with China's foreign minister.
Yonekura is leading a delegation of officials from the business lobby, also known as Nippon Keidanren. Meeting with Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, he discussed the stigma attached to Japanese goods stemming from the ongoing crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, and added that exports from Japan are being held up in customs.
In response, Yang said China would address the customs issue by working flexibly within the rules. He also vowed bilateral cooperation in nuclear plant safety and new energy technology.
Yonekura also met with Li Yuanchao, head of the Organization Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, to discuss the March 11 earthquake's impact on parts shipments to China.
Citing parts shortages at Chinese plants in the aftermath of the March quake, Li emphasized the two nations' complementary relationship. He also pledged to continue promoting interaction between Japanese and Chinese officials on disaster prevention issues, an initiative launched after the 2008 Sichuan earthquake in China.
The Nippon Keidanren delegation is scheduled to meet Friday with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao.
(The Nikkei May 13 morning edition)
Thursday, May 12, 2011
TOKYO (NQN)--The number of corporate bankruptcies involving debts of at least 10 million yen fell 6.8% on the year to 1,076 in April, down for the 21st straight month, Tokyo Shoko Research Ltd. said Thursday.
Government measures to ease financing contributed to the decline.
The total liabilities increased 3.5% to 279.5 billion yen, marking the first growth in six months, but the figure remained at low levels because there were few major bankruptcies.
Over the two months through May 11, 86 firms effectively went bankrupt because of the March 11th earthquake.
Tokyo Shoko Research said many companies are seeing their business performance worsening due to the effects of the disaster.
The research firm said corporate bankruptcies will likely start increasing toward summer.
Friday, May 13, 2011
Fast-Food Chains Expanding Despite Thinner Dining Market
TOKYO (Nikkei)--Lotteria Co. and other fast-food restaurant operators plan to go on the offensive by adding new locations, despite the shrinking market for dining out.
After a decade of closing unprofitable sites, Lotteria will now open 20 restaurants this fiscal year and 40 annually from fiscal 2012.
The No. 3 burger chain has shrunk to about 450 restaurants, less than half its peak. It opened only a handful of stores annually in recent years.
But after swinging to the black in the year ended in March, the company has decided to expand again. Lotteria's goal is to have 600 outlets within five years, targeting new locations at train stations and shopping centers in Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka and other big cities. Its new restaurants will have 50% larger floor spaces on average than existing locations, and they are expected to generate 30% more in sales per store.
Subway Japan Inc., which runs about 260 sandwich shops, plans to open 64 in the fiscal year ending in December and at least 50 annually from fiscal 2012. Starting this year, it will debut stores that will be more than twice the size of its existing locations.
Freshness Co. seeks to expand its Freshness Burger chain from about 200 locations now to 300 in three years.
And Burger King Japan, which operates 35 stores in the Tokyo metropolitan area, plans to boost its network to 100 over a three-year period.
Japan's restaurant market shrank 18% from the peak year of 1997 to 2009, according to the Food Service Industry Research Center. Sales continued to decline at family restaurants, but the fast-food segment grew for a seventh straight year from 2004 to 2010, a survey by the Japan Foodservice Association shows.
(The Nikkei May 13 morning edition) Thursday, May 12, 2011
Nissan Returns To Black In 4Q, Despite Quake ImpactTOKYO (Dow Jones)--Nissan Motor Co. (7201) on Thursday announced a return to profitability in the quarter ended March, the only one of Japan's big three auto makers to report improved earnings for the period. But the company cautioned that the business outlook remains uncertain as it assesses the financial impact of the March 11 disaster.
Nissan, Japan's second-biggest car maker by vehicle sales after Toyota Motor Corp. (7203), posted a net profit of Y30.8 billion in the January-March quarter, reversing from a net loss of Y11.6 billion in the same period a year earlier. The result beat the Y24.39 billion mean profit forecast by five analysts polled by Thomson Reuters.
"Nissan wasn't affected by the earthquake as badly as Toyota and Honda were," said Koji Endo, an analyst at Advanced Research Japan.
The magnitude-9.0 earthquake and subsequent tsunami damaged parts production facilities in northern Japan and led to supply-chain problems at home and overseas. A crisis at a nuclear-power plant also caused power-supply shortages.
Endo pointed out that the ratio of Nissan's Japan production to its global volume is low, about one-fourth, compared with Toyota's about 50%.
Toyota and Honda Motor Co. (7267) reported drops of 77% and 38%, respectively, in their net profit for the three months ended March 31.
Nissan's brisk, 26% sales growth in China in the quarter also helped it withstand the domestic travails stemming from the quake, Endo said.
"In China, our biggest market, our sales outpaced the market growth," Nissan Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn said at a press conference.
Toyota's sales in China rose 16% in the same quarter, and Honda's rose 1%.
However, Nissan--the last of the major Japanese auto makers to report January-March earnings--joined its peers in declining to provide an earnings projection for the full fiscal year ending March 2012, as its damaged suppliers are still trying to restore production to normal levels.
All 10 listed Japanese car and truck makers omitted full-year earnings forecasts during the current earnings season, underlining the extent of disruptions to the industry since the disaster.
Central and eastern Japan also face the risk of power supply shortage this summer due to the crisis at the nuclear-power plant in Fukushima, and the recent decision to close nuclear reactors in Shizuoka.
Nissan isn't sure about the impact of the electricity shortage on its production operations, Ghosn said.
Still, he said the company expects all factories at home and abroad to be back to full production from October.
With manufacturing operations returning to normal, he said he is "confident" the company will make up sales in the second half and grow for the full fiscal year.
In the last fiscal year ended March, Nissan sold 4.185 million vehicles worldwide, up 19% from the previous year. The largest increase was in Asia, which posted a gain of 36%.
Sales grew 10% in the quarter to Y2.351 trillion from Y2.138 trillion. Operating profit rose 7.2% to Y88.6 billion from Y82.7 billion. Demand for the company's new models and small sport-utility vehicles boosted sales in North America, China and Europe to offset the yen's strength and production disruptions following the disaster.
Japan Economy Digest May 10-16, 2011
The Office of Commercial Affairs, Royal Thai Embassy in Tokyo, Japan
Source : http://www.depthai.go.th