TOKYO (Kyodo)--The industry ministry said Tuesday it has adopted 15 projects in nine countries, such as geothermal power generation in Indonesia, under a ''bilateral offset mechanism'' to earn carbon credits in return for the transfer of advanced Japanese technologies to reduce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions.
The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry is holding talks with the governments of the nine countries to pave the way for the projects, which will be undertaken primarily by private Japanese companies including Tokyo Electric Power Co., Toshiba Corp. and Mitsubishi Corp., METI said. The 15 projects consist of four for Indonesia, two each for Vietnam, the Philippines, India and Thailand, one each for China and Peru and energy saving by cement plants in Laos and Myanmar. Among participants in the mechanism, Tokyo Electric will build a highly efficient coal-fired power plant in Vietnam which will discharge 500,000 tons less CO2 per year than conventional coal-fired plants.
Toshiba will improve a geothermal plant in the Philippines, while the Nomura Research Institute will promote energy-saving homes in China.The mechanism, conceived under the Kyoto Protocol to fight global warming, enables Japan to offset carbon emissions with exports of low-carbon technologies.
Source: The Nikkei , August 10, 2010
TOKYO (Nikkei)--Real gross domestic product climbed by an annualized 2.3% in the April-June quarter, according to the median of estimates from 26 private-sector research institutes surveyed by QUICK Corp. The actual GDP figures, due out Monday, are likely to show a fifth straight quarter of growth. Although consumer spending has slowed, exports have continued to increase, particularly to Asia, driving the economy's expansion. The private-sector estimate for the April-June quarter undershoots the annualized 5% GDP growth seen in the three months ended March 31 but exceeds the potential growth rate of slightly less than 1%.
April-June exports rose 6.8%, according to the median estimate from the forecasters, nearly matching the 6.9% gain for the January-March quarter. Shipments to China and elsewhere in Asia remained robust. Exports "to Europe grew more than expected" as the weak euro buttressed the economy there, says an economist at the Mizuho Research Institute.
Overseas demand -- defined as exports minus imports -- likely pushed up GDP growth for the quarter by 0.5 point. Capital investment likely edged up 0.9%, exceeding the 0.6% uptick recorded in the January-March period.
Source:The Nikkei Aug. 12
TOKYO (Nikkei)--The government has decided to ask power, gas and petroleum companies to set goals for switching to low-carbon-emission energy. The firms will be required to create timetables and specify the quantities of solar power and other renewable energies, including biomass fuels, that they intend to introduce.
The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry will hold a meeting Thursday to explain the policy to the businesses. The ministry intends to release standards as early as next month for evaluating progress toward the goals.The companies are expected to begin creating goals and timetables in October. Based on national energy plans approved by the Cabinet in June, the ministry urges power utilities to increase the proportion of energy sources that do not emit carbon dioxide to 50% in 2020 from 34% now. The ministry calls on gas utilities to use more bio gases, and petroleum firms to raise the portion of biofuels in gasoline sales to at least 3%.
The ministry can issue warnings and orders if the companies' efforts are determined to be insufficient. To achieve the ministry's aims, however, power companies would have to build many more nuclear plants, a task that would likely meet with resistance.
Source:The Nikkei Aug. 12
TOKYO (Nikkei)--Deflation has become a common challenge for industrialized countries as Japan struggles to halt a years-long slide in prices and the deflationary virus threatens to spread to the U.S. and Europe. Bank of Japan Governor Masaaki Shirakawa leaves a press conference at the central bank's head office on Tuesday.The Bank of Japan, at the conclusion of its policy board meeting on Tuesday, announced no new credit-easing measures despite the yen's nearing a 15-year high against the dollar. "We don't have to move" unless the current scenario of economic growth shows signs of a collapse, a senior BOJ official said. But the central bank finds itself boxed into a corner.
On July 21, U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress that the U.S. economic outlook remains "unusually uncertain." BOJ officials took that remark to mean U.S. policymakers expect a weaker dollar. That is in line with President Barack Obama's plan to boost the economy by doubling U.S. exports. European countries are also pinning their hopes for economic recovery on a rise in exports on the back of a cheaper euro.
Capital flows in the U.S. and Europe have slowed because of the damage done to financial systems by the collapse of the housing bubble in the U.S. These countries can hardly afford to worry about what others do, now that the so-called exit from emergency measures taken in response to the global financial crisis has receded from view.
Japan's indecision Meanwhile the yen has risen inexorably as the government wavers over what policy measures to take. Japan is thus caught in a double bind of deflation and a strong yen, which is weighing on corporate earnings and dampening hopes of higher household incomes. Companies and markets are fretting over whether the yen will top its all-time high of 79.75 to the dollar set in April 1995. On Tuesday, BOJ Governor Masaaki Shirakawa expressed concern about the yen's appreciation but declined to say whether the bank would take additional credit easing measures in an emergency. As many experts have pointed out, the BOJ's options are limited; additional measures to increase liquidity may not be effective. But the yen's rise could accelerate if market participants believe the BOJ is hesitant about further monetary easing. The BOJ and the government therefore need to send a clear message to the market.
Mixed signals The Finance Ministry is trying to jawbone the currency lower. "We will intervene in the currency market when (the yen's appreciation to) an all-time high looks likely," a senior ministry official said. But a colleague sought to rein in expectations: "Yen-selling market intervention by Japan alone will go nowhere if it invites a negative reaction from the U.S. and other monetary authorities." It is questionable whether political leaders are genuinely concerned about the yen's strength. When Naoto Kan became finance minister in January, he said an exchange rate of 90 yen to the dollar was preferable. As prime minister, Kan has not mentioned the yen frequently. Neither has he shown awareness of the need to deal with the U.S. and Europe seeking to cheapen their currencies. Naoyuki Yoshino, a professor at Keio University, calls the yen's appreciation excessive and believes it will force Japanese companies, especially strong ones, to shift their operations overseas. "At least, the government should send a message to the world that the yen's appreciation is unreasonable," he said.
Japan is saddled with a huge fiscal deficit as the government adopted a series of spending packages without a clearly defined strategy since the bursting of the economic bubble. It has also failed to contain deflation.
Kan told the Diet in early August that he intended to draw up an additional economic stimulus, but the effort soon petered out. Adding to the difficulty is the disarray in the cabinet following the Democratic Party of Japan's setback in the upper house election in July. "To pull Japan out of deflation, not only fiscal and monetary policies but also growth strategies ... are indispensable," said Takao Komine, a professor at Hosei University.
While there is a long list of proposals, including corporate tax cuts and deregulatory moves, efforts to put them into practice them have yet to get rolling. Worries about a political vacuum before the DPJ's presidential election in September have added to the uncertainty.
The BOJ officially ended its zero interest rate policy in August 2000 despite government opposition, creating a split between the two, and Japan has been in deflation ever since. "Company managers by nature have animal spirits and innovative spirits," Shirakawa said at Tuesday's press conference. "The most important task of policymakers is to create an economic environment in which (their) efforts are rewarded to the fullest possible extent." Japan cannot plan for the future as long as the government and the BOJ remain divided and antagonistic toward one another.
Source:The Nikkei Aug. 11
TOKYO (Nikkei)--Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd. (9104), Nippon Yusen KK (9101) and Itochu Corp. (8001) intend to build and run a large containership terminal in Vietnam, The Nikkei learned Wednesday.
With a construction cost of 30 billion yen, it will be one of the nation's biggest terminals.
The Japanese trio and Vietnam are expected to agree soon on establishing a joint venture for building and operating the terminal with state-run Vietnam National Shipping Lines. Vinalines will take a 51% stake, with the Japanese firms likely to divvy up the remaining equity equally. Construction cost will be covered by investments in the joint venture and loans.
Due to come online in 2015, the terminal will be located in the Lach Huyen district of the city of Haiphong, on the outskirts of Hanoi in northern Vietnam. It will be able to handle 855,000 TEUs (20-foot-equivalent units) of cargo a year, almost half of northern Vietnam's total volume.
The terminal will also be able to cater to large 8,000 TEU containerships that are unable to dock at neighboring ports, enabling direct exports to North America. To date, cargo bound for North America was first transported on smaller vessels to Hong Kong, then switched over to large containerships. The new terminal will cut shipping times to that market by a few days.
As a transit point for Southeast Asia, Vietnam has seen shipments skyrocket, with cargo amounts handled by northern Vietnam ballooning some 600% over the past 10 years. Panasonic Corp. (6752), Canon Inc. (7751) and other Japanese firms are setting up factories in the nation. So as more port infrastructure is built, the nation is likely to be increasingly considered an export base.
Source:The Nikkei Aug. 12
TOKYO (Nikkei)--Concerns stemming from the strong yen and economic slowdowns in the U.S. and Europe are making Japanese companies cautious about capital investment, despite their solid results for the April-June quarter. A Nikkei survey of 1,349 listed firms shows that their combined April-June pretax profit quadrupled from a year earlier and increased 30% from the January-March period.
But net investment cash outflow declined 4% to 6.36 trillion yen. This translates to a 17% drop from the January-March quarter. Cash flow from investment activities is generally negative, with outflows growing as spending increases. Total overall pretax profit clawed 90% of the way back to the figure from the April-June quarter of 2008, the period right before the global financial crisis. But net investment cash outflow rebounded just 70%.
The survey covered only listed companies that had reported their April-June results by Tuesday. It excluded financial institutions and start-ups, as well as firms that do not close their books at the end of March. Toshiba Corp. plans to double semiconductor-related investment to 160 billion yen in the year ending March 2011 -- still 60% lower than three years earlier.
"Judging by the market trend, our current planned investment is sufficient," Senior Executive Vice President Fumio Muraoka says. Reflecting their caution, a number of companies held their capital investment down to lower levels than called for by their full-year plans.
The April-June quarter saw Seiko Epson Corp. spend 5 billion yen out of its projected full-year capital outlays of 46 billion yen. Some firms have suspended or cut planned investments.
Yamaha Motor Co. is canceling construction on a Shizuoka Prefecture motorcycle factory because "demand in industrialized countries will not recover to the levels seen during the previous peak period," according to President Hiroyuki Yanagi.
Canon Inc. initially budgeted 220 billion yen for its capital outlays in the year ending December But this was reduced by 10 billion yen in April and by the same amount in July. Honda Motor Co. has canceled plans to build a minivehicle plant in Mie Prefecture but has moved to resume construction on a Saitama Prefecture plant for environmentally friendly autos.
Source:The Nikkei Aug. 12 morning edition)
TOKYO (Nikkei)--Japanese households spent an average of 247,309 yen a month in the April-June quarter, down 0.5% on the year in real terms, according to data released Friday by the Ministry of Internal Affairs. This decline in total household expenditures -- which include single-person households -- was the first in three quarters.
The 1.7% decline in food spending had the biggest impact. Consumers shunned vegetables, whose prices skyrocketed because of colder-than-usual spring temperatures. The unseasonable weather also took a toll on apparel, with spending on clothing and shoes sliding 5.7%. And amid lackluster buying of automobiles in single-person households, transportation and telecommunications spending sank 2.4%.
On the other hand, education and entertainment expenditures rose 1.5%, thanks in part to increased purchases of televisions. The eco-point program has helped raise spending on TVs from a year earlier, the ministry explained. But the coming end to this stimulus program has raised fears about the sustainability of the elevated outlays.
Total household expenditures dipped six straight quarters through the July-September term of 2009 because of the financial turmoil and other factors. Gradually improving employment and wage conditions had stoked consumer spending until this past quarter.
Source: The Nikkei Aug. 14
TOKYO (Nikkei)--A number of big-name Asian air carriers are gearing up to begin regular international flights between their home countries and Haneda airport by securing slots to be created with the opening of a new runway in October.
Thai Airways International Ltd. plans to begin nightly flights between Haneda and Bangkok on Nov. 1. Now that the political unrest in Thailand has eased, the airline expects tourists to come flocking back.
Along with a new runway, Haneda is planning to open a new terminal for international passengers in October. In addition to operating its 17 existing weekly Narita-Bangkok flights, Thai Airways plans to increase the flights connecting Thailand and Central Japan International Airport, which services the greater Nagoya area, as well as Fukuoka Airport. As a result, seat capacity for Japan-Thailand routes will increase 30%.
Taiwanese carrier Eva Airways Corp. is poised to begin twice-daily Haneda-Taipei flights Oct. 31. With its existing two flights a day between Narita and Taipei expected to continue flying, the firm's Japan-Taipei passenger flight operations will double in size.
China Airlines, another carrier in Taiwan, is in talks with authorities on both sides to begin twice-daily flights between Haneda and Taipei.
Meanwhile, Malaysia Airlines aims to cancel its twice-weekly flights between Narita and Kota Kinabalu and to begin flying between Haneda and the famous east Malaysian resort destination three times a week in mid-November.
The company hopes that Haneda's proximity to central Tokyo will create a convenient vacation option enabling travelers to fly out from the Japanese capital after work and reach the Southeast Asian city in early morning.
Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. will begin two daily flights between Haneda and Hong Kong in late October, bringing competition to Japan Airlines Corp. and All Nippon Airways Co. (9202), which serve the same route.
Seventeen air carriers --including JAL, ANA and 12 other Asian airlines -- now plan to introduce regular international service using the new runway to take advantage of Haneda airport's favorable location and the ease of transfers to domestic flights.
Source:The Nikkei Aug. 14
The Office of Commercial Affairs, Royal Thai Embassy in Tokyo, Japan
Source : http://www.depthai.go.th