Japan quake reconstruction can cost up to $ 184 billion: Yosano

TOKYO - Japan's economy Minister Kaoru Yosano said Sunday that the Government may need to spend 10 billion yen to 15 billion yen ($184 billion) for the reconstruction of the devastating earthquake that struck the country in the northeast in March.

The Government may need to issue bonds to pay but should not be so without coming up with the means to pay for the redemption, Yosano said, that some form of tax hike would be inevitable signaling.

"I understand those who say that we need to issue bonds for quake (reconstruction)." "But we should not borrow recklessly without thinking about how to pay the money," Yosano told a television program.

"If we were to issue bonds for the reconstruction, we must decide in how many years would pay us the money back and how." "It is important in maintaining the confidence of the market in the financial state of the Japan," he said.

Japan is reeling from the triple disaster from an earthquake, tsunami, and the prolonged nuclear crisis with the Government of the difficulty in finding ways to pay for the largest reconstruction effort since the aftermath of the second world war.

The damage caused by the earthquake led to the Japan in the recession with the economy decreases much more than expected in the first quarter and the value of the contract again in April-June as shortages of electricity and chain disturbances hit factory output supply.

The Government earlier this month Parliament adopted a supplementary budget of 4 billion yen first to meet the cost of immediate disaster relief.

It plans to compile a sizable second supplementary reconstruction budget, though legislators are divided on how to pay the expenses.

The public debt of the Japan, to double the size of the economy of $ 5 trillion, is the most important among the major industrialized economies, limiting the room for additional fiscal stimulus.

But legislators are reluctant to raise the tax, including the politically sensitive sales tax, for fear of scaring voters away, even while the cost of the reconstruction of quake adds to the huge social spending for aging fast society.

Yosano, considered as a fiscal Hawk, said that raising taxes is crucial for the Japan meet the costs of protection social bloat and to fix the country Scud finance.

Japan joins global conservation Pact

 many Japanese parents, and those foreign, have campaigned for change, the Japanese Government has agreed to sign an international treaty that defines procedures for settling cross-border child custody disputes.

The Japan is the only one of the Group of seven industrialized nations still adhere to the Convention of the Hague International child abduction.

Correspondents say that the move follows intense foreign pressure on Tokyo.

Its policies have been blamed for makes it easier for mothers Japanese withdraw children of foreign fathers.

The Hague Convention was intended to protect the rights of both parents, and it seeks to ensure that custody decisions are made under the laws of the country who provided the first home for children.

A Japanese official, Yusuke Asakura, said that the cabinet of Prime Minister Naoto Kan has approved the change.

Deep switch

In the Japan, courts give normally guard a parent after a marriage breakdown and it is the parent, leaving the other parent have any access.

Continue reading the main history

Twelve countries were engaging in the Japan to subscribe to the Hague Convention:

US: 131Canada: 38UK: 38 France: 30Germany 2Australia, Hungary, Italy, New Zealand and Spain - no availableBelgium figures and the-0 casesMany Colombia separating couples come to amicable agreements, but it is not unusual for a parent to cut their children forever.

There is a quarter of a million divorces, to the Japan each year which is relatively low by international standards, but a dramatic increase in its own context.

BBC correspondent, Tokyo, Roland Buerk, said that the implementation of the decision to follow the Hague Convention is likely to be a long process.

This would mean a change in the expectation that families should largely arrange things for themselves, to the State to enforce access payments and child support agreements.

Bills to amend Japanese law, which has no concept of joint custody - should be submitted to the Parliament at the end of the year.

But our correspondent says that these are likely to face an opposition on the ground that change could impede Japanese fleeing abusive relationships abroad.

Each year, thousands of people Japanese marry foreigners.

The Japan in a recession economy

 struggles to the Japan to restore to production lines damaged in the Japan, the third largest economy, contracted sharply in the first three months of the year, after a tsunami and the earthquake caused damage in March.

Gross domestic product (GDP) decreased 0.9% in the first quarter, the Cabinet office said. This meant that the annualized contraction rate is 3.7%.

The Japan is now in recession after two consecutive quarters of decline.

Analysts say consumption and exports have been worst affected.

The contraction was greater than expected with most of the forecasts of the annualized rate of about 2%.

"The Japanese economy should remain low for the moment," said the Minister of the Japanese economy Kaoru Yosano Thursday.

However, Mr Yosano said that alleviate the constraints of supply and demand for reconstruction would probably develop.

"The economy a force is necessary to bounce," said Mr Yosano.

Consumers pessimistic

Naomi strategies Japan Fink said the most worrying part of data of today has been the decline in consumotion of 0.6%, as people reduce their expenses after the earthquake.

Private consumption represents about 60% of the Japanese economy.

Roland Buerk reports on the Japan attempts to deal with the loss of power caused by the earthquake in Tokyo

"It was already soft in the last quarter of 2010," said Naomi Fink, Japan strategist at Jefferies.

The earthquake, however, moderated in addition a sense.

The consumer confidence index fell to 33.1 in April, according to the Cabinet Office.

A reading below 50 suggests the pessimism of consumers.

"On mars by the decline in retail sales and household spending, consumption should be one of the largest contributors for the first quarter, negative growth", said Mrs. Fink.

Damaged supply chains

The second largest component of the world's third largest economy is trade.

Exports of 13.5% and imports of 12.7% of GDP in 2009.

The massive quake and the tsunami that devastated exports, while imports costs increased due to high prices for raw.

Trade surplus fell by 34.3% in March from the same month a year ago.

"A question on the side of the export is the continuous fight to restore damaged production and strings, lines of supply", said Mrs. Fink of Jefferies.

"On import, the increase in demand for fossil fuels, to offset the decline in the supply of nuclear energy, is unlikely to fade any time soon", she added.

Application of reconstruction

Once the rebuilding gathers momentum, however, it should have a positive impact on the economy.

But it is only likely to occur towards the end of this year.

"I do expect not in the second quarter, positive growth", said Mrs. Fink.

The Central Bank begins its meeting in two days from Thursday to discuss monetary policy.

"The economic strength of the Japan is gradually decreasing," Bank of the Japan (BOJ) Governor Masaaki Shirakawa said a meeting Tuesday of the Parliamentary Committee.

Analysts say that this indicates that the Central Bank will paste his policy monetary ultra-loose.

"The Bank of the Japan is likely to refine its existing policies," said Mrs. Fink.

The Bank injected billions of dollars in the financial system to stabilize the economy since the severe earthquake.

The Bank of Japan should also maintain the unchanged rates to the lowest level, in the range 0.0% to 0.1% to help stimulate the economy.

Consumer mood Japan falls sharply

May 16, 2011, update to the economy of the Japan 05: 38 GMT need deregulation to create new jobs, said Richard Jerram Macquarie SecuritiesThe of consumer sentiment in the Japan deteriorated further in Aprila survey has found, as the fallout from the devastating earthquake and tsunami continued to weigh on sentiment.

The consumer confidence index fell to 33.1, down 38.6 in March, according to the Cabinet Office.

A reading below 50 suggests the pessimism of consumers.

However, analysts say there are signs that confidence begins to recover.

Hopes "Bounce".

Even people in some parts of the Japan not affected by the earthquake of 11 March and the tsunami, as Tokyo and West of the Japan, were reducing expenditures.

"People refrained from spending money on go to amusement parks or drinking and eating to those living in disaster areas," said Masaki Kaano, Chief Economist at JP Morgan Securities.

However, analysts say the consumer confidence was on the rise at the end of April and retrieve next month.

"Continue reading the main history

If the Government does not manage the nuclear central issue well and if it is bad news from there, a popular sentiment can turn bad"

end quote Masaki Kaano JP Morgan Securities "there is no massive downward trend and there are signs of rebound" said Naomi Finkstrategist of the Japan to Jefferies in Tokyo.

"We will not see several consecutive courses of deterioration".

Spending very certainly bounce, as the concerns of consumers do are centered around step of employment security - as they were following the global economic crisis in 2008, said Mrs. Fink.

Squeeze energy

There are signs that consumer mood was already at the end of April, which coincided with the start of a week of vacation at the Japan known as Golden Week.

Another factor lifting the spirits since the end of the period of Buddhist mourning.

In Buddhism in the first seven weeks, or 49 days after death, families and friends should refrain from entertainment.

The 49th day after the disaster was on 28 April, which means that many people were just in the mood to pass later.

The 9.0 magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami killed more than 15,000 people, according to the national policy agency.

"Among consumers changed positively in the week of gold began, and this movement to increase remains unchanged in may," said Mr. Kaano.

But while analysts are optimistic, there are still a few potential risks on the horizon that can influence the likelihood of consumers to spend.

Companies were asked to cut consumption of electricity by 15% in the summer, when the energy is at its peak.

Tokyo business has experienced outages continuing the week following the earthquake

Worse still, the nuclear crisis continues to weigh on sentiment.

Work at the Fukushima Daiichi plant was hit by another setback last week after a water leak was found in one of the reactors.

Tokyo Electric Power, the utility that runs the power plant, said he hopes to stabilize the reactors in January.

Some experts believe that a delay in this annex is now probably.

"If the Government does not manage the issue of the nuclear power plant property and it is bad news from there, popular sentiment can turn bad,", said Mr. Kaano.

Two months after the earthquake of the Japan land, poor victims still waiting for assistance

TOKYO - the most needy victims of the earthquake and devastating tsunami in the Japan have yet to receive a large part of the record of $ 2.2 billion aid two months later, mainly because the authorities have not yet identifiedthe country's Red Cross, said Wednesday.

March 11 earthquake and the tsunami and the nuclear crisis that followed at the plant in Fukushima Daiichi 25,000 dead or missing, left sent more than 117,000 people leave their homes and destroyed infrastructure in the North of the Japan.

The Japanese Red Cross Society collected so far 174 billion yen ($2.2 billion) in aid money, most, he has never given any relief campaign.

Charity distributed about 65 billion yen in April, the regional Governments in disaster-hit but says that this Fund has not yet reached the poor.

"The biggest problem is that those who should receive the money cannot be identified, as more than 10 000 people are still missing, resident records have disappeared, and administrative functions at the periphery don't work," says Tadateru KonoePresident of the Japanese Red Cross.

"Money has reached the prefectural level, but I recently saw a report that a large part of the actual distribution (to the victims of the earthquake) has not yet take place," he told a press conference.

All money relief organization is supposed to be given to the victims, in cash, and the Group has been criticized for the delay in the distribution. In 1995, when a huge earthquake hit Kobe in the Western Japan, the first series of cash took about two weeks of the disaster.

A panel of experts and officials decided the month last on the parameters of the round of initial distribution of aid, as to give 350,000 yen to families who have lost a member and the same amount to families whose homes have been destroyed.

The Japanese Red Cross was still more than 100 billion yen cash relief, and Konoe, also President of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent societies, said there is no clear plan on how to distribute it. He said that the money could also be given to businesses and individuals.

Japan began to clean and rebuild the region damaged, but work is difficult and the area is still a ruin.

An area of renaming is still in place 20 km (12 miles) around the stricken Fukushima Daiichi plant, while residents of a town were allowed to return Tuesday for two hours for the first time since the disaster.

In a survey by Yomiuri newspaper interviewed mayors and officials of 41 cities in areas affected by the disaster, said they felt they did there was no clear vision to rebuild their lives.

Seventeen mayors said they do not have an idea of when claire the clearing of rubble would have finished in their fields, whereas nine said they did not know when electricity and water systems would function properly once more.

Konoe, stated that many medical services in the areas affected by the disaster remained closed and that the stress-related diseases are among the greatest risks to health for internally displaced persons.

The total cost of the damage was estimated at $ 300 billion, which makes higher global disaster. (Yen Japanese $1 = 80.835)

Japan PM eyes June cabinet reshuffle: report (Reuters)

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan is considering reshuffling his cabinet as early as June, to strengthen the efforts of reconstruction of the Government after a huge earthquake and tsunami and strengthen its position in the party in powerthe Kyodo News Agency said Wednesday.

Kan, under fire for his response to the disaster and nuclear emergency that followed, is thinking up creating ministerial posts to carry out reconstruction work and ongoing Atomic crisis, said Kyodo, quoting sources close to Prime Minister.

Secretary General of the Government Yukio Edano said that the Government this week plans support a Bill to Parliament seeking to add three positions to the current 17.

"We would like to organize the structure to strengthen our treatment of reconstruction with (a Minister to) respond to damage earthquake and nuclear." There are also different ministers among the 17 now hold multiple positions, "Edano said at a press conference.

Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary, Yoshito Sengoku is likely to be operated for position of reconstruction, handling, then that Goshi Hosono, helps the Kan, and a legislative decision of the Democratic Party is seen as a strong candidate for the role of managing the nuclear accident in a Tokyo Electric plant PowerKyodo said.

The earthquake and tsunami on 11 March, triggered nuclear installation Fukushima Daiichi Tokyo Electric cooling system malfunctions, causing radiation to seep into the atmosphere and the ocean.

Engineers still have difficulty tackling the plant.

The reshuffle could come shortly after the end of the session of Parliament on June 22, but Kan can refer to the just before an extraordinary session of Parliament is expected to begin in August, Kyodo quoted the sources as saying.

Already fifth Premier Japan in as many years, Kan saw its rating sink below 30 percent on concerns regarding the appeals of his leadership and faces from the inside and outside his own party to resign, although few expect that he leaves easily.

(Reported by Kiyoshi Takenaka, Yoko Kubota;) (Editing by Joseph Radford)

Rally of anti-nuclear protesters from the Japan after call to PM to close plant (Reuters)

TOKYO (Reuters) - several thousand Japanese anti-nuclear demonstrators marched in the rain Saturday, allowing an appeal from the Prime Minister to close a plant at the Centre of Japan and urging more close to avoid another nuclear crisis.

The appeal of the surprise of the Prime Minister Naoto Kan Friday to shut down Hamaoka of Chubu Electric Power Co. plant followed by pressure on the Government to review the policy of nuclear after an earthquake on March 11 and tsunami damaged another plant and triggered the worst disaster since Chernobyl in 1986.

Tens of thousands of residents around the Fukushima Daiichi plant on the northeast coast were ordered to evacuate after radiation leaks in air, soil and sea. Radiation checks led to bans of shipment of some vegetables and fish.

Students, members of the Union and parents with children hoisted on their shoulders walk by neighbourhood of bustling Shibuya in Tokyo to the music and songs, carrying flags written with "Close all clear both plants!" and not "fukushima."

"After Chernobyl, we have collectively forgotten the seriousness, the horror of nuclear power," said Takashi Enari, a businessman who said he protested outside the Fukushima plant after the disaster of 1986 in Ukraine.

"I always thought that they should shut down Hamaoka". It must be rethinking energy policy in this country, "he says, as the other demonstrators marched wearing masks of danger and carrying coloured balloons.

Media, said Saturday that the anti-nuclear of the Japan, a small movement and ignored by the public until the crisis of Fukushima, could become even more vocal after Kan appeal for a judgment of Hamaoka.

Kan said he took the decision "out of" concern for public safety, citing a forecast by government experts who put 87% chance of a magnitude 8.0 earthquake hit the area served by Chubu Electric over the next 30 years.

CHUBU Electric held a meeting of the Commission on Saturday to discuss the decision of the Kan, but has not reached a decision on whether to comply with its request, which is not legally binding.

"The decision is still under discussion," said a spokesman. "We cannot say when exactly the decision will be made, but we would like to reach a rapidly."

POWER SHIFT

Decision of Hamaoka of Kan signals a probable change in the energy policy of the Japan, with the Government now rethink its objective to stimulate the dependence of the country on nuclear power to 50 percent of its power needs by 2030up to a current 30 per cent.

"I am pleased that the closure of Hamaoka but I do not think that it is enough", said social worker Akemi Nomura in Hiroshima, Western Japan, the anti-nuclear protest.

"I want the Yamaguchi plant too close", she says, referring to a plant under construction near Hiroshima one of the two cities hit by atomic bombs dropped by the United States in 1945.

A judgment Hamaoka could also difficult for other utilities restart reactors now closed for scheduled maintenance, with local residents of growing more concerned about security, the Nikkei business said daily Saturday.

Then that would be welcomed by anti-nuclear activists, it might upset worried businesses of energy supply, as well as local Governments concerned of the impact on employment. Media said 1,200 residents of Omaezaki, where the plant in Hamaoka, worked at the facility.

"We would have liked the Government to listen a little more to the local perspective and for that to have reflected on the governance of the national nuclear policy," the Mayor Shigeo Ishihara Omaezaki, told journalists.

(Other reports by Chisa Fujioka, Shinichi Saoshiro;) (Editing by Nick Macfie)

Workers enter the Japan reactor nuclear building

Workers in one of the buildings damaged reactor at the nuclear plant disaster of Japan Thursday for the first time since it was rocked by an explosion in the days after a devastating earthquake, the country's nuclear security agencysaid.

The plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., said workers are connecting ventilation equipment to the unit 1 in an attempt to absorb the radiation from the air inside the building. The work should take about four or five days.

The utility must lower the levels of radiation within the reactor before the key step of the installation of a cooling system is eliminated by the earthquake on March 11 and the subsequent tsunami that leaves the people of more than 25,000 dead or missing along the northeast of the Japan Coast.

Workers were unable to enter the buildings of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power reactor, about 140 km northeast of Tokyo, since the first days after the tsunami. Explosions of hydrogen to four of the buildings of the complex six-reactor in the early days destroyed some of their roofs and walls and dispersed radioactive debris.

In April, a robot recorded readings of radioactivity of approximately 50 millisieverts per hour building reactor of unit 1 - for workers to enter realistically a too high level.

The decision to send workers was made after the robots last Friday raised fresh data that showed radiation levels were sufficiently safe for workers to enter in some regions, said Taisuke Tomikawa, a TEPCO spokesman.

Two workers entered the reactor building autour from 11: 30 pm (0230GMT) for about 25 minutes. They were exposed to 2 millisieverts during this time, said Tomikawa.

A dozen workers split into teams had to enter the building on a rotation for short periods limit exposure to radiation.

"It is an effort to improve the environment inside the reactor building," he said.

Workers were equipped with protective and a reservoir of mask and air set similar to those used by the scuba divers, according to an official of the industrial and nuclear safety agency.

Before the building of the reactor, the utility erected a temporary tent designed to prevent radioactive air to escape.

TEPCO has a plan to bring the integrating plant a cold judgment within six to nine months.

Japanese authorities have more than double the legal limit of exposure to radiation from nuclear workers since the beginning of the crisis to 250 millisieverts per year. The United States nuclear industry workers are allowed to an upper limit of 50 millisieverts per year. Doctors say irradiation sets 1,000 millisieverts and includes nausea and vomiting.

Radiation leaks from the Fukushima plant has forced 80,000 people living within a radius of 12 miles (20 kilometres) out of their homes. Many live in gymnasiums and community centers.

———

Associated Press Writer Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed to this report.