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...self-destruction of Japan's Finance Minister provided YouTube-quality evidence of what most Japanese already suspect: its current leaders are looking increasingly unprepared to deal with what may be the country's greatest challenge since the end of World War II. Japan's economy, the world's second largest, is contracting at the fastest rate among all developed nations. GDP growth in the last quarter shrank at an alarming annualized rate of 12.7%, Japan's worst showing since the 1974 oil shock. But instead of taking vigorous steps to counteract a worsening recession, Prime Minister Taro Aso is lurching...
...trillion, including the bank bailout and the stimulus bill. They were prepared to swim even deeper into the red next year, expanding Obama's initiatives on renewable energy and high-speed rail lines and raising the deficit to 10% of gross domestic product, the highest figure since World War II. But assuming the economy has begun to turn around, the two-year spending splurge would be followed by a steady return to fiscal sanity: Obama wanted to bring the deficit down to 3% of GDP--still a whopping $546 billion...
Asian literature on World War II hardly brims with sympathetic images of Japanese soldiers, and that makes Indonesian writer Sutan Takdir Alisjahbana's 1978 epic Defeat and Victory something of a cultural curiosity. The Japanese translation earned its author the Order of Sacred Treasure, but with its first English rendition a wider audience has the opportunity to absorb its tragedy and romance...
...that happens to be exactly why whale became a significant part of the Japanese diet, as a cheap source of protein in the impoverished days following World War II. As the country grew wealthier, however, whale meat grew less popular. Still, Japan (along with Norway and Iceland) continues to hunt and kill whales - more than 800 in the 2006 to 2007 season - and is pushing for an end to the 22-year-old worldwide ban on commercial whaling. While industry supporters contend that it's necessary for food security, today the average Japanese eats a little more than an ounce...
...plight. The world's second-largest economy shrank at an alarming annualized rate of 12.7% last quarter, its worst quarterly contraction since the 1974 oil shock. Exports also fell an unprecedented 13.9%, while the unemployment rate shot up to 4.4% in December, reaching levels not seen since World War II. "There is no doubt that the economy is in its worst state in the postwar period," said Economic and Fiscal Policy Minister Kaoru Yosano. (See pictures of Japan and the world...