Word: japanism
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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...
...much worse for the Prime Minister and he is forced to resign, there is even talk that Yosano, who was runner-up to Aso in the LDP elections in September, could replace him as the new head of the party and lead it in upcoming general elections against Japan's resurgent opposition party, the Democratic Party of Japan...
...combat the economic downturn. While Aso's Cabinet in December approved $811.9 billion in stimulus spending, little of that money has been put into action. Other measures are seen as piecemeal and ineffective, leading to the perception that Aso has failed to deliver the fiscal and monetary steroids Japan needs to avert a deep recession...
...latest economic indicators are dire: exports were down nearly 14% in the fourth quarter, a record three-month drop; with U.S. consumers shutting their wallets, the big guns of corporate Japan - among them Toyota and Sony - are forecasting historic losses and firing thousands of workers; Japan's unemployment rate has spiked to 4.4%, a level not seen in more than five decades. "We have a once-in-a-hundred-year crisis and the policy response is not even average," says Jesper Koll, president and CEO of Tantallon Research Japan. "The people running the show are not politicians, not independent...
...fear is that additional recession-fighting measures planned by the Aso government will be sidetracked by Japan's chronic legislative infighting and revolving political leadership (the country is now on its fifth finance chief and third Prime Minister in two years). Japan's parliament, the Diet, has for the past several weeks been debating legislation surrounding a supplementary budget package that includes a controversial $21.7 billion handout to the Japanese public aimed at boosting consumer spending. But DPJ politicians - smelling blood in anticipation of general elections, which must be held by September but could come before then - might choose...