Russia ranks the eighth in the list of the U.S. creditors, according to Finance magazine. The RF share in the U.S. state debt was 2.5 percent ($65.3 billion) as of June 30, 2008. Japan ($583 billion) and China ($503 billion, less the debt to Hong Kong and Macao) are the key creditors for the United States, accounting for over 40 percent of the state debt on aggregate. What’s more, the debt to China goes up by 25 percent a year.
Other major creditors of the United States are Britain, Luxembourg, Hong Kong, Switzerland, states of Caribbean offshore zone and the oil-exporting states, including Venezuela, the United Arab Emirates, Ecuador, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman and others. With the private sector taken into account, the U.S. foreign debt totaled $13.77 trillion as of early April, while the country’s GDP is projected to equal $14.4 trillion this year. The U.S. foreign debt didn’t exceed $6.95 trillion in 2003. The share of foreign governments in the U.S. state debt widened from 52.6 percent in 2003 to 73.9 percent in 2007. www.kommersant.com
TOKYO, Sept 1 (Reuters)- Unpopular Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda said on Monday that he had decided to resign in an effort to break a political deadlock. Fukuda has been struggling to cope with a divided parliament where the opposition parties control the upper house and can delay legislation. “If we are to prioritise the people’s livelihoods, there cannot be a political vacuum from political bargaining, or a lapse in policies. We need a new team to carry out policies,” Fukuda said. Speculation has been simmering that the unpopular prime minister might be replaced ahead of a general election that must be held by September 2009. Fukuda’s resignation does not automatically mean an election. His party, the Liberal Democratic Party, must pick a new leader and win the confidence of parliament’s lower house if it wants to carry on leading Japan’s coalition government.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
The twin missives more or less sum up the dramatic change in mood sweeping financial markets since it became evident that the entire bloc of rich OECD countries has succumbed to the delayed effects of the credit crisis. Japan contracted by 0.6pc in the second quarter, Germany by 0.5pc, France and Italy by 0.3pc. Spain recalled the cabinet last week for an emergency summit. New Zealand and Denmark are in recession. Iceland contracted at a catastrophic 3.7pc in the second quarter. “The whole decoupling thesis has started to come apart at the seams,” said David Bloom, currency chief at HSBC. “Canada is frozen over. We have Arctic conditions in Sweden, and the UK is falling off the white cliffs of Dover.” The US fiscal stimulus package that kept spending afloat in the second quarter is running out fast. There is nothing yet to replace it. The export boom cannot keep adding juice as the global crunch hits. My fear is that the US will tip into a second, deeper leg of the downturn, setting off a wave of savage job cuts. This will start to feel more like a real depression. More
TOKYO - Japan’s weather agency says a strong earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.8 struck off the northern Japanese coast. The Meteorological Agency says there was no danger of a tsunami, or seismic waves, from the 12:26 a.m. (11:26 a.m. EDT) quake, which occurred about 75 miles below the ocean’s surface off the coast of Iwate. More
Source: Mainichi Japan
An earthquake struck the Tohoku and Kanto regions on Saturday morning, prompting the Meteorological Agency to issue a tsunami warning. The quake, which struck at depth of about 10 kilometers off the coast of Fukushima Prefecture, registered 4 on the 7-point Japanese intensity scale in areas including Morioka, the Fukushima Prefecture city of Koriyama and the Miyagi Prefecture city of Ishinomaki. Its estimated magnitude was 6.6. The Metrological Agency issued a tsunami warning for Miyagi Prefecture and Fukushima Prefecture. Quake generated waves measuring 20 centimeters in height were observed in Ishinomaki at 12:16 p.m. and 12:21 p.m., but as of early Saturday afternoon no tsunami damage had been reported. The agency lifted the tsunami warning at 1:20 p.m.
Source: Market Watch– As politicians call for taxpayer bailouts and a government takeover of troubled mortgage lenders Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, FreedomWorks would like to point out that a bailout is a transfer of possibly hundreds of billions of U.S. tax dollars to sophisticated investors and governments overseas.
The top five foreign holders of Freddie and Fannie long-term debt are China, Japan, the Cayman Islands, Luxembourg, and Belgium. In total foreign investors hold over $1.3 trillion in these agency bonds, according to the U.S. Treasury’s most recent “Report on Foreign Portfolio Holdings of U.S. Securities.”
FreedomWorks President Matt Kibbe commented, “The prospectus for every GSE bond clearly states that it is not backed by the United States government. That’s why investors holding agency bonds already receive a significant risk premium over Treasuries.”
“A bailout at this stage would be the worst possible outcome for American taxpayers and mortgage holders, who have been paying a risk premium to these foreign investors. It would change the rules of the game retroactively and would directly subsidize the risks taken by sophisticated foreign investors.”
“A bailout of GSE bondholders would be perhaps the greatest taxpayer rip-off in American history. It is bad economics and you can be sure it is terrible politics.”
Financial Times
Not long before representatives of the world’s richest nations convened in Toyako for the glitziest event in the history of this remote Japanese fishing community, a very different scene unfolded just a few hundred kilometres south. Angry day labourers in Nishinari, Osaka, threw stones and firebombs at riot police, overturned a car and set fire to garbage, venting their frustration at their inability to find work. The violence, which involved an estimated 200 people and went on for two days last month, was a long way from the serene facade that Japanese society normally presents to the world. But the riots were just one extreme manifestation of the social cracks that are appearing in a country that has often, if half-jokingly, been referred to as the world’s most successful socialist state.
Following more than a decade of economic stagnation, Japan is no longer the gentle place it used to be for the weaker members of its society. In a relatively short time, the world’s second largest economy has been transformed from a cohesive, egalitarian society to one saddled with the ills of the neo-liberalist model: a growing underclass, social alienation, widening income disparities and simmering discontent. The country’s once-vaunted social and labour contracts have failed to keep up with the changes wrought by globalisation, leaving a large number of people barely managing to survive. More
FARMERS and activists from around the world have gathered in Japan to protest soaring food prices, kicking off a major rally ahead of next week’s summit of the G8 nations. Thousands of people are expected to take part in today’s protest amid tight security, with some 21,000 police officers on guard near Toyako, the northern Japanese lakeside resort where world leaders will meet from Monday. More
In other words, despite Japan’s energy chief’s urging OPEC to boost oil production, they plan to do nothing for another three months while oil prices soar.
AOMORI, Japan (AP) — Japan’s energy chief launched a meeting of ministers from the world’s top industrialized nations Sunday by warning that soaring oil prices could trigger a global recession if they’re not checked. Oil prices made their biggest single-day surge on Friday, soaring $11 to $138.54 on the New York Mercantile Exchange, an 8 percent increase.
Five top energy consumers - the United States, China, Japan, South Korea and India - urged oil producers on Saturday to boost output to meet growing demand, while pledging to develop clean energy alternatives and increase efficiency. The current president of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, Chakib Khelil, has said that the cartel will make no new decision on production levels until its Sept. 9 meeting in Vienna. More
TOKYO (AP) — An increasing number of Japanese who can’t afford to pay fines imposed for traffic violations and other crimes are being jailed to pay off their debt to society — by doing unskilled labor in prison workshops. The number of offenders sent to prison because they failed to pay court-ordered fines jumped to 7,376 in 2006, nearly three times the 2,661 incarcerated for the same reason in 1997, according to the latest Justice Ministry statistics.
“The trend represents a widening gap between the rich and the poor in our society,” said Maiko Tagusari, a lawyer who specializes in prisoners’ rights. “A growing number of people are having trouble making ends meet and so they fail to pay the fines.” More
Recombinomics Commentary 21:22
May 24, 2008
The recent sequence data from Japan and Russia and the reported identities of 99.7% or greater with the isolates from South Korea clearly demonstrate a global expansion of the Fujian (clade 2.3) strain of H5N1. None of these countries has previously reported the Fujian strain, raising concerns that the strain is poised for a dramatic global expansion similar to the expansion of clade 2.2 which began in the spring of 2005 at Qinghai Lake. Clade 2.2 migrated to Chany Lake in Novosibirsk in Siberia and the Erhel Lake in ongolia in the summer of 2005, and then spread to Europe, the Middle East, and Africa in late 2005 / early 2006 as well as south Asia in the same time frame. Read more
MARI YAMAGUCHI TOKYO (AP) — A Japanese farmer who committed suicide by drinking pesticide vomited the poison at a hospital before he died, releasing toxic fumes that sickened more than 50 people, the hospital said Thursday. Doctors were trying to pump the 34-year-old man’s stomach when he threw up, spraying his rescuers with chloropicrin, causing 54 doctors, nurses and patients to develop breathing problems and eye sores.
The incident came amid a string of suicides in Japan by people mixing household chemicals to create lethal fumes. Many bystanders in recent months have been sickened by fumes that escaped into adjoining rooms, apartments or homes. Read more
english.chosun.com
Researchers have found that strains of bird flu found in Korea and Japan this year are almost genetically the same. The National Veterinary Research and Quarantine Service said Wednesday that the genetic makeup of a strain of bird flu sampled from chickens in Gimje, South Jeolla Province was 99.7 percent identical to a sample from swans found in Japan’s Akita prefecture. The finding gives grounds to analysis that the latest outbreak of avian influenza may have originated from migratory birds.
Kim Jae-hong, a professor of veterinary medicine at Seoul National University, said that viruses over 99 percent genetically the same are considered the same strain. This substantiates assumptions that migratory birds spread the virus on their way north in March and April after spending the winter in Southeast Asia. Read more
Recombinomics Commentary 21:27
May 14, 2008
The Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry announced Tuesday that the deadly H5N1 bird influenza virus detected in six dead swans in Akita Prefecture and Hokkaido were all of the same type.
it differs from the virus which in the past is verified in the country, presently has become popular in Indonesia and Vietnam. H5N1 detected in 2006/2007 in South Korea and Japan and instead is more closely related to H5N1 in Indonesia (clade 2.1) or Vietnam (clade 2.3 – Fujian strain). Read more
North Asia correspondent Shane McLeod ABC News
In Japan, a US marine has been sentenced to four years jail over a sex abuse case that sparked diplomatic protests. There was uproar in Japan in February when a teenaged girl accused a 38-year-old marine staff sergeant of raping her in a car in Okinawa. The girl later withdrew her accusation, and Japanese police dropped rape charges.
But an investigation by the US military has led to a court martial, which has found the sergeant guilty of “abusive sexual contact”. He has been sentenced to four years jail, with one year suspended as part of a plea bargain. The case led to diplomatic tensions between Japan and the United States.
At the time Japan’s Prime Minister described the incident as “unforgivable”.
Recombinomics Commentary 05:21
May 15, 2008 It differs from the virus which in the past is verified in the country, presently has become popular in Indonesia and Vietnam
The above comments on the H5N1 in whooper swans in Japan indicate clade 2.1 or clade 2.3 has moved into long range migratory birds. Comments from South Korea on similarities between the H5N1 there and H5N1 in Vietnam suggest that H5N1 in both countries is clade 2.3 (Fujian strain). Although movement of H5N1 via migratory birds in eastern Asian is not well defined, an elaborate distribution route in areas west of China has been defined by surveillance and analysis of clade 2.2. Read more
Source: AAP
Japan has again detected bird flu of the virulent H5N1 strain in a swan, in the third case in the country this year. The dead swan was found in the northern-most main island of Hokkaido, the government of Hokkaido said today (May 10). The case was confirmed five days ago. On the same day local authorities said bird flu had been found in another dead swanfound the previous month on another area of the island. The latest case is the third in Japan this year.
In late April several swans were found with the H5N1 strain on the shores of Lake Towada close to the northern tip of the main island of Honshu. The livestock hygiene service centre will issue an order for chicken farms within a 30km radius to disinfect poultry houses, Kyodo news agency said. No human deaths from the disease have been reported in Japan.
Since April, the number of websites has just jumped with writing examples that include “you can die easily and beautifully,” said Seiji Yoshikawa, deputy head of the Internet Hot Line, which reports suspect Internet sites to the police. Japan’s National Police Agency urged Internet providers to delete materials from websites showing readers how to mix household chemicals known to produce the deadly gas hydrogen sulfide. Some sites reportedly provide “poison gas” warnings that viewers can print out and hang outside their doors when they kill themselves.
Japan, with one of the highest suicide rates in the world, has battled a series of suicide fads over the years. Until this year, many cases involved victims who found each other on the Internet and committed suicide together, often by sealing themselves in a car and lighting a charcoal-burning brazier.
Read more
See Video Suicide in Japan
In this 6 minute 2005 video, Adam Yamaguchi looks into the disturbing trend of why so many young people in Japan commit suicide. Japan has roughly half the population of the US, yet the same number of suicides.
TOKYO (AP) — April 25, 2008 — At least four people killed themselves Friday by inhaling fumes from a detergent mixed with other chemicals amid a wave of similar suicides that has reportedly claimed about 50 lives this month in Japan. Authorities are alarmed by the sudden rise in such incidents — an average of two a day were reported in April — because the chemicals are easy to get and the fumes could spread to affect bystanders or rescuers.
Read more
Photo courtesy of Mr. Kris
The New York Sun reports that “major retailers in New York, in areas of New England, and on the West Coast are limiting purchases of flour, rice and cooking oil. In some cases, a 25-pound bag is selling for more than $30″. But the paper’s headline reads: “Food Rationing Confronts Breadbasket of the World”, so you can’t help but wonder how much of their report is sensationalized.
Then I read in theage.com a similar story with the headline: “Japan’s hunger becomes a dire warning for other nations”.
The article reads:
“Japan’s acute butter shortage, which has confounded bakeries, restaurants and now families across the country, is the latest unforeseen result of the global agricultural commodities crisis. A sharp increase in the cost of imported cattle feed and a decline in milk imports, both of which are typically provided in large part by Australia, have prevented dairy farmers from keeping pace with demand. While soaring food prices have triggered rioting among the starving millions of the third world, in wealthy Japan they have forced a pampered population to contemplate the shocking possibility of a long-term — perhaps permanent — reduction in the quality and quantity of its food.”
To add to all this are the frightening headlines about food riots all over the world in places like Mexico, Indonesia, Yemen, the Philippines, Cambodia, Morocco, Senegal, Uzbekistan, Guinea, Mauritania, Egypt, Cameroon, Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Peru, Bolivia and Haiti.
Related articles: The new face of hunger The silent tsunami
