Bank of Japan governor Toshihiko Fukui pledged to work with the government to rebuild a financial system that he said was in a "severe state" because of bad loans and plunging stock prices.
"We would like to work with the government, and as the central bank we will implement steps to stabilize the country's financial system," Fukui said in a speech to the bank's branch managers.
He said the bank would spell out details of a plan to buy corporate debt ``as soon as possible.''
The central bank this month said it might buy asset-backed securities to give companies an alternative source of financing to bank lending, which has fallen for six years as banks struggle to write off bad loans estimated at ¥52.4 trillion (US$438 billion).
Fukui, who was inaugurated on March 20, is looking for new ways to pull Japan out of a 12-year slump. His predecessor, Masaru Hayami, cut interest rates almost to zero in March 2001 and tripled purchases of bonds from banks to Y1.2 trillion a month.
Such steps haven't reversed a five-year drop in consumer prices that has sapped corporate profits and inflated the value of debt. Nor have they kept share prices from plunging. The Nikkei 225 Stock Average fell 28 percent in the fiscal year to March 31, inflicting losses on banks such as Mizuho Financial Group Inc.
Politicians are pressing Fukui to do more. Last week, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's economic panel urged the bank to prop up share prices by financing a private agency that would buy stock. It also asked the bank to buy real-estate investment trusts and exchange-traded funds.
The state of the world's second-largest largest economy is "flat in general," Fukui said. The bank sees "strong uncertainty" about the overseas economy and the effects of the Iraq war.
Financial markets have been stable even after the March 31 fiscal year-end, when banks had to account for losses on investments, because the central bank has taken steps to provide liquidity, he said.
Heads of the central bank's 32 branches nationwide and offices in London, New York and Hong Kong are meeting in Tokyo to report on their regional economies.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats
RSS