Japan’s new Cabinet yesterday signaled the government would soon unveil comprehensive financial measures to try and erase fears of a recession in the world’s second-largest economy.
Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda named a team filled with heavyweights on Friday, vowing to jump-start the country’s fortunes and in a last-ditch effort to revive his waning public support.
Newly-appointed Finance Minister Bunmei Ibuki said Japan had taken necessary steps, including last month’s ¥74.5 billion (US$692 million) package to help fishermen amid soaring fuel costs.
“But I think we have to take additional measures,” Ibuki told a news program at Japan’s public broadcaster NHK.
OIL PRICES
Trade minister Toshihiro Nikai told the news program that the government “should take a supplementary budget into consideration” to pay for the planned package.
“The impact of oil prices on local economies is extremely big,” Nikai said. “This is the subject the entire government should handle with all its might.”
Japanese media said that the Cabinet would begin full discussions today, aiming to announce the economic measures as early as next month.
They will include steps to tackle rising oil prices and support for small businesses as well as people engaged in fishery, forestry and farm industries, the Nikkei Shimbun said.
On Saturday, Fukuda vowed to fight price hikes, saying: “I will firmly take emergency measures for people who are seriously affected by abnormal oil prices.”
Public support for Fukuda’s government has risen, a poll released yesterday said.
Other surveys indicated that the reshuffle has done little for his popularity.
RATINGS
The approval rating of the prime minister’s new Cabinet recovered to 41.3 percent with disapproval ratings at 47 percent in a survey conducted by the Yomiuri Shimbun immediately after the ministerial changes.
The telephone poll covered 1,745 eligible voters of whom 1,006, or 57.7 percent, gave valid responses, the Yomiuri said.
In a similar survey carried out by the newspaper on July 12 and July 13, the approval rating for Fukuda’s previous Cabinet stood at 26.6 percent and the disapproval rating was 61.3 percent.
But the Asahi Shimbun said in its poll that support for Fukuda’s team remained unchanged at 24 percent from last month, while the disapproval rate declined to 55 percent from 58 percent.
The daily carried out the survey on Friday and Saturday, covering 1,002 eligible voters, of whom 58 percent gave valid responses.
PLUNGE
The popularity of the 72-year-old centrist has plunged since he took over last September as voters have been left feeling worse off than a year ago because of rising global oil and food prices.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
KONG-REY: A woman was killed in a vehicle hit by a tree, while 205 people were injured as the storm moved across the nation and entered the Taiwan Strait Typhoon Kong-rey slammed into Taiwan yesterday as one of the biggest storms to hit the nation in decades, whipping up 10m waves, triggering floods and claiming at least one life. Kong-rey made landfall in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) at 1:40pm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The typhoon — the first in Taiwan’s history to make landfall after mid-October — was moving north-northwest at 21kph when it hit land, CWA data showed. The fast-moving storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 184kph, with gusts of up to 227kph, CWA data showed. It was the same strength as Typhoon Gaemi, which was the most
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