Japan

Japan's new finance minister upped the ante in the country's war of words against the strong yen, lashing out at the U.S. and Europe for letting their currencies weaken dramatically and calling on the U.S. to strengthen the dollar, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. The tirade from Taro Aso, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's point person on currency strategy, underscores the increasingly pugnacious stance of the fledgling Abe government against what it sees as a global trend of currency devaluations.

Japan’s new finance minister, Taro Aso, sought yesterday to quell concern about the country's weak finances, saying that the government would not rely solely on debt to fund economic stimulus and would try to limit new debt issuance during the next fiscal year, Reuters reported yesterday. The government will compile spending requests for a stimulus package on January 7 and finalize the proposal shortly thereafter as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe tries to speed enactment of his agenda of increased public works spending to lift the economy.

Japan has unleashed a new barrage of stimulus at its stagnant economy as debate over how to revive growth heats up ahead of a general election, The Australian reported on an AAP story. The stimulus package announced by the cabinet on Friday totals Y880.3 billion ($A10.34 billion). It is earmarked mainly for spending on social programs, employment creation and support for small and medium-size enterprises. The economy shrank 3.5 per cent in July-September, and many economists say they expect a further contraction in the current quarter.

The front-runner to become Japan's next prime minister said that he would consider loosening some of the nation's fiscal-discipline policies, in defiance of warnings by credit raters to curb borrowing by the heavily indebted government, suggesting instead more spending to help jump-start growth, the Wall Street Journal reported today. "First, we will concentrate our policy tools to curb deflation," opposition leader Shinzo Abe said yesterday.

Sharp Corp. may turn to the last resort of Japanese companies facing potential bankruptcy -- the government, Bloomberg reported. With 200 billion yen ($2.5 billion) of convertible bonds maturing in 2013, Sharp may have to ask the state Enterprise Turnaround Initiative Corp. or Innovation Network Corp. of Japan for money, said Fumiaki Sato, co-founder of Sangyo Sosei Advisory Inc., a turnaround advisory firm in Tokyo. Sharp has failed to win a planned 67 billion-yen equity investment from billionaire Terry Gou’s Foxconn Technology Group.

Micron Technology's plan to acquire Japanese memory chipmaker Elpida took a big step toward completion after a Tokyo court approved the agreement and dismissed a rival plan promoted by a group of bondholders, Reuters reported. A district court in Tokyo said on Wednesday it was referring bankrupt Elpida's plan to be bought by U.S. chipmaker Micron to creditors for approval, according to a news release on Elpida's website.

A U.S. judge told Japanese chipmaker Elpida Memory Inc he was "troubled" by the firm's inadequate efforts to keep creditors informed about its bankruptcy process, and warned he may upend its proposed sale to U.S. rival Micron Technology Inc. Elpida's main bankruptcy proceeding is being handled by a district court in Tokyo, but Christopher Sontchi, the Delaware Bankruptcy Court judge overseeing Elpida's parallel U.S. case, said the company was taking a risk by not keeping creditors better informed.

The Bank of Japan's policy board, under growing political pressure, is expected to consider fresh easing measures at its coming meeting after concluding that its goal of reaching a 1% rise in prices is more than two years away, according to people familiar with the bank's thinking, The Wall Street Journal reported. The BOJ is due to release its initial forecast for the fiscal year beginning April 2014 at the Oct. 30 meeting in its semiannual outlook report on the economy and prices.

Japan’s government plans to tap discretionary budget funds to counter an economic slowdown as a legislative stalemate threatens to leave the Noda administration without cash as soon as next month, Bloomberg reported. Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda yesterday ordered his Cabinet to draw up economic stimulus measures by November, Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura said. With Finance Minister Koriki Jojima telling reporters that the idea of a supplementary budget would be considered later, the government can use around 1.3 trillion yen ($17 billion) in reserves from this year’s budget.

Banks bailing out money-losing Sharp Corp. to the tune of $4.6 billion may increase their management oversight of the Japanese television maker to support its return to profit, Bloomberg reported. Mizuho Corporate Bank Ltd. and Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd. plan to send executives to Sharp, the Asahi newspaper reported yesterday. The lenders, based in Tokyo, are selecting the executives and plan to discuss the matter with the company, the newspaper reported, without saying how it obtained the information.