Tokyo, 17 January, /AJMEDIA/
New BOJ chief pick likely to be submitted to parliament in Feb.
TOKYO – The government is considering submitting to parliament an appointment plan for the next Bank of Japan governor, likely on Feb. 10, ruling party sources said Tuesday.
The current term of Governor Haruhiko Kuroda, who took the helm at the central bank in 2013, ends in April. The government will also seek approval for new deputy governors, whose appointments will likely be submitted at the same time, the sources said.
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Kobe marks 28 years since deadly quake with pre-pandemic-scale event
KOBE – The western Japan city of Kobe on Tuesday marked the 28th anniversary of the magnitude 7.3 earthquake that took 6,434 lives, with its first ceremony in three years at a pre-pandemic scale.
Residents and victims’ families observed a moment of silence at 5:46 a.m., the same time the Great Hanshin Earthquake struck the port city in Hyogo Prefecture and neighboring areas on Jan. 17, 1995.
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China’s population shrinks for 1st time in over 60 yrs
BEIJING – The population of mainland China shrank for the first time in 61 years, government data showed Tuesday, with the East Asian nation estimated to have already been overtaken by India as the world’s most populous nation amid a continued fall in the birthrate and a rapidly aging society.
The population of China, excluding Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao, reached 1,411.75 million by the end of 2022, down 850,000 from the previous year, the government said. The figure compares with India’s population of 1,412 million in 2022, estimated by the United Nations.
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China’s GDP grows 3.0% in 2022, stifled under “zero-COVID” policy
BEIJING – China’s economy in 2022 expanded 3.0 percent from a year earlier, with the pace being one of the slowest in several decades, due to the nation’s stringent “zero-COVID” policy and a subsequent explosion of infections later in the year, government data showed Tuesday.
The world’s second-largest economy decelerated significantly from an 8.4 percent expansion in 2021 and failed to achieve its growth target of around 5.5 percent for 2022. In 2020, China saw its gross domestic product increase only 2.2 percent amid the initial shock of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Renault in final-stage talks to lower stake in Nissan to 15%
TOKYO – Renault SA is in the final-stage of talks with Nissan Motor Co. to lower its stake in its Japanese partner to 15 percent from the current 43 percent, sources close to the matter said Tuesday, in a major overhaul of their decades-old capital alliance.
Renault Chief Executive Officer Luca de Meo plans to meet with Nissan CEO Makoto Uchida in Japan as early as Jan. 26, aiming to reach an agreement on the review of their capital alliance dating back to 1999, the sources said.
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Top U.S. diplomat to visit China in early February: report
WASHINGTON – U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit China on Feb. 5-6 and meet with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang in Beijing, U.S. political news website Politico reported Monday.
The upcoming trip by the top U.S. diplomat is a follow-up to summit talks between U.S. President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Indonesia in November.
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LDP lawmakers to set up group to promote Japan’s defense exports
TOKYO – Some lawmakers of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party will set up a group to help accelerate the Japanese government’s efforts to expand defense-related exports, a source close to the matter said, despite reluctance shown by its coalition partner.
The group, to be launched as early as this month, will advocate a review of “three principles,” the nation’s strict guidelines on the overseas transfer of defense equipment and technology under its postwar pacifist Constitution, the source said.
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Japan used car registrations in 2022 hit new record low
TOKYO – Used car registrations in Japan in 2022 hit a record low for the second consecutive year, down by 6.3 percent from the previous year at 3,495,305 units, data from the Japan Automobile Dealers Association showed Tuesday.
Registrations have been on the decline for three years running due to an ongoing semiconductor shortage leading to less production of new units, impacting the number of vehicles that enter the secondhand market through consumer tradeoffs and other means.
