http://themancommon.blogspot.com/2009/02/economic-slump-deepens-in-japan-as.html
By Peter Symonds
Go To Original
The collapse of Japanese exports last month underscores how rapidly economic recession is turning into a full-blown depression—and not just in Japan.
The Japanese trade figures for January, released yesterday, registered a 45.7 percent fall in exports year-on-year and a 31.7 percent drop in imports—the largest declines since 1957. The plunge in exports was the fourth monthly decline in a row and followed a fall of 35 percent in December.
Japan also recorded a trade deficit of 952.6 billion yen ($US9.9 billion)—the worst since records began in 1979. The trade statistics come on top of growth figures released last week, which showed that the Japanese economy shrank by 12.7 percent on an annualised basis in the December quarter.
The trade figures provoked alarm in the international financial press. In a comment entitled "Depression in the east points the way for the rest of the world," Guardian economics editor Larry Elliott said that while Japan had been in and out of recession over the past two decades, "make no mistake, this drop in exports does not mean recession: it means depression".
The London-based Times concluded that Japan had become the "canary in the mine", a highly sensitive barometer of the global recession, adding that "the January figures showed that the crisis has dramatically extended its geographic reach".
The Japanese economy is heavily dependent on exports, not only of sophisticated consumer goods to the US and Europe, but also of capital goods, machine tools and hi-tech materials to Asia, particularly China. The economic slump in the US and Europe has rebounded directly on Japanese exports of cars and electronic goods, and indirectly through the collapse in demand for cheap consumer goods from China and other Asian countries.
Japan's exports to the US fell nearly 53 percent in January, year on year, and to the European Union (EU) by 47 percent. The plunge in car exports, which account for about a fifth of total exports, was the most spectacular. Overall auto shipments crashed by 69 percent with exports to the US down by 81 percent and to Europe by almost 70 percent. Demand for electronics and other consumer goods also slumped.
When the international financial crisis erupted in the US last year, Japan was regarded as well placed to weather the storm. However, as the turmoil began to affect consumer spending in the US and Europe, the export-dependent economies of Asia have been badly hit. In Japan, job losses and unemployment are mounting, along with corporate failures. On Monday, SFCG, a lender to small firms, filed for bankruptcy in what was the largest of 10 listed company collapses so far this year.
Japan's financial and banking system, previously thought to be largely immune to the global financial instability, has been undermined by falling share prices. The Nikkei share index is down by nearly a fifth since the beginning of the year. As a result the major Japanese banks, which are permitted to include share holdings in their capital base, are in an increasingly shaky position. The government is contemplating a plan to spend 25 trillion yen of public money to prop up the Tokyo share market.
Significantly, Japan's exports to Asia shrank by 47 percent. Japanese manufacturers have increasingly used Asian countries as cheap labour assembly platforms for the world market. But as global demand has shrunk for their products, exports from Japan to these countries have also fallen. This was reflected in Japan's export figures, including a 53 percent fall for semi-conductors and a 52 percent drop for car parts.
The plummetting Japanese trade figures are a sign of shrinking exports, declining manufacturing and recession across the region.
The latest economic data from Taiwan showed that the economy shrank by 8.36 percent, year on year, in the last quarter of 2008. The contraction was the second in a row, indicating that Taiwan is also formally in recession. The most recent trade statistics showed a 44 percent plunge in exports, year on year. Officials have revised their 2009 forecast from growth of more than 2 percent to a contraction of nearly 3 percent, with exports expected to fall by one fifth.
Figures released in Thailand on Monday recorded a 4.3 percent economic contraction, year on year, or 6.1 percent seasonally adjusted, in the December quarter of 2008. The country's National Economic and Social Development Board downgraded its growth forecast for 2009 from a 3-4 percent range to between zero and negative 1 percent. Last week the government announced that exports had dropped in January by 25.6 percent, year on year, led by electronics, electrical consumer goods, vehicles and plastic products.
In South Korea, exports fell by 32.8 percent in January, year on year, and factory output plunged by an unprecedented 18.6 percent in December. The economy is in recession and the finance minister is predicting a contraction of 2 percent for 2009. Last month, Samsung Electronics, the world's largest maker of memory chips, liquid-crystal displays and televisions, reported its first-ever quarterly loss. Overall, 103,000 jobs were destroyed in January—the highest monthly toll in five years.
Singapore is already in recession, having recorded two successive quarters of negative growth. Government officials have predicted a contraction this year of between 2-5 percent, its worst since 2001, when the economy contracted 2.4 percent. Non-oil exports shrank by 35 percent in January, year on year, the worst result since records began 30 years ago.
In Malaysia, analysts are forecasting a sharp reversal in economic growth. In the second quarter of 2008, the growth figure was 6.7 percent. Now forecasts point to only marginally positive growth for the December quarter of 2008 and a contraction of 0.5 percent or worse for 2009 as a whole. The latest monthly trade figures showed a 15 percent decline in exports.
In the case of Hong Kong, a Bloomberg survey of eight economists estimated that the economy shrank by a seasonally adjusted 2.1 percent in the final quarter of 2008. This followed negative growth of 0.5 percent in the third quarter. The latest trade figures show a decline of 11 percent in exports. Hong Kong has also been hit by the global financial turmoil, which has sent shares plunging by more than 50 percent since their high point last year.
Not all economies are experiencing negative growth—Indonesia and the Philippines grew by about 4 percent in the December quarter. While its economy is slowing from more than 7 percent, India is still predicted to grow by 5.5 percent this year. But the exceptions only prove the rule. All three economies have significant domestic markets and are less affected by falling exports.
All eyes are on China, which has functioned as a key economic motor for the region over the past decade. Raw materials and parts have increasingly been drawn into the world's preeminent cheap labour platform from across the Asia-Pacific region. Now, however, China's exports and growth rates are falling sharply—from 13 percent in 2007 to 9 percent last year. The figure for the final quarter for 2008 was just 6.8 percent, on an annualised basis, and predictions for 2009 are even lower.
In the case of Japan, the export of capital goods and hi-tech components to China has been a major source of growth since 2000. In another sign of the slowing Chinese economy, Japan's trade deficit with China shot up by 61 percent to 562.7 billion yen last month.
The rapid economic decline across the region has led the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to revise its estimated jobless figures. The ILO predicted that the number of unemployed would rise by as much as 23.3 million in 2009—three times higher than the 7.2 million forecast just one month before. Sachiko Yamamoto, ILO regional director, told a gathering of government, business and union leaders in Manila this month: "Asia-Pacific is not the epicentre of the current crisis. However, the speed and magnitude of the downturn has been astounding in this region."
The political implications are already giving rise to instability, not least in Japan where Prime Minister Taro Aso's approval rating has slipped below 10 percent and the ruling Liberal Democratic Party faces electoral defeat this year. The Financial Times sounded a warning in its Lex Column today about the region-wide consequences. "The last time financial crisis collided with political dissatisfaction was more than a decade ago. Then, economic pain morphed into mass protests. The odds of social unrest staging a reappearance no longer look so remote."
Posted by themancommon at 3:45 PM
Monday, March 2, 2009
Economic slump deepens in Japan as exports collapse
Amnesty International USA" -Ma Khin Khin Leh Freed
Burmese political prisoner released thanks to you!
Dear Phone ,
We are happy to share the news that Ma Khin Khin Leh was released from prison on Saturday, February 21. Her release follows an announcement by the Myanmar government that it would release 24 political prisoners. We celebrate their release, but remember that many more political prisoners remain jailed in Myanmar.
Ma Khin Khin Leh's case was a focus of our Global Write-a-thon last December. Over 7,000 of you wrote letters to the Burmese government on her behalf. Your letters truly make a difference for the lives of individuals around the world.
A school teacher and young mother, Ma Khin Khin Leh, was serving a life sentence simply because she and her husband tried to organize a peaceful demonstration. Days before the demonstration was to take place, authorities moved to prevent it. Security agents arrested Ma Khin Khin Leh and the couple's three-year-old daughter. Although her daughter was released after spending five days in detention, Ma Khin Khin Leh was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1999 under vaguely-worded security legislation.
We thank all those who campaigned for Ma Khin Khin Leh's release, and remind you that we continue to call for the immediate and unconditional release of Aung San Suu Kyi and all other prisoners of conscience in Myanmar.
Burmese regime blocked international aid to cyclone victims, report says
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/feb/27/regime-blocked-aid-to-burma-cyclone-victims
• First independent research into disaster details host of abuses
• Study urges junta be referred to international criminal court
Ian MacKinnon, South-east Asia correspondent guardian.co.uk, Friday 27 February 2009 12.43 GMT Article history
Burmese people beg for food in the rain as aid begins to arrive following cyclone Nargis. Photograph: Getty Images
International aid for cyclone victims in Burma was deliberately blocked by the military regime, the first independent report into the disaster has found.
The junta's wilful disregard for the welfare of the 3.4 million survivors of cyclone Nargis – which struck the Irrawaddy delta last May, killing 140,000 people – and a host of other abuses detailed by the research may amount to crimes against humanity under international law.
The teams of Burmese volunteers and experts from a US university that conducted the research urged the UN security council to refer the regime to the international criminal court.
The report After the Storm: Voices from the Delta outlined how the Burmese authorities failed to provide adequate food, shelter or water for the survivors.
The storm surge coupled with intense winds swept away homes, fields, livestock and rice stores, leaving little or nothing for survivors.
But the military regime, which was at the time preparing for a national referendum on its plans to hold elections in 2010, insisted it could cope with the disaster despite its scale and shunned most international relief for weeks.
Researchers from Johns Hopkins University in the US and Burmese volunteers from the Emergency Assistance Team (Eat-Burma) spent months interviewing survivors and relief workers about the cyclone's aftermath.
Their study found that the Burmese army obstructed private cyclone relief efforts even among its own concerned citizens, setting up checkpoints and arresting some of those trying to provide help.
Supplies of overseas relief materials that were eventually allowed into Burma were confiscated by the military and sold in markets, the packaging easily identifiable.
"I went to some of the markets run by the military and authorities and saw supplies that had been donated being sold there," a former Burmese soldier who fled to Mae Sot across the border in Thailand told the researchers. "The materials were supposed to go to the victims. I could recognise them in the market."
The researchers were repeatedly told that surviving men, women and even children were used as forced labour on reconstruction projects for the military.
"[The army] did not help us, they threatened us," said one survivor from the town of Labutta. "Everyone in the village was required to work for five days, morning and evening without compensation. Children were required to work too. A boy got injured on his leg and got a fever. After two or three days he was taken to [Rangoon], but after a few days he died."
Professor Chris Beyrer, director of the centre for public health and human rights at Johns Hopkins, said the Burmese regime's response to the disaster violated humanitarian relief norms and legal frameworks for relief efforts.
The systematic abuses may amount to crimes against humanity under international law through the creation of conditions where basic survival needs of people are not met, "intentionally causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health", he said.
burmainfo] 報告書『サイクロン「ナルギス」襲来のその後～イラワジ・デルタからの声』本日発表
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ビルマ市民フォーラム メールマガジン 2009/2/27
People's Forum on Burma
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
ビルマ情報ネットワーク（BurmaInfo）からのメールを転送させていただき
ます。
（重複の際は何卒ご容赦ください。）
ＰＦＢ事務局
http://www1.jca.apc.org/pfb/
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
報告書『サイクロン「ナルギス」襲来のその後～イラワジ・デルタからの声』
（原題 "After the Storm: Voices From the Delta") が
本日、発表されました。
ジョンズ・ホプキンズ大学ブルームバーグ公衆衛生大学院付属の
公衆衛生・人権センター、そしてビルマ緊急援助チーム（EAT-Burma）との
共同出版です。
昨年5月のサイクロン襲来後、被害が大きかったイラワジ（エーヤワディ）
デルタで調査を行った結果、食糧や水、住居といった基礎的なニーズが
まだ満たされていないことのほか、ビルマ当局による救援物資の横流しや
横領、転売、また強制移住などの被災者に対する人権侵害の様子が
詳細に述べられています。
報告書はまた、被災地域で起きた人権侵害の調査を、国連安保理が
国際刑事裁判所（ICC）に付託するべきだとしています。
プレスリリースを日本語訳しましたのでご覧ください。
ビルマ情報ネットワーク（BurmaInfo）のウェブサイトでもご覧になれます。
http://www.burmainfo.org/relief/AfterTheStorm-PR-20090227.html
プレスリリース原文（英語、PDF）はこちら
http://www.maetaoclinic.org/publication/After%20the%20Storm%20Press%20Releas
e.pdf
報告書本文（英語、PDF）はこちら
http://www.maetaoclinic.org/publication/After%20the%20Storm:%20Voices%20from
%20the%20Delta%20(Report).pdf
ビルマ情報ネットワーク （www.burmainfo.org）
秋元由紀
========================================
ジョンズ・ホプキンズ大学ブルームバーグ公衆衛生大学院付属 公衆衛生・人権セン
ター
ビルマ緊急援助チーム（EAT-Burma）
2009年2月27日午前10時解禁（バンコク時間）
サイクロン「ナルギス」襲来後にビルマ軍政が犯した人権侵害について
国際刑事裁判所による調査を求める
========================================
バンコク（2009年2月27日）－
昨年5月にビルマ（ミャンマー）を襲ったサイクロン「ナルギス」による被災地の状
況について、本日、初の独立の報告書が出版された。報告書は、国連安保理が被災地
域で起きた人権侵害の調査を国際刑事裁判所（ICC）に付託するべきだとしている。
サイクロン「ナルギス」はビルマ近代史上最悪の自然災害だった。しかし報告書『サ
イクロン「ナルギス」襲来のその後～イラワジ・デルタからの声』によれば、ビルマ
軍事政権（国家平和発展評議会＝SPDC）は被災者への救援活動を妨害、援助関係者を
逮捕し、正確な情報の収集や発信を厳しく制限した。
被災地で見られた侵害行為は、被災者の生存に必要なニーズに適切に対応できない状
況を作り出すことで「身体または心身の健康に対して故意に重い苦痛を与え」、国際
刑事裁判所に関するローマ規定7条1項（k）に違反している可能性がある――今回の
報告書はこのように指摘している。
ジョンズ・ホプキンズ大学ブルームバーグ公衆衛生大学院付属公衆衛生・人権セン
ターのディレクター、クリス・バイラー教授によれば、報告書の内容はビルマ軍政が
犯したさまざまな侵害行為の証拠となるもので、それらの行為は人道援助に関する国
際基準に違反し、災害救援についての法的枠組みからも外れている。
バイラー教授は「被災地域の人々の話によれば、ビルマ軍政は救援活動を妨害し、支
援物資を盗み、土地を接収し、復旧事業では子どもによるものも含めて強制労働を
使った。しかし報告書はまた、政府の妨害にもかかわらず、隣人を助けようと努力す
るビルマの一般市民の感動的な姿をも収めている」と述べた。
2008年5月に襲来したサイクロン「ナルギス」は14万人近くの犠牲者を出し、数百万
人のビルマ国民に影響を及ぼした。中でも被害が大きかったのは、イラワジ（エーヤ
ワディ）・デルタだった。報告書は、同年6月から11月にかけて、民間の援助関係者
や被災者90人を対象に行った聞き取り調査の結果に基づいている。食糧や水、住居と
いった基礎的なニーズがまだ満たされていないことのほか、ビルマ当局による救援物
資の横流しや横領、転売、また強制移住などの被災者に対する人権侵害の様子が詳細
に述べられている。
報告書はジョンズ・ホプキンズ大学ブルームバーグ公衆衛生大学院付属公衆衛生・人
権センターと、タイ・ビルマ国境に拠点を置き、サイクロン被災地域出身者らで構成
するビルマ緊急援助チーム（EAT-Burma）が共同で出版した。
ビルマ緊急援助チームの代表で、著名な人道活動家として知られるシンシア・マウン
医師は、国際社会に対し、追加支援を行う前にイラワジ・デルタ地域の政治的現実を
よく見てほしいと訴えた。同医師はこう述べる。「持続可能な復旧活動や再建事業を
効果的に行うには、地域ベースの団体が、そのプロセスに制約を受けずに参加できな
ければならない。それなのに、ビルマでは人々が支援をしようとしたり、苦しむ国民
を自分たちの一員として助けようとしただけで投獄されている。これは非人間的なこ
とだ。」
問合せ先:
Center for Public Health and Human Rights, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of
Public Health Chris Beyrer
Tel: +1443 807 0412
cbeyrer@jhsph.edu
Luke Mullany USA
Tel: + 1410 502 2626
lmullany@jhsph.edu
EAT Team -Burma
Dr. Cynthia Maung
Tel: +6689 961 5054
Mahn Mahn
Tel: +6687 943 8750
Bangkok
Tel: +6686 003 2316
hallacy@loxinfo.co.th
出典：Report Calls For Burma's Leaders to be Investigated for Human Rights
Abuses Over Nargis Response, Press Release, February 27, 2009.
（日本語訳 ビルマ情報ネットワーク）
【背景】
ビルマは国際刑事裁判所（ICC）の締約国ではないので、ICCがビルマ軍政や国軍によ
る犯罪について管轄権を持つには、国連安保理がビルマで起きている問題をICCの検
察官に付託することが必要。付託決議が採択されるには理事国15か国中9か国が賛成
し、常任理事国による拒否権の発動もあってはならない。これには前例があり、スー
ダン・ダルフールでの状況をICCの検察官に付託する決議が2005年に採択されてい
る。（ビルマ情報ネットワーク）
『サイクロン「ナルギス」襲来のその後～イラワジ・デルタからの声』
報告書本文（英語、PDF）はこちら
http://www.maetaoclinic.org/publication/After%20the%20Storm:%20Voices%20from
%20the%20Delta%20(Report).pdf
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配布元: BurmaInfo（ビルマ情報ネットワーク）
http://www.burmainfo.org
連絡先: listmaster@burmainfo.org
バックナンバー: http://groups.yahoo.co.jp/group/burmainfo/
※BurmaInfoでは、ビルマ（ミャンマー）に関する最新ニュースやイベント情報、
参考資料を週に数本配信しています。
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