Aus FT (ex Dear John):

US to help Japan with bad loans

Plans for a joint Japan-US ministerial forum to discuss Japan's bad
loan problem and other economic issues are expected to be unveiled
when Junichiro Koizumi, Japan's new prime minister, visits the US at the
end of this month.

The decision to create the forum came in March during a visit of
Yoshiro Mori, then prime minister, to Washington. Then, US officials
said they were heartened by the unusually clear acknowledgement by
Japanese officials of the extent of the bad loan problem.

<font color="FF0000">US officials have become alarmed by the degree to which new bad loans are emerging in the Japanese economy. </font>

Washington is keen to maintain
pressure on Japan to take effective measures

(welche"effektiven" mögen es wohl sein?)

to tackle its banking
sector woes under the new government of Mr Koizumi.

The move comes amid signs that the Koizumi government is distinctly
divided about how rapidly it should tackle the bad loan problem.
Earlier this year, the former government of Mr Mori announced a limited
package of measures to tackle the bad loan woes, such as forcing the
big banks <font color="FF0000">to write off Y12,700bn (Pounds 74bn)</font>

Das sind nicht Peanuts! (Bilanzielles EK der Deutschen Bank = 27,5 Mrd. € - die 74 bn Pounds = ca. 170 Mrd. €!)

of bad loans over the
next two years. However, banking analysts fear the measures are
inadequate to resolve the problem and claim that the Financial Services
Agency (FSA), the main banking watchdog, is underestimating the scale
of the problem.

Another initiative which may also spur more action
on the bad loans will be
the release of a key policy paper from Mr Takenaka
tomorrow, which will
call for faster action on bad loans and greater
transparency in measuring
them.

Man sollte wenigstens erst Mal die Zahlen kennen, um die es wirklich geht...

Gruß

d.


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