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Prime Minister Naoto Kan said Japan is in a “crisis” comparable to the bankruptcy that Japan Airlines Corp. faced a year ago.
Kan spoke after meeting with JAL chairman Kazuo Inamori, whose airline filed for bankruptcy protection on Jan. 19, 2010. The carrier is shrinking overseas routes and cutting aircraft, having eliminated about 14,500 jobs to lower costs. Japan Air had a third-quarter operating profit of 110 billion yen ($1.3 billion), compared with a 96 billion yen loss a year earlier.
“I believe Japan is in an enormous crisis comparable to JAL one year ago,” Kan told reporters today in Tokyo. “We must also change our attitude and renew our determination to reinvigorate the country.” He said Inamori “has accomplished more than I expected” in reviving the airline.
Kan is working to boost an economy threatened by persistent falling prices, a strong yen and the world’s largest public debt. He has called for a national debate on raising the five percent consumption tax to sustain the rising social welfare costs of an aging nation. Economic growth may have contracted last quarter as stimulus measures expired.
Today’s remarks echoed those of former Cabinet member Yoshito Sengoku, who earlier this month said Japan’s fiscal situation is “approaching the edge of a cliff.”
Kan also met today with Bank of Japan Governor Masaaki Shirakawa. The two men discussed economic, financial and fiscal matters, Kan said.
Japan’s public debt is set to exceed twice the size of the economy this year and reach 210 percent of gross domestic product in 2012, both estimates the highest among countries tracked by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, according to the group’s forecasts.
Kan spoke after meeting with JAL chairman Kazuo Inamori, whose airline filed for bankruptcy protection on Jan. 19, 2010. The carrier is shrinking overseas routes and cutting aircraft, having eliminated about 14,500 jobs to lower costs. Japan Air had a third-quarter operating profit of 110 billion yen ($1.3 billion), compared with a 96 billion yen loss a year earlier.
“I believe Japan is in an enormous crisis comparable to JAL one year ago,” Kan told reporters today in Tokyo. “We must also change our attitude and renew our determination to reinvigorate the country.” He said Inamori “has accomplished more than I expected” in reviving the airline.
Kan is working to boost an economy threatened by persistent falling prices, a strong yen and the world’s largest public debt. He has called for a national debate on raising the five percent consumption tax to sustain the rising social welfare costs of an aging nation. Economic growth may have contracted last quarter as stimulus measures expired.
Today’s remarks echoed those of former Cabinet member Yoshito Sengoku, who earlier this month said Japan’s fiscal situation is “approaching the edge of a cliff.”
Kan also met today with Bank of Japan Governor Masaaki Shirakawa. The two men discussed economic, financial and fiscal matters, Kan said.
Japan’s public debt is set to exceed twice the size of the economy this year and reach 210 percent of gross domestic product in 2012, both estimates the highest among countries tracked by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, according to the group’s forecasts.
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