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REAL-TIME INTEL ON WHAT
MOVES MARKETS

1 DAY AGO

US military must be
‘psyched’ for war
with North Korea:
Marine commander
'Very kinetic, physical,
violent fight'

1 DAY AGO

China’s economic
‘mastermind’ Liu He
set to get promotion:
report Bank of Japan (BoJ) Governor Haruhiko Kuroda is pictured at the bank's headquarters in Tokyo on April 27,
Xi Jinping’s trusted advisor 2017. Photo: Reuters / Kim Kyung-Hoon
said to be tapped as vice
premier overseeing the
economy NORTHEAST ASIA ECONOMY

1 DAY AGO

Abenomics reboot required.

Japan and France
plan joint naval
exercises in ‘show of
strength’ against
China: Sources Who you gonna call? Kuroda
Tokyo seeks new military
ties
Bank governor is well-equipped to drive the structural reforms required to
MORE  reignite Japan Inc.’s confidence. Shinzo Abe should promote him

By WILLIAM PESEK | JANUARY 14, 2018 11:26 AM (UTC+8)

The daily       2  31
Report

T
Must-reads from okyo markets are obsessing over whether Bank of Japan
across Asia -
Governor Haruhiko Kuroda will get a second term come April.
directly to your
inbox Why not promote him instead?

Your Email here The BoJ, let’s face it, has done what it can to defeat deflation. Sure, we
may see policymakers tweaking the basket of bonds they buy in 2018.
SUBMIT Expect some modest tapering, at most. But given the dearth of
inflation or wage gains, a computer program could do Kuroda’s job into
2019.

CHINA DIGEST
 ECONOMICS AND POLICY FROM
CHINA'S NEWSPAPERS
Must-reads from across Asia - directly to your
The daily inbox
2 DAYS AGO Report
Your Email here SUBMIT
Didi Chuxing eyes
future of smart traffic
Ride-hailing giant plans to
launch an advanced online
traffic decision-making Kuroda’s talents are being underutilized at a moment when Abenomics
system which will process
real-time data
needs some serious brainstorming. Abe should elevate Kuroda to
finance minister or a newly created role as economic-retooling czar.
2 DAYS AGO Yes, Japan already has three men on the case, but one is, frankly, less
Experts give blessing inspiring than the next.
to 600 km/h maglev
train project
Transport system completes Finance chief Taro Aso is better known for dozing off in meetings than
expert review, moves into
bold ideas. And who, with all due respect, could name Japan’s two
construction design stage
with target testing date of other economic bigwigs? (For the record, they are Hiroshige Seko or
2020
Toshimitsu Motegi).

2 DAYS AGO

China tightens rules Kuroda’s background makes him a better fit to plot, prioritize and
for outbound accelerate moves to loosen labor markets, catalyze a startup boom,
investment
tweak taxes, deregulate industry and buttress Japan Inc.’s confidence
Companies must report fully
before setting up foreign to share surging profits with workers.
subsidiaries, setting stage
for launch of upcoming
Overseas Investment
Regulations
After a lengthy and active stint at the Ministry of Finance, working on
international issues, Kuroda moved to Manila to run the Asian
MORE 
Development Bank. With its 67-member countries around the globe
and 3,000 employees, the ADB’s mission is to spread the benefits of
rapid Asian growth. From 2005 to 2013, Kuroda traveled constantly,
THE BRIEF gathering intelligence on how to get more mileage out of reform and
stimulus.
MAIN LATEST

Those years in the trenches using limited resources to overcome

28-01-2018 09:40
market inefficiencies and attack inequality left the 73-year-old with a
US blinks under Turkish
pressure in Syria (M.K. unique skill set by Tokyo standards.
Bhadrakumar)

Kuroda has spent the last 1,759 days back in Tokyo and on the
27-01-2018 15:30

Cambodians offered
chance to challenge US
deportation (Asia Times
And Agencies)
frontlines of an epic deflation battle. Despite massive easing beyond
anything (as a ratio of gross domestic product) seen from the Federal
Reserve or European Central Bank, inflation is a long way from 2%.

27-01-2018 14:21
Volcanic eruption in
Philippines may last for
months (Asia Times Staff
And Agencies)
27-01-2018 11:03
The reason, as Kuroda knows better than anyone at this point, is a
focus on the symptoms of Japan’s two-decades-long malaise, not the
underlying cause. The malady is this: low confidence that living
standards in an aging nation will be higher five years from now amid
rampant global competition.

Vladimir Putin has good

reason to fear the Abenomics has thrown trillions of
consequences of public
dollars at the problem, sending
anger inflamed by the
mistreatment of those equities soaring. It failed to upend a
model that thrived in 1985, but which
serving in Russia's armed
forces. (Jennifer Mathers)
27-01-2018 10:48
The Iceman Cometh – in the
shape of ‘Yuzu’ (Gordon
Watts)
27-01-2018 10:29
The malady is this: low
confidence that living
standards in an aging nation
will be higher five years
from now amid rampant
global competition
feeds complacency 33 years later.
Tokyo’s weak yen policy, the BoJ’s
largesse and modest corporate
governance tweaks have the Nikkei
225 at its highest levels since the early
1990s. It’s not trickling down, though.

Turkey plays its latest card In fact, inequality is widening even as

in the New Great Game
(Pepe Escobar)
the economy has its longest run of
growth since the mid-90s.
27-01-2018 09:37

Opinion: Unrest in Iran will Large stockholders and landowners are thriving, while average
continue until religious rule
ends. (Haidar Khezri) workers are largely walking in place. And Japan’s growth, remember, is
largely a product of a buoyant external sector (exports jumped 16.2% in
27-01-2018 08:55 November alone), not domestic demand.
Celebrated authors Jung
Chang and Lijia Zhang see
China from dramatically Things are playing out exactly as Kuroda’s BOJ predecessor, Masaaki
different perspectives based
Shirakawa, warned. In 2013, before Kuroda got to work, Shirakawa said
on their divergent
backgrounds and vantage ultra-low monetary policy would make little difference as the
points (Muhammad population shrinks and Japan falls behind competitively in Asia.
Cohen)
Japan’s problem, he cautioned, isn’t the level of the money supply, but
27-01-2018 08:28
the uses for the yen which the BoJ creates.
Italy will hold elections in
March – voters deciding who
rules in Rome, which in the
Abe could keep Kuroda at the BoJ keyboard, hitting “ENTER” every few
Western mind has for days to sustain liquidity. Or, the prime minister could empower
centuries represented the
Kuroda to lead a structural-upgrade revolution. What, let’s be honest,
ultimate threshold, the
ultimate shrine (Pepe has Abe done with his big October election win? Other than talk of
Escobar) cheaper health care and education, and helping Hitachi sell nuclear
power plants abroad, not much.
26-01-2018 16:53

Malaysia advances "durian

diplomacy" to supply a Abe’s focus is on revising the pacifist Constitution and beefing up
bigger share of spiking
Chinese demand for the
military readiness, not on an Abenomics reboot. With one staffing
pungent fruit. (Nile Bowie) change, he could alter the narrative – and put some real foundations
under a Nikkei racing ahead of wage gains. Why not give Kuroda a call?
26-01-2018 15:50

Opinion // Investor standoff

sullies Nazarbayev’s
international splash (Gary
Kleiman)    
26-01-2018 15:48
#NORTHEAST ASIA #ECONOMY #JAPAN #HARUHIKO KURODA #BANK OF JAPAN
Wang seems to have lost his
Wanda-lust (Gordon Watts) #ABENOMICS #SHINZO ABE #TARO ASO #MASAAKI SHIRAKAWA #DEFLATION

26-01-2018 15:03

Opinion // Gwadar gearing

up for first trade expo under
BRI (Sabena Siddiqui)

26-01-2018 14:36
Comments
Malaysian couple who
‘starved maid to death’ get
10 years jail (Asia Times
Staff) 2 Comments Sort by Oldest

26-01-2018 14:26

Sahrawi Arab Democratic Add a comment...

Republic bids to stop New
Zealand from importing
fertilizers from territory it Virgens VK
contests with Morocco in
"Kuroda’s background makes him a better fit to plot, prioritize and accelerate moves
Western Sahara Africa. (John
to loosen labor markets, catalyze a startup boom, tweak taxes, deregulate industry
McBeth)
and buttress Japan Inc.’s confidence to share surging profits with workers."

26-01-2018 13:26
Opinion // Canada’s TPP
‘victory’ less glorious than
Trudeau govt claims (Danny
Lam)
This is the problem: either you "prioritize and accelerate moves to loosen labor
markets, catalyze a startup boom, tweak taxes, deregulate industry" or you "buttress
Japan Inc.’s confidence to share surging profits with workers" -- you can't do both, as
both are excludent.
Like · Reply · 1w

26-01-2018 12:35
At Davos and an ASEAN-
India summit, the prime
minister put New Delhi's
economic diplomacy back in
the front seat. (M.K.
Bhadrakumar)
26-01-2018 10:47
Branka Alhamdy
Do these writers ever re-read their articles to check for basic logic thread, or just use
big words that they do not understand. Japan is rebooting -- again? Put more hope
in "loosening markets" or other "reforms" that are brining nothing new. Deflation IS
the key to rich getting richer, while population starves. Noboy will share their loot with
others, that is human nature. When any system is tilted beyond repair in favor of
some interts, those interests think that it is all due to their smarts and provesse. They
cannot acknowledge that it is due to the system allowing them plunde... See More
Like · Reply · 1w

Dozens killed in hospital Facebook Comments Plugin

blaze in South Korea
(Andrew Salmon)

26-01-2018 10:18

High hopes among backers

of 'Ice-Silk Road' east from
Scandinavia. (Doug
Tsuruoka Editor At Large)

26-01-2018 06:49

Didi Chuxing has big plans

for smart traffic in China's
cities (Asia Times Staff)

26-01-2018 05:59

China to build 600 km/h

maglev train by 2020 (Asia
Times Staff)

26-01-2018 05:25

China issues strict order on

all overseas investments
(Asia Times Staff)

25-01-2018 19:56

US not aiming to start a

trade war with China: analyst
(Asia Times Staff)

25-01-2018 18:48

Pakistan's Chief Justice

Saqib Nisar had to hastily
backtrack after comparing
the length of a speech to a
woman’s skirt (Kunwar
Khuldune Shahid)
25-01-2018 18:47

Russia to spend US$235

million on upgrading Far
East airports. (Asia Times
Staff)

25-01-2018 17:54

China’s monkey business

starts a cloning controversy
(Gordon Watts)

25-01-2018 17:31

PLA chiefs from UN

missions, South China Sea
promoted (Asia Times
Staff)

25-01-2018 16:54

Three questions about

Japan’s bet on casinos.
(William Pesek)

25-01-2018 16:54

China says it has never been

safer, but not all agree (Asia
Times Staff)

25-01-2018 16:52

US Defense Secretary Jim

Mattis visits Indonesia and
Vietnam, two potential key
allies in new defense policy
that views China as a
'strategic competitor.'
(Richard Javad Heydarian)

MORE 