Japan consumer prices log first drop in more than 3 years

TOKYO — Consumer prices in Japan fell for the first time in more than 3 years last month, official data showed Friday, dragged down by the coronavirus pandemic and collapsing oil prices.

Core prices in April, excluding volatile fresh food, slipped 0.2 percent from a year earlier, reversing a rise of 0.4 percent in March, according to the internal affairs ministry.

It was the first drop in 40 months, the ministry said, and larger than a 0.1-percent drop predicted by economists surveyed by Bloomberg.

Month-on-month, prices fell 0.5 percent following a drop of 0.1 percent in March.

"Corona containment evaporated prices pressures," said Capital Economics economist Tom Learmouth.

Japanese inflation will "turn deeply negative over the coming months as services inflation and energy inflation continue to fall sharply," he said in a note.

Energy costs fell sharply year-on-year reflecting lower gasoline and oil products prices, while prices also dropped in the tourism industry hit hard by the outbreak of the new coronavirus.

Hotel fees and foreign travel prices sank while the cost of durable goods edged down as consumers stayed home amid the virus woes. School fees also fell.

Government data on Monday showed Japan had dived into its first recession since 2015 in the first quarter of the year and some economists warned the worst was yet to come.

Even before the virus outbreak, the central Bank of Japan had spent years struggling to achieve a two percent inflation target, as consumer spending remained slack despite the bank's massive credit easing.

The bank is holding an extra policy meeting Friday to discuss funding measures for smaller companies.

But central bank chief Haruhiko Kuroda said last week that he did not expect Japan to be "trapped in a deflationary situation".

"Inflation rates in this fiscal year 2020 will be negative, but in fiscal 2021 and 22 inflation rates will be positive," he said at a Financial Times forum.

Agence France-Presse

Vienna is world's 'most liveable city' for second year: The Economist

VIENNA -- The Austrian capital Vienna has retained its ranking as the world's most liveable city, according to an annual report from the Economist.

Vienna once again came ahead of Melbourne -- which had held the top ranking for 7 years until losing it to Vienna in 2018 -- according to a report by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) released Wednesday.

The top two were followed by Sydney, Osaka and Calgary.

Each year the EIU gives 140 cities scores out of 100 on a range of factors such as living standards, crime, transport infrastructure, access to education and healthcare, as well as political and economic stability.

Vienna -- known for its convenient public transport, refreshing Alpine tap water and varied cultural life -- scored 99.1 points out of 100, as it did last year.

"Western Europe and North America continue to be the most liveable regions in the world," the EIU said in a press release.

Europe claimed eight of the top 20 spots, with cities in Japan, Australia, New Zealand and Canada making up the rest.

However, the City of Light, Paris, dropped 6 places to 25th due to the anti-government "yellow vest" protests -- images of which went around the world.

For the first time, the index noted the effects of climate change on liveability, with New Delhi and Cairo plunging in the rankings to 118th and 125th place respectively due to "poor air quality, undesirable average temperatures and inadequate water provision".

"We expect problems relating to climate change to put increasing pressure on liveability scores in the coming years and for the number of cities affected to grow," Agathe Demarais of the EIU said.

Improvements in liveability that had taken place in emerging markets' cities in recent years -- thanks to greater stability as well as better education and healthcare -- "are under serious threat from an increasingly adverse climate," she said.

London and New York rank 48th and 58th respectively as they continue to struggle under the perceptions of the risk of crime and terrorism and overstretched infrastructure.

The least liveable cities were Karachi, Tripoli, Dhaka, Lagos and, at the very bottom, Damascus.

Vienna also won top place in another survey, the annual quality of living index by human resources consulting firm Mercer, for the 10th time in a row in 2019.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

G20 fist bump

U.S. President Donald Trump (left to right), Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi pose for photos after holding a trilateral meeting during the G20 leaders’ summit in Osaka, Japan, Friday. The summit in Osaka, the first G20 meeting Japan hosted will focus on global economy, trade and investment, innovation, environment and energy, employment, women’s empowerment, development and health.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

110,000 people ordered to evacuate after heavy rain in western Japan

Evacuation orders were issued Thursday for 110,000 people in Japan's Kyoto Prefecture amid an escalating risk of mudslides following heavy rain.

The Japan Meteorological Agency warned of landslides and rising river levels as the heavy rain may continue through Sunday in the Kinki region including Kyoto, Hyogo and Osaka prefectures, part of which is still reeling from a deadly quake in June.

At a construction site in Inagawa, Hyogo Prefecture, a worker died after being washed away in a drainage pipe with two others. He is believed to be a 59-year-old man from Wakayama city. The rain also disrupted traffic and caused landslides in the city of Otsu in Shiga Prefecture and the city of Kobe in Hyogo.

Evacuation orders were also issued for locations in Ibaraki, Osaka Prefecture, an area hit by the magnitude-6.1 quake on June 18.

In the city of Kyoto, a rise in the water level of the Kamo River running through the city's central area led authorities to prohibit people from entering its riverside promenade, known as one of the city's sightseeing spots. A bridge across the Katsura River in Arashiyama, another famous tourist attraction in the city, was also closed due to the same reason.

Multiple express and local trains were canceled and an expressway connecting central and western Japan was partially closed, according to railway and road operators.

The weather agency says heavy rain of up to 70 millimeters per hour is expected through Friday in the Kinki region. In the 24-hour period through 6 a.m. Friday, up to 350 mm of rainfall is forecast for the area.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Japan quake kills 3

Water flows out from cracks in a road damaged by an earthquake in Takatsuki, Osaka prefecture, western Japan, in this photo taken by Kyodo on Monday. Three people were killed and at least 200 people were reported injured after a 6.1 magnitude earthquake hit Osaka on Monday morning.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

'Dental material' found in McDonald's burger in Japan

TOKYO - A Japanese woman has claimed she discovered fragments identified as "dental material" in a McDonald's hamburger, the company said Friday, the latest in a series of food contamination woes for the fast-food giant.

The claim comes two days after McDonald's held a press conference where it acknowledged several foreign objects had been found in its food, including a human tooth in a container of french fries at an outlet in Osaka.

In television footage aired Friday, the unidentified woman told the Asahi network that she found three tiny fragments of what looked like teeth in a burger she bought at a McDonald's in northern Kushiro city in September.

"I took a bite and there was a crunch," the woman said, adding she initially thought it was a piece of sand or stone.

"I can't help thinking that it was (already) in the meat," the customer added, as she showed a picture of the objects.

A third-party examination determined the opaque white fragments were "dental material", according to company spokeswoman Miwa Yamamoto, who added that the substance is commonly used to fill cavities or in other dental work.

McDonald's, however, would not confirm the woman's claim that the fragments were inside her burger.

Yamamoto said the customer was told that there was an "extremely low chance" it could have fallen into raw material given the highly-mechanised process.

None of the employees at the outlet had issues with their teeth at the time, and the customer denied it could have come from her own teeth, Yamamoto said.

On Wednesday, McDonald's acknowledged that a human tooth had been found in fries sold by another outlet last year, while it has also been hit by incidents in which pieces of vinyl were found in chicken nuggets and a tiny piece of hard plastic in a sundae.

Japanese media reports pointed to even more cases of contamination, including a piece of metal in a pancake.

The incidents mark another public relations setback for the firm, which is struggling to recover from the reputational battering it took in the summer when a Chinese supplier was found to be mixing out-of-date meat with fresh produce.

Then, late last year, the company had to airlift an emergency supply of french fries from the US after a chip shortage had resulted in rationing at its 3,000 restaurants across Japan.

Labour disputes on the US West Coast had bunged up the export chain, leaving Japanese firms scrambling to secure fresh supplies.

The difficulties looked set to hit McDonald's bottom line, with the Japanese unit earlier saying it was on track to report a 17 billion yen ($143 million) annual loss for 2014.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Japanese scientists confirm fat-burning protein

OSAKA, Japan - A team of researchers of Japan's Kyoto University has found a protein that helps the body burn fat following an intake of fatty meals, Japanese public broadcaster NHK reported Monday.

The researchers at the Kyoto University's Institute of Chemical Research compared mice with protein called GPR120 with those that do not have the protein, and provided them with high-fat feeds, the report said.

They confirmed that the mice without the protein were heavier than those who had it by an average of 15 percent, and accumulated twice as much fat in their bodies, it said.

The Japanese scientists also analyzed the genetic sequence of about 20,000 people in Europe, including the French and the British, and found that people with mutant GPR120 genes were 1.6 times more likely to be obese.

Based on the result of the research, the Japanese scientists concluded the protein is capable of detecting fat, and also plays a role in prompting the body to burn the fat.

Professor Gozo Tsujimoto, head of the researcher team, was quoted by NHK as saying that the development of drugs that activate the protein will help prevent obesity.

source: interaksyon.com