TMCnet News
Kyodo economic news summary -7-+(Japan Economic Newswire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)TOKYO, March 28_(Kyodo) _ ---------- Accounting firm that certified Livedoor's books to disband in June TOKYO - A Yokohama-based accounting company that audited the earnings results of indicted Internet firm Livedoor Co. is planning to disband in late June, company officials said Tuesday. A growing number of clients that asked Koyo & Co. to audit their financial reports have declined to renew their contracts since it came to light that the company certified Livedoor's earnings report for the business year through September 2004, which prosecutors suspect was fraudulent. ---------- Local gov't gives nod to safety plan for nuclear processing plant AOMORI, Japan - Japan's first plant to extract plutonium and uranium from spent nuclear fuel for reprocessing cleared Tuesday the last hurdle for a test run. Gov. Shingo Mimura of Aomori Prefecture announced that the village of Rokkasho in the prefecture, which hosts the plant, will sign the necessary safety agreement for trial operations with plant operator Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd. ---------- China's foreign reserves become world's largest, paper says BEIJING - China's foreign exchange reserves reached $853.7 billion at the end of February, surpassing Japan's to become the largest in the world, a Chinese business daily reported Tuesday, quoting an unnamed source. The figure reported by the China Business News tops the $850.1 billion recorded for Japan at the end of the same month, announced by the Japanese Finance Ministry. ---------- Prestowitz urges Koizumi to call for 'Plaza Accord II' at G-8 TOKYO - Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi should take the lead at a Group of Eight meeting in calling for a "Plaza Accord II," former U.S. trade negotiator Clyde Prestowitz said Tuesday. "We all need to cooperate on diminishing the role of the dollar in international trade," said Prestowitz, now the president of the Economic Strategy Institute which he founded, at a lecture at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan. ---------- Latent profit doubles on shares held by top 4 Japanese life insurers TOKYO - Unrealized profits on shares held by the top four Japanese life insurance companies are expected to total some 12 trillion yen at the end of fiscal 2005, a twofold increase from a year earlier, according to an estimate based on the barometer Nikkei Stock Average's closing price Tuesday. The steep increase in latent profit is attributable to a rise of more than 40 percent in the Tokyo stock market over the past year thanks to Japan's economic recovery. The 225-issue Nikkei average closed at 16,690.24 Tuesday. |