Japan Leader Vows to Stabilize Economy

Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto made a New Year’s pledge to put the country’s faltering economy back on track, stabilize its financial system and prevent Japan from triggering a global economic crisis. In a New Year’s address to the nation, Hashimoto urged the nation’s 123 million people not to worry about the future of Japan’s economy. Hashimoto said Japan’s financial system has lost confidence at home and abroad following a string of failures last year among the nation’s financial institutions, including Yamaichi Securities Co., one of the country’s biggest brokerages. He said Japan’s economy would not falter because the nation was armed with $9.23 trillion in private financial assets, $800 billion in net foreign assets, and the world’s largest foreign reserves, totaling more than $200 billion. “Therefore, you need not worry at all. . . . I don’t agree to pessimistic arguments that there is no future for Japan,” he said. “Japan will never cause [global] economic and financial crises.” He said he would press ahead with a package of economic and financial measures, including a one-time income-tax cut of $15.3 billion and the use of public funds worth $230 billion to stabilize the financial system.