Today, Japan's new prime minister made his inaugural policy speech in parliament. From Bloomberg:
Shinzo Abe, Japan's new prime minister, said he will balance the country's budget in five years, cut spending to reduce the world's largest national debt and improve relations with China and South Korea.
The day was also marked by some good news on the Japanese economy. From AFP/CNA:
Japan's jobless rate held steady at 4.1 percent last month, just above May's trough of 4.0 percent, which was the lowest since April 1998, figures from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said...
Meanwhile Japan's plants and factories boosted output in August for the first time in two months, lifting industrial output by 1.9 percent from July, the trade and industry ministry said.
Year-on-year, output was up six percent.
And core consumer prices rose by 0.3 percent in August from a year earlier as deflation finally fades.
Including volatile prices of fresh food prices were up 0.9 percent year-on-year, the government reported...
On a less upbeat note, however, spending by households in August dropped 4.3 percent from a year earlier after stripping out the effect of inflation, down for an eighth straight month.
The strength in industrial production was corroborated by the NTC Research/Nomura/JMMA Purchasing Managers Index, which rose to 54.8 from 54.6 a month earlier, according to a Reuters report.
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