Japan says October-December revised GDP

JAPAN says growth was flat in the October to December quarter from the previous quarter, revising up a preliminary figure of a 0.1 per cent contraction and signalling an end to recession.

On an annualised basis, GDP grew a revised 0.2 per cent in the quarter, showing the world's third largest economy technically ended its latest recession, according to figures from the Cabinet Office.

Japan's economy had shrunk for two consecutive quarters from April through September as export demand weakened due to financial turmoil in key market Europe, a strong yen and a diplomatic row with China.

The country has seen a mixed bag of economic data lately, with the unemployment rate edging down to 4.2 per cent in January and the struggling economy remaining mired in deflation, while industrial output showed a modest rise of 0.1 per cent in January from the previous month.

However, the yen has weakened in recent months, helping make the nation's exporters more competitive and boosting their latest earnings results.

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Snow kills 8 in Japan

HEAVY snow that fell in northern Japan over the weekend has killed eight people on Hokkaido island, including a family whose car became buried.

Kazuyo Miyashita, 40, her two daughters Misa, 17, and Sayo, 14, and her son Daiki, 11, died at a hospital on Saturday night of carbon-monoxide poisoning after their vehicle was buried in the snow, according to Kyodo news service.

Separately, Haruna Kitagawa, 23, froze to death after leaving her car, stuck in the snow. A 53-year-old man died on Sunday after getting buried in the snow, although his nine-year-old daughter found with him was recovering, Kyodo said.

Also over the weekend, a 54-year-old man and a 76-year-old man were found collapsed in the snow in another part of Hokkaido, and both were confirmed dead, it said.

The storm caused two-metre-high drifts and was blamed for derailing a bullet train in Akita prefecture, south of Hokkaido, on Saturday afternoon. Kyodo said the passenger train was moving slowly because of the heavy snow on the tracks, and the derailment caused no injuries.

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Japan to nominate ADB prez as BoJ chief

THE Japanese government of Shinzo Abe is set to nominate Asian Development Bank president Haruhiko Kuroda as governor of the central bank, reports say, sending the dollar surging against the yen.

The greenback surged past 94 yen in early Asian trade on Monday from 93.37 yen in New York on Friday, with investors confident that there will be fresh aggressive easing steps by Abe's administration to boost the flagging economy.

The cabinet plans to submit his nomination to parliament this week, the Nikkei and other newspapers said. The appointment requires parliamentary approval.

If approved, the 68-year-old former finance ministry bureaucrat will succeed incumbent Bank of Japan (BoJ) governor Masaaki Shirakawa, who is stepping down on March 19, several weeks before the end of his term.

Abe has decided to pick Kuroda "as he backs Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's bold monetary easing policies while maintaining good links with the international financial industry", the Nikkei said.

Abe also plans to pick Tokyo's Gakushuin University economics professor Kikuo Iwata as one of the deputy governors, while BoJ executive-director Hiroshi Nakaso is the leading contender for the other deputy position, Nikkei reported.

Immediate confirmation of the reports was not available.

Abe told a news conference on Friday in Washington that his government would start picking nominees on Monday after concluding his US trip, during which he held talks with President Barack Obama.

Kuroda spent decades as a Japanese finance ministry bureaucrat. He was responsible for international affairs and foreign exchange policy between 1999 and 2003 before assuming the post of ADB president in 2005.

A former vice finance minister for international affairs, he is known as an advocate of aggressive monetary easing to overcome Japan's deflation, a stance in line with Abe's economic policy.

Abe had warned he could change a law guaranteeing the bank's independence if it did not follow his prescription of big spending and aggressive monetary easing to rescue the economy from decades of weak growth and deflation.

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