This just in....Japan to give IMF $50 billion...

[Aqua2213]

Japan planning to give IMF $50 bil to ease Europe's debt crisis

Feb. 24, 2012 - 06:45AM JST
TOKYO —

Japan said Thursday it may provide up to $50 billion to the International Monetary Fund to help fight Europe’s debt crisis, but the exact figure is yet to be decided.
“Japan is studying the specific figure it will provide to the IMF but it won’t be possible for us to reach agreement by the time the finance minister attends the G20 meeting this weekend,” said a finance ministry official.
The IMF—which along with the European Central Bank and EU makes up the “troika” of bailout contributors—said in January it was seeking to increase its lending capacity by up to $500 billion to confront the debt crisis.
IMF chief Christine Lagarde and her top staff have been polling G20 leaders to see if they will contribute, but the United States has already said it has no plans to provide more cash.
Japan’s finance minister Jun Azumi said this week the G20 is not yet ready to agree on providing more funds to the IMF, while China and Japan—two of the fund’s biggest contributors—share the view that “there may still be some room for Europe to make efforts” to deal with its debt crisis.
Azumi said this weekend’s meeting with his G20 counterparts in Mexico City would give them a chance to “examine progress in the European situation”.
Japan said it expects to pay for the latest contribution by using a refund from the $100 billion it gave to the IMF in 2009 to fight the financial crisis.

http://www.japantoday.com/category/...-imf-up-to-50-bil-to-ease-europes-debt-crisis

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Ummm..isn't Japan in debt itself and struggling to get in the black?
There should be a peoples vote to see if the majority would be cool with that idea.
It's like the family house is falling apart and dad goes out and buys a pleasure boat.

Japan said it expects to pay for the latest contribution by using a refund from the $100 billion it gave to the IMF in 2009 to fight the financial crisis.

G20 my arse...it's more like GWTF?

 

[Ceewan]

From Feb 21st:

BEIJING--Finance Minister Jun Azumi and Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan's confirmation on Sunday that they would take concerted action to help contain the debt crisis in Europe is believed to reflect the two countries' strong apprehension that the crisis may spread to Asia.

Japan and China also are expected to cooperate in calling for self-help efforts by European nations during a meeting of the Group of 20 financial ministers and central bank governors that will start in Mexico on Saturday.

"It is significant that Japan and China were able to establish a high-level channel," Azumi told reporters in Beijing after meeting with Wang.

The focus of the bilateral meeting was to discuss ways to prevent the European debt crisis from deteriorating further and ways to check the crisis' affect on Asian nations.

Attention is now on the expansion of contributions from each country to the International Monetary Fund, as European nations are seeking support from the IMF.

Since the United States--the largest contributor to the IMF--remains reluctant to make additional financial contributions, European nations are counting on Japan and China, the second- and third-largest contributors.

Japan and China are believed to be hoping to take the lead on the issue to support European nations by demonstrating their strong coalition. They are set to call for further efforts by European countries to put an end to the crisis.

===

Dependent relations

Japan and China are to boost cooperation since the two nations will be severely affected if the European debt crisis spreads to Asia, observers said. The two countries also agreed to expand a regional currency swap accord known as the Chiang Mai Initiative.

Specifically, they agreed to introduce a function in which the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Japan, China and South Korea pool foreign reserves to lend money to countries running short of foreign currency reserves, even before they are hit by the debt crisis, with the aim of preventing the spread of the danger.

Bilateral cooperation will start in the financial sector, as agreed during a summit meeting in December between Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao. The first joint working-level meeting was held Monday to discuss a system that will enable easy, direct exchange of the yen and the yuan.

Presently, the currencies are almost always exchanged via the dollar due to differences in regulations and business practices.

Japan also is calling for China to introduce measures to facilitate the purchase by Japan of Chinese government bonds worth up to about 10 billion dollars.

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/business/T120220004542.htm

 

[drakan]

Considering Japan's current debt level is ~225% of their GDP, I don't think it's wise for them to be handing out money to other countries.

 

[Uso.. Shinji]

Yet you can have the US in debt by so many trillions of dollars and still have a triple A credit rating (until the start of the January just gone). It isn't a matter of giving money so much as the country taking on the debt as its own. Intricate system, very illogical.

 

[Arashi]

It's the same old story over and over again. When the western countries are doing well they keep bashing Japan, but when trouble arises, who are they gonna call?:notagain: Although everyone is saying that it is in Japan's better interest to prevent the crash of the euro, it's unavoidable, the Euro was doomed from the start, it would be better to brace for the impact.:study:

 

[drakan]

Yet you can have the US in debt by so many trillions of dollars and still have a triple A credit rating (until the start of the January just gone). It isn't a matter of giving money so much as the country taking on the debt as its own. Intricate system, very illogical.

Despite the trillions, the US debt to GDP ratio is only 100%, which pales in comparison to Japan's 225%.

 

[EzikialRage]

No country should be handing out money when it its in debt.Seeing how it is the tax payers of those countries that pay the taxes no country period should be handing out money to others. This is one of the things that irritates me the most about politicians they spend money like a spoiled rich brat spending all their parents money with no regard to how hard their parents have to work for that money.

 

[Uso.. Shinji]

Despite the trillions, the US debt to GDP ratio is only 100%, which pales in comparison to Japan's 225%.

This isn't as logical when you consider each market.

US has more money hands down, but the reson for it being in debt are usually due to corruption and bad financial practices.

Japan's current outlook is due in a very large part to the way it invested in the US financial system. Upon its downfall, Japan was out of pocket by almost more than it put it. Compound that with the tsunami and the debt is hard currecy still does not equal the US' 225% or not. Further, it still seems stupid that Japan of all places is handing out money to Europe when it can't even fix itself.