Nippon Steel investment in US Steel could push debt above equity
TOKYO -- Nippon Steel's planned $14.1 billion acquisition of U.S. Steel, along with a reported pledge of $14 billion in additional investment, is raising concerns about the financial impact on the Japanese steelmaker and whether it will contribute enough profit to be worth the cost.
Nippon Steel's medium-term business plan sets a goal of keeping its debt-to-equity ratio at or below 0.7. By limiting growth in liabilities while paring assets, the company had reduced its P/E ratio -- as adjusted for such factors as recognizing subordinated debt as capital -- from 0.68 in fiscal 2014 to 0.35 in fiscal 2024, or to an unadjusted 0.47.
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Yomiuri Shimbun
an hour ago
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Record-low Births: Society as A Whole Needs to Support Child Rearing / How Should Young People's Mindset Be Changed?
Despite the various measures taken by the central and local governments, the birth rate is declining only at an accelerating pace. It is essential that society as a whole support childbirth and child rearing so that those who are considering marriage and having children actually want to do so. The mindset of young people should also be encouraged to change. The central government has released Japan's vital statistics for 2024. The number of births as Japanese people was 686,061, falling below 700,000 for the first time since statistics began in 1899. The total fertility rate, which indicates the average number of children a woman is expected to have during her lifetime, also fell to 1.15, below the previous record low of 1.20 in 2023. 30% decrease in just 8 years The number of births exceeded 2 million a year from 1971 to 1974, the period called the second baby boom. It then gradually declined, falling below 1 million for the first time in 2016. This means that in just eight years since then, the number of births decreased by about 30%. Meanwhile, the number of marriages was only 485,063, the second lowest postwar figure after the 474,741 in 2023. In its Children's Future Strategy formulated in 2023, the government removed the income limits for the child allowance and also extended its duration from through junior high school age to through high school age. Benefits for company employees and other workers on childcare leave were raised to match their regular take-home pay before they went on leave. Although the government's aim to alleviate the financial burden of child rearing is understandable, it will be impossible to halt the trend of low birth rates if the focus of measures is solely on providing benefits. The government should review its current measures against low birth rates and make them more comprehensive. According to a government survey, among women aged 25-29, the proportion of nonregular employees who said they wanted children was over 30% less than that of regular employees. For men in the same age group, the proportion of married nonregular employees was 60% less than that of regular employees. It is no wonder that nonregular employees, whose employment is unstable with wages that tend to be low, are hesitant to get married or have children. It is important to convert nonregular workers into regular employees and expand the number of slots for hiring regular employees. Starting in fiscal 2020, the central and local governments began hiring such people as clerks at public offices and janitors at schools as nonregular civil servants for a period of one fiscal year. If the central government is to encourage the private sector to convert nonregular workers into regular ones, the central and local governments should first promote the conversion of these workers into regular employees. Work style reform is key Recently, 'short-time regular employees' — those who work only around two days a week — are being allowed at some companies. It is envisioned that these employees continue to work as regular employees during the child-rearing period and return to full-time work once the first stage of child rearing is complete. It is advisable for the government to promote such flexible work styles. However, no matter how much support the central and local governments provide for balancing work and child rearing, it will be meaningless if young people do not want to get married or have children. According to a government survey of unmarried persons conducted in 2021, the number of those who believe that people should have children after marriage has decreased significantly compared to the previous survey six years earlier, down 30 percentage points to 37% for women and down 20 points to 55% for men. It appears that some people are content with the simplicity of their single lives and are not considering marriage. Decisions on marriage and childbirth should be left up to the individual. However, if the number of births continues to decline, the nation cannot be expected to grow and social vitality will be lost. It will also become difficult to maintain social security systems such as pensions, medical and nursing care. Young people who are currently on the side of supporting these systems are also on the side of those who will be supported by them in the future. It is vital to encourage young people to be aware of this fact. The population will continue to decline due to the low birth rate. For the time being, there is nothing for it but to rely on foreign people for manpower. It is necessary to smoothly operate the newly established 'training and employment' program in place of the current technical intern training program, which has caused problems due to poor work environments. It is regrettable that, despite the low birth rate, instances of members of the younger generation abandoning their child-rearing responsibilities have become a problem. Regrettable abandonment of child-rearing role A 'baby hatch' that accepts infants anonymously who are dropped off by parents who cannot raise them was established at a hospital in Sumida Ward, Tokyo, in March this year, following one at a medical institution in Kumamoto City. Although some might have unavoidable circumstances, people could come to feel happy as a parent only after experiencing the difficulties of child rearing. It is also serious that more than a few children have committed suicide. UNICEF ranked Japan 14th out of the world's 43 wealthiest countries on the well-being of children in terms of physical and mental health and academic ability, among other factors. In contrast, its suicide rate among those aged 15-19 ranked fourth. A fact that must not be forgotten is that society as a whole has a responsibility to establish an environment in which children will grow up healthily. (From The Yomiuri Shimbun, June 6, 2025)
Japan Today
an hour ago
- Japan Today
Court rejects ¥13.3 tril damages verdict against Fukushima operator ex-bosses
'Take responsibility for the Fukushima nuclear accident!' a plaintiffs' banner says. By Kyoko Hasegawa and Caroline Gardin A Japanese court overturned a 13.3 trillion yen damages verdict on Friday against ex-bosses of the operator of the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, thought to be the largest such award ever in the country for a civil suit. Four former executives had in 2022 been ordered to collectively pay 13.3 trillion yen in a suit brought by shareholders over the nuclear disaster triggered by a massive tsunami in 2011. But the verdict was thrown out Friday by the Tokyo High Court, a spokeswoman for the institution told AFP. Shareholders had argued the catastrophe could have been prevented if Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) bosses had listened to research and implemented preventative measures like placing an emergency power source on higher ground. But the defendants countered that the risks were unpredictable, and the studies cited were not credible. "The defendants... cannot be found to have had this foreseeability at a point in time before the earthquake in question," Friday's court ruling said. The 13.3 trillion yen damages award was believed to be the largest amount ever ordered in a civil suit in Japan. It was meant to cover TEPCO's costs for dismantling reactors, compensating affected residents, and cleaning up contamination. The court spokeswoman said an appeal by the shareholders for an even higher damages order of 22 trillion yen had been denied. "Take responsibility for the Fukushima nuclear accident!" said a pink-and-white banner displayed by the plaintiffs after the ruling. Hiroyuki Kawai, head of their legal team, also issued a stark warning at a press conference on Friday. "If I were to summarize today's ruling in one phrase: It is a ruling that will lead to future serious nuclear accidents," he said. TEPCO declined to comment on the verdict. Three of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant's six reactors were operating when a massive undersea quake triggered a massive tsunami on March 11, 2011. They went into meltdown after their cooling systems failed when waves flooded backup generators, leading to the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl. Overall the tsunami along Japan's northeast coast left around 18,500 people dead or missing. In March this year, Japan's top court said it had finalized the acquittal of two former TEPCO executives charged with professional negligence over the Fukushima meltdown. The decision concluded the only criminal trial to arise from the plant's 2011 accident. © 2025 AFP
Asahi Shimbun
2 hours ago
- Asahi Shimbun
High court rules TEPCO execs not responsible for nuclear disaster
Hiroyuki Kawai, center, a lawyer representing the plaintiffs, criticizes the ruling in front of the Tokyo High Court in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward on June 6. (Masaaki Kobayashi) The Tokyo High Court on June 6 rescinded a court order for former executives of Tokyo Electric Power Co. to pay the company about 13 trillion yen ($92.6 billion) over the Fukushima nuclear disaster. In absolving the defendants of responsibility for financial damages caused to the company, the court ruled the giant tsunami that smashed into TEPCO's Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant on March 11, 2011, was 'unforeseeable.' The ruling overturned the Tokyo District Court's decision in 2022 to order the former TEPCO executives to pay compensation for failing to take measures that could have prevented the 'foreseeable' tsunami from causing the triple meltdown at the plant. 'This is unbelievable and unforgivable,' Yui Kimura, secretary-general of the plaintiffs' group, said of the high court's ruling. Hiroyuki Kawai, a lawyer representing the plaintiffs, said: 'This is an extremely unjust and logically contradictory verdict. It allows a recurrence of the nuclear accident, and we will pursue the flaws in this decision at the Supreme Court.' The plaintiffs--42 shareholders of TEPCO—had demanded 23 trillion yen in compensation to the company from five former executives and others over the damage caused by their failure to take tsunami countermeasures. The five defendants were: Tsunehisa Katsumata, a former chairman who died in 2024; Masataka Shimizu, a former president; two former vice presidents, Ichiro Takekuro and Sakae Muto; and a former managing director, Akio Komori. Katsumata's heirs succeeded him in the lawsuit. The major issues in the lawsuit were whether TEPCO management at the time could have foreseen the occurrence of such a giant tsunami and whether they could have prevented the disaster by issuing instructions for tsunami countermeasures. In 2002, the central government released a long-term evaluation of earthquake forecasts that indicated the possibility of a major earthquake followed by a massive tsunami occurring off the coast of Fukushima Prefecture. The Tokyo District Court's ruling in 2022 noted that this long-term assessment was scientifically reliable because it was made by top-level Japanese researchers, among other things. Based on this assessment, the lower court found that TEPCO's management team could have foreseen the 2011 tsunami, and that the accident could have been prevented if the defendants had ordered the construction of a watertight structure to prevent flooding of the reactor buildings and other facilities. The tsunami knocked out power to the plant, leading to three reactors melting down and forcing thousands of residents to evacuate from the area. Based on the decommissioning and decontamination costs incurred and the amount of compensation paid to evacuees, the district court concluded that the former management had caused TEPCO more than 13 trillion yen in damages. At the appeal hearing, the defendants repeated their argument that 'the long-term assessment was unreliable, as it was criticized by seismologists and other experts.'
