
Japan's ruling party aims for 1,000 trillion yen nominal GDP in 2040, PM Ishiba says
TOKYO, June 9 (Reuters) - Japan's Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said on Monday he had instructed ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) executives to include the goal of achieving 1,000 trillion yen ($6.94 trillion) nominal GDP in 2040 in a party election pledge.
Ishiba also said the goal of achieving a more than 50% increase in the average income should be included as a top agenda item in the LDP's campaign for the upper house election slated for July.
($1 = 144.0200 yen)
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Powys County Times
22 minutes ago
- Powys County Times
Industrial estate with 13 business units planned in Powys
PLANS for a mini industrial estate that could boost the local economy in the south western tip of the county have been lodged with Powys council planners. The application for by Mr and Mrs Evans is to set up 13 commercial storage and light industrial yard compounds which would help 'small business development' at land off the former Haul road west of Brynygroes, in Ystradgynlais. The scheme would also see compound security fencing, access gates for each of the units. The site is near a development of 110 houses which are currently being built at Brynygroes. Planning agent Richard Banks of Evans Banks Planning Limited explained the proposal in a planning statement. Mr Banks said: 'The site is capable of delivering 13 small / modest commercial plots suitable for low-level starter and small businesses in search of a small compound to store plant and machinery or to provide storage and distribution. 'The proposals would be seen as utilising the existing haul road for all access in very much the same manner as the former opencast site would have regularly required HGV (Heavy Goods Vehicles) access to and from that development. 'Multiple daily lorry movements to the opencast site were commonplace.' Mr Banks explains that the applicants know that there is a demand in the area for these types of units. He said: 'The applicants have experienced such small business demand for modest storage and light industrial space at their facility at Woodlands Business Park at Ystradgynlais. 'A total of 210 storage containers have been placed on plots three and six at the business park, and the take-up and demand for that new storage facility has been overwhelming. 'The applicants are of the firm opinion that a uniformly laid out series of small commercial compounds at the Haul Road site would provide for small business to have a modest base at Ystradgynlais to store vehicles, plant or other commercial equipment.' Mr Banks adds that the applicants have already discussed the proposal with county planners last year and said that they 'broadly support' the principle of such development. Mr Banks said: 'The development of the site will ensure a deliverable source of future employment land for the Ystradgynlais growth area in which it lies, which has seen an under supply of commercial opportunities prior to and since the adoption of the current LDP (Local Development Plan). 'The development of the site will help to redress this imbalance.' A decision on the application is expected by July 31.

South Wales Argus
an hour ago
- South Wales Argus
Pendragon pub plan decision upheld after appeal by applicant
At a meeting of Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council's Planning committee on Thursday, June 5 councillors were told of the successful appeal defence by development management team manager Steph Hopkin. She told councillors of the result as part of a number of updates that are a regular agenda item at committee meeting covering on ongoing appeals and Developments of National Significance. Mrs Hopkins said: 'On the Penndragon in Oak Street in Abertillery since we wrote of the report the decision has come through following the hearing on April 1. 'I can confirm the case was dismissed and the application for costs was refused.' Mrs Hopkins told councillors a report on the appeal out would be presented at the next committee meeting. Concern at how lorries will access proposed solar farm through narrow lane Town council unanimously opposes controversial depot expansion plans In September 2023, Thomas Lewis of the Highmore Group lodged a planning application with Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council to convert the former Pendragon pub on Oak Street from a vacant care facility back into a public house with rooms for let. In November 2023 planning officers rejected the proposal, and they judged it to be 'contrary' to policies in the county's Local Development Plan (LDP). Council planners said that approving the application: 'would generate a level of increased noise and disruption detrimental to the amenity of neighbouring residential properties.' The building had been a pub until it's closure in 2014 and had at one stage been the home of Abertillery rugby club. In 2015 a planning application to change its use to a 'mixed use support facility' was granted permission by the authority. But the care facility closed in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic. Mr Highmore's lodged his appeal with PEDW last year and a hearing into the issues was held on April 1. Welsh Government appointed planning inspector Ian Stevens then visited the site on April 2. Mr Stevens said: 'At the hearing I heard from residents living close by of past issues when the building was a public house, including alcohol-related incidents of noisy and anti-social behaviour outside the premises including late at night, which caused disturbance to residents nearby. 'I appreciate that I do not have any historical records before me of formal complaints made to relevant bodies. 'However, the residents' anecdotal descriptions are compelling and point to the intimate relationship between the appeal property and adjacent dwellings.' Mr Steven ssaid that it was suggested at the hearing that these issues could be addressed through the approved premises licence. But he explained that that a premises licence and planning application are not assessed in the same way. He was also referred to the other nearby pubs for comparison. But the flaw in doing this is that a 'direct comparison' cannot be formed because of the different circumstances around each of them. Mr Stevens said: 'I have found that the effects of development on future occupants in the letting rooms could be managed through internal acoustic treatment. 'However, the comings and goings of patrons including the use of external areas so close to residential properties would, through increased noise and disturbance compared with its existing lawful use, cause unreasonable harm to living conditions of nearby occupiers.' Due to this he believed the proposal is contrary to policy in the Local Development Plan. Mr Stevens said: 'For the reasons given and having regard to all other matters raised, I conclude that the appeal should be dismissed.' He also dismissed the appeal for costs.


The Guardian
3 hours ago
- The Guardian
Lex Greensill says SoftBank managers ‘felt threatened' by his links to founder
The financier Lex Greensill has told a court that senior managers at SoftBank 'felt threatened' by his relationship with Masayoshi Son, the founder of the Japanese tech investor that pumped hundreds of millions of dollars in his specialist lender before its collapse. Greensill said he travelled to Tokyo 'often weekly' for in-person mentoring sessions with the billionaire founder, who he dined with and referred to by the Japanese honorific 'Son-san'. Greensill made the comments in his first public courtroom appearance since the devastating demise in 2021 of his company, which counted former prime minister David Cameron as an adviser. Greensill said there were 'people in the SoftBank organisation who felt threatened by the nature of the relationship', and sought to 'make things difficult' for him. The Australian, who appeared in court with a trimly cut beard and dark blue suit on Monday, said that included some senior SoftBank executives. The businessman is appearing for two days of a month-long trial at the high court in London, in which a former Credit Suisse fund is suing SoftBank for $440m (£325m) over a complex deal it allegedly coordinated with Greensill prior to its collapse. It is part of efforts by Swiss bank UBS to recoup money for former clients of its former rival Credit Suisse, which it acquired in an emergency rescue deal in 2023. The case centres on funds that Greensill lent to Katerra, a US construction group that SoftBank had also invested in. Credit Suisse is alleging that SoftBank coordinated a restructuring plan for Katerra with Greensill in late 2020, in a move that benefited SoftBank and left the Swiss lender's clients out of pocket. SoftBank has denied the claims. Its lawyers told the court that it was a 'classic example of claimants casting around for a party with deep pockets on whom they seek to pin blame for a loss caused by their own negligence and risk-taking. It should be dismissed.' UBS said in a statement: 'We will continue to pursue all paths to maximise financial recovery of the supply chain finance funds, acting in the interests of all our stakeholders.' Greensill's comments come four years after his eponymous supply chain lender collapsed and became engulfed in a string of financial and political scandals. The 48-year-old Australian melon farmer turned City banker founded the lender in 2011, offering companies advances on their invoices in exchange for a fee. He would go on to gain high level political connections, and hired some of the world's most powerful former politicians including Cameron and former Australian foreign minister Julie Bishop. But the company, which at one point hoped to launch a £22bn stock market flotation, collapsed in 2021, after insurers refused to renew contracts that underpinned billions of pounds worth of loans and kept Greensill's complex financial operation afloat. It came amid growing concerns over the firm's management and billions of pounds of risky loans issued to companies owned by the metals magnate Sanjeev Gupta. Attention then turned to its government connections, including Cameron's efforts to persuade ministers to give Greensill access to government-backed Covid loans, resulting in a lobbying scandal that engulfed Whitehall for months. Sign up to Business Today Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning after newsletter promotion Greensill's failure had far-reaching financial consequences including for Credit Suisse, which packaged up Greensill's loans into investment funds for wealthy clients. Credit Suisse was forced to suspend $10bn worth of those funds after Greensill Capital went under. It left customers nursing hundreds of millions of dollars worth of losses, and further eroded investor confidence in the 167-year-old bank, which collapsed two years later. Son, who Forbes estimates to be worth $29bn, built SoftBank into one of the world's most prominent investors, making bets on tech and online services including China's e-commerce site Alibaba, the TikTok parent ByteDance and the UK chip designer Arm. He used his investment gains to make a series of increasingly bold bets on tech companies, and obtained Saudi Arabia's backing for its tech-focused SoftBank Vision Funds. During the Covid pandemic tech boom the valuations of its companies soared, but after the bubble burst SoftBank went through a period of retrenchment, though Son has continued to forge ahead with investments. The trial, which began last Thursday, is due to continue until 4 July.