Japan finance minister Aso:

  • Likely can’t avoid corporate tax cut to keep competitiveness
  • Need a broad discussion of corporate tax including the tax base
  • Wants the tax panel to carefully consider corporate tax

Earlier Aso trotted out some old favourites:

  • Japan monetary policy is aimed at defeating deflation, not weakening the yen
  • The weaker yen is a side-effect of monetary policy

Meanwhile, USD/JPY is not doing a real lot today, its down marginally. EUR/JPY is a little lower as the EUR/USD lost 20-odd points from earlier highs. GBP/USD and GBP/JPY have also come off.