Latest / Bloomberg Intelligence / Eurasia's Seaman: Abe Will Stop Consumption Tax Passage (Audio)

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Eurasia's Seaman: Abe Will Stop Consumption Tax Passage (Audio) · Bloomberg Intelligence

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  Speaker 1: five And that's a Bloomberg business flash. Yourmous ranted taking
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  Speaker 1: start with Kathleen Hayes and Pim Fox on Bloomberg Radio.
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  Speaker 1: Kuroshima a beautiful city in western Hanshu, the largest island
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  Speaker 1: of Japan, of course, best known as the first city
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  Speaker 1: in history to be targeted by a nuclear weapon, when
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  Speaker 1: the United States Army Air Force dropped an atomic bomb
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  Speaker 1: on the city at eight fifteen am August six nine,
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  Speaker 1: nearly seventy one years later, President of Rock Obama used
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  Speaker 1: the backdrop of the city's Memorial Peace Park to call
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  Speaker 1: for call for a world without such weapons. He did
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  Speaker 1: not apologize for America's use of atomic weapons during the war,
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  Speaker 1: but he did express more for the human toll of
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  Speaker 1: that war. And of course, this is part of his
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  Speaker 1: trip to Japan to be part of the G seven
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  Speaker 1: Summit of global leaders are very happy now to welcome
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  Speaker 1: to the show to talk about the significance of his visit.
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  Speaker 1: What was or wasn't accomplished at the G seven meeting,
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  Speaker 1: Scott Seaman a senior analyst for you a Eurasia for
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  Speaker 1: Asia excuse me, at the Eurasia Group. Scott, welcome, Thank you.
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  Speaker 1: How significant is this to Japan, to the Japanese into
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  Speaker 1: relationships between the two countries. I think it's hugely significant.
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  Speaker 1: You know, I picked up on one thing in particular.
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  Speaker 1: There was an older Japanese gentleman who I believe was
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  Speaker 1: the leader of one of the groups of survivors from
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  Speaker 1: the atomic bomb and Uh. I think the simple statement
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  Speaker 1: that he started with was that he never expected to
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  Speaker 1: see the US president visit Kidroshima in his lifetime. UH.
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  Speaker 1: And there was there was no demand of an apology,
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  Speaker 1: and of course the US made it clear that they
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  Speaker 1: were not prepared to offer one. But overall, I think
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  Speaker 1: this adds uh, you know, some closure uh to the
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  Speaker 1: war and and certainly shows how far the two countries
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  Speaker 1: have come since then. Scott of money, if you could
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  Speaker 1: speak to the issues facing the G seven leaders and
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  Speaker 1: what will Prime Minister Snobe be well for for Abe,
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  Speaker 1: I think this this was an opportunity, certainly for him
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  Speaker 1: to UH talk about the global economy. He wanted to
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  Speaker 1: use this meeting as a way to tee up a
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  Speaker 1: decision that we think he's very likely to make, and
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  Speaker 1: that's to postpone a consumption tax hike that they've had
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  Speaker 1: planned for some time that would be implemented next spring. UH.
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  Speaker 1: He has not been keen on going ahead with that,
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  Speaker 1: and one of the things that he wanted to accomplish
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  Speaker 1: at this summit was to really highlight the theme that
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  Speaker 1: the global economy UH is not doing well. And one
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  Speaker 1: of the things that Japan can do to cont tribute
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  Speaker 1: to efforts to UH to to kind of spurred growth
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  Speaker 1: is to hold off on its own tax increased plans.
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  Speaker 1: So UH, in terms of geopolitics, that's one of the
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  Speaker 1: things that takes place when that's the G seven. You know,
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  Speaker 1: when it's the heads of state meeting, you know, the
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  Speaker 1: finance ministers meet, the central bankers meet, they can hammer
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  Speaker 1: out more the nets of volts on on economic policies. UH.
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  Speaker 1: If we were to go back twenty years ago or so,
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  Speaker 1: we would be hammering on the Japanese for their currency
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  Speaker 1: right for for keeping it too weak versus our dollar.
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  Speaker 1: That mantel kind of shifted to China with the the
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  Speaker 1: US focus. But uh, the g one of the taught
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  Speaker 1: geopolitical issues is between China and Japan and the disputed territories.
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  Speaker 1: Did anything come out of this that moves that forward
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  Speaker 1: that they'd intensifies that struggle? I don't, Well, they're there
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  Speaker 1: are a couple of different disputes, um. The one that
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  Speaker 1: is is a bilateral dispute between China and Japan over
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  Speaker 1: the Sankako Islands in the East China. See that that
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  Speaker 1: has obviously been something that has really soured relations between
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  Speaker 1: the two countries for several years now. Uh. And I
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  Speaker 1: don't think that there was any particular effort during this
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  Speaker 1: summit to to move ahead on on, you know, some
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  Speaker 1: sort of reconciliation there. I think it's just kind of
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  Speaker 1: a stable situation. But the bigger objective was really for
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  Speaker 1: Abe and others to put a little more emphasis on
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  Speaker 1: conflicts that are brewing in the South China see uh.
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  Speaker 1: And Japan doesn't have a direct involvement in in territorial
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  Speaker 1: disputes there, but certainly sees it as an area that
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  Speaker 1: needs to remain stable because it's just such an important
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  Speaker 1: area for for trade and transport. Well Scott, in that context,
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  Speaker 1: I want to bring in a South Korea as well
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  Speaker 1: as China. Are they concerned that the President's visit to
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  Speaker 1: Japan could be taken by the Japanese as sort of
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  Speaker 1: drawing a line underneath their efforts to come to grips
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  Speaker 1: with their own wartime activities in places such as Korea
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  Speaker 1: and China. Um. You know, that definitely was a concern,
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  Speaker 1: And I think as I read the speech today that
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  Speaker 1: the President gave at Hiroshima, it seemed as if there
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  Speaker 1: was a great deal of thought put into trying to
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  Speaker 1: make what he said as broad in terms of kind
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  Speaker 1: of the time that it covered as well as as
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  Speaker 1: kind of the geographic space that it covered. Um No,
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  Speaker 1: I mean Obama did not want to kind of feed
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  Speaker 1: into UH the impression that people in other countries in Asia,
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  Speaker 1: especially China South Korea had that maybe this was going
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  Speaker 1: to be an event that would identify Japan as as
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  Speaker 1: the victim of World War two rather than UH than
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  Speaker 1: other countries. But I think the the what he said
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  Speaker 1: seemed to include UH people who were victims of the
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  Speaker 1: war as a whole. So I think that they took
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  Speaker 1: great pains to make sure that they didn't single Japan
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  Speaker 1: out as a victim. Just real quick, Well Abby, get
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  Speaker 1: this this backing off of that consumption tax increase. Yes, um,
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  Speaker 1: so the way I see it, the diet session ends
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  Speaker 1: next Tuesday, June one. He's expected at a press conference
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  Speaker 1: following that to announce a postponement of that tax hike. Uh.
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  Speaker 1: And then it would just be a matter of getting
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  Speaker 1: his government to change legislation around that next fall. Thank
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  Speaker 1: you very much. Scott Seaman. He is senior analyst for
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  Speaker 1: Asia for the Eurasia Group. Joining us from Washington, d C.
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