Businesspeople from the United States and Japan released a joint statement Tuesday urging Tokyo to swiftly adopt measures to restore the stability of, and confidence in, the Japanese banking sector, as well as to bolster domestic demand through tax cuts and deregulation.
The statement was adopted at the 35th annual Japan-U.S. Business Conference, which ended Tuesday in Tokyo amid the prolonged economic recession in Japan and the rest of Asia.
The topic of how the Asian economy should be revitalized dominated most of the discussions during the three-day conference. "The statement reflects a sense of urgency felt by the private sector in both Japan and the U.S. at a time when Japan is in a serious economic slump and when a power shift in the government is about to take place," said Minoru Makihara, a chairman of both the Japan-U.S. Business Council and Mitsubishi Corp.