If the nation's small and medium-size companies start suffering from the financial crisis in the United States, the government must consider additional measures to help them, trade minister Toshihiro Nikai said in a recent interview.
"When the Japanese-U.S. economic relationship is this close and the U.S. has such an abrupt incident, Japan cannot be unaffected," the economy, trade and industry minister told The Japan Times and other news organizations.
"The government needs to think about which measures will be the best for small and midsize companies," he said.