VENTURE CAPITAL POST

Mihoko Asaka wants to know how candidates in this month's election in Japan will create jobs and halt the drastic population decline that is bleeding her home region of youth and vitality, but has little hope they will offer real solutions.

Japan's annual core consumer inflation slowed for a third straight month in October due to falling oil prices, highlighting the economic gloom facing Premier Shinzo Abe as he campaigns for a new mandate to implement his stalled recovery plan.

Asian stocks sagged on Tuesday amid profit taking in Hong Kong and Chinese markets, while Tokyo shares rebounded on expectations that Japan will opt for a snap election that may lead to fresh stimulus measures.

Japanese shares led a tentative recovery in Asian shares on Tuesday, drawing some support from two U.S. blockbuster acquisitions and anticipation of more European monetary stimulus.

Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda does not need to convince Japanese people like Kazue Shibata that deflation brings problems, but getting them to believe that higher prices will make things better is proving to be a harder sell.

When Prime Minister Shinzo Abe raised Japan's sales tax from April, he was betting he could break a jinx that has doomed leaders who raised the levy to losing their jobs.

Asian shares ticked higher on Friday on Wall Street's cheer after upbeat U.S. growth data, while the dollar traded around four-week highs against the yen as investors awaited the outcome of the Bank of Japan's monetary policy meeting.

The Bank of Japan on Tuesday maintained its massive asset buying program but offered a bleaker view on factory output, following signs that the world's third-largest economy was hit harder than expected by a sales tax increase in April.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe remains "completely neutral" on whether to raise the national sales tax, Economy Minister Akira Amari said on Sunday even as he expressed concern about the strength of the country's economic recovery.

Bloomberg Businessweek reported that Japanese hedge funds posted record returns this year as investors bet that Abenomics will bring the world's third-largest economy back on its feet.

The JPY18.6 trillion or USD182 billion economic plan for Japan was approved by the state's cabinet under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The core of the package is the JPY5.5 trillion in spending measures Abe ordered back in October this year.

According to sources who were familiar with the proceedings, the government of Japan will be making the USD1.2 trillion Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF) exist as a separate entity in order to diversify its investments.

IMF department director Anoop Singh said Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's economic stimulus program had helped the economy of Japan against the effects of the reduction of securities purchases by the US Federal Reserve.

Ex-Morgan Stanley Hajime Kitano was hired as an equity strategist at Barclays Securities Japan Ltd.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to maintain his platform "Abenomics" to push progress in the world's third largest economy.