PM hopeful Kono says governments should not intervene in deals

Taro Kono, an executive of Japan's ruling party, said on Thursday that government decisions should not be distorted by efforts to win votes from labor unions

According to Taro Kono, labor unions are the cause of Japan's economic woes.

Not the BOJ weak yen policies, egregious corporate welfare to Japan Inc and corporate wage theft.

If I was a Japanese voter: Hard pass

Of all the LDP hopefuls, Kono is by far the worst.

It looks like Harris, Trump and even Kono are going to politicize the acquisition of U.S. Steel. I doubt that any of them will care about the issue after their respective elections.

As if the Japanese government never intervened in similar situations in the past…such hypocrisy!

What a hypocrite! Then why not advocate for the Japanese government pulling itself out of all the "private" companies in Japan that it holds a controlling interest in? KDD, NTT, JR, JP and others.

When national security is involved, the government must intervene.

Just saying that sounds like an intervention on the side of Nippon Steel.

Wasn't there the whiff of Japanese government intervention over Nissan?

Yes. Lets have the government stay out of it when it helps business or artificially helping the weak yen.

Whoever become leader, LDP is corruption itself. they surely continue to exploit and victimize citizen from now on.

Must be a lot of LDP, and Kono, supporters lurking about in their rooms.

*Taro Kono, ...said on Thursday that government decisions should not be distorted by efforts to win votes from *labor unions...

*"Governments should not intervene in individual deals as buyouts can benefit targeted companies and regions", Kono said*

I used to not dislike him as much as I disliked the typical JIminto politician. But, it seems he is just another JIminto politician with that attitude of corporations' interests are more important than workers' interests.

Screw that.

Watch the BBC interview with him on HardTalk. They have a Japanese version, too. It tells you all you need to know about Kono. No one in their right mind would choose him, which means he'll get chosen.

Nippon Steel executives seem to have thought that they could buy out U.S. Steel without any hitch because the two countries, they thought, were allies with Japan probably a 52nd state of the great United States of America.