貿易赤字、28年ぶり 08年度、輸出は最大の16％減

貿易赤字、28年ぶり　08年度、輸出は最大の16％減

　財務省が22日発表した2008年度の貿易統計速報（通関ベース）によると、輸出額から輸入額を引いた貿易収支は7253億円の赤字になった。赤字は第 2次石油危機直後の1980年度以来、28年ぶり。米欧の金融危機に伴う世界経済の悪化で自動車や半導体の輸出が急減する一方、昨夏の原油高騰などで輸入の減少は限られた。赤字転落は輸出依存の経済構造のもろさを浮き彫りにしたといえそうだ。

　貿易収支は02年度以降、10兆円前後の黒字が続いていたが、世界経済の急減速で吹き飛んだ。与謝野馨財務・金融・経済財政相は同日午前、財務省内で「深刻に受け止めなければならない数字」との認識を表明。河村建夫官房長官も「世界貿易が縮小均衡に陥らないように注視していく必要がある」と述べた。

　輸出額は71兆1435億円と、前年度比16.4％減少。減少率は過去最大だった1986年度（15.1％減）を上回り、景気悪化の深刻さを映し出した。一方、輸入額は同4.1％減の71兆8688億円だった。(11:42)

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トヨタ、管理職の夏季賞与６割減　固定費削減を加速

　トヨタ自動車は2009年の管理職（課長級以上）の夏季賞与を前年比で6割程度減らす方針を固めた。トヨタの管理職は約9000人。すでに09年3月期分の役員賞与をゼロとするほか、組合員の09年の平均賞与を前年比26％減の186万円とすることで労使が合意している。業績悪化を受け、全社で固定費の削減を進める。

　トヨタの管理職賞与は年度の業績見通しをもとにまず冬季分を仮に支給し、業績が確定したあとに夏季分で年間分を調整する方式。すでに08年の冬季は前年比1割減らしている。昨冬と今回の夏季をあわせると4割の減少となる。

　世界的な自動車の販売減少でトヨタの09年3月期の連結純損益は3500億円の赤字となる見通し。トヨタは「全社で痛みを分かち合う」（渡辺捷昭社長）としており、09年3月期の年間配当も初めての減配に踏み切る方針だ。(10:51)

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China Faces Japan-Style Age Threat With Plan to Revamp Pensions
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By Dune Lawrence

April 21 (Bloomberg) -- Beijing Sunshine Care House opened in January 2008, seeking to attract the city’s elderly with a tropical conservatory, billiard room and calligraphy studio. By the end of this year, the retirement home will triple the number of beds to 700 -- and likely fill them all.

“It’s an industry with a great market,” says Zhao Liangling, Sunshine’s director, perched on a white leather armchair in her office.

Zhao’s expanding customer base reflects a potential threat to China far greater than the current economic slowdown. The world’s third-largest economy is aging so rapidly that by 2050, there may be only two working-age people for every senior citizen, compared with 13 to one now.

That increases the urgency of the government’s pledge to expand China’s social safety net and make retirement benefits and health care accessible to as many of its 1.3 billion citizens as possible. China’s graying also requires a cultural shift, as the tradition of families caring for aging relatives at home becomes more difficult.

“You can’t wait 20 years to start dealing with that problem,” says James Smith, director of Rand Corp.’s Center for Chinese Aging Studies in Santa Monica, California. “People will talk about Chinese culture having very strong reverence for people who are old, but relying on that is very, very dangerous, because in most places those values are really altered with rapid development.”

Baby Boom

A baby boom in the 1950s and 1960s was halted by draconian population control that began in 1979, reducing China’s birthrate to 1.7 children per woman from more than six in the 1960s. The first in that bulge of people in the prime working years --between 25 and 64 -- is beginning to retire, putting a strain that will continue for decades on the smaller generation born since the start of restrictions on family size.

China’s elderly, about 12 percent of the population now, will reach 30 percent by 2050, according to Smith, who has helped to develop surveys that track aging in 25 countries. He says China is unusual in confronting this problem before achieving developed-nation status, unlike other places with an aging population such as Japan.

More than a fifth of Japan’s population is 65 or older and that may rise to more than 40 percent by 2050, according to the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research in Tokyo. The country’s welfare ministry plans to cut pension benefits 20 percent by 2038, a larger reduction than the 15 percent projected in 2004 because of the increasing burden on the retirement system, the Asahi newspaper reported in February.

Confucian Tradition

China’s Confucian tradition places strong emphasis on the obligation to care for parents. Many older people live with sons or daughters and take the main responsibility for raising grandchildren, typifying the expression that “children around one’s knees is heaven.”

Fewer than 5 percent of the urban old and 2 percent of the rural elderly live in institutional facilities, according to Zeng Yi, a demographer at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, and Peking University in Beijing. While such centers have mostly been a last resort of the childless or handicapped, that is changing.

Sunshine Care “is much better than living at home, there’s no comparison,” says Tian Baofa, 76, a former newspaper photographer. “I’ve learned to use the computer, I play billiards; I never in my life before played billiards.”

He and his wife, Ge Nianjiu, 67, moved in last month. Their daughter is busy with her job, and their grandson is cared for by their son-in-law’s parents.

A New ‘Path’

“As China develops, more and more people will walk this path,” says Tian, who pays Sunshine Care 2,300 yuan ($337) a month from his pension of more than 3,000 yuan.

He is among a lucky few. China’s pension system covered 205 million people as of March 2008, according to the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, or about 15 percent of the population. The government aims to boost that figure to 223 million by the end of next year, it said April 13.

Rural areas where the system is less developed face the biggest risk, undermining government efforts to narrow the wealth gap between city and country.

A pension program started in the 1990s covers only about 10 percent of the rural labor force, the World Bank says. Participants dropped by a third between 1999 and 2004, a setback Zeng attributes to the government’s shortsightedness and an assumption that families would take care of rural elderly -- although he notes that official attitudes are changing. Family support is undermined partly by the migration of younger workers to cities, which has contributed so much to China’s economic growth.

Vague Targets

Premier Wen Jiabao pledged March 5 to expand urban and rural pension coverage and develop a system that allows migrant workers who change jobs frequently to shift retirement benefits. He didn’t specify how much will be spent on these efforts, and the government has left targets vague, saying only that the numbers covered by the rural plan will “expand year by year.”

Other initiatives include building four “demonstration bases” this year with investment of as much as 500 million yuan each in the cities of Beijing, Tianjin and Chongqing and in Jiangsu province, the English-language China Daily reported April 8. The centers will provide a model for the development of an elderly care industry, the report said. This year alone, Beijing plans to add 15,100 nursing-home beds, an increase of 43 percent.

Ma Li, deputy director of the government-linked China Population and Development Research Center, says the country still must do more.

“China is not yet ready for an aged society,” she told the official Xinhua News Agency March 10 “It does not have a complete old-age social-security system. There are not enough resources. Fiscal support is scarce. And the risk is ever rising.”

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Yemen’s Jews Flee Home of 2,500 Years Amid Threats (Update1)
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By Henry Meyer

April 20 (Bloomberg) -- Yemen is in danger of losing what’s left of its Jewish community, which has called the country home for more than 2,500 years and provided its kings for a century.

Growing intimidation and violence are pushing the 300 Jews left in the Arabian Peninsula country to flee to Israel or the U.S. Four months ago, a Muslim extremist gunned down Jewish- studies teacher Moshe Yaish Nahari, a father of nine, in the town of Raida, north of the capital of Sana’a.

“If the government doesn’t protect us, Jews will be in danger,” said Rabbi Yahya Yousef Mousa, who leads the 65-person Jewish community in Sana’a. The group arrived there two years ago after escaping threats in its home region in northern Yemen.

About 7,000 Jews live in Arab countries, down from more than 750,000 before Israel was created in 1948. Yemen, with the third-largest community after Morocco and Tunisia, has become a more hostile place for Jews since Israel’s January invasion of the Gaza Strip.

“Because of the deteriorating security situation, the Yemeni Jewish community as opposed to others in the Arab world is in need of making very serious decisions regarding their future,” said Yehudit Barsky, a Middle East expert at the American Jewish Committee, a New York-based advocate for Jewish rights. “From a historical perspective, it’s a sad situation. They have lived there for so long.”

Blood Money

Yemeni Jews say they fear more violence after a Raida court in February ordered Nahari’s convicted killer to pay blood money of 5.5 million riyals ($27,500), sparing him the death sentence.

“This kind of verdict encourages other people to attack Jews,” Rabbi Mousa, 30, said at a guarded compound in Sana’a, where armed security personnel stationed at an entrance barrier checked all vehicles.

The first Jews arrived in Yemen at about the time of the 586 B.C destruction of the First Temple in Jerusalem. About 1,000 years later, the Himyari ruling family converted to Judaism; Jewish rule in Yemen lasted until 525 A.D., when Christians from Ethiopia took over.

Of the more than 50,000 Jews in Yemen last century, most emigrated in Operation Magic Carpet, in airlifts organized by Israel in 1949-1950 after anti-Jewish riots. Two smaller waves of emigration involving 1,700 Jews took place in the mid 1960s and the early 1990s.

Israel’s Gaza offensive touched off more anti-Israeli protests in Yemen, where the population is almost entirely Muslim. In Raida, home to most of Yemen’s Jews, Muslims pelted Jews with stones. Community members rarely venture out of their homes now and the two schools and two synagogues are closed.

Headed to Israel

In late February, one of the leaders of the Raida community, Said Ben Yisrael, emigrated to Israel with eight family members. Several weeks before, an explosive device had been thrown into his courtyard and detonated.

Nahari’s nephew, Efrayim, is now trying to get passports for another 70 Jews so they can leave the country, he said.

A clean-shaven 23-year-old, dressed in a black leather jacket and jeans, Efrayim represented the community last month in talks about the passports with the Interior Ministry in Sana’a. Officials told him that a computer malfunction meant the documents couldn’t be issued.

The Jewish Agency for Israel, which organizes immigration from the Jewish diaspora, said last month in a report on Yemen’s Jews that it is working with the U.S. State Department to pressure the Yemeni government for passports and visas.

Al-Qaeda

The threat to Jews has gotten worse in recent years as Islamic extremism and al-Qaeda has gained ground in Yemen, the poorest Arab nation and a neighbor of Saudi Arabia, Barsky said.

Judge Hamoud Abdul Hameed al-Hitar, Yemen’s religious- affairs minister, described Yemeni Jews as “Yemenis first, Jews second,” with the same rights and duties. The outcome of the murder case didn’t signify discrimination, he said.

“If they leave their houses in Yemen, they will go to Israel and invade houses that are not theirs,” he said in an interview.

Police aren’t guarding Raida’s Jews, said Nahari.

“Are they waiting for more killings?” he said. “Are they waiting for more murdered Jews to give us our passports?”

The capital, until 1948 home to a thriving Jewish quarter with craftsmen such as goldsmiths and silversmiths, has no synagogues or Jewish schools.

The families that fled their northern homes are under government protection in the Sana’a compound, where a dozen or more people are crammed into each apartment. The authorities cut off monthly support of about $300 a month per family in January without explanation.

Harassment escalated after the murder in Raida and verdict, said Rabbi Mousa, dressed in a white Yemeni robe and skullcap.

“We received a lot of threats afterwards, saying we will kill you and collect blood money,” he said.

Sitting on a cushion on the floor while a man next to him reached into a plastic bag for qat, the leaf narcotic chewed by Yemenis, the rabbi said he has no wish to go to Israel: “Yemen is our home and we don’t want to leave it.”

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Saudi Kingdom group posts Q1 profit on asset sales

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Billionaire Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal's Kingdom Holding said on Tuesday it had returned to profit in the first quarter of 2009 on the back of asset sales. Skip related content
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Kingdom reported a 50.1-million-riyal (13.4-million-dollar) profit for January to March, following a devastating fourth quarter in 2008 when it reported more than eight billion dollars in losses.

The figure was 83.5 percent off 2008's first quarter, when Kingdom, a major shareholder in companies like Apple, Citigroup and News Corp, and owner of a chain of luxury hotels, recorded 303.8 million riyals (81 million dollars) in profit.

"KHC has sold some of its assets achieving profits," the company said in a statement.

It said the cash proceeds from the sales were used to reduce the investment group's total debt by 34 percent, or 3.4 billion riyals (906.7 million dollars), compared to the total debt at the end of 2008.

"I feel confident that KHC's financial results have stabilised during this quarter and, with its strong balance sheet, the company is in a favourable position to identify good investment opportunities and we expect a continuation of this for this year," Alwaleed said in the statement.

"We are pleased that Kingdom Holding is returning to profitability."

Kingdom's stock closed down 5.69 percent at 5.80 riyals (1.55 dollars) on Tuesday ahead of the announcement, which came after trading hours.

Kingdom, 95 percent controlled by Alwaleed, a nephew of King Abdullah, was hit by falling markets and Alwaleed's commitment last year to help shore up struggling US banking giant Citigroup.

The company said earlier it had raised a least 822 million dollars from the sale and refinancing of hotel assets around the world since 2007.

On March 2 Kingdom announced it had sold its 50 percent stake in the Four Seasons Hotel des Bergues in Geneva for a net gain of 60 million dollars.

Recent media reports have also said that Alwaleed is seeking buyers for the Raffles Singapore hotel as well as the Savoy in London.

Kingdom has not denied this, but on Monday the group said it was proceeding with the expansion of Raffles and its ongoing 175-million-dollar renovation to the Savoy.

In its Tuesday statement, the group said also it intends to follow through with planned real estate investments in Jeddah and Riyadh, without being specific.

Last year Kingdom said it intended to construct a record-breaking 1,000-metre-high (3,300-foot) skyscraper in Jeddah.

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不況で各国摘発強化…中国人出稼ぎ労働者、送還ラッシュ
特集 大揺れ雇用

　【北京＝佐伯聡士】外国で不法に就労していた「民工」（出稼ぎ労働者）の中国への送還ラッシュが起きている。

　不況で各国当局の摘発が厳しくなっている上、職を失って自ら出頭する民工が増えているためだ。中国では昨年秋以来、広東省などの工場を解雇された民工の農村への帰郷が急増したが、今後、送還後の再就職問題も深刻化しそうだ。

　中国紙「北京晩報」は、今月上旬に韓国から北京に送還された不法就労の民工５人の状況を伝えた。かつて肉体労働で毎日十数時間働き、人民元にして１人月約７０００元（約１０万２２００円）以上を稼いでいたが、ウォン下落で収入が半分程度に落ち込んだという。

　５人は２００６年から０８年にかけて、それぞれ約１０万元（約１４６万円）を仲介業者に払って合法的に渡航したが、滞在期間を過ぎても帰国せずに不法就労していた。最後は日々の食事にも事欠く悲惨さだった。

　中国誌「中国新聞週刊」によると、北京空港に送還される民工は０８年１１月から増加傾向にあり、今年１～２月は前年同期比３０％増の約５００人に達した。上海の浦東空港でも１～２月、英国から送還された民工が約２５０人に上った。

　ルーマニアでは２～３月、雇用主の建築業者が倒産し、給料をもらえなくなった民工数百人が中国大使館前で「テント村」をつくる騒ぎも起きている。悪質仲介業者にだまされてポーランドに渡った民工は、４８日間働いて３００ユーロ（約４万円）を受け取っただけで送還され、仲介費を払うために借りた８万５０００元（約１２４万円）の借金が残った。

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Lehman collapse led to euro note 'hoarding'

By Ralph Atkins in Frankfurt

Published: April 22 2009 03:00 | Last updated: April 22 2009 03:00

Demand for euro notes, especially large denominations, soared last year after the collapse of Lehman Brothers investment bank apparently triggered a flight to cash.

The value of euro notes in circulation leapt in the first half of October by between €35bn and €40bn ($45bn- $52bn, £31bn-£33bn), the European Central Bank said in its annual report released last night. Demand for €100 and €500 notes was "particular high" in the final quarter of the year, the ECB said, "and was to a large extent driven by demand from outside the euro area".

Circulation of the €500 note, which the ECB report admitted "is to a large extent used for hoarding", was more than 17 per cent higher at the end of 2008 than a year before.

The continuous rise in the value of euro in circulation since the notes and coins were introduced in 2002 has surprised commentators. Previous data issued by the ECB had pointed to a surge late last year, but the annual report suggested that the increase in demand caused by Lehman's collapse was stronger than previously thought - probably reflecting consumers' fears at the time about the stability of the global banking system.

The financial crisis was felt by the ECB in other ways, the report showed. The average share of asset-backed securities in collateral provided by banks borrowing from the ECB soared from 16 per cent in 2007 to 28 per cent last year. Asset-backed securities overtook uncovered bank bonds to become the largest class of assets used as collateral.

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Weber hits out at Brussels

By James Wilson and Ralph Atkins in Frankfurt and Nikki,Tait in Brussels

Published: April 22 2009 03:00 | Last updated: April 22 2009 03:00

Europe's competition authorities risk throwing the continent's economic integration into reverse with their response to the financial crisis, the head of Germany's Bundesbank has warned in rare public criticism of Brussels.

In a Financial Times interview, Axel Weber said policymakers were "at a crossroads" and might harm Europe's growth prospects if they insisted on making lenders withdraw from foreign markets and become more nationally focused.

His warning comes as competition authorities decide what concessions banks will have to make in return for state aid.

Commerzbank, Germany's second largest lender, which has been offered €18.2bn of state aid, is in talks with the European Commission over remedies, which may include disposals of businesses in other EU countries.

The comments by Mr Weber - one of the most powerful figures in European banking - reflect his fears that the crisis in financial markets will set back the economic integration deemed essential for the eurozone to thrive.

"Some of the demands coming out of the competition department of the Commission have been aimed at refocusing banks on their national credit and lending operations rather than fostering their pan-European endeavours," Mr Weber said.

"I find it surprising - to say the least - that European institutions view crossborder operations within the EU as foreign operations. For me, the euro area is the domestic economy."

Neelie Kroes, competition commissioner, has insisted that if banks get state aid they must restructure to compensate for the anti-competitive distortions created. Mr Weber said these "side effects" were "more pronounced than was originally envisaged" and might deter banks from using government help.

"If banks are forced to sell off profitable businesses . . . I think this creates a problem. Dealing with rescue operations in that way, the probability of a credit crunch in the euro area increases rather than decreases due to these restructuring conditions."

Some national governments have also insisted banks become more domestically focused in return for state help. If banking did become more nationally focused "I think Europe would forgo a lot of its growth potential", Mr Weber said.

The Commission defended state aid rules and said they had been "precisely adapted . . . to the current circumstances". New guidelines on bank restructuring aid were likely to be published next month and would take account of current exceptional circumstances, it said.

But the Commission said "it is important banks restructure to avoid a repetition of the mistakes made so far". Asked about Mr Weber's comments on the impact of restructuring, the Commission said: "It all depends on how you require banks to downsize and which activities you make them get rid of."

Mr Weber said UK suggestions for a European banking regulator were welcome and a "good vision to have". But he said an "evolutionary approach" - increasing co-ordination among national supervisors over time - was more likely to succeed.

Interview, Page 3 European economy, Pages 2-3 Lionel Barber, Page 9 Full Axel Weber transcript, www.ft.com/europe

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IMF estimates financial sector's loss at $4,100bn

By Sarah O'Connor in Washington

Published: April 22 2009 03:00 | Last updated: April 22 2009 03:00

Financial institutions face losses of $4,100bn as the global recession erodes the value of their loans and other assets, the Inter-national Monetary Fund said yesterday as it urged governments to take "bolder steps" to shore up institutions, including nationalising them where necessary.

In its Global Financial Stability report, the IMF said many loans on institutions' balance sheets were falling in value, not just the toxic subprime securities that triggered the crisis.

Total writedowns on US assets would reach $2,700bn, the IMF estimated, up from the $2,200bn it estimated in January and almost double its forecast of last October. Including loans originated in Japan and Europe, the writedowns would hit $4,100bn.

Banks would bear two-thirds of the losses, it said, with insurance companies, pension funds, hedge funds and others taking the rest.

Efforts to cleanse these bad assets from balance sheets and replenish viable institutions with capital had been "piecemeal and re-active", the IMF said.

"The current inability to attract private money suggests the crisis has deepened to the point where governments need to take bolder steps and not shrink from capital injections in the form of common shares, even if it means taking majority, or even complete, control of institutions."

José Viñals, director of the IMF's monetary and capital markets department, said while there were signs that market confidence could be returning, firm government action was needed to "preserve and strengthen these first signs of improvement".

The report is likely further to unnerve investors, even though the writedown estimates are lower than those of some private economists.

On Monday, traders were so alarmed by news of rising delinquencies on consumer and business loans at Bank of America that they triggered a stock market sell-off.

US banks have so far taken about half of the writedowns they face, while European banks - which are particularly vulnerable because of their exposure to emerging European markets - have taken only a fifth.

Jonathan Loynes, chief European economist at Capital Economics, said the difference reflected the sudden shift in Europe's fortunes.

"The problems in Europe have taken longer to unfold," he said. "Some of the risks to European banks . . . have only come to light over the past three to six months."

If European and US banks took all the writedowns they faced immediately, it would wipe out their common equity altogether, the IMF calculated.

That highlights the urgent need to inject more capital into many banks and other institutions. To restore balance sheets to the state they were in before the crisis - defined by the IMF as a tang-ible common equity to tangible asset ratio of 4 per cent - US banks need $275bn in capital, euro area banks $375bn, UK banks $125bn.

But the IMF expressed concern that taxpayers were becoming weary of supporting the financial sector. "There is a real risk that governments will be reluctant to allocate enough resources to solve the problem," it said.

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暴走族調査：暴力団と関係ある３５％　上納金も１７％

2009年4月22日 21時24分

　暴走族メンバーらに暴力団との関係を聞いたところ「関係がある」との回答が全体の約３５％で、上納金を納めていると答えた割合も約１７％に上ったことが警察庁の調査で分かった。暴走族の構成員はピーク時（８２年）の４分の１まで減ったとされるが、暴力団とのかかわりが改めて裏付けられた形だ。

　調査は０８年６～７月、全国の警察本部が把握している暴走族構成員と暴走族風に改造した旧型オートバイなどを運転する「旧車會（きゅうしゃかい）」のメンバーに調査書類を渡し、２０６３人から回答を得た。５年に１回程度実施しているが、旧車會メンバーへの聞き取りは初めて。

　「以前加入していた」も合わせ暴走族グループへの加入者は計８１０人。うち「暴力団と関係がある」と答えたのは２８１人だった。具体的な関係については▽「後ろ盾になっている」約２８％▽「リーダーなどが関係している」約２１％など。上納金については「納めている」が１３５人で、「納めていない」は１２９人、５４６人が無回答だった。

　一方、旧車會の加入者（３２５人）に、旧車會とはどのような組織か聞いたところ「交通ルールを守って走るバイク好きの集まり」が約５８％▽「暴走族ＯＢの集まり」約３３％▽「クラシックカーの愛好家」約１９％－－などと回答がばらついた。

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Trade union titan leaves political legacy

By Robert Taylor

Published: April 22 2009 01:40 | Last updated: April 22 2009 01:40

Jack Jones, who has died at the age of 96, was among the most formidable of Britain's trade union leaders in the twentieth century. Feared by some as Emperor Jones, the unacceptable face of trade unionism, a majority of people once believed he was the most powerful man in the country, even greater than the prime minister.

From 1969 to 1978 he was the general secretary of the country's largest trade union, the Transport and General Workers, and played a dominant and controversial role in the evolution of the Labour movement during the high watermark of its ascendancy. He was the chief architect of the Social Contract, a formal alliance between the Labour party and the trade unions that shaped for good and ill much of Britain's economic and social policy during the 1970s. He came to be valued by Labour leaders for his loyalty and willingness to sustain a Labour government in office through one of the most economically turbulent periods of post-war history.

In retirement he continued to exercise influence in both the Labour party, where he backed Gordon Brown rather than Tony Blair and in the trade union movement where candidates for high office eagerly sought his support even when he was in his eighties. In retirement too, he used his formidable fighting skills to press for a better deal for pensioners. For a quarter of a century he built up his National Pensioners Convention, working unpaid as its chairman from offices in the T&G London headquarters.

During his early years as TGWU general secretary Jack Jones had been an unbending opponent of any attempt by the state to regulate industrial relations. He fought successfully to defeat the Labour government's plans to reform the trade unions by law through its In Place of Strife White Paper. He led the opposition to the Industrial Relations Act passed by Edward Heath's Conservative government which he saw as an attack on trade union freedoms and the practice of voluntary collective bargaining.

But Jones was not a deeply negative force, hostile to change. On the contrary, he fused with ability a far-sighted vision, deeply held if austere principles and a practical impatience to get things done. If his strategic outlook was narrow and blinkered, that was a hardened reflection of his formative years. And he was prepared to modify his tactics in response to the pressures of external events.

He became a constant source of often imaginative if sometimes unrealistic ideas. In the 1970s he forged almost single-handed a new relationship between the trade unions and the Labour party.

Determined to avoid in future a return to the strains and acrimony that affected both sides during the late 1960s, he proposed that the industrial and political wings of the Labour movement should come together in hammering out a coherent and agreed policy for government. This involved a commitment to a radical shift of direction for the Labour party in response to trade union pressures.

He envisaged “regular consultation” with a future Labour government in what he hoped would prove to be a wide-ranging programme to transform the country through radical measures designed to redistribute wealth and income and strengthen the power of trade unions in the workplace.

It was he who advocated the creation of an independent advisory and conciliation service for industrial relations and this came into force in 1974 with Acas which he claimed was his “baby”. Later he claimed that he was the man who drafted “the essentials” of Labour's Employment Protection Act in 1975, giving new rights and powers to trade unions. It was due to his pressure that new health and safety laws gave statutory rights to trade union workplace representatives.

Mainly at Jones's insistence, the minority Labour government elected in February 1974 pushed through parliament a large spending programme which involved paying higher pensions, subsidising basic food essentials, and spending substantially more on housing and the health service. But he had also insisted for years that the state must not intervene in wage bargaining. He had opposed any restraint on pay demands and even refused to hold any discussions with Labour leaders over having a national incomes policy.

However, by early 1975 he began to acknowledge that roaring inflation caused mainly by excessive wage deals was threatening to wreck the British economy. Almost overnight he accepted there had to be nationally agreed pay restraint if the Labour government was to avoid disaster.

It was mainly due to his influence that a £6 a week flat-rate pay increase was agreed for everybody in July 1975. Remarkably this was achieved after he had helped to convince other trade unions to fall in behind the policy. A second year of national pay restraint followed without the government having to enforce it by law.

Despite his frustrations and disappointments he became a powerful defender of the Labour government. As he explained: “Even though, try as we might, we could not change the government's outlook, we were not prepared to do anything that might threaten its existence.”

Yet by the summer of 1977 even he was finding it difficult to hold the line in the face of mounting workplace discontent, particularly among skilled manual workers in manufacturing who disliked the squeeze on their pay differentials caused by two years of wage restraint that helped the lower paid and not them. At his union's conference he was defeated heavily when he called for a third year of restraint.

His warning that a return to free collective bargaining would not get rid of inflation or put to right 30 years of neglect in manufacturing, or create a million jobs or prevent a dangerous pay scramble, fell on deaf ears. Ironically the shop stewards whom he had championed for so long were at the forefront of his public humiliation. A year later Jones retired and there followed the infamous “winter of discontent” with widespread strikes that swept away the hopes of the last Labour government.

His defeat over pay in 1977 brought a sad end to his idealistic hopes of establishing a new form of workplace trade unionism. An often austere authoritarian in the way he ran his union from the top downwards, he held a romantic belief about the virtues of shopfloor trade union power.

Committed to the idea of industrial democracy, he argued that only workers who belonged to trade unions should be able to enjoy the right to enjoy a collective voice in the workplace. He praised the shop stewards as ”the greatest instruments of democracy”.

Jones envisaged not only challenging managerial authority through a growth in collective bargaining but also called for the widening of the scope of the trade union agenda and argued for the taxation of wealth and a radical redistribution of income.

It was a narrow view that reflected the experience of his formative years as a trade union organiser in the car industry in Coventry during and immediately after the second world war when he organised production workers on the assembly lines into the T and G.

By deliberately building up the power and prestige of the shop stewards, he downgraded the role of full-time trade union officials. At his insistence the government appointed a public committee of inquiry into industrial democracy chaired by the historian Lord Bullock. Jones was one of its members and he succeeded in securing a majority on the committee for his ideas of joint control in large unionised private sector companies through the presence of shop stewards on their boards.

But his insistence on his particular version of industrial democracy for the unionised sector alone ensured the committee's final report failed to carry much conviction either with the Labour government, employers or an important number of key trade unions. Not for the first time his zeal was not matched by his opponents who, while they failed to argue directly with him, were nevertheless able to procrastinate.

He was a great believer in recruiting as many workers as possible into the ranks of the TGWU. He sought to strengthen the power of his union through aggressive membership drives across the ranks of the non-unionised workforce. During his time as general secretary the TGWU passed the two million membership mark as it spread its influence across an increasingly diverse labour market.

Jack Jones was born in the slums of Liverpool on 29 March 1913, the second son of a docker in a family of five. According to his autobiography, he took a precocious interest in Labour politics from a very early age. After leaving school he found a job in general engineering and became a regular trade union activist, joining the TGWU when he was only 17. At his second branch meeting he was elected a delegate to Liverpool Trades Council and rapidly became secretary of his local Labour party ward.

When the company he worked for went bankrupt, he joined the ranks of the unemployed before becoming a docker himself. A rebel in Ernest Bevin's union, he was elected as a left-wing Labour councillor in Liverpool, took part in a 1934 hunger march to London and volunteered to fight against fascism in the Spanish Civil War. Although never a member of the Communist party, he became a political commissar in the International Brigade.

Jones's stern left-wing politics did not appear to hamper his inexorable rise up through the ranks of Bevin's big union. On the eve of the second world war the TGWU sent him to be a full-time officer to recruit members in the burgeoning car industry in Coventry. This turned out to be the formative period of Jones's life. It was his experience of industrial relations in the armaments plants during the war years that convinced him of the merits of workplace trade unionism, the value of the shop stewards. The establishment of works councils and joint production committees not only challenged existing managerial authority but led to an aggressive spread of trade union recruitment.

In the post-war period of full employment and growing prosperity Jones championed workplace pay bargaining, even though this led to outbreaks of wage leapfrogging between competing work groups unrelated to productivity growth. As a strong left-winger, he was out of sympathy with the frantic efforts being made inside the TGWU at national level to contain shopfloor discontents.

In 1955 Bevin's union moved from the right to the left with the election of Frank Cousins to the general secretary's post. Jones was very much a supporter of Cousins' more militant approach to wage bargaining and he shared the new leader's belief in unilateral nuclear disarmament.

In 1963 Jones was plucked out of the west Midlands where he had become the union's regional secretary by Cousins and brought to London to the post of an especially created second assistant general secretary. A year later he was elected on to the Labour party's national executive committee.

Jones never concealed throughout his life his contempt and exasperation with politicians, especially those in the Labour leadership. He had a large class war chip on his shoulder, believing manual workers, particularly if they had been shop stewards, were better equipped than others to play a useful role in parliament. There was more than a touch of syndicalism about his views.

He had little time for Harold Wilson or other Labour leaders, but surprisingly he found Edward Heath to be a sympathetic figure when an abortive attempt was made in 1972 to forge cooperation between a Conservative government and the trade union movement on the management of the economy.

In his attitude to other countries, Jones claimed to be an internationalist, but he was hostile to British membership of the European Community, disliked the United States and was a strong supporter of trade union cooperation with the Soviet bloc. In his memoirs he wrote that he “felt satisfied” the Russians had at plant level “a trade union system not unlike our own”.

He claimed to be a strong believer in equality, at least in principle, and he had little time for the trappings and privileges of power. He lived during his years in office in a modest council flat in Denmark Hill, south London, from where he used to walk to work. A puritan, he drank modestly and ate sparingly. Nor did he have any interests outside his trade union work which consumed most of his time. Offered a peerage at least twice, he rejected the prospect of going to the House of Lords, but he did accept a Companion of Honour on behalf of the trade union movement when he retired.

Even in extreme old age he continued his campaign for the cause of the pensioners. Then one himself, he urged governments to increase the value of the basic pension and make life at little easier for the old. Jack Jones was married in 1938 to Evelyn Taylor whose first husband had been killed in Spain. The couple had two sons.

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世界粗鋼生産、３月は23％減　日米欧が４割超す落ち込み

　世界鉄鋼協会（ワールドスチール）がまとめた３月の世界粗鋼生産量（速報値、66カ国・地域）は、前年同月比23.5％減の9170万5000トンだった。前年同月を下回るのは７カ月連続。最大の生産国である中国は4510万1000トンで0.3％の微減だったが、日米欧が４割を超す大幅な減少となった。

　米国は52.7％減の406万3000トン。欧州連合（ＥＵ）の27カ国は45.3％減の1030万トンで、うちドイツは49.8％減の210万トン、イタリアは42.7％減の165万1000トンだった。日本は46.7％減の574万2000トンだった。ロシアは30.9％減、韓国は21.2％減だった。中国は政府による景気刺激策の効果で前年並みの水準となったもようだ。(18:04)

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保土ケ谷ごみ焼却場を休止　横浜市が来年、４工場に集約

　横浜市は年間約13万トンのごみを焼却している保土ケ谷工場（保土ケ谷区）の運転を、2010年4月に休止する。市内のごみの焼却は都筑や旭など現在稼働している4工場に集約する。運営コストを減らし、発電効率のいい4工場に集めることで、年間4億円の収支のプラス効果を見込めるとしている。

　横浜市のごみ排出量は08年度、94万8700トンと01年度比で41％減った。このため市は、都筑、旭、鶴見、金沢の4工場で処理できると判断した。

　保土ケ谷工場は保土ケ谷、戸塚、港南区など、周辺地域のごみを4工場に送る積み替え中継基地とする。夏ごろの着工をメドに、約2億7800万円をかけ一部を改装する。近く都筑工場などの設備を更新するため、バックアップ工場として焼却設備は維持する。

　保土ケ谷工場は1980年に操業を開始し、処理能力は1日1200トン。焼却時の熱を利用した発電装置を備えているが、発電量は2001年操業の金沢工場の8分の1程度と効率が悪く、工場で使う分の電力しか作れなかった。

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空室率上昇、賃料は下落…オフィス市場“不況の影”

　東京など国内主要都市でオフィスビルの空室率がじりじりと上昇している。企業が事務所を縮小したり、割安の物件に移転したりする動きが広がり、都心でも需給均衡の目安とされる５％を超えた。一方、賃料は下落傾向がみられ、オフィスビル市場にも不況の影が落ちている。

　不動産仲介の三鬼商事（東京）によると、３月の都心５区（千代田、中央、港、新宿、渋谷）の大型オフィスビル空室率は前月比０．４５ポイント上がって６．０５％だった。１４カ月続けて上昇し、４年２カ月ぶりに６％を突破。特に開業１年未満の新築ビルは３４．３３％と、１年前（６．９７％）の約５倍に達した。

　不動産業界の関係者は「金融危機のあおりで外資系企業のオフィス需要が大きく落ち込んだ」と語る。三鬼商事も「ビルの供給過多というより、企業側の需要が減っている」と分析している。

　他の主要都市も、３月は大阪が８．０５％で、３年５カ月ぶりに８％台を記録。名古屋は０．４７ポイント上がって１０．０９％で、札幌や仙台、福岡も上昇が続いている。

　一方、３．３平方メートル当たりの平均募集賃料は都心５区で１．５０％下落の２万１２９５円と、７カ月続けて下がった。不動産大手幹部は「都心のオフィス市況はまだまだ底堅い」と話すが、三鬼商事は「多くの大型ビルで募集賃料を見直す動きが出てきた」と指摘している。

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撲協会、初の抜き打ち大麻検査…親方や行司も対象
大麻検査のため、両国国技館に入る力士たち（２２日午後０時４０分）＝中司雅信撮影

　日本相撲協会は２２日午後、親方や力士、行司ら協会員全員を対象にした抜き打ちによる大麻などの薬物検査を始めた。

　相撲協会が今年２月末、禁止薬物使用は原則解雇とする「薬物使用禁止規定」を定めて以来、初の抜き打ち検査となる。

　この日は、両国国技館内にある相撲診療所に五つの一門から各１部屋ずつ協会員を呼び出す形で実施。武蔵川理事長の部屋からも協会員が検査を受けた。検査は尿を採取し、相撲協会が今月、正式に契約した専門検査機関「三菱化学メディエンス」（本社・東京）で詳細に調べる。違法薬物が検出された場合を除き、検査結果は公表されない。

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ドーピング検査早期導入　求められる相撲協会の対応

　日本相撲協会は２２日、違法薬物の使用者を調べる抜き打ち尿検査を開始した。大麻事件などの再発防止に向けて強い姿勢を打ち出した形だが、同時に、競技力を向上させる薬物を取り締まるためのドーピング検査の早期導入も求められる。

　生活指導部特別委員会委員の大西祥平慶大教授は以前から「抜き打ち検査とドーピング検査実施のための動きは、両方進めていかなければいけない」と話している。

　相撲協会は既にアンチ・ドーピング委員会で、ドーピング違反の罰則規定案を固め、５月下旬の定例理事会の承認を経て正式決定する見込みだ。だが、資格停止期間の決定などを含め世界反ドーピング機関（ＷＡＤＡ）の基準に沿うかどうかなど、クリアすべき課題も多い。

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相撲協会：薬物対策で初の抜き打ち尿検査…１０３人対象に

2009年4月22日 19時43分　更新：4月22日 21時17分

　日本相撲協会は２２日、力士の大麻事件を契機に導入した、違法薬物チェックのための抜き打ち尿検査を初めて実施した。

　この日の検査は、武蔵川、時津風、大島、阿武松、高砂の五つの相撲部屋に所属する親方衆や横綱・朝青龍ら力士など全協会員１０４人が対象。帰省中の１人を除き、１０３人が東京・両国国技館内で検査を受けた。今後も部屋単位で検査が行われる。

　相撲協会によると、今回の検査は２０日に対象の部屋に通知した。抜き打ち性が保たれるかどうかに関しては、チェックされる大麻や覚せい剤など３種類の違法薬物は２日前に使用された場合でも検出できるという。また、不正を防ぐため、尿の採取時や提出時など検査の節目ごとに担当の親方が立ち会った。

　検体は、協会と契約した三菱化学メディエンスで簡易検査され、陽性の疑いがあれば、さらに精密検査される。

　自ら検査を受けた武蔵川理事長（元横綱・三重ノ海）は「（検査は）粛々と全員必ずやっていく」と話した。力士は「きょうのけいこの前に言われた。あってはならないことが起きたので（検査は）良かったと思う」（雅山）、「喜んで受けました。全員陰性だったら、みんなで頑張ろうとしていることが証明できる」（旭天鵬）などと話した。

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元若麒麟に懲役10月、執行猶予３年

判決公判を終え、報道陣の前で頭を下げる元若麒麟の鈴川真一被告（共同）
判決公判を終え、報道陣の前で頭を下げる元若麒麟の鈴川真一被告（共同）

　大麻取締法違反（所持）の罪に問われていた大相撲元若麒麟の鈴川真一被告（２５）の判決が２２日、横浜地裁川崎支部（阿部浩巳裁判長）であり、懲役１０月、執行猶予３年（求刑懲役１０月）の有罪判決が言い渡された。

　阿部裁判長は「被告人が所持していた大麻５・６９グラムは少量とはいえず、一定の非難は免れない」などと厳しく断罪。一方で日本相撲協会の退職金に当たる養老金５２９万円の受け取りを辞退した点などを挙げ「くむべき事情もある」と量刑理由を説明した。

　検察側、被告側双方とも控訴しない方針。