Japan offers Southeast Asian nations Y2 tril to build infrastructure

But paying support money to the people in Fukushima or paying to evacuate kids will bankrupt Japan. WTF!

PM Noda is testing the water...to see if his ASEAN friends will be in his favour...:)

Sometimes, the logic of modern politics is just too hard to understand. Please, keep in mind that giving money to developing countries is mutually beneficial for both the donor and the receiver. However, you should always be careful AND you must be sure that you have solved all domestic issues that require packages of money (for example, the reconstruction of Tohoku area). You must never overestimate your ability for cash flow. Therefore, i would say that Japan nowadays is not in the position for offering such a large amount of money to Southeast nations.

WHOSE 2 TRILLION DOLLARS, NODA? While Japan offers two trillion here, and several billion there, people in Fukushima and other prefectures affected by the earthquake and tsunami are STILL living in shelters while the government claims it has no funds and must raise taxes to get them!!

While I admire Japan's lip-service in promising to donate money to everything under the sun, SAVE IT FOR HOME! Other nations should understand that the money is needed HERE to rebuild infrastructure. Donate labor, donate goods.... but for money, I'm sorry, put it towards paying off the national debt and/or reconstruction.

It's amazing how people fail to see the logic behind investment. The basis of capitalism and a global economy requires cash flow. If a country hoards its "money" for only domestic projects, other countries will do the same. There will be no liquidity in the global market, and in the long term, the economy will stagnate.

Of course priorities must be set, but not at the exclusion of everything else. It is undeniable fact that Japan needs a great deal of money to rebuild at the moment. It is also common sense that this should take priority over most, if not all, other projects. But this does not mean all expenditure to the global market and everywhere else must be cut to finance these rebuilding efforts. Raising taxes to finance the rebuilding effort while maintaining overseas investment projects is the basic, logical step for Japan.

Of course, Japan can keep taxes untouched, draw on their reserves, cut overseas investment and domestic spending and focus all their considerable financial resources into rebuilding. Certainly that would not need any taxes. The result will be a Japan that regains the former glory in maybe 10 years, when the rebuilding is done. In maybe a few decades, it might return to pre-Fukushima standards, assuming the nuclear waste can be safely disposed of. That is to say, in maybe 2050, Japan will have regained the glory of the Japan in 2011, while the rest of the world has gone forward. Isn't that great?

Make no mistake. All the talk about national debts and global economy are on the scale of HUNDREDS of trillions of USD. Japan can certainly finance any single project they want, if they make no plans for the long term. Feeding, clothing and taking care of the couple ten thousands of displaced Fukushima residents is almost certainly within their ability. Yet, if the Japanese government were to make such a move carelessly, not only do they put in jeopardy their long term prospects, it invites criticism of government bailouts. Should not the blame and responsibility fall on the commercial company of TEPCO, who caused this mess with their poor planning in the first place?

Every government has a large amount of reserves. Some of them are tied up in bonds and reserves and multiple projects. Yet no one will carelessly draw on these resources. Not without long term planning and consultation. That is the reason why democratic countries can sometimes take so long to pass a budget through their legislative bodies. No matter how urgent, how common sensical, due process must be taken to justify the spending for the long term. These efforts do not always bear fruit. Wrong decisions can still be made even after careful deliberation and voting, and the effects of these will not be apparent until decades later. But at the very least, this is the better choice than to recklessly spend the moment a crisis happens.

This money allocated to SEA nations was probably allocated through a long process of years of legislation and debate. To suggest that they should drop such long term plans to finance a short-term solution to displaced residents is a laughable concept at best, no matter how admirable the motivation.

I'll end my comment on the note that this is no donation. Even a liberal arts major like me isn't so naive. No nation offers free money for any reason. Even "humanitarian" aid to countries beset by disasters (like Japan's earthquake) comes with strings attached. If not material, then political strings. If not through job opportunities or material wealth, then some other means of "paying back" that "donation" will be made. There is no free lunch in this world, and governments are essentially the world's largest bodies of commercial corporations. Remember that the next time you take a government handout from wherever.

This has benefit to Japan in beyond the original amount provided.

Strings will be attached so that Japanese companies are appointed as main contractor in developing the infrastructure.

The money sent out will help lower the current Yen exchange rate in which will help the export industry.

3.The Japanese companies that participate will gain further market share directly through the project with indirect possibilities with larger presence within the region due to participation

The synergy through this offer will provide more income to the J government in the long run then the amount originally funded out.

In short it will have the same structure as many ODA projects had in the past.

The Japanese taxpayers must feel very 'gratitutes' to the DPJ and Mr Noda's great generousity!

buying friends again

It is time to help our poor Asian nations to stand strong and fight agnist Chinese aggression. If they do not have factories and infrastructure China will just buy the resources for cheap price. And finaly depended to China. Japanese ODA always help other nations. Ofcourse all the projects should be done by the Japanese companies to keep the quality and quarnty of each work thye do in those poor countries.

They shouldn't be offering taxpayers' money. Reduce taxes and let the individual decide where and how they want to give their extra hard earned cash.

First it is 2 trillion yen, not 2 trillion dollars @smithinjapan.

Secondly, knowing the way aid from Japan works, it will basically be a massive and promotion exercise for Japanese products and services, as they have always done with ODA and JICA.

Thirdly, Noda is not committing anything, he is just 'prepared to offer'. Who knows what the actual amount will be...

Lend or give?