Japan's new financial services minister hates capitalism. LOL

Oct. 12 (Bloomberg) -- It’s buyer’s remorse, Japan-style.

A month after naming Shizuka Kamei financial services minister, Yukio Hatoyama must be wondering what he was thinking. Prime Minister Hatoyama’s attempts to impress investors are being scuttled by Kamei’s apparent contempt for them. Hanging in the balance is Japan’s economic outlook.

Few thought the appointment was a good one. It’s the kind of compromise you make to soothe egos within a coalition government. Yet in the space of a few weeks, Kamei stepped on the biggest reform in a decade -- privatizing Japan Post -- and hurt stock prices by attacking the central bank and calling for a moratorium on debt payments by small and midsized firms.

Oh yes, that’s what Japan needs: a new generation of zombie companies. Kamei is even blaming capitalism and Japan’s biggest business lobby for increasing murder and suicide rates. For journalists, this erratic official is a gift, a wild-quote machine. Traders buzz about the “Kamei factor” in markets, which wince at his every utterance.

It’s an early and highly unwelcome test for a prime minister struggling to stabilize Asia’s biggest economy. The forces of global recession and deflation are challenge enough. Hatoyama also must deal with a bull-in-the-china-shop dynamic from a key economy czar.

Moving Backward

If Kamei is fazed, he’s not letting on. The 72-year-old former police official says Hatoyama “can’t replace me” and that he has the premier’s full confidence. That’s doubtful. If true, the risks for an economy desperately in need of moving forward, not sliding backward, are high and rising.

Kamei is tapping into deep reservations about American- style capitalism. When they aren’t visiting his Web site to view his karaoke performances, readers hear a mouthful about the evils of “unbridled capitalism.” The trouble is, he’s exacerbating those concerns.

Watching the U.S. economy unravel, Japanese are right to question priorities across the Pacific Ocean. The sight of bankers again making billions of dollars as unemployment soars and home foreclosures surge sits badly with many Americans, too.

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http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&sid=akA1s5z.TNDQ

why? -- why -- would that upset anyone -- particularly the markets?