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TOKYO, JAPAN - THE United States should use public funds to shore up its financial system and calm recent market turmoil, Japan's financial services minister said in an interview published on Monday.
'It is essential (for the US) to understand that given Japan's lesson, public fund injection (into the financial sector) is unavoidable,' Mr Yoshimi Watanabe told the Financial Times.
He said Japan was ready to share its experience with the United States at the Group of Seven meetings of finance ministers, who are due to gather in Washington next month.
'We are prepared to take coordinated action if necessary,' he said. 'We must recognise that the current crisis is not as straightforward as past dollar crises.'
The same newspaper reported over the weekend that US and European central banks were considering buying mortgage-backed securities to resolve the credit crisis triggered by a wave of US home loan defaults.
The problems have pushed the dollar down to a 12-year low against the yen and to the lowest-ever levels against the euro, causing concern in Japan and the eurozone about the impact on exports.
Japan suffered a deep and prolonged banking crisis in the 1990s after the country's asset bubble burst, leading to the failure of a number of high-profile financial institutions.
The Japanese government injected capital to the banking sector in an effort to shore up markets and struggling financial institutions, some of which were nationalised to prevent their collapse.
The problems came amid Japan's 'lost decade' of stagnant growth and on-off recession in the 1990s, from which the country is still recovering. -- AFP
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