[/floatl]Takao Kitabata, the Vice Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, is reported to have criticized Japan's day traders in some unguarded remarks last month. At a meeting of the Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry, a foundation linked to the ministry, he reportedly accused day traders of having no interest in the management of public companies and said they were essentially racetrack bettors who used PCs to gamble on stocks. He went on to say that such idiots make the worst kind of shareholders because they are fickle and irresponsible and do not deserve to have voting rights. He apparently also went on to speak critically of foreign investors but there are no specific details of those comments. The vice-minister explained to the Asahi, who first reported the story, that his audience was looking at bit sleepy so he spiced up his speech a little to get their attention. Kitabata might be a familiar to some here. His name was included in the list of those ministry officials who were regularly entertained at the infamous no-pan shabu shabu restaurant in Shinjuku where he was able to intelligently and responsibly shine a torch up a waitress' skirt to confirm that she wasn't wearing any underwear.ZakZak story in Japanese here. Japan Economy News also wrote up the story here and includes some of his references to foreign investors.
