TOKYO -- Japan has filed its candidacy to host the annual meetings in October 2012 of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in Tokyo to demonstrate the country's possible economic recovery from the catastrophic earthquake and tsunami in March, Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda said Friday.
The Washington-based international lending bodies, whose member countries currently stand at 187, hold their general meetings outside the U.S. capital every three years. Japan last hosted the events in 1964.
We want to hold this meeting to show that Japan and areas damaged by the disaster are recovering," Noda told reporters after a cabinet meeting.
"This will also be a chance to showcase Asia as an engine of growth in the global economy."
Almost all of the meetings would be held in Tokyo, but it is possible for members of some meetings to visit parts of Japan's northeast coast that were battered by the natural disaster, Noda said.
Japan is facing its worst crisis since World War Two after the 9.0 magnitude earthquake and a tsunami towering more than 10 metres battered its northeast coast on March 11, leaving more than 24,000 dead or missing and triggering nuclear meltdowns at a power plant.
The government estimates the material damage alone could top $300 billion, making it by far the world's costliest natural disaster.
Japan's parliament passed earlier this month a $50 billion emergency budget to clear wreckage and provide temporary housing. Noda said the government would consider another small spending package to cover anything left behind in the first emergency budget.
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