Japan's new prime minister, Naoto Kan, in his first major speech since taking office, said: "Japan is 'at risk of collapse' under its huge debt mountain."

For the past 20 years, Japan has been borrowing to keep its economy afloat. Most of Japan's bonds have been bought by Japanese citizens. Now with an aging population, Japanese citizens may not have the desire to purchase more bonds. The government would be forced to find other buyers who, most likely, would demand a higher yield.

Last week's ratification of the Durbin Amendment by U.S. lawmakers seemed to put Visa (V) on edge, with the credit card company now facing the prospect of curtailed interchange fees. (Of course, the firm's written statement cited concerns about potential harm to consumers -- a nice touch.)

So, with the forecast looking gloomy on the home front, perhaps it's no surprise that Visa is now trying to woo another major world power. According to Japan's The Nikkei, Visa "will urge the Japanese government to use credit cards for all of its purchases, from stationery items to parts for fighter jets, saying it would save the country a lot of money."

Earlier this month Toyota Motor Company (TM) was forced to halt sales of its Lexus GX 460 after it received a "Don't Buy" rating from Consumer Reports, but the company announced today that the problem has been fixed, and it had resumed U.S. sales.

The problem with the SUVs involved the vehicles electronic stabilizer, which was unable to adequately correct the SUV when sliding out in corners.

Toyota Motor (TM) was back in the news Wednesday with additional recalls. This time the recall involves its Sequoia sports utility vehicle due to concerns regarding the stability control on the 2003 model year. This is the second time this month that the company has recalled some of its SUVs.

The back's stability control system is supposed to correct a loss of traction in the front or rear tires when the SUV enters a corner. There have been reports that the system activated when the vehicle was moving at slow speed and resulted in drivers not being able to accelerate, and in some cases the brakes coming on and slowing the SUV down unexpectedly.

Shares of insurance giant Aflac Inc. (AFL) were slightly higher in after-hours trading Tuesday following the company's announcement of better-than-expected earnings for its first quarter.

After the market close Aflac posted earnings per share of $1.35 for its first quarter, which was slightly higher than the $1.32 that analysts had forecast for the company's quarter. During the same period last year the company had earnings of $1.22 per share.

More bad news for Japanese auto maker Toyota Motor Corp. (TM), with the company announcing that it was recalling around 600,000 Sienna minivans sold in the United States.

The latest in a string of safety concerns involves potentially rusted spare tire cables that could break, allowing the minivan's spare tire to bust loose and tumble into the road.

Earlier this week Toyota Motor Corporation (TM) took another hit to its public relations when Consumer Reports hit one of its new SUV models, the Lexus GX 460, with a 'Don't Buy' rating. Toyota announced today that in light of the concerns over the Lexus SUV it would be running safety tests on all of its SUVs to reassure Toyota drivers that their vehicles are indeed safe.

The concern comes from tests that Consumer Reports ran on the Lexus GX 460 that showed the SUV was a rollover risk. The electronic stabilizer that was supposed to correct the SUV from spinning out was not kicking in as quickly as it should be.

It was not that long ago that Toyota Motor Corp. (TM) was known for the safety of its vehicles, but the past year has been a nightmare for the Japanese automaker. And things took a turn for the worse Tuesday when it was forced to suspend sales of its Lexus GX 460.

The decision to suspend sales of the Lexus SUV came after Consumer Reports hit the model with a rare "Don't Buy" rating due to rollover concerns.

Shares of athletic giant Nike, Inc. (NKE) are up over 3% in after hours trading after the company posted better than expected earnings for its fiscal third quarter this afternoon.

As we noted in our earnings preview last night, analysts had forecast earnings of $0.89 per share for the quarter. Fueled by a 7% increase in sales during the quarter, Nike was able to outpace estimates and earn $1.01 per share. This marks the 11th straight quarter that Nike has been able to post better than expected quarterly earnings.

It was only a matter of time before Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) surpassed it's previous all time high of $359.59 set on December 14, 2007. I have blogged many times about ISRG in my Chasing Value column. Today, I'm delighted that the stock is rising, but I think it is getting a bit rich and the value proposition has changed -- intra-day it hit $366.50.

Intuitive has a trailing P/E ratio of 61 and a projected P/E of 46. I commonly average the two for such volatile stocks which translates to 53.5. There are certain times when that might be alright, but with a PEG ratio (price-to-earnings-to-growth) of 2.05, this is not one of them. If you own it I am not suggesting selling it, but if you do not it might be wiser to put it on your watch list and wait for the market to calm down.

More encouraging news regarding the global economic recovery, as Japan's economy unexpectedly grew at an annualized rate of 4.6% in Q4, Bloomberg News reported Monday, or well above the 3.5% Bloomberg survey estimate.

Exports, as is typically the case when Japan's economy revs-up, led the expansion, as strong export demand to China was bolstered by rising business capital spending, and improving private consumption, TheAustralian.com reported Monday.

China is all the rage. It has a booming economy. Investors are intrigued. Some already own stocks in China. But is it a good time to buy into the Chinese dragon, especially if you are new to foreign investing? Let's look at another point in history, at another hot country, and see how that turned out.

The time was not that long ago: late 1970s to early 1980s. There was another major economic tsunami coming from the East. Japan was the biggest fish in the Pacific pond, and it looked preordained to take over the world, starting with the U.S. Japan was the country with all the right economic answers. It had a booming economy while America's was floundering. Companies looked to incorporate "the Japanese way of doing business." It had to be superior since the Japanese economy was flourishing.

Despite last week's announcement that Wendy's/Arby's Group Inc. (WEN) would withdraw from Japan, the third largest burger chain in the U.S. isn't ready to give up on Asia altogether.

Food service management company Kopitiam Group will be bringing the Wendy's fast food chain back to Singapore after an absence of more than 10 years. The group plans to open 35 Wendy's branches in Singapore over the next decade.

The financial markets received another deflation data point Tuesday, and it's not a minor one.

The Bank of Japan said it will begin a 10 trillion yen ($115 billion) quantitative easing program to commercial banks to fight deflation, Bloomberg News reported Tuesday.

Japan, still grappling with price pressure from a decade earlier -- the 'Lost Decade' -- has seen deflation pressures intensify this decade due to its aging population, low birth rate, and low consumer spending.

Consumer confidence ticked upward for the first time since 2007. Around the world, consumers are becoming more comfortable with the prospect of shelling out some cash, even if they're still approaching the notion with caution.

According to a survey conducted by The Nielsen Company between September 28 and October 16, 2009, consumer confidence was highest in India, with Indonesia and Norway following. Japan, Latvia, Portugal, and South Korea were at the other end of the spectrum, though South Korea did show a significant quarterly improvement.