--US' Summers: Japan needs macro economic vision to solve woes
--Summers: Japan shown reluctance to face depth of fncl woes
--US' Summers: Shares concern on Euro zone structural jobless
--US Summers: Is room for US policy to "manoeuver" on econ
--US Summers: Europe still needs to address structural issues
--US Summers: Slowdowns can aid in long-term econ expansion

By Regina Schleiger and Liz Alderman, BridgeNews
Davos--Jan. 27--Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers said he is "profoundly troubled" by the economic malaise in Japan, saying the economy needs a macroeconomic "vision" to resolve severely restricted monetary conditions. Summers, speaking at the World Economic Forum here, also said there has been a reluctance among senior government policymakers to recognize the depth of the system's problems.
* * * "I am profoundly troubled by the situation by the situation of the Japanese economy," said Summers. It was his first public indication that Japanese counterparts to the U.S. Treasury had continued to resist repeated efforts by the Treasury to draw attention to the seriousness of Japan's economic malaise prior to its most recent slump.
"It is fair to say there has been a certain amount of reluctance in Japan to recognize that," Summers said of depth of Japan's monetary problems.
Summers told a panel here--which included Japan Vice Finance Minister for International Affairs Haruhiko Kuroda and International Monetary Fund first deputy managing director Stanley Fischer--that it is "naive to suppose that a more efficient telecommunications sector or a more efficient manufacturing sector" is likely to help Japan attain high growth rates.
He said as important as Japan's structural reform efforts are, that Japan needs a "macro economic vision" to tackle its monetary and financial conditions.
Summers that central to Japan's dilemma was the need for change in monetary and financial conditions."
On Europe, Summers said he shares Fischer's concern about the region's high level of structural unemployment. End
Regina Schleiger, BridgeNews, Tel: ++41-78-635 1505