Japan's consumer confidence remains on a......>

JAPAN: Japan's consumer confidence remains on a pickup trend and has a good

chance of rising in January after December's small dip, a senior Cabinet Office

official said. The key index in the Consumer Confidence Survey slipped 0.2 point

to 44.7 in December from a four-year high of 44.9 in November but the government

does not see any reason to change its view that confidence is picking up,

Shuichi Matsuta, director of the Department of Business Statistics at the

Cabinet Office, said Tuesday. He noted that the index rose in the previous three

months for a total of 1.6 points and that compared to this gain, the 0.2% dip is

not significant.