J Update

In the campaign for the Upper House election, one unusual topic is discussed among the parties. That is governmental policies for foreigners in Japan. One small uprising party advocates eccentric policies to introduce stricter regulation against foreign residents in Japan. While some conservative parties uphold regulations against foreigners, the liberal powers dismiss those movements as exclusive. It seems to have common ground with the United States where policy against immigrants is spotlighted.   The policy on foreigners in Japan has been discussed as the matter of accepting workers from foreign countries to cover labor shortage in Japan. Former Shinzo Abe administration introduced new system of foreigners’ status for skilled workers in 2019. In this Upper House election, the discussion is more focused on whether life of the Japanese are threatened by increasing foreigners.   A Peruvian, who had converted his driver’s license issued by his home country to Japanese one, dro...

A lawmaker with the Liberal Democratic Party made a gaffe which may affect the campaign for the Upper House election. Yosuke Tsuruho   said   that occurrence of a great earth quake in Noto could be lucky in his speech for an LDP candidate in Wakayama district on July 8 th . Accusations toward Tsuruho arose not only from the opposition parties but the ruling parties. Tsuruho was elected a member of the Upper House in Wakayama district for the first time in 1998 and currently in his fifth term. He is the Chairman of the Committee on Budget in the House. Since he still has three years for his current term, he does not have his own election campaign in this Upper House election. He was makng a speech for an LDP candidate in Wakayama district on July 8 th .   In the  speech , Tsuruho was appealing necessity of reforming residential registration system in local cities, a policy which he has been involved in as a lawmaker. “How we can maintain well-balanced development of o...

The President of the United States, Donald Trump, announced that the U.S. would extend the limit to impose “reciprocal tariffs” from July 9 th   to August 1 st . Trump sent letters to fourteen countries to notice tariff rate for each country. Japan was informed that 25 percent would be added on its goods. As Trump indicated a possibility that the rate would be changed based on coming negotiation, Shigeru Ishiba administration is going to accelerate bilateral negotiation with the U.S.   In  an executive order  issued on July 7 th , Trump extended suspension of reciprocal tariff rates, “based on additional information and recommendations from various senior officials, including information on the status of discussions with trade partners.” The order also noted that the separate 90-day tariff suspension on China issued on May 12 th  will remain in effect.   At the same time, Trump noticed the leaders of fourteen countries with letters that the U.S. would impos...

As it was the top issue in the last Lower House election last year, regulation of political donation is one of the main issues in the Upper House election on July 20 th . The slush fund scandal in the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) revealed false management of political fund. The opposition parties demand stricter regulation on it. It is possible that reform of political fund has crucial impact on the election again. The slush fund scandal in the LDP, which was revealed by a charge of a professor, gave a fatal damage on the party which had heavily been relied on secret funds raised through fundraising parties. As election campaigns were eventually been operated through internet, the scandal indicated that the LDP had been approaching voters by selling party tickets. The buyers were expecting some returns from the party which controlled national politics. That was old type of politics, on which ordinary voters were embracing fundamental skepticism.   The LDP tried to fix the problem...

Major newspapers conducted polls at the early stage of the Upper House election that will be voted on July 20 th . They showed a tendency that the ruling coalition by the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and Komeito would reduce their seats in the House, while the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDPJ) and the Democratic Party for the People (DPP) would surge. It is unpredictable whether the leading coalition can maintain their simple majority in the House. The election will be held for 125 seats, including 1 seat of by-election in Tokyo district, out of all 248 seats in the House. The leading coalition needs to secure 50 seats, adding to 75 seats without election this year, to maintain a simple majority in the House. All the polls indicated that the coalition is standing at the edge of losing majority with possibility of growth of the opposition powers.   Yomiuri Shimbun  anticipates  that the LDP may reduce its seats from 52 to 40.  Asahi Shimbun  and...

Shigeru Ishiba Cabinet fixed its   basic concept  for encouraging local community, which was titled “Regional Revitalization 2.0.” Given a tendency of serious decline of new birth rate in Japan, Ishiba Cabinet encourages decentralization to promote demographic balance between big cities and local regions. The Cabinet focuses on increasing population of local communities, not based on residents but on flow of the people.   Ishiba was in charge of this issue, Regional Revitalization 1.0, as a Minister of Shinzo Abe Cabinet in 2014. As a lawmaker elected from a local district in Tottori, Ishiba made efforts to improve towns, people and jobs, which included new legislation for moving some office of national government to regions or for appropriating national budget for benefits to the local governments. However, the measures did not lead Japan to a trend of decentralization.   The basic concept found the greatest reason for centralization to Tokyo to be moves of young ag...

China   announced  that it would resume its import of seafood products from some parts of Japan, ending its complete ban on them since August 2023, when Japan started discharging “processed water” from Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant into the Pacific Ocean. It is estimated that China needs to rebuild economic ties with Japan in the time when it exacerbated relationship with the Unite States over tariffs. After the severe accident in the Fukushima plant in 2011, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), consulting with the government of Japan, has been accumulated used water after cooling crippled reactors in the site. Although TEPCO could not completely remove radioactive tritium, TEPCO and Japanese government decided to release the water against fundamental concern of neighbor countries.   China as well as the Republic of Korea expressed strongest concern on Japan’s decision among the nations around Japan. Immediately after the discharging water, China laid a complete ...

Election of one of two Houses of the Diet is always about yes or no to political handlings of incumbent prime minister. In the Upper House election, the opposition parties cast skepticisms on domestic and foreign policies of Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, while the leading coalition defends them. As the United States President, Donald Trump, put Japan under pressure for his tariff policy, the parties concern handling of U.S.-Japan relationship. Political reform is also the major topic in domestic politics.   Just few days before official announcement of the Upper House election, Trump expressed his frustration with bilateral negotiation between U.S. and Japan on tariffs. “Dear Mr. Japan, here’s the story: You’re going to pay a 25 percent on your cars,”  said  Trump. He is also complained about small amount of Japan’s import of American rice, in spite of rice shortage in the market.   In the  debate  of Japan National Press Club, the leader of Constitutional...

The Upper House election was officially called on July 3 rd . The parties started their election campaign toward the voting day of July 20 th . As the consequence of targeted inflation policy by former administrations led by the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito, price inflation is the greatest concern for the voters now. Each party focuses on economic policy to appeal to the voters.   Several opposition parties uphold reduction or elimination of consumption tax rate to support families suffering from price inflation. The Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDPJ) embraces 0 percent of consumption tax on foods as the top agenda among their campaign policies. The leader of CDPJ, Yoshihiko Noda, insists that the party can achieve the policy without issuing new Japanese government bond.   In the  debate  by party leaders at Japan National Press Club on July 2 nd , Prime Minister Ishiba (the president of LDP) asked Noda about financial resource for the consumptio...

Central Disaster Management Council of the government of Japan revised its   basic plan  of preparing for Nankai Trough megaquake, which is highly likely to occur within next 30 years. The plan demands the government to take measures to reduce victims of the earthquake by 80 percent and broken houses by 50 percent within next 10 years. The government added 16 cities in Japan to which it would exercise intensive measures to reduce possible damages. The government estimated 332 thousand victims and 2.5 million destructions of houses by Nankai Trough megaquake, which would cause a huge tsunami on the coast of southwest Japan, in the previous basic plan formulated in 2014, three years after East Japan Great Earthquake. The plan was revised in March 2025, adding lessons from Noto Peninsula Great Earthquake in 2024, indicating possibility of 298 deaths and 2.35 million destructions of houses.   Although 2014 plan could not fulfill the target of reducing deaths by 80 percent and...

Minister in charge of Economic Revitalization, Ryosei Akazawa, came back from the seventh meeting as the top negotiator on tariffs with the United States. Having discussed on the issue with U.S. Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick, in Washington, D.C., Akazawa did not have a meeting with his counterpart, Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent. President Donald Trump indicated a possibility of terminating the bilateral negotiation, if both sides fail in reaching a deal. Akazawa stayed at the D.C. between June 26 th  and 30 th  this time. In the four-day visit, it was only Lutnick who had a meeting with Akazawa. “I will continue the discussion in a vigorous and sincere manner to achieve an agreement which will be beneficial for both Japan and the United States,” said Akazawa in his press conference in Tokyo after his trip to Washington.   Trump’s tariff on imported cars took effect in April. According to data of Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association, Japan  exporte...

Having the Upper House election within a month ahead, a national conference of the leaders of business and academics held a discussion of party leaders in Tokyo on June 29 th . Both heads of ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDPJ)   dismissed  possibility of having a grand coalition with each other, raising their difference on basic policies. It is likely that the current style of Japanese politics, in which the parties formulate partial cooperation on specific policy, will be maintained under the circumstance of minority government in the Lower House.   The conference is commonly known as ReIWA, an abbreviation of Reinventing Infrastructure of Wisdom and Action. ReIWA is organized in June 2022 by about one hundred members from business sectors, labor unions and scholars to make proposals to the politics. The conference issued policy packages on social security system, fiscal reform or management of political funds, up...

Minister of Justice, Keisuke Suzuki,   announced  that the ministry executed death penalty on Takahiro Shiraishi who was sentenced death penalty in the case of robbery and murder with rape on nine victims. It marked the first example of execution for Shigeru Ishiba Cabinet. Although execution has been a controversial issue, since Iwao Hakamada, who had been in the death row for decades, was proved to be innocent in a murder case, Ishiba government showed willingness to maintain death penalty as the supreme penalty in Japan. According to the sentence of the court, Shiraishi invited people who indicated through social networking service their wishes to die and killed them in his room in Zama City, Kanagawa, between August and October 2017. He raped eight women and choked each of them to the death and cut and abandoned their bodies. One man was also killed by Shiraishi. Those nine victims were between the age of fifteen and twenty-six.   Tokyo District Court sentenced death ...

The Third Petty Bench of Supreme Court   sentenced   on June 27 th  that a decision of government of Japan to reduce welfare benefits from 2013 to 2015 was illegal and invalid. The court found that the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) had falsely determined reduction of the benefits beyond its discretion. Although the court dismissed the responsibility of the government for compensation to the plaintiffs, it became a major issue for the government how to adjust the policy of welfare benefits.   After the Lehman Shock in 2008, a lot of workers in Japan lost their jobs and recipient of governmental welfare benefits increased from 1.1 million families in 2007 to 1.5 million in 2011. The Liberal Democratic Party, an opposition party led by president Shinzo Abe against the administration of Democratic Party of Japan, upheld a campaign policy of reducing the benefits by 10 percent in the Lower House election in 2012. Inappropriate reception of the benefit was ...

As the ordinary session of the Diet closed on June 22 nd , the parties entered their campaign for election of the Upper House, which will be voted on July 20 th . Shigeru Ishiba Cabinet is on the edge of losing its majority in addition to the Lower House. However, the opposition parties have no perspective of being united to form a coalition government, even if they defeat current administration. It is possible that the result of the election may affect the formation of coalition, which currently is consisted of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and Komeito.   The House of Councillors has 248 seats. They are occupied by the LDP with 114 seats, Komeito with 27, the Constitutional Democratic Party (CDPJ) with 38, Japan Innovation Party (Nippon Ishin-no Kai) with 17, the Democratic Party for the People (DPP) with 9, Japan Communist Party with 11, and others with 23. It has 9 vacant seats.   The term of each member is 6 years. One half of all the seats are renewed every three yea...

As a business as usual for a prime minister, Shigeru Ishiba had   a press conference   on the day after closing of an ordinary session of the Diet. Although Ishiba managed his minority government in the House of Representatives, the leading coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito could pass FY2025 budget bill by the end of March and avoid non-confidence resolution against Ishiba Cabinet. Ishiba hoped to support every family as a campaign for the Upper House election a month later.   Ishiba stressed his achievement of passing FY2025 budget bill with revision in the Lower House for the first time in 29 years and in the Upper House for the first time ever. “I made efforts to construct a consensus beyond party lines and to make sincere discussion in the Diet,” said Ishiba. Ishiba government could pass 58 bills out of 59 submitted by the Cabinet and all 13 treaties in the session.   The budget bill passed the Diet, because Ishiba accepted a demand of Japan I...

Israel and Iran reached an agreement of ceasefire on June 24 th   with mediation of the United States, after 12-day exchange of fire. Although it tried to keep distance from the conflict, Japan had to make difficult decision as the U.S. was directly involved in the conflict. The conflict also brought some questions in security policy of Japan, which has been willing to build firm security cooperation with the U.S. and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Israel launched missile attack on nuclear facilities in Iran on June 13 th . Japan immediately took position of criticizing Israel,  condmening  “the use of military means amid the ongoing diplomatic efforts, including U.S.-Iran talks aimed at the peaceful resolution of the Iran’s nuclear issue.” The main concern of Japan at the time was whether the conflict would affect Japan’s economy, which was highly dependent on crude oil from the Middle East.   The condition significantly changed by abrupt military interv...