J Update

A citizen’s group   found  human bones in a remain of old coal mine under the sea, which was accidentally soaked in seawater during wartime. Over one hundred workers from Korea died in the accident. Although the group asks the government of Japan to make research for the coal mine, Japan refuses it, arguing that the victims were not categorized as the war dead. The coal mine is called Chosei Tanko, located offshore of Ube city, Yamaguchi. The mine was run by private firm. It was February, 1942, two months after Imperial Japan joined the World War II, when an accident of cave-in occurred a kilometer away from the coast line. It is recorded that 183 workers were killed, out of which 136 were Koreans. Those victims have not been retrieved for a long time after the war ended in 1945.   A citizen’s group  established in 1991 started voluntary research in the remain in 2024, after it discovered an entrance of the mine. It continued searches in the mine, sending divers into...

A week after announcement of resignation by Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, the campaign for next president of tbe Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) seems to be the race by five candidates, all of whom had lost in last election a year ago. It is likely that the race will be about how next leader can “change” the party, which is ailing with political funds reform and dealing with Diet affairs in which the LDP does not have a majority in both chambers.   Former Secretary General, Toshimitsu Motegi, was the first who stepped forward. In his press conference to announce his candidacy, Motegi emphasized his economic policy to increase take-home pay of the people, with was resonant with argument of the Democratic Party for the People (DPP). Motegi referred to a possibility of building a leading coalition with the DPP or Japan Innovation Party (Nippon Ishin-no Kai) to recover minority government in the Diet.   Former Minister for Economic Security, Sanae Takaichi, and Secretary of Agricu...

Minister of Justice, Keisuke Suzuki, released   an interim report  of his private study group on influx of foreigners into Japan. It found that Japan’s policy on immigrants lacked strategic basis and recommended to consider setting a limit on accepting foreigners as workforce. The Ministry of Justice (MOJ) is going to grapple with the issue which was paid attention by voters in the Upper House election in July.   While the Liberal Democratic Party reduced 13 seats in the Upper House election, Saiseito added the same number of seats. One of the policies in Sanseito’s  platform  was stopping “silent invasion” to Japan by foreign countries. The party upheld limiting foreign workers to Japan and introduction of stricter regulation on foreigners’ purchase of land, forest, source of water supply and isolated islands.   Recognizing growing attention on foreign immigrants in Japan, the MOJ began to review its policies on foreign people in Japan. Suzuki’s study grou...

The leader of Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDPJ) renewed the executive members of the party on September 11. As seen in the pick of former Minister of Finance Jun Azumi for Secretary General, the head, Yoshihiko Noda, focused on stability in handling of politics by skilled politicians. Noda insisted that he would aim at taking government with his new party leadership.   In the Upper House election in July, the CDPJ won 22 seats, just the same number of seats the party had before the election, despite leading Liberal Democratic Party lost significant number of their seats. Its total seat as the sum of other seats without election this year in the Upper House is 38. It was obvious that the voters who defied LDP went to other parties, such as Democratic Party for the People or Sanseito.   The CDPJ reviewed the election and concluded that it was effectively a defeat, even if it did not reduce the seats. “It resulted in decline of presence as the biggest opposition par...

Mitsubishi Corporation   announced  that it would retreat from its project of offshore power generation. Although the corporation received a governmental order in 2021, it concluded that cost for constructing facilities would be higher than expected. It is likely that Japan’s future energy plan will be damaged by exit of the top runner in development of offshore power generation in Japan. The government of Japan had its first auction for offshore power generation in 2021. Mitsubishi, with Chubu Electric Power Company, won all three projects in two locations in Akita and one in Chiba. It offered 1.7 million kilowatt per hour from those three sites. The price of produced electricity per hour would be between 11.99 yen and 16.49 yen, far lower than expected 29 yen.   The government of Japan supported the project of Mitsubishi, expecting promotion of renewable energy in Japan. The government started new system of subsidy added on the price of sales of electricity produced fro...

Minister of Defense Gen Nakatani visited Republic of Korea and had a meeting with ROK Minister of National Defense Ahn Gyu-back. It was the first time for Japanese defense minister to have a bilateral ministerial meeting in these ten years. Both ministers reconfirmed importance of trilateral security cooperation including the United States to deal with another trilateral cooperation by China, Russia and North Korea.   In the  press conference  after the meeting, Nakatani stressed importance of maintaining bilateral relationship between Japan and ROK, or Japan-ROK-U.S. relationship in a volatile security environment. Both ministers agreed on promoting discussion by both defense authorities and exchange of personnel. They also agreed on further cooperation in cutting edge technologies including artificial intelligence, unmanned system or the space. They will maintain joint exercise called “Freedom Edge,” in which multiple countries participate.   Their bilateral relati...

Ministry of Defense (MOD)   released  a plan to deploy long-range stand-off missiles, which can strike enemy’s base from Japan. Those missiles will be installed in some bases in Japan from FY2025. While controversy over constitution which prohibits use or threatening with arms has not settled, the government of Japan decided to introduce highly offensive equipment to Japan Self-defense Force (JSDF), causing concern of residents around JSDF bases.   Possession of capability of striking enemy’s base was introduced in the revision of three major security documents in December, 2022. The capability is interpreted as preemptive attack on military facilities on foreign lands, when Japan finds a country preparing for missile attack on Japan. Since a preemptive attack is regarded as violation of the Constitution of Japan, there has been a discussion that deployment of long-range stand-off missiles is unconstitutional, breaching traditional restraint of strictly defensive policy. ...

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba announced on Sunday September 7 th  that he would step down to take responsibility of defeat of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in the Upper House election in July. The LDP is going to have a presidential election to choose next president, in other words prime minister. Ishiba sought to stay, but could not reject pressure from LDP colleagues who demanded resignation.   Ishiba abruptly had  a press conference  in Prime Minister’s Official Residence in Sunday evening to deliver his decision. Having settled a deal on tariffs with the United States, Ishiba told he would make his position open to his successor. “I could not meet expectation of the people to me. It is my responsibility to have lost our colleagues in the election,” said Ishiba. He made clear that he would not run for next LDP presidential election.   The LDP decided in a Joint Plenary Meeting on September 2 nd  to receive request for a presidential election on Mond...

As most Japanese acknowledged extremely uneasy climate, Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA)   declared  that it was the hottest summer this year. Average temperature of some cities in Japan between June and August was higher than ever by 2.36 degree Celsius. Caused by extraordinary hot and humid air, a lot of people have been sent to the hospital on ambulance. People in Japan is forced to adapt to tropical climate.   JMA recorded average temperature of fifteen cities, which are supposed not to be affected by urbanization. They included cities of Yamagata in Yamagata, Choshi in Chiba, Hikone in Shiga and Miyazaki in Miyazaki. The agency compared average temperature of those cities to their average between 1991 and 2020. The average of temperature in this summer was higher than that of 2023 and 2024, each of them had marked highest record.   According to JMA, high atmospheric pressure in Tibet expanded from the Eurasia continent to Japan, affected by high temperature of ...

The President of the United States, Donald Trump, signed on   an executive order   September 4 th   which implemented tariff agreement with Japan. Although the U.S. and Japan reached an agreement on July 22 nd , Trump has not determined when it would be activated. The executive order made clear that the agreement was viable and applied to Japanese products dating back to August 7 th . Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba put a period on the difficult negotiation with the U.S.   The bilateral agreement was a package of raising tariff rate on Japanese products to the U.S., opening Japanese market and investment from Japan to the U.S. Tariff on Japanese cars would be 15 percent, reducing from 25 percent. “Reciprocal tariff” will equally be imposed on all goods, but will not be applied to some which already with 15 percent tariff or more   Japan will increase import of U.S. rice by 75 percent and buy U.S. corn, soy bean, ethanol, air craft or defense equipment as ...

Chugoku Electric Power Company announced that it would be possible to build an intermediate storage facility for nuclear waste in Kaminoseki town, Yamaguchi, based on its geological   research . If the local government accepts the plan to build it, the facility would be the second one for used nuclear fuels that have been stocked in nuclear power plants in Japan. Although there are many faults underground of designated land for facility, the company determined that they were not active.   Japan has no facility for final disposal of used nuclear fuel produced in nuclear power plants. As no city in Japan has agreed to accept that, those nuclear power plants keep the used fuel by themselves. Some plants are reaching their limit. Power companies have built nuclear power plants without any plan for disposal of nuclear waste and the government of Japan allowed it. The waste has high radiation, harmful for human.   After long argument, Mutsu city, Aomori, started storing nuclear...

China held a major   military parade , marking 80 th   anniversary of the end of the World War II on September 3 rd . Chinese President Xi Jinping observed the ceremony with Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s supreme leader Kim Jong-un in Beijing. Three leaders showed their close relationship, contending against the world dominated by the United States. Japan nominally offered those three leaders an opportunity to be united, since China remembers the day as victory over Japan.   The People’s Liberation Army of China exhibited its cutting edge military technologies, including missiles and fighter jets which can be operated by artificial intelligence. China is known as developing new fighter jets that can be installed on aircraft carriers. Ballistic missiles with long range or launched from submarines, which can load nuclear warheads, were also disclosed. Those weapons are supposed to be used in a possible operation to invade Taiwan.   It marked the fir...

The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) wrapped up its assessment on the Upper House election, in which the party suffered serious defeat, in Joint Plenary Meeting (JPM) on September 2. Although the party attributed the defeat to the slush fund scandal, it did not explicitly refer to responsibility of the president Shigeru Ishiba. Ishiba announced his willingness to continue as the prime minister in the meeting, apologizing about loss of seats in the election. However, four LDP leaders, including Secretary General Hiroshi Moriyama, offered their resignation to Ishiba. Ishiba appeared to be isolated from LDP leadership.   A special committee on reviewing the Upper House election submitted  a report  to the JPM. It assessed that LDP’s defeat was caused by secret fund scandal. The report also argued that LDP’s measures on price inflation had not been accepted by voters, or that a gaffe by an LDP member damaged image of the party. It voided referring to Ishiba’s responsibility. Th...

Yomiuri Shimbun reported on the front page that the public prosecutors’ office was investigating fraud by a lawmaker with Japan Innovation Party (Nippon Ishin-no Kai) on August 27 th . The next day, the newspaper carried an article that the fraud reported on the previous day was about wrong person and apologized about it. Yomiuri later ran an article of reviewing its misinformation which was made on preconception of a staff writer. It is very unusual mistake committed by a major newspaper in Japan. Yomiuri reported that the Special Investigation Division of Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office is making investigation on Taku Ikeshita (Osaka 10 th  district of House of Representatives, Ishin) with suspicion that his secretaries had received salary from national government with no record of working for Ikeshita. The report identified the secretaries as assembly members of Takatsuki city, Osaka.   It is prohibited for a lawmaker’s secretary to have another job, except a regis...

As movement for replacing the president, Shigeru Ishiba, expands in the party, the leaders of Liberal Democratic Party enhance their effort to defend Ishiba. Decision makers in the LDP is raising hurdle against having early presidential election to ask responsibility of Ishiba about defeat in the Upper House election. The more LDP discusses responsibility of the election, the further the party is alienated from the ordinary people who do not require an early presidential election.   It has been usual for LDP president to step down when the party lost confidence of general voters in an election. Resignation of LDP president is a synonym of resignation of prime minister. Prime ministers who stepped down after serious defeat in an election include Ryutaro Hashimoto in 1998 or Shinzo Abe in his first term in 2007. Anti-Ishiba groups in the LDP realizes that Ishiba needs to be replaced, because LDP lost majority in both Houses of the Diet under the leadership of Ishiba.   Ishiba’s ...

Ministries of Japanese national government submitted   request  for FY2026 budget by the end of August. The estimation of total amount of spending will be over 122 trillion yen, making new record of annual budget request. Following the policy for increasing defense budget and due to interest hike by Bank of Japan (BOJ), defense budget and spending for redemption of governmental bond marked the highest. Annual national budget is a power resource for the prime minister, reflecting preference of the administration. The Ministry of Finance (MOF) wraps up all the requests from the ministries by the end of August every year. The MOF makes a draft of national budget with assessment in late December. The draft is submitted to ordinary session of the Diet, which is regularly convoked in January. The government aims at passing the budget bill by the end of March, before next fiscal year begins in April.   The total amount of  budget reques t at the end of August, 2024, was 117...

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba had a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Tokyo on August 29 th . Both leaders released   a joint statement  which described their discussion toward strengthening strategic and forward-looking partnership for achieving mutual security and prosperity in the coming decades. The meeting reflected national interests of both countries, which have been affected by recent security and economic developments in international relations with growing complexity. The joint statement stressed enduring partnership between Japan and India for next generation. Recognizing expansion of their bilateral relationship in the past decade to the areas as defense, trade, investment and people-to-people linkage. Two prime ministers acknowledged that Japan and India have built over seventy dialogue mechanisms for collaboration of each other.   Japan hoped to enhance bilateral ties with India for security in Asia-Pacific region. The joint statement reaff...

The Special Investigation Division of Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office   made search  in the offices of Akira Ishii, Upper House member of Japan Innovation Party (Nippon Ishin-no Kai). Ishii is suspected as involved in a fraud of receiving reward for his secretarie who had not actually been working for him. Although Ishin has been active in promoting political reform, the case proves that Ishin is one of the old-type parties with scandals of political money.   The Diet Law provides that a lawmaker can have three public secretaries: policy secretary, first secretary and second secretary. The salary of those public secretaries is paid from national budget. Monthly payment varies depending on age or length on the job,  ranging  from 330 to 650 thousand yen. The lawmaker reports the name of three secretaries to the Diet. Annual income amounts between 7 to 13 million yen.   Ishii is doubted as falsely received 8 million yen. One of Ishii’s secretaries ha...