J Update

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba   visited   Busan, the second largest city of the Republic of Korea, on September 30 th , in a series of mutual visits by the leaders of both countries, which is called “shuttle diplomacy.” In their summit meeting, Iashiba reconfirmed with ROK president Lee Jae Myung their intention to stably develop bilateral relations of their countries and continue communication on various aspects including security, even after Ishiba would step down as prime minister in mid-October. It was the first meeting of both leaders since they had met in Tokyo in August, trying to prove that their shuttle diplomacy was working. Ishiba insisted that he hoped Japan and ROK to make most frequent exchanges than any other countries. Lee expected further advance of the bilateral relations through their shuttle diplomacy. Ishiba visited a grave of Lee Soo-hyun before the meeting, who lost his life when jumped down on the railway of Shin-Okubo station and hit buy a train, tryin...

The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), Komeito and the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDPJ)   embarked on discussion for further regulation of political funds including donation from companies and organizations on September 25 th . Although it is scheduled that Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba is going to leave his office in mid-October, the LDP promised that the issue would be succeeded by next LDP president. Discussion over regulation of donation from companies and organizations has a long history. It was the time of Morihiro Hosokawa administration when the leading coalition by eight parties, including Japan New Party, Japan Socialist Party or Japan Renewal Party, and the LDP agreed on abolishment of donation from companies and organizations to a politician and a political party, on which the LDP was heavily relying.   However, the agreement had five-year moratorium to mitigate the impact of prohibiting donation to parties. As five years passed, the LDP regained leadin...

The top runner among the candidates for presidential election of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), Shinjiro Koizumi, apologized on “stealth marketing” of his campaign, which tried to encourage Koizumi with positive comments for him through social networking services. A lawmaker in charge of public affairs in Koizumi campaign resigned, admitting her responsibility. The case indicated vulnerability of election to internet, even if it is not for electing public officers.   Weekly Bunshin  magazine  reported  hidden instruction in Koizumi campaign, which urged Koizumi’s supporters to post information on social media to build positive image of Koizumi among voters of LDP presidential election. That instruction was delivered from an LDP member of the House of Representative, Karen Makishima, who was in charge of public affairs in Koizumi campaign.   Makishima encouraged the supporters of Koizumi to send messages that would praise Koizumi as possible prime minister. ...

How likely is Nankai Trough Great Earthquake occurring within next thirty years? The answer of this question became extremely obscure after reviewing calculation for earthquake prediction. The answer is “60 to 90 percent” or “20 to 50 percent.” It is nothing more than saying that it is coming or not coming. The people wonder what they can do to the great earthquake based on that prediction. The Earthquake Research Committee issued  a long-term estimation  for Nankai Trough megaquake with magnitude of 8 or 9 within next 30 years. The committee set the probability at 60 to 70 percent in 2013, a year after East Japan Great Earthquake, and  raised  it to 80 percent in January 2025. The government estimates that 298 thousand people may die with the quake and tsunami.   This estimation was established with a model based on past occurrence of great earthquakes in the region. There remains record of at least three megaquakes in Nankai Trough since 1700s. The experts cal...

Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)   announced   on September 25 th  that it would withdraw from its plan called “Hometown Project,” which promotes people’s exchange between African countries and some cities in Japan. After introducing the project, a lot of disputes emerged in those local cities through social network, worrying huge arrival of immigrants from Africa. Explanation of the national government that it would be simply a project of cultural exchange was not heard by local community.   Expecting economic growth in Africa, where its population would occupy the quarter of the world in 2025, Japan  announced  Hometown Project in the 9 th  Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD-9) held in Yokohama in August. Four cities were designated as the “hometowns” for African countries. They were cities of Nagai in Yamagata for Tanzania, Kisarazu in Chiba for Nigeria, Sanjo in Niigata for Ghana and Imabari in Ehime for Mozam...

The leading coalition, Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and Komeito,  started  policy talk on refundable tax credit (RTC) program with the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDPJ) on September 25 th . The CDPJ has been advocating the system as a solution for helping households, focusing on helping low-income families. It is still unclear whether the discussion will be succeeded by next LDP president who will be elected on October 4 th . The RTC is a system of tax credit based on each income. When the government introduces 150 thousand yen of tax credit, the payment of a taxpayer paying 200 thousand yen will be reduced to 50 thousand yen. But another one who pays 100 thousand yen will not receive 150 thousand yen, and it will only be reduced to zero. In this case, the government will pay 50 thousand yen in the program of RTC.   The opposition parties have been requesting the leading parties to introduce reduction or abolition of consumption tax to protect families fro...

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba made   a speech  at General Debate of United Nations General Assembly (GA), in which he urged reform of U.N. Security Council (SC) to deal with international conflicts including Russia’s aggression to Ukraine. He also explained that recognition of the Palestine state would be a matter of time for Japan. However, a question was left behind: how an outgoing prime minister can implement it? After announcement of resignation in early September, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party is in the campaign of presidential election to elect a successor of Ishiba. Last year, then prime minister Fumio Kishida was waiting for his replacement after his announcement of resignation weeks before.  Kishida’s speech  at the GA was read out by Japan’s Ambassador to the U.N. Japan sent lame-duck leaders to the U.N. for two consecutive years.   In his speech, Ishiba stressed necessity of reform of the SC. “A permanent member of the Security Council with a s...

Sapporo Family Court   decided  that a provision in Gender Identity Disorder Special Act was unconstitutional and invalid. While the provision requires gender identity to be compatible with how the body looks, the court found that the requirement would violate the Constitution that guarantees freedom of not suffering from harms on one’s body. The man who filed the petition can transfer his gender from female to male without medical treatment of injection of male hormone. The petitioner, a transgender man in his 30s who is living in Sapporo, was raised as a girl and had been feeling uneasy on his gender. He could not go to his junior high school, because he did not like to wear skirt of his school uniform. He left his home in his age of 17 and tried to show himself as a man. After he was approved to change his first name to sound like a male in 2024, the man filed a petition to change his sex in his family register from woman to man in February.   Gender Identity Disorder ...

The City Assembly of Toyoake, Aichi, passed on September 22 nd   an ordinance   which prohibits the residents to use their smartphone beyond two hours a day. It will be activated on October 1 st . It is the first attempt for a municipality in Japan to legislate regulation of using smartphone regardless people’s age. Imposing no penalty on violation of the ordinance, the city urges its residents to consider negative impact of the electronic device on their health. The ordinance requires the parents and schools in Toyoake city to urge their children not to use smartphone beyond for hours a day during their free time. Considering necessity for keeping enough time for sleeping, the ordinance recommends students in the age of elementary school or younger not to use their smartphone after 9 p.m. in the evening, and high school students are guided to finish it on 10 p.m.   The ordinance also proposes each family to set a rule in using smartphone not only for children, but for pa...

The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)   kicked off  its presidential election campaign on September 22 and five lawmakers officially submitted their candidacy to the party. Having lost majority in both Houses of the Diet under the leadership of Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, the presidential election should be about how to regain power through reform of the party. Nevertheless, the candidates do not talk much about the reform, rather focusing on economic policies for the people or maneuvers to attract the opposition parties.   Those five candidates are former Minister on Economic Security Takayuki Kobayashi, former LDP Secretary General Toshimitsu Motegi, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi, former Minister on Economic Security Sanae Takaichi and Miniser of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Shinjiro Koizumi.   Kobayashi insists on temporary income tax cut with a fixed rate, which return is bigger for high-income taxpayers than them with low-income. Identifying h...

The Bank of Japan (BOJ) decided to keep its short-term rate at 0.5 percent in its Monetary Policy Meeting on September 19 th . While it had been expected that the bank would not change the policy rate in the meeting, the meeting unanimously agreed on beginning to sell exchange-traded funds (ETF). Although the policy reflected the bank’s determination for normalizing its monetary policy, the Governor of JOB, Kazuo Ueda, predicted that it would take a hundred years to release all the ETF it possesses. While the BOJ started buying ETF, a financial product which is equivalent to investment trust, in 2010, the bank abruptly increased its quantity of purchase in 2013, under the leadership of then governor, Haruhiko Kuroda, who exchanged an accord with Shinzo Abe administration to cooperate to get rid of deflation and to achieve stable economic growth. The amount of ETF bought by the BOJ has reached 37 trillion yen.   Purchase of ETF by a central bank has been recognized as a prohibited m...

Ten years have passed since a set of new security laws were enacted in September 2015. It was epoch-making for Japan’s security policies to pave the way to exercising the right of collective self-defense, which had long been interpreted as unconstitutional. Japan has been enhancing defense cooperation with allied or like-minded countries based on reinterpretation of the Constitution of Japan. However, it is unclear whether Japan could build up its deterrence against possible threats around itself.   The revision of security legislature was conducted under the leadership of former prime minister Shinzo Abe, who upheld amendment of the Constitution of Japan as one of the top agenda. The Abe Cabinet approved reinterpretation of the Constitution, which enabled the government exercising collective self-defense right by mobilizing the self-defense force without any direct attack on Japan.   Before revision of security laws in 2015, Japan could use of force only when it is attacked b...

The government of Hokkaido  issued  a recommendation to a developer of mega solar photovoltaic power generation around Kushiroshitsugen National Park located in eastern part of the Hokkaido Island. The park preserves diversified wildlife, including wetland plants, cranes or brown bears. The recommendation represents current extensive development for renewable energy.   The plan of building a large site for solar power generation is ongoing slightly out of the area of the national park. Although the recommendation does not have mandatory power to stop the development, the construction of mega solar power generation site is halted. The developer is installing 6,600 pieces of photovoltaic panels on the land with 4.3 hectare of space.   The Forest Act  demands  a development of 0.5 hectare of forest or more to receive permission from the prefectural governor. After the prefectural government researched the development plan, it found that the construction of the...

The Suntory Holdings  announced   on September 2 nd  that its Chairman and CEO, Takeshi Niinami, resigned with suspicion of possessing illegal drug in his house. Although Niinami insisted that the supplement he purchased was not illegal drug, he accepted the recommendation of Suntory to leave his position. He also makes a pause in his activities as the chairman of Japan Association of Corporate Executives (Keizai Doyukai). One of the vocal business leaders in Japan abruptly disappeared from center stage. Having been in charge of business project for a convenience store chain, Lawson, as working for Mitsubishi Corporation, Niinami assumed CEO of Lawson in 2002. He transferred to the president of whisky maker, Suntory, in 2014, promoting international business including an acquaintance of a distiller of bourbon in the United States, James B. Beam. Niinami took the seat of chairman of Doyukai in 2023.   The president of Suntory, Nobuhiro Torii, argued that Niinami would...

Land price in Japan at July 1 st , 2025,   marked  rise for four consecutive years, and the fastest since 1992, according to the annual survey by prefectural governments. Foreign investments pushed up the price both in urban area and local resorts, encouraged by relatively cheap Japanese yen. It gradually gets hard for the people in Japan to purchase their own house in urban area. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism releases land price of 21,000 points in Japan at January 1 st every year. The land price at July 1 st  is based on the survey by 47 prefectures which is about 26,000 points all over Japan. Both data complement each other as a basis of land trade. Making difference from them, Ministry of Finance also discloses street prices at January 1 st  every year as the basis for calculating inheritance tax.   The survey at July 1 st , 2025, showed 1.0 percent of rise in residential land and 2.8 percent in commercial land. The average of l...

Less than a week to the start of campaign, some candidates   announced   their candidacy for the presidential election of the Liberal Democratic Party on September 16 th . Following former Secretary General Toshimutsu Motegi, former Minister on Economic Security Takayuki Kobayashi officially announced his running for the president. Other two ministers of Shigeru Ishiba Cabinet revealed their intention to run. The LDP gradually headed to internal struggle over next president, who is supposed to take seat of next prime minister.   A possible candidate for LDP president usually takes two steps to announce the candidacy. First, he or she reveals “intention” to run for the president to the press. Second, he or she holds press conference to officially announce the candidacy with policies to implement as the president, or the prime minister. The candidate often introduces the member of the campaign team. A candidate needs twenty lawmakers in the LDP who support the candidate....

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...