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Ishiba Urged the Leaders to Maintain International Order

In the summit meeting of Group 20 (G20) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba urged the leaders to take responsibility for maintaining international order. Raising poverty, climate change, natural disaster and military conflict as international issues requiring urgent solution, he stressed necessity of sharing a common goal, instead of division and opposition. It sounded like protesting a leader of the super power who upholds a concept of putting the highest priority on its own interest.   The Leaders’ Declaration of G20  urged all states to refrain from use threat or use of force to seek territorial acquisition against territorial integrity and sovereignty or political independence of any state. “We affirm that all parties must comply with their obligations under international law, including international humanitarian law and international human rights law, and in this regard condemn all attacks against civilians and infrastructure,” says the declaration without quo
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Approaching Neighbor Country with Common Security Concerns

Given a possibility that incoming president of the United States may retreat from the frameworks of like-minded countries, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba focuses on maintenance of security cooperation with neighbor countries. Considering current developments on the side of authoritarianism, it is likely that the Republic of Korea is a reliable country to share common security goals. Ishiba accelerates normalization of bilateral relationship with ROK. Ishiba had  a meeting  with ROK President, Yoon Suk Yeol, in Lima, Peru, in the backdrop of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit meeting. Both leaders shared “serious concern” on North Korea’s nuclear and missile activities and further advance of its military cooperation with Russia including deployment of North Korean troops to Russia.   As a relatively pro-Japan President, Yoon has made efforts to improve bilateral relationship with Japan, taking measures to resolve the issue of forced labor of Koreans under administration of Imperial
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Governor with Scandal Reelected

Former Governor of Hyogo Prefecture, Motohiko Saito, won a gubernatorial election of Hyogo voted on November 17. Although he lost his position after the local assembly of Hyogo Prefecture passed a non-confidence resolution in September, Saito ran for the election to fulfill the seat of the governor. It is reported that Saito’s campaign strategy of taking advantage of social networking services (SNS) contributed to his unexpected victory by generating unusual voters’ turnout.   Saito was accused of his abuse against his staffs while he had been in his works as a governor. The Hyogo prefectural government punished a staff who revealed Saito’s abuses and inappropriate behaviors, arguing that the accusation was not true in core facts. The staff found dead in July. All the parties required resignation of Saito. After Hyogo Prefectural Assembly passed non-confidence resolution, Saito chose a course to give his position up, rather than dissolving the assembly.   The election became a one-on-o
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Discussion for Improvement of Treatment for JSDF Personnel

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba launched a ministers’ conference for reviewing treatment of the members of Japan Self-defense Force (JSDF). While the government of Japan has been reiterated necessity of enhancing defense capability with exacerbation of security environment around Japan, the JSDF faces shortage of human resource. The meeting is going to lay out how to improve the working situation of JSDF members. The JSDF personnel has not fulfilled its full strength for years. At the end of March 2024, about 223 thousand members were affiliated to the JSDF, shorter than necessary strength of 247 thousand. Applicants have been declining with drop of birthrate, marking the lowest record in sufficiency against recruitment plan at 51 percent in FY 2023.   The government attributes this reluctance against serving to low quality in their job. It has been said that the jobs in the JSDF are hard, dirty and dangerous with low payment. A high school graduate receives 157.1 thousand yen of startin
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First Meeting of Japan’s New PM with Chinese President

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba had   a meeting   with the President of China, Xi Jinping, for the first time in Lima, Peru, where he visited to participate in the leaders’ meeting of Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC). Both leaders reconfirmed comprehensive promotion of “mutually beneficial relationship based on common strategic interests,” which has been a basic concept to maintain bilateral relationship of both countries. Given rising tension over presence in the western Pacific region, both leaders look like making efforts to manage the situation of the region.   In a thirty-five-minute meeting, Ishiba exhibited his hope to improve bilateral relations of both nations. “We can share the direction to mutually beneficial relationship based on common strategic interests, and constructive and stable Japan-China relations,” told Ishiba to Xi. The statement was made along with the line drawn in his meeting with Chinese Prime Minister, Li Qiang, in Vientiane, Laos, in October.   Xi sho
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Getting Closer to the Leading Parties

After a surge in the last general election of the House of Representatives, some opposition parties show behavior as same as the leading parties usually take. Some inner groups of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDPJ), which resembles the factions of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP),   compete each other   in inviting new lawmakers to their groups. The Democratic Party for the People (DPP) secretly changed their policy, taking one step closer to the LDP.   There are about ten groups in the CDPJ, each of which is led by heavyweights of the party. They take a form of policy study groups. CDPJ lawmakers can be affiliated to multiple groups, making difference from the LDP’s faction system. However, some policy groups in the CDPJ showed integrated action in voting for the candidates in the leader’s election held in September.   The CDPJ gained 39 freshmen/women in the general election in October. It is the time for each group to increase its members. The biggest group, Sanct
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Tsuruga Plant Officially Found Unfit for Resumption

The Nuclear Regulation Authority (RNA) officially issued a document of examination on November 13 th , which concluded that reactor #2 of Tsuruga Nuclear Power Plant owned by Japan Atomic Power Company (JAPC) failed in meeting regulation requirements for resuming its operation. It is the first time for a reactor to be denied resumption, since new regulation, established with lessons from the severe accident in Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, had been applied to all the nuclear power plants in Japan in 2013.   New regulation prohibits operating a nuclear power reactor on the top of an active fault underground, which may cause a great earthquake. There is a possibly active fault, named “K Fault,” located three hundred meters north of reactor #2 in the underground. RNA reached a conclusion that it was possible for K Fault to be extended to the place just below the reactor.   Although JAPC disputed against the argument about the activeness of the fault and its reach to the reactor,
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Various Walls of Annual Income Appear

As policy talk between Shigeru Ishiba administration and the opposition party goes on, there appeared various “walls” in the people’s life are appearing. While the Democratic Party for the People (DPP) insists on raising threshold of 1.03 million yen of annual income for payment of income tax, the government considers removing another threshold of 1.3 million yen for social insurance. The discussion may escalate to a fundamental reform of tax system for individuals.   The threshold is called “wall”. Here’s why. In the case of part-time job of a college student who are financially protected by parents, the parent can receive 630 thousand yen of tax credit annually, as long as the college student’s income is less than 1.03 million. He/she has to stop working not his/her annual income to exceed 1.03 million yen, to let the parent keeps on receiving the tax credit.   There are many cases that students stop working in November or December, as each of their annual income reaches 1.03 million
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2nd Ishiba Cabinet Formed

Having been elected as the 103 rd   Prime Minister of Japan, without majority votes in the House of Representatives, Shigeru Ishiba formed his second Cabinet on November 11 th , which is making no difference from his first Cabinet except replacement of three Ministers. Given a hung parliament in the Lower House, it is not easy for the new cabinet to pass bills to implement its policies. Ishiba began policy talks with the opposition leaders to seek favors in Diet affairs. Among the ministers of the first Ishiba Cabinet, formed in October 1 st , Minister of Justice, Hideki Makihara, and Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Yasuhiro Ozato, lost their seats in the general election of the House of Representatives on October 27 th . Although there is no rule that non-legislator cannot be appointed to a minister, Makihara and Ozato declined to continue to be the ministers, supposedly to leave their seats to some other hopeful lawmakers.   Ishiba appointed Keisuke Suzuki, who led d
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Diet Elects Ishiba Again

The 215 th   Diet was convoked on November 11. It elected Shigeru Ishiba, President of the Liberal Democratic Party, as 103th Prime Minister of Japan without simple majority in the House of Representatives. Ishiba immediately launched his new cabinet. As the consequence of apparent defeat in general election of the House in October, Ishiba and the LDP faces difficulty in promoting their policies through a hung parliament.   All the ministers of Ishiba Cabinet resigned in the morning of October 11. Each House of the Diet had an election for nominating the prime minister in the afternoon. The House of Councillors elected Ishiba with simple majority.   In the House of Representatives, no candidate obtained simple majority. Ishiba was elected in the run-off held for the first time in these thirty years, which became one-on-one match with the leader of Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDPJ), Yoshihiko Noda. The score of the run-off was 221 for Ishiba to 160 for Noda. 85 invalid vot
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Secretaries of Lawmakers in Scandal Is Investigated Again

Tokyo Fifth Committee for the Inquest of Prosecution decided that the decision of Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office not to prosecute secretaries for two lawmakers who were involved in the slush fund scandal in the Liberal Democratic Party was inappropriate, and demanded reinvestigation on them. The opposition parties agreed on making effort to pass a bill of revising Political Funds Control Act by the end of this year. The impact of the scandal remains in the politics in Japan. There are  201 committees  for the inquest of prosecution in Japan. Each of them examines whether or not a disposition of non-prosecution made by public prosecutors is appropriate. If a committee considers the non-prosecution as inappropriate, it sends a report to the district prosecutors office and the office needs to make reinvestigate and decide whether the matter should be indicted or not.   Tokyo Fifth Committee concluded on October 9 th  that a decision of Special Investigation Division of Tokyo Dis
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CDPJ Gains Chair of Budget Committee

As the result of the general election of the House of Representatives, in which leading coalition by the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and Komeito lost its majority, it is expected that a hung parliament will appear in the House when next special session of the Diet is convoked in November 11 th . The groups in the House agreed on distribution of the posts of chair in each standing or special committee. The largest opposition party, the Constitutional Democratic Party (CDPJ) achieved the post of Chairman of Committee on Budget for the first time in these thirty years.   The groups in the House are mostly correspondent to the members of parties. The representatives of all groups, who are the Chairpersons of Diet Affairs Committee of each party, discussed who should be appointed to the posts since November 1 st .   Although the LDP occupied fifteen chairs out of seventeen standing committees before the general election, it reduced their seats to ten. The opposition parties obtained seve
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First Debris Is Retrieved

Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) was successful in retrieving a part of debris in the containment vessel of rector #2 of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in November 7 th , which had exploded with accident caused by East Japan Great Earthquake in 2011. Although it was only a tiny fragment of melted nuclear fuels, TEPCO regards the retrieve as a great step toward decommission of the reactors. However, the road to complete decommission is still long. Size of the small debris is less than five millimeters and the weight is less than three grams. The debris was picked up from the bottom of the containment vessel and contained in a small package, stored in a “separation box” set outside of the vessel. TEPCO will send the package to a facility in Ibaraki prefecture for detailed examination of weight or radiation. It took more than thirteen years to retrieve the first debris, since the reactor had accident of losing all electricity hit by a great tsunami.   The retrieve should have b
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Preparing for Second Trump Administration

Recognizing a scary future as real, the Japanese were astonished at the news from the United States that Donald Trump won the presidential election over Kamala Harris on November 6 th . They believe that Trump, as 47 th   President of the United States, will push Japan to pay the U.S. more cost on security and business. Japan belatedly began to prepare for coming difficulties in maintenance of relationship with the U.S. Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba made  a telephone talk  with Trump for five minutes in the morning of November 7 th  in Japan time. Ishiba congratulated Trump for his victory, hoping to work closely together to bring Japan-U.S. alliance to new heights, and they agreed on having a meeting in person as early as possible.   “It was the first opportunity for me to talk with him, but I had an impression that he was friendly and a man with whom I can discuss the bottom line without modification,”  said  Ishiba to the reporters after the dialogue with Trump. The Ministry for For
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Convocation of the Diet Is Fixed

The Shigeru Ishiba Cabinet and the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) proposed convocation of a special session of the Diet on November 10 th , in which the coalition of the LDP and Komeito will not have a simple majority in the House of Representatives for the first time since 2012. The opposition parties accepted the proposal without any approval on the date of the election for nominating the prime minister or how long the session should be. The LDP faces an inconvenient reality that it has lost its strong grip in the Diet.   According to the Constitution of Japan, a special session of the Diet, different from ordinary session or extraordinary session, needs to be held within thirty days after a general election of the House of Representatives. Main issue of a special session would ordinarily be having an election to nominate the prime minister, because any cabinet has to be dissolved at the beginning of a special session.   Chief Cabinet Secretary, Yoshimasa Hayashi, proposed the convoc
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Ishiba’s Opportunity for Diplomacy with Major Powers

Prime Minister, Shigeru Ishiba,   revealed   his hope to have a summit meeting with President of China, Xi Jinping, taking opportunity of the leaders meeting of Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in Peru later this month. It will be the first opportunity for Ishiba to participate in a major diplomatic event after he sworn in as the prime minister in October. In the meeting with Xi, Ishiba hopes to find a solution on bilateral issues such as China’s import ban on foods from Japan. Ishiba revealed that the government of Japan was coordinating a summit meeting with Xi or the President of the United States, Joe Biden, in the backdrop of APEC Summit, if he would be reelected as the prime minister in the Diet session scheduled to be convoked on November 11 th .   Although the leading coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito does not have simple majority in the House of Representatives, it is likely that Ishiba will win the election for nominating the prime minister at leas
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Civil Code Denying Same-sex Marriage Found Unconstitutional

Tokyo High Court   found   that current provision of the Civil Code, which denies same-sex marriage, would violate the Constitution of Japan on October 30 th . The court recognized the provision as discriminative treatment of sexual preference, which would breach Article 14 of the constitution for equality under the law and Paragraph 2 of Article 24 for legislation on marriage and family based on dignity of individuals. It marked the second decision for high courts in Japan to issue a sentence which determines the provision for marriage in the Civil Code as unconstitutional.   Seven people filed a lawsuit, demanding compensation of 7 million yen to the government of Japan for not treating same-sex marriage as legal marriage. Tokyo District Court decided dismissed the lawsuit in 2022, arguing that legislation for marriage is a matter of discretion of the Diet, while it recognized the current situation is against Paragraph 2 of Article 24. The plaintiffs appealed to the high court.   The
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