J Update

Tokyo district Court   issued   on March 25 th   an order of dissolution as a religious corporation against Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (FFWPU), as known as former Unification Church (UC). The court found that the FFWPU caused a large amount of damage on its followers and their families through inappropriate activities urging donation. The federation announced its intention to appeal to an upper court. The Unification Church was  established  in Republic of Korea in 1954 and started its mission in Japan late 1950s. While the organization supported conservative lawmakers in Japan, a lot of cases of seducing its followers to buy “spiritual goods” by the church were reported in 1980s and 1990s. It  changed  its name to FFWPU in 2015.   The name of FFWPU was publicly acknowledged when the assassin of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Tetsuya Yamagami, revealed his motivation for killing Abe. Yamagami told the police after he was ...

Japan Self-defense Force (JSDF) established Joint Operations Command (JJOC) to oversee three branches on March 24 th . The purpose of new organization in JSDF was to enhance readiness in military contingency and major natural disaster. One question is, however, whether the JJOC contributes to efficiency of communication among a lot of organizations in the government of Japan.   The Defense Buildup Program in 2022, made under the leadership of then Prime Minister Fumio Kishida,  noted  the necessity of “Permanent Joint Headquarters” in the JSDF. The purpose of the organization was described as “to build a system capable of seamlessly conducting cross-domain operations at all stages from peacetime to contingency, with the aim of strengthening the effectiveness of joint operations among each SDF services,”   The policy was succeeded by Shigeru Ishiba. Ishiba administration launched JJOC in the headquarters of JSDF in Ichigaya, Tokyo, with 240 personnel which will be inc...

Foreign Ministers of Japan, the Republic of Korea and China had a meeting in Tokyo on March 22 nd . They agreed on accelerating preparation for their leaders’ summit meeting to maintain the diplomatic momentum to improve their relations. Those three countries are seeking closer relationship with consideration of America-First policies taken by US President Donald Trump, which cause economic and security instability for those Asian nations. It was the first opportunity for the foreign ministers of those three countries to meet since November 2023, when they had one in Busan, ROK. ”Although we sometimes face difficulty, it is a common interest and important for peace and prosperity in the region and international community to have frank dialogues and promote future-looking exchange and cooperation,”  said  Takeshi Iwaya, Japan’s Minister for Foreign Affairs as the chairman of this year.   In the trilateral meeting, the ministers  agreed  on promoting mutual unders...

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba kept on being grilled in the Diet discussion on his distribution of gift certificates to young lawmakers in the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). Although it was questioned whether Ishiba had violated the law for regulating political funds, the issue diverged into ethical problem of LDP lawmakers in dealing with pocket money or the same kind of activities of former prime ministers. It looks unlikely that the scandal causes resignation of Ishiba. Ishiba admitted that he distributed gift certificates, as souvenir worth 100,000 yen, to fifteen attendees of meeting he hosted on March 3rd. The recipients were LDP lawmakers of House of Representatives, who had been elected for the first time in the October election last year. It was doubted that the distribution would consist of donation related to political activity to individual politician, which was prohibited by Political Funds Control Act.   Ishiba’s strategy to deal with the issue was to firmly deny ille...

Price of rice in Japan has been kept at high level since last year. Even after the harvest season of 2024, the price has not declined. The government of Japan decided to release its reserve of the staple diet to stabilize the rice market. However, it is unclear whether the release will work for getting the price down. There rises a criticism on agricultural policy of the government, which has long been restricting production of rice. Consumers saw unusual landscape that rice disappeared from the shelfs of super markets last summer. It was supposed that unstable weather in 2023 affected circulation of rice in 2024. But the price of rice stopped at high level after the fall 2024. The government refused to release its reserve of rice, arguing that it was reserved for the time of disaster or extremely bad harvest, which invited broad public criticisms.   It was mid-February when Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) decided at last to open its storage to stabilize the ...

The government of Japan submitted to the budget committee of the House of Councillors a list of documents related to fabrication of official documents about Moritomo Gakuen scandal. Ministry of Finance (MOF), which conducted the fabrication, is going to publish those documents starting in April. It is paid attention whether the disclosed documents will reveal what was going on in the ministry in the sales of government-owned land to the private school.   Osaka High Court in January sentenced to MOF that it was illegal for the ministry not to have disclosed information on fabrication of documents about the sales of government-owned land in Toyonaka, Osaka, to Moritomo Gakuen. The wife of a former staff for MOF’s local branch, Masako Akagi, filed the lawsuit demanding the ministry to disclose the documents. Akagi’s husband was doubted as having been coerced false description by the ministry and killed himself in 2018. The ministry  admitted  that it tried to conceal involve...

Kumamoto District Court   ordered   the government of Japan to pay 23 million yen to the plaintiffs of Matsubase Case in 1985. The court recognized illegal activities in investigation of the public prosecutors and accused them of failing in disclosure of important information which was closely related to decision of the court. The decision may ignite discussion over disclosure of evidence by organizations of law enforcement.   A man was found killed in the town of Matsubase in Kumamoto prefecture in 1985. The police arrested his acquaintance, Koki Miyata, with suspicion of murder, based on his confession. Although Miyata retracted his confession, he was indicted and the sentence of 13 years in prison was confirmed by the Supreme Court in 1990.   The public prosecutors had been arguing that Miyata burnt out a shirt used in the murder. However, the lawyers for Miyata found a part of that shirt in 1997, which was the only evidence of the crime. The lawyers for Miyata re...

Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the owner of crippled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, fails in renewing its own business plan by the end of March. Since it does not have a clear perspective for resumption of Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant, TEPCO is not able to formulate a viable financial plan. The company is submitting a new plan to the government of Japan -- the biggest sponsor for the company -- this summer or later. The reactors in Fukushima plant exploded when it was soaked in tsunami of East Japan Great Earthquake on March 11, 2011, and lost outer source of electricity necessary for keeping the reactors from overheating. The explosion caused 160 thousand of evacuees and 20 thousand of them are still away from their hometowns. The investigation committee of the Diet  determined  that the accident was man-made, indicating responsibility of TEPCO.   While Kyoto District Court found in 2018 that the government of Japan and TEPCO were responsible for...

Having trouble in explaining distribution of gift certificates to young lawmakers in his party, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba faces public frustration on his management of political funds. The mid-March polls conducted by main newspapers showed significant decline in approval rate for Ishiba Cabinet. It is indicated that the management of money among the lawmakers is far different from the ordinary people who are suffering from price inflation.   The poll conducted by  Asahi Shimbun  marked 14 percent of decline in approval rate for Ishiba Cabinet from the previous month, which stoppped at 26 percent. Disapproval rate was 59 percent, increasing by 15 percentage points. Although Ishiba explained that his activity violated no law, 75 percent of responders realized that distributing gift certificate was wrong, exceeding 23 percent of them who did not see any problem.   Yomiuri Shimbun   reported  31 percent of approval rate with 8 points down, while the disapp...

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba told last December that he would conclude the reform of donation from companies and organizations to political entities by the end of March 2025. At the time of mid-March, there are three groups in the Diet over reforming of Political Funds Control Act. While two of them demand regulation on the donation, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) rather focuses on disclosure than regulation. There remains no party which upholds complete elimination of donation from companies and organizations.   A private company can donate to a party, while it cannot do to individual politician. Most companies currently donate to the LDP, possibly expecting a favor from the leading party.  The amount of the donation in 2023  was 2.3 billion yen. It was three thousand times more than what the second party, Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDPJ), received (760 thousand yen) in the same year.   That is why the LDP is reluctant to regulate the donation fr...

Distribution of gift certificate to the fresh lawmakers became a significant blow to the staggering administration of Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba. It is an unexpected opportunity for the opposition parties to defeat Ishiba government. Nevertheless, the opposition leaders look like hesitating to get together for attacking Ishiba. Strangely enough, it is mainly limited to some lawmakers in the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) who accuse their prime minister. Some opposition leaders referred to a possibility of Ishiba’s resignation. The head of Democratic Party for the People (DPP), Yuichiro Tamaki, told that it would be difficult for Ishiba to remain in the position, if he fails in explaining about the scandal. The co-chair of Japan Innovation Party (Nippon Ishin-no Kai), Hirofumi Yoshimura, demanded Ishiba to consider by himself whether he should go or step down.   However, the leader of top opposition party, Yoshihiko Noda of Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, hoped Ishiba t...

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba revealed that he had distributed gift certificates to the lawmakers of the Liberal Democratic Party. It is doubted that his activity may violate the law which prohibits giving money as a political activity. Although Ishiba denied that it had not been any sort of political activity, it is likely that voters recognize Ishiba’s action as inappropriate for the leader of leading party which has been criticized of its management of political funds. According to the  news reports , Ishiba had a meeting in the evening of March 3 rd  with fresh members of the House of Representatives who had been elected for the first time last October. In the afternoon of the day, Ishiba’s staffs visited each office of the participants of the evening meeting and handed out the gift certificates of major department stores with value of 100 thousand yen. The staffs then explained that the certificates were souvenir for the evening meeting.   Article 21-2  of Polit...

Following governmental demand for wage hike, major companies in Japan offered high growth of salary to their employees on the day of showdown. However, the trend of active increase seems to be slightly slowed down, as some employers failed to meet the demand of labor union. Having long suffered from steep price inflation, the households cannot have comfortable perspective for their future. Japanese Trade Union Confederation (Rengo) set the goal of wage hike in 2025 spring labor negotiations (shunto) at 5 percent or more. The average of requests from labor unions in this spring was 6.09 percent, higher than that of last year at 5.85 percent. Shiegru Ishiba administration encourages higher wage hike than increase of price of goods and services. It has closely watched whether the employers can meet those robust requests. Decisions of major companies were concentratedly  delivered  on March 12 th .   Toyota Motor Co. fully accepted the request of its labor union for consecuti...

The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) held annual national convention in Tokyo on March 9 th . The president of LDP, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, encouraged his party members to make utmost effort to restore people’s confidence to the party, expecting further public support in the coming election of the Upper House this summer. However, Ishiba is leading a weak government without majority in the Lower House in the Diet, making implementation of his policies difficult.   It was the first national convention since Ishiba became the 28 th  president of the LDP as the result of presidential election in September 2024. The main issues in the convention were how to salvage the party from the quagmire of slush fund scandal, which caused serious defeat in the general election of the House of Representatives last October, and reconstruct unification of the party for next Upper House election this summer.   In his speech to the party members, Ishiba emphasized the necessity of party...

The people in Japan commemorated the fourteenth anniversary of East Japan Great Earthquake on March 11th. Huge tsunami and severe accident in Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant took about 22 thousand lives. While reconstruction in the area devastated by tsunami has made a progress, over 27 thousand people still cannot get back to their homes. It seems to be taking time for the evacuees to be settled in comfortable homes. The great earthquake  with magnitude 9.0 caused great tsunami brought 15,900 of deaths, 2,520 of missing people and 3,808 of after-deaths in evacuation. 406 thousand of houses were broken by quake and tsunami. 27,615 people are still in their evacuation, ninety percent of whom are from cities in Fukushima prefecture, where a broad area is still designated as not fitting for living, because of high radiation.   One issue paid attention is contaminated soil accumulated in an intermediate storage site stretching over the towns of Futaba and Okuma, where Fukush...

The third meeting of states parties of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) was held at the United Nations headquarters in New York between March 3 rd   and 7 th . The parties adopted a declaration which urged all the countries to join the treaty, regardless they possess nuclear weapons or not. The sufferers of atomic bombs dropped in Hiroshima and Nagasaki eighty years ago participated in the meeting, giving speeches to appeal inhumanity of nuclear weapons. Enacted in 2021, the TPNW includes 73 state parties without nuclear weapons, which have ratified the treaty. Although some members of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) had participated in the second meeting in 2023, they defied the third meeting, concerning growing security concern in Europe, where Russia imposes a great threat through explicit violation of international laws by invading Ukraine.   The  declaration  of the third meeting stressed importance of including all states in the...