J Update

The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and Japan Innovation Party (JIP)  started  discussion on security policies for revision of three security documents within this year. As Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi repeatedly stresses her political slogan of “strong Japan,” both parties are focusing on two specific issues: revision of three non-nuclear principles and introduction of nuclear-powered submarine. The JIP pulls rightwing Takaichi administration to a far-right position.   Former Premier Fumio Kishida revised the three documents – National Security Strategy, National Defense Strategy and Defense Buildup Program – in December 2022. The revision demanded the government of Japan to accumulate 43 trillion yen of defense budget between fiscal year 2023 and 2027. Concerning rapid development of military technology including artificial intelligence and weakened rule of law in international relations, Takaichi decided to revise them again in this year.   The LDP and JIP discuss...

The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)   announced   punishment on four lawmakers who abstained in the voting for the bill for consumption tax cut in the House of Representatives. The penalty was reprimand for them, which was the second lightest in eight categories. While four lawmakers had firm confidence for their decision, Prime Minister and LDP President Sanae Takaichi did not want the issue to be a major problem, because their disobedience reflected fundamental split in the party. Four lawmakers are former Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, former Director General of Economic Planning Agency Hajime Funada, deputy chairs of LDP Research Commission on Tax System Yuko Obuchi and Yoshihisa Furukawa. They walked out from Lower House plenary sittings on November 6 th  when it had voting on consumption tax cut bill to show their opposition. Obuchi and Furukawa resigned as deputy chairs of the tax commission after their abstaining. LDP Secretary General Shun-ichi Suzuki announced on...

The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI)   issued  a business improvement order to Chubu Electric Power Company for its multiple wrong managements related to Hamaoka Nuclear Power Plant. The company is mandated to submit a plan for better management and restructuring of organization. Despite fundamental loss of its public confidence, Chubu Electric still maintains its hope to resume nuclear reactors in the plant.   Chubu Electric fabricated the data of design basis seismic ground motion when it submitted the government a request of resumption of reactors #3 and #4 in Hamaoka plant between 2014 and 2015. The company manipulated the data to make the resumption easier with falsely low estimation about the possible strength of earthquake. The company cancelled its request of resumption for those two reactors in September.   Chubu Electric’s wrongdoing is not only data fabrication. It made request of =excessive amount of fund for decommissioning reactor #1 and #...

The bill for raising consumption tax for foods   passed   the Lower House and sent to the Upper House with approval of the leading coalition on November 6 th . Four lawmakers with the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) abstained from voting yes in the Plenary Sittings of the Lower House. Their action gave Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi a concern on the future of the bill, because the LDP does not have a majority in the Upper House.   The bill is to reduce consumption tax rate for foods from 8 percent to 1 percent for two years starting in April 2027. Using the revenue for the rest of 1 percent, the government will establish a benefit to the low-income families. The benefit will be a permanent system from April 2029, when the tax rate will get back to 8 percent. Although Takaichi promised to introduce refundable tax credit with benefits in the campaign for February Lower House election, her policy was diminished to simply a benefit without tax credit.   The opposition part...

One year has passed since Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi made a speech in the Diet on November 7 th , 2025, that a contingency around Taiwan would consist of the survival threatening situation of Japan, in which Japan can use its force. The bilateral relations between Japan and China have unusually deteriorated to the extent senior leaders of both governments cannot have direct communication each other. Takaichi has taken no meaningful effort to recover her irregular speech. China’s response to Takaichi’s argument was immediate as if it had expected it. Chinese Consulate General in Osaka posted on social media the next day that China would cut that “dirty neck”, followed by strong protest to Japanese Ambassador in Beijing, restriction for Chinese travelers to go to Japan and blocking of import of Japanese seafood. In January 2026, China announced that it introduced stricter regulation on export of dual use products to Japan. China demanded Japan to retract Takaichi’s comment.   Seei...

The Board of Audit Japan (BAJ) sent its   annual report   on audited final accounts of all revenues and expenditures of the state to Sanae Takaichi Cabinet on November 5 th . The top issue is expenditure on compensation for the accident at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in 2011, a nuclear accident which Japan had never seen before. It found that 59 percent of whole estimated cost was already spent by the end of fiscal year 2025, causing fundamental concern on future progress in the project.   It is the newest report since the BAJ submitted one in 2022. The updated report found that 13.9 trillion yen has been poured on the effort of recovery from the accident. The government of Japan estimated in 2023 that 23.4 trillion yen would be needed for the recovery effort. However, the cost is expected to increase for extracting highly radioactive debris in the buildings, which are the nuclear fuels melt down to the ground in the accident.   The 13.9 trillion yen of spe...

A sweeping victory of Democrats in the U.S. midterm election was reported by TV shows and newspapers in Japan. This “blue tsunami” was reportedly made as a backlash of voters who were frustrated with President Donald Trump’s handlings of economy, which brought unaffordability of the people, caused by the War in Iran that he had ignited. The government of Japan led by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is careful about Trump’s unilateral promotion of diplomacy with China and Russia. On an apparent set back of her counterpart and his party, Takaichi refused to comment to the questions of reporters on November 5 th . She insisted that it was a domestic politics of a foreign country. “Japan-U.S. alliance is a very important basis of our diplomacy and security. I would like to cooperate with President Trump to strengthen bilateral relations between Japan and the U.S.,” Takaichi  said .   The surge of Democrats had been reported in Japan before the voting day, but the result was more tha...

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi   announced  that her government would reduce subsidy for gasoline starting December, due to shortage of budget for it. Instead, she will also bring back other subsidy for electricity and gas. Unexpected exacerbation of situation in Middle East gives Takaichi no choice but cutting support for households. Her economic policy, based on populism, is facing an obstacle as she promotes consumption tax cut for next April.   The government of Japan, led by prime minister Fumio Kishida, introduced subsidy to keep gasoline price against oil price hike in January 2022. After Russia invaded Ukraine in the next month, energy price steeply rose, making fundamental support for consumers inevitable. The subsidy was once finished at the end of 2025.   However, U.S. President Donald Trump, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, began war against Iran in February 2026. Takaichi resumed the subsidy in March to keep retail price of regular gasoline...

The Constitution of Japan marked eightieth anniversary from its promulgation on November 3 rd , 1946. Disdained as the supreme law imposed by foreign country, the constitution has been maintained without changing a word in its provisions for eight decades, earning its status as one of the most long-lasting unchanged constitutions in developed countries. However, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has declared to change it by next April.   Establishing new constitution was based on Japan’s acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration in July 1945, which demanded Japan to guarantee freedom of speech, religion and thought, as well as abandoning economic effort to rearm. Different from the focus of Western countries to democratize Japan, the Japanese government  insisted  on maintenance of regime governed by Emperor.   Minister of State, Joji Matsumoto, submitted a draft for new constitution to the General Headquarters headed by Douglas MacArthur in February 1946, which reserved Emp...

The government of Japan  established   National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA) to prevent damages from natural disaster on November 2 nd . The agency promotes policies to prepare for coming disasters with authoritative power to urge ministries to take proactive measures. However, it does not have a power to appropriate necessary budget for disaster prevention, limiting its role to save lives of Japanese citizens.   After the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011, Japanese government established Reconstruction Agency to conduct policies for reconstruction from the devastation. But a number of disasters, including major earthquakes, flood of river water or landslide caused by heavy rain, hit various region with hundreds of victims thereafter. Disaster prevention is an inevitable measure in this country destined for suffering from natural disaster.   It was former Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba who decided to upgrade disaster management section in Cabinet Office to an i...

Sanae Takaichi Cabinet made   a decision   on conditions for designating a backup capital on October 27 th , which can substitute the function of Tokyo as the capital of Japan in a great disaster. The conditions include certain size of population and economic productivity, inviting skepticisms on relationship with natural disaster. According to the conditions, Sapporo in Hokkaido, Nagoya in Aichi, Osaka in Osaka and Fukuoka in Fukuoka became the candidates for the backup capital of Japan.   The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and Japan Innovation Party (JIP) agreed in October 2025 that they would pass the bill for backup capital in 2026 ordinary session of the Diet. The bill passed the Diet with strong push of Prime Minister Takaichi who was honest to implement the agreement with JIP.   The law promotes measures to maintain function of the state of Japan in a great disaster. But it included another project that would encourage economic growth with decentralization thr...

The Bank of Japan   declared   on October 30 th  that it hit the target of 2 percent inflation, the main goal of the bank’s monetary policy which had been set in January 2013. Although the bank hoped it to be achieved within two years, it actually took nearly fourteen years, due to its inability to change people’s mind obsessed with deflation. The bank is still aiming at further increase of interest rate as the price inflation imposes upward pressure on Japan’s economy.   In the monetary policy meeting held on October 29 th  and 30 th , the Bank of Japan approved its  Outlook for Economic Activity and Prices . “Underlying CPI inflation is at a level that is generally consistent with the price stability target of 2 percent, and is expected to remain at around that level” says the outlook. The BOJ Governor, Kazuo Ueda, asserted that BOJ’s policy stimulated the economy and a mechanism of mutual rise in wage and price revived. However, the road to 2 percent inf...

The Prime Minister, Sanae Takaichi, had a   meeting   with German Chancellor, Friedrich Merz, at the Prime Minister’s Official Residence on October 28 th . Merz expressed his willingness to join the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP), which promotes joint development of new fighter jets, by Japan, the United Kingdom and Italy. Takaichi is interested in military business with European countries, ignoring potential concern of neighbor countries on Japan’s “new militarism.”   Both leaders called the bilateral relations between Japan and Germany “premium partner” in their  joint statement , with which they recognized common strategic issues to keep freedom, peace and prosperity of both countries and the world. Those strategic issues would include security, defense, economic security, innovation and global issues such as measures on climate change or protection of environment. Merz insisted that both countries shared so much in common that calling each other neighbors wou...

The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), Japan Innovation Party (JIP) and the Democratic Party for the People (DPP)   agreed on October 28 th   to reduce 31 seats in proportional district of the Lower House. While the LDP and JIP have been asserting that 45 seats, worth 10 percent of all the seats in the Lower House, the DPP opposed the idea. As the leading coalition made a compromise to accept DPP’s proposals, those three parties reached a deal. The leading coalition secured a simple majority in both chambers of the Diet.   Upholding an agreement for coalition partnership in October 2025, the LDP and JIP sponsored a bill to reduce 45 seats of reduction. The bill faced protest from opposition parties, including the DPP, because reduction in proportional representatives had greater impact on small parties than major ones. As other opposition parties fundamentally doubted necessity of reducing Diet seats, the DPP  proposed  an alternative option that would reduce 19 se...

Sanae Takaichi government proposed establishment of new corporation which enhances defense industries. Prime Minister Takaichi has been asserting that she pursues economic growth by investment on security, including broader export of all kinds of weapons. It may cause a major concern that the corporation will play a role of a military-industrial complex in Japan.   The idea of establishing new corporation was proposed by the government to a  meeting  of experts for discussing defense from the viewpoint of enhancing national power. The corporation is expected to energize studying defense issues, secure supply chain for future procurement and enhance stable and sustainable defense capabilities. It believes that the corporation will contribute to the reform of defense capability of Japan in the time new technologies, including artificial intelligence or drones, are deployed in the frontline of actual battlefield.   This effort for defense reform is based on a notion tha...

Sanae Takaichi Cabinet   approved   a bill of revised   Important Land Use Regulation Act   and submitted to the Diet on October 23 rd . The bill regulates acquisition of land around important facilities, such as Self-Defense Force or Coast Guard, by foreign agent or someone under control of foreign government. A person or company that wants to purchase those kinds of land for foreign country needs to have license from Japanese government.   Current law enacted in 2021 was established to prevent real estate around important facilities and remote islands close to territorial border from being used for acts that impede the functions of those facilities and islands. Although the law can regulate use of the land by recommendation for cancelling it or order with penalty, there is no provision to prohibit purchasing of such land so far.   The revised law will introduce licensing for those kinds of land trade. The government will be able to designate the land with...

Revised Imperial House Law   was enforced on October 24 th . The law enabled female imperial family can remain in the house after marriage and male member in male line of former imperial families be adopted to the imperial family. Although adoption has long been ruled out, hawkish Sanae Takaichi administration pave the way for it to keep the house in paternal line. Takaichi administration has no plan to discuss more on this highly controversial issue.   The revision was for reducing works of each imperial family which numbers are declining recent years. To keep female members in the house, the revised law excluded a provision which forced female members to leave the house when she is married. Another major revision was to approve adoption of the members of eleven former imperial families, which left the house in 1947. The adopted members are limited to males in male line of the families.   Since Takaichi insisted on enactment in the last session of the Diet, the revision ...