J Update

Osaka Regional Court on Wednesday ordered the government of Japan to pay ¥2.75 million to each patient as the compensation for Minamata disease. The 128 plaintiffs had been excluded from the list of patients with Minamata disease. The court decision recognized that the people who had continuingly been eating fish in the Yatsushiro Sea would be affected by methyl mercury, the poison which caused Minamata disease. The decision spotlighted a nature of the government of Japan, which was extremely reluctant in helping the people suffering from the governmental policies or inactiveness. Minamata disease brings painful transformation in bones or joints and damage in brain or nerves caused by intake of the fish poisoned with methyl mercury emitted from Minamata Factory of Chisso Corporation that produced chemical products including fertilizer. The disease was first discovered in 1956. Although three thousand of patients have been registered based on  Pollution-related Health Damage Compens...

One year after the controversial state funeral for former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Japan can still not conclude the discussion about who deserves a state funeral. Although Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced a year ago that he would seek setting a rule for having a state funeral, he has not shown any positive attitude on this issue. This ambiguity represents the nature of the administration which is standing on a delicate balance between the moderate and radical conservatives. Receiving requests from the conservative groups in Liberal Democratic Party, Kishida revealed his intention to have a state funeral for Abe only six days after the assassination last year. On the other hand, he ignored the requests from the opposition parties which demanded the discussion in the Diet before the decision. Kishida made a cabinet decision to have the state funeral for Abe a week later.   Under current constitution, state funeral has been held only for former Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida i...

The Mayor of Tsushima City, Nagasaki, announced that he would not accept the research for building the final disposal facility of nuclear waste in the city. Refusing a petition for inviting the research by Tsushima City Council, Mayor Naoki Hitakatsu explained to the council on Wednesday that the consensus had not been achieved among the people in the city and a sharp division still existed. Although the government of Japan publicly recognized its responsibility in the selection of the place for the facility in April, no candidate has been found except two small towns in Hokkaido. The main reason for refusing the research was possible rumor against Tsushima. “There is a risk of negative reputation and the research plan is not credible enough to remove the concern of the people on safety and the measures in possible accident,” said Hitakatsu in his press conference. He said that he hoped to put a period to the issue.   Tsushima’s yearly sales of fishery products amount to ¥16 billio...

Considering constantly low rate of public support for his administration, Kishida ordered the members of his Cabinet to deliver a new package of economic measures on Wednesday, which was focusing on wage growth of the people in the time when the inflation damages households. However, the measures are mainly dependent on subsidies. New subsidy requires new budget. Sowing money as economic measure did not work well in the past administration. There are speculations on his intention. According to the outlines explained by Kishida, the measures consist of five pillars: protecting people’s lives from inflation, sustainable wage growth, promotion of domestic investment, overcoming demographic decline and enhancement of safety and security. Among them, measures for sustainable growth are most paid attention. Kishida looks like embarking on the reform of pension and health insurance system.   There is a traditional hazard called “the walls of ¥1.06 and ¥1.30 million.” There is a rule in Ja...

Japan Fair Trade Commission publicized  a report  on the situation of relationship between the news platforms and traditional news organizations including newspapers and publishers. Recognizing the current trend in which the readers were overwhelmingly accessing various news through those platforms, the commission concluded that the use of news by the platforms could violate the anti-monopoly act, if the price for delivering news had been extremely low. Especially, Yahoo was named as the platform possibly regarded as in a superior bargaining position. JFTC’s action can be estimated as a measure for protecting democracy from the giants of information technology. Conducted to seven major news platforms starting from last November, the research was exercised with the notion that proper supply of the news would be indispensable for progress of democracy. The commission found that 54% of consumers access the news through search engines and 34% through news portals. About 20% of con...

The largest opposition party in the Diet, Constitutional Democratic Party, considers submitting a new bill for restricting Prime Minister’s power, as the head of Cabinet, for dissolving the House of Representatives during the next session expected to be convocated next month. There is an argument that the power for dissolution has arbitrarily been exercised, distorting the balance of branches between the legislative and the executive. Although it is not likely that the bill will pass the Diet during the next session, it is necessary for the lawmakers in Diet to discuss how to protect their status from coercive Cabinet. The Constitution of Japan  prescribes dissolution of the House of Representatives in two ways. Firstly, Article 7 describes that the dissolution is one of the Emperor’s matters of state, and the Emperor performs the act with the advice and approval of the Cabinet. The provision has been interpreted as literally vesting the Cabinet a power of dissolution of the House ...

Freedom of speech is guaranteed to everyone. But if it would harm someone, this human right can be restricted. Ignoring that basic principle in democracy or denying democracy itself, a member of House of Representatives Mio Sugita, who were affiliated to Liberal Democratic Party, reiterated discriminative speeches against ethnic minority publicly. Sapporo Legal Affairs Bureau recognized the Sugita’s three offensive posts online against Ainu people, as breaches of human rights. It is highly unusual that a Diet member, whose privileged status is constitutionally guaranteed, is legally accused of a speech.   Sapporo Legal Affairs Bureau, one of the local bodies of Ministry of Justice, avoided “taking measures” against Sugita on her violation of human rights, but issued an “enlightenment” to her. The bureau recommended Sugita to study more about Ainu culture and be careful about her speech. Sugita has not commented on the issue. As long as Sugita is a member of House of Representatives...

If a lawmaker hired a local assembly member as a government-paid secretary, it is inappropriate not only because the secretary has double income from both national and local governments, but also because he/she cannot sufficiently work as a local assembly member. That is not unusual for the Diet members in Japan. The parties began to research how the secretary of lawmakers are involved in political activities.   According to the report of  Mainichi Shimbun,  a member of House of Representatives Taku Ikeshita, Osaka 10 th  district and affiliated to Innovation Party, hired two members of Takatsuki City Assembly, Osaka, as his secretaries whose salaries were paid by the national government. One secretary worked for four months and another for a year. One of the two secretaries received ¥9 million from national government and the total of double income amounted to ¥20 million in 2022.   The system of government-paid secretary was introduced in 1947, enabling a lawm...

  Not being able to ignore the consecutive problems, Personal Information Protection Commission issued “administrative guidance” to Digital Agency, the organization in charge of introducing My Number identification system. The commission found that the agency was not serious enough on the wrong linkage of personal information to different person. The question is whether all the problem will be removed, even if the government can properly operate the system. Basic problem exists on the fact that digital system is operated by a lot of people, to which human errors always happen. PIPC was established in 2016 as an independent organization in Cabinet Office for overseeing whether personal information was properly dealt with in the evolving digital communities. The commission can issue advice, recommendation or guidance. After the investigation for two months, the commission concluded that the agency was late in reporting the problems, which could even be illegal.   One of the purp...

To exercise Japan’s leadership in the international community, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida focused on “human dignity” in  his speech  at the General Debate of United Nations General Assembly on September 19 th . Citing Japan’s non-permanent membership in UN Security Council and presidency in Group of Seven, Kishida proposed “A World Caring for Human Dignity” to “respond to the desperate desire for Peace and the pleas of vulnerable people seeking help.” So, what would Japan do for that?   Kishida insisted that Japan had led human-centered international cooperation, based on the concept of human security. In the UN Millennium Summit in 2000, then Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori declared that Japan would put “human security” on the center of its diplomacy. Considering the tradition of Japan’s UN diplomacy, Kishida requested further efforts to achieve Sustainable Development Goals, which is highly popular in the business sector inside Japan. “The key is to ‘invest in people,’ wh...

Supposedly disappointed by a court decision against him, Governor of Okinawa looked to the world. Governor Denny Tamaki gave a speech at United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) on September 19 th , appealing that the human rights were severely damaged in Okinawa. To reconfirm its legitimacy and downgrade Okinawa’s protest, the government of Japan took another step to continue the landfill in Henoko for new military base. The government still shows no sign to exercise its “capability of listening” to local voices, which is a slogan of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. By the decision of Supreme Court earlier this month, which dismissed Okinawa’s appeal, accepting the landfill in Henoko became a legal mandate for Tamaki. Frustrated with the result, Tamaki chose the 54 th  session of UNHRC, beginning September 11 th  in Geneva, Switzerland, for his stage to argue the inhumanity of Japanese government. He insisted that building the base would be against the will of the people in O...

Most newspapers have reported the result of polls after Prime Minister Fumio Kishida reshuffled his Cabinet and the leaders of Liberal Democratic Party. Overwhelming trend was that no outstanding effect of the reshuffle was seen for boosting the administration. Kishida is likely to have less chance to dissolve the House of Representatives and have general election before the end of his term as the president of LDP next fall. The polls showed the supporting rate for Kishida Cabinet was unchanged or slight hike. In the poll by Yomiuri just after the reshuffle, people who supported Kishida Cabinet was 35%, as low as the previous month, and who did not was 50%. In Nikkei’s, it was 42% for support and 51% for not support. Mainichi’s weekend survey showed 25% of the supporting rate, 1 point of decline and tied to the lowest of Kishida Cabinet as in December 2022. The unsupportive occupied 68%.   In the Kyodo’s survey, the support was 39.8% with 6.2 point of rise from the previous month. ...

The scandal of historical sexual abuses by the founder Johnny Kitagawa is developing to bring the consequences, severely damaging the business of Japan’s most powerful talent agency Johnny & Associates. After Kitagawa’s niece Julie Keiko Fujishima, the president of the agency, apologized to the sufferers of her ancle’s abuses in a press conference on September 7 th , major sponsors consecutively announced that they would revise their contracts with Johnny’s. In addition to the compensation for the past suffered talents, Johnny & Associates is likely to face financial difficulty to run its business.   In the press conference, Fujishima revealed her intention that she would remain in the board of the agency, which caused skepticisms about the seriousness on the issue. Although she passed her position to a talent Noriyuki Higashiyama, accusation against Higashiyama’s past power harassments to younger colleagues came up immediately. The sufferers were frustrated with the decisi...

Maybe satisfied with the praises on his choice of five women in his new Cabinet, the number which tied the biggest record, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida made unbelievable choices in the selection of State Ministers and Parliamentary Vice-Ministers. Among 26 State Ministers and 28 Parliamentary Vice-Ministers, the number of women was zero. It obviously represents Kishida’s indifference to gender parity, even if he forgot his responsibility to appoint a woman. True reason is in the structure of the leading parties that has too little number of female lawmakers. State Ministers and Parliamentary Vice-Ministers are the political appointees for each Ministries in the government of Japan. They support their Ministers and check the executive organizations from the political point of view. Regarded as the career paths for political leaders, the posts of State Ministers and Parliamentary Vice-Ministers are ordinarily occupied with young lawmakers with two to five terms.   Kishida Cabinet on ...

The court decision obscured the separation of powers in the governmental system of Japan. The Third Petty Bench of Supreme Court dismissed the appeal for compensation of damages by the opposition parties that the delayed convocation of Diet by Shinzo Abe administration in 2017 had been unconstitutional. The court argued that the constitution did not guarantee the right of each lawmaker. The opposition parties tried to discuss Abe’s scandal over the relationship with school owners in Diet session. The court literally ignored the right of citizens to know about the details of top leader’s activity.   In February of 2017, a news report revealed a deal of land sales from the government to Moritomo Gakuen for building a new elementary school, which Principal Emeritus was Abe’s wife, in extremely discounted price. In the next month, a lawmaker with opposition party made a question about a rare approval for opening Division of Veterinary Science in a college of Kake Gakuen, which was run ...

Before Shohei Otani makes the homerun king in Major League Baseball for the first time as a Japanese, the baseball fans in Japan enthusiastically cerebrated on Thursday the championship of Hanshin Tigers in Central League of Nippon Professional Baseball Organization, which marked the first victory in these eighteen years. Although Tigers did not have an outstanding super hero in the team this season, the skillful leadership of the manager Akinobu Okada was highly evaluated. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who was not successful in raising the supporting rate by cabinet reshuffle the day before, should learn a lot from Okada.   Most people suppose that the Buzzword Award of this year will go to “are,” pronounced not as schwa/R but “a-le,” meaning “that” in Japanese. At the beginning of Tigers spring camp of this year, Okada made a speech. “We hope to aim ‘are,’ win ‘are’ and share the delight of ‘are’ in this season,” avoiding the word of “championship” for the team members not to pay...

According to the news reports on Thursday, the day after Prime Minister Fumio Kishida reshuffled his cabinet and the board members of Liberal Democratic Party, Kishida actually wanted to change the structure of his administration. He considered replacing LDP Secretary General Toshimutsu Motegi, but could not do that with consideration of losing grip on the third largest group in LDP. The episode indicate that Kishida administration fundamentally has a cause of trouble inside.   Not concealing his ambition to succeed Kishida administration, Motegi had been revealing his preferences in the reshuffle to his colleagues. It was reported that Minister of Finance had not been his option to accept. He has been active in announcing the result of some important policy discussions to appeal his leadership. For instance, the decision of abolishing the upper limit of income for the recipients of child care subsidy was firstly announced by Motegi before consulting with Kishida in January. It is ...

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida reshuffled his Cabinet and 2 nd   Reshuffled Cabinet of 2 nd   Kishida Administration started on Wednesday. While the reshuffle of cabinet would ordinarily be made for fixing problems or tackling on difficult issues with new members, Kishida focused on not changing basic structure of his administration by reassigning most key persons in the Cabinet and the leaders of Liberal Democratic Party. It must be that he thought that it was necessary for him to be reelected in the presidential election of LDP a year later.   The most outstanding point in the reshuffle for the most newspapers was picking Yuko Obuchi, former Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, for the chair of LDP Election Strategy Committee. The post is regarded as one of the four pillars of LDP Board. For Kishida, deterring LDP Secretary General Toshimitsu Motegi from running for the presidential election is the most critical for him to be reelected. Obuchi is affiliated to Motegi ...

To exercise the leadership as the chair country of Group of Seven and to implement the agreements on supporting Ukraine, Minister for Foreign Affairs Yoshimasa Hayashi on Saturday made a visit to Kyiv, Ukraine. In the meeting President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Hayashi pledged to support the recovery and reconstruction of Ukraine with utmost efforts by the government and private sector. The challenge for Japan is that its effort has to be limited until the war ends. With the constitutional restriction, Japan cannot be involved in military support for Ukraine. So, it focuses on leading post-war reconstruction as hosting Japan-Ukraine Conference for Promotion of Economic Reconstruction in Tokyo early next year. To Hayashi’s offer on Japan’s support for recovery and reconstruction, Zelenskyy welcomed any kinds of support for economic reconstruction, recovery of employment and return of refugees. Both governments agreed on starting negotiation for the bilateral document on supporting Ukraine’s ...