J Update

The 10 th   Coast Guard Headquarters in Kagoshima received an emergency call in Wednesday afternoon that a tilt-rotor plane, CV-22 Osprey, crashed to offshore to the sea. The headquarters found a wrecked plane belonging to United States Yokota Air Base in Tokyo one kilometer offshore Yakushima Island in Kagoshima Prefecture. Having seen accumulated troubles, Japan’s public skepticism against Osprey is going to be enlarged. One crew out of eight found dead after a fishery boat salvaged him and brought to a port. The guard kept on searching other seven. The plane was on its way to Kadena Air Base in Okinawa from Iwakuni Air Base in Yamaguchi. While Yakushima Airport Control Office received a request of emergency landing before the crash, some residents of the island witnessed fire in the plane body. It is doubted that the plane had a trouble in engine.   Osprey has become a synonym of skepticisms against U.S. military equipment. From the beginning of deployment of Osprey in Okin...

The second meeting of States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons began at the United Nations Headquarters on Monday. Japan, as it had been, did not join the meeting which would discuss elimination of nuclear weapons in the world, despite the Japanese government’s goal of “the world without nuclear weapons.” While the government of Japan explains that Japan is under the nuclear “umbrella” of the United States, some countries under the umbrella attended the meeting as the observers. Japan looks like simply hoping to stay in the Western community turning their back to the treaty. The treaty  was adopted on July 7 th , 2017 and entered into force on January 22 nd , 2021, prohibiting participation in any nuclear weapon activities including developing, testing, producing, acquiring, possessing, stockpiling, using or threatening to use of nuclear weapons. The states parties are expected to hold a thematic debate on the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons in the ...

News reports revealed that the amount of money accumulated to “funds” in the supplementary budget submitted to the extraordinary session of the Diet was as much as ¥4.3 trillion. The funds are one of the items in governmental revenue, which spendings does not require any approval of the Diet. If the government cannot spend all amount of fund, the surplus will be automatically postponed next fiscal year. Receiving criticisms that the fund system allows arbitral use of revenue, Fumio Kishida administration starts reviewing of the fund system. The purpose of those funds is to deal with the mid- or long-term policy issues. The funds are established in the special corporations and their budget is fulfilled with the money from the ministries which oversee the activities of those special corporations. According to  a report  of  Tokyo Shimbun , the total balance of all 190 funds established by the ministries swelled to ¥16.6 trillion at the end of FY 2022, which is the end of th...

Minister for Foreign Affairs Yoko Kamikawa had a meeting with the Foreign Ministers of Republic of Korea and China in Busan, South Korea, on Sunday. The trilateral foreign ministers’ meeting was held for the first time since August 2019. The three ministers agreed on having the summit meeting of those three governments “at the earliest convenient time” without any specific schedule. The meeting reflected China’s approach to Japan and ROK which relationship has been showing improvements.   The trilateral leaders’ meeting has not been held since December 2019, due to the outbreak of COVID-19 and deterioration of bilateral relationships of the members. While there was an expectation for the foreign ministers’ meeting to fix the schedule of the summit meeting, the ministers only reconfirmed the necessity of resuming the trilateral summit. It is likely that Beijing could not have a good outlook on the trilateral summit so far, although it was concerned on the relationship of Japan, Sout...

The Supreme Court decided that cutting subsidy for a filmmaker of “From Miyamoto to You” was illegal. Japan Arts Council, a special public corporation overseen by Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, cut ¥10 million of subsidy for the film, because an actor who had been arrested with a suspicion of using illegal drug appeared on the film. The court found the decision of JAC had been inappropriate in light of public interest. It is regarded that the court protected freedom of expression from excessive intervention of the government.   An independent filmmaker in Tokyo, Star Sands, received a notice of issuance of subsidy for “From Miyamoto to You” from JAC by March 2019, when the main actor of the film Pierre Taki was arrested. Taki admitted that he committed the crime and the court finally decided he was guilty in July. Soon after that, JAC cancelled issuing ¥10 million of subsidy to Star Sands.   The filmmaker filed a lawsuit demanding invalidation ...

The Seoul High Court of the Republic of Korea on Thursday ordered Japan to pay 200 million won for each of former “comfort women” as compensation for wartime sexual slavery. Japanese government has rejected appearing in the court, raising its right called “sovereign immunity,” a concept that a state is immune from the jurisdiction of a court in another country. Showing no intention to compensate for the damage, Japanese government does not predict that the court decision will not exacerbate the bilateral relationship with ROK. However, Japan does not have any specific plan to finally settle this issue. The sixteen victims of the wartime slavery filed the lawsuit demanding 200 million won for each in 2016. The Seoul Central District Court dismissed the case in 2021, citing sovereign immunity. But the appeal court overturned the decision, saying “According to the international common law, it is possible that sovereign immunity of the country causing the damage is denied, when the illegal...

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea on Tuesday launched a reconnaissance satellite and announced that it was successful in putting the satellite into the orbit. It is possible that North Korea is laying a new threat on Northeast Asia with capability of watching the military moves of United States and South Korea and striking broader area than ever. Japanese government denounced North Korea as violating the past resolutions of United Nations Security Council, receiving no response from Pyongyang. The people in Japan realized the launch with sudden stop of TV programs of all six major stations late Tuesday night. The government-run emergency warning system, or J-Alert, then appeared on the TV screens in all over Japan and reported North Korea’s launch of “missile” to the direction of Okinawa prefecture. Although it recommended the people in Okinawa to hide themselves inside solid buildings, NHK reported the behavior of the people in Ishigaki Island nothing different from an ordinar...

The Governor of Ishikawa Prefecture Hiroshi Hase revealed that he handed over the gifts to the members of International Olympic Committee for winning the ticket of Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in 2013. Hase also told that the cost for the gifts was covered by the secret secretariat expenses, which is known as the secret wallet for Prime Minister managed by Chief Cabinet Secretary. If it were true, the action of Hase must have violated the Code of Ethics of IOC. Hase spotlighted another dark aspect of Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. It was Shinzo Abe administration that seriously hoped to invite Tokyo Olympic games for 2020 and won the ticket in 2013. As the chief of the Headquarters for Promotion of Tokyo Olympic Bid in Liberal Democratic Party, Hase was in the position to make efforts to win in the future host election of IOC.   In the speech to a meeting of sports promotion in Tokyo on November 17 th , Hase referred to the situation when he was involved in the election campaign in 2013. Ac...

The Special Investigation Division of Tokyo Public Prosecutors Office began investigation on the five major factions in the leading Liberal Democratic Party with suspect that they failed in reporting their income in the fundraising parties between 2018 and 2021. The five factions include Kochi-kai, which head is Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. While Kishida urged each faction to correct the reports, the sense of legal compliance of the top leader of Japan is substantially doubted. This scandal was revealed by Shimbun Akahata, the newspaper issued by Japan Communist Party, in November, 2022. The newspaper reported that the five major LDP factions concealed their income, which would amount ¥25 million. A professor of Kobe Gakuin University Hiroshi Kamiwaki thereafter submitted the public prosecutors office the accusations that the hidden income of the five factions would be as much as ¥40 million. Receiving the accusations, the special investigation office supposedly started interviewing t...

In spite of populist policy of tax cut or efforts in diplomacy, the popularity for Fumio Kishida administration shows record low. Last weekend polls marked the lowest approval rates since the Liberal Democratic Party retook the administration in 2012. “The bottom fell out of the bucket,” said some lawmakers in Liberal Democratic Party. With this unpopularity, Kishida cannot have a choice of dissolve the Lower House and have a general election. LDP may need to consider a choice of replacing Kishida, if it finds a good candidate. Japanese politics increases instability, when the world order shows historical chaos. The poll conducted by  Mainichi Shimbun  revealed the approval rate for Kishida Cabinet as 21%, the lowest since Naoto Kan Cabinet marked 15% in 2011, when Japan suffered from East Japan Great Earthquake and explosion of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. Disapproval against Kishida was as high as 74%, which was paralleled with the time of Taro Aso Cabinet in F...

The fourteen countries of Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) agreed on the deal over anti-corruption and clean energy at the leaders meeting in San Francisco on Thursday. Adding to already agreed measures on supply chains, the member countries were successful in sharing the norms in three “pillars” of IPEF out of four. However, the most crucial point on the framework, trade, was left behind without any hope for reaching a deal. Japan has not exercised a leadership to wrap up the negotiation. IPEF is a United States-led international economic conference established last year, which aimed to build economic order countering China’s advance in the region. They set four subjects to discuss: fair and resilient trade, supply chains, fair economy, and clean economy. The member countries have  agreed on supply chains  in May, which aimed to increase the resilience, sustainability, transparency or diversification of their supply chains.   On the issue of  clean anergy , th...

Established in 1925 commemorating Meiji Emperor and Empress, the Outer Garden of Meiji Jingu Shrine, or Jingu Gaien, has been offering urban comfort to the people in Tokyo metropolitan area as a sports park. There raised a dispute over the redevelopment plan in the garden between the residents around and the local governments. The question here is: business or environment? The redevelopment plan is to rebuild a baseball stadium and a rugby stadium, and two tower buildings with shopping malls. Tokyo Metropolitan Government explains that there will be a large loan garden at the center for the events with legacy of Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games such as playing with professional athletes or experiencing parasports. “This will be the stronghold of sports we can proud of to the world,” says TMG on the webpage.   The developer including Meiji Jingu Shrine or Mitsui Fudosan submitted the plan to TMG December 2022. With approval of TMG in February, the developers started the construction in Marc...

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in San Francisco, U.S., where the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit was held. Both leaders agreed on consulting each other to deal with the issues between their nations, including discharge of processed water in Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant into the sea, and reaffirmed “the mutually beneficial strategic relationship.” Although Kishida stressed his achievement in the meeting, it is unclear how much that diplomatic slogan will work in the currently exacerbated bilateral relationship. It was the first meeting for them since they met in Bangkok, Thailand, a year ago. “As the two big powers leading the region and the international community,” Kishida said to Xi, “we are responsible for world peace and prosperity. I want to cooperate with you for the bright future of next generation.” Xi hoped constructing new relationship between China and Japan with reaffirming the mutually beneficial strategic relationship....

Reflecting current shortage of taxi drivers, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida considers introduction of Japan version of ridesharing. In the post-COVID world, the business sectors in Japan expects major regain from foreign travelers coming to Japan. However, bureaucrats in Japan are always reluctant to loosen the regulations over businesses. Robbery or sex crime should, for them, be the cause of opposing deregulation for taxi business. How will Kishida’s decision be look like? The foreign travelers are increasing in such scenic cities as Kyoto or Kamakura. They use taxis or buses to move between the sights. Sometimes buses are filled with the tourists and the residents cannot ride them. With years-long scarcity of drivers, taxis cannot fully meet the demand for local transportation. A taxi driver needs to get the special driver’s license, which is called the second category of normal car license. The government started thinking about taking advantage of private car owners without the taxi ...

One of the major political agenda of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is constitutional amendment. In his presidential campaign of Liberal Democratic Party in 2021, Kishida declared that if he would be elected, he would achieve it within his term of LDP president, which will expire in September 2024. It is commonly regarded by the lawmakers that the parties have to agree on a draft for the amendment in current extraordinary Diet session to implement his campaign resolution, but the time is running out. Now, Kishida’s seriousness is doubted. Kishida told before the presidential election that the constitutional amendment should steadily be promoted to keep the constitution contemporary. LDP upheld four points for the amendment 2017, which was not endorsed by the party’s national convention though. Those points are writing down the existence of self-defense force in Article 9, establishing emergency clause, separating integrated electoral districts of House of Councillors, and adding a clause...

If Tokyo holds Olympic Games twice, Osaka can have the international exposition twice. That was the cause for the 2025 World Exposition, or Osaka-Kansai Expo, when the discussion for invitation started in 2014. Now, there is not much enthusiasm for the expo with mainly two reasons: because it is unclear how much cost is needed, concerning current commodity price hike; and because the idea of economic stimulus by a major international event became obsolete. The government of Japan announced that it approved the revised financial plan for Osaka-Kansai Expo, which would increase the estimated cost from ¥185 billion to ¥235 billion. “It is inevitable,” said Minister of Economy, Trade and Infrastructure Yasutoshi Nishimura, “because commodity price and workers’ wage has been rising and will be.” He denied the idea of further increase of the cost.   It was originally ¥125 billion when Osaka won the ticket defeating Russia in 2018. It increased by ¥60 billion in 2020, adding the cost for ...

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida fired State Minister of Finance Kenji Kanda on Monday. Being in the second position at the top of a ministry that collects tax money, Kanda has been doubted as repeatedly delayed tax payments in his own private business. Kishida apologized to the public as business as usual. The consecutive resignation of two State Ministers and a Parliamentary Vice-Minister is reported as a return of “resignation domino” of last year, seriously undermining Kishida administration.   Weekly Bunshun  magazine on November 8 th  reported that an office building in Nagoya city owned by Kanda was seized its land and property by the tax authority in Nagoya for four times since 2013. It was because Kanda failed in paying tax properly. In the discussion at a committee in House of Councillors, Kanda explained that he was too busy in his job as a lawmaker to oversee his business enough. And he admitted the fact of seizures and apologized it.   Kishida was not willin...