J Update

“Japan is looking for Specified Skilled Workers!” Those are the words seen on a   webpage   of Ministry for Foreign Affairs. The government of Japan introduced new system for foreign workers in 2019, which allowed foreign workers to have jobs in Japan by categorizing them as Specified Skilled Workers (SSW). However, labor shortage in Japan has not solved by those efforts. The government decided to expand the jobs which can accept foreign workers. Japan had long been restricting foreign people to get a job in Japan. It allowed foreign workers getting jobs in the concept of assisting developing countries through transferring working skills. Japan started accepting foreign workers as technical trainees in 1993. While the foreign workers could receive wage for their labor, which were sent to their families in home countries, the managers in Japan could get cheap labor.   The more foreign workers came to Japan, the less condition of their labor improved. Some managers forced h...

Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology released results of its examination of textbooks for mid-schools. With broad prevalence of computers in the classrooms, new textbooks are highly digitalized, introducing QR Code on text page to guide the readers to related webpage. Climate change, Sustainable Development Goals, gender equality or new technologies including generative artificial intelligence appears on the pages. The examination was taken for the first time since last one in 2019. According to a report of  Asahi Shimbun , 103 textbooks participated in the examination, and 100 passed it. One textbook for technical arts and home economics were declined with too much mistakes in its description and the conclusion for two social study textbooks, mainly dealing with history, were postponed.   Digital teaching materials on the textbooks increased to over twenty thousand, expanding by four times compared to the previous exam in 2019. By using digital techn...

The annual budget of Fumio Kishida administration for FY 2024 was approved by the Diet. As a business as usual, Prime Minister Kishida had a press conference to express his thought on the achievement. He insisted on his engagement with economic policy, embracing determination to get rid of decades-long deflation. Having suffered from prolonged scandal over the slush fund by factions of Liberal Democratic Party, Kishida will face difficulty to promote his policies in the second half of ordinary session of the Diet.   The House of Councillors approved FY 2024 budget bill amounting ¥112 trillion, the second largest in the history, with support of LDP and Komeito. The opposition parties voted against the bill. It is considered that whether voting for or against a budget bill is one of the most important decisions, along with voting on non-confidence resolution against the prime minister, which distinguishes the leading party from the opposition. The budget will be spent to the policies...

The Deputy Department Director of Worker’s Party of Korea, Kim Yo Jong, a younger sister of the General Secretary of WPK, Kim Jong Un, issued a   statement   that Japanese Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida, had sent North Korea a message for a direct meeting with Jong Un as early as possible. Yo Jong insisted that it would depend on Japan’s decision to put the abduction issue aside whether the summit meeting is taken place. While Japan immediately denied to accept North Korea’s argument, Kishida did not deny what Yo Jong had said. Yo Jong issued another statement last month, which indicated possibility of Kishida’s visit to Pyongyang. Revealing that Kishida had sent a message to meet with Jong Un in a different channel, Yo Jong demanded Kishida a political decision in the second statement, if he would want to improve the bilateral relationship with North Korea. “He cannot escape from a reputation that it must be nothing but a populism, if he insists on the abduction issue,” said Y...

Fumio Kishida administration decided to enable Japan to export next-generation fighter jets to foreign countries. A joint program with United Kingdom and Italy encouraged Japan to step forward to further international cooperation through sharing military equipment. Although Japan has strictly been prohibiting export of lethal weapons, new policy may gradually change Japan’s position as a pacific country. Kishida administration revised last December the  Three Principles on Transfer of Defense Equipment and Technology , decided by Shinzo Abe administration in 2014. Although the principles limited overseas transfer of defense equipment not to violate treaties or not to be handed to a country in conflict, Kishida expanded the destination to the country with which Japan has a license to produce the defense equipment.   Japan participated in a joint project to develop next generation fighter jet with UK and Italy since 2022. The government of Japan hoped to export those fighter jet...

Former Secretary general of Liberal Democratic Party, Toshihiro Nikai, announced that he would not run for next election of House of Representatives. Having his private secretary been determined as guilty in the slush fund scandal and the accounting manager of his faction been indicted, Nikai decided to retire as a lawmaker, taking responsibility of those illegal affairs. Nikai’s decision may affect how the leaders of former Abe faction will response to the demands of punishment on them.   Tokyo Public Prosecutors Office indicted in January a secretary of Nikai with the charge of not recording ¥35 million of political fund received from Nikai faction, and the accounting manager of Nikai faction who did not record 380 million of political fund received from or distributed to the faction members. A summary court in Tokyo found Nikai’s secretary guilty in February.   As a lawmaker and the head of his faction, Nikai apologized about the scandal and dissolved the faction in January...

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is considering interviews to the former four leaders of Abe faction to determine punishment on their involvement in the slush fund scandal. It is expected that the leaders will not receive official endorsement from Liberal Democratic Party in future elections. Kishida himself will be punished with reprimanding or lighter penalty. Although the leaders of former Abe faction took questions in the Deliberative Council on Political Ethics in both Houses, the details on how the kickback system of the sales of fundraising party was handled has not been explained enough. On how they decided to continue that system at a meeting in August 2022, even though former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had abolished it, the explanations contradicted among them. Some told that it was decided to continue at the meeting, and others said it was not concluded.   The August meeting was held with attendance of former Minister of Education, Hakubun Shimomura; former Minister of Econom...

Tokyo District Court dismissed the lawsuit filed by the family of an advisor for a precision machinery company, who died in a detention house. While the plaintiffs argued that the death was caused by insufficient treatment of medical doctors in charge, the court found the treatment was appropriate. In another case related to the company, the court decided that the arrest by police and the indictment by public prosecutors were illegal. It is questioned whether human rights of the people in custody is fully guaranteed.   Tokyo Metropolitan Police arrested in March 2020 three managers of Ohkawara Kakohki with suspect of exporting machines to China, which could be used for military purposes. Tokyo Public Prosecutors Office indicted them with charge of violating Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Act.   An advisor for the president of Ohkawara Kakohki, Shizuo Aijima, was found as suffering stomach cancer in October 2020, while he was in custody in Tokyo Detention House. Detention o...

Kumamoto District Court dismissed the lawsuit by the residents in the prefectures of Kumamoto or Kagoshima, who demanded being qualified as the patients of the Minamata disease. The court did not recognize the plaintiffs as the patients of Minamata disease or found them too late to sue for it. The decision was totally different from the one in Osaka last year. Minamata disease is caused by eating fish polluted by mercury emitted from a chemical factory of Chisso Corporation in Minamata city, Kumamoto. The government confirmed in 1968 that the disease was caused by release of methylmercury from the factory. It is known as one of the four major pollution disease in Japan at the time of rapid economic growth era after the World War II.   The patients filed lawsuits demanding Chisso, the government of Japan or local government compensation for damages on their health, and the court ordered the compensation in 1973. Although the Diet passed a law for relieving the victims in 2009, some ...

Commission on the Constitution in House of Representatives has not had a meeting so far, since current ordinary session was convoked January 26 th . While it is usual that the commission has a meeting every Thursday during the session of the Diet, the opposition parties have been refusing any discussion, because the members from ruling Liberal Democratic Party include some lawmakers involved in the slush fund scandal. It is unclear whether Prime Minister Fumio Kishida implement his promise to amend the Constitution within his term which is going to expire this fall. The head of the commission affiliated to LDP, Eisuke Mori, set a meeting on March 20 th  by the ranking members of the leading and the opposition parties for discussing procedure of the commission. The ranking member from Constitutional Democratic Party, Seiji Osaka, refused to attend the meeting, opposing Mori’s unilateral decision to set the meeting.   CDP and other opposition parties criticize five members of th...

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party is making slow progress in building campaign strategy for three by-elections of House of Representatives scheduled in late April. The party has not decided who will run for the election in two districts out of three, suffering from public criticisms against the slush fund scandal. There is a speculation that some in the party will start argument of replacing Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida, if LDP loses in all those three by-elections. The by-elections are held twice in a year for supplementing seats in the Diet, which became vacant with resignation or death of the lawmaker representing the district. There will be by-elections in three districts, Nagasaki 3 rd , Tokyo 15 th  and Shimane 1 st . They will officially be announced on April 16 and voted on April 28 th .   The by-election in Nagasaki 3 rd  will be held for supplementing the seat of Yaichi Tanigawa, who resigned as a lawmaker in January after he was indicted with charge of faili...

The Bank of Japan announced on March 19 that it decided to terminate its ultraloose monetary policy, Quantitative and Qualitative Monetary Easing with Yield Curve Control and negative interest policy. Judging “it came in sight that the price stability target of 2 percent would be achieved in a sustainable and stable manner,” the bank considered that “its large-scale monetary easing measures have fulfilled their roles.” However, it is not a declaration of getting rid of decades-long deflation. In the Monetary Policy Meeting,  the policy board members agreed  on setting a new target of uncollateralized overnight call rate, or short-term interest rate, at around 0 to 0.1%. The rate had been pushed below zero at minus 0.1%, which was applied to the accounts of private financial institutions holding at BOJ. It was the first time for BOJ to raise this rate since 2007, marking the end of negative interest rate policy introduced in 2016.   BOJ also announced that it would abolish...

Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed a sweeping victory in the presidential election voted on Sunday. There is no report in Japan that expected more peaceful world in Putin’s fifth term, as Russian invasion to Ukraine has entered the third year. Japan lost its diplomatic momentum with Russia after Prime Minister Fumio Kishida accused Russia of its aggression. The negotiation over the Northern Territories of Japan has been gridlocked. Kishida has shown no idea to resume talks with Putin so far.   Putin reportedly secured 87.28% of all votes, marking a new record. According to the Central Election Commission of Russia,  the voter’s turnout  rose up to all-time high of 77.44%. Russian government exercised votes in four states in eastern Ukraine and Crimea Peninsula, where Russia has been occupying, demonstrating Russian governance of those regions. “The result of election shows people’s expectation for us to do what we have planned,” said Putin, according to a report of...

Sapporo High Court   decided   that rules in the laws including Civil Code, which denied same sex marriage, violated the Constitution of Japan. It was the first case for a court in Japan to recognize same sex marriage as unconstitutional based on Paragraph 1 of Article 24, which had been interpreted as determining marriage only for a couple with different sexes. Lawmakers are required to make efforts for legislation to guarantee the right of sexual minorities. There are three provisions in  the constitution  for discussing legitimacy of same sex marriage in the lawsuits. Article 14:   All of the people are equal under the law and there shall be no discrimination in political, economic or social relations because of race, creed, sex, social status or family origin; Paragraph 1 of Article 24: Marriage shall be based only on the mutual consent of both sexes and it shall be maintained through mutual cooperation with the equal rights of husband and wife as a basis; a...

Fukuoka High Court sentenced life in prison to the head of crime syndicate, Kudo-kai, for his involvement of a series of killing or injuring citizens, overturning death penalty of the district court. The high court strictly applied the law excluding assumptions to one of the four alleged incidents, in which Kudo-kai was involved. While turning down of death penalty for notorious gang boss shocked Japanese society, this may be one of the Japanese versions of rule of law.   Fukuoka Regional Police arrested in 2014 the governor of Kudo-kai, Satoru Nomura, and the chairman, Fumio Tanoue, with suspect of killing a chief of fisheries cooperative in 1998. They were also arrested those two gangsters with suspect of shooting a policeman with Fukuoka Prefectural Police Office in 2012, stabbing a nurse in 2013, and stabbing a dental doctor in 2014.   The decision of first court, Fukuoka District Court, found that Nomura had been the mastermind of all of those cases and sentenced death pe...

Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare announced that it would terminate its subsidy for patients of COVID-19 at the end of March. Considering decrease of patients as infection has passed the peak of winter, the ministry decided to get back to normal medical posture, treating the disease as same as other infectious diseases. Reflecting booming economy with rallying stock market and trend of wage hike, the government of Japan no longer encourages consumption to revitalize Japanese economy as they did a few years ago. The government of Japan  shifted its measures  dealing with COVID-19 from the category 2 to the category 5 based on Infectious Disease Prevention Act last April. While the government is required to oversee medical treatment such as mandatory hospitalization of patients in the category 2, it no longer intervenes in medical service in the category 5, urging each medical organization independent decision on dealing with the patients. The government eventually loosen th...

Oita District Court decided that the risk assessment of Shikoku Electric Power Company (Yonden) for its Reactor #3 of Ikata Nuclear Power Plant in case of major earthquake of eruption of volcano was rational and dismissed the suit of plaintiffs requiring to stop the operation. The court concluded that actual danger for the plaintiffs’ lives could not be recognized. The plaintiffs appealed to the high court immediately.   Ikata Nuclear Power Plant is located on the base of Sadamisaki Peninsula in the west end of Shikoku Island. Hiroshima High Court decided to stop Yonden’s operation, recognizing that the measures against earthquake or volcanic eruption was insufficient in 2017 and 2020. Yonden later disputed and the court later overturned its previous decision. The reactor of the Ikata plant resumed its operation in December, 2021.   While Hiroshima is on northern opposite side of Ikata beyond Seto Inland Sea, Oita is on the western opposite. 569 residents in Oita prefecture fi...