J Update

Committee on Budget of the House of Representatives made a hearing, closed to the press, to former accounting manager of Abe faction in the Liberal Democratic Party, Jun-ichiro Matsumoto, on secret fund scandal of the faction. While Matsumoto did not reveal who resumed the kickback system in 2022, it was reported that he told the public prosecutors about who asked Matsumoto for that resumption. It was likely that former Minister of Education, Hakubun Shimomura, effectively requested to maintain the system of returning sales of fundraising parties. Although some lawmakers with former Abe and Nikai faction were indicted by the public prosecutors, there remains two big questions unsolved. One is when and who started the system of secretly returning sales of fundraising party ticket to the members of faction. Former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori was doubted as the leader who created the system, former Prime Minister Fumio Kishida did not make detailed interview to Mori. This doubt is not rem...

The Policy talk between the leading coalition, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and Komeito, and the Democratic Party for the People (DPP)   ended up   without reaching a deal. LDP and Komeito submitted a revised bill for raising threshold of annual income for imposing income tax without consent of the DPP. Although the leading coalition does not have a majority in the House of Representatives, it expects Japan Innovation Party (Nippon Ishin-no Kai) to approve the bill. In the current taxation system, a person with 1.03 million of annual income (including salary) or less will not be imposed income tax. The DPP demanded that threshold be raised up to 1.78 million yen to include more people who are exempted from any income tax. The leading coalition raised the current threshold to 1.23 million yen and submitted FY 2025 bill for that policy. The DPP refused that offer, considering it as insufficient.   The leading coalition brought revised version of tax reduction. To mini...

While the crippled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant keeps on discharging “processed water” to the Pacific Ocean, radioactive contaminated soil has been accumulated in a site close to the plant. Although the government of Japan has guaranteed to remove the soil from Fukushima within thirty years, there is no fixed plan to finalize it by then. A serious concern is raised from the people around the site.   Three nuclear reactors of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant exploded in the severe accident in 2011. They emitted 500 petabecquerel of radiation into the air and it landed on the broad area around the plant. The residents scraped the contaminated soil and kept it in their backyard. Recognizing such situation would disturb reconstruction of devastated area, the government of Japan decided that the contaminated soil should be treated by each prefecture.   The soil in Fukushima prefecture, which occupies most share of all, was collected and temporarily kept in an interim ...

As appealing his achievement with US President Donald Trump to build a “golden age” of Japan-US relationship, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba is focusing his diplomacy on improvement of bilateral relations with China. He and his staffs accumulate sessions with Chinese officials to normalize trade between both sides of the sea. It is likely that Japan is preparing for possible trade war, invoked by the “tariff man” in America.   While seeking early meeting with Trump, Ishiba took opportunities to meet with Chinese leaders. Following a meeting with Chinese Premier Li Qiang in the backdrop of ASEAN leaders meeting at Laos last October, Ishiba had his first meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping at Peru last November, where a summit meeting of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) was held. Ishiba  reconfirmed  with Xi to maintain “mutual beneficial relationship based on common strategic interests.”   Minister for Foreign Affairs Takeshi Iwaya visited China in Decemb...

The Cabinet Office released National Accounts of Japan on February 17 th . According to the statistics,  the nominal gross domestic products (GDP) , which represents size of the economy, in 2024 was 609.3 trillion yen, exceeding 600 trillion yen for the first time. The new record was mainly supported by consumers’ price inflation. The real GDP, which excludes impact of the price hike, remained 557 trillion yen, showing still slow growth of Japanese economy.   The nominal GDP exceeded 100 trillion yen for the first time in 1973, and increased by 100 trillion yen almost every five years. It marked 500 trillion yen in 1992 just before when the bubble economy led by price inflation of real estate burst. The growth slowed down after 1990s and declined under 500 trillion yen at the time of Lehman shock and East Japan Great Earthquake.   600 trillion of GDP was the target upheld by Shinzo Abe administration, which sought strong economy with a slogan called Abenomics, which was b...

Following the cabinet decision of the 7 th  Strategic Energy Plan, the government of Japan submitted its  nationally determined contribution  (NDC) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The target set by Japan was reduction of greenhouse gasses by 60 percent compared to the level in 2013 in fiscal year 2035 (between April 2035 and March 2036). But it was proved to be falling short of the target set by the international body for tackling global warming. The 28 th  UNFDCC conference of the parties (COP 28) held in United Arab Emirates in 2023  concluded  that global greenhouse gas emissions needed to be cut 43 percent by 2030, compared to 2019 levels, to limit global warming to 1.5 degree Celsius, which was the target set in the Paris Agreement in 2015. Paris Agreement requires each party to renew its original NDC in 2015 every five years and the members are supposed to submit their climate actions through 2035 by 2025.  ...

The leading coalition looks like having paved the way for passing FY 2025 budget bill in the Diet, in which it does not have a simple majority at one of two Houses. The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and Komeito on February 20 th   reached a basic agreement with Japan Innovation Party (Nippon Ishin-no Kai) on “free education,” which Ishin upholds as its main political agenda. Ishin is supposed to vote for the budget bill in the Diet. The LDP, Komeito and Ishin wrapped up a draft to remove the threshold set at 9.1 million yen of annual income to receive 118 thousand yen of support for high school tuition. To the students going to private high school, which generally is more expensive than public high school, the government pays additional 457 thousand yen at most, regardless the amount of annual income.   The cost for those changes is estimated to be 550 billion yen. The leading coalition is going to include that cost in FY 2025 budget bill and it will be approved by the House ...

It was found that a controversial campaign in the gubernatorial election of Hyogo last November was supported by some Hyogo assembly members affiliated with Japan Innovation Party, or Nippon Ishin-no Kai. Those members with Ishin  admitted  that they had handed out document or video footage to an internet extremist, Takashi Tachibana. The leaked information was about the activities of another committee members who were critical on the scandal of incumbent governor. One of those members accused by Tachibana reportedly killed himself in January. The governor of Hyogo, Motohiko Saito, was accused of his power harassment on his staff and Hyogo Prefectural Assembly established an investigation committee. Saito chose the way to resign and run again for the election to supplement his seat by himself. The election was held in November 2024, and Saito won. Tachibana ran for the same election with a strange campaign in which he did not seek his winning but firmly recommended the voters ...

Wakayama District Court sentenced ten years in prison to a defendant, Ryuji Kimura, who hurled an explosive device to then Prime Minister Fumio Kishida during an election campaign in the city of Wakayama in April 2023. Although Kimura argued that he did not have intention to kill Kishida, the court recognized the significance of interfering election which consists an important basis of democracy. Kimura has not decided whether he would appeal to the upper court.   Kimura, 24 years old at the time, threw a pipe bomb to Kishida when the prime minister was making a speech to support a candidate of the Liberal Democratic Party in a by-election of Wakayama 1st district of the House of Representatives in a building of a fishery port in the city. While Kishida managed to escape from the explosion, the bomb caused injury of an audience and a policeman guarding Kishida.   The court realized that the bomb was a handmade device which would scatter around with its fragments with expl...

Shigeru Ishiba Cabinet made a cabinet decision on   the 7 th  Strategic Energy Plan   on February 18 th . The plan dropped a phrase of demanding Japan to “ reduce its dependence on nuclear power as much as possible ” for the first time since Japan experienced unprecedentedly severe accident in Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in 2011. The plan also stressed the necessity of enhancing renewable power as the main power resource in Japan. However, there is a concern for business sectors to introduce renewable energies in terms of cost performance.   The plan set the share of energy resources in FY 2040. It is expected that between 40 and 50 percent for renewable energy, 30 to 40 percent for thermal power and 20 percent for nuclear energy will be the share fifteen years later. As of FY 2023, thermal power occupies 68.6 percent for all the power resource, followed by 22.9 percent for the renewables and 8.5 percent for the nuclear.   It is remarkable that the 7 t...

The President of the United States, Donald Trump, unintendedly tested autonomy of Japanese foreign policy. Recognizing unilaterality of Trump’s   executive order   of sanctioning International Criminal Court (ICC), Shigeru Ishiba administration chose the way not to join an international statement accusing Trump’s decision. Ishiba received a question in the Diet why Japan did not participate in the international effort. The executive order issued on February 6 th  denounced the ICC as engaged in “illegitimate and baseless actions” targeting America and Israel, raising ICC’s issuance in last November of arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and its former Minister of Defense, Yoav Gallant, for their crimes against humanity.   “The ICC has no jurisdiction over the United States or Israel, as neither country is party to the Rome Statute or a member of the ICC,” says the order. Although the order demands to freeze property of ICC officials, it is...

Minister of Health, Labor and Welfare, Takamaro Fukuoka, announced that his ministry would abandon raising the upper limit for out-of-pocket payment in high-cost medical care for the patients needing a long period of care. Although the ministry decided to raise the threshold last December, it rethinks its policy, receiving protests from the patients with such a serious disease as cancer. In midst of discussion over revision of FY 2025 budget, the medical payment appeared to be one of the political issues among parties. The government of Japan introduced high-cost medical care benefit in 1973, which exempts the patient who received expensive medical treatment from paying for full cost. In a  case  of a person with 11.6 million yen or more annual income had 1 million yen of medical treatment in a month, the person does not have to pay more than 254.18 thousand yen. If a person’s income were too low to pay for income tax, the one is not required to pay more than 35.4 thousand yen...

Expecting moderate support from the biggest opposition party, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) began policy talk with the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDPJ) on February 14 th . As a management of minority government in the House of Representatives, the LDP included the CDPJ to the respective frameworks of policy talk, adding to the Democratic Party for the People (DPP) and Japan Innovation Party (Nippon Ishin-no Kai) to secure a majority votes for FY 2025 budget bill. CDPJ requested revision of the budget bill, which would cause 3.8 trillion yen of change in spendings. For the leading party, passing annual budget bill sometimes has a fatal importance. In 1989, Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita, who had been accused of involvement in the Recruit Scandal, stepped down in exchange for the annual budget. Last minority government in the House of Representatives thirty-one years ago collapsed when Prime Minister Tsutomu Hata resigned with a deadlock of FY 1994 budget.   Righ...

Seven major parties in the Diet agreed on taking measures to regulate activities in electoral campaigns through social networking services (SNS). Not ignoring explicitly inappropriate campaign in some elections, the parties embarked on excluding some internet influencers who interfere other campaign of innocent candidates. They decided that freedom of expression could be restricted in some cases.   SNS is having great influence on national and local elections. In the gubernatorial election in Tokyo last July, 56 candidates ran for only one seat. Some of them obviously did not have any intention to be elected and governing the Tokyo metropolitan government. In the election for governor of Hyogo prefecture last November, false information and defamation about candidates spread through SNS.   It is supposed that some influencers focus on earning views for their postings about election campaign, which brings certain profit for them. Such “attention economy” is alleged to be distor...

Ministry of Environment published the schedule for final disposal of nuclear waste accumulated in the intermediate facility built in the place close to the crippled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. Although national government has promised to remove all the waste from the facility to somewhere out of Fukushima prefecture, it has not reached any conclusion of where the final disposal facility will be built. In the severe accident caused by losing electricity after being soaked in tsunami in 2011, the reactors in Fukushima plant exploded and emitted a large amount of radioactive materials into the air. Those were  estimated  as 500 peta-becquerel of noble gas, 500 peta-becquerel of iodine 131, 10 peta-becquerel of cesium 134 and 10 peta-becquerel of cesium 137. “Peta” stands for one thousand trillion.   Those radioactive materials mainly fell down on Fukushima area. Given necessity of removing contaminated earth surface, the government of Japan decided that the soil s...

The Liberal Democratic Party started intensive discussion on dual-surname option for married couples, which has long been a taboo in this conservative party. Receiving growing skepticism on current single name system, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba demanded his party to draw a certain conclusion on the issue. It is possible that the Diet is going to discuss the issue for new legislation of selective separate surname system.   Before the Meiji era, surname was only given to the samurais. The common people were not allowed using surname. After permission for the common people to use surname, Meiji government  introduced  separate surname system in 1876. It changed the policy to single surname in 1898 supposedly to solidify unity of each house. It is commonly recognized that a wife would become a member of husband’s family with marriage.   Ever since, single surname system has been maintained in Japan.  Article 750 of the Civil Code  determines that “a husband ...