J Update

The Constitutional Court of the Republic of Korea (ROK)   upheld   the impeachment of President Yoon Suk-yeol by the National Assembly, ruling that the martial law declared by President Yoon Suk-yeol last December was unconstitutional. The decision immediately led to resignation of Yoon as the president and presidential election will be held within 60 days. Losing a president who has contributed to rebuilding bilateral relations with Japan, Japanese government considers how to maintain the momentum with next ROK administration. On December 3 rd  of 2024, Yoon declared martial law, accusing the opposition parties of their anti-state activities, and sent military force into the National Assembly as he issued an order to stop activities of parties and demonstrations. The National Assembly passed a resolution in the midnight that demanded lifting martial law. The martial law was cancelled by early in the next morning.   The court found that the martial law and sending tr...

The President of the United States, Donald Trump,   announced   introduction of “reciprocal” tariff on April 2 nd , which would be imposed on goods imported from foreign countries with respectively different rate for each country. He declared that 24 percent of tariff rate would be applied to the goods from Japan, arguing that Japan had been levying high tariff on US goods. The government of Japan has not found what measures it would take to counter the Trump’s tariffs. In his address at the Rose Garden, White House, Trump argued that the US had been ripped off by foreign countries. “For decades, the United States slashed our trade barriers on other countries while those nations placed massive tariffs on our products and created outrageous non-monetary barriers to decimate our industries,” said Trump. He called it “liberation day” to make America wealthy again.   The rate of tariff on Japan was higher than the prediction of the policymakers in Japan. Prime Minister Shiger...

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba   failed   in implementing his words that he would conclude the reform of political donation from companies and organizations. While the opposition parties except Democratic Party for the People (DPP) agreed on banning all those donations, the leading coalition, Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito with support of the DPP, insists on preserving their source of political funds. Keeping majority in the Diet for the donations to remain, Ishiba does not care the delay of discussion over political funds. The LDP sank into a quagmire of slush fund scandal last year, the scandal which pushed former Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to resignation, and Ishiba faced serious defeat in the general election of the House of Representatives last fall. The parties in the Diet agreed on abolishing “policy activities fund,” which enabled party leaders to spend political fund without disclosing the purpose, in the extraordinary session of the Diet in December. However, ...

An experts’ group of Central Disaster Management Council in the government of Japan published updated estimation on possible great earthquake occurring around Nankai Trough Sea on March 31 st . The report of the council predicts 298,000 deaths and 2.35 million collapses of buildings. Although the government has been taking necessary measures to reduce damages from Nankai Trough Great Earthquake, the report showed that the effort has not reached a goal.   Nankai Trough is a fault located off the southern coast of Japan, with length of 900 kilometers extending from Suruga Bay, Shizuoka, to Hyuga-nada Sea, Miyazaki. In plate tectonics, Philippine Sea Plate is subducts beneath Eurasia Plate at Nankai Trough, causing great earthquakes once in 100 or 150 years. The government of Japan announced earlier this year that possibility of a great earthquake around Nankai Trough within 30 years would be 80 percent.   The council estimated the worst damage of Nankai Trough Great Earthquake w...

The Diet passed FY2025 budget bill on March 31 st , a day before FY2025 starts, with revision which Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba accepted based on requests from some opposition parties. Once it passed the Lower House on March 2 nd , the bill passed the Upper House on March 31 st   with revisions, and then it returned to the Lower House and passed it on the same day. It was the first time for an annual budget to go through that process. This minority government had to take careful procedure in the Diet to maintain itself.   Ishiba government submitted FY2025 budget bill to the Diet on January 24 th , on the day one of this ordinary session as usual. With constitutional requirement, the bill was firstly discussed in the Lower House in which leading coalition by the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito does not have a majority. The bill passed the Lower House and was sent to the Upper House on March 4 th , with revision of adding free tuition for high schools to get support from...

A third-party committee on alleged sexual assault on former female staff of Fuji Television, one of the key private TV stations in Tokyo, published its   report   on the issue. The report found that sexual assault was made by a TV star, Masahiro Nakai, and the TV station failed in protecting her. Revealing other examples of sexual harassment, it concluded that generosities on sexual harassment existed in Fuji Television.   A weekly magazine reported last December a scandal of Nakai in which he paid money to a woman for private trouble. While it was indicated that the woman was an announcer of Fuji Television, the TV station asked investigation to newly-launched third-party committee. While Fuji was lagging behind in internal investigation, the sponsors left from programs of Fuji, causing financial damage on the TV station.   The report recognizes the case as sexual assault made by Nakai. According to its research, Nakai invited the woman to a dinner on June 2 nd , 20...