J Update

Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDPJ) decided that it would include partial and temporary abolition of consumption tax in their policies for the Upper House election expected in July. Its leader, Yoshihiko Noda, changed his stance which had been negative against erosion of the tax revenue. Other parties also consider consumption tax cut as a main plank for the election to deal with possible economic slowdown caused by tariff policy of President of the United States, Donald Trump. The CDPJ has been against consumption tax cut, and upholding tax credits with benefits. Although Noda was reluctant to introduction of consumption tax cut, as long as appropriate fiscal resource has not found, party members demanded it as a main policy in the election to appeal to the voters.   Noda finally accepted their request with a notion that something should be done. The party will promise that consumption tax rate on foods is reduced to zero for a year. That temporary measure is considere...

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba made a visit to Hanoi, Vietnam, and had a meeting with Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh. Both leaders shared importance of having regular bilateral dialogues between their governments, agreeing establishment of new framework of vice-ministers meeting, or 2 plus 2. For Japan, building close relationship with Vietnam is a countermeasure against China which is approaching the countries in Southeast Asia to enhance its influence in Asia-Pacific region. Before his departure to Vietnam and Philippine, Ishiba made two points as the purpose of his trip. One is to build close relationship with the “growth center” of Asia, and another is reconfirming role of those two countries in implementing Japan’s diplomatic principle called Free and Open Indo-Pacific. “I hope to enhance security cooperation with them, acknowledging attempts of changing status quo with force by China in South and East China Sea,”  told  Ishiba to the press.   In the meeting with Chin...

Minister of Finance, Katsunobu Kato, had a meeting with U.S. Secretary of Treasury, Scott Bessent, on the sideline of spring meeting of International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in Washington., D.C. on April 24 th . Despite speculations befre meeting that Bessent would push Kato to set a currency target, both financial chiefs denied that they had talked that issue. However, the government of Japan is still careful about U.S. President Donald Trump’s frustration on Japan’s currency policy.   In the 50-minute meeting, Kato explained situation of Japanese economy in which wage hike or price inflation was main topic. “There was no conversation about target of the level of foreign exchange or the framework of controlling on that,” said Kato in his press conference after the meeting with Bessent.   Kato denied discussion on adjustment of strong U.S. dollar. “Exchange rate is determined in the market, and we reconfirmed that extreme fluctuation gives negative impacts,” said Kato...

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba had a meeting with Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Mark Rutte, at Prime Minister’s Office in Tokyo. Both leaders   confirmed   strategic importance of Japan-NATO partnership for Euro-Atlantic and Indo-Pacific regions. To raise their cooperation to a new height, Ishiba and Rutte concurred to deepen enhance the ties between Japan and NATO, including cyber, maritime security or interoperability.   Ishiba stressed importance of Japan-NATO cooperation, as international security becomes inseparable between Europe and Asia. “The need for security cooperation among NATO and Indo-Pacific partners, including Japan, has increased even further,” said Ishiba in the meeting. Rutte hoped to further strengthen Japan-NATO cooperation, including in the field of defense industry.   Both leaders issued a  joint statement  after the meeting. They shared a notion that continuing Japan-NATO cooperation would benefi...

Ministry of Education   considers   introduction of multiple application in entrance examination for public high schools in Japan. Consulting with Digital Agency of the government of Japan, the Educaiton Ministry discusses possibility to introduce digital multiple application system, in which a student can apply to a high school beyond his/her ability. There is, meanwhile, a concern that public high schools will be ranked by digital technology. System of entrance exams for public high schools are highly systematized in each prefecture of Japan. Most prefectures adopt single application system for a person. A student graduating a mid-school chooses only one high school to take the exam. All the students take the same test on the same day in each prefecture. The students who scored beyond the line, which is drawn due to capacity, will enter the high school.   What would the student who did not pass the exam do? They go to private high schools. Private high schools, except s...

Chief Representative of Komeito, coalition partner of Liberal Democratic Party, Tetsuo Saito, made a visit to China and had meeting with officials in Chinese government. The leaders discussed how to maintain free trade system against unilateral tariff policy exercised by the President of the United States, Donald Trump. However, they did not reach a level of completely remove mutual distrust between their governments.   Saito  had a meeting  with Wang Huning, the chairman of the National Committee on the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Committee and ranked fourth among the members of the Chinese Communist Party’s Politburo Standing Committee. Saito and Wang agreed on importance of maintaining international free trade system, concerning confusion of international society with tariff policy by Trump administration.   The meeting marked the first discussion between the leaders of both governments after Trump’s announcement of “reciprocal” tariffs on foreign coun...

The Diet held a debate by party leaders in a joint meeting of Committees on Fundamental National Policies of both Houses for the first time in current session on April 23 rd . Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, the president of Liberal Democratic Party, expressed his determination to maintain free trade to contribute to happiness of the people in the negotiation with the United States over tariffs. The opposition leaders did not make negative speech against Ishiba, in the time when Japanese people are interested in political solidarity to protect national interest against America-First policy of Donald Trump administration.   The debate by party leaders is called Question Time (QT), resembling a system in the parliament of United Kingdom, which was introduced in the Diet in 1999. While the QT was often rejected by former prime ministers, who were reluctant to make discussion with opposition leaders, the committee decided to have at least one QT a month after annual budget passes the Di...

City of Hiroshima decided not to invite the representatives of foreign countries to its Peace Memorial Ceremony on August 6 th   this year. Concerning controversy over whether the city should invite the countries that are involved in a war, namely Russia, Belarus or Israel, the mayor hoped to get back to the beginning of ceremony, urging all the countries to pray for eternal peace.   On August 6 th ,1947, two years after atomic bombing by the United States, Hiroshima held “peace festival” to commemorate victims of the bomb and to express its desire for peace. Although the festival was intermitted in 1950, due to start of Korean War, it was resumed as peace memorial ceremony in 1951. It became usual that mayor of Hiroshima delivers peace declaration and Prime Minister of Japan attends the ceremony.   Since 1998 when India and Pakistan exercised nuclear test, City of Hiroshima has been sending invitation to the Ambassador to Japan from India, Pakistan and five nuclear count...

One of the “Five Guys” of former Abe faction in the Liberal Democratic Party, Hiroshige Seko, appeared in a hearing of Committee on Budget in the Upper House. About a meeting on August 5 th , 2022, by leaders of Abe faction, in which resumption of kickback system of ticket sales of faction’s fundraising party was supposedly decided, Seko contradicted recognition of former accounting manager of the faction. It is still unclear when and who decided reintroduction of illegal management of political fund, which caused a great scandal in the leading party.   Abe faction became an epicenter of the slush fund scandal, in which the faction secretly returned the sales of ticket, beyond allocated quota, of the faction’s fundraising party to each lawmaker without recording on the funds report. This is what is called “kickback system.” Since it was revealed in late 2023, the LDP and both Houses of Diet accumulated investigation on the scandal. However, two big questions still remain: who did s...

Ministry for Foreign Affairs (MOFA) released its annual   Diplomatic Bluebook 2024 . While it maintains Japan’s diplomatic relationship with the United States, the bluebook noted concern on close relationship between Russia and North Korea, or Russia and China. Japan focuses on extending its diplomacy toward likeminded countries in Southeast Asia or Europe, based on Japan-U.S. alliance. “International community is currently at a major turning point in history once again,” says the bluebook, referring to stable international order after the Cold War. It interprets conflicts in Europe and Middle East, namely Russian aggression in Ukraine and worsened security situation after Hamas’s attack in Israel, as generating distrust of countries, which causes division of international community. “Those two conflicts produced new type of threats including cyberattacks and dissemination of fake information, disturbed international cooperation for solving global problems, and cast shadow on stabi...

Shigeru Ishiba administration is building strategy for next tariff negotiation between the teams of Japan and the United States later this month. As Japan team accumulates internal meeting, it eventually becomes obvious what is going to be the agenda between those two governments. They will be non-tariff barriers on cars and agricultural products, defense of Japan and currency.   As soon as he returned from Washington, D.C. to Tokyo, the top negotiator on Japan side, Minister in charge of Economic Revitalization Ryosei Akazawa, had meetings with Ishiba on Friday and Saturday to discuss how to deal with the next meeting with the U.S. “We double-checked what exactly President Trump had said in the meeting,” said Akazawa to the press. Akazawa reported to Ishiba that the U.S. side put priorities on some issues.   It was reported that Trump  complained  to Akazawa in the meeting that no American cars are running in Japan. It was obvious that Trump was frustrated with Japa...

Concerning possible negative impact of Trump’s tariff policy on Japanese economy, the leading and the opposition parties show unusual collaboration, seeking necessary measures for business sectors and the people. Although they have been opposing each other over policies for these years, it seems to be the time for them to make constructive discussion to support people’s daily life. They know well that political struggle in the time of economic and diplomatic emergency does not work for the election scheduled in July.   It was an immediate decision of Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba to declare “national crisis,” when the U.S. President Donald Trump announced activating “reciprocal” tariffs on foreign products early April. The United States has been the top country for Japanese products to go. Ishiba’s contemplation that the tariff would cause a serious damage on Japanese economy were making sense.   The leaders of all major parties, regardless friends or foes, convened in the Die...

Minister in charge of Economic Revitalization, Ryosei Akazawa, has his first meeting as the top negotiator with his counterparts of the United States, with attendance of President Donald Trump, on tariffs and other bilateral issues at White House, Washington D.C., on April 17 th . While both governments agreed on seeking early agreement for enhancement of both economies, it is likely that Trump demanded Akazawa raising host nation support for U.S. Forces in Japan. Shape of the deal between Japan and the U.S. is eventually appearing in further negotiations. Akazawa told the press after the meeting at White House that Trump put the top priority on negotiation with Japan. Both sides agreed on maintaining negotiation in a constructive manner for the earliest conclusion and announcement by both leaders, doing their best for fixing schedule for next meeting within this month, and continuing minister-level talks paralleled with officers-level ones.   Akazawa conveyed Trump a message from ...

Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC) issued  a cease-and-desist order  against Google LLC pursuant to the provisions of the Antimonopoly Act. The JFTC found that Google demanded the distributors of mobile phone to preinstall applications of Google and it violated Article 19 of the act that prohibits unfair trade act. It is the first time for JFTC to issue a cease-and-desist order to one of four tech giants called GAFA. According to the announcement of JFTC, Google had contract with six major distributors of Android mobile phone to preinstall Google Search and place its widget and icon on the default home screen. It also required them to preinstall Google Chrome, place its icon on the default home screen, and not to change the setting of Google Chrome in which Google LLC’s search functionality is selected.   It has been continued at earliest from July 2020. Those six distributors occupy about eighty percent of share in the market in Japan.   Google also had contracts wi...

Based on House Members Asset Disclosure Act, the House of Representatives disclosed the report on properties possessed by each member of the House. The average of asset for a lawmaker who had been elected last October marked a record low. The report showed a fact that lawmakers are the positions for ordinary people who are not wealthy enough to carry on election campaign.   It is traditionally said in Japan that a lawmaker needs three Bs: basis, banner and bag. “Basis” means basic voters who firmly support a candidate. “Banner” is well-known name, as elections in Japan require to write down a name of candidate on the ballot. “Bag” implies a bag to carry money which is necessary to maintain election campaign and political activities as a lawmaker. It has been said as a reason why Japan has a lot of inherited lawmakers, because a child of lawmaker has advantage for securing those three Bs.   Each House of the Diet discloses properties of each member after every election. The Hou...

The population of Japan keeps on decreasing for fourteen straight years and its pace is accelerated, despite consistent effort of the government to raise birth rate. Ministry for Internal Affairs and Communications released annual  Current Population Estimates  that marked 550 thousand of decrease of population in Japan. Caring for aged people and encouraging young agers to have kids are becoming further serious problems in Japanese society.   According to the statistics, the population of Japan was 123,802 thousand as of October 2024, decreasing 0.44 percent from the previous year. While male population decreased by 0.43 percent to 60,233 thousand, female population showed greater decline with 0.45 percent to 63,569 thousand. Natural decrease of male continued for twenty consecutive years and of female for sixteen consecutive years.   Natural decrease indicates more people, mainly aged ones, died than new births. New births surpassed deaths until 2006. However, nega...

Commission on the Constitution of the House of Representatives held on April 10 th   a discussion over how to regulate false information through internet in possible referendum on constitutional amendment. One of the main talking points was whether the government should regulate exchange of information, which may breach freedom of expression of the people. While the commission had been talking mainly about how to amend the constitution, when it was led by conservative lawmakers in the Liberal Democratic Party. After the general election last October, those conservative lawmakers, who mainly were affiliated to Abe faction of the LDP, decreased due to the slush fund scandal. Since then, he momentum of constitutional amendment was shrunk.   The chairman of the commission, Yukio Edano, the founder of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, is willing to continue to discuss constitution, not limited to the method of the amendment. It was not usual for the commission to discus...