J Update

Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries announced on May 30 th   that Japan and China agreed on lifting China’s ban on Japanese seafoods, which has been set since Japan started discharging “processed water” from crippled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in August 2023. Although China still blocks products from ten prefectures around Fukushima, Japanese government evaluate China’s decision as an important step to a normalization.   Opposing Japan’s decision of the discharge, China  accused  Japan of its release of water once used for cooling broken nuclear reactors as “extremely selfish and irresponsible.” “The ocean is humanity’s common good, not Japan’s private sewer,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin. Reflecting frustration with Japan’s close stance to Joe Biden administration of the United States, China announced comprehensive ban on seafoods from all over Japan.   There are certain demands for Japanese seafoods in China. It...

One of the former leaders of Abe faction in the Liberal Democratic Party, Hakubun Shimomura, appeared at the hearing on kickback fund scandal in the Lower House Committee on Budget on May 27th. Denying instruction for resuming the kickback fund, Shimomura   admitted   that he suggested a fact that there were some requests in the faction hoping to resume it. It is likely that the illegal funding, which had once been abolished, was resumed with Shimomura’s “reporting” of some voices in the faction.   The kickback fund had been a usual practice in Abe faction. A member who sold tickets of the faction’s fundraising party receives the return for the sales beyond quota. It was made in secret without reporting to the government by the faction or each lawmaker. The secrecy constructed violation of Political Funds Control Act. Although the practice was abolished in April 2022, it was resumed after a meeting of the faction leaders in August 2022.   Shimomura, who lost his seat...

Tokyo High Court sentenced that investigation of Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) and Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office on an exporter of spray dryer, Ohkawara Kakohki, was illegal and ordered to pay 166 million yen for compensation. The court found that investigation by those organizations of law enforcement was inappropriate, lacking necessary process to reconfirm  the suspicion.   The MPD arrested three managers of Ohkawara Kakohki, including president, with suspicion of violating Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Act. According to regulation rule in Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industries (METI), spray dryer with function of sterilization could not be exported from the perspective of economic security.   The sterilization could be made in some ways. One is by heat and another is chemical. Although METI rule did not have detailed condition which method would be banned. While chemical sterilization was common for spray dryer, the MPD brought its unique int...

The investigation committee of Hyogo Prefectural Government  published a report  on leaking private information of former officer, who accused harassment of Governor, Motohiko Saito. The report recognized that the information was handed out from former 　 Director of General Affairs, Chiaki Inomoto, to three prefectural assembly members. It also found that Saito possibly instructed Inomoto to leak the information. Saito argued that he had no intention to instruct Inomoto.   In April 2024, a bureau chief of Hyogo government in charge of Nishi-Harima region distributed a document which accused Saito’s harassment on his staffs or accepting gifts. The government punished the bureau chief with suspension of his position. The bureau chief killed himself in July after Hyogo Prefectural Assembly decided to establish an investigation committee.   The assembly passed a non-confidence resolution against Saito in September, and Saito was reelected in the gubernatorial election in...

The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and Komeito reached a deal with the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDPJ) on revision of pension reform bill, which was submitted to the Diet by the LDP earlier this month. Although the LDP dropped a provision to increase basic benefit from its own bill, the ruling party effectively revived it in the revised bill, accepting request of CDPJ. There are political considerations behind LDP’s unusual concession on pension reform. After a long deliberation, the LDP submitted pension reform bill on May 16 th , two month later than originally planned. The party once considered to include a provision that would enable to use a fund in employee’s pension insurance, which had been accumulated for salaried workers, to maintain benefits of National Pension System (NPS) for mainly business owners. But the LDP dropped it, being afraid of criticisms from salaried workers about appropriation of their fund.   However, leading coalition of the LDP and Kome...

Japan’s top negotiator on tariffs, Ryosei Akazawa, had the third meeting with U.S. officials in Washington, D.C. on May 23 rd . Reiterating Japan’s demand to reconsider President Donald Trump’s “reciprocal tariffs” on goods from Japan, Akazawa proposed a plan to reconstruct shipbuilding in the U.S. Having no clear vision of concluding a deal, focus of the tariff talks between Japan and the U.S. looks like dispersing.   After Trump announced reciprocal tariffs on imports from foreign countries on April 2 nd , Japan entered a bilateral negotiation over the tariff in advance of other countries in the world. In  the first meeting  at White House on April 16 th , Akazawa requested Trump to rethink his tariff plan. Both governments agreed on seeking early deal. In  the second meeting  in D.C. on May 1 st , they agreed on dealing with expansion of trade, non-tariff barriers and cooperation on economic security.   Both governments have not achieved any obvious prog...

U.S. President Donald Trump announced through a social networking service that he would approve the partnership between U.S. Steel and Nippon Steel. Although he once said that he would not allow the Japanese steel company acquiring a major steel maker in the U.S., the media reports in Japan reported Trump’s comment as a sign of major progress for purchasing. However, Trump has not made clear whether he would approve Nippon Steel to obtain 100 percent of U.S. Steel’s share.   Both steel makers  announced  a deal of Nippon Steel’s acquisition of U.S. Steel in December 2023. Joe Biden administration blocked the deal with  an order  of prohibiting the acquisition in January 2025, raising a possibility that Nippon Steel “might take action that threatens to impair the national security of the United States.”   At the time when he took seat of the president, Trump was negative on the acquisition, insisting that no one would be able to occupy the share of U.S. Stee...

As current session of the Diet reaches the end less than a month away, the parties fell apart on discussion for regulation over political donation from companies or organizations (PDCO). Among the opposition parties, most of which are unified to ban that kind of donation, only Democratic Party for the People (DPP) joined trilateral talks for continuing PDCO with the ruling coalition of Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and Komeito. It is unlikely that the reform of political fund system will see a conclusion in this session.   When kickback fund scandal of some factions in the LDP was revealed, it was generally recognized that private companies and industrial organizations must have been main buyers of ticket of fundraising parties. The opposition parties argued that inappropriate use of political fund would not disappear as long as rules on PDCO is left unchanged. Former LDP president Yohei Kono  remembered  that he agreed in 1994 with then prime minister Morihiro Hosokawa ...

A female public prosecutor of Osaka District Public Prosecutors Office, Hikari (pseudonym), revealed a handwritten letter of former Chief Prosecutor in her office, Kentaro Kitagawa, which pleaded her not to publicize the fact of rape on her. In her press conference at Foreign Correspondent Club of Japan on May 21 st , Hikari meanwhile accused her office of spreading rumor of the incident and demanded the office establishment of third-party organization for investigation. According to the allegation of Hikari, Kitagawa brought her, heavily intoxicated with alcohol, to his room and raped while she was asleep and awake, saying “Now, you’re my woman,” in September 2018. Although Kitagawa asked her not to reveal the fact, Hikari filed a formal report in February 2024. It took six years for her to reveal the incident, given pressure from Kitagawa.   The authority of public prosecutors  indicted  Kitagawa with crime of constructive indecency through compulsion in July 2024. In t...

Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Taku Eto, stepped down, after making gaffe on his receiving gift of rice from his supporters, during the time when the people have been suffering from shortage and high price of rice. Former Minister of Environment, Shinjiro Koizumi, immediately succeeded the minister of agriculture. However, it is still skeptical that Koizumi can manage to settle down the rice price. “I have never bought rice, because my supporters give it to me. I have rice in my food stock as much as I can sell it,” said Eto in his speech in Saga on May 18 th . After news media reported his words, Eto apologized his careless speech and retreat it. Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba disciplined Eto, but refrained from discharging him from agricultural minister.   The opposition parties took Eto’s gaffe as his indifference about people’s hardship, losing access of rice, which is the staple food for the Japanese. It was an unexpected move for Ishiba that five opposition p...

  Former presidents of Japan Science Council (JSC) published a statement which required the government of Japan to drop the bill for revision of JSC Act on May 20 th . The bill was submitted to the Diet and passed the House of Representatives a week ago. The scientists criticize the bill of its enhanced control of the government on the JSC, arguing violation of academic freedom. Revision of JSC Act stems from former Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga’s rejection of recommendation from the JSC for new members in 2020. The  JSC Act  stipulates that the prime minister appoints the members of JSC based on recommendation from the council. Although it had been usual for prime minister to approve all the candidates recommended by the council, Suga rejected six candidates who were regarded as critical on some policies of the government. The government of Japan submitted  a bill  for revision of the JSC Act in March, which would downgrade the council from national academy to ...

The House of Councillors   approved   the bill for introducing active cyber defense on security of important infrastructure in Japan. The law enables the government to constantly oversee cyber space and remove the source of harms when it finds an attacker. The bill was partly revised with concern of the opposition parties which had concerns of violation of the people’s freedom of communication. The government is required to exercise its power with consideration of privacy.   Being afraid of cyberattacks causing crucial damage on people’s life, the government has been seeking ways to proactively take countermeasures against the enemies. The government will watch communications between Japan and foreign countries, or between foreign countries through Japan. If it finds a sign of attacks on basic fifteen kinds of infrastructure, including electricity, gas, railroads, financial institutes, the police and self-defense force will sneak into the server of attackers and remove th...

To stabilize rice price, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) decided to release 100 thousand tons of its reserved rice into the market every month through May to July. Six tenths of them will be delivered to supermarkets and small retailers to send them to the ordinary consumers. The ministry also changed the rule of releasing the reserve for the buyers to handle it easier. Nevertheless, rice price still keeps on rising. The staffs of Ishiba administration did not have any idea that rice price would become a major issue when it was established in October 2024. The rice price did not decline after new rice was traded in the fall of 2024. The Minister of Agriculture, Taku Eto, announced in February that the ministry would release its reserved rice. The government keeps a million ton of rice as the reserve. Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba ordered Eto in April to release the reserve every month through this summer.   The retail price of rice  rose for 17 straight ...

Shigeru Ishiba Cabinet made a decision for pension reform and submitted related bill to the Diet on May 16 th . While the government encourages low-income individuals to be covered by employee’s pension insurance (EPI), it dropped a policy to raise pension benefit of National Pension System (NPS), receiving concerns from ruling Liberal Democratic Party. The opposition parties strictly oppose that decision, making parliamentary procedure unsure. The bill included removal of “the wall of 106 million yen.” In the current pension system, a worker with annual income of 106 million yen or more needs to pay for EPI pension premium. There are some workers, mostly part-time employees, who halt their working before their income goes beyond annual 106 million yen, because they will need to pay for the premium if they exceed the threshold.   The bill requires all the workers to pay for the EPI premium, regardless their annual income. Although low-income workers will need to pay for the premium...

The Cabinet Office released   quarterly estimates   of real GDP between January to March in 2025, which marked 0.2 percent of decline from the previous quarter. The decline is interpreted as annual 0.7 percent of fall. Economic growth of Japan showed decline for the first time since the first quarter of 2024. Suffering from the United States tariff policy led by President Donald Trump, Japan’s economy is likely to be exacerbated through the rest of this year.   Nominal GDP of the first quarter of this year was 0.8 percent of growth, which was evaluated as 3.1 percent of annual growth. While nominal GDP is affected by fluctuation of commodity prices, real GDP indicates actual development of economy removing effect of price. It is possible that price inflation, led by international security situation or promotion of inflation by Japanese government, was reflected on the growth of nominal GDP.   The main element of decline in real GDP would be decrease of exports. It dr...

A company which runs Japan’s busiest airport announced that it had been providing inappropriate profit to a consultation firm in Tokyo. The firm is managed by a son of former Secretary General of the Liberal Democratic Party. The president of airport company could not quit benefiting the firm, being afraid of negative influence on their business. Scandals of family of political big name have been repeated in the past. Special investigation committee of Japan Airport Terminal (JAT)  released a report  on a scandal of providing inappropriate profit to a consulting firm. According to the report, a subsidiary of JAT paid about 430 million yen between 2006 and 2016 to a firm for installing massage chairs in the lobby of airport terminal building. Tokyo Regional Taxation Bureau found in 2016 that the consulting firm did not actually supply any massage chair and recognized the payment as donation.   Nevertheless, JAT kept on sending commission to the firm thereafter through anot...

Lawmakers in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party who take distance from Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba restarted their activities to demonstrate their presence in the party. They held   a conference   on security strategy with attendance of mostly conservative lawmakers on May 14 th . It is still unclear whether they will be integrated under a leadership of a candidate for next presidential election of the LDP.   The LDP presidential election last October became a contest with unprecedented nine candidates. Among the candidates, Yoshimasa Hayashi, current Chief Cabinet Secretary, and Katsunobu Kato, Minister of Finance, joined Ishiba Cabinet. Others do not have a major title in the cabinet or LDP board. Leaders of former Abe faction lost their power, involved in kickback fund scandal. The election divided LDP leaders between main stream and the sidelines.   Those sidelined leaders, mostly categorized as hawks, restarted long-inactive policy group called Strategic Head...