J Update

The leading coalition, Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and Komeito,  started  policy talk on refundable tax credit (RTC) program with the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDPJ) on September 25 th . The CDPJ has been advocating the system as a solution for helping households, focusing on helping low-income families. It is still unclear whether the discussion will be succeeded by next LDP president who will be elected on October 4 th . The RTC is a system of tax credit based on each income. When the government introduces 150 thousand yen of tax credit, the payment of a taxpayer paying 200 thousand yen will be reduced to 50 thousand yen. But another one who pays 100 thousand yen will not receive 150 thousand yen, and it will only be reduced to zero. In this case, the government will pay 50 thousand yen in the program of RTC.   The opposition parties have been requesting the leading parties to introduce reduction or abolition of consumption tax to protect families fro...

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba made   a speech  at General Debate of United Nations General Assembly (GA), in which he urged reform of U.N. Security Council (SC) to deal with international conflicts including Russia’s aggression to Ukraine. He also explained that recognition of the Palestine state would be a matter of time for Japan. However, a question was left behind: how an outgoing prime minister can implement it? After announcement of resignation in early September, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party is in the campaign of presidential election to elect a successor of Ishiba. Last year, then prime minister Fumio Kishida was waiting for his replacement after his announcement of resignation weeks before.  Kishida’s speech  at the GA was read out by Japan’s Ambassador to the U.N. Japan sent lame-duck leaders to the U.N. for two consecutive years.   In his speech, Ishiba stressed necessity of reform of the SC. “A permanent member of the Security Council with a s...

Sapporo Family Court   decided  that a provision in Gender Identity Disorder Special Act was unconstitutional and invalid. While the provision requires gender identity to be compatible with how the body looks, the court found that the requirement would violate the Constitution that guarantees freedom of not suffering from harms on one’s body. The man who filed the petition can transfer his gender from female to male without medical treatment of injection of male hormone. The petitioner, a transgender man in his 30s who is living in Sapporo, was raised as a girl and had been feeling uneasy on his gender. He could not go to his junior high school, because he did not like to wear skirt of his school uniform. He left his home in his age of 17 and tried to show himself as a man. After he was approved to change his first name to sound like a male in 2024, the man filed a petition to change his sex in his family register from woman to man in February.   Gender Identity Disorder ...

The City Assembly of Toyoake, Aichi, passed on September 22 nd   an ordinance   which prohibits the residents to use their smartphone beyond two hours a day. It will be activated on October 1 st . It is the first attempt for a municipality in Japan to legislate regulation of using smartphone regardless people’s age. Imposing no penalty on violation of the ordinance, the city urges its residents to consider negative impact of the electronic device on their health. The ordinance requires the parents and schools in Toyoake city to urge their children not to use smartphone beyond for hours a day during their free time. Considering necessity for keeping enough time for sleeping, the ordinance recommends students in the age of elementary school or younger not to use their smartphone after 9 p.m. in the evening, and high school students are guided to finish it on 10 p.m.   The ordinance also proposes each family to set a rule in using smartphone not only for children, but for pa...

The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)   kicked off  its presidential election campaign on September 22 and five lawmakers officially submitted their candidacy to the party. Having lost majority in both Houses of the Diet under the leadership of Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, the presidential election should be about how to regain power through reform of the party. Nevertheless, the candidates do not talk much about the reform, rather focusing on economic policies for the people or maneuvers to attract the opposition parties.   Those five candidates are former Minister on Economic Security Takayuki Kobayashi, former LDP Secretary General Toshimitsu Motegi, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi, former Minister on Economic Security Sanae Takaichi and Miniser of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Shinjiro Koizumi.   Kobayashi insists on temporary income tax cut with a fixed rate, which return is bigger for high-income taxpayers than them with low-income. Identifying h...

The Bank of Japan (BOJ) decided to keep its short-term rate at 0.5 percent in its Monetary Policy Meeting on September 19 th . While it had been expected that the bank would not change the policy rate in the meeting, the meeting unanimously agreed on beginning to sell exchange-traded funds (ETF). Although the policy reflected the bank’s determination for normalizing its monetary policy, the Governor of JOB, Kazuo Ueda, predicted that it would take a hundred years to release all the ETF it possesses. While the BOJ started buying ETF, a financial product which is equivalent to investment trust, in 2010, the bank abruptly increased its quantity of purchase in 2013, under the leadership of then governor, Haruhiko Kuroda, who exchanged an accord with Shinzo Abe administration to cooperate to get rid of deflation and to achieve stable economic growth. The amount of ETF bought by the BOJ has reached 37 trillion yen.   Purchase of ETF by a central bank has been recognized as a prohibited m...

Ten years have passed since a set of new security laws were enacted in September 2015. It was epoch-making for Japan’s security policies to pave the way to exercising the right of collective self-defense, which had long been interpreted as unconstitutional. Japan has been enhancing defense cooperation with allied or like-minded countries based on reinterpretation of the Constitution of Japan. However, it is unclear whether Japan could build up its deterrence against possible threats around itself.   The revision of security legislature was conducted under the leadership of former prime minister Shinzo Abe, who upheld amendment of the Constitution of Japan as one of the top agenda. The Abe Cabinet approved reinterpretation of the Constitution, which enabled the government exercising collective self-defense right by mobilizing the self-defense force without any direct attack on Japan.   Before revision of security laws in 2015, Japan could use of force only when it is attacked b...

The government of Hokkaido  issued  a recommendation to a developer of mega solar photovoltaic power generation around Kushiroshitsugen National Park located in eastern part of the Hokkaido Island. The park preserves diversified wildlife, including wetland plants, cranes or brown bears. The recommendation represents current extensive development for renewable energy.   The plan of building a large site for solar power generation is ongoing slightly out of the area of the national park. Although the recommendation does not have mandatory power to stop the development, the construction of mega solar power generation site is halted. The developer is installing 6,600 pieces of photovoltaic panels on the land with 4.3 hectare of space.   The Forest Act  demands  a development of 0.5 hectare of forest or more to receive permission from the prefectural governor. After the prefectural government researched the development plan, it found that the construction of the...

The Suntory Holdings  announced   on September 2 nd  that its Chairman and CEO, Takeshi Niinami, resigned with suspicion of possessing illegal drug in his house. Although Niinami insisted that the supplement he purchased was not illegal drug, he accepted the recommendation of Suntory to leave his position. He also makes a pause in his activities as the chairman of Japan Association of Corporate Executives (Keizai Doyukai). One of the vocal business leaders in Japan abruptly disappeared from center stage. Having been in charge of business project for a convenience store chain, Lawson, as working for Mitsubishi Corporation, Niinami assumed CEO of Lawson in 2002. He transferred to the president of whisky maker, Suntory, in 2014, promoting international business including an acquaintance of a distiller of bourbon in the United States, James B. Beam. Niinami took the seat of chairman of Doyukai in 2023.   The president of Suntory, Nobuhiro Torii, argued that Niinami would...

Land price in Japan at July 1 st , 2025,   marked  rise for four consecutive years, and the fastest since 1992, according to the annual survey by prefectural governments. Foreign investments pushed up the price both in urban area and local resorts, encouraged by relatively cheap Japanese yen. It gradually gets hard for the people in Japan to purchase their own house in urban area. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism releases land price of 21,000 points in Japan at January 1 st every year. The land price at July 1 st  is based on the survey by 47 prefectures which is about 26,000 points all over Japan. Both data complement each other as a basis of land trade. Making difference from them, Ministry of Finance also discloses street prices at January 1 st  every year as the basis for calculating inheritance tax.   The survey at July 1 st , 2025, showed 1.0 percent of rise in residential land and 2.8 percent in commercial land. The average of l...

Less than a week to the start of campaign, some candidates   announced   their candidacy for the presidential election of the Liberal Democratic Party on September 16 th . Following former Secretary General Toshimutsu Motegi, former Minister on Economic Security Takayuki Kobayashi officially announced his running for the president. Other two ministers of Shigeru Ishiba Cabinet revealed their intention to run. The LDP gradually headed to internal struggle over next president, who is supposed to take seat of next prime minister.   A possible candidate for LDP president usually takes two steps to announce the candidacy. First, he or she reveals “intention” to run for the president to the press. Second, he or she holds press conference to officially announce the candidacy with policies to implement as the president, or the prime minister. The candidate often introduces the member of the campaign team. A candidate needs twenty lawmakers in the LDP who support the candidate....

A citizen’s group   found  human bones in a remain of old coal mine under the sea, which was accidentally soaked in seawater during wartime. Over one hundred workers from Korea died in the accident. Although the group asks the government of Japan to make research for the coal mine, Japan refuses it, arguing that the victims were not categorized as the war dead. The coal mine is called Chosei Tanko, located offshore of Ube city, Yamaguchi. The mine was run by private firm. It was February, 1942, two months after Imperial Japan joined the World War II, when an accident of cave-in occurred a kilometer away from the coast line. It is recorded that 183 workers were killed, out of which 136 were Koreans. Those victims have not been retrieved for a long time after the war ended in 1945.   A citizen’s group  established in 1991 started voluntary research in the remain in 2024, after it discovered an entrance of the mine. It continued searches in the mine, sending divers into...

A week after announcement of resignation by Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, the campaign for next president of tbe Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) seems to be the race by five candidates, all of whom had lost in last election a year ago. It is likely that the race will be about how next leader can “change” the party, which is ailing with political funds reform and dealing with Diet affairs in which the LDP does not have a majority in both chambers.   Former Secretary General, Toshimitsu Motegi, was the first who stepped forward. In his press conference to announce his candidacy, Motegi emphasized his economic policy to increase take-home pay of the people, with was resonant with argument of the Democratic Party for the People (DPP). Motegi referred to a possibility of building a leading coalition with the DPP or Japan Innovation Party (Nippon Ishin-no Kai) to recover minority government in the Diet.   Former Minister for Economic Security, Sanae Takaichi, and Secretary of Agricu...

Minister of Justice, Keisuke Suzuki, released   an interim report  of his private study group on influx of foreigners into Japan. It found that Japan’s policy on immigrants lacked strategic basis and recommended to consider setting a limit on accepting foreigners as workforce. The Ministry of Justice (MOJ) is going to grapple with the issue which was paid attention by voters in the Upper House election in July.   While the Liberal Democratic Party reduced 13 seats in the Upper House election, Saiseito added the same number of seats. One of the policies in Sanseito’s  platform  was stopping “silent invasion” to Japan by foreign countries. The party upheld limiting foreign workers to Japan and introduction of stricter regulation on foreigners’ purchase of land, forest, source of water supply and isolated islands.   Recognizing growing attention on foreign immigrants in Japan, the MOJ began to review its policies on foreign people in Japan. Suzuki’s study grou...

The leader of Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDPJ) renewed the executive members of the party on September 11. As seen in the pick of former Minister of Finance Jun Azumi for Secretary General, the head, Yoshihiko Noda, focused on stability in handling of politics by skilled politicians. Noda insisted that he would aim at taking government with his new party leadership.   In the Upper House election in July, the CDPJ won 22 seats, just the same number of seats the party had before the election, despite leading Liberal Democratic Party lost significant number of their seats. Its total seat as the sum of other seats without election this year in the Upper House is 38. It was obvious that the voters who defied LDP went to other parties, such as Democratic Party for the People or Sanseito.   The CDPJ reviewed the election and concluded that it was effectively a defeat, even if it did not reduce the seats. “It resulted in decline of presence as the biggest opposition par...

Mitsubishi Corporation   announced  that it would retreat from its project of offshore power generation. Although the corporation received a governmental order in 2021, it concluded that cost for constructing facilities would be higher than expected. It is likely that Japan’s future energy plan will be damaged by exit of the top runner in development of offshore power generation in Japan. The government of Japan had its first auction for offshore power generation in 2021. Mitsubishi, with Chubu Electric Power Company, won all three projects in two locations in Akita and one in Chiba. It offered 1.7 million kilowatt per hour from those three sites. The price of produced electricity per hour would be between 11.99 yen and 16.49 yen, far lower than expected 29 yen.   The government of Japan supported the project of Mitsubishi, expecting promotion of renewable energy in Japan. The government started new system of subsidy added on the price of sales of electricity produced fro...

Minister of Defense Gen Nakatani visited Republic of Korea and had a meeting with ROK Minister of National Defense Ahn Gyu-back. It was the first time for Japanese defense minister to have a bilateral ministerial meeting in these ten years. Both ministers reconfirmed importance of trilateral security cooperation including the United States to deal with another trilateral cooperation by China, Russia and North Korea.   In the  press conference  after the meeting, Nakatani stressed importance of maintaining bilateral relationship between Japan and ROK, or Japan-ROK-U.S. relationship in a volatile security environment. Both ministers agreed on promoting discussion by both defense authorities and exchange of personnel. They also agreed on further cooperation in cutting edge technologies including artificial intelligence, unmanned system or the space. They will maintain joint exercise called “Freedom Edge,” in which multiple countries participate.   Their bilateral relati...

Ministry of Defense (MOD)   released  a plan to deploy long-range stand-off missiles, which can strike enemy’s base from Japan. Those missiles will be installed in some bases in Japan from FY2025. While controversy over constitution which prohibits use or threatening with arms has not settled, the government of Japan decided to introduce highly offensive equipment to Japan Self-defense Force (JSDF), causing concern of residents around JSDF bases.   Possession of capability of striking enemy’s base was introduced in the revision of three major security documents in December, 2022. The capability is interpreted as preemptive attack on military facilities on foreign lands, when Japan finds a country preparing for missile attack on Japan. Since a preemptive attack is regarded as violation of the Constitution of Japan, there has been a discussion that deployment of long-range stand-off missiles is unconstitutional, breaching traditional restraint of strictly defensive policy. ...

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba announced on Sunday September 7 th  that he would step down to take responsibility of defeat of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in the Upper House election in July. The LDP is going to have a presidential election to choose next president, in other words prime minister. Ishiba sought to stay, but could not reject pressure from LDP colleagues who demanded resignation.   Ishiba abruptly had  a press conference  in Prime Minister’s Official Residence in Sunday evening to deliver his decision. Having settled a deal on tariffs with the United States, Ishiba told he would make his position open to his successor. “I could not meet expectation of the people to me. It is my responsibility to have lost our colleagues in the election,” said Ishiba. He made clear that he would not run for next LDP presidential election.   The LDP decided in a Joint Plenary Meeting on September 2 nd  to receive request for a presidential election on Mond...