J Update

Entering the year of eightieth anniversary from the end of the World War II, Japan’s participation in Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) is emerging as one of the political issues in Shigeru Ishiba administration. Although Prime Minister Ishiba expressed no willingness to join the treaty in   the meeting   with Nihon Hidankyo, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate in 2024, Komeito and the opposition parties hope Japan to join it at least as an observer.   Co-chair of Hidankyo, Terumi Tanaka, and his colleagues visited the Official Residence of the Prime Minister on January 8 th  and had a meeting with Ishiba for thirty minutes. Tanaka urged Ishiba that Japan as an observer should join the Third Meeting of States Parties at the Headquarters of the United Nations in New York in March. But Ishiba did not give them any hint for Japan’s participation in it.   Ishiba, instead, praised decades-long activities of Hidankyo toward elimination of nuclear weapons....

The leading coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and Komeito seek cooperation from some opposition parties to pass annual budget bill in coming session of the Diet. They continue discussion over “free education” with Japan Innovation Party, or Nippon Ishin-no Kai (Ishin). While Ishin hopes to introduce subsidy to compensate tuition for all high school students in April, the leading coalition rejected it with fiscal concern. Having hung parliament in the House of Representatives, the opposition parties are emboldened in policy talks.   The Key person is Seiji Maehara, a co-chair of Ishin. In 2022, when he was one of the members of the Democratic Party for the People (DPP), Maehara opposed to the leader, Yuichiro Tamaki, who sought cooperation with the LDP. Maehara left the DPP and established a new party called Free Education for All, upholding free education as main agenda of the party. Just before the general election of the House of Representatives in October 2024, Mae...

As his first foreign visit as the prime minister, excluding opportunities to attend to multilateral international conferences, Shigeru Ishiba visited Malaysia and Indonesia in mid-January. In the summit meetings with top leaders of both countries, Ishiba focused on enhancement of bilateral ties in security and economy. Ishiba hopes to strengthen bilateral relationship with coastal area of Southeast Asia to deal with advance of China in the region.   In Kuala Lumpur on January 10 th , Ishiba had a  meeting  with the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Dato’ Seri Amwar bin Ibrahim. Ishiba expressed his pleasure to visit Malaysia on his first bilateral visit as prime minister of Japan, insisting on importance of realization of a Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP). Anwar responded that he would work with Ishiba to deepen bilateral cooperation.   In security area, the leaders welcomed foreign vice-ministerial consultation and strategic dialogue between Japan and Malaysia. Ishiba a...

Shigeru Ishiba Cabinet decided to replace National Security Advisor (NSA), Takeo Akiba to Masataka Okano, Vice-minister for Foreign Affairs. It is supposed that Ishiba decided the replacement considering the timing when the leadership of the United States is significantly changed by incoming Donald Trump. The replacement of NSA will officially be announced on the day of Trump’s inauguration, January 20 th , 2025.   Appointed in July 2021 by former Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, Akiba was in charge of reviewing the three security documents under the leadership of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in December 2022. The renewed documents -- National Security Strategy, National Defense Strategy and Defense Buildup Program – determined necessity of accumulating 43 trillion yen of defense budget between FY 2023 and FY 2027.   Akiba also led the discussion over introduction of active cyber defense to prevent cyberattack on security infrastructure in Japan. It was reported that Japan has b...

Okinawa Prefectural Police submitted document for investigation to the public prosecutors office about   the case   in which a male member of US Marine Corps in Okinawa was suspected as causing injury on a woman with sexual assault. The governor of Okinawa, Denny Tamaki, expressed his firm regret against consecutive violence by personnel of US Force in Okinawa. Although the Command of US Forces Japan (USFJ) had taken measures to regulate activities of its soldiers, they did not work. According to the police, A male soldier with Marine Corps in his age of thirties sexually assaulted a local woman in a room outside facility of US Force in Okinawa in November 2024. They did not know each other before the alleged crime. The woman did not give him a consent about the affair and she reported to the police immediately. The man is under protection of US Force, based on Japan-US State of Forces Agreement. The police have been making investigation on him through voluntary interviews. ...

To celebrate new year, the major business organizations in Japan held the annual meeting of business leaders on January 7 th . The leaders revealed their optimistic perspectives on Japanese economy in 2025, willing to raise workers’ wages by 5 percent or more. It is inevitable for them to concern about return of Donald Trump to the presidency of the United States, who upholds imposing higher tariffs on importing goods including them from Japan. The meeting is held by Japan Business Federation (Keidanren), Japan Association of Commerce and Industry (Nissho) and Japan Association of Corporate Executives (Doyukai), marking the starting of business of the year. It is also known as a venue for the leaders of major corporations in Japan to exchange greetings each other and make their new year resolution to the press. According to the news reports, the Chairman of Keidanren, Masakazu Tokura, requested the attendees to raise basic salary of workers to implement maintaining stable wage hike...

Nippon Steel, Japan’s top steelmaker, announced that it   filed a lawsuit   against the President of the United States, Joe Biden, who issued an order to block Nippon Steel’s acquisition of United States Steel (USS), arguing that the president illegally intervened in the deal between those two steelmakers. Nippon Steel also sued Cleveland-Cliffs, the second largest steel producer in U.S., accusing its illegal activities to disrupt the deal. The top manager of Nippon Steel is insistent on finalizing the deal. Nippon Steel announced its acquisition of USS in December 2023 as an agreed deal with USS. United Steelworkers (USW) immediately expressed its opposition to the deal, concerning negative impact on employment. It is undeniable that the steelworkers were crucial voters in the U.S. presidential election in 2024. Both campaigns of Kamala Harris and Donald Trump announced their opposition to acquisition of USS by Nippon Steel.   Although the Committee on Foreign Investment...

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba visited Ise Shrine on January 6 th , as a routine event of the prime minister to start working of a new year. In his press conference right after the visit, Ishiba stressed his effort to ask cooperation from the opposition parties to pass the budget bill for FY 2025. Having said that, Ishiba hopes to promote his agenda for reforming Japan with decentralization. Ishiba took a longer new-year recess than previous prime ministers. It has been usual that the prime minister would begin new year working with the visit of Ise Jungu Shrine and following press conference on January 4. Ishiba announced last month that he would visit Ise on January 6 and have his first press conference in the afternoon.   In the press conference on January 6, Ishiba hoped to build a “pleasant Japan.” According to his historiography, the government of Japan has built a “strong Japan” and business sector brought a “prosperous Japan.” He proposed new Japan where the people can live ...

Shigeru Ishiba Cabinet approved   the basic plan   of policies for dealing with dementia which has been prevalent to aged people in Japan. While the people socially recognized that the patients of dementia is mostly unable to be involved in social activities, the plan tries to pave the way for them to take various roles in the communities they belong to. The government of Japan introduces a concept that everyone can someday be a patient of dementia.   As average lifespan of the Japanese is prolonged, the patients of dementia increased these years. According to  the white paper  on aged society in 2024, the patients of dementia among the people at the age of 65 or older increased as many as 4.43 million in 2022, occupying 12.3 percent to all. The patients of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) amounted to 5.58 million (15.5 percent). The government anticipates that the number of patients of dementia will increase to 5.84 million (14.9 percent) in 2040, as MCI patient...

To improve chronic shortage of strength in the Japanese Self-defense Force (JSDF), Shigeru Ishiba administration   launched   a minister-level discussion for improving treatment of workers for JSDF. The government is considering extension of the age of retirement to guarantee the job for the veterans, as well as offering reemployments to the post of other organizations. As former Minister of Defense, Ishiba is further sympathetic toward JSDF personnel than other previous prime ministers. The strength of JSDF is by 20 thousand  smaller  than 247 thousand of whole capacity at the end of 2023. The JSDF employed 10 thousand of new members, although it had a plan of about 20 thousand of new employments in FY 2023. The ratio of sufficiency against planned recruitment fell down from 90 percent in 2019 to 50 percent in 2023, marking a new low since its foundation in 1954.   The first measure the government adopted for securing necessary personnel was to keep veterans in...

The Supreme Public Prosecutors Office and Shizuoka Prefectural Police Office released   the review   of Hakamada Case, in which Iwao Hakamada received sentence of death penalty and was proved innocent after the court found that the prosecutors and police fabricated evidences of crime. While the review does not dispute the court decision of innocence, the prosecutors and police refuse to conclude whether they fabricated the evidences. They accumulated excuses. Hakamada was arrested and indicted with charge of murder in 1966 and sentenced to death in 1968. After retrials, the court overturned its decision of death penalty and found in 2024 that Hakamada was innocent, acknowledging that the evidences submitted by the police were fake. The public prosecutors and police abandoned appealing to higher court, and Hakamada’s innocence was fixed.   It was unusual for the public prosecutors and police to be determined that they had fabricated evidences of crime. It caused broad crit...

The Bank of Japan (BOJ) released its analysis on economic activity, prices, financial conditions and monetary policy over the past 25 years. The document titled “ Review of Monetary Policy from a Broad Perspective ” concluded that the Bank’s large-scale monetary easing since 2013 was not effective as expected at the time when it had been introduced. Although the policy was considered as one of three pillars of economic policies taken by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the review did not applaud Abenomics. The review admitted that Japanese economy fell into deflation in the latter half of 1990s, in which commodity price consecutively declined. Except some temporary periods of price hike, the tendency of deflation in slow pace lasted until early 2010s. There were three major reasons for it, according to the assessment of BOJ.   Firstly, the Japanese economy faced a chronic shortage of demand, because conventional monetary policy measures were unable to sufficiently stimulate the economy d...

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba entered the new year with hung parliament in the House of Representatives. The political event with the highest priority in 2025 is election of the House of Councillors currently scheduled on July 20 th . Ishiba very vaguely indicated possibility of double election with snap election of the Lower House on the same day. However, it is skeptical that Ishiba has sufficient political power to control the election.   The parties mostly agreed on convocation of an ordinary session of the Diet on January 24 th  with 150-day term ending on June 22 nd . The Public Offices Election Act determines that election of the House of Councillors must be held on a day after 24 to 30 days from the end of Diet session. It is usual that the session would not be extended in the year of Upper House election and the election is held on Sunday. So, it is supposed to be held on Sunday July 20 th  this year.   The Upper House has 248 seats. The leading coalition of...

K awasaki Heavy Industries (KHI)   revealed   that it had accumulated secret fund for giving gifts to the crew of submarines they had supplied to Marine Self-defense Force (MSDF). The gifts have been sent from inappropriate funds since forty years ago. The amount of the secret fund is estimated as 1.7 billion yen at least between FY 2018 and FY 2024. The incident represents obscure relationship between military and industry. Marine Self-defense Force has twenty-five submarines. Twelve out of them were made by KHI. Those submarines have inspection in every three years in Kobe, where KHI headquarters is located. It takes a half year for overhauling. During the period of inspection, KHI provided with tools for repair or shoes based on request of the crew. The crew, in return, participated in the inspection of KHI, laboring for maintenance of devices.   The crews eventually requested goods unrelated to the inspection. They included game machine, fishing tools or golf gears. K...

Upholding disaster prevention as one of his main agenda, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba   launched   a ministers’ meeting for promoting disaster-preventing nation on December 20 th . The ministers confirmed enhancement of human resource to deal with natural disasters, such as earthquake, flood or wind storm, in national and local governments. The Cabinet is going to raise the budget for disaster prevention in FY 2025.   Ishiba stressed his position for enhancing disaster prevention policy in the campaign of presidential election of the Liberal Democratic Party in September, considering serious demands for reconstruction from the major earthquake in Noto Peninsula on January 1 st , 2024. He included establishment of Ministry of Disaster Prevention in his campaign platform.   As stipulated in Disaster Management Basic Act, National Disaster Management Council, established in Cabinet Office and topped by the prime minister, coordinates disaster prevention plan. There has...

Shigeru Ishiba Cabinet   approved   on December 27 th   the draft of FY 2025 budget, which marked ever largest amount of 115 trillion and 541.5 billion yen (732 billion dollar). Price inflation caused increase of tax revenue, which led bold spendings of the government. However, the government has not get rid of the trend, which had swollen in emergency of COVID-19.   The greatest budget that passed the Diet was 114 trillion yen for FY 2023. FY 2024 budget was reduced from the previous year to 112 trillion yen. FY 2025 budget gets back to the tendency of budget inflation with increased spendings. The spendings in FY 2025 exceeded FY 2024 by about 3 trillion yen.   Each spendings for social security, defense and reimbursement for Japanese governmental bonds (JGB) marked new record. The government calculated necessary payment for social security in FY 2025 to be 38.2 trillion yen, increasing by 558 billion yen from FY 2024. Aging society overrides saving efforts in...

Minister of Defense, Gen Nakatani, told the mayor of Nago city, Okinawa, that the United States Marine Corp began to relocate its part of unit to Guam, according to the agreement between governments of Japan and the U.S. It was, however, only one hundred personnel out of planned nine thousand. It is just beginning of relocation plan for reducing burden of Okinawa where seventy percent of U.S. forces in Japan is concentrated. The sentiment of anti-U.S. forces in Okinawa reached a tipping point in 1995 when twelve-year-old girl was raped by three members of U.S. Marine or Navy. The government of Japan started negotiation with U.S. to relocate Futenma Air Base, and they agreed on building alternative facility in Henoko, Nago, and relocate eight thousand personnel out of Japan. They reviewed the plan in 2012 to remove nine thousand, out of which four thousand would be going to Guam.   The relocation plan has been delayed due to underfunding which was decided by U.S. Congress with conce...