J Update

Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election   was officially announced   on June 13 th   and 295 candidates ran for 127 seats of 42 districts. The voting day is set on June 22 nd . The kickback scandal among Diet members of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) affects campaign of the LDP candidates in the assembly. The result of local election in Tokyo is expected to be reflecting coming Upper House election in July.   The biggest group in the assembly now is the LDP  with 30 seats . The Tokyoite First, which is a local party supporting the governor of Tokyo, Yuriko Koike, has 26, ahead of Komeito with 23 seats. The biggest opposition party in the Diet, the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, is fifth largest in Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly with 12 seats, lagging behind of Japan Communist Party by 7 seats.   The LDP fielded the biggest number of candidates, 42, to the election. However, the kickback scandal was revealed among the LDP assembly members before the...

Parties   fell apart   on imperial succession with no hope of reaching a conclusion within current session of the Diet, which will close on June 22 nd . While they have a consensus on female members of the Imperial House maintaining certain status after marriage, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) is negative to an idea for their husband or children to join the family. The promise of the Speakers of both Houses will not be implemented.   The Imperial House Law  stipulates that the imperial throne is succeeded to by male offspring in the male line belonging to the imperial lineage and a female family leaves the Imperial House when she is married with a person out of the Family. Under those conditions, possible successors were reduced to the extent that Prince Hisahito of Akishino is the only male family who is not married. The house also has six unmarried female members.   An experts’ committee for imperial succession in 2021 made  a proposal  with two ...

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba attended debate with the opposition leaders in the Diet for the third time in current ordinary session. Reflecting ongoing policy discussions with  　 each party, Ishiba showed clear contrast in his answering to the question they made. The preference of Ishiba represented not only distance in policies, but personal relationship with the opposition leaders in his career in politics.   The leaders who stood for question against Ishiba were Yoshihiko Noda of Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDPJ), Seiji Maehara of Japan Innovation Party (Ishin) and Yuichiro Tamaki of Democratic Party for the People (DPP). All of three were lawmakers with Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ). At the time of DPJ administration between 2009 and 2012, Noda led the party as the prime minister and Maehara as the minister for foreign affairs. Tamaki was one of the DPJ freshmen. Ishiba was the chairman of Policy Research Council of the opposition Liberal Democratic Party....

The Cabinet Office of Shiberu Ishiba administration submitted a   draft   of Basic Policy on Economic and Fiscal Management and Reform (Honebuto Plan) 2025 to the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy on June 6 th . The plan focuses on increasing income of families through wage hike, dismissing possibility of tax cut this year. Prime Minister Ishiba hopes his economic plan to appeal to the voters in the Upper House election in July.   Honebuto Plan  stipulates  “basic stance of the government’s economic and fiscal management and direction of reforms,” issued in every summer. The policies included in the plan are supposed to be implemented in the next year’s budget formulation, which the government finalize in December. It is the first time for Ishiba to release Honebuto, since he took office in October 2024. Ishiba Cabinet is expected to decide Honebuto later this month.   Honebuto determines direction of economic policy in each administration every year....

Osaka District Court   overturned  a governmental decision of not disclosing documents on negotiation between the government and its contractors dealing with procurement of masks, known as Abenomasks, during the breakout of COVID in 2020. The court dismissed the argument of the government of Japan that no such document existed. The court decision accused undemocratic tendency of concealing information from public eyes.   When COVID-19 spread all over Japan in 2020, Abe brought confusion in executing policies for containment. His unilateral issuance of comprehensive school closure and declaration of emergency was highly unpopular among the people. As he realized shortage of masks made of high-tech fiber blocking viruses in drug stores, Abe announced that the government would distribute traditional cotton-made masks for free. It brought sarcasms among the people. Abe stepped down as the prime minister with disappointment on his COVID policies soon after the failure of Abeno...

Japan and the United States accelerate negotiation over tariffs. Japan’s top negotiator, Minister in charge of Economic Revitalization Ryosei Akazawa, visited Washington, D.C.     every week to have meeting with his counterparts in Donald Trump administration. Accumulating discussion on three fields – expansion of investment, non-tariff barriers, and economic security, Akazawa insists on his requirement for revision of Trump tariffs to secure national interest of Japan. It is unclear that the both sides can reach an agreement by the meeting of their top leaders in Canada later this month. Akazawa’s visits to Washington increased since late May. While the first two meetings between Akazawa and U.S. Secretaries were made on April 17 th  and May 1 st , the rest of three were held every week: May 23 rd , 30 th  and June 6 th . Current meetings were set with request from Japan side, trying to reach a conclusion both sides can agree. Akazawa seems to be exhausted with long...

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba   launched a conference   by the ministers for agricultural reform, which would discuss better control for production and trade of rice. Ishiba hopes to revise current regulation on production, concerning current shortage and price hike of rice. The lawmakers in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party who are interested in rice farmers are still reluctant to the reform to keep rice price at a certain level.   Current shortage and rise of rice price was triggered by the heat and drought in the summer 2024. Temporary information of Nankai Trough Earth quake issued by the government on August 8 th , 2024, caused urgent purchase of rice for stock by worried consumers, which led rice shortage in retailers.   However, the government was not agile in keeping stable supply of rice. Rice had no good harvest in 2023, too. The wholesalers competed to secure rice in 2024 in the fall. With concern for longtime rice shortage, the traders kept 2024 rice in...

Tokyo High Court   decided   that former managers of Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) were unable to predict severe accident in 2011 and dismissed decision of the first court that had found their responsibility. The new court decision effectively admitted that no one was responsible for the accident, causing deep disappointment of the plaintiffs and evacuees from Fukushima.   The lawsuit was filed by shareholders of TEPCO with an argument that the managers gave damage on the company failing in taking necessary measures to prevent severe accident from tsunami. Tokyo District Court  sentenced  in 2022 that TEPCO could predict major earthquake based on the long-term assessment by government of Japan in 2002, which indicated possibility of great earthquake in offshore Fukushima, and ordered the managers to pay 13 trillion yen.   The high court overturned the decision. It judged that only measure to prevent severe accident in a nuclear power plant had been s...

Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako   visited   Okinawa on June 4 th   for the third time since they took throne in 2019. Princess Aiko accompanied her parents for her first visit to the island. Giving memorial service to the victims in the Battle of Okinawa, the only ground battle in Japan during the World War II, and hearing about their hardship from the survivors, the royal family reconfirmed history of devastative sacrifice in Okinawa.   Okinawa lost a quarter of its population in the Battle of Okinawa. In  Chibichiri-gama  cave in Yomitan village in April 1945, about 140 residents hid themselves in the cave from the United States force invaded on the island. As the people in Okinawa was instructed to kill themselves, rather than being in custody, to serve for maintaining imperial system of Japan, the Okinawans in the cave killed each other. Over the half of 83 victims were children. Those tragic events generated negative sentiment against the Emperor a...

Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) released  the Vital Statistics 2024   on June 4 th . It marked the smallest number of births it its history, 686,061, going down below the line of 700,000 for the first time. The total fertility rate, which indicates the number of babies from a woman in her lifetime, also declined to the record low of 1.15. In spite of policies by national and local governments for supporting families to have babies, the trend of low birth rate is accelerating. Births decreased for nine consecutive years. The number was smaller than that of the previous year by 41,227. The births for one thousand of population was reduced from 6.0 of the previous year to 5.7. After marking the biggest number of 2.69 million in 1949, new births have declined to less than 1 million in 2016, 900 thousand in 2019, and 800 thousand in 2022. New babies have been decreasing by 100 thousand every three years. The total fertility rate declined by 0.05 from 1.20 in 2023. ...

The leader of Democratic Party, Lee Jae-myung, won the presidential election of the Republic of Korea on June 3 rd . Lee defeated conservative candidate after his predecessor was impeached with abrupt martial law laid last December, causing public opposition to the undemocratic use of power. Shigeru Ishiba administration of Japan hopes to maintain momentum of improvement in bilateral relations with Lee. Lee achieved a victory against conservative Kim Moon-soo with the People Power Party, who was effectively designated as the successor of Yoon Suk Yeol. As the leader of liberal power in ROK politics, Lee has been known in Japan as a hardliner against Japan, especially in history issues. It was   reported   that Lee once called Japan enemy, protesting Japan’s discharge of “processed water” from Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.   However, Lee changed his stance to a realism in presidential campaign, redefining Japan as an important partner of the ROK. While he had been...

Minister of Defense, Gen Nakatani, gave  a speech  to the defense leaders of Asia-Pacific nations in a regional security forum, the Shangri-La Dialogue, in Singapore on May 31 st . In his remarks, Nakatani proposed a new security concept in which nations with shared values and interests unite to create powerful synergies through cooperative efforts. Raising some names of countries or organizations for like-minded framework,   Nakatani expressed his concern on advance of major power in the region, China.   Nakatani raised three points that was undermining international order. They were erosion of rule-based order, disregard for accountability and irresponsibility against international public good. He raised Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and disregard of Arbitral Tribunal’s award indicating China’s maritime advance to the South China Sea. He called the countries to be united “not to allow the erosion of the rule-based order, but to restore it; not to ignore accou...

Discussion over the bills for introducing selective separate surname for married couples  began   in Committee on Judicial Affairs of the House of Representatives on May 30 th . Three opposition parties respectively proposed their own bills, none of which has achieved a majority support in the House, because ruling Liberal Democratic Party would not approve any of them. Regardless domestic and international requirements for separate surname, the Diet has been failing in guaranteeing diversity of married couples. With decline of LDP power in the Diet after Lower House election in October 2024, the opposition parties  accelerate their effort  to catch the momentum for amendment of the Civil Code. The Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDPJ) submitted a bill in April, which included the points raised by the Legislative Council in 1996. The Democratic Party for the People (DPP) proposed their own bill that require a couple to name at their marriage the head of fam...

Shigeru Ishiba Cabinet discussed how the radioactively contaminated soil in Fukushima prefecture would be treated and decided some of it should be used in Prime Minister’s Official Residence in Tokyo. Although the soil needs to be removed from Fukushima with legal requirement, the government of Japan has not found anywhere it should go. Ishiba administration hopes that the decision will pave the way for any local community to accept the soil.   Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant emitted a huge amount of radiation into the air, which contaminated the land surface around the site, in the severe accident in East Japan Great Earthquake in 2011. The contaminated soil in Fukushima prefecture was stocked in the intermediate stockyard built in the towns of Futaba and Okuma, where the power plant is located. The government promised the people in Fukushima to remove the soil out of Fukushima prefecture within thirty years, when it decided to build the stockyard in 2014.   The total a...

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...