TPR News: Thursday, November 23, 2006 (Happy Thanksgiving to TPR’s American Listeners)
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Politics
Tokyo welcomed the victory of their man Nakaima Hiorkazu in Okinawa’s gubernatorial election this weekend, immediately seeking talks with him on getting things moving in the stalled US military realignment plan. Chief Cabinet Secretary Shiozaki Yasuhisa (who, incidentally, just had a beer with loyal friend of TPR Brendan Jennings) expressed an interest in moving forward with the plan to relocate Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, 
which he says will reduce pressure on Okinawa. Nakaima, unlike his narrowly defeated rival, Itokazu Keiko, says he’d accept a relocation within Okinawa, but has unspecified concerns over a controversial V-shaped runway to be built on the new base at Camp Schwab in Henoko Point.
Prime Minister Abe, in Vietnam for the APEC forum, said he was happy that Nakaima had won and that he and President Bush had agreed to steadily move forward with the planned realignment.
Things are looking up for Abe as he moved a step closer to his goal of creating a US-style National Security Council Wednesday when a panel convened to debate the formation and constitution of such a panel, which, in the US, consists of 200 people who report directly to the President. Abe, who would like to consolidate power in the kantei, is likely to push for something similar. Some observers also expect him to use the panel to push for the Self-Defense Forces to be able to exercise the right to collective self-defense and take a more active role internationally. Shiozaki Yasuhisa made a point of telling reporters, “We have assembled a group of true professionals from a variety of specialized fields.”
Good news for Japan in its joint-history-study project with China, which reaches as high as Foreign Ministers Aso Taro and Li Zhaoxing. China agreed to include post-War Japan in the list of topics to be researched. Japan pushed for the inclusion in the hope that Chinese people would understand not only Japan’s invasion of China, but also the “forward-looking aspects” of post-War Japan.
The opposition parties, led by the DPJ, returned to the Diet, ending a six-day walk-outs spurred by the LDP’s passing of an education reform bill in their absence, on the condition that they be given time to question the ruling party over its manipulation of town-hall style meetings. Presumably the first question will be why people were paid 5,000 yen to allow an MC to introduce them.
Other news
The Education Ministry received four more letters from students declaring their intention to commit suicide, bringing the total to thirty-six. The Ministry quoted one letter from a junior high school student as saying, “I ahte everybody. I will die.” The contents of the other three letters were not released as they included school names or other identifying information.
The Iraqi Central Criminal Court sentenced 26-year-old Hussein Fahmi to death for the beheading of 24-year-old backpacker Koda Shosei in October 2004. Fahmi, a member of a militant group formerly led by the late Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and suspected of involvement in six dozen other crimes including a bombing that killed eighteen Iraqis, said, in his defense, that he had to kill nationals of all the countries that sent troops to Iraq.
A bad day for Seaman Ship. A submerged Maritime Self-Defense Force training submarine collided with a chemical tanker killing no one and spilling nothing. Not realizing what had happened, neither vessel changed course. The ship was dented, the sub’s rudder and upper tail fin were damaged, and some seamen presumably had some unpleasant explaining to do.
In an effort to increase enrollment in the national pension scheme, the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare is mulling over a plan to require companies to automatically deduct premiums from the paychecks of part-time workers, a move likely to draw protest from employers, who will bear the cost of the additional paperwork.
Japan has a big old gap. Between the sexes, that is. In a World Economic Forum report on the achievement of women in four key areas - economic participation and opportunity, attainment of education, political empowerment, and health and survival - Japan came in 79th overall, the ranking being a composite of its tie with thirty-four countries for first place in health and survival and its 83rd place finish in both economic participation and opportunity and political empowerment.
From immediate assistance to long-term care for post-traumatic stress disorder, the government will implement 258 measures in four categories to offer assistance to crime victims on the basis of the April 2005 crime bill. The measures were collected from the actions taken by municipal and prefectural governments throughout Japan, including community-based fundraising initiatives and assistance including home helpers and special loans for crime victims.
The report cites Japan’s first specialized treatment department for post-traumatic stress disorder, at Tokyo Medical and Dental University in its plans for dealing with the disorder. Government-assisted treatment of PTSD is to take effect before December 2008.
In a first in Asia, US immigration officials will be stationed at Narita Airport to handle inquiries regarding the eligibility of certain passengers to enter the United States. American officials are already stationed in Amsterdam, among other cities, and passengers actually go through US Customs while still in small Caribbean nations, such as the Bahamas.
Business
The 1965 to 1970 Izanagi boom has finally been defeated as Japan’s current economic expansion reached fifty-eight months, making it the longest post-War economic expansion. However, sluggish growth in consumption caused the first downward revision in assessment in twenty-three months. Production and business, as well as nine other measures of economic growth were up, but consumer spending is the eleventh measure and it is flat, even falling a bit recently, which, being over half of Japan’s GDP, has a deleterious effect.
The Communications Ministry approved a plan to levy a seven-yen surcharge on all landlines in Japan to cover losses incurred by NTT. The losses are the result of a Ministry plan to maintain NTT’s loss-making rural services.
Happy Labor Thanksgiving Day!
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