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Society

The ongoing problem of school bullying has been addressed by two groups over the past week. First, the Education Rebuilding Council, a group set up by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe after he took office in September, will call for punitive measures against students who bully their schoolmates and teachers who take part in in bullying. The council will recommend that students who bully others could be suspended from school, that prefectural and municipal boards of education establish systems in order to assist schools quickly when serious bullying problems occur, and that teachers who cause or engage in bullying be punished.

Under current application of the School Education Law, a student may be suspended from school if he or she physically assaults a classmate. The Education Rebuilding Council plans to call for the use of school suspensions in cases where verbal, but no physical abuse, has happened. In terms of teachers, disciplinary actions may currently only be carried out against them in cases of sexual assault, causing serious traffic accidents or committing other egregious crimes. The council intends to ask boards of education to review their policies on reprimanding teachers when they are found to be involved in cases of bullying.

The council, which is scheduled to make an interim report in January, apparently intends to publish its urgent recommendations sometime next week.

On Sunday, Education Minister Ibuki Bunmei said that the ministry will request an emergency appropriation to increase the number of school counselors as a step to deal with bullying in schools.

Thanks to Japan Probe for the following link and story. In an effort to improve the ancient capital’s image, officials in Kyoto are planning to ban billboards on the top of buildings and blinking neon signs. According to the Yomiuri Shimbun, the city plans to change its regulations by March of 2007, and all designated ads are to disappear from city streets within six years.

On Saturday, Yokozuna Asashoryu defeated ozeki Kotooshu, thereby clinching the Kyushu Grand Sumo Tournament for his 19th Emperor’s Cup. Asashoryu, who improved to 14-0, said, “I wasn’t in great shape coming into the tournament, so it’s very satisfying to win.”

A survey released by the cabinet office this week revealed that 40 percent of elderly Japanese men living alone say they don’t have any close friends. One in four stated that they have no contact whatsoever with their neighbors. The survey does not indicate how, or if, anything can be done to encourage social contact amongst Japan’s elderly.

That’s co-director Chris Sheridan speaking about “Abduction: The Megumi Yokota Story” which was released in theaters across Japan on Saturday. The film, which Seridan co-directed with his wife, Patty Kim, attempts to show the struggle that Shigeru and Sakie Yokota have gone through since their 13 year old daughter was abducted to North Korea in 1977.

Business and Economy

The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare is considering removing legal limitations on the number of hours that may be worked by white-collar workers who make 10 million yen or more a year. Such a system would help bring Japan’s labor code in line with that of other OECD nations, where executives earning top salary levels are not bound to pay themselves at exorbitant overtime rates.

On Friday, electronics maker Sanyo announced that it expects to see losses of 50 billion yen, revised upwards from previous estimates of 20 billion yen, for the 2006 financial year. The company, which has already cut 14,000 jobs worldwide, has said that it will cut a further 2,200 jobs by March 2007 in an effort to reduce costs by 17 billion yen.

Japanese business leaders and their counterparts in South Korea are engaged in discussions that they hope will lead to a bilateral free trade agreement between the two regional economic powers. Although business leaders are pushing hard for the accord to be signed, political obstacles have kept any momentum from building up over the past two years.

Technology company, mobile operator and baseball team owner Softbank is in trouble over allegations of tax evasion. The Tokyo Regional Taxation Bureau has charged a wholly-owned subsidiary of Softbank with hiding about 6.3 billion yen in taxable income over the past five years, until the end of the business term in March 2005. A Softbank spokesperson said, “While we’ve been charged by the tax authorities with concealment of income over a few of our business transactions, we took a different view of the matter and have submitted revised reports.”

Politics

The US Navy has announced plans to equip two of their warships with advanced SM-3 missiles and upgraded radar capabilities in order increase their capability to intercept ballistic missiles. The two vessels, once they have received the upgrades in Hawaii, will join the US Navy’s Seventh Fleet at Yokosuka. Currently, only the USS Shiloh, which is already deployed at Yokosuka, is the only SM-3 capable vessel at the base.

Amid public concerns over safety issues surrounding the nuclear powered carrier USS George Washington, which is set to be deployed at Yokosuka from 2008, Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has distributed 30,000 pamphlets extolling the safety of the U.S. Navy’s nuclear-powered warships in an effort to stem local worries.

In a press conference on Friday, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tomohiko Taniguchi was asked, “Former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori visited Taiwan earlier this week. It has been reported in a very small way, has the Government of China issued any complaints to the Government of Japan about that? Since he has met with President Chen Shui-bian of Taiwan.” To this inquiry, Taniguchi replied, “I have not heard anything about it. Not that I know of.”

On Thursday, however, one day before Taniguchi’s comments, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu lodged a protest at a regular press briefing over Mori’s visit and his meeting with Taiwan leader Chen Shui-bian. Yu said, “The Japanese Government allowed its former prime minister to go to Taiwan and meet Chen Shui-bian, a move that has ignored China’s solemn concerns. We feel strong dissatisfaction and regret about this.”

Also on Friday, Defense Agency Director Gen. Fumio Kyuma told a lower house Security Committee session that allowing nuclear-armed U.S. warships through Japanese waters “would be unavoidable in an emergency.” Kyuma said that Japan would let a U.S. naval vessel pass through its waters without prior notification if the move was reported afterward. The US military has a policy of not revealing whether or not its vessels are carrying nuclear weapons. Kyuma added, “We expect the U.S. to give us a report afterward should that happen.”

Japan’s chief nuclear negotiator, Kenichiro Sasae, was in Beijing for a round of meetings on Sunday. Sasae was expected to meet with Christopher Hill, the US’s chief negotiator in the six-party talks with North Korea, as well as Chinese diplomatic officials. They hope to lay the groundwork for a resumption of the six-party talks, which North Korea has agreed to return to following their October 9th test of a nuclear weapon.

Finally, on Saturday, Akira Makino, 84, a former Japanese navy medic stationed in the Philippines during World War II, told the Kyodo News agency that about 30 people were operated on as part of medical training before being strangled to death between December 1944 and February 1945. Makino, who said he came forward after having been disturbed by nightmares, told the news agency, “We should not repeat such miseries again. I want to tell the truth about the war, even if it is to only one person or two.”

The Last Word

The Yomiuri Shimbun has recently published a piece in which they analyze the state of Japan’s economy. Noting that the current economic expansion, now in its 58th month, is Japan’s longest since the end of World War II, the Yomiuri cautions the government and the Bank of Japan to be careful with setting out future business projections. Despite the fact that corporate profits have generally been strong, consumer spending has yet to grow. The Yomiuri repeats the same misleading data that other news sources reported last week: “GDP grew 0.5 percent over the previous quarter or at an annualized rate of 2 percent.” We at Trans-Pacific Radio, although we are not economists, should like to point out that it does not take an economist to understand the simple, basic fact that quarterly economic figures, which represent quarter-on-quarter comparisons, cannot be extrapolated in an attempt to show annual figures,which are measured by comparing year-on-year performance. We would like to urge an news source that has been handed this information by a government ministry to think about what they are publishing, and to stop doing its audience a disservice by publishing misleading economic information. That said, the Yomiuri’s piece is an interesting starting point for any who are interested in trying to pin down the reasons why consumer spending is not picking up in Japan, despite 58 months of economic expansion.

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