Politics

Despite talk that Japan may ramp up its sanctions against North Korea, while making an appearance on a TV talk show Monday night, Foreign Minister Taro Aso said, “We are not studying imposing additional sanctions (against North Korea) at this stage because our current sanctions are working.” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki said that although Japan will continue its “basic policy” of holding dialogue and applying pressure, seemingly through the Six Party Talks, additional sanctions are not being proposed at this time.

Also on Monday, Japan’s Sankei Shimbun reported that the government had recently investigated the possibility of developing a nuclear warhead program. The Sankei reported it source to be “an internal government document,” although Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki claimed that he had not heard of any such document. The Sankei’s published claim states that developing such a program would take three to five years and cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $2 billion.

In order to stregthen the observation of North Korea’s missile launch site at Musudanri, the Pentagon has asked Japan to permit the installation of another X-band radar system to supplement the one already installed at Shariki Air Station in Aomori.

Now, for a quick look at what other blogs and new sources have to say about politics in Japan:

In the third and final part of a three part series, the Daily Yomiuri laments that Japan’s voice is not being heard at the United Nations. According to the Yomiuri, Japan has been reduced to watching from the sidelines, despite being the second largest financial donor to the United Nations. The paper attributes much of this to Japan’s inability to develop true diplomats. As Albrecht Stahmer noted during his appearances on Seijigiri, Japan’s use of checkbook diplomacy has left them with a handicap when it comes to the nitty gritty aspects of international diplomacy.

Two interesting articles on Japanese politics have recently been posted at the Mutant Frog Travelogue. In the first, the author takes a look at the new education reform law and what it means to teach patriotism in Japan’s schools. In the second, prime minister Abe’s difficulties in getting along with the press are discussed. Both are solid opinion posts and worth your time.

Business and the Economy

Driven by increased production and capital investment, the Japanese economy showed growth for the 59th consecutive month since January 2002. Despite this, consumer spending remains sluggish and may be holding the economic recovery back from really picking up more traction. In a meeting on Monday, Hiroyuki Inoue, an economic counselor with the Cabinet Office, said, “There are signs that consumer spending and wages will increase as the job market tightens.” Inoue, however, did not mention what those signs might be.

Although the Bank of Japan’s recent Tankan survey indicated an improving mood amongst manufacturers concerning the economy’s future, a survey of manufacturers released by the Ministry of Finance and the Cabinet Office’s Economic and Social Research Institute this week came to a different conclusion. Although the numbers were higher than the first two quarters of 2006, results indicated that larger-size manufacturers were not as optimistic as they were in the third quarter of 2006.

However, on Tuesday morning, the statistics bureau in Tokyo announced that inflation, defined as core consumer prices (excluding food and gasoline) had climbed 0.2 percent over the previous year. At the same time, the unemployment rate had fallen from 4.1% to 4%. Although the rise in inflation was less than most economists expected and household spending was down 0.7% from last year, Bloomberg has speculated that this new data may bolster the Bank of Japan’s claims that interest rates should be raised.

In a recent editorial, Teruhiko Mano at the Japan Times has speculated on the gap between the ongoing economic boom and the general public’s perception that most people have not yet felt any real benefit from it. Mano’s article gives a solid insight into this perception gap, and is recommended for anyone wishing to read a Japanese perspective on the issue.

Despite the country’s record-breakingly long economic expansion, the number of urban poor is growing. At a time when the government is considering trimming social services to shore up a strained budget, some at the leaner end of the economic spectrum, especially those with children, lack even the financial security necessary to take advantage of expanded job-placement assistance.
Society

At the Wakayama zoo, giant panda Mei Mei has given birth to twins. The number of pandas born in captivity worldwide this year has now risin to 30. Although park officials have not yet confirmed the genders of the twins, they have said that one of them only weighed 84 grams, which is considered a premature birth weight for a giant panda.

In an effort to increase the reporting of crimes, the National Police Agency will implement, in October, a system of rewards of up to 100,000 yen for information leading to the resolution of cases via an anonymous reporting system handled by a third party. Those who give information will even be able to collect reward money, initially limited to often unreported crimes related to child prostitution and human trafficking, anonymously.
Merry Christmas! Off to the gallows! Japan hanged four prisoners on Christmas Day: Oshimitsu Akiyama, Yoshio Fujinami, Michio Fukuoka, and Hiroaki Hidaka. Amnesty International in Japan issued a statement protesting the executions. Japan conducts its executions very quietly, and usually when the Diet is on recess, in order to avoid public debate on the issue. In an attempt to avoid legal appeals, Japan also executes its inmates on short notice, often informing them on the morning of the execution that their day has come.

And a brief return to Politics

A subpanel of the LDP’s group discussing what should and should not be taught in history classes in schools met for the first time Friday to discuss and ultimately seek revision of a 1993 statement made by then Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono that apologized to women forced into sexual slavery during World War II, so-called “comfort women” and implied an acknowledgement of what had happened. The subpanel contends that Kono was speaking without concrete proof of the practice having existed and that recruitment into wartime brothels was carried out on a voluntary basis.

The group also hopes to develop a consistent stance for the government in the face of an expected round of Japan-bashing next year as the 70th anniversary of the Nanjing Massacre arrives.

Other lawmakers worry that the group either is, or will apear to be, pursuing goals in support of Prime Minister Abe’s personal views. Abe was a vocal critic of Kono’s statement and generally seems to side with those who feel that Japan’s wartime atrocities are exaggerated.

Last Words

First, on logic. The group expressing opposition to Kon’s statement touts as a major piece of evidence a recruiting poster found, which implies that some women, for lack of a better term, volunteered to be comfort women, and that a review of this poster should be undertaken to, in the words of one member, “prove that there wasn’t any forced recruitment.” As if the most minute study of any poster could offer substantial support for, much less prove, any such thing. The leap in reason required here is astounding. Suppose a great number of women volunteered for such a position, suppose it was even all the rage, does that mean that no women were “forcibly recruited”?

The focus on niggling details in an effort to cast doubt on individual accounts or individual pieces of evidence neither constitutes a convincing case for denial nor addresses the core issues. At best (or worst), it is a brief distraction.

Second, on the nature of the group itself. The very fact that group members are publicly seeking to prove that comfort women were never forced into it, rather than seeking to find out what happened and the very fact that their public comments show that they are unwilling to accept any conclusion other than that the wartime government and military leadership did nothing wrong, are unsettling. These are members of the group deciding what should and should not be included in history textbooks that could potentially reach millions of students, and, if approved, will surely reach at least thousands, and be taught as fact. That is not study or serious discussion of the issues from Japan’s past that hover today. Such a stance shows a disdain for history as a discipline and an informative narrative. In their hands, history’s role as political tool is elevated to the exclusion of the more noble purposes and aims of the field.

It seems to me that the primary purpose of such efforts to whitewash history is the preservation of some sort of national pride on the part of individuals (in other words, I don’t mean that it could apply to the entire populace of a populous nation) or an inability to accept the unsavory bits of the country’s history. The liability that would be incurred by a more frank addressing of such issues is limited and hardly reason enough for the government to be spending, at an absolute minimum, US$60,000 plus the salaries of panelists so engaged every month. There must be something deeper here.

Third, Japan-bashing. Is it a real phenomenon? Sure. Every country is unfairly criticized or accused of foul dealings and Japan is no exception. Is it, though, Japan-bashing to say that the preponderence of evidence suggests that the Japanese Imperial Army engaged in some heinous activity? is it Japan-bashing to point out that the government of Japan seems no more willing to put such issues to rest than their critics? I don’t think so.

Do I know with absolute certainty whether or not the government of Japan or the military committed the atrocities of which they are accused? No more than any of you reading this do.

What happened is an important question worthy of serious study by serious people who seek answers, not political hacks who seek to further political stances.

For now, though, what exactly happened is less immediately important than how the government deals with the issues.

Criticism and Japan-bashing are certainly not going to abate in the face of such a farce as that being condoned, if not actively pursued, by the kantei. China will surely always find a reason to criticize Japan, as will Japan’s other rivals. This is no excuse, though, to lend legitimacy to criticism over historical issues by doing exactly what the government’s critics accuse them of doing, viz. denying wrongdoing and attempting to distribute rose-colored glasses to the world. It hasn’t worked, it isn’t working, even domestically, and it is unlikely to do any good in the long run.

The government of Japan is once again at a crossroads in foreign relations and history and its attendant issues are still central. It is not necessary for the government to kowtow to any of its critics. It is however, essential to the efficient and productive conduct of foreign relations for it to be able to demonstrate serious consideration of such serious incidents and a willingness to move forward. When people in an officially sanctioned group closely associated with the government expend great effort to push a particular interpretation of history while showing little concern for the history itself, it sends a damaging message. It is counterproductive. The good that could be garnered through such steps as the joint study project between Japan and China is undone, even prevented, by the evidence that the government is unwilling to support steps in that direction, favoring revanchism and denial instead.

The government needs to make a choice: Will it be a rosy future or a rosy past?

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