Politics

From this week’s edition of Shukan Shincho, one of Japan’s weekly news magazines:

A yellow traffic light is shining at the Abe administration. Due to continued disappointments, its approval rating has fallen by twenty points since the administration’s inauguration, and now stands in the lower half of the 60 percent range, with no sign of recovery. Even beyond the year’s end resignations of Tax Commission Chief Honma and Minister Sata, the mass media has been harping that, “If a next resignation comes, the Abe administration will collapse.” And thus the administration has set out to clean up its ministers, in order to start anew.

That might be a bit generous, since we’ve seen figures approaching 40% and 55% at their highest. Nonetheless, the image is fitting: the Abe administration does appear to be approaching a yellow light, not quite sure whether to put the petal to the metal or come to a sudden stop.

LDP infighting! On Monday night in Kyoto, former finance minister Sadaharu Tanigaki stated that foreign minister Taro Aso recently approached him and proposed that the two men form a political alliance in a bid to take turns holding the LDP’s presidency and hence each become prime minister. Aso apparently had one condition attached to the deal: that he be prime minister first, and Tanigaki follow.

On Tuesday, Aso, who claimed that the conversation was confidential and that he had already forgotten that it transpired, admitted to making the proposal to Tanigaki.

Democratic Party of Japan president Ichiro Ozawa is getting ready for this summer’s upper house elections. The DPJ recently wrapped up its annual convention, with Ozawa announcing:

[The ruling coalition] maintains the collusive relationship between government and bureaucrats, pushing their policies based on the logic of the strong, while ignoring the weak. As a result, it has brought about disparities in income, employment, education and welfare.

Ozawa announced that the DPJ’s agenda would be called Seikatsu Ishin, or Lifestyle Restoration. This was the slogan used in the DPJ’s recent television advertisement, which we ran a short piece about a few days ago. For an excellent article with some opinion on this matter, please see the Mutant Frog Travelogue’s recent article, Amazingly weird DPJ commercial gets party leaders in trouble at annual convention. It seems that some DPJ members did not especially care for the party’s new TV commercial…

The Liberal Democratic Party held their annual convention as well, with the proceedings wrapping up on Wednesday. At the 74th LDP convention, Abe told party members that he would continue to build a “Beautiful Country,” with the foundation being set by last years passage of reforms to the 1947 Fundamental Law of Education. The party also, according to the Guardian Unlimited, “Declared … that its members would continue to visit a Tokyo war shrine.” That shrine, of course, would happen to be the Yasukuni Shrine.

As Abe expressed his belief that the key issue in the upcoming campaign for the upper house will be Constitutional reform, LDP Secretary General Hidenao Nakagawa took at shot at the DPJ’s much-maligned television spot, saying, “We cannot trust Japan’s future to a party whose leader lets go of the steering wheel, whose sailors all run away and all that remains is the three executives. But Japan’s captain, Shinzo Abe, will never let go of the wheel, no matter how rough the waves get.”

As for Constitutional reform, Abe told party members:

The Constitution shapes the country and its framework. I’d like to go back to the spirit of when the party was first founded and work on the revision of the Constitution.

On Thursday morning, the prime minister stated that Japan would continue to work with China and Russia on reaching the goal of having North Korea give up its nuclear weapons. Mr Abe also reiterated his belief that the Six-Party Talks are the best framework within which to hold these discussions.

The Daily Yomiuri is reporting that 22 members of the diet have racked up expenses of over 10 million yen each from 2003 to 2005. The expenses allegedly include bills for food and drink at meetings and events. Nineteen of the diet members mentioned are members of the Liberal Democratic Party, with one DPJ member, one People’s New Party member and one New Party Nippon member. According to the Yomiuri:

LDP Policy Research Council Chairman Shoichi Nakagawa recorded the highest figure, with his fund management organization reporting 144.5 million yen in expenditures. He was followed by Education, Science and Technology Minister Bunmei Ibuki, whose fund managers reported 137.02 million yen, while the organization for Shizuka Kamei, the PNP’s acting president, reported 136.34 million yen.

And finally, a big thanks to TPR friend Ken Hillard of Tokyo Spring for letting us in on this next piece. The US Embassy Japan’s January newsletter includes the following text:

The Embassy has been advised that Japanese police and immigration officials are currently conducting random identification inspections in several different areas of Tokyo to ensure that all visitors to Japan possess the appropriate immigration documents. Most inspections occur at or near Tokyo metro stations, and the police are both uniformed and in plain clothes. To all of our customers in Tokyo and beyond, be sure to carry your key documentation with you at all times in the event that you are the subject of an inspection.

So, if you’re out and about, taking a walk in the beautiful country you call home and pay taxes to, don’t forget to keep your Gaikokujin Toroku Shomeisho with you.

Business and the Economy

The Bank of Japan has decided not to raise the overnight call rate from its current 0.25%. A further discussion of the issue, and the role of political pressure, may be found at Japan Economy News.

If you’re itching to visit Japan from the United States, now is looking like a great time to do so. The yen fell to four year lows against the dollar, and was trading at 121.39 yen to the dollar in New York, following the news that interest rates would not budge.

The Yomiuri has published the results of a survey under the headline, “Poll: Higher wages anticipated, but budget anxieties linger.” According to the online survey, which included working people from age 20 and older, 34% of the public believe that they will see wage gains in 2007. At the same time, a majority of respondents stated that their standard of living would most likely not change in the coming year.

And demand for services such as communications and retailing fell in November, it was reported by the Ministry of Econoy, Trade and Industry on Thursday.

The Last Word…

On Wednesday, January 17, the Japan Times published an article detailing recent threats against journalists and politicians that have been made by what the Times calls an, “ultra-rightist tilt.” The Times certainly makes a series of good points; it has been mentioned by this observer and others on this website that Japan’s press leaves something to be desired in terms of information transparency. And, as we have noted, Japan ranked a dismal #51 in Reporters Without Borders’ 2006 Press Freedom Index.

We condemn actions such as the attempt to burn down the home of LDP lawmaker Koichi Kato, who did nothing more than express his opinion on Prime Minister Koizumi’s visits to the Yasukuni Shrine. We condemn the firebombing of a newspaper that did nothing aside from the publish the remarks of a former member of the Imperial Household, who said that the Showa Emperor opposed the honoring of Class-A war criminals at Yasukuni Shrine.

But, I take issue with the sudden turn taken in the aforementioned Japan Times piece. It’s perhaps best to read the following two paragraphs for yourself:

A more assertive extremist fringe is believed behind the trend. The country’s estimated 10,000 ultra-rightists, who espouse hardline stances in territorial disputes with neighboring countries and a rose-tinted view of Japan’s past militarism, have become increasingly violent in recent years, the National Police Agency said in its annual report last year.

At the same time, national pride is in fashion again. The government has passed a law requiring patriotic education, pushed for a revision of the pacifist Constitution and upgraded the Defense Agency into a ministry.

The Times has conflated the issue. Just as this observer has spoken out against threats and violence, or any form of press or media control, I have stated that I think Mr Abe’s revisions to the 1947 Fundamental Law of Education are wrong. However, no matter how misguided and potentially damaging Mr Abe’s vision (incarnated as law) may be, it has absolutely nothing to do with the ‘extremist fringe’ that is describe in the preceeding paragraph.

It is deplorable of the Times to even imply that there is some link. An apologist might say, “No direct connection is clearly suggested, so you’re reading too much into it.” That would, essentially, win my argument for me. If a connection were meant to be established, why not state it clearly? That would take guts, or pure stupidity, or a combination of both - since it’s wrong. The only other path is to conflate the issues and mention the Prime Minister immediately after discussing the ‘extremist fringe.’

I’ve taken Mr Abe to task, disagreed with the way he’s gone about doing things, and even felt a tad disappointed by the course of his administration. But to express dislike of the man’s policies in the form that the Japan Times has taken is misleading, irresponsible and, for lack of a better word, deplorable.

And that may just be the only time I stand up for Mr Abe.

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