In this edition of TPR News, we look at the Prime Minister’s approval ratings, the kickoff to the April 8 Tokyo Gubernatorial Election, some criticism of Shinzo Abe from a former cabinet minister, progress (or lack thereof) in the Six-Party Talks, and take a quick swing around the business world…

Politics

A Mainichi Shimbun poll conducted over the past weekend indicated that disapproval of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Cabinet rose by one point to 42%, while support for the Cabinet also dropped by one point to 35%. The Yomiuri Shimbun is reporting that the support rate for Abe’s Cabinet fell for the fifth straight month in March, reaching 43.8 percent. According to the Yomiuri:

In the survey, about 60 percent of respondents said they did not approve either “at all” or “somewhat” of what the prime minister or his Cabinet had done since the administration was inaugurated in September, while only 36 percent said they “very much” or “more or less” approved of him or his Cabinet.

Perhaps most tellingly for the Abe administration, the Yomiuri found that only 28 percent said they approved of the way Abe and his Cabinet dealt with the North Korea issues, while 18 percent said they approved of the Cabinet’s measures for education reform. 78 percent of respondents said Abe did not show any signs of leadership. (Yomiuri article in Japanese with the original wording of the questions)

With campaigning kicking off last Thursday for a host of local elections on April 8, the Asahi Shimbun is reporting that these elections will be, “A test of the Abe administration’s performance to date and a taste of what it can expect in July at the national level.” The newspaper also points out the perceived growth of the gap between rich and poor is becoming one of the main issues in nationwide gubernatorial elections. The Asahi claims that out of 44 candidates vying for a gubernatorial position:

A majority of candidates said the government should play a greater role in redistributing income rather than leaving the private sector to foster economic growth… Only eight candidates felt the gap had not been exacerbated by the structural reform policies of Koizumi and Abe…Of the eight candidates who said the Koizumi-Abe policies were not to blame, six are backed, formally or informally, by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

The paper goes on to note that one of the two candidates who did not blame the policies of Koizumi or Abe was Shiro Asano, who is indirectly backed backed by the Democratic Party of Japan as a candidate for governor in Tokyo. In his campaign kickoff speech in Shinjuku on Thursday, Asano told the crowd:

The Ishihara administration has been arrogance itself, in words, behavior and political attitude. I’m running to regain the eight years that have been lost. I’ll have the party (Minshuto) step back so voters can hear my singing.

Ishihara, by contrast, kicked off his campaign in the suburban city of Tachikawa, located west of Tokyo, a commuter town where Asano is believed to have an early lead in the race. Speaking to a crowd near Tachikawa Station, Ishihara told voters, “I’m unexpectedly in an uphill fight.”

Former Adachi Ward mayor Manzo Yoshida, the only candidate with full backing of a major political party, the Japanese Communist Party, told his supporters, “I can’t understand why the other two try to hide the support of the parties. It’s as if they are telling a lie.”

The Yomiuri reports that 34 out of 44 gubernatorial candidates nationwide plan to distribute printed election materials, known as ‘manifestos’, as part of their campaign strategies. As discussed in the previous edition of Seijigiri candidates will for the first time be allowed to hand out one-page leaflets on pages no greater than 210mm by 297mm in size that are designed to explain their positions to potential voters. As the Yomiuri explains:

The government lifted the ban on the distribution of materials for this round of elections in the hope of prompting voters to select candidates based on their policies rather than their profiles, appearances or other factors. Each candidate can distribute only a limited number of leaflets–100,000 to 300,000 in gubernatorial races–depending on the number of House of Representatives constituencies in each prefecture.

In Tokyo and Kanagawa, local governments will pay for printing the candidates’ leaflets. In Fukuoka and Oita prefectures, however, candidates must make use of their own financial resources.

In a recent interview, Former Economic and Fiscal Policy Minister Heizo Takenaka has urged Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to make better use of the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy to help promote reforms and make the Cabinet’s goals better understood in general. Takenaka told the news agency:

Cabinet ministers and private sector representatives at the council should frankly discuss policies and demonstrate points of dispute to the people. Through such a process, the Prime Minister should demonstrate leadership in driving reforms.

The process has not necessarily worked well in the first six months [of the Abe administration]…

The Prime Minister has demonstrated his leadership in giving policy instructions. The problem is whether his Cabinet ministers and aides can move in line with his instructions. He still has time to rebound.

Six Party Talks Update

Last Friday, Foreign Minister Taro Aso said that North Korea’s position at the latest six-nation nuclear talks was ” not constructive.” Aso said that North Korean delegates to the talks, “Dwelt too much on the issue of Banco Delta Asia,” referring to the $25 million that the United States had agreed to return to North Korea from a bank account that had been frozen at the bank in Macao.

In a separate press conference, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki told reporters it was unfortunate that full-fledged discussions on denuclearization could not take place because of Pyongyang’s insistence that the release of the frozen funds be completed first. Shiozaki told reporters:

As we have said many times before, the BDA issue is an issue of law enforcement and should not be something that affects the measures toward denuclearization as agreed to at the six-party talks. It is our common understanding that of course the agreement must be implemented.

Japan’s representative at the talks, Kenichiro Sasae, made a more subtle stab at North Korea, saying, “One nation is likely expressing difficulties with going through with the meeting. There is a place where accepted wisdom is not accepted wisdom.”

On Monday, North Korea again expressed its opinion that Japan not be allowed to take part in the Six-Party Talks. The other members of the talks have expressed solidarity with Japan, with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov telling Sasae, “There is a need to resolve the abduction issue, and North Korea has to respond to Japan’s concerns.”

Losyukov, however, also told Sasae that Japan has to “come up with new ideas in dealing with North Korea,” a statement that led to the Asahi Shimbun publishing an article under the title, “Abduction issue may cripple 6-way talks.”

Business and the Economy

Last week, the Japan Chain Stores Association released its monthly report on supermarket sales, which showed a decline in nationwide sales for the fourteenth month in a row. Sales in February declined 1.6% compared to February of 2006, totaling 1.025 trillion yen. Supermarket sales in Japan had a also been down 2.4% in January, and have now fallen in 35 of the last 36 months.

The JCSA chalked up poor sales in part to sluggish sales of winter clothes.

Also last week, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport released a report showing that efforts by investors to buy land in Japan’s three largest cities have driven the nation’s average land prices up for the first time in 16 years. According to the report, price increases in Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya made up for for declining land prices elsewhere in the country.

For the nation as a whole, residential land prices edged up 0.1% while commercial land showed an average gain of 2.3%. In rural areas, land prices declined by 2.8% on average.

In Japan’s three largest cities, however, residential prices rose 2.8% and commercial land prices increased 8.9%. In Tokyo, prices increased an average of 9.4%. Hiroshi Shiraishi, an economist at Lehman Brothers told the media, “It may be some years before the regions properly experience the same sort of increases.”

In what promises to send a scare into the banking industry, the Fair Trade Commission is reportedly set to order Shinsei Bank to refrain from running misleading advertisements for its financial products. The FTC is expected to demand that Shinsei submit a report detailing its actions. The bank has 30 days to appeal the decision. Shinsei is managed by US-based private equity giant Ripplewood Holdings.

Supermarket chain Seiyu, which is owned by Wal-Mart, has announced that as of Saturday it will begin selling US beef at about twenty of its locations in the Tokyo area.

Society

Japan’s west coast was jolted by a powerful earthquake at 9:42 Sunday morning. The quake measured 6.9 on the Richter scale and caused one death in Ishikawa Prefecture. 142 people were injured and over 140 aftershocks continued for the next twelve hours. According to the Meteorological Agency, the epicenter of the earthquake was in the Sea of Japan, 30 kilometers off the coast of Honshu, with the focus about 11 kilometers underground.

The Yomiuri Shimbun is reporting that more cases of abuse against the elderly are being reported to authorities. According to a survey done by the newspaper, cities across Japan have received about 19,000 reports of suspected abuse of elderly people, of which about 9,400 cases were determined by authorities as constituting abuse, since April 2006. A law aimed at reducing abuse of the elderly went into effect at that time. According to the survey, 80 percent of municipalities were taking measures to prevent abuse of elderly people, and 90 percent stated it was difficult to decide whether a case was actually abuse, and whether a further investigation was necessary.

On the other end of the age spectrum, the number of reported cases of children under the age of 10 exhibiting strange behavior after taking the anti-flu drug Tamiflu has hit 81. Last Tuesday, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare instructed Chugai, the importer of Tamiflu, to issue a ban on the use of the the drug for patients aged 10 to 19, but children under 10 years old were not covered by the ministry’s order.

Finally, on Sunday, 132 people were trapped in a monorail traveling to Haneda Airport after it was hit by a construction crane. The single crew member and 131 passengers were stuck in the six-car monorail for about two hours until they could exit via a train headed in the opposite direction. No one was injured in the accident.

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