In this edition of TPR News, we take a look at Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s first visit to the United States since assuming the country’s top post, what transpired during that visit, some media reaction to that visit, Foreign Minister Taro Aso’s visit to the US, Toyota’s 2007 first quarter sales results, Japan’s mobile telephone industry, efforts to reduce Japan’s suicide rate, and some words on Tatsuya Ichihashi, the presumed murderer of Lindsay Ann Hawker.

Politics

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met with US President George W Bush during his first visit to the US as Prime Minister on Thursday and Friday. The two heads of state discussed bilateral efforts to protect intellectual property rights, strengthen energy security, increase the transparency of government regulations, and to foster democratic development across the globe. They both expressed a commitment to the Doha Round of WTO development talks and discussed the possibility of a Free Trade Area in the Asia-Pacific Region as a long-term goal.

The White House and Ministry of Foreign Affairs released nearly identical descriptions of the talks to the media. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued an additional statement on “Energy Security, Clean Development and Climate Change” that stated:

Our nations are making meaningful progress in addressing air pollution and greenhouse gases from our power and transportation systems. We remain committed to the ultimate objective of stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system, and will further explore the steps forward to this objective.

Regarding trade relations between the two nations, President Bush told the media, “Any time you have a lot of trade, there’s always complicated trade issues…I’m absolutely convinced the Japanese people will be better off when they eat American beef. It’s good beef, it’s healthy beef; as a matter of fact, I’m going to feed the Prime Minister and his delegation a good hamburger today for lunch.”

Media reaction to Abe’s visit included this excerpt from a Financial Times piece:

In the 1980s and early 1990s, US bestsellers warned that Japanese companies were violating the spirit of free trade (particularly in the semiconductor industry) and raiding US assets (particularly prestige properties such as Rockefeller Centre and Universal Pictures). Yet today, Japan is in vogue in the US, in ways that go beyond sushi, manga, Hello Kitty and the increasingly Japanese pitching staff of the Boston Red Sox.

A number of other media outlets were not so rosy on the state of the US/Japan alliance, reporting that stress had developed between the two powers over issues such as the brothels that were used by Japan’s military during the Second World War, trade friction over conditions on US beef exports to Japan, and the weak value of Japan’s currency, which some US politicians are blaming for economic hardships amongst some geographic pockets of American workers, especially within the auto industry. Japan is also mildly pressuring the United States to allow it to buy up to 100 advanced F-22 stealth fighters, which are currently banned from export by the US Congress.

From Washington, Abe headed to the United Arab Emirates. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “some 170 or 180 leading members of Japan’s business community will be accompanying” the Prime Minister on his visit to the Middle East. According to Deputy Press Secretary Tomohiko Taniguchi:

Prime Minister Abe is keen on telling the people in the [Persian Gulf] region that thus far it might have been the case that the relationship between the Gulf region and Japan has been predominately one of economics, namely the relationship sustained by the oil trade, but beyond that Prime Minister Abe is keen on sending another message: that in addition to the already good trade relationship, the Japanese Government and its business community are much keener than before on enriching the relationships between the two.

I should add as a final note that if you recall what Foreign Minister Aso has been saying of late about creating an “Arc of Freedom and Prosperity,” the Middle East is obviously an important part of this Arc, and to stabilize the Middle East, in which there do exist troubled spots, is an important part for Japan’s diplomacy to actually try to create the Arc.

Speaking of the Foreign Minister, also on Friday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that Aso would be heading to the US for a visit, which would be followed by trips to Russia and Egypt. According to the ministry, Aso will meet with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in order to discuss plans for US base realignment in Japan, ballistic missile defense initiatives and the situations in East Asia and the Middle East.

On his visit to Russia, Aso is expected to meet with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and discuss issues including the dispute over Northern Territories that are claimed by both Japan and Russia. In Egypt, Aso will attend the “Expanded Ministerial Meeting of Iraq’s Neighboring Countries on Stabilization of Iraq” to participate in discussions aimed at the stabilization of Iraq, and to call the international community’s attention to Japan’s assistance for Iraq.

Business and the Economy

Toyota has surpassed General Motors in sales for the first quarter of 2007. Toyota sold 9.2 percent more vehicles that in the first quarter of last year, while GM’s sales increased 3 percent. First quarter sales figures were all-time records for both companies. In a Bloomberg report, Global Insight analyst Rebecca Lindland stated:

It’s not about market share and it’s not about world domination, it’s about making a profit. It’s a difficult pill to swallow, but GM really needs to get their house in order and their sales are going to have to drop to do that.

On Thursday, Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn stated that demand for new cars in the US was weakening, and that Nissan might fall short of its sales targets. Ghosn told Reuters:

2007 is not going to be an easy year, particularly in the US market which is already heading toward a kind of recession in the auto industry. I was the first one to say in January that I see a market of 16 million cars for the year, and I was probably the only one. Now it looks like it’s a kind of consensus.

On Tuesday, KDDI, the operators of Japan’s AU mobile phone brand, announced that its operating profit for financial 2006 increased by 16.2 percent. Since number portability was introduced to Japan in October 2006, AU mobile has picked up 810,000 new customers, while rivals DoCoMo have lost 630,000 subscribers and Softbank has bled 180,000 customers.

On Friday, NTT DoCoMo announced that over the last fiscal year their profit had dropped 25 percent, after being hit hard by the number of customers fleeing under number portability program, and massive spending on network upgrades. DoCoMo President President Masao Nakamura told reporters:

On the whole, we lost 630,000 subscriptions in the year to March, which isn’t really a good result. The reason is clear. Our customers left us either over the weakness of the 3G network or the expensive fees. We’ve been frantically strengthening our network but it is difficult to erase our customers’ first impression that the FOMA network is weak.

On the same day, DoCoMo also announced that it intends to terminate its PHS (Personal Handyphone Service) network.

At the close of its April Policy Board meeting, the Bank of Japan announced that it would not be raising the nation’s benchmark interest rates, although it hinted that it may be necessary to do so in the coming months. At the same time, with Consumer Price Index data showing a 0.3% fall in consumer prices in March, the bank was forced to make a downward revision of its Consumer Price Index target for fiscal 2007. The bank changed its Consumer Price projection from a rise of 0.5% to a rise of 0.1%.

According to recently released sales figures, Nintendo’s Wii gaming system is outselling Sony’s Playstation 3 by a factor or 7 to 1. For the week of April 16 to 22, Nintendo moved 77,913 Wii units, while 11,000 Play Station 3 units moved off the shelves and into homes. Earlier in the week, Nintendo reported that it had posted a record high in revenue for fiscal 2006. 5.84 million Wii units have been sold worldwide thus far.

In March, auto production and domestic shipments of new cars both declined. On the other hand, exports of new cars from Japan to overseas increased 8.1% when compared to March 2006.

Supermarket sales also declined nationwide for the 15th consecutive month. In March, sales were down 1.5% against the previous year. For fiscal 2006, overall sales slipped by 0.9%.

Despite the ongoing tough environment for supermarket operators, British retail giant Tesco is forging ahead with plans to break into the Japanese market. Tesco opened their first Japanese shop in Tokyo’s Nerima Ward last Wednesday. According to the Japan Times, Tesco is “looking to challenge the notion that foreign retailers cannot win the hearts of consumers in the world’s second-largest retail market.” Tesco also has shops in China, South Korea and Thailand.

For daily updates on the state of Japan’s business and economy, please visit Japan Economy News.

Society

On Friday, it was announced that a special government panel would be formed in order to make efforts at reducing Japan’s suicide rate. The panel, which has set a goal of reducing the number of suicides in Japan by 20 percent over the coming decade, will be chaired by Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki. Factors ranging from economic to cultural have been blamed for the number of suicides topping 30,000 per year in 2006 for the ninth consecutive year. At the announcement of its formation, the panel said, “We must make nationwide efforts and change Japan into a society in which people live at ease.” Japan’s increasing number of elderly was not mentioned as a contributing factor to the suicide rate, despite the fact that elderly Japanese commit suicide at higher rates than any other age group.

Although it is rare for executions to be carried out in Japan while the Diet is in session, three inmates were hanged on Friday. A Justice Ministry spokesperson, who spoke on condition of anonymity according to ministry protocol, confirmed that three executions were carried out Friday, but refused to give further details. NHK later identified the inmates as three men who had been convicted of murder: Yoshikatsu Oda, 59; Masahiro Tanaka, 42; and Kosaku Nada, 56. The three men were the first group to be executed since four others were hanged in December, and the second group to to meet their end since Shinzo Abe became Prime Minister.

An AFP story concerning foreign women who come to Japan to work as hostesses has been circulating this week. The unsigned article states:

Japan has increasingly cracked down on bars hiring foreign women after Blackman’s death and an embarrassing US State Department report which blacklisted the close ally over human trafficking.

Japan issued nearly 135,000 “entertainer” visas, long a convenient shield to bring in girls to work as bar hostesses, at the peak in 2004, of which 61.3 percent went to people from the Philippines.

According to an Associated Press story that has seemingly been picked up by only a few sources thus far, a new patch for pets has been developed in Japan. This new patch, which has been developed by Medical Life Care Giken, purports to measure the stress level of dogs and cats by detecting excessive sweat secretion. The article also informs us that some dog owners are bringing their pets to excersice sessions known as “Doga.” “Doga” appears to be a bad marketing term made of by combining the words “Dog” and “Yoga.” We would call for a boycott were it necessary.

Finally, one story that has unfortunately all but disappeared from the media here in Japan: Tatsuya Ichihashi, the presumed killer of Lindsay Ann Hawker, has still not been found. The manhunt for him is now a few days past the one month mark. We at Trans-Pacific Radio would like to express our hope that he is soon brought to justice. We would also like to urge our partners in the (profitable) media to continue posing questions and publishing stories regarding the case. We also urge the parents of Mr Ichihashi to make an appeal on national television that your son turn himself in, should he still be alive. I cannot personally imagine not taking the same steps under the same conditions.

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