In this edition of TPR News, we take a look at efforts towards constitutional reform, some suggested changes to the constitution, Japan’s relationship with NATO, the continuing decline in new auto sales, and further news of population decline.

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Politics

US Representative Mike Honda’s resolution calling on Japan to apologize for its treatment of “comfort women” during World War II has drawn more than a few headlines and has caused many to speculate on the US’s role in brothels used by the primarily American Occupation forces until 1946. Representative Honda announced his own concerns in this area by calling for an investigation by the Congressional Research Service into the actions of US authorities at the time. He was careful, however, to differentiate between the actions of the US and those of Japan, which he called a government policy.

While in the US last Thursday, Prime Minister Abe met with eleven members of Congress, including the Speaker of the House, the Senate Majority and Minority Leaders, and other prominent members of both the Republican and Democratic Parties. News reports haven’t specified whether or not Representative Honda was present, but approximately 100 protesters were outside. At the meeting, Abe said, “I am afraid that my real intentions and remarks have not been conveyed accurately, but I, as an individual and Prime Minister, am full of remorse and sympathy for former comfort women who had to go through hardship.”

“The 20th century was a period during which human rights were violated around the world, and Japan was no exception. We would like to make the utmost effort to make the 21st century a good century free of the breach of human rights.”

This is somewhat similar to former Prime Minister Koizumi’s having expressed his own personal sympathy and remorse in letters, but is tempered by Abe’s insistence on qualifying his apologies and falls short of the formal, unequivocal governmental apology sought by Honda’s resolution and by a number of former sex slaves.

The legacy of World War II also shows itself in immediate current events. Despite 78% of respondents to an Asahi Shimbun poll, coinciding witht he 60th anniversary of the adoption of the Constitution, saying that they thought Article 9 had helped to prevent war in Japan, Abe assured fellow conservatives that he would make constitutional reform his legacy. While 58% of those polled said they hoped to see some sort of constitutional reform, over 80% of them said they hope to see new rights or systems, such as access to government information or a right to privacy, whereas only 18% wanted to see the SDF become a military and roughly equal numbers saying they thought revisions should be carried out during the Abe administration. Thus, it seems that the powerful factions within the LDP and the kantei may well be a good bit farther to the right on constitutional issues than the general public.

Abe has support from some powerful figures, though, including former Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, who has long been a proponent of constitutional reform. Among the changes Nakasone would like to see are a redrafting of the Constitution in Japanese, as opposed to what he calls an awkward translation from English, and a new preamble, which would incorporate love of country. As chairman of a group of Diet members from different parties and non-politicians studying constitutional revision, Nakasone announced the group’s proposed preamble, which he had drafted, on Thursday. Unlike the current preamble, Nakasone’s draft espouses his conservative principles by including such passages as:

“Japanese citizens have had the Emperor as a symbol of the unity of the people for all time,” (a statement this commentator would like to point out is demonstrably untrue) and,

“[The citizens of Japan have] valued unity, established their own traditions and culture, and have passed these down through the generations, helping the country’s development by coming through a number of trials,” (which could easily be construed as exclusionary.)

In all likelihood, a preamble such as Nakasone’s would draw criticism from more liberal politicians and voters, who would have to approve any change to the Constitution.

Despite giving lip service to ideas of consensus and an exchange of ideas, Abe knows what he wants and seems to have little interest in any detour on the way there. His panel examining the right to collective defense, one of the central issues in current interpretations of and future revisions to Article 9, consists of 13 members. Of those 13, 12 have made public statements, on the record, criticizing the current interpretation and calling for reinterpretation. The thirteenth has no public statements in either direction that Kyodo news could find.

In yet another Article 9-related event, Defense Minister Fumio Kyuma met with NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer in Brussels on Friday and said that Japan would try to find a way to send the SDF to Afghanistan to assist with rebuilding, which would add more Japanese troops to the MSDF ships that have been supporting American forces from the Indian Ocean since December 2001 and the ASDF contingent in Kuwait providing logistical support to the US in Iraq.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, though, said in an interview on Friday that the demand for the ASDF’s logisitical support would end before the year was out.

Business and the Economy

Sales of new automobiles in Japan declined in April for the 22nd consecutive month. 10.2% fewer cars, trucks, and buses were sold than in April 2006, and 6.4% fewer minicars were sold as well. Honda was the only domestic automaker posting a gain in sales, as Toyota, Nissan, Mazda, and Mitsubishi all continued to show declines.

The Yomiuri weighed in with an opinion piece that took issue with Japan’s widespread practice of hiring university graduates en masse. According to the paper:

The problem is that the young people themselves, as well as their families and society as a whole, do not spend enough time thinking about their talents and abilities.

We have to review the system of hiring new graduates en masse because we are forcing young people to choose their path in life too early, increasing the likelihood of them making poor decisions. Chance influences whether a young person gets the opportunity to make the most of his or her abilities at this time. There is no clear career path available to some young people in the tight labor market.

Although recent data from the Ministry of Health, labor and Welfare shows that the number of people employed nationwide continues to increase slightly each month, the number of jobs per applicant are narrowing: in March, this figure was 1.03, down from 1.05 in February.

The Yomiuri has reported that in order to make “an effort to make Japan more attractive to foreign businessmen, the government plans to create an international financial center in Tokyo that will be modeled on the City of London.” The paper tells us that the Urban Renaissance Headquarters, which will be chaired by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, will work together with the Financial Services Agency to “develop a district where overseas businessmen can go about their day-to-day lives speaking English.”

Numerous sources have reported that Japan is set to ink a Free Trade Agreement with the ASEAN by the end of 2007. Such an FTA, however, is unlikely to be extended to agricultural items such as rice.

The Government Pension Insurance Fund, dissolved in March 2006, once had 13 Greenpia resorts. Facing huge losses, 11 of the 13 had been sold to the local governments hosting them by 2005, the other two were closed. Between February 2004 and July 2006, nine of the former Greenpia resorts reopened under local government or private management. Despite an infusion of 854.86 million yen from the government to eight of the nine, six of the resorts accumulated losses of 690.55 million yen last year. All nine facilities lost money.

Spider-Man 3 was released in Japan on May 1st, and proceeded to smash box office records across the country. On opening night in Japan, Spidey brought home 415 million yen, becoming the largest-ever grossing film opening on a Tuesday night.

The film also set records in Hong Kong, Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Thailand. In Taiwan, Spider-Man 3 became the highest grossing film on a single weekday.

Spider-Man 3 reportedly cost $258 million to make, which places it ahead of The Hulk as the most expensive film production ever.

Society

In his keynote speech as chairman of the annual two-day Asian Development Bank meeting yesterday, Finance Minister Koji Omi announced that Japan would donate $100 million to the ADB to fight climate change and facilitate investment in the region. Japan will also extend loans of up to $2 billion through the Japan Bank for International Cooperation over the next five years to promote projects and initiatives in the same areas.

On the topic of climate change, Omi also called for a sequel to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol to be written and stressed the importance of the US, China, and India joining it.

On Friday, the day before the Children’s Day holiday, the Internal Affairs Ministry released a report stating that the number of children under 15 years old as a percentage of the overall population in Japan has hit an all-time low. In 2006, the number of children dipped by 140,000 to 17.38 million, marking the 26th consecutive year of decline.

The BBC points out that in 2005, Japan’s population declined for the first time since World War II, and that a government report released at the end of last year predicted that the declining birth rate would cut Japan’s population by 30% in 2050.

As Golden Week drew to a close, Japan Rail reported packed trains headed in the direction of Tokyo with trains on the Tokaido and Yamagata shinkansen and the regular Tokaido line lines carrying as much as 150% of their normal capacity (total.) Non-reserved bookings on shinkansen lines, usually the last tickets available, were at 120% of capacity. This commentator, headed back to Tokyo from a brief trip down to the in-laws’, had to deal with the crowd by shelling out to upgrade his ticket to the Green car, or first class. The extra leg room meant he had to sit up a bit to reach the beer on the tray in front of him and the hand towel was only lukewarm. The indignity.

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