In this edition of TPR News, we take a look at the constitutional reform bill that passed the Upper House and into law on Monday, the Prime Minister’s boost in approval ratings, Japan’s defense ties with the United States, the state of the Prime Minister’s reforms to the education system, Japan’s reported drop in global business competitiveness, the sale of kidneys, and a roll call of train molesters.

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Politics

The big news, of course, is the Upper House’s approval of a referendum bill for possible future constitutional reform.

The bill passed the House of Councillors a month after its passage in the House of Representatives unaltered, which came as a disappointment to the DPJ, which had submitted a similar bill that went undebated, and other opposition parties. While later than he would have liked, the bill’s passage is seen as a victory for Prime Minister Abe, who has said he would make constitutional reform the centerpiece of his administration.

Abe wants, in particular, an amendment to Article 9, often referred to as the war-renouncing clause of Japan’s pacifist Constitution, in order to allow Japan to take a more assertive stance in foreign policy, including overseas military deployment.

The Prime Minister has called the Constitution, unamended throughout its sixty-year history, “incapable of adapting to the great changes taking place.” Specifically, he would like to see Japan allow itself to engage in collective self-defense, or being able to use force on behalf of an ally under threat. The example often cited involves Japan shooting down a North Korean missile headed for the US, an act considered to be prohibited under current interpretations of Article 9.

Pacifists and other opponents of changes to Article 9 protested the bill’s passage, seeing it as the first step towards the realization of Abe’s dream. Some critics have spoken of a slippery slope towards renewed militarism.

The bill, though, only lays out the rules for a national referendum, required by Article 96 of the Consitution as the final step in the ratification of constitutional amendments. Any amendment would first have to receive the votes of two-thirds of both houses of the Diet, then 51% of the vote in a popular referendum.

The gist of the bill, as laid out by the Asahi Shimbun:

・A referendum can only be held for the purpose of constitutional revision.

・The referendum voting age is 18. The Public Offices Election Law will also be revised within three years to lower the voting age from 20 to 18.

・A referendum must be held between 60 and 180 days after the Diet approves any proposal for constitutional change.

・A deliberative council consisting of 10 members each from the Lower and Upper houses must be established to publicize the process.

・Legislation will be passed within three years to prevent bureaucrats and educators from using their positions to lobby others on how to vote in the referendum.

・Television and radio advertisements will be prohibited from 14 days prior to the day of voting.

・Until three years after the enactment, the Deliberative Councils on the Constitution in the two Diet chambers will not submit or deliberate constitutional revision proposals.

Kyodo News is reporting that 62% of eligible Japanese voters surveyed by telephone last weekend said they were opposed to Japan engaging in any form of collective self-defense, and that the current interpretation of the Constitution, which forbids Japan from doing so, should stand. This number was up 7.4 percentage points from the same survey one month ago. Kyodo also found that the approval rate of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Cabinet rose by 3.4 points to 47.6 percent, and that 62.1 percent of respondents said they did not think it was appropriate for the Prime Minister to remain ambiguous over whether he gave a potted pant as an offering to the Yasukuni Shrine last month. 32.2 percent felt that Abe’s actions were appropriate.

Pacifist constitution or not, revision or no, the ASDF mission in Iraq, based in Kuwait, which is set to expire on July 31st, looks set to be extended for two years, despite Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki recently telling reporters in Sharm-el-Sheik, Egypt that the ASDF’s services would not be in demand after the end of the year. The decision drew criticism from those who think Tokyo needs to distance itself from the US’s debacle in Iraq and from those who think Japan needs to revert to a stricter interpretation of Article 9 in the face of spreading violence around the world.

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Tokyo and Washington are close, but not always as close as Tokyo might like. Japan has repeatedly said its cooperation in aid programs to North Korea and progress in normalizing relations with the isolated country are dependent upon a resolution to the issue of the abduction of Japanese nationals by North Korean agents in the 1970s and ’80s. Despite President Bush telling Prime Minister Abe that he would consider making a resolution of the abduction issue a pecondition for removing the DPRK from the list of state sponsors of terrorism, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made it clear to Japan at Camp David last month that the US would not set such a precondition.

This follows Vice President Dick Cheney’s request, behind closed doors in February, that Japan explain of what a resolution to the issue would consist.

As North Korea waits for the $25 million frozen when Banco Delta Asia was blacklisted for helping it spread counterfeit US currency, it has missed the April deadline for shutting down its nuclear facility at Yongbyon. Foreign Minister Taro Aso was unsurprised to find out that the North Korean government was less than honest in its dealings, having said, “My sense is that there will be a mountain or two before we can move into initial steps,” implying that North Korea would not uphold its end of the bargain reached in the Six Party Talks, as, indeed, it has not.

Speaking of North Korea, the Associated Press has reported that Japan’s Defense Ministry has plans to develop a high-powered ground-based laser capable of shooting down missiles, in order to improve its defenses against North Korea. The report, which did not name its sources, also stated that Japan is considering developing anti-missile lasers that could be mounted on aircraft.

Despite a good deal of talk over teacher certification, discipline in schools, the syllabi of history and civics courses, and other hot topics in Japanese education, the much-touted Education Rebuilding Council came forth with a proposal to encourage more breastfeeding, cuddling with infants, and less time in front of the TV for kids. A flurry of revision - the proposal was rewritten as many as ten times - did not help in the end as officials, including Minister of Education, Science, Technology, Sports, and Culture (MEXT) Bunmei Ibuki, called the plan “intrusive” and urged that it be dropped.

Business and Economy

The International Institute for Management Development in Switzerland released their annual ranking of countries based on international competitiveness, and Japan slipped eight places, from 16 to 24. By rising three places to 15, China has passed Japan. In her article explaining the challenges facing Japan, IMD Research Fellow Suzanne Rosselet-McCauley notes many of the problems facing Japan, including:

Japan’s high budget deficit (ranking 56th out of 61 economies at -6% of GDP) and persistently high debt levels (at more than $5,000bn, nearly 120% of GDP). The business community also suffers from high corporate tax rates (59th) and costly levels of remuneration (58th for the services professions). Entrepreneurship is not widespread (57th), business managers are not characterized as having much international experience (52nd) and there is a low participation of women in business (47th). Skepticism about the effective implementation of auditing and accounting practices remains an issue (51st). Other obstacles to global integration include a national culture that is closed to foreign ideas (54th) and strict immigration laws (55th), despite the fact that Japan ranks higher for its “attitudes towards globalization” (14th).

Many of these factors were addressed by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in his policy speech to the Diet last September, though few concrete steps towards remedying them have been proposed.

During their meeting at Camp David on April 27, in an effort to demonstrate that Japan continues to exhibit more open trade and business policies with the United States, Prime Minister Abe reportedly told President Bush, “Japan welcomes investments from foreign companies. Based on this stance, Japan has decided to authorize triangular mergers, starting in May.” Bush proceeded to ask Abe what he meant by “triangular mergers,” which apparently dismayed the Prime Minister, who reportedly responded, “This is a measure which the United States strongly requested…I faced lots of criticism that if the triangular merger were authorized, it would open the path for giant U.S. companies to absorb Japanese companies.”

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan and the European Business Community had all strongly requested that Japan allow triangular mergers to be legalized.

Every year or so, we see a PR piece disguised as news reporting making the claim that Japanese toilet maker Toto is hopeful that its bidets and warm-seated toilets will soon catch on with consumers in the United States. A recent Japan Times article that struck this observer as somewhat ‘cheeky’ reported:

In the United States, explosive sales are unlikely in the coming years…Some observers say the number of plumbers there well-versed in the installation of Washlets is still limited, making it hard for the company to offer adequate after-sale service.

This line was taken from the company’s website, “[The] Washlet is the kind of product whose popularity and demand grow through experience of use and word of mouth. (sic)”

On Monday, Japan began talks toward establishing a free trade agreement with Switzerland here in Tokyo. Currently, approximately 70% of Japan’s exports to that nation are subject to import tax. Japan is apparently seeking to export a greater number of electronic goods to Switzerland, while Swiss pharmaceutical and watch companies are hoping to increase their shares of the Japanese market. A free trade agreement with Switzerland would be the first such agreement between Japan and a European state.

Corporate bankruptcies in Japan have risen for the seventh consecutive month. On Monday, private research firm Teikoku Databank announced a 2.8% rise in the number of corporate bankruptcies in April 2007 when compared to April 2006. 817 corporate bankruptcies were recorded in April, and the total number showed an increase for the seventh straight month. Teikoku’s report covers bankrupt companies with liabilities of 10 million yen or more

Society

When Jikei Hospital in Kumamoto, inspired by hospitals in Germany, installed a “baby hatch,” where parents could deposit infants for whom they were unable to care with no questions asked, it drew a lot of media attention. What few people expected, though, was that the hatch would quickly give rise to a number of questions beyond the care of infants.

Shortly after the hatch was opened, it received its first deposit: a three-year-old boy.

The boy told nurses at the hospital that he had been accompanied there by his father. Kumamoto police were looking into whether or not it was a case of criminal child abandonment, the obvious question being when a baby is no longer a baby.

Are you in good health? Need some cash? Are you Filipino? Perhaps you could sell one of your kidneys to a Japanese patient.

A survey of 72 Filipino kidney donors by Okayama University Professor Tsuyoshi Awaya found that ten of the donors had sold their kidneys to Japanese patients for up to 575,000 yen, with the rest of the prives falling between 125,000 and 400,000 yen. The practice, which the Philippines is considering legalizing, currently falls into a regulatory gray area.

On Tuesday, a 17-year-old high school student was arrested for murder after walking into a Koban and showing police the severed head of his own mother, on her 47th birthday. The boy, whose name is being withheld because he is a minor, lived in an apartment with his younger brother about one hour by car away from his parents and grandparents. The Mainichi is reporting that although he had been a good student while in junior high school, the boy became mentally unstable after entering high school.

Also on Tuesday, Tsunemasa Arikawa, 42, a professor at the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School for Law and Politics, was arrested for allegedly groping a 20-year-old woman while riding the Yamanote Line between Shinjuku and Shibuya. Arikawa, who was apprehended by the woman on the platform at Shinjuku Station, has reportedly admitted to touching the woman.

Arikawa joins:

Hisashi Hanawa, 60, senior managing director of Nikkei Advanced Systems (Mita Line);
Shinichi Yoshida, 41, of the Bank of Japan (Denentoshi Line);
Tokyo High School teacher Norihiko Sasa, 56, (Yamanote Line);
Former Waseda University Professor Kazuhide Uekusa, 45, (Keihin Line);
Takeshi Hayakawa, 42, a senior officer at the Metropolitan Police Department (Seibu Shinjuku Line);
Keiji Takehara, 53, an administrative official in charge of public relations and job placement for students at the University of Tokyo (Keihin-Tohoku Line);
Kazuya Ikeoku, 42, a senior inspector with Tokyo Customs (near Shinbashi Station);
Norihisa Otsuka, 36, a section head at the Ministry of Education’s Elementary and Secondary Education Bureau (Odakyu Line);
Yoshihiko Abe, 52, chief of the health and welfare section of the Taito ward government (Keisei Line);
Tomohiro Itamochi, 27, an engineer in the Nagoya City Waterworks and Sewerage Bureau (JR Chuo Line in Nagoya);
Yu Hariya, 33, a part-time instructor at Tohoku University (Hariya traveled to a festival in Kanagawa from Sendai by Shinkansen, and told police: “I took the six o’clock bullet train to come here and secretly film up girls’ skirts. I was going to enjoy the footage at home.”);
Akira Shirahata, 28, of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (JR Saikyo Line);
Yoshikazu Abe, 43, An official with the Tokyo Taxation Bureau (Chiyoda Line - Abe told police, “I thought she was the type of woman who would not make a scene if she was groped.”);
And, an unnamed man who groped a female police officer (Yamanote Line)

…as all having been arrested for groping women on (or near) trains since November of last year.

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