In this edition of TPR News: elections, party platforms, soldiers moving, Steel Partners, pessimism about the US economy, a couple of court cases, what to give the Yomiuri when you send a gift, and how to handle yourself the Matsuoka way.

TPR News is proudly supported by O-Creative.

Politics

Last May, Japan and the US came to an agreement on the realignment of American forces in Japan, which included the controversial relocation of US Marine Corps Air Station Futenma from Ginowan to Nago in Okinawa and the moving of carrier-based aircraft from Atsugi Naval Air Base in Kanagawa to Iwakuni Marine base in Yamaguchi. This past Wednesday, the House of Councillors passed an LDP-New Komeito-supported bill, passed by the House of Representatives on April 13th, that would provide subsidize local governments for hosting US military facilities.

The law would give the Defense Ministry discretion in subsidizing localities based on the level of cooperation received. The money would be disbursed at four times: when the realignment plan is accepted, when an environmental impact assessment is implemented, when construction begins, and when construction is complete and the facility opens. The law, which also allows for loans and investment to be made by the Japan Bank for International Cooperation in support of the relocation of 8,000 US troops to Guam, is set to run through March 2017, at which point it could be renewed for up to five years.

The Prime Minister said he’d make constitutional reform the centerpiece of his administration, so it comes as no surprise that a draft LDP election platform, being prepared by Secretary General Hidenao Nakagawa, calls for a new constitution, presumably on the premise that asking for something more extreme than you really want helps you get what you really want when you reach a compromise with the opposition.

In all, the draft includes eight categories with a total of just over 220 proposed measures, including:

- Working to “open the way for a new era of education by deepening discussions at the (governmental) Education Rebuilding Council”

- A basic law for the proper upbringing of youths (in response to recent events)

- Tighter handgun control (also in response to recent events)

- Enhanced efforts to fight global warming (to get the votes of city folk)

- Improving rural medical services (to get the votes of the elderly in the countryside)

- To “resolve the [North Korean] abduction issue as a matter of national pride,” and “reinforce measures to deal with suspected abduction cases and other harmful activities against Japan” (remaining wonderfully vague on that front)

- Of course, to “rebuild the legal foundation in terms of national security” by pushing for the right to “collective self-defense”

- Enacting a law that would prepare the SDF for rapid overseas deployment at any time (currently, special legislation is needed for each such action)

- And, in what strikes this observer as a big deal, reorganizing Japan’s 47 prefectures into fewer, larger entities.

Which ones will be subsumed? I’m guessing a goodbye to Tottori or Fukui might be coming. Hope you weren’t too attached to the independent entities making up the almost already merged 信州 (Shinshu), either. And can you really be sure when you’ve left Aichi and entered Gifu?

In July, half of the Upper House, or 121 seats, will be contested. The chattering classes are predicting that the ruling coalition and the opposition will roughly evenly split the 48 seats in the proportional representation area as well as the 18 seats up for grabs in prefectural districts with two or more seats, which leaves the 29 single seat districts as the hot battleground for both camps. Far from being a secret, though, both sides are using this fact to flatter and woo rural voters, whose votes, on an individual level, are more powerful than those of their urban counterparts.

The DPJ would pay farmers 15,000 yen per 60 kilograms of rice, “even if the market price drops to 5,000 yen,” as part of its one trillion yen plan to support farmers’ incomes. The ruling LDP would spend 100 billion yen on a program to send city kids to the countryside on two-week study programs.

Prime Minister Abe, in Obihiro, Hokkaido, called farming “the nation’s basis” and told farmers, “We must pursue farming policies for a promising future to encourage young people to build a bright future through farming,” also saying aggressive farming policies and large-scale operations were important.

Not missing a beat, DPJ Secretary General Yukio Hatoyama, addressing a crowd on the street in Kagoshima, said, “The government apparently thinks that it will be OK if only large farmers survive.” The DPJ is also distributing one million copies a four-page leaflet bearing slogans such as, “If the LDP administration continues, farmers will be ruined! If Minshuto wins, they will be revived!”

While the DPJ is correct in pointing out that the LDP’s calls for aid to farmers cultivating over a certain acreage of certain staple crops. However, the LDP is right in wondering whence the funds for a program as ambitious as the DPJ’s would come. To counter the popularity of the DPJ’s plan, the LDP is proposing a measure that would allow farmers to divert some of their national taxes to their local governments, the idea being that educational and job opportunities in those areas would then improve, keeping young people there on the farm.

The LDP also has the benefit of an Agriculture Minister so good with money that he can find excess in the government’s coffers to buy himself 5,000 yen-per-bottle water. More on him later, though.

This week’s Asahi Shimbun poll shows the Abe kantei’s approval rating holding steady at about 44% with an opposition-controlled Upper House still being the preference of 43% of respondents, as opposed to 36% hoping to see the ruling coalition retain control.

In July 2004, when the other half of the Upper House was up for grabs, the DPJ struck a blow against the LDP and then-Prime Minister Koizumi by warning of problems that would arise due to the government’s mismanagement of the pension system, particularly over one million “mystery” accounts, whose owners were unclear. Additionally, the dates of birth of at least 300,000 premium payers are unclear.

Workers switching jobs, but not updating their pension paperwork, women getting married and changing their names without realizing they had had pension accounts when they were single and working, and noncompliance with a 1997 government request that everyone registered in the pension system send in a postcard with their name, address, and all pension numbers on it led to the mountain of potential problems and, most important to voters, the chance that some people would not get their due upon retirement.

To make matters worse, the Social Insurance Agency says it would be unable to comply with a DPJ request to check all of the accounts involved to make sure no one was getting shortchanged because the number of accounts would make such a check impractical. Even if errors were discovered, the statute of limitations under the accounting law limits retroactive payments to the past five years.

Nothing has really changed, so the DPJ sees a reprise of its 2004 push on the issue as its best bet of doing well in July’s elections. In response, the ruling coalition is considering extending the period for which back payments could be made, but would do so only in response to specific requests.

Yesterday, Prime Minister Abe announced his plan to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2050 to Asian leaders. He said the goal needed to be shared globally and that a new, post-Kyoto Protocol framework needed to be set up, the goal for July 2008, when Japan hosts the G-8 summit in Hokkaido. Japan is expected to present its greenhouse gas reduction plan at this year’s G-8 summit next month in Germany.

Business and Economy

The Steel Partners Japan Strategic Fund is currently the largest single shareholder in Tenryu Saw Manufacturing, and it intends to become the only one. On Wednesday afternoon, Steel Partners tendered an offer worth $227 million to buy all shares in the company that it does not currently own. Steel Partners is offering 4,945 yen per share, a 15% premium on last Friday’s closing price of 4,300 yen. The issue has not traded since that time.

On January 22nd of this year, Tenryu traded at 3,110 per share, its lowest price in the past year. It’s high for the year came on April 12, when it traded at 4,900 yen.

In its letter to the shareholders and employees of Tenryu, Steel Partners had this to say:

You should know that if we are successful with our tender offer, we do not intend to get involved in the day-to-day operations of the Company. We respect the experience and ability of Tenryu’s existing management team and intend to support the team in every way we can. Steel Partners has a long-term successful track record of investing in industrial manufacturing companies, both in Japan and globally. We believe our global network and international experience will be a great resource for Tenryu Saw Mfg. Co., Ltd., helping Tenryu grow and prosper over the coming years.

We believe our offer will present an excellent opportunity for investors, the Company and its employees. Existing shareholders gain liquidity and a chance to sell at a considerable premium to market price. Tenryu will benefit from having a single, supportive investor that is ready to offer expertise, capital and global resources to help the Company grow and prosper.

Steel Partners currently owns at least a 5% stake in 30 Japanese firms.

In Steel Partners’ other ongoing endeavor: their recent announcement of a tender offer to acquire a 100% stake in the Bull-Dog sauce company.

At a press conference last Friday, Bull-Dog Senior Managing Director Masaomi Tamiya had this to say:

Why us? The bid has been launched without prior notice to us…We are upset that we have found ourselves suddenly at crossroads after our 105 years [operating]…We want to know Steel Partners’ real intention…we did not expect anyone would want to buy [Bull-Dog].

As Japan Economy News put it: “[W]ith all due respect, Bull-Dog executives: Your risk management sucks. And, you just managed to tell the entire world.”

In its monthly economic report, the Cabinet Office has downgraded its outlook on the US economy for the first time since November 2006. According to the report, slow first quarter growth in the US economy can be attributed to a slowdown in the housing market. However, the Minister of State for Economic and Fiscal Policy stated that she does not expect the US economy to head into a tailspin.

What does all this mean for Japan? Any slowdown in the US economy threatens the pace with which Japan’s exporters have been expanding their revenue. Although April’s trade statistics are expected to show another strong increase against those of April 2006, a slowdown on the comparison charts could hit in the late summer, when Japan’s exporters did fabulously last year. April proved to be the 64th consecutive month of economic expansion in Japan.

Back to the report: The Cabinet Office stressed that consumer spending is picking up again, though just barely - consumer spending was up 0.9% in the first quarter of 2007. The report goes on to say that without sustainable increases in wages, it is difficult to determine if the increase in consumer spending will continue. Even if it does, this observer wonders if any increases in consumer spending, which are bound to be small over the coming six months, will make up for any potential slowdown in exports.

From 1997 to 2005, wages in Japan fell by about 10%. Last year they picked up about 0.3% and have since fallen in every month so far in 2007.

It might also be worth noting that in its January report on the economy, the Cabinet Office had this to say:

[In 2007,] the economic recovery will be driven by the private sector. Solid corporate profits will spread to households through improvement in the job market and wages.

The report also notes that production has decreased somewhat and that higher costs for raw materials has led to producer prices from being classified as “rising” to “flat.”

Society

Quick: To whom should you report criminal activity?

If you said the police, thank you for playing, but you get the consolation prize.

The correct answer is the Yomiuri Shimbun, and you should include gifts.

On Thursday, the Yomiuri’s head office announced that it had received, on May 15th, a box containing thirteen bullets, a .38 caliber revolver, amphetamines, Ketamine, two letters printed in Chinese, two Chinese men’s passports, and half a melon. The letters claimed that a former gang leader was selling drugs stolen from a gang in Hong Kong in Japan.

Survivors of the air raids on Tokyo testified in court yesterday in their case against the government. The plaintiffs claim that, by prolonging the war even after it knew it was lost, the Japanese government was responsible for the bombings and had never compensated the bombings’ civilian victims. The 112 plaintiffs are demanding 1.23 billion yen.

Bringing the Constitution into the argument, the plaintiffs point out that the government compensated soldiers and other military personnel who were injured or lost property in the bombings, but did not do the same for civilians, thus violating Article 14 of the Constitution, which makes everyone equal under the law. Some of the plaintiffs went on to express concern over the Prime Minister’s plan to change the pacifist Article 9.

Also yesterday, the Utsunomiya District Court in Tochigi ordered the prefectural government to pay 47 million yen to the survivors of Kimiko Tanaka, who was killed in 2002, and her sister-in-law Shizuko Ebinuma, who was injured in the same incident, saying that the police failed to carry out proper checks before allowing Tanaka’s next-door neighbor to possess a shotgun.

The man had harrassed Tanaka for a long time prior to obtaining the gun, even trying to run her down in his car at one point. Despite her having complained to the police at least twenty times concerning threats made by her neighbor, and a report from the police’s complaint section strongly urging that the man not be allowed to own a gun, the police’s life and safety section saw no reason to deny him ownership of a gun.

As part of his plan to promote Japanese pop culture abroad, Foreign Minister and otaku Taro Aso has unveiled an “International Manga Award,” which Aso says he hopes will become like a Nobel Prize, “although the prize money won’t be that big.”

In 2003, the DPJ’s Kanako Otsuji won a seat on Osaka’s prefectural assembly at the age of 28. Now 32, Miss Otsuji is running for the House of Councillors, in what she says is challenge to official ignorance of “hidden” minority groups, a personal issue for her, being Japan’s first openly gay national candidate.

Last Word

What do you do when you’re an outrageous liar and everyone knows it,and you know everyone knows it, and they know that you know, etc.?

Well, if you’re Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries Toshikatsu Matsuoka, you tell the House of Representatives Budget Committee things like, “I have repeatedly said that I have acted in accordance with the law,” and hope that, right after you get hit by lightning seven times in a row while winning the lottery, meeting your soulmate in TPR’s comments section, and growing five inches overnight, they’ll somehow, this time, believe you. Then you refuse to disclose the details of the gigantic utility bills racked up in your rent-free Diet office while you used it as your political headquarters, illegally claiming office expenses on your political fund reports.

After that, you laugh openly as the Prime Minister inexplicably defends you, then laugh some more as he goes out to do his best George Bush and tell the press you’ve answered questions about the report clearly and answered such questions many, many times, even though you’ve just finished telling the opposition and a few upset members of your own party, for the umpteenth time, that you weren’t going to answer their questions. With TV cameras in the room!

Brilliant!

Finally, you read a letter of appreciation from the guys at 太平洋横断放送 (that’s what we “officially” call ourselves) for giving them so much to make fun of and no shortage of fodder for angry and snide commentary like this.

Mr. Matsuoka, we get it. You’re a liar, you’re a cheat, you’re willing to waste the government’s time by keeping this farce up when it’s not even funny anymore. Good one. Now, isn’t it time you spent more time with your family?

Before you go, though, send us some of that 5,000 yen-per-bottle water you were drinking. I have to know what drinking water that’s over ten yen per milliliter tastes like.

When we get that water, dear readers, we’ll invite everyone who replies to this RSVP by commenting here an invitation to the first Matsuoka Festival.

Listen Now:

 TPR News 5/25/07: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download