In this edition of TPR News: Pols are unpopular; the MSDF is back in action; the Atago crash; the gas tax; Fukuda visits Korea; 1981 murder suspect arrested in Saipan; more food troubles; the latest business news; and more all around.

Congratulations to the Black Stripe Theater, whose production of David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross was not only top notch, but also sold out for all five of its performances. Keep an eye on their blog and check back with TPR to find out more about future productions.

Politics

68% of people distrust political parties and politicians and feel that their vote has no influence according to a Yomiuri Shimbun poll conducted last week. Somewhat surprisingly for a poll conducted by the Yomiuri, which tends to get results a bit more favorable of the ruling coalition than other major dailies, over 60% of respondents said they wanted to see an occasional change in the ruling party and 40% of respondents who supported the LDP said they would welcome a change.

Bringing the sole accomplishment of the 2007 extraordinary Diet session to fruition, the Maritime Self-Defense Forces resumed their refueling mission in the Indian Ocean. On Thursday, the MSDF supply ship Oumi supplied a Pakistani frigate with 160 kiloliters of fuel.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura said the mission was important to the future security of Japan’s oil supply. The law’s one-year time limit and other recent events, though, have raised questions not only about how Japan deals with dispatches of the SDF, but also over whether or not the MSDF is actually prepared to deal with military emergencies that may arise, specifically responding to terrorist attacks.

Would MSDF vessels be able to deal with terrorist attacks such as the October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Aden? The question arose quickly after the MSDF Aegis destroyer Atago collided with a small fishing trawler, the Seitoku Maru, before dawn on February 19th, cutting it in half. Father and son Haruo and Tetsuhiro Kichisei, as well as the deckhouse of their boat, remained missing as of Tuesday despite a sustained search effort by the deep seas research ship Kaiyo.

How could a destroyer equipped with the world’s most advanced radar miss a boat right off its own bow? Apparently through human error. The crew going off duty shortly before the crash didn’t tell the crew coming on duty enough about the boats in the area and the ship was kept on autopilot even though it had reached an area where there were other boats. The Defense Ministry chalks this up to inexperience.

While there was some initial speculation of the accident highlighting a weakness in the Aegis system and of a cover-up within the Defense Ministry, it now appears that the weakness was in knowledge of proper procedure in such an instance.

Much was made of the fact that Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba did not learn of the accident until shortly after 5:30 a.m. - and hour and a half after it occurred - and thus did not notify the Prime Minister until about two hours after the accident. Ishiba has stressed that no cover-up is going on and the Defense Ministry is blaming the delay on an unnamed bureaucrat, who failed to inform Ishiba more quickly.

The DPJ has not delayed in using the accident to political advantage, saying they would consider censuring Ishiba in the House of Councillors. Some DPJ members have already begun calling for his dismissal.

Prime Minister Fukuda, on a visit to Seoul to meet with newly inaugurated South Korean President Lee Myung Bak, said he wanted Ishiba to stay on and work on reforming the 14-month-old Defense Ministry.

In Seoul, Fukuda and President Lee agreed to restart the recriprocal visits that had been stalled under their predecessors, Prime Ministers Junichiro Koizumi and Shinzo Abe and President Roh Moo Hyun, to cooperate on issues related to North Korea, and to work toward a free trade agreement. It is hoped that Prime Minister Fukuda, who has emphasized improving relations with Japan’s neighbors, and President Lee, who promotes improved ties with Japan and the US as well as a milder view of Korea’s historical grievances, will be able to lead their countries into a closer political and economic relationship.

Just before leaving for Seoul on Sunday, the Prime Minister said he’d be willing to meet with the opposition camp to ask for their support in passing, and possibly modifying, the contentious tax reform bill. He also asked the opposition DPJ, which opposes an extension of the three-decade-old “temporary” gas tax, to offer a counterproposal. The tax, which is used to fund road construction, is opposed by the DPJ on the grounds that it places an undue burden on poorer people, those in rural areas, and small businesses. Given its temporary nature, the tax will expire at the end of March if no action is taken. So far, the DPJ has opposed a stopgap extension of the tax and has refused to compromise.

Seven months after resounding opposition victories in July’s Upper House elections, the gas tax debate highlights, as much as anything else, the LDP’s inability to grasp what it means to face an actual opposition camp for the first time in its history. The gas tax and the massive public spending it promotes have formed the backbone of LDP power since the early 1970s and the administration of corrupt and controversial Prime Minister Kakue Tanaka.

Just as last Fall’s extraordinary Diet session was dominated by the stalemate over the MSDF refuelling bill, it looks increasingly likely that the current ordinary Diet session will see the opposition digging in its heels for the duration again.

The ruling camp has only two more days to pass its budget bill if it hopes to enjoy a thrity-day easy override period in which it would need only a simple majority, as opposed to a two-thirds supermajority, to pass budget bills over opposition objections. This easy override does not, notably, apply to budget-related bills.

Business and the Economy

Do you live in Japan? If so, do you have ￥6.56 million handy? Well, that’s your share of Japan’s record ￥838.005 trillion debt. That’s right, 838,005,000,000,000 yen. Of that, government bonds account for ￥678.642 trillion.

In negotiating a free trade agreement with Australia, Japan’s Agriculture Ministry is seeking to exempt rice, wheat, beef, dairy, and sugar, citing the need to protect domestic producers from significantly cheaper imports. Australia, whose major export to Japan is farm products (now that Nova is no longer recruiting teachers) is expected to oppose such exemptions.

Japan produces only about 40% of the food it consumes in terms of calories and is over 90% self sufficient only in rice, eggs, mandarin oranges, and whale meat.

According to a survery released by Mori Building Co. on Monday, newly available office space in large central Tokyo buildings is expected to drop by 45.3% in 2008, the second consecutive annual decline. The survery projects that only 650,000 square meters of new office space will be added this year.
The decline is attributed to a reluctance on the part of developers to buy large office plots in 2002 - when large construction projects would had to have begun - and the increasing scarcity of plots of land large enough for big construction projects.

Despite the decrease in new office space, Takashi Ishizawa, chief real estate analyst at Mizuho Securities Co., says office rent increases in central Tokyo are “nearing their limits.”

Supermarket sales fell for the 25th straight month in January, dropping 1.7% compared to January 2007. Not only have sales now fallen for 25 straight months, but they have fallen in 46 of the past 47 months. The JCSA data is based on sales at 8,653 shops owned by 78 companies that have been in operation for at least one year.

The truly frightening figure is that when sales at newly opened stores are included, they fell by a stunning 5.6 percent. Usually the inclusion of these stores makes the numbers look a little bit better. In December, sales had been down 1.5% including such shops, and 1.8% when they were filtered out. Food sales had risen slightly in December, while all other categories were down.

The China Investment Corporation (CIC), China’s $200 billion sovereign wealth fund, is planning to buy up to $10 billion in Japanese stocks, including a “sizeable stake” in Inpex Holdings, Inc., an oil and gas developer. “I am sure he came to Japan because they are interested in investing in Japan, so I told him we will welcome it very much,” Financial Sevices Minister Yoshimi Watanabe said of his meeting with CIC General Manager Gao Xiqing. According to The Times, sources close to Watanabe say the fund will start with Tokyo stocks before moving on to direct investments, such as real estate.

Society

The story dominating both the print and broadcast media so far this week has been the arrest in Saipan of Kazuyoshi Miura and his extradition to Los Angeles to stand trial for the November 1981 murder of his wife Kazumi. Although Miura was sentenced to six years for the attempted murder of his wife in August 1981 and convicted of her murder in 1994, the murder conviction was overturned by the Tokyo High Court in 1998, the same year in which the Supreme Court upheld his conviction on the attempted murder charge. The Supreme Court upheld his acquital on the murder charge in 2003.

Miura served three years in prison for the attempted murder of Kazumi and was released in 2001. Despite his acquital in Japan, and the expiration of Japan’s statute of limitations for murder, the FBI and Los Angeles Police Department say the arrest is based on new evidence discovered by the LAPD’s Cold Case Homicide Unit. Double jeopardy protections are not transnational and the US has no staute of limitations for murder.

Continuing the trend of food labelling scandals that has been going on nearly all decade, JR-Central Passenger Co., a wholly-owned subsidiary of JR Tokai, admitted that it had deliberately changed the expiration dates on 15,900 bento, sandwiches, and other food items by up to five hours and forty minutes. Company regulations state that sandwiches can be safely consumed up to 14 hours after they are made and onigiri can be safely consumed up to 18 hours after they are made. No one has yet reported any illness related to the mislabeled products.

Blatant editorial aside: Dairy outdoors in the summer aside, who cares about five hours? Wilted lettuce is no cause for alarm unless one is a chef.

On a related note, Japan Tobacco might be considering a cessation of contracting out frozen food production to Chinese companies. The company will consolidate production in its own Chinese factories and Katokichi Co., its frozen food subsidiary, in order to shore up safety controls.

In another type of news story likely to keep popping up for ages to come, Chinese Customs is holding eight of 892 books destined for a Japanese school in Shanghai for further investigation. While Chinese officials have declined to give the Japanese consulate a specific reason for the delay, the eight books in question are the first eight volumes of an atlas, which lists the Senkaku islands as Japanese territory, despite Chinese claims to the contrary. Japanese officials believe this to be the reason for the failure to release the books.

The unusually high suicide rate among middle-aged men in post-bubble Japan is believed to be largely related to financial problems and the Aokigahara woods at the base of Mount Fuji are believed to be a popular spot for suicides. In an attempt to bring an end to such suicides, a Kanda, Tokyo-based organization of loan shark victims has erected a sign in the forest telling people their loan problems can definitely be solved and listing the number of a 24-hour hotline. Organizations under the same umbrella as the Kanda group have received over 3,400 calls for help, at least 29 from the Aokigahara woods.

According to the group’s head, Yoshio Honda, illegally high interest payments can be refunded, payments to illegal lenders can be stopped, and bankruptcy declarations do not appear on one’s family registry.