I’ll write down what I think with some way to timestamp it. Tokyo densha otakus, what station do you think is in that video and why?

With this show being recorded on Tuesday the 29th, the lower house vote on extending the gasoline tax was slated to take place on the following day. The discussion turns to the divided Diet and the reasons why the LDP’s pushing the gas tax renewal through the lower house by using its supermajority may cause the Fukuda administration to see a further fall in approval ratings.

After that, the topic of how Japan is portrayed in the overseas media comes up. A recent article published by Time magazine described Japan’s gas tax as part of a trend towards “environmental consciousness.” Our hosts explain why this is simply not true, beginning with the fact that funds raised from the gas tax over the past 34 years have been used exclusively to smother the nation with roads and concrete - the by-products of LDP pork-barrel spending.

The use of funds from the gas tax for projects other than road construction is set to be debated, and possibly voted on, in May. Could this represent an end to the Tanaka-era use of public funds to pave the country? Will we see a new system emerge in which rural areas will not be able to rely on the massive public works projects that bought their votes for the LDP?

After these questions are considered, our hosts close the program by discussing the recent Olympic torch relay in Nagano and how the media has portrayed that event.

As always, thank you for listening.

Hydrogen sulfide is a scary new trend in the dark world of suicide for at least two reasons: it’s cheap and easy to make the gas at home using merely commercially-available detergents and body soaps; and people in the vicinity of the person who has created the gas (often in the bathroom of an apartment) are at risk of exposure to dangerous concentrations of the toxic gas. The former is not especially remarkable when one considers the many inexpensive ways there are to commit suicide, but the latter is a major problem when collateral damage is taken into account.

Recently, suicides due to hydrogen sulfide inhalation have skyrocketed, and it appears there is little the authorities can do to curb its spread. Banning household detergents is not an option, and even a quadrupling of the nation’s modest counseling resources would have little short-term effect. However, as evidenced by the 80 neighbors sickened after a 14-year-old girl gassed herself in Kochi prefecture, suicide has recently become an urgent public health issue in Japan and decisive action is required.

The National Police Agency reported last June that 2006 was the 9th year in a row that suicides in Japan exceeded 30,000. That’s about 90 people per day. Whereas lighting up a portable stove in a sealed off vehicle was the method of choice for several years, it looks as though hydrogen gassing could take over as a less troublesome and more immediate alternative.

While many of the suicides thus far have occurred within the confines of private residences, it is possible that even those staying at hotels could be in danger of lodging just down the hall from a hydrogen sulfide suicide. Recent publicized instances have hinted at attempts to protect innocents from exposure to hydrogen sulfide through such tactics as creating the gas within the confines of a plastic bag secured around the individual’s head or placing warning signs on barriers to the suicide site (“beware of hydrogen sulfide”, for example). However, it has been repeatedly advised that those encountering the pungent odor of hydrogen sulfide exit the area as quickly as possible and call emergency services for help.

Politics

“Please tell me who in your party I can speak to, who can be trusted.”

Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda appeared to catch DPJ leader Ichiro Ozawa off-guard and surprised some political observers by expressing his frustration in a more assertive way than usual during their televised debate on Wednesday, April 9th.

While such debates are often formal and lacking in substance and Fukuda has been criticized for preferring old school back room horse trading to publicly hashing out disagreements and selling his policies to the public, the beginnings of change on both fronts crept up during the leaders’ first debate in three months.

After securing the DPJ’s agreement on the approval of Deputy Governor Masaaki Shirakawa, who became acting Governor immediately upon assuming the post, as Governor of the Bank of Japan, the LDP nominated Hiroshi Watanabe to fill Shirakawa’s newly vacated Deputy Governoship. The DPJ, as expected, fell in behind Ozawa and rejected Watanabe on the grounds that he had been a senior bureaucrat at the Ministry of Finance - the same reason given for rejecting three previous nominees for Governor or Deputy Governor.

Some observers viewed Fukuda’s unusually aggressive comments, attacking Ozawa’s leadership and the DPJ’s tactics of stalling in the Diet and complaining to the press, as signalling a change in tactics. While the opposition camp has publicly criticized Fukuda, his LDP, and their tactics, Fukuda has stuck to attempting to work out deals behind closed doors, the same unappealing practice televised debates between the Prime Minister and opposition leader were supposed to reduce when they were begun a few years ago.

For his part, Ozawa replied that his party’s position had been consistent: the DPJ opposes reserving a senior spot at the BOJ to cushily catch retiring MOF bureaucrats as they descend from Heaven.

Fukuda might have been on to something when he launched a direct assault on Ozawa’s leadership. The whip he and his lieutenants have been using to keep the party’s disparate members in line may be losing it’s sting. It is reported that some DPJ members had either wanted to approve Watanabe, who had foreign experience at the MOF that many think would be an asset at the BOJ, or thought the party would be wise to approve him in order to allay suspicions that they were playing politics with the string of BOJ nominations. Still others seemed to resent the DPJ’s party unity taking the form of everyone voting behind Ozawa, who made public statements sans prior consultation with his party, in order to avoid embarrassment. Tellingly, only one DPJ member dared to vote to approve Toshiro Muto, but more slipped out of the Ozawa yoke to vote for Watanabe and still others simply absented themselves from the vote.

Fukuda’s assertive new stance, if that’s what it is, is not helping in the public eye yet, though. The Prime Minister’s approval ratings continue to tumble as his tussles with the DPJ, and opponents of reform within his own party, continue.

The latest Asahi Shimbun poll shows Fukuda’s approval rating dropping to Abe nadir territory, at 25%, with the disapproval climbing to 60%, as the latest Nikkei poll shows the Cabinet’s approval rating at a record low 29%, as disapproval ratings reach a record high 59%. These are the worst numbers for the Cabinet in post-7/29 polls.
62% of respondents cited lack of leadership as the reason for their disaproval, followed by 44% who disapproved of the Cabinet’s policies. The low numbers show a significant drop in support among respondents over 60 years old, which probably reflects the troubled start of premium collections for a new health insurance scheme for the elderly.

As expected, the Prime Minister’s proposal to remove gas tax revenues from a fund earmarked for road construction and place them in the general fund gained support from his supporters as well as his detractors and supporters of the DPJ, which had asked for a similar move, coming in at 46% in favor.

Of those who supported the Fukuda Cabinet, 46% did so because they thought he was trustworthy, followed by 35% who supported the Cabinet because it was an LDP Government.

Support for the LDP is still higher, at 38%, than for the DPJ, 29%, but the gap is narrowing.

Although frustrated in an earlier attempt, those who hope to reform the venal, corrupt system of amakudari that still has a grip on some, if not most, of Japan’s Ministries have introduced another bill to that end. Unable to keep bureaucrats and politicians apart, and unable to get independent oversight of post-retirement appointments for senior bureaucrats, the would-be reformers are now focusing on some of the agencies to which retiring bureaucrats descend.

If passed, the bill would require directors, auditors, and senior positions at the 101 most corrupt and wasteful independent administrative agencies to be sought with greater oversight from the Cabinet and to open such job opportunities up to members of the public. Moreover, such agencies will be prohibited from sending their retired officials to private companies with which they have business ties.

Critics of the bill point out that the Cabinet has a habit of skimming over such recommendations and appointments and doubt it will eradicate or even seriously diminish the practice of amakudari.

In foreign affairs, new South Korean President Lee Myung Bak began his two-day visit to Tokyo on Sunday, marking the resumption of “shuttle diplomacy,” or frequent visits between Japan and South Korea by the two countries’ respective leaders.

Lee, a former business leader who has backed away from predecessor Roh Moo Hyun’s Sunshine Policy and history-related standoff with Japan and has sought closer ties with the US as well as Japan, has said he wanted to take a pragmatic approach to foreign policy, declining to seek apologies from Japan over historical issues in the hope of improving the economic relationship with his country’s wealthy neighbor and of presenting a united front with Japan and the US against North Korea.

As a sign of his business wishes, Lee brought an entourage of Korean business leaders with him, who were set to meet with their Japanese counterparts as Lee met with his on Monday.

Business and the Economy

People around the world are familiar with ramen, or as the flash-fried, buillon-accompanied variety are known in the States “ramen noodles” (often pronounced “ray-men”), but it appears thicker, heartier, more truly Japanese udon is making inroads as well.

Osaka Customs reported that 12,500 tons of udon, soba, and somen were exported in 2007, up 24.8% on 2006. 40% of Kansai noodle exports were udon, possibly because of the close proximity of Kagawa, which is well-known for its udon. 40% of the noodle exports were to the US, where according to a spokesman from frozen udon manufacturer Katokichi Co., the success of Japanese baseball players in the Major Leagues has sparked an increased interest in Japanese food. (The Yomiuri Shimbun takes that unsubstantiated and highly dubious claim as part of its leader on the story. I suppose, though, that could explain the presence of Dominican restaurants on every corner in the US. Yes, that’s facetious.) More believably, other manufacturers point to increased marketing, the promotion of Sanuki udon as a brand, and a preference among consumers for Japanese-made Japanese noodles as reasons for the doubling of udon exports over the past decade.

On Friday, the Ministry of Finance presented a plan to expedite the transfer of power from the central government and local governments to a fiscal and structural reform panel of the Fiscal System Council, an advisory body to the finance minister.

Among the Ministry’s proposed measures to ensure the expansion of local government’s resources was a recommendation for an increase in the consumption tax. The Ministry also recommended changing the distribution of tax revenue, currently 60/40 in favor of the central government, to a 50/50 split between the central government and local governments. The special local corporate tax, in place for only a few months, will also need to be raised.

It is hoped that these measures will allow local governments to maintain operations and services with less reliance on tax revenue grants from the central government.

According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, the number of households using fiber optic Internet connections has exceeded the number of those using ADSL lines for the first time. According to the report, 31.3% of Internet-connected households in the nation are using fiber optic connections, with the rate in Tokyo standing at 80.8%.

As of this month, about 8.32 pensioners are having increased health insurance premiums deducted from their pension payments. Although the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has said that the burden would be lower for those pensioners who receive less money, municipal government offices have received a flood of complaints and inquiries from pensioners. One angry 79 year-old woman was quoted in the Yomiuri as saying, “I’m not even receiving all the money I should be in the first place…They can get away with making a mess of handling the system and then just take money off us without asking for a word of permission.”

Spending on services fell in February, according to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. Overall spending fell 1.7% from January, as consumers remained worried about rising prices and stagnant wages. Data showed spending on real estate fell 4.8%, financial and insurance products was down 3.6%, and retail and wholesale spending was down 1.0%.

Last week, however, data from the Cabinet Office showed Japan’s consumer confidence level rising slightly in February. After having dropped to nearly five-year lows in February, the consumer confidence index increased 0.6 points to hit 36.7 in March, which is still below the score of 37.5 registered in January. According to the report, 85.7 percent of consumers surveyed believed that prices would rise over the coming year.

On the other hand, real estate firms are not happy with the way 2007 turned out. In the metropolitan Tokyo area, new condo sales were down 17.9% as prices rose 9.3%. In central Tokyo, prices shot up 16% as higher land and construction costs combined to push up retail prices. Nationwide, land prices rose 1.7% in 2007. According to Teikoku Databank, about 26.9% of Japan’s bankruptcies in 2007 were made up of firms involved in the construction industry.

Finally, US hedge fund Steel Partners has sold its stake in both Bull-Dog Sauce and Kikkoman, after a protracted attempt to take over Bull-Dog ultimately failed. Japan’s supreme Court ruled that the shareholders of Bull-Dog Sauce were acting legally when they voted to dilute Steel’s equity in the firm, despite the fact that the law calls for equal treatment of shareholders. Steel Partners leaves Bull-Dog having generated at least 2 billion yen in profits from selling its share warrants back to the firm, and is also estimated to have earned 2 billion yen from selling its share in Kikkoman.

Society

Zenkoji temple, originally designated as the start of Japan’s leg of the Olympic torch relay, had recently declined to participate after security concerns were revealed during the torch’s journey through other parts of the world. Anti-China protests have dogged the relay and caused several changes to the planned route of the time-honored relay.

Perhaps in retaliation for its decision, the 1,400 year-old Buddhist temple was vandalized with spray paint on Sunday morning. The temple commented that it has received some 100 calls a day either in support or in protest of its unwillingness to serve as a site of possible politically-charged demonstrations, and police have yet to determine whether or not the graffiti was indeed connected to the temple’s decision to withdraw its participation in the torch relay.

The law establishing the lay judge system will go into effect on May 21, 2009, exactly five years after it was enacted. The system will team six jurists with three judges to determine guilt or innocence in cases involving serious offenses such as murder. The law will apply to crimes committed after the law goes into effect, so the first cases involving citizen jurists will likely not take place until later in the summer of 2009. One of the main concerns at this point is making sure that the public understands the path of reforms that the judicial system has embarked upon.

There seems to be agreement that the new lay judge system will cause many new headaches in the short-term, but that long-term benefits will make the transition worthwhile. One such headache that authorities are currently working on a solution for is the question of under what circumstances, job-related or otherwise, can a person opt out of jury duty.

Shizuoka Prefecture’s city of Iwata has decided to cut some slack to the municipality’s unregistered international schools that are largely attended by Brazilian youths. The schools are now allowed to use public facilities, such as gymnasiums, at a reduced cost. Subsidized rates are usually only allowed for registered educational institutions. The central government tends to see such international schools as resembling “private cram schools.” According to the Yomiuri newspaper, there are four Brazilian schools located within the city and around 500 students attend them. Four percent of the Iwata’s population is Brazilian. The drop in fees for use of public facilities should save the schools tens of thousands of yen each year.

“Body parts are heavy when they are still half-filled with blood,” he thought.

Draining them would make things easier; he loaded up the laundry machine and let it do some of the dirty work for him. He was tired, after all. The last time he cut up a body was years ago, and he was out of practice.

“And what am I going to do with this blood-drenched futon?”

Somewhere in between the pulsing lights of the bridge, and the hard strikes on the windows from the wind coming off the bay, Nozaki found himself staring at one of his other roommates–the cousin of the woman crumpled in the laundry machine. She had made an early trip home from work to figure out why Honiefaith was late and not answering her phone.

The flesh Nozaki held in his hand confirmed the worst, and she raced out of the apartment to seek help. When the police arrived, Nozaki was gone.

The girls had agreed to live with him and split the 200,000 yen ($2,000) rent. But did anyone warn them about his past? Were the police even aware that he was living in the high-rise apartment building on Tokyo Bay? To be fair, Nozaki wasn’t ever convicted of murder the first time around. He burned his girlfriend’s body and then flushed everything down the toilet, so when the police failed to force a confession out of him, they effectively had zero evidence to pursue the charge with. Instead he did three and a half years in the detention center for dismembering and abandoning a body.

And now he’s killed again. Honiefaith Ratilla Kamiosawa was 22 years old when Nozaki took her life. His first known victim was 27. How many dead women does it take for a killer to be locked away for good? In Japan it seems like the answer is “at least two.”

Without a full confession from Nozaki, we may never know how many times he has killed before. However, this time around it is reasonably certain that Nozaki will be charged with murder as well. He turned himself in after a “botched suicide attempt” and gave medics the keys to the coin locker at the World Trade Center near JR Hamamatsucho station where her deflated body could be found.

Details of Nozaki’s murders, including information regarding the all-important psychological profile of the killer, are scant, but there seems to be a pattern emerging. The gender, race, and occupation of the victims is consistent. He targets females from the Philippines who work in Tokyo’s myriad cabaret clubs.

As an aside: the fact that he murdered a gentlemen’s club hostess may have had something to do with the relative timidity of the sentence he was slapped with the first time around. The increased media attention this time (good luck finding the name of his first known victim) may actually help ensure that he gets what he deserves.

So were we dealing with a uninitiated serial killer? That is a very interesting question, and an impressively difficult one to answer. Definitions of serial killers are difficult to find agreement on in general, and very reluctantly applied in the Japanese context in particular. America’s Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) profiles serial killers as murderers who have killed at least three separate individuals in unrelated crimes. Of course, a number of other factors, such as a sexual element, can also play a part in labeling someone a serial killer. One factor that doesn’t signal that a serial killer is on the loose is a situation where someone is paid to kill people, such as in the case of a contract killer. Mutilation of a corpse, however, tends to fall under that classification. His “attempted suicide” complicates matters a little in that it could be interpreted as a sign of remorse, but speculation is useless at this point as more about the suspect’s mental stability at the time of the crime, his background and relevant stressors, plus his account of the events preceding the murder have yet to be made public.

Nozaki is known to have struck twice, but is it possible that he killed before he was found guilty back in 2000? Whether the death count is two, three, or more, it is probably safe to say that this guy is a serial killer, or budding serial killer (in other words, it’s not solely about numbers.) America may be the country with the most documented instances of serial killers, some of them now immortalized in popular culture through a generous library of Hollywood movies, but, Lo and Behold!, it is not strictly an American phenomenon. Not to give the American police too much credit, but it has been argued that the proliferation of cases in America is partly due to advanced forensic and suspect interviewing techniques, as well as ever-improving intra-jurisdictional reporting and cooperation. The opening of Cold Case investigation units across the country has also helped in bringing several killers to justice. Comparable developments are not apparent in most nations, and that includes Japan.
In the Japanese context, serial killers are still largely considered to be a negative product of Western culture. (An argument used by the Soviet Union to deny the existence of the world’s most prolific documented serial killer.) But Japan has witnessed its fair share of murderers who would qualify as serial killers by any meaningful definition.

Tsutomu Miyazaki is a common nightmare in Saitama. He’s basically the prefecture’s Keyser Söze. Miyazaki, who killed and mutilated four young girls (he reportedly ate part of at least one of them) in 1988 and 1989, just saw his 16-year court case draw to a close. He was handed the death penalty, but it is unclear how long he will continue to live in solitary confinement on death row before that punishment is carried out.

Saitama prefecture is very lucky that this man was caught. As is sometimes the case with serial killers, he got sloppy once he found that killing was easy, and that led to his eventual apprehension. It is not uncommon for this type of killer to be driven by an addiction to the power of exercising the final decision over life and death. Many serial killers think of themselves as gods, and just like the recently apprehended B.T.K. killer from Kansas, Miyazaki went to great lengths to make sure that everyone knew that he exercised complete control over the prefecture of Saitama.

Miyazaki’s reign of terror came to an end when he was attacked by the father of a potential victim while trying to insert a zoom lens into the young girl’s vagina in a park near her home in 1989.

Some domestic media outlets have labeled this man a serial killer, but the label is rarely applied in Japan. What Nozaki has done is reinforce what has long been known about serial killers -unless they are stopped, either through incarceration or death, they will always kill again.

There are countless others on the loose that could be the next Tsutomu—call me crazy but Tatsuya Ichihashi is my bet for next on the list.

What is going on? Japan is a famously peaceful country with, compared to other modern powers, an absurdly low crime rate. The crime clearance rates claimed by police are unheard of, and the Japanese authorities’ praises are sung on a global scale. Or at least until recently.

So then how did a man that was convicted of dicing up a woman end up being freed and allowed to commit the same crime again? Are the police missing the obvious signs? Or are they simply reluctant to acknowledge the possibility that they might have a serial killer on their hands? Serial killers, after all, are a purely Western phenomenon, no?

The correct answer is “no.” Tatsuya Ichihashi is still at large. For those who don’t visit this site regularly, Tatsuya Ichihashi is the prime suspect in the brutal murder of a teacher in Chiba, Lindsay Ann Hawker, last March. He outran a police van’s worth of local cops when they were sent to his apartment to question him, and he hasn’t been heard from since. Hawker’s body was found in a sand-filled bathtub on the balcony of Ichihashi’s apartment. There is no credible evidence at this point that would suggest that Ichihashi had struck before he killed Miss Hawker, but many of the grisly details from the scene of the murder, much as in Nozaki’s case, point to him being a serial killer. Dig a little into his past and it wouldn’t be surprising if one learns that he spent way too much time on his own while growing up (translation: he was neglected as a child and has strong feelings of insecurity and inferiority), has a richly developed fantasy world which is generally a stronger draw for his attention than reality (a daydreamer whose inner world is violent and sexually charged), and had a hobby of torturing and killing insects and animals (purely for the satisfaction of exerting power and control over another living creature). Who knows how long this guy’s “cooling off” period is going to be. It could be a matter of months, or even several years. One thing is for certain, however; unless Ichihashi is caught, he will kill again.

Luckily for Japan, and the expat Filipina community in particular, Nozaki has been caught. With any luck, he won’t be on the streets ever again. One can only hope that Tatsuya Ichihashi will be collared before he decides to take another life.

While there are different accounts of the gravity with the police are handling the search for Ichihashi, we know he is certainly being hunted. It is safe to assume that the hunt would intensify and be taken far more seriously if the authorities made the case for classifying Ichihashi as a serial killer. Look into unsolved murders in the area, see how many could be linked to Ichihashi, and make those suspicions, as well as the likelihood that Ichihashi will torture, maim, and kill again, and those who are assisting or sheltering him (there must be at least a few people at this point) might not be as helpful, which might not only bring one murder suspect into custody, but also help to more quickly apprehend future killers.

With Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda heading to Russia in early May, Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura is currently in Russia making preparations for that meeting. Once Komura returns from Russia, he will be visited by Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, who will head to Japan in order to plan for President Hu Jintao’s visit to Japan from May 6. The discussion focuses on what might be on the agendas as well as what, if any, breakthroughs might be made in terms of Japan-China relations.

After that, the discussion focuses on domestic political issues. Now that a Governor has been found for the Bank of Japan, our hosts look at how the process played out and why Fukuda continues to see his approval ratings slide. Why has the LDP been unable to work with the DPJ, when its stubborn insistence on pushing its own agenda seems to be costing it points with the public?

Finally, the question of replacing Fukuda is raised. A recent interview in the Nikkei with former Prime Minister Yashuhiro Nakasone hints that Fukuda does not have much time left. Our hosts speculate on whether Fukuda will last long enough to host the G-8 summit in July, or whether the LDP would be better off with a fresh face attending the meetings.

Once again, thank you for listening.

The four men were Kunio Hatoyama’s 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th executions since he assumed the post of Justice Minister last year. Hatoyama entered the post with a statement of support for the practice of capital punishment, and apart from a brief sojourn to suggest that his signature was not necessary for the hanging of a felon, he has been busy authorizing at least a few state-sanctioned deaths every couple of months.

On Friday, December 7, 2007, Hatoyama ordered the executions of:

Seiha Fujima, 47, Tokyo Detention Center
Hiroki Fukawa, 42, Tokyo Detention Center
Noboru Ikemoto, 74, Osaka Detention Center
On Friday, February 1, 2008, Hatoyama ordered the executions of:

4) Takashi Mochida, 65, Tokyo Detention Center
5) Masahiko Matsubara, 63, Osaka Detention Center
6) Keishi Nago, 37, Fukuoka Detention Center
On Wednesday, April 9, 2008, Hatoyama ordered the executions of:

7) Masahito Sakamoto, 41, Tokyo Detention Center
8) Kaoru Okashia, 61, Tokyo Tokyo Detention Center

9) Katsuyoshi Nakamoto, 64, Osaka Detention Center
10) Masaharu Nakamura, 61, Osaka Detention Center

All of the men hanged over the past half year were convicted in court of at least one homicide each. Amnesty International and the United Nations have been vocal critics of Japan’s capital punishment regime. It is widely reported that death row inmates spend an average of seven to eight years in solitary confinement and are notified of their imminent hanging only a few hours before it takes place.
Under Justice Minister Hatoyama, the government has finally begun disclosing the names and crimes of those executed. Up until last year, the only information provided was the number of death row inmates executed each year.

Politics

Things are still looking grim for Prime Minister Fukuda and his Cabinet. According to a survey by the right-leaning Sankei Shimbun, the Prime Minister’s approval rating has fallen to 23.8% as his disapproval rating has risen to 59%. This doesn’t necessarily mean the opposition Democratic Party is looking any better, though. As the fight over the renewal of the temporary gasoline tax grinds on, 63.9% of respondents approved of Fukuda’s proposal to place gas tax revenue in general funds, thus nullifying one of the DPJ’s most convincing reasons for opposition to the extension of the three-decade old “temporary” levy - the breaking up of the Tanakaist dorozoku, or “road tribe”, that has long used gas tax-funded patronage to keep power and influence.
As expected, the DPJ held off from voting on budget-related bills and the gas tax expired on March 31st, causing gasoline prices to drop by about 24 yen. While the DPJ leadership sees this as a victory, others in the party worry that such stances are giving them the appearance of being a “party of defiance,” especially as the Prime Minister had acceded to one of their main demands and a plank in the party’s platform - adding gas tax money to general revenue.

As the expiration became a sure thing, Fukuda said, “The regions will end up with a revenue shortage and industry will stagnate. I wonder if the DPJ will really do this and ignore the regions. There’s still room to discuss this matter.”

Appearing to be holding out despite getting what they wanted, the DPJ have altered their goal to the permanent abolition of the levy, with Secretary General Yukio Hatoyama saying, “Many citizens are hoping for the abolition of the provisional tax rate. We’ve fought unyieldingly on this issue and are finally seeing the fruits of our efforts materialize.”

As the dorozoku steadfastly oppose the gast tax’s use for anything other than further road construction, some DPJ members see acceptance of Fukuda’s proposal as a strong strategic move for their party. As one back-bencher said: “If DPJ President Ichiro Ozawa accepts the prime minister’s proposal unconditionally at a meeting of party leaders, it would split the LDP and allow the DPJ to realize its policies. It would kill two birds with one stone.”

Without an agreement with the Prime Minister, the DPJ’s success is likely to be short-lived. Fukuda said the expiration of the gas tax would cost the government 2.6 trillion yen in lost tax revenue and said the LDP supermajority in the Lower House would pass an extension to the tax again by the end of the month.

The Prime Minister also invoked environmental concerns, set to be at the center of July’s G8 Summit in Toyako, Hokkaido, asking, “Are we allowed to encourage emissions of carbon dioxide by making gasoline cheaper?”

In the other issue dominating the ordinary Diet session, the LDP has come around to the view that having someone at the head of the Bank of Japan - in this case newly-approved Deputy Governor-cum-acting Governor Masaaki Shirakawa - means that the Bank is not without a leader, as they have been asserting for the past few weeks. Apparently having learned a lesson by putting forth two successive nominees for the Governorship without consulting the opposition or listening to opposition concerns, the LDP has engaged the opposition camp in informal discussions with an eye to formally nominating Shirakawa as the new Governor of the Bank of Japan.

Speaking to reporters, Yukio Hatoyama said the DPJ had approved Shirakawa as Deputy Governor and would thus not be able to oppose him as Governor. The DPJ leadership has been insisting on discipline in its motley crew throughout the process, suspending Yoshitake Kimata, the sole DPJ member who voted to approve Toshiro Muto as BOJ Governor, for one month.
Should Shirakawa be approved, Hiroshi Watanabe, a former vice finance minister for international affairs and current special adviser to the Japan Center for International Finance, would be nominated to fill his vacated Deputy Governorship.

The Government hopes to have a new Governor appointed before the G7 financial chiefs’ meeting in Washington on April 11th.

In one last standoff between the LDP and DPJ (at least for this edition of TPR News), an administrative reform plan, a weak tea version of the reforms sought by Administrative Reform Minister Yoshimi Watanabe, was approved by the LDP office of administrative reform on Thursday and by the Cabinet on Friday.

Instead of a Cabinet-level agency directing personnel appointments at ministries and post-retirement job placement and a ban on direct contact between bureaucrats and politicians, ministries will continue to control their own personnel appointments and amakudari, I mean job placement, and the new agency will merely advise. Contact between pols and bureaucrats will probably continue without change as bureaucrats will need only ministry approval to have direct contact with politicians.

The bill is headed to the Diet, where its future is uncertain as the DPJ, which controls the Upper House, has said it opposes the bill for its failure to address the underlying problems that have led to the pension records fiasco, the Defense Agency procurement scandal, the various bid-rigging scandals, and other forms of corruption, incompetence, and collusion.

Business and the Economy

As Japan gets set to resume 15-month-old free trade talks with Australia later this month, Australia’s Agriculture Minister, Tony Burke, met with Minister of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries Masatoshi Wakabayashi and said, “We absolutely cannot agree to the exclusions Japan is putting forward.”

Japan has resisted making liberalization offers on wheat, beef, dairy, sugar, and rice, which are Australia’s main agricultural exports. As new Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd appears to be stepping away from Japan in favor of a central relationship with China, Burke told Wakabayashi the Rudd Government would go without a free trade agreement rather than sign one that omitted agricultural products.

According to a Nikkei forecast, combined net profit at Japan’s six biggest banks is estimated to have dropped over 40% for the year to March 2008. Aggregate group profit at Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Mizuho Financial Group, Mitsui Sumitomo Financial Group, Resona Holdings, Chuo Mitsui Trust Holdings, and Sumitomo Trust and Banking are estimated to have fallen from 2.8 trillion yen last year to 1.5 trillion yen for the fiscal year that ended on March 31st, the lowest earnings in three years.

The banks’ subprime losses are thought to total up to 800 billion yen. Three of the banks - Mizuho, Mitsubishi, and Mitsui Sumitomo - will have to write down the value of their shareholdings. Those writedowns could reach 100 billion yen as the Nikkei average dropped 27% in the past year.

Although the Statistics Bureau’s website has changed, household spending did not in February. After seeing increases of 2.2% in December and 3.6% in January, it appears that households may have tightened their belts a bit in the face of rising prices and did not open their wallets so freely in February. According to the Statistics Bureau, spending at households with two or more people came to 275,827, which was unchanged against a year ago. Income at households with a salaried worker as head of household came to 476,282 yen, which was down 0.1% from a year ago, while spending at workers’ households was at 298,539 yen, up 1.4% from last year.

Are you a woman working in Japan? If so, you’ve probably heard that your chances of progressing beyond looking cute in a uniform and making tea are a bit better at foreign firms. Well, Nikkei Woman magazine thinks so, too.

Topping the list in Nikkei Woman’s survey of the best companies for women to work at were the Japanese arms of Proctor & Gamble, at number one, and IBM, at number two. P&G was praised for having a high number of women in managerial positions. IBM ranked highly due to its opportunities for women, including training women for managerial positions.

Japanese firm Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., now known by its more famous brand name, Panasonic, ranked third.

The ranking shows a big change from 20 years ago, when retailers Seiyu and Takashimaya topped the list.

Also highly considered, although for different reasons, is Toyota, which ranked eighth in Forbes‘ list of the world’s top corporations. Toyota rose from 12th last year and was the highest-ranked of the seven Japanese firms in the top 100. The list was topped by British bank HSBC Holdings, which replaced last year’s number one, Citigroup. American firms General Electric and Bank of America came in second and third, respectively.

The other Japanese companies in the top 100 were Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, 35th, NTT, 65th, Honda Motor Co., 68th, Mizuho Financial Group, 71st, Mitsui Sumitomo Financial Group, 82nd, and Nissan Motor Co., 96th.

Nintendo’s popular Wii and Nintendo DS - the best selling video game hardware item of fiscal 2007, now have company at the top in the form of Wii Fit, the best-selling video game software item.

According to Enterbrain, Nintendo led the video game industry to 3.8% growth last year, bringing sales to 676.9 billion yen - the highest on record. Wii Fit, with sales of 1.76 million units, was at the head of a pack of Nintendo and Nintendo-affiliated software items that took nine of the top ten sales spots. Square Enix Co.’s Dragon Quest IV was the only outsider on the list, at number eight.

Nintendo DS and DS Lite dominated the hardware side (or “pwned” the competition, for those of you just joining us through a Google search for video game-related terms) with combined sales of 6.34 million units, taking first place for the third year in a row.

Sony Computer Entertainment’s PlayStation Portable sold only 3.42 million units.

Nintendo’s Wii sold 3.74 million units, as compared to a paltry 1.19 million for Sony’s PlayStation 3.

Oh, Microsoft’s Xbox 360? Is that still around? Not in Japan. 230,000 units. (True “pwnage”. I think. I’m not really sure. The last video game I played was Excitebike.)

Society

After initially being sentenced to deportation in 2004 by the Tokyo District Court, the Tokyo High Court decided in 2007 that a foreign married couple, who have both long since overstayed their visas, and their Japan-born child, deserved a little more sympathy from immigration. Mr. Taksin, the husband, is a Turkish Kurd, and his wife, Ms. Beltran, is from the Philippines. The couple has a 7-year-old daughter named Zilan. The Tokyo High Court’s 2004 decision was to punish the overstaying couple by sending Taksin to Turkey and Beltran and Zilan to the Philippines. Instead the family will be granted special residency status in Japan. The November 2007 decision by the High Court surprised many as the Justice Ministry is usually allowed to maintain a hardline stance on issues related to immigration policy and the granting of refugee status. Justice Minister Kunio Hatoyama defended his decision to allow the family to stay by invoking “humanitarian considerations”.

After all the uproar surrounding the alleged rape of an Okinawan junior high school girl earlier this year, a Navy seaman has admitted to murdering a taxi driver near Yokosuka naval base in Kanagawa prefecture. Killed in the attack was 61-year-old Masaaki Takahashi. The attacker, 22-year-old Olatunbosun Ugbogu, jabbed a knife into the left side of the driver’s neck after his credit card didn’t work in the car’s card reader on the night of March 19th. Investigators are still trying to determine whether or not there was a disagreement about the cost of the ride which reportedly started at JR Shinagawa station in Tokyo. It was noted, however, that no money was missing from Takahashi’s car when his body was discovered. Ugbogu was recently handed over to Japanese police in a preindictment agreement with US Naval authorities. The Navy was very cooperative during the investigation into the murder and Ugbogu’s possible involvement. DNA samples were provided by the US military at the request of police investigators, and this case marks only the fifth time since 1995 that a serviceman was handed over to police before being indicted. Alcohol consumption and travel by US military personnel stationed at the Yokosuka Naval base has been restricted in reaction to the murder. At the time of the murder, Ugbogu was actually already in trouble with the US Navy as he had deserted his ship on March 8th. That fact has caused Japanese authorities to ask for notification when any military servicemen or women go AWOL. Currently, the US military is not obliged to report deserters to the Japanese government or police. Meanwhile, down in Okinawa, the offspring of military personnel have been up to no good as well. And again, taxi drivers were targeted. Several teenagers have been arrested in connection with a couple of robberies in March of this year. In both cases the teens made off with several thousand yen in cash after robbing the drivers. In the second case, the driver was beaten.

The documentary Yasukuni hasn’t even hit theaters yet, but it’s already created quite a stir. Several theaters in Tokyo have canceled screenings of the controversial film by Chinese director Yi Ling due to the noisy street demonstrations that would likely occur when right-wing groups gather their sound trucks near movie theaters. Some are worried that political pressure might also be playing a part in the cancellations. Yasukuni shrine, the peaceful site in Tokyo where the souls of the war dead (including war criminals) are paid homage to, is the focus of the film. The contentious nature of the content caused several lawmakers to ask to be able to see the film ahead of its official release. The Mass Media Information and Culture Union responded by saying:

“This is an unusual situation in which political pressure and hindrance by rightwing groups is about to thwart film screenings and a movie is about to be crushed. It’s absolutely unforgivable.”

One cinema in Osaka, however, has come out and publicly stated that it would screen the film as scheduled at the beginning of May. The Seventh Art Theater has said that it received many requests from local citizens to screen the film as it was necessary for debate and preservation of the freedom of expression.

We here at TPR are always looking out for you. To wit: Booze juggernaut Kakuyasu, whose wonderful pink shops have been spreading faster than the cedar pollen that plagues Tokyo, bringing cheap booze to your door all over the capital and beyond, is set to see some competition from 7-Eleven. The convenience store chain is preparing to increase the offerings on its retail site from 3,500 to 5,000 items, 4,000 of which will be alcoholic beverages, including 1,200 varieties of sake, 1,000 different wines, and 900 kinds of shochu.

Here is the speech write-up, as per the FCCJ archives:

———————————————————————————————————
Book Break: Handbook for Non-Japanese residents and immigrants in Japan
Time: 2008 Mar 18 18:30 - 20:30
Handbook for Non-Japanese residents and immigrants in Japan
By Arudou Debito

Tuesday, March 18, 2008.
6:30 PM to 8:30 PM

Language:
(The speech, presentation, and Q&A will be English)

Description:

Japan has year-on-year had record numbers of registered Non-Japanese (NJ) residents, now well beyond the two million mark. However, Japan’s government has tended to treat NJ with benign neglect, if not outright hostility at times, offering them insufficient support for making a better, more secure life in Japan.

Japan still has no official “immigration policy”, despite the fact that immigration is a fact of life. In 2007, the number of “Newcomer” (foreign-born) Permanent Residents has been forecasted to surpass the shrinking numbers of “Oldcomer” (Zainichi generational foreigner) Permanent Residents by 2007. This will mean a total of more than one million “unremovable” Permanent Residents by decade’s end.

Higuchi Akira, Legal Scrivener in Sapporo, and Arudou Debito, author and activist, have authored a handbook in Japanese and English to address this readership. Offering guidance to NJ from entry until death, chapters of the book deal with how to secure a stable visa, start a business, deal with legal and interpersonal problems, even give something back to Japanese society.

Speaker Arudou Debito, a 20-year resident of Japan, frequent columnist in the Japan Times, and author of JAPANESE ONLY–The Otaru Hot Springs Case and Racial Discrimination in Japan (Akashi Shoten, Inc, 2003, 2004, and 2006; subject of a FCCJ Book Break in June 2003), will speak on why we need this book and what good he intends it to do.

Library Committee,
THE FOREIGN CORRESPONDENTS’ CLUB OF JAPAN

Team news for all 12 clubs in the Central and Pacific leagues is presented in the accompanying podcast. Changes, both good and bad, and some expectations for the coming months are discussed in this edition of TPR Spotlight on NPB.

League standings after games played April 4th, 2008:

Pacific League

Rakuten 7-5
Softbank 7-6
Seibu 7-6
Nippon Ham 6-6
Chiba 6-7
Orix 5-8

Central League

Hanshin 6-1
Tokyo 6-1
Chunichi 4-2-1
Hiroshima 1-5-1
Yokohama 2-5
Yomiuri 1-6

Errata: In the podcast, Mr. DeOrio fumbled for the name of the trophy Sadaharu Oh won three times.  The trophy is the Prime Minister Trophy, given to the winner of the Japan Professional Sports Grand Prize.  Oh and Ichiro Suzuki are the only three-time winners.  Oh was also on the 1969 Yomiuri Giants team that won the Prize.  Oh’s last win, in 1977, was succeeded by the 1978 win of the Yakult Swallows.

Randy Bass (1985) and Asashoryu (2004-05) are the only foreign-born winners of the Prize.  Add Oh, and there are three foreign nationals who have won.  (Oh was born a Japanese citizen in Japan, but switched to his father’s Taiwanese citizenship after World War II.)