| Feb 04 | U.S. fighter said flew low over school |
| A U.S. F/A-18 fighter jet flew over an elementary school in Miyoshi, Hiroshima Prefecture, at a dangerous and illegally low altitude in December, the Japanese Communist Party's local chapter said. According to an investigation by the party's Hiroshima prefectural committee, the aircraft flew over the school at an altitude of about 200 meters around 1:20 p.m. Dec. 20, in violation of the Aviation Law, which sets the minimum level at 300 meters. The committee said it has asked the Hiroshima Prefectural Government to urge the U.S. military to stop low-altitude flights, adding the flyby also violated a Japan-U.S. agreement that calls on American forces to show consideration over flight training around schools and hospitals. (Japan Times) |
| Feb 03 | Japan's parliament approves fourth extra budget to fund disaster relief projects |
| Japan's parliament has approved a 2.5 trillion yen ($32.9 billion) extra budget bill, the fourth one to fund reconstruction projects after last year's disasters and support the nation's economy. The lower house on Friday approved the supplementary budget for the fiscal year ending March 31. The bill will be further debated in the upper chamber but will eventually become law due to the lower house's superiority. The budget includes 740 billion yen ($9.7 billion) to help small businesses hit by last March's earthquake and tsunami obtain loan guarantees to rebuild. The budget also earmarks 300 billion yen ($3.9 billion) to finance green vehicle promotion programs. (Washington Post) |
| Feb 03 | Manabe denies intent to break law |
| Ro Manabe, the Defense Ministry's Okinawa bureau chief, strongly denied Friday that he intended to break the law by urging ministry officials and their relatives to vote in the Ginowan mayoral election, or that he advised them to vote for a specific candidate, but also admitted his actions could be judged unlawful. Manabe, summoned for unsworn testimony in the Diet, has been blasted by the opposition for allegedly trying to influence the Feb. 12 mayoral race. The opposition camp is charging that Manabe suggested during two internal lectures last week that participants vote for the candidate who is relatively more in line with the government's contentious plan to relocate U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma from Ginowan to Nago, also in Okinawa. (Japan Times) |
| Feb 03 | Genba meets AKB48 China envoys |
 Foreign Minister Koichiro Genba met with members of all-girl idol group AKB48 on Thursday and thanked them for taking part in a campaign to attract Chinese tourists and dispel harmful rumors about the safety of Japanese food products.
The "Vibrant Japan" campaign will start Feb. 16 in Beijing, before moving on to Shanghai toward the end of the month and Hong Kong in late March.
During his meeting with three of AKB48's members - Tomomi Itano, Rie Kitahara and Yui Yokoyama - Genba, a Fukushima native, expressed his gratitude for the group's support of disaster-hit areas in the northeast and said he hoped its participation in the campaign will help deepen ties with China. (Japan Times  ) |
| Feb 03 | Ministry seeks again to set smoking rate target |
 A health ministry panel has approved a draft plan seeking to decrease the smoking rate to 12.2 percent by fiscal 2022, facilitating the ministry's long-hampered wish to officially set a target figure, it has been learned.
The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry has sought several times since 1999 to set a target figure for cutting the smoking rate. However, it was foiled each time by stiff opposition from the tobacco industry and related ministries and agencies.
The ministry's latest plan for decreasing the smoking rate by nearly 40 percent to 12.2 percent or less by fiscal 2022 was presented Wednesday at a meeting of the panel for discussing cancer prevention measures. (Yomiuri ) |
| Feb 02 | Japan protests to China over undersea gas drilling |
| Japan has accused China of unilaterally exploring gas deposits in the East China Sea, in violation of an agreement to jointly develop disputed areas. Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura told reporters Wednesday that Japan protested to China after a flare was seen Tuesday at a Chinese structure at an undersea gas deposit. Japan has made similar complaints several times in the past. "We have detected a flare, a sign that it is highly likely that there is a gas development going on," Fujimura said. "Any unilateral exploration is unacceptable." The deposit, known as Kashi in Japan and Tianwaitian in China, sits near a median line of the two countries' overlapping exclusive economic zones. (AP) |
| Feb 02 | Japan's dilemma over Iran sanctions |
 Cutting off Iranian oil imports has put Tokyo in a difficult position. The United States and its European allies have already agreed to up the ante on sanctions against Iran, but the domestic costs that Japan has to bear in order to cooperate are higher.
Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's government has indicated its desire to cooperate, and last December the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced new restrictions on the operations of 106 entities as well as one individual with potential links to proliferation-sensitive activities in Iran. But the real effort now is to reduce Japan's oil imports from Tehran, and to negotiate an exemption from more stringent restrictions on Japanese banks included in the new U.S. sanctions law.
Rebalancing Japan's energy supply is even more delicate at the moment, as most of the nations' nuclear power plants remain offline. (theatlantic.com ) |
| Feb 01 | South Korea, Japan want U.S. to detail Iran sanctions |
| South Korea and Japan will soon meet U.S. officials in Washington to ask how much oil they can import from Iran under new sanctions that leave the Asian nations with few alternative sources for energy, government officials said Wednesday. Japan is the world's third biggest oil consumer, and South Korea is the fifth largest. Both nations import significant amounts of crude from Iran, which they are under pressure to cut back to secure a waiver from a U.S. law imposing sanctions on financial institutions that trade with Iran's central bank. Japan's foreign ministry said a delegation was due to hold talks in Washington Thursday as part of ongoing consultations and would seek clarity on the law, which is part of a raft of sanctions aimed at reining in Iran's nuclear ambitions. (Reuters) |
| Feb 01 | China protests Japan's plan to name uninhabited islands |
| China said it has filed a protest with Japan over Tokyo's plan to name uninhabited isles near the disputed Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, calling the move "illegal and void." Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin said Monday the Chinese government has lodged a "solemn representation" with Japan. "Any unilateral action taken by the Japanese side with respect to the Diaoyu Islands and surrounding isles is illegal and void," Liu said in a press release posted on the ministry's website. The Japan-administered Senkakus are known in China as Diaoyu. It is not clear what name Japan intends for any nearby islets. (Japan Times) |
| Feb 01 | Defense Ministry endures another Okinawa fracas |
| The Defense Ministry came under fresh fire Tuesday for allegedly trying to meddle with the upcoming mayoral election in Ginowan, Okinawa Prefecture, the host city for the Futenma U.S. air base. Defense Minister Naoki Tanaka told reporters his ministry has sent personnel to the prefecture to investigate the matter, which came to light after an opposition lawmaker raised the matter in the Diet. Seiken Akamine of the Japanese Communist Party, citing email he says he has obtained, told the Lower House Budget Committee that the bureau instructed its various divisions by email to find out which of its personnel's Ginowan-based relatives are eligible to vote and created a list of them in January. (Japan Times) |
| Feb 01 | Justice minister feels signing off on hangings just part of job description |
| Toshio Ogawa is the first justice minister to tacitly support capital punishment since the Democratic Party of Japan came to power in September 2009 and has no intention of engaging in the debate over whether to end the death penalty. He said the study group weighing the possibility of abolishing capital punishment has run out of things to discuss. "Whether or not the death sentence should be kept had been discussed in depth before the study group was set up (in September 2010 by then Justice Minister Keiko Chiba). "It has not yielded any new opinions and it is a waste of time to listen to the same opinions," Ogawa told journalists in his Tokyo office Jan. 23. (Japan Times) |
| Jan 30 | Japanese, Russian territorial row: No solution in sight |
 A decades-old territorial dispute that has prevented Japan and Russia from signing a peace treaty is showing no signs of improving following talks between the two country's foreign ministers here, but as Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov leaves Japan Sunday some progress has been made in bilateral economic and security cooperation.
Relations between Russia and Japan have been clouded due to a heated territorial dispute regarding four islands off the coast of northern Japan's Hokkaido island.
The dispute over sovereignty is largely concerned with the somewhat ambiguous San Francisco Peace Treaty between the Allied Powers and Japan inked in 1951, which states that Japan must give up its claims to the islands, but recognition of sovereignty over the islands was not given to the Soviet Union either, and therein lies the conflict. (China Daily ) |
| Jan 30 | Hosono apologizes for Minamata redress delay |
 Environment Minister Goshi Hosono on Sunday apologized for the time it is taking to wrap up the issue of providing relief measures for uncertified patients of Minamata disease.
"I would like to apologize for the fact that the issue hasn't been resolved and is still causing you suffering," Hosono said as he met with victims of the disease in Minamata, Kumamoto Prefecture, where Chisso Corp. poisoned the food chain by discharging mercury-tainted water into the ocean decades ago.
It was his first meeting with Minamata patients since he was appointed environment minister in September.
Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda said last week that uncertified Minamata patients must be given a deadline for applying for government redress, which is being provided by a special law. (Japan Times ) |
| Jan 30 | Royal challenge awaits Noda |
| Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda appears strongly committed to revising the Imperial Household Law to let female members of the Imperial family remain in the royal family even if they marry commoners. The Imperial family is the oldest royal family in the world and Chapter 1 of the Japanese Constitution is about the emperors. For Japan, to ensure stable imperial succession is an important matter. But much doubt has been expressed about his ability to implement such a revision, which could potentially split public opinion down the middle, because he already faces a large number of urgent and sometimes controversial issues, which include reconstruction of the areas devastated by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami and the subsequent Fukushima nuclear crisis, raising the consumption tax rate, social security reform and Japan's possible entry into the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement. (Japan Times) |
| Jan 29 | Numbering system baffles citizens |
| A government survey released Saturday found that more than 80 percent of respondents were largely unaware of details about an envisioned system that would number citizens to centralize control of tax payments and other personal data. In total, 83.3 percent of those polled said they are mostly ignorant of the system. Of this total, 41.8 percent responded that they are aware of the plan but not its specific details and 41.5 percent replied that they have never heard of the system. Only 16.7 percent claimed to have a thorough grasp of system's specific details. (Japan Times) |
| Jan 28 | Cabinet OKs child allowance bill; fight looms to gain passage by March |
| The Cabinet approved a bill Friday to create a new child allowance system starting April 1, replacing the present framework that expires at the end of March. Although the ruling Democratic Party of Japan hopes the bill clears the Diet by the end of March, the Liberal Democratic Party and New Komeito have signaled they will oppose it. Without the rival camp's support the government will be unable to pass the bill through the divided Diet, where opposition parties control the Upper House, and the legislation's prospects at this stage remain murky. (Japan Times) |
| Jan 27 | Govt failed to keep records of key nuke meetings |
| Japan's deputy prime minister acknowledged Friday that the government failed to take minutes of 10 meetings last year on the response to the country's disasters and nuclear crisis and called for officials to compile reports on the meetings retroactively. The missing minutes have become a hot political debate, with opposition lawmakers saying they are necessary to provide a transparent record of the government's discussion after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami touched off the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl in 1986. Deputy Prime Minister Katsuya Okada confirmed Friday at a news conference that the minutes were not fully recorded at the time and called for them to be written up, retroactively, by the end of February. Three of the meetings during the chaotic period had no record at all, not even an agenda, including a government nuclear crisis meeting headed by the prime minister. (AP) |
| Jan 27 | Korean War criminals tried as Japanese |
| Hiromura Gakurai was a prison guard at the Hintok work camp along the Thailand-Burma "death railway," infamous for the extremely high human toll on the Allied prisoners of war (POWs) and local Asian slave laborers during World War II. After the war, he was tried and sentenced to death by an Australian military court for inhumane treatment of POWs but commuted to 20 years' imprisonment and released on parole in 1956. Hiromura's case may not stand out among over 5,700 war criminals in the Asia-Pacific region ― except he was a sharecropper's son named Lee Hak-rae from Korea, then under Japanese colonial rule. And he is not alone: 148 Koreans and 173 Taiwanese were convicted as war criminals, of which 23 Koreans and 26 Taiwanese were executed. Most Korean war criminals were lowly prison guards ranking below buck privates. On paper, they were "volunteers"; in practice, certain military conscription or industrial slave labor awaited as an alternative. Some 3,000 Koreans manned the Japanese POW camps in Southeast Asia. (Korea Times) |
| Jan 27 | Talks to start on lowering voting age |
| The government will start talks next month on lowering the voting age from 20 to 18, Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura said Thursday. Though long debated, no panel meeting has been held on the issue since April 2010. The panel, Fujimura said, will be headed by a deputy chief Cabinet secretary and include other high-level officials from various related ministries. Though the issue will be taken up next month it is unlikely any bill will be submitted to the current ordinary Diet session. Affecting an estimated 200 to 300 laws, it is unclear how soon the government would be able to revise the Public Office Election Law, let alone submit the bill to the Diet. (Japan Times) |
| Jan 27 | Opposition digs in against Noda |
| Opposition lawmakers grilled Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda on Thursday over planned social security and tax reforms and his "inability" to keep his party's campaign pledges, and pressed again for him to call a Lower House election. Just two days into the current 150-day ordinary Diet session, Liberal Democratic Party President Sadakazu Tanigaki blasted Noda for breaking a promise to the public in attempting to raise the consumption tax, which was not part of his Democratic Party of Japan's 2009 campaign platform. (Japan Times) |
| Jan 26 | Japan kept silent on worst nuclear crisis scenario |
 The Japanese government's worst-case scenario at the height of the nuclear crisis last year warned that tens of millions of people, including Tokyo residents, might need to leave their homes, according to a report obtained by The Associated Press. But fearing widespread panic, officials kept the report secret.
The recent emergence of the 15-page internal document may add to complaints in Japan that the government withheld too much information about the world's worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl.
It also casts doubt about whether the government was sufficiently prepared to cope with what could have been an evacuation of unprecedented scale.
The report was submitted to then-Prime Minister Naoto Kan and his top advisers on March 25, two weeks after the earthquake and tsunami devastated the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, causing three reactors to melt down and generating hydrogen explosions that blew away protective structures. (AP ) |
| Jan 26 | 3 major parties agree on civil servant wage cuts |
| The ruling Democratic Party of Japan and the main opposition Liberal Democratic Party and New Komeito have finally agreed on a plan to cut the salaries of national governmental employees by more than 8 percent. According to the agreement reached at a working-level meeting Wednesday, the salaries of national public servants will be cut first by an average of 0.23 percent starting in March as proposed by the National Personnel Authority. Their salaries will then be reduced by an average of 7.8 percent for two years from fiscal 2012, which starts in April. In total, the salaries will be cut by 8.03 percent on average. (Yomiuri) |
| Jan 25 | Hashimoto sets sights on the Diet |
| Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto plans to form a new political party that aims to capture 200 seats in the next Lower House election and end the prefectural government system that has existed for nearly a century and a half. The strategy, unveiled Friday, aims to create a new nationwide party called Ishin Seiji Juku, or Political Restoration School, by March. It will seek to draw its ranks from Hashimoto's local Osaka Ishin no kai (One Osaka), as well as from established opposition parties including New Komeito, Your Party and the Liberal Democratic Party. (Japan Times) |
| Jan 25 | Noda calls on parties to act / Seeks end to 'indecisive politics,' realization of tax hike |
| Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda expressed his determination on Tuesday to end "indecisive" politics, vowing to achieve his key policy goal of raising the consumption tax rate in his policy speech to the Diet. During his speech in the lower house, Noda emphasized the significance of the reform, saying, "The first step to restoring hope for society as a whole depends on the success of this comprehensive reform" of the social security and tax systems. Noda said on the opening day of the 150-day ordinary Diet session that he would aim to break away from "the politics of indecision," and called for cooperation of the opposition parties to realize a "politics of decision." The government and ruling parties aim at passing bills to raise the consumption tax rate, the main pillar of integrated reform of the social security and tax systems, during the current Diet session. (Yomiuri) |
| Jan 23 | Foreign minister to handle parental abductions |
| Responsibility for collecting data on parental abductions to Japan and settling cross-border child custody disputes resulting from failed international marriages will rest with the foreign minister, new guidelines said Sunday. The guidelines, drafted by the Foreign Ministry ahead of Tokyo's signing of the Hague Convention, state that the foreign minister can ask local governments, police, schools, childcare facilities and shelters for abuse victims to determine the whereabouts of abducted children. The Hague Convention is an international treaty spelling out procedures for settling international child custody disputes. Japan is the only member of the Group of Eight major countries that hasn't joined the convention. (Japan Times) |
| Jan 23 | Japan elects youngest woman mayor |
 Voters in Japan have elected a 36-year-old woman as the country's youngest female mayor, in a nation where older men make up the vast majority of politicians.
Naomi Koshi, a graduate of Harvard law school, beat a male incumbent twice her age to take the honours in Otsu, the capital city of Shiga prefecture.
Shiga's governor is also female, meaning it is the first place in Japan where a region's two top jobs are held by women.
Koshi, who was backed by the centre-left Democratic Party of Japan of Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, beat 70-year-old Makoto Mekata by a margin of five-to-four. (AFP ) |
| Jan 23 | Ainu take aim at Upper House with new party |
| Members of the Ainu indigenous ethnic group launched a political party in Ebetsu, Hokkaido, on Saturday, resolving to field 10 candidates in the House of Councilors election. The Ainu Party of Japan, headed by Shiro Kayano, decided at its inaugural meeting to fight to regain the rights of Ainu people and bring about a multicultural society. (Japan Times) |
| Jan 23 | Osaka mayor orders officials to bow to flag |
| Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto has instructed high-ranking officials of the city government to always bow to the Hinomaru national flag as they take a seat in the municipal assembly's main conference hall and when replying to questions when the assembly is session, it has been learned. Hashimoto e-mailed the instruction earlier this month to bureau chiefs who sit on the platform of the conference hall during the assembly's deliberations. Titled "Paying homage to the national flag at the conference hall," the mayor's e-mail read, "You are asked to bow to the flag when seating yourself on the platform," assembly sources said. (Yomiuri) |
| Jan 21 | 3/11 memorial to be held in Tokyo |
 The government will hold a memorial ceremony on March 11 in Tokyo to mark the first anniversary of the quake and tsunami that devastated parts of the Tohoku region and triggered the world's worst nuclear crisis since 1986, Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura said Friday.
Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko, as well as Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and people representing various fields, are slated to attend the event, which will be held at the National Theater in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward, Fujimura said at a press conference. (Japan Times ) |
| Jan 21 | Noda not on Obama's buddy list in Time magazine |
| In an interview with Time, U.S. President Barack Obama mentioned several world leaders with whom he has forged good relations, among them German Chancellor Angela Merkel and South Korean President Lee Myung Bak, but Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda was not on the list, the magazine's online edition said Thursday. Obama did mention Japan in the interview when referring to U.S. diplomacy in Asia, saying, "We've strengthened our alliances with Japan and South Korea - I think they're in as good a shape as they've ever been." But the fact that Noda's name was not mentioned was undoubtedly a disappointment, a Japanese government source admitted. (Japan Times) |
| Jan 21 | Japan asks Washington to grant waiver on latest Iran oil sanctions |
| Japan has requested that the United States grant it a waiver from new sanctions it is leveling on Iran, pointing to the risk of another economic setback and its already extant plans to reduce oil imports, a senior Foreign Ministry official said. Japan asked a U.S. delegation on Thursday to "flexibly" apply a bill signed into law by President Barack Obama on New Year's Eve aimed at hampering Iran's crude oil exports, the official said after a two-day meeting in Tokyo. Japan, which imports about 10 percent of its oil from Iran, noted that the fragility of its economy since the March 11 disasters should be taken into account, although Tokyo well understands the need to step up pressure on Iran to curb its nuclear ambitions. (Japan Times) |
| Jan 20 | Japanese war dead dug up in India |
| Workers have begun exhuming the remains of what are believed to be 11 Imperial Japanese Army soldiers at a war cemetery in India's northeastern state of Assam. The exhumations started Wednesday in the presence of officials from both countries and are being carried out at the request of the Japanese government, which will repatriate the remains, according to Japanese officials. At least some of the 11 men are thought to have died while fighting British and Indian troops during the Battle of Kohima. (Japan Times) |
| Jan 20 | DPJ seeks 40% trim to institutions |
| The Democratic Party of Japan's research committee on administrative reform on Thursday approved a proposal to decrease the number of independent administrative institutions from 102 to 65 through closures, mergers and privatization. Among other administrative reform proposals, the committee advised the government to increase the number of apartments for central government employees to be sold, to bring the total amount of money earned to no less than 140 billion yen, double the 70 billion yen the government had earlier envisaged. The government plans to draw up a basic policy on administrative reform based on the committee's proposals, and approve it as early as Friday's Cabinet meeting, according to sources. After that, bills on administrative reform will be submitted to the upcoming ordinary Diet session, the sources said. (Yomiuri) |
| Jan 19 | US faces challenge as Asian submarine fleets swell, sending battle for control underwater |
| It's getting a bit more crowded under the sea in Asia, where Andrew Peterson commands one of the world's mightiest weapons: a $2 billion nuclear submarine with unrivaled stealth and missiles that can devastate targets hundreds of miles (kilometers) away. Super high-tech submarines like Cmdr. Peterson's USS Oklahoma City have long been the envy of navies all over the globe - and a key component of U.S. military strategy. "We really have no peer," Peterson told The Associated Press during a recent port call in Japan. But America's submarine dominance in the Pacific is facing its biggest challenge since the Cold War. Nearly every Asian country with a coastline is fortifying its submarine fleet amid territorial disputes stirred up by an increasingly assertive China and the promise of bountiful natural resources. (Washington Post) |
| Jan 19 | Ishin no Kai success draws other parties |
| Ruling and opposition parties have begun approaching Osaka Ishin no Kai (Osaka restoration group) to seek its support after the new party won landslide victories in the Osaka gubernatorial and mayoral elections last November. The parties have realized its success means they cannot afford to ignore Ishin no Kai's goal to field candidates in national elections, which could be held toward the end of this year. Their ability to cooperate with Ishin no Kai is shown through the response of each party to its vision to establish an "Osaka metropolis," which would transform the city into an administrative unit similar to Tokyo. (Yomiuri) |
| Jan 18 | Japan to let nuke plants to run after 40-year cap |
| Japan is backtracking on plans formed only this month to shut down nuclear reactors after 40 years, saying it could allow some plants to run for up to 60 years. Top Cabinet spokesman Osamu Fujimura said Wednesday that the government plans to stick to the 40-year cap in principle, but is considering allowing operators to apply for 20-year extensions. Each reactor could get only one extension, and it would have to meet strict safety requirements to qualify, he said. Concern about aging reactors has grown because three of those at the tsunami-hit Fukushima Dai-ichi plant were built starting in the late 1960s. Many more of Japan's 54 reactors will reach the 40-year mark in coming years. (AP) |
| Jan 18 | Japan official wary of Iran sanctions impact |
| Japan's finance minister expressed concern Wednesday about the effectiveness of U.S. sanctions on Iran and their potential impact on Japanese banks. Jun Azumi's comments came as a delegation U.S. government officials began talks with Japanese counterparts about the sanctions targeting Iran's oil industry in a bid to thwart what Western governments say is an effort to develop nuclear weapons. Japan has given mixed signals on the sanctions. Azumi declared last week that Japan would move quickly to reduce its oil imports from Iran after meeting with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, but other officials including the prime minister have said economic implications need to be considered. (AP) |
| Jan 17 | New Fukushima probe promises to dig deeper |
| The head of Japan's latest investigation into the Fukushima nuclear disaster promised to dig deeper than previous inquiries into the events that unfolded after a earthquake and tsunami struck the country in March. A government investigation concluded last month that the Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant withstood the shaking of a magnitude-9 quake on March 11, before succumbing to the tsunami that followed, endorsing findings by Tokyo Electric Power Co. (9501) Three reactors had meltdowns after cooling and backup power was knocked out at the plant in the worst nuclear catastrophe since Chernobyl in 1986. The new panel appointed by Japan's parliament with subpoena powers may publicly question officials including former Prime Minister Naoto Kan, Kiyoshi Kurokawa, its chairman, told reporters after the inquiry's first open meeting in Tokyo. Kurokawa, a professor emeritus at Tokyo University, said he will present his findings by June. (Bloomberg) |
| Jan 17 | Opposition quick to brand new defense chief an amateur |
| New Defense Minister Naoki Tanaka drew flak from the opposition camp Monday for making statements over the weekend that seemed to indicate Tokyo was intent on beginning the contentious relocation of U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Okinawa by the end of the year. On the same NHK news program Sunday, Tanaka also seemed to confuse the principle behind the Self-Defense Forces' use of weapons abroad with Japan's arms export ban, exposing his lack of knowledge on defense issues and causing him to be labeled an "amateur" by Nobuteru Ishihara, secretary general of the Liberal Democratic Party. (Japan Times) |
| Jan 17 | Japan to name islets in disputed area |
| Japan has decided to name several uninhabited islands in a group that is also claimed by China and Taiwan, a move likely to anger the Asian neighbors. Japan's chief government spokesman said Monday that 39 uninhabited islands will be given names by the end of March. The islands all are within what Japan claims as its exclusive economic zone. But four of them are in the Senkaku, or Daioyu, island group in the East China Sea, which is also claimed by Taiwan and China and have been a flashpoint in diplomatic relations. Soichi Yamagata, on official with the Cabinet office, said the names will be used for new maps. He said the islets are within Japan's established exclusive economic zone and will not change any maritime boundaries. (AP) |
| Jan 16 | Noda Cabinet approval rating falls to 37% |
 The approval rating for the reshuffled Cabinet led by Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda stood at only 37 percent, down from 42 percent in a December survey, a Yomiuri Shimbun survey has found.
In the nationwide telephone survey conducted from Friday through Saturday, 51 percent disapproved of Noda's reshuffled Cabinet, up seven percentage points from the previous survey conducted Dec. 10-11.
It is the first time the disapproval rating for Noda's Cabinet has exceeded 50 percent, and the second month in a row in which the negative rating has exceeded the approval rating, indicating a possibly irreversible slide. (Yomiuri ) |
| Jan 16 | Poll indicates public frustration / Over 80% say Noda has not sufficiently explained own policies, views |
| The fact that last week's reshuffle of the Cabinet led by Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda did not stop its approval rating from sinking in a Yomiuri Shimbun opinion poll appears to indicate the public's dissatisfaction with the government's explanation of integrated social security and tax reform, and the administration's attempts to cut unnecessary spending. After the previous opinion poll conducted by The Yomiuri Shimbun on Dec. 10 and 11, the Noda Cabinet agreed on a draft plan for integrated reform. However, turmoil also arose as some lawmakers in the Democratic Party of Japan left the party due to their dissatisfaction with the reform plan and the decision to resume construction on the once-canceled Yamba Dam in Gunma Prefecture. (Yomiuri) |
| Jan 16 | Okada nudges Diet to take wage cuts |
| Deputy Prime Minister Katsuya Okada said Sunday that lawmakers should take bigger pay cuts than civil servants are facing under new legislation, nudging politicians to an active part in reforms. On a TV talk show aired by NHK, Okada touched on ad hoc legislation proposed in the Diet that would chop government workers' salaries by an average of 7.8 percent through fiscal 2013. (Japan Times) |
| Jan 16 | Yokohama antinuclear conference draws thousands of activists, experts |
 A two-day antinuclear conference kicked off Saturday in Yokohama with the aim of sharing lessons from the Fukushima crisis and fostering global momentum against atomic power.
The conference drew thousands of participants to the Pacifico Yokohama convention center, including about 100 experts and activists from 30 countries and nearly 200 domestic groups.
Holding an event of this scale in Japan just 10 months after the Fukushima No. 1 plant meltdowns represents a significant meaning for the antinuclear movement, said Yoshioka, chairman of the event.
The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency is set to approve reports submitted by Kansai Electric on stress tests carried out on two idled reactors at the Oi power plant in Fukui Prefecture, government sources said Saturday. (Japan Times ) |
| Jan 15 | New minister won't shirk from hangings |
| New Justice Minister Toshio Ogawa indicated he may issue execution orders as the number of death-row inmates has grown to a postwar high of around 130, but suggested that condemned Aum Shinrikyo members may not face the gallows anytime soon. "It's a very hard duty, but I have to take responsibility (for authorizing executions)," Ogawa said Friday at his first news conference since assuming the post. "It isn't in line with the spirit of the law for the number of death-row inmates to continue increasing without executions." No hangings were carried out in 2011, the first full year since 1992 in which no inmates were executed. (Japan Times) |
| Jan 14 | Japan's PM reshuffles Cabinet to win tax support |
 Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda replaced five Cabinet members Friday in a bid to win more cooperation from the opposition and voters to raise the sales tax and rein in the bulging fiscal deficit.
The new Cabinet is meant to create "the best and strongest lineup to steadily tackle the issues that we must achieve without running away or putting off," Noda told a news conference. "I chose people who can move ahead and make a breakthrough."
Two of the removed ministers had been censured by the opposition, including former Defense Minister Yasuo Ichikawa, who claimed he was unaware of the details of a 1995 rape of a schoolgirl by three U.S. servicemen on the island of Okinawa - a crime that continues to deeply impact local support for the large American troop presence there. (AP ) |
| Jan 14 | Asia's new tripartite entente |
| The launch of trilateral strategic consultations among the United States, India and Japan, and their decision to hold joint naval exercises this year, signals efforts to form an entente among the Asia-Pacific region's three leading democracies. These efforts - in the world's most economically dynamic region, where the specter of a power imbalance looms large - also have been underscored by the Obama administration's new strategic guidance for the Pentagon. The new strategy calls for "rebalancing toward the Asia-Pacific" and support of India as a "regional economic anchor and provider of security in the broader Indian Ocean region." At a time when Asia is in transition and troubled by growing security challenges, the U.S., India, and Japan are seeking to build a broader strategic understanding to advance their shared interests. Their effort calls to mind the pre-World War I Franco-British-Russian "Triple Entente" to meet the threat posed by the rapid rise of an increasingly assertive Germany. (Japan Times) |
| Jan 14 | Noda hoping latest reshuffle bucks trend of dismal failures |
| Cabinet reshuffles are generally called a gamble prime ministers take to reverse dismal approval ratings, but in recent years most of them have failed miserably. Since Junichiro Koizumi left office in September 2006, the administrations of the Liberal Democratic Party and the now ruling Democratic Party of Japan have seen six prime ministers. Four of them decided to go for broke when their support ratings started to plunge, in a desperate attempt to cling to power. (Japan Times) |
| Jan 14 | Noda skips Davos to tackle reforms |
| Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda will not attend an annual meeting of the World Economic Forum that starts Jan. 25 in Davos, Switzerland, and instead will focus on domestic affairs ahead of the Diet session that convenes Jan. 24, government sources said. A Cabinet member is expected to attend the meeting on behalf of Noda, who will address challenges including reform of the tax and social security systems and take part in Diet debate over the fourth extra budget for the current fiscal year, the sources said. (Japan Times) |
| Jan 14 | Japan says sorry for Darwin bombing |
| Japan's government has used a gathering in Darwin to apologise for the country's bombing of the city during World War II. Japan's Senior Vice Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, Tadahiro Matsushita, told a signing ceremony for the $US34 billion Ichthys gas project that he was sorry for his country's actions. "I am aware that this year is the 70th anniversary of Darwin's bombing and during a certain period in the not-too-distant past, Japan caused tremendous damage and suffering to the people of many countries," Mr Matsushita said. Japanese officials have in the past apologised for the country's actions in World War II, but Mr Matsushita is believed to be the most senior politician to apologise on Northern Territory soil for the bombing of Darwin. (Sydney Morning Herald) |