Japan politics keeps US base dispute in limbo

by Frank Zeller Frank Zeller –
15 mins ago / 4:08 PM Guam / CST

TOKYO (AFP) – A deadline to resolve the fate of a US airbase in Japan came and went Tuesday with scant progress on the toxic dispute, which has already claimed one prime minister and threatens to undermine another.

Washington and Tokyo started arguing over the Marine Corps base on Okinawa island after the centre-left Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) came to power a year ago, ending a half-century of nearly unbroken conservative rule.

Tuesday marked the August 31 deadline by which both sides had aimed to come up with a workable plan to relocate the airbase within Okinawa -- but news reports said so far Washington and Tokyo have only agreed to politely disagree.

The base is located in the urban area of Futenma on the southern island of Okinawa, where residents have long complained about aircraft noise and the risk of accidents.

Kyodo News reported that a joint working group had submitted a paper that mentions two options for a new coastal site at Henoko -- with Japan proposing a single offshore runway, and the US favouring a larger, V-shaped runway.

The DPJ's first premier, Yukio Hatoyama, pledged to scrap a 2006 bilateral pact to relocate the base to Henoko and instead promised to move it off the island altogether.

But in the following months Hatoyama flip-flopped on the issue as Washington ramped up pressure for the base to stay on Okinawa.

Hatoyama, his approval ratings slumping, backtracked on his pledge in May and stepped down in June, taking Ichiro Ozawa, the DPJ's scandal-mired secretary general, with him.

Both nations reaffirmed in May they would move the base to Henoko as originally agreed, despite local opposition and concerns the offshore runways would spoil a fragile marine ecosystem.

Under the deal, 8,000 US Marines are set to be moved to the American territory of Guam to ease the burden on Okinawa, which has hosted Japan's largest concentration of US troops since the end of World War II.

Both countries are mindful of the electoral calendar on Okinawa, where a new governor will be chosen in November. An anti-base candidate could block any offshore runway construction.

In recent days another wild-card factor has emerged -- a bid to oust Kan as party leader and premier by Ozawa, the veteran party powerbroker who was widely seen as Hatoyama's puppet master.

The Mainichi Shimbun daily said Sunday that while "Kan is sticking to the Japan-US joint statement, Mr Ozawa is cautious about a relocation to Henoko".

"Futenma is expected to be an issue in the leadership race," it said.

However, Kan and Ozawa were expected to meet later on Tuesday, with speculation swirling about whether they will go head-to-head next month or reach a deal under which Ozawa would withdraw his candidacy.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto, a politics professor at Aoyama Gakuin University, predicted that, whatever happens within the DPJ, there will be little progress on Futenma until the Okinawa governor's election in November.

"Domestic politics... inevitably plays a role in this issue," he said.

U.S. Marines' Japan base shift to Guam "still set for 2014"

Mon Aug 2, 6:46 am ET
By Maureen N. Maratita

AGANA, Guam (Reuters) – The shift of 8,600 U.S. Marines from Japan to Guam, a hot political issue in Tokyo, is on track for 2014 despite concerns the island lacks infrastructure to meet the target, a U.S. official said.

David Bice, executive director of the Joint Guam Program Office administering the build-up, was speaking to Reuters after the release of a study on how the move will affect the North Pacific island's ecological balance, including large coral reefs.

The shifting of the U.S. forces, which at its peak could add 41,000 to the U.S. territory's population of about 175,000, would bring more that $10 billion in construction and investment.

A final decision on the relocation is due in September.

"We have not had any discussion about delaying the U.S. forces. The target for the completion remains 2014," Bice said.

"We are going to stay with the capacities of Guam's infrastructure. If we find ways to speed up the construction or the sequencing, we will do so."

Ecological concerns have affected the project's progress.

The U.S. military has put off a decision on the site because of a wharf for visiting nuclear-powered aircraft carriers that could damage coral.

There are also local concerns that a firing range would limit access to a historic site at Pagat in the northeast.

President Barack Obama signed a law last month to allocate $50 million to upgrade the Port of Guam, with a further $50 million from a USDA loan to help fund construction.

BROADER AGREEMENT

The move is part of a broader 2006 accord to reorganize U.S. troops in Japan, including relocation of the Marines' Futenma airbase on Okinawa to a quieter part of that Japanese island.

Okinawans associate Futenma with noise, pollution and crime and Japan's previous prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama, raised then dashed their hopes that the base would be moved entirely off the island. He quit after being seen to have mishandled the issue.

Japanese media last month said Washington had abandoned the 2014 target to move to Guam and reported that any delay would also push back the base's relocation on Okinawa.

There have been concerns that Guam lacks the ports, roads and facilities to support the move by the target date.

The Final Environmental Impact Statement, released late last month by the U.S. Navy, estimated about 9,000 dependants would accompany the Marines. A further 600 military personnel and 900 dependants would come as part of an Army Missile Defense Force.

Lying 2,400 km (1,500 miles) south of Japan, Guam is made up of the peaks of two ancient volcanoes, including Mount Lamlam, described by local officials as the highest mountain in the world if measured from its base at the bottom of the Marianas Trench.

Held by the Japanese for three years during World War Two, Guam boasts large reefs, some of which would be destroyed by construction at any of the proposed sites for the carrier wharf.

The study said officials were considering options to limit damage, including construction of an artificial reef.

(Editing by John Mair and Ron Popeski)

US leaves door open to delay in Marine move to Guam

Tue Jul 27, 4:16 pm ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States Tuesday allowed the possibility of a delay in plans to transfer some 8,000 US marines based on the Japanese island of Okinawa to the US Pacific territory of Guam by 2014.

Jackalyne Pfannenstiel, the assistant secretary of the Navy for energy, installations and environment, told the House Armed Services Committee that the lack of infrastructure in Guam could cause delays.

"The Department (of Defense) recognizes that Guam has existing infrastructure deficiencies that could affect the ability of DoD to execute the program on an aggressive construction schedule," she said in prepared remarks.

"Guam currently faces challenges with environmental compliance of its utilities, adequacy of its roadways, and availability of quality health care -- to name a few concerns."

The remarks appeared on the committee's website, but she did not actually read those words out loud to the lawmakers.

Nonetheless, she left open the possibility of delays during exchanges with the lawmakers on the committee.

"We have agreed that the program going forward will be paced according to the infrastructure capabilities of Guam," Pfannenstiel told lawmakers who asked if the plan will move ahead on a timely basis.

"Therefore, if we're able to move faster than we had projected, if the infrastructure allows us to move faster with the construction, then we'll do so," she said.

"If we need to slow down parts of it, we'll do that. But we will pace... both the construction and the movement of forces to the capabilities of the island," she said.

The Daily Yomiuri reported Saturday the US Navy told the Guam government last week that the island's infrastructure cannot handle a rapid enough construction schedule to allow for the Marines to transfer there by 2014.

The US government has effectively given up its target of completing the transfer in 2014 and also informed Tokyo of the delay, the daily said without giving a source.

The transfer plan, also involving the relocation of some 9,000 military family members, is part of a 2006 agreement between Tokyo and Washington aimed at reducing a heavy US military presence on Okinawa.

Another part of the deal involves the relocation of the US Futenma marine corps air station from a fast growing urban area to a less developed coastal part of Okinawa.

The Futenma issue has angered islanders as the center-left Democratic Party of Japan pledged to move the base outside Okinawa when it came to power last year but later reneged on the promise.

The delay would be officially announced within the month, the report said.

US sure it can use Japanese bases in any NKorea conflict

1 hr 5 mins ago

WASHINGTON (AFP) – A senior US defense official said Tuesday he was confident the United States would be allowed to use bases in Japan to launch military action in the event of conflict with North Korea.

"We are absolutely confident we would be able to use Japanese bases in response to a North Korean threat," Wallace Gregson, the assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific security affairs, told lawmakers.

The sinking in March of a South Korean warship, blamed on a North Korean torpedo, "did nothing to diminish Japanese concern about the North Korean threat," Gregson told the House Armed Services Committee.

He said the Japanese "have suffered at the hands of North Korea" with its citizens kidnapped and attempts by North Korean vessels to infiltrate Japanese waters.

"I have no doubt that they are fully aware of the threat from North Korea and fully supportive of all the provisions of our treaty to support operations should they be necessary in Korea," he said.

He had been asked if the United States could remain confident given Japanese reluctance on fulfilling a deal with Washington to relocate a US Marine base on the southern island of Okinawa.

Japan panel moots major defence policy shift

Mon Jul 26, 8:33 pm ET

TOKYO (AFP) – A government panel will recommend that Japan relax longstanding defence guidelines to prepare for "contingencies" in the Korean Peninsula and Taiwan Strait, reports said Tuesday.

The recommendation, to be submitted to Prime Minister Naoto Kan early next month, will be made by experts tasked with updating the national defence guidelines to be formulated in December, the Yomiuri Shimbun and Asahi Shimbun reported, without disclosing sources.

The draft recommendation, obtained by the two newspapers, proposes to scrap the even deployment of the Self-Defence Forces throughout the country, instead shifting the forces to southwestern islets where the Chinese Naval warships often travel, the reports said.

The draft recommendation says existing defence guidelines, made in the Cold War era, are now seen as "unsuitable" and that it is necessary to respond proactively to limited, small-scale invasions and contingencies on the Korean Peninsula and in the Taiwan Strait, the reports said.

It also proposes lifting outright bans on development and possession of nuclear weapons and their transportation to Japan, which could stir controversy in the officially pacifist nation, the Asahi said.

It also proposes relaxation of restrictions on arms exports to allow joint development and production of weapons with the United States and other allies, the Yomiuri said.

Japan, officially pacifist since the end of World War II, has since then relied on the United States for defence and nuclear deterrence, with its own troops focusing on a "shield" role.

But its experience during the last war -- it is the only country that was attacked by nuclear bombs, first in Hiroshima and second in Nagasaki, both in August 1945 -- has made any move allowing entry of nuclear weapons into Japan highly controversial.

Any sign of Japan taking a higher military profile would unnerve its Asian neighbours who fell victim to Japan's aggression before and during World War II.

Japan's politics too immature, says ex-PM

by Shingo Ito
1 hr 21 mins ago

TOKYO (AFP) – Japan, despite last year's dramatic change of government, is still years away from achieving a real two-party system, says one of its best-known former prime ministers, Yasuhiro Nakasone.

"Party politics have yet to mature" in the world's number-two economy, said Nakasone, a retired conservative statesman who served as premier for five years in the 1980s as head of the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).

"One of the reasons is that politicians with strong leadership skills have yet to emerge in Japan," said the 92-year-old, known for his hawkish views, in an interview with AFP.

Japan has had five premiers in four years, a revolving-door leadership that has done little for the country's international stature or its efforts to fix problems, from mounting public debt to sluggish economic growth.

The centre-left party of Prime Minister Naoto Kan last year pledged a fresh start when it ended over half a century of conservative rule, but it has been much weakened by a poor showing in an upper house ballot this month.

Nakasone said Japan should keep working toward a system where two major parties take turns in governing every few years, like in the United States and Britain, to foster dynamism in politics.

"But it will take considerable time", he said, predicting that the recent emergence of more smaller parties would make politics more complicated.

Nakasone said Kan's power is limited by internal party power plays -- pointing at the need to form "cooperative relations" with rival Ichiro Ozawa, a DPJ powerbroker who was forced out of his post this year over money scandals.

The former premier also blamed Japan's media, who have hounded the country's recent leaders, door-stopping them at their homes and endlessly speculating about their "gaffes" and when they should step down.

"Compared with the West, Japanese media have been tainted by excessive populism," Nakasone said. "I think the trend will improve, and coverage will become more rational, but so far it hasn't."

On the diplomatic front, Nakasone stressed the need for Japan's security alliance with the United States, chiding the previous premier Yukio Hatoyama for having propagated a more "equal" partnership with Washington.

Nakasone, who strengthened the alliance by forging close personal ties with then US president Ronald Reagan, said post-war Japan prospered in part because it could rely on the United States for security and deterrence.

"Japan has yet to reach the stage where it should handle its self-defence by relying only on its own military," he said.

Looking at China, Nakasone said Japan should not worry too much about soon giving up its title as the world's second biggest economy to the rising continental Asian power, which he described as still fragile.

"It is natural for China to surpass Japan in terms of GDP," he said.

"But China still has a huge problem," he added, referring to a potential contradiction between China's free market economy and its communist government.

"China is somewhat vulnerable as a state," Nakasone said. "Therefore, it's not necessary to worry about the Chinese issue."

Nakasone, a veteran of Japan's wartime navy and a law graduate from the University of Tokyo, served as premier between 1982 and 1987.

He called for a revision of Japan's pacifist constitution, while irking Asia by once visiting a controversial war shrine in Tokyo.

He privatised Japan's tobacco, railway and telecom industries, while pushing for a stronger yen. Although he retired from parliament in 2003, he still maintains influence and has advised recent leaders, including Kan.

More than 900 World War II munitions found in Japan

Thu Jul 15, 12:01 pm ET

TOKYO (AFP) – More than 900 unexploded munitions from World War II have been found beneath a restaurant in Okinawa, police said Thursday.

Construction workers on a road expansion project detected the explosives with a metal detector and notified police Wednesday morning, Kiyotaka Maedomari, a senior police official in Itoman city, told AFP.

An army bomb disposal squad discovered the total of 902 unexploded munitions -- including rocket bombs, grenades and motor projectiles -- believed to have been made in the United States, he said.

Photo: Policemen are pictured in Okinawa. More than 900 unexploded munitions from World War II have been found beneath a restaurant in Okinawa, police said Thursday.

"It's rare to find this many unexploded munitions at once," said Maedomari.

"Because unexploded munitions from World War II are scattered across Okinawa, construction workers always use metal detectors before starting to dig the ground," he said.

Unexploded munitions are periodically found across Japan, even in highly developed Tokyo, but cases of injury-causing detonation are rare.

Okinawa was the bloodiest battle of the Pacific war, with US forces unleashing an 83-day air and amphibious assault dubbed by locals the "Typhoon of Steel". Some 190,000 Japanese died, half of them Okinawan civilians.

In January last year, a Japanese worker was severely injured when a World War II bomb exploded in Itoman city.

An estimated 10,000 tonnes of unexploded munitions were left in Okinawa after the war. About 4,500 tonnes remained by the time the United States returned Okinawa to Japan in 1972.

Since then, Japan's armed forces have disposed of another 1,500 tonnes, but it is expected to take 80 years or more to remove the rest.

Japan PM faces deadlock after poll rout

by Hiroshi Hiyama
29 mins ago

TOKYO (AFP) – Japan's premier faced an uphill battle Monday to push through promised reforms, from reviving the economy to whittling down massive public debt, after his party's electoral mauling at the weekend.

Naoto Kan, who took office just a month ago as Japan's fifth leader in four years, suffered a heavy blow when his centre-left Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) lost the upper house of parliament in an electoral rout Sunday.

The result, worse than predicted by opinion polls and pundits, signalled that the world's number two economy is in for another stretch of weak leadership as it seeks to end two decades of economic stagnation.

The outcome was a slap in the face for the DPJ, which ousted the conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in an election triumph last summer, only to squander much of its political capital within 10 months in office.

"Japan is stuck in a dense fog," said Takayoshi Shibata, politics professor emeritus at Tokyo Keizai University.

"There will be confusion" as the DPJ looks for new coalition partners to restore its majority in the upper house and enable it to easily pass laws through the Diet legislature, he said.

"This hung situation shouldn't continue for too long. I believe somebody needs to break this impasse but the question is, who can?"

Smaller groupings such as Your Party, one of the biggest winners in the poll, have been named as possible coalition partners, but its leader Yoshimi Watanabe has so far rejected a tie-up with the wounded DPJ.

According to exit polls, the DPJ has emerged from the election with only 106 seats in the 242-seat chamber -- far below the 122 needed for a majority, although it still controls the lower house.

The prospect of political deadlock drove both the yen and Japanese shares lower in morning trade.

Kan took over in early June from the DPJ's first premier Yukio Hatoyama, who had led the party into power last August after half a century of conservative rule, but quickly lost favour with voters for his indecisive leadership.

When Hatoyama stood down -- amid political funding scandals and a bungled row over a US airbase -- his former finance minister Kan signalled a more pragmatic and less ideological style.

Kan shifted his focus from the damaging US base row to the problem of Japan's massive public debt, which is nearing 200 percent of gross domestic product, warning of the risk of a Greece-style financial meltdown.

But his tough-love comments on the need to raise the consumption tax turned off many voters. Kan compounded the damage when he appeared to backpedal on the issue, which left him open to charges of Hatoyama-style indecisiveness.

"The biggest reason for the DPJ's defeat is Prime Minister Kan's handling of the issue of a consumption tax," the Yomiuri Shimbun daily said.

"He failed to provide a full explanation about why the tax rate should be raised and how it should be used."

The Nikkei business daily said that, nonetheless, Kan must push on with his fiscal reform agenda, pointing at the need to fix state finances in the rapidly ageing society that will face a huge state pension burden in future.

"Many voters share the view that a consumption tax hike is inevitable, to secure funds for social security programmes," it said. "The election defeat must not cause the Kan government to backpedal on the consumption tax issue."

The daily also asked the two largest parties to put aside their differences and cooperate on key issues for the sake of the nation.

"Japan does not have the luxury of a policy deadlock due to political battles between the ruling and opposition parties," the Nikkei said.

Japan votes in key test for new PM

by Hiroshi Hiyama
Sat Jul 10, 11:12 pm ET

TOKYO (AFP) – Voters cast their ballots in Japan's upper house election Sunday, a crucial test for new prime minister Naoto Kan and the 10-month-old centre-left coalition government.

The government, led by the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), is seeking to retain a majority in the upper house to match its control of the powerful lower house, which it won last summer in a landslide victory.

But pre-election polls have indicated the coalition is likely to fall short of its aim, with many voters turned off by Kan's proposal for a debate on a tax hike to restore battered public finances.

Around 104 million Japanese are eligible to vote and more than 9.5 million voters have already cast early ballots. Polling stations close at 8:00 pm (1100 GMT), with media exit polls expected immediately afterwards.

A failure by the ruling camp to secure a majority in the chamber, in which half the 242 seats are up for grabs, would make it harder for it to pass laws and bring the risk of political deadlock.

The vote is regarded as the first referendum on Kan, a 63-year-old former leftist activist, who took power on June 8 after former premier Yukio Hatoyama resigned over funding scandals and a US military base dispute.

It is also the first national test at the ballot box since the DPJ swept to power under Hatoyama last August, transforming politics in Asia's biggest economy after a half-century of almost unbroken conservative rule.

"I voted with a feeling that it would be wasteful if the change of government we had last year proves to be nothing," retiree Hiroko Uchiyama said after casting her ballot at a Tokyo voting station.

The ruling party issued a statement Sunday, making a final plea to voters.

"We have to create a stable, responsible political base by securing a majority in the upper house at any cost," the DPJ said.

"The DPJ will revive a vigorous Japan. This is an election to ask whether we should move forward the politics launched with the power change. Please let us win."

The party also apologised to voters for "causing confusion and distrust" over the political funding scandals, the US base dispute and abrupt proposals for a tax debate.

Kan is seeking popular support to draw a line under a period of revolving-door politics that has seen five new premiers in four years.

"From the bottom of my heart I would like to ask you to let the DPJ exercise policies that restore Japan's troubled economy and public finances as well as social welfare all together," Kan told voters on the eve of the election.

Faced with sagging support, Kan has denied any plan for an immediate rise in the current five-percent consumption tax, but defended his warning about the nation's swelling public debt, which is nearly 200 percent of GDP.

The message however failed to resonate among some voters.

"I pay attention to politicians' ability to keep their promises. If they don't implement what they have pledged, that's fraud," said businessman Shigeo Shimizu.

Meanwhile, the largest opposition party, the Liberal Democratic Party, ousted from power last year, said in a statement: "We have to prevent the ruling coalition from obtaining a majority."

"We cannot expect economic recovery with the DPJ's pork-barrel policies," it added.

The DPJ, which holds 62 uncontested seats, needs to win at least 60 seats to gain a clear majority, or at least 56 seats to maintain the status quo with its coalition partner, the tiny People's New Party.

But recent newspaper polls have suggested Kan's coalition may win only around 50 seats, far short of a majority in the upper house. The People's New Party is struggling to win a single seat.

If the DPJ wins fewer seats, it would need new allies. A serious defeat would even leave Kan open to internal party leadership challenges, as the party is scheduled to hold its own presidential election in September.

Japanese school grooms leaders with ancient values

Jul 7 03:47 AM US/Eastern

An ability to march 100 kilometres in 24 hours, fight using the way of the sword and serve tea with grace are just some of the prerequisites for a modern Japanese leader.

That is according to the Matsushita Institute of Government and Management, whose Jedi Knight-like curriculum has produced more than 30 parliament members since the early 1980s, including current Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda.

Set on a quiet seashore south of Tokyo, the institute seeks to sculpt bold leaders "who will strive to make Japan a better place in the 21st century" and put their ideas and strong convictions into practice.

Photo: Photo combination of Japanese Transportation Minister Seiji Maehara (L), Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda (C) and Internal Communication Minister Kazuhiro Haraguchi(R), who graduated from the Matsushita Institute of Government and Management.

Students follow an austere routine rooted in ancient Japanese practices bordering on monasticism, which they say provide the inner strength and mental stability essential to become modern leaders.

More than 100 of its total 242 graduates are now in politics including Noda, who as finance minister is charged with bolstering Japan's fragile finances with an eye on eventually reducing the industrialised world's biggest debt.

Others include Japan's telegenic Transportation Minister Seiji Maehara, one of the more vocal critics of the Democratic Party of Japan's fallen leader Yukio Hatoyama and his backroom fixer Ichiro Ozawa.

For recent graduate Yutaka Kumagai, 34, the lessons learned at the school have steeled him to campaign for a seat in Sunday's upper house elections.

"What I've learned at Matsushita has influenced all of my political activity and shaped my ambitions," he said, his voice hoarse after a day of shouting slogans and speeches in streets to woo voters.

"Japan's traditions of meditation, martial arts, tea ceremony -- they help build virtue, self-discipline, self-control."

Kumagai, drawn to politics after witnessing first hand the bursting of Japan's economic bubble in the 1990s, is running on a Liberal Democrat ticket promising to revitalise his native northern Sendai city.

"What's necessary in politics is the concept of virtue. Today, people have lost confidence in politics because politicians spew negligent statements."

He said the more testing parts of the course, such as 5:00 am starts and a gruelling 100-kilometre (60-mile) march in one day, taught "thoughtfulness, compassion and mutual aid," which for many may not sound typical of politicians.

Through its teachings the school aims to produce leaders who can wield influence on the world stage in the same way that some of Japan's corporate titans have done, including the school's late founder Konosuke Matsushita.

The creator of electronics giant Matsushita Electric Industrial Co, famed for its Panasonic brand, set up the school in 1979, which covers all costs and only accepts a handful of students from hundreds of applicants yearly.

"In order to become Japan's leader, you need to firmly understand your country's culture and tradition," said the institute's director of training Kazuhiro Furuyama, a former alumnus and a classmate of Noda and Maehara.

"Kendo (Japanese martial art of sword fighting) and zazen (meditation) are extremely good for character-building, something we lack today. That's why they are included in our curriculum," he added.

"If a leader understands the greatness of his own country's culture, and wears its greatness on himself, then he will be able to participate in world affairs with confidence."

Internal Communications Minister Kazuhiro Haraguchi, and lawmaker Shinji Tarutoko, who lost out to Naoto Kan in the recent race to replace Hatoyama, also passed through the school's corridors.

Other alumni include city mayors and governors, including one for Kanagawa prefecture, the second-biggest region after Tokyo.

Their increasing presence may reflect a sea change in Japan's political landscape, which until now has been populated by second and third-generation politicians or graduates of elite institutions such as Tokyo University.

It may prove challenging for students to transfer Matsushita's tenets of gratitude, cooperation and independence to a political arena that in the past has been tainted by accusations of corruption, and pork-barreling.

But if its teachings can help bring an end to a period of damaging revolving-door politics that has seen five new premiers in four years, then Matsushita school will have borne fruit, said Furuyama.

"I am sure an alumnus will become prime minister within ten years' time," he said.

Okinawa city to sue Japan over US base issue

Fri Jul 2, 12:05 pm ET

TOKYO (AFP) – A Japanese city hosting an unpopular and controversial US military airbase plans to file a lawsuit against the country's government for failing to address the needs of locals, its mayor said Friday.

The issue of where to relocate the US Marine Corps Air Station Futenma from its current position in a densely populated area in Okinawa strained ties with Washington and helped trigger former prime minister Yukio Hatoyama's downfall.

Anti-base protests have flared in recent months after Hatoyama first pledged to move the contentious Futenma airbase off Okinawa, than reneged on the promise following protests from the United States, enraging locals.

Hatoyama's successor Prime Minister Naoto Kan has pledged to follow an accord reached in May under which the base would be relocated within Okinawa -- as first agreed in 2006 -- to the island's coastal Henoko region.

Okinawans have been the reluctant hosts of Japan's largest concentration of US forces for decades and have long complained about noise pollution and potential safety problems from low-flying US military jets near the airbase.

"We were forced to accept an excess burden of hosting the US base and denied even the basic human rights in our everyday lives. Therefore, I decided to question at court the government's policy in providing the Futenma airbase (to the United States)," Ginowan mayor Yoichi Iha said in a news conference.

The mayor plans to file the lawsuit before March 2011, local reports said.

The city will argue that the airbase threatens the safety of residents and therefore violates Japan's constitution, reports said.

Futenma and other US bases were established as American forces took the island in one of the bloodiest battles of World War II.

After the war, Okinawa stayed under US occupation until 1972 and has since then remained the strategic US military cornerstone in the Pacific, with the world's two largest economies forming a key security partnership.

New Japan PM to make global debut at Canada summits

by Kyoko Hasegawa
40 mins ago

TOKYO (AFP) – Japan's new centre-left Prime Minister Naoto Kan was set to jet off on Thursday to make his international debut at G8 and G20 summits in Canada, just three weeks into his job.

Japan's fifth premier in four years was to hold talks with US President Barack Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao and also meet the leaders of Russia and South Korea, and likely Britain and Germany.

As the man in charge of the world's second-biggest economy, Kan was to outline his plans to rev up sluggish growth and cut a public debt mountain nearing 200 percent of gross domestic product.

Seen as a pragmatist and enjoying strong initial poll support, Kan replaced Yukio Hatoyama who resigned in early June after just nine months in office, wounded by political money scandals and a row over a US airbase.

While scholarly Hatoyama, a blue-blooded millionaire-politician, was known for his often vague statements, 63-year-old Kan, the son of a factory manager and a former left-wing activist, has a reputation for straight talk.

The former finance minister is known as a fiscal hawk who has advocated raising unpopular taxes although, speaking ahead of July 11 upper house elections, he has also stressed the need for a tight social safety net.

Kan will explain his growth and fiscal policies at the June 25-27 summits and "introduce his idea of producing a strong economy, strong finances and strong social security," said foreign ministry spokesman Kazuo Kodama.

"On financial regulation, we support strengthened discipline, but Japan has already introduced its own measures to strengthen its own financial system in response to its own problem in the 90s and early 2000s.

"So we don't think it's wise to apply the principle 'one size fits all'. But we are willing to join the consensus," added Kodama.

In his meeting with Obama, Kan will seek to rebuild ties that were strained under Hatoyama over the issue of a contentious military base, the US Marine Corps Air Station Futenma on the southern island of Okinawa.

Hatoyama had promised to move the unpopular base off the island, where most locals strongly oppose it, but then reneged on the pledge and caved in to Washington, which insisted on a pact to relocate it within Okinawa.

Kan will reaffirm the importance of the 50-year-old US-Japan security alliance and the relocation of the base in talks that are also likely to touch of cooperation on North Korea, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan, said Kodama.

"This will be primarily of course an opportunity to build a personal relationship of trust between the two," Kodama said of the Kan-Obama meet.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto, politics professor at Aoyama Gakuin University, said: "It's good for Japan to have summit talks with the United States and China, the most important foreign countries for Japan.

"But I don't expect him to raise specific topics such as the issue of the Futenma air base with Obama, or the issue of China's rapid navy expansion," said Yamamoto, an international relations expert.

Seiji Endo, professor of international politics at Seikei University, said Kan faces the same problem as his predecessors from a country whose leaders have had notoriously short political lives.

"Who will trust the leader of a country which has changed its prime minister so frequently?" he said. "Diplomatically, conditions are not ready for Mr Kan to discuss any specific issues. He will have to start by getting foreign leaders just to remember his face and his name."

Japan PM vows to cut US base burden on Okinawa

Wed Jun 23, 4:12 am ET

TOKYO (AFP) – Japan's Prime Minister Naoto Kan pledged Wednesday to reduce "the burden" of US bases on Okinawa as the island marked 65 years since the end of a major World War II battle there.

Kan was on his first visit to the southern island since he took office on June 8 to attend a ceremony to remember the 83-day bloodbath which killed more than 200,000 people, half of them civilians, in 1945.

His predecessor Yukio Hatoyama stepped down this month largely because he had mishandled a dispute over the relocation of an unpopular US airbase on the island, triggering local protests and souring ties with Washington.

Kan noted that the US presence on Okinawa had contributed to peace in the Asia-Pacific region but added: "I promise to continue to seriously tackle the reduction of the burden in connection with US military bases."

Kan said the island still hosts more than half of the 47,000 US troops in Japan. The bases have long drawn the ire of Okinawans because of aircraft noise, pollution, the risk of accidents and crime.

"On behalf of all of our people, I apologise for the burden," Kan said.

Futenma and other US bases were established as American forces took the island in one of the bloodiest battles of World War II.

Towards the end, Japanese troops forced many residents to kill themselves "honourably" rather than face capture, according to local accounts.

"I sincerely express my heartfelt sorrow for the dead," Kan told an audience of more than 5,000 Okinawans who held a minute-long prayer.

After the war, Okinawa stayed under US occupation until 1972 and has since then remained the strategic US military keystone in the Pacific.

The world's two largest economies have been key security partners, and Wednesday also marked the 50th anniversary of the Japanese ratification of a US-Japan security treaty which both sides had signed on January 19, 1960.

Anti-base protests have flared in recent months after Hatoyama first pledged to move the contentious Futenma airbase off Okinawa, than reneged on the promise following protests from the United States.

Kan has pledged to follow an accord reached in May under which the base would be relocated within Okinawa as first agreed in 2006, from a crowded city area to the island's coastal Henoko region.

"A reduction in the burden of US military bases is not a problem for Okinawa alone," Okinawa Governor Hirokazu Nakaima told the ceremony.

"It is a task for every single individual of the country. I hope that a visible reduction of Okinawa's excessive burden will be achieved."

Japan's ruling party unveils manifesto

by Harumi Ozawa Harumi Ozawa
2 hrs 30 mins ago

TOKYO (AFP) – Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan's ruling party on Thursday outlined its determination to rebuild the nation's finances and slash its deficit in its new manifesto ahead of elections next month.

Changing course from his predecessor Yukio Hatoyama, who had focused on foreign policy shifts and higher social welfare spending, fiscal hawk Kan called for a full debate on tax reform, including whether to hike sales tax.

"Politics is power, and power must be used to remove the cause of people's unhappiness," Kan wrote in the introduction to the Democratic Party of Japan's 2010 manifesto unveiled Thursday ahead of next month's upper house election.

Photo: Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan holds up his DPJ party's election manifesto in Tokyo. Kan's ruling party outlined its determination to rebuild the nation's finances and slash its deficit in its new manifesto ahead of elections next month.

The centre-left leader took office last week pledging a fiscal policy overhaul to reduce the world's biggest public debt mountain, warning of the risk of a Greece-style meltdown for Japan if left unaddressed.

"The turmoil in Europe, triggered by the financial collapse of Greece, is never an irrelevant problem for Japan," Kan said at a press conference Thursday.

"Unless Japan addresses this issue, institutions like the International Monetary Fund may take control of the country's fiscal policy," he added, referring to austerity terms imposed on Greece by the IMF in return for funds.

Kan said the DPJ would call for a full debate on tax reform and did not rule out the possibility of doubling the five percent sales tax, with the aim of drawing up a plan within the financial year.

"We decided to stipulate that we will start discussions on consumption tax, which has long been a taboo. We want to draw up a basic tax reform plan, including an appropriate consumption tax rate, within fiscal 2010," said Kan.

Despite crawling out of a severe year-long recession in 2009, Japan's recovery remains fragile with deflation, high public debt and weak domestic demand all concerns for policymakers.

DPJ policy research committee chairman Koichiro Genba said any tax reform would not be implemented before "autumn 2012" and that the government's priority was to "get the country out of deflation".

As its mid-term goal, the DPJ pledged to slice the country's deficit in half or less by the year to March 2016, with a longer term ambition of eliminating it by fiscal 2020.

In its manifesto, the DPJ also echoed a pledge by new Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda to make the "utmost effort" to cap the issuance of government bonds next year at 44.3 trillion yen (480 billion dollars).

After decades of stimulus spending and low tax receipts, Japan's public debt stands at around 950 trillion yen (over 10 trillion dollars), nearly double gross domestic product, as the government issues more bonds to pay for hefty outlays.

Japan collects less than half the taxes it needs to cover its spending, and must borrow the rest in a climate of increased scrutiny for sovereign bond issuers as Europe's debt woes deepen.

Kan, who served as finance minister under Hatoyama, said in his first policy speech last week that he would target average real GDP growth of two percent a year until 2020.

Reiterating Kan's earlier comments on foreign policy, the DPJ also pledged to deepen the Japan-US alliance and honour a plan to keep a controversial US airbase on the southern island of Okinawa.

"We need to keep the current balance of the US military forces in Japan," Genba said.

Hatoyama quit after reneging on an election promise to move the Futenma airbase off the island.

Japan's DPJ party to drop aims of 'equal' US ties

1 hr 50 mins ago

TOKYO (AFP) – Japan's ruling party under new Prime Minister Naoto Kan plans to drop a reference to seeking "equal" relations with the United States in an election manifesto, a newspaper reported Tuesday.

Kan took power last week, replacing Yukio Hatoyama who resigned after just nine months in office, largely over his botched handling of a row over a US airbase on Okinawa island that strained relations with Washington.

The centre-left Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) of Hatoyama and Kan is planning to release an updated policy manifesto this week ahead of a parliamentary upper house vote expected on July 11.

In the new version, the ruling party will pledge "to enhance Japan-US relations by strengthening ties in the fields of comprehensive security, economy and culture," the Yomiuri Shimbun reported without naming its sources.

Kan has pledged to observe an agreement with the United States inked in May under Hatoyama that recommits Japan to a 2006 pact to keep the Futenma marine airbase on Okinawa, despite strong local opposition.

The Yomiuri said the party manifesto is also expected to say that "on the issue of the Futenma base, we will make utmost efforts to reduce the burden on Okinawa, based on the Japan-US agreement."

Okinawa governor Hirokazu Nakaima signalled Tuesday his continued opposition to the base, which has long angered locals because of aircraft noise, pollution, the risk of crashes and tension with American service personnel.

He told reporters after meeting Kan: "I told him that we deplore the (Japan-US) joint statement, and that it will be hard to realise."

Tokyo and Washington said in their joint statement on May 28 that the Futenma base would be moved, as first agreed in 2006, from a crowded city area to the coastal Henoko region of the southern island.

New Japan PM to visit China

14 mins ago

BEIJING (AFP) – Japan's new Prime Minister Naoto Kan on Sunday accepted an invitation from his counterpart in Beijing to visit China, during a telephone conversation that also touched on North Korea.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao invited the Japanese prime minister to visit at a "time of convenience," China's state Xinhua news agency said, adding the two men had also discussed the situation on the Korean peninsula.

The report gave no further details of what they said regarding events on the Korean peninsula, but Japan's Kyodo news agency said they spoke about the March sinking of a South Korean warship by a North Korean torpedo.

Kan requested that Japan and China co-operate in showing the will of the international community in responding to the incident, Kyodo said.

However, Wen only said that close co-operation between Beijing and Tokyo is important, Japanese Foreign Ministry officials were quoted saying.

China is Pyongyang's closest ally.

Kan, 63, Tuesday became Japan's fifth prime minister in four years after his predecessor Yukio Hatoyama quit over a row about the location of a US air base.

Kan had been praised in Beijing as someone who "has repeatedly stressed the great importance of developing Sino-Japanese relations, and we appreciate that."

Sunday's conversation between Wen and Kan marked the official activation of the China-Japan prime ministerial hotline, Xinhua said.

"We have reached consensus on a series of major issues, further making clear the direction and missions of the bilateral relations," Wen said.

Cautious welcome for Japan's new government

by Hiroshi Hiyama
Wed Jun 9, 12:19 am ET

TOKYO (AFP) – Japanese media gave a guarded welcome Wednesday to Prime Minister Naoto Kan's new government, which took office weeks before key elections pledging to reinvigorate the world's second-largest economy.

A sense of cautious optimism greeted Japan's new centre-left leadership a day after Kan unveiled his cabinet and vowed to create a "vigorous country", restore its public finances and mend strained US relations.

The media has until now praised the 63-year-old's humble beginnings as the "son of a salaryman" and drawn a contrast with the privileged background of his predecessor Yukio Hatoyama, the millionaire grandson of a prime minister.

But the press warned Wednesday that Japan's fifth premier in four years needed to match words with action and restore credibility to Japan's recent merry-go-round of governance that some fear has eroded its standing.

"We hope that the prime minister will show, through his actions, his resolve to break away from 'escapism politics' of avoiding decisions on serious issues," the Nikkei business daily said in its editorial.

While the elevation of Kan to the top post has created a surge in popularity for the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), editorials warned that the government now needed to issue detailed policy responses to Japan's challenges.

"Unless he steadily produces good results as a prime minister, the public's support will not last for a long time," the top-selling Yomiuri Shimbun said.

"What is desired is a drastic shift of policies and political strategies," the Yomiuri said, reflecting the perception that Hatoyama's previous administration offered a dithering lack of leadership.

In a testy editorial, the conservative Sankei Shimbun urged Kan to draft "persuasive" plans to bring fiscal health to the debt-ridden government coffers.

There are fears that Japan faces a potential fiscal timebomb with public debt ballooning towards 200 percent of gross domestic product, with the risk of it detonating illustrated by Europe's current fiscal crisis.

Kan has said putting Japan back on a path to fiscal health is his biggest challenge, a change of tone from the previous administration, and has appointed fiscal hawk Yoshihiko Noda as the steward of Asia's biggest economy.

Noda has hinted that the new administration may have to roll back spending pledges made by Hatoyama, while Kan has advocated raising consumption tax and capping the issuance of government bonds next year.

"They must review policies with high fiscal burdens and prioritise. They must honestly apologise to voters for promises they cannot keep and explain their plans for the future," the influential Asahi Shimbun said.

Kan must "withdraw the pork-barrel spending in the campaign promises and clearly show the time and the size of tax increase, with the consumption tax at its center," the Sankei said.

The new leader has signalled his desire to rebuild ties with Washington damaged by a row over an American airbase that led to the tearful resignation of his predecessor last week after less than nine months in office.

The post-World War II Japan-US security alliance is "the cornerstone" of Tokyo's diplomacy, Kan said Tuesday, days after speaking with President Barack Obama.

Hatoyama stepped down after reneging on an election pledge to move the unpopular Futenma airbase off Okinawa island, giving in to Washington's demands but enraging locals and splitting his ruling coalition.

Newspaper editorials also approved of Kan's move to reshuffle the party leadership to sideline DPJ heavyweight Ichiro Ozawa, dubbed the "Shadow Shogun", whose funding scandals have damaged the party's credibility.

'Yes we Kan' T-shirts a boost for Japan's new PM

2 hrs 7 mins ago

TOKYO (AFP) – As Japan's new Prime Minister Naoto Kan took power Tuesday, he received an unexpected boost from online sales of T-shirts bearing his picture and the message "Yes we Kan".

While Kan was being sworn in by Japan's Emperor Akihito, Japanese retailer ClubT said it had sold more than 100 T-shirts online with the catch phrase, a reworking of US President Barack Obama's election motto "Yes We Can".

Meanwhile sales of shirts poking fun at his scholarly predecessor Yukio Hatoyama, who stepped down last week, were also surging as people snapped up memorabilia of the premier who carried the moniker "The Alien".

Photo: A handout picture released by Japan's ClubT. As Japan's new Prime Minister Naoto Kan took power, he received an unexpected boost from online sales of T-shirts bearing his picture and the message "Yes we Kan".

A Washington Post columnist in April called Hatoyama hapless and "increasingly loopy" over his contradictory comments in a dispute over a US airbase that badly strained ties with Washington and finally led him to resign.

Hatoyama later conceded in parliament he may indeed be described as loopy, leading ClubT to print a T-shirt that read: "Self-professed loopy Hatoyama".

"When Hatoyama went into office, his T-shirts didn't sell but they soared after he resigned," company executive Tomohiro Miyake told AFP.

"On the other hand Kan's T-shirt is selling well on his inauguration. It's a sign that the quality of the two leaders' level of popularity is different."

Japan to inaugurate new PM, cabinet

Mon Jun 7, 5:30 pm ET

TOKYO (AFP) – Japan's new centre-left Prime Minister Naoto Kan and his cabinet were due to formally take charge in the world's second largest economy on Tuesday with their swearing in by Emperor Akihito.

Kan last week replaced Yukio Hatoyama, who stepped down just nine months after a sweeping election victory, apologising for breaking a pledge to move a US airbase off Okinawa island and for political funding scandals.

The new prime minister, who previously served as finance minister and deputy premier, has been greeted by poll ratings above 60 percent as his Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) heads for upper house elections next month.

Newspaper editorials have been upbeat about the "son of a salaryman" and contrasted his family roots with the privileged backgrounds of recent premiers such as Hatoyama, the millionaire grandson of a prime minister.

When Kan names his cabinet Tuesday, many members are expected to be retained in their posts, including Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada, Defence Minister Toshimi Kitazawa and Transport Minister Seiji Maehara.

Kan is expected to name his former deputy, fiscal hawk Yoshihiko Noda, to head the finance ministry as pressure mounts to revive the economy and slash mounting public debt, which is nearly twice the country's GDP.

After a party meeting in the morning, Kan was expected to receive his ministers one by one in his office before gathering them for his first cabinet meeting and then giving an 0800 GMT press conference.

In keeping with tradition, the ministers were then due to don ceremonial tuxedos and head to the emperor's walled and moated palace in central Tokyo to be formally sworn in.

Kan -- who was voted DPJ president and then confirmed as premier on Friday -- reshuffled the party leadership on Monday, sidelining a scandal-mired veteran party powerbroker dubbed the "Shadow Shogun".

DPJ lawmakers backed the departure of party secretary general Ichiro Ozawa, who reluctantly stood down last week along with Hatoyama as both men had been embroiled in damaging political funding scandals.

White House sees smoother times with new Japan PM

by Shaun Tandon
30 mins ago

WASHINGTON (AFP) – A top aide to President Barack Obama on Monday predicted a smoother relationship with Japan as Naoto Kan takes over as prime minister, admitting the United States had concerns about his predecessor.

Jeffrey Bader, the National Security Council's director for Asian affairs, vigorously defended Obama's treatment of outgoing prime minister Yukio Hatoyama after widespread worries about the half-century old alliance between the two countries.

Hatoyama led the center-left Democratic Party of Japan as it ousted the long-ruling conservatives in August elections but tearfully quit last week after reneging on a promise to move an unpopular US base off Okinawa island.

"I have every reason to expect that Mr. Kan will pick up where the cabinet has left off in the last two months and that we won't find ourselves back in some of the difficult times we had last September and October," Bader said.

Bader, who was addressing the Stimson Center think tank, said Obama was encouraged by his phone conversation Saturday with Kan and the new prime minister's pledge at a news conference to honor the deal on the Futenma base.

Bader said that while it would be "rash" to declare an end to the long-festering Futenma dispute, "we do not see fundamentally new options coming into play at this point."

"The cabinet has endorsed it, Mr. Kan has endorsed it, so that is the direction in which we are proceeding," Bader said.

Bader said some members of Hatoyama's coalition had caused "considerable anxiety and, in some cases, alarm" among other Asian nations by questioning not just Futenma but the need for the 47,000 US troops stationed in Japan.

The ruling party's thinking on foreign policy was at times "very messy" and "painfully transparent," with the Obama administration unsure who was speaking for Japan, Bader said.

The United States and Japan agreed in 2006 to shift the Marine facilities at Futenma, which lies in a crowded urban center, to an isolated part of Okinawa.

But some local activists have pushed for the base to be moved completely off the island, which is home to more than half of the US troops in Japan.

"All politics are not local," Bader said, questioning the aphorism of late US House speaker Tip O'Neill. "There are also international politics; there are national security interests of Japan."

In some of the administration's most expansive remarks on diplomacy with Japan, Bader hit back at critics who accused Obama of letting his frustration become too visible with Hatoyama.

Bader said that the Obama administration decided to take a middle road between advisers who urged to stand firm on Futenma and others who recommended flexibility with the new government.

"We were very, very careful as a government to treat the Japanese government with full respect despite the complexities of trying to figure out who was actually speaking for the government," Bader said.

He said Defense Secretary Robert Gates' warning last year on a visit to Tokyo for Japan to make a decision had been intended to be private but was leaked to the Japanese media.

Obama had showed an early commitment to the alliance when taking office, inviting then prime minister Taro Aso as his first foreign guest at the White House.

But when Hatoyama visited Washington for a nuclear security summit in April, his only talks with Obama were over the first course of a group dinner.