Mainichi :: Monday, June 29, 2009

• Rumors of planned leadership reshuffle groundless, says anonymous LDP source
  Despite earlier signs to the contrary, it appears that Prime Minister Taro Aso has abandoned a reshuffle of the leadership of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), insiders say.
  
  "It requires a huge volume of energy to replace three leading party officials, and isn't easy," said a high-ranking official of the government who spoke on condition of anonymity.
  
  To prepare for the upcoming House of Representatives race, Aso, who leads the LDP, had begun considering replacements for top party officials, who have been criticized for lacking enough speaking ability to appeal to the public. However, he faced stiff opposition from ruling coalition legislators, including high-ranking government officials.
  
  If he cannot carry out a reshuffle of the LDP leadership, Aso's influence on his administration will further decline, which will give momentum to those within the ruling coalition trying to force him to step down.
  
  The rumors about the personnel reshuffle spread within the LDP shortly after Aso held a news conference on Thursday last week. Some close aides to Aso remarked that the LDP leadership would be reshuffled, and that additional legislators would be appointed to his Cabinet to relieve Cabinet ministers who now hold multiple posts.
  
  Opponents arranged a two-hour meeting between Aso and LDP Secretary-General Hiroyuki Hosoda on Saturday night in a bid to ensure that Hosoda remain in his post.
  
  The following day, Hosoda told reporters in Tokyo that he did not know whether Aso intends to reshuffle the party leadership. Hosoda also said in an NHK program: "I told the prime minister, 'I'll leave the personnel reshuffle to your discretion.' The prime minister then said, 'That's what I'm now thinking about. But I've never mentioned any specific plan on whom I should select or when or how I should carry it out.'"
  
  Another high-ranking official of the LDP said Aso expressed displeasure about senior party members mentioning a reshuffle of the party leadership. "He said in his meeting (with Hosoda), 'People around me are spreading groundless rumors.'"
  
  The prime minister will ascertain the situation within the ruling coalition before making a final decision, according to party sources.
  
  Aso is still considering appointing new Cabinet members to relieve Cabinet ministers who have multiple posts, including Kaoru Yosano, who serves as finance minister, minister for financial services and minister for economic and fiscal policy.
  
  (Mainichi Japan) June 29, 2009


• Ex-top bureaucrat acknowledges secret Japan-U.S. pact on port calls by vessels with nukes
  A former top bureaucrat in the Foreign Ministry has admitted that he received from his predecessor a document on a secret Japan-U.S. agreement on port calls by U.S. vessels carrying nuclear weapons.
  
  Ryohei Murata, 79, who now lives in Kyoto, received the document from his predecessor when he assumed the post of administrative vice foreign minister in July 1987.
  
  "I had heard that there was a secret agreement, but I first saw a Japanese document on it when I became administrative vice minister," Murata said in an interview with the Mainichi Shimbun.
  
  The Japanese government has denied that Tokyo ever reached a secret agreement with Washington to allow U.S. military vessels carrying nuclear arms to call at Japanese ports when the two countries revised their bilateral security treaty in 1960.
  
  Murata said his predecessor handed him an envelope containing the document when he took over, saying, "Please explain its contents to the minister."
  
  While he was in his post from July 1987 to August 1989, he explained the details of the secret agreement to two foreign ministers, Tadashi Kuranari and Sosuke Uno, who are now deceased, and handed the document over to his successor when he stepped down.
  
  When revising the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty, Tokyo and Washington agreed that the U.S. would seek prior consultations with Japan when it made major changes to the U.S. military's equipment and operations in Japan's territory. At the time, the two countries reached a secret accord that calls at Japanese ports and passage through Japan's territorial waters by U.S. military vessels carrying nuclear weapons would not be subject to prior consultations.
  
  The secret agreement surfaced in May 1981 when the Mainichi Shimbun reported that Edwin Oldfather Reischauer, who served as U.S. ambassador to Japan in the 1960s, admitted that U.S. military vessels carrying nuclear arms called at Japanese ports under a bilateral accord.
  
  Nevertheless, the Japanese government has denied ever having reached such a secret agreement. "We don't think the U.S. ever brought nuclear arms into Japan's territory as the country never sought prior consultations over the issue. We have no intention of asking the U.S. about the matter."
  
  Murata criticized the Japanese government's stance as "distortion." "I feel sad when I wonder how long it will maintain this stance."
  
  He urged Japan to admit the existence of the secret agreement. "The accord was reached during the Cold War era. Both Japan and the U.S. had their own circumstances and confidential information they had to protect. It's not something that should be criticized."
  
  He also said port calls and passage through Japan's territorial waters by U.S. vessels carrying nuclear arms shouldn't be covered by the Japanese government's three non-nuclear principles of which nuclear weapons must not be produced, possessed or enter Japan's territories.
  
  Moreover, Murata revealed that the ministry chose not to widen Japan's territorial waters in five straits -- including Soya, Tsugaru and Tsushima -- in order to ensure passage through these straits by U.S. vessels carrying nuclear arms, so as not constitute bringing nuclear weapons into Japan.
  
  "Japan could have widened it to 12 nautical miles but did not do so. I thought it was unreasonable, but I didn't say anything about it because I wasn't in charge of it," he said.
  
  Japan designated the width of its territorial waters in the five straits as three nautical miles under its 1977 Law on the Territorial Sea and the Contiguous Zone -- instead of 12 miles permitted under the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea.
  
  (Mainichi Japan) June 29, 2009


• Japan Post Holdings' board approves reappointment of Nishikawa as president
  A motion to reappoint nine board members of Japan Post Holdings Co., including president Yoshifumi Nishikawa, was approved at the company's regular shareholders' meeting on Monday.
  
  Following the meeting, the company filed a request for approval of the board's decision with Internal Affairs and Communications Minister Tsutomu Sato, and a formal decision to retain Nishikawa as president of the company was expected to be made later in the day.
  
  The shareholders' meeting was held at the headquarters of Japan Post Holdings in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward. Akio Nakamura, deputy head of the Ministry of Finance's Financial Bureau, attended the meeting on behalf of the government, the only shareholder in the company.
  
  Controversy had arisen over the reappointment of Nishikawa, with former Internal Affairs and Communications Minister Kunio Hatoyama resigning after he voiced strong opposition to Nishikawa remaining following Japan Post Holdings' controversial attempt to sell its Kampo no Yado inns.
  
  (Mainichi Japan) June 29, 2009