Japan's new prime minister

Updated
Saturday, June 5, 2010 10:04 pm TWN
By Kyoko Hasegawa ,AFP

In an early poll bounce for the DPJ after Hatoyama quit Wednesday, the party's approval ratings crept up to 27 percent in a survey released Friday.

The poll by the Asahi Shimbun daily indicated that backing for the opposition Liberal Democratic Party, the conservative force that long ruled Japan, stood at just 16 percent.

“Public and media support may temporarily rebound as has been the case with previous new governments,” politics professor Hiroshi Hirano of Tokyo's Gakushuin University told AFP.

“The key to Kan's government is whether the new cabinet can achieve something tangible during the remaining one month ahead of the upper house elections... Surely it will be a tough battle for the DPJ.”

The most tricky issue that brought down Hatoyama still lingers — angry opposition to an agreement with the United States to relocate an unpopular U.S. airbase within the southern island of Okinawa.

Hatoyama's downfall came when he backtracked on an election promise to move the base off Okinawa, a backflip that sparked outrage on Okinawa and led a pacifist party to desert the DPJ's ruling coalition last weekend.

Hirano said: “After watching Hatoyama's failure in pursuing his idealism on the Futenma issue, Kan, who originally may have had idealistic zeal as a politician, will probably take a pragmatic approach.”

The outgoing finance minister will also face a tough challenge in seeking to revitalise an economy that has been stuck in the doldrums for two decades, and is set to be overtaken as the world's number two by China this year. The DPJ last year made costly promises to turn Japan into a more “fraternal” society — but Kan has pointed with alarm at the country's public debt mountain, which is nearing 200 percent of gross domestic product.

“Kan will have to adjust the DPJ's campaign pledges to more realistic ones, for example by reviewing cash handouts to households with children,” said Mitsubishi Research Institute economist Yoko Takeda.

“Kan is seen as a budget hawk and expected to work toward reducing the fiscal debt,” she said.

“Japan can't afford a political vacuum, considering the volatile international financial markets,” Takeda added, pointing to China's rise and Greece's debt crisis.

Japan's opposition party elects new chief

Updated Sunday, May 17, 2009 9:19 am TWN,
By Shingo Ito, AFP

TOKYO -- Japan's scandal-shaken main opposition party Saturday chose political blue-blood Yukio Hatoyama as its leader ahead of a key election battle against Prime Minister Taro Aso this year.

Hatoyama beat his rival Katsuya Okada by 124 votes to 95 to become president of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ).

“I hereby promise to take the lead in achieving a power change,” he said after his election by party lawmakers, vowing to “create a politics in which citizens can take center stage.”

Hatoyama, 62, is a fourth-generation politician from one of Japan's most influential political dynasties. One of his grandfathers was a prime minister and another founded tyre maker Bridgestone.

Serving until now as the party's secretary-general, Hatoyama replaces Ichiro Ozawa, who resigned as party president Monday over a political donations scandal in which one of his top aides has been indicted.

Hatoyama, who was Ozawa's loyal right-hand man for three years, has said Ozawa will continue to play a key role in the party, but has denied he will serve as a “puppet” of the political heavyweight.

“With the victory of Hatoyama, the influence of Ozawa is likely to remain in the party to some extent,” said Tetsuro Kato, professor of politics at Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo.

“A key task for Hatoyama will be to rid the party of the image of Ozawa in time for the general election,” which must be called by September, he said.

Despite the donation scandal — in which a construction company allegedly gave illegal donations as it sought public works contracts in Ozawa's electoral district — the DPJ still enjoys strong support among many voters.

The DPJ hopes this year's general election will be their chance to end more than half a century of almost unbroken rule by the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) headed by Aso, who is also the grandson of a former premier.

Hatoyama has called on his party to revamp Japan's bureaucracy-led politics and to provide better support for people hit hard by the nation's worst recession since World War II amid the global economic downturn.

He has called for a reform of the pension system and help for struggling families, which he says can be financed by cutting wasteful government spending.

“Hatoyama won today, but it won't be easy for him to achieve a power change,” said Kato, of Hitotsubashi University, pointing out that Hatoyama has been vague so far on many policy points.”

“It is still unknown how Hatoyama wants to revamp the Japanese economy. He has yet to unveil his own manifesto. Whether or not he can win the general election is still not clear.”

Chinese Ships Survey Senkaku Islets

Photo: In this photo distributed by the Japan Coast Guard, the Chinese survey ship Haijian No. 46 (top photo) is seen cruising in waters about 6 kilometers west of in the Senkaku islets in the East China Sea on Monday morning December 8, 2008. Japan's coast guard is urging Chinese survey ships to leave waters near disputed islands in the East China Sea. The coast guard Monday said the maritime survey ships entered waters surrounding islands, known as the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in China, earlier in the day.










Associated Press

• Japan: Chinese ships intruded in disputed waters
  Dec 8 06:55 AM US/Eastern
  By SHINO YUASA, Associated Press Writer
  TOKYO (AP) - Two Chinese survey ships intruded on Japanese waters surrounding disputed islands in the East China Sea on Monday but retreated several hours after Tokyo protested to Beijing, Japanese officials said. continued ...

Bloomberg

• Japan Demands Chinese Ships Leave Disputed Waters
  Last Updated: December 8, 2008 03:51 EST
  By Takashi Hirokawa and Sachiko Sakamaki
  Dec. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Japan asked two Chinese research ships to leave disputed waters, the government’s top spokesman said today. continued ...

The China Post

• Kuomintang head Wu Poh-hsiung embarks on historic visit to Japan
  Updated Monday, December 8, 2008 9:36 am TWN, AFP
  TOKYO -- The chief of Taiwan’s ruling Kuomintang made a historic visit to Japan yesterday in a bid to repair ties frayed by tensions over disputed islets in the East China Sea. continued ...

dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH

• Japan protests against China entering disputed waters
  Posted : Mon, 08 Dec 2008 10:03:14 GMT
  Author : DPA
  Tokyo - Japan on Monday lodged a protest with the Chinese government, saying two Chinese ships which entered Japanese waters surrounding a group of disputed islands in the East China Sea had to withdraw immediately. The maritime survey ships entered the waters around the islands, which are known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, earlier Monday, the Kyodo News agency said. continued ...

Kyodo

• 2 Chinese ships leave Japan's territorial waters near disputed isles
  Dec 8 05:58 AM US/Eastern
  (AP) - NAHA, Japan, Dec. 8 (Kyodo) — Two Chinese survey ships entered Japanese territorial waters in the East China Sea near the Japanese-administered Senkaku islets claimed also by Taiwan and China on Monday morning before leaving them around 5:30 p.m., the Japan Coast Guard said. continued ...


• Japan urges Chinese ships to leave disputed waters
  Dec 8 04:35 AM US/Eastern
  By SHINO YUASA, Associated Press Writer
  TOKYO (AP) - Japan's coast guard urged Chinese survey ships to leave waters near disputed islands in the East China Sea on Monday, and the government lodged a protest with Beijing, officials said. continued ...


• 2 Chinese ships enter Japan's territorial waters near disputed isles
  Dec 8 03:29 AM US/Eastern
  (AP) - NAHA, Japan, Dec. 8 (Kyodo) — Two Chinese survey ships entered Japanese territorial waters in the East China Sea near the Japanese-administered Senkaku islets claimed also by Taiwan and China on Monday morning, the Japan Coast Guard said. continued ...

Reuters

• Japan protests over China ships near disputed isles
  Mon Dec 8, 2008 3:52pm IST
  TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan lodged a protest with China after two Chinese survey ships entered waters near disputed islands in the East China Sea, Japan's chief cabinet secretary said on Monday. continued ...

The Straits Times

• Chinese ships urged to leave
  Dec 8, 2008
  TOKYO - JAPAN protested on Monday after two Chinese marine survey ships entered what it considers its waters, with Tokyo's top government spokesman describing the incident as 'extremely regrettable'. continued ...

An end to the Tiaoyutai crisis?

Monday, June 23, 2008
By Joe Hung, Special to The China Post

Official Taipei is heaving a collective sigh of relief as, despite its flip-flop, what promised to be a Tiaoyutai crisis is coming to an abrupt end. The Japanese have officially apologized for a collision between their maritime safety frigate and a Taiwan leisure fishing boat, which sank off the Tiaoyutai Islands on June 10, and undertaken to pay reparations.

In a diplomatic melee over the incident, President Ma Ying-jeou came out to demand an open apology and compensation for the Lien Ho, the fishing boat whose skipper Ho Hung-yi was detained by Japanese maritime safety authorities for questioning as a defendant for two days. On Ma's demand, Ho was released. As the Japanese didn't offer the apology, a protest ship sailed for the disputed waters off the Tiaoyutais, over which Japan claims sovereignty, with a heavy National Coast Guard escort. Tokyo officially "regretted" their intrusion into the Japanese territorial waters. Koh Se-kai was fired as Taipei's de facto ambassador to Japan after he had been called back from Tokyo to report on the Tiaoyutai incident. Premier Liu Chao-schiuan was forced by jingoist lawmakers to reiterate what Ma said as a Tiaoyutai warrior in his youth. Ma said in the early 1970s he would go to war with Japan to defend the eight islets, known as the Senkaku Islands in Japanese.

Parliamentary hawks organized a voyage to the Tiaoyutais aboard a Navy Lafayette frigate, which was called off at the last moment. Thereupon Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda in Tokyo called for calm and declared that the incident should be dealt with rationally and cool-headedly, while Ma told the press in a tea reception in Taipei he fully agreed.

On Friday, Hitoshi Funamachi, Japan's deputy representative in Taipei, visited the Lien Ho skipper in Juifang to present a letter of apology from Hideo Nasu, commander of District 11 of the Japanese Maritime Safety Agency. Nasu, whose command at Naha supervises coast guard patrols of the Ryukyu or Okinawa Islands, offered an official apology to Ho and promised reparations. In the meantime, Tadashi Ikeda, Tokyo's representative or de facto ambassador in Taipei, called on Franscico Ou, minister of foreign affairs, to apologize for the incident and reiterate Japan's readiness for compensation.

It's the first apology Japan has ever offered for an untold number of skirmishes between Taiwan fishermen and Japanese coast guardsmen over Tiaoyutai waters, under which lie vast gas and oil resources waiting to be tapped. The Japanese never failed to arrest Taiwan fishermen and fined them for trespassing. A few fishing boats sank or were sunk. A Tiaoyutai warrior from Hong Kong died trying to land on the largest islet of the small archipelago. No apology was made.

The Japanese signed a fishery agreement in 1997 with China, which also claims sovereign status over what it calls the Diaoyutais (pinyin spelling of Tiaoyutais). The agreement makes the waters 12 miles off the Diaoyutais or Senkakus off-limits to fisheries. Taiwan isn't a signatory, of course, albeit those waters are a traditional fishing ground for its fishermen. Chinese fishermen haven't tried to reach as far as the Diaoyutais, while Okinawan fishermen were once forbidden by the Japanese to fish over the waters now under dispute. A Tokyo high court awarded the fishing rights to the prefecture of Taihoku (Taipei) after long litigation while Taiwan was under Japanese colonial rule from 1895 to 1945.

That is why Japan ignores Taiwan's sovereignty claim and has been patrolling the waters around the Senkakus as part of its territory in earnest since 1997. Taipei has acquiesced to Japanese control over the Tiaoyutais, agreeing to forbid Taiwan ships to enter the 12-mile off-limits zone. In an exclusive interview with the Okinawa Times on Sept. 24, 2002, former President Lee Teng-hui said the Senkakus belong to Japan, because China has never stationed any troops on the Diaoyutais. Asked about the dispute over fishing rights, Lee pointed out Taiwan fishermen were instigated by Chinese in Hong Kong to cause clashes over the islets and he had to order warships to "quash (Taiwanese) protests," while he was in office. Ho Hung-yi wasn't purposely entering that zone when the Japanese patrol ship rammed into and sank his fishing boat. As a matter of fact, the Lien Ho, which was carrying 13 deep-sea anglers, rightfully claimed an innocent passage, which the Japanese finally had to tacitly acknowledge.

Why, then, would the Japanese humble themselves this time?

For one thing, Japan doesn't want to further antagonize Taiwan, its friendliest of countries in Asia that is beginning rapprochement with China. Tokyo and Beijing struck a deal to jointly develop gas fields in the East China Sea, while Japan was still embroiled in the Tiaoyutai row. After four years of on-and-off talks, Asia's two largest economies agreed to share the potentially lucrative gas resources from an area that lies near islands which remain a focus of bitter dispute.

In the meantime, the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) and its Chinese counterpart Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) reached a tentative agreement to jointly develop gas and oil resources in the sea basin off Swatow in China and another closer to Taiwan. The Japanese do not want Taipei to cozy up with Beijing too much to the detriment of their enormous East China Sea interests. It is in Tokyo's interest to keep Taipei-Beijing relations in a hostile stalemate; and the Japanese know full well that Taiwan, if provoked by their intransigence over the Senkakus, may lean further to China to join in a united front against Japan. They realize that saber-rattling won't quell Taiwan's public uproar against the Japanese outrage over the Tiaoyutais and subjugate a so far sychophantically tame Taipei. The only option was to pocket their pride to save the situation.

Though favorable to Taiwan, this new turn in the situation does not strengthen Taipei's hands in talks on fishing rights over the disputed waters. Taiwan wants to sign a fishery agreement or arrangement with Japan to end its fishermen's predicament once and for all. Japan doesn't want an extra agreement. Nor does China, which considers Taiwan a renegade province to be forced back to its fold by force, if necessary. Moreover, the extra agreement means a weakening of Japan's claim of sovereignty over the Senkakus, which is of vital importance to the access to their undersea gas and oil supplies. China may not want fishing rights but is intent on tapping the huge energy reserves. Tokyo may agree to jointly develop them with China, but hates Taiwan cutting in for a share. Many a Tiaoyutai crisis lies in store for the new Kuomintang administration.

China, Taiwan should resolve issues peacefully: U.S. envoy

Wednesday, May 21, 2008
By Beryl Tung, The China Post

TOKYO, Japan -- The United States and Japan both hope Taiwan and China can resolve the issues between them in a peaceful way, U.S. Ambassador to Japan J. Thomas Schieffer said on Tuesday.

"Both governments have emphasized that the issues between China and Taiwan should be resolved peacefully. And both sides have said that neither China nor Taiwan should do anything to provoke the other into military action," Schieffer told a news conference for the international media in Tokyo.

"And I think that it's a wise policy," Schieffer continued. "It is one that gives us the greatest hope for both resolving issues and keeping peace in the neighborhood."

"No one will be served by someone trying to solve this problem by military means," he said.

Schieffer also said that Japan should increase its defense budget.

While China, Korea, Russia and the United States have increased their military budget considerably over the past ten years, defense spending in Japan is roughly the same as in 1998.

"We believe that Japan should consider the benefits of increasing its own defense spending to make a greater not lesser contribution to its own security," said Schieffer.

Japan's Ministry of Defense expects a budget of 4.74 trillion yen (US$46 billion; euro30 billion) this fiscal year through March 2009, down 0.8 percent from the previous year -- a trend Schieffer called "troubling."

Japan's 2007 defense white paper, released in July, expressed concerns about China's military buildup and said the balance of military power between Taiwan and China was shifting in Beijing's favor. Japan called for greater transparency from China on its defense capabilities.

Over the last decade China has increased military expenditures by an average of 14.2 percent annually, and South Korea's defense budget has grown 73 percent, said J. Thomas Schieffer, U.S. ambassador in Japan since 2005.

Schieffer emphasized the importance of the U.S.-Japan alliance, especially for regional security in Asia.

"Now, a different world order is emerging, but the strategic necessity of that alliance remains....because Japan and America in alliance is still the best formula for peace and stability in the Pacific."

The U.S. maintains about 50,000 troops in Japan, about half of whom are stationed in Okinawa.

The U.S.-Japan security alliance is based on an agreement signed in 1960 that obligates both countries to provide mutual military support in the event of an armed attack. However, the treaty takes into account Japan's constitutional restrictions that prohibit overseas deployment of its armed forces.

Schieffer also urged Japan, which is looking to buy new fighter jets, to choose planes and equipment that are compatible with U.S weapons systems. "The more joint operational we become, the better off we will be," he said.

Schieffer has been U.S. Ambassador to Japan since April 2005, and was previously U.S. Ambassador to Australia.

Most US F-15 fighters in Japan cleared to resume operations; 18 still grounded

Friday, January 11, 2008
AP

TOKYO -- Most of the U.S. F-15 fighter jets deployed to the Japanese island of Okinawa have been cleared to resume flying after being grounded for safety inspections following a crash in the U.S., officials said Friday.

The 57 jets were grounded by the U.S. Air Force for inspections after an F-15C crash in the U.S. state of Missouri in November.

Officials on Kadena Air Base, where the fighters are deployed, said 39 F-15s have been cleared and will resume flights starting Monday. Another 17 were awaiting the completion of checks and will remain on the ground, said base spokesman John Monroe.

In a statement Thursday, the base said Air Force maintenance experts and engineers discovered nine F-15s with cracks in their longerons, metal beams that run along the planes' fuselage.

Also, analysis showed about 40 percent of the F-15 fleet had longerons that did not meet the required thickness measurements specified in the aircraft manufacturer's blueprints. Officials were evaluating measurement data for 17 Kadena F-15s, and those aircraft will remain on the ground until further notice.

Another jet was grounded for unrelated maintanence, Monroe said.

"The F-15 is critical to the defense of Japan and for maintaining peace and stability in the region," Brig. Gen. Brett T. Williams said in the statement. "Our priority in resuming flight operations is to fill our operational taskings and requirements for the defense of Japan, and to do it safely."

The U.S. Air Force said more than 700 F-15s are in its worldwide inventory. F-15s fly from bases in the U.S., England, Japan and the Middle East.

The U.S. Air Force has been using the F-15 since the mid-1970s.

The U.S. military operates bases on Okinawa under a bilateral security pact. Okinawa is about 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) southwest of Tokyo. Japan's Air Self-Defense Force said inspections of its 200 or so F-15 jets had found no problems.


Click for Link
Most US F-15 fighters in Japan cleared to resume operations; 18 still grounded
(Mainichi Japan) January 11, 2008

Japan defense chief says US asking too much for Tokyo's share of military housing on Guam

The Associated Press
Published: December 10, 2007

TOKYO: Washington's estimate of the housing costs it wants Tokyo to shoulder for U.S. Marines after they are moved from southern Japan to Guam is too high, Japan's defense minister said Monday.

Japan has agreed to help move thousands of Marines from its southern island of Okinawa to the U.S. territory of Guam and provide new housing for them under an agreement last year to streamline American troops in Japan.

But Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba said Washington's proposal of 70 million yen (US$627,800; €428,600) per house is too high.

"Do we have to provide such extravagant houses by using our tax money? Obviously, it's too high," Ishiba told the upper house's audit committee. "We have to examine it closely."

Ishiba did not say what would be considered an appropriate level, but added that a similar house could be built for just over half that price in Okinawa.

Under last year's agreement, Japan is to shoulder about 60 percent of the estimated US$10 billion (€6.8 billion) needed to build houses and relocate 8,000 Marines to Guam, about 2,400 kilometers (1,500 miles) south of Tokyo in the Pacific. The Marines are part of the 50,000 troops currently stationed in Japan under a bilateral security pact.

The realignment plan also includes the relocation of a U.S. Marine Corps air station in Okinawa to a less crowded location on the island. Carrier-borne fighter jets from the U.S. Navy based near Tokyo also will be moved to southwestern Japan.

Many Okinawans complain about the noise and crime related to the heavy U.S. military presence there, but others say the troops benefit the economy in the prefecture, which has Japan's highest unemployment rate.

Okinawa is about 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) southwest of Tokyo.

International Herald Tribune

The China Post

Mainichi Daily News

EDITORIAL: Okinawans spurning Tokyo

Tuesday, October 9, 2007
The China Post news staff

Ten days ago, more than 116,000 Okinawan people protested in Ginowan, near Naha, against the Tokyo government's plan to revise history textbooks to say that thousands of Okinawans had committed suicide in the Japanese samurai tradition upon learning of the imminent American invasion at the end of World War II.

It was the biggest protest in Okinawa since it reverted to Japanese control in 1972, eclipsing a 1995 rally in which 85,000 protested the rape of a 12-year-old girl by three American servicemen. Okinawa today remains home to most of the American troops stationed in Japan.

The archipelago, traditionally called the Ryukyus, which suffered the only battle on Japanese soil involving civilians during the war, was an independent kingdom with its own culture and language until it was officially annexed by Japan in the late 19th century. During WWII, Japanese soldiers distrusted Okinawans and feared that they would act as spies for U.S. invaders.

After the Americans landed, Japanese soldiers expelled Okinawans from shelters and used them as human shields. Those who committed suicide were believed to be only in villages with Japanese soldiers; mass suicides did not take place where there were no soldiers. Okinawa's assembly and all its 41 local governments have passed resolutions demanding the textbook revisions be overturned. Octogenarians on islets where some of the largest mass suicides took place spoke out for the first time. Teachers began devoting extra hours to the mass suicides.

For at least the past decade, nationalist scholars and politicians, like former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, had fought to cleanse textbooks of passages on crimes committed by Japanese soldiers. The deletion of passages on wartime sex slaves or massacres has angered Asian nations in recent years; this is the first time that the government's whitewashing of the past has caused this kind of anger in Japan.

For the past quarter of a century, Japan's high school textbooks had included the historical fact that Okinawans had been coerced into mass suicides by Imperial Army soldiers.

But six months ago, the Education Ministry said that next year's textbooks would eliminate all references to Japan's soldiers. According to the revised passages, the Okinawans simply committed mass suicide by themselves.

This revision occurs at a particular juncture in Japan: the Defense Agency's status has just been elevated to a ministry, and a plan is afoot to drop pacifism from its Constitution.

Okinawa's uproar presents a serious challenge for the new government of Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, who needs Okinawa's consent to carry out the reconfiguration of United States military bases there.

Fukuda has pledged to seek a compromise on the new textbooks, which will be ready for publishers in November and introduced into classrooms with the start of the new school year next April.