Japan in U-turn on US marine base in Okinawa

Justin McCurry in Tokyo
guardian.co.uk,
Monday 24 May 2010 12.44 BST

Japan's prime minister blames rising tensions between North and South Korea for decision


Japan's prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama, said today that rising tensions in the Korean peninsula were behind his decision to keep a controversial US marine base on Okinawa, reneging on an election pledge to move it off the island.

Hatoyama said he would honour a 2006 agreement with the US to move Futenma base from its current location in an overcrowded city to an offshore site in a less populated part of Okinawa, despite strong local opposition.

After six months of searching for a new site in other parts of Japan, Hatoyama conceded that the Korean crisis, sparked by the March sinking of a South Korean naval vessel blamed on a North Korean torpedo, had underlined the importance of the US military presence.

Photo: Okinawans' anger about the US military presence on their island is still rife.

"I decided that it is of utmost importance that we place the Japan-US relationship on a solid footing of mutual trust, considering the situation on the Korean peninsula and in Asia," he said.

"I apologise from the bottom of my heart for the confusion I have caused the people of Okinawa."

The US had refused to budge from its insistence that the base, home to 2,000 marines, should stay on Okinawa, which it regards as the best location for troops who could be sent to intervene in a conflict on the Korean peninsula or between China and Taiwan.

Under the agreement, 8,000 US troops on Okinawa will be moved to the US Pacific territory of Guam by 2014.

The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, commended Hatoyama and described his change of heart as difficult but correct.

In an attempt to calm the anger among Okinawan residents, Hatoyama said attempts would be made to lessen the environmental impact of the offshore base. But local leaders described his volte-face as a betrayal. The mayor of Nago, the coastal town that will host the new base, described the plan as "absolutely unacceptable".

"I cannot help feeling angry as this is a betrayal of the people of Nago and Okinawa," Susumu Inamine told Hatoyama in a meeting yesterday.

Despite the agreement between Tokyo and Washington, some analysts believe the plan could still fail amid growing opposition on the island, which hosts about half of the 50,000 US troops in Japan.

Minoru Morita, a veteran political commentator, said Hatoyama's mishandling of the relocation had exposed his Democratic party as naive.

"The Okinawan people are outraged," he said. "They feel Hatoyama betrayed them. The Democrats didn't think through what they could change and what they couldn't change. The base issue is an international agreement. They are ignorant and irrational."

Hatoyama could pay a heavy political price for his perceived lack of leadership. The Social Democrats, a minor left-wing party, have threatened to leave his coalition government, while voters are expected to punish him in upper house elections in July.

Japan tries to loosen the US leash

Simon Tisdall
guardian.co.uk, Monday 10 August 2009 16.44 BST

There is talk of a new generation of Japanese politics ahead of the upcoming election – but will the US relax its embrace?

The opposition Democratic party's expected victory in Japan's 30 August general election is creating a new element of uncertainty in the Asia-Pacific region, already unsettled by North Korea's war drums and China's assertiveness. The ruling conservative Liberal Democratic party (LDP) has held power for 52 of the past 53 years. It is the political linchpin of the US-Japan alliance. Now, largely due to lamentable domestic policy failures, opinion polls suggest it is all but dead in the water.

The centre-left Democratic party of Japan (DPJ), ahead by up to 20 points in some surveys, is committed, on paper at least, to a radical reappraisal of Japan's postwar defence partnership with Washington. Its manifesto pledges to "re-examine the role of the US military in the security of the Asia-Pacific region and the significance of US bases in Japan". Questions have been raised about the continuing presence of roughly 50,000 American troops on Japanese soil and more broadly, about Japan's military support for US operations in Iraq and now in Afghanistan.

At the same time, DPJ leaders are advocating improved ties with former adversaries, notably China and South Korea, strained during the 2001-2006 premiership of Junichiro Koizumi. Party chief Yukio Hatoyama has vowed not to follow Koizumi in paying respects to Japan's war dead at the Yasukini shrine in Tokyo, seen in Beijing as a symbol of unrepentant Japanese militarism.

Speaking in Tokyo today at a Thomson Reuters conference, Katsuya Okada, the DPJ's second-in-command, said the party wanted an equal relationship with the Obama administration. "There are various issues of concern between Japan and the US. It is necessary … to work on changing systems based on trust," he said. Japan lacked independence, he complained. "If Japan just follows what the US says, then I think as a sovereign nation that is very pathetic."

Okada expressed impatience with the pace of international nuclear disarmament, always a sensitive issue in Japan. Although his party welcomed Barack Obama's call for a nuclear-free world, he suggested Japan should pursue its own disarmament and non-proliferation policies. These and other apparently game-changing DPJ positions have led to talk of a generational shift in Japanese politics, bringing to office leaders who have no personal memories, guilty or otherwise, of the war, and no particular reason to thank the US for the postwar alliance.

For all the chit-chat about mould-breaking, a sharp reality check may await the DPJ. Take the nuclear issue: as prime minister Taro Aso noted in Hiroshima last week, Japan continues to benefit from the US "nuclear umbrella" when it comes to threats from North Korea, just as during the cold war. While most Japanese supported the abolition of nuclear weapons, he said, such a development was unlikely in the foreseeable future, whatever the DPJ might do or say.

Despite its talk of Asian outreach, the DPJ has already confirmed it will adhere to Aso's tough line on North Korea's nukes and missiles and the long-running issue of Japanese citizens abducted by Pyongyang. It will also continue with a $3.1bn missile defence programme jointly developed with the US.

In a similarly realistic vein, the DPJ admitted this week that notwithstanding growing economic inter-dependence, China's rapidly rising military spending was a concern. But there was not much it could do about it."There is no option for us to be in a military conflict. We should not be in an arms race but rather aiming to reduce arms in the future," Okada said almost plaintively. Japan is currently struggling with its worst postwar recession while China is its top two-way trading partner and its biggest 2008 export market – after the US.

The DPJ reacted cautiously last week to a government defence review that recommended easing constitutional constraints to allow Japan's military to expand global co-operation with the US. In truth, its circumspection reflect splits within the party about how far to go in loosening the US leash – or whether to try at all.

Nor will the US voluntarily relax its close embrace, just because some new faces show up at Tokyo head office next month. According to Harvard professor Joseph Nye, Washington attaches high priority to its Japanese alliance, "a central feature of stability in east Asia". Shared concerns ranging from China to trans-national pandemics, terrorism and the threats posed by failed states would bind the US and Japan more closely than ever in the 21st century, he predicted.

It's a lesson other useful long-time US allies, such as Britain, have learned over the years. Whatever DPJ leaders may fondly think, there's no escaping America when it doesn't want to be escaped.

Japan looks to manga comics to rescue ailing economy

Justin McCurry in Tokyo
guardian.co.uk,
Friday 10 April 2009 15.24 BST

Exporting Japan's manga and anime heroes could be key to creating half a million jobs and overcoming downturn, says PM

While other countries bail out banks, slash interest rates and prop up struggling industries, Japan is pinning its hopes for economic recovery on a less likely source: manga comic books.

As part of 15 trillion yen of fresh stimulus measures unveiled today, Japan hopes to raise the percentage of its exports of "soft power" - manga, animated films, video games and pop music - from 2% of the total to 18% over the next decade, creating half a million jobs.

"Japanese content, such as anime and video games, and fashion draw attention from consumers around the world," the prime minister, Taro Aso - a self-confessed manga addict - told reporters this week as he waved copies of magazines from China and Taiwan featuring Japanese pop stars on their covers.

"Unfortunately, this soft power is not being linked to business overseas. By linking the popularity of Japan's soft power to business, I want to create a 20-30 trillion-yen market by 2020 and create 500,000 new jobs."

Cynics will view the manga drive as a crafty election ploy as Aso, who keeps a supply of his favourite titles on the back seat of his official car, attempts to build on a boost in his support following the North Korea's rocket launch and the arrest of a senior aide to the main opposition leader, Ichiro Ozawa.

Manga fans lined the streets to support Aso's bid for the Liberal Democratic party leadership last autumn, and novelty goods bearing his likeness continue to sell well in Tokyo's "otaku" (geek) district of Akihabara.

The cultural affairs agency has reportedly requested 12 billion yen to create a national centre for media art that would promote Japanese pop culture overseas. The manga genre encompasses every possible theme, from tales involving lovable characters for children, to historical and political themes, sports and pornography.

Many of the most popular titles are turned into hit TV series and films. Sazae-san, a comic strip about a typical Tokyo family that first appeared in 1946, moved to the small screen in 1969 to become the longest-running animated programme of all time. It still airs every Sunday evening.

"Manga used to be regarded as something for children until they were around 15," manga critic Haruyuki Nakano told Kyodo News last month on the 50th anniversary of two of Japan's pioneering weekly manga titles. "But baby boomers in postwar Japan kept reading their favorite manga even after they entered college and became adults. That helped make manga widespread in Japanese culture," Nakano said.

While translated Japanese manga are proving popular in the US market, sales at home have been hit by the spread of game consoles and online comics, and the dramatic growth of titles that can be read on mobile phone handsets.

The traditional manga market was worth just over 400 billion yen in 2007, down from around 580 billion yen a decade earlier, while sales of e-manga are forecast to rise to over 70 billion yen by 2012.

Japan funding scandal undermines attempt to unseat ruling party

Justin McCurry in Tokyo
guardian.co.uk,
Thursday 5 March 2009 12.01 GMT

Senior aide to opposition leader arrested on suspicion of receiving ¥21m payment from construction firm

A funding scandal today threatened to derail attempts to unseat Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic party (LDP) for only the second time in more than half a century, after allegations that a senior aide to the opposition leader accepted millions of yen in illegal donations.

Police yesterday raided the offices of Ichiro Ozawa, the leader of the Democratic party of Japan (DPJ), and arrested his secretary, Takanori Okubo, on suspicion of receiving ¥21m from Nishimatsu, a construction firm, between 2003 and 2006.

The alleged donations violate laws banning companies from bankrolling individual politicians.

Ozawa has been widely tipped to replace Japan's unpopular prime minister, Taro Aso, in a general election which must be held by the autumn.

Aso, whose finance minister resigned last month after appearing to be drunk at a G8 press conference, is battling plunging approval ratings amid mounting criticism of his handling of the economic crisis.

A recent opinion poll by the Mainichi newspaper put support for Aso at just 8%, while 25% of voters said they wanted Ozawa to be the country's next leader.

Ozawa, 66, denied the funding allegations and said he had no intention of resigning.

"I have done nothing to be ashamed of, and the actions of my secretary were carried out properly in accordance with the political funding law," he told reporters last night. "Therefore, it is not a matter of me doing this or that."

But the pressure on him to stand down before he does irreparable damage to his party was expected to intensify after reports today claimed that his support group, Rikuzankai, had received as much as ¥300m from Nishimatsu over 10 years.

The Kyodo news agency cited unnamed sources as saying that Nishimatsu gave Ozawa the money in the hope of securing contracts for public works projects in his political power base in northern Japan.

Though the allegations centre on his secretary, prosecutors may also question Ozawa, dealing a further blow to his reputation just months before polling day.

"This unprecedented investigation comes just as we are preparing for a lower house election," he said. "The authorities are using their power in a politically and legally unfair manner."

It is not clear how much political capital Aso will gain from Ozawa's predicament given that a wider investigation into political funding could reveal widespread abuse among MPs across the political spectrum.

But some analysts believe that even if Ozawa is exonerated, the political mud has already begun to stick.

Television news shows have focused on his past life as an LDP politician who rose through the party ranks as the protege of Kakuei Tanaka, a former prime minister who was arrested in 1976 and later convicted of taking bribes from the Lockheed aircraft company.

Ozawa was also close to Shin Kanemaru, one of the LDP's most influential postwar power brokers, who resigned in disgrace in 1992 after another bribery scandal.

Go Ito, a politics professor at Meiji University in Tokyo, said Ozawa should follow his mentor's example. "I think it's clear that Ozawa's secretary had a relationship with Nishimatsu that goes beyond what you would call appropriate," he said.

"The DPJ's reputation and policy platform is at stake, so the most efficient way to deal with this would be for him to go now."

Ozawa, a capricious character with a preference for backroom deals rather than open debate, has never enjoyed the full backing of his party, a broad coalition whose members range from centre-left liberals to rightwing hawks.

Potential successors include Yukio Hatoyama, the party's secretary general, who described the investigation as "extremely peculiar".

He said in a statement: "President Ozawa has long kept extremely detailed records of political donations, and has faithfully fulfilled his accountability obligations."

Obama, the Pacific president?

Fidel V Ramos guardian.co.uk
Sunday 8 February 2009 11.00 GMT

Asian leaders must put their own houses in order, but they need the US leader as a good neighbour, ready to lend a hand

Unlike his predecessor, President Barack Obama is popular from the Atlantic to the Pacific. He has reached out to the Muslim world and pledged to address the Israeli-Palestinian conflict without delay. The nations of Asia have a particular affection for him, owing to the years he spent as a child in Indonesia.

If Obama improves America's global standing with support from political heavyweights such as the vice-president, Joe Biden, secretary of state Hillary Clinton, defence secretary Bob Gates, national security adviser James Jones (a former Nato supreme commander) and secretary of veterans' affairs Eric Shinseki (a former US army chief), he should be able to ask more from America's allies, particularly for Nato to send more troops to Afghanistan. He will also be able to push Israel to reinvigorate the derailed Middle East peace process.

Although his national security team consists of people who largely supported the war in Iraq, Obama has made it clear that his agenda includes withdrawing troops from that country. International goodwill will probably be the key to his success, if not in re-establishing American hegemony, then at least in making America the "indispensable nation" once more.

Although Obama is likely to give priority in his diplomacy to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, he cannot take the Asia-Pacific region's stability for granted. The sources of uncertainty are many: tension between South and North Korea; anxiety over nuclear proliferation posed by co-operation between North Korea and Iran; managing the rise of China and India; and continued Islamist extremism on the Indian sub-continent, particularly Pakistan, as well as in southeast Asia, where al-Qaida has established a second front through Indonesia's Jemaah Islamiyah.

Vast changes in America's presence across the Asia-Pacific region are under way and are likely to continue. So far, none of these changes have unsettled the region. Substantial redeployments of US military forces and assets, triggered by the need for additional troops in Afghanistan and ongoing problems over the US-Japan status-of-forces agreement, are already taking place. Media reports indicate, for example, that nearly 25,000 US marines, soldiers, family members and civilian employees are to descend on the tiny island of Guam in the next five years to ease the over-concentration of US forces on the Japanese island of Okinawa without pulling back too far from the flashpoints of Taiwan and North Korea.

But the future of security in the Pacific should not be left to US decision-makers alone. Regional leaders must now develop their own strategy to transform Asia's many challenges into opportunities, with Obama playing the role of a "good neighbour" who expects other peoples to help themselves and put their own houses in order before turning to the US for assistance.

The Philippines is in an advantageous position to take advantage of the many diplomatic opportunities that will be generated by Obama's potential activism in the Pacific. To be sure, the country's "America" card – the result of the two countries' longstanding strategic relationship (I myself was educated at West Point and fought alongside US troops in the Korean war) – must be played carefully and not be taken for granted. But it offers the potential for a relationship of the sort that arises only between countries with deep and many-layered ties.

By strategising "out of the box" and finding ways to link Obama's Asian agenda with that of their own nations, Philippines President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and other Asian leaders will be able to truly make the Pacific the central focus of the Obama administration's diplomacy.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/feb/05/philippines-barackobama

Gaffe-prone Japanese PM offends country's 'doddering' pensioners

Justin McCurry in Tokyo
guardian.co.uk,
Thursday November 27 2008 11.16 GMT

Japan's outspoken prime minister, Taro Aso, has risked offending the country's 40m pensioners after he described them as tax burdens who should take better care of their health.

According to the minutes of a recent meeting of economic experts released today, Aso asked other panelists why he should continue to pay for medical treatment for people who happily go to seed in retirement.

"I see people aged 67 or 68 at class reunions who dodder around and are constantly going to the doctor," he said. "Why should I have to pay for people who just eat and drink and make no effort?"

The 68-year-old, whose family-run business has made him one of Japan's wealthiest politicians, suggested that his compatriots follow his example and take a regular early-morning constitutional. "I walk every day and do other things, but I'm paying more in taxes," he said.

Aso, a loquacious politician with a knack for verbal blunders, vowed to put his gaffe-prone past behind him when he became leader two months ago.

He held out until last week, when he unleashed a stinging verbal assault on doctors, many of whom, he said, "lacked common sense".

Aso appeared to have weathered the fallout from that gaffe, but he is unlikely to be allowed to forget his latest outburst.

For someone who successfully tapped into the cultural zeitgeist with his very public love of manga comics, Aso seems to have mislaid his populist antennae.

Upsetting the over 65s is a risk for any politician, let alone the leader of a country with the fastest-ageing population on earth.

His government, trailing in the opinion polls, must call a general election by next September, one that many expect to be dominated by mounting economic problems, welfare reforms and how to fund the creaking state pension system.

Aso has also failed to resolve an administrative foul up, admittedly made under a previous Liberal Democratic party administration, which resulted in the loss of millions of pension premium payments.

He later insisted he had not meant to characterise elderly people suffering from illnesses as feckless parasites. "If I hurt the feelings of anyone who is ill, then I am sorry," he told reporters.

Aso's opponents pounced on the remarks as proof of his unsuitability for high office. "I wonder whether a person like that is really fit to be prime minister," Yukio Hatoyama, a senior opposition MP, said.

The government's chief spokesman, Takeo Kawamura, said Aso had only been trying to highlight the importance of preventing lifestyle-related diseases as part of government efforts to rein in soaring medical costs.

But Kawamura conceded that smoothing his boss's rougher edges was occupying an inordinate amount of his time. "It would be better if I did not have to explain [his remarks]," he said.

"But it's part of his character and there may be more to come. It is my job to try and make everyone understand what he really meant."

Previous Aso gems include a joke about Alzheimer's patients and his desire for Japan to become the kind of country in which "the richest Jews would want to live."

He has also likened Japan's biggest opposition party to the Nazis, praised Japan's colonial rule in Taiwan and told US diplomats they would never be trusted in Middle East peace negations because they have "blue eyes and blond hair."

No more them and us, with a farewell to American supremacy

Julian Borger
guardian.co.uk, Friday November 21 2008 00.01 GMT
The Guardian, Friday November 21 2008

China to be biggest beneficiary of change, with wealth moving from west to east and nations competing for scarce resources

The view of the world presented by the National Intelligence Council (NIC) lacks the black and white, us and them, good and evil clarity of the Bush years. It is a place of competing centres of power, scarce resources and countless potential shocks to the system.

Most importantly, in a conclusion likely to be contested by Washington's remaining neo-conservatives, the NIC report declares the end of American supremacy.

"A Less Dominant Power"

"By 2025 the international system will be a global multipolar one with gaps in national power continuing to narrow between developed and developing countries," says the NIC report, entitled A Transformed World.

That is a dramatic shift away from the "unipolar moment" the US was said to enjoy after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the dissolution of the Soviet Union. That moment has now passed, the NIC concludes. Barack Obama's Democrats claim it was squandered by the hubris of the Bush administration. But whatever the cause, they are stuck with the consequences.

America's loss of clout relative to the rest of the world will be military as well as economic. The US may continue to field the world's most formidable military force in 2025, but the NIC warns future commanders in chief that "advances by others in science and technology, expanded adoption of irregular warfare tactics by both state and non-state actors, proliferation of long-range precision weapons, and growing use of cyber warfare attacks increasingly will constrict US freedom of action".

The rise of China

The biggest winner in the coming multipolar age will be China, according to the NIC report.

"China is poised to have more impact on the world over the next 20 years than any other country," it predicts. On present trends China will have the world's second largest economy by 2025, and could well be the largest importer of natural resources and the biggest polluter. It will be a leading military power, with a considerable navy to protect the sea lanes that deliver its raw materials, and at the same time wield hi-tech asymmetric tools.

A US congressional panel claimed on Wednesday night that China was already practising its cyber warfare skills.

The triumph of the western democratic model in doubt

The shift from a unipolar world to one contested by several global powers has taken the form of a transfer of wealth from west to east that is unprecedented in its scale and speed, the NIC says. That transfer has been driven by high oil prices which have enriched producers in the Gulf and Russia, and the relentless drift of manufacturing to the low-wage economies of China and the rest of Asia.

That eastward movement has also entailed a shift in the world economy's centre of gravity from free-market capitalism to state-run structures. "For the most part, China, India and Russia are not following the western liberal model for self-development but instead are using a different model, 'state capitalism'," the report says.

In a straight repudiation of the neo-conservative creed, it states there is nothing "pre-ordained" about the advance of western democracy, at least in the medium term. In the long run, it suggests that once states such as China and Russia can no longer meet the expectations of their middle classes, the push for democracy might gather strength, but so might the drift towards nationalism and xenophobia.

State collapse and the failure of international institutions

The NIC report predicts that there will be more Somalias - failed and lawless states. As power flows between nations, there will be another shift in some parts of the world: from the state to "nonstate actors" such as corporations, tribes, religious groups and criminal gangs.

"Several countries could even be 'taken over' and run by criminal networks. In areas of Africa or south Asia, states as we know them might wither away, owing to the inability of governments to provide for basic needs, including security," the report warns.

Pulled apart by conflicts over increasingly scarce water, food and fuel, states will begin to implode, and the international organisations such as the UN that are supposed to act as referees do not seem to be up to the job of dealing with this new world.

"Global institutions that could help the world deal with these transnational issues and, more generally, mitigate the risks of rapid change appear incapable of rising to the challenges without concerted efforts from their leaders," the NIC says.

Obama wants to renew the push for UN reform to make it more relevant to the 21st century, but the experience of earlier would-be reformers suggests that the organisation's institutional inertia is formidable.

New conflicts driven by climate change and scarcity

The report envisages the return of a type of conflict "we have not seen for a while": the battle over resources. As energy supplies are perceived to be more endangered, states could go to war in an attempt to secure exclusive access. One possibility raised by the NIC is a conflict between China and India, two fast-growing economies competing for finite raw materials and energy. Lack of water and declining crops caused by global warming can also fuel conflicts within weakening states in Africa. In that sense Darfur, where nomads and farmers have clashed over resources, could be a sign of things to come.

A new arms race in the Middle East

The NIC does not believe Iran's acquisition of nuclear weapons is inevitable, but the perception that the Islamic Republic is getting close to acquiring the bomb could lead other Middle East states to pursue their own nuclear ambitions, sparking a dangerous arms race.

The mostly stable mutual deterrent relationship that kept the cold war cold may not work in the Middle East, the report warns.

"Episodes of low-intensity conflict taking place under a nuclear umbrella could lead to an unintended escalation and broader conflict if clear red lines between those states involved are not well established," it says.

Demographics and the ageing of the west

Underlying the eastward shift of power is the ageing of the west. The world's population is expected to grow from 6.8 billion to 8 billion in 2025, and almost all that growth will take place in Asia, Africa and Latin America, with only 3% in the west.

The US, with its high rate of immigration, will be a partial exception, but the greying of Europe and Japan will increasingly hobble countries' economies, as fewer and fewer working-age adults support the massed ranks of pensioners.

"By 2010 there will be about one senior for every four working age people in the developed word. By 2025 this ratio will have climbed to one to three or possibly higher," the report says.

By contrast, "youth bulges" in the nations of Africa's Mahgreb region, Iran and Lebanon will mature into "worker bulges" before dissipating rapidly, giving those countries some added economic propulsion.

In troubled corners of the world such as the West Bank and Gaza, Iraq, Yemen and Saudi Arabia, the youth bulges are expected to persist, along with high unemployment, and more "volatility and violence".

The most powerful economic regions and how their ranking could change

2005

1 US
2 Europe
3 China
4 India
5 Japan
6 Russia
7 Brazil

2025

1 US
2 China
3 Europe
4 India
5 Japan
6 Russia
7 Brazil

Tokyo to sack defence chief for denying Japan's wartime acts

Justin McCurry in Tokyo
guardian.co.uk,
Saturday November 1 2008 00.01 GMT

US President Franklin Roosevelt -accused by Japan's air force chief Toshio Tamogami of having drawn Japan into the war. Photograph: Corbis

The chief of staff of Japan's air force is to be sacked after he claimed the country had been drawn into the second world war by the US and denied it had been an aggressor during its occupations of the Asian mainland.

In an online essay entitled Was Japan an Aggressor Nation? General Toshio Tamogami yesterday claimed that Japan had been provoked by the then US president, Franklin D Roosevelt, and that many of Japan's wartime victims took "a positive view" of its actions.

The claims drew a swift rebuke from politicians. The defence minister, Yasukazu Hamada, said he would dismiss the general immediately. "I think it is improper of the air force chief of staff to publicly state a view that clearly differs from the that of the government," he told reporters. "It is inappropriate for him to remain in this position."

The prime minister, Taro Aso, a nationalist who has upset Japan's neighbours with ill-judged comments about the war, described Tamogami's views as "inappropriate, even if they were made in a personal capacity".

In the essay, which is likely to spark outrage in China and South Korea, Tamogami wrote: "Even now there are many people who think that our country's aggression caused unbearable suffering to the countries of Asia during the Great East Asia War." Japanese nationalists use the term the Great East Asia War to support their view that Japan entered the conflict to free Asian countries from western colonialism.

"But we need to realise that many Asian countries take a positive view of the [war]. It is certainly a false accusation to say that our country was an aggressor," he wrote.

He said the Korean peninsula had been "prosperous and safe" under Japan's 1910-1945 occupation and that Roosevelt had "trapped" Japan into attacking Pearl Harbour in December 1941. He went on to accuse Roosevelt of being a puppet of the Comintern, the international communist movement founded in Moscow in 1919.

Tamogami, who did not seek the defence ministry's permission to submit the essay, called for Japan to reclaim its "glorious history". He said: "A nation that denies its own history is destined to pursue a path of decline."

He shares the view of many neo-nationalists that the Allied war crimes tribunals - which sent several Japanese leaders to the gallows - were a farce.

But it was his description of Japan as victim rather than aggressor that made his position untenable.

Japanese leaders, regardless of their personal views, have repeated an official apology to the country's wartime victims issued by the then prime minister, Tomiichi Murayama, in 1995. Aso, too, has said he will stand by Murayama's apology.

Though an outspoken critic of China's military spending, Aso has attempted to continue the thaw in relations between Tokyo and Beijing.

Japan's air force chief faces sack over second world war comments

Justin McCurry in Tokyo
guardian.co.uk,
Friday October 31 2008 17.13 GMT

The chief of staff of Japan's air force is to be sacked after he claimed the country had been drawn into the second world war by the US and denied it had been an aggressor during its occupations of the Asian mainland.

In an essay entitled "Was Japan an Aggressor Nation?" General Toshio Tamogami claimed that Japan had been provoked by the then US president, Franklin D Roosevelt, and that many of Japan's wartime victims took "a positive view" of its actions.

The claims, made today in an online essay, drew a swift rebuke from senior politicians.

The defence minister, Yasukazu Hamada, said he would dismiss the general immediately. "I think it is improper of the air force chief of staff to publicly state a view that clearly differs from the that of the government," he told reporters.

"It is inappropriate for him to remain in this position and I will swiftly dismiss him."

The prime minister, Taro Aso, a nationalist who has upset Japan's neighbours with ill-judged comments about the war, described Tamogami's views as "inappropriate, even if they were made in a personal capacity".

In the essay, which is likely to spark outrage in China and South Korea, Tamogami wrote: "Even now there are many people who think that out country's aggression caused unbearable suffering to the country's of Asia during the Great East Asia War," he said.

Japanese nationalists use the term the Great East Asia War to support their view that Japan entered the conflict to free Asian countries from western colonialism.

"But we need to realise that many Asian countries take a positive view of the [war]. It is certainly a false accusation to say that our country was an aggressor."

Tamogami, who took up the post in March 2007, called for Japan to reclaim its "glorious history". He said: "A nation that denies its own history is destined to pursue a path of decline."

He said the Korean peninsula had been "prosperous and safe" under Japan's 1910-1945 occupation and that Roosevelt had "trapped" Japan into attacking Pearl Harbour in December 1941. He went on to accuse the then US leader of being a puppet of the Comintern, the international communist movement founded in Moscow in 1919.

Tamogami, who did not seek the defence ministry's permission to submit the essay, also shares the view of many neo-nationalists that the Allied war crimes tribunals - which sent several Japanese leaders to the gallows for war crimes - were a farce.

But it was his description of Japan as victim, rather than aggressor, that made his position untenable.

Japanese leaders, regardless of their personal views, have repeated an official apology to the country's wartime victims issued by the then prime minister, Tomiichi Murayama, in 1995. Aso, too, has said he will stand by Murayama's apology.

Though an outspoken critic of China's military spending, Aso has attempted to continue the thaw in relations between Tokyo and Beijing since taking office in September.

Kanikosen (Factory Ship) and the Japanese Communist Party (JCP)

Telegraph.co.uk

• Japan's young turn to Communist Party as they decide capitalism has let them down
  Last Updated: 9:19AM BST 18 Oct 2008
  With its gleaming designer stores, the world's second largest economy and an insatiable appetite for luxury labels, Japan has long been regarded as the land of the rising capitalist.
  By Danielle Demetriou in Tokyo
  But a wave of discontent among its younger workers is fuelling a change in the nation's political landscape: communism is suddenly back in fashion. continued ...


• The strange growth of Communist Japan
  Last Updated: 9:19AM BST 18 Oct 2008
  Red has not always been a fashionable hue in Japan's political spectrum.
  By Danielle Demetriou
  It was in 1922 that the Japanese Communist Party was founded as an underground political association. continued ...

The Japan Times

• Temps: Product of a broken labor system
  Friday, Oct. 17, 2008
  Insecure life of low pay, poor job conditions, threat of layoffs
  By NATSUKO FUKUE. Staff writer
  Natsumi Maeda, a 26-year-old day laborer, says she worked at more than 50 companies in the last year and a half.
  "I've come to realize companies treat day laborers as a disposable workforce," she said with a sigh. continued ...


• 1920s proletarian novel strikes chord with young underemployed
  Friday, July 18, 2008
  By KISAKU SENO, Kyodo News
  A book released nearly 80 years ago and considered a representative piece of proletarian literature is apparently striking a chord with young part-time workers amid growing income disparities and poverty in Japan. continued ...

Japan Probe

• 79-year-old Marxist novel becomes bestseller
  August 23rd, 2008 by James
  The Guardian reports that a Kanikosen (Factory Ship) 79-year-old novel about exploited workers has become popular in today’s Japan: continued ...

Guardian

• Japan: Marxist book turns bestseller 79 years on
  Thursday August 21 2008
  Justin McCurry, The Guardian
  A 79-year-old tale of rebellion among a fishing boat crew has become an unlikely summer hit among young Japanese people facing economic decline and rising poverty. Sales of Kani Kosen (The Crab Ship) have soared, keeping it at or near the top of bestseller lists since May, an unheard of achievement for such an earnest work. continued ...

Japan Navigator

• Why Japan’s temp workers now read “The Factory Ship” (Kanikosen)
  Jul 4th, 2008
  The last few weeks, in bookshops here in Japan, my eye was struck by stacks of red-covered paperbacks, piled up high in the bestseller section. On closer inspection, the title of those books turned out to be Kanikosen (“The Factory Ship”), what I remembered from Donald Keene’s monumental history of Japanese modern literature Dawn to the West as a “proletarian” novel from 80 years ago… Why the sudden popularity of this book? I wondered. continued ...

SeekJapan

• Kanikosen: a proletarian literature classic comes back to life
  Tuesday, May 20, 2008
  By Matthew Ward | Tuesday, May 20, 2008
  Go into a Japanese bookstore these days, and chances are you'll see a little book with a black ship silhouetted against a red sky on its cover, prominently displayed next to other recent bestsellers. The book in question is called “Kanikosen,” written by the left-wing author Takiji Kobayashi, and, oddly enough, it was first published way back in 1929. The book's title translates fairly literally as “Crab Factory Ship,” but I've also seen it translated as “The Cannery Boat.” It tells the story of a group of laborers struggling against brutal working conditions abroad a Japanese crab processing ship near Kamchatka, Russia. It is kind of like a Japanese version of “The Jungle” or “The Grapes of Wrath”; a story of proletariat workers being exploited and finally waking up and banding together against their oppressors. It has gotten a lot of press recently, for making a surprising comeback among young Japanese. continued ...

Japan dismisses US bank bail-out as 'insufficient'

Associated Press

• Japan's PM says US bank bailout is 'insufficient'
  October 16, 2008
  TOKYO (AP) — Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso said Thursday the U.S. bank bailout is "insufficient" and is contributing to the renewed plunge in global stock markets. continued ...

Financial Times

• Who’s that Aso? Japan’s new PM hits US plan
  Thursday, October 16th, 2008 at 5:25
  The US government’s plan to invest $250bn in banks won’t stop stock prices from falling because investors doubt the measure is sufficient, Japanese prime minister Taro Aso said in parliament on Thursday, as Asian stocks and US futures fell on concerns that deteriorating earnings will overshadow global plans to shore up banks, reports Bloomberg. “I have a feeling stock prices may not have hit bottom because nobody believes the $250bn plan will stop the decline,'’ Aso said in response to a lawmaker’s question. continued ...

Guardian

• Japan dismisses US bank bail-out as 'insufficient'
  guardian.co.uk, Thursday October 16 2008 09.09 BST
  Justin McCurry in Tokyo
  Japan's prime minister, Taro Aso, today dismissed the US bank bail-out as "insufficient", in the first real sign of a split among the world's richest countries on how to address the credit crunch and looming global recession. continued ...

Reuters

• Japan PM: Markets feel U.S. bank plan insufficient
  Wed Oct 15, 2008 9:58pm EDT
  TOKYO, Oct 16 (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso said on Thursday that share price falls show that markets believe the U.S. bank bailout plan may not be enough to fix the financial crisis. continued ...

Japan dismisses US bank bail-out as 'insufficient'

Justin McCurry in Tokyo
guardian.co.uk,
Thursday October 16 2008 09.09 BST

• Nikkei closes down 11.4%
• Biggest single-day drop since October 1987

Japan's prime minister, Taro Aso, today dismissed the US bank bail-out as "insufficient", in the first real sign of a split among the world's richest countries on how to address the credit crunch and looming global recession.

"It was insufficient, and so the market is falling rapidly again," Aso said, as the Nikkei benchmark index plunged over 11%, wiping out gains made earlier in the week.

The Nikkei 225 plummeted 1089 points, or 11.4%, to close at 8458, its biggest single-day drop since the stockmarket crash of October 1987. The broader Topix index lost 9.5% to end on 864.

On Tuesday the Nikkei had leaped by almost 10% as investors reacted positively to government rescue packages in Europe and the decision by the US president, George Bush, to set aside $250bn (£145bn) of a $700bn bailout to buy shares in stricken US banks.

Today, however, the implacable normality of recent weeks returned, with markets across Asia tumbling quickly after a dramatic overnight fall on Wall Street and the release of data suggesting rough times ahead for the US economy at large.

The Dow Jones industrial average shed 733 points, or 7.8%, on Wednesday - its steepest drop since the week following Black Monday in 1987 and all but wiping out the dramatic gains seen earlier this week.

Statistics from the US Federal Reserve showed economic activity was weakening across the board, with consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of US economic activity, slumping in most areas covered by the Fed survey.

The 1.2% drop in US retail sales last month was the biggest in the years and almost double the 0.7% decline analysts had expected.

"The massive sell-off on Wall Street triggered another selling in Tokyo," said Kazuki Miyazawa, market analyst at Daiwa Securities SMBC. "But what really depressed the US and Japanese markets is growing fears of a global recession."

Though broadly supportive of the measures agreed by the US Congress earlier this month, Aso told MPs more action was needed, but did not elaborate.

Japan's banks have emerged largely unscathed from the credit crisis afflicting those in the US and Europe, but Tokyo has been stung into action by mounting stock market losses and the failure last week of Yamato Life Insurance, the first Japanese victim of the US mortgage crisis.

This week Japan announced a raft of measures to keep its smaller institutions afloat, including the possibility of injecting public funds into regional banks for the first time since the country's banking sector emerged from its own crisis several years ago.

On Tuesday Japan said it would relax restrictions on listed firms buying back their own shares and on buying stock during late trading in an attempt to support the stockmarket.

It has also pledged to contribute to coordinated action, possibly to include dipping into its $950bn in foreign reserves - second only to China's $1.9 trillion - to ease the flow of credit or take stakes in struggling banks around the world.

Last week the finance minister, Shoichi Nakagawa, raised the possibility that Japan would make a significant contribution to any rescue plan agreed by the International Monetary Fund.

Today Tokyo moved a step closer to passing a ¥1.8tn (£10bn) stimulus package aimed mainly at small and medium-sized firms.

Major Japanese exporters and financial firms were again among the biggest losers as the Nikkei headed for another day of record losses.

Toyota lost 9.3% to ¥3,310, while Honda dropped 10.2% to ¥2,115 and Sony by 12.9% to ¥2,320.

Mizuho, Japan's second biggest banking group, lost 12.7% and the country's largest brokerage, Nomura Holdings, shed 14%.

Elsewhere in the Asia-Pacific, Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped more than 6%. Indices in Australia, South Korea and Singapore suffered similarly dramatic falls.

Just two of the 19 dishes on the dinner menu at the G8 food shortages summit

Patrick Wintour, Larry Elliott and Patrick Barkham
The Guardian,
Tuesday July 8 2008

As the food crisis began to bite, the rumblings of discontent grew louder. Finally, after a day of discussing food shortages and soaring prices, the famished stomachs of the G8 leaders could bear it no longer.

The most powerful bellies in the world were last night compelled to stave off the great Hokkaido Hunger by fortifying themselves with an eight-course, 19-dish dinner prepared by 25 chefs. This multi-pronged attack was launched after earlier emergency lunch measures - four courses washed down with Château-Grillet 2005 - had failed to quell appetites enlarged by agonising over feeding the world's poor.

The G8 gathering had been seen as a "world food shortages summit" as leaders sought to combat spiralling prices of basic foodstuffs in the developed world, and starvation in the developing world.

But not since Marie Antoinette was supposed to have leaned from a Versailles palace window and suggested that the breadless peasants eat cake can leaders have demonstrated such insensitivity to daily hardship than at the luxury Windsor hotel on the Japanese island of Hokkaido.

After discussing famine in Africa, the peckish politicians and five spouses took on four bite-sized amuse-bouche to tickle their palates. The price of staple foods may be soaring, but thankfully caviar and sea urchin are within the purchasing power of leaders and their taxpayers - the amuse-bouche featured corn stuffed with caviar, smoked salmon and sea urchin, hot onion tart and winter lily bulb.

Guests at the summit, which is costing £238m, were then able to pick items from a tray modelled on a fan and decorated with bamboo grasses, including diced fatty tuna fish, avocado and jellied soy sauce, and pickled conger eel with soy sauce.

Hairy crab Kegani bisque-style soup was another treat in a meal prepared by the Michelin-starred chef Katsuhiro Nakamura, the grand chef at Hotel Metropolitan Edmont in Tokyo, alongside salt-grilled bighand thornyhead (a small, red Pacific fish) with a vinegary water pepper sauce.

They have told their people to tighten their belts for lean times ahead, but you feared for presidential and prime ministerial girdles after the chance to tuck into further dishes including milk-fed lamb, roasted lamb with cepes, and black truffle with emulsion sauce. Finally there was a "fantasy" dessert, a special cheese selection accompanied by lavender honey and caramelised nuts, while coffee came with candied fruits and vegetables.

Leaders cleverly skated around global water shortages by choosing from five different wines and liqueurs.

Earlier, the heads of state had restricted themselves to a light lunch of asparagus and truffle soup, crab and supreme of chicken served with nuts and beetroot foam, followed by a cheese selection, peach compote, milk ice-cream and coffee with petits fours.

Fresh from instructing his population to waste less food, it can only be hoped that Gordon Brown polished off every single morsel on his plate.

Andrew Mitchell, the shadow secretary of state for international development, said: "The G8 have made a bad start to their summit, with excessive cost and lavish consumption. Surely it is not unreasonable for each leader to give a guarantee that they will stand by their solemn pledges of three years ago at Gleneagles to help the world's poor. All of us are watching, waiting and listening."

G8 leaders feast at world's top table

Patrick Wintour, Larry Elliott and Patrick Barkham
guardian.co.uk,
Monday July 07 2008 15:45 BST

After a day spent discussing food shortages, the world's most powerful leaders sat down to a lavish eight course meal

As the food crisis began to bite, the rumblings of discontent grew louder - and finally, after a day of discussing food shortages and soaring prices, the famished stomachs of the G8 leaders could bear it no longer.

The most powerful stomachs in the world were today compelled to stave off the great Hokkaido Hunger by lining themselves with an eight course dinner prepared by 25 chefs.

This multi-pronged attack on global leadership pangs was launched only hours after a not inconsiderable lunch - four courses, washed down with Chateau Grillet 2005 — which had clearly fully failed to quell appetites possibly enlarged by agonising over the starving citizens of the world.

The G8 gathering has been described by some as a "world food shortages summit" as leaders seek to combat spiralling prices of basic foodstuffs in the developed world and starvation in the developing world.

But perhaps not since Marie Antoinette was supposed to have leaned from a Versailles palace window and suggested that her breadless peasants eat cake can leaders have demonstrated such insensitivity to daily hardship than at the luxury Windsor Hotel on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido.

Gordon Brown, who had earlier called on Britons to waste less food, had been spending the day talking about the famine in Africa, among other subjects.

He then joined the other politicians, and five of their spouses, at the social dinner, which began with four bite-sized amuse bouche, featuring corn stuffed with caviar, smoked salmon and sea urchin, hot onion tart and winter lily bulb.

Guests at the summit, which is costing £238m, were then able to pick items from a tray modelled on a folding fan and decorated with bamboo grasses, including diced fatty flesh of tuna fish, avocado and jellied soy sauce and Japanese herb "shisho".

Hairy crab Kegani bisque-style soup was another treat in a meal prepared by the Michelin starred chef Katsuhiro Nakamura, the grand chef at Hotel Metropolitan Edmont in Tokyo, alongside salt-grilled bighand thornyhead, a small, red Pacific fish, with a vinegary water pepper sauce.

The leaders have told their people to tighten their belts for lean times ahead, but you feared for presidential and prime ministerial girdles after the chance to tuck into further dishes including milk-fed lamb, roasted lamb with cèpes and black truffle with something called emulsion sauce.

Finally, there was a "fantasy" dessert, a special cheese selection accompanied by lavender honey and caramelised nuts, while coffee came with candied fruits and vegetables.

The leaders, also troubled by global water shortages, could choose from five different wines and liqueurs, including two brought from France.

Earlier, lunch had included asparagus and truffle soup, crab and supreme of chicken served with nuts and beetroot foam, followed by a special cheese selection, peach compote milk ice cream and coffee served with petits fours.

"The G8 have made a bad start to their summit, with excessive cost and lavish consumption," Andrew Mitchell, the shadow secretary of state for international development, said.

"Surely it is not unreasonable for each leader to give a guarantee that they will stand by their solemn pledges of three years ago ... to help the world's poor. All of us are watching, waiting and listening."

US navy's comic answer to nuclear warship fears

Midday BST

* Justin McCurry in Tokyo
* Thursday June 5 2008

The US navy will distribute 26,000 copies of Manga CVN73 to children and young residents of Yokosuka

The US navy is pinning its hopes of winning support for the forthcoming deployment in Japan of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS George Washington on the fictional Japanese-American hero of a new comic about life as a US serviceman.

Photo: US navy manga comic

The navy will distribute 26,000 copies of Manga CVN73, named after the George Washington's hull number, to children and young residents of Yokosuka, a US naval base south of Tokyo where the ship will be based from August.

Other copies will be available in Akihabara, a district of Tokyo popular with comic enthusiasts, and a downloadable version will appear on the US navy's website.

The navy hopes the 200-page book, with its wholly positive take on life in the services, will dampen opposition to the George Washington's deployment amid protests by Yokosuka residents.

Though nuclear-powered US ships have made hundreds of visits to Japan over the past 25 years, the ship will be the first piece of nuclear military hardware to be permanently stationed there.

Local residents have twice failed to persuade the Yokosuka assembly to hold a referendum on the George Washington's deployment, despite collecting 48,000 signatures in support.

The ship will arrive in August as a replacement for the USS Kitty Hawk, the US navy's only conventionally powered carrier, which left Japan last month at the end of a 10-year mission. The 47-year-old vessel will be decommissioned next year.

Opponents say the 102,000-tonne George Washington, the centerpiece of the US navy's 7th fleet, poses a threat to safety and the local fishing industry.

Safety concerns grew after a fire broke out on the ship late last month, leaving two crew members with minor burns and another 23 needing treatment for heat stress.

The commander of the US navy in Japan, Rear Admiral James Kelly, said the fire may delay the ship's deployment but dismissed concerns about its safety.

"This is not something for the citizens of Yokosuka to worry about," he told reporters after the fire, adding that there was "nothing wrong with the nuclear power plant or major engineering systems".

The comic, produced by two Japanese cartoonists commissioned by the navy, follows Jack Ohara, a third-class petty officer, as he overcomes seasickness and prepares for his first overseas mission - to Japan. In one scene he quickly puts out a fire that has broken out on board the ship.

The comic praises the navy's professionalism and commitment to safety, and depicts US servicemen as ideal neighbours. In a foreword, Kelly describes the crew of the George Washington as "goodwill ambassadors".

The description, however, may struggle to resonate in Japan, where US troops have been linked to a string of crimes in recent months, including the sexual abuse of a 14-year-old Japanese girl by a US marine in Okinawa and the alleged murder of a Yokosuka taxi driver by a deserter from the Kitty Hawk.

Japan to allow military use of space

12.30pm BST

* Justin McCurry in Tokyo
* guardian.co.uk,
* Wednesday May 21 2008

Japan's estrangement from its postwar pacifism continued today with the enactment of a law ending its 40-year ban on the military use of space.

The law signals Tokyo's determination to expand its military capability amid concern over China's ballooning defence budget and North Korea's development of ballistic and nuclear missiles.

The move will be welcomed by the US, whose ambassador in Tokyo, Thomas Schieffer, called on Japan to end its self-imposed cap on defence spending of less than 1% of GDP.

While the US defence budget has almost doubled over the past decade, Japan's military spending will total 4.78 trillion yen this year, down 0.5% from 2007.

"Our capabilities have increased dramatically because we are spending more on defence than we were 10 years ago," Schieffer said this week.

"That helps Japan. I don't think it is unfair of us to suggest that Japan needs to look at that and make an assessment. A hard choice, perhaps, but Japan needs to spend more on defence," he said.

Opposition parties agreed to support the new law following guarantees that space development would be strictly "non-aggressive" and remain within the parameters of the postwar constitution, which forbids the use of force to settle international disputes.

Space programmes, the law says, must "contribute to establish a safe society, remove various threats to people's lives and ensure peace and safety of international society, as well as the national security of our country".

The change will, however, enable Japan to use more sophisticated military satellites to spy on North Korea and as part of a missile defence shield it is jointly developing with the US. Until now, military development in space has been hampered by a 1969 law limiting space exploration to "peaceful uses".

The aerospace industry has long complained that Japan's postwar pacifism stifled efforts to compete with its regional rivals in space.

It currently spends about 250bn yen a year on space development, far below what many believe to be appropriate for the world's second-biggest economy. Keidanren, Japan's influential business federation, lobbied hard to bring an end to the ban, which, experts say, has left the country's space development 10 years behind that of China and India.

"In the future there will be more satellites and rockets used for space security, so that is a positive factor for the space industry," Satoshi Tsuzukibashi, a Keidanren official, told Reuters.

China demonstrated its technological superiority in space last year when it used a missile to shoot down a weather satellite, a move that drew condemnation from Tokyo.

Fears that Japan is the prime target for North Korean ballistic and nuclear missiles grew after Pyongyang test-fired Taepodong missiles in 1998 and 2003.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Japan's biggest aerospace company, is expected to spearhead the development of a new generation of spy satellites.

US marine charged with Okinawa rape

9am BST

A US marine has been charged with raping a 14-year-old girl on the Japanese island of Okinawa, the US forces said today.

Military charges against Staff Sergeant Tyrone Hadnott include rape of a child under 16, abusive sexual conduct, making a false official statement, adultery and "kidnapping through inveigling [trickery]".

The incident in February and other alleged crimes committed by US troops prompted thousands of Okinawa residents to take to the streets demanding a reduced military presence on the island.

US military authorities on the island imposed a 24-hour lockdown on troops lasting two weeks and the secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, publicly apologised for the alleged rape during a visit to Tokyo.

Photo: Some 300 women in Okinawa protest the alleged rape of a schoolgirl by a US marine.

Japanese police arrested Hadnott on February 11, the day after the alleged attack.

He was released after the girl decided not to press charges, but US authorities then investigated the case under the military justice code.

Japanese police earlier said Hadnott had admitted to investigators that he forced the girl down and kissed her but he denied raping her.

The charges were made on Monday, the US military said. No date has been set for the court martial.

Japan hosts nearly 50,000 US troops under a security treaty. About half of them are based on the tiny island of Okinawa, where their presence has been a festering issue, with residents complaining about crime, pollution and overcrowding associated with the military.

This article was first published on guardian.co.uk on Friday April 25 2008. It was last updated at 09:25 on April 25 2008.

Japanese police arrest US sailor on murder charge

11.15am GMT
Thursday April 3 2008
Justin McCurry in Tokyo

Police in Japan today arrested a US sailor suspected of murdering a taxi driver near Tokyo last month.

The arrest came a day after the US military imposed a curfew and a ban on alcohol at the suspect's base in an attempt to defuse growing unrest over crimes committed by its personnel.

According to local media, Olatunbosun Ugbogu, a 22-year-old able seaman, admitted fatally stabbing Masaaki Takahashi in the neck with a kitchen knife near Yokosuka naval base on the night of March 19.

Police launched a manhunt for Ugbogu, who had absconded from his ship the USS Cowpens in early March, after finding his credit card inside Takahashi's taxi.

The US navy handed him over to Japanese police before he was indicted - an unusual move Washington agreed to take in serious cases following the abduction and rape of a 12-year-old girl by three soldiers in 1995.

Bilateral ties were shaken in February this year by a string of crimes involving US troops on the southern island of Okinawa, including the alleged rape of a 14-year-old girl by a marine.

The case, which was dropped after the victim decided not to press charges, prompted US military authorities on the island to impose a 24-hour lockdown lasting two weeks.

The US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, publicly apologised for the alleged rape during a visit to Tokyo, and last month thousands of residents of Okinawa, which hosts more than half the 50,000 US soldiers in Japan, took to the streets to demand an immediate reduction in troop numbers.

Thomas Schieffer, the US ambassador to Japan, visited officials in Yokosuka today to offer an apology. He expressed "our deep regret and sorrow at the murder that occurred here" and pledged "the full cooperation of the United States in bringing the perpetrator to justice."

Ryoichi Kabaya, the mayor of Yokosuka, noted that Takahashi's murder occurred "despite our repeated requests to strengthen discipline".

"I expect you to tell us immediately what steps you plan to take to prevent these incidents from recurring," he added.

No alcohol will be sold at the Yokosuka base and sailors will not be permitted to drink outside until April 7, when the policy will be reviewed, the US navy said. Almost all off-base travel will be banned between midnight and 6am.

"As members of the Japanese community we are very saddened by this tragic incident," Rear Admiral James Kelly, commander of the US navy in Japan, said in a statement.

"We want to reflect on appropriate responses to incidences of violence. As such, I have initiated a period of heightened sensitivity that will apply to US navy personnel in the Yokosuka area."

Far right closes Yasukuni screening in Tokyo

Justin McCurry in Tokyo
guardian.co.uk,
Wednesday March 19 2008

A cinema in Tokyo has cancelled the screening of a controversial film about the Yasukuni shrine after Japanese ultranationalists threatened its Chinese director.

The nationalists say the film is too critical of the war shrine in Tokyo, which honours 2.5 million Japanese who have died in battle since the late 19th century.

Japan's former enemies say the shrine glorifies its militaristic past, as it also honours 14 class A war criminals, including the country's wartime prime minister, Hideki Tojo.

Ying Li, who spent 10 years researching and producing the documentary, said he had taken care to present a balanced view of the Yasukuni controversy.

Though it focuses on an elderly swordsmith who makes weapons traditionally used by Japanese military officers, the film carries no commentary and includes interviews with both critics and supporters of the shrine.

Li said he had received threatening phone calls to his office in Tokyo.

"The threats started after press previews and one of the callers said he would barge into our office to confront us if we released the film," he said in an interview with the Kyodo news agency.

T-Joy, operator of Wald9 cinema in Tokyo's Shinjuku district, said it had decided not to show the documentary to avoid exposing neighbouring businesses to intimidation from ultranationalists.

A spokesman for T-Joy said there were concerns that the film would "cause trouble."

"[It] has been talked about so much that it may create trouble and we don't want to inconvenience other building tenants," Kyodo news agency quoted the spokesman as saying.

Three other cinemas in Tokyo and several others elsewhere in Japan still plan to show the film from April 12.

Last week conservative MPs were accused of censorship after they demanded a screening ahead of the film's general release.

T-Joy's decision to shelve the screening comes soon after rightwing activists forced a hotel in Tokyo to cancel a teachers' conference on its premises.

In response, the Japan Teachers Union last week filed a lawsuit against the Grand Prince Hotel New Takanawa, demanding 300 million yen in compensation.

The hotel said it had decided not to allow the union to use its facilities because it feared ultranationalists, who have a record of disrupting teachers meetings, would intimidate other guests.

This article was first published on guardian.co.uk on Wednesday March 19 2008. It was last updated at 15:07 on March 19 2008.

Rice says sorry for US troop behaviour on Okinawa as crimes shake alliance with Japan

last updated at 00:32 on February 28 2008



· Tension over American base grows with rape case
· Military imposes curfew on 45,000 personnel

* Justin McCurry in Okinawa
* The Guardian,
* Thursday February 28, 2008

Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, apologised yesterday for a string of crimes involving American troops based in Japan, amid warnings that failure to improve discipline risked damaging relations between Washington and one of its closest allies.

Resentment towards the US military presence erupted this month following the arrest of a marine for the alleged rape of a 14-year-old girl on the island of Okinawa, home to more than half of the 50,000 US troops in Japan.

Photo:
The entrance to Camp Kinser, a US base in Okinawa, Japan.

Since then, US soldiers on the island have been arrested for trespassing and drink driving, and another is being questioned about the alleged rape of a Filipino woman in a hotel room.

The rape allegation has echoes of the 1995 gang rape of a 12-year-old girl by three US servicemen, which brought 85,000 people on to the streets in protest and international attention to the US base.

Rice, who was in Tokyo yesterday on an official visit, said: "We just regret deeply that this happened. [It] is very hard to see something like this happen and it's especially hard because it involves a young girl. We certainly hope that there will not be lasting effects. It's a long-standing and strong alliance."

The Japanese prime minister, Yasuo Fukuda, called the alleged rape "unforgivable" and Shigeru Ishiba, the defence minister, warned that it could "shake the foundations" of the Japan-US alliance just as the two countries were cooperating to try to end North Korea's nuclear weapons programme.

In an attempt to limit the diplomatic fallout, US military authorities imposed a 24-hour, indefinite curfew on 45,000 military personnel and their families, including the 10,000 who live off-base. They also agreed to review anti-sexual assault guidelines and improve education programmes for newly arrived service personnel.

The new commander of US forces in Japan, Lieutenant General Edward Rice, promised "zero tolerance" of crimes committed by his troops.

But critics said previous attempts to improve conduct had failed.

"This has been going on since the US began occupying our island decades ago," said Chie Miyagi, a schoolteacher and activist against the base. "The US military apologises and promises us that it won't happen again, but it always does. The government and the rest of Japan don't really care about how we feel. If it was their daughters who were being raped, I'm sure they would react differently."

Campaigners believe the marines on Okinawa will soon revert to their old ways once the curfew is lifted.

"When they arrive here they have no idea what this place is like, about its tragic history," said Suzuyo Takazato, head of a women's group that monitors crimes by US soldiers in Okinawa. "We live in fear of what they will do next. When they are caught they get off with light sentences. The message seems to be: if you want to rape a girl, do it in Japan."

Her anger is widely shared in Ginowan, the Okinawan city that is host to a sprawling marine corps air station. After the 1995 rape, in an attempt to relieve tension, the US and Japan agreed to relocate the air station to the island's sparsely populated north-eastern coast, but the plan is increasingly opposed by residents there.

The plan, scheduled for completion by 2014, would also see about 8,000 marines sent to Guam, a US territory in the Pacific about 3,700 miles south-west of Hawaii, in one of the biggest realignments of US troops for decades.

In 2004, a helicopter crashed into the main building of Okinawa International University in Ginowan and burst into flames. Residents fear another accident could happen, said Hitomi Taira, a base liaison official in Ginowan. "We also have to contend with emissions from aircraft and noise pollution, and we receive frequent reports of drink driving, robbery and trespassing," she said. "We want [the air station] moved immediately, but it should disappear from Okinawa altogether and the troops should be sent back to the US."

Okinawan businesses are feeling the pinch from the lockdown, which will be reviewed next week. Bars and nightclubs in the neighbourhood that would normally be packed with off-duty soldiers are virtually empty. "I need my Okinawan customers, of course, but without the military I wouldn't have a business," said Martin McIntyre, the owner of an Irish bar in the city. "My only worry is that when the curfew is finally lifted, someone is going to do something stupid."

Other residents believe the curfew to be an unjust punishment affecting tens
of thousands of law-abiding troops and their families. "It's not right to portray all American soldiers as potential criminals," said Hiroshi Matayoshi, a retired cargo handler who worked at the biggest local air force base for 35 years. "They're a long way from home and miss their families, but many people here refuse to see them as human beings. They just see a uniform and think the worst."

Backstory

Though it accounts for just 1% of Japan's total area, Okinawa is home to about 75% of US bases in Japan and half its 50,000 troops. Military facilities take up a fifth of the island.

Okinawa's subtropical location almost 1,000 miles south of Tokyo makes it a popular tourist destination, but between March and June 1945 it was the scene of a bloody battle in which an estimated 230,000 Americans and Japanese died, including more than a quarter of the civilian population. Japanese troops forced thousands of local people to commit suicide rather than surrender, claiming the Americans would rape and murder them. The island was not handed back to Japanese control until 1972

Despite efforts to promote exchange between islanders and their military guests, relations have been blighted by off-duty crimes, air pollution, noise and accidents.