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August 1, 2008
TOKYO (AP) -- Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda picked a new Cabinet Friday that was a mix of old-guard legislators and several reappointments to restore confidence in his leadership amid flagging public popularity.
In an unusual move, he appointed two women, former telecommunications minister Seiko Noda, relatively popular as a consumers' advocate, and Kyoko Nakayama, a key figure in trying to win back Japanese kidnapped by North Korea decades ago, a longtime emotional issue for this nation.
The Cabinet reshuffle has been widely viewed as an attempt by the 72-year-old Fukuda to win back public support following scandals over missing pension records and alleged bribery in his bureaucracy.
The picks appear to show how he has tried to balance the need to please senior lawmakers to maintain his party leadership with the need to satisfy the public with fresh faces to send a message of change.
The opposition has been pressing Fukuda to call snap-elections amid voter outrage about emerging uncertainty about Japan's pension and health care systems. Japan has one of the largest populations of elderly people in the world, and the gap between the rich and poor has grown as companies respond to global competition.
Japan, the world's second-largest economy, has eked out moderate growth in recent years but has been battered by rising oil prices and other economic uncertainty, including a U.S. slowdown that is likely to crimp exports.
Political analyst Eiken Itagaki said Fukuda was trying to play it safe.
"The Cabinet looks like more of the same. But he wanted to strengthen his position in his party to stay on," he told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.
Indeed, many of the faces chosen were the same, including Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura, Health Minister Yoichi Masuzoe and Nobutaka Machimura, the chief government spokesman, who announced the Cabinet lineup.
Machimura denied the Cabinet shake-up was a publicity stunt aimed at restoring the administration's popularity.
"We are not here for the sake of raising our support rating," he told reporters. "We are facing a number of pressing issues, such as price hikes, soaring oil prices and risks of an economic slowdown."
Also added to the Cabinet were ruling party heavyweights like Bunmei Ibuki, 70, appointed finance minister, Kaoru Yosano, 69, tipped as economic and fiscal policy minister, and Seiichi Ota, 62, who became agriculture minister.
Earlier in the day, Fukuda also picked old-guard legislators for the top positions in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, including former Foreign Minister Taro Aso as secretary-general.
Aso, 67, acknowledged the ruling party faced a serious crisis in winning over a disenchanted public. Many Japanese are growing pessimistic and worried about the economy because of surging oil prices and other problems, he said.
"Just because we have a new structure, that doesn't mean all is well," Aso said. He promised to push forward an economic stimulus and other programs.
Fukuda's overall public approval rating has fallen to about 20 percent in recent months, as top defense officials have been arrested on suspicion of bribery and tax evasion and bureaucrats have been accused of accepting alcohol and snacks in taxis whose fares were paid by taxpayer money.
Nakayama has been an advocate of Japanese who believe their family members have been kidnapped by North Korean spies, including the parents of Megumi Yokota, who some evidence show was taken to North Korea in 1977.
The families have been pressuring the government for years to take a tough stand against Pyongyang and win the kidnapping victims back. North Korean leader Kim Jong Il admitted to the kidnappings and returned five Japanese in 2002. Japan is demanding that others be also returned.
Nakayama will now oversee the abduction issue as well as gender equality and the problem of Japan's declining birth rate.
Noda, appointed Friday minister in charge of consumer affairs, has carved out a rather unusual career in the party for getting temporarily kicked out of the party by opposing economic reforms including the privatization of the national postal system. She has a reputation for advocating women's issues and wrote a book about fertility problems.
The opposition, which controls the upper house of the Diet, has been challenging the ruling party over the recent scandals and is pressing for early elections. The ruling party, which has led Japan almost continuously for more than half a century, controls the more powerful lower house in a coalition.
Fukuda, who took office in September, has kept a low profile and has not achieved the popularity of the flamboyant Junichiro Koizumi, the prime minister before Abe.
(Mainichi Japan) August 1, 2008
Friday, Aug. 1, 2008
Kyodo News
In bid to boost standing, Abe's picks are set to be sent packing
Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, badly in need of a popularity lift, plans to reshuffle his Cabinet on Friday, several senior lawmakers of the ruling coalition and a high-ranking government official said Thursday.
Although Fukuda did not explicitly say when he will change his Cabinet — an administration largely inherited from his unpopular predecessor Shinzo Abe — he did tell reporters Thursday evening at the Prime Minister's Official Residence, "Tomorrow, I will talk about the upcoming political schedule with the head (of New Komeito) and decide all."
According to the lawmakers, the reshuffle will be carried out after Fukuda meets New Komeito leader Akihiro Ota at 9 a.m.
Prior to the shakeup, Fukuda's Liberal Democratic Party will also rejigger key party posts, including the secretary general and chiefs of the policy research council and the executive council, they said.
Fukuda's decision is apparently aimed at revitalizing his anemic support ratings, which saw little improvement even after he chaired the July Group of Eight summit in Hokkaido.
Calls have mounted for Fukuda to form a Cabinet that reflects his own political stance, given that 15 of his 17 ministers served under Abe.
But political analysts say if his picks end up becoming embroiled in scandals over money or other shady misdeeds, as in Abe's Cabinet, Fukuda's desire to burnish the image of his administration may backfire.
The stakes are high. If his Cabinet reshuffle fails to impress, Fukuda will face mounting calls to resign or dissolve the Lower House, leading to a snap election.
Taking note of Fukuda's tight schedule in early August, most media had speculated the new Cabinet would be named Monday.
Fukuda is scheduled to visit Hiroshima on Wednesday for an annual ceremony memorializing the 1945 atomic-bomb attack.
This will soon be followed by a trip to China on Aug. 8 for the opening of the Beijing Olympics. On Aug. 9 he returns to Japan for another A-bomb memorial service in Nagasaki.
Friday, Aug. 1, 2008
Compiled from AP, Kyodo
WASHINGTON — The United States has decided to reverse a recent decision to change the national classification of islets at the center of a territorial dispute between Japan and South Korea, a U.S. official said Wednesday.
The initial decision by the U.S. Board of Geographic Names was to change the islets' listing from South Korean to "nondesignated sovereignty." It infuriated people in South Korea. Seoul recalled its ambassador to Tokyo early this month to protest Japan's inclusion in school textbooks of a Japanese claim to the South Korea-controlled islets, called Dokdo in Korean and known as Takeshima in Japan.
The reversal comes as U.S. President George W. Bush prepares to visit South Korea, a key Asian ally, next month.
Dennis Wilder, a White House Asia adviser, told reporters that "a very high-level" South Korean government official contacted the Bush administration about the decision. Bush asked Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to look into the matter, Wilder said, and the United States determined that the change "was not warranted at this time."
"We regret that this change in designation was perceived by South Koreans as some sort of change in our policy," Wilder said. The United States has no position on the territorial dispute, he said, and believes the two countries should work diplomatically to resolve the question.
South Korea welcomed the move.
"The swift action shows President Bush fully understands the sentiment of South Koreans, and is an outcome that reflected deep trust and friendship between the two leaders," Lee Dong Kwan, a spokesman for South Korean President Lee Myung Bak, said in comments posted on the presidential Web site.
Japan tried to downplay the U.S. decision, with Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura saying in Tokyo he does not believe the latest move reflects any change in America's position on the issue.
The United States simply returned the designation of the islets to its earlier classification as part of a broader examination process, the top Japanese government spokesman said.
Machimura ruled out the possibility of Japan lodging a protest against Washington, saying, "We don't necessarily think we have to react excessively each time a U.S. government organization does something."
The State Department said the initial redesignation was done to "be in conformity with U.S. government efforts to standardize the filing of all features to which we do not recognize claims of sovereignty."
Michael Green, Bush's former Asia adviser, said that had the administration not made the reversal, it was "going to be the lead story for President Bush's visit in Korea."
Bloody protest
Kyodo News
A South Korean man in his 50s cut his finger with a knife Thursday morning near the Prime Minister's Official Residence in protest over a territorial dispute between Japan and South Korea, police said.
The man sustained a shallow cut around 7 mm long at the tip of the ring finger of his right hand, police said, adding he was apparently attempting to write his protest in blood on a flag.
He was with several others at the time on a sidewalk not far from the prime minister's residence.
The man was quoted by police as saying, "I am here to stage a protest over the Dokdo issue."
The issue has received renewed attention since Japan decided in mid-July to effectively claim for the first time sovereignty over the islets in the Sea of Japan — called Takeshima in Japanese and Dokdo in Korean — in a teaching guideline for junior high schools.
Friday, Aug. 1, 2008
LOS ANGELES (Kyodo) The U.S. Navy said Wednesday the May 22 fire on the aircraft carrier George Washington, scheduled for deployment to Japan, was probably caused by unauthorized smoking that ignited improperly stored combustible materials.
The vessel's commanding and executive officers have been relieved of their duties.
The possibility of lax discipline may heighten anxiety among residents of Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, which hosts the U.S. Navy base where the nuclear-powered carrier will be stationed, although the navy has said the fire never threatened the ship's nuclear power plant. At least two rallies drawing more than 10,000 people were held in July against the deployment.
Capt. David Dykhoff was relieved of his duties Wednesday "due to a loss of confidence in his ability to command and his failure to meet mission requirements and readiness standards," a press release from the commander of the Naval Air Forces in San Diego said. The vessel's executive officer, Capt. David M. Dober, was also relieved "for substandard performance."
The navy's investigation determined that "the likely cause of the fire was unauthorized smoking that ignited flammable liquids and other combustible material improperly stored in an adjacent space," the statement said. "The fire and the subsequent magnitude of the fire were the result of a series of human acts that could have been prevented."
Capt. J. R. Haley, who was deputy chief of staff to the commander of the U.S. Pacific Command, has taken command of the George Washington, it said. He was the commanding officer of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt from June 2005 until this January.
Capt. Karl O. Thomas has been assigned as the George Washington's new executive officer.
The fire broke out in an unmanned auxiliary boiler exhaust and supply space when the carrier was in the Pacific off South America. The storage of 342 liters of refrigerant compressor oil in the space helped intensify the fire, the statement said.
The press release said it took around 12 hours to extinguish the fire and 37 sailors were treated for minor injuries. About 80 out of more than 3,800 total compartments aboard the carrier were damaged, incurring around $70 million in estimated repair costs.
Friday, Aug. 1, 2008
The Associated Press
The U.S. military is investigating an American soldier accused of raping a woman in Okinawa, an army official said.
An army-appointed investigator began the military equivalent of a pretrial probe Monday into the allegations against a 25-year-old specialist assigned to Kadena Air Base on Okinawa, army spokeswoman Amanda Kraus said.
The soldier, accused of assaulting the woman in February in a hotel room, is restricted to the base but is not facing formal charges on any of the allegations, she said.
In May, prosecutors in Okinawa dismissed charges against the soldier after finding insufficient evidence. Army investigators have pursued the case since.
The next step in the military legal process is a preliminary hearing by an independent officer, she said.
The army has 120 days to decide whether to formally press all or part of the charges.
2008/8/1
THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda is expected to reshuffle his Cabinet today, filling his administration with people he can call his own and hoping to provide a boost to his sagging public support ratings.
Although he did not clearly announce that a reshuffle would take place, the prime minister told reporters Thursday afternoon: "There will be a meeting of ruling party leaders tomorrow morning. I hope to decide everything then."
Fukuda is also expected to pick new Liberal Democratic Party executives.
As president of the ruling LDP, Fukuda was to meet with Akihiro Ota, leader of junior coalition partner New Komeito, this morning.
"I want to discuss a variety of issues, including the political calendar," Fukuda said. "I also want to talk about how to tackle policy issues."
Fukuda had previously indicated he would not make a decision about a Cabinet reshuffle until after two ministers returned from a meeting of the World Trade Organization.
Fukuda met with trade minister Akira Amari and farm minister Masatoshi Wakabayashi after the two returned to Japan on Thursday.
One focus of the reshuffle will be whether Fukuda undertakes a major overhaul to cast his own imprint on the Cabinet.
When Fukuda took office in September last year, he kept on 15 of 17 ministers from the Cabinet of his predecessor, Shinzo Abe.
With a Cabinet that Fukuda can call his own, it will be easier for the prime minister to lay out the important policy areas he wants to focus on in the run-up to the next Lower House election.
Much attention will be on who Fukuda picks for the economic posts because of the wide differences within the LDP over whether to raise the consumption tax rate soon.
Fukuda has been vague about his stance on the tax issue. His appointments could show which direction he wants to take.
Another focus will be whether Fukuda retains Bunmei Ibuki as LDP secretary-general, especially with a Lower House dissolution and snap election expected soon. The secretary-general wields enormous influence over the party's election strategy.
In addition, Ibuki has called for convening an extraordinary Diet session from late August to allow for sufficient time to pass legislation to extend the Maritime Self-Defense Force's anti-terror refueling mission in the Indian Ocean.
However, New Komeito officials have said the session should be convened in late September.
(IHT/Asahi: August 1,2008)
2008/8/1
THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
WASHINGTON--The U.S. government has backflipped on the Takeshima islets, backing South Korean claims to the area before President George W. Bush's visit to Seoul on Tuesday.
As Tokyo and Seoul claim the islets, the U.S. Board of Geographic Names recently changed its listing of Takeshima, or Tokto in Korean, from South Korean to "nondesignated sovereignty," but quickly reversed its decision.
The reversal followed a highly publicized visit to the islets Tuesday by South Korean Prime Minister Han Seung Soo.
(IHT/Asahi: August 1,2008)
August 1, 2008
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