Japan Politics News

The government has signed a memorandum with the nation's main lawyers association and a nonprofit organization to work together on improving the treatment of asylum seekers while they await a decision on their refugee status, Justice Minister Toshio Ogawa said Friday. By having lawyers act as guarantors for asylum seekers and Forum for Refugees Japan, a Tokyo-based NPO, provide them with housing, immigration authorities aim to give more applicants permission for provisional stays and shorten their detention. The immigration authorities, long criticized internationally for the lengthy process of determining refugee status and prolonged detention of asylum seekers, acknowledge such problems in the memorandum and pledge to join hands with the private sector to bring about improvements. (Japan Times)

Japanese government and business officials have flocked to Myanmar in recent months with a keen interest in the untapped investment opportunities in the country, which is embarking on democratic and economic reforms after decades of seclusion. Japanese entities that have been nurturing ties with Myanmar are encouraged that the time has finally come for various cooperative projects to resume operations after years of being in limbo under the country's military regime, while Myanmar welcomes Japan's assistance. "With Myanmar's government starting to open up to the international community, what we have been working on for all these years may finally bear fruit," said Shigeto Kashiwazaki, managing director of the Asian business research department at Daiwa Institute of Research. (Japan Times)

This week's US-Japanese agreement removing thousands of Marines from Okinawa breaks an 18-year deadlock over the realignment of US forces in Japan by a simple expedient: sidestepping the key obstacle that has bedeviled the issue. Okinawa plays reluctant host to nearly half of the 50,000 US troops stationed in Japan, including 18,000 Marines. But though the agreement marks "movement in some direction," it represents "only symbolic progress," says Masaru Kohno, a politics professor at Waseda University in Tokyo. The deal does not close the Futenma Marine airbase in the middle of Ginowa City, which residents complain is noisy and dangerous, and which successive Japanese governments have promised - and failed - to shutter. (csmonitor.com)

A South Korean intelligence officer posted to Seoul's embassy in Tokyo was fired for allegedly leaking "secret" information to the Japan Coast Guard and Japanese reporters, according to South Korean media reports. The officer, who allegedly leaked eight items of confidential information during his 2009-2011 posting, has denied wrongdoing and filed a wrongful dismissal lawsuit, saying the information didn't meet the threshold of a state secret, the Chosun Ilbo paper and other media reported. They said that among the areas under the intelligence officer's responsibility at the embassy was keeping an eye on the activities of the pro-Pyongyang group Chongryon (General Association of Korean Residents in Japan). (Japan Times)

Osaka Municipal Assembly members from Mayor Toru Hashimoto's Osaka Ishin no Kai (One Osaka) group are pursuing allegations that a city labor union attempted to gather votes for Hashimoto's opponent in last November's election in possible violation of campaign laws. The allegations surfaced Monday when Osaka Ishin no Kai announced it had obtained a 36-page list of 1,800 names of municipal transport workers from a city employee, who told the group the list had been drawn up by the city transport worker union in an effort to support former Mayor Kunio Hiramatsu in the November mayoral race. (Japan Times)

A Justice Ministry panel on Tuesday gave the green light for the ministry to write bills for new domestic laws in preparation for signing the Hague Convention, which would theoretically promise other countries that Japan will try its utmost to return abducted children. Critics, however, are not too optimistic because whether children will be returned to their original countries will depend largely on how Japan's family court judges interpret any new laws. The United States and countries in Europe have urged Japan to sign the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspect of International Child Abduction, and have criticized Tokyo for letting a Japanese parent get away with abducting his or her children from a spouse in failed international marriages. (Japan Times)

The ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) has come under fire for using a catchphrase in an anti-suicide campaign that evokes images of popular all-girl group AKB48. During discussions in the Diet on Monday, a DPJ member called the anti-suicide slogan "deeply inappropriate," TBS reported. The catchphrase, which was unveiled last month, has already been criticized by mental health professionals, as well as members of both the DPJ and opposition parties for the way in which it apparently handles the issue of suicide, while simultaneously leveraging the popularity of AKB48. (Japan Today)

Discussions about relocating key functions of the nation from Tokyo to other areas are heating up once again. In one example, the topic was discussed energetically at a meeting of the National Governors' Association on Dec. 20. "In addition to pursuing the establishment of a country where important hubs are spread throughout the nation, it is also important to protect our country from simultaneous earthquakes--even three or four happening at once--by having multiple bases of defense," Kochi Gov. Masanao Ozaki said. Oita Gov. Katsusada Hirose said: "We shouldn't approach this topic just from the viewpoint of rectifying the overconcentration of functions in Tokyo, which is a defensive approach. We must approach it from the viewpoint of how to develop local areas in the age of globalization." (Yomiuri)

The government will do its utmost to ensure that the U.S. Marines will not be using the air base in Okinawa's crowded city of Ginowan for many more years, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda said Monday. "I am aware that there are concerns over the Futenma base becoming fixed in its present form," Noda told a Diet session. "To make sure this will not happen, the government will do all it can in talks" with the United States. His remarks come after the U.S. indicated it may move some of the elements at U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma to Guam regardless of whether tangible progress is made on relocating the base farther north on Okinawa Island to the Henoko coast of Nago. (Japan Times)

Incumbent Kyoto Mayor Daisaku Kadokawa, an independent supported by the ruling Democratic Party of Japan and major opposition parties, was re-elected Sunday to a second four-year term after defeating the Japanese Communist Party-backed candidate he defeated in the previous election. With the incumbent's performance a key issue in the two-horse race, Kadokawa, 61, emphasized the fiscal and administrative reforms he made to the municipal government and efforts to closely cooperate with the governor. (Japan Times)

The Democratic Party of Japan is in a bind over whether an administrative reform bill it plans to submit should specify a 20 percent cut in overall personnel costs of central government officials. Although the ruling party trumpeted the 20 percent figure in its election manifesto, some DPJ members are dreading the thought of being grilled in the Diet by opposition lawmakers over what many believe to be an unrealistic reduction target. The DPJ hoped to make the 20 percent cut a centerpiece of its efforts to build public support for a plan to increase the consumption tax rate. (Yomiuri)

The United States and Japan have agreed to tweak a six-year-old agreement on Marines based on the southern island of Okinawa, allowing Washington to deploy forces to the Pacific island of Guam regardless of the debate over moving a disputed airbase. The Guam deployment had been held hostage by a political stalemate in Japan over the shifting of the Futenma base to another site on Okinawa, an issue given added importance in recent years by China's growing military might in the region. Japanese newspapers said the new plan would allow Washington to shrink the expensive Guam relocation plan at a time when it is under pressure to cut defense spending because of deficit woes even as it turns its attention to China. (Reuters)

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda on Saturday said the sales tax could be raised higher than the 10 percent rate currently proposed, due to the radical overhaul of the welfare system he is pushing. "There is a possibility the consumption tax might be increased to more than 10 percent, as a result of implementing drastic reforms of the pension and social security systems," Noda said during a question and answer session after a speech in Tokyo. He also reiterated his determination to pass legislation during the current ordinary Diet session that would double the 5 percent sales levy, as part of a broader package of reforms to ensure the country's welfare system remains sustainable. (Japan Times)

A U.S. F/A-18 fighter jet flew over an elementary school in Miyoshi, Hiroshima Prefecture, at a dangerous and illegally low altitude in December, the Japanese Communist Party's local chapter said. According to an investigation by the party's Hiroshima prefectural committee, the aircraft flew over the school at an altitude of about 200 meters around 1:20 p.m. Dec. 20, in violation of the Aviation Law, which sets the minimum level at 300 meters. The committee said it has asked the Hiroshima Prefectural Government to urge the U.S. military to stop low-altitude flights, adding the flyby also violated a Japan-U.S. agreement that calls on American forces to show consideration over flight training around schools and hospitals. (Japan Times)

Japan's parliament has approved a 2.5 trillion yen ($32.9 billion) extra budget bill, the fourth one to fund reconstruction projects after last year's disasters and support the nation's economy. The lower house on Friday approved the supplementary budget for the fiscal year ending March 31. The bill will be further debated in the upper chamber but will eventually become law due to the lower house's superiority. The budget includes 740 billion yen ($9.7 billion) to help small businesses hit by last March's earthquake and tsunami obtain loan guarantees to rebuild. The budget also earmarks 300 billion yen ($3.9 billion) to finance green vehicle promotion programs. (Washington Post)

Ro Manabe, the Defense Ministry's Okinawa bureau chief, strongly denied Friday that he intended to break the law by urging ministry officials and their relatives to vote in the Ginowan mayoral election, or that he advised them to vote for a specific candidate, but also admitted his actions could be judged unlawful. Manabe, summoned for unsworn testimony in the Diet, has been blasted by the opposition for allegedly trying to influence the Feb. 12 mayoral race. The opposition camp is charging that Manabe suggested during two internal lectures last week that participants vote for the candidate who is relatively more in line with the government's contentious plan to relocate U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma from Ginowan to Nago, also in Okinawa. (Japan Times)

A health ministry panel has approved a draft plan seeking to decrease the smoking rate to 12.2 percent by fiscal 2022, facilitating the ministry's long-hampered wish to officially set a target figure, it has been learned. The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry has sought several times since 1999 to set a target figure for cutting the smoking rate. However, it was foiled each time by stiff opposition from the tobacco industry and related ministries and agencies. The ministry's latest plan for decreasing the smoking rate by nearly 40 percent to 12.2 percent or less by fiscal 2022 was presented Wednesday at a meeting of the panel for discussing cancer prevention measures. (Yomiuri)

Foreign Minister Koichiro Genba met with members of all-girl idol group AKB48 on Thursday and thanked them for taking part in a campaign to attract Chinese tourists and dispel harmful rumors about the safety of Japanese food products. The "Vibrant Japan" campaign will start Feb. 16 in Beijing, before moving on to Shanghai toward the end of the month and Hong Kong in late March. During his meeting with three of AKB48's members - Tomomi Itano, Rie Kitahara and Yui Yokoyama - Genba, a Fukushima native, expressed his gratitude for the group's support of disaster-hit areas in the northeast and said he hoped its participation in the campaign will help deepen ties with China. (Japan Times)

Japan has accused China of unilaterally exploring gas deposits in the East China Sea, in violation of an agreement to jointly develop disputed areas. Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura told reporters Wednesday that Japan protested to China after a flare was seen Tuesday at a Chinese structure at an undersea gas deposit. Japan has made similar complaints several times in the past. "We have detected a flare, a sign that it is highly likely that there is a gas development going on," Fujimura said. "Any unilateral exploration is unacceptable." The deposit, known as Kashi in Japan and Tianwaitian in China, sits near a median line of the two countries' overlapping exclusive economic zones. (AP)

Cutting off Iranian oil imports has put Tokyo in a difficult position. The United States and its European allies have already agreed to up the ante on sanctions against Iran, but the domestic costs that Japan has to bear in order to cooperate are higher. Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's government has indicated its desire to cooperate, and last December the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced new restrictions on the operations of 106 entities as well as one individual with potential links to proliferation-sensitive activities in Iran. But the real effort now is to reduce Japan's oil imports from Tehran, and to negotiate an exemption from more stringent restrictions on Japanese banks included in the new U.S. sanctions law. Rebalancing Japan's energy supply is even more delicate at the moment, as most of the nations' nuclear power plants remain offline. (theatlantic.com)