Shinjiro Koizumi: Japan Must Have Drastic Change

Shinjiro Koizumi Son Of Former PM Junichiro Koizumi

The Japanese public’s top pick to become the next prime minister says the country’s not ready for the scale of change he thinks it needs.

Shinjiro Koizumi, the 38-year-old son of popular former premier Junichiro Koizumi, consistently leads polls asking who should succeed long-serving Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. 
As the most prominent member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s new guard, he wants quick reforms to manage the country’s rapidly ageing population.

“If you look at Japan now, people don’t want to change much,” Koizumi said in an interview at his offices in Tokyo Wednesday.

“They don’t have big dreams, but they don’t have a sense of crisis either,” he added. “But it’s no good for this country to stay as it is. What this country needs more than anything is change. Not just change, but rapid change.”

Even though the younger Koizumi has never held a cabinet post and limits his media exposure, he is seen by many as the future of the ruling party due to his charisma, clean image and a resemblance to his father. The ex-premier enjoyed immense popularity during most of his five-year run in office and was known for his willingness to stir up the stodgy LDP.

But that doesn’t mean the public’s completely on board with his agenda yet, Koizumi said.
Koizumi heads an LDP panel on social security, which last month published a “vision” for reforms to tackle what Abe has called the national crisis of Japan’s demographics. The population is set to slump by almost a third by 2060, by which time about 40 percent of Japanese will be aged 65 or over, according to the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research.

In a bid to rein in the ballooning debt fueled by the developed world’s fastest ageing population, Abe’s government is set to raise the sales tax to 10% in October from the current 8%. Koizumi declined to comment on whether he agreed with the plan, saying only: “it has been decided.”

Rather than calling for higher taxes or lower payouts in its report, Koizumi’s panel urged a re-evaluation of the concept of the working-age population. Older people should be encouraged to stay in the labor force beyond the traditional retirement ages of 60-65, becoming contributors to the social security system, rather than burdens on it, the report says.

“We have to correct that huge imbalance between those who are supporting social security and those who are being supported by it,” Koizumi said. Specific measures should include changing a tax system that gives precedence to housewives over working women, and offering health-maintenance incentives.

Koizumi speaks English fluently, which is rare in Japan’s political world. He earned a master’s degree in political science at Columbia University, and served as a secretary to his father before taking over his parliamentary seat in 2009 in the port city of Yokosuka, home to the U.S. Seventh Fleet.

A poll by Jiji Press in March found Koizumi was the most popular choice to succeed Abe, with 24.4% of respondents opting for him. In second place was former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba on 18.9%.

“My field of vision has always been international, rather than domestic,” he said. “With the falling population, the domestic market is shrinking. When I was head of the party’s agriculture panel, I said Japan’s farmers shouldn’t look at the 100 million-strong internal market, but must sell to the 10 billion-strong global market.”

The need to expand export markets was why he supported Japan joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership regional trade deal at a time when it was anathema to many lawmakers in the LDP, which has strong ties to farming groups opposed to opening up agricultural markets.
“We were a tiny minority in the party. Can you imagine how much we were criticized?” he said. “But we can’t make do just with our own shrinking market, we need to face up to the world.”

After President Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of the TPP soon after his inauguration, the 11 other members including Japan went ahead without the U.S. to forge a successor deal.
Despite that strong public support and four consecutive election victories, Koizumi is seen as too young for the top job by Japanese standards. Abe was queried about his youth when he embarked on his first stint as premier at age 52.

Koizumi’s rivals to succeed Abe are now mostly in their sixties. And it may not be over for the premier, whose current term ends in September 2021. Some in his party have called for a change in the rules to allow him to run for a fourth consecutive term, though polls show voters oppose the idea.

Bloomberg

2020 Olympics Minister Resigns Disparaged Fukushima Victims

Olympics Minister Sakurada Resigns

 

 Japan's Olympics minister Yoshitaka Sakurada resigned Wednesday after coming under increasing pressure over a series of gaffes -- in the latest, saying politics is "more important" than the recovery of the country's northeastern region devastated by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. 

"I felt I had to take responsibility and submitted my resignation" to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Sakurada, who was in charge of the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics Games to be hosted by Tokyo, told reporters. 

Abe virtually sacking the 69-year-old is a setback to his administration seeking to showcase the Tokyo Games as a symbol of Japan's recovery from the disaster that led to the Fukushima nuclear crisis. 

After accepting his resignation letter on Wednesday night, Abe then publicly apologized for appointing Sakurada as the Olympics minister. 

"As prime minister, I'd like to apologize to people in the disaster-stricken area for the remarks (made by Sakurada)," Abe told reporters. "I bear responsibility for having appointed him." 

"We need to straighten up and make sure we can run the event without a problem," a senior Japan Olympic Committee official said. 

In mid-March, the head of the committee, Tsunekazu Takeda, said he will step down when his current term ends in June, as he is under investigation by French authorities for alleged bribery related to Tokyo's successful bid for the Tokyo Olympics. 

Sakurada's resignation comes less than a week after a senior vice minister at the land ministry, Ichiro Tsukada, was forced to quit following comments suggesting he had acted in the interests of Abe's constituency over a road project. 

Sakurada is the eighth Cabinet minister to resign since Abe returned to power in 2012. As Abe's Liberal Democratic Party gears up for a series of elections through July, the prime minister's decision to oust Sakurada from the government is seen as a damage-control effort. 

Former Olympics minister Shunichi Suzuki, 65, will replace Sakurada, according to a government source. 

At a fund-raising party in Tokyo for an LDP lawmaker from the northeastern region, Sakurada said the lawmaker, Hinako Takahashi, is "more important than the (region's) recovery." 

The remarks came on top of earlier ones that had already prompted opposition parties to step up calls on Sakurada to step down. 

In February, he said he was "very disappointed" over swimming gold medal hopeful Rikako Ikee's diagnosis of leukemia -- a comment on the potential absence of the star from the Tokyo Games that elicited a huge backlash. 

Sakurada, while attending a parliamentary session, also said he has heard of the Olympic Charter but has never read it. 

In March, reflecting his lack of knowledge about the situation in the northeastern region, Sakurada said traffic was smooth on highways linking the Tohoku and Kanto areas in 2011 even as they were indeed damaged by the disaster. 

Sakurada, first elected to the House of Representatives in 1996, then called the city of Ishinomaki in Miyagi Prefecture, one of the hardest-hit prefectures, "Ishimaki" more than once during a parliamentary session on Tuesday. 

Opposition party leaders and residents in the northeastern region view his resignation as a natural turn of events. 

Yukio Edano, who heads the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, said his latest remarks are "unbelievable." 

"The remarks are those that hurt people affected by the disaster," Edano told reporters. "The responsibility now lies with Prime Minister Abe who has continued to defend Mr. Sakurada."

"We are still halfway toward the recovery" said Shigeru Yamazaki, a 70-year-old resident in Iwate Prefecture, who just resumed his clothing business in February after his shop was destroyed by the tsunami eight years ago. 

"There are many people who are still struggling. His resignation won't settle everything," Yamazaki said. 

Senior officials from the Tokyo metropolitan government said they are concerned the remarks could undermine the image of the upcoming Olympics and Paralympics. 

"The comments are beyond acceptable and it's unthinkable for someone representing the nation to say such things," a senior metropolitan government official said. 

Asahi

Emperor Naruhito Will Face Challenges

Emperor Naruhito

Whatever the future may hold for the new era under Emperor Naruhito, it’s clear that the majority of Japanese remain supportive of the imperial family and the sense of national unity the Chrysanthemum Throne provides.

However, the real test of the symbolic strength of the emperor and his family could well be how the imperial household fares when it comes to promoting Japan’s image and interests overseas.

While the new emperor and empress will be more than capable of serving as Japan’s ultimate ambassadors abroad, they will have to overcome considerable hurdles at home before they can realize their full potential as great diplomats.

Like Britain, Spain and Denmark, Japan too has a constitutional monarchy in which the sovereign has no political power.

Still, when it comes to enhancing relations abroad, the royals can be an asset in otherwise tricky situations, especially in dealing with other countries that also have monarchies. They can also add an extra layer of reassurance as well as glamor to countries with which Japan maintains well-established ties.

For example, Japan’s imperial household has been an essential diplomatic tool in reaching out to the Saudi royalty and the sultan of Brunei. Saudi Arabia and Brunei are two countries with which Japan has significant economic interests and yet may find it challenging to see eye-to-eye politically.

Meanwhile, relations with Western European allies such as Belgium and the Netherlands have benefited from friendly royal relations, not least through eye-catching photo opportunities showcasing the elegance of monarchies.

The pomp accompanying the imperial household will be on full display for Emperor Naruhito’s enthronement ceremony on Oct. 22. Leaders and royalty from nearly 200 countries will be invited to take part in the festivities in Tokyo.

The real diplomatic challenge for the new emperor and empress, though, is whether they will have the opportunities and will to make full use of their own attributes.

After all, the Oxford- and Harvard-educated Empress Masako was a career diplomat before she married Emperor Naruhito, while he too studied at Oxford and has publicly declared his two years there as one of the happiest times in his life.

Both are certainly more than up to the task of being part of Japan’s soft-power strategy, and while they may not be as alluring as the duke and duchess of Cambridge or the king and queen of Spain, they could no doubt contribute to adding more glamor to Japan on the global stage.

There are, however, three major hurdles at home for Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako to playing a greater role in imperial diplomacy. First and foremost, the fact that their only child cannot inherit the throne simply because she is a female will only be highlighted as the question of succession and will invariably remain an issue.

Without changes to the succession rules, the 17-year-old Princess Aiko will never become empress and will actually relinquish her royal title after marriage.

Instead, her cousin, 12-year-old Prince Hisahito, who is the son of Emperor Naruhito’s brother, is in line to the throne. Gender equality is guaranteed by law and Japanese women are as well-educated as men.

Perhaps most importantly, it is apparent that Emperor Naruhito is a loving husband and a doting father, and incredibly protective of both his wife and daughter. Yet such facts are likely to be eclipsed by the fact that there is such blatant gender discrimination within the imperial household.

The second obstacle for imperial diplomacy remains the Imperial Household Agency itself. The fact that Empress Masako suffered from stress-related disorders as a result of pressures to adapt to imperial rules is evident.

In her new role there will be more public duties for Empress Masako to attend and she will be less able to sit out highly visibility functions both at home and abroad.

Whether there will be greater flexibility and tolerance on the part of the rule-makers to allow Empress Masako to be able to take on those roles without any emotional turmoil remains to be seen.

Finally, the challenge of Japan being able to improve relations with its immediate neighbors, particularly South Korea, will continue to be an issue for the imperial family.

This is not least due to the fact that Japanese aggression was virulent across Asia during the reign of Emperor Naruhito’s grandfather, Emperor Showa.

That said, his son, Emperor Emeritus Akihito, was personally committed to expressing remorse about Japan’s wartime past and offering condolences across the Asia-Pacific, especially in the Pacific islands.

Expectations for Emperor Naruhito to carry on his father’s legacy on the one hand, while navigating the evolving political minefield of reaching out to former occupied countries on the other, will continue to be a balancing act for the new sovereign with no end in sight.

Whether the emperor will be able to meet those expectations remains to be seen. What is clear at this juncture is that there is no end to the list of issues Emperor Naruhito could tackle in his new role at home as well as abroad.

Ryo Hasegawa

GSDF Failed To Report Troop Logs

The Ground Self-Defense Force failed to report to then-defense chief Tomomi Inada that it had found activity logs in March 2017 for troops in Iraq, even as she denied their existence during Diet deliberations the previous month, Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera said Wednesday.

The latest revelation comes as another potential blow to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government, already embroiled in a cronyism scandal over a heavily discounted sale of state land to a school operator with ties to his wife, Akie.

Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera

The GSDF reported to the ministry in January this year that it had found the logs, even though the documents were discovered over nine months before.

Opposition lawmakers had requested to see the logs, but the ministry said on Feb. 16 last year that such logs did not exist. Four days later, Inada told a Diet committee that the ministry was unable to find the logs.

“I want to apologize for inaccurate explanations in the Diet and the failure to respond appropriately to the request for the documents,” Onodera told reporters, adding that he has set up an investigation team in the ministry.

The ministry was rocked by a similar scandal last year, when its inappropriate handling of GSDF activity logs for a U.N. peacekeeping mission in South Sudan prompted Inada to resign in July.

Regarding the logs for GSDF personnel dispatched for reconstruction efforts in war-torn Iraq more than 10 years ago, the ministry admitted Monday that it had found them despite denying their existence last year.

Opposition lawmakers had been asking for the logs as deteriorating security conditions in South Sudan and risks facing the peacekeepers were being discussed in the Diet at the time.

“I cannot believe that the Defense Ministry would come as far as reporting false information,” said Hajime Sebata, an associate professor at Nagano Prefectural College who is knowledgeable about public document management.

“There have been a series of problems regarding the government’s handling of public documents, but this case (involving the Defense Ministry) is even worse,” Sebata said, referring to the Finance Ministry’s admission that it had altered documents on the state land sale to the school operator.

Japan sent roughly 5,500 GSDF personnel to Iraq from January 2004 to July 2006 to provide water and medical aid and help repair infrastructure in Samawah in the south of the country.

The mission stirred controversy as it was the first time for Japan to send the SDF, whose role is restricted by the war-renouncing Constitution, to a country where fighting was continuing.

KYODO

Maekawa Testifies: Prime Minister Abe Ordered School Given Special Approval

Maekawa Testifies Before The Diet

A former top education ministry bureaucrat told the Diet Monday that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's office had significant influence over the government's decision to approve a new department at a university run by his friend.  

Kihei Maekawa testified, "Prime Minister Abe ordered that the school be given special approval in veterinary medicine.  He knew and his aids went to the Education Ministry and got special approval."

Abe's aide was clearly involved in the approval process for the veterinary department at the Okayama University of Science in a government-designated special economic zone, said Maekawa, former vice minister of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.

Attending as an unsworn witness, Maekawa told a Diet committee, "The prime minister's office worked behind the scenes," adding that the Cabinet Office, and the prime minister's office, was responsible for dealing with issues related to special economic zones.

Kotaro Kake, chairman of Kake Educational Institution, which runs the university, is known as a close friend of the prime minister.

Abe's Liberal Democratic Party agreed to briefly reopen parliament for committee deliberations, as requested by opposition parties.

But the deliberations were held when Abe was away for a tour of European countries including participation in the Group of 20 summit in Hamburg, prompting opposition parties' demand for his attendance at a separate parliament session.

Appearing in the joint session of the House of Representatives' Cabinet affairs and education committees, Maekawa reiterated that the review process was "unclear" and "unfair," citing insufficient discussion of whether Kake Educational Institution met conditions to launch Japan's first vet school in half a century.

During a similar session in the House of Councillors in the afternoon, the former top bureaucrat also said Hiroto Izumi, Abe's assistant, urged him in September and October last year to speed up the procedure, saying he was making the request on behalf of Abe "because the prime minister cannot say it by himself."

Abe has come under fire over suspicions he influenced the approval process for the opening of the new department at the university in Imabari, Ehime Prefecture, western Japan.

Such suspicions have grown after the revelation of documents indicating that officials of the Cabinet Office pressured the education ministry ahead of the selection of Kake.

Maekawa has said he remembers having seen some of the documents while he was still working at the ministry.

The documents, which Maekawa insists are authentic, state the officials employed phrases such as "what the highest level of the prime minister's office has said" and "in line with the prime minister's wishes." Abe and other Cabinet members have repeatedly denied wrongdoings.

It is the second scandal related to school operators close to Abe. He has drawn suspicion over his dubious ties with private school operator Moritomo Gakuen, which purchased state-owned land in Osaka at a dramatically reduced price. Abe's wife Akie was named honorary principal of the elementary school that Moritomo planned to open at the site.

Maekawa resigned in January to take responsibility for a scandal in which the ministry systematically secured post-retirement jobs for its bureaucrats.

Kyodo

Bureauctrats, Red Tape, Land Deals, And Shinzo Abe

Have you met a government employee at a government office who mercilessly scanned every detail of a written application and rejected it for any small issue? Such people are said to have a "bureaucratic" mind. Their sole purpose is to approve or reject the piles of government red tape.

The expression "red tape" originates with the red ribbon that once bound official documents in Britain. Today, it has come to represent what we mere common people see as document worship by the staff of government offices. In recent times, the bureaucracy's "document-ism" is intended to guarantee the preservation of evidence of official government actions, projects and decision-making so that it can be examined later. 

It needs to be impossible for the government to be bereft of records to show how it decided to sell a plot of state-owned land for just 14 percent of its appraised value. Of course, we are talking about the Finance Ministry's handling of just such a sale to nationalist private school operator Moritomo Gakuen. Surely those responsible for caring for Japanese people's assets have an obligation to maintain proof that they are carrying out this management fairly. 

What is surprising about the Moritomo affair is that the finance bureau head who so bluntly insisted during Diet discussions that the sale was "appropriate" while maintaining that "there are no records" has gone on to the top post in the National Tax Agency. Taxpayers struggling with the ample volumes of tax-system red tape must be astonished at the Finance Ministry's idea of "fairness." 

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, who is in the nerve center of the government which now holds authority over bureaucrats' postings, stated recently that the aforementioned promotion stemmed from the principle of "the right person in the right place." Surely he did not mean that the government thought highly of the new National Tax Agency chief's handling of the Moritomo scandal, in which he could not verify the legitimacy of the land sale and as a result fueled public distrust in the government. Neither the administration nor the Finance Ministry should be so dismissive of taxpayers' feelings. 

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is now obsessed with revising the Constitution, but we would like him to think about what in this world gave rise to two other constitutions, namely Britain's Magna Carta and the U.S. Constitution. Indeed, it was unjust taxation and unfair spending that sparked the fury of the people to demand the reforms embodied in these documents.

Diet Investigation Of Kihei Maekawa To Proceed Without PM Abe Present

LDP Lawmaker  Under Investigation For Favoritism

Japan's ruling and opposition parties agreed Tuesday to briefly reopen the Diet next week for one-off committee deliberations, with plans to investigate a former top bureaucrat at the education ministry who has come forward alleging favoritism by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

The agreement came shortly after the main opposition Democratic Party spurned an offer by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party for committee deliberations on July 10 or 11, on the grounds that Abe would be unable to attend them due to an overseas trip.

Meeting with LDP Diet Affairs Committee Chairman Wataru Takeshita for a second time on Tuesday, Democratic Party Diet affairs chief Kazunori Yamanoi agreed to hold committee deliberations on July 10 after the LDP consented to summoning Kihei Maekawa as an unsworn witness.

Maekawa, a former vice minister of education, culture, sports, science and technology, is likely to be asked about allegations that Abe has used his power as prime minister to help Kake Educational Institution, whose president is a close friend, open a veterinary medicine department in a special economic zone.

Emboldened by the LDP's crushing defeat in Sunday's Tokyo metropolitan assembly election, the Democratic Party and several other opposition parties agreed earlier in the day to call for committee deliberations or a new session of the Diet, amid a number of scandals dogging the government and ruling party.

With Abe scheduled not to return to Japan until July 12, the committee deliberations in both houses on July 10 will be held without him. But Takeshita told Yamanoi that the LDP will "consider" holding a session of a parliamentary committee with the prime minister in attendance, according to the opposition lawmaker.

The previous Diet session ended last month, but one-off committee deliberations can be held without convening a new session.

Abe is scheduled to attend a summit of the Group of 20 major economies in Germany starting July 7 and visit several Scandinavian countries and Estonia before returning to Japan on July 12.

Maekawa, who resigned from the top bureaucratic post over an unrelated case in January, has drawn attention for publicly vouching for the authenticity of ministry documents that indicated Abe's influence over the school construction project.

At their meeting on Tuesday, senior officials of the Democratic Party, Japanese Communist Party, Social Democratic Party and Liberal Party also decided to call for the prime minister to dismiss Defense Minister Tomomi Inada over remarks she made during a stump speech that they argue amounted to making political use of the Self-Defense Forces.

The LDP lost its status as the leading force in the Tokyo assembly amid voter frustration with the Abe administration, which is embroiled in various controversies. Meanwhile, popular Gov. Yuriko Koike's Tomin First no Kai (Tokyoites First party) and allies won an overall majority in the 127-seat assembly.

Just days before Sunday's assembly election, Inada asked voters to back an LDP candidate, saying the request came from "the Defense Ministry, the SDF, the defense minister and the LDP."

Under the law governing the country's defense apparatus, the SDF is supposed to remain politically neutral and its personnel are restricted in their ability to engage in political activities.

Also during the campaign period, former education minister Hakubun Shimomura, who is a close aide to Abe and was responsible for the party's election campaign in the capital, was also reported to have mishandled political donations from Kake Educational Institution, which he denied.

Kyodo

PM Abe Needs Action Not Words

PM Shinzo Abe Speaks With Media Tuesday

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on July 3 repeatedly pledged to learn from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s crushing defeat in the Tokyo metropolitan assembly election on the previous day.

“An extremely severe judgment was rendered by the people of Tokyo. We have to seriously accept it as a strict rebuke of the LDP and deeply reflect (on our acts and remarks),” said Abe, who is also the LDP president, at the prime minister’s office.

The question is what kind of lessons he will glean from the bitter political setback and how he will actually change his behavior.

Abe is said to be considering reshuffling his Cabinet, apparently in hopes of revitalizing his political leadership, which has taken a massive hit from the election results.

But a simple change in the Cabinet lineup is not what the public wants to see.

Abe has shown a tendency to make a sharp distinction between friend and foe and pay little attention to dissenting voices. He has also pushed through his policy initiatives forcefully by using the ruling coalition’s overwhelming majority in both chambers of the Diet.

The core challenge confronting Abe is whether he can really do serious soul-searching over his high-handed political approach and mend his ways.

During Diet sessions, Abe has heaped praise on opposition parties willing to work with his government while mounting scathing verbal attacks on opposition parties critical of his administration.

He has also utilized news media sympathetic to his views and opinions as channels to communicate his messages to the public.

In campaigning for the metropolitan assembly poll, both Abe and LDP Secretary-General Toshihiro Nikai pinned the blame on the party's uphill battle on media coverage of political scandals and gaffes.

Abe’s haughty refusal to listen to critics and dissenters in an arrogant attitude apparently driven by his dominant political power has also sapped the LDP’s own vigor.

During the four and a half years since his return to power, Abe has secured a tight grip over the party’s decisions on its official candidates for elections, key personnel appointments and distribution of political funds. Many LDP lawmakers now meekly kowtow to Abe’s leadership.

The LDP readily accepted a proposal to change the party rules to allow its president to serve up to three three-year terms for a total of nine years. This is another sign of the party being under Abe’s thumb.

The basic rules of democracy require that decisions be made by a majority vote in the end. But they also demand that the voices of the minority should also be heard for exhaustive debate on policy issues.

Abe should remember this principle and abandon his self-righteous refusal to heed dissenting voices.

In response to the LDP’s defeat in the Tokyo poll, the Abe administration is showing an inclination to allow Diet committees to hold deliberations while the Diet itself is not in session.

We welcome the move, but simply allowing out-of-session committee meetings will not be enough.

The Abe Cabinet should swiftly convene an extraordinary Diet session in response to opposition parties’ demand based on Article 53 of the Constitution.

Article 53 states that the Cabinet must convene such a session when “a quarter or more of the total members of either House makes the demand.”

This is a provision to guarantee minority groups’ right to make their voices heard at the Diet.

If Abe is serious about soul-searching, he should start by observing this constitutional provision.

Redressing mistakes made by the administrative branch of the government is an important responsibility of the legislature.

There should be no difference between ruling and opposition parties in commitment to this duty.

We urge LDP lawmakers to demonstrate their pride as the representatives of the people by calling on the prime minister to convene an extraordinary session.

In an Asahi Shimbun exit poll conducted during the July 2 election, 71 percent of the respondents said the administration’s response to the political scandal involving the Kake Educational Institution, a school operator with a link to Abe, has been “inappropriate.”

If Abe fails to match his words about soul-searching with concrete and convincing actions, public support for his administration will further wane.

Asahi

PM Shinzo Abe Faces Serious Challenges After Tokyo Election

Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike

 A stinging rebuke by voters in the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election Sunday is certain to set off postmortem finger-pointing and a strategic recalibration within Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's ruling party as he weighs a path forward for amending the constitution.

"We take the results seriously," a stunned Liberal Democratic Party Secretary-General Toshihiro Nikai told reporters Sunday night. "We will reassess what needs to be reassessed and do our best to recover our lost ground." 

Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike's new Tomin First no Kai party and groups aligned with her captured 79 seats in the 127-member metropolitan assembly, handily defeating the LDP, which was left with a meager 23 seats, down from 57 before the election.

Hakubun Shimomura, who heads the LDP's Tokyo chapter but faces allegations of receiving murky political donations, attributed the party's loss to trouble on the national level. "Heavy headwinds were blowing far above, in national politics," he said in a Fuji Television program. He later told reporters that he plans to step down to take responsibility for the loss.

Abe's party had enjoyed unrivaled strength since unseating the Democratic Party of Japan in December 2012, as victories in three national-level elections followed. But a favoritism scandal involving a veterinary school run by a friend of Abe's as well as a gaffe by his hawkish defense minister on the campaign trail appear to have weakened public support.

Complications for Abe

In a Nikkei opinion poll conducted June 16-18, right before the start of campaigning for the metropolitan assembly election, approval ratings for the Abe cabinet stood at 49%, a 7-point drop from a month earlier. Abe's power inside the party could erode if his plunging support is viewed as the cause of the devastating loss in the crucial Tokyo vote.

Growing criticism within the party could complicate Abe's plan for an easy victory in the LDP presidential election in September 2018.

Shigeru Ishiba, a former regional revitalization minister who is believed to harbor ambitions for Abe's job, gave a scathing assessment. "We should acknowledge the historic defeat," he told The Nikkei. "This was not a victory for Tomin First no Kai, but a defeat for the LDP."

"Damage control is crucial," Ishiba added. "The timing of a cabinet shake-up and the new lineup will determine the future of government management going forward."

PM Abe Dismisses Calls For Imamura Resignation

Imamura At Diet Thursday

 Prime Minister Shinzo Abe dismissed opposition calls Thursday for the resignation of the disaster reconstruction minister, Masahiro Imamura, over remarks implying Fukushima evacuees yet to return to parts of the prefecture deemed safe to live in should fend for themselves.

Masahiro Imamura had been defending at a Tuesday press conference the central government’s decision to delegate help for the “voluntary evacuees” from the March 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster when he said it is such people’s “own responsibility, their own choice” not to return.

“I want him to continue to be alongside those affected by the disaster and devote every effort to his duties with the aim of realizing reconstruction as soon as possible,” Abe said during a plenary session of the House of Representatives.

Earlier Thursday, Imamura, 70, apologized for “causing a nuisance to everyone” at a session of the lower house committee on reconstruction from the 2011 disaster.

Housing subsidies ran out last month for people who left areas other than government-designated zones around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

At the Japanese Lower House of the Diet on Thursday Imamura said “Prime Minister Abe said I should apologize that I used a disparaging word and gave the impression that (the evacuees) are responsible for their own (return) despite the fact that they are displaced because of the nuclear disaster, and I deeply apologize,” Imamura said.

Kazuko Kori, a lawmaker from the main opposition Democratic Party the recovering area of northeastern Japan, had called for Imamura to resign because “we cannot discuss reconstruction under this minister.”

Many in the Diet have dismissed Imamura's aplogy as being nothing more than "Abe told me to, so that is the sole reason I am apologizing".

But Imamura vowed to “keep performing my duties in good faith.”

Imamura had aggressively lashed out at the reporter who had asked him the question on Tuesday, yelling “shut up” at the reporter during the press conference. He offered a brief apology the same day for having “become emotional.”

He said Thursday he is willing to apologize to the reporter, “if Prime Minister Abe said it is necessary.”

The lower house reconstruction committee is currently debating a proposal to reform a special law relating to the 2011 disaster that would see the state pay for cleanup efforts in the areas of Fukushima still too contaminated with radioactivity to live in.

Imamura has been in his post since a Cabinet reshuffle in August last year.

KYODO

Disaster Reconstruction Minister Masahiro Imamura Calls Fukushima Evacuees Leeches

Masahiro Imamura, Japan’s disaster reconstruction minister, said Tuesday displaced people yet to return to areas of Fukushima Prefecture deemed safe to live in are “responsible for their own lives and living,” before snapping at the reporter whose question prompted the remark.

Imamura made the comment at a press conference explaining the government’s efforts for the reconstruction of areas hit by the March 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster.

Housing subsidies ran out last month for those who had left areas other than government-designated zones around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

Citing a court decision last month that the central government and the plant’s operator were liable in the nuclear disaster in the first ruling of its kind since the crisis, a reporter asked what the state is doing to help the “voluntary evacuees.”

Imamura responded that the central government has delegated such matters to prefectural authorities, which are more knowledgeable about local conditions.

“It’s evacuees responsibility, their own choice not to return, they are acting like leeches” he said when pressed further, pointing out that other evacuees have managed to go back to the areas.

The reporter said some of those still displaced have found themselves unable to return, and asked whether the state should take more responsibility for looking after those people.

“We are taking responsibility. The evacuees refuse to return so we have the situation now. So why are you saying something so rude?” Imamura shouted, slamming his podium.

Pointing a finger at the reporter, he then yelled, “Take that back! Get out of here!”

“You’re the one who’s causing problems for the evacuees,” someone called out as Imamura walked away from the podium, to which the minister responded “Shut up! You are annoying!" before leaving the room.

“The minister has informed me that he became emotional and was unable to remain calm for part of today’s press conference,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said during a subsequent press conference.

Suga, the government’s top spokesman, said the matter is one for Imamura himself to “handle appropriately.”

Imamura apologized later Tuesday, telling reporters he had “become emotional.”  When he was pressed again to explain what the administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is doing to assist the remaining evacuees, Imamura thanked the media present and left the press room without comment.

Imamura, 70, was installed in his post in a Cabinet reshuffle in August last year.

KYODO

Here is video of the exchange

Opposition Parties Want PM Shinzo Abe's Wife To Testify

PM Abe's Wife, Akie Abe

Four opposition parties on March 24 agreed to demand that first lady Akie Abe testify as a sworn witness in the Diet to determine who is lying in relation to a questionable deal over state-owned land.

The move comes a day after Yasunori Kagoike, chief of the Osaka-based Moritomo Gakuen educational institution, repeated his claims about Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Akie, and the couple again rejected Kagoike’s words as falsehoods.

“There is a total contradiction in what Akie said and what Kagoike said,” Kazunori Yamanoi, Diet Affairs Committee chairman for the main opposition Democratic Party, said. “We are forced to make this request (to have Akie appear before the Diet) in order to clarify the facts.”

Kagoike, testifying as a sworn witness, told the Diet that he sought Akie’s help on a leasing deal for the state-owned land in Toyonaka, Osaka Prefecture, that Moritomo Gakuen wanted to buy for a planned elementary school.

Kagoike also repeated that Akie gave him a 1 million yen ($9,000) donation from the prime minister.

The ruling coalition is opposed to calling Akie before the Diet on grounds that both she and her husband have repeatedly denied donating money to Kagoike or being involved in Moritomo Gakuen’s purchase of the land for 14 percent of its appraised value.

In Diet questioning on March 24, the prime minister again denied any involvement by him, his wife or his office in the land deal.

He and other government officials also blasted Kagoike’s claim that Akie gave him the money when they were alone in his office at Moritomo Gakuen.

“It is extremely regrettable that comments were made counter to the facts by laying out a situation involving a conversation in a closed room that makes it impossible to provide counter evidence,” Abe said at the Upper House Budget Committee on March 24.

He also criticized Kagoike for revealing only some of the e-mail exchanges between his wife and Akie to give the impression that the first lady had asked them to keep quiet about the evolving scandal.

The prime minister said he intended to disclose the e-mail exchange between the two women over a two-year period.

Kyodo

Tokyo Gas Suggested Back Door Talks For Fish Market

Former Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara

 

A former Tokyo deputy governor said Sunday that Tokyo Gas Co. suggested backdoor negotiations on the sale of contaminated land for a new Tokyo fish market.

The remark by Takeo Hamauzu, 69, contradicts the Tokyo government's official records that state Hamauzu in October 2000 sounded out Tokyo Gas, the owner of the land at the time, about holding secret talks on the sale.

The Tokyo government's main negotiator for the purchase of land to replace the aging Tsukiji fish market told a powerful committee of the Tokyo metropolitan assembly looking into the controversial relocation plan that the gas company had used the term "behind closed doors."

Among several potential relocation sites, the city government selected the land in the Toyosu waterfront area that was formerly used as a gas production site, reaching a basic agreement on the relocation plan in July 2001.

However, Yuriko Koike, upon becoming Tokyo governor last August, decided to postpone the planned November 2016 relocation of the market, which also deals in fruit and vegetables, amid lingering concerns about soil and air pollution at the new site.

Tokyo Gas was initially reluctant to sell the land to the Tokyo government as it thought the former gas production site would not be appropriate for a market. But according to the government records, Hamauzu approached the company and began secret talks on the land deal.

Hamauzu, close aide of then-Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara, told the committee that as the gas company was originally considering using the land for a different development project, he thought the company wanted to discuss the land sale to the Tokyo government quietly as an abrupt change in the plan for the use of the Toyosu site could cause disruption.

"Since negotiations usually do not go well without taking into account a partner's demand, I said, 'We are fine to talk about it behind closed doors,'" Hamauzu told the committee.

Ishihara will appear before the committee Monday.

The metropolitan government said the same day benzene at up to 100 times the government-set safety limit had been detected in groundwater samples taken at the Toyosu site, higher than the benzene level of 79 times the allowable limit from Tokyo's ninth test results announced in January.

A former Tokyo deputy governor said Sunday that Tokyo Gas Co. suggested backdoor negotiations on the sale of contaminated land for a new Tokyo fish market.

The remark by Takeo Hamauzu, 69, contradicts the Tokyo government's official records that state Hamauzu in October 2000 sounded out Tokyo Gas, the owner of the land at the time, about holding secret talks on the sale.

The Tokyo government's main negotiator for the purchase of land to replace the aging Tsukiji fish market told a powerful committee of the Tokyo metropolitan assembly looking into the controversial relocation plan that the gas company had used the term "behind closed doors."

Among several potential relocation sites, the city government selected the land in the Toyosu waterfront area that was formerly used as a gas production site, reaching a basic agreement on the relocation plan in July 2001.

However, Yuriko Koike, upon becoming Tokyo governor last August, decided to postpone the planned November 2016 relocation of the market, which also deals in fruit and vegetables, amid lingering concerns about soil and air pollution at the new site.

Tokyo Gas was initially reluctant to sell the land to the Tokyo government as it thought the former gas production site would not be appropriate for a market. But according to the government records, Hamauzu approached the company and began secret talks on the land deal.

Hamauzu, close aide of then-Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara, told the committee that as the gas company was originally considering using the land for a different development project, he thought the company wanted to discuss the land sale to the Tokyo government quietly as an abrupt change in the plan for the use of the Toyosu site could cause disruption.

"Since negotiations usually do not go well without taking into account a partner's demand, I said, 'We are fine to talk about it behind closed doors,'" Hamauzu told the committee.

Ishihara will appear before the committee Monday.

The metropolitan government said the same day benzene at up to 100 times the government-set safety limit had been detected in groundwater samples taken at the Toyosu site, higher than the benzene level of 79 times the allowable limit from Tokyo's ninth test results announced in January.

Kohei Urano, emeritus professor at Yokohama National University, said while benzene at 79 times or even 100 times the safety limit would pose little danger to health unless the groundwater was used at the market or to drink, it might still arouse public concern about food handling at the market.

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