Japan General Discussion: You Gotta Be Kishid-ing Me

[NewYorkExpress]

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-54216632

Japan's former prime minister, Shinzo Abe, has visited a controversial war memorial just days after stepping down.

Mr Abe posted a picture of himself at the Yasukuni Shrine, telling his followers he had gone there to inform the spirits of his resignation.

He largely stayed away from the shrine, which honours Japan's war dead, but also convicted war criminals, during his time as prime minister.

Mr Abe's 2013 visit angered China and South Korea.

Japan's occupation of its two neighbours ended with its defeat in 1945 and the conclusion of the Second World War.

I guess when you aren't Prime Minister you don't care about insulting other countries, do you?

[NewYorkExpress]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/01/fukushima-nuclear-disaster-preventable-court-rules-with-more-damages-claims-likely

A Japanese court has found the government and Tepco, the operator of the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant, negligent for failing to take measures to prevent the 2011 nuclear disaster, and ordered them to pay 1bn yen ($9.5m) in damages to thousands of residents for their lost livelihoods.

The ruling on Wednesday by Sendai high court could open up the government to further damage claims because thousands of other residents evacuated as reactors at the coastal power station overheated and released a radioactive cloud, following the devastating tsunami. While some people have returned home, areas close to the plant are still off limits.

The plaintiffs had sought monthly compensation of about 50,000 yen ($470) per person until radiation levels subside to pre-disaster levels, seeking a total of 28bn yen ($265m).


The plaintiffs’ head lawyer, Izutaro Managi, hailed the ruling as a major victory, saying: “We ask the government to extend relief measures as soon as possible, not only for the plaintiffs but for all victims based on the damage they suffered.”

The latest ruling follows 13 lower court decisions, which were divided over government responsibility in the disaster. The latest ruling doubles the amount of damages against Tepco ordered by a lower court in 2017

[NewYorkExpress]

Nikkei reports that Suga is unlikely to call an early election for 2020 and would prefer to have an election in 2021.  Suga seems to believe he can get a few policy wins under his belt and then face the electorate with a set of accomplishments.  Many in the LDP are still trying to pressure Suga to strike now while the LDP have a massive lead in the polls pointing to missed opportunities in 2008 to call an election while the DPJ itself was divided and absorbed in infighting and LDP had regained the lead in the polls since the 2007 Upper House election debacle.   It seems Suga is not listing to them.  Of course an election in 2021 will have to be early 2021 or else KP will have objections to having an national election so close to the critical Tokyo prefecture elections that KP prioritize as its top priority.

It can't be during the Summer of 2021, unless Suga commits to canceling the Tokyo Olympics because of COVID, either.

[NewYorkExpress]

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/japan-official-slams-donald-trump-dictatorship-then-quickly-deletes-it/

It was barely noticed even in Japan this week, but for one brief moment, a Japanese official did something completely out of national character: He expressed his opinion.


"A sitting president making accusations of election fraud and insisting he will 'never give up.' Am I the only one seeing this and thinking, what kind of dictatorship is this?" Japanese Land Minister Kazuyoshi Akaba wrote on Twitter, lambasting President Trump's refusal to concede the election and wondering: "Where has our role model for democracy gone?"

After a backlash on Twitter from Japan's small but vocal niche of right-wing nationalists, he quickly deleted his burst of frankness.

[NewYorkExpress]

Documents showing that Shinzo Abe may have broken the law by paying for part of the expenses of a dinner party for his supporters have been published.

Hotel documents show former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe's camp paid part of the expenses for a dinner party held for his supporters the night before an annual cherry blossom viewing party, NHK public TV said on Monday, citing unnamed sources.

Politicians in Japan are strictly forbidden to give anything to constituents that could be construed as a gift. The rule is so strict that one cabinet minister quit in 2014 after distributing paper fans during the summer.

In May, about 660 lawyers and scholars filed a complaint with Tokyo prosecutors seeking an investigation into whether Abe and two executives of his political support group broke campaign and funding laws by subsidising the attendance of backers at the reception in 2018, Kyodo news agency then reported.

[NewYorkExpress]

A court in Seoul has ordered Japan to pay reparations of 100 million won each to the families of twelve "comfort women" from Japan's occupation of Korea.

Wartime sex slaves from South Korea, euphemistically known as "comfort women," won their first legal victory against the Japanese government in a landmark ruling handed down Friday in Seoul. The Seoul Central District Court ordered Japan's government to pay reparations of 100 million won ($91,300) each to the families of 12 women who were forced to work as sex slaves for the Japanese army during Japan's colonization of Korea.


The court called Japan forcing the women — only five of whom are still alive — to be sex slaves "a crime against humanity." It said the women were forced into the servitude when Japan "illegally occupied" the Korean Peninsula between 1910 and 1945, arguing that the illegality of that occupation means Japan's contemporary sovereign immunity can't shield it from lawsuits.

[NewYorkExpress]

The LDP is allowing female lawmakers at key meeting...only if they don't talk.

After a sexism row sparked by Tokyo Olympics chief’s saying women talked too much at meetings, Japan’s ruling party wants women at key meetings — but only if they don’t talk.

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party has proposed a new plan that allows five female lawmakers to join the party’s key meetings as observers.

Toshihiro Nikai, the party’s 82-year-old secretary general, said on Tuesday that he heard criticism that the party’s board is male-dominated, but added that the board members are elected.

But it is important for the party’s female members to “look” at the party’s decision-making process, he said.

“It is important to fully understand what kind of discussions are happening. Take a look, is what it is about,” Nikai said at a news conference late on Tuesday.

Those female observers can’t speak during the meetings, but can submit opinions separately to the secretariat office, the daily newspaper Nikkei reported.

Yoshiro Mori, the head of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic organizing committee, resigned last week after derogatory comments about women speaking too much at meetings and making them too long triggered backlash at home and abroad.

The 83-year-old former prime minister’s remarks are one of the examples that show how deep rooted sexism is in Japanese society.

[NewYorkExpress]

Suga has appointed Tetsushi Sakamoto as Minister of Loneliness.

The Japanese prime minister has appointed a “minister of loneliness” to his cabinet in response to a recent rise in suicides.

As The Japan Times reported, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga created the role in early February, taking after the U.K., which created its own such role in 2018.

Tetsushi Sakamoto will take on the role, the Times reported, while also handling the country’s falling birth rates and regional economies.


Figures from the National Police Agency showed that 20,919 people committed suicide in 2020, a 750-person increase from the previous year and the first consecutive rise in suicides in 11 years, the Times reported. According to the outlet, the surge is most noticeable among women and young people.

Suga said to the country's budget committee earlier this month that people from all walks of life are vulnerable, the Times reported.

[NewYorkExpress]

Reconstruction Minister Kenya Akiba is out, becomes the fourth Minister to resign or be sacked in the past two months.

Japan’s prime minister, Fumio Kishida, has ended the year facing fierce political headwinds after his reconstruction minister became the fourth member of his scandal-hit cabinet to resign in two months.

Kenya Akiba announced his resignation on Tuesday after opposition MPs accused him of election law violations and of having ties to the Unification church, a controversial religious group whose connections to the ruling party have sent Kishida’s approval ratings to record lows.

Akiba joins Daishiro Yamagiwa (Economic Reconciliation), Yasuhiro Hanashi (Justice), and Minoru Terada (Internal Affairs) as having been forced out since October.

[NewYorkExpress]

Kishida has fired an aide who said he did not want to look at same-sex couples.

The Japanese prime minister, Fumio Kishida, has sacked an aide who said he would not want to live next to LGBTQ+ couples and that people would flee Japan if same-sex marriage was permitted.

In remarks reported by local media, Masayoshi Arai, an economy and trade official who joined Kishida’s staff as a secretary in October, said he did not even want to look at same-sex couples.

“His comments are outrageous and completely incompatible with the administration’s policies,” Kishida said on Saturday, in remarks aired by the public broadcaster NHK.

[NewYorkExpress]

Kishida is in hot water for stating that Japan's ban on same-sex marriage is not discriminatory.

Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has been criticised for saying the country's ban on same-sex marriage is not discriminatory.

Weeks ago, he apologised to the LGBTQ community over homophobic comments made by an aide who has since been sacked.

Mr Kishida's party is under growing pressure to improve LGBTQ rights, as more Japanese support same-sex marriage.

Japan remains the only G7 country that doesn't recognise such unions.

When asked by an opposition lawmaker if the country's existing law constituted discrimination, the PM said on Tuesday: "I don't think disallowing same-sex couples to marry is unjust discrimination by the state."

The prime minister also reiterated his position on Wednesday that a ban on same-sex marriage is "not unconstitutional" but said his stand should not be seen as a form of discrimination.

[NewYorkExpress]

Twelve Years after the Fukushima nuclear disaster, an area southwest of the plant in Tomioka has had it's evacuation order lifted.

Japan has officially reopened part of a town evacuated 12 years ago in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

The area of Tomioka, southwest of the wrecked Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, was evacuated following the disaster in March 2011.


Its reopening was celebrated on Saturday, in time for the popular cherry blossom season.

Former residents and visitors celebrated as they strolled along a street known as "the cherry blossoms tunnel".

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida also joined a ceremony to mark the reopening.

"The lifting of the evacuation is by no means a final goal, but the start of the recovery," Mr Kishida said at the ceremony.

He also pledged to keep working to lift all remaining no-go zones.

[NewYorkExpress]

Someone tried to kill Kishida today in Wakayama. He's okay, one police officer is injured.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was evacuated unharmed Saturday after someone threw an explosive device in his direction while he was campaigning at a fishing port in western Japan, officials said. Police wrestled a suspect to the ground as screaming bystanders scrambled to get away and smoke filled the air.

One police officer was slightly hurt and Kishida continued campaigning Saturday, but the chaotic scene was reminiscent of the assassination nine months ago of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, which also came on a campaign tour and continues to reverberate in Japanese politics. Kishida was visiting Saikazaki port in Wakayama prefecture to support his ruling party’s candidate in a local election, and the explosion occurred just before he was to begin his speech.

A young man believed to be a suspect was arrested Saturday at the scene after he allegedly threw “the suspicious object,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told reporters. Matsuno refused to comment on the suspect’s motive and background, saying police are still investigating.

TV footage shows Kishida standing with his back to the crowd. His security detail suddenly points to the ground near him, and the prime minister whips around, looking alarmed. The camera quickly turns to the crowd just as several people, including uniformed and plainclothes police officers, converge on a young man wearing a white surgical mask and holding what appears to be another device, a long silver tube.

As they collapse on top of the man, working to remove the tube from his hands, a large explosion is heard near where Kishida had been standing. The crowd scatters in panic as police roughly drag the man away.

It wasn’t immediately clear what the explosive device was or how many the suspect had, but some reports said it was a smoke or pipe bomb, possibly with a delayed fuse

[NewYorkExpress]

Kishida has sacked his son Shotaro from his position as his political secretary following reports of inappropriate behavior at a December Party at the Prime Minister's official residence.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s eldest son, Shotaro Kishida, will be removed from his position as his father’s political secretary on Thursday, following media reports about a year-end party at the prime minister’s official residence last December that featured controversial behavior.

Images of Shotaro Kishida and relatives having photos taken at symbolically important locations in the residence, including at the staircase used to unveil the last Cabinet as they mimicked members of the political body, surfaced in the media last week. The government had initially reacted by saying that the prime minister had reprimanded his son for inappropriate behavior, but had no intention to dismiss him.

The prime minister has taken responsibility for his son’s appointment.

“I will fulfill my responsibilities by listening carefully to the voice of the people and striving to tackle issues that cannot be postponed,” the prime minister told reporters Monday.

Fumio Kishida said that his son’s behavior was inappropriate for a political secretary, and that given the situation in his constituency in Hiroshima has settled down following the Group of Seven leaders summit in the city, he thought this was the best timing.

From Thursday, Takayoshi Yamamoto, a long-term secretary of the prime minister who is currently working as personal secretary in Fumio Kishida’s lawmaker’s office and served as political secretary during the prime minister’s first year in office, will take over the position from Shotaro Kishida.