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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 09 TOKYO 001708
SIPDIS
SIPDIS
DEPT FOR E, P, EB, EAP/J, EAP/P, EAP/PD, PA
WHITE HOUSE/NSC/NEC; JUSTICE FOR STU CHEMTOB IN ANTI-TRUST DIVISION;
TREASURY/OASIA/IMI/JAPAN; DEPT PASS USTR/PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICE;
SECDEF FOR JCS-J-5/JAPAN,
DASD/ISA/EAPR/JAPAN; DEPT PASS ELECTRONICALLY TO USDA
FAS/ITP FOR SCHROETER; PACOM HONOLULU FOR PUBLIC DIPLOMACY ADVISOR;
CINCPAC FLT/PA/ COMNAVFORJAPAN/PA.
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: OIIP KMDR KPAO PGOV PINR ECON ELAB JA
SUBJECT: DAILY SUMMARY OF JAPANESE PRESS 04//07
INDEX:
(1) Poll on Abe cabinet, political parties, constitutional
referendum legislation
(2) Government, ruling camp eager to enact bills linked to Abe's
policy imprint
(3) Excerpt from Fuji TV Hodo 2001 program on April 15
(4) LDP Policy Chief Nakagawa criticizes Minshuto
(5) Kasumigaseki confidential: LDP Secretary General Nakagawa's
natural enemy
(6) Kisha no Me (Reporter's eye) column -- Premier Wen's signals to
Japan
(7) Researchers' disclosure of documents used in Tokyo War Crimes
Trials showing coercion of comfort women
(8) Facts about SDF deployment in Iraq (Section 2); Thinking of SDF
as Japan's new garrison-SDF in transformation (Part 5): US military
intelligence-ASDF as 'one flesh' with US forces in its airlift
mission
ARTICLES:
(1) Poll on Abe cabinet, political parties, constitutional
referendum legislation
ASAHI (Page 4) (Full)
April 17, 2007
Questions & Answers
(Figures shown in percentage, rounded off. Bracketed figures denote
proportions to all respondents. Parentheses denote the results of
the last survey conducted March 31 and April 1.)
Q: Do you support the Abe cabinet?
Yes 40 (37)
No 38 (43)
Q: Why? (One reason only. Left column for those marking "yes" on
previous question, and right for those saying "no.")
The prime minister is Mr. Abe 20 (8) 4 (2)
It's an LDP-led cabinet 24(10) 27(10)
From the aspect of policies 27(11) 55(21)
No particular reason 27(11) 11 (4)
Q: Which political party do you support now?
Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) 31 (30)
Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ or Minshuto) 14 (14)
New Komeito (NK) 4 (2)
Japanese Communist Party (JCP) 3 (2)
Social Democratic Party (SDP or Shaminto) 2 (1)
People's New Party (PNP or Kokumin Shinto) 0 (0)
New Party Nippon (NPN or Shinto Nippon) 0 (0)
Other political parties 0 (1)
None 41 (43)
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SUBJECT: DAILY SUMMARY OF JAPANESE PRESS 04//07
No answer (N/A) + don't know (D/K) 5 (7)
Q: A national referendum bill, which prescribes procedures for the
nation to vote on amendments to the Constitution of Japan, cleared
the House of Representatives on April 13, and the bill was sent to
the House of Councillors. Would you like this national referendum
legislation to get through the Diet curing its current session?
Yes 40
No 37
Q: According to the national referendum bill that passed the Diet's
lower chamber, the Constitution will be amended with a majority of
valid votes if the turnout of voters is low. Do you think the
turnout of voters should be above a certain level to amend the
Constitution?
Yes 79
No 11
Polling methodology: The survey was conducted April 14-15 over the
telephone on a computer-aided random digit dialing (RDD) basis.
Respondents were chosen from among the nation's voting population on
a three-stage random-sampling basis. Valid answers were obtained
from 1,807 persons (54% ).
(2) Government, ruling camp eager to enact bills linked to Abe's
policy imprint
YOMIURI (Page 4) (Abridged slightly)
April 18, 2007
The government and the ruling coalition have begun making serious
efforts to enact key bills linked to Prime Minister Abe's priority
agenda. The Lower House started discussing three education
reform-related bills at its plenary session yesterday. They are
planning to conduct Diet deliberations on other bills as well,
including Social Insurance Agency (SIA) reform bills and an Iraq
Reconstruction Law extension bill, starting later this week through
next week. Behind the plan lies their intention to play up the Abe
administration's priority policies with an eye on the Upper House
election this summer.
Liberal Democratic Party Secretary General Hidenao Nakagawa told
party executives yesterday: "We are faced a large backlog of key
bills. We need to deliberate on them, aiming for early Diet
approval." An LDP Diet affairs executive took this view: "It will be
difficult to get all the key bills enacted in the current session.
We want to handle bills bearing an Abe stamp on a priority basis."
The LDP specifically plans to aim at swift Diet approval of the
three education bills, the SIA bills, and the Iraq-related bill, in
addition to the national referendum and US force realignment bills
that cleared the Lower House on April 13.
Initially, the LDP had a plan to discuss labor-related bills,
including one to raise the minimum wage, ahead of the SIA-related
bills. This has been reversed in accordance with the Prime
Minister's Official Residence's (Kantei) desire to face the Upper
House election after enacting the SIA legislation. As a result, the
Diet may start discussing the social insurance legislation as early
as tomorrow. This also stems from the LDP's intention to expose the
relationship between the major opposition Minshuto (Democratic Party
of Japan) and civil servant labor unions through the SIA reform.
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SUBJECT: DAILY SUMMARY OF JAPANESE PRESS 04//07
The government's and the LDP's aggressive attitude is partly
ascribable to the Abe cabinet's rising public-support ratings.
Nakagawa indicated yesterday: "Lower House approval of the national
referendum legislation and an LDP-New Komeito agreement on reform of
the civil servant system have helped pushed up support ratings for
the cabinet." His view is that playing up the LDP's adversarial
stance toward Minshuto and Abe's imprint helps the prime minister
impress the public as strong leader.
Simultaneous discussions on multiple bills in the two chambers of
the Diet in May and beyond might take a toll on deliberation time.
For instance, chances are that the enactment of the US force
realignment legislation will not occur until after the Golden Week
holiday period in early May due to the Upper House Defense
Committee's intensive deliberations on treaties. A further delay in
the US force realignment legislation might affect discussions on the
Iraq Reconstruction Law, as well.
Coordinating timetables for relevant Cabinet ministers will also be
difficult. Opposition parties might ask for Chief Cabinet Secretary
Yasuhisa Shiozaki's attendance at deliberations on many key bills.
Some are apprehensive that the LDP's high-handed approach to the key
bills will backfire on the party.
Many lawmakers were absent or walked out of the Lower House plenary
session yesterday amid campaigning for the second round of
nationwide local elections and the Upper House by-elections in
Fukushima and Okinawa prefectures. According to the Lower House
Secretariat, 52 lawmakers filed notifications of absence. Nearly a
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half of all the seats in the hall were empty when the three hours
and 40 minutes of question-and-answer session ended.
At one point, Nobuto Hosaka of the Social Democratic Party asked
Prime Minister Abe: "This looks like a classroom on the verge of a
temporary closing. What do you think of this as a sponsor of the
three important education-related bills?" In response, Abe said: "I
would like to see Lower House (committees) discuss the matter."
On October 27, 2006, some 40 lawmakers did not show up in the Lower
House plenary session. That prompted President Yohei Kono to tell
all the parties to remind their members of the need to attend
plenary sessions.
(3) Excerpt from Fuji TV Hodo 2001 program on April 15
SANKEI (Page 5) (Full)
April 16, 2007
The policy chiefs of the ruling and opposition parties discussed the
achievements of a visit to Japan by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and
the right of collective defense.
-- The Chinese government has suddenly changed to a friendly
stance.
LDP Policy Research Council Chairman Shoichi Nakagawa: Prime
Minister Wen appeared to have been satisfied with his Japan visit,
but I'm not. It is not Japan, but China that should melt the ice on
such disputes as exploration rights in the East China Sea gas fields
and other issues.
Minshuto (Democratic Party of Japan) Policy Research Committee
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SUBJECT: DAILY SUMMARY OF JAPANESE PRESS 04//07
Acting Chairman Keiichiro Asao: We will see whether the bilateral
relations become better or the two countries are just putting off
pending issues.
New Komeito policy chief Tetsuo Saito: Chinese Premier Wen gave high
marks to Japan's apologies for the war, as well as to Japan's
official development assistance. Japan should take seriously the
change in the Chinese government's position.
People's New Party Acting President Shizuka Kamei: I wonder if our
just formally shouting out, welcome, welcome, is enough to better
future bilateral relations between Japan and China. China needs to
change its anti-Japan education.
-- Prime Minister Shinzo Abe plans to set up an experts panel to let
it look into the right of collective self-defense.
Nakagawa: What the prime minister has called for is a debate within
the scope of the present Constitution.
Saito: I agree to the idea of studying such, but amending the
Constitution would be necessary if Japan is to exercise the right to
collective defense.
(4) LDP Policy Chief Nakagawa criticizes Minshuto
SANKEI (Page 5) (Full)
April 16, 2007
Appearing on Fuji TV talk show on April 15, Liberal Democratic Party
(LDP) Policy Research Council Chairman Shoichi Nakagawa criticized
Minshuto's (Democratic Party of Japan) response to the national
referendum bill, which had cleared the House of Representatives,
noting, "The LDP and Minshuto had tried to settle the issue
amicably, but they sought the interests of their party (at the final
stage)." New Komeito policy chief Tetsuo Saito also pointed out:
"Our cooperation did not work due to the top's decision. That is
probable because the elections will take place soon."
Minshuto Policy Research Committee Acting Chairman Keiichiro Asao
rebutted: "Since Minshuto submitted a modified bill before taking a
vote, a debate on the bill should have been conducted." Appearing on
a NHK talk show the same day, Minshuto Diet Committee Chairman
Yoshiaki Takagi rapped the ruling coalition's response, saying, "We
are very concerned about the huge ruling coalition continuing this
kind of oppression with its superior numbers."
Referring to the idea of lowering the minimum voting age for
national referendums to 18, Nakagawa said, "We will make efforts to
set the minimum voting age at 18."
(5) Kasumigaseki confidential: LDP Secretary General Nakagawa's
natural enemy
BUNGEI SHUNJU (Page 234) (Full)
May 2007
When Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) Secretary General Hidenao
Nakagawa said: "I can identify the name of the bureaucrat who is
trumpeting that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and I are at odds," it was
widely agreed in the political district of Nagata-cho and the
government office district of Kasumigaseki that the official in
question was Assistant Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Atsuro Saka,
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SUBJECT: DAILY SUMMARY OF JAPANESE PRESS 04//07
who entered the former Finance Ministry in 1970.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki, who does not know what to
do with a review of the tax revenues for road projects system,
forced the work onto Saka. Saka has undertaken also the
implementation of the Abe cabinet's economic policy in place of
Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Junzo Matoba, who is incompetent.
Saka is also a natural enemy of former Economic and Fiscal Policy
Minister Heizo Takenaka, with whom Nakagawa had cooperated. Saka,
who hailed from the Finance Ministry, which places priority on
fiscal reconstruction but not on economic growth, knows many
politicians and has influence in other ministries. This is the
reason why everybody imagined it was Saka upon hearing Nakagawa's
remark.
Although Saka reportedly reminds one of former Finance Ministry
bosses, including former Administrative Vice Minister Jiro Saito, he
does not have such an image.
When Ryutaro Hashimoto assumed the finance minister post, Saka, who
had served in financial and tax fields, was picked as Hashimoto's
secretary because the two had both studied at Azabu High School. He
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then became a tax examiner in charge of the prime minister's office.
When Hashimoto became prime minister, Saka was appointed again as
his secretary.
After that Saka became deputy director general of the Budget Bureau
replacing Koichi Hosokawa, who was named secretary to then Prime
Minister Keizo Obuchi. However, Saka does not have much experience
in working on the budget.
Saka was then picked director general of the Economic and Planning
Agency's Secretariat. When the central government offices were
reorganized, he became a director general of the Cabinet Office. In
the cabinet of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, Saka was shunned by
Takenaka and this seemed to put an end to his bureaucratic career,
after he had served as director general for disaster management in
the Cabinet Office.
Isao Iijima, policy secretary to former Prime Minister Koizumi, who
wanted to prevent Takenaka's influence from growing, called Saka
back into the Cabinet Office as assistant deputy chief cabinet
secretary. Saka has distinguished bureaucratic ability and he is a
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person of action. He, however, does not belong to the Finance
Ministry's mainstream faction. He does not place priority solely on
fiscal reconstruction.
Nakagawa therefore disgraced himself by criticizing Saka. Nakagawa,
who once gave the shivers to bureaucrats, has ended up damaging the
prestige of his office as LDP secretary general.
(6) Kisha no Me (Reporter's eye) column -- Premier Wen's signals to
Japan
MAINICHI (Page 6) (Abridged)
April 17, 2007
Kazuo Iida
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao during his recent three-day visit to
Japan continued signaling to the Japanese. The signal has a variety
of meanings. Were we sensitive enough to catch them? It appears to
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SUBJECT: DAILY SUMMARY OF JAPANESE PRESS 04//07
me that Wen left a couple of assignments to us Japanese.
One of the highlights of his Japan tour was his address to a plenary
session of the Diet. I paid more attention to Wen's body language
than the contents of his speech. When he appeared in the plenary
hall, Wen raised his right hand high and nodded slightly, but he did
not bow down until he left the hall, as I had expected.
In contrast, when then General Secretary Hu Yaobang delivered a
speech in the Diet in November 1983, he made a deep bow before the
speech. After returning home, however, Hu came under fire from
members of the leadership for his deep bow with one official saying:
"He degraded the dignity of the Chinese."
Wen witnessed a power struggle first hand in the Chinese leadership
and saw key officials fall from the positions throughout his long
service as chief of the General Office of the Communist Party of
China's Central Committee, during which he served as secretary to
three general secretaries: "Hu Yaobang, Zhao Ziyang, and Jiang
Zemin.
Everybody portrays Wen as a "person of consideration." In order to
be considerate, he needs to have an insight into others. I presume
that Wen, behind his smile, should have considered what if "I bowed
before the Japanese."
Until the end of this March, I was stationed in Beijing as a
correspondent. Frankly speaking and based on my experience in
Beijing, Wen's performances in Japan, such as wearing a baseball
uniform and playing catch, and operating a rice mower were not at
all like Wen, who is modest and reserved. Those performances were
perhaps intended to project an image of his being friendly toward
the Japanese.
The performances were easy to understand visually and had a good
effect. But I think the true purpose of his visit to Japan or the
buzzword for the Japanese to understand the Chinese were hidden in
his deeds or words we tend to overlook.
One example was the scene of exchanges of views between Wen and
students in Kyoto. When students asked Wen about regional social
disparities in China, Wen turned serious and said: "My dream is to
let all children attend schools."
A number of children in China are unable to receive compulsory
education even now. Wen is well aware that education contributed to
boosting Japan's post-war reconstruction. He presumably regards
education as the foundation for the construction of a "well-balanced
society," the goal for the Hu Jintao administration to achieve.
China is portrayed as a "rising country," but its substance is still
fragile. Wen should have wanted to tell the Japanese public that a
different world exists only next door to Japan.
In April, after five years, I returned to Tokyo. I have realized
that a number of Chinese are working at restaurants here in Japan,
and that Chinese letters and simplified Chinese are used on
information boards posted here and there in towns and railway
stations. The Japanese people's image of China is not necessarily
good, but whether we like China or not, "China" has become much
closer to us in our daily lives.
China has continued reminding Japan of its "past history." Wen, too,
appealed to the Japanese during his recent visit to Japan: "We
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should learn 'lessons' from history and face up squarely to the
future." Even after the change of government in China, the Chinese
leadership basically takes the same position.
This, too, is breeding hatred in Japan toward China. I suggest both
Japan and China should be modest enough to learn lessons from each
other, looking at "history" involving themselves. Even though the
other side may be incompatible with our side and vice versa, a true
understanding of the other side could help to remove
misunderstandings and frictions.
Wen summed up his recent visit to Japan as a "success." But it was a
small one. The leaders of the two countries are well aware of that.
If every Japanese can figure out the message given by Wen, it will
lead to the next big success.
(7) Researchers' disclosure of documents used in Tokyo War Crimes
Trials showing coercion of comfort women
AKAHATA (Page 2) (Full)
April 18, 2007
Documents connected to the International Military Tribunal for the
Far East have been uncovered that show the former Imperial Japanese
Army (IJA) had coerced women in Japan's occupied territory to work
as "wartime comfort women." The documents were released to the
public by Hiroshi Hayashi, professor at Kanto Gakuin University,
Yoshiaki Yoshimi, professor at Chuo University, and Rumiko Nishino,
co-chairperson of the Violence Against Women in War-Network Japan
(VAWW-NET Japan) at a press conference yesterday in the Foreign
Correspondents Club of Japan.
The documents consist of seven items that include interrogatories
and depositions provided by prosecutors from the Netherlands,
France, and China. They were all used as evidence in the Tokyo
Trial.
Hayashi last year found them from among the files in the possession
of the University of Tokyo's Institute of Social Science.
According to a document presented by the Netherlands, a civilian
employee of the Imperial Japanese Navy's intelligence office on
Borneo Island testified that he beat local women with flat of his
hand and forced them to strip and had three young women stand naked
for one hour. Regarding the reason for their detention, that
civilian employee said, "They were detained under an order for the
purpose of making an excuse to put them in a brothel," naming a
commander of a garrison by name.
The disclosed documents confirm that the former Japanese military
forced local women in Indonesia's Java Island and Vietnam's Lang
Son, and China's Guilin to work as comfort women. Some of the
documents were covered by the media in 1997.
Hayashi noted that these documents "were evidence at the Tokyo War
Crimes Trial, the results of which the Japanese government accepted
by signing the San Francisco Peace Treaty. The Japanese government
has to accept them."
Yoshimi criticized Prime Minister Abe's attitude of denying the Kono
Statement that expressed "apologies and remorse" to victims. He
said: "It's a matter of his sense of human rights. It is
unacceptable to back away from the Kono Statement."
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(8) Facts about SDF deployment in Iraq (Section 2); Thinking of SDF
as Japan's new garrison-SDF in transformation (Part 5): US military
intelligence-ASDF as 'one flesh' with US forces in its airlift
mission
TOKYO (Top play) (Full)
March 30, 2007
The US Central Command-headquartered in Florida-commands US military
operations in the Iraq war. The US military shares information with
its coalition partners, using a new system called Combined
Enterprise Regional Information Exchange System or CENTRIX for
short. Japan is also a subscriber to this new information sharing
system via two CENTRIX terminals installed in Japan.
One of the two CENTRIX terminals in Japan is located on the Defense
Ministry's underground floor where the Self-Defense Forces has its
central command post. The other one is set up at the Air
Self-Defense Force's Fuchu base for its air support command, which
is the headquarters of an ASDF air transport squadron currently on
Japan's Iraq assistance mission. Meanwhile, US Forces Japan (USFJ),
which is under the US Pacific Command, has no CENTRIX terminals. In
a way, the Defense Ministry and the SDF are closer to the Iraq war
than USFJ.
CENTRIX is networked with its subscribers to circulate security
information that is needed for the ASDF's airlift mission in Iraq.
It was in the spring of 2003 that the ASDF began to study scenarios
for its Iraq deployment, according to an ASDF staff officer. "At
that time," the ASDF officer said, "we had no idea where to base and
what to do." This officer recalled: "We share information (with the
US military) when we conduct training exercises for the defense of
Japan, but all that information is about fictitious events. We were
at a loss because we had no experience on the battlefield."
The United States' information sharing with Japan began after the
Iraq Special Measures Law's enactment in July 2003. At first, the
Pentagon and the US Central Command doled out some information as if
to measure the degree of Japan's seriousness.
US intelligence is complicatedly combined with photography and
imagery from reconnaissance satellites as well as from spydrones,
radio monitoring, and spying activities. To share in that
information, the ASDF has been quietly doing one thing in Japan.
On Feb. 21, an ASDF C-1 transport plane from the ASDF's Iruma base
in Saitama Prefecture arrived at the US Yokota Air Base, where USFJ
is headquartered. The C-1 was taxied and parked near a hangar at the
Yokota base. Then, a female ASDF member came out of the C-1
transport. Apparently in a practiced manner, she received a list of
airlift supplies from a US airman.
A US military truck soon came and stopped near the C-1. On the
truck's bed were cardboard boxes wrapped in a net. The cargo was
placed into the C-1's belly hold. One of their tags stated that they
were bound for Okinawa.
In the meantime, the C-1's pilot and copilot went into a USAF
facility. They were briefed there on the weather conditions of their
destinations. The C-1 was on a flight mission from Yokota to the US
Marine Corps' Iwakuni base in Yamaguchi Prefecture and the US Air
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Force's Kadena base in Okinawa Prefecture. The C-1 took off in less
than an hour after its arrival. This is a usual scene that can be
seen on every Wednesday.
The ASDF's airlift support for USFJ began in November 2001 after the
Antiterror Special Measures Law's enactment. At first, the ASDF was
also on outbound airlift missions heading for Guam, Singapore, and
other overseas locations. In recent years, however, the ASDF has
been serving a regular flight a week from Yokota to Iwakuni and
Kadena.
The Defense Ministry says USFJ, supported by the ASDF, can use its
transport planes for other operations. That day, however, five C-130
transports, which are larger than the C-1, were parked on an apron
of the Yokota base.
The US Air Force's 374th Airlift Wing-to which the Yokota-based
C-130 transports belong-covers the Asia-Pacific region. The Middle
East is outside its coverage. The ASDF has been operating at home to
meet USFJ's needs. Meanwhile, none of the Yokota-based aircrafts has
been pulled away to Iraq.
"Our mission helps to solidify the relationship of mutual trust
between Japan and the United States," says Maj. Masashi Ota, 39, who
is a C-1 pilot. The ASDF's airlift service is a 'loyalty test' for
the ASDF to show that the ASDF is one flesh with US forces. The
ASDF's activities in Japan interact with its Kuwait-based air
transport squadron's Iraq-bound airlifts. This has created an
environment for the US military to share information with the ASDF.
"Some people in the political world and the media are prone to
become hasty," the abovementioned ASDF echelon officer noted, "so I
would like them to be well aware of civilian control." This ASDF
officer likened operating overseas while knowing nothing to running
at full speed in the dark. "We're inexperienced." With this, the
officer came out of himself. "We can't be down to earth in our
activities until we become aware of our weakness," he added.
(This is the last of a five-part series. This series was written by
Shigeru Handa, Local News Section, Tokyo Shimbun.)
SCHIEFFER