Asahi apologizes for erroneous Fukushima, comfort women reports

September 12, 2014, TOKYO —

The publisher of one of Japan’s leading newspapers apologized to readers Thursday for several serious errors in its reporting, retracting an article that claimed workers abandoned their posts during the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

Asahi’s publisher Tadakazu Kimura, speaking at a hastily arranged news conference on Thursday night, made the apology after a confidential government document cited in the daily’s report was finally released to the public with no mention of a mutiny by plant workers.

“I offer profound apologies to our readers and people at Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO),” the 60-year-old publisher said.

He said he would decide whether or not to resign after enacting “revival through sweeping reform.”

The article, published on May 20, said 90% of workers at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant had left the complex, disobeying the plant chief’s order to stay put in the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl in 1986.

TEPCO operates the plant. A massive earthquake and tsunami crippled its cooling systems and sent reactors into meltdown in March 2011.

The daily said about 650 employees, or 90% of the plant’s workforce, retreated to another seaside TEPCO nuclear plant (Fukushima Daini) 12 kilometers away when the nuclear crisis worsened a few days after the accident.

The official document released Thursday recounted the testimony of plant chief Masao Yoshida to a government investigative panel, with no trace of staff “disobeying Mr Yoshida’s order” as Asahi had claimed. Yoshida died of cancer in July last year.

Other dailies which also had access to the then confidential statement had already cast doubt on the article.

In the same news conference, Kimura also admitted a highly contentious report published 32 years ago on the topic of Japan’s wartime sexual enslavement of Korean women was also false.

That report cited a Japanese writer who claimed to have witnessed the kidnapping of women on the South Korean island of Jeju for the purposes of sex slavery, which has since been discredited by independent research by rival newspapers and academics.

Asahi admitted in early August that its 1982 article on the comfort women and follow-up reports were based on a “false” statement by the witness, but Kimura’s apology was the publication’s first in relation to it.

“I apologize to readers for publishing the erroneous articles and being too late in making the correction,” he said.

The admission of the mistake has boosted the country’s conservative forces, which have insisted there was no “sex slavery” at the frontline brothels and that many of the comfort women were highly paid prostitutes.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told a radio talk show Thursday the comfort women report had “agonised many people and impaired Japan’s reputation in the international community.”

With few official records available, researchers have estimated up to 200,000 women, many from Korea but also from China, Indonesia, the Philippines and Taiwan, served Japanese soldiers in “comfort stations”.

Source: Japan Today

Japan Inc cautious on India despite Abe-Modi love-in

11 September, 2014, TOKYO —

Even as the friendship between Shinzo Abe and Narendra Modi blossomed during the new Indian leader’s first foreign trip, Japan Inc refused to get misty-eyed, wary of the pitfalls of doing business on the sub-continent.

A five-day tour that began with a bear hug and a day of sightseeing in Kyoto worked itself up through a crescendo of mutual compliments that culminated in Tokyo’s pledge to spend $34 billion in India over the next five years.

Companies love the idea of India, with its huge untapped market and its vast, cheap workforce. But they know there are potential problems; Japanese suitors have stumbled more than once before.

“India’s very weak infrastructure adds to the cost of making and moving things there,” said Takashi Kodama, head of Asian economic research at Daiwa Institute of Research.

“Unless you resolve that, the current hopes for India that the world has cannot spark an investment boom,” he said.

On top of dodgy roads, ramshackle railways and other weak infrastructure, there are complex local customs for multinational firms looking for somewhere other than China to set up shop.

Unexpected taxes and economic policy changes in India have also discouraged investors, who want lower costs, high growth and predictability.

Despite its broadly comparable population, India is home to just over 1,000 Japanese firms, about five percent of the total operating in China.

To be sure, Japanese businesses agree that India has enormous potential as the populous democracy enjoys steady growth, an expanding middle class and modernisation that is boosting demand for infrastructure, such as trains, sewerage and electricity.

Japanese firms can also use India as a hub to export to regions west of the Indian Ocean, such as Africa and the Middle East.

Economic liberal Modi knows this and was in Tokyo to pitch for investment.

“Businesses and industries need stability and a growth environment. India has become a country that provides both,” Modi told businesses in Japan last week on his first tour since coming to power.

“Tell me what you need for the business environment. India will deliver it,” he said.

A string of Japanese firms have recently committed to fresh Indian investments, including major electronics parts maker Nidec, which has decided to spend roughly $1 billion in India in the next seven to eight years.

But there have been costly failures, among them pharmaceutical maker Daiichi Sankyo’s $4.6 billion purchase of Indian giant Ranbaxy in 2008.

That went sour when US regulators banned imports of its drugs over quality concerns, dealing a huge blow to Daiichi Sankyo’s bottom line and leading to a cut-price sale of the unit.

Fellow drugmaker Eisai launched a production and research hub in a special economic zone with tax incentives in 2009.

But India changed its policy and slapped an alternative tax on the company in 2011, said Sayoko Sasaki, Eisai corporate officer.

“It is a big market with a lot of opportunities. But when it comes to tax rules, it has to be predictable,” she told AFP. “We hope India’s investment environment will continue to improve.”

Among winners in India, small-car specialist Suzuki Motors has prospered there for three decades, having entered the market well before the nation became a hot prospect, mostly serving domestic motorists.

But even Suzuki has suffered from bouts of labor unrest, including a 2012 riot that resulted in the death of a personnel manager in India.

For India’s part, Japan is a less complicated partner than other nearby countries that have the cash it needs for investment, say analysts.

“India wants money for infrastructure. It can ask China, which is eager and willing to give but might also try to use it as an opportunity to exert its political influence,” said Kodama of Daiwa Institute of Research.

“By comparison, Japanese money would come with fewer strings attached,” he said.

Abe’s financial targets affirm Japan and India’s commitment to their partnership, said Shotaro Kumagai, economist at Japan Research Institute.

“I would say India regards both China and Japan as important partners, rather than comparing and trying to pick one or the other,” he said.

But the world is waiting to see whether Modi can turn his nation’s good prospects into reality, Kodama said.

“If Modi delivers on his promises and buoys the economy, maybe more investors will move in,” he said.

“There are lot of hopes for India. But they are only hopes. We are yet to see concrete policies.”

Source: Japan Today

Japan, U.S. discussing offensive military capability for Tokyo

10th September, 2014, Tokyo - Japan and the United States are exploring the possibility of Tokyo acquiring offensive weapons that would allow Japan to project power far beyond its borders, Japanese officials said, a move that would likely infuriate China.

While Japan’s intensifying rivalry with China dominates the headlines, Tokyo’s focus would be the ability to take out North Korean missile bases, said three Japanese officials involved in the process.

They said Tokyo was holding the informal, previously undisclosed talks with Washington about capabilities that would mark an enhancement of military might for a country that has not fired a shot in anger since its defeat in World War Two.

The talks on what Japan regards as a “strike capability” are preliminary and do not cover specific hardware at this stage, the Japanese officials told Reuters.

Defense experts say an offensive capability would require a change in Japan’s purely defensive military doctrine, which could open the door to billions of dollars worth of offensive missile systems and other hardware. These could take various forms, such as submarine-fired cruise missiles similar to the U.S. Tomahawk.

U.S. officials said there were no formal discussions on the matter but did not rule out the possibility that informal contacts on the issue had taken place. One U.S. official said Japan had approached American officials informally last year about the matter.

Japan’s military is already robust but is constrained by a pacifist Constitution. The Self Defense Forces have dozens of naval surface ships, 16 submarines and three helicopter carriers, with more vessels under construction. Japan is also buying 42 advanced F-35 stealth fighter jets.

Reshaping the military into a more assertive force is a core policy of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. He has reversed a decade of military spending cuts, ended a ban on Japanese troops fighting abroad and eased curbs on arms exports.

Tokyo had dropped a request to discuss offensive capabilities during high-profile talks on revising guidelines for the U.S.-Japan security alliance which are expected to be finished by year-end, the Japanese officials said. Instead, the sensitive issue was “being discussed on a separate track”, said one official with direct knowledge of the matter.

But any deal with Washington is years away and the obstacles are significant - from the costs to the heavily indebted Japanese government to concerns about ties with Asian neighbors such as China and sensitivities within the alliance itself.

The Japanese officials said their U.S. counterparts were cautious to the idea, partly because it could outrage China, which accuses Abe of reviving wartime militarism.

The officials declined to be identified because they were not authorised to discuss the closed-door deliberations. A Japanese Defense Ministry spokesman said he could not comment on negotiations with Washington.

Japan would need U.S. backing for any shift in military doctrine because it would change the framework of the alliance, often described as America supplying the “sword” of forward-based troops and nuclear deterrence while Japan holds the defensive “shield”.

Washington did not have a position on upgrading Japan’s offensive capabilities, “in part because the Japanese have not developed a specific concept or come to us with a specific request”, said another U.S. official.

“We’re not there yet - and they’re not there yet,” the official said. “We’re prepared to have that conversation when they’re ready.”

North Korea lies less than 600 km (370 miles) from Japan at the closest point.

Pyongyang, which regularly fires short-range rockets into the sea separating the Koreas from Japan, has improved its ballistic missile capabilities and conducted three nuclear weapons tests, its most recent in February 2013.

In April, North Korea said that in the event of war on the Korean Peninsula, Japan would be “consumed in nuclear flames”.

Part of Japan’s motivation for upgrading its capabilities is a nagging suspicion that the United States, with some 28,000 troops in South Korea as well as 38,000 in Japan, might hesitate to attack the North in a crisis, Japanese experts said.

U.S. forces might hold off in some situations, such as if South Korea wanted to prevent an escalation, said Narushige Michishita, a national security adviser to the Japanese government from 2004-2006.

“We might want to maintain some kind of limited strike capability in order to be able to initiate a strike, so that we can tell the Americans, ‘unless you do the job for us, we will have to do it on our own,’” said Michishita, a security expert at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies in Tokyo.

Reflecting Japan’s concerns, Abe told parliament in May 2013 that it was vital “not to give the mistaken impression that the American sword would not be used” in an emergency.

“At this moment is it really acceptable for Japan to have to plead with the U.S. to attack a missile threatening to attack Japan?” Abe said.

Under current security guidelines, in the event of a ballistic missile attack, “U.S. forces will provide Japan with necessary intelligence and consider, as necessary, the use of forces providing additional strike power”.

The informal discussions on offensive capabilities cover all options, from Japan continuing to rely completely on Washington to getting the full panoply of weaponry itself.

Japan would like to reach a conclusion in about five years, and then start acquiring hardware, one Japanese official said.

Tokyo had wanted the discussions included in the review of the Japan-U.S. Defense Cooperation Guidelines that are expected to cover areas such as logistical support and cybersecurity. Those talks, which formally kicked off last October, are the first in 17 years.

But the United States was keen to keep discussions on offensive capabilities separate to avoid riling China and South Korea, another Japanese official said. Beijing and Seoul each have territorial disputes with Tokyo and accuse Abe of failing to atone for Japan’s wartime aggression.

Reflecting the sensitivities of the issue even in Japan, any talk of an upgraded offensive capability is shrouded in euphemism.

Itsunori Onodera, who stepped down last week as defense minister in a broad cabinet reshuffle, a year ago described it as “the capability to attack enemies’ military bases and strategic bases for the sake of self-defense”.

Defense guidelines compiled by the government in December watered this down to a “potential form of response capability to address the means of ballistic-missile launches and related facilities”.

Written by: Nobuhiro Kubo

Source: Japan Today

More than half of Chinese see war with Japan: poll

11 September, 2014, Tokyo - More than half of Chinese people think their country could go to war with Japan in the future, a new poll revealed Wednesday, after two years of intense diplomatic squabbles.

A survey conducted in both nations found that 53.4% of Chinese envisage a future conflict, with more than a fifth of those saying it would happen “within a few years”, while 29% of Japanese view military confrontation as a possibility.

The findings come ahead of the second anniversary Thursday of Japan’s nationalisation of disputed islands in the East China Sea that have formed the focus of tensions between the Asian giants.

Underlining the lingering row over the Tokyo-controlled Senkaku Islands, four Chinese coast guard vessels sailed into their territorial waters on Wednesday morning.

China regards them as its territory and calls them the Diaoyu Islands.

The survey was conducted by Japanese non-governmental organisation the Genron NPO and the China Daily, a Chinese state-run newspaper, in July and August.

It questioned 1,000 Japanese aged 18 or older and 1,539 Chinese of the same age range in five cities: Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Shenyang and Xian.

In the annual opinion poll which started in 2005, 93% of Japanese respondents said their impression of China was “unfavorable,” worsening from 90.1% last year and the highest level since the survey began.

The percentage of Chinese who have an unfavorable impression of Japan stood at 86.8 percent, an improvement on 92.8% last year.

“The most common reason for the unfavorable impression of China among the Japanese public was ‘China’s actions are incompatible with international rules’ at 55.1%,” Genron NPO and the China Daily said in a joint statement.

That was closely followed by “China’s actions to secure resources, energy and food look selfish” at 52.8%.

The third most commonly-given reason was “criticism of Japan over historical issues” at 52.2%, while “continuous confrontation over the Senkaku islands” came fourth place at 50.4%, it said.

“On the other hand, ‘The Diaoyu/Senkaku islands’ (64%) and ‘historical understanding’ (59.6%) were the two prominent reasons for the unfavorable impression of Japan among the Chinese public,” it said.

Despite a huge trade relationship and their deeply interwoven economies, relations between Tokyo and Beijing have seen several periods of deterioration over recent decades.

But ties have been particularly bad since late 2012 when Japan nationalised the Senkakus, a move it says was just an administrative change, but which China says was a provocation.

Beijing regularly insists that Japan has not atoned enough for its imperialist past, and lambasts nationalist Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for an “incorrect” understanding of history and what it describes as his intention to remilitarise.

For its part, Tokyo accuses Beijing of dwelling on the past for domestic political reasons and says that in the seven decades since World War II it has apologised repeatedly and trodden a pacifist path.

In an editorial, the China Daily described the poll as “worrying”, commenting that “these findings should be concerning” for leaders in both countries.

“There is a need for a meeting between the leaders of both countries to reverse the deteriorating relations,” the paper said, but added: “the ball is in Japan’s court.”

“Abe needs to show Chinese leaders with his actual deeds that he is sincere about improving relations.”

Abe has repeatedly said his door is open for dialogue and called for a summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, but has so far been rebuffed.

Source: Japan Today

New internal affairs minister says she will visit Yasukuni Shrine

September 6, 2014, TOKYO —

Japan’s new internal affairs minister said on Friday she intends to visit Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine although she did not address concern that her new position is likely to exacerbate neighboring countries’ anger over what they see as a symbol of militarism.

The shrine honors Japan’s war dead, including 14 leaders convicted as war criminals by an Allied tribunal.

Neighboring countries which suffered under Japanese occupation during World War Two regard politicians’ visits to pay respects at the shrine as evidence of Japan’s failure to atone for its aggression.

“I’ve been visiting Yasukuni as one Japanese individual to offer my sincere appreciation to the spirits of war dead,” the new minister, Sanae Takaichi, told a group of reporters. “I intend to continue offering my sincere appreciation as one Japanese.”

Takaichi, who was appointed on Wednesday, belongs to a group of lawmakers advocating visits to the shrine which politicians typically visit on days such as Aug 15, the anniversary of Japan’s World War Two defeat.

Visits by cabinet ministers especially anger China and South Korea, where memories of Japan’s wartime aggression are raw.

The new defense minister, Akinori Eto, also a member of the lawmakers’ group that advocates visiting the shrine, told a news conference on Wednesday when asked about the shrine he did not want to cause trouble for the government, indicating a more cautious stance.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe paid his respects at the shrine in December, aggravating ties with China and South Korea, with which relations had already been strained over territorial disputes.

 Source: Japan Today

Japan, India to step up security, economic cooperation

September 02, 2014, TOKYO —

Japan and India agreed Monday to step up their economic and security cooperation as visiting Prime Minister Narendra Modi won pledges of support for his effort to revitalize the lagging Indian economy.

Modi, who brought a delegation of more than a dozen Indian tycoons to Japan, said he hopes to elevate still relatively low-key business ties with Japan to a “new level.”

In a joint statement issued after their talks, the two leaders reaffirmed the importance of upgrading defense ties, a priority for both given China’s growing assertiveness in the region. Modi also welcomed Japan’s relaxation of restrictions on exports of defense-related equipment and technology.

He and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe “recognized the enormous future potential for transfer and collaborative projects in defense equipment and technology,” the statement said.

As part of their “Investment Promotion Partnership,” the two sides set a target of doubling Japan’s foreign direct investment in India. Abe also pledged to raise public and private investment and financing from Japan to 3.5 trillion yen within five years and to provide an aid loan of 50 billion yen to the India Infrastructure Finance Co.

Abe said he would work with Modi to “strengthen the cooperative relationship between our two countries.”

The statement listed construction of high-speed railways and other transport systems, cleanups of the Ganges and other rivers, food processing and rural development and construction of “smart cities” as priorities.

In a speech to Japanese business leaders on Monday, Modi promised to set up a team to facilitate trade and investment.

Modi became prime minister in May with pledges to transform India’s troubled economy and is keen to win more support for ambitious energy and construction projects, including high-speed railways.

“When I became prime minister, there were high expectations. Not just high expectations, but people expected speed in decisions,” Modi told leaders of Japan’s five big business groups. “I give you the assurance that what we have done in the past 100 days, the results will be seen very quickly.”

In the joint statement, Abe reiterated his hope India will adopt its bullet train technology, promising Japanese financial, technical and operations support.

Japan and India agreed also to continue joint and Japan-U.S.-India military exercises and to accelerate talks on the purchase by New Delhi of US-2 amphibian aircraft.

The two sides said they would step up talks on nuclear energy cooperation, claiming “significant progress” despite having failed to reach a last-minute agreement on safeguards sought by Japan. The two sides meanwhile pledged to strengthen work on preventing proliferation of nuclear weapons and on nuclear safety.

The statement said Japan and India will cooperate on advanced, clean coal technology, which is expertise sorely needed to help combat the choking pollution in India’s major cities.

The two countries said they are in the process of finalizing a commercial contract on production and export to Japan of rare earths, which are minerals used in mobile phones, hybrid cars and other high-tech products.

During Abe’s first term in office, in 2006-2007, the two countries signed an agreement on cooperating in building an industrial corridor between Mumbai and New Delhi, two of India’s biggest cities. At that time, Modi was chief minister of the fast-growing, business-friendly state of Gujarat.

In a gesture toward his golf-loving Japanese hosts — Abe golfs frequently — Modi boasted of having beefed up the links in Gujarat during his years as chief minister.

Since taking office, Modi has traveled to neighboring Nepal and Bhutan and attended a summit of the BRICS emerging nations — Brazil, Russia, India and China. He helped launch an effort to open bank accounts for the poor in India and has set up an investigative team to look into corruption. Meanwhile, the economy has picked up pace in what some analysts are calling the “Modi bounce.”

Japanese businesses are increasingly looking to expand trade and investment in fast-growing Southeast Asia and India, a market of nearly 1.3 billion people.

- By Elaine Kurtenbach, Japan Today.

Link - http://www.japantoday.com/category/politics/view/japan-india-to-step-up-security-economic-cooperation

Shamshad A. Khan, an alumnus of the centre, on Is Japan ready to shun the Peace Constitution?

Shamshad A. Khan, an alumnus of the centre, examines the importance of the Japanese constitution in changing socio, political and economic scenarios.

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SRIPARNA PATHAK, Research Scholar at the Centre, on Japan- American relations: (Absence of) Evolution in the 21st Century

SRIPARNA PATHAK locates the evolving Japan- American relations in the 21st Century.

When Barack Hussein Obama was sworn in as the President of the United States of America, his assumption of office was accompanied by the slogan, “Change is Here”. However, reflecting upon Japan- America relations, one hardly sees any change. The specific issue in question being that of the removal of American troops (U.S. Marine Corps Base at Futenma, on Okinawa).

When Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama went to attend last month’s nuclear summit in Washington, Mr. Hatoyama’s officials lobbied hard for a one on one meeting between Yukio and Obama. The request was rudely refused and the Japanese Prime Minister had to settle for a meeting of merely ten minutes with Obama, over dinner. The treatment meted out to the Japanese Prime Minister was definitely humiliating as has been pointed out by the Japanese media. The humiliation extended to Barack Obama bluntly informing Mr. Hatoyama that he was running out of time to settle the dispute over relocation of a U.S. Marine Corps base at Futenma on Okinawa, and asked him directly whether he was trustworthy.

When Mr. Hatoyama’s Democratic Party won the elections in Japan in August 2009, Mr. Hatoyama had largely put forth ideas about Japan’s independent voice in the world, and about loosening American dominance. Nevertheless, these have been responded to by the United States with warnings about the consequences for Japan and the Asia Pacific region.

After the Second World War, Japanese foreign policy has largely been pacifist in nature, and the presence of the Seventh Fleet in Japan has been a perpetual reality since then. This can be seen as a signal that the legacy of the Cold War lives on even till date, not just in the fact that there are two Koreas, but also in the fact that the United States of America sees it essential that a fleet be positioned in Japan to safeguard it, and/or to ensure that a belligerent Japan preceding the Second World War does not become a reality once again.

Nevertheless the international system has undergone several changes since the decade of the 1950s. Strategic moves and tactics that are realist in nature can no longer ensure international security. Conceptions of international security as such, particularly in the 21st century are completely different from what used to be in the 1950s. As such current discourses on international security are directed by the notions and the need for growth, sustainable development, enhancement of trade and economic cooperation, and not by ideas on military acquisitions or preparations for war. Thus, the realist paradigm through which U.S. policies on Okinawa seem to be operating needs a serious rethink.

Besides this, the tactics of bullying and playing the ‘big brother’ need to be done away with. The U.S. might be the strongest in terms of military power, but that does not change the fact that the current international system is multipolar in nature with states such as Japan, China and India playing important roles.

The Asian culture largely respects the ‘other’ and deems it essential to treat ‘guests’ with reverence. This however does not mean that snubbing and bluntness can be imposed on the leaders or heads of states with cultures that are seen as more hospitable.

Analysing tenets of Robert Putnam’s Game Theory in international relations, diplomats or those engaged in bilateral negotiations or discussions always aim at getting the better position in the bargain. However international relations, particularly in the 21st century, is not a zero sum game and both the parties attempt to ensure that the outcome is at least a win-win outcome for both the parties. Even this theory proves inadequate to analyse the meeting between Obama and Yukio, because the American side clearly seeks to bully and overpower, denying the Japanese side even the scope to place its side on the negotiating table. Thus, American foreign policy vis- a- vis Japan cannot be even called realist in nature. It is simply tactics of bullying, snubbing, dominating and threatening that are in clear play, and as such need a serious rethink.

Shamshad Khan, a CEAS alumnus, on Japan granting right to franchise to permanent foreign residents

Shamshad Khan, a CEAS alumnus, currently Research Assistant at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, New Delhi has written about Japan granting right to franchise to permanent foreign residents.

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