As the rest of the country watches Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) try to end its nuclear crisis in Fukushima Prefecture, another bastion of doing things the old-fashioned Japanese way has been suffering a meltdown of its own.

The Japan Sumo Association's (JSA) de facto dismissal of 21 wrestlers and 2 elders for match fixing last month marked the sport's most severe bloodletting in the post-war period.

What this latest sumo scandal and the TEPCO nuclear crisis have in common is that circumstances beyond both organisations' control have now torn down a curtain of tatemae that had up to now protected practices that were at best incompetent, and at worst deeply corrupt.

Tatemae, the practice of maintaining face regardless of the private facts (and according to at least one definition, ‘a lie that is acceptable in Japanese society when it is appropriately used,’) is vulnerable when the rules that govern its use fall apart.

Read more...

The March 11 Tohoku earthquake and ensuing tsunami and nuclear crisis has already taken a serious toll on the Japanese people, and the recovery efforts are sure to vex the country’s policymakers for years to come. But one sometimes overlooked issue following the disaster is climate change.

It’s clear that the country stands at a crossroads.

The Kyoto Protocol, of which Japan is a signatory, expires at the end of 2012. However, no legal instrument currently exists to replace it, despite efforts over the past four years by climate negotiators to come up with something.

I wholeheartedly agree with co-blogger Hiroki Ogawa—Japan’s constant replacement of its prime ministers hardly seems healthy for the nation. Just think, since this time in 2006—five years ago—there have been six prime ministers in Japan, more than one a year. In fact, the problem goes back much further. I first came to Japan in late January 1989, when the prime minister was Noboru Takeshita. He is one of 16 leaders Japan has had since then (Australia, Britain, and Canada have, in contrast, all had five over the same period).

While Ogawa notes the problems this creates for Japan’s foreign relations, the constant changes also make it difficult to develop and pursue consistent domestic policies. As soon as a Cabinet minister has begun to master their brief, a reshuffle takes place and a new minister must begin again. That inevitably leaves too much power with career bureaucrats and tends to preserve the status quo.

And could there now be yet another leader passing through the revolving leadership door, with calls for the dismissal of Naoto Kan—right when Japan least needs a political upheaval? Egged on by the main opposition Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), dissent is growing within Kan’s own Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) over poor results in local polls. The Asahi Shimbun reports that the LDP is contemplating a no-confidence motion, in a bid to force the Cabinet to resign. And now DPJ powerbroker and Kan opponent Ichiro Ozawa appears to be circling.

Read more...

The latest developments in the scandal over the Osaka District Public Prosecutor's Office evidence tampering case, a story that made headlines here late last year, are a reminder of the problems facing the Japanese legal system.

Former prosecutor Tsunehiko Maeda was sentenced last week to 18 months in prison for altering data on a floppy disk. It’s understandable if anyone missed the announcement given the inevitable attention that’s being focused on the aftermath of last month’s earthquake and tsunami. Still, the integrity of Japan's legal system is an issue that clearly needs to be addressed.

This latest legal scandal isn't the first to tar the reputation of the legal system. One particularly notable case, spanning 25 years, involved prosecutors (also from Osaka) relentlessly pursuing Etsuko Yamada, a teacher at a school for the mentally handicapped. Yamada was accused of killing one of two students found dead at the school, and the case led to an exchange of acquittals and appeals by the Osaka High Court and the prosecutors. Somehow, the prosecutors' recurring appeals were granted, something that’s in flagrant disregard of Article 39 of the Constitution, which protects against double jeopardy. Yamada was effectively a defendant for almost a quarter of a century.

Former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva once said that in Japan, you say ‘good morning’ to one prime minister and ‘good afternoon’ to another.

Lula's joke still rings true. A survey by the Nikkei business daily showed 70 percent of those surveyed felt that Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan should be replaced, less than a year after he took office. Such views are, in a sense, hardly surprising. Kan has been at the receiving end of persistent criticism since he became premier last June, including over his administration's response to the ongoing nuclear crisis here following last month’s earthquake. But even before the Tohoku quake, Kan had been under fire over his handling of the Senkaku incident, with many believing he had responded too meekly to Chinese anger following the detention of a fishing vessel captain. Indeed, even Kan’s wife has chimed in with some critical remarks.

So, with the clock apparently ticking for Kan, Japan's prime ministerial revolving door looks set to keep spinning. The country has had five prime ministers in the past four years, with each of Kan’s four predecessors leaving under a cloud. Shinzo Abe, faced with plunging approval ratings, resigned suddenly just as a new parliamentary session was beginning in September 2007. His successor, Yasuo Fukuda, stepped down when confronted with political deadlock, while Taro Aso resigned to take responsibility for the Liberal Democratic Party's humiliating electoral defeat in 2009. Yukio Hatoyama, stepping up as premier for the Democratic Party of Japan, soon stepped down after failing to make good on his campaign promise to close the US Marine Corps Air Station at Futenma in Okinawa, paving the way for Kan to take office.

It doesn’t take a seasoned political observer to see that this trend has to stop. While the ongoing unrest in the Arab world demonstrates the undesirability of leaders outstaying their welcome, as a country's representative in international and diplomatic affairs, the head of state should have at least a little longevity to allow him or her to develop crucial relationships with other heads of state. It hardly helps Japan's ties with other countries if the first thing on other leaders’ agenda is remembering the new Japanese prime minister's name.

But while breaking this unhealthy cycle is important for Japan, doing so will be easier said than done. Japan’s revolving door isn’t just down to day-to-day political machinations or the whims of the Japanese electorate – this country’s cultural values, electoral system, and a media and public too quick to turn against a leader all play a part.

There’s plenty that needs to change.

Hiroki Ogawa is a Yokohama-based writer.

Read more...

The debate has begun in Japan on how to fund the reconstruction and recovery from the March 11 disaster. With public debt levels at worrying highs, the Japanese government is loath to rely on additional bond issues and has raised the possibility of a hike in the sales tax, known locally as the consumption tax.

The Cabinet Office has estimated that the bill for reconstruction could be as high as $300 billion, not counting the economic impact of lost production. To put that in context, Japan’s total tax take for fiscal 2010 was an estimated $450 billion. The government struggles to raise $300 billion in a typical year through corporate and individual incomes tax combined, so using these taxes to pay for reconstruction would require very substantial rate hikes, fatal for the struggling economy.

In contrast, the consumption tax generates an average of $120 billion in revenue each year with the current rate of just 5 percent, very low by international standards. Economists reckon that each percentage point increase in the tax would offer an additional $30 billion in revenue. The government is considering a 3 percent hike, which it estimates could produce nearly $275 billion over 3 years, paying for much of the cost of rebuilding the disaster-struck regions.

Even before the crisis, the ruling Democratic Party of Japan had raised the possibility of a future hike in the consumption tax as a means of reining in the government’s runaway debt reliance. The International Monetary Fund has certainly been urging Japan to act.

Read more...

After weeks of haranguing, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), the hapless operator of the stricken Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant finally produced a timeline on Sunday for getting the situation under control. The utility said that it would be aiming to achieving cold shutdown at the troubled reactors within six to nine months, in what is basically a three-step plan.

In a three-step process, TEPCO hopes to cool the reactors until they reach the stable condition known as cold shutdown, cool and stabilize the spent fuel rod pools before ultimately removing the fuel, begin storing and processing the thousands of tons of contaminated water and place new covers over the damaged reactor buildings.

The roadmap was announced days after the nuclear crisis was upgraded to the maximum level 7 on the scale of nuclear disaster severity. The upgrade was inevitable, but still produced a flurry of stories comparing Fukushima to Chernobyl, the only other accident to receive the maximum rating. However, according to Japan’s nuclear safety agency, Fukushima has only released about 10 percent the radiation that was emitted at Chernobyl, and although radiation levels within the plant itself still fluctuate worryingly, levels elsewhere have been trending downwards.

Neither the upgrade in the severity rating nor the timetable for stabilization has been well received. For local residents—many now essentially refugees in their own country—it’s confirmation that it will be a long time before they can return to their homes, and they are understandably irate. Compensation announced to date has been grossly inadequate—just $12,000 per household so far for the loss of homes and livelihoods. Some experts are meanwhile skeptical that the timetable can be achieved. Increasingly, the Kan government is being pilloried by opposition parties and local media for its handling of the crises.

Read more...

NHK live broadcasts on the tsunami that swept coastal villages in Eastern Japan on March 11 were a shocking scene to the Korean people. Japan now confronts the aftermath of triple natural disasters—an earthquake of a record 9.0 magnitude, a devastating tsunami and the threat of radioactive contamination—that have left tens of thousands dead and missing, and hundreds of thousands still struggling to survive at crowded shelters.

Following the daily progress of crisis, Koreans moved quickly to help the Japanese. The Korean government’s decision to dispatch a rescue team within days of the earthquake was the earliest action taken by any foreign government. Korea sent 53 tons of boric acid to help control the badly broken Fukushima nuclear plants, and on March 19, delivered 100 tons of water and 6,000 blankets for the Japanese people in shelters.

The government was not the only helping hand. On March 12, the Chosun Daily initiated a movement for donations from Korean citizens, which drew more than 10,000 participants in a single day and led actions from other media and public organizations. The Korean Red Cross amassed over $19 million in 2 weeks—the largest amount of voluntary donation at times of natural disasters both in and outside Korea. Myeongdong, the most well-known tourist spot for Japanese, displayed a banner saying, ‘Cheer up, Japanese friends. We are always with you,’ while the Korean Salvation Army appealed for charitable donations from passersby. Even the Korean comfort women, victims of Japanese colonialism who’ve demonstrated at the Japanese embassy every Wednesday for the past 19 years, observed a time for mourning and donated money for Japan on March 16. In 3 weeks, South Korean donations reportedly amounted to a total of $46 million.

Read more...

It’s not just Tokyo hotels that are finding it tough. Blackouts, aftershocks, nuclear fears and a general mood of restraint are conspiring to create an economic impact that's likely considerably greater than originally believed.

On Wednesday, the Cabinet downgraded its outlook for the economy, the first such move in six months. Its regular survey of industry, conducted in late March, showed a record drop in confidence, to the lowest point since early 2009. A regular Reuters survey has shown similar results. Comments by government ministers suggest that the government is forecasting—hoping for—a short shock to the economy, followed by a strong rebound later in the year. That's generally what happens following a major natural disaster, and it's the path that Japan followed after the Kobe earthquake in 1995.

There are grounds, however, to argue that this time might be different. First, the crisis isn't over. How quickly can the situation at the nuclear power plant in Fukushima be brought under control? TEPCO remains unable to provide any kind of timeline. How bad will the blackouts be during summer? Keidanren, Japan’s leading business association, is trying to get the government to accept voluntary power cuts, rather than the mandatory outages planned. Will there be more damaging aftershocks? That's the forecast.

Read more...

The Japanese government has raised the severity level of the nuclear crisis at its Fukushima nuclear plant to a level 7. The Diplomat asked nuclear researcher Alexander Sich for his take on the decision and what exactly it means.

I believe they were premature to do this: most of the month since the accident we have been starved of hard numbers, and speculation has run rampant because of this. Now, everyone is focused not on data but on one, single, solitary number (7 on the INES) and the press is employing phrases like ‘on a par with Chernobyl,’ or ‘equal to that of Chernobyl.’ It's like defining the entirety of a person based on a single number, like their weight or their age. I think people can see the absurdity of that.

My understanding is TEPCO has reported a number of 10,000 terabecquerels has been released over the course of the past month.

First, how many people understand that one Bequerel is one disintegration per second? What kind of a response would people have if they were told this is equivalent to 0.027 nanoCuries of activity? They'd probably -- and correctly -- yawn.

Read more...