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Newsround





Newsround - your completely one-sided, partial and unashamedly biased guide to the week's news in Japan.

FEB 5 - 18

Abe rounds up his posse The Prime Minister's really been putting in the hours on his pet policy this week. It's all about the abductees.

When Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing visited, he "vowed to help Japan resolve the dispute over North Korea's past abductions of Japanese nationals". He was quoted as saying "China understands the concern Japan has with North Korea. We will continue to cooperate on the matter."

Then U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney visited, and reassured Shigeru and Sakie Yokota (the parents of Megumi Yokota - the highest profile victim of North Korean abduction), who handed him a letter for President Bush, of the US commitment to helping Japan resolve the abduction issue.

Prime Minister Abe used the occasion of Kim Jong Il's 65th birthday last Friday to underline that "Pyongyang must fulfill its promise to freeze its nuclear development programs." He was quoted as saying "In order for him to enjoy a happy birthday, I hope he will carry out what was agreed by all the parties at the six-nation talks." Oddly though, despite these words, Japan has since decided to renege on what it signed up to at the end of the six-nation talks, and has refused the promised aid (which was to be in exchange for the dismantling of the NorK nuclear programme), and has since appended an additional condition of resolution of the abduction issue, a matter which Japan signally didn't feel it necessary to raise during the talks.

This could be one of the most significant diplomatic errors of modern times if North Korea sees this as a reason to tear up its own copy of the agreement in retaliation. While both issues are undeniably important, they are separate issues, and it's a dangerous game to mix the two. And considering the opponent and his record on fair play, now is hardly the time to be playing cute.


The pointlessness of 'Patriotism Lessons' illustrated If further proof were needed that the LDP goes about its business in spite of the will of the people, it was reported this week that at a time when PM Abe is making such a fuss about imposing patriotism on school children, a survey of some 3000 voters showed that nearly 80% feel a sense of patriotism already. Also "about 85 percent say there is 'a need to reflect' upon Japan's past colonial rule and wartime aggression," Asahi reported - the kind of reflection that Abe is attempting to suppress, labelling it "masochistic".

Abe's repeated and plainly false message however, that his subjects aren't patriotic enough, seems to have had the desired effect - 63% said that "Japanese people should have a stronger sense of patriotism". Seems most people, not only the government, are unaware of the depth of patriotic feeling.

And if you're wondering if it's a generational thing, as Abe's plans for schools would have us believe, it isn't. The survey revealed there were only small differences in the answers of differing age groups.


[Not] listening to the people, pt 2 In another poll, this time by the Mainichi, it was revealed that
"70% of people in Japan are opposed to a planned "white-collar exemption" system to exempt salaried workers from regulated work hours and abolish overtime pay"
Among all respondents, only 17% supported the government scheme, while among male workers in their 20s and 30s, the ones who traditionally put in the most unpaid overtime hours, a huge 83% voiced opposition.

Even among respondents who professed to be LDP supporters, 63% said they were opposed to the scheme.

(An in-depth discussion of the proposed labour law revisions at Mutant Frog.)


JTV continues to blur that difficult line between true and false Japanese telly-land has gone proper mental. I know what you're thinking. I mean 'even more so'. After the fuss over the natto scandal, the National Association of Commercial Broadcasters decided to "suspend the member activities of Kansai Telecasting Corp for the time being [following the airing of a program last month in which health data were fabricated]".

And this has prompted all manner of industry introspection.

This week I was treated to the spectacle of a whole gaggle of TV Tokyo executives holding a traditional Bowin' & Apologisin' press conference after it was revealed they'd been up to naughtiness too. They admitted that they had "broadcast a program that made false fitness claims" following the revelation that a programme "showed footage of a blood vessel to demonstrate the improvement in blood flow after a comedian took a yoga lesson". It wasn't the comedian's blood vessel at all, of course, it was a production crew member's.

So as well as the obligatory press conference, there will also be disciplinary measures against four senior executives including "a 20% pay cut for one month". Take that, cheating TV people.


JAN 29 - FEB 4

Still losing friends The Prime Minister's approval ratings continue to slide dramatically this week. Not a day seems to pass without one newspaper or other quoting some poll or other and showing the ever-plunging graph.

The Mainichi had support for Abe down 6% to 40%, with disapproval up 6 to 36%. His lack of leadership was reportedly the most common reason for disapproval. The Asahi meanwhile had approval down to 39%, almost meeting disapproval on the way up, at 37%. Those polled were specifically asked about the numerous scandals involving public funds, and a huge majority (85%) felt that the government had done nothing to address the issue.

Out-of-touch old fart politician isn't gagged in time: pt XXVI Oh dear. If most of us had never heard of Hakuo Yanagisawa at the beginning of the week (despite his being the health and welfare minister), we certainly had by the weekend.

Mr Yanagisawa, in a speech that broached the subject of Japan's declining birth rate, said -
"The number of women aged between 15 and 50 is fixed. Because the number of birth-giving machines and devices is fixed, all we can ask for is for them to do their best per head."
It's not a duff translation. He really did say that. Aside from the fact that he dumps the responsibility for the problem squarely on the shoulders of the nation's women alone, he really did refer to them as 'a fixed number of birth-giving machines'. Excellent work.

There was no immediate apology forthcoming, which seems to suggest that one isn't going to be coming. And the uproar has been huge. Opposition parties boycotted parliamentary sessions in protest against the minister's refusal to quit, and the PM's refusal to sack him.

By the end of the week, even voices of protest within the ruling LDP were being raised. What's a PM to do. Well one thing that this PM is very good at doing is speaking at length while not actually saying anything. When he was tackled over the matter in parliament, he said -
"I also believe the remarks were inappropriate and have strictly warned the minister to be aware not to cause further misunderstanding."
Misunderstanding? Where's the misunderstanding? The minister's an ageing misogynist who has no place in public office, and has revealed that fact to the world. What's to misunderstand exactly?

That doesn't seem entirely fair Japanese marathon runner Naoko Takahashi was in the news this week. It seems that because of her runaway (ahem) success in the sport, organisers are coming up with devilish handicaps to try to slow her down, as this headline attests.
Naoko Takahashi to skip Nagoya International Women's Marathon


JAN 22 - JAN 28

Alright, so a round-up of what's occurred so far this year.

Yasukuni - they won't let it lie Mr Abe's still being pressed by the press on whether he intends to visit Yasukuni shrine, and he's persisting in what is being called an "ambiguity strategy". It's quite a game.

Asked around New Year if he would be visiting, Mr Abe answered, "On the Yasukuni visit, my answer is what I have been saying in the past." And of course what he has been saying in the past is that he won't say either way whether he's going or not. Clear so far? Good.

One reporter obviously tried a different angle to pry some info out of the PM.
"Responding to a question if he thinks it is possible to pay homage 'furtively' as he did in April, Abe expressed distaste, saying, 'Isn't it rather rude to call it furtive?' "
That's a slapdown, ladies and gents. Excellent answer, and puts that uppity reporter back in his lowly place. And of course leaves the very simple Yes/No question completely untouched.


Senile judges who need to be put out to pasture: pt. XXXVI On January 11, I read the headline 'Man gets 6 years for drunk driving accident that claimed four lives', and thought, not unreasonably, "Only 18 months for each life?!" Perhaps there's more to this story, though I'd be surprised if anything could mitigate or justify that.

The judge in the case, at Nagoya District Court, had sentenced a man to six years in prison for "drunk driving and causing a car accident that killed four people and injured two others" in Kasugai, Aichi prefecture, last year.
"Judge Osamu Ito applied the charge of professional negligence resulting in death and injury on Ken Kuwayama, 27, rather than the heavier charge of reckless driving resulting in death and injury that allows sentences up to 20 years, saying, "The possibility that the defendant mistook the red light for a green light cannot be excluded." Kuwayama drove his car into an intersection on Feb 25 last year on red light and crashed into the side of a taxi driven by Teruo Nakajima. Nakajima, then 68, and three male passengers, who were Air Self-Defense Force members at Komaki base in Aichi Prefecture, died in the accident."
So next time you jump a red light and kill four people, try that defence on the police and the judge. "Sorry Officer/Your Honour, I was so drunk I couldn't tell what colour the light was..." Sounds like a valid plea for leniency to me. And a nice precedent too.


And in other Judicial Atrocity news... Masami Toyoda, aged 73, was handed a 10-month prison sentence, suspended for 3 years, for alleged copyright violation this week.

Mr Toyoda, the owner of a bar in Nerima ward, Tokyo, had "allowed music to be played without permission in his bar".
"Local students who attended music colleges worked part-time at the bar, and gave performances several times a week of pieces by Chopin and other composers.

But after a customer casually asked to hear a Beatles number, the bar began expanding its playlist to include songs by the Fab Four and other musicians such as Billy Joel."
Well, wind of this reached the Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers (JASRAC) and Mr Toyoda was slapped with an injunction to halt live music performances in his bar, which was upheld by the Tokyo District Court.

As Mr Toyoda himself pointed out in interviews, he was not charging for the recitals, and so as he was making no money from them, he didn't see how they were illegal.

Is copyright law really so twisted in Japan? Or is it the same as anywhere else, but those involved in this case decided to trample on Mr Toyoda anyway? This was just a dressed-up jam session - and that's illegal now?! If I had sung along karaoke-style, would I have been "violating copyright law" too? And so will they argue next that karaoke is illegal? And then that singing in the street/shower/your head requires payment of royalties?

What an utter farce. Inconsistent and blundering interpretation of copyright law the world over is growing and growing, and the various recording artists associations, with greedy eyes widening at the sight of easy profit, are getting more and more unjustifiably heavy-handed. And they are managing to push through a fair percentage of the outrageous court cases that they are bringing, and so of course they are not making any efforts to clarify the legal position, and are doing everything to make it foggier and more muddled.


Bird flu arrives! And it's just down the road. Some 12,000 birds were destroyed at a chicken farm in Miyazaki last week. The Miyazaki prefectural government 'task force' said it "will disinfect the entire Taniguchi Furanjo Kurosaka Farm" in Kiyotake, Miyazaki prefecture, and would inspect nearby chicken farms, a total of nearly 200,000 birds.

Great. Might stick to sushi for a while then.


JAN 1 - JAN 21

I decided to ignore the news for a while. It just became too much of a chore to sift through the mountains of post-New Year detritus to find anything worth thinking about. Ever noticed how after The Festive Season™ the papers are full of "reports commissioned by...", and "a survey found...", and "last year's top 3/5/10/100..." and not much actual news of anything that's actually 'happened'. It's all so the hacks and editors can stay on the golf course till February. So here's a free word of Japanese for you - mendokusai - which roughly translates to "Couldn't be arsed, mate."