JAPAN: Ishiba’s Unreported Political Funds & more – 10th Oct 2024

Konnichiwa from BA! This is the Rorshok Japan Update from the 10th of October twenty twenty-four. A quick summary of what's going down in Japan.

Last week, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party or LDP said it was thinking of endorsing lawmakers who were involved in the political funds and kickback issue earlier this year. However, it took back this statement after sources suggested Shigeru Ishiba, the new LDP leader and prime minister, was also involved in the scheme.

On Friday the 4th, news outlet Asahi Shimbun, revealed that the now-disbanded Ishiba faction did not report around 5,400 dollars worth of political funds between twenty nineteen and twenty twenty-one. Still, it’s not as much as the millions of dollars that the Abe and Nikai factions failed to report, and most people on social media were more worried about inflation and increasing costs.

Ishiba held a press conference on Monday the 7th and admitted to the unreported funds, but said that it was an administrative error. He said he was taking the matter very seriously and that he would not endorse any LDP lawmakers who took kickbacks.

Continuing on the subject of politics, Ishiba dissolved the Lower House on Wednesday the 9th in preparation for the snap election to be held on the 27th of October. Campaigning for the election will officially begin on Tuesday the 15th. This marks the shortest amount of time between a new prime minister and an election in Japan since World War Two at just twenty-six days.

The LDP announced 279 candidates, excluding twelve who faced charges for taking kickbacks from political funds.

After the Lower House’s dissolution, party leaders had a debate in the Diet. Yoshihiko Noda, the Constitutional Democratic Party leader, said that Ishiba was being too soft on lawmakers who had taken kickbacks, calling it borderline tax evasion. Ishiba replied that no one was charged with tax evasion.

People will vote for new Diet members from any party, meaning that if an opposition party wins a majority of House seats, the LDP will no longer be the ruling party. Ishiba said he plans to continue the previous prime minister’s economic policies that support low-income households and small businesses. However, those policies might not fix low wages or inflation.

In international news, Ishiba flew to Laos on Thursday the 10th for the Asia Zero Emission Community summit, which the Association of Southeast Asian Nations launched last year to promote decarbonization in Asia. Ishiba will be the chair of the summit, which will start on Friday the 11th and last two days.

Since many Asian countries rely on coal power, the leaders attending the summit will try to figure out the best way for each nation to start working toward using less carbon fuel and converting to greener forms of energy. They will also try to figure out rules for calculating and reporting greenhouse gas emissions from businesses. Japan hopes to propose measures to offer technical or developmental support for renewable energy, energy distribution networks, and how to dispose of waste to improve public health.

Meanwhile, on Friday the 4th, The Tokyo Metropolitan Government passed Japan's first ordinance to protect workers from customer harassment, which includes aggressive behavior and unreasonable demands. It will take effect in April twenty twenty-five, but the government is still working on the exact details on how to encourage mutual respect without stepping on consumer rights.

Customer harassment is a growing issue in Japan’s service industry. UA Zensen, a labor union federation, conducted a survey in June and found that forty-seven percent of retail and service workers have faced customer harassment, including verbal abuse or demanding they get on their knees and beg for forgiveness over minor mistakes. Earlier this year, the labor office in Chiba Prefecture said that customer harassment led to a worker’s suicide in twenty twenty.

Other prefectures, like Hokkaido and Aichi, are considering similar measures.

In health news, Mycoplasma pneumonia cases are surging in Japan, with the weekly number of patients per medical institution at a record-high average of one point sixty-four cases per institution. This is more than the one point sixty-one case average during an outbreak in October twenty sixteen.

It may not sound like a lot, but this strain of pneumonia can cause fever and persistent coughing that lasts for months, even with treatment. Severe cases may need hospitalization, and in rare instances, it can cause brain inflammation.

Health officials expect further increases as Mycoplasma pneumonia typically spikes from fall to winter. The health ministry advises washing hands and wearing masks.

Next up, the Maritime Self-Defense Force or MSDF is discussing maritime security with an exchange program hosting young naval officers from twenty-seven countries. The Japan MSDF Command and Staff College has hosted the exchange program since the year two thousand to teach other countries in-depth about Japan's security policy and improve global naval cooperation.

This year's participants include thirty-one officers from countries like the US, South Korea, Australia, and China. At the opening ceremony on Tuesday the 8th, the college president encouraged the officers to share insights on the Indo-Pacific and maritime security. Participants will discuss security, international cooperation, visit MSDF vessels, and learn about Japanese culture.

The program will run until the 17th of October.

In tech news, the Japan Fair Trade Commission, an antitrust watchdog, recently released a document saying that it will start investigating the generative AI market. It will be surveying businesses and tech users until the 22nd of November. It will also conduct interviews, and then analyze the data from both interviews and surveys. The commission will likely finish its report on AI in the spring.

The commission is worried about current US tech giants getting a monopoly on the AI market, citing the example of Nvidia’s eighty percent global market share in semiconductors for AI use, and how only a few mega-corporations seem to hold the majority of AI-related data.

The US, Europe, and South Korea are also holding similar, independent investigations.

More in tech as Narita Airport partnered with Forcetec Inc., a smart technology company based in Tokyo, to install smart rubbish bins, called SmaGO, that use solar power to compress trash and notify workers when they need to be emptied.

The bins are about four feet or 120 centimeters tall and have solar panels that power trash compaction. Inside, the bins have sensors to keep track of how much garbage is inside and send alerts to staff when they’re full.

The airport installed nine SmaGO bins in Terminal One for a one-month trial. The idea is that staff don’t waste time checking garbage bins that are empty.

Moving onto sports, Tomoyuki Sugano, a professional Japanese baseball player, said on Saturday the 5th that he is going to try to join a US Major League Baseball team. He tried once before during the off-season in twenty twenty but didn’t manage to make a deal with a team. However, this year, he managed a lot of wins for his team, the Yomiuri Giants, and helped them win the Central League pennant for the first time in four years.

Finally, the city of Kashiwazaki in Niigata Prefecture will soon start its autumn foliage light-up event in the Shōunsansō Garden. This Japanese-style garden has 600 maple trees and 200 evergreens and is famous for its fall foliage. From late October until late November, the city will string lights in the garden to illuminate the changing leaves at night.

Entry is free. Shōunsansō is a twenty-minute walk from Kashiwazaki Station, or five minutes by taxi.

To see some photos of the night-time illumination, check out the city’s tourism website, link in the show notes!

Aaand that’s it for this week! Thank you for joining us!

Do you know that besides the Rorshok Japan Update, we also do others? Our latest ones are the Arctic Update, about the area north of the Arctic Circle, the Ocean Update, about the 70% of the world covered in salt water, and the Multilateral Update, about the world’s major multilateral institutions. The other ones are all country updates, we have a selection of countries from Africa, Asia, South America, and Europe. Check roroshok.com/updates for the full list, the link is in the show notes.

Mata Ne!