JAPAN: Political Parties’ Negotiations & more – 7th Nov 2024

Konnichiwa from BA! This is the Rorshok Japan Update from the 7th of November twenty twenty-four. A quick summary of what's going down in Japan.

The leaders of Japan's two main opposition parties, Yoshihiko Noda of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and Yuichiro Tamaki of the Democratic Party for the People, met on Tuesday the 5th and agreed to work together to revise the political funds control law. This follows both parties gaining seats in the recent Lower House election while the ruling coalition lost its majority. The two leaders hope that by working together, they can end political activity funds so that Japan doesn’t have to go through their politicians taking tax-free kickbacks again.

The two parties also plan to cooperate on other issues, such as national security, energy, and constitutional policies. Additionally, Noda said he would raise Japan's income tax threshold to encourage longer working hours for part-time workers.

More about political parties as they agreed to have a special session of the Lower House, the Diet, on Monday the 11th. However, the future of news policies stemming from the Diet is very uncertain. They haven’t even agreed on a date to vote for the prime minister yet.

Since the ruling Liberal Democratic Party or LDP and its partner, Komeito, lost their Lower House majority, it may be more difficult for everyone to agree on future policies. Shigeru Ishiba, the current prime minister, will probably keep his position since, even though the LDP doesn’t hold the 233-seat majority, it still has more seats than any other individual party. To have a new prime minister, almost all of the opposition parties in the Diet should vote for the same person.

The LDP is now seeking support from the Democratic Party for the People for policy discussions, including economic measures. This shift may lead to greater cross-party negotiations, as the ruling party can no longer rely on a majority to pass legislation without any real pushback.

Next tup, After testing an intercontinental ballistic missile last week, North Korea launched several short-range ballistic missiles on Tuesday the 5th. They landed in the Sea of Japan outside the country’s Exclusive Economic Zone.

South Korean and Japanese officials stated that the missiles flew about 400 kilometers or 250 miles, reaching a maximum altitude of 100 kilometers or sixty-two miles. They didn’t damage any ships or aircraft. This marks North Korea’s thirteenth ballistic missile launch this year.

Japan also conducted a launch. On Monday the 4th, it successfully put a defense communications satellite into orbit with the help of the H3 rocket. The launch took place at Tanegashima Space Center and marked the H3’s third success in a row after its failed launch last year.

The satellite supports Japan's Defense Ministry by enhancing communication for deployed forces, joining two similar satellites already in operation.

In an update to a story from previous shows, the Tokyo Electric Power Company announced on Thursday the 7th its first successful removal of melted fuel from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant's Number Two reactor, damaged in the twenty eleven earthquake and tsunami. This marked a huge milestone in the complex, decades-long decommissioning process.

Workers used a telescope-like device with a gripper to extract a small fuel sample, addressing a major challenge in handling the 880 tons of remaining fuel debris across the plant’s Numbers One, Two, and Three reactors. The workers will send the sample to the Japan Atomic Energy Agency's facility for analysis.

In domestic news, the normally festive Halloween celebrations in Tokyo's Shibuya and Shinjuku districts were more subdued than usual as authorities enforced strict measures to prevent overcrowding. The Police directed crowds to keep moving, and since last year, the city has banned alcohol from 6 p.m. to 5 a.m. around Shibuya's iconic spots like the Hachiko statue.

Part of the reason why officials wanted to be cautious was because of the twenty twenty-two Seoul Halloween tragedy, when a mixture of overcrowding, lack of police presence, and steep, narrow streets killed over a hundred Halloween-goers in the crowd crush.

Shinjuku also implemented a temporary alcohol ban in Kabukicho, though these bans have no penalties.

On a somewhat more positive note, the transport ministry is increasing oversight of the logistics industry to protect truck drivers from companies that may violate regulations.

The ministry created a monitoring team in July last year to make sure business practices remain fair. They said they will expand this team later this month, increasing the number of inspectors from 160 to 360, with regional bureaus and industry associations offering support. The team is focused on reducing drivers' waiting and freight-handling times and making sure they aren't forced to perform tasks that aren’t a part of their job description.

The ministry will publicize companies suspected of abusive practices and push for corrective measures. Many young people are reluctant to become transport drivers because of bad working conditions, and the ministry hopes these efforts will promote sustainable, fair business practices and help the labor shortage.

Speaking of transport, tech has some exciting news. A Toyota Motor startup, in partnership with Joby Aviation, announced on Saturday the 2nd that it successfully completed Japan's first domestic flight of a flying car. Toyota plans to officially open the service to the public as early as twenty twenty-five, but they will start off with private test drives in the Middle East and at the Osaka-Kansai Expo.

The five-passenger aircraft, tested at Toyota's Higashi-Fuji facility, flies at 500 meters or 1,600 feet and has an engine that is a bit quieter than the average car’s. Toyota has invested 900 million dollars in Joby Aviation and is working to obtain certification to use the flying cars commercially all over the world. The Toyota Chairman said it could reduce travel from central Tokyo to Shizuoka Prefecture from two hours to just twenty-five minutes.

Flying cars aren’t the only futuristic trend. Japan's Seven-Eleven plans to test self-driving delivery robots on Tokyo’s public roads to serve elderly and other customers who can’t visit stores. The company is still waiting for police approval, but if it goes through, Seven-Eleven will begin trials this month at two Tokyo locations.

The robots travel at six kilometers or four miles per hour, using sensors for navigation and traffic light detection, with customers accessing their deliveries via a smartphone app. Seven & i Holdings, Seven-Eleven's parent company, will go over customer feedback before expanding to other areas. It hopes to implement the delivery robots nationwide by spring twenty twenty-five.

Meanwhile, on Saturday the 2nd, weather officials issued the highest-level heavy rain warning in western Japan, advising nearly 200,000 residents to evacuate because of the increased risk of landslides and floods. The rain was a remnant of the typhoon that hit Taiwan on Thursday the 31st of October, where it killed three people and injured 690.

In entertainment news, Shogakukan, a publishing company, recently announced that Kazuo Umezu, a manga artist known as the god of horror manga, died on Monday the 28th of October.

Umezu began his career in nineteen fifty-five, initially writing horror stories for rental books. In nineteen seventy-two, he created The Drifting Classroom, a story of children navigating a desolate future, which won the Shogakukan Manga Award in nineteen seventy-five. Sequel Shingo, a follow-up to My Name Is Shingo, his popular science fiction manga from the nineteen eighties, won the Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize Special Award in twenty twenty-three.

That wasn't the only tragic passing of a legend this week. On Friday the 1st, Atsushi Uemura, a renowned painter, passed away at ninety-one of natural causes.

He won the Japan Art Academy Prize in nineteen ninety-five for a painting entitled Wild Geese and received the prestigious Order of Culture in twenty twenty-two. His most notable pieces include Early Morning and Four Seasons of Waterside.

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

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Mata Ne!