Meeting Taiwan’s President & more –15th Aug 2023

Konnichiwa from Keswick Village! This is the Rorshok Japan Update from the 15th of August twenty twenty-three A quick summary of what's going down in Japan.

Last week, Taro Aso, the vice president of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party, flew to Taiwan on Tuesday the 8th and met with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen. They discussed cooperation between the two countries on strengthening supply chains, offering mutual support, and evacuating Japanese nationals from Taiwan in case of emergency. While they did not say where such an emergency would come from, everything points to China’s continued military presence in the Taiwan Strait, the waterway between China and Taiwan.

While fostering alliances would normally be a good thing all around, China wasn’t too happy about these developments. Saturday the 12th marked the forty-fifth anniversary of the Treaty of Peace and Friendship between Japan and China. China issued a statement that said that both countries should keep their mutual ties strong by removing "distractions and barriers." This likely refers to Japan’s recent attempts to improve relations with Taiwan, a country that China claims as one of its provinces despite Taiwan’s government asserting its independence. The Chinese Foreign Ministry hammered in that the Asia Pacific region has had stability and prosperity over the past forty-five years because of their treaty with Japan, and said that Japan needs to “uphold political foundations.” This seemed to be their subtle way of telling Japan to not treat Taiwan as an independent country if they want to stay on China’s good side.

Meanwhile, tropical storms keep hitting Japan one after the other. On Thursday the 10th, Typhoon Khanun hit the Kyushu and Shikoku regions. The stormy weather injured fourteen people and caused blackouts in more than 10,000 households.

If that wasn’t enough, Typhoon Lan also reared its ugly head near the Ogasawara Islands, south of Japan’s main island, on Saturday the 12th. Fortunately, it didn’t go directly over the islands itself, so residents only had to suffer through some rain and choppy waves.

Instead, it continued heading north and hit central and western Japan on Tuesday the 15th. Authorities issued evacuation orders in ten prefectures and warned people to stay alert for mudslides, flooding, overflowing rivers, and strong winds. In Kyoto, the storm ripped a bridge off its banks and carried it down the Isazu River. As the typhoon moved north over the Kansai region, the bridge connecting Kansai International Airport to the mainland was shut down because it was dangerously windy. Many people had to stay overnight at the airport. Many trains also suspended services in the region, and airlines canceled around 800 domestic flights.

While storms battered the southern regions of Japan, many residents struggled through the heatwave gripping the northern, eastern, and western parts of the country. On Thursday the 10th, temperatures reached forty degrees Celsius, or 104 degrees Fahrenheit, in Ishikawa Prefecture. According to the Meteorological Agency, Aomori Prefecture reached a record high of thirty-nine degrees Celsius, roughly 103 degrees Fahrenheit. Niigata reached the same temperature. Twenty-five different prefectures issued heatstroke alerts. Officials said the heat is likely to continue until Tuesday the 15th.

In other news, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol spoke on Tuesday the 15th at a ceremony for the anniversary of Korea’s independence. Though Japan once colonized Korea, he said that now the two countries are partners sharing universal values, and he hopes that they can work together for global peace. Yoon also said it’s important to cooperate with both Japan and the United States in the face of North Korea's increased military activity. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida plans to meet both President Yoon and US President Joe Biden at an upcoming summit in hopes of collaborating against the North’s continued nuclear and missile threats.

Speaking of the prime minister, various government officials have said that Kishida is thinking of reshuffling the Liberal Democratic Party’s Cabinet members in mid-September. Kishida’s falling approval rate prompted the decision, which sits at an all-time low of 26% according to a poll put out by Jiji Press on Thursday the 10th. It has been a year since Kishida last reshuffled his Cabinet, but some speculate that he wants to do it again as a chance to reinforce his leadership as he prepares for next year’s election.

The prime minister isn’t the only one feeling the heat. The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant seems to be running into a never-ending list of problems. Most recently, Tokyo Electric Power Company, the owner of the plant, found leaks in the hoses that transferred the plant’s treated radioactive water to a dike around a storage tank, surrounded by a barrier. To be clear, none of this water has leaked into the environment. The company picked up on it when they detected a higher-than-usual level of radiation in the dike. When looking into how this happened, the company found that after the packaged hoses arrived at the plant, the workers cut open the packaging with a box cutter and accidentally sliced the hoses in the process. Despite the setback, the company will still be moving forward with its plans to release the treated and diluted water into the ocean.

The nuclear plant does have a slice of slightly positive news, though. A recent survey conducted by the University of Tokyo and Fukushima University found that fishery distributors are no longer as against the treated water release as they used to be. Back in twenty nineteen, two-thirds of distributors were against treated water release, but now only one-third oppose the action. However, those numbers include distributors not just from Fukushima, but Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, and Sendai as well. When looking at just Fukushima distributors, half of them are against the release. The survey also asked why they were opposed or in favor, and many said that their concern was that the government wasn’t providing enough information to the public. As an associate professor working on the survey stated, while the businesses understand that the treated water is safe, consumers might not have a “safe” image of the water and may avoid it as a result.

Moving on, Mori Building and other businesses just finished building the tallest skyscraper in Japan and showcased it to the press on Tuesday the 8th. The previous tallest building was 300 meters tall and in Osaka; this new skyscraper is located in Tokyo’s Minato Ward. It is 330 meters tall, with sixty-four stories and five basement levels. It’s part of a complex with two other buildings that will be used for residences, a hotel, and a shopping mall. The complex even has emergency facilities that can provide for up to three thousand six hundred people in case of a natural disaster. Mori Building will officially open the complex on the 24th of November.

There’s also been some good news for the Japanese economy. On Tuesday the 15th, the Cabinet Office released data showing that Japan’s GDP is showing much better growth than in the last couple of years. In twenty twenty-one and twenty twenty-two, the GDP experienced a bit of a yo-yo effect, going down and then up with every passing quarter. But for the past three quarters, the GDP has only grown, mostly thanks to increased exports and spending by foreign tourists. It’s still too early to say if this trend will continue, especially since consumer spending was down slightly thanks to ballooning inflation dragging down the economy.

In sports news, the Japanese baseball star, Shohei Ohtani, recently became the first-ever Major League Baseball player to get double-digit wins and homers for two seasons in a row. Wednesday the 9th also marked his tenth victory, which meant that he broke a long-standing record set by the legendary Babe Ruth.

Aaaaand that’s it for this week! Thanks for joining us!

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Mata Ne!