The White Peril 白禍

The Diet has decided to get tough on suicide through the only mechanism it knows how to operate: government programs and lists of new rules.

The "basic law to deal with suicides" was approved at the Lower House plenary session with the support of both the ruling and opposition parties. The Upper House passed the bill last week.

The law calls for research into the causes of suicides, efforts to ensure mental stability among workers and support for those who have attempted suicide.

The legislation says suicides should not be dealt with as an individual's problem because such deaths have been partly brought on by social factors.

"Suicides have various and complicated causes and backgrounds," the law says. "Measures should be taken not only from the viewpoint of mental health but also based on the actual conditions of each case."

The law says it is the central government's duty to work out and implement comprehensive measures to deal with suicides.

That part about suicide not being "an individual's problem"--the Japanese version of the article doesn't have the original from which that phrase was translated--resonates slightly differently here, I think, from the way it would to a Westerner. The Japanese tend to think that if you're unhappy, it's you're fault for being so weak-minded. The proper attitude toward life is to work hard and set your jaw as you push through difficulties. The idea that some people might be living with little emotional support under circumstances that push them to their limits is not a common one here. In that sense, taking account of "the actual conditions of each case" could be a more innovative approach than that bland wording makes it sound.

Japan's high suicide rate is a heartbreaking problem, and it is indeed one that requires society-wide action. But I'm not sure that any federal government program could effect the change in attitudes that would be required to address it. The specific measures include more than just useless public service announcements of the "Citizens, let's not be offing ourselves, okay?" variety, but they still seem to assume that "maintain[ing] mental health" and "support" can be legislated into effect:

Under the law, company owners are required to implement measures to maintain the mental health of their employees. The central government must offer more support to those who have attempted suicide and to families of those who have killed themselves.

The law also says the central government will set up an anti-suicide task force in the Cabinet Office chaired by the chief Cabinet secretary. The task force must submit progress reports on the government's measures to the Diet every year.

Whether any of this will succeed in convincing people that their individual lives have purpose and meaning, that their troubles are obstacles that can be dealt with and overcome, that it's worth soldiering through for those around them who care about and depend on them, and that seeking help doesn't mean they're crazy--all of that remains to be seen.

The obvious problem with "Koizumi's Kids," the freshmen Diet members who were elected as part of the groundswell of voter support for the prime minister in last year's snap election, is that being non-traditional politicians, they're likely to have trouble politicking. A solution being offered by the LDP is a seminar series:

The Liberal Democratic Party will offer a seminar within the month to teach knowhow in three fields--Diet activities, election activities, and the planning of policy--to new Diet members elected to the lower house last year.

The knowhow as described in the article is less a remedial version of a high school civics class than the sort of nuts-and-bolts knowledge people who found themselves elected officials more or less by accident need if they're going to be able to maneuver. It's probably good that the LDP is providing it. (And I daresay it seems less of a warning sign here that members of the Diet would need it than it might in a different country. Even in adulthood, the Japanese are very comfortable with lists and diagrams and things to help them navigate.) On the other hand, one wonders whether any of this clutch of chicks has a fraction of Koizumi's conviction. Koizumi may not have succeeded in most of his reform agenda, but it was all built around a core of shared principles, and he knew how to plug away at it in PR terms. Whether he could have won on more points if he'd fought harder is an open question, but he was not, as is occasionally said, running on nothing but raw charisma (wonder whether Koizumi's Kids will manage to display any of that, either, for that matter).

The jockeying for the prime minister's position in September continues; Abe is still the frontrunner. Various higher-ups in factions are appearing regularly to state that divisiveness is bad...or that putting factional unity above principle is bad...or that what's really bad is China's repeated attempts to interfere in Japan's internal affairs. I haven't seen anything particularly noteworthy in the last few weekends of political yak shows.

Japan Defense Agency head Fukushiro Nukaga has met with US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in Singapore:

[A]bout the Ground Self Defense Force's activities in Samawa in southern Iraq, Nukaga made clear his desire for close coordination in setting the date for withdrawal: "We want to coordinate any moves from here on with the US, the UK, and Australia."

There's no more specific information from the Nikkei, and not all of Japan's international relations moves have proceeded all chummy-like this weekend:

Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe said Saturday morning in TV shows that he would not say whether he would visit Yasukuni Shrine in his campaign pledge during the Liberal Democratic Party's presidential election campaign in September.

In programs broadcast by TBS and YTV, Abe said: "I don't plan to say I will or won't go. If my saying anything about it becomes a diplomatic issue, I shouldn't say anything, considering the political situation and the party presidential election. It's best not to clearly state [whether I will visit the shrine]."

Abe also said China has criticized Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visiting the shrine partly due to its "anti-Japan education."

"As China offers anti-Japan education, an anti-Japan tide is rolling among its people. If the country backs off on the [Yasukuni Shrine] issue, the Chinese government will face difficulties [at home]," he said.

The PRC usually responds to every peep from the Koizumi administration about the Yasukuni visits; I haven't read of anything extracted from Xinhua this weekend, though.

There's been something of a gesture of goodwill toward Korea--not by the government directly, but by Japan's hoity-toitiest public university:

A set of voluminous documents that constitutes one of only four known definitive records of the era of Korean kings--and which vanished when Japan controlled the Korean Peninsula--will be returned to its rightful owner, the University of Tokyo announced Wednesday.

Koreans say "The Annals of the Choson Dynasty" were stolen during Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.

The set of handwritten books is registered as a national treasure in South Korea. The volumes ended up at the university's library.

Some of the volumes were destroyed in the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923.