The White Peril 白禍

The Iranian foreign minister met with Prime Minister Koizumi today:

On 28 February, Prime Minister Jun'ichiro Koizumi met with Iranian Foreign Minister Mottaki at the Prime Minister's residence. About the issue of Iran's nuclear program, Koizumi stated, "We would like you to do whatever you must to win the trust of the global community," requesting an immediate cessation of Iran's experiments with uranium enrichment and activities related to nuclear development. Mottaki responded, "We have a right to the peaceable use of nuclear power" and rejected the idea of ceasing nuclear development.

...

LDP Secretary General Shinzo Abe, also on 28 February, stated emphatically to a press conference, "We seek Iran's cessation of uranium enrichment and complete fulfillment of the terms laid down by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) board so that it may avoid being isolated from the global community."

No surprises, no revelations--as expected. Japan has affirmed that it's on the side of (blech) the global community, and Iran seems not to have taken Japan's position as a sign of enmity.

FWIW, the part I didn't bother translating states that Speaker of the House Yohei Kono requested that Iran accept the proposal from this weekend for a joint initiative with Russia, whereby the uranium enrichment Iran needs would be attended to there.

The Iranian foreign minister met with Prime Minister Koizumi today:

On 28 February, Prime Minister Jun'ichiro Koizumi met with Iranian Foreign Minister Mottaki at the Prime Minister's residence. About the issue of Iran's nuclear program, Koizumi stated, "We would like you to do whatever you must to win the trust of the global community," requesting an immediate cessation of Iran's experiments with uranium enrichment and activities related to nuclear development. Mottaki responded, "We have a right to the peaceable use of nuclear power" and rejected the idea of ceasing nuclear development.

...

LDP Secretary General Shinzo Abe, also on 28 February, stated emphatically to a press conference, "We seek Iran's cessation of uranium enrichment and complete fulfillment of the terms laid down by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) board so that it may avoid being isolated from the global community."

No surprises, no revelations--as expected. Japan has affirmed that it's on the side of (blech) the global community, and Iran seems not to have taken Japan's position as a sign of enmity.

FWIW, the part I didn't bother translating states that Speaker of the House Yohei Kono requested that Iran accept the proposal from this weekend for a joint initiative with Russia, whereby the uranium enrichment Iran needs would be attended to there.

The Iranian foreign minister met with Prime Minister Koizumi today:

On 28 February, Prime Minister Jun'ichiro Koizumi met with Iranian Foreign Minister Mottaki at the Prime Minister's residence. About the issue of Iran's nuclear program, Koizumi stated, "We would like you to do whatever you must to win the trust of the global community," requesting an immediate cessation of Iran's experiments with uranium enrichment and activities related to nuclear development. Mottaki responded, "We have a right to the peaceable use of nuclear power" and rejected the idea of ceasing nuclear development.

...

LDP Secretary General Shinzo Abe, also on 28 February, stated emphatically to a press conference, "We seek Iran's cessation of uranium enrichment and complete fulfillment of the terms laid down by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) board so that it may avoid being isolated from the global community."

No surprises, no revelations--as expected. Japan has affirmed that it's on the side of (blech) the global community, and Iran seems not to have taken Japan's position as a sign of enmity.

FWIW, the part I didn't bother translating states that Speaker of the House Yohei Kono requested that Iran accept the proposal from this weekend for a joint initiative with Russia, whereby the uranium enrichment Iran needs would be attended to there.

The Iranian foreign minister is now in Japan for talks; the build-up was covered in the Japanese press, though there never really seemed to be any developments interesting enough to comment on. In any case, Japan has normal relations with Iran and buys quite a bit of its petroleum, so it has a lot of incentive to smooth some of the recent conflicts over:

Iran and Russia on Sunday agreed in principle to establish a joint uranium enrichment venture, a breakthrough in talks on the U.S.-backed Kremlin proposal. But it was not known whether Iran will entirely give up enrichment at home, a top demand of the West.

Japan, which relies on Iran for much of its oil imports, has been keen to play a role in resolving the standoff. Tokyo also has a special link with Mottaki, who served as ambassador to Japan from 1994-1999.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki was slated to meet Japan's Foreign Minister Taro Aso later Monday. Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi also was to greet Mottaki, the Foreign Ministry said.

This TEPCO page puts the percent of Japan's 2003 oil imports that came from Iran at 16.1%.

The Nikkei doesn't have one of its quickie five-line stories posted about the visit, which suggests that the meeting with Aso hasn't yet produced anything quotable.

The US may give some of the Yokota airbase back to Japan. The issue is airspace rather than land:

Each day, about 470 commercial flights in and out of Haneda and Narita airports must take alternate routes to avoid airspace controlled by the U.S. military's Yokota airbase, according to a calculation by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.

Some flights detour around the space and others make steeper ascents than needed.

The number of flights affected will rise to about 650 in 2009 with more traffic at the airports, the study said.

The extra fuel cost is 8 billion yen a year, likely to climb to 10.9 billion yen in 2009.

If a southern section of the airspace were returned to Japan, the extra cost and the flight times could be minimized, the report said.

While Japan's population isn't rising, the number of flights in and out of Tokyo is. The closest Japan has had to a civil aviation disaster since the Otsuka crash in 1985 was in 2001, when two JAL jets came within thirty feet of colliding. Tokyo Metro Governor Shintaro Ishihara blamed the strictures on flightpaths imposed by having US military airspace so close to Haneda and Narita, though it must be noted that weird ascent and descent patterns were not exactly the only problem on display:

Transport ministry officials said the post-accident report filed by the DC-10 pilot, Tatsuyuki Akazawa, 45, also indicated the two planes missed each other by a whisker. "Altitude difference little, lateral distance none," Mr. Akazawa's report said.

The incident occurred early Wednesday evening. The Boeing Flight 907 was ascending to a cruising altitude of 11,300 meters, while the DC-10 Flight 958 was descending from 11,900 meters to prepare for landing at the New Tokyo International Airport in Narita, Chiba Prefecture, transport ministry officials said.

Both planes were equipped with the Traffic Collision Avoidance System, a computerized device that would alert pilots when they were flying too close to each other.

...

Ministry officials said air traffic communications records kept at the Tokyo Air Traffic Control Center, based in Tokorozawa, Saitama Prefecture, show that air traffic controllers repeatedly used wrong flight numbers in telling the pilots of the two airplanes to change course.

The official in charge of the two flights, a 26-year-old man in his third year of training as an air traffic controller, first realized that the flight paths of the two planes were too close and initiated warnings to the two pilots under the supervision of a 32-year-old controller who served as his coach.

According to air traffic communications records released by the transport ministry, the male air traffic controller twice ordered the Boeing 747 to lower its attitude and the DC-10 to turn right.

As there was no response, the coach broke into the radio channel and told " Flight 957" to immediately lower its altitude.

The record shows that the coach again misspoke the flight number when the Boeing 747 pilot radioed in that there was an alert on the aircraft's collision avoidance system and he was descending. "Roger, flight 908," she said, in a message meant for the Boeing flight 907 pilot.

Moments later, the DC-10 flight 958 pilot reported to air traffic control that alert also sounded on his collision avoidance system, and the trainee controller responded, "Roger, flight 908." "The situation was extremely dangerous," Mr. Watanabe told air traffic control after the near-fatal collision was averted. Analysts said that had the Boeing not dived to avoid a collision, "the worst ever accident in aviation history" could have occurred.

The Boeing 747 was carrying 411 passengers and 16 crew members, and the DC-10 had 250 passengers and crew members on board.

Poor communication about the collision avoidance system was the major cause of the midair collision over Germany in 2002, though the air traffic controller involved was undone by circumstances and didn't blurt out non-existent flight numbers.

Speaking of changes in US military facilities, several thousand Marines may or may not be moved out of Okinawa as part of the Futenma restructuring plan. They would be relocated to Guam.

Japan Defense Agency head Fukushiro Nukaga speaks:

A special lower house budgetary committee deliberatory session revolving around collusion in construction projects for the Defense Facilities Administrative Agency was held the morning of 22 February. Defense Agency leader Fukushiro Nukaga, on being given news of the rearrest of a former top agency official, stated, "we are thoroghly investigating the problems in both administrative and organizational terms, and making a fresh start is the responsibility of the DFAA leader and my mission." He denied anew that either he himself or DFAA head Iwao Kitahara would resign.

Nukaga stated that Kitahara has assumed the job of chair of the investigative committee that has been established in the DFAA, and indicated that there is no immediate plan for Kitahara to be reassigned.

Kitahara is of special interest to those who follow US-Japan military ties because, for one thing, he used to be DFAA chief in Okinawa and, partly because of that and partly because he's now the general secretary, he's been one of the chief negotiators in the drive to restructure US military facilities in that prefecture (especially, of course, Futenma). To what extent he allowed the culture of collusion to continue to flourish at the DFAA is an open question--he was clearly good at rising through the ranks, but on the other hand he's only been in the driver's seat for a year or so. It doesn't seem unreasonable, on the face of it, for Nukaga to decide that the imminent clean-up is, as he says, Kitahara's proper job.

Aum Shinrikyo founder Chizuo Matsumoto may be evil, but he's not nuts. Or, at least, the psychiatric evaluator appointed by the court has ruled that he's fit to stand trial (Yomiuri English report, Nikkei Japanese report). This is from the Yomiuri:

Meantime, judicial sources said the high court was now likely to dismiss the appeal by Matsumoto, commonly known as Shoko Asahara, under the Code of Criminal Procedure, an irrevocable confirmation of the death penalty meted out by the Tokyo District Court in February 2004.

The lower court found him guilty of masterminding 13 crimes, including sarin gas attacks on Tokyo's subway system in 1995 that killed 12 people and injured more than 5,500 others, and in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture, in 1994, as well as the 1989 murder of a lawyer and his family.

The defense counsel for the cult founder had argued that the 50-year-old defendant was not fit for trial, while presiding Judge Masaru Suda had maintained that the cult founder was competent enough to stand trial or defend himself in court with the help of defense lawyers.

...

The doctor is believed to have diagnosed that Matsumoto's abnormal behavior stems from either a mild reaction to incarceration--a mental breakdown caused by prolonged detention--or that he is feigning sickness.

The evaluation ran to 88 pages, according to the Nikkei.

*******

Yesterday there was a stoppage on JR East's Yamanote Line, which rings the very center of Tokyo like London's Circle Line. It was just before 8 a.m. Not a pleasant scene, given that the three-hour (!) interruption of service caused problems for 112000 commuters. I'm sure the cab drivers loved it. I'm sure the buses were pandemonium, too.

To preserve balance and harmony, one imagines, JR West reported yesterday that over a thousand of its trains have bad brakes in the front cars:

Emergency brakes of the automatic train stop system on more than 40 percent of 2,700 lead cars West Japan Railway Co. uses would not function when their regular brakes fail, the firm said Monday.

The problem was caused when circuits connecting the ATS-SW and emergency braking systems were modified in 1994 to help facilitate the recovery process after an ATS malfunction. JR West used these lead cars for 12 years without noticing any fault.

The emergency brakes would not function on about 1,200 lead cars, the company said.

A representative of JR West's public relations department said, "We apologize for making passengers anxious."

To which residents of JR West territories are probably replying, "Thanks, pal, but we were anxious already." It was a JR West train that derailed last year in Amagasaki, killing over a hundred people. That accident was found to be due to misjudgment by the train driver...and his misjudgment was probably the result at least in part of systemic flaws in JR West's training. It became a lightning rod for questions about transportation safety in light of Japan's evolving economy and aging infrastructure.

The cars in question in this case, as you might suspect, are old. They were all manufactured two decades ago, before the rail system was privatized.

*******

The other big story today, besides the elimination of the Japanese women's curling team from Olympic competition, is about an e-mail:

Caution was urged Monday in the use of the Diet's authority to invoke special investigative powers to verify the authenticity of a controversial e-mail allegedly sent by former Livedoor Co. President Takafumi Horie that instructed that 30 million yen be remitted to the younger son of the Liberal Democratic Party's secretary general.

House of Representatives Budget Committee Chairman Tadamori Oshima of the LDP said the allegation by the opposition Democratic Party of Japan regarding what it claims is an e-mail sent by Horie is not serious enough to warrant using the constitutional powers of the Diet to investigate it.

"Given that the investigation right of the Diet into state affairs as stipulated by the Constitution is extremely significant, it should only be exercised with great prudence," Oshima said at a meeting of directors of the Budget Committee.

Prior to Oshima's statement, an LDP director at the meeting said the DPJ, which originally raised the remittance issue, should present clear evidence to prove that 30 million yen was sent to the son of LDP Secretary General Tsutomu Takebe, such as a bank account statement. The director said the LDP would agree to hold a Budget Committee meeting in camera for that purpose.

More finger-pointing to ensue, no doubt.

The H2A Rocket launch today was successful--good. Reuters also has a report up already here. Japan's aerospace programs have still had their problems this year, but since last year's first successful H2A launch, things have seemed to be improving nicely.

New word: 非姉歯 (hi-aneha, presumably: "non-Aneha"), to designate buildings with falsified earthquake resistance certifications that were not produced by Hidetsugu Aneha:

On 18 February, the City of Yokohama held an information session for residents of Tsurumi Ward, revealing of an apartment building in that district, the earthquake resistance of which had been found to be deficient [though] its structural calculations had been contracted to another architect than former first-class architect Hideji Aneha, that its level of earthquake resistance was 64% of the minimum standard mandated by the Building Standards Law. In an earthquake with an intensity of a strong 5 on the JMA scale, there is a risk that its quake-resistance walls could crack.

The city explained, "This doesn't bear the marks of willful falsification; there were errors in the structural calculations and inspection procedures."

Wow. Well, that makes it all better. There may be more to the story, though.

According to the city's statement, the building is the St. Regis Tsurumi (10 floors, 37 units). The building is managed by Huser Corp. (Oota Ward, Tokyo; in bankruptcy proceedings) and built by Kimura Construction (Yashiro City, Kumamoto Prefecture; also in bankruptcy proceedings). The building was designed by Shimokawabe Architecture and Design (Oota Ward, Tokyo), and the structural calculations performed by a design firm in Suginami Ward, Tokyo. Japan- ERI (Minato Ward, Tokyo), a private inspection organization, performed the building certification in 2002.

With Huser and Kimura involved, it is not, shall we say, the easiest thing in the world to believe that there was no purposeful falsification. We'll see, though.

The big news today is that there's been another child murder. This time there's no question of having watched out more carefully for a suspicious stranger:

A woman was arrested Friday on suspicion of fatally stabbing two 5-year-old schoolmates of her daughter while driving them to kindergarten, police said.

Mie Taniguchi, 34, has admitted she stabbed the children, police said, but she has been unable to respond to questioning.

A passerby called police around 9 a.m. Friday after coming across a boy and a girl lying and bleeding in an area filled with rice paddies.

Each child had been stabbed about 20 times, police said.

...

The woman said Taniguchi was originally from China and apparently had trouble with the Japanese language.

About a year ago, the woman said, Taniguchi complained that she could not mingle with the mothers of other children at the kindergarten.

Obviously, there was more going on there than simple trouble with Japanese; foreign women marry Japanese men and adjust to life here--the initial distant reception for both them and their children, the difficulties communicating--without stabbing anyone. You have to feel sorry for the parents of the dead children, of course, but I'm most sad for Taniguchi's own daughter.

If lack of earthquake safety in your house doesn't bother you, perhaps I could interest you in this bridge?

A construction company is being blamed for covering up shoddy construction work on an expressway bridge in Toyama Prefecture to pass a government inspection, The Yomiuri Shimbun learned Thursday.

Matsumoto Construction Co., headquartered in Tonami in the prefecture, constructed smaller-than-normal piles built to support two piers of the expressway bridge while preparing foundations for the four-pier elevated structure at Awara in Himi, also in the prefecture, in 2004.

In August of the same year, the company found the diameter of some piles was up to 10 percent short of the 120-centimeter standard set by the Construction and Transport Ministry.

To clear a ministry inspection confirming the construction work conformed to standards, Matsumoto Construction secretly cast concrete into each faulty pile's head--which remained above the ground and was examined in the official check--to make them appear up to the diameter standard.

...

As construction of the four piers has already been completed, the extent to which the piles fall short of minimum standards is impossible to confirm. The ministry's Hokuriku Regional Development Bureau, which has already excavated holes at the site to conduct sample checks on the piles, said the two piers were not in danger of collapse.

The bureau, however, has not yet carried out a similar check on a third pier to verify its strength. It plans to look into the matter as soon as possible, officials said.

Once again, I know this stuff happens everywhere--but it's exactly the sort of profit-driven hanky-panky on the part of private businesses that we were told for decades didn't happen in Japan because of the omnipresence of careful civil servants and everyone's prioritization of group benefits.

[Chuckle]:

The government is expected to reject an application by a dance club operator in Roppongi, Minato Ward, Tokyo, to make the district a government special zone to allow clubs to stay open all night.

It is expected to be rejected on the ground that the special designation would lead to a deterioration of public order.

...

In November, Velfarre asked the government to make Roppongi a special zone for structural reform and allow its clubs to be open all night like those in London and Paris. The company argued that the proposed easing of regulations would attract tourists to Roppongi, revitalizing the district.

However, the Metropolitan Police Department opposed the request, saying foreigners committed many crimes in that part of the capital [SRK rolls eyes], and an all-night club in an area full of drunk people would make Roppongi a hotbed of criminality.

Anyone who thinks something has to change for Roppongi to contribute to a deterioration of public order and become a hotbed of criminality has clearly never been there.

Let the lawsuits begin:

[A] business hotel operator filed a lawsuit Tuesday demanding 721 million yen ($6.15 million) from a consulting company and Aichi Prefecture over falsified strength reports that forced the hotel to close down.

...

Handa Denka Kogyo Co., an electric works company that operates the Centre One Hotel Handa in Handa, said the prefectural government failed to detect glaring flaws in Aneha's reports and gave its approval for the construction of the building.

Handa Denka also blamed Tokyo-based consultant company Sogo Keiei Kenkyujo (Soken), and its director, Takeshi Uchikawa, over their instructions on how to build and manage the business hotel.

The lawsuit, filed with the Nagoya District Court, is the first time in the widening Aneha scandal for a business hotel operator to hold administrative authorities responsible for the falsified reports.

"The prefectural government's fault is serious," the lawsuit said.

...

An official of the Aichi prefectural government denied the prefecture was responsible.

"Aneha's falsification was skilful and beyond our imagination. We did not commit any faults under the laws," the official said.

Possibly. Or possibly, the bureaucrats in Aichi Prefecture just lack imagination. Remember this gem from a few months ago? (No, I'm not calling my own post a gem; I'm referring to the cited Yomiuri article, which is no longer on-line):

The analysis was provided by a first-class architect asked by The Yomiuri Shimbun to evaluate the plans of Aneha, who has admitted falsifying structural strength certificates for 22 buildings in the Tokyo metropolitan area.

The expert said the structural data were an outright falsification, with various data combined to reduce material costs, and it was hard to imagine how the inspection agency involved failed to notice.

Concerning the structural integrity data for Sun Chuo Home No. 15, an apartment building in Funabashi, Chiba Prefecture, the architect said, "I had an uncomfortable feeling looking at it at first glance."

Those were in Chiba, not Aichi, but there seems little reason to believe that Aneha took extra care to cover his tracks outside Tokyo. He was quoted multiple times as saying that he didn't work too hard at being crafty.

Of course, that doesn't mean that the prefectural government actually is liable; if everyone down the line did all the rubber-stamping and paper pushing right, it may not be.

Okay, I'm willing to go after critics of Japan's whaling industry research program when they get opportunistic and start slinging around WWII analogies, but come on here:

The government wants the public to eat more whale meat to reduce the bloated stockpile and to prevent a rise in international criticism against Japan's "research whaling" program.

The excess stock stems from Japan's expanded catch of whales in the name of research, coupled with sluggish demand among consumers for the meat.

Fisheries Agency officials say the mounting stockpile could fuel anti-whaling nations' arguments that Japan should reduce the number of whales it hunts or terminate the whaling program altogether.

The Fisheries Agency, which does not want to cut back on its research whaling, will develop new sales channels and reduce prices to lift consumption of whale meat, the officials said.

"There are still a large number of consumers who want to eat whale meat," said an agency official. "If we only improve how to sell the product, the stock will rapidly decrease."

According to agency officials, whale meat is difficult to sell at major supermarket chains because those stores deal only with products of a certain quantity.

The whale meat supply, although growing, is still smaller than those of other marine products.

If Japan wants to argue that the IWC has been taken over by hard-core environmentalists who will find ways to keep the moratorium on commercial whaling in place even if whales overrun the planet, fine. That wouldn't be hard to believe. If it's going to exploit some loophole that allows whales to be culled for research, and do so in order to make a point by being perfectly upfront about the fact that it's hunting whales, also...well, not fine, perhaps, but possibly a gesture that makes a point that can't be made any other way.

However, the idea that it's Japanese consumers' job to eat more whale meat to cover the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries's ass when it overhunts is just nuts. If all those whales were necessary for research, then the fact that people aren't eating them may be kind of too bad, but it's incidental. If the idea is to keep the Japanese from being deprived of a traditional marine product, then it's clearly working, but there's no point in oversupply. And there's no reason Japan shouldn't take criticism for misusing a natural resource that isn't obtained within its own territory.

The proposal to elevate the Japan Defense Agency to ministry level will not be presented to the Diet during this session:

Within the government and the ruling coalition, there is a growing perception that it is necessary to conduct more extensive inquiries into the collusion scandal revolving around procurement at the Defense Facilities Administration Agency and to see the matter through to discussion in the Diet.

Prime Minister Jun'ichiro Koizumi made a statement about the bill to elevate the JDA to ministerial status at noon on 13 February: "We're cooperating in the LDP and the Komeito and want to keep an eye on the situation. It's not a discussion to have in haste or in a panic." He indicated that he is not adamant about submitting the bill during this Diet session. He was responding to a question from the press corp at the Prime Minister's residence. Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe also related at a morning press conference that "we want to continue to examine, as the government, how the collaboration between the ruling parties should be organized."

Defense certainly warrants a body at the highest level of government operations, but I can see the point that the last thing Japan needs is yet another ministry that engages in bid-rigging and revolving-door shenanigans.

The proposal to elevate the Japan Defense Agency to ministry level will not be presented to the Diet during this session:

Within the government and the ruling coalition, there is a growing perception that it is necessary to conduct more extensive inquiries into the collusion scandal revolving around procurement at the Defense Facilities Administration Agency and to see the matter through to discussion in the Diet.

Prime Minister Jun'ichiro Koizumi made a statement about the bill to elevate the JDA to ministerial status at noon on 13 February: "We're cooperating in the LDP and the Komeito and want to keep an eye on the situation. It's not a discussion to have in haste or in a panic." He indicated that he is not adamant about submitting the bill during this Diet session. He was responding to a question from the press corp at the Prime Minister's residence. Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe also related at a morning press conference that "we want to continue to examine, as the government, how the collaboration between the ruling parties should be organized."

Defense certainly warrants a body at the highest level of government operations, but I can see the point that the last thing Japan needs is yet another ministry that engages in bid-rigging and revolving-door shenanigans.

Discussion in the Diet is beginning over how to reform the health-care system. Japanese society, in case you've just emerged from two decades in a cave and haven't seen this topic beaten to death yet, is aging. The cost structures of the social welfare programs need to be changed, but as with everything else, there are a lot of people who make out well by the current system and will resist changing it. Many of them are powerful middle-aged bureaucrats who are themselves approaching old age rapidly.

The [Koizumi] government, in a cabinet session on the morning of 10 February, approved a health care system reform bill the primary goal of which is to hold down health care costs, which have been increasing as society ages. The bill will be submitted to the Diet within the day. The bill incorporates such proposals as a phased-in increase, to begin in October, in the health care fees paid by the elderly and the restructuring of [national] health insurance.

If the bill is enacted, cash register payments [that is, the amount you pay on the way out of the doctor's office, assessed as a percentage of the total tab] for high-income persons of at least 70 years of age will increase. You're designated high-income if your annual household income is over about US $55000. Of course, the bill doesn't seem to address systemic inefficiencies that encourage over-subscription--notably the practice of drawing out treatment for a relatively simple problem over several visits, after the fashion of a novel published serially. Or the effects of overweening bureaucracy.

A case of earthquake resistance fakery not perpetrated by Aneha (story so far as I've kept track) has surfaced:

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport disclosed on 8 February that it had confirmed a case of fraud related to structural calculations for three apartment complexes in Fukuoka City; the calculations had been contracted out to a design firm that was not part of Aneha Architecture and Design. The firm in question is Something (Fukuoka Prefecture; closed for business in 2002), and the construction firm for all affected buildings was Kimura Construction (Yashiro City, Kumamoto Prefecture; now in bankruptcy proceedings). This is the first case of such fraud that has come to light that did not involve former first-class architect Hideji Aneha.

*******

Princess Kiko, the wife of the current Emperor and Empress's second son Fumihito, is pregnant with her third child. The Nikkei seems to think it newsworthy that the British press is going bananas over the news--maybe there's some sort of constitutional monarchy kinship thing going here? Anyway, the news feeds into the controversy over possible female succession that's been percolating here:

News of a new member of the imperial family comes as the government is moving to revise the Imperial House Law to allow females and their descendants to ascend the Chrysanthemum throne.

However, conservative Diet members, especially those in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, oppose Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's stated intention to pass the revision during the current Diet session.

No boy has been born in the imperial family since Fumihito in 1965.

If the emperor's next grandchild is a boy, he would be third in line to the throne under the current Imperial House Law.

The English Asahi has another article specifically about the move to change the rules of successsion here. Crown Prince Naruhito and Crown Princess Masako, his much put-upon wife, have managed to produce a daughter, but she's ineligible to become empress.

*******

I was hoping there would be something deliciously inflammatory to report from the Japan-DPRK summit this week. (Well, stopping short of "We're sending missiles to Tokyo, Insular Devils!") No such luck. The talks ended today. The result? Negotiations must continue. Oh, okay:

Japan and North Korea concluded their five-day schedule of talks on 8 February with a general meeting at a hotel in Beijing. Japan once again conveyed that its fundamental approach is that "until the issues of the 1970s abductions of Japanese citizens and of the DPRK's nuclear program and long-range missiles are resolved, there will be no normalization of relations." There was no progress in concrete terms. Both parties affirmed that parallel talks will continue on three major themes: normalization of relations, Japanese abductees, and North Korea's nuclear and missile programs.

Japan doubts the DPRK's sincerity. The DPRK returns the compliment.

*******

As always, they may (or may not) be contemplating increasing the consumption tax (or at least changing it in what might possibly be deemed a non-negative, non-zero direction). Yeah, I know--blah, blah, blah. What's semi-interesting is that the DPJ seems to have wheeled Katsuya Okada out of the morgue to comment:

The Prime Minister indicated that he is of the opinion that continuing reforms will be necessary even after [current] goals will have been achieved, stating, "It cannot be said that once the primary balance is in the black, financial restructuring is finished." Okada proposed corrections, stating, "We must [first] think about what our next goals will be," and ending with, "Those in positions of authority at that point in time will have to think about them."

That part of the back-and-forth, while not very interesting in and of itself, is important because Koizumi has made it clear that he expects his followers (called the "Post-Koizumi" government, in what has become a tediously over-repeated locution) to continue his program of reforms, by implication, to his liking. No one, either within the ruling coalition or in the opposition, is certain right now how well Koizumi will actually be able to use his present power to exert influence on future administrations.

A case of earthquake resistance fakery not perpetrated by Aneha (story so far as I've kept track) has surfaced:

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport disclosed on 8 February that it had confirmed a case of fraud related to structural calculations for three apartment complexes in Fukuoka City; the calculations had been contracted out to a design firm that was not part of Aneha Architecture and Design. The firm in question is Something (Fukuoka Prefecture; closed for business in 2002), and the construction firm for all affected buildings was Kimura Construction (Yashiro City, Kumamoto Prefecture; now in bankruptcy proceedings). This is the first case of such fraud that has come to light that did not involve former first-class architect Hideji Aneha.

*******

Princess Kiko, the wife of the current Emperor and Empress's second son Fumihito, is pregnant with her third child. The Nikkei seems to think it newsworthy that the British press is going bananas over the news--maybe there's some sort of constitutional monarchy kinship thing going here? Anyway, the news feeds into the controversy over possible female succession that's been percolating here:

News of a new member of the imperial family comes as the government is moving to revise the Imperial House Law to allow females and their descendants to ascend the Chrysanthemum throne.

However, conservative Diet members, especially those in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, oppose Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's stated intention to pass the revision during the current Diet session.

No boy has been born in the imperial family since Fumihito in 1965.

If the emperor's next grandchild is a boy, he would be third in line to the throne under the current Imperial House Law.

The English Asahi has another article specifically about the move to change the rules of successsion here. Crown Prince Naruhito and Crown Princess Masako, his much put-upon wife, have managed to produce a daughter, but she's ineligible to become empress.

*******

I was hoping there would be something deliciously inflammatory to report from the Japan-DPRK summit this week. (Well, stopping short of "We're sending missiles to Tokyo, Insular Devils!") No such luck. The talks ended today. The result? Negotiations must continue. Oh, okay:

Japan and North Korea concluded their five-day schedule of talks on 8 February with a general meeting at a hotel in Beijing. Japan once again conveyed that its fundamental approach is that "until the issues of the 1970s abductions of Japanese citizens and of the DPRK's nuclear program and long-range missiles are resolved, there will be no normalization of relations." There was no progress in concrete terms. Both parties affirmed that parallel talks will continue on three major themes: normalization of relations, Japanese abductees, and North Korea's nuclear and missile programs.

Japan doubts the DPRK's sincerity. The DPRK returns the compliment.

*******

As always, they may (or may not) be contemplating increasing the consumption tax (or at least changing it in what might possibly be deemed a non-negative, non-zero direction). Yeah, I know--blah, blah, blah. What's semi-interesting is that the DPJ seems to have wheeled Katsuya Okada out of the morgue to comment:

The Prime Minister indicated that he is of the opinion that continuing reforms will be necessary even after [current] goals will have been achieved, stating, "It cannot be said that once the primary balance is in the black, financial restructuring is finished." Okada proposed corrections, stating, "We must [first] think about what our next goals will be," and ending with, "Those in positions of authority at that point in time will have to think about them."

That part of the back-and-forth, while not very interesting in and of itself, is important because Koizumi has made it clear that he expects his followers (called the "Post-Koizumi" government, in what has become a tediously over-repeated locution) to continue his program of reforms, by implication, to his liking. No one, either within the ruling coalition or in the opposition, is certain right now how well Koizumi will actually be able to use his present power to exert influence on future administrations.

While you're on your way to the Ginza....

US research firm Risk Management Solutions (RMS) has compiled a report that predicts Japan could suffer large-scale damage, including the deaths of possibly around 290,000 people, in the event of a major terrorist attack using a compact bomb in downtown Tokyo.

The terrorist bombing in the projected scenario uses a small military nuclear device obtained on the black market from the former Soviet Union by a terrorist organization and is detonated around noon in the city center. The destructive power of the bomb is assumed to be about one third that unleashed by the A-bombing of Hiroshima. It is projected there would be 290,000 immediate deaths and up to 1,690,000 further casualties.

The probability that large-scale terrorism employing a weapon of mass destruction will occur in Japan within the next year is low, at 0.4%; however, the report cautions, "The risk cannot be ignored altogether."

In the event of a major epidemic of a particularly virulent new strain of influenza, the report also predicts that 24,000,000 people could be infected and 500,000 could die even if the government responded rapidly. It indicated that total insurance premiums would reach US $58,000,000,000 (around ¥6,700,000,000,000), and the economic losses and damage in human terms would be even greater than those from a downtown terrorist attack.

Wow. Do you think this way of thinking could somehow be made to catch on elsewhere?

"We can only provide information on how to lead a healthy life," Health Ministry official Shigefumi Nakano said Friday, referring to a report on the ministry's Web site. "The rest is up to the individual."

There's a concept, huh? The context is that the Japanese are failing to meet health and fitness targets set by the Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare.

The ministry's 10-year plan also measures awareness about the health impact of activities such as smoking and alcohol consumption.

While Japanese are becoming more conscious about how lifestyle affects health, many still do not get enough exercise, the ministry report said.

Of course, Japan is a rich society, so people are taking in an increasing number of calories that are for pleasure rather than subsistence. Partially because everything is so expensive and partially because dainty portions are valued culturally (well, everywhere except ramen shops), you tend not to be served the great mountains of french fries or chocolate cake that you would be in the States, but it's not hard to believe that people are getting somewhat fatter and lazier. That said, there's no shortage of nutritional information available. The food labeling here is as good as it is in the States. And Japan has the same magazine articles, news and talk show segments, and advertisements extolling the benefits of fish and whole grains and green leafy vegetables that you'd see elsewhere in the First World, too.

Apparently, 2004 was a good year for bid rigging:

It now appears that every major civil engineering and construction project commissioned by the DFAA in fiscal 2004 was tarnished by bid-rigging, according to sources close to an investigation by Tokyo prosecutors.

Projects that were believed rigged include the relocation of a runway at the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni in Yamaguchi Prefecture as well as quay and bank protection work at the U.S. Navy's Fleet Activities Sasebo and Yokose Fuel Terminal, both in Nagasaki Prefecture. Revelations about Iwakuni emerged Thursday.

...

Of particular interest to prosecutors is a retired DFAA official who held the post of technical councilor, the third-highest job in the agency, an arm of the Defense Agency that its chief has pledged to dissolve.

The construction project in Sasebo was contracted for 4.032 billion yen, while work on the Iwakuni project in fiscal 2004 cost 3.517 billion yen.

The Sasebo project was the most expensive commissioned by the Fukuoka Defense Facilities Administration Bureau in fiscal 2004.

The joint venture that won the project was headed by Penta Ocean Construction Co. and the bid price was 99.28 percent of what the agency was willing to spend. [Incompetents! They couldn't find a way to wring out the other 0.72%?--SRK]

The project at the Yokose Fuel Terminal cost about 1.575 billion yen and the contract was won by a joint venture led by Toa Corp. The bid price was 97.76 percent of what the agency had earmarked.

Experts said such high percentages are unheard of when bidding is open to all.

Three sitting or former DFAA high officials were arrested last week, but of course, you don't get dirty doings of this magnitude without help from another post-War institution: the revolving door, known in Japanese as 天下り (ama-kudari: lit., "descent from the heavens [of powerful government work into a private-sector position in which one can exploit one's accrued connections]").

Retired DFAA bureaucrats also played key coordinating roles in deciding which joint ventures got contracts.

Sources close to the investigation said a retired technical councilor who moved to an executive position at a construction company was a key individual in the bid-rigging for the Iwakuni project.

The individual, whose name was withheld, served as head of the DFAA's Construction Department as well as technical councilor from the 1980s until the 1990s.

A textbook case of amakudari at work.

The Diplomacy and Defense Committee of the House of Councillors is moving on JDA chief Fukujiro Nukaga's recommendation that the DFAA be disbanded:

On the morning of 3 February, the upper house Diplomacy and Defense Committee opened an intensive discussion related to the scandal over bid-rigging by the Defense Facilities Administration Agency.

...

By way of apology, Nukaga stated, "The form this conduct has taken is a betrayal of the citizenry; we are all truly and utterly ashamed." Concerning his own responsibility, he said, "The mission I have been given as the one with policy jurisdiction is to create a new system that the public can trust," emphasizing that while he accepts responsibility he has no thought of resigning.

The idea is to fold DFAA operations back into the JDA in the budget proposal for 2007 to be submitted this summer.

To me, the Livedoor scandal isn't all that sexy (and no, it's not just because of the notable lack of physical comeliness of the chief villain of the piece), but this adds a kind of racy-spy-novel element:

Takafumi Horie (33), former president of the Livedoor Group and a suspect in its violation of the Securities and Exchange Law, and multiple other senior managers were revealed on 1 January by another party in the scandal to have put money into and maintained accounts under assumed names in Hong Kong. Nagaya Nakamura (38), former president of the group's investment subsidiary Livedoor Finance, apparently gave instructions to the financial institutions' account managers. Thus the identity of one part of Livedoor's money laundering operation has come to the surface.

Okay, fine, a Swiss bank account would have been sexier. Maybe if we could have brought in a Swedish air hostess of icy demeanor under police interrogation, that would have been nice, too. Given the sheer appalling arrogance that's coming to light and the egregious hot-guy deficit involved, though, the Hong Kong connection at least adds some savory intrigue.

The corruption scandal at the JDA (the Japan Defense Agency this time, not the Japan Dental Association--keep those scandals straight!) is coming to a head:

Japan Defense Agency chief Fukushiro Nukaga announced on a TBS television program the morning of 1 February that he was planning to dissolve the Defense Facilities Administration Agency because of collusion scandals revolving around its procurement and construction practices. The new approach will be to review the DFAA's organizational structure with an eye for its integration with the [rest of] the JDA.

Nukaga stated, "The plan is to dissolve the body and make suitable adjustments. Given the extent of the goings-on, it has become clear that collusion is embedded in the structure of the organization. A dissolution is what the public expects, furthermore, it's the decision I want to make, too."

The JDA stuff has ranged from inflated aircraft repair/parts procurement costs to cagily jiggering payments for use of facilities in Okinawa to illegal tracking of personal information, but the most recent flap is over bid rigging for climate control installation and construction projects. At this late date, no one pretends to be too shocked at revelations of collusion. Actually getting rid of an entity that's not doing it's job, however, is a pretty novel proposition. It didn't help much in the Great Ministerial Chinese Fire Drill of 2001, but if Nukaga--who can be wonderfully stubborn when he wants to be--is serious, the administrative structure for Japan's defense could really see meaningful streamlining. Not a moment too soon, either.

The corruption scandal at the JDA (the Japan Defense Agency this time, not the Japan Dental Association--keep those scandals straight!) is coming to a head:

Japan Defense Agency chief Fukushiro Nukaga announced on a TBS television program the morning of 1 February that he was planning to dissolve the Defense Facilities Administration Agency because of collusion scandals revolving around its procurement and construction practices. The new approach will be to review the DFAA's organizational structure with an eye for its integration with the [rest of] the JDA.

Nukaga stated, "The plan is to dissolve the body and make suitable adjustments. Given the extent of the goings-on, it has become clear that collusion is embedded in the structure of the organization. A dissolution is what the public expects, furthermore, it's the decision I want to make, too."

The JDA stuff has ranged from inflated aircraft repair/parts procurement costs to cagily jiggering payments for use of facilities in Okinawa to illegal tracking of personal information, but the most recent flap is over bid rigging for climate control installation and construction projects. At this late date, no one pretends to be too shocked at revelations of collusion. Actually getting rid of an entity that's not doing it's job, however, is a pretty novel proposition. It didn't help much in the Great Ministerial Chinese Fire Drill of 2001, but if Nukaga--who can be wonderfully stubborn when he wants to be--is serious, the administrative structure for Japan's defense could really see meaningful streamlining. Not a moment too soon, either.