Seeking Mutual Benefit

The summit meeting concluded based on mutual benefits. Prime Ministers of Japan and Australia concurred with making bilateral economic partnership agreement starting next year. Both leaders sought maximum benefit with minimum sacrifice. While the deal was a gospel for Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, in his ailing diplomacy, it is unclear whether it works for fundamental problem related to the United States, China or South Korea.

In the meeting, Japan accepted two-way reduction of tariff on beef. Tariff on frozen beef, used for processed foods like beef bowls, will eventually be reduced from 38.5% to 19.5% eighteen years later and that on refrigerated beef for family use will be lowered to 23.5% through fifteen years. The deal included more import of cheese, protecting rice by categorizing as an exception of trade liberation.

The deal was attractive for the Australians. Although Australia gave in with abolition of tariff on cars from Japan, it could obtain good access to the beef market in Japan faster than U.S. The biggest rival for Aussie beef in Japan has been U.S. beef. After Japan opened its market to U.S. beef thirty months old or younger last year, share of Aussie beef has been eroded. As a highly agricultural economy, Australia preferred beef market in sacrifice of car industry, which has already been incompetent against Japanese cars.

Ranchers in Japan, mainly dairy producers, became furious about the deal. They sell male cattle, which does not yield milk, as their side business. Cheap beef from Australia will be a great threat for them. However, Aussie beef does not compete with wagyu in Japan in terms of quality and price. Ordinary consumers are welcoming to have cheap beef in super markets. The government of Japan realizes that the damage is not going to be too big.

The Japanese government is persuading dairy ranchers with a reasoning of taking advantage in the negotiation with U.S. over trans-Pacific partnership. Standing off with U.S., which insists on elimination of tariffs on beef, pork and other agricultural products, Japan is making the EPA with Australia a bargaining chip to extract compromise from U.S. But, it is obvious that ranchers are exploited by both deals with Australia and America, while exporters and consumers are delighted.

It is fair to say, anyway, that the deal made a beautiful touchdown for Abe in his diplomacy. But, different from relation with Australia, Japan and U.S. do not have much card on their negotiation. Settling down is not so easy. For Australia, China is a bigger market than Japan and South Korea is another big buyer of Aussie beef. Quarrels between Japan and those two big Asian markets are not acceptable.

Far-fetched Interpretation of Court Decision

The administration led by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe seems to have determined to make a breakthrough in reinterpretation of Article IX of the Constitution of Japan to make exercising collective self-defense right possible by stretched interpretation of old decision of the Supreme Court, which admitted right of self-defense. Lawmakers of Liberal Democratic Party think that is the only way to carry on with their own lives. But their reasoning fundamentally makes no sense.

Receiving request of quick authorization, LDP embarked on discussion about reinterpretation of the Constitution. Vice-President of LDP, Masahiko Komura, insisted in the first meeting that collective self-defense right had been confirmed by a decision of the Supreme Court in 1959. “That was the one and only decision the Supreme Court referred to self-defense right,” told Komura. He meant that the decision generally admitted minimum exercise of self-defense right, a phrase in the Constitution, and the right included collective self-defense right.

The decision, commonly called Sunagawa Decision, was made on a case in which protesters were arrested with charge of trespassing property of United States Force in western Tokyo. Overturning the first decision of Tokyo Regional Court that found defendants were not guilty, because allowing U.S. bases in Japan was against the Constitution, the Supreme Court decided that U.S. bases were not unconstitutional, because the Constitution did not deny the right of self-defense inherited to every sovereign country.

Delighted was LDP lawmakers who were skeptical about Abe’s unilateral leadership on some policies without guts of maintaining political debate against their leaders. “I could understand Komura’s explanation,” or “Leaving a few talking point, though, his argument was acceptable,” were responses of most LDP lawmakers.

They all ignored a fundamental fact that the Government of Japan had reiterated the interpretation that Japan could not exercise collective self-defense right even after the Supreme Court decision. The Supreme Court has not made any judicial review on it. Komura’s reasoning completely ignored that history. This was not a reinterpretation for security, but for reinterpretation.

United States are welcoming this far-fetched discussion to renew bilateral guideline for security cooperation this fall. It may leave a great regret on bilateral alliance, if both government allow such a distorted reasoning of the Constitution. Urging hasted reinterpretation can turn entire Japan into anti-American Okinawa. If U.S. needs a help of Japan for security in Northeast Asia, Japan can do it under current interpretation, as New Komeito argues.

Lost in Whale Dispute

Japanese people in their age of mid-forties or older may have a sort of nostalgia in dark brown meat of whale. When beef was called diamond of meat, whale was one of the typical protein providers for the Japanese. As diversity of foods increased, they no longer had a reason to kill a number of whales. Eating whale is getting to be an old cultural heritage in this nation living on the sea.

International Court of Justice judged that whaling by the Japanese in Antarctic Sea could not be regarded as for scientific purpose and ordered suspension. While the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling admitted whaling for research, Australia appealed that Japanese whaling had been for commercial purpose. The decision of the court denounced Japan as not seeking alternative method to killing. Japan will be ousted from Antarctic Sea, if it does not find any alternative way of whaling.

Diplomatic section of Japanese government has been optimistic on the trial. While International Whaling Commission gives Japan quota up to 1035 whales a year, Japan only captured 100 to 200 as a result of obstruction of organizations for whale protection. The government officials were confident that their argument for necessity of researching how whales were increased was persuasive. However, the court decided that the quota had been too much.

Basically, the point was not violation of whale treaty, but real purpose of whaling. Everybody who knows a little about preference of whale meat of the Japanese can realize how whaling would be profitable in Japan. In the restaurants and super markets, whale meat is consumed with quite high price. Moreover, while Japan’s research plan submitted to IWC was researching three kinds of whales, it overwhelmingly captured only one kind. Research whaling in Antarctic Sea has actually been nothing but business.

News organizations reported disappointments of the Japanese people. Some cities along Pacific coast are traditionally known as whaling bases. They worried about elimination of their business. Some TV reported voices of customers of whale meat restaurants. “Eating whale is traditional culture of Japan. It should not be denied by foreign nations,” is a common argument of whale meat fans.

But, with fewer opportunities of having whale on dishes, it is hard to say that eating whale is Japanese culture. No one in Japan needs to have whale everyday. Most Japanese will not be very frustrated with one whale dish in a few years. Appropriate supply for reduced demand for whale is fundamental. If they want more, they should build whale ranches in the sea. Why not?

Local Government Protests

This is the first judicial attempt of local government to protest national energy policy. The City of Hakodate, with population of two hundred and seventy thousands, sued national government and J Power Company on Thursday demanding suspension of building new nuclear power plant within the perimeter of 30 kilometers. The city simply wanted their opinion to be heard.

Located in the most southern point of Hokkaido Island, Hakodate is afraid of being affected by possible accident in Oma Nuclear Power Plant, which construction started in the most northern part of Honshu Island in 2008. Although Hakodate and Oma is separated by Tsugaru Strait, the distance between them has 27 kilometers. Nevertheless, Hakodate has no power to deny the construction, while local government with the plant exists has it. In other words, J Power cannot build the plant without allowance of Aomori Prefectural government and Oma Town, while it does not need to get allowance from Hakodate City and Hokkaido Prefectural government.

Mayor of Hakodate, Toshiki Kudo, required agreement of local government for constructing new nuclear power plant within thirty kilometers, because it was apparent that those cities and towns would be severely affected by unexpected accident. “I have the right to protect citizens’ lives and maintain local government to be responsible for supporting them,” he told. It is possible that all residents in Hakodate will have to evacuate, if Oma Nuclear Power Plant has severe accident. City Assembly of Hakodate unanimously passed a resolution supporting the lawsuit.

Behind the frustration of local government, there is unilateral decision of the power company and the national government to build up new reactors. After the accident in First Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant, the government of Japan has not decided to build new reactors. However, it determined that reactors in ongoing construction should be regarded as “existing nuclear plant.” It is obvious that constructing plant not in operation is not an existing plant. As long as the reasoning was not based on assessment of safety, the determination made no sense.

The lawsuit cast a great question on forcible process of resuming nuclear reactors in Japan, in spite of an accident in a nuclear plant caused evacuation of one hundred and sixty thousands of residents. People in the nuclear village in Japan are too proud of themselves as national elites for securing energy to seriously think about alternative choices of renewable energy. This is a traditional encirclement of existing interest for energy elites in a country with scarce resources.

Destiny of Warning

Chile is one of the well-known wine producers in the world. In Japan, the name is also common as a tsunami producer. The great earthquake with strength of M8.2 in offshore Chile on Tuesday brought Japan a broad warning. After tsunami reached Japan coast, news reports kept on providing live footage from devastated area of the great disaster three years ago.

The quake occurred under the sea eighty miles from the coast of northern Chile. It at least caused six deaths, thousands of building collapses and a number of evacuations. Tsunami with the height of six feet washed some cities on the coast. From there, tsunami wave spread to entire Pacific Ocean.

Big earthquakes in Chile brought devastations in Japan, located thousands of miles away. In 1960, a quake sent great tsunamis to Japan, causing 142 deaths and missing, 855 injured and 46,000 of collapse of houses. Tsunami originated along Pacific coast of South America is analyzed that it is concentrated around Japan, after it once spread all around Pacific Rim.

Japan Meteorological Agency delivered early warning on Wednesday that the tsunami from Chile might be reaching Japan early Thursday morning. Cities facing Pacific Ocean in Tohoku and Hokkaido region encouraged evacuation from seaside area, and many local government prepared evacuation place in public buildings. Governments tried to make sure that tsunami may arrive many times and its height may vary according to the shape of coastline.

The first wave was measured in Kuji city, Iwate, few minutes after 7 a.m. Thursday morning. News casters warned TV watchers to evacuate from coast line and never return until tsunami leaves. Since tsunami travelled thousands of miles, reaching time and size of waves were not accurately calculated. Actually, it reached Japan three hours later than prediction and the size was as low as a foot, significantly smaller than expectation. There was no report that any nuclear power plant was affected by it, except temporary intermission of efforts of dismantling First Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant.

Nevertheless, most people were satisfied with those overestimations, because memory of devastation was too fresh. Tsunami is a kind of disaster, which can correctly be understood only when it appeared. After the land along Pacific coast sank by the great earthquake, coastal area became more vulnerable to great waves. The residents must be highly careful about tsunami since then. The Japanese have to understand that frequent warning of earthquake and tsunami is the destiny of the nation.

Scientifically Thoughtless Attribution Project

“RIKEN is Japan’s largest and most comprehensive research organization for basic and applied science and a world leader in a diverse array of scientific disciplines.” That is what a currently suspected research organization says about itself on its webpage.

RIKEN on Tuesday officially announced the result of its internal investigation that there were fabrication and manipulation of data in the thesis about stimulus-triggered acquisition of pluripotency (STAP) cell, based on the study conducted by a young female scientist, Haruko Obokata. Although Obokata disputed against the instant conclusion of RIKEN, President of RIKEN, Ryoji Noyori, a Nobel Prize Laureate on chemistry in 2001, dismissed it, saying “She must have conviction of her findings.”

RIKEN concluded that one photograph of a tissue created from STAP cell was fabrication and a dougted picture on analysis of genes was manipulation, the inappropriate study which could not be attributed only to immatureness of a scientist. Noyori apologized to the public and determined the thesis to be false. He required Obokarta and her co-authors to take full responsibility and indicated possible penalty on them.

Obokata strongly opposed to the conclusion through her agent. She explained that “fabrication” was a simple mistake and it had been her who firstly found and correct it. On manipulation of picture, she reasoned it as for presenting more obvious evidence and having nothing to do with result of the experiment. She still insisted on the existence of STAP cell and even RIKEN did not deny it. The organization will continue study on it for a year.

As long as RIKEN says nothing about existence of STAP, the study itself has not died. It is possible that RIKEN tried to dodge this barrage against the study, which would overturn fundamental basis of biology, by attributing everything to one young scientist. RIKEN had been on the process of registration as a special national research and development organization. To maintain credibility and survive this hardship, the organization might have chosen a way to sacrifice her. There is no scientific motivation, which deliberately seeks truth, in that solution.

Test for RIKEN is not becoming new organization, but whether it will be able to find a truth through one-year investigation. A colleague of Obokata said that he had data that could not be explained without existence of STAP cell. RIKEN should not escape from its true job.

Enthusiasm on Taxation

As appeared on pages of history books, taxation often caused war. Civil wars of Britain in seventeenth century or American Revolution was triggered by heavy tax from oppressive government. However, response of Japanese people to the higher consumption tax rate started Tuesday was not anger, but “inevitable.” The explanation of the government to its citizens looks successful so far.

Media is accomplices of the government on consumption tax. TV and newspapers were enthusiastic in reporting consumers’ voices. Most of them focused on what was happening in grocery stores with 24 hours operation. With efforts for introducing new tax-included prices, those stores were well-prepared in shifting the prices just on twelve o’clock of April 1^st. Appliance stores marked big sales sixty percent more than ordinary level last weekend. Goods with high price, including refrigerators, coolers or computers, were some of the top sellers. Commuters made long lines in front of station offices for purchasing round trip tickets for months.

While most consumers recognized the higher tax inevitable, they do not realize that new tax will not be spent for its original purpose. Although all the increased tax money should be used for social security, only ten percent will be spent for improving social security. The rest will be appropriated to deficit in the pension budget and maintenance of social security system. The consumers cannot expect apparent improvement in social service of the government. Moreover, medical payment for agers of 70 to 74 and pension fee for all will be increased from April.

In spite of new burden to all families, balance of national budget will not be change. Cumulative deficit will not be reduced, since the leading parties still insist on Keynesian economics with heavy dependence on infrastructure. Deficit being handed over to future generation is still getting increase. If Japanese people think this tax hike necessary, they will be as obedient as a herd of sheep.

Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, is worrying about the impact of backlash of current positive purchase of consumers. He required the nation to keep optimistic mind. It is not their mind, but your mind, Mr. Prime Minister. Artificial commodity price hike led by Abe and the Bank of Japan will put further burden on the people. Its benefit is going to exporters, because the result of policy is mainly the cheap yen and high-priced dollar. Abenomics has not reached its goal.

The government is planning further consumption tax rate, from 8% to 10% in October 2015. If the people still think that inevitable, they will never be able to escape from economic oppression of the government.