Japanese Politics

[Verso Sciolto]

Manga Creator Receives Backed Overtime Pay From Years as Assistant - ANN, posted on 2018-02-03 18:45 EST by Jennifer Sherman.

The report on ANN includes translations of statements attributed to those involved. Excerpt from the article:

"Additionally, Kakuishi hopes that manga creators will strive more to properly regulate the hours that their staff work. He emphasized that creators need to pay assistants for overtime hours or make sure that they do not work overtime. Furthermore, Kakuishi said that publishers need to make sure that the manuscript payments they give creators are sufficient to cover the costs for creators to have several assistants. He believes publishers need to allow for the cost of paying assistants if the production schedule requires creators to have staff in order to complete work on time.

Kakuishi said that, as part of the reaction to his situation, he has heard that some workplaces do offer overtime pay. However, he wonders if assistants are receiving proper overtime as mandated by law. He maintained that creators must ensure that they are abiding by Japan's Labor Standards Act.

While Kakuishi appears satisfied with the overtime compensation he ultimately received, he has reiterated in all his related blog posts that financial gain was not his only motive. Kakuishi aims to spread awareness about the working conditions of assistants and raise their relatively low status in the manga industry. He hopes his effort will contribute to improvements in their working environments and encourage manga creators and publisher to reevaluate their systems."

[Verso Sciolto]

Abe turns ire on Asahi for story on planned Moritomo school - The Asahi Shimbun, February 6, 2018 at 18:35 JST.

In recent weeks, Finance Ministry officials have acknowledged that documents do exist related to the negotiations over state-owned land to Moritomo Gakuen.

[SeijiSensei]

The Complex Relationship between Japan and South Korea

The idea of defending South Korea isn’t very popular in Japan, especially among people who identify as liberal pacifists. Some Japanese are wary of seeing their country dragged into someone else’s war or cannot fathom having to sacrifice for South Koreans who keep criticizing Japan for its historical record.

Some South Koreans, for their part, are uncomfortable about receiving security support from a government that once colonized them. Many South Korean journalists and academics I have spoken to over the years gladly acknowledge the importance of America’s security commitment, but regard any such contribution by Japan as suspect — or even, as one legislator has said, as an attempt to “seize hegemony in East Asia.”

But matters are different at the highest official levels, even since Mr. Moon became president in May. At first he seemed to adopt a harder position on Japan than his predecessor, notably by criticizing the agreement that she and Mr. Abe reached in 2015 in hopes of settling the comfort women issue. Yet the Moon administration has since announced that it would not try to renegotiate the treaty. Realpolitik, again. The memory of past belligerence recedes in the face of fresh threats.

Indeed. After meeting with Mr. Moon in Pyeongchang on Friday, Mr. Abe is said to have told reporters, “North Korea must recognize that the strong ties between Japan, the United States and South Korea will never waver.”

[SeijiSensei]

The Next Japanese PM?

Last fall, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe won a big election victory that put him on track to become the country’s longest-serving leader in modern times. Mr. Abe is 63 years old and has indicated he has no imminent plans to retire: He wants to stay in office at least through the Tokyo Olympics in 2020, and the governing Liberal Democratic Party changed its rules last year to allow Mr. Abe to do so.

But a new generation of politicians is already positioning itself to succeed him. Mr. Kono, 55, is one of the most intriguing, bringing a maverick streak to Japan’s usually stodgy political world.

But he will face big challenges. An American-educated political blue blood and a liberal-leaning nonconformist within the conservative governing party, he is trying to position himself as a contender for the country’s top office while still departing from the party’s right wing on issues like nuclear power and immigration.

[Toukairin]

If Kono can make it, I think we would see quite a breath of fresh air in Japan. This country needs a true liberal touch for a change, and I think it's ready.

[DracoS]

How long Abe been in power for btw?

[Verso Sciolto]

"Official in charge of murky land sale apparently commits suicide" - March 9, 2018 (Mainichi Japan)

OSAKA (Kyodo) -- A government official involved in a state-owned land sale to a school operator in Osaka at the center of favoritism allegations leveled at Prime Minister Shinzo Abe died recently in an apparent suicide, investigative sources said Friday.

"Tax agency chief Sagawa to resign over murky land sale: gov't source" - March 9, 2018 (Mainichi Japan)

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- National Tax Agency head Nobuhisa Sagawa has decided to step down to take responsibility over the controversy linked to a state-owned land sale, a government source said Friday. The heavily discounted land deal in Osaka involving a school operator at the center of favoritism allegations against Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has recently drawn renewed criticism following a report that relevant Finance Ministry documents were falsified.

[Verso Sciolto]

"Entire section of Moritomo file deleted before submittal to Diet" - March 9, 2018 (The Asahi Shimbun)

An entire section providing background to a dubious sale of state-owned land as well as wording about negotiations were deleted from a document submitted to lawmakers, The Asahi Shimbun has found.

The original document was compiled in 2016, when the Finance Ministry’s Kinki Local Finance Bureau signed a contract with school operator Moritomo Gakuen for the sale of the land in Toyonaka, Osaka Prefecture.

[Verso Sciolto]

森友文書
財務省、書き換え認める方針 - March 10, 2018 (The Asahi Shimbun)

[Verso Sciolto]

Name of Japan PM's wife removed from land sale documents - Kyodo

- Reuters World News March 12, 2018 / 11:28 AM / Updated 10 Minutes ago

[...]Earlier on Monday, the Ministry of Finance acknowledged that documents related to the sale had been altered, as pressure mounts on Abe and his close ally Finance Minister Taro Aso over the case.

[Key Board]

Abe said that he would resign if someone proved that he benefited from the real estate deals
So now Japanese people are protesting outside of Abe's estate and demanding this resignation

the tag is #regaindemocracyjp

[SeijiSensei]

Japan fears being left behind on US-DPRK talks

As recently as last fall, it was Seoul that appeared sidelined by Washington in its approach to North Korea, as President Trump made fiery threats and accused South Korea of “appeasement” for advocating dialogue. Shinzo Abe, Japan’s prime minister, was Mr. Trump’s closest friend among world leaders.

But now Japan, which has hewed closely to the hard-line American posture toward North Korea, is scrambling to remain diplomatically relevant as Mr. Trump moderates his tone in preparation for a possible meeting with the North’s leader, Kim Jong-un, and South Korea takes the lead in brokering talks.

PM Abe is learning what those of us living here in the US have known all along - Trump is often untruthful and most definitely unreliable.

[Toukairin]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

Japan fears being left behind on US-DPRK talks

PM Abe is learning what those of us living here in the US have known all along - Trump is often untruthful and most definitely unreliable.

Or as Colin Sullivan called Billy Costigan over the phone in The Departed, Trump is a two-faced *expletive*.

[Verso Sciolto]

"In Japan, Voters Are Wary of Mothers in Public Office" - NYT By Yuri Nagano, March 7, 2018.

"Japan Wants More Women in Construction. Pink Toilets May Not Be Helping." - NYT By Mari Saito, March 8, 2018.

Via: "[Links] 7-13 March 2018: Women in construction, Liz and the Blue Bird, and Ikuhara anime" - Anime Feminist, March 13, 2018.

[Verso Sciolto]

Abe's first time visit to Etajima 安倍総理　海上自衛隊の幹部候補生学校を訪問 TV Asahi News (2018/03/24 16:03)

[SeijiSensei]

Finance Ministry Tried To Cover-Up Abe Akie's Problematic Land Deal

Japan's Finance Ministry proposed crafting a cover story with a school operator at the heart of a political scandal to justify a discount in the price of public land sold to the school, a ministry official said on Monday.

The admission is likely to increase opposition parties' calls for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to resign over the scandal involving the sale of state-owned land to school operator Moritomo Gakuen, which had ties to Abe's wife.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-j...-idUSKBN1HG06O

[Verso Sciolto]

“Japanese finance minister admonishes top bureaucrat after harassment report“ - Elaine Lies, Kiyoshi Takenaka for Reuters, April 12, 2018

[...]
Japan has had few reported “#MeToo” cases about sexual harassment involving public figures, apparently in part because victims are reluctant to speak out for fear of being blamed.
[...]

[SeijiSensei]

Trump and Abe Prepare for Another Visit at Mar-a-Lago

North Korea and the steel tariff threaten to roil the waters this time around.

No foreign leader has spoken more often with President Trump than Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan. But when Mr. Trump welcomes Mr. Abe to his Palm Beach estate on Tuesday, tensions over trade and North Korea will pose the first real test to a relationship that has mainly blossomed on the fairways.

Golf is not on the leaders’ official schedule this time, and that may be just as well. Mr. Abe was blindsided in early March by Mr. Trump’s decision to meet North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un. He was stung even more two weeks later when the president exempted every major American ally, except Japan, from stiff new tariffs on steel and aluminum.

American and Japanese officials said they expected Mr. Abe, who is a hard-liner on North Korea, to warn Mr. Trump about the traps he faces in talking to Mr. Kim. They also expect him to confront the president on trade, something he has avoided since the two men first met, out of fear that it would stir Mr. Trump’s grudge against Japan, dating back to the 1980s, over its surpluses with the United States.

Mr. Trump injected even more uncertainty into the meeting by announcing that he would consider rejoining the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a regional trade pact, anchored by Japan, that he pulled the United States out of in his first week in office. But he also reiterated his determination to negotiate a new trade agreement directly with Japan, which Mr. Abe has resisted, tweeting that Japan “has hit us hard on trade for years!”

“Abe’s reputation as an adroit manager of his personal relationship with Trump has been a political asset for him at home,” said Daniel R. Russel, a former assistant secretary of state for East Asian affairs. “But it’s been badly dented by this series of bombshells.”

“Is this still a buddy movie?” he said, “or is Abe the ex?”

[Yu Ominae]

Quite sad that someone in the SDF has the balls to go gutsy on an opposition politician, although not surprised:

https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20180417_32/

A Japanese opposition party member says a Self-Defense Force officer yelled at him and accused him of being an enemy of the Japanese people.

Democratic Party member Hiroyuki Konishi was speaking at an Upper House committee meeting on Tuesday. He said a man identifying himself as an SDF member repeatedly shouted the accusation at him on a street near the Diet the previous night.

Konishi said he told the man that it is illegal for SDF personnel to make such claims. He added that the man eventually agreed to retract his remarks.

Konishi said police told him on Tuesday morning that the man is a member of the Defense Ministry's Joint Staff Office. He also said the man should be punished in accordance with the law.

SDF Chief of Staff Katsutoshi Kawano visited Konishi on Tuesday afternoon to apologize.

Konishi asked Kawano to take disciplinary action against the man and educate SDF officers to ensure civilian control.

Konishi later told reporters that the man's actions are impermissible in light of democracy. He said Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera should resign immediately.

[Verso Sciolto]

"Top Finance Ministry official resigns, denies sex harassment" - The Asahi Shimbun, April 18, 2018 at 19:05 JST
http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201804180058.html