My opinion this week(212)

LDP's Presidential Campaign

 Three candidates are now going to run for LDP's Presidential Campaign.

 Koizumi, who declared his candidacy Monday, said meanwhile that he will
leave his faction, the LDP's second-largest, after he files his candidacy
Thursday morning. What a thin disguise it is! Why then has he been in
Mori group so far?

 Kamei, who jointly chairs the party's third-largest faction, unveiled a
campaign pledge later in the day in which he promised tax cuts amounting
to several trillion yen through reviews of the income, consumption and 
inheritance tax systems.

 He also promised to study the possibility of temporarily reducing the 
consumption tax from the current 5 percent to 3 percent for a three-year
period to spur personal spending. Few Japanese people will believe such
easy-going policies any more. The current financial situation is very
serious.

 Kamei's move is seen as a bid to maximize his influence and that of his
faction after the election and to secure his reappointment as chairman of
the LDP's Policy Affairs Research Council. What a blatant tactics it is!

 Hashimoto, the former Prime Minister, and the Chairman of the Hashimoto
Faction which has 105 diet members, will win in the race at the end.
What the present Japan need is a strong political leadership and
freshness of the leadership. I don't think Hashimoto's leadership is
either strong or fresh. He is definitely a man in the past.

 Looking over this political situation, Japanese political world is
still in a mess, whoever is being elected as a new President of LDP.
I expect that a kind of drastic change may emerge after overall
defeat of LDP in coming election of House of Council in June.

2001/4/14
Tadashi HAYASE

My opinion this week(213)

 The Government has finally decided to issue an entry visa to former
Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui if he agrees to a condition set by 
Tokyo that the visit be solely for medical treatment. The matter has
been a big issue for a while. China is, of course, severely against 
that. China has expressed a great concern to Japan saying the 
relationship of two countries will be deteriorated if Japan issue the
visa to the former President of Taiwan.

 However, according to a report, the Japanese side is demanding that the
former president sign a written pledge regarding the conditions of the 
visit, which Lee was refusing. "If forced to accept such humiliating demands,
I would rather not go," Lee was quoted as saying.

 I understand that. A written pledge is not necessary. Why does Japanese 
Government demand it? The reason for issuing visa to the former President is 
humanitarian. That's enough. No more explanation is necessary to China. I 
believe Japanese diplomatic stance with China is too weak.

2001/4/21
Tadashi HAYASE