My opinion of this week(563):
Key words of confusion
The reason why current politics is in confusion is very obvious. There exists
several key words concerned with confusion at Abe Cabinet and at Fukuda Cabinet.
The key words are, for instance, Anti-Terrorism Special Measures Law, temporary
tax rate for gasoline, taxes revenue legislated for road construction, special
governmental corporation, special account budget, stopgap bill, hiding
money underground, and so on.
People must be especially surprised with the last word, that is buried money.
There exists some big money buried underground at Kasumigaseki or somewhere.
What is this? Today is not Edo period. Why does government keep that kind of
money which is not opened for people? As a matter of facts, there surely
exists such money buried at special accounts of the government which is
different from ordinal accounts in general budget. Those special accounts,
special government corporation, special road construction revenues, etc.
have been a kind of bases for vested interest structure politics.
The reason why Fukuda Cabinet and ruling parties are so dedicated to extend
the temporary tax rate for gasoline is to ensure the tax revenue for road
construction. They try to extend the temporary tax rate for another ten years
for they insist the road construction is still very necessary for many local
areas of this country. Ruling fronts insist that most local governments will
face to some serious financial difficulties if this tax revenues was cut.
DPJ (Democratic Party of Japan) and other opposition parties insist that price
of gasoline will be cut by 25 yen per little if this tax is abolished. The
temporary tax which was created a long time ago must be eliminated at this
time when total review of road construction seems to be very necessary.
Although some more road construction may be necessary, they must be done by
general budget fund rather than special road construction revenue budget. The
existence of such special road fund revenue provide a a number of vested
interest of politicians and bureaucrats who can control such big budget fund.
I personally agree with the assertion of opposition fronts as far as this
theme is concerned.
Why does there exists so many temporary and special accounts and area which are
not necessarily fully opened for the eye of general public? Where does there
exist so many temporary actions in Japanese politics?
The ruling fronts tried to pass the stopgap bill to extend the temporary tax
rate bill for gasoline but they gave up the bill due to arbitration made by
two chairmen of diet. Some newspaper reported that the temporary tax rate
bill is virtually extended because opposition fronts admitted the extension
of the bill. I don't believe that such reports is right.
There remains another two months to discuss the those critical issues during
this diet session. The issues are concerned with structure reform of Japanese
politics. Most important theme of the current diet is to abolish many of
such temporary and special actions in many fields. Many of temporary actions
must be abolished so that any actions are re organized under long range outlook
rather than short sighted views.
Many of such special accounts and special revenue for limited projects such
as road construction must be abolished so that the inside of such special
accounts and special corporations are opened for the eye of general public.
This is very necessary restructure of political system of this country.
The price of gasoline is not the major issue at all at this diet session.
It is expected that all this very basic reform of political structure are
discussed at the diet during this session by ruling and opposition fronts.
2008/2/2
Tadashi HAYASE
My opinion of this week(564):
Meaning of "Aratanis"
The common net site of three major newspapers in Japan, i.e. Asahi, Nikkei,
Yomiuri, was opened at internet on January 31. People can read major articles
of three papers at one integrated page. It is possible to read top headline
news, other major articles, editorials, column articles and so on comparing
three papers at once. It is very convenient and efficient to read three papers
at once.
Reading of some major articles of newspaper itself has been limited so much
until quite recently. It was not possible to read articles by internet before
newspapers were delivered to subscribers. It is now almost possible to read
some main articles of each papers by internet even before papers are delivered to
subscribers. People can pick up to read almost any papers through any net
portal site services.
It is very convenient to access to three net papers at once. I am subscribing
Asahi and I can read some major articles early in the morning just before
the paper is delivered at mail box. In addition, I can read now two other
major paper article at the same site. I can check articles of not only some
other Japanese papers but also of some foreign papers through net site. I
am completely satisfied now with such net service.
I continue to subscribe Asahi now, but it is not quite necessary to subscribe
papers at all as a matter of fact. The only reason why I continue to subscribe
the paper is that my wife is against to stop subscribing it. She does not know
what is happening in net world and cannot access to internet right now.
At the regular meeting of PC club on February 7, some questions were raised
from members as to why three major papers started such net service. Yes, that
is what I tried to comment on my BLOG but I made comment on some other phase
of this news at the meeting in the following manner.
Not only those three papers but but also some others have not started such
service before except Sankei newspaper which started MSN/Sankei net news site
some time ago. There is another integrated news net site called IZA of Sankei
group papers. But such a big integration of three major papers have never
happened before.
Why does this now happen? I think it signifies dangers to which any newspaper
media are facing these days. People know the fact that many famous US newspaper
firms stopped printing news papers in the developments of many net media
services provided by Google, Yahoo and so forth. They lost many subscribers
due to increasing net news service. In addition they have lost revenues from
advertising through paper publication. The major source of adverting is now
shifting to net media such as Google, Yahoo and so forth.
Such tendency is not so imminent yet in Japan but same thing will surely
happen in Japan sooner or later. Big three papers have just taken action
to prepare for such storm. They do not necessarily like to do it but they
have to in order to survive in mass net media world.
In the early morning of January 2, I was checking several news in internet.
I found the news about the acquisition plan of Yahoo, USA by Microsoft
Corporation. I wrote some comment on it at my BLOG.
I found out the fact later on at "Aratanis" about the fact that Asahi and
Nikkei put the news at top headline that day. Yes, it was so important news
not only for readers of their papers but also for the interest of their own.
2008/2/9
Tadashi HAYASE
My Opinion of this week (565):
Justice Minister Kunio Hatoyama should resign
Since he was appointed to Justice Minister at the second Abe Cabinet, he
has made two controversial statements so far. One was concerned with
execution of death sentence. He questioned if there were any appropriate
way to decide the time to execute death sentence within six months after
the sentence was settled at the court. When I heard this issue, I
understood what he said in a way. He meant to say that the time of execution
is decided incidentally by Justice Minister who is in the position at that
time.
Some ministers ordered to execute several times and some ordered none during
he is in that position. It may not be appropriate that decision is made by
that way.
Yes, may be so, I personally understood what he said in a way although his
remarks were criticized by many people and mass media. But I was quite
surprised with his additional comments which follows to his prior statements
about the issue. He mentioned if there were any way as such by deciding
execution date by random numbers created by computer. It's quite automatic,
yes. But it's quite inhuman. Isn't it?
His second controversial statement was more serious and very silly. He said
he had a friend who belongs to al-Qaeda organization. He had come under fire
again for that comments but the statement has been forgotten by people because
it was just a kind of silly and stupid remarks. There were no opportunity for
opposition fronts to attack his statements at the diet for the diet session
was closed at that time.
The third and fatal faux pas by Justice Minister Hatoyama was concerned with
the case in which 12 defendants were acquitted of election law violations at
Kogoshima prefecture. Although there were no such facts at all, those 12
citizens were arrested by police and were sent to prosecutors office for
court judgment. All those 12 people were sentenced not guilty by fair
judgment of district court. Prosecutors office gave up bringing up the case
to upper court for all facts were very obvious.
It was a typical case of "enzai" , wrongful charges happened for 12 defendants.
Mass media has reported this enzai case in various way and there are no
problem about it.
Justice Minister Hatoyama said recently at some official meeting of Justice
Ministry that the case of Kogoshima was not the case of wrongful charges
for those defendants were not sentenced guilty and they were never put into
jail. Wrongful charges means the case that defendants are sentenced guilty
and jailed for some period time wrongfully.
Kunio Hatoyama came under fire again by this stupid comments. He was protested
by the defendants of Kagoshima prefecture. He was questioned by opposition
fronts at diet. Chief Cabinet Secretary Machimura criticized Hatoyama's remarks
on Thursday.
He admitted his mistakes at this time and apologized to defendants of
Kagoshima Prefecture. I don't think that such apology is not good enough
for what he has done and said so far.
From all those past misconducts and improper statement as Justice Minister,
it is now clear that he is not eligible as Justice Minister who must be
man of right and justice as literally means.
I believe he must resign from the position and Prime Minister Fukuda should
advise him to do so.
2008/2/16
Tadashi HAYASE
My opinion of this week(566):
Accident of Aegis destroyer is surely a sign for change
Two fishermen of Seitokumaru are still missing by the collusion accident
caused by the Aegis destroyer. All opposing parties are demanding the
retirement of Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba from his position. A series of
misconducts or scandal have been observed in the Defense Ministry recently
in recent months. This accident in the ocean is a kind of the most outrageous
misconducts done by the ministry.
Since various scandals have been revealed in the ministry, Defense Minister
Ishiba have kept saying that he will take all necessary actions to avoid any
of such misconducts happen again. He promised to make some organizational
changes so that any reporting and communications in the ministry is to be done
more smoothly. He expressed the necessity to strengthen disciplinary control in
the ministry to avoid any misconducts.
Nevertheless such serious accident happened again. The accident itself is
serious one which killed two civilians. But more serious facts involved with
the accidents has been revealed. It took almost 90 minutes to transfer the
information to Defense Ministry Shigeru Ishiba since the time of accident.
It took another 30 minutes to let Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda know the case.
Such fact is very serious indeed.
Why does it take so much time to let those top leaders of the country know
such very important happening ? What did it happen if the case were concerned
with military troubles with foreign countries?
The day after the accident, all opposition parties started requesting early
retirement of Defense Minister Ishiba from the position at the diet. But
Prime Minister Fukuda did not agree with such demand saying that it is now
the time for Ishiba to find out all facts about the accident and to take
necessary measures to improve communication system in the Defense Ministry.
Many other top executives of ruling Liberal Democratic Party mentioned even
some criticism for such demand made by opposition parties saying that opposition
parties are trying to utilize the case very politically and to let Prime
Minister Fukuda resign from the position or to dissolve the House of
Representatives. The ruling fronts say that the case was very urgent to be
settled first and any of such political matters are not involved with it.
Any one or any parties will never deny the necessity of early settlement of
the case. But I just wonder why the case is not political matter. It is
surely very political matter by itself.
It is not Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba who is to resign from the position
but Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda who may be asked to resign. Supporting rate
for Fukuda Cabinet have continued to go down to 35% or so and disapproval rate
goes up almost 50% now according to recent popular vote. The disapproval rate
may go up higher after this Aegis accident happened.
I personally have no objection for opposition parties to utilize this Aegis
case to box Fukuda Cabinet into a corner so that Prime Minister is obliged to
take one of the two alternatives. He will resign from the Prime Minister. Or
he will dissolve the House of Representatives for general election.
It is rather obvious that Fukuda Cabinet under the current coalition by
Liberal Democratic Party and Komei Party have lost the power and capability
to govern the country. What Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda should now is to
dissolve the House of Representative as soon as possible for general election,
if he would not resign from his position.
People will choose the new political scheme by the election and change of
power will be done which is very necessary to reset all current political and
social scheme which are in chaos from any point of views.
It seems the Aegis accident is the last warning sign for this country to step
forward to make such change happen in this country.
2008/2/23
Tadashi HAYASE
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