My opinion of this week(219):

Mesures beyond the law

 In My opinion of this week, I praised Prime　Minister Koizumi on his
dramatic decision not to appeal district court ruling on Hansen 
desease case. Koizumi stated that the decison is very  rare and 
exceptional to save plaintiffs. 

 Having listened to what he said, I believed that he meant to say
the Government would basically accept the judgment of Kumamoto 
District Court, although the court ruling itself would provide a
number of difficulties for the Government and the Diet in terms
of their past performance. Both have been accused by the District
Court for not to take any proper actions on this case for many
years.

 Koizumi's decision has been welcomed by people of this country and
popular vote rate has further raised passing 90% or more. But I 
started having some doubt on this issue these days. According to
newspapers, some government officials said the decision was the
measures beyond the law. What do they mean by that? 

 As to this term, I remember Yodo Hijack case. The then Prime　Ministerr
Fukuda took the measures beyond the law admitting those Red Army group
members to exile to North Korea in order to save passengers in hostage.
Yes, that was the measures beyond the law which had been taken under
such critical and urgent situation.

 In the case of Hansen disease court ruling, are there any reason
or good cause why the Government took such urgent measures beyond the
law as Yodo Hijack case? The cause was to save the plaintiffs.But
they totally accepted the court legal decision. 

 Why do they say the decision was beyond the law? The decision was
made 100% under laws. The Government officials are probably preparing
for many difficulties expected from now on. But there should be no 
excuse for what they  have done in the past.

 Liberal Party President Ozawa said that the Government should have
appealed to the upper court if they do not agree with the judgment
of the District Court. He is 100% right, I think. The Government
officials should not use such silly and misleading word like that.

2001/6/2
Tadashi HAYASE

My opinion of this week(220)

Tanaka bashing
　
　Foreign Minister have been criticized by many sources. It was reported
that she expressed her concerns about US Missile Defense System to 
Australian Foreign Minister during the meeting at the Foreign Ministry
last week. Cabinet Secretary Fukuda expressed apprehension of the 
Government about it at the press conference. It was also reported that
the former Prime Minister Hashimoto mentioned some concern about Tanaka's
comment.

  There were many other news reported which may cause some difficult
diplomatic relations with US, China and so on in relation to the comment
stated by Foreign Minister Tanaka at meeting with foreign ministers of
other countries such as China, Korea and Italy.  The proverb says," there 
is no smoke without fire." So, Tanaka might have mentioned some of those
problem messages in one way or the other in those meeting. She must be 
more careful about her remarks as the Foreign Minister of Japan.

  But I just wonder why such unofficial kind of remarks have been 
disclosed as if they are official ones. She denied them all officially. 
It is common sense that there are some official comments and unofficial
ones in any conference or at dinner or lunch time. As to the case of 
the meeting with Australian Foreign Minister, Australia Government 
denied such news report officially. That is good enough.

 Why did such thing happen then? Obviously, there are someone on the
side of Japan who disclose Tanaka's remarks as if they are like
official ones. It is obvious that the ones who disclose them are
insiders of Foreign Ministry. The Ministry as a whole is now in very
bad relation with Tanaka. It seems that the bureaucrats and politicians
who are closely related with the Ministry has started Tanaka bashing.

 Many including politicians of ruling LDP and opposition parties 
bureaucrats of Foreign Ministry and even most mass media started
bashing Tanaka in one way or the other. I think it is not right although
Tanaka should be more careful about any comments or remarks she may 
issue officially or unofficially. She is now trying to destroy such
a big old establishment as the Foreign Minister. That must be done
first in order to establish new foreign relation with any countries. 

 I believe Japanese public in general are backing up Tanaka's stance.
Prime Minister Koizumi should take much stronger stance against bashing
to Foreign Minister Tanaka.

2001/6/9
Tadashi HAYASE

My opinion this week(221)

Koizumi's e-mail magazine 

  More than half a million people registered their e-mail addresses
to subscribe to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's e-mail magazine 
launched on June 14, according to the news report made in TV .
"This is a world record," Cabinet Secretary Fukuda  said of the list 
of 585,000 subscribers at a news conference. Subscribers exceeded one
million in next day. The number will increase more. It is quite
amazing .

 It was epoch news for sure. But We would like to see first what kind
 of contents will be included and how is Koizumi and other cabinet
 members are going to answer many comments or questions presented
by readers? It is difficult to answer all of them, of course. But he
should answer to some of the important one. One most important point
of publishing such magazine is how interactive they are after the mail
magazine started. That should not be published just for propaganda.

 I have not received it yet,  although I subscribed the one already.
So I cannot make any comment on it yet. I look forward to seeing many
interesting development on this issue. It is a very new political
event that has not tested before. 

2001/06/16
Tadashi HAYASE

My opinion this week(222)

That is not a mistake of computer

Following to the case at Yamagata and Toyama Universities, calculation
mistakes to judge entrance examination has been disclosed at Kanazawa
University. The official said they miscalculated total score due to
some errors in computer programming. The former two national universities
explained the same way as to why such mistakes happened.

Is this true? Is that all what they should say? Yes, all those mistakes 
happened due to wrong computer programming. But the real question is
why such easy mistakes happened at the office of such high level national
universities. The real problem is not computer but the existence of such
organization as national universities.

The plan to privatize national universities is now being discussed just then.
The idea was presented earlier but the issue has become more concrete since
the appointment of Mr. Koizumi to Prime Minister. That is natural course of
action as a part of "Structural Reform" of Japanese society advocated by
Koizumi Cabinet.

The total deficit of national sponsored universities and research institutes
was about 2 trillion yen in 2000. How much total accumulated deficit would
be on the operation of those sectors? That is another source of big 
financial deficit of this nation for sure. 

The issue is not the mistakes by computers. The issue here is the mistakes
of admitting the existence of such organization. Many of those scandals
happened at national universities are just a part of symptom of serious
disease of such organization. People and mass media focus more attention
on that phase.

2001/6/23
Tadashi HAYASE

My opinion this week(223)

Poor Diet committee

The directors of foreign affairs committee of the Lower House decided Tuesday
to carry over deliberations on the treaties --two investment pacts with Pakistan
 Mongolia -- to the next Diet session. The decision has been made due to the
lack of deliberation time in connection with the spat between Foreign Minister
Tanaka and Muneo Suzuki,  a director of the committee. 

Suzuki attacked Tanaka on many of her behaviors since her appointment to 
Foreign Minister in the committee. Tanaka requested Chairman Ryuichi Doi of
 the committee to limit Suzuki's question time. That paralyzed the committee's 
proceedings from Friday to Tuesday. The committee members insisted that
Tanaka's request is violation of the separation principle of three powers 
(the executive, the legislative and the judicial) .

Tanaka expressed her regret for that happened. She admitted her responsibility
for the fact that such important international treaties have not been passed
at this Diet session. Her apology has been taken for granted. Mass media 
requested Tanaka's reflection about her carelessness. No question about that.

But is that all? Why did mass media not mention anything about the 
responsibility of the foreign affairs committee for what happened? Why could
they not pass such important international treaties bills by processing
internal troubles in much shorter period of time? If the matter is so serious,
why did they present nonconfidence  resolution against Foreign Minister Tanaka?
They could not do it because they knew a big counter attack was expected from
general public if they would have taken such action.

All they could have done was to paralyzed the deliberation time and
showed off the fact that the bills did not pass due to Tanaka's behaviors.
It seems that even such important bills are just tools of political games
for them. It is the foreign affairs committee of the Diet itself that is 
responsible for what happened.

2001/6/30
Tadashi HAYASE