KONO Taro’s Blog

An MP gets an Imperial invitation once in a couple of years!

“His Majesty invites you to the Imperial Garden Party at the Akasaka Imperial Palace”.

You need to wear a Morning Coat. Your wife probably goes in a kimono for the first time.

You are supposed to enter the palace from one to one fifty. You should go at one. You can enjoy the palace garden and try the Imperial BBQ. All the meat comes from the Imperial ranches. Lamb is the best, and its sauce is the Imperial Secret. You must try it.

Now, at latest by one thirty, you need to position yourself. The best position is at the bottom of the hill where the Imperial Tent is placed. His Majesty begins his procession at the bottom of the hill. If you stand there, you do not have to wait long to meet His Majesty. But you have to be there by one thirty, or there will be no room for you.

His Majesty is timed to appear ten minutes past two, but the schedule always runs behind. His Majesty is followed by the Empress, then the Crown Prince. You are lucky if Princess Masako shows up. Prince Akishino and his wife will follow. Princess Takamado, the wife of the late Prince Takamado is always at the end of the procession.

After meeting the Imperial family, you can visit the tents again. You might want to try looking in the main tent. The prominent guests are situated there every year. You might be able to take a photo with Sadaharu Oh, or Asashoryu, or famous singers, athletes etc.

You can even walk up the hill to the Imperial Tent, and if you cross the little creek there, you see some tents for the Cabinet Ministers and Diplomats. They get to meet the Imperial members separately there.

You should plan to head back around three thirty or so. You need to take a bus to the parking lot, and sometimes you need to wait in the line for the bus. You might want to wait in the food tent longer and enjoy the traditional music and the Imperial Sake.

On the way out, you receive a box of sweets. It is so good!

The Imperial Garden Party is held twice in a year. The Imperial Household Agency assigns each political party the number of MPs who could be invited. So, be good if you are invited. There is an Imperial duck hunting in winter, too.

If you ask a Japanese consumer why it is safe to eat beef in Japan, he might say because we test every single cow that is slaughtered in Japan against BSE prion. It is, though, not true. Scientists know that if a cow is younger than twenty months, it is scientifically impossible to detect BSE prion. It is meaningless to test those cows.

BSE, or Mad Cow Disease, is somewhat similar to poisonous fugu, or blow fish. The Japanese eat fugu without fearing its poison. Fugu is totally safe when its body parts that contain poison, liver, eggs, skin etc. are removed by a well-trained chef. BSE prion, just like fugu poison, is concentrated at the certain body parts namely brain, eyes and spiral cord. If you remove these parts, which are called SRM, the cow is safe to eat.

The Food Safety Commission recommended three years ago that the local governments, who have authority over supply of meat, stop testing cows younger than twenty months against BSE. The consumers will not be exposed to a greater risk even if local governments stop testing. All the local governments, however, have not followed the FSC recommendation as they fear the consumers may not understand what it means. The Government is now asking the local governments to stop testing as of July 31 this year. I think this is very important step for the Japanese. We need to be more scientific when we try to keep our food safe.

METI is trying hard to block the TCI bid to buy into J-Power. J-Power is trying to build a nuclear power plant in Oma, Aomori. The Oma Power Plant is designed to burn plutonium mixed with uranium. It is the key facility for the pseudo-nuclear fuel cycle which METI is trying so hard. The real nuclear fuel cycle is to burn plutonium in a fast breeder reactor (FBR), but an FBR for commercial use will not be completed for another half century! METI has been re-writing the history, and METI now says the nuclear fuel cycle is to burn plutonium in a regular nuclear power plant with uranium; a METI speak.

PM went to Davos in January and said our economy was wide open. The bureaucrats, who want to protect their interest, i.e. the places for their amakudari, positions in the private sector which they take up when they retire from the ministry, do not care what PM says. They are skewing the policies. And the Ministers are not able to control them. PM should fire those Ministers who do not know what they are doing. There are too many stupid Ministers in the Cabinet.

The “temporary” taxes on gas and diesel have become the major political issue in this country. Well, it is supposed to be “temporarily” added to the formal tax rate, but it has been there for more than forty years. The LDP regimes have renewed this temporary tax rate on gas and diesel every five years without much thought. This tax was first installed by Prime Minister Tanaka Kakuei to speed up “delayed” highway constructions in the countryside. The gas tax, a national tax, and the diesel tax, a local tax, have been dedicated to road and highway constructions.

Now the Opposition with its majority in the other House is trying to kill this temporary tax rate at last. They want to lower the gas and diesel tax and free their usage. The Ministry of Construction and Transportation is vehemently opposed to the lower tax rates, and the dourozoku, the LDP MPs who have strong ties with highway industries, are also strongly reacting to the Opposition’s demand to cut.

Former Prime Minister Koizumi had taken steps for general usage of the gas and diesel taxes, but the LDP consistently tried to protect this treasure box of the Ministry as getting subsidies for the highway construction for his own district has been one of the major activities of an LDP MP.

The Government tax bill has been passed by the House, but the Opposition-dominant other House has not yet taken any actions on the tax bill as of today.

Our House can override the other House with the two-third majority. If a bill which we have passed is voted down by the other House, the governing Coalition, with its 335 seats in the 480 member House, could override the other House and enact it. However, if the other House takes no action on the bill, our House must wait for sixty days to lawfully assume that the other House has rejected the bill. Then, the House could vote on the bill again.

The House passed the tax bill on February 29. As the ever-populistic Opposition leader Ozawa is determined to take no action in the other House for sixty days, the temporary tax rate will finally expire on March 31. A litter of gas will cost 25 yen less from April.

Japan is very very unlikely to meet the Kyoto protocol target. Carbon-dioxide emission from the automobile is one of the major causes of increase in global warming gas in Japan. Environmentally speaking, Japan, the host of this year’s Toyako Summit where the major topic is the global warming, cannot enjoy the luxury of cheaper gas and diesel now. But Ozawa and the Opposition leadership demand cheaper gas tax for the people.

I have talked to the DPJ colleagues to make a compromise. We agreed to keep the tax rates and un-earmark their spending. But DPJ leadership does not accept any compromise.

As the result of lower tax rates, the revenue loss for the national government will be about 2.6 trillion yen. The local governments will also suffer.

Politics, instead of solving problems, is now creating problems.

Breakfast with the Director General of the International Organization on Migration. He was telling us that he was shocked at the symposium on integration of the Japanese-Brazilians working in Japan into the Japanese Society held in Shizuoka. He heard stories of young Japanese-Brazilian children under 15 years old, who had dropped out of the Japanese public junior high schools. Those who have dropped out of schools and have nothing else to do in Japan often go to the manufacturing plants with their parents who work on the lines, and work with their parents. It is a kind of child labor! There are many automobile parts suppliers in Shizuoka who supply parts to Toyota, Suzuki and other big companies. Those big names could be accused if one of their suppliers is caught using those young Brazilian kids under 15 years old. It could be a big reputation risk for them.

The next casualty of the Opposition’s delay tactics is the alliance with the US. The current Agreement on US Base-related Cost Sharing will expire on March 31, but the debate on the new Agreement in the Foreign Affairs Committee has not been started yet. My trip to Washington from March 3 was cancelled because the Government wanted to hurry the debate in the Committee; I could have been to the Conference in DC!

The Agreement will go in effect thirty days after the passage of the House regardless of the action by the other House. Yet, today’s best case scenario is that the House passage comes on April 2. The first expected payment is on April 10, i.e. electricity bills of the bases, and the Japanese Government will not be able to subsidize if the Agreement is not Okayed by then. The US Forces are supposed to move some of their trainings to more favorable environment. F15s’ trainings will be moved out of the Kadena Airport; night landing practices of Career aircrafts will be moved from Atsugi to Iwo Jima; parachuting trainings will be moved out of Yomitan; and shooting practices over the major road near the Camp Hansen will be moved to Camp Fuji and other places. But if the Agreement is not ratified, no government will pay the cost to move those trainings to the agreed places. And it will anger the inhabitants.

The Japanese workers in the bases, who are expecting the pay on 10^th every month, will not be paid from May on if the Agreement is not renewed–although their union supports the Opposition.

Our Parliament is now absolutely going NUTS!

Appointing Tanami, who was also a Jimujikan, to the Bank of Japan was nothing more than a joke. MOF must have begged PM to send someone, or anyone, from MOF. The Opposition, who must have been dying to say yes just to avoid being responsible for enlarging the crisis, could not possibly support this nomination.

What is the matter with PM? I could not vote for this , and skipped the session today.

The head of the Bank of Japan had been alternated between a former MOF guy and a BOJ man as the BOJ was a MOF colony under the previous BOJ Law. Hayami, the first Bank President under the new BOJ Law was a BOJ man. When he retired, MOF dutifully agreed to the appointment of Fukui, another BOJ boy. Fukui had been well known as the Prince in BOJ since he was still young and was anointed to lead the Bank one day. But his career was suddenly de-railed as he was made a scapegoat in a MOF scandal. MOF knew they had de-throned the Prince, and they could not oppose to his coronation.

But MOF was planting a demonic seed in the royal palace. They innocently sent Muto, a former Jimujikan or the top MOF bureaucrat, into the Bank’s number two position. It was the sign of MOF’s stubborn will to get it back in five years.

MOF must have worried about Shiozaki, PM Abe’s Chief Cabinet Secretary and an ex-BOJ politician, who was determined to make the Bank truly independent of the Ministry. When Shiozaki was pushed out of the Cabinet, MOF was sure they would rule their former colony again. But then came…

It is now widely believed that Ozawa Ichiro, the ailing Opposition leader, once told PM earlier that his Party would agree to the elevation of Muto. Ozawa, however, could not deliver his promise just as he failed to convince his followers on the Grand Coalition.

But why Muto? Well, before talking about Muto, what about Fukui? Is PM satisfied with Fukui’s five years? If the answer is yes, why doesn’t PM re-appoint Fukui for another five year term? If the answer is no, why is PM appointing Fukui’s most loyal deputy to succeed him?

Is there any reason, even just one, to let Muto lead the Central Bank in this strong turbulence? He is not a professional finance man, has little knowledge about macro economy, and does not even speak English. Iwata, Fukui’s another deputy, would have been better suited in anyways.

WIREC closed and the Conference will skip Japan and go to the Middle East. Lack of political will and lack of the Ministerial coordination persisted.

My trip to Washington D.C. to attend WIREC, Washington International Renewable Energy Conference, was cancelled. I was planning to leave for the USA on March 3. I was very worried if the passage of the Budget was delayed, since skipping the Budget vote is a serious sin, I may not be able to catch my flight. But the Whip Office gave me an okay when I asked. I was wondering if, through the usual channel, the passage of the Budget had been confirmed on Friday.

Well, the Budget was passed on Friday and nothing should prevent me going. Then came a “sorry”. The Opposition is likely to oppose to the renewal of the Japan-US Agreement on US Base-related Cost Sharing Scheme. As a Director of the Foreign Affairs Committee I need to be standing by to fix the Committee schedule. Ha!

The major reason of my visit to WIREC is to invite the next Conference to Japan. The first Conference was held in Bonn and the next round in Beijing, then came to Washington. The Steering Committee agreed to hold the Conference alternately in a developed country and a developing country. The Conference in 2009 will be in UAE. But the Japanese NGOs worked hard to convince the Steering Committee to have extraordinary conference in Tokyo in 2008 with the pretext to follow up the agreement at the Toyako summit this year.

Kurokawa Kiyoshi, PM’s Special Counsel, tried to sell the idea to PM. Expectedly, the METI voiced the opposition as they hated anything to do with the renewable energy to protect their vested interest in the nuclear industry. MOFA and the Ministry of Environment agreed to push for the Conference, but they had no budget to spare.

Iida Tetsunari and Obayashi Mika who represent Japan in the Steering Committee worked very hard. It would give Japan another spotlight after the Toyako summit and it would surely give PM a push he needs. I have spoken with PM Office and planned to visit WIREC as I have been to the first Conference and know quite a few in the decision making. Now I have to sit here in Tokyo and watch its development.