DAILY SUMMARY OF JAPANESE PRESS 08/14/06

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 09 TOKYO 004581 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPT FOR E, P, EB, EAP/J, EAP/P, EAP/PD, PA WHITE HOUSE/NSC/NEC; JUSTICE FOR STU CHEMTOB IN ANTI-TRUST DIVISION; TREASURY/OASIA/IMI/JAPAN; DEPT PASS USTR/PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICE; SECDEF FOR JCS-J-5/JAPAN, DASD/ISA/EAPR/JAPAN; DEPT PASS ELECTRONICALLY TO USDA FAS/ITP FOR SCHROETER; PACOM HONOLULU FOR PUBLIC DIPLOMACY ADVISOR; CINCPAC FLT/PA/ COMNAVFORJAPAN/PA. E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: OIIP KMDR KPAO PGOV PINR ECON ELAB JA SUBJECT: DAILY SUMMARY OF JAPANESE PRESS 08/14/06 INDEX: (1) Ten-member Yasukuni Shrine council (sodaikai) decides budget and enshrinements (2) Yasukuni Shrine -From battle field to where (Part 5): Both increasing visitors to Yushukan, prime minister's repeated visits drawing young persons' attention (3) Editorial: Though he has the lead in LDP presidential race, ABE urged to pursue serious policy debate (4) Intelligence capabilities must be sharpened: ex-cabinet intelligence chief (5) Japan-dispatched official anti-Japanese essay ARTICLES: (1) Ten-member Yasukuni Shrine council (sodaikai) decides budget and enshrinements NIHON KEIZAI (Page 2) (Full) August 13, 2006 Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has said that he will visit Yasukuni Shrine on Aug. 15. A South Korean ruling parliamentary group comprising of ruling party members arrived in Japan on Aug. 12 to oppose Koizumi's trip to Yasukuni. Special police officers to the prime minister checked the precincts of the Shinto shrine. Given the situation, this newspaper examines how Yasukuni is managed. Yasukuni incomes on decline The income resources of Yasukuni Shrine are contributions from corporations and individuals, tamagushi-ryo (cash offering made on the occasion of one's visit to the shrine),and money offerings by shrine visitors. The annual budget totals less than 2 billion yen. The shrine's incomes have been on the decline due to a decrease in corporate contributions, as well as in the number of the Japan War-Bereaved Families Association members. The shrine says it has recently cut its budget. The council of representatives of shrine parishioners is made up of ten members from various circles, including business leaders and former senior bureaucrats, according to a shrine source. Since June, when Makoto Koga resigned as chairman of the Japan Association of the Bereaved Families of the War Dead, the executive board has dropped to nine members. The term of a member of the board is only three years. The council decides on such important policy issues as budgets, audits, management, and approval of new enshrinements. A decision is adopted by a unanimous vote. The guji or the chief priest of the shrine attends council meetings to serve as chair of the meetings, according to a shrine source. Most priests come from the former nobility (in prewar Japan). Toshiaki Nanbu is the 9th chief priest. He once worked at a major advertising agency (Dentsu). He assumed the post in September 2004 at the recommendation of Kasumi-kai, an organization comprising of former nobility. Negative reaction to separation of Class-A war criminals There are 52 shrines that honor the war dead across the country (gokoku-jinja). Since those shrines mainly honor the local war dead, TOKYO 00004581 002 OF 009 some of them have enshrined Class-A war criminals and some have not. In the prewar period, the then Internal Affairs Ministry managed Yasukuni Shrine and the Imperial Japanese Military and Navy controlled the gokoku-jinja. After the war, they became religious corporations. The Association of Shinto Shrines (Jinja-honcho) has jurisdiction over about 80,000 shrines nationwide, including the gokoku-jinja. The association takes in charge of personnel changes and financial affairs. However, Yasukuni does not belong to the association, since it is positioned as head of the gokoku-jinja. Should Yasukuni be stripped of its Shinto affiliation, the Yasukuni council will have to decide on how to dissolve the religious organization. However, a Shinto source made this skeptical comment: "If Yasukuni becomes a non-religious facility, the souls of the dead will no longer be recognized. If so, Yasukuni will become just a war memorial." If Yasukuni is placed under state control, there will be issues regarding the compatibility with the constitutional rule of separation of politics and religion such as whether the name of Yasukuni and the front guard frame (torii gate) should remain and whether Shinto-style worship should be retained. Yasukuni enshrines now about 2.46 million war dead, including the 14 Class-A war criminals. The Shinto religion does not allow the souls of the war dead once enshrined to be removed from the shrine. Among Shinto religion sources, there is a view that removing Class-A war criminal would be 100% impossible. Members of the council of representatives of shrine parishioners Name Tile Koremasa Anami President, Kitakyushu Foundation for the Advancement of Industry Science and Technology Seiji Ishino Advisor, Shiseido Co. Minoru Inoue Advisor, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Shiro Odamura Former Takushoku University president Hatsuko Shimazu Former Imperial family member Tamotsu Shoya Former Small and Medium Enterprise Agency director general Isao Tokoro Professor, Kyoto Sangyo University Toru Miyoshi q Former Supreme Court chief justice Takuma Yamamoto Fujitsu honorary chairman Makoto Koga (resigned in June) Chairman, Japan War-Bereaved Families Association (2) Yasukuni Shrine -From battle field to where (Part 5): Both TOKYO 00004581 003 OF 009 increasing visitors to Yushukan, prime minister's repeated visits drawing young persons' attention MAINICHI (Page 2) (Slightly abridged) August 10, 2006 Since this spring, several American prominent figures have made statement critical of Yushukan, the exhibit hall on the site of Yasukuni Shrine. On a TBS TV program on July 12, United States Ambassador to Japan Thomas Schieffer stated: "I am perplexed at the historical views attached to exhibits in Yushukan. Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has repeatedly said that he goes to visit Yasukuni Shrine and not Yushukan. But the historical views in Yushukan are unacceptable to us. I think they are wrong." Writing for the July 20 edition of the Sankei Shimbun, Deputy Secretary of State Armitage noted: SIPDIS 'Even if no problem is found with the prime minister visiting Yasukuni Shrine, the explanations attached to some showpieces in Yushukan on the site of the shrine hurt the feelings of Americans and Chinese. They also go against official historical views in Japan." Former chief researcher Taro Nagae, 69, at the Military History Office of the National Institute for Defense Studies, is in a quandary. When Yushukan was reopened after being renovated in 2002, he supervised the editing of the newly added descriptions of historical events from the Meiji period (1868-1912) to the wartime period. He was asked to serve as editorial supervisor by his friend, an official of Yasukuni Shrine. He assigned the work to 10 members of the Military History Society (with about 1,000 members),an academic group serving as Secretariat. The work was completed only in about three months. Although Nagae was confident about the descriptions because "they are all based on war histories issued by the governments of the US, China, and other countries." But he was worried: "I do not want to see Japan-US relations impaired. The critical remarks came from American key persons. The bilateral relationship could be undermined as a result of a misunderstanding. We must take some measures." Previous Chief Priest of Yasukuni Shrine Yuzaya, who renovated and expanded Yushukan at a cost of about 4.9 billion yen, also remarked on a TV program on Aug. 7: "In response to the criticism that the exhibits have gone too far, we might have to change some items on display." Japanese authorities have reacted strongly to criticism from China and South Korea. In contrast, they have sensitively responded to critical comments dispatched from the US. Yushukan was created in the early Meiji period as a museum displaying military weapons. After the end of World War II, then Chief Priest Nagayoshi Matsudaira, who enshrined Class-A war criminals, reopened the hall as a financial resource to help the management of Yasukuni Shrine. Later, previous Chief Priest Yuzawa planned to innovate and expand Yushukan with the aim of attracting more young people and foreigners to the hall. Although the plan TOKYO 00004581 004 OF 009 initially met fierce reactions from representatives of shrine parishioners claiming: "The planned exhibits are excessively modernized and elaborate." But they accepted the plan in the end. A movie, "Our appreciation and prayers for the souls of the war dead," is shown in the hall, emphasizing the historical view that the Imperial Japanese Army's wartime conduct was not wrong. The movie was produced and edited by the conservative action group called Japan Conference. Several executives of the group, including its chairman Tatsu Miyashi, a former supreme-court judge, also serve as representatives of shrine parishioners. The exhibited items are "in accordance with the intention of former Chief Priest Matsudaira, who rejected the judgments of the Tokyo Trials," said a former senior shrine official. As expected, visitors to the hall continued to increase almost every year by the tens of thousands, and the number hit a record 360,000 last year. The number of visitors to Yasukuni Shrine was 6 million in 2002 and 5 million in 2003. Recently, though, a growing number of people visit there, attracted by the renovated Yushukan. On the day marking the end of WWII, 205,000 people visited the shrine, three times more than that day the year before. The media at home and abroad prominently covered this news. Some members of the group of students who had gathered Yushukan established this February a youth group of the association supporting Yasukuni Shrine activities (suukei-housan-kai),calling itself "Asanagi". The group already has about 300 members, whose average age is 30. A male college student (22) who heads the youth group explained as follows why he joined the group: Because Prime Minister Koizumi's visit to Yasukuni Shrine was prominently featured by the mass media, he visited the shrine two days later, and he found the shrine to be "wonderful." The prime minister's continued shrine visits, which he called "a matter of the heart," and the renovation of Yushukan resonated and worked to amplify the troubled frequency waves at home and abroad. With reactions to Yushukan spreading across former Japanese colonies and WWII allies, Yasukuni Shrine has become an international issue. In the nation, though, the prime minister's shrine visits have contributed to drawing young people to Yasukuni Shrine. (3) Editorial: Though he has the lead in LDP presidential race, ABE urged to pursue serious policy debate NIHON KEIZAI (Page 2) (Full) August 13, 2006 Support for Chief Cabinet Secretary SHINZO Abe, the frontrunner in the September Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) presidential election, is expanding like an avalanche, further boosting his unchallenged lead. Fukushiro Nukaga, director general of the Defense Agency, and former LDP Secretary General Taku Yamasaki had to give up running in the race. The presidential election now appears likely to be a landslide. Precisely because this is the situation, Foreign Minister Taro Aso and Finance Minister Sadakazu Tanigaki and Abe, in particular, should pursue a lofty policy debate in a serious manner. Abe on Aug. 12 stated his candidacy for the election during a town meeting held in Shimonoseki City, his home constituency: "I would like to do my best with my aspirations. I am resolved to explain my hopes and thoughts to the people in early September." When former TOKYO 00004581 005 OF 009 Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda, Abe's archrival, gave up running in the race, it became certain that ABE would hold a commanding lead. An increasing number of LDP members were increasingly gripped by the idea that they had to jump on the bandwagon. However, due in part to Abe's unclear stance toward his political management, there still remained a wait-and-see atmosphere among those who were anxious about his position regarding Asia diplomacy. Abe has recently revealed two key messages to audiences within and outside the party. One is on the Yasukuni Shrine issue, the primary concern. He indicated his policy of keeping quiet regarding Yasukuni: "I have no intention whatsoever of revealing anything about the Yasukuni issue, including whether I will visit it or not." It became known that ABE visited the shrine in April. However, China and South Korea responded calmly, raising hopes in the LDP that it might be possible to find a breakthrough in Japan's Asia diplomacy because of Abe's stance. The other is that he indicated his view of adopting a whole-party approach to next year's unified local and Upper House elections. Many LDP members have been unhappy about Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's political method of fanning confrontation, intentionally making enemies. However, Abe's whole-party approach has spread a sense of relief among LDP members, serving to rapidly expand support for him. Attracting total support for his camp is not entirely a blessing for Abe, though. An ABE administration would not be able to solidify its power base with a please-everyone all-mainstream approach. Policies set by such administration might lack impact. There may be a possibility of the current reform policy losing force under the cover of the whole-party system and pork-barrel politics coming back to life. In order to eliminate such concerns, it is necessary for ABE to come up with a clear-cut policy and pursue a policy debate with Aso and Tanigaki in front of the public. He needs to make specific campaign pledges regarding fiscal reconstruction, administrative and educational reforms, and constitutional revision. A clear-cut policy is the best means to solidify his administration's power base. (4) Intelligence capabilities must be sharpened: ex-cabinet intelligence chief TOKYO SHIMBUN (Page 2) (Full) August 10, 2006 -- What's your perspective of the post-Koizumi cabinet's challenges from the perspective of crisis management? Yoshio Omori, former chief of the Cabinet Information Research Office: I hope the next prime minister will consider three points. First, there are problems with North Korea, including its firing of missiles. Second, there are problems with China, including the suicide of a Shanghai Consulate General communications official. And third, there are problems with the government's intelligence capability. -- How do you evaluate the Japanese government's action taken in response to North Korea's missile launches? TOKYO 00004581 006 OF 009 Omori: There's one thing that I can appreciate. The government realized it and then took action right away. That's very good. Actually, when the Miyazawa cabinet was in office, North Korea launched a missile. After that missile launch, a foreign government told the Japanese government that a Rodong missile was launched. -- How about the responses of post-Koizumi candidates? Omori: Some of them are cabinet ministers, and they stated that North Korea should refrain from launching missiles. After North Korea launched missiles, Japan took the political initiative and worked on the United Nations Security Council to adopt a resolution. We should appreciate this point. -- How do you think Japan should address the North Korea issue? Omori: When it comes to the Koizumi cabinet's North Korea policy, its strategy has been inconsistent. Prime Minister Koizumi himself visited North Korea and issued the Pyongyang Declaration. But why did North Korea launch missiles? Prime Minister Koizumi made two visits to North Korea, but there has been no dialogue follow-up. Japan has failed to continue dialogue with North Korea while pressuring that country. The next prime minister will have to come up with a consistent strategy. -- What do you think is the problem other than strategy? Omori: Japan knew almost nothing about the abductions and missiles. I know that Japan is incapable of gathering intelligence. I'm sorry to say that the Koizumi cabinet is not good enough. But if Mr. Koizumi had done his best to step up Japan's intelligence-gathering capability like he did for postal privatization, things would be considerably different. -- Another question is what to do about Japan's relations with China. This also will be a point of contention in the Liberal Democratic Party's presidential election. Omori: The government didn't take any resolute action when a Shanghai Consulate General communications official committed suicide and when a nuclear-powered Chinese submarine entered Japan's territorial waters (in November 2004). There's also the Yasukuni Shrine issue. But it's no good to remain indifferent like Mr. Koizumi. In such events, Japan should file a strong protest with China and should call for China to take measures. That's not contradictory with friendship. Japan and China have broken off with each other while facing off. That's the problem. -- For example, what do you think Japan should do? Omori: Japan should have its own cards to play against China. We should thoroughly look into what was behind the suicide and the nuclear sub's intrusion. These can be Japan's cards. The government only protested. That's not good enough. That's the same as what Japan did in the World Cup -- they didn't shoot when they had the chance. I hope the next prime minister will take resolute action. -- The communications official's suicide was not made known to the prime minister until it made the news. The government's crisis management is questionable. Omori: We must think of how to raise the quantity of intelligence-and how to overcome the barriers of bureaucrats. TOKYO 00004581 007 OF 009 Information is not conveyed to those in need of it. The next prime minister will have to create a system that will immediately bring anything related to national security (to the prime minister). Anyone who is suspected of leaking defense secrets must be subject to severe punishment, and such leaks must be reported to the prime minister. Otherwise, the government will do the same thing. -- What do you think Japan should do to improve its intelligence-gathering capability? Omori: First of all, Japan should have enough manpower for intelligence activities. Even a good analyst can do nothing without something to analyze. North Korea recently fired missiles. However, Japan was as usual dependent on the United States for intelligence. The next prime minister will have to create a special intelligence organization to analyze North Korea's intentions and strategies. The government will also need to set up another organization like the National Security Council (NSC) (of the United States). -- You've advocated establishing an external intelligence agency in order for Japan to gather and analyze intelligence. Omori: I wonder if it's all right for us to do nothing in the face of damage to our national security and intellectual property. It's true that some people are calling this a spy organization, and they're also saying that's the same as monitoring people. However, we should let the government acquire intelligence-gathering functions. There are also international terrorist groups, so we should consider this in a positive way. -- Do you mean Japan will gather foreign confidential information, too? Omori: No, I don't. That's impossible because Japan has not conducted training for that. To begin with, we should stop vital information from leaking. The Koizumi cabinet has tried to do many things but has failed to pull itself together. I want the next prime minister to think more about intelligence. (5) Japan-dispatched official anti-Japanese essay Commentary by Sankei special correspondent Yoshihisa Komori SANKEI (Page 5) (Excerpts) August 12, 2006 It has become increasingly crucial for Japan to dispatch its messages to the world. It has always been important for Japan to properly explain its case and to clearly present its views to the international community. At a time when China and other countries are heightening their criticism of Japan for a "revival of militarism" that is quite the opposite of the reality in Japan, it is indispensable in terms of Japan's national interests for it to rebut such charges. At this juncture, I thought that the JIIA Commentary, an English-edition newsletter that JIIA (Japan Institute of International Affairs, which is under the jurisdiction of the Foreign Ministry) began this spring was coming out at just the right timing to send such a message. Living in Washington, I could receive their dispatch by e-mail and read the research on the institute's website. The commentary would be regularly sent in the form of essays written in English. TOKYO 00004581 008 OF 009 However, on reading some of the essays, I was astonished by the contents. The essays unilaterally condemned the thinking of the government and ruling camp, as well as a majority of views in Japan as dangerous, and categorized the attacks on Japan by China and other countries as proper. Look at the title of the essay in the May entry, "How Japan Imagines China and Sees Itself." The essay starts out: ""Japan watchers (in foreign countries) increasingly blame the deterioration in Sino-Japanese relations on Japan, describing Japan's China policies as mindless and provocative, self-righteous and gratuitous. But in the country itself, there is scant awareness that Japan is perceived (by some countries) as being nationalistic, militaristic, or hawkish." The vast majority of Japan watchers in Washington who are familiar also with China see the current tense situation between Japan and China as due to "China's confrontational stance" and as "a clash between the strategic interests of Japan and China," as well as a "China's anti-Japan national policy." Moreover, in the same essay, such false claims are made as, "It is internationally perceived that Japan is seen as being militaristic." In a BBC broadcast late last year of its international opinion poll, the people of 31 out of 33 countries chose Japan at the top as "the country that has the best influence on the rest of the world." The exceptions on the list were China and South Korea. The departure point for JIIA's overseas dispatch is a view that is just the opposite of international opinion. The same essay contained the following passages: "'China is a threat, because it is China.' This seems to be the underlying assumption prevailing in Japan's national security circles." "Critics see in Prime Minister Koizumi's stance on Yasukuni a lack of repentance for past imperial aggression in Asia, about which Japan has long been silent." Both quotes are absurd remarks that are the opposite of the truth. The thrust of the essay rejects moves in the direction of Japan becoming an "ordinary country" from the aspect of its national security, which can be said to be the majority view in Japan, rejecting and denouncing them as dangerous "hawkish nationalism." The English-language essay is filled with biased words such as calling those who support paying homage at Yasukuni Shrine the "cult of Yasukuni." The word "cult" is a derogatory term used to mean a fanatical religious group such as the Aum Shinrikyo believers in Japan. The essays contains much too many sensational, emotional and insulting words of the kind frequently used generally by the Western left or by China to bash Japan, such as calling the thinking of Japan's pragmatists "ahistorical imagination" and claiming "selective amnesia" regarding the war by the Japanese people. In that sense, the essay can be called "anti-Japan." The Japan Institute of International Affairs or JIIA is a public institution that is operated by subsidies from the Japanese government. Its current director is Yukio Sato, a former diplomat who once served as ambassador to the United Nations. The opinions in TOKYO 00004581 009 OF 009 JIIA's international dispatch could be taken as the official views of the Japanese government, ruling parties, and majority of Japanese. Although the English-language essay in question contains a statement that "these are the views of the author alone," Director Sato has stated that the intention of the JIIA Commentary was to broadly make known the "thinking of Japan about Japan itself and toward international affairs." Looking at the name of the author of the essay, I was even more astounded, and yet at the same time, convinced, for the author was Masaru Tamamoto, the English editor at JIIA. Tamamoto ASTERISK is a long-time residence of America and is well known as a radical leftist scholar who has often attacked the policies of the Japanese government. In a Washington seminar in 2003, I myself heard him say such comments as, "The abduction issue with North Korea has already been resolved, but the Japanese side is using it as an excuse to keep a hard-line foreign policy stance"; and, "Japan should never dispatch the Self-Defense Forces to Iraq; such a dispatch will never occur." That Tamamoto is not only the author of an essay sent out to the world by JIIA, he also is the senior editor there. In the April edition, he took up the topic of criticism by Foreign Minister Taro and others of the lack of democracy in China, and under the title, "Japan discovers democracy," he poked fun at Japan's diplomacy toward China now discovering that the country lacks democratic values. What is the reason for entrusting Japan's international messages to someone with extreme views who rejects Japan's current diplomacy and security foundation? I would like to send on open letter questioning Director Sato, attaching this column. ( ASTERISK TN: Masaru Tamamoto, editor of the JIIA Commentary, was born in Tokyo and educated in Japan, Switzerland, Egypt and the United States. He received his B.A. degree in international relations from Brown University and his M.A. and Ph.D from Johns Hopkins University. At Princeton, he was a MacArthur Foundation fellow in international peace and security (1988-89).) Back to Top SCHIEFFER