Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06TOKYO6488
2006-11-13 05:46:00
UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
Embassy Tokyo
Cable title:  

The Japan Economic Scope Q- Economic News At-

Tags:  ETRD ECON JA ZO EAGR 
pdf how-to read a cable
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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 08 TOKYO 006488 

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E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ETRD ECON JA ZO EAGR
SUBJECT: The Japan Economic Scope Q- Economic News At-
A-Glance.

Sensitive but unclassified. Please protect
accordingly.

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 08 TOKYO 006488

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SENSITIVE

PARIS PLEASE PASS USOECD

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ETRD ECON JA ZO EAGR
SUBJECT: The Japan Economic Scope Q- Economic News At-
A-Glance.

Sensitive but unclassified. Please protect
accordingly.


1. (SBU) Table of Contents


3. Civair Talks: Beginnings of a Deal?

4. Canada-Japan FTA Off the Rails

5. MAFF Acknowledges Rough Going On Japan-Australia
FTA

6. Treasury DepSec Talks Iraq Compact

7. Allgeier Pushes for Doha Round During DVC with
Tokyo

8. MOFA Pushes Ahead With Asia Regional Information
Sharing Proposal

9. Kyoto Chamber to EMIN; Kansai Wants 2008 G-8
Summit, Good Local Economic Situation

10. KIX - Record Number Of International Flights In
The Winter

11. Visa Policy Relaxed; Tourism Up In Osaka

12. Wakayama Governor Resigns Over Bid-Rigging

13. Local Governments Adopt Competitive Bidding

14. Special Zones Reforms

15. Hyogo Prefecture No. 1 In Attracting New
Businesses In Japan

16. Kansai Volume Of Trade Continues To Grow; Chinese
Cell Phones Lead Imports

17. State Of Idaho Opens An Office In Kobe

18. Nichiha invests $68 million in Georgia

19. Rokkasho Produces Japan's First Commercially
Reprocessed Nuclear Fuel

20. Ehime Governor Accepts Pluthermal MOX Fuel for
Ikata Nuclear Power Plant

21. Japanese Research Whaling Ships Return to Kushiro
With Smaller Catch


2. (U) The Japan Economic Scope (JES) is a weekly e-
newsletter produced by Embassy Tokyo's ECON section in
collaboration with other sections and constituent
Posts and published every Friday. It provides a brief
overview of recent economic developments, insights
gleaned from contacts, summaries of the latest cables
and a list of upcoming visitors. This cable contains
the November 9, 2006, JES, minus the attachments that
accompany many of the individual stories in the e-mail
version. To be added to the e-mail list, please email
ProgarJ@state.gov.


3. (SBU) Civair Talks: Beginnings of a Deal?
--------------

EB DAS John Byerly and MLIT DDG Maeda agreed in
informal talks in Tokyo on November 7 and 8 to hold
formal civair negotiations in Washington in the first
part of 2007.

For the first time in over two years, the United
States laid out in some detail our desired

liberalization in the areas of all-cargo route rights,
pricing, codeshare, and change of gauge without being
told by MLIT to "prioritize" our needs by limiting
them to cargo rights of use only to UPS.

MLIT indicated it would study our country of origin
pricing request but linked new cargo rights to
"correcting" U.S. airline slot "abuses" at Narita, and
found our other requests unnecessary or impossible.

Nevertheless, the atmosphere was amicable, and
agreeing to hold formal negotiations after a hiatus of
two and a half years indicates that MLIT believes a
deal acceptable to both sides is possible.

4.(SBU) Canada-Japan FTA Off the Rails
--------------

A contact at the Canadian Embassy told us last week
that although the Japanese and Canadian governments
may be about to wrap up a year-long joint study on a
bilateral FTA, the short term prospects for moving
ahead on negotiations are very bleak.

TOKYO 00006488 002 OF 008



The joint study was launched at a prime ministerial
session at the 2005 APEC meeting and is scheduled to
be concluded at a similar get-together in Hanoi this
month.

Already in June 2006, at a senior level officials
meeting in Vancouver, GOJ reps told their Canadian
colleagues that conditions were not ripe in at least
the short term to begin negotiations. The reason:
agricultural products make up too high a share of
Canadian exports to Japan.

Our contact told us that even if the study is
concluded on time, he expects the GOJ in Hanoi to
again say "no" to the Canadians on trade talks.
In the absence of FTA negotiations, the two sides are
reportedly at a loss on where to take their bilateral
economic relationship next.


5. (SBU) MAFF Acknowledges Rough Going On Japan-
Australia FTA
--------------

A director in MAFF's ministerial secretariat told
AgMin and EMIN on November 9 that closure on a study
of a bilateral Japan Australia FTA remains very
difficult.

The official confirmed MAFF's position that the study
must state that sensitive agricultural products will
not be a subject of possible future negotiations.

While willing to show some flexibility on how
sensitive products will be treated, the Australian
position remains that nothing be excluded prior to the
initiation of actual negotiations.

Shaking his head in astonishment, the MAFF official
said the Australians actually seem intent on
liberalizing agricultural trade via an FTA.

Local newspapers reported earlier that talks last week
in Canberra made some progress towards bridging the
gap and that the countries' two prime ministers may
yet be able to announce the opening of negotiations
when they meet in Manila at the December East Asian
Summit.


6. (SBU) Treasury DepSec Talks Iraq Compact
--------------

In visits with Finance Minister Omi, Foreign Minister
Aso, Bank of Japan Governor Fukui, and the senior
management of Japan's mega-banks, Treasury Deputy
Secretary Robert Kimmitt discussed details of the Iraq

SIPDIS
Compact, Treasury's measures against the DPRK, and
concerns about financial ties with Iran.

On the first leg of a Tokyo-Seoul trip in his capacity
as Presidential Emissary for the International Compact
for Iraq, Deputy Secretary Kimmitt outlined key
objectives leading up the Compact's signing at the end
of this month, including talking points on debt
forgiveness and allaying concerns about Iraq's 2007 CY
budget's funding gap.

With regard to Treasury measures taken against the
DPRK, Deputy Secretary Kimmitt was careful to
reinforce the distinction between political sanctions,
such as those exemplified by UNSCR 1718, and those
steps taken in a law-enforcement context, as seen in
last year's freezing of DPRK Banco Delta Asia assets
by Macanese authorities.

Deputy Secretary Kimmitt further emphasized the
financial and reputation risks facing Japanese
institutions doing business with Iranian counterparts,
while lauding the close cooperation with Japanese
authorities evident in all these matters.

TOKYO 00006488 003 OF 008




7. (U) Allgeier Pushes for Doha Round During DVC with
Tokyo
--------------

During a DVC from Geneva with Tokyo press and opinion
shapers, U.S. Ambassador to the World Trade
Organization, Peter Allgeier, said Washington wants a
"Doha right and not Doha light" in the Doha Round of
talks.

He was pleased with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's recent
words of support for the trade talks, and encouraged
the GOJ to take a greater leadership role in the
round.

He underscored the importance of reaching a successful
conclusion, particularly for developing countries, but
noted all countries needed to show a high level of
ambition.

Asked about the mid-term elections in the United
States and their effect on the round, Allgeier made no
predictions, but pointed to the "enduring interests"
of the United States in seeing a successful and open
world trading system.

The Japanese press picked up on his suggestion that
the Congress may agree to extend fast track trade
promotion authority if there is an appealingly
ambitious deal on the table.

Some press reports in Japan have suggested that the
talks may not pick up again until 2008 if the
Democrats win the mid-term elections.

The DVC at the Tokyo American Center was well attended
by press, academic, and government officials.


8. (U) MOFA Pushes Ahead With Asia Regional
Information Sharing Proposal
--------------

Co-hosts MOFA and Kyoto University cobbled together a
consensus to further explore their "Economic
information Sharing Mechanism of the Asia-Pacific
Region (EiSMAP)" concept at a November 6-7 meeting in
Kyoto attended by representatives of the ADB, IMF,
World Bank and more than fifteen regional governments
or research institutes.

Despite considerable skepticism voiced at the
conference regarding the concept's objectives, utility
and potential duplication with the work of other
organizations, there was general agreement that
serious gaps in the quality, reliability and
accountability of regional economic data exist.

As these gaps may undermine investor confidence and
create negative spillover effects in the event of an
economic or environmental crisis in the region,
participants supported the further development of
EiSMAP.

MOFA will seek to fund a pilot program -- to begin, a
web portal assembling currently available economic
data -- and agreed to explore associating the project
with APEC.

The elephant not in the room was China. Beijing's
delegates cancelled their participation on the eve of
the conference after MOFA failed to resolve a dispute
regarding the presence of researchers from Taiwan.


9. (U) Japan's Core Consumer Price Growth Decelerates
Slightly to 0.2% in September
--------------

Japan's nationwide "core" CPI (excluding perishable
food items),rose 0.2 percent in September from the

TOKYO 00006488 004 OF 008


year before, having increased 0.3 percent in August,
the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication
(MIC) announced October 27.


10. (U) Kyoto Chamber to EMIN; Kansai Wants 2008 G-8
Summit, Good Local Economic Situation
--------------

In an introductory meeting with Kyoto Chamber of
Commerce and Industry Chairman Jun'ichi Murata, EMIN
Hans Klemm heard about Kyoto's strong interest in
hosting the next G-8 Summit presided over by Japan in

2008.

He hoped that the summit would focus on global
environment issues and Asian peace and development.

Although EMIN noted that the USG had no decision-
making power in the matter, Murata emphasized the
importance of generating "buzz" for the summit venue
and recalled the role played by Amb. Foley before the
last Japanese G-8 summit (held in 2000 in Okinawa) in
regard to sensitivities over U.S. base issues.
Regarding the economic situation in Kyoto, Murata
described the city as a place where traditional craft
techniques have been successfully applied to high tech
industries.

Although some Kyoto leading firms (e.g., Kyocera and
Nintendo) lack the name recognition of their
competitors in Osaka or Nagoya, more than 20 strong
SMEs and larger firms manufacture unique products, and
Kyoto's 32 universities offer a young and vibrant
population of 100,000 students, many of whom are
focused on entrepreneurship and venture businesses.
Kyoto's national Center of Excellence focuses on
nanotechnology.



11. (U) KIX - Record Number Of International Flights
In The Winter
--------------

Kansai International Airport Company (KIAC) announced
that the number of international flights planned for
the winter will be a record 733 flights a week, a 57
flight increase from winter 2005.

Increased China routes following a civil aviation
agreement to expand routes between Japan and China
makes up for a decline in KIX - U.S. routes.
KIX - China routes will have 275 flights a week out of
the 733 total.

KIAC President Atsushi Murayama said KIAC aims to
raise domestic flights and flights to U.S to achieve
an MLIT target of 130,000 flights a year in 2007, in
order to secure GOJ funding for a 2nd runway.

KIAC's manager of international affairs said that the
airport would like to halt the continuing shift of
U.S. routes to Narita.


12. (U) Visa Policy Relaxed; Tourism Up In Osaka
-------------- ---

According to the Osaka Prefectural Government,
attendance at major sightseeing facilities such as
Osaka Castle, Osaka Aquarium, and Tsutenkaku Tower in
Osaka during the summer increased 9.4 percent from a
year earlier.

Immigration from overseas to Kansai International
Airport in July also increased 10.8 percent from 2005.

The director of the Kansai International Public
Relations Promotion Office said that the number of
regional inbound tourists from Taiwan, Korea, and the
PRC has rapidly increased due to the relaxation of
Japanese tourist visa policy, and KIX customers from

TOKYO 00006488 005 OF 008


the Asian mainland have flocked to Osaka.

There has also been an increase in public and private
PR spending as part of the GOJ "Visit Japan" campaign.

Although local governments didn't recognize tourism as
one of the "major industries" of Osaka in the past,
now they have begun to embrace tourism.

A director of International Affairs at the Osaka
Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OCCI) indicated that
although OCCI has neglected the tourism industry, it
has begun to promote Osaka's tourist resources in
earnest. He emphasized that there still is much more
to do to grow the tourism field.



13. (SBU) Wakayama Governor Resigns Over Bid-Rigging
-------------- --------------

Wakayama Governor Kimura announced his resignation
over an unfolding public works bid rigging scandal.

Rumors are circulating that Kimura's troubles began
when he fell out of grace with ex-METI Minister Nikai,
a powerful Wakayama Dietman, and alienated vested
interests upset with the governor's ambitious economic
reform plan.

A by-election will be held December 17 and will likely
go to a conservative successor.

Kimura and his wife had close personal relations with
Florida Governor Jeb Bush and his wife. For more
details please see Osaka Kobe 00633.


14. (SBU) Local Governments Adopt Competitive Bidding
-------------- --------------

After the Public Service Reform Law ("Market Testing
Law") was passed in May 2006, local governments began
to look at competitive bidding as a method to improve
their services and to cut costs as part of their
administrative reform efforts. According to the
Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, 26
local governments will adopt market testing by April

2010.

While the competitive bidding process is aimed at
cutting costs for local governments facing fiscal
difficulties, it is also aimed at soliciting greater
involvement of civil society organizations and the
private sector in local policy-making.

Saga Prefecture will be the first to review all of its
2,027 services (excluding core public services such as
policing) in the coming months in order to decide with
civil society and private sector participation who can
best provide these services, and to reflect the
results of consultations on who can best provide
public services in its budget for the next fiscal
year.


15. (U) Special Zones Reforms
--------------

On November 1, Econoff met with representatives from
the office of Special Zone Reforms to receive an
update on progress made-to-date and plans for Special
Zones (SZ) going forward.

Special Zones were established in 2003 as a means to
revitalize local economies by
implementing experimental economic measures at a local
level, but with an eye toward using successful
measures nationwide when possible.

The estimated economic impact of special zones has
been significant.


TOKYO 00006488 006 OF 008



16. (SBU) Hyogo Prefecture No. 1 In Attracting New
Businesses In Japan
--------------

In the fierce competition over business promotion
subsidies among Japanese prefectures, the gap between
successful and unsuccessful prefectures is growing in
the Kansai district.

Hyogo Prefecture got 57 new business cases, which is
the largest number in the first half of 2006 in Japan,
and almost half the total number of the region's
business starts with 125 cases. Osaka had 19 cases,
and Kyoto had 12 cases in the same period.

The subsidy race in the Kansai heated up after Osaka-
based Sharp Corp. set up a new LCD plant in Kameyama
City, Mie Prefecture in 2002.

Former Mie Governor Masayasu Kitagawa is said to have
been successful in drawing the firm out of Osaka by
offering a 9 billion yen subsidy.


17. (U) Kansai Volume Of Trade Continues To Grow;
Chinese Cell Phones Lead Imports
--------------

Osaka Customs announced that the volume of trade in
September 2006 for the Kansai hit a record. The
export amount is 1.38 trillion yen, up 13.3 percent
from the same month last year. There were eight months
of continuous double-digit growth in exports. Imports
also surged to 1.61 trillion yen, a record 13.8
percent increase.

Export of audio and visual appliances, mainly plasma
display panels, to the EU and Central America
increased 63 percent from the previous year.
The largest import item is communication equipment,
mainly cellular phones, from China - which doubled
from 2005.

A METI Kinki Bureau official said that the high demand
for cellular phones is still continuing, due to
increased competition in the domestic market, and
China is rapidly developing its own cell technology.
China is trying to shift from labor-intensive
manufacturing to advanced technology business, so
analysts predict Chinese imports of communication
technology to continue for the next year or two.


18. (U) State Of Idaho Opens An Office In Kobe
-------------- -

On October 18, the State of Idaho opened its second
Japan office in Kobe, bucking the trend of U.S. State
offices is to close or consolidate their Japan
operations.

Idaho Lieutenant Governor Mark Ricks visited Japan for
the opening and emphasized that Idaho was not only an
agricultural State, but also a leading location for
high-tech industry.

Idaho-based Micron Technology, a top firm for
semiconductor memory products, purchased its local
subsidiary company in Nishiwaki City in Hyogo from
Nippon Steel.


19. (U) Nichiha invests $68 million in Georgia
-------------- -

Nikkei Shimbun's Central Japan edition reported
November 9 that Nichiha Corporation, Nagoya's leading
manufacturer of exterior housing materials (fiber
cement products) will invest approx. $68 million in
Georgia to build a new plant through its U.S.
subsidiary and begin production in October 2007.

The company president said he wants to start a new

TOKYO 00006488 007 OF 008


business growth model with this new investment in the
United States.


20. (U) Rokkasho Produces Japan's First Commercially
Reprocessed Nuclear Fuel
--------------

The Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd. (JNFL)'s Rokkasho
plutonium reprocessing plant in Aomori Prefecture
produced its first batch of uranium-plutonium mixed-
oxide (MOX) fuel solution in early November during its
initial test run.

The MOX solution will be reprocessed several times
until it reaches a powder form that can then be used
as a basic ingredient for nuclear fuel production.
JNFL announced that they plan to finish the first
batch of MOX powder at Rokkasho by mid-November.

The Rokkasho plant began this test run on March 31st
with a goal of extracting four tons of plutonium from
430 tons of spent nuclear fuel.

When the plant begins regular operations in August
2007, it plans to reprocess 800 tons of spent nuclear
fuel to extract eight tons of plutonium a year.

It remains to be seen where this large amount of
extracted MOX plutonium will be put to use. Japanese
electric companies aim to have 16 to 18 reactors that
can utilize the MOX plutonium in place by 2010. As of
today, there are only two: Genkai reactor of Kyushu
Electric in Saga prefecture and Ikata reactor in Ehime
prefecture.


20. (U) Ehime Governor Accepts Pluthermal MOX Fuel for
Ikata Nuclear Power Plant
--------------

Ehime Governor Moriyuki Kato and Ikata Town Mayor
Kazuhiko Yamashita officially accepted a proposal by
Shikoku Electric Power to use "pluthermal" MOX fuel.
The project seeks to start operation in 2010.

Governor Kato mentioned that local people now
understand the safety and importance of the project.
Although, according to Mr. Kozo Kondo, a supporter and
Honorary Chairman of the Shikoku Economic Federation,
an advisor to Shikoku Electric Power Co., Inc. and the
engineer who designed Ikata, there are still many
voices opposed to the project.


21. (U) Japanese Research Whaling Ships Return to
Kushiro With Smaller Catch
--------------

Japan's whaling research vessels returned to Kushiro,
Hokkaido, with a catch of only 35 minke whales as the
country's northern Pacific Ocean whale research
program came to a close at the end of October.

This was far fewer than the 60 whales authorized for
research purposes by the International Whaling
Commission.
Researchers blamed bad weather, including a late
September typhoon, and a smaller than usual supply of
Pacific saury (the minke whales' preferred food
source) for the reduced catch.

Head researcher Hidehiro Kato, professor at the Tokyo
University of Marine Science and Technology, said in
an Asahi Shimbun interview that because the size of
the research area is limited, reduced catches are
unavoidable.
He stated it is necessary to make the research area
much wider to estimate correctly the total number of
whales in the region.

Without providing details, Dr. Kato also mentioned
that they acquired some peculiar data during this

TOKYO 00006488 008 OF 008


year's research program.

The findings will be presented at next year's IWC
meeting in Anchorage.

SCHIEFFER