DAILY SUMMARY OF JAPANESE PRESS 10/02/07

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 06 TOKYO 004633 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 10/02/07 Index: (1) Diet approval likely to become point at issue in debate on new antiterrorism bill; Opposition camp to criticize new legislation as deviation from civilian control (2) LDP still unable to recover from damage from "postal election"; Postal rebels-reinstated lawmakers vs. Koizumi children; Hiranuma issue is source of trouble (3) Blanket BSE inspection is waste of tax money: Stopping pithing practice and extensive removal of lingual tonsils are more important; It is irresponsible for government not to report on details of actual situation (4) TOP HEADLINES (5) EDITORIALS ARTICLES: (1) Diet approval likely to become point at issue in debate on new antiterrorism bill; Opposition camp to criticize new legislation as deviation from civilian control SANKEI (Page 3) (Abridged slightly) October 2, 2007 Full-fledged Diet debate will get underway with the start tomorrow of interpellations by party leaders following Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda's policy speech yesterday. Aiming to extend the Maritime Self-Defense Force's refueling mission in the Indian Ocean, the government and ruling camp plan to determine an outline today of alternative legislation to the Antiterrorism Special Measures Law in order to present it to the opposition bloc before the end of the week. The opposition camp is set to pursue allegations that US warships used fuel from the MSDF in the Iraq war and criticize the envisaged new bill for not requiring Diet approval as a deviation from civilian control. Services to be limited to refueling Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba, appearing on NTV and Fuji-TV programs yesterday, indicated that ways to ensure civilian control under the new legislation would be a key point. He also said: "Although the Antiterrorism Law now in force is designed to allow a variety of activities, only refueling would be allowed under the new legislation. The enactment of the bill will be tantamount to Diet approval." Ishiba thus indicated that the new legislation would not necessarily include a provision requiring Diet approval. The current Antiterrorism Law requires the government to obtain "retroactive approval by the Diet" within 20 days of the start of MSDF operations. The major opposition Democratic Party of Japan (Minshuto or DPJ) opposed the enactment of the Antiterrorism Law in 2001, citing a lack of "prior approval" by the Diet. But in November 2001, the party endorsed the government's retroactive approval of the dispatch of MSDF troops to the Indian Ocean. The now defunct Liberal Party headed by Ichiro Ozawa at the time opposed both the Antiterrorism Law and Diet approval. The law has since been extended three times, but the government did not bother TOKYO 00004633 002 OF 006 to seek Diet approval, saying there was no significant change to the MSDF operations. Countermeasures for Upper House The government and ruling coalition have decided not to include a Diet approval clause in the new legislation, fearing that the opposition-controlled House of Councillors would press the government for immediate withdrawal after refusing to approve the MSDF mission. The government and ruling bloc have also decided to eliminate the duty of rescuing victims of terrorism on the grounds that continuing the same operations would not require additional Diet endorsement. But given the standard requirement of Diet approval in mobilizing SDF troops, the opposition parties are certain to take special notice of the absence of it. DPJ Secretary General Yukio Hatoyama contended that Diet approval was indispensable in view of civilian control apparently in a bid to make a public appeal. The DPJ is set to fiercely debate the question of Diet approval along with the alleged diversion of Japanese fuel for the Iraq war. Major points in new antiterrorism legislation ¶1. MSDF operations will be limited to oil and water supply. Search and rescue operations and rescuing victims will not be stipulated. ¶2. The MSDF will conduct operations based on UN Security Council Resolution 1776 that expressed appreciation for the Maritime Interdiction Operation by the US-led coalition forces. ¶3. The area of operations will be limited to the Indian Ocean, including the Persian Gulf, and the skies above it. ¶4. The requirement of Diet approval will be eliminated. ¶5. The new law will be good for one or two years. (Coordination underway within the ruling camp) (2) LDP still unable to recover from damage from "postal election"; Postal rebels-reinstated lawmakers vs. Koizumi children; Hiranuma issue is source of trouble TOKYO SHIMBUN (Page 2) (Slightly abridged) October 2, 2007 With the launching yesterday of Japan Post Holdings Co., the privatization of state-run postal services pushed ahead by former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has now been realized. However, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has yet to recover from the wound caused by the House of Representatives election held in September 2005 -- the election that asked voters whether they favored postal privatization or not. The LDP has many hurdles to overcome such as the question of whether to reinstate former international trade minister Takeo Hiranuma, one of the postal rebels, as well as coordination on candidates to run in electoral districts in the next Lower House election. The most serious aftereffect of the so-called postal election is coordination to pick candidates to run in electoral districts in the Lower House election. The party has to choose candidates from the so-called Koizumi children, who were elected in the 2005 Lower House election for the first time, and from those lawmakers who opposed the government's postal-privatization drive and are now reinstated into the LDP. TOKYO 00004633 003 OF 006 Of 27 postal rebels, who ran in the 2005 election as independents, 13 were elected. Of the 13 lawmakers, 11 were allowed to return to the LDP after submitting their written pledges of agreeing to postal-privatization. Of the 11 lawmakers, Keiji Furuya (Gifu No. 5 district) and four other members, who are regarded as candidates for the next Lower House race, now head local chapters of the LDP from their electoral districts. However, in the electoral districts in which six persons, including Mitsuo Horiuchi (Yamanashi No.2 district),were elected, lawmakers, who won their seats under the proportional representation segment after being defeated by Horiuchi and five other competitors, now head the six local chapters of the LDP from their electoral districts. One of the reinstated lawmakers is confident in obtaining the party's endorsement as the official candidate for a single-seat constituency. A person, once called an assassin candidate, who won a Lower House seat in the proportional representation competition after losing the single-seat constituency race, stressed that the lawmaker has no intention of giving the party's official endorsement to other person, saying, "I staked my life on the Lower House election." The existence of Hiranuma, who has been an independent since he refused to submit a written pledge, will likely become a cause of trouble. Former Secretary General Taro Aso, who has close ties with Hiranuma, had indicated that the party would reinstate him unconditionally. There is no doubt that former Prime Minister SHINZO Abe, whose political principles are similar to Hiranuma's, backed Aso's view. However, waves of criticism of Aso's idea erupted in the LDP. Lower House member Yasuhiro Nakagawa commented: "If the party reinstates Hiranuma, it means that the party rejects the Koizumi reform drive." Koizumi praised such remarks as brave. Secretary General Bunmei Ibuki, the successor to Aso, reconfirmed that the party would ask Hiranuma to present a written pledge if it allows him to return. This shows there is a deep-seated antagonism in the LDP. Another cause of trouble for the LDP leadership is how to treat the many members who ran in the proportional representation segment and won Lower House seats. It is not easy for the party to secure single-seat constituencies for them, and it is also difficult to give favorable treatment in placing them on the list of candidates. Lawmaker Taizo Sugimura, who was elected with the rank of number 35 on the LDP's proportional representation list, is desperate to play up his political identity, saying, "Becoming a regional chapter head is my political goal, but there is no use thinking such because the party executive has the right to pick. I have no choice but to carry out whatever activities I can do so that the executive would think I am being of assistance." (3) Blanket BSE inspection is waste of tax money: Stopping pithing practice and extensive removal of lingual tonsils are more important; It is irresponsible for government not to report on details of actual situation MAINICHI (Page 4) (Full) October 2, 2007 TOKYO 00004633 004 OF 006 By Masami Kojima (Livelihood Reporting Center) It has been six years since blanket cattle inspections started in Oct. 2001 due to the BSE problem. Though the government has asked local governments to stop inspection of cattle aged 20 months or lower at the end of next July, many of them want to continue the inspection. What has brought about this gap? Japan is the only country in the world that is obsessed with the article of faith in that BSE inspection ensures beef safety. I contributed an article to this column five years ago, which went that the meaning and limit of blanket cattle inspection was not correctly understood by the public. However, the situation has not changed from five years ago. I would like to explain why blanket cattle inspection cannot ensure beef safety. To begin with, see the table below (TN: omitted) showing four cows infected with BSE, because they all have prion accumulations, a type of protein that indicates an infection. Each cow has prions accumulated at a different part of their bodies. Under the method of inspecting cows adopted at slaughterhouses, part of a cow's brain is removed to see if prion can be detected. Under this inspection method, it is not possible to determine whether the cow is infected or not, if prion is located in spinal cord, intestines and lingual tonsils or if the amount of prion accumulated in brain is small. For this reason, even if all those four cattle undergo tests, three out of the four would be shipped to the market. In particular, since the possibility of prion being identified is close to zero in inspections of young cows, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (MHLW) decided to remove cows twenty months of age or younger from the list of cattle subject to testing. However, blanket cattle testing is still being carried out, funded with subsidies, as local governments strongly called for the continuation of the blanket testing. Even European countries, where more than 1 million BSE-infected cows were discovered, do not carry out blanket testing. That is because inspection can detect only some of infected cattle. In Japan, in contrast, the agriculture minister at the time explained, "Blanket cattle inspection is the strictest test method in the world. This method ensures safety." The public, therefore, believes that blanket cattle testing ensures beef safety. However, measures that ensure safety are the removal of specified risk materials (SRM) and feed restrictions. The SRM is removed at Japanese slaughterhouses as well. What is of concern is pithing and lingual tonsils. Pithing is a practice of destroying the brain system by sticking a rod into the stun hole to reduce or eliminate reflex kicking when slaughtering them. When a rod is stuck into an infected cow, prion flows into blood, infecting the meat. As such, this method is completely banned in Europe and the US. However, about half the slaughterhouses in Japan adopt this method. In European countries and the US, lingual tonsils at the back of the tongue are removed extensively. However, in Japan, which has a habit of eating tongues, there is no uniform removal method. How properly lingual tonsils are TOKYO 00004633 005 OF 006 removed is unclear. Spinal cord and its nerve system are distributed outside slaughterhouses. However, there are no reports on details regarding where and how they are disposed of. Overconfidence in blanket cattle testing is to be blamed for the negligence of discussions of such key points. At present, approximately 1.25 million cattle a year are subject to inspections, of which cattle 20 months of age or younger are about 160,000. The MHLW disbursed approximately 200 million yen a year as subsidies for cattle inspection. However, it has decided to stop paying subsidies on the ground that it is no longer possible to use valuable tax money on such an ineffective measure. However, many local governments called on the MHLW to continue the subsidy system. It is said that if some local governments independently continue blanket cattle testing, beef from cattle that underwent inspections and beef from cattle that did not will be put on store shelves, causing confusion to consumers. However, having passed inspections does not prove that the products are infection-free. Whichever beef customers choose, it does not make any difference. Or rather, to me it means that beef that underwent inspection used tax money wastefully. I want to know whether products are from cattle that underwent pithing or not and how lingual tonsils were removed, instead of whether they underwent inspections or not. However, these key points have never been disclosed. An official in charge at a local government office told me, "I know that blanket cattle testing is meaningless. However, nothing can be done, since people believe in blanket cattle testing. The situation will remain unchanged unless the government explains the limit of blanket cattle testing in an unequivocal manner." I quite agree with his opinion. Right after the first discovery of BSE-infected cow in 2001, an MHLW official told reporters, including myself, that testing cattle aged 30 months or older would suffice." However, in the process of political arguments this stance has changed. The MHLW's stance is now that blanket cattle testing should be implemented to dispel the anxiety of people. This decision was unavoidable at the time. However, people still believe in blanket cattle testing, because explanations given by the government are vague and insufficient. Some take the view that if the public believes in blanket testing, it cannot be helped to inject tax money, even if it is wasteful as the cost of securing peace of mind. However, such a thinking is too sad. If people want to know the number of discoveries of BSE cases through inspections, it is sufficient to inspect cattle aged 30 months or older as West European countries do. (4) TOP HEADLINES Asahi: Mainichi: Tokyo Shimbun: School textbook screening on mass-suicides: Description on military involvement likely to be restored; Government to give consideration for feelings of people in Okinawa; MEXT considering measures Yomiuri: Stable Master Tokitsukaze to be fired over death of sumo wrestler TOKYO 00004633 006 OF 006 Nikkei: KDDI to lower rates by 30 PERCENT ; Up 20,000 yen for handsets under new system Sankei: Nikkei, Asahi and Yomiuri to launch joint website: Internet war among dailies to enter key phase Akahata: Prime Minister Fukuda makes policy speech: Stresses consumption tax and continuation of refueling operations in the Indian Ocean (5) EDITORIALS Asahi: (1) Prime Minister's policy speech: Cooperative policy is important, but he should not avoid pitched battles either (2) Privatized postal services: Become an ordinary country as soon as possible Mainichi: (1) Prime Minister's policy speech: Politics has regained tranquility at last (2) Six-party talks: Do not compromise on the disabling of nuclear facilities by DPRK Yomiuri: (1) Prime Minister's policy speech: Find breakthrough in difficult situation with policy cooperation (2) Bank of Japan quarterly business survey report Nikkei: (1) Prime Minister's dialogue policy will not make progress without concrete discussions (2) Bank of Japan quarterly business survey report reflects dual nature of economy Sankei: (1) Prime Minister's policy speech fails to show path toward hope and peace of mind (2) Inter-Korean summit: Assistance for self-complacency not acceptable Tokyo Shimbun: (1) Fukuda's policy speech: Prime Minister should not resort to approach of avoiding war of wards (2) Mass-suicides: We should listen to the voices of people in Okinawa Akahata: (1) Prime Minister Fukuda's policy speech: If he wants to respond to people's confidence in his cabinet, ... 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