Australian minister in Japan amid whale row

by Hiroshi Hiyama
Jan 31, 2008

TOKYO (AFP) - Australia's foreign minister held talks with Japan Thursday amid a bitter feud on whaling as the two countries tried to show that their close relationship was otherwise intact.

Stephen Smith was on his first foreign trip since taking office, coming to Japan from mutual ally the United States. He held talks late Thursday with his Japanese counterpart, Masahiko Komura.

The two foreign ministers signed a treaty on avoiding double taxation, with Komura thanking Smith for visiting Japan so early in the two-month-old government's tenure.

"I would like to further enhance this relationship," Komura said.

But speaking to reporters shortly before the meeting, Komura acknowledged that the whaling row was bound to come up.

"When we see each other we will inevitably have to talk about it," Komura said. "Minister Smith may bring up the whaling issue, or I may bring up the harassment issue."

Japan, which says whaling is part of its culture, kills some 1,000 of the giant mammals a year despite passionate opposition from Western countries led by Australia and vociferous opposition from animal groups.

Environmentalists regularly harass the Japanese whalers. In mid-January, two activists from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society hopped onto a harpoon ship, setting off a standoff.

Sea Shepherd said Thursday that its ship had returned to port in Melbourne as it was running out of fuel, allowing Japan to resume killing whales.

Some Japanese officials had privately voiced concern about Australia's new Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, a former diplomat with a fondness for China, which often has uneasy relations with Japan.

Smith, speaking last week when his trip was announced, said his visit "demonstrates the priority Australia gives to the bilateral relationship."

A senior Japanese foreign ministry official, who asked for anonymity, said Smith's visit was an important reassurance.

"We see this as a message by the new Australian government that Japan remains an important ally for Australia," the official said.

"Whaling of course will be talked about at the foreign ministerial talks, but the two ministers have already discussed it over the telephone and agreed not to make it a diplomatic issue," he said.

Rudd's government has sent a customs ship to track the Japanese whalers. His Labor Party accused the previous conservative government of John Howard of failing to press for an end to whaling due to concern about business with Japan, Australia's top trading partner.

Under Howard, Japan agreed to start talks on a free-trade agreement which, if realised, would be the first between Asia's largest economy and a major agricultural exporter.

Howard last year signed a security pact with Japan -- officially pacifist Tokyo's first such deal other than its alliance with the United States.

As Smith arrived, nearly 100 experts and officials on both sides of the whaling dispute met in Japan in a bid to reach some understanding on the future of the International Whaling Commission, which is bitterly divided between countries which support whaling and those that oppose it.

The symposium, which will submit recommendations to the commission's next meeting, was arranged by the Pew Charitable Trusts, a non-governmental US research institute.

The commission imposed a 1986 moratorium on whaling, but Japan argues that it should go back to its original mandate of managing whale populations for hunting.

TechBit: Japan lacks virus laws

By Yuri Kageyama, AP Business Writer
Jan 30, 2008

TOKYO - Police investigating a man for allegedly spreading a computer virus had to arrest him on a copyright infringement charge because Japan lacks laws against malicious computer programs, a police officer said Friday.

Masato Nakatsuji, 24, a graduate student at Osaka Electro-Communication University, is suspected of illegally copying and distributing over the Internet an image from the Japanese animation film "Clannad" showing a woman walking amid falling cherry blossoms.

But Nakatsuji also allegedly embedded the image in the "Harada virus," one of Japan's "Big Three" viruses, a Kyoto police officer said on the customary condition of anonymity.

Police said it was the first arrest in Japan involving making or spreading viruses.

Although computer viruses have wreaked havoc around the world for more than two decades, Japan has been slow to pass legislation to crack down on people who make and spread the potentially destructive programs.

In the latest case, police considered other charges, including damage to property and obstructing business, before deciding that copyright violation charges would hold up best in court, the officer said.

Nakatsuji, who is not suspected of creating the virus, was in police custody and not immediately available for comment. Police said he isn't contesting the charges.

Downloading the Harada virus with the animated image destroyed data and spread on the Internet information stored in computers hit by the virus, according to police.

The virus was also spread through an illegal Japanese file-sharing software program called Winny. The extent of the damage has not yet been disclosed, the Kyoto officer said.

Koji Namikoshi, spokesman for the university where Nakatsuji was researching laser technology, said the university is strengthening instruction on ethical uses of the Internet.

"But the only illegality is copyright," he said. "Something is wrong."

The maximum punishment for copyright infringement is 10 years in prison and fines of 10 million yen, or $93,000.

Japan Tobacco Recalls Pesticide-Contaminated Food

Japan Tobacco Recalls Pesticide-Contaminated Food (Update2)

By Maki Shiraki

Jan. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Japan Tobacco Inc., the nation's biggest cigarette company, recalled some pork products imported from China after saying they were contaminated with pesticides and people who ate them became nauseous.

Japan's Health Ministry earlier said eight people were poisoned after eating frozen dumplings from China. The ministry didn't identify any company associated with the poisoning.

The recalled items included ``gyoza'' dumplings, pork cutlets and other foods containing pork. The Tokyo- based maker of Camel and Mild Seven cigarettes has been expanding its food business as tobacco consumption falls in its home market.

A local police spokesman said five of the victims were members of a family in Ichikawa City, east of Tokyo. The 5-year- old daughter was hospitalized on Jan. 22. Kyodo News reported that 10 people suffered food poisoning from frozen dumplings made in China.

Japan Tobacco President Hiroshi Kimura apologized for the suffering of the victims in a statement distributed by fax.

Shares of the company today fell 2.6 percent to 562,000 yen. Reports of the poisoning came after the close of trading.

To contact the reporter on this story: Maki Shiraki in Tokyo at mshiraki1@bloomberg.net

Japanese samba their way to the front of Brazil's carnival

SAO PAULO (AFP) - Brazil's strong Japanese community -- the biggest in the world outside Japan itself -- will be at the fore of this year's carnival, which kicks off on Friday.

In Sao Paulo, the city with the biggest concentration of the 1.5 million Japanese descendants living in the country, the carnival parade will include a 1,000-strong contingent of Japanese samba dancers -- led by a native Japanese woman, Yuka Sugiura, 36.

They will be part of the Unidos de Vila Maria samba school, whose 4,500 members are to beat drums and jig to the rhythm of a song specially written to highlight a centenary of Japanese immigration to Brazil.

Luis Paolo, the song's composer at the school, told AFP "we started celebrating the Japanese in Brazil three years ago but this year we're going all out."

He enthused that Sugiara, who moved from Nagoya, Japan to Brazil eight years to indulge her passion for samba, was "a great dancer -- and really beautiful as well."

The daily Folha de Sao Paulo featured a front-page photo of her smiling and holding a bamboo and paper fan in the colors of the Brazilian flag. She said she knew she was born to samba the first time she heard the Brazilian beat.

"My heart beat in time with the drums. It was electrifying. It woke something that was sleeping in me," she told the daily.

Brazil this year is marking the 100th anniversary of the first Japanese immigrants, who arrived on board a ship on June 18, 1908 to work on coffee plantations.

Months of celebrations are programmed, with the highlight coming in June, when Japan's Crown Prince Naruhito will visit.

China toxic dumplings spark food scare in Japan

Jan 31, 2008

TOKYO (Reuters) - Dozens more people in Japan on Thursday said they fell sick after eating Chinese-made food, a day after Japanese food companies recalled pesticide-contaminated dumplings from China that sickened 10 people.

The food scare has triggered a nationwide probe into possible additional cases of food poisoning, while Japan's top government spokesman questioned China's attitude to food safety only weeks after the country said it had improved standards.

Japanese media and opposition lawmakers have also suggested Japan's initial response to the problem may have been too slow.

"I have two children, boys aged four and two. They love dumplings. Japanese people love dumplings," said Democratic Party parliamentarian Yuichiro Hata. "This is something that threatens peoples' lives."

Japan Tobacco Inc said on Wednesday its subsidiary, JT Foods Co., would recall the frozen dumplings and other food made at the same Chinese factory, as television broadcasters flashed warnings to viewers not to eat the products.

Around 80 people in Japan have complained of getting sick from eating food made in China, TV Asahi said. Restaurants and schools took Chinese-made food off their menus, other media said.

The scandal is the latest in a string of disputes over the safety of Chinese products from toys to toothpaste. Earlier this month, China declared that its campaign to ensure food and product safety had been a complete success.

"I don't want to think that there is any difference among countries concerning food safety, but it seems there was a sense on the Chinese side that 'this is probably ok'," Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura told a news conference.

"We want the Chinese side to properly investigate the situation," he added, pointing out that China was hit by a series of food safety scares last year.

The Health Ministry has told 19 companies selling products made at the Chinese factory in question not sell the goods until they have been declared safe for consumption, it said in a statement.

Health Minister Yoichi Masuzoe told a parliamentary committee that as of Thursday morning, the government had been consulted by several prefectures but the checks were ongoing and there had so far been no official confirmation of other cases of poisoning.

"The government will collect further information and first, prevent the spread of harm, clarify the cause and take steps to prevent a reoccurrence," Masuzoe said.

China's quality watchdog said late on Wednesday that it had begun an investigation into the affair.

"After we found out this news, we paid great attention to it," China's quality regulator said in an emailed statement.

"We quickly got in touch with relevant parties on the Japanese side to understand the situation, and have already set about investigations," it added. "We will release the results of the probe in a timely manner."

Japan has not been immune to its own food scares. A number of Japanese confectioners admitted last year to having mislabeled production and expiry dates for cookies and rice cakes.

No widespread health hazards, however, have hit the country since more than 10,000 people suffered food poisoning after drinking tainted milk in 2000.

(Reporting by Linda Sieg, Chisa Fujioka and George Nishiyama in Tokyo and Ben Blanchard in Beijing)

Japan calls on China to step up food safety

Jan 31, 2008

TOKYO - Japan called on China Thursday to review its food safety standards amid a nationwide scare after at least 10 people fell ill from eating frozen dumplings made in China.

The Japanese cabinet held an emergency meeting to discuss action after the food poisoning, as television networks broadcast horror stories from people who said they felt near death after eating the dumplings.

Authorities were investigating more reported cases of people falling ill since the news broke Wednesday, as a five-year-old girl remained in serious condition.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura, the government's number two, tried to reassure consumers that Japan already has standing discussions with China, its top trading partner, on the safety of food imports.

"We don't want to think that different countries have different standards on safety. But perhaps the Chinese side might have thought things are OK as they've said they're '99 percent safe,'" Machimura told a press conference.

"Despite the claim, these incidents are happening. We want the Chinese authorities to investigate what happened. That's where we will start," he said.

Japan already called on China to ensure safety standards following scandals over Chinese-made pet food and toys sickening animals and endangering children in the United States.

China has been hit hard by increasingly frequent reports of dangerous products being recalled overseas ranging from seafood and vegetables to tires and toys.

Machimura said Japan has invited Chinese officials to come to learn about chemical residues and inspection technologies.

TV Asahi interviewed family members in the western town of Takasago who said they spent between 10 days to three weeks in hospitals after eating the dumplings.

"They tasted bitter. I felt dizzy some 30 seconds after I had them and collapsed," said an 18-year-old boy, who like other family members asked not to be identified.

Five minutes later his 51-year-old father's body started twitching.

"With so much nausea and diarrhea, I thought for two days that I was dying," he said.

The 47-year-old mother said she could not walk or talk.

"My whole body was paralyzed and my eyes kept watering," she said. "I don't want to buy frozen food anymore."

Australian minister due in Japan amid whale row

Jan 31, 2008

TOKYO (AFP) - Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith was due Thursday in Japan as part of his first foreign trip since taking office, amid a bitter feud between the allies over whaling.

Smith was heading to Tokyo from the United States, the closest ally of both Australia and Japan. He was due to meet late Thursday with his Japanese counterpart, Masahiko Komura, and sign a treaty on avoiding double taxation.

Some Japanese officials had privately voiced concern about Australia's new Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, a former diplomat with a fondness for China, which often has uneasy relations with Japan.

A senior Japanese foreign ministry official, who asked for anonymity, said Smith's visit was an important reassurance.

"Some people had been holding their breath to see what it'll be like after the new prime minister takes office, as Mr. Rudd is a former diplomat who speaks fluent Chinese," he said.

"We see this as a message by the new Australian government that Japan remains an important ally for Australia."

Rudd has also pledged a tougher approach against Japan's whaling in Antarctic waters and sent a customs ship to sea to monitor the hunt.

Japan, which says whaling is part of its culture, kills some 1,000 of the giant mammals a year despite passionate opposition from Western countries led by Australia.

The Japanese official sought to play down the dispute.

"Whaling of course will be talked about at the foreign ministerial talks, but the two ministers have already discussed it over the telephone and agreed not to make it a diplomatic issue," he said.

Rudd's Labor party had accused the previous conservative government of John Howard of failing to press for an end to whaling due to concern about business with Japan, Australia's top trading partner.

Under Howard, Japan agreed to start talks on a free-trade agreement which, if realised, would be the first between Asia's largest economy and a major agricultural exporter.

Howard last year signed a security pact with Japan which is pacifist Tokyo's first such deal other than its alliance with the United States.

U.S. soldier points gun at Japanese woman through military facility fence

Jan 30, 2008

SAGAMIHARA, Kanagawa -- A U.S. soldier pointed a gun in the direction of a Japanese housewife through the fence of a U.S. military facility, sparking a protest from a local citizen's group, it has been learned.

The soldier, who was riding in a military vehicle, reportedly pointed the gun in the direction of the 49-year-old woman through the fence of the U.S. military's General Supply Depot in Sagamihara on Jan. 16.

"I was shocked, thinking, 'Is it pointed at me?' '" said the woman whose name was withheld.

U.S. military spokesman Edward Roper explained that troop defense training and patrols were being carried out on the base at the time and that the soldier was not taking aim at the woman. He said it was not good that the woman had felt uncomfortable, adding that there had been a gap in perceptions.

The housewife said that she was riding her bicycle on a road in Sagamihara at about 10:40 a.m. on Jan. 16 when three military vehicles on the other side of the fence passed her. She said that a soldier riding with his upper body above one of the vehicles pointed a gun at her.

A local citizen's group involved in protests related to the U.S. military's Camp Zama will send a request to the Sagamihara Municipal Government asking officials to seek an apology from the U.S. military and prevention of the recurrence of such an incident in the future.

Chinese flock to Japan in tourism boom

By Jonathan Soble in Tokyo
January 28, 2008

The number of Chinese visitors to Japan exceeded the number of Americans for the first time in 2007, data published on Monday showed, highlighting a boom in regional tourism fuelled by Asia’s growing wealth.

The Japan National Tourist Organisation, a government-supported body, said the total number of tourists entering Asia’s wealthiest and most expensive destination climbed 14 per cent to a record 8.35m.

The JNTO attributed the growth in Chinese visitors to Japan to the increase in the disposable income of China’s growing middle class, improved air links between the countries and events last year to mark the 35th anniversary of the normalisation of Sino-Japanese relations.

Chinese have flocked to Japan to visit Tokyo Disneyland, to shop in the city’s Akihabara gadget district and to ski in the Japanese Alps. Some Tokyo electronics shops offer Mandarin-speaking guides to help shoppers fill their carts.

South Koreans remained the most numerous visitors at 2.6m, up 22 per cent from 2006, followed by Taiwanese at 1.39m. Mainland Chinese were third, followed by visitors from the US, Hong Kong and Australia.

In addition to visiting Japan in greater numbers, foreigners are spending more. According to the United Nations World Tourism Organisation, the num­ber of Japan-bound tourists doubled between 1990 and 2004 while Japan’s total tourism receipts tripled, to $11.3bn (€7.6bn, £5.7bn).

Japan is a long way from beating France as the world’s top tourist destination – the latter attracts about 75m visitors a year – but the Japanese government is, nonetheless, pushing tourism as a strategic industry and has set a target of 10m visitors by 2010.

It hopes that the increase in tourist numbers will help offset chronically weak domestic consumer spending and revitalise scenic but remote parts of Japan, such as the northern island of Hokkaido, that in some cases are closer to China or South Korea than to rich and populous Tokyo.

As part of its largely Asia-focused tourism push, the government has been working with Beijing to boost air links between Japan and China. At least 20 new routes were added in 2007, according to the JNTO.

Providing that tighter immigration checks introduced late last year do not deter visitors, it appears on track to meet its goal.

Japan remains a net exporter of tourists, however. About 17.3m Japanese went abroad last year, down 1.3 per cent from 2006.

Boeing AH-64 production transition causes issues for Japan

Jan 28, 2008

The US Army's decision to transition production of the Boeing AH-64D Apache attack helicopter to the advanced Block 3 version early next decade is causing concern for some international operators of the current Block 2 variant.

Reports from Tokyo say Japan has dropped plans to procure a single AH-64D in its next fiscal year because of an increase in the helicopter's cost. In a slow-paced procurement, Japan has so far purchased 10 of a planned 62 Apaches to be assembled locally by Fuji Heavy Industries.

Production of the AH-64D for the US Army is to transition to the Block 3 standard around 2012, and the current Block 2 will be phased out. Boeing has offered to buy and store components for Block 2 Apaches if export customers commit to their purchase in advance, but this does not fit with Japan's year-by-year procurement system.

Tokyo wants all its AH-64Ds to be in the same configuration, but its procurement rate of one or two helicopters a year would take deliveries of all 62 aircraft planned well beyond the transition from Block 2 to Block 3 production.

As production of the Block 2 aircraft winds down, its unit cost is increasing. Boeing supplies Apaches to Fuji in knock-down kit form for local assembly, but Japan buys engines, radars and other systems direct from the suppliers.

Boeing delays Japan aerial tanker delivery again

By Andrea Shalal-Esa

WASHINGTON, Jan 29 (Reuters) - Boeing Co (BA.N: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Tuesday it would deliver two 767 aerial refueling tankers to Japan by the end of March at the latest after vowing last month to ship them by the end of January.

Another two 767 tankers will be delivered to Italy in the second quarter of 2008, two years later than planned, Boeing said.

The delays come in the final weeks of the U.S. Air Force's evaluation of rival bids by Boeing and Northrop Grumman Corp (NOC.N: Quote, Profile, Research) to win a $40 billion U.S. tanker contract. Air Force officials say past performance and proposal risk are significant factors in evaluating the bids.

The Air Force is expected to award a winner-takes-all contract sometime after a key Feb. 13 meeting of Pentagon officials.

The service's top uniformed acquisition official, Lt. Gen. Donald Hoffman, plans to discuss the tanker acquisition process and the Air Force's effort to be as transparent as possible with reporters on Feb. 15, the Air Force said. It stressed that no contract award was expected that day.

Boeing has acknowledged technical issues and delays on the Italian and Japanese tanker programs, and says it will apply lessons learned to help keep any U.S. orders on track.

In the case of Japan's planes, Boeing said it would deliver the tankers after successfully transferring fuel from a 767 tanker to a F-15E fighter jet at night, the first nighttime refueling ever accomplished using a 767.

Boeing must still complete remaining Federal Aviation Administration certifications to allow the tanker to carry passengers and cargo before Japan will accept the planes, said Boeing spokesman Bill Barksdale. The Japan deliveries would occur "by the end of the first quarter at the latest," he said. Initially, the planes were due by 2005.

Rival Northrop and its European partner EADS (EAD.PA: Quote, Profile, Research), which are offering a tanker based on the Airbus A330, have seized on the delays as evidence of risk with the Boeing proposal in the U.S. tanker contest.

Northrop argues that the nighttime refueling was done with a fifth-generation boom, not the newer version that Boeing has offered in the Air Force competition. That boom, said Northrop spokesman Randy Belote, has not yet been built or tested.

By contrast, he said EADS first transferred gas through its boom on the ground in December and had completed 160 hours of testing and 60 flight tests. EADS was preparing to pass fuel in the air "shortly," although Belote gave no exact date.

But Boeing argues that it is still ahead of the curve, since it will deliver its tankers before EADS.

A top Australian military official last week said his country was happy with work by EADS on its new Airbus A330 refueling tankers. Australia picked the EADS A330 Multi-Role Tanker Transport over Boeing's 767 tanker in 2004.

EADS will deliver the first of five Australian tankers in early 2009 as opposed to December 2008 due to changes requested by Australia, a source familiar with the program has said.

EADS has also won A330 tanker orders from the United Arab Emirates, Britain and Saudi Arabia.

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal-Esa, editing by Richard Chang)

Japan to certify cuisine but no 'sushi police'

Jan 29, 2008

TOKYO (AFP) - Japan launched a campaign Tuesday to certify authentic Japanese food overseas, but insisted it was only promoting its cuisine rather than setting up a "sushi police."

Promoters unveiled a logo that will identify "real" Japanese restaurants overseas -- a pair of chopsticks holding a cherry petal set in front of a red rising-sun flag.

The effort is led by a non-governmental group of experts set up in July with the blessing of the agriculture ministry, although organisers said it will open offices in various countries to do local appraisals.

The body has so far opened bureaus in Bangkok, Shanghai and Taipei and plans to expand to Amsterdam, London, Los Angeles and Paris by the end of March.

"We are not aiming at something like a sushi police aiming to crack down on inauthentic restaurants," said a member of the Organisation to Promote Japanese Restaurants Abroad, declining to be named.

"Our objective is to promote Japanese food, not eliminate Japanese restaurants."

The campaign when first announced was mocked by some Western media as a futile effort at a time when Japanese food is growing in popularity across the world.

To qualify for certification, applicants are required to use Japanese rice and seasoning along with traditional ingredients. Restaurants must also show knowledge of Japanese recipes and proper hygiene.

Restaurants must also clear at least two of five criteria such as originality, dish arrangement and customer service.

"It's important to share the heart that goes into authentic Japanese food with chefs around the world, but we can't force them," said Yukio Hattori, a board member of the certification body and president of Hattori Nutrition College.

"We also have a history of fusion dishes between Japanese and French, Italian or Chinese food," Hattori, a noted food critic, told AFP.

"I think we should aim to have two wheels -- one is authenticity and the other is the local quality of Japanese food in each country," he said.

The organisation will hold a conference on March 27 and 28 in Tokyo to explain the system, inviting restaurant owners and others from around the world.

Japanese officials and tourists have voiced growing alarm at what they see as vile imitations of their cuisine overseas, fearing that Japanese food will go the way of Chinese cuisine in North America and Europe.

The ubiquitous California roll is a case in point. The vegetarian sushi dish, which replaces sushi with avocado or cucumbers and may include cream cheese, is unrecognisable to most Japanese.

Japan estimates 25,000 restaurants around the world purport to serve Japanese food and that the number is expected to double in a few years amid perceptions that the cuisine is healthy.

Chinese dumplings sicken 10 Japanese

Jan 30, 2008

TOKYO - Ten Japanese were sickened, including a child who fell into a coma, after eating Chinese-made dumplings contaminated with insecticide, police and health officials said Wednesday.

Three people in western Hyogo prefecture (state) and seven in Chiba prefecture near Tokyo suffered severe abdominal pains, vomiting and diarrhea after eating the frozen dumplings imported from China by a Japanese company, the Health Ministry said.

A 5-year-old girl in Chiba regained consciousness after falling into a coma, and her mother, two brothers and a sister were in serious condition, Chiba police official Masaru Hiratsu said.

Investigators found traces of an organic phosphorus insecticide called methamidophos in the dumplings, their containers and the patients' vomit, the ministry said in a statement. Authorities were attempting to determine the source of contamination.

The ministry ordered the dumplings' importer and distributor, JT Foods Co. Ltd. — an affiliate of Japan's largest tobacco company — to recall the product.

The dumplings were imported in November from Chinese manufacturer Hebei Foodstuffs Import & Export Group Tianyang Food Processing, the ministry said.

In Beijing, telephones were not answered at the General Administration for Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, which oversees the safety of China's exports. The agency's Web site made no mention of the incident.

Japan's minister in charge of food safety, Fumio Kishida, said the incident prompted "grave concerns" and vowed to take urgent measures, though he did not elaborate.

JT Foods distributed 13 tons of dumplings each in Chiba and Hyogo, the ministry said.

JT Foods voluntarily began recalling the dumplings and 22 other products imported from the Chinese company and dispatched officials to investigate the Chinese plant, JT spokeswoman Yukiko Seto said.

China's exports have come under intense scrutiny in the past year after a number of potentially deadly chemicals were found in goods including toothpaste, toys, pet food and seafood.

China's government launched a four-month campaign last August to improve the quality of Chinese products and restore international confidence in its goods. Officials termed the campaign a success.

Japan, U.S. rush to build anti-missile shield

Focus is on North Korea, and on plan to expand system to Europe
Jan 28,2008

MISAWA AIR BASE, Japan - One of only four in the world, the Joint Tactical Ground Station sits in a field of snow behind the high fences of this remote base in northern Japan like a windowless trailer home with a few good satellite dishes out back.

It's not impressive. But this is the front line.

In a multibillion-dollar experiment, Japan and the United States are erecting the world's most complex ballistic missile defense shield, a project that is changing the security balance in Asia and has deep implications for Washington's efforts to pursue a similar strategy in Europe, where the idea has been stalled by the lack of willing partners.

The station here is the newest piece in the shield.

"Japan is one of our strongest allies in the ballistic missile defense arena," said Brig. Gen. John E. Seward, the deputy commanding general of operations for the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command.

In a recent mock-up of how it would work, U.S. military satellites detect a flash of heat from a missile range in North Korea, and within seconds computers plot a rough trajectory across the Sea of Japan that ends in an oval splash-zone outlined in red near Japan's main island.

In a real-world crisis, the next 10 or 15 minutes could be the beginning of an all-out shooting war. Millions could die. Or, two missiles could collide in mid-air over the ocean.

$8 billion sought this year
Washington and Tokyo are banking on the idea that early warning of the kind provided by the Joint Tactical Ground Station, or JTAG, and another state-of-the-art "X-band" radar station recently deployed nearby will lead to the latter. They are pouring a huge amount of resources — the U.S. Missile Defense Agency is seeking an $8 billion budget this year — into establishing a credible warning and response network.

Though Washington's focus, and world attention, has shifted toward Iran, North Korea has over the past several years made major strides in its development of both nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them to the shores of other countries.

In October 2006, it conducted its first nuclear test — a step that Iran has not taken — and more than a decade ago shot a multistage ballistic missile over Japan's main island and well into the Pacific, almost reaching Alaska.

Japan's concerns are obvious: Its islands arc around the Korean Peninsula, and relations between the communist North and its former colonial ruler have never been good.

But the threat to the United States is also pressing.

Under a mutual security pact, the United States has about 50,000 troops deployed around Japan — all within reach of North Korea's missiles.

The U.S. military last year deployed a Patriot missile battalion to Kadena Air Base, on the southern island of Okinawa. The U.S. and Japanese navies have also increased their ability to intercept ballistic missiles from sea-based launchers.

Japan shoots missile out of air
In a test off Hawaii in December, Japan became the first country after the United States to shoot a missile out of the air with a ship-launched SM-3 interceptor. Japan hopes to equip its ships with such interceptor missiles over next several years.

The sea-based interceptors, which have a longer range than land-based Patriots, are Japan's first line of defense.

Seward said he hopes the alliance with Tokyo on ballistic missile defense will serve as a model for the world.

The U.S. operates its three other JTAGs in Germany, Qatar and South Korea.

But Washington's efforts to deploy missile interceptors in Poland and a radar in the Czech Republic have deeply frayed ties between NATO and Moscow, which dismisses U.S. arguments that the installations are meant to counter a potential threat from Iran, saying they believe the intent is to weaken Russia.

Japanese officials admit that they have signed on to Washington's BMD alliance because the urgency of the Asian situation — which may not apply to Europe.

"Around Japan there are countries that could launch ballistic missiles against us," said Ro Manabe, the Ministry of Defense press secretary. "But in Europe, they do not have an imminent threat like that. In the near future, it may be possible that some countries, like Iran, may get that capability. But there are such states currently in this region. That is a basic and significant difference."

Manabe said the dense population of Tokyo makes the establishment of permanent bases inside the city unlikely.

Seward, meanwhile, said that while U.S. missile detection capabilities have vastly improved, it will largely fall to Japan to defend itself in an attack.

"Most assets in Japan are Japanese," he said. "The Japanese would have to defend themselves."

A row between Australia and Japan

Jan 24, 2008
From The Economist print edition

THE Southern Ocean is usually one of the world's loneliest shipping lanes. This month it has turned into an unseemly battleground over a bid by Australia's government and various environmental groups to stop Japan hunting and slaughtering whales. Japan aims to kill more than 900 minke and 50 fin whales from a region bordering Antarctica by mid-April. It claims the hunt is for scientific research; its critics say this is a brazen front for a commercial whale-meat harvest. As images of the protesters' antics inflame anti-Japanese feeling in Australia, the clash is also threatening the stability of one of Australia's strongest regional ties.

On January 22nd Greenpeace, an environmental-lobbying group, wedged a small inflatable craft between the Nisshin Maru, the Japanese fleet's factory ship, and its refuelling vessel. It managed to delay, but not stop, the operation. This was a minor episode compared with a manoeuvre a week earlier by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, an anti-whaling body. Two protesters boarded one of the Japanese whaling vessels to deliver a letter demanding that the harpooning stop and, say the Japanese, splashed acid about.

They were detained on the Japanese ship, grabbing headlines worldwide, until an Australian patrol boat returned them to their own ship three days later. More protests seem likely. Paul Watson, captain of the Sea Shepherd ship tracking the whalers, says he is prepared to keep up the chase for weeks. He painted Greenpeace as timid for its failure to prevent refuelling: “Of course it's dangerous. Stopping the whaling fleet is not a game.”

Japanese fleets have been hunting whales in the Southern Ocean for several years. None has had to deal with confrontations like those seen this season. Kevin Rudd, Australia's new prime minister, called for an end to the whaling. An Australian aircraft is keeping an eye on the operation. At least some of the whaling is happening in waters off a section of Antarctica over which Australia claims sovereignty. Eight years ago Australia declared a whale sanctuary in its Antarctic waters.

Humane Society International, another environmental group, won a ruling from the Federal Court in Australia on January 15th that whaling in the sanctuary was illegal and should stop. The court reported Japanese figures showing Japan had killed more than 3,300 minke whales and 13 fin whales in Antarctic waters (not confined to Australia's zone) since 2000.

Mr Rudd's government has reacted cautiously to the ruling. Only France, New Zealand, Norway and Britain recognise Australia' s Antarctic claim. For its part, Japan regards the Australian sanctuary as international waters. Commercial whaling was banned worldwide 22 years ago. But killing for “scientific” research is still allowed under a 1946 convention. Japan's critics question whether research requires so many whales to be killed.

Japanese officials also accuse Australia of hypocrisy: taking the high ground over whales while it kills thousands of kangaroos in controlled culls. Minoru Morimoto, Japan's commissioner to the International Whaling Commission, says: “There are enough whales for those who want to watch them and those who want to eat them.” Derek Luxford, a Sydney shipping lawyer, reckons Australia should resolve the impasse by testing its anti-whaling law before the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea. The alternative, he says, is to allow “vigilante” groups like Sea Shepherd to enforce its law.

He may be right. The dispute is souring the air as Australia embarks on talks with Japan about a free-trade agreement. And it complicates the Rudd government's bid to balance Japan against China's growing importance for Australia. Mr Rudd, a Mandarin-speaking China expert, opposed a security pact that Australia's former government signed with Japan last year. Japan will be looking for signs that Australia's concern for the future of the whale is not part of some wider agenda.

------------------------------------------------------------------
Kyodo
Jan 26, 2008
Australian anti-whaling activists call for boycott of Japanese firms

SYDNEY — Australian conservation groups have joined a global grassroots campaign to boycott Japanese products Friday in the latest bid to pressure Japan to stop whaling. Anti-whaling activists from Australia's east coast, the Byron Whale Action Group and Surfers for Cetaceans, hand-delivered a letter to the Japanese consulate in Brisbane, informing Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda of the boycott and demanding an end to whaling in the name of research.

The Brisbane offices of Sony Australia Ltd, Mitsubishi Motors Australia Ltd and Japan Airlines Corp also received similar messages from the groups.

Byron Whale Action Group spokesman Dean Jefferys said the Australian boycott is part of a global grassroots campaign that has been coordinated over Internet websites such as MySpace and YouTube.

Other conservation groups taking part include the U.S.-based Save the Whales and Britain's Cetacea Defence.

"What we have found is that the larger environmental groups like Greenpeace are not willing to call for a boycott because they are afraid of getting sued. But there has been a real movement of smaller conservation groups, getting together through the Internet and organizing this kind of action," Jeffreys said.

While stopping short of a boycott, Greenpeace has recently targeted Canon Inc over its high-profile advertising and sponsorship programs dedicated to wildlife and endangered species, by challenging the world's top digital camera maker to match word to deed by taking a stand against whaling.

Specifically, it has appealed by letter to Canon's CEO Fujio Mitarai to endorse a statement of opposition to Japanese whaling in Antarctic seas and the use of lethal research methods.

On Jan 22, however, the company declined, saying that while it recognizes "the importance of protecting endangered wildlife...scientific opinion about research whaling varies," according to Greenpeace, which is now asking Canon customers to urge the company to change its mind.

"Canon sells cameras by using the pictures of endangered species, including whales," Greenpeace Japan Whales Project Leader Junichi Sato said. "Greenpeace is amazed that Canon wouldn't condemn the killing of threatened species for fake research."

The Japanese whaling fleet is currently in the Antarctic, where it plans to kill 935 minke and 50 fin whales as part of its whaling program, as the taking of whales for scientific research is permitted under International Whaling Commission rules.

Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith, will visit Tokyo next Thursday, where he will meet with his counterpart Masahiko Komura and attempt to smooth over bilateral relations following the whaling row.

Smith told Sky News on Friday whaling will not harm the bilateral relationship.

"Foreign Minister Komura and I, Australia and Japan have to date agreed to disagree about the issue, but that won't get in the fundamentals of the relationship," he said.


© 2008 Kyodo News. All rights reserved. No reproduction or republication without written permission.

Japan asks Australia to take legal action on anti-whaling activists

Jan 22, 2008

Kyodo) _ Japan urged Australia in a ministerial meeting Tuesday to take legal action against two anti-whaling activists who boarded a Japanese whaling vessel in the Antarctic Ocean without permission and to take measures to prevent a recurrence, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said.

Japanese Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura made the demands in talks with Australian Trade Minister Simon Crean in Tokyo, although the two also reaffirmed that the recent clashes over the whaling issue should not affect overall friendly bilateral relations, Press Secretary Kazuo Kodama said.

Separately, Crean met with Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Akira Amari and reaffirmed the importance of the two countries cooperating closely on key economic issues, including efforts toward an early conclusion of the World Trade Organization Doha Round of liberalization talks, a Japanese trade ministry official said.

During their 30-minute meeting, Amari and Crean also exchanged views on issues related to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum and negotiations for a free trade agreement between Japan and Australia, the official said.

But given that it was the first meeting between Amari and Crean, their discussion did not go into details, the official said.

On the whaling issue, Komura was quoted as telling Crean, who described it as a "sensitive" one, that the actions by the two Sea Shepherd Conservation Society members "trying to endanger the safety of our Japanese vessel was unacceptable" and requested that measures in accordance with Australian law be taken should the activists' boat call at an Australian port.

In response, Crean said the Australian Federal Police are investigating the case and that his government would decide on response measures based on the results, according to Kodama.

The two campaigners, an Australian and a Briton, of the U.S. civic group were temporarily detained after they boarded the Yushin Maru No. 2 last week, and were later turned over to an Australian customs ship.

Meanwhile, the interruption of a tanker's refueling of another Japanese whaling vessel in the Antarctic Ocean on Tuesday morning Japan time by a Greenpeace International boat was not taken up in the meeting between Komura and Crean.

Commercial whaling was banned by the International Whaling Commission in 1986. But the whaling convention allows Japan to catch the mammals so long as it is for scientific purposes.

Crean, who was appointed trade minister in December, held the meetings with the Japanese ministers on his way to attend the World Economic Forum, which will begin Wednesday in the Swiss resort town of Davos.

US rejects Japan request over fuel use in 'war on terror': report

Jan 20, 2008

TOKYO (AFP) - The United States has rejected a request by Japan that it verify Tokyo's contribution to the US-led "war on terror" in Afghanistan is not used for military operations in Iraq, a report said.

Japan on Thursday ordered two naval ships back to the Indian Ocean after parliament forced through the resumption of the mission to provide fuel and other support to coalition forces operating in Afghanistan.

Ahead of the resumption, scheduled for mid-February, Japan and the United States are making arrangements to exchange documents on details of support later this month, according to Kyodo News service.

But Washington disagreed with Japan's plan to include provisions that would enable Tokyo to verify what the fuel was being used for, Kyodo reported, quoting unnamed sources close to Japan-US relations.

US officials said such provisions would affect its military operations in the region and be a burden on the troops engaged in them, the sources said.

They also argued that it was impossible to strictly match the amount of fuel provided with the amount consumed for certain purposes as the vessels' fuel tanks were never empty, Kyodo reported.

The US even warned that it would have to consider not accepting the fuel if Japan did not give up on the provisions.

The naval mission was suspended in November after Japan's opposition won the upper house of parliament and vowed that the officially pacifist nation should not take part in "American wars".

With the opposition refusing to back legislation to restart the mission, the government took the rare step of using its overwhelming majority in the lower house to override the decision.

The legislation limits Tokyo's activities to support for operations combating terrorism in Afghanistan, but there was speculation that the Japanese fuel was also used in Iraq.

Opposition parties have argued that if the document does not contain a provision allowing Japan to confirm how the fuel is used, it will be unable to effectively restrict the use of the fuel.

Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda has argued that Tokyo needs to show it is contributing to global security and that the mission would help ensure the safe supply of oil.

Japan, the world's second largest economy, has virtually no natural energy resources and imports almost all of its oil from the Middle East.

Japan to let U.S. omit verification of fuel usage

Jan 20, 2008
Kyodo News

Japan and the United States will exchange a document about the Maritime Self-Defense Force's contentious refueling mission in the Indian Ocean that will omit provisions allowing Tokyo to confirm how the fuel is used, sources close to Japan-U.S. relations said Saturday.

The United States has rejected a request from Japan to include fuel-use verification steps in the document, saying that it would affect U.S. operations and be a burden on the troops involved, the sources said.

Japan and the United States are preparing to exchange the document later this month, given that the MSDF getting ready to resume the mission in mid-February. The refueling mission supports U.S.-led antiterrorism operations in and around Afghanistan.

Tokyo made the request after the government came under fire over allegations that the fuel the MSDF was giving to the U.S. Navy under the 2001 special law on logistic support for antiterror efforts in Afghanistan may in fact have been diverted to the war in Iraq, which began in 2003.

The United States has made concessions and has basically agreed that the document will refer to the purpose of Japan's new antiterrorism law, which was enacted Jan. 11 to authorize the resumption of the refueling mission after it was halted in November.

The law limits the MSDF's operations to the provision of fuel and water to foreign vessels engaged in operations to interdict terrorist activities at sea.

But if the document does not contain a provision allowing Japan to confirm how the fuel is used, the government is likely to face criticism that it will be unable to effectively restrict how the fuel is being used.

According to the sources, foreign and defense officials of the two countries started holding discussions on the matter in October when the Japanese government submitted a bill to continue the refueling mission.

Japan terminated the refueling mission in the Indian Ocean on Nov. 1 when the special law expired.

Japan Spy Row Strains Ties

Jan 17, 2008

Japanese poachers and spy allegations have dealt a blow this week to otherwise harmonious relations between Russia and Japan. On Thursday, the Japanese government confirmed that a Japanese intelligence official had been accused earlier this week of handing over sensitive information to Russia in return for tens of thousands of dollars. Moscow rejects the claims, and blames third-party actors for attempting to sabotage Japaese-Russian relations.

If convicted of divul­ging state secrets, who has only been identified as a 52-year-old official from the Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office, could face imprisonment.

On Wednesday, the head of the Russian Embassy's consular department, Oleg Ryabov, was summoned to the Japanese Foreign Ministry and told that if the spying allegations are confirmed, "this will prove to be a highly serious incident," RIA Novosti reported.

Reports that a Russian embassy staffer had met several times with an official from the Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office were also confirmed by an embassy source on conditions of anonymity, RIA Novosti reported.

The Russian embassy in Tokyo has flatly denied the accusations as an attempt by "certain forces" to harm bilateral relations between the two countries.

Meanwhile, the scandal is sparking nationalistic sentiments in Japan, which still has not signed a formal peace treaty with Russia, leaving the ownership status of the South Kuril Islands, which the Soviet Union annexed after World War II, in question.

Japanese far-right groups staged protests outside of the Russian Embassy in Tokyo on Thursday. According to a RIA Novosti correspondent in Tokyo, the protesters drove through a central area of the Japanese capital in black buses equipped with PA systems, blaring out slogans like, "Clean the country of Russians!", "Go back to Russia!", and "give back our sovereign territory!"

The protesters - who want to see Japan revert to the pre-WWII imperial cult in Japan, when the emperor was considered a diety - are reported to be fierce opponents of PM Yasuro Fukuda's Liberal Democratic party, RIA Novosti reported.

Russians working in Tokyo offices, including the Russian trade representation headquarters and a RIA Novosti office, have been warned to take extra caution until further notice.

This incident comes just as a court in the Far East Russian island of Sakhalin found four Japanese sailors guilty of border violations after their fishing vessels were detained for poaching near the South Kuril Islands.

By Anna Arutunyan

Japan asked China to tone down Nanjing Incident exhibits

Jan 18, 2008
Takanori Kato / Yomiuri Shimbun Correspondent

In a rare move made in connection with China's memorials related to its anti-Japanese movement and the subsequent war with Japan, Japan has asked China to tone down the contents of the Memorial Hall to the Victims in the Nanjing Massacre, the top Japanese diplomat in Shanghai said Wednesday.

Consul General Yuji Kumamaru said he visited Nanjing for two days last week to meet with senior officials of the city and the memorial itself, which reopened in December after a major expansion of its exhibits, to communicate Tokyo's concern that the exhibits could inspire in Chinese visitors animosity toward Japanese by stressing the brutality of Japanese actions during the war.

It is rare for Japan to make such a public request to China concerning its memorials to the war.

Kumamaru said he conveyed the concerns as representing "the government's awareness of the issue." He made specific mention of the number of victims of the massacre--cited as 300,000 at the museum--pointing out that there are various estimates of the number of dead.

He said he told the city and museum officials that the number 300,000 is stressed more than ever at the memorial, and that China "should listen to various opinions" about the casualty figure.

The Chinese side said the exhibits in the memorial are intended to convey a message of peace, while paying due consideration toward relations with Japan, according to Kumamaru.

The memorial reopened last month to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the incident, with the indoor exhibition space expanded more than 10 times to 9,000 square meters and featuring 3,500 exhibits, including photographs of atrocities committed by the Imperial Japanese Army.

Australian PM steps into Japan whaling standoff

Jan 17, 2008

SYDNEY (AFP) - Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd stepped into a tense standoff between Japan and a militant anti-whaling group Thursday, calling for calm and the safe return of two activists held on a Japanese ship.

Rudd said his Foreign Minister Stephen Smith was in constant contact with the Japanese government to arrange the immediate handover of the two men, who were detained after boarding the Japanese whaling ship in Antarctic waters.

"I have concerns about the safety of all people involved with the operation," Rudd told reporters.

"Therefore I would again urge restraint on the parties, full cooperation on the part of those involved to ensure the safe return of these two individuals."

Smith said Australia was ready to send a customs ship to pick up the men and end the high-seas standoff, in which the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has refused to meet Japanese conditions for their return.

The government would use the Oceanic Viking, which is in the area, to transfer the pair back to the Sea Shepherd vessel, the Steve Irwin, if all parties cooperated, he told reporters.

"We would like the transfer to be expedited as soon as possible but people should understand it is a difficult operation," Smith said.

Japan, which says whaling is a part of its culture, uses a loophole in an international moratorium on the practice which allows "lethal research". It is on a mission to kill 1,000 whales in Antarctic waters this season.

The confrontation has forced the Japanese fleet to suspend whaling for the time being and drawn attention to efforts by activists to halt the annual hunt for good.

"The good news is that they haven't killed any whales for a week, and all the whaling activity is shut down, so we've effectively ended whaling for now," Sea Shepherd president Paul Watson told AFP.

The two activists -- Australian Benjamin Potts, 28, and Briton Giles Lane, 35 -- were detained Tuesday after boarding the harpoon ship Yushin Maru No 2 to protest Japan's whaling programme.

Japan on Thursday welcomed the idea of Australia picking the men up.

"If concrete, Japan would greatly welcome such a move because it would be one step forward in resolving this problem," Hideki Moronuki, the whaling chief at Japan's fisheries agency, told AFP.

Moronuki accused the environmentalists of misrepresenting Japan's position, saying the whalers were not setting conditions and wanted to get rid of the protesters.

The only conditions attached to the handover were to ensure that it could be carried out safely, he said.

One of the conditions is that the Sea Shepherd ship must remain at least 10 nautical miles away from the Japanese vessel and send a small boat to pick the men up -- something Watson rejects as too dangerous.

"You must understand the reluctance of the Japanese to lash their vessel up to the Steve Irwin -- it's just not going to happen like that," said a spokesman for Japan's Institute of Cetacean Research, Glenn Inwood.

"There are very serious security and safety concerns here," he told AFP.

Inwood suggested that if the men were not picked up, they would have to remain on board for the duration of the hunt and return with the ship to Japan, where they could face charges.

Watson told Sky News he would not rule out a commando-style raid to rescue them rather than allow them to be taken to Japan.

"That would be an act of desperation but I'm not going to let them take them back to Japan and put them on trial for piracy," he said.

Watson said Japan's whaling authorities had refused to release the men until he agreed to stop disrupting the hunt, and vowed he would not bow to "terrorist" tactics.

The Sea Shepherd founder has been accused of refusing to agree to their return in order to drag out the drama for publicity purposes, but he told Australian radio he welcomed the possibility of the government picking them up.

"That is fine. We just want to get them off that boat," he said.

Australia, which is one of the strongest critics of Japanese whaling, last week sent the Oceanic Viking to the area to monitor the operation and gather evidence for a possible international legal case against the whalers.

"The key challenge is how do we bring about the end of commercial whaling, period, into the future -- that's what I'm concerned about," Rudd said. "This is not scientific whaling -- this is commercial whaling."

Japan orders ships back to Indian Ocean: minister

Jan 17, 2008

TOKYO (AFP) - Japan on Thursday ordered two naval ships to head back to the Indian Ocean after parliament forced through the resumption of a mission supporting the US-led "war on terror".

Defence Minister Shigeru Ishiba "ordered the deployment of Japanese naval ships for the refuelling mission," a defence ministry spokeswoman said.

The ships, which provide fuel and other support to coalition forces operating in Afghanistan, are expected to arrive in the Indian Ocean in mid-February.

The naval mission was suspended in November after the opposition won one house of parliament and vowed that officially pacifist Japan should not take part in "American wars".

With the opposition refusing to back legislation to restart the mission, the government took the rare step of using its overwhelming majority in the lower house of parliament to override the opposition-led upper house.

Immediately after the vote on Friday last week, Ishiba ordered the ships -- one providing fuel and the other escorting it -- to make preparations for departure.

Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda has argued that Japan needs to show that it is contributing to global security and that the mission would help ensure the safe supply of oil.

Japan, the world's second largest economy, has virtually no natural energy resources and imports almost all of its oil from the Middle East.

Fukuda's predecessor Shinzo Abe resigned in September in part because of his failure to extend the naval mission in the divided parliament.

Machimura raps anti-whaling group for not picking up detained members

Jan 17, 2008

(Kyodo) _ Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura on Thursday criticized an anti-whaling group for not picking up two of its members, who were detained after they boarded a Japanese whaling vessel Tuesday in the Antarctic Ocean, despite Japan's offer to release them.
"We have told (the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society) we want to hand them over quickly, but Sea Shepherd has not shown any reaction whatsoever so we are frankly in a bind," Machimura told a press conference.

"It is a truly bizarre situation that they would not come to pick (the members) up" despite the offer from the Japanese side, the top government spokesman said.

Machimura said Japan has asked the Australian government for help in mediating the handover of the two male members of Sea Shepherd from the Yushin Maru No. 2, as an Australian customs vessel Oceanic Viking was near the Japanese boat.

Commercial whaling was banned by the International Whaling Commission in 1986. But the whaling convention allows Japan to kill the mammals so long as it is for scientific purposes.

Sea Shepherd maintains that what Japan is doing is illegal and contravenes global treaties such as the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species. Japan says that the populations of certain whale species have recovered sufficiently to warrant whaling.

Aircraft at Futenma to quadruple in Korean crisis

Jan 17, 2008
THE ASAHI SHIMBUN

The U.S. Marine Corps will quadruple the number of aircraft deployed at its Futenma base in Okinawa Prefecture if a military crisis erupts on the Korean Peninsula, The Asahi Shimbun has learned.

According to official documents, as many as 300 aircraft, mainly helicopters, will be deployed at the Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Ginowan, an increase from about 70 deployed at normal times.

The documents underscore the importance the U.S. military places on the Futenma base for air sorties into the Korean Peninsula.

The memorandums and materials for slide-show presentation obtained by The Asahi Shimbun are dated Jan. 23, 1996. That was just months before April 1996, when the Japanese and U.S. governments agreed on the return of the Futenma base to Japanese control and relocating the base's functions elsewhere in the prefecture.

The documents said the relocated facility will serve as a base for air and ground forces engaged in operations in a military crisis on the Korean Peninsula and is required to have the same military functions as Futenma's.

The Japanese and U.S. governments agreed in October 2005 to relocate the functions of the Futenma base to a new facility planned at Henoko point in Nago.

Masaaki Gabe, professor of international politics at the University of the Ryukyus, said the documents show why the Futenma base is so large, compared with the number of aircraft stationed on a full-time basis.

"The stance and plan to increase the number of aircraft (in case of emergency) will be basically the same for the planned relocated facility," Gabe said.

The documents were used by the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing stationed in Okinawa to explain the background and situation to Kurt Campbell, then deputy assistant defense secretary.

Campbell played a leading role in the Special Action Committee on Okinawa (SACO), which was set up in autumn 1995 to look into ways of returning land used by the U.S. military and easing the American military burden on Okinawa residents.

The committee was established amid a wave of public outrage over the abduction and rape of an island schoolgirl by three U.S. servicemen.

According to the documents, 300 aircraft will use the Futenma base in case of an emergency on the Korean Peninsula, including the 71 normally deployed at the base.

Of the 300, 279 will be helicopter gunships and carriers, while the remaining 21 will be fixed-wing aircraft, including air-refueling tankers.

Eighty-seven aircraft will be dispatched additionally to the base while 142 will use the base for transit.(IHT/Asahi: January 17,2008)

Cabinet adopts implementation plan for antiterror refueling mission

Jan 16, 2008

(Kyodo) _ Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda's Cabinet endorsed an implementation plan Wednesday to resume the Maritime Self-Defense Force's refueling mission in the Indian Ocean for U.S.-led antiterrorism operations, paving the way for two MSDF vessels to leave Japan next week.
According to the plan, the vessels will be a supply ship and a destroyer with up to 500 crew members, and the first dispatch will cover the period up to June 30. Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba is expected to issue an order soon for the MSDF dispatch.

Ishiba said earlier that the MSDF will send the 13,500-ton fleet support ship Oumi and the 4,550-ton destroyer Murasame to refuel foreign vessels participating in the operations to crack down on boats allegedly linked to terrorism.

Japan suspended the refueling mission in November as Fukuda's government failed to win parliamentary approval to extend a special authorization law due to resistance by the opposition camp.

The ruling coalition came up with a new law to resume refueling for foreign vessels engaged in interdiction activities for Afghanistan. The government won parliamentary approval for it on Friday. The law will be valid for one year.

Japan provided some 490,000 kiloliters of oil for vessels from 11 countries in the previous mission which began in November 2001.

Japan working on central Tokyo missile shield: official

Jan 15, 2008

File photo shows a Japanese soldier watching the arrival of Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) surface-to-air interceptors at the Iruma air force base in Japan. Japan on Tuesday carried out studies to deploy a missile defence shield in central Tokyo, officials said Tuesday, amid concern that the capital is at risk from North Korea.

Japan on Tuesday carried out studies to deploy a missile defence shield in central Tokyo, officials said Tuesday, amid concern that the capital is at risk from North Korea.
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The defence ministry conducted investigations on Monday and Tuesday into two locations for US-developed Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) surface-to-air interceptors, a defence spokesman said.
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Two PAC-3 units were installed in suburban Tokyo last March as Japan's relations remained tense with nuclear-armed North Korea.
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"We took surveys of buildings, which would be obstacles for the PAC-3, and conducted technical tests on communications," the spokesman said.
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The sites looked at were Shinjuku Gyoen, a major park in central Tokyo, and the Ichigaya military post on the premises of the defence ministry headquarters, he aid.
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"We plan to do more investigations on other sites to seek places that the PAC-3 mobile system can be moved into," he said.
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No date has been set for installation of the PAC-3 in central Tokyo. Japan has set a goal of establishing the system at 11 bases by March 2011.
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Japan's first Patriot missiles were set up by US forces in 2006 on the southern island of Okinawa.
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Japan also plans to conduct a missile test-launch in the US state of New Mexico later this year, he said.
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Japan and the United States started working on a more advanced missile shield after North Korea in 1998 fired a missile over Japan's main island. — AFP
Japan on Tuesday carried out studies to deploy a missile defence shield in central Tokyo, officials said Tuesday, amid concern that the capital is at risk from North Korea.
.
The defence ministry conducted investigations on Monday and Tuesday into two locations for US-developed Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) surface-to-air interceptors, a defence spokesman said.
.
Two PAC-3 units were installed in suburban Tokyo last March as Japan's relations remained tense with nuclear-armed North Korea.
.
"We took surveys of buildings, which would be obstacles for the PAC-3, and conducted technical tests on communications," the spokesman said.
.
The sites looked at were Shinjuku Gyoen, a major park in central Tokyo, and the Ichigaya military post on the premises of the defence ministry headquarters, he aid.
.
"We plan to do more investigations on other sites to seek places that the PAC-3 mobile system can be moved into," he said.
.
No date has been set for installation of the PAC-3 in central Tokyo. Japan has set a goal of establishing the system at 11 bases by March 2011.
.
Japan's first Patriot missiles were set up by US forces in 2006 on the southern island of Okinawa.
.
Japan also plans to conduct a missile test-launch in the US state of New Mexico later this year, he said.
.
Japan and the United States started working on a more advanced missile shield after North Korea in 1998 fired a missile over Japan's main island. — AFP Japan on Tuesday carried out studies to deploy a missile defence shield in central Tokyo, officials said Tuesday, amid concern that the capital is at risk from North Korea.
.
The defence ministry conducted investigations on Monday and Tuesday into two locations for US-developed Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) surface-to-air interceptors, a defence spokesman said.
.
Two PAC-3 units were installed in suburban Tokyo last March as Japan's relations remained tense with nuclear-armed North Korea.
.
"We took surveys of buildings, which would be obstacles for the PAC-3, and conducted technical tests on communications," the spokesman said.
.
The sites looked at were Shinjuku Gyoen, a major park in central Tokyo, and the Ichigaya military post on the premises of the defence ministry headquarters, he aid.
.
"We plan to do more investigations on other sites to seek places that the PAC-3 mobile system can be moved into," he said.
.
No date has been set for installation of the PAC-3 in central Tokyo. Japan has set a goal of establishing the system at 11 bases by March 2011.
.
Japan's first Patriot missiles were set up by US forces in 2006 on the southern island of Okinawa.
.
Japan also plans to conduct a missile test-launch in the US state of New Mexico later this year, he said.
.
Japan and the United States started working on a more advanced missile shield after North Korea in 1998 fired a missile over Japan's main island. — AFP Japan on Tuesday carried out studies to deploy a missile defence shield in central Tokyo, officials said Tuesday, amid concern that the capital is at risk from North Korea.
.
The defence ministry conducted investigations on Monday and Tuesday into two locations for US-developed Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) surface-to-air interceptors, a defence spokesman said.
.
Two PAC-3 units were installed in suburban Tokyo last March as Japan's relations remained tense with nuclear-armed North Korea.
.
"We took surveys of buildings, which would be obstacles for the PAC-3, and conducted technical tests on communications," the spokesman said.
.
The sites looked at were Shinjuku Gyoen, a major park in central Tokyo, and the Ichigaya military post on the premises of the defence ministry headquarters, he aid.
.
"We plan to do more investigations on other sites to seek places that the PAC-3 mobile system can be moved into," he said.
.
No date has been set for installation of the PAC-3 in central Tokyo. Japan has set a goal of establishing the system at 11 bases by March 2011.
.
Japan's first Patriot missiles were set up by US forces in 2006 on the southern island of Okinawa.
.
Japan also plans to conduct a missile test-launch in the US state of New Mexico later this year, he said.
.
Japan and the United States started working on a more advanced missile shield after North Korea in 1998 fired a missile over Japan's main island. — AFP

Japan suspends beef imports from plant

The Associated Press
Sunday, January 13th 2008, 4:00 AM
TOKYO — Japan suspended beef imports from a U.S. meatpacking plant after recent shipments from the facility contained products that failed to meet Japanese import regulations, officials said Sunday.
Imports from Smithfield Group’s Moyer packing factory in Pennsylvania will be suspended because 1,264 boxes of a recent shipment contained beef from cattle 21 months old, the Agriculture and Health Ministries said in a joint statement issued late Saturday. Japan allows only meat from cows 20 months old or younger.
Two Japanese importers were ordered to recall the products after officials found an estimated 1.4 tons of the 19-ton shipment was meat from cattle 21 months old, the statement said.
The violation stemmed from a computer programming error, the ministries said, citing U.S. investigators’ findings.
The mistake was found by U.S. agriculture officials during a routine inspection, an official of Japan’s Agriculture Ministry told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity, citing government policy.
Washington notified Tokyo of the error Saturday and shipments from the Smithfield plant will be banned until Japan receives a detailed report on the mistake, the statement said.
Japan banned American beef imports in December 2003 after the first case of mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, was found in the United States. The ban was eased in July 2006. This was the first instance that U.S. beef violating import regulations could have been sold to Japanese consumers, the ministry official said.
Since the shipment was from young cattle and contained no high-risk parts such as spinal cord, the Japanese government believes the shipment posed few health risks, he added.
Eating meat products with infected tissue is linked to mad cow disease’s rare, fatal variant, Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease, which has killed more than 150 people worldwide, most of them in Britain.

Fukuda to meet Bono, other celebrities, to lure them to Africa confab

Jan 13, 2008
TOKYO, Jan. 13 (AP) - (Kyodo)—Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda is planning to meet U2 rock singer Bono, Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Hollywood actor Matt Damon on the sidelines of a major conference in Switzerland later this month to make a personal pitch for their attendance at an African development conference in Japan in May, a government source said Sunday.
The Japanese government has invited Wangari Maathai, the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize laureate from Kenya, to the conference and is also sounding out American actress Angelina Jolie, a goodwill ambassador for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, the source said.
Bono, a well-known anti-poverty campaigner, and a few other people are understood to have expressed an interest in attending the Tokyo International Conference on African Development to be held in Yokohama, the source said.
TICAD is a major international conference hosted by Japan and the government is planning to draw the heads of state and ministers from 53 African countries as well as officials from western donor countries and multilateral institutions.
The Japanese government is aiming to raise the profile of the conference, which it believes has not drawn as much public interest as hoped, by seeking the participation of the celebrities.
Fukuda is expected to leave Japan on Jan. 25 to deliver a keynote speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, which commences Jan. 23. Negotiations are under way to set up meetings between Fukuda and the celebrities before or after the speech, the source said.

Greenpeace: Japan's whale kill halted

By RAY LILLEY, Associated Press Writer Sun Jan 13, 2008

WELLINGTON, New Zealand - Greenpeace said Monday it has disrupted the Japanese whale hunt off Antarctica by chasing the fleet's whale processing factory ship out of the whaling zone.
The six-vessel fleet "scattered and ran" early Saturday when it realized the Greenpeace vessel Esperanza was "heading toward them at high speed," Greenpeace expedition leader Karli Thomas told New Zealand's National Radio.
The fleet's three whale hunter vessels "can't operate without the (factory ship) Nisshin Maru there to process the kill," she added.
Greenpeace has pledged to take nonviolent action to try to stop the ships from killing whales, which in the past has led to activists in speed boats trying to put themselves between whales and Japanese harpoons, and once led to a ship collision.
A spokesman for Japan's whale hunt called Greenpeace's actions illegal and demanded it stop its disruptive actions.
"Greenpeace actions are illegal under international law (and) it's time the public stopped treating Greenpeace as heroes," Glenn Inwood, spokesman for the Institute of Cetacean Research, in Tokyo, Japan, said Monday. "It's time the public saw this fringe group for what they really are: environmental imperialists who are trying to dictate their morals to the world."
Japan dispatched its whaling fleet to the icy waters of Antarctica in November to kill about 1,000 whales under a program that Tokyo says is for scientific purposes, but which anti-whaling nations and activists say is a front for commercial whaling.

India ODA project to aid Japan's Kyoto obligations

The Yomiuri Shimbun
Jan 11, 2008

The amount of carbon dioxide emissions calculated to be cut through the application of Japanese technology in a subway system built in India with official development assistance from Japan is to be counted as a reduction in Japanese greenhouse gas emissions under a U.N. system.
The clean development mechanism (CDM) is an arrangement under the Kyoto Protocol in which companies in industrialized countries can obtain emission credits by financing emission-reducing projects in developing countries.
An application by the governments of Japan and India to have an annual reduction in emissions of about 40,000 tons in this project covered by the CDM was approved last month by the United Nations' CDM executive board.
This is the first time a railway project anywhere in the world has been approved in the CDM, and only the second time Japanese ODA has been approved under the mechanism, the first time being for a wind-power plant project in Egypt last year.
The idea of having ODA projects recognized under the CDM is contentious, but it seems likely a wide range of these projects will gain such approval in the future.
The Delhi Metro runs through India's capital, New Delhi, and its suburbs. Construction began in 1997, and Phase 1--three lines of track covering 59 kilometers--went fully into operation in 2006. About 163 billion yen of the about 278 billion yen project cost was financed by yen loans.
When the brakes of a train on the ODA-funded subway system are applied, the electricity produced from the rotation of motors is extracted and reused elsewhere on the train, reducing CO2 emissions and cutting energy consumption by about one-third.
This technology is used on trains in Japan, but has not been used in India before.
India can sell this reduction in CO2 emissions to industrialized nations under the CDM, and it has signed a deal with Japan Carbon Finance, Ltd., a private firm that is financed by 33 companies including Tokyo Electric Power Co. and Nippon Oil Corp., to sell credits for 200,000 tons, or five years' worth of emission credits.
Under the Kyoto Protocol, Japan is obliged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by an average of 6 percent between fiscal 2008 and fiscal 2012 from fiscal 1990 levels.
The emission credits gained from the subway system in India are believed to be earmarked to help meet targets set in voluntary action plans to reduce CO2 emissions by each industry in the industrial sector.
(Jan. 11, 2008)

Russia and Japan begin forming investment fund

TOKYO, January 11 (Itar-Tass) - Russia and Japan have begun establishing the first joint multipurpose investment fund of three billion dollars, chairman of the board of the Russian-Japanese Business Council Aslan Atabiyev told a press conference on Friday. According to Atabiyev, the aim of the fund is to “attract funds of Japanese investors to finance projects in Russia and Japan.”
“The planned amount of the investment fund for the first year of its activity is three billion dollars, Atabiyev said. “The initial potential of investment projects of the fund amounts to more than 10 billion dollars and embraces all main spheres necessary for running a fully fledged and extremely profitable business.” Among them, the Russian representative singled out “the participation in the construction of facilities in the capital of the Winter Olympic Games-2014 in Sochi, in the construction of cement plants, leasing of building and special equipment, concrete-mixing units, automobile and tractor equipment.”
“The participation in reforming the oil and gas industry and hydropower engineering, including the construction of hydro-accumulating stations, also seems to be promising,” he went on to say. As Atabiyev stressed, concrete projects of Russian and Japanese companies will be presented at a bilateral investment form due to be held in Tokyo on February 14-15.
According to Atabiyev, the fund will be established with the assistance of the national Business Councils, as well as the recently created Japanese committee on support of the holding of the Winter Olympiad 2014 in Sochi.
Chairman of this committee, prominent politician of Japan, former defence minister and deputy of the parliament from the ruling Liberal-Democratic Party Fumio Kyuma has confirmed at a press conference the Japanese side’s readiness to promote the successful holding of the Olympiad in Sochi, as well as interest of the country’s businessmen in implementing large-scale projects in Russia.

Japan votes to return to US-led 'war on terror'

Jan 11, 2008

TOKYO (AFP) - Japan ordered the resumption Friday of a naval mission supporting the US-led "war on terror" as the government overrode a rejection in parliament for the first time in the modern era.
Embattled Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda won US praise for taking the drastic measure to restart the mission but analysts said he risked a domestic backlash by ramming through the controversial legislation.
The opposition, which won control of one house of parliament last year, in November forced an end to the naval mission, under which Japan provided fuel in the Indian Ocean to coalition forces operating in Afghanistan.
The opposition-led upper house voted down legislation to restart the mission on Friday, the last day it had to take action on the bill.
But the move meant the bill returned to the lower house, where Fukuda's coalition still enjoys an overwhelming majority. The more powerful chamber immediately voted largely along party lines, 340-133, to approve the bill.
Defence Minister Shigeru Ishiba promptly issued orders for ships to return to the Indian Ocean and said they would resume operations in about six weeks.
The dispute over the mission had been a factor in leading Fukuda's predecessor, Shinzo Abe, to resign in September.
The ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) argued that the mission was vital to show Japan's contribution to international security.
"The refuelling operation contributes to the safety of sea lanes in the Indian Ocean. It contributes to our national interest as we depend on oil from the Middle East," LDP lawmaker Kenji Kosaka said in parliament.
The United States, Japan's main ally, hailed Fukuda for pushing through the legislation.
"Terrorism is the bane of our time. By passing this legislation, Japan has demonstrated its willingness to stand with those who are trying to create a safer, more tolerant world," said Thomas Schieffer, the US ambassador to Japan.
The opposition countered that Japan, which has been officially pacifist since World War II, should not take part in "American wars." The upper house passed Friday a largely symbolic alternative bill calling for more civilian support to rebuild Afghanistan.
"The Japanese public don't want the refuelling mission to resume," opposition lawmaker Hiroe Makiyama said.
"If the prime minister really wants to enact the bill, he should seek voters' response" through an election, she said.

Japan's 1947 constitution allows the lower house to approve a bill in a second vote by a two-thirds majority even after the upper house rejects it.
According to a parliamentary spokeswoman, the provision has been used only once before -- for a law regulating motor boat racing in 1951, a year before Japan regained its sovereignty following the US occupation.
"It's always possible that the public becomes divided. The clause in the constitution is meant for situations like this where the lower house and upper house have different decisions," said Ishiba, the defence minister.
But analysts said the drastic move proved risky for the LDP, which has been in power for all but 10 months since the conservative party was founded in 1955.
Fukuda is struggling to reverse sliding poll numbers following a raft of scandals.
"The fact that the government had to resort to the last measure shows the prime minister failed to engage the opposition," said Tetsuro Kato, political science professor at Hitotsubashi University.
"His cabinet's support rate could decline further," he said.

Japan Military Data Leak Case Dropped

Jan 11, 2008

TOKYO (AP) — Japanese prosecutors have decided not to press charges against four military instructors investigated over the leak of sensitive defense data in violation of a security pact with the United States, officials said Friday.
The decision means only one officer has been indicted for allegedly leaking the information in August 2002.
In December, police asked prosecutors to take over the investigation of the four naval academy instructors and their alleged roles in leaking to students classified data involving U.S.-developed technology for Aegis radar systems. The technology is used on several Japanese and U.S. warships that carry missile interceptors.
The four men were implicated in the case after another naval officer was arrested and charged in early December. The case initially surfaced in March, when police found a computer disk containing the information, while they were conducting an unrelated investigation.
Prosecutors in Yokohama prefecture (state) near Tokyo announced Friday that they have decided not to press charges against the four instructors, a Defense Ministry spokesman said on condition of anonymity, citing internal policy. He did not provide further details about the decision.
The case has raised concerns about Japan's handling of classified military information and prompted officials to call for stricter intelligence management.
The scandal has embarrassed Japanese defense officials at a time when Tokyo and Washington are stepping up their joint missile defense system in response to North Korea's missile and nuclear tests.