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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 05 TOKYO 004751 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR E, P, EB, EAP/J, EAP/P, EAP/PD, PA 
WHITE HOUSE/NSC/NEC; JUSTICE FOR STU CHEMTOB IN ANTI-TRUST DIVISION; 
TREASURY/OASIA/IMI/JAPAN; DEPT PASS USTR/PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICE; 
SECDEF FOR JCS-J-5/JAPAN, 
DASD/ISA/EAPR/JAPAN; DEPT PASS ELECTRONICALLY TO USDA 
FAS/ITP FOR SCHROETER; PACOM HONOLULU FOR PUBLIC DIPLOMACY ADVISOR; 
CINCPAC FLT/PA/ COMNAVFORJAPAN/PA. 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OIIP KMDR KPAO PGOV PINR ECON ELAB JA
SUBJECT:  DAILY SUMMARY OF JAPANESE PRESS 08/18/06 
 
 
INDEX: 
 
(1) Ozawa's criticism of Prime Minister Koizumi Wavering; "Yasukuni 
visit by the prime minister is only natural," Ozawa once said 
 
(2) With one cabinet minister after another leaving for remote 
countries, uncertainty looms over relations with neighbors 
 
(3) Seizure of Japanese fishing boat by Russia: Median line in 
northern waters; one of the best fishing grounds; Fishermen in 
Nemuro have consciousness that it is their sea 
 
(4) Government decides to shut out crime syndicates, subcontractors 
from public works projects, including materials 
 
ARTICLES: 
 
(1) Ozawa's criticism of Prime Minister Koizumi Wavering; "Yasukuni 
visit by the prime minister is only natural," Ozawa once said 
 
SANKEI (Page 5) (Full) 
August 18, 2006 
 
Minshuto (Democratic Party of Japan) President Ichiro Ozawa has kept 
silent since Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi visited Yasukuni 
Shrine on Aug. 15. But in his column carried by the Yukan Fuji 
(evening sports newspaper), he severely criticized Koizumi's visit 
to the Shinto shrine: "He visited the shrine as a performance. He 
should instead by laying the ground work so that the Emperor would 
be able to visit there, too." He once supported the prime minister's 
Yasukuni visits, noting, "There are no reasons for the prime 
minister to hesitate." 
 
On the 15 when Koizumi went to Yasukuni, only Secretary General 
Yukio Hatoyama responded with an interview. Executive Office chief 
Goshi Hosono, Ozawa's aide, stated: "Prime Minister Koizumi will 
soon resign. There is no need for the party head to make a comment. 
We want him to do his best for preparations for the party leadership 
race." 
 
In his column in the evening newspaper yesterday, however, Ozawa 
blasted Koizumi, as follows: 
 
"The prime minister recognizes that war as a wrong, and he has said 
that Class-A war criminals were responsible for waging the war and 
that they had committed crimes. Yasukuni Shrine honors Class-A war 
criminals, yet he visited there. This means that the prime minister, 
who represents Japan, made an action that can not be acceptable 
domestically or internationally." 
 
After assuming the presidency of the main opposition party, Ozawa 
pushed the argument that the names of Class-A war criminals should 
be deleted from the list of names of those enshrined at Yasukuni 
Shrine. His reason was that the leaders of the time bear grave 
responsibility to the Japanese people for leading them into war and 
that they should not have enshrined because they did not die in the 
war. 
 
On April 2, 1986, when he was serving as home affairs minister, 
Ozawa replied to a question by then Japan Socialist Party member 
Sango Sato at the Upper House Local Administration Committee as 
follows: 
 
 
TOKYO 00004751  002 OF 005 
 
 
"Paying our respects at Yasukuni Shrine means to honor those who 
died in the war for the country. Whether they were Class-A war 
criminals, Class-B, or Class-C is not a question," he then added, 
"We should think separately the issue of war responsibility and our 
feelings." 
 
On April 25, 2001, the day before the Koizumi government was 
inaugurated, Ozawa as head of then Liberal Party, made a statement 
supporting the prime minister's visit to Yasukuni Shrine, saying, 
"It is only natural that we thank for those who died in the 
frontline of the war. We should accept it meekly." 
 
On June 9, 2005, when he was Minshuto vice president, Ozawa stated: 
"If the prime minister insists that visiting Yasukuni is his 
political belief, he should visit there on Aug. 15, the anniversary 
of the end of the war." He gave Koizumi a "seal of approval" even 
though his aim was to seek to check Koizumi. 
 
If one looks at Ozawa's remarks until now, what he said are totally 
different from one he made in 1986. A secretary to a veteran LDP 
lawmaker commented: "Mr. Ozawa is just criticizing for the sake of 
criticizing." It is the fact that the political situation over 
Yasukuni visits by the prime minister and Ozawa's position are 
greatly changed. As if to keep his words and actions in the past in 
mind, Ozawa said in his column yesterday: "A visit to Yasukuni by 
the persons who are responsible posts in the government is on a 
different level (from a visit to the shrine by other people)." 
 
(2) With one cabinet minister after another leaving for remote 
countries, uncertainty looms over relations with neighbors 
 
TOKYO SHIMBUN (Page 2) (Slightly abridged) 
August 18, 2006 
 
A number of members in the Koizumi cabinet have left or will be 
leaving for countries that have yet received no Japanese cabinet 
ministers. This is the first such attempt in a bid to strengthen 
Japan's diplomatic foundations. Conversely, however, it could be 
dangerous to overlook nearby countries, as seen from the incident of 
a Japanese fishing boat shot in waters off Nemuro, Hokkaido. 
 
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi came up with this strategic 
approach. During the Golden Week holidays this year, he became the 
first sitting prime minister to visit three countries in Africa and 
Scandinavia, including Ghana. On that occasion, the prime minister, 
impressed by their warm welcomes, felt the need for Japan to develop 
"diplomacy with a face," according to his aides. 
 
Koizumi urged cabinet ministers to separately go to countries that 
have never received a Japanese premier or cabinet minister. 
 
It is common for each government agency to determine where its head 
will go overseas. In the selection process, priority is given to 
countries that have close ties with Japan, like the United States 
and China, or to those involved in important issues. Low-profile 
countries tend to be put on the backburner. Of the 192 UN member 
states, as of this May, there were 82 countries that have received 
no prime minister or cabinet ministers from Japan. 
 
In response to an order from Koizumi, the Kantei took the lead in 
scheduling cabinet members' overseas trips. The office arranged 
plans for nine cabinet ministers to visit 16 countries, including 
those in Africa and the Asia-Pacific region. Their mission is to 
 
TOKYO 00004751  003 OF 005 
 
 
deliver the prime minister's personal letter and convey Japan's 
economic assistance plans. They were given opportunities to explain 
Japan's bid for a permanent seat on UN Security Council or Japan's 
position on the North Korea issue, achieving acceptable results. 
 
While Japan is engaged in this diplomatic approach to remote 
countries, strained relations with its neighbors have been brought 
to the forefront. On Aug. 16, Russian Border Patrol officers fired 
on a Japanese boat in waters near Kaigarjima, part of the disputed 
Northern Territories. In this incident, one crewmember was killed. 
Foreign Minister Taro Aso lodged a strong protest with the Russian 
government, casting dark clouds over relations between Japan and 
Russia. It is also true that the standstill Northern Territories 
issue was behind the incident. 
 
A Taiwanese anti-Japanese group set sail for the Senkaku Islands 
(called the Diaoyutai Islands in Chinese) by fishing boat yesterday 
in a move to protest the prime minister's visit to Yasukuni Shrine 
on Aug. 15. On sovereignty over the islets, Japan and China have 
been at loggerheads. 
 
Japan also has a disagreement with South Korea in connection with 
marine surveys in waters near the Takeshima islets (Dokdo in South 
Korea), over which both countries claim sovereignty. 
 
The prime minister has given priority to strengthening Japan-US 
relations, saying that deeper relations between Japan and the US 
will mean better relations between Japan and its Asian neighbors, 
giving short shrift to diplomacy in the region. This stance 
unavoidably has come at a high price and has kept such relations 
icy. 
 
(3) Seizure of Japanese fishing boat by Russia: Median line in 
northern waters; one of the best fishing grounds; Fishermen in 
Nemuro have consciousness that it is their sea 
 
YOMIURI (Page 3) (Excerpts) 
August 18, 2006 
 
Japan claims the Northern Territories as its own. However, in 
reality the former USSR and Russia have effectively controlled the 
four islands since the end of the war. Each country claims a 
different borderline. In fact, there were a series of firings at 
Japanese fishing boats years ago by then USSR Coast Guard patrol 
vessels. As a result, a line different from the one Japan had 
claimed had to be drawn. This is the so-called median line. 
 
At present, only fishing boats with written permission from Russia 
under the Japan-Russia Fishing Agreement can fish in waters claimed 
by Russia beyond the median line. These fishing boats are allowed to 
fish for octopus, hokke (flounder-like fish), and pollack. There is 
also an operation agreement on kelp. The Hokkaido Fisheries 
Association pays cooperation money to Russia each year so that 
Japanese fishermen can catch or gather those products in limited 
areas in a specified period. 
 
In any case, Japanese fishing boats are not allowed to catch king 
crabs, which the fishing boat seized by Russia was reportedly 
catching. If Russia's claim is true, the fishing boat in question 
was operating in violation of the agreement. 
 
The history of the median line goes back to 1952, when Hokkaido and 
the Japan Coast Guard designated a presumed danger zone as an area 
 
TOKYO 00004751  004 OF 005 
 
 
to which the USSR's Coast Guard's capability reaches. This is said 
to be the initial (median) line. 
 
In order to avoid such danger as seizures or shootings, fisheries 
cooperative associations along the coast line and Hokkaido in 1996 
designated an self-restraint operation line, by setting a buffering 
waters area on the Hokkaido's side several kilometers beyond the 
median line. Nevertheless line-crossing fishing operations did not 
decrease. Hokkaido, therefore, designated operating waters on the 
Hokkaido's side of the voluntary restraint line and made the 
voluntary restraint line a regulated coordination line (partly 
revised in 2002). 
 
After the collapse of the USSR, the Hokkaido Fisheries and Forestry 
Department held sea-based talks several times a year with the Russia 
Coast Guard near the median line and discussed the issue of fishing 
near the Nemuro Strait. However, the issue was not settled 
fundamentally. Contradiction in claims by the two countries over the 
territorial issue has apparently been exposed in the incident this 
time. 
 
(4) Government decides to shut out crime syndicates, subcontractors 
from public works projects, including materials 
 
YOMIURI (Top Play) (Full) 
August 18, 2006 
 
The government has decided to shut out crime syndicates and 
companies affiliated with them from all public works projects so 
that state money will not become sources of funding for them. There 
is already a regulation to exclude crime syndicates when the 
government places original contracts for public projects. The plan 
is also to establish a regulation to shut them out from subcontracts 
and sub-subcontracts. Organized crime groups will also be barred 
from contracts for supplying construction materials and providing 
such services as cleaning. Government agencies concerned have 
already started discussions on the issue. Specific measures, such as 
a regulation to eliminate crime syndicates, will be mapped out 
possibly before the end of the year. 
 
Following the enforcement of the Anti-Organized Crime Law in 1992, 
fund-raising activities unique to crime syndicates, such as the 
collection of protection money and nominal contributions, have been 
contained to some extent. However, the number of crime syndicate 
members (including semi-members) stood at 86,300 as of the end of 
2005, showing little decline from 90,600 as of the end of 1992. The 
National Police Agency (NPA) believes that crime syndicates are 
maintaining their force by shifting the weight of their activities 
to a method of shrewdly obtaining contracts for public works as 
subcontractors or sub-subcontractors. 
 
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport has already 
issued a circular concerning regulations to shut out crime 
syndicates and companies related to them from contracts for public 
projects. However, since there is no regulation to directly bar 
crime syndicates from subcontracts or sub-subcontracts for public 
projects, the government will issue a notice on a ban on such 
practices or include it in guidelines. 
 
As specific measures to shut out underworld gangs from public 
projects, the government is considering: (1) introducing a system of 
informing project sponsors of any undue demand for participation in 
the project as a sub-contractor from a crime syndicate or a related 
 
TOKYO 00004751  005 OF 005 
 
 
company; and (2) excluding a prime contractor from a list of 
designated companies if it is found to have connections or business 
transactions with crime syndicates. Some local governments have 
already introduced a similar system ahead of the state. The 
government is also looking into the possibility of eliminating 
underworld gangs and companies related to them from contracts for 
projects funded by public money in the future. 
 
There are increasing cases in which crime syndicates disguise 
themselves as unrelated companies by using related companies, 
relatives, and acquaintances. In order to deal with this situation, 
the NPA will provide information to determine whether a person who 
made an undue demand is connected with a crime syndicate or not more 
actively than before. It will also further strengthen cooperation 
with government agencies and local governments. 
 
SCHIEFFER