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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 08 TOKYO 000339 
 
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 01/24/07 
 
 
INDEX: 
 
(1) Futenma relocation: Gov. Nakaima to prioritize "closure" in 3 
years 
 
(2) Facts about SDF mission in Iraq (Section 1); Thinking of SDF as 
Japan's new garrison-SDF in transformation (Part 6): Diplomat in SDF 
uniform; Organizational culture denied, confirmed 
 
(3) Finance Minister Omi counters Cabinet Office estimate for fiscal 
recapitalization without tax hike at CEFP meeting on Jan. 18 
 
(4) Abe to be tested in ordinary Diet session; Measures aimed to win 
votes would lead to prompting voters to turn away from 
administration 
 
(5) LDP Policy Affairs Research Council Chairman Nakagawa's office 
reported office expenses amounting to 360 million yen in six years: 
Wining and dining expenses also included 
 
(6) FTC's final plan for merger screening: Share of global market to 
be taken into account; Eased guidelines to enable massive mergers 
 
(7) JAEA develops furnace wall designed to take heat out of plasma 
for ITER 
 
ARTICLES: 
 
(1) Futenma relocation: Gov. Nakaima to prioritize "closure" in 3 
years 
 
RYUKYU SHIMPO (Page 1) (Full) 
January 24, 2007 
 
In connection with the issue of relocating the US Marine Corps' 
Futenma Air Station (in Ginowan, Okinawa Prefecture), Okinawa Gov. 
Hirokazu Nakaima yesterday met at the prefectural government office 
with representatives from the ruling parties in the prefectural 
assembly-the Liberal Democratic Party, Komei Kenmin Kaigi, and 
Kenmin Tomonokai. In the meeting, Nakaima reported what the 
government and Okinawa's prefectural and municipal governments had 
discussed in their consultative meeting held on Jan. 19 over the 
planned relocation of Futenma airfield. Nakaima has been calling for 
the government to turn Futenma airfield into "a state of closure in 
three years" as a measure to eliminate the danger of Futenma 
airfield. "I want to have this proposal accepted by the government," 
Nakaima insisted. With this, the governor told the ruling parties' 
representatives that he would prioritize Futenma airfield's closure 
in his demand to the government, and he asked for the ruling 
parties' cooperation. 
 
Nakaima, according to one of those who met with him, emphasized that 
he would actively negotiate with the government to turn Futenma 
airfield into "a state of closure in three years." The governor 
implied that he would prioritize the airfield's closure in three 
years over revising the government's plan to build a V-shaped pair 
of airstrips as an alternative for Futenma. 
 
"The prefectural assembly will enter into full-fledged discussions 
over the governor's campaign pledge, starting in this February's 
regular session," one ruling party executive said after meeting with 
Nakaima. "Before that," this executive added, "we exchanged views 
between the governor and the ruling parties on our basic way of 
 
TOKYO 00000339  002 OF 008 
 
 
thinking." 
 
The governor did not refer to any specific idea of how to have 
Futenma airfield closed down in three years, according to the 
executive. 
 
The ruling parties' executives, who received Nakaima's explanation, 
told the governor that the ruling parties would support his stance, 
according to one of them who had met with the governor. 
 
(2) Facts about SDF mission in Iraq (Section 1); Thinking of SDF as 
Japan's new garrison-SDF in transformation (Part 6): Diplomat in SDF 
uniform; Organizational culture denied, confirmed 
 
TOKYO (Page 1) (Full) 
January 15, 2007 
 
On the projected slide image were words that were quite unlike the 
Self-Defense Forces. Its main title read "Break through 
organizational culture." It was subtitled "From a well-coordinated 
entity to a chameleonlike one." 
 
Ground Self-Defense Force Col. Masahisa Sato, 46, who retired from 
GSDF service under the date of Jan. 11, was invited as a guest 
speaker to a town meeting held in Maizuru, Kyoto Prefecture. Col. 
Sato commanded the 1st Mission Support Detachment, which was the 
first batch of GSDF troops sent to Iraq as an advance team. Col. 
Sato, who was called the "mustached commander," was still wearing a 
mustache as if he were still in Iraq. 
 
"We have our own culture in the Self-Defense Forces." With this, 
Col. Sato spoke to the audience. "But," he added, "I found it was 
worth nothing in Iraq." He went on: "We used to say we're 'all one' 
in terms of solidarity. We needed many jobs there in Iraq to meet 
local needs. But if we were all one, we could do only one job. In 
Iraq, we were in several groups and went ahead with multiple jobs at 
the same time." 
 
Why chameleonlike? Col. Sato explained: "The Self-Defense Forces is 
an organization that needs to be coordinated before doing something. 
In Iraq, however, we had to do as they do. We had to meet their 
needs, or we couldn't survive literally." With this, Sato spoke of 
his philosophy of management or business administration he acquired 
during his deployment in Iraq. 
 
The GSDF's mission support detachment was tasked with public 
relations in order to facilitate the GSDF's assistance with Iraq's 
nation-rebuilding efforts. Col. Sato's mission support detachment 
played the role of a diplomat in uniform to coordinate with local 
communities. 
 
"We really had a hard time of it during the first two months before 
starting the reconstruction work," Col. Sato told the Tokyo Shimbun 
in an interview. He added, "They even told us, 'If you do nothing, 
go home.'" 
 
"I had to calm down their feelings," Col. Sato recalled, "so I made 
an offering of 10 sheep to the largest and most influential tribe in 
Samawah." He went on: "Then, I heard another tribe was complaining. 
I went to see them. Their angry leader later became the best friend, 
and he provided a lot of information." 
 
Col. Sato listened to the voices of local tribal leaders, and he 
 
TOKYO 00000339  003 OF 008 
 
 
decided himself on the order of public facilities to be repaired. A 
half year later, Col. Masato Taura, 45, was in Samawah to command 
the 2nd Mission Support Detachment. "Col. Sato responded to meet 
local needs," Col. Taura said. "He had already created the basis for 
our activities there, so we tried to develop democracy," Col. Taura 
added. 
 
Samawah-the capital of the southern Iraqi province of Muthanna-is 
the seat of the province's tripartite structure of power consisting 
of its governor, provincial council, and bureaus linked to 
government ministries in Baghdad. There are 11 municipal councils in 
the province, and they asked the province's education bureau to 
repair schools in their areas. The bureau met every week, and the 
GSDF also attended. 
 
"In a meeting there," Col. Taura said, "we asked local authorities 
to hold talks and decide on the order of schools to be repaired." He 
told the local bureau's authorities that the GSDF, based on their 
decisions, would place job orders with local contractors. "They made 
decisions on their own," he said. 
 
The next one in rotation was Col. Kimihito Iwamura, 44, who headed 
the 3rd Mission Support Detachment. Col. Iwamura, as well as Col. 
Sato, decided himself on the order of jobs, and he conducted a 
questionnaire survey of local communities every week to find out 
local needs and ferret out hidden dissatisfactions. 
 
The three GSDF colonels-Sato, Taura, and Iwamura-were classmates 
trained together in an English language class at the GSDF 
Intelligence School (Kodaira School at present). However, they were 
not trained there for diplomacy or business administration. Col. 
Iwamura says: "The GSDF's echelon officers learn thoroughly to plan, 
do, and see what is needed for war. We think of how to accomplish 
our objective and decide what to do. We could utilize our know-how 
for our activities in Iraq, where we had to create something out of 
nothing." 
 
Col. Sato denied the SDF's culture. Unlike him, Col. Iwamura 
confirmed it. Each of these three Samawah-based commanding officers 
has his own way of doing things. The GSDF Ground Staff Office picked 
them as self-sustainable, laying emphasis on their own decision 
making. 
 
The GSDF, for its Iraq mission, dispatched five mission support 
detachments and 10 reconstruction assistance groups. Their 
respective commanders, after returning home with glory, were all 
transferred to the GSDF's pivot. Col. Sato, who could not be framed 
in the SDF, will run in this July's election for the House of 
Councillors to go into politics. 
 
(3) Finance Minister Omi counters Cabinet Office estimate for fiscal 
recapitalization without tax hike at CEFP meeting on Jan. 18 
 
YOMIURI (Page 9) (Full) 
January 24, 2007 
 
It was discovered from the minutes of the meeting of the Council on 
Economic and Fiscal Policy (CEFP) released on Jan. 23 that Finance 
Minister Omi on Jan. 18 countered the estimate made by the Cabinet 
Office that if the Abe administration's rising-tide policy realizes 
economic growth and spending cuts, fiscal recapitalization could be 
achieved without tax hikes. 
 
 
TOKYO 00000339  004 OF 008 
 
 
Omi stated, "Even if far-reaching spending cuts are carried out, it 
will be impossible to bring the primary balance combining both the 
central and local governments into the black unless considerably 
favorable conditions are set for the economic environment." He thus 
indicated a cautious stance toward bringing the primary balance into 
the black in fiscal 2011, the goal advocated by the government and 
the ruling parties. Regarding revenue reform, he said, "It is 
necessary to make efforts to realize drastic reform of the tax 
system, including the consumption tax, with fiscal 2007 as the 
target year." 
 
Regarding fiscal reconstruction, Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) 
Secretary General Nakagawa on Jan. 19 said, "There should not be tax 
 
SIPDIS 
hikes simply for the sake of fiscal reconstruction." The government 
and the ruling camp are thus divided over this issue. Minister of 
Economy, Trade and Industry Akira Amari during the CEFP meeting 
supported the estimate made by the Cabinet Office, which aims for 
high economic growth. He then called for reinforcing the rising-tide 
policy, noting, "I want to make efforts to realize solid economic 
growth surpassing the Cabinet Office estimate." 
 
The Cabinet Office estimate was incorporated in the Japanese 
Economy's Course and Strategy, new mid-term guidelines for economic 
management by the government, and formally adopted at the CEFP 
meeting on the 18th. 
 
(4) Abe to be tested in ordinary Diet session; Measures aimed to win 
votes would lead to prompting voters to turn away from 
administration 
 
NIHON KEIZAI (Page 1) (Excerpts) 
January 24, 2007 
 
In the ordinary Diet session to convene tomorrow, Prime Minister 
Shinzo Abe will be tested over his capability to manage his 
administration. With scandals involving politics and money left 
unresolved, public support for his administration has been on the 
decline. Keeping the July House of Councillors election in mind, 
Minshuto (Democratic Party of Japan) President Ichiro Ozawa is ready 
to take on the ruling camp. 
 
In the Prime Minister's Official Residence on Jan. 19, the prime 
minister was earnestly listening to writer Naoki Inose advising, "It 
would be better to underscore the stance of fighting to the end." 
 
Former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in his first policy speech 
attracted voters' attention, for instance, by citing the "spirit of 
one hundred bags of rice" (the idea that patience and perseverance 
in the present will lead to profit in the future). Prime Minister 
Abe seems to be eager to make his first speech on Jan. 26 as 
impressive. 
 
The problem is that the prime minister has yet to reveal in which 
tasks he is determined to pour his energy during the coming session. 
He once promised to put forth a revision of the Constitution as a 
major election campaign issue. 
 
However, New Komeito President Akihiro Ota, wary of progress made in 
debate on constitutional revision, told the prime minister on the 
phone on Jan. 6: "The top priority task should be to have the 
national referendum bill  (premised for constitutional revision) 
passed in the session." As it stands, it is not easy for Abe to 
demonstrate his own policy identity. 
 
TOKYO 00000339  005 OF 008 
 
 
 
The ruling parties decided to put off a plan to introduce a 
Japanese-version white-collar exception system designed to exclude 
white-collar employees from the application of the overtime 
compensation rules, judging that the measure would work to their 
disadvantage in the upcoming House of Councillors election 
campaigning. In response, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare 
opposed a proposal by some ruling party members to raise overtime 
premium rates ahead of other overtime compensation plans. 
 
By hiking overtime rates, the ruling camp will be able to solicit 
appreciation from voters. When Minshuto is stressing the need to 
narrow the existing social disparities, the proposal was also in 
line with the prime minister's policy of distributing the benefits 
of economic expansion to households. Policy judgments in the 
election year tend to be affected by profit-and-loss arithmetic. 
 
In the Upper House three years ago, Minshuto won a victory by making 
the debate on pension reform the central issue in the campaign. The 
main opposition party aims to bring about the same outcome with the 
same strategy. A senior Minshuto member said, "Policy measures 
linked to public livelihood are likely to bring about a favorable 
impact on the election outcome." The prime minister, even if he 
judges it undesirable to step onto the same ring as that of 
Minshuto, has only limited options because he has been shackled in 
his strong areas, such as the constitution. 
 
In a speech at the LDP convention on Jan. 17, the prime minister 
said, "I will make utmost efforts to spread the benefits of economic 
recovery to the household sector." 
 
In a year in which an Upper House election is held, the 150-day 
ordinary Diet session is not extended in principle. Because of this, 
it is difficult to clear a number of bills. A political truce will 
also be made during the campaign period for simultaneous local 
elections in April of this year. 
 
Bills that seem to be difficult to be passed will be put on the 
backburner. That is the reason why the ruling parties, despite the 
prime minister's instruction to have a conspiracy bill passed at an 
early date, decided to put aside a bill amending the Organized Crime 
Punishment Law, a process necessary to make conspiracy a crime. 
 
Several officials in the government and the ruling parties have made 
statements implying: "It is possible to turn the basic balance of 
payments into the black even without raising taxes." Such statements 
apparently are intended to confine a call for hiking the consumption 
tax, although it is certainly true that tax revenues have 
increased. 
 
Will the government and the ruling parties be able to win support 
from the voters with such a stance? Although former Prime Minister 
Ryutaro Hashimoto continued to say, "The government will not 
increase taxes," he raised taxes in the end, resulting in the LDP's 
crushing defeat nine years ago. 
 
In the Miyazaki gubernatorial election on Jan. 21, unaffiliated 
voters blew off the existing political parties. If the government 
and ruling parties give no clear-cut answers on the problem of 
politics and money, voters will never turn their attention to their 
policies. 
 
(5) LDP Policy Affairs Research Council Chairman Nakagawa's office 
 
TOKYO 00000339  006 OF 008 
 
 
reported office expenses amounting to 360 million yen in six years: 
Wining and dining expenses also included 
 
AKAHATA (Page 15) (Excerpts) 
January 24, 2007 
 
Improper expenses of the fund management organization of Liberal 
Democratic Party (LDP) Policy Affairs Research Council Chairman 
Shoichi Nakagawa have become an issue due to the inclusion of wining 
and dining under office expenses, which do not require receipts. It 
was found that such shady expenses reported over six years reached 
approximately 360 million yen. Nakagawa's office said that it would 
make no comment on the specifics of offices expenses and factual 
situation. 
 
No reply from Nakagawa's office 
 
According to the political fund payment balance report submitted by 
Nakagawa's office, Shoyukai, his fund management organization, 
reported a total of 362.5968 million yen as office expenses for six 
years starting in 2000. Such expenses in 2000 and 2001 exceeded 70 
million yen respectively. 
 
The Political Fund Control Law does not require receipts for office 
expenses. As such, a point has been made that the details of office 
expenses are unclear. 
 
Asked about office expenses for 2005 (30,960,883 yen), Nakagawa 
during Fuji-TV talk show "Hodo-2001 aired on Jan. 14, explained, "My 
fund management organization has another office near the Diet 
Building and operating that office costs more than 10 million yen. 
The remaining 20 million yen was for office expenses, such as 
communications and transportations expenses." 
 
Admitting that his office included wining and dining expenses as 
part of office expenses, Nakagawa complained, "My secretaries should 
not eat late night snacks?" 
 
The Shimbun Akahata questioned Nakagawa's office about the specifics 
of office expenses and the grounds for its reporting wining and 
dining expenses as office expenses. However, his office replied that 
it does not reply to questions asked by other political party's 
organ paper. 
 
Three organizations rent same room in building near Diet Building 
 
The Juzen Building near the Diet building is known for having many 
organizations related to politicians as tenants. There are also 
Shoichi Nakagawa's offices there. 
 
According to his political fund payment balance report, the room no. 
701 of the Juzen Building accommodates Nakagawa's three main offices 
- the Shosei Group, a political organization related to Nakagawa, 
the Seikei Research Group and the Nakagawa Group. 
 
The Nakagawa Group and the Shosei Group received fund donations 
totaling 3 million yen in 1999 and 2000 from the Hannan Group led by 
Mitsuru Asada in the form of purchasing fund-raising part tickets. 
Asada received a prison sentence for the beef-labeling fraud 
incident abusing the government's BSE measures. The Nakagawa Group 
received 2 million yen and the Shosei Group received 1 million yen. 
When the Shosei Group received that donation in April 1999, Nakagawa 
was agriculture minister. 
 
TOKYO 00000339  007 OF 008 
 
 
 
The Nakagawa Group received donations totaling 4.8 million yen over 
the five years starting in 2001 from the Food Service Industry 
Political Research Group, a political organization of the food 
service industry, which was seeking the early resumption of US beef 
imports, which had been banned due to the BSE issue. 
 
(6) FTC's final plan for merger screening: Share of global market to 
be taken into account; Eased guidelines to enable massive mergers 
 
TOKYO SHIMBUN (Page 3) (Full) 
January 24, 2007 
 
The Fair Trade Commission is now pressing ahead with a plan to 
review its merger screening guidelines. The final proposals for 
revising the guidelines were revealed yesterday. The plan features 
easing the current system for evaluating merger applications, based 
on the domestic share of the company to be created as a result of 
the planned merger. Instead, a system of screening applications 
based on the share of an amalgamated company on the global market 
will be adopted. It will aim at implementing the new guidelines 
starting in April, after obtaining approval from the Liberal 
Democratic Party (LDP) before the end of January. 
 
The aim is to strengthen Japanese companies' competitiveness. 
Chances are that massive business mergers, such as the one between 
Nippon Steel Corp. and JFE Holdings, could be approved under the new 
guidelines, though it had previously been viewed as impossible to 
carry out mergers on such a scale, as they will likely block 
domestic competition. Corporate reorganization is expected to 
further accelerate. 
 
According to the final proposal, the present system, which 
stipulates that only mergers within Japan can be approved, will be 
scraped. Under a new system, this geographical restriction will be 
expanded to approve mergers beyond national boundaries. 
 
From a global viewpoint, too, corporate reorganization is 
accelerating, as can be seen in the formation of Arcelor Mittal, 
Luxemburg, in the steel industry. Under the current guidelines, even 
if Nippon Steel and JFE intend to merge, it is difficult for their 
plan to obtain approval, as the domestic share of the company formed 
through the merger in terms of the production of crude oil will 
reach nearly 60%. However, since the share on the global market is 
only about 6%, it would be possible for the two companies to merge 
under the new system, as a government source put it. Some take the 
view that even a merger between Toyota Motor and Nissan Motors might 
be possible. 
 
However, approval will not be given for mergers in certain business 
areas. For instance, if the overseas market of companies that have 
applied for a merger is limited to a certain area, such as East 
Asia, and if the share of a company created as a result of the 
merger sharply increases, then their application will be turned 
down. 
 
The FTC will also revise the guidelines for mergers that require no 
screening. It will ease the standard by adopting a system of judging 
merger applications based on indices indicating the degree of 
oligopoly scrapping the current share-based standard. 
 
At the stage of compiling a draft plan, the FTC planned to unify 
standards into indices. However, the plan met opposition from 
 
TOKYO 00000339  008 OF 008 
 
 
business circles. The FTC intends to approve merger applications in 
cases involving a new share ranging between 25% and 35%, though it 
determined that screening would be necessary while keeping the share 
standard in place and attaching a condition for the parallel use of 
indices. The judgment is that there is little concern about such 
mergers restricting competition. 
 
(7) JAEA develops furnace wall designed to take heat out of plasma 
for ITER 
 
ASAHI (Page 2) (Full) 
January 24, 2007 
 
The Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) announced yesterday that it 
has succeeded in manufacturing experimentally the "blanket" to be 
used in the international thermonuclear experimental reactor (ITER) 
for the first time in the world. The blanket is the furnace wall set 
around the plasma in the reactor core, where the temperature reaches 
as high as 100 million degrees, and its role is to take heat out of 
the plasma. Since blanket engineering is indispensable in developing 
power-generation technology, competition for developing the product 
is heating up among Japan, the United States, and Europe. 
 
Material for the blanket must be highly heat-resistant, must be 
mainly unaffected by radiation, and not easily take on radiation so 
that used ones are disposable. The JAEA developed a technology to 
stick together beryllium, which protects the plasma, and ferrite 
steel, which does not easily become radioactive. The agency plans to 
continue testing the product for its resistance to radiation. 
 
SCHIEFFER