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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 08 TOKYO 000375 
 
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 01/26/07 
 
 
Index: 
 
(1) DFAA's Naha chief implies that jump drills at Kadena will be 
allowed as "exceptional" cases 
 
(2) China carries out anti-satellite weapons test, challenging US 
military hegemony 
 
(3) Kadena paradrop drill: Clear guidelines counterproductive; 
Excuse given to US military for going ahead 
 
(4) Six months after resumption of imports: Sales of US beef 
sluggish; Consumers, supermarkets still cautious 
 
(5) TOP HEADLINES 
 
(6) EDITORIALS 
 
(7) Prime Minister's schedule, 
 
ARTICLES: 
 
(1) DFAA's Naha chief implies that jump drills at Kadena will be 
allowed as "exceptional" cases 
 
RYUKYU SHIMPO (Page 1) (Full) 
January 26, 2007 
 
The US Air Force will conduct a paradrop training exercise at Kadena 
Air Base this afternoon with six paratroopers belonging to the 31st 
Rescue Squadron of the 18th Air Wing based at Kadena. In this 
connection, Tsutomu Sato, director general of the Defense Facilities 
Administration Agency's Naha bureau, stressed the parachute drill 
planned this time was "exceptional" in a regular informal gathering 
with reporters yesterday afternoon. However, Sato added that the 
government would respond to consultations again with the United 
States if such parachute drills at Kadena were "really exceptional" 
cases. With this, Sato touched on the likelihood of parachute drills 
being continued at Kadena Air Base. The Okinawa prefectural 
government and municipalities hosting Kadena Air Base reacted 
negatively to the formal decision on paradrop training. The 
prefectural government asked the DFAA's Naha bureau and other 
government organizations to suspend the planned drill. 
 
The prefectural government sent Reiji Fumoto, an official in charge 
of base disaster prevention, to the DFAA's Naha bureau and the 
Foreign Ministry's Okinawa office yesterday afternoon and asked them 
to suspend the planned parachute drill. Hideaki Kuramitsu, deputy 
chief of the Foreign Ministry's Okinawa office, indicated that the 
government would hold talks with the US military, seeking to improve 
the facilities of Iejima airfield. Fumoto will directly ask Kadena 
Air Base this morning to suspend the drill. 
 
The Liaison Conference of Municipalities on Kadena Air Base, chaired 
by Kadena Town Mayor Tokujitsu Miyagi, will ask Brig. Gen. Harold 
Moulton, commander of the 18th Wing, this afternoon to suspend the 
parachute drill. The Okinawa Peace Campaign Center will hold an 
anti-drill rally this afternoon on the nearby hills known as "Anpo 
no Oka." 
 
In his press remarks, Sato explained that the parachute drill 
planned this time is an "exceptional" one. However, Sato added: "The 
 
TOKYO 00000375  002 OF 008 
 
 
drill (at Kadena Air Base) is not a regular one, and it's on a small 
scale. We believe it's conducted in case the bad weather of Iejima 
does not permit their training and they need to conduct training in 
order to keep the rescue team qualified." With this, Sato indicated 
that the government would be ready to comply with the US military's 
future requests to be made under similar conditions. 
 
In the parachute drill this time, paratroopers are expected to land 
on a strip between the two runways of Kadena Air Base with no 
materiel droppings, according to the DFAA's Naha bureau and other 
sources. 
 
Sato explained that the US military urgently needed to carry out 
paradrop training at Kadena in order to keep its rescue troopers 
readied for livesaving purposes. According to his explanation, the 
US military's rescue team is required to participate in a parachute 
drill for a certain period of time. He explained, "They will be 
disqualified if that period of time is over, and the time limit is 
pressing." 
 
In the future, the US military will basically continue paradrop 
training at Iejima airfield as agreed between the Japanese and US 
governments in a final report released by the Japan-US Special 
Committee on Facilities and Areas in Okinawa (SACO). "The Japanese 
government will also work on the US government to do so," Sato said. 
"Kadena is for exceptional cases only," he added. 
 
(2) China carries out anti-satellite weapons test, challenging US 
military hegemony 
 
YOMIURI (Page 13) (Excerpts) 
January 26, 2007 
 
China succeeded in carrying out an anti-satellite weapons test at 
07:28 a.m. on Jan. 12, Japan time. The test knocked out an aging 
Chinese weather satellite about 850 kilometers above the earth by 
using a Dongfeng 21 ballistic missile (with a range of about 1,800 
km). 
 
The US government instantly responded to it and expressed concern in 
a strong tone to the Chinese government, claiming that the test is 
inconsistent with the spirit of pursuing international cooperation 
in the civil space area. 
 
A senior Defense Ministry official commented: "If a nation has the 
technology to put a satellite into orbit around the Earth, it will 
not be so difficult for it to hone the technology to destroy a 
satellite. China's aim might have been to demonstrate to the US that 
it has the capability to destroy satellites. China must have taken 
into consideration a strong reaction from the US." 
 
Late in the Cold War in the 1980s, the US and Soviet Union stepped 
up efforts to undermine the functions of the other side's 
communication and spy satellites. 
 
Some take the view that China, eager to modernize its military 
power, has come closer to the US and Russia in the space development 
area. But one reason why the US was sensitive about China's test 
might be that it fears that China could threaten its military 
supremacy in the space area, which the US has dominated since the 
end of the Cold War. 
 
 
TOKYO 00000375  003 OF 008 
 
 
The US has placed importance on network centric warfare (NCW) as 
part of its military reform. As symbolized by the Iraq war 
(initiated in 2003), NCW is a strategy to knock off an enemy in a 
short period of time and in an effective way by using 
precision-guided weapons based on intelligence gathered through spy 
satellites or unmanned aircraft. The success of the anti-satellite 
missile test has presented a threat to such US defense systems. 
 
There seems to be another reason for the US concern. Last October, 
the US Navy Strike Force centered on the aircraft carrier USS Kitty 
Hawk was followed during a drill by a Chinese diesel submarine in 
the Western Pacific near Okinawa. Aircraft were unable to detect the 
presence of the submarine until it had approached to within just 8 
km. 
 
A senior Defense Ministry official said: "As was done by the former 
Soviet Union, China demonstrated its determination not to allow the 
US Navy to act freely in the Western Pacific." 
 
Behind the US position as the sole superpower in the post Cold War 
period, there are two key elements: the maritime strategy supported 
by its Navy with 12 aircraft carriers and the space strategy to 
enable the US to collect military intelligence globally and 
instantly through spy and communication satellites. 
 
With the provocative act by its submarine, China let fly an arrow at 
the US maritime strategy. By destroying a satellite, China also 
showed its intention to challenge the US space strategy, in a 
sense. 
 
China specified in its 2006 Defense White Paper released late last 
year: "We will strengthen our comprehensive maritime capabilities in 
the near seas." Regarding nuclear capabilities as a deterrent to the 
US, the report noted, "China will strengthen and modernize its 
strategic capabilities." 
 
By stepping up its maritime activities in the East China Sea, China 
is likely to exert its influence in the standoff with Japan over the 
development of gas fields and sovereignty over the Senkaku (Diaoyu) 
Islets. China is also expected to continue to apply pressure on the 
US to constrain its naval activities based near Guam in the Western 
Pacific. 
 
It is still uncertain whether China is aiming to become a major 
power that can exert influence over countries in East Asia and 
Southeast Asia or to acquire a position as a superpower that can 
match the US. But it is certain that Japan will be placed in a very 
difficult situation, pressed to face China, which is expanding its 
military power. 
 
(3) Kadena paradrop drill: Clear guidelines counterproductive; 
Excuse given to US military for going ahead 
 
RYUKYU SHIMPO (Page 3) (Full) 
January 26, 2007 
 
The US military will conduct paradrop training at Kadena Air Base 
(in Okinawa Prefecture) this afternoon for the first time in eight 
years. The Japanese and US governments confirmed it in a meeting of 
their joint committee yesterday. The Japanese government explained 
the planned parachute drill as an "exceptional" one. In this regard, 
a government official cited a set of guidelines for a parachute 
 
TOKYO 00000375  004 OF 008 
 
 
drill to be conducted at Kadena Air Base, specifying: 1) it is 
irregular and small scale; 2) it is related to lifesaving; and 3) it 
is up to weather conditions at Iejima Island. The government ruled 
out the possibility of such a parachute drill being routinized at 
Kadena. In a way, however, such a posture shown by the government 
has given leeway to the US military for its future parachute drills 
at Kadena as regular training exercises that are acceptable to 
Japan. Local communities fear that such paratroop training could 
permanently go on at Kadena. 
 
"The US military has been strongly desiring to conduct parachute 
drills at Kadena. We have stubbornly asked the US military to 
conduct such training at Iejima. In the end, however, it was 
unavoidable." With this, one of the government's officials, who were 
involved in negotiations with the United States, recalled the 
process of difficult negotiations in which they crossed words with 
their US counterparts while facing their tough posture. They 
patiently took time and waited for the US military to soften its 
attitude in consideration of the sensitivities of local residents in 
the vicinity of Kadena Air Base. 
 
According to a government official, the US military could not 
conduct any parachute drills at Iejima Island in December last year 
due to bad weather and other conditions. 
 
"They say it's considerably windy there, so paratroopers sometimes 
land in tacit farming areas, which must not exist, though. The US 
military conducts parachute training there with a lifeboat readied 
(in the sea) for emergencies." With this, Tsutomu Sato, director 
general of the Defense Facilities Administration Agency's Naha 
bureau, explained "constraints" on the US military's paradrop 
training at Iejima, an island lying off the northwestern part of 
Okinawa's main island. 
 
The Japan-US Joint Committee has confirmed the planned parachute 
drill. In this respect, a government official said there was no 
special reason for that. However, now that the government has 
clarified guidelines for paratroop training exercises to be 
conducted at Kadena, Masaaki Gabe, a professor at the University of 
the Ryukyus, surmises that the US military may carry out parachute 
drills there for its own convenience. "Otherwise," Prof. Gabe noted, 
"the Japanese and US governments held a meeting of their joint 
committee probably because they had to change something the joint 
committee decided in the past." 
 
In the end, the Japanese government has accepted the planned 
parachute drill. That is because the Japanese government heeded 
three points: 1) the parachute drill planned this time is 
exceptional and is not regular; 2) the number of participating 
paratroops is small; and 3) the planned drill is related to 
lifesaving. 
 
"This time, it was unavoidable. But we could narrow down the number 
of participating paratroopers to six persons. In the joint committee 
meeting, we told them that the planned parachute drill would not be 
a regular training exercise. The US side showed its understanding." 
So saying, a government official played up the government's 
efforts. 
 
The US military will likely seek to conduct parachute drills at 
Kadena Air Base. "If there is an exceptional case, the government 
will again respond to consultations with the US side," Sato said, 
 
TOKYO 00000375  005 OF 008 
 
 
leaving the potential of accepting further paradrop training at the 
base. 
 
One government official stressed: "We continued difficult 
negotiations for a long period of time over the parachute drill 
planned to be conducted this time. The US side should feel that it 
wouldn't be easy. We can't let them do as they like." 
 
(4) Six months after resumption of imports: Sales of US beef 
sluggish; Consumers, supermarkets still cautious 
 
YOMIURI (Page 11) (Full) 
January 26, 2007 
 
Jan. 27 will mark the sixth month since the government decided to 
resume US beef imports. However, only a limited number of 
supermarket chains sell US beef. It appears US beef has not yet 
fully regained the trust of the retailing industry and consumers 
regarding the possibility of its being infected with BSE. The US 
government has asked the Japanese government to ease standards 
applied to US beef exported to Japan. However, whether the 
heightened US pressure will lead to expanded consumption is 
unclear. 
 
Beef bowls sold in limited timeframe 
 
Yoshinoya D&C, a leading beef bowl restaurant chain, started selling 
beef bowls using US beef on Dec. 1 last year. 
 
It used to purchase 25,000 tons a year before the ban, but it has 
thus far purchased only about 1,000 tons since the removal of the 
ban due to strict import regulations. The situation in which it has 
to sell the dishes only in a limited timeframe, such as from 11:00 
a.m. to 3:00 p.m., is continuing. 
 
Imports of US beef are by and large sluggish. According to the 
Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, total imports from 
the first shipment after the removal of the import ban, which 
arrived in Japan on August 7, through January 19 stand at 8540 tons. 
Imports in monthly terms have been hovering at a 2,000-ton level 
since last October. This is about 10% of the pre-ban level of 20,000 
tons a month. Japan suspended imports in December 2003, following 
the first discovery of a BSE-infected cow in the US. 
 
US beef not available at three leading supermarket chains 
 
One reason for only a few stores selling US beef is that retailers, 
such as supermarket chains, which have direct contact with 
consumers, remain cautious about the safety of the product. 
 
Leading three supermarket chains -- Ito-Yokado, Aeon and Daiei - do 
not sell US beef even now. Food supermarket chain Maruetsu has 
resumed the sales of US beef at some of its outlets since the end of 
last November. It only deals with products with traceability. 
 
Matsuya Foods, which runs beef bowl chain restaurant Matsuya, has 
resumed serving dishes using US beef at some of its stores since 
Jan. 11. It uses US beef for limited dishes, such as barbecue 
dishes. It says that it would monitor a consumer trend and carefully 
make a decision on whether to use US beef for beef bowls. 
 
Toshiko Kanda, chief of the secretariat of the National Liaison 
 
TOKYO 00000375  006 OF 008 
 
 
Committee of Consumers' Organizations, pointed out, "US companies' 
sloppy export control is noticeable, as can be seen in the fact that 
specified risk materials were exported. Consumers still do not put 
trust in US beef." Consumers, who have switched to Australian beef 
or to pork while US beef imports were under suspension, will not 
come back to US beef easily. 
 
US pressure 
 
However, the US has already begun urging Japan to ease conditions 
applied to beef exported to Japan. United State Trade Representative 
Susan Schwab and Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns on Jan. 10-11 
formally told Agriculture Minister Matsuoka, who was visiting the 
US, that the US wants to hold talks with Japan to ease export 
conditions. 
 
The World Organization for Animal Health (OIE)'s standard is that 
beef from cattle 30 months of age or younger is safe. However, the 
condition applied to Japan-bound products, on which Japan and the US 
agreed on, is 20 months of age or younger. It is stricter that the 
OIE standard. The US government has called on Japan to ease the 
standard to 30 months of age or younger with the aim of increasing 
exports to Japan. 
 
Agriculture Minister Matsuoka replied that it is not possible to 
respond to the request at the current stage, as it is important to 
obtain the understanding from consumers. However, the US is 
increasing pressure continuing to call on Matsuoka in writing to 
ease the condition. In order for Japan to ease the import condition, 
it is necessary for it to secure a go-ahead from the Food Safety 
Commission, a scientific evaluation organ. Entering into talks in an 
easy-going manner could incur opposition from consumers. The 
Japanese side likely will be pressed to deal with the matter in a 
cautious manner. 
 
(5) TOP HEADLINES 
 
Asahi: 
Pension payouts likely to be 47% -51% of salary, even if economic 
growth attains 3.9%, Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry estimates, 
based on birthrate of 1.26 
 
Mainichi: 
Cell phone companies to check with parents about whether to connect 
children with harmful websites 
 
Yomiuri: 
Government to put on hold proposal to allow companies to set up 
universities, following problems in special structural reform zones 
 
Nihon Keizai: 
Non-life insurance companies to raise disaster insurance premiums to 
deal with increasing damage from typhoons, etc 
 
Sankei: 
Justice Ministry to revise regulations to extend prison term to up 
to seven years for vehicular manslaughter 
 
Tokyo Shimbun: 
Fujiya found to have sold products containing spoiled ingredients, 
adopting its own manual violating standards set by Health Ministry 
 
 
TOKYO 00000375  007 OF 008 
 
 
Akahata: 
Regular Diet session starts: We call for war of words based on 
people's wishes 
 
(6) EDITORIALS 
 
Asahi: 
(1) Educational revitalization: It is risky to revise related laws 
before full preparations are made 
(2) Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy: Is it ready to implement 
reform? 
 
Mainichi: 
(1) Regular Diet session starts: Settle "politics and money" issue 
first 
(2) Failure to pay school lunch fees is not acceptable 
 
Yomiuri: 
(1) School lunch fees: It is irresponsible for parents not to pay 
when they can afford to do so 
(2) China's missile test: Challenge will lead to military expansion 
in space 
 
Nihon Keizai: 
(1) It is time for China to take responsibility as economic power 
(2) FTC should unravel cartel between Japanese and European 
companies 
 
Sankei: 
(1) Failure to pay school lunch fees: Parents should not make light 
of schools 
(2) State of the Union Address: Bipartisan policy also available 
 
Tokyo Shimbun: 
(1) School lunch fees: Change parents first before revitalizing 
education 
(2) China's missile test: Discussion on peaceful use of space 
needed 
 
Akahata: 
(1) Educational Revitalization Council report: What children need is 
not competition but warm human relationships 
 
(7) Prime Minister's schedule, 
 
NIHON KEIZAI (Page 2)  (Full) 
January 26, 2007 
 
08:33 
Attended at Kantei extraordinary cabinet meeting. 
 
09:25 
Met with Welfare Minister Yanagisawa and Health Service Bureau chief 
Toguchi. 
 
10:22 
Met with Chief Cabinet Secretary Shiozaki, followed by Deputy 
Foreign Minister Kono. 
 
11:37 
Attended farewell party for former Japan Chamber of Commerce and 
Industry Chairman Inaba at Okura Hotel. 
 
TOKYO 00000375  008 OF 008 
 
 
 
11:47 
Returned to Kantei. 
 
12:31 
Attended meeting of members of both Diet houses at the Diet. 
Attended meeting of the Lower House members. Met afterwards with 
former Prime Minister Mori, Foreign Minister Aso and Acting 
Secretary General Ishihara. 
 
SIPDIS 
 
13:02 
Attended Lower House plenary session. 
 
13:14 
Met at Kantei with LDP policy chief Nakagawa, followed by Cabinet 
Intelligence Director Mitani. 
 
15:01 
Met with editorial writers of media organizations. Met later with 
columnists of TV companies. 
 
16:24 
Met with reporters attached to Cabinet. 
 
17:05 
Taped "Live Talk Kantei" program for the government's Internet TV. 
Met with Economic and Fiscal Policy Minister Ota and Shiozaki. 
 
18:16 
Returned to his official residence. 
 
MESERVE