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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 08 TOKYO 002430 
 
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 05/31/07 
 
 
INDEX: 
 
(1) Farm Minister Matsuoka's suicide: Life was dedicated to 
agriculture and forestry policies through use of power and money 
 
(2) Follow-up on Abe cabinet-Collective self-defense (Part 5): 
Premier aiming to accelerate discussion on constitutional revision; 
Question is how to obtain understanding inside, outside Japan 
 
(3) US concludes not to disclose names of crewmembers on board 
distressed helicopter in Okinawa, based on privacy prevention law 
 
(4) 35 years after Okinawa's reversion to Japan: Prefecture's 
dependence on US bases damages the environment 
 
(5) Kyuma referring to MSDF ship mobilized to offing of Henoko tells 
Okinawa governor: "Sorry to have caused you trouble" 
 
(6) Initial report by Regulatory Reform Council: J-Green to be 
dismantled with its two main operations abolished 
 
ARTICLES: 
(1) Farm Minister Matsuoka's suicide: Life was dedicated to 
agriculture and forestry policies through use of power and money 
 
ASAHI (Page 31) (Excerpts) 
May 30, 2007 
 
A wake for former Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister 
Toshikatsu Matsuoka, who committed suicide on May 28, was held at a 
temple near his family home in Aso City, Kumamoto Prefecture, last 
night. 
 
The body of Matsuoka arrived at the home, where his mother lives 
alone, last evening. Matsuoka had often told his supporters in Aso: 
"The rice growers in Aso are now impoverished," and "I have known 
these farmers since my childhood. I fully understand their 
hardship." 
 
His family earned a living by growing rice in poor-grade flooded 
fields A former teacher of Matsuoka in elementary school noted: "His 
family was not rich." 
 
Matsuoka as a boy was quiet and undistinguished. During his years as 
an elementary and then junior high school student made little 
impression on his classmates. When he was a student at Tottori 
University's Agriculture Department, he started to desire to become 
a lawmaker, his childhood friend said. 
 
Approach to heavyweights, resorting to money influence from 
beginning 
 
In 1969, he joined the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and 
Fisheries. After serving as Forestry Agency's public relations 
secretary, he left the ministry. In 1990, he ran in the general 
 
SIPDIS 
election from the former Kumamoto single-seat constituency. 
 
Matsuoka had already paved the way before declaring his candidacy. 
Immediately after entering the MAFF, he launched a study group to 
support former MAFF Minister Ichiro Nakagawa, who was a heavyweight 
in the Liberal Democratic Party's agriculture policy clique in the 
Diet, in an effort to deepen ties with Nakagawa and his secretary, 
Muneo Suzuki, who is now a House of Representatives member. 
 
TOKYO 00002430  002 OF 008 
 
 
 
Susumu Hirose, who runs a stationary shop in Aso, quoted Matsuoka as 
having said several months before the election in 1990: "I (as a 
bureaucrat) have to move as told by lawmakers. I am determined to 
become a lawmaker and get down to agricultural issues." 
 
 
His slogan in his first election campaign was the "purification of 
politics," at a time when public distrust in politics was 
heightening after the exposure of the Recruit scandal. He stressed 
in the campaign: "If politics is compared to water, the water is too 
dirty to drink." Starting with this election campaign, Matsuoka was 
labeled as resorting to a bankrolled election strategy. 
 
A supporter of Matsuoka at that time said: "He distributed a set of 
soy sauce to each voter in his first election campaign." Another 
person concerned said: "He distributed money, calling it a 
door-to-door strategy." 
 
Hurls violent words to bureaucrats but brings jobs into electoral 
district 
 
When he was still a junior lawmaker, Matsuoka headed a special 
action team composed of about 20 lawmakers lobbying for the 
interests of farmers. 
 
A former MAFF vice minister said that he still remembers Matsuoka 
visiting the Finance Ministry and the Foreign Ministry and hurling 
violent words at bureaucrats, such as: "Attend meetings of the 
Agriculture and Forestry Division!" As the toughest member of the 
farm-policy clique, he gradually enhanced his influence in the 
MAFF. 
 
Meanwhile, local residents welcomed Matsuoka as a politician who 
"brings in jobs." A project to preserve intermediate and mountainous 
areas was carried out in the northern part of Kumamoto. Speaking 
before his supporters several years before the project started, 
Matsuoka had said: "I will bring jobs (offered by the Green 
Resources Agency) into Oguni-machi." 
 
In order for unknown Matsuoka with no local support group to secure 
support, there was no other means but to bring about benefits to his 
electoral district with agricultural and engineering policies. 
 
He had not expected at that time that the large-project project, of 
which Matsuoka had proudly spoken, would come under investigation on 
suspicion of bid-rigging. 
 
Matsuoka finally assumed office as head of the agriculture policy 
clique in the Diet on September 26 of last year. A former senior 
MAFF official said: "Mr. Matsuoka unprecedentedly dedicated himself 
entirely to agricultural and forestry policies, though many in the 
farm-policy clique tend to shift to other fields. I think he had 
strong aspirations to become MAFF minister." 
 
Powerfulness disappeared from his words and deeds starting early 
this month, when the suspicion about him deepened. Although Matsuoka 
showed up in a meeting of an industrial group on May 11, he 
"appeared to be a mere shell of his former self," according to a 
former House of Councillors member. 
 
(2) Follow-up on Abe cabinet-Collective self-defense (Part 5): 
Premier aiming to accelerate discussion on constitutional revision; 
 
TOKYO 00002430  003 OF 008 
 
 
Question is how to obtain understanding inside, outside Japan 
 
YOMIURI (Page 4) (Full) 
May 24, 2007 
 
After the press had left the room, Prime Minister Abe began to speak 
again: "If I say we can't do this from the aspect of our 
constitutional interpretation, Japan may lose its credibility in its 
alliance with the United States and in its international 
cooperation." 
 
On May 18, the Council for Rebuilding the Legal Foundation of 
National Security, a government-sponsored advisory panel of experts, 
met for the first time. In the meeting, Abe revealed his long-held 
concern about the government's conventional interpretation of the 
Constitution. 
 
"Japan has the right of collective self-defense but is not allowed 
to exercise the right." This is Japan's position based on the 
government's way of reading and interpreting the Constitution. "It's 
peculiar from the perspective of international law as well," a 
senior official of the Foreign Ministry says, "and it's difficult 
for foreign countries to understand such an argument." The advisory 
panel is also aware of what is problematical about such a way of 
interpreting the Constitution. "Japan's legal system must not be 
poles apart from the international community's," says Tokyo 
University Professor Shinichi Kitaoka, one of the advisory panel's 
members. 
 
Abe has advocated studying four specific cases: 1) whether the 
Self-Defense Forces is allowed to fight back if and when US naval 
vessels come under attack; 2) whether the SDF is allowed to 
intercept US-bound ballistic missiles in its missile defense; 3) 
whether the SDF is allowed to use weapons on the spot to guard 
foreign troops; and 4) whether the SDF is allowed to conduct 
logistic support for foreign troops. Putting together the views of 
many advisory panel members, there are some options that will 
logically make it possible for the SDF to act in these cases. 
 
The first option for Japan is to apply its right of individual 
self-defense. The second option is to create a new constitutional 
interpretation that allows Japan to exercise the right of collective 
self-defense in part. The third option is to accept the entire right 
of collective self-defense that is allowed to United Nations members 
under the Charter of the United Nations. The fourth option is to be 
based on the notion of collective security, which is for UN members 
to work together against a certain country's act of aggression and 
recover peace in conformity with a UN resolution. The fifth option 
is to employ the notion of policing. 
 
In addition to the four cases, the advisory panel is expected to 
discuss many other cases. 
 
One of these four cases is an emergency on the Korean Peninsula. In 
that event, the United States charters commercial airliners to 
evacuate civilians. A North Korean fighter plane attacks civilian 
aircraft bound for Japan with evacuated civilians on board. In this 
case, an SDF plane happens to be near that civilian aircraft. Is the 
SDF aircraft allowed to protect that civilian aircraft? 
 
Another case is a contingency in the periphery of Japan. In that 
event, the SDF inspects ships at sea. Is it possible to allow the 
SDF to fire warning shots? 
 
TOKYO 00002430  004 OF 008 
 
 
 
The advisory panel will wrap up its discussions into a report this 
fall. Abe will then make his final decision. 
 
"This matter is up to a political decision," one of Abe's aides 
said, "so we need the ruling parties' approval." The aide continued, 
"The panel's report and the prime minister's decision may not 
necessarily be the same." This view prevails in the government. 
 
The ruling Liberal Democratic Party cannot ignore the standpoint of 
its coalition partner, New Komeito, which is opposed to 
reinterpreting the Constitution. New Komeito President Ota says, 
"The prime minister clearly told me that he would respect the 
government's conventional interpretation of the Constitution." With 
this, Ota sought to constrain Abe. 
 
Also, Natsuo Yamaguchi, who chairs New Komeito's foreign and 
security affairs committee, says: "We must be prepared for 
casualties in the Self-Defense Forces. What would their families 
say? Can the Self-Defense Forces continue to recruit? To get public 
understanding, we need to discuss some kind of brake." 
 
In the first meeting of the advisory panel, Abe raised another 
question: "What will Japan in the new era do and not do? It's 
important to show the public where the brake is." 
 
Abe thought that he had to show consideration so that he could 
obtain broad understanding not only in the government and the ruling 
coalition but also in and outside Japan. 
 
On Sept. 6 last year, a get-together party was held at the prime 
minister's office. One SDF officer there revealed to then Chief 
Cabinet Secretary Abe his earnest feeling: "In Iraq as well, we're 
working hard in the national interests of Japan at the risk of our 
lives. If something should happen there, we don't want to hear 
politicians say they had never told us to go to such a dangerous 
place." 
 
Abe answered: "If It's safe, the Self-Defense Forces will go there. 
This used to be the government's policy in the past. But now, we've 
changed it since the Koizumi cabinet. I don't want you to worry 
about that." 
 
The advisory panel's discussion will become an opportunity to 
think-from the perspectives of Japan's alliance with the United 
States and Japan's international contributions-about how far the SDF 
will go and how Japan wants to exist in the international community. 
It seems that the prime minister, whose ultimate goal is to revise 
Japan's postwar constitution, would like to pave the way for Japan 
to participate in collective self-defense and then to accelerate 
discussions on constitutional revision. 
 
One LDP lawmaker says SDF activities should be appropriately 
stipulated by constitutional revision. Meanwhile, another says 
reinterpreting the Constitution to allow Japan to exercise the right 
of collective self-defense will weaken the need to revise the 
Constitution. 
 
Former Ambassador to the United States Shunji Yanai, who presides 
over the advisory panel, noted two points: 1) it will take time to 
revise the Constitution in order for Japan to resolve its own 
problems; and 2) although consideration is being given to 
reinterpreting the Constitution to resolve problems, it is also 
 
TOKYO 00002430  005 OF 008 
 
 
meaningful to amend the Constitution and define SDF activities. 
Yanai says these options will not dampen the momentum of 
constitutional revision. 
 
The question is how to meet international needs and how to answer 
the voice of people including those in the SDF. The prime minister 
is mounting the stairway to make his decision. 
 
(This is the last of a five-part series.) 
 
(3) US concludes not to disclose names of crewmembers on board 
distressed helicopter in Okinawa, based on privacy prevention law 
 
RYUKYU SHIMPO (Page 1) (Full) 
May 31, 2007 
 
In a regular press conference yesterday, Ambassador in Charge of 
Okinawa Affairs Toshinori Shigeie revealed that the United States 
informed Japan that it has concluded not to disclose, based on its 
privacy protection law, the names of the crew members on board the 
US military helicopter that crashed into the campus of Okinawa 
International University in 2004. He said: "The US explained to us 
that it cannot disclose their names under domestic law." It has 
become certain that the Okinawa Prefecture Police's investigation 
division, which has been engaged in final coordination while waiting 
for a reply to its request from the US, will send papers with the 
suspects left unidentified. 
 
On this incident, the three-year statute of limitations on the 
charge of violating the aviation hazard action punishment law is to 
expire this August. The latest reply from the US has elicited a 
fierce reaction even from prefectural police officers. The 
investigation division has revealed its intention to continue to 
call on the US to disclose the names. 
 
Regarding specific reasons why the US has refused to disclose the 
names, Ambassador Shigeie said: "I heard that the policy is based on 
the US privacy protection law designed to protect individual 
information. I understand that only the defense secretary is 
authorized to prevent such information (like soldiers' names)." 
 
According to the Foreign Ministry's Okinawa Office, the Foreign 
Ministry made the same request to the US many times, but the US came 
up with the same reply each time. 
 
The mechanics who did maintenance on the distressed helicopter and 
others were subjected to trial by court-martial and faced punishment 
such as demotion or a pay cut. Focusing on this point, Shigeie said: 
"The US probably has considered that it exercised the primary 
jurisdiction (the right to convene a court on a priority basis)." 
 
(4) 35 years after Okinawa's reversion to Japan: Prefecture's 
dependence on US bases damages the environment 
 
ASAHI (Page 15) (Abridged slightly) 
May 31, 2007 
 
By Kunitoshi Sakurai, president of Okinawa University 
 
A plan is underway to relocate Futenma Air Station as part of the 
realignment of US forces in Japan. On May 18, the government 
forcibly conducted a preliminary environmental survey in waters off 
the Henoko district with the assistance of a Maritime Self-Defense 
 
TOKYO 00002430  006 OF 008 
 
 
Force minesweeper tender, an unusual case. Under the Environmental 
Impact Assessment Law, the government is required to produce 
documents detailing ways to conduct a survey, present them to local 
residents and affected municipalities, and conduct a survey 
reflecting their views. Conducting a survey ahead of those steps is 
a violation of the law. (Defense Ministry officials) damaged coral 
in the process of installing the survey equipment three days after 
SDF troops scattered the nonviolent local protesters, according to 
an investigation by an environmental group. 
 
Okinawa was returned to Japan on May 15, 1972. Over the next 35 
years, the government has infused over 9 trillion yen into Okinawa 
for promoting and developing the prefecture with the aim of 
achieving independent development and eliminating the disparity with 
mainland Japan. The government's financial support has largely been 
a reward in return for accepting US bases. Although Okinawa accounts 
for only 0.6 percent of Japan's total landmass, it is home to 75 
percent of US bases in the country. Okinawa residents have been 
suffering from noise pollution night and day, as well as from human 
rights violations by US military personnel. 
 
They have been plagued by a sense of guilt and self-hatred for 
having had a hand in the killing of blameless people by serving as a 
logistical support base in unjustified wars. Considering the fact 
that the government is aware that Okinawa residents have not 
voluntarily accepted the US bases, high subsidies, military land 
rents, and base subsidies are essentially the government's way of 
compensating them. 
 
Because of the government's promotion and development policy, 
Okinawa has ended up with depending more and more on financial 
assistance from the central government, moving away from 
independence. About 23 percent of Okinawa's finances came from the 
central government when it was returned to Japan in 1972. The rate 
increased to 40 percent in FY2003. The prefecture's unemployment 
rate, too, rose from 3 percent in 1972 to 8 percent in FY2005. 
Although prefectural income increased from 61 percent of the 
national average in 1972 to 76 percent in FY1986, the rate since 
then has been hovering around the 70 percent level. 
 
The government's promotion and development policy has also seriously 
damaged the environment. Corporations in mainland Japan take a large 
portion of the costs of subsidy-funded public works projects, 
leaving only a tiny share of the costs to local firms. Okinawa looks 
like a department store of public works projects. The assessment 
law, which is supposed to force the government to take 
countermeasures, has come to a standstill due to (the Defense 
Ministry's) preliminary survey and other factors that ignored a set 
of legal procedures. 
 
Forests in the northern part of Okinawa that deserve to become a 
World Natural Heritage site are one example of the destruction of 
the environment. With unused forest roads built for public works 
projects crisscrossing the forests, wildlife peculiar to Okinawa, 
such as Okinawa rails, is on the verge of extinction. 
 
Waters around Okinawa are also being reclaimed although there is no 
specific demand for it. Okinawa topped the country's list for 
landfills in FY2002. As if to symbolize flaws in the assessment law, 
new species have been found at the Awase tideland in Okinawa City 
after the assessment procedures have been completed. Coral around 
Ishigaki Island is also being threatened with a storm of 
development. Regardless of concern over red soil runoffs, 
 
TOKYO 00002430  007 OF 008 
 
 
construction for New Ishigaki Airport is underway following a 
large-scale preliminary survey that was conducted in defiance of the 
assessment law before the government produced documents detailing 
methods of the survey. 
 
As is discussed above, the development of Okinawa over the last 35 
years has been a flip side of the prefecture's structure to depend 
on US bases. The recently enacted US Forces Realignment Special 
Measures Law is a clear example of that. The law that is designed to 
subsidize the municipal governments in accordance with the state of 
cooperation on the construction of US bases and to apply pressure to 
residents of resistance is tantamount to a declaration of policy to 
control Okinawa. Our response to this situation is now being 
tested. 
 
(5) Kyuma referring to MSDF ship mobilized to offing of Henoko tells 
Okinawa governor: "Sorry to have caused you trouble" 
 
RYUKYU SHIMPO (Page 2) (Full) 
May 31, 2007 
 
(Tokyo) 
 
In a party to encourage House of Representatives member Kousaburo 
Nishime held in Tokyo last night, Defense Minister Fumio Kyuma met 
Okinawa Governor Hirokazu Nakaima. In reference to a Maritime 
Self-Defense Force (MSDF) minesweeper tender mobilized to assist an 
environmental impact assessment in preparation for building a 
substitute for the US Marine Corps Futenma Air Station, Kyuma said: 
"I am sorry to have caused you trouble." This was the first contact 
between Kyuma and Nakaima since they met at the Defense Ministry on 
April 25. 
 
The two exchanged words for about five minutes in the party hall. 
Some speculate that they discussed how to find common ground over 
Nakaima's requests for shutting downing Futenma Air Station within 
three years and for revising the government's V-shape runway plan, 
as well the environmental impact assessment. 
 
Delivering a speech in the party, Kyuma said: 
 
"Although some say, based on a misunderstanding, that the 
government's approach is high-handed, we want such persons to look 
at the outcome. Although we will still unavoidably face many 
difficulties, we would like to do something that will be highly 
evaluated afterward, all the while consulting with the governor." 
 
(6) Initial report by Regulatory Reform Council: J-Green to be 
dismantled with its two main operations abolished 
 
SANKEI (Page 2) (Full) 
May 31, 2007 
 
The government's Regulatory Reform Council, chaired by Nippon Yusen 
Kabushiki Kaisha Chairman Takao Kusakari, yesterday compiled an 
initial report. The report called on Japan Green Resources Agency 
(J-Green), an independent administrative agency that faced a 
criminal investigation over bureaucrat-led bid-rigging, to end its 
two major operations. In response to the report, the government has 
decided to compile a new three-year regulatory reform program in 
late June and reflect the specifics of the program in basic policy 
guidelines on economic and fiscal management and structural reforms 
for this year. J-Green will thus be dismantled accordingly. 
 
TOKYO 00002430  008 OF 008 
 
 
 
Referring to the operations of J-Green, the report noted that 
expectations of involvement of a public entity will give rise to 
moral hazard and dampen the private sector's motivation. It urged 
that new projects should be adopted, based on meticulous 
cost-performance analyses and their objectives should be revealed. 
It also called on the agency to take a drastic look at its 
management system so as to prevent bid-rigging. 
 
The report then concluded that among the agency's three major 
operations - access road construction, general consolidation of land 
for agricultural use and water resource forest creation, new 
projects for the construction of access roads and the consolidation 
of farmland should be put on hold and terminated once ongoing 
projects end. 
 
Regarding other independent administrative agencies, such as the 
Japan External Trade Organization and the Urban Renaissance Agency, 
the report called on them to end or outsource part of their 
operations, and sell stocks of related companies. 
 
As part of assistance to those who want a second chance, the panel 
proposed raising the upper limit to the age eligible to sit the 
national government employee examination and easing conditions for 
taking child-maternity leaves on a piecemeal basis. Concerning the 
promotion of the adoption of an on-line system for medical fee 
bills, one focus of deregulation, the report mentioned a drastic 
revision of examination and payment operations and urged the 
implementation of a complete on-line system by 2011. Meeting the 
press after the meeting, Chair Kusakari pledged to further look into 
items up for deregulation in the run-up to the compilation of a 
report at the end of the year. He stated, "I want to disclose 
information in a more lucid manner, by taking up underlying 
issues." 
 
Outline of initial report 
 
-- Abolish two main operations of J-Green 
-- Revise operations of JETRO and the Urban Renaissance Agency 
--7Make it easier to take maternity leave 
--7Adoption of a complete on-line system in 2011 
--7Revise import-export procedures and port and harbor procedures 
--7Look into a firewall separating banks and security houses 
--7Raise the upper limit to the age eligible to be hired as national 
government employees 
--7Revise the farm products, etc., labeling system 
 
SCHIEFFER