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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 10 TOKYO 005222 
 
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 11/13/07 
 
 
Index: 
 
(1) Prime minister off to the US to make excuses for halted 
refueling operation, delay in passage of new antiterror legislation? 
(Sankei) 
 
(2) Poll on new Fukuda cabinet, political parties (Nikkei) 
 
(3) Poor government with no philosophy: Takubo (Sankei) 
 
(4) Editorial: Ruling, opposition parties should find common ground 
on a new refueling law (Asahi) 
 
(5) Former Administrative Vice Defense Minister Moriya strongly 
opposed CX engine contract without agency, reversing prevailing view 
in ministry (Mainichi) 
 
(6) Jenkins: "I do not believe Pyongyang's claim that Megumi died" 
(Tokyo Shimbun) 
 
(7) TOP HEADLINES 
 
(8) EDITORIALS 
 
(9) Prime Minister's schedule, Nov. 9 (Nikkei) 
 
ARTICLES: 
 
(1) Prime minister off to the US to make excuses for halted 
refueling operation, delay in passage of new antiterror 
legislation? 
 
SANKEI (Page 5) (Full) 
November 10, 2007 
 
Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda will visit the US for the first time 
since taking office as prime minister. During the trip, he will 
likely keep a low profile and be busy giving explanations on the 
setbacks caused by the trading of places between the ruling and 
opposition camps in the Upper House. His first summit with President 
Bush is set for the 16th. He will convey to the president the 
government's willingness to continue the Maritime Self-Defense 
Force's (MSDF) refueling operations in the Indian Ocean, while 
offering explanations on the halt of the operations due to the delay 
in Diet deliberations on the new antiterrorism special measures 
bill. 
 
Fukuda, who advocates giving priority to Asia diplomacy, underscored 
in his policy speech delivered on Oct. 1 that the Japan-US alliance 
is the linchpin of Japan's diplomacy. According to his aide, he 
intends to convey to Bush his stance of continuing the 
honeymoon-like relationship with him, which the Koizumi and Abe 
administrations have built, and play up the importance of bilateral 
relations, by explaining his stance on Asia diplomacy in his talks 
with the president. 
 
His itinerary has been changed several times due to the Diet 
deliberation schedule for the new antiterror bill. The schedule 
generally appears to have been set with departure on the evening of 
the 15th and summit meeting on the 16th. However, a schedule for a 
visit to Singapore has been amended. Coordination is now underway 
with the possibility of his returning home temporarily before 
 
TOKYO 00005222  002 OF 010 
 
 
visiting that country, based on the assumption that deliberations in 
the Upper House might be held on the 19th. 
 
Fukuda during his meeting with Bush will explain that the delay in 
Diet deliberations has been caused by resistance from the Democratic 
Party of Japan (DPJ or Minshuto) and convey the government's stance 
of continuing efforts for resumption of the refueling operation. 
 
Even so, the fact will remain that Japan has pulled out of the fight 
against terrorism with the expiration of the Antiterrorism Special 
Measures Law on Nov. 1, leaving the future of Japan stained, as 
Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura put it. Fukuda will 
likely have to give strained explanations. 
 
There are also mountains of challenges between the two countries, 
such as US bases in Okinawa, North Korea, and imports of US beef, as 
well as the new antiterror bill. 
 
The government on the 7th resumed a relocation conference involving 
participants from concerned regional areas to discuss the relocation 
of Futenma Air Station located in Ginowan City, Okinawa Prefecture. 
However, it has simply indicated a stance of reaching some sort of 
settlement at least on the Okinawa issue with the prime minister's 
US visit just ahead. Prospects for settling the issue have yet to be 
ascertained. 
 
The US has shown a willingness to remove North Korea from the list 
of state sponsors for terrorism as early as within the year. Fukuda 
is determined to continue to ask for cooperation from Bush for a 
settlement of the abduction issue. However, there is a growing view 
in Japan that the abduction issue has become somebody else's problem 
for the US, as one Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) member put it. To 
what extent can Fukuda halt the move to remove North Korea from the 
list? Talks on imports of US beef remain deadlocked over import 
conditions. 
 
Fukuda told reporters on the 8th, "Every country has various 
problems. We have to surmount problems, if our relations with the US 
are important." 
 
(2) Poll on new Fukuda cabinet, political parties 
 
NIKKEI (Page 2) (Full) 
November 13, 2007 
 
Questions & Answers 
(Figures shown in percentage. Parentheses denote findings from the 
last survey conducted in late October.) 
 
Q: Do you support the Abe cabinet? 
 
Yes 55 (55) 
No 33 (31) 
Can't say (C/S) + don't know (D/K) 12 (14) 
 
Q: Which political party do you support or like now? 
 
Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) 42 (38) 
Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ or Minshuto) 28 (32) 
New Komeito (NK) 3 (4) 
Japanese Communist Party (JCP) 3 (3) 
Social Democratic Party (SDP or Shaminto) 2 (2) 
 
TOKYO 00005222  003 OF 010 
 
 
People's New Party (PNP or Kokumin Shinto) 0 (0) 
New Party Nippon (NPN or Shinto Nippon) 0 (0) 
Other political parties 0 (0) 
None 16 (15) 
C/S+D/K 5 (6) 
 
(Note) The total percentage does not become 100 PERCENT  in some 
cases due to rounding. 
 
Polling methodology: The survey was taken on Nov. 10-12 by Nikkei 
Research Inc. over the telephone on a random digit dialing (RDD) 
basis. For the survey, samples were chosen from among men and women 
aged 20 and over across the nation. A total of 1,514 households with 
one or more voters were sampled, and answers were obtained from 919 
persons (60.7 PERCENT ). 
 
(3) Poor government with no philosophy: Takubo 
 
SANKEI (Page 13) (Abridged) 
November 8, 2007 
 
Tadae Takubo, visiting professor at Kyorin University 
 
It looks like the media's attention was focused on whether 
Democratic Party of Japan (Minshuto) President Ichiro Ozawa would 
resign from his party post. To me, however, it does not matter much. 
DPJ President Ozawa read a prepared note when he met the press to 
express his intention to step down. He said there that Prime 
Minister Yasuo Fukuda "made a decision on an extremely big policy 
changeover regarding our country's security policy that is 
apparently a major issue for the policy talks." I doubted my ears. 
 
Ozawa declared that Prime Minister Fukuda had promised two points: 
1) Japan will not dispatch the Self-Defense Forces overseas unless 
it is authorized by the United Nations, so Japan will not support 
any specific country's military operations; and 2) establishing a 
cooperative setup for the Liberal Democratic Party and the 
Democratic Party of Japan is above everything else, so the prime 
minister will not dwell on the passage of a new antiterror bill. 
Only about the second point, Fukuda said Ozawa "probably had 
something wrong in his understanding." Judging from this, there was 
probably something to cause misunderstanding in their conversation. 
 
Ozawa wrote for the November issue of Sekai magazine, in which he 
developed his theory. I wonder if Prime Minister Fukuda gave way to 
Ozawa's standpoint. 
 
Ozawa asserted that SDF operations should strictly conform to 
Article 9 of the Constitution. However, he also declared that Japan 
should send the SDF to the International Security Assistance Force 
(ISAF) in Afghanistan if there is authorization from the UN. This 
assertion lacks a logic that would bridge the SDF for Japan's 
national defense and the SDF under the UN. 
 
Japan needs to meet the international community's common sense. 
Thinking in this way, the LDP government has tried to overinterpret 
the Constitution, reinterpret it for Japan to participate in 
collective self-defense, and revise it in the end. 
 
Did Prime Minister Fukuda-the supreme leader of Japan and its 
governing party-indicate that he would risk Japan's fortune and give 
in to Ozawa's nonsensical idea? If the two had concurred, Japan 
 
TOKYO 00005222  004 OF 010 
 
 
would have been entirely tied down by UN resolutions that are 
irresponsible, even when acting as an ally of the United States or 
participating in multinational forces. 
 
Even if the UN is an organization that fulfills respectable 
functions, I wonder if both Prime Minister Fukuda and Ozawa 
understand how much the SDF-which is not allowed to act like the 
armed forces of ordinary countries that are UN members-will be able 
to contribute with its participation in UN-led multinational 
forces. 
 
In the eyes of Washington, Ozawa is the one who will try to break 
Japan's alliance with the US. Prime Minister Fukuda should be the 
one Washington can rely on. In the meantime, Ambassador to the 
United States Ryozo Kato addressed a gathering of Japanese and US 
business leaders in Washington. Ambassador Kato there remarked that 
the Japan-US relationship was in the "most difficult" state since he 
became envoy to Washington in September 2001. 
 
I do not want to say that Prime Minister Fukuda helped Ozawa worsen 
Japan-US relations. However, I think that the feelings of President 
Bush and other US government leaders toward Prime Minister Fukuda 
might be different from their confidence in the past two prime 
ministers, Junichiro Koizumi and Shinzo Abe. 
 
I think that the keyword to express Prime Minister Fukuda's stance 
is "dialogue." No one can be frontally against this expression. 
However, this extremely corny expression is very dangerous as far as 
diplomatic and security issues are concerned. 
 
The right to dissolve the Diet is the most powerful card in the 
prime minister's hands. Prime Minister Fukuda declared, however, 
that he would use the card through "dialogue with the opposition 
parties." Also, Prime Minister Fukuda easily told China that he 
would not pay homage at Yasukuni Shrine. Last month, South Korean 
President Roh Mun Hyun visited Pyongyang. Prime Minister Fukuda 
entrusted the South Korean president with a message to Korean 
Workers Party General Secretary Kim Jong Il. His message went: "The 
issue of Japanese abductees must be resolved to improve relations 
between Japan and North Korea. To that end, Japan is willing to hold 
dialogue." 
 
If Prime Minister Fukuda paves the way to allowing Japan to exercise 
the right of collective self-defense, Japan will be a step closer to 
the status of an ordinary country. Moreover, it will have diplomatic 
implications on the countries concerned. Nevertheless, Prime 
Minister Fukuda said he "must be fully cautious" about it. The 
United States, an ally of Japan, does not want to hear anything like 
that. China and North Korea welcome it, instead. 
 
Former Prime Minister Abe tried to "break away from Japan's postwar 
regime" as his goal and "promote values-oriented diplomacy" as his 
strategy. And then, he tried to push for bilateral diplomacy as a 
tactic. Prime Minister Fukuda only tries to avert a clash with 
anyone. Such an attitude represents no goal, strategy, or tactic. It 
is a setback with no principles. 
 
I wonder if Japan-which has now awoken from the slumber of the 
postwar regime-will again fall into a deep sleep under this 
government. I must say this is a crisis. If not, what can I say? 
 
(4) Editorial: Ruling, opposition parties should find common ground 
 
TOKYO 00005222  005 OF 010 
 
 
on a new refueling law 
 
ASAHI (Page 3) (Full) 
November 13, 2007 
 
A bill enabling the Maritime Self-Defense Force to continue its 
refueling activities in the Indian Ocean was adopted yesterday in a 
House of Representatives committee yesterday. Today the bill will 
likely be adopted in a Lower House plenary session. It will be then 
sent to the House of Councillors, which the opposition controls. 
 
It does not appear likely that the bill will obtain Diet approval in 
the current session. The Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ or 
Minshuto), the largest opposition party in the Upper House, and 
other opposition parties have strongly opposed the legislation. The 
ruling bloc will then send the bill back to the Lower House after it 
is voted down in the Upper House. All eyes are now on whether the 
ruling coalition will readopt it with a two-thirds vote in the Lower 
House. 
 
Apparently there is a huge gap between the ruling and opposition 
camps. The ruling camp has stressed that the MSDF refueling 
operation is part of Japan's support for the fight against terrorism 
by the international community and that Japan should not withdraw 
from that international effort. The ruling coalition intends to ask 
the DPJ whether it is qualified to hold the reins of government 
since it is overly swayed by narrow party interests. 
 
The main opposition party, meanwhile, has come up with a set of 
counterproposals, centering on civilian assistance for Afghanistan, 
toward the government-drafted bill. The DPJ plans to deliberate 
first at the Upper House on its bill to abolish the Iraq Special 
Measures Law, aiming to have Air Self-Defense Force troops pulled 
out of Iraq. It apparently aims at putting off Diet approval of the 
new refueling bill. 
 
Also public opinion is divided. According to the results of an Asahi 
Shimbun poll, 43 PERCENT  responded that resumption of the MSDF 
refueling operation was necessary, while 41 PERCENT  said that it 
was unnecessary. Fifty percent of the respondents said that the 
suspension of the refueling mission would have a negative impact on 
Japan. 
 
The outcomes of the Asahi poll suggest that people think that Japan 
should do some sort of international contribution, but they have yet 
to determine that the refueling operation is what Japan should do. 
 
After 9/11, many countries supported attacks on Afghanistan, which 
provided shelter to Osama bin Laden, leader of the al-Qaeda 
terrorist organization. We think Japan should participate in 
international efforts. 
 
The refueling mission might be one option. However, the Afghan 
situation has worsened in the past six years. Suspicions remain that 
the fuel provided by the MSDF to a US oilier in the Indian Ocean was 
diverted for use in the Iraq war, uncovering allegations that the 
Defense Ministry covered up the error in the underreport of the 
amount of the fuel Japan provided. It is time for Japan to 
reconsider how it should offer international contributions. 
 
Can a new refueling law prevent diversion of the oil Japan provides? 
Can civilian control of the military be secured without Diet 
 
TOKYO 00005222  006 OF 010 
 
 
approval? Without hammering out these points, it is premature for 
the ruling coalition to take a vote on the bill in the Lower House. 
 
We asserted in our editorial on Nov. 1 when the previous 
Antiterrorism Law expired that Japan should consider its assistance 
for Afghanistan and the refueling operation under the large 
framework of the war on terror. 
 
First, Japan should review its support for the Iraq war and mistakes 
in overseas dispatch of the Self-Defense Forces (SDF) before 
considering support measures for Afghanistan based on the premise of 
a complete pullout of the SDF from Iraq. Otherwise, Japan cannot 
conduct a basic debate on what role it should play to contribute the 
international community. 
 
In that sense, we will pay attention to Diet debate on the bill to 
scrap the Iraq Special Measures Law in the Upper House. 
 
At the same time, we urge the ruling and opposition camps to come up 
with concrete measures to support Afghanistan. We think the two 
sides can find common ground since they share the view that Japan 
should offer international contributions in some fashion. The ruling 
and opposition camps should carry out constructive consultations on 
policies although the idea of forming a grand coalition has 
disappeared. If Japan's politics seeks only a grand coalition or 
full-scale confrontation, it is too poor. 
 
(5) Former Administrative Vice Defense Minister Moriya strongly 
opposed CX engine contract without agency, reversing prevailing view 
in ministry 
 
MAINICHI (Top Play) (Full) 
November 13, 2007 
 
Yamada Yoko, a trading house specializing in military procurement, 
and Nihon Mirise, established by former executive director of Yamada 
Yoko, Motonobu Miyazaki (69), who was arrested on suspicion of 
professional embezzlement, competed over an agency contract with a 
US manufacturer over the procurement of the next-generation 
transport aircraft, codenamed CX. When an opinion calling for a 
direct contract with the manufacturer prevailed in the ministry 
around June-July this year, Administrative Vice Defense Minister 
Takemasa Moriya (63) fiercely opposed it, Mainichi Shimbun has 
learned. Since it was already decided that Nihon Mirise would become 
an agent, the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office Special 
Investigation Department appears to be investigating whether the 
case falls under provision of special treatment to the former 
executive director. 
 
According to an informed source, General Electric, the manufacturer 
of the CX engine, this April notified the Defense Ministry that it 
would change its Japanese agent from Yamada Yoko to Nihon Mirise, 
starting on July 29. However, since Nihon Mirise was a company newly 
established by Miyazaki last September, it had no delivery records. 
As such, some in the ministry voiced concern about signing a 
contract with such a company, saying that in case a delivery 
contract was not executed, the company would have no financial basis 
to pay penalties. 
 
In response to such an opinion, then Defense Minister Kyuma told his 
aides this June, "Why don't we start considering the possibility of 
signing a direct contract?" Discussions to consider a direct contact 
 
 
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