VZCZCXRO9780
PP RUEHFK RUEHKSO RUEHNAG RUEHNH
DE RUEHKO #5658/01 3610126
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 270126Z DEC 07
FM AMEMBASSY TOKYO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 0573
INFO RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC PRIORITY
RHEHAAA/THE WHITE HOUSE WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUEAWJA/USDOJ WASHDC PRIORITY
RULSDMK/USDOT WASHDC PRIORITY
RUCPDOC/USDOC WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHDC//J5//
RHHMUNA/HQ USPACOM HONOLULU HI
RHHMHBA/COMPACFLT PEARL HARBOR HI
RHMFIUU/HQ PACAF HICKAM AFB HI//CC/PA//
RHMFIUU/USFJ //J5/JO21//
RUYNAAC/COMNAVFORJAPAN YOKOSUKA JA
RUAYJAA/CTF 72
RUEHNH/AMCONSUL NAHA 7556
RUEHFK/AMCONSUL FUKUOKA 5160
RUEHOK/AMCONSUL OSAKA KOBE 8825
RUEHNAG/AMCONSUL NAGOYA 3860
RUEHKSO/AMCONSUL SAPPORO 5790
RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 0809
RUEHUL/AMEMBASSY SEOUL 6870
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 7562

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 10 TOKYO 005658 
 
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: JAPANESE MORNING PRESS HIGHLIGHTS 12/27/07 
 
 
Index: 
 
1) Top headlines 
2) Editorials 
3) Prime Minister's daily schedule (Nikkei) 
 
Fukuda diplomacy: 
4) Prime Minister Fukuda in first official visit to China to meet 
President Hu, seek progress in his "strategic mutually beneficial" 
diplomacy  (Yomiuri) 
5) Prime Minister Fukuda to focus on environmental cooperation in 
visit to China  (Mainichi) 
6) China prior to Fukuda visit floats idea of joint gas-field 
development in E. China Sea based on median-line concept  (Asahi) 
7) Prime Minister Fukuda, now forward looking about setting targets 
for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, will promote the concept 
at G8 Summit  (Nikkei) 
 
8) Japan seeks to strengthen ties with countries around the Mekong 
area, starting with five-country foreign ministers' conference next 
month  (Mainichi) 
 
9) Yabunaka to replace Yachi as vice foreign minister  (Mainichi) 
 
Defense and security issues: 
10) Defense Ministry finds 105 cases of MSDF ship logs having been 
discarded due to sloppy record management practices  (Yomiuri) 
11) North Korea has produced 30 kilograms of plutonium: sources 
(Tokyo Shimbun) 
 
12) Iwakuni mayor, who resigned to protest U.S. jet relocation to 
local base, will run again to seek popular mandate  (Yomiuri) 
 
Economic woes: 
13) Japan's GDP in 2006 drops to less than a 10 PERCENT  share of 
world GDP  (Nikkei) 
14) Questionnaire of presidents of 100 leading companies finds 15 
PERCENT  drop in those who see continued economic expansion 
(Nikkei) 
 
Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) in action: 
15) DPJ's plan to make the Upper House a major contributor of 
legislation fizzles when only one of the party's bills passes 
(Mainichi) 
16) DPJ bill that would create a space agency has met with 
objections, including charge that it goes against administrative 
reform line  (Yomiuri) 
 
Articles: 
 
1) TOP HEADLINES 
 
Asahi, Mainichi, & Yomiuri: 
Education panel approves textbook reference to military's role in 
Okinawa mass suicides 
 
Nikkei: 
Japan's share of global GDP under 10 PERCENT  due to delay in reform 
and weak yen 
 
Sankei: 
Social Insurance Agency illegally reduced 1.1 billion yen in 
 
TOKYO 00005658  002 OF 010 
 
 
delinquent charges of employee pension and health insurance 
premiums 
 
Tokyo Shimbun: 
North Korea: The country has 30kg plutonium 
 
Akahata: 
Education panel does not approve textbook reference to military's 
direct order to Okinawa residents to commit suicide en masse 
 
2) EDITORIALS 
 
Asahi: 
(1) Textbook reference to mass suicide in Okinawa: We must put the 
lessons to good use 
(2) Prime Minister Fukuda should talks about history for the future 
with Chinese leaders 
 
Mainichi: 
(1) Textbook reference to mass suicide in Okinawa: Questions still 
remain in exclusion of wording "coercion by the military" 
(2) DPJ's tax system outline: Productive debate at Diet should be 
conducted 
 
Yomiuri: 
(1) DPJ's outline on tax system: From where will financial resources 
for large-scale tax cut come? 
(2) History textbook on Okinawa: Don't allow politicization of 
textbook screening 
 
Nikkei: 
(1) Regulatory reform needs political support 
(2) Thailand needs political stability after general elections 
 
Sankei: 
(1) Mass suicide during Battle of Okinawa: "Twofold screening 
decisions" create problems for the future 
(2) New NHK chairman urged to promote reforms for viewers 
 
Tokyo Shimbun: 
(1) Textbook reference to mass suicide in Okinawa: Can the public 
understand history without reference "coercion by the military"? 
(2) New NHK chairman should keep in mind mission of public 
broadcasting 
 
Akahata: 
(1) History textbook on Battle of Okinawa: Okinawa's feelings 
trampled down 
 
3) Prime Minister's Official Residence (Kantei) 
 
Prime Minister's schedule, December 26 
 
NIKKEI (Page 2) (Full) 
December 27, 2007 
 
09:41 
Met Vice Transport Minister Minehisa at the Kantei. Followed by 
Defense Minister Ishiba. Later, met Japan International Cooperation 
Agency President Sadako Ogata. Then met Hiroshi Yonekura, chairman 
of the Japan-Hungary Cooperation Forum. 
 
 
TOKYO 00005658  003 OF 010 
 
 
11:00 
Met Urawa Reds player Keita Suzuki, with former Prime Minister Mori. 
Mori stayed behind. Joined by Chief Cabinet Secretary Machimura. 
Followed by Nippon Keidanren Honorable Chairman Okuda. 
 
12:27 
Attended a meeting of the Nippon Keidanren Committee at the 
Keidanren Hall in Otemachi. 
 
13:24 
Handed a recommendation letter to the LDP-endorsed candidate for the 
Kyoto mayoral election at party headquarters. Posed for video 
recording for the party's website. 
 
15:28 
Met at the Kantei with Defense Policy Bureau Director General 
Kanazawa, Defense Intelligence Headquarters Chief Mukunoki, and 
Cabinet Intelligence Director Miki. Miki stayed behind. Later, met 
Foreign Ministry Public Diplomacy Department Head Yamamoto. Followed 
by Council on Regulatory Reform Chairman Kusakari and others. 
 
17:06 
Met Cabinet Office Special Advisor Kurokawa. Attended a meeting of 
the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy. Later met Environment 
Minister Kamoshita and Vice Environment Minister Tamura. 
 
18:32 
Met Upper House Chairman Otsuji. Followed by Social Insurance Agency 
Director General Banno and Assistant Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary 
Saka. Saka stayed behind. 
 
20:18 
Returned to his private residence in Nozawa. 
 
4) Prime minister to leave for China today 
 
YOMIURI (Page 2) (Full) 
December 27, 2007 
 
Prime Minister Fukuda will leave Japan today for a four-day visit to 
China to meet President Hu Jintao, Premier Wen Jiabao, and other 
senior Chinese government officers. In the meetings, both sides are 
expected to agree on measures to promote cooperation in the 
environment and energy-conservation area, specifically, those to 
establish a Japan-China environment information plaza and 
energy-saving and environment counseling centers in China, as well 
as exchanging a total of 10,000 trainees in this area, according to 
government sources. 
 
In China, air and water contamination is becoming serious as its 
economy grows rapidly. To deal with these problems, Japan has 
decided to set up an environment information plaza in Beijing and 
energy-saving and environment counseling centers in 10 cities in 
China as facilities for Japan to provide China with information 
based on its experience of success and failure in the process of its 
economic growth in the postwar period. 
 
Chinese people will have free access to the plaza and centers. Japan 
plans to use these facilities as places to show and have Chinese 
learn Japan's pollution problems and ways to contain them, as well 
as its state-of-the-art energy-conservation technology. 
 
 
TOKYO 00005658  004 OF 010 
 
 
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Fukuda intends to stress in the summit 
slated for the 28th the need for Japan and China to become creative 
partners in order to "build the future of Asia and the world." 
 
5) Japan to further promote "mutually beneficial relationship based 
on common strategic interests" with Prime Minister Fukuda set to 
travel to China today and hold first meeting with President Hu 
 
MAINICHI (Page 2) (Full) 
December 27, 2007 
 
Takuji Nakata 
 
Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda will make his first trip to China today 
after assuming the post. Tomorrow, Fukuda is to meet separately with 
President Hu Jintao, Premier Wen Jiabao, and the National People's 
Congress' Standing Committee Chairman Wu Bangguo. In his first 
meeting with Hu, Fukuda is expected to confirm Japan and China will 
further promote "a mutually beneficial relationship based on common 
strategic interests," and both leaders are expected to reach 
agreement on a plan for Hu to visit Japan in next April. Fukuda is 
to return home on Dec. 20. 
 
In a session with Premier Wen, Fukuda and Wen will sign an agreement 
that mentions cooperation in the environmental area and expansion of 
exchanges of youths, and the two will hold a joint press conference, 
an unusual event for the leaders of Japan and China. Regarding the 
pending issue of jointly developing gas fields in the East China 
Sea, no major progress is expected as both sides have yet to bridge 
the gaps in specific measures for the joint development. 
 
China has prepared a red-carpet treatment toward Fukuda, a pro-China 
prime minister, by arranging for example a dinner party to be joined 
by top leaders - an event not held since Prime Minister Yasuhiro 
Nakasone visited China in the early 1980s. 
 
Fukuda is to deliver a speech at Beijing University tomorrow. On 
Dec. 29, Fukuda will visit Tianjin's Binhai Zone, a priority area 
for economic development for the Chinese government. On Dec. 30, 
Fukuda will visit the Temple of Confucius at Qufu, Shandong 
Province. Fukuda wants to demonstrate "closeness" with China not 
only at the government level but also in personal relations with the 
Chinese people. 
 
6) China asks Japan to jointly develop gas fields in sea areas 
around median line 
 
ASAHI (Page 1) (Full) 
December 27, 2007 
 
Kenji Minemura, Beijing, Kazuto Tsukamoto 
 
China has asked Japan to jointly develop new gas fields in the sea 
areas extending into the Japan-China median line, which Beijing 
until recently did not accept, sources connected with the Japanese 
and Chinese governments revealed. Final coordination is underway. 
The two countries aim to reach a basic agreement on joint 
development at the upcoming Japan-China summit between Prime 
Minister Fukuda, President Hu Jintao, and Premier Wen Jiabao planned 
during Fukuda's China visit that will start today. Both sides want 
to have tangible results before Hu's visit to Japan planned for next 
spring. 
 
TOKYO 00005658  005 OF 010 
 
 
 
According to a source connected with the two governments, it was 
last week when China conveyed its willingness to jointly develop new 
gas fields to Japan. Vice Foreign Minister Wang Yi secretly visited 
Japan and met with Administrative Vice Foreign Minister Shotaro 
Yachi. He told him about China's new proposal and the two discussed 
it. 
 
Gas fields confirmed so far near the median line include Chunxiao 
(Shirakaba in Japanese), Duanqiao (Kusunoki in Japanese) and 
Tianqaitian (Kashi in Japanese). Japan and China have yet to bridge 
the gaps over how to handle the Chunxiao gas field China is 
independently developing. Whether both sides can reach a basic 
agreement on the joint development at the Japan-China summit set for 
tomorrow is still fluid. 
 
In the past discussions, the Chinese side did not accept the median 
line itself and instead insisted that Okinawa Trough located at the 
end of the continental shelf stretching from the Continent is the 
border between China and Japan. China has asserted that its 
independent development of gas fields near the median line is 
justifiable. In the past 11 rounds of bureau-director-level talks 
between the two countries, "discussions in themselves have been 
stalled," the informed source said. 
 
7) Prime Minister Fukuda forward-looking about setting numerical 
target for reduction of greenhouse gases, and will week a change in 
course at the G8 Summit (Nikkei) 
 
NIKKEI (Page 2) (Full) 
December 27, 2007 
 
Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda meeting with the press corps yesterday 
took a forward looking stance on setting a new numerical target when 
creating a new international framework for the reduction of 
greenhouse gases in the post Kyoto-Protocol period. He said: "The 
question is what kind of target advanced countries will have. I 
think some kind of target is necessary." 
 
At the COP13 United Nations Climate Change Meeting this month, Japan 
was opposed to setting a numerical target, stating, "We should give 
priority to having the United States and other countries join the 
framework." In the prime minister's statement yesterday seems to be 
opening for changing course, looking toward the Lake Toya G8 Summit 
next July, which will have global warming as a main theme. 
 
Regarding the trading of emissions rights, the prime minister 
stated: "I hear that such are being seen differently by every 
country, and (emissions rights trading) has become a kind of money 
game." He indicated that a set of standards needed to be created. 
 
8) Government to strengthen ties with five countries around the 
Mekong 
 
MAINICHI (Page 5) (Full) 
December 27, 2008 
 
The government has decided to hold a foreign ministerial meeting for 
the first time with five countries surrounding the Mekong area in 
order to discuss economic cooperation and development. It plans to 
hold the meeting in Tokyo on Jan. 16. Foreign Minister Masahiko 
Koumura is also expected to hold sessions with individual ministers. 
 
TOKYO 00005658  006 OF 010 
 
 
The Japanese and Laotian foreign ministers will sign an investment 
agreement. The planned foreign ministerial is also aimed to support 
economic integration of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations 
(ASEAN) by narrowing regional gaps through the promotion of direct 
investment. 
 
9) Yabunaka to be installed as vice foreign minister with Yachi 
firmly declining to stay on 
 
MAINICHI (Page 2) (Full) 
December 27, 2007 
 
The government yesterday decided to approve of the retirement of 
incumbent Administrative Vice Foreign Minister Shotaro Yachi (63), 
who is to mark his third year on Jan. 4 of next year since assuming 
the post. It will appoint Deputy Foreign Minister Mitoji Yabunaka 
(59) as his replacement. Kenichiro Sasae, director-general of the 
Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, is expected to be installed as 
Yabunaka's successor, and Minister Akitaka Saiki at the Japanese 
Embassy in the United States will fill Sasae's shoes. This lineup 
will be approved at a cabinet meeting possibly in mid-January after 
the current extraordinary session of the Diet closes. Yachi joined 
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) in 1969. After serving as 
director-general of the Foreign Policy Bureau and then deputy chief 
cabinet secretary at the Cabinet Secretariat, he assumed the post of 
administrative vice foreign minister. Yachi is known as a hard-liner 
against North Korea and played a leading part in implementing such 
policy lines as "value-based diplomacy" advocated by then Prime 
Minister Shinzo Abe and the "arc of freedom and prosperity" promoted 
by then Foreign Minister Taro Aso. 
 
Some in the government insisted that Yachi should stay on until the 
Group of Eight summit meeting at Lake Toya, Hokkaido, next July, but 
Yachi firmly declined to stay on, citing the case of Takemasa 
Moriya, who was criticized for his long service of four years as 
administrative vice defense minister. After retirement, Yachi will 
join Waseda University's Institute of Japan-US studies. 
 
Yabunaka joined MOFA in 1969 and passed the senior-post examination. 
He served in such posts as director of the Second North American 
Division and director of the General Affairs Division of the 
Minister's Secretariat. In December 2002, when Prime Minister Yasuo 
Fukuda served as chief cabinet secretary, Yabunaka assumed the post 
of director-general of the Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau. In 
Japan-North Korea working-level talks in November 2004, Yabunaka led 
the Japanese delegation and took home the remains that the North 
Korean side said were those of abductee Megumi Yokota. 
 
10) MSDF mistakenly discarded 105 logbooks 
 
YOMIURI (Page 4) (Full) 
December 27, 2007 
 
The Maritime Self-Defense Force mistakenly discarded logbooks from 
the Towada, a supply ship, within their retention period. In 
response to this issue, the Defense Ministry looked into its 
archives and announced findings from its in-house investigation 
yesterday. As a result, the Defense Ministry discovered that it may 
have mistakenly discarded 105 logbooks, including the already 
revealed disposal of three logbooks. This shows the Defense 
Ministry's poor management of documents. The Defense Ministry will 
punish those involved early next year. 
 
TOKYO 00005658  007 OF 010 
 
 
 
The Defense Ministry checked its filed archives of about 2,300,000 
official documents. As a result, the ministry found that its 
officials had mistakenly discarded a total of 9 document files, 
including MSDF logbooks and duty records. The ministry could not 
discover a total of 96 archives, including document files and 
logbooks, and it deems that those archives could have been 
mistakenly discarded. 
 
According to the MSDF's regulations, MSDF ships must keep their 
logbooks for one year. After that one-year period, MSDF district 
headquarters are to keep them for three years. There are now 261 
MSDF vessels in commission, including 255 ships that have been in 
commission for over one year. However, all of those 255 MSDF ships 
kept their logbooks against the regulations. 
 
The Defense Ministry plans to create a document filing manual for 
its archives. In addition, the ministry will also set up a 
third-party checking system and simplify its document management 
regulations. 
 
11) Plutonium output at 30kg: N. Korea 
 
TOKYO SHIMBUN (Top play) (Abridged) 
December 27, 2007 
 
BEIJING-North Korea's Vice Foreign Minister Kim Gye Gwan, chief 
delegate to the six-party talks over North Korea's nuclear issues, 
met with U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Hill, chief U.S. 
negotiator, when Hill visited North Korea early this month. In that 
meeting, Kim told Hill that North Korea's output of plutonium, from 
which nuclear weapons can be made, was about 30 kilograms. This fact 
was revealed yesterday by several sources familiar with U.S.-North 
Korea relations. Kim seems to have specified that North Korea 
produced plutonium for multiple purposes, including the making of 
nuclear weapons. 
 
North Korea agreed at the six-party talks to declare its nuclear 
programs, and this is the first time that North Korea's declaration 
has been revealed in concrete terms. However, North Korea's 
declaration was different from a U.S. estimate, according to the 
sources. North Korea is suspected of having enriched uranium. The 
six-party talks reached a deal, in which North Korea agreed to 
(disable its nuclear facilities and) declare all its nuclear 
programs. However, the talks will likely face rough going. 
 
Hill visited North Korea on a Dec. 3-5 schedule. During his stay in 
North Korea, Hill met with Kim and other North Korean officials, 
including Foreign Minister Pak Ui Chun. According to the sources, 
the North Koreans revealed that North Korea's output of plutonium 
was about 30 kilograms. In addition, they are also said to have 
specified how much plutonium they used for their underground nuclear 
test in October last year and that they used it to make nuclear 
weapons. 
 
According to the sources, the United States estimates North Korea's 
total output of plutonium to be over 50 kilograms. It seems that the 
North Korean declaration was way below the U.S. estimate. 
 
12) Iwakuni mayor tenders resignation, expressing willingness to run 
in mayoral election possibly early next year 
 
 
TOKYO 00005658  008 OF 010 
 
 
YOMIURI (Page 2) (Excerpts) 
December 27, 2007 
 
Iwakuni Mayor Katsusuke Ihara, an opponent of the government's plan 
to relocate U.S. jet fighters to Iwakuni Air Base in the city, 
Yamaguchi Prefecture, tendered his resignation (dated Dec. 28) 
following a clash with the city assembly over the central 
government's move to cut 3.5 billion yen in subsidies to the city 
(linked to relocation of U.S. jets from Atsugi to Iwakuni base). The 
city assembly accepted the resignation. In a press conference last 
night, Ihara expressed his willingness to run in the mayoral 
election that is expected to take place early next year, saying: "I 
would like to seek the people's judgment." 
 
Based on the Public Election Law, the city is expected to hold a 
mayoral election in late January or in early February to seek the 
people's opinion on the propriety of the relocation plan. Those in 
favor of the plan are accelerating the candidate-selection process. 
 
 
13) Japan's share in world nominal GDP falls below 10 PERCENT  in 
2006: Delay in reforms, cheap yen blamed for poor showing 
 
NIKKEI (Top Play) (Excerpts) 
December 27, 2007 
 
The Nikkei has learned that Japan's global share of nominal GDP in 
2006 stood at 9.1 PERCENT , falling below the 20 PERCENT  level for 
the first time in 24 years. Its share has dropped 50 PERCENT , 
compared with the peak year of 1994.  Japan also slipped down in 
terms of per-capita nominal GDP. Behind the drop is the sluggish 
nominal growth of the economy stemming from the delay in the effort 
to emerge from deflation. Since newly emerging countries that are 
achieving high growth like China are mounting a charge, the Japanese 
economy is bound to further lose its global presence, if reform 
efforts continue to bog down. 
 
The Cabinet Office revealed the statistics in the national economic 
accounting released yesterday. Japan's nominal GDP in 2006 was 
4.3755 trillion dollars, down 4 PERCENT  from the preceding year, 
marking a second consecutive year of decline. 
 
Nominal GDP increased 1.4 PERCENT  from the previous year in yen 
terms. However, it dropped in dollar terms. The major reason for 
that is the yen kept weakening on global exchange markets. The 
average exchange rate of the yen in 2006 was 116 yen against the 
dollar, marking the lowest level since 2002. 
 
The Cabinet Office explained that another factor is the sluggish 
nominal growth. The real growth rate in 2006 marked a comparatively 
high growth of 2.4 PERCENT .  However, with nominal growth rates 
continuing to top real growth rates on a yearly basis since 1999, 
Japan's nominal GDP made a poor showing in international 
comparison. 
 
14) Questionnaire of 100 heads of companies: Respondents who 
replied, "The economy is expanding" dropped to 64 PERCENT ; 60 
PERCENT  confident of their companies' performance; Concerned about 
US economy, drop in housing starts 
 
NIKKEI (Page 1 (Excerpts) 
December 2, 2007 
 
TOKYO 00005658  009 OF 010 
 
 
 
In a questionnaire of 100 corporate chief executives tallied by the 
Nikkei yesterday, 64 PERCENT  of respondents replied, "The economy 
is expanding," marking a 15-point fall from the previous survey. A 
cautious view is widespread due to such issues as non-performing 
Subprime loans for individuals with low creditworthiness, high 
resources prices and a drop in housing starts. However, as far as 
their companies' performance in fiscal 2008 is concerned, 60 PERCENT 
 projected a better showing than the estimated performance in fiscal 
¶2007. Corporate operators remain confident. 
 
The questionnaire was carried out from early December through 
mid-December, targeting presidents (including chairmen) of leading 
companies. Replies were sent by 134 companies. 
 
15) DPJ strategy of having bills adopted by Upper House first fails 
 
MAINICHI (Page 5) (Excerpts) 
December 27, 2007 
 
The strategy of the opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ or 
Minshuto) of  having bills first adopted by the House of Councillors 
before they are deliberated in the House of Representatives has 
fizzled. Although the DPJ, which holds a majority in the Upper 
House, has submitted 13 bills to the upper chamber as of Dec. 26, 
only one bill designed to support the livelihoods of disaster 
victims has been enacted. It does not appear likely that bills on 
pensions and agriculture policy that the DPJ had incorporated into 
its manifesto (campaign pledges) for the Upper House election will 
obtain Diet approval in the current session that ends on Jan. 15. 
 
The DPJ has assumed a strategy of adopting the pension and 
agriculture bills first in the Upper House before sending them to 
the Lower House. It predicted that it would be difficult for the 
ruling parties to reject and scrap them since public opinion was 
reflected in them. 
 
However, as soon as the DPJ's bill to ban the use of pension 
premiums for other purposes was sent to the Lower House, the ruling 
coalition submitted its own bill to use pension premiums only for 
the construction of facilities, aiming at killing both bills at the 
same time. The two bills have been left unattended after the Lower 
House deliberated on them three times or nine hours in November. 
 
The DPJ's bill designed to compensate to individual farmers the 
differences in prices between sales prices and production costs 
regardless of the scale of farmers was approved by the Upper House 
on Nov. 9. The ruling camp finally began deliberations on the bill 
on Dec. 5, but only seven hours were spent for deliberations by Dec. 
¶12. Meantime, the government and ruling coalition have incorporated 
subsidies also to small-sized farmers in the state budget for fiscal 
2008, aiming at including the DPJ's idea in the budget. The 
subsidies had been provided to farmers whose farms fall under a 
certain size level. 
 
16) DPJ space bill calls for creating "space agency," causing 
backlash as going against administrative reform policy 
 
YOMIURI (Page 2) (Full) 
December 27, 2007 
 
The science and technology policy working team of the Democratic 
 
TOKYO 00005658  010 OF 010 
 
 
Party of Japan (DPJ), chaired by House of Representatives member 
Yoshihiko Noda, presented in a joint meeting of the Cabinet Office 
and the Education and Science Ministry yesterday the outline of a 
bill on space it plans to submit in the next ordinary Diet session. 
In the bill, the largest opposition party approves the use of space 
for defense purposes in line with a bill jointly submitted by the 
Liberal Democratic Party and the New Komeito to the Diet in June. 
 
The DPJ bill specifies that space should be used based on the 
nation's pacifist Constitution, which advocates a defense-only 
policy, and the Space Treaty, which stipulates that weapons of mass 
destruction should not be deployed in space. The ruling parties' 
bill also makes it clear that space should be used in line with 
treaties and other international agreements on space development as 
well as based on the nation's pacifist Constitution. The government 
previously took the interpretation that the use of space by Japan 
should be restricted only to peaceful purposes. The DPJ bill 
includes many other similar parts to those of the ruling camp's 
bill, such as the advocate of industrial promotion and the formation 
of a space-use plan. 
 
A major different part between the two bills is on a system to 
promote space development. The DPJ bill proposes establishing a 
"space agency" by merging a number of relevant organizations, such 
as the Education and Science Ministry, the Ministry of Economy, 
Trade and Industry, and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. But 
the bill of the ruling camp does not step into organizational 
reform, just calling for establishing a strategic space development 
taskforce under the prime minister. 
 
A DPJ lawmaker who was involved in drafting the bill said: "It will 
be difficult to adjust interests under a strategic taskforce 
composed of representatives from relevant government agencies." In 
the joint meeting yesterday, however, some voiced opposition to the 
proposed creation of a space agency, one member remarking: "A 
measure to make members of independent administrative corporations 
national public servants goes against the administrative reform 
line." 
 
DONOVAN