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RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 7625

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 06 TOKYO 000005 
 
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//08 
 
 
Index: 
 
(1) Government intends to compromise on Futenma base relocation by 
moving runway 90 meters into the sea; Okinawa Prefecture, Nago City 
forward looking about the plan (Yomiuri) 
 
(2) LDP, DPJ to clash in 210 electoral districts as selection of 
Lower House election candidates progresses (Asahi) 
 
(3) LDP's factions readying for cabinet shuffle, Lower House 
dissolution (Nikkei) 
 
(4) Japan to provide $20 million for Mekong East-West Corridor 
Project, countering China's advance to the south (Sankei) 
 
(5) Former defense chief Kyuma received 100 million yen loan from 
acquaintance without collateral and undisclosed (Mainichi) 
 
ARTICLES: 
 
(1) Government intends to compromise on Futenma base relocation by 
moving runway 90 meters into the sea; Okinawa Prefecture, Nago City 
forward looking about the plan 
 
YOMIURI (Top play) (Full) 
January 1, 2008 
 
The government has firmed up its intention to revise the agreement 
between the Japanese and U.S. governments in 2006 to construct an 
alternate facility for the U.S. Marines' Futenma Air Station 
(Ginowan City) on the shore of Camp Schwab (Nago City) in Okinawa 
Prefecture by moving the proposed site approximately 90 meters 
toward the sea. Okinawa Prefecture and Nago City are taking a 
forward-looking stance toward accepting the proposal. With this 
compromise, the possibility has emerged that the issue of Futenma's 
relocation, stalled for close to 12 years since the reversion 
agreement, will finally move toward resolution. 
 
On the issue of Futenma's relocation, the former Defense Agency and 
Nago City reached a basic agreement in April 2006 to construct a 
V-shaped double runway on the shores of Camp Schwab. Later, Nago 
City proposed that the runway be moved more than 300 meters 
offshore, to which Okinawa Prefecture concurred. But the government 
balked at the plan, and environmental assessment procedures have 
begun with a divergence remaining between the two sides. The 
government's plan calls for requesting the prefecture in August 2009 
to allow land reclaiming in the neighboring waters and completing 
the alternate facility in 2014. 
 
The prefecture and Nago City requested that the runway be moved 
offshore in order to lessen the noise factor and the danger of an 
accident. The government was negative to the request, stating such 
reasons as the need to re-coordinate any change with the U.S. side. 
But since the land reclamation in the neighboring waters required 
approval of the prefectural governor, a judgment was made with Chief 
Cabinet Secretary Machimura taking the lead that a compromise with 
the prefecture was needed. 
 
Under the rules for implementing the environmental assessment 
ordinance of Okinawa Prefecture, any major change in the plan 
requires a revision of the procedures. But changes in the relocation 
distance of less than 55 meters need no revision. However, the 
 
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SUBJECT:  DAILY SUMMARY OF JAPANESE PRESS 01//08 
 
prefecture and Nago City were both asking for an even larger 
relocation. The government, in order to respond to the request of 
the prefecture as best as it could, adopted a stance of considering 
relocating the site as close as possible to Nagashima (island) to a 
location approximately 90 meters from the original site for the 
relocation. 
 
On the issue of coordinating the change with the U.S. side, the 
government takes the view: "If the relocation is approximately 90 
meters, it will cause no operational problem, and cooperation can be 
obtained." However, on the request for shortening the runway made by 
Nago City, since the U.S. is expected to object, the government is 
thinking of obtaining the understanding of the city by such 
concessions as placing restrictions on the noise level during 
training into the runway-use agreement to be signed. 
 
Responding to a Yomiuri Shimbun interview on the government's plan, 
Okinawa Governor Nakaima stated: "We would like to consider it, 
while respecting the wishes of Nago City. Once we obtain agreement 
with the central government, we have no intention of adding on any 
more requests." A senior official in Nago City, too, took the view: 
"If we can get a relocation of close to 100 meters, we will able to 
explain the situation to the local community. On the problem of the 
length of the runway, as well, we can overcome the issue by 
restricting its use when signing the use agreement." 
 
The government will listen to the views of the governor until Jan. 
21 on the procedures report on the environmental assessment. In 
addition, it will start its own survey. In late January, after the 
governor announces his view, a meeting of the Futenma Relocation 
Council consisting of the prefecture and affected local communities 
will be convened (by the central government), the plan being to 
obtain their understanding toward starting the environmental survey. 
In tandem with such moves, the government's thinking is to consider 
informally with the prefecture and the city, the government proposal 
to revise the relocation plan. Possibly in March, the compromise 
plan could be put on the agenda of the council. However, objections 
can be expected from the reformist camp and citizens groups opposed 
to the base relocation in the prefecture, so fluid elements remain 
to be overcome. 
 
(2) LDP, DPJ to clash in 210 electoral districts as selection of 
Lower House election candidates progresses (Asahi) 
 
ASAHI (Page 4) (Full) 
January 1, 2008 
 
Looking toward the next election of the House of Representatives, 
every political party is now moving ahead with the selection of 
prospective candidates to back. In a compilation by the Asahi 
Shimbun that was current on Dec. 31, out of the 300 small election 
districts, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has completed 
candidate selection in over 90 PERCENT  of them, and the Democratic 
Party of Japan (DPJ) has informally picked close to 80 PERCENT  of 
its candidates. Already it is certain that candidates of the LDP and 
the DPJ will directly confront one another in 219 election 
districts. The Japanese Communist Party (JCP) has indicated that it 
will shrink the number of candidates in the election, and this 
development is likely to further turn the election into a clash 
between the two major parties, the LDP and the DPJ. The LDP will now 
coordinate whether to back former postal rebels who have returned to 
the fold or the "assassins" (who ran against the rebels in the last 
 
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SUBJECT:  DAILY SUMMARY OF JAPANESE PRESS 01//08 
 
election). The DPJ will focus now on eliminating election districts 
where they have no candidates and strengthening cooperation among 
opposition parties. 
 
The current tenure of the Lower House members will end in September 
¶2009. Prime Minister Fukuda at the end of last year expressed his 
opinion about the timing of Diet dissolution, hinting that it might 
occur after the Lake Toya Summit in Hokkaido in July. However, the 
thinking of the DPJ, which won a landslide victory in last July's 
Upper House election, is to force Diet dissolution this spring after 
the budget bill is passed. 
 
The LDP has decided on whom to support as candidates in 280 election 
districts. It is holding off backing candidates in eight districts 
where there are New Komeito incumbents, such as Tokyo 12 and Osaka 
¶16. The New Komeito is now coordinating who to support in Okinawa 1, 
where its candidate lost in the last election. There are 11 
districts where candidates to support have yet to be lined up. 
 
However, there are still aftershocks from the previous "postal" 
election. There are a total of six districts, including Gifu 1, 
where incumbents include "assassin candidates" revived by the 
proportional representation races. They will be pitted against 
former postal rebels who were reinstated in the LDP. Party 
headquarters has put off final decisions until after the New Year's 
holiday. There will be about 10 districts, including Shizuoka 7, 
where former LDP postal rebels will clash with LDP candidates. 
 
The DPJ has informally picked as of the end of last year candidates 
for 233 districts, but President Ozawa has hinted at the possibility 
of exchanging even selected candidates for other "candidates who can 
win." The selected candidates cannot let down their guards. At 
present, the goal is to back candidates in 250 districts. Election 
cooperation is moving ahead with the Social Democratic Party, which 
has decided to back candidates in 14 districts, the People's New 
Party and the New Party Japan. The strategy is to back candidates of 
other parties in approximately 25 districts. 
 
However, in Tokyo 6 and certain other districts such as Kanagawa 12, 
the DPJ and the SDP are both running candidates. The division of 
districts in the opposition camp is not thorough. 
 
The JCP has changed its previous policy course of supporting 
candidates in all election districts. As of the end of last year, it 
had informally picked candidates to run in 123 districts. The party 
is likely in the end to run candidates in about 140 districts. The 
New Party Japan is considering running candidates in urban districts 
where the DPJ is not running any candidates. 
 
(3) LDP's factions readying for cabinet shuffle, Lower House 
dissolution 
 
NIKKEI (Page 2) (Excerpts) 
December 31, 2007 
 
Factions in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) have begun 
moving into action with an eye on the political situation once a 
cabinet shuffle occurs and is followed by dissolution of the House 
of Representatives and a snap election. The frenzy affects not only 
the Koga and Tanigaki factions, which are now discussing a plan to 
link up, but also other LDP factions are desperately recruiting 
freshman lawmakers. There is also another move in the party: 
 
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SUBJECT:  DAILY SUMMARY OF JAPANESE PRESS 01//08 
 
influential lawmakers from various factions are now trying to 
cooperate with each other. The various factions in the LDP have 
previously refrained from factional activities since the Koizumi 
cabinet, but subtle changes have occurred, and a leadership struggle 
is likely to intensify. 
 
Makoto Koga, chairman of the Koga faction, told reporters on Dec. 20 
about a merger of his and the Tanigaki factions: "I'm deeply 
concerned because former Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa most cared 
about this." He indicated the possibility of his faction cooperating 
also with the faction headed by Taro Aso. He then referred to a plan 
to merger the three factions -- all drawn from the former Miyazawa 
faction (Kochi-kai). 
 
The plan of merger of the Koga and Tanigaki factions has created a 
stir. With an eye to a cabinet shuffle in early next year, LDP 
factions are making efforts to score with party members, who are now 
serving in their first term in the Diet, and unaffiliated voters. 
Taku Yamasaki, chairman of the Yamasaki faction, which won former 
party policy chief Nobuteru Ishihara to its side, gave his faction 
members a push, saying, "I want you to convince lawmakers who are 
not members of the so-called Koizumi children to come over to our 
faction." 
 
Yamasaki considers Ishihara to be a presidential candidate. He 
appears to be seeking to counter Economy, Trade and Industry Akira 
Amari and former Secretary General Tsutomu Takebe, who have 
distanced themselves from Yamasaki. 
 
A cross-factional study group led by Shoichi Nakagawa, a member of 
the Ibuki faction, has been creating an uneasy atmosphere. The group 
has 14 members. It expects that former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe 
will join it. Most members of the group are political hawks coming 
from the Aso and Machimura factions. They predict they will become a 
strong driving force to field Aso as a presidential candidate for 
the LDP leadership race. 
 
One senior LDP member stated: "Even if the DPJ wins or not, 
Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ or Minshuto) President will look for 
a way to form a coalition with the LDP. We should be ready so that 
we will be able to prevent such a move." There is a growing 
prediction in the LDP that a political realignment will definitely 
occur. 
 
(4) Japan to provide $20 million for Mekong East-West Corridor 
Project, countering China's advance to the south (Sankei) 
 
SANKEI (Top play) (Excerpts) 
January 1, 2008 
 
The Japanese government, in the first conference of foreign 
ministers from Japan and the five Mekong countries to be held in 
Tokyo on Jan. 16, will announce non-reimbursable financial 
cooperation of $20 million (approximately 2.3 billion yen) to 
construct a transport net in the East-West Corridor, which crosses 
the five Mekong-area countries (Thailand, Vietnam, Burma (Myanmar), 
Cambodia, and Laos). Since China, which is contiguous to this 
region, is constructing a North-South Corridor, which will consist 
of a main artery running north to south and backed by China's 
economic strength, Japan's intention is to counter China's move 
south by introducing its own assistance that aims at rebuilding its 
Southeast Asian diplomacy. 
 
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SUBJECT:  DAILY SUMMARY OF JAPANESE PRESS 01//08 
 
 
The East-West Road Corridor Project that Japan will assist consists 
of the east-west corridor portion (approximately 1,450 kilometers) 
and the Second East-West Road Corridor Project (approximately 1,000 
kilometers) that will link Thailand and Cambodia. The CLV countries 
(Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam), carry out the role of an economic 
pulse on the continent among the ASEAN countries in support of 
ASEAN's goal of economic integration. The needs of these three 
countries for infrastructure are great. 
 
Approximately 1,300 Japanese-affiliated companies have advanced into 
Thailand, which is the key state in the Mekong region. If Thailand 
is linked to Cambodia and Laos by the East-West Corridor Project, 
Japanese companies also would receive great benefits, such as the 
construction of a second wave of factories in those two countries, 
where wages are still one-fifth of that in Thailand. 
 
The planned assistance will be offered as a grant from the 
Japan-ASEAN Integrated Fund, created in 2006 and financed fully by 
Japan. The aid will be newly readied in time for announcement at the 
Japan-Mekong countries foreign ministerial conference. 
 
(5) Former defense chief Kyuma received 100 million yen loan from 
acquaintance without collateral and undisclosed (Mainichi) 
 
MAINICHI (Top play) (Full) 
January 1, 2008 
 
It has been learned that former Defense Minister Fumio Kyuma 
received in Jan 2006, when he was chairman of the Liberal Democratic 
Party's General Council, 100 million yen from a male acquaintance 
(64) from Tsuruga City in Fukui Prefecture. Although Kyuma and the 
acquaintance, responding to the Mainichi's request for interview, 
admitted there was a "lender-borrower relationship" between them, 
the transaction was carried out without collateral. In his assets 
disclosure after he became director general of the then Defense 
Agency (in Sept. 2006), Kyuma never recorded the 100 million yen 
that he had received, so there is suspicion that he violated the 
code of standards for cabinet ministers. 
 
The male acquaintance is the father of the president of OTI 
(Taito-ku, Tokyo), a company that sells social-welfare equipment, 
worked as an auditor at OTI. According to that person, he was asked 
in 2005 by Kyuma, an old acquaintance, to finance a land purchase 
for him. For that purpose, around November, he managed to arrange 
the transaction by having OTI borrow the money from a bank and 
sub-lend it to him. He handed over the entire amount to Kyuma in 
Jan. 2006. He received from Kyuma an I.O.U., but there was no 
collateral provided for the loan. Kyuma admitted to the Mainichi on 
Dec. 30 that he had received the 300 million yen, saying, "The 
contract calls for repayment over three years. As of now, I have 
repaid around 18 to 25 million yen." Regarding interest, Kyuma would 
only say, "It is written down in the I.O.U." He would not reveal the 
exact interest. 
 
As for the details, he gave a different account than his male 
acquaintance: "Although I made a commitment to buy the real estate 
that a man was selling, I decided to cancel it, and purchase it 
instead on my own." He said that the remaining 85 million yen of the 
100 million yen loan would be borrowed from "Aimek" (TN: phonetic) 
(Shinjuku-ku), a company that provided military, political, and 
economic information. He would use that money to buy the property. 
 
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SUBJECT:  DAILY SUMMARY OF JAPANESE PRESS 01//08 
 
 
Under the Funds Disclosure Law, Diet members are required to submit 
an assets report, which includes any money borrowed under one's own 
name. The code for cabinet minister's is an expanded one, requiring 
not only the name of the minister but spouses and other relatives to 
be included in the disclosure report. Kyuma in his disclosure report 
dated Nov. 2, 2006, did not list the 100 million yen, but only 
stated borrowings of 38.0837 million yen. Kyuma explained: "Although 
I should have listed the money, I decided that essentially including 
only the borrowing from Aimek would be sufficient." 
 
Kyuma served as Defense Agency director general in two cabinets: 
Hashimoto's and Abe's. In Jan. 2007, he became the first defense 
minister (when the agency was upgraded to ministry level). He 
resigned in July after making a remark that the atom bombing of 
Japan "could not have been helped." 
 
DONOVAN