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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 07 TOKYO 000783 
 
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 03/21/08 
 
INDEX: 
 
(1) Interview with Kaoru Yosano: Need for consultative organ between 
ruling and opposition camps (Tokyo Shimbun) 
 
(2) Vacant BOJ governor's post: Explore ways to avoid domino effects 
on policy making (Nikkei) 
 
(3) 1 month after Aegis accident: Crew shortages rock safety (Tokyo 
Shimbun) 
 
(4) TOP HEADLINES 
 
(5) EDITORIALS 
 
(6) Prime Minister's schedule, March 20 (Nikkei) 6 
 
ARTICLES: 
 
(1) Interview with Kaoru Yosano: Need for consultative organ between 
ruling and opposition camps 
 
TOKYO SHIMBUN (Page 2) (Full) 
March 21, 2008 
 
The Fukuda government has been having difficulties in managing Diet 
affairs under the present political distortion, in which the 
opposition controls the House of Councillors. The newspaper 
interviewed former Chief Cabinet Secretary Kaoru Yosano, who enjoys 
the confidence of Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, and asked him about 
his views on how the prime minister should overcome this difficult 
situation. Yosano is one of the most famous debaters in the ruling 
Liberal Democratic Party. 
 
-- The helm of Bank of Japan is now vacant for the first time in the 
postwar era. 
 
Yosano: Under the present situation where the opposition parties 
have the majority of the Upper House seats, (appointments requiring 
approval of the two Diet chambers) are not smoothly approved unless 
there is a process to coordinate views between the ruling and 
opposition parties. In order to create such a process, careful 
procedures should be taken. 
 
-- Do you have any specific idea? 
 
Yosano: In a bid to enact any bills, prior discussion is needed. It 
is necessary to rebuild the decision-making system in the Diet. 
 
-- Is it similar to a consultative organ between ruling and 
opposition parties? 
 
Yosano: Yes, it is. Such a consultative body should be open to the 
public. 
 
-- The Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) has opposed the government's 
bill amending the Special Taxation Measures Law, including measures 
to retain the current provisional rates (including the gasoline 
tax). 
 
Yosano: Despite the realization that a failure to enact the bill 
(before the end of the current fiscal year) will seriously damage 
 
TOKYO 00000783  002 OF 007 
 
 
the daily lives of the people, the ruling and opposition parties 
have been continuing their jockeying for power. The public must be 
disgusted by that. Politicians should hold consultations on a 
revision of the tax reform bill with the determination to support 
the people's livelihood and economy. 
 
-- The DPJ plans to respond to consultations on the revising of the 
bill but to stick to its policy of allocating highway tax revenues 
for the general budget account, as well as of abolishing the current 
provisional tax rates. 
 
Yosano: The ruling coalition is flexible and is ready to discuss any 
revision on the bill if there is a request. The DPJ has been 
extremely adamant. I have found many questionable points in the 
ruling camp's thinking. The Diet is a place where the ruling and 
opposition parties should try to find compromise through 
consultations. After holding debate, the parties should reach a 
consensus. 
 
-- The DPJ is eager to force the prime minister to dissolve the 
Lower House at an early date. 
 
Yosano: If the election takes place at a time when the support rates 
for the cabinet and for the LDP are low, many LDP candidates will be 
defeated. So, many legislators do not want to see an early Lower 
House dissolution. 
 
-- Are there any measures to deal with the divided Diet besides 
establishing a consultative body? 
 
Yosano: There is no way to immediately correct the lopsided Diet 
situation. If there are any good measures, one is an alliance 
between the LDP and DPJ and the other is political realignment. 
 
-- It is said that it is difficult to reorganize political parties 
under the present mixed electoral system of small and proportional 
representation constituencies. 
 
Yosano: I opposed the introduction of the present election system. 
Under this system, there is a possibility that policies would lean 
to populism and that party leadership would hold enormous power. The 
system has many defects such as that it is difficult for those who 
have no experience of serving as a Diet member to run in an 
election, and that votes obtained by small parties become wasted 
ones. The best choice is to re-introduce the multiple-seat 
constituency system that would make political realignment possible. 
 
(2) Vacant BOJ governor's post: Explore ways to avoid domino effects 
on policy making 
 
NIKKEI (Page 1) (Excerpts) 
March 21, 2008 
 
Stumbling twice in nominating a candidate for the Bank of Japan' 
(BOJ) governor, the Yasuo Fukuda administration is beginning to 
enter a precarious situation. The Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ or 
Minshuto), the dominant party in the Upper House, showed how strong 
its veto power has become by controlling the selection of a 
candidate for BOJ governor. 
 
Dysfunction at BOJ serious 
 
 
TOKYO 00000783  003 OF 007 
 
 
The government and the ruling parties were utterly inadequate when 
faced with a personnel appointment system requiring Diet approval 
under a situation in which the Upper and Lower Houses are on an 
equal footing. A situation like this was not foreseen by the 
system. 
 
With the plan to gain support for promoting former Deputy BOJ 
Governor Toshiro Muto to governor bogging down, the Kantei's 
responses soon ground to a halt. It was slow to begin with in 
submitting Muto as a candidate. It was also ill-prepared for the 
disapproval of Muto that followed, although that should have 
naturally been anticipated. 
 
The administration does not have smooth channels to the DPJ. The 
dysfunction of its information distribution system prevents the 
Kantei from receiving correct information. An increasing number of 
Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) members are criticizing the Kantei 
and the party leadership for doing nothing. 
 
The bill amending the Special Tax Measures Law incorporating an 
extension of the provisional gas tax rate for special-purpose road 
construction revenues will cease to be in effect, since it expires 
on March 31. Unless the government reaches an agreement to revise 
the bill with the DPJ, the price of gasoline will drop by 25 yen per 
liter, starting on April 1. 
 
Fluctuations in gasoline prices are bound to disrupt the lives of 
the people. Unless the ruling camp once again adopts the bill by a 
more than two-thirds majority in the Lower House at the end of 
April, there will occur a tax shortfall of approximately 2.6 
trillion yen, combining that of the central government and that of 
local governments. 
 
One senior DPJ member said: "Even if the expiration of the 
provisional tax rate becomes likely, Prime Minister Fukuda would 
still allow this to happen. He would make a decision to construct 
roads by increasing the issuance of government bonds as a measure 
targeting party members." 
 
The prime minister has started considering reallocating all road 
revenues to the general account starting in fiscal 2009. However, 
the DPJ stands firm with its insistence on a total abolition of the 
provisional rate. There are only 10 days left until the provisional 
rate expires. However, there are no prospects for the bill being 
revised. 
 
The DPJ's stance of not responding to calls for a revision to the 
bill, unless the ruling camp swallows all of its demands, raises a 
doubt about its capability to take the reins of government.  It 
would be the responsibility of the top party in the Upper House to 
find a settlement line with the ruling camp, instead of taking the 
view that there must be a 25-yen cut in gasoline prices. 
 
Dissolution card sealed off 
 
The Fukuda Administration has been driven into a corner to this 
extent due in part to the burden of the divided Diet. However, the 
main reason is that it has sealed off its right to exercise the 
right to dissolve the Lower House. If a general election is held 
now, the massive ruing camp, which occupy two-thirds of seats in the 
Lower House, is certain to lose a significant number of seats. A 
prevailing view in the LDP is that there will be no general election 
 
TOKYO 00000783  004 OF 007 
 
 
before Lower House members' term of office expires next fall. 
 
However, since the prime minister is unable to play the dissolution 
card, options available to him in steering the administration have 
been significantly reduced. Confrontation between the ruling and 
opposition parties is going on with no light at the end of the 
tunnel with the prime minister forgoing a scenario of dissolving the 
Lower House, based on negotiations with the opposition camp, after 
dealing with such pending issues as budget-related bills. 
 
When the LDP suffered a crushing defeat in the Upper House election 
last year, then Upper House LDP Caucus Chairman Mikio Aoki pointed 
out that if the number of seats held by the ruling parties fell 
below a majority, the administration would become a lame duck. That 
is because opposition parties would take key posts, such as the 
Upper House presidency and the Diet Steering Committee chairmanship, 
disrupting smooth Diet deliberations. 
 
As he predicted, deliberations by the Upper House Financial Affairs 
Committee responsible for deliberating on the bill amending the 
Special Tax Measures Law have not yet started. The Upper House has 
now become the "house of resistance." 
 
Ozawa-led DPJ stands firm on the policy of giving priority to the 
game of politics of desperately pursuing an early dissolution of the 
Lower House and a snap election. The only means left for the ruling 
camp to counter the opposition camp is to adopt bills voted down in 
the Upper House once again in the Lower House. 
 
If politics remain unable to decide anything, both the ruling and 
opposition parties would be criticized by voters. It is time both 
camps to think hard about rectifying the divided Diet in order to 
avoid domino effect on policy-making. 
 
(3) 1 month after Aegis accident: Crew shortages rock safety 
 
TOKYO SHIMBUN (Page 3) (Abridged) 
March 20, 2008 
 
Shigeru Handa, senior writer 
 
A month has passed yesterday since the fatal collision of the 
Maritime Self-Defense Force's Aegis-equipped destroyer Atago with 
the fishing boat Seitoku Maru that left two fishermen lost at sea. 
Investigative authorities are still looking into the causes of the 
accident. However, several MSDF officers note that "what lies behind 
the accident" is the problem of crew shortages. The manning level of 
the MSDF's newly built destroyers, including the Atago, is high with 
nearly a full crew on board. Even so, they say the risk of accidents 
is growing. Why? 
 
The MSDF has a total of about 44,000 personnel. Half of them are 
assigned to surface units consisting of destroyers and other 
vessels, and the other half are with air units that are made up of 
P-3C patrol planes and other aircraft. The MSDF's air units have one 
and a half times as many pilots as the number of airplanes ready for 
possible skirmishes in the event of a contingency. In addition, the 
MSDF's surface units only have crewmembers to match the number of 
vessels. 
 
Moreover, the crews of surface units have decreased from year to 
year. A Yamagumo-class destroyer had a displacement of 2,150 tons at 
 
TOKYO 00000783  005 OF 007 
 
 
full load with a crew of 220. Its successor is a Takanami-class 
destroyer, which is 4,650 tons and has a crew of 175. A destroyer of 
the Takanami class is larger in size, but its crew is smaller with a 
reduction of more than 20 PERCENT . 
 
The MSDF has been introduced state-of-the-art technologies to 
operate large ships with a small crew. Its surface units used to 
sustain extreme crew shortages with the manning level of their ships 
between 50 PERCENT  and 60 PERCENT , so they were said to have no 
one for their main battery. Unlike before, their manning level is 
currently up to 90 PERCENT . 
 
However, an MSDF staff officer noted that there are now fewer eyes 
on the watch with reductions in the crew of MSDF vessels. The Atago 
was also called into question over its lineup of watchkeepers. An 
MSDF destroyer's watchkeepers rotate in four teams for two-hour 
shifts, and its captain determines the number of watchkeepers for 
each rotational shift. "There's a destroyer with 10 watchkeepers," 
the MSDF officer said. "And," he added, "there's also a destroyer 
with eight watchkeepers." This officer went on: "If we have fewer 
persons on duty, we may be late in discovering other ships. However, 
our destroyers manage somehow to operate with a small number of 
crewmembers. We cannot tell them to overwork themselves." 
 
As if to endorse the MSDF staff officer's words, MSDF commanding 
officers voiced their sense of crisis in an urgent meeting held Mar. 
20 at the Maritime Staff Office. "There's no balance between the 
level of troops and tasks," one said. Another said, "We cannot 
afford to do anything else at all." 
 
MSDF destroyers are mainly tasked with defending MSDF and U.S. Navy 
ships against submarine and aircraft attacks. MSDF destroyers have 
therefore had only to conduct training for antisubmarine and 
antiaircraft warfare. Today, however, MSDF destroyers are tasked 
with various missions. Accordingly, they have to train for operating 
overseas, countering suspicious ships, inspecting ships, and 
evacuating Japanese nationals overseas. 
 
(4) TOP HEADLINES 
 
Asahi: 
International speculative money pushes up prices of daily foods, 
such as wheat, soybeans 
 
Mainichi: 
What is justice - confessions by judges: The defendant's death was 
not what I wanted 
 
Yomiuri: 
MOJ intends to raise the upper limit for the extension of period of 
stay up to five years but to tighten measures against illegal stay 
 
Nikkei: 
Survey of major firms: Firms plan to hire more college graduates in 
fiscal 2008, as well, but the percentage slows down with 9.1 PERCENT 
 on average 
 
Sankei: 
Tibet, Xinjiang Uighur autonomous region put on high alert 
 
Tokyo Shimbun: 
U.S. military personnel might have had a hand in murder of taxi 
 
TOKYO 00000783  006 OF 007 
 
 
driver with his goods found in the taxi 
 
Akahata: 
Canon to dissolve contracts with temporary employees in response to 
public criticism 
 
(08032105ku) Back to Top 
 
 
(1) U.S. financial crisis: Injection of public money unavoidable 
(2) Court decision on loyalty test employed by policy: time to 
discard old investigation method 
 
Mainichi: 
(1) Gas tax: Ruling, opposition camps should make concessions 
(2) Punishment on Japan Basketball Association: Long-term rule by 
boss should not be tolerated 
 
Yomiuri: 
(1) Insider stock trading by  certified public accountants: Just 
pursuing individuals over wrongdoing will not settle the problem 
(2) Series of child-killings: What decision will lay judges reach? 
 
Nikkei: 
(1) Five years of Iraq war have changed the world 
(2) Puzzling greenhouse gas emissions estimate by Ministry of 
Economy, Trade and Industry 
 
Sankei: 
(1) Five years since outbreak of Iraq war: Japan learns a weighty 
lesson; Time to determine to defend national interests 
 
 
Tokyo Shimbun: 
(1) Measures to deal with global warming; Little time left until 
Lake Toya G-8 
(2) Strategy of zero-waiting list for nursery schools: Produce 
results this year 
 
Akahata: 
(1) Iraq war -- Illegal aggressive war: Promote international order 
for peace 
 
(6) Prime Minister's schedule, March 20 
 
NIKKEI (Page 2) (Full) 
March 21 
 
07:37 
Met astronaut Chiaki Mukai and Education Minister Tokai. 
 
08:12 
Spoke with Takao Doi, who is staying on the International Space 
Station. 
 
09:02 
Met with former Chief Cabinet Secretary Yosano. 
 
10:37 
Met with former LDP Secretary General Nakagawa. 
 
11:48 
 
TOKYO 00000783  007 OF 007 
 
 
Returned to his official residence. 
 
13:47 
Offered flowers for the victims of Tokyo Subway Sarin Incident at 
Kasumigaseki Station. 
 
13:56 
Returned to his official residence. 
 
16:24 
Met with Special Advisor Ito. 
 
SCHIEFFER