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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 08 TOKYO 002065 
 
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 07/28/08 
 
INDEX: 
 
(1) DPJ to aim at Lower House dissolution with Diet debate (Yomiuri) 
 
 
(2) Interviews with METI minister and MAFF minister after WTO 
ministerial (Nikkei) 
 
(3) Government to drop plan to send GSDF engineering personnel to 
Sudan for time being; Japan's contribution to Sudan PKO losing steam 
(Sankei) 
 
(4) Government to expand number of refugees to be accepted in Japan, 
starting in 2010 (Nikkei) 
 
(5) Transfer of jurisdiction over 29 laws to consumer agency fixed: 
Prime minister's policy of attaching importance to consumers now on 
implementation stage (Nikkei) 
 
(6) Development of carbon dioxide capture and storage technology by 
2020, according to government's action program: Assistance also 
provided for introduction of electric cars (Mainichi) 
 
(7) Profile: Lester Tenney, chairman of POW group that will be 
dissolved next May (Mainichi) 
 
(8) TOP HEADLINES 
 
(9) EDITORIALS 7 
 
 ARTICLES: 
 
(1) DPJ to aim at Lower House dissolution with Diet debate 
 
YOMIURI (Page 2) (Abridged) 
July 28, 2008 
 
Democratic Party of Japan President Ichiro Ozawa announced on July 
27 that his party would not boycott deliberations in the next 
extraordinary Diet session. The policy course apparently resulted 
from a decision that in order to force the prime minister into a 
Lower House dissolution for a snap general election, it would be 
quicker to pursue the government in Diet debate than being fixated 
on the political significance of a censure motion against the prime 
minister that was adopted by the Upper House in the previous Diet 
session. 
 
In the DPJ, there had been a variety of views on how to handle Diet 
business after the censure motion was adopted by the Upper House. 
 
Those in favor of a continued boycott feared that responding to a 
call for Diet deliberations in the next session would end up 
diluting the political significance of the Upper House's first-ever 
adoption of a censure motion against the prime minister, the trump 
card for forcing the prime minister into cabinet resignation en 
masse and Lower House dissolution. 
 
At work behind Ozawa's decision to return to Diet deliberations is 
young and mid-level members' strong resistance to boycotting Diet 
debate. 
 
The prevailing view in the DPJ is that there is no shortage of 
 
TOKYO 00002065  002 OF 008 
 
 
issues to grill the government and ruling bloc, such as the question 
of unidentified pension records, the medical insurance system for 
people 75 and older, measures against soaring oil prices, and a 
review of the labor dispatch system. "There is no need for our party 
to boycott Diet debate and come under fire," a mid-level member 
said. 
 
A junior member also thinks that with the party leadership race 
coming up in September, Ozawa made the decision so as not to 
irritate mid-level and young members critical of boycotting Diet 
debate, thereby avoiding splitting the party. 
 
(2) Interviews with METI minister and MAFF minister after WTO 
ministerial 
 
NIKKEI (Page 2) (Full) 
Evening, July 26, 2008 
 
Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) Minister Toshiaki 
Amari and Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) 
Minister Masatoshi gave a press conference after the World Trade 
Organization (WTO) ministerial meeting on July 25. Questions and 
answers are as follows: 
 
-- What is your evaluation of the new chairman's plan? 
 
Amari: Differences in views on some disputed points were left 
unresolved in the meeting of seven countries and one region, as well 
as in the ministerial meeting of 30 countries. But I said that we 
find it acceptable as the basis for negotiations in order to find 
common ground. The proposed tariff cut rates in the industrial 
sector are proper for industrialized and developing countries, but a 
provision on seeking exceptional measures is overly inclined toward 
developing countries. I am also dissatisfied with vague expressions 
used in the anti-concentration provision. 
 
Wakabayashi: Although I repeatedly insisted that the ratio of 
"sensitive items" to the total be set at 8 PERCENT , this argument 
was not accepted. In the ministerial meeting, I said that although I 
was very dissatisfied, I would make efforts to secure 8 PERCENT . I 
accept the Lamy proposal as a draft proposal for future 
discussions. 
 
-- What is the focus of attention in the negotiations? 
 
Amari: No countries agreed on the final proposal. Each nation has 
presented its request. I believe WTO Director General Lamy will do 
his best to prevent a balance from breaking down and dropouts from 
emerging. Countries are dissatisfied with measures proposed in the 
chairman's report in the agricultural and industrial sectors, but 
the key point is to what extent each country will contain its 
assertions in an effort to reach an agreement. The negotiations have 
moved a step forward. 
 
Wakabayashi: Countries made statements emphasizing that a failure in 
the negotiations would have a serious impact on the global economy 
and disappoint the world. It was good that an atmosphere for each 
nation to make further efforts was created in the meetings. In the 
agricultural sector, agreement has yet to be reached on all details. 
What to do about compensation has been left behind. I will think 
about how to negotiate on securing 8 PERCENT  for "sensitive 
items." 
 
TOKYO 00002065  003 OF 008 
 
 
 
(3) Government to drop plan to send GSDF engineering personnel to 
Sudan for time being; Japan's contribution to Sudan PKO losing 
steam 
 
SANKEI (Page 5) (Abridged slightly) 
July 28, 2008 
 
The government's survey team composed of personnel from the Defense 
Ministry, Self-Defense Forces, and other offices departed yesterday 
for Sudan from Hamada Airport to make preparations for dispatching 
SDF personnel to the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) in southern Sudan. 
The government plans to send two SDF personnel to UNMIS headquarters 
in September after the team returns home. In terms of international 
contribution, Japan's position is certain to decline following its 
decision to forgo a plan to send the SDF to Afghanistan due to the 
New Komeito's stiff resistance. 
 
The survey team consists of 11 members from the Defense Ministry, 
SDF, Cabinet Office, and Foreign Ministry. In addition to Sudan 
where the government has decided to send personnel, the team is 
scheduled to tour PKO centers in Ghana, Kenya and Egypt where SDF 
personnel will be dispatched as instructors. 
 
According to a government source, the team will also visit the 
southern Sudanese cities of Juba and Malakal and the central city of 
Obeid, besides the country's capital of Khartoum where UNMIS 
headquarters is located, in order to survey activities by forces of 
other countries. The government plans to consider candidate sites 
for sending personnel in the future. 
 
An SDF dispatch to UNMIS headquarters was announced by Prime 
Minister Yasuo Fukuda in his meeting in late June with UN Secretary 
General Ban Ki Moon. Japan will participate in peacekeeping 
operations in Africa for the first time in 13 years since the UN 
Operations in Mozambique (UNUMOZ) in 1993-1995. 
 
Tokyo has declined the Sudanese government's strong request for 
sending ground-based engineering personnel by citing the 
insufficient confirmation of their safety. There is simmering 
discontent in the United Nations as seen in Secretary General Ban's 
call for greater SDF contributions in the areas of airlift, ground 
transportation, and supplies. 
 
The government also sent a fact-finding team to Afghanistan to 
explore the possibility of sending the SDF there, but it eventually 
dropped the plan due to the New Komeito's resistance. Given the 
situation, the government plans to consider seriously sending SDF 
troops to Sudan. The Defense Ministry and SDF are envisaging sending 
a 200-strong unit centering on Ground Self-Defense engineering 
personnel to conduct such activities as repairing roads and removing 
mines in central and southern Sudanese cities. 
 
Sending SDF troops to Africa requires thorough preparations against 
the unstable security situation and communicable diseases. Selected 
personnel must also undergo training for about six months. This 
means an SDF dispatch would be on the agenda next year or later. 
 
Japan is currently participating in only two PKO programs: the UN 
Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) on the Golan Heights in which 
Japan began participating in 1996, and the UN Mission in Nepal 
(UNMIN) in which Japan joined in March 2007. On the Golan Heights, 
 
TOKYO 00002065  004 OF 008 
 
 
two command personnel and 43 GSDF personnel are engaged in 
transportation, and in Nepal, six unarmed GSDF personnel are 
monitoring the disarmament. 
 
In terms of the number of personnel engaged in PKO, Japan ranks 
83rd, the lowest among the Group of Eight industrialized countries. 
The government is growing alarmed at the decline in the SDF's 
international contributions, including the question of extending the 
Maritime Self-Defense Force's refueling operation in the Indian 
Ocean, on which the New Komeito remains cautious. 
 
(4) Government to expand number of refugees to be accepted in Japan, 
starting in 2010 
 
NIKKEI (Page 2) (Full) 
July 28, 2008 
 
The government decided yesterday to shift its policy of accepting 
refugees. It will accept refugees living in camps in third countries 
after fleeing from political persecution and support their 
livelihoods in Japan. It has so far accepted foreigners who came to 
Japan as refugees but only after authorizing them. It aims to dodge 
international criticism for "being severe toward refugees." 
 
Relevant ministries, including the Foreign Ministry, Justice 
Ministry and Cabinet Secretariat, will hold a study session soon. 
They will work out before the end of the year such specifics as the 
process of accepting refugees, the number of refugees to be 
accepted, and measures to support them in Japan.  The government 
aims to accept about several dozen refugees starting in 2010 at the 
earliest. 
 
The government plans to introduce a "third-country settlement 
system" as a new refugee policy. This system has already been 
introduced by the United States and Britain. 
 
Under the system, Japan will accept refugees after Office of the 
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) examiners 
confirm their desire to live in Japan. Based on a list of refugees 
provided by the UNHCR, Japan will authorize refugees and decide to 
accept them. The number of refugees Japan authorized and accepted in 
2007 was 41. 
 
(5) Transfer of jurisdiction over 29 laws to consumer agency fixed: 
Prime minister's policy of attaching importance to consumers now on 
implementation stage 
 
NIKKEI (Page 2) (Full) 
July 24, 2008 
 
Measures designed to boost consumer administration, which Prime 
Minister Fukuda has promoted, will now move onto an implementation 
stage. Following a report compiled by the Consumer Administration 
Promotion Council, chaired by Tsuyoshi Sasaki, a professor at 
Gakushuin University, the government has decided to shift 
jurisdiction over 29 laws to the consumer agency to be established 
in fiscal 2009. The next stage is to move the work to draft a 
comprehensive bill to establish it and to submit the legislation to 
the next extraordinary Diet session. The Fukuda administration's 
policy target is to strengthen consumer affairs administration and 
thus impress the public. Meeting this challenge will help solidify 
its political base. 
 
TOKYO 00002065  005 OF 008 
 
 
 
The consumer agency initiative will become the showcase for measures 
to strengthen consumer administration. The government at a meeting 
of the Promotion Council on July 23 reported its plan to submit a 
"bill to prevent consumer damage" (tentative name), The legislation 
is intended to protect consumers from illegal business practices, It 
and the bill creating a consumer agency will be presented to the 
next extraordinary Diet session. 
 
Bureau directors of concerned government agencies at a meeting that 
day approved a draft action program, which cited measures to 
strengthen consumer administration, apart from the plan to establish 
a consumer agency. As a follow-up to a number of false food labeling 
incidents, the report proposed promoting efforts to introduce the 
traceability of food products. As part of such efforts, the report 
called for introducing before the end of this fiscal year a method 
for business operators to address the issue in a specific manner, 
such as by determining the actual state of the documentation of 
receipt and shipment records of goods. 
 
Attorney Kazuhiro Yoshioka, chairman of the Committee on Measures on 
Consumer Issues under the Japan Federation of Bar Association 
(JFBA), told a press conference, "I give high scores to the 
government for creating a good system." 
 
Producers until now have been the main supporters of the Liberal 
Democratic Party (LDP). The envisaged measures to strengthen 
consumer administration are aimed at tapping new political 
supporters, such as consumers and average working people. 
 
Though the JFBA has evaluated the proposed measures to a certain 
extent, there still remain some challenges. Mariko Sano, executive 
director of the Japan Housewives Association at the Promotion 
Council meeting the same day presented a letter of opinions making 
an issue over the government failure to transfer to the consumer 
agency jurisdiction over the Food Safety Commission, which is 
responsible for evaluating food risk. 
 
The focus of the next extraordinary Diet session is expected to be 
on a bill to extend the Law on Refueling Operations in the Indian 
Ocean and those related to the reallocation of special-purpose road 
construction revenues for other uses. This could cause the consumer 
agency establishment bill to be put on the backburner. Many 
companies are concerned about tougher regulations that would give 
priority to consumers. Some LDP lawmakers are complaining that a 
consumer agency would not bring more votes. 
 
Kaoru Yosano during a taping of BS11 program on the 23rd pointed 
out, "The Eisaku Sato cabinet was marked by such policy themes as 
the reversion of Okinawa. However, Mr. Fukuda has no skills in 
sending policy messages." 
 
The prime minister underscored at the Promotion Council meeting, 
"The consumer agency is an organization for the sake of the public. 
I must obtain the understanding of the people." 
 
(6) Development of carbon dioxide capture and storage technology by 
2020, according to government's action program: Assistance also 
provided for introduction of electric cars 
 
MAINICHI (Page 2) (Full) 
July 26, 2008 
 
TOKYO 00002065  006 OF 008 
 
 
 
A full version of the government's action program of measures to 
prevent global warming that will be adopted possibly early next week 
was revealed on July 25. The program is the embodiment of measures 
envisaged in the Fukuda Vision, which Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda 
revealed in June. The package includes the dissemination of the 
solar photovoltaic system by cutting the installation cost by 50 
PERCENT  from the current level and practical use of carbon dioxide 
capture and storage (CCS) technology by 2020. 
 
The Fukuda Vision puts up a long-term goal of cutting emissions of 
greenhouse gases, such as CO2, by 60 PERCENT -80 PERCENT  by 2050, 
and lays out the need to disseminate energy-saving technologies and 
to promote technological innovation. 
 
The Vision sets a goal of increasing the amount of solar power 
generation 10 times the present level by 2020 and 40 times by 2030. 
To achieve that end, the action program aims at halving the price of 
the solar photovoltaic system in three to five years' time and 
offering assistance for the introduction of the system to households 
and the technological development of solar cells. Regarding the CCS 
system, the Vision aims at launching a full-scale demonstration 
project in fiscal 2009 and putting it to practical use by 2020. The 
current cost of handling 1 ton of CO2 is estimated to exceed 5,000 
yen. The action program includes a goal of lowering such a cost to 
the 1,000 yen level by the 2020s. 
 
The program also incorporates assistance for the introduction of 
electric cars and fuel battery-assisted cars and a reduction in the 
prices of next-generation batteries and fuel batteries, which are 
used as motive energy, to one-fortieth of the present level by 
¶2030. 
 
(7) Profile: Lester Tenney, chairman of POW group that will be 
dissolved next May 
 
MAINICHI (Page 2) (Full) 
July 19, 2008 
 
"In the past, I bowed my head in fear of the Japanese. Today, I bow 
my head in honor of you," Lester Tenney, 88, said and bowed his head 
at the beginning of a lecture meeting held recently in Tokyo. 
 
Tenney survived the Bataan Death March. He surrendered to the 
Japanese military in April 1942 in the Philippines, where he was 
stationed as an U.S. military tank driver. About 7,000 to 10,000 
POWs died from beatings, disease, and hunger. He said in a tearful 
voice: "I was just watching my colleagues dying." 
 
As an American POW, he was taken to the Mitsui Miike Coal Mine in 
Fukuoka Prefecture. He dug coal while being beaten with shovels. He 
was freed and returned to the United States when the war was over. 
He has been unable to raise his left arm because of the 
after-effects. Many of the POWs still suffer from stress disorders. 
 
He hosted a 20-year old Japanese male student 41 years ago. When he 
told about how he had been treated by the Japanese military, the 
Japanese student shared his anger. He then visited Japan in 1988 to 
attend the Japanese man's wedding and accompanied him on his 
two-week honeymoon. He then felt the warmth of Japanese people. He 
was able to forgive the Japanese, thinking that he should lay aside 
his hatred to open his mind. 
 
TOKYO 00002065  007 OF 008 
 
 
 
He has written many letters addressed to Japanese prime ministers 
calling them to offer an apology. He has also continued asking 
Japanese industries that used the POWs to establish a foundation. He 
said: "I want them to invite our grandchildren to Japan with money 
offered by a foundation and show them the worksites. I also want our 
grandchildren to feel the warmth of Japanese people." But it will be 
difficult to realize this. The National Commander of the American 
Defense of Bataan and Corregidor, which Tenney chairs, will be 
dissolved next May due to the aging of its membership. He expressed 
sorrow, saying: "Old soldiers simply fade away." 
 
Lester Tenney is a professor emeritus at Arizona State University. 
He wrote an autobiography titled "My Hitch in Hell." He lives with 
his wife. 
 
(8) TOP HEADLINES 
 
Asahi: 
MLIT owns 65 PERCENT  -- 4,100 units -- of all vehicles possessed by 
central government 
 
Mainichi: 
63 years after fierce battle in Philippines: Interview with Filipina 
about her WWII experience 
 
Yomiuri: 
20 prefectures abolish school district system, according to Yomiuri 
survey: Public schools competing with private schools for students 
 
Nikkei: 
Firms adjust pricing systems to pass on costs 
 
Sankei: 
Cabinet shuffle in limbo: New Komeito applying pressure on Fukuda 
administration; Coalition at crossroads 
 
Tokyo Shimbun: 
Japan considering introduction of international solidarity levies to 
be imposed on airline tickets: Financing development assistance 
eyed 
 
Akahata: 
Waves of price rises start again next week 
 
(9) EDITORIALS 
 
Asahi: 
(1) Council for Science and Technology Policy needs to show 
resolution on iPS research 
(2) Energy conservation everyone's business 
 
Mainichi: 
(1) Pension reform: Single program requires political decision 
 
Yomiuri: 
(1) Minister should act on Oita school scandal 
(2) Osaka budget should be precedent for local fiscal 
reconstruction 
 
Nikkei: 
(1) Beijing Olympics: China must improve quality of its economy 
 
TOKYO 00002065  008 OF 008 
 
 
 
Sankei: 
(1) MITI report must result in protection of national secrets 
(2) Japanese-language education must be revamped 
 
Tokyo Shimbun: 
(1) Treatment of caregivers must be improved 
(2) Ending Darfur massacre requires greater international pressure 
 
Akahata: 
(1) Extension of new antiterrorism law main objective of next 
extraordinary Diet session 
 
SCHIEFFER