VZCZCXRO5469
PP RUEHFK RUEHKSO RUEHNAG RUEHNH
DE RUEHKO #0070/01 0120810
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 120810Z JAN 10
FM AMEMBASSY TOKYO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 8666
INFO RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC PRIORITY
RHEHAAA/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 0617
RUEHFK/AMCONSUL FUKUOKA 8277
RUEHOK/AMCONSUL OSAKA KOBE 2090
RUEHNAG/AMCONSUL NAGOYA 5372
RUEHKSO/AMCONSUL SAPPORO 8772
RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 2606
RUEHUL/AMEMBASSY SEOUL 9270
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 8692

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 08 TOKYO 000070 
 
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 01/12/10 
 
INDEX: 
(1) PNP's Shimoji calls for Futenma solution in February, DM 
Kitazawa says Futenma issue should be resolved as soon as possible 
(Nikkei) 
 
(2) Editorial: Japan-U.S. foreign ministerial talks: Break away from 
reliance on "foreign pressure" (Okinawa Times) 
 
(3) Nago mayoral election report (Part 1): Anti-base group is 
forgetting economic assistance (Sankei) 
 
(4) Japan should not evade debate on immigration policy (Asahi) 
 
(5) Editorial: LDP should clearly express opposition to suffrage for 
foreigners (Sankei) 
 
(6) Child abduction and international divorce (Part 1): Differing 
child custody systems - barriers created by not signing the Hague 
Convention; people who reclaim their children are regarded as 
kidnappers (Tokyo Shimbun) 
 
ARTICLES: 
 
(1) PNP's Shimoji calls for Futenma solution in February, DM 
Kitazawa says Futenma issue should be resolved as soon as possible 
 
NIKKEI  Evening (Page 2) (Full) 
January 12, 2010 
 
People's New Party (PNP) policy chief Mikio Shimoji met with Defense 
Minister Toshimi Kitazawa on the morning of Jan. 12. Discussing the 
issue of the U.S. forces' Futenma Air Station, he told Kitazawa: 
"The three ruling coalition parties will submit their proposals on 
the relocation site by the end of January. The government should 
decide on a policy in February and proceed with negotiations with 
the U.S." Kitazawa responded: "This issue should be resolved as soon 
as possible." The two officials agreed that the relocation issue 
should be settled after the enactment of the FY2010 budget. 
 
(2) Editorial: Japan-U.S. foreign ministerial talks: Break away from 
reliance on "foreign pressure" 
 
OKINAWA TIMES (Page 5) (Full) 
January 12, 2010 
 
A Japan-U.S. foreign ministerial meeting will be held in Hawaii 
tomorrow. Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada will brief Secretary of 
State Hillary Clinton on the issue of the relocation of the U.S. 
forces' Futenma Air Station and the two ministers will confirm their 
intent to continue close consultations. 
 
Foreign Minister Okada has said, "There will be nothing new," so he 
is likely to convey once again the three ruling parties' plan to 
decide on a relocation site by May. This foreign ministerial meeting 
will be a perfunctory one aimed at keeping up the appearances of the 
Japan-U.S. relationship, which has been strained since the change of 
administration. It is probably also meant to indicate that 
discussions will continue. 
 
Secretary Clinton is scheduled to visit Asian and Pacific countries 
until Jan. 19. She will be announcing the U.S.'s Asia and Pacific 
policy during her stopover in Hawaii. This foreign ministerial 
 
TOKYO 00000070  002 OF 008 
 
 
meeting that has been included in her itinerary is also a ceremony 
to mark the start of talks on the deepening of the Japan-U.S. 
alliance on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the revision of 
the bilateral security treaty. 
 
(Japan and the U.S.) should not turn away from the issues that need 
to be rectified, such as the base issues in Okinawa, and should aim 
for future-oriented talks that will make the alliance the 
cornerstone of peace and stability in Asia and the Pacific. 
 
However, the U.S. government continues to claim that the current 
plan to relocate the Futenma base to Henoko in Nago City is the 
"best" option. When facing a difficult issue, Japanese diplomacy has 
the habit of taking advantage of "foreign pressure." We would like 
to watch closely to see whether this tactic is used in Hawaii. 
 
It can also be expected that if the U.S. Secretary of State 
indicates that it would be difficult to revise the current 
relocation plan, the media will report this without comment, thus 
manipulating public opinion into thinking "it won't work, after 
all." Here, it is essential to look into "why" (revising the 
relocation plan will not work). 
 
Mr. Joseph Nye, who was assistant secretary of defense under the 
Clinton administration, contributed an article to The New York Times 
on Jan. 7 in which he wrote that, "If (Japan and the U.S.) become 
too obsessed with one issue, they may lose sight of the 
all-important bilateral alliance." Mr. Nye was involved with the 
negotiations on Futenma's return in 1996. 
 
He gave the advice that a high-handed approach, such as U.S. 
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates' attitude during his visit to 
Japan last October of dismissing the search for a relocation site 
other than Henoko as "counterproductive," will only force the new 
administration into a corner and will not produce any positive 
results. 
 
Mr. Nye's analysis was that even if the U.S. government pushes for 
the current relocation plan stubbornly and Japan uses foreign 
pressure to suppress public opinion, the result will only be a 
"Pyrrhic victory" (a victory in which the gains are far less than 
the cost). 
 
The article opened with: "Seen from Tokyo, America's relationship 
with Japan faces a crisis." This seems to mean that Japan is making 
a great fuss about nothing. 
 
The demand of the previous Inamine administration in Okinawa for a 
15-year limit to the use of the Futenma replacement facility was 
also suppressed by using "foreign pressure." At the summit meeting 
in 2001, Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori mentioned Okinawa's demand as 
if it was hearsay, and President George Bush's response was: 
"Setting a time limit is inappropriate." The President's rejection 
made it possible for the Japanese government to provide a 
satisfactory explanation to the domestic audience. 
 
Such a passive approach went unchallenged under the previous 
administration. 
 
Unless the basic principle of civilian control, that the armed 
forces should obey the political authorities, is not reaffirmed, 
there will be no way to resolve the base issues. The deepening of 
 
TOKYO 00000070  003 OF 008 
 
 
the alliance will also be only in form and not in substance. 
 
(3) Nago mayoral election report (Part 1): Anti-base group is 
forgetting economic assistance 
 
SANKEI (Page 3) (Full) 
January 11, 2010 
 
Masashi Miyamoto 
 
About 13 years have passed since Nago City emerged as a relocation 
site for U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma (in Ginowan City, 
Okinawa Prefecture). The Nago mayoral election on Jan. 24 will be 
the city's fourth poll to ask residents whether to accept the 
government plan to relocate the Futenma base to the city. Candidates 
favoring the government plan won the past three elections, but the 
outcome of the upcoming election will likely have a great impact on 
the Hatoyama administration's review of the existing relocation 
plan. The feelings of Nago residents, who will be forced to make a 
decision, are complicated. 
 
Nago City, located in the northern part of Okinawa Prefecture, has a 
population of about 60,000. Since 1996, when the Henoko district in 
the city emerged as the relocation site for the Futenma heliport 
facility, residents have been split into two groups: one in favor of 
the plan, the other against it. 
 
The government injected a total of 60 billion yen in economic 
measures to promote the north of Okinawa for eight years from 2000 
through 2008 in return for Nago City's acceptance of the relocation 
plan. As a result, Henoko and other place succeeded in attracting 
Okinawa National College of Technology and a call center. A 
seven-story industry support center building was erected in the 
center of the city. The emotional strains among Nago residents had 
been gradually reduced because the city succeeded in inviting 
industries to an information and financial special regulatory zone, 
providing about 950 jobs. 
 
However, the city's residents were divided again because the 
Hatoyama administration advocated a review of the existing Futenma 
relocation plan. Many residents are fed up with the Futenma issue. 
They have gotten weary of mayoral elections focusing on the base 
issue. 
 
Nago residents have an "allergy to U.S. bases." Yet, they have made 
preparations psychologically and physically to accept the Futenma 
relocation plan. It could be said that their concern that their 
efforts might come to naught in the upcoming election exceed their 
allergy to U.S. bases. 
 
"We cannot help accepting the base because Henoko has been picked 
(as the relocation site for Futenma). There is no problem because 
the acceptance of the relocation plan will better promote the 
region," said a 65-year old restaurant owner, expressing anxiety 
about an election to put the plan to relocate Futenma to Henoko to 
the test again. 
 
"If incumbent Mayor Yoshikazu Shimabukuro, who favors the existing 
plan, is reelected, the Hatoyama government won't be able to say 
anything. In case Susumu Inamine, the former head of the board of 
education, wins the election, those who have opposed the plan to 
relocate Futenma to Henoko will be left out, because economic 
 
TOKYO 00000070  004 OF 008 
 
 
assistance will be discontinued," the restaurant owner said. 
 
90 PERCENT  of residents accept existing relocation plan 
 
Nago residents have strong hopes that if the city accepts the 
relocation plan, jobs and consumption will increase. If the base is 
built in Henoko, located about 8 kilometers from Nago proper, noise 
from it will not affect the city. However, the city's main shopping 
street is noticeably quiet. According to a private research firm, 
more than 20 construction firms have gone bankrupt in the city since 
¶2006. As a result, the city has no choice but to accept the plan. 
 
A 58-year-old self-employed worker stressed: "Some forget that we 
have received economic assistance from the government in return for 
our acceptance of its plan to relocate Futenma to Henoko. We are 
required to overcome the economic slump. Nothing can be resolved by 
only opposing U.S. bases." That Henoko resident appears to be taking 
the Futenma relocation seriously. 
 
One city council member clearly said: "In the Henoko district, there 
are growing calls for the government to decide on the Futenma 
relocation as quickly as possible. It is only natural for Henoko 
residents to feel that way because the city accepted the plan after 
spending 13 years to consider it." 
 
Yasuhide Miyagi, 54, chairman of a volunteer group for the promotion 
of a replacement facility in the Henoko district, composed of the 
commerce and industry association in the city and about 40 
volunteers, said: "About 90 percent of the residents favor the 
acceptance of the plan conditioned on compensation and improvement 
of infrastructure. Okinawa, which has no basic industries, has no 
other choice but to rely on the base industry." 
 
He continued: "Forces preventing the relocation plan are opposing it 
on ideological grounds alone. Although they have cited environmental 
protection, including dugongs, I haven't met anyone who said, 'I saw 
a dugong.' " 
 
(4) Japan should not evade debate on immigration policy 
 
ASAHI (Page 3) (Full) 
January 9, 2010 
 
Son Won Sok, part-time instructor at Chuo University 
 
The Republic of Korea (ROK) has already replaced the in-service 
trainee system modeled on the Japanese system and introduced in the 
early 1990s. 
 
Discussions were held because of violations of human rights and 
because illegal employment became a social problem. These 
discussions led in 2003 to the introduction of an employment permit 
system for officially accepting unskilled workers. 
 
Furthermore, with the rapid increase in international marriages, 
especially among farmers and fishermen, since 2000 and the growing 
diversification of foreigners living in the ROK, the right of 
suffrage was granted to permanent foreign residents in 2005. In 
2007, the "basic law on the treatment of foreign residents in the 
ROK," upholding the concepts of "social integration" and 
"coexistence," was enacted. This law stipulates the national and 
local governments' responsibility to strive for and foster the 
 
TOKYO 00000070  005 OF 008 
 
 
prevention of discrimination, respect for human rights, and so 
forth, and to educate the people about such issues. 
 
Specifically, there is a program to provide 450 hours of free 
language and cultural lessons for foreigners, and people who have 
successfully completed this program are given preferential treatment 
when they apply for permanent residency or ROK citizenship. 
 
This shift in immigration policy owes much to the 10 years of 
liberal administration under Kim Dae Jung and Roh Moo Hyun and the 
questions raised and actions taken by citizens' groups, which grew 
in force through the democratization movement. 
 
At present, the government has indicated a plan to adopt a dual 
citizenship policy for the purpose of attracting highly skilled 
professionals. 
 
The foreign population in Japan is less than 2 percent, which is 
comparable to the ROK, but Japan emphasizes the notion of 
"controlling" foreigners. It has evaded a frank debate on whether 
foreign workers are needed and has resorted to taking in foreigners 
of Japanese descent or trainees through the back door. The same goes 
for the nurse trainees under EPAs (Economic Partnership 
Agreements). 
 
Japan also lags in social integration. If nothing is done about this 
situation, there will be an increase in children raised in a foreign 
culture who have little education and can't find work or can only 
find unstable jobs at the bottom of the social pyramid. This is 
certainly not what Japan desires. 
 
Diversity is a good thing. Japan has a history of adopting foreign 
things in the process of its development since the Meiji Era 
(1868-1912). The political, labor, and industrial sectors should 
address this problem as their own rather than running away from it. 
 
(5) Editorial: LDP should clearly express opposition to suffrage for 
foreigners 
 
SANKEI (Page 2) (Full) 
January 11, 2010 
 
Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) 
Secretary General Ichiro Ozawa have indicated eagerness to submit to 
the upcoming Diet session a bill to give the right to vote in local 
elections to permanent foreign residents in Japan. Whether to grant 
the right to foreigners is a serious matter that could undermine the 
nation's sovereignty. 
 
In his first press conference this year, Hatoyama said: "Once the 
government completes coordination with the ruling camp, it will 
submit a bill granting suffrage to foreigners to the Diet." Ozawa 
said in a speech in South Korea late last year: "The government 
should sponsor the bill as a clear expression of its stance on the 
matter. It will become a reality at the ordinary Diet session." On 
Jan. 9, a senior DPJ member also referred to the likelihood that the 
bill will be enacted in the upcoming Diet session. 
 
Within the ruling camp, however, People's New Party President 
Shizuka Kamei, state minister for financial affairs and postal 
reform, said on a radio program: "I will not support the bill 
(during a cabinet meeting), so the government will not be able to 
 
TOKYO 00000070  006 OF 008 
 
 
submit it to the Diet." So the situation remains fluid. However, 
calls for suffrage for foreigners are growing among South Korean 
government officials and South Korean residents in Japan who belong 
to the Korean Residents Union in Japan (mindan), which supported the 
DPJ in the House of Representatives election last summer. So the 
fate of the bill is still open to conjecture. 
 
The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), the largest opposition party, 
appears to be slow to react. At the end of last year, the "true 
conservative policy study group," composed mainly of LDP 
conservative lawmakers, submitted a resolution opposing suffrage for 
foreign residents. More calls against it should be issued from 
within the LDP. 
 
Meanwhile, Chiba, Ishikawa, Kumamoto and other prefectural 
assemblies have in succession adopted position documents against 
granting suffrage for foreigners. There are many prefectural 
assemblies that once supported the idea but have begun to express 
opposition to it. Such moves are considered to reflect a sense of 
alarm over the Hatoyama administration's attempt to ram through a 
suffrage bill. 
 
It is fully conceivable that the granting of the right to vote in 
elections to foreigners violates Article 15 of the Constitution, 
which stipulates that "the people have the inalienable right to 
choose their public officials and to dismiss them." In a ruling in 
1995, the Supreme Court judged that if legal steps were taken, 
granting the right to vote in elections to foreign residents was not 
unconstitutional. But since that opinion was part of the subtext of 
the ruling, it has no legal binding power. The principal text 
specified that foreign residents were not regarded as "citizens" 
under Article 93 of the Constitution. 
 
Meanwhile, Hatoyama indicated that the governments of Japan and 
South Korea are eyeing a Japan-South Korea joint security 
declaration, saying: "This idea emerged amid growing momentum for 
cooperation between Japan and South Korea." It is important for 
Japan and South Korea to cooperate in the security area, but this is 
a separate matter from the issue of suffrage for South Koreans in 
Japan. 
 
LDP President Sadakazu Tanigaki said in his inaugural speech in 
September of last year: "We should be cautious" about granting 
foreign residents the right to vote in elections. The LDP president 
should take the lead and clarify the party's opposition to suffrage 
for foreigners in order also to revitalize the LDP as a real 
conservative political party. 
 
(6) Child abduction and international divorce (Part 1): Differing 
child custody systems - barriers created by not signing the Hague 
Convention; people who reclaim their children are regarded as 
kidnappers 
 
TOKYO SHIMBUN (Page 27) (Full) 
January 10, 2010 
 
Naoko Sato 
 
In the summer of 2006, a 14-year-old girl went to an airport in the 
southeastern state of North Carolina to see her mother off. Shortly 
before parting, the girl tried to run toward her mother, Miho 
Watanabe, 49, crying out, "I'm going back to Japan with you!" But 
 
TOKYO 00000070  007 OF 008 
 
 
the daughter was blocked by force by Watanabe's American ex-husband. 
Watanabe has not been able to see her daughter ever since. 
 
Watanabe became acquainted with her future husband, an American 
service member, in Zama, Kanagawa Prefecture, and they tied the knot 
in 1989. The husband soon began inflicting violence on Watanabe. 
They moved to the United States to try to start over, but the 
husband continued to beat her, and he was eventually arrested on 
suspicion of assault. Watanabe and her daughter returned to Japan in 
1995 after staying at a shelter temporarily. 
 
She divorced her husband after returning to Japan. After a while, 
her ex-husband started begging to let him see his daughter. Giving 
in to his persistence, Watanabe put her daughter, who was a junior 
high school student at the time, on a plane to the United States 
alone with a return ticket in the summer of 2005. 
 
Her ex-husband met his daughter at the airport, and that was the 
last Watanabe heard from him. He had moved and his whereabouts were 
unknown. Watanabe asked for a search to be conducted through the 
Foreign Ministry, but she could not find any leads. 
 
About a year later, Watanabe received a surprise call from her 
daughter. She said, "I'm living with my dad right now." She was 
attending a local junior high school while living with her father. 
"Dad wouldn't let me call you." 
 
Watanabe hurriedly flew to the United States to bring back her 
daughter. In the United States, the ex-husband said to Watanabe: "If 
you take my daughter back to Japan, you will become a kidnapper." 
 
Having filed for divorce in Japan where one parent gets sole child 
custody, Watanabe thought she had custody of her child. But in the 
United States, where joint custody is granted to both parents after 
divorce, her ex-husband had designated himself as a parent with sole 
custody either during the divorce proceedings or at some other 
time. 
 
The purpose of the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of 
International Child Abduction is to prevent international parental 
child abduction after international marriages end in divorce. The 
United States is a signatory to the convention, but Japan is not. 
This situation does not allow the mutual recognition of divorce 
proceedings that are conducted in member countries. 
 
If Watanabe returns to Japan with her daughter without the consent 
of her former husband, she will be put on the wanted persons list by 
U.S. authorities as a kidnapper. If that happens, she will not be 
able to travel back to the United States. "It was a mistake to let 
my daughter visit the United States." Watanabe had no other option 
but to return to Japan alone with a heavy heart. 
 
A Spanish man came to Japan to visit his eight-year-old son whom his 
former Japanese wife had taken back to her home country. The man 
became a criminal after he came to Japan. 
 
Last June, Jose Calcio (TN: phonetic), 51, a company employee 
residing in Madrid, visited his ex-wife's house in Saitama 
Prefecture. He was not able to see his son, so he wrote the 
following message on the wall of the house across the street with 
red spray paint: "Your papa has come to see you. Do not forget your 
papa." 
 
TOKYO 00000070  008 OF 008 
 
 
 
He was arrested by police on charges of property destruction, and 
released after paying a fine of 120,000 yen. At the police station, 
he was forced to sign a document pledging not to visit Japan again 
because his ex-wife had filed a request with the police not to allow 
him to go near her house. 
 
He returned to Spain and visited Japan again last November. The only 
thing he could do was go near the house of his ex-wife. "I might get 
caught by just walking near her house," Calcio said with tears in 
his eyes. "I might not be able to see my son ever again." 
 
Parental child abduction transcending national borders could occur 
immediately after an international marriage has failed. The United 
States and European countries, which are signatories to the Hague 
Convention, are vocally calling for Japan to accede to the 
convention. This series of articles studies the propriety of 
acceding to the convention through the suffering of parents who have 
been separated from their children. 
 
ROOS