He shoudda been more careful with his use of the subjunctive mood

The Finance Minister's “Hopes and Dreams: U.S.A. Tour 2006” continues to embarrass and amaze:

Japan's Tanigaki Says Govt May Not Object to BOJ Policy Shift
Bloomberg

Jan. 13 -- Japanese Finance Minister Sadakazu Tanigaki said the government may not object to a change in the Bank of Japan's zero-rate policy as more than seven years of deflation come to an end.

"There are various price indicators the Bank of Japan needs to examine carefully to make the policy decision," Tanigaki said in an interview today in Washington. "We are of course not assuming at this point in the situation that we would need to object" to a change in policy.

Tanigaki repeated that he hopes deflation in Japan will end in 2006. Sustained gains in consumer prices would allow Bank of Japan Governor Toshihiko Fukui to reduce the amount of money the bank pumps into the world's second-largest economy, a precursor to raising interest rates from zero. Tanigaki said he wasn't sure when the policy might change.

Someone has to warn the Minister, “Nakagawa Hidenao is going to be waiting for you at the gate at Narita. Whatever you do, don't get in the car.”

Catch it while you can

The reliable David Pilling today has a succint review of the multiple fronts of the fiscal and monetary policy war:

Bickering kicks off debate about post-deflation Japan
Financial Times

January 13 2006 02:00--Only the most diehard pessimist would dispute that Japan's economy is looking healthier than it has for many years.

Consumer deflation is breathing its last; the labour market is so tight some employment agencies are worried they will not be able to fill available posts; and banks are finally, if still very cautiously, doing something that has not come naturally for ages - lending people money.

Strange, then, that just when economic policymakers could finally give themselves a pat on the back, they have instead descended into unseemly bickering.

Jolly good--if one overlooks the somewhat silly promotions of Yosano Kaoru to peacemaker and sybil (See what kind of glowing tributes granting an exclusive interview can get you, though?)

Now, why did the FT leave this article outside its subscription wall?

Update: The FT has it back behind the subscription wall. Tha, tha, tha, tha, that' s all folks!

The Good Guys Don't Wear White Hats...

...they wear glasses?

In this morning's Sankei Shimbun, Hu Jintao seems to have discovered the secret of how to tell the Japanese hawks (Accipiter gentilis) apart from the Japanese doves (Streptopilia orientalis).


Birds of a feather...flock together.

A Well-Intentioned Catch-22

The intentions of the promulgators of this new regulation are noble...but nobility here is running slam-bang into the hormones of tens of thousands of hyped-up 19 to 24 year-olds. Does anyone share my worries about the effect this new regulation will have on the number of 1) rapes committed by, and 2) accusations of rape made against, U. S. servicemen and DoD civilians in Japan?

Commands across Japan spread news of solicitation ban
Sailors, Marines briefed about new UCMJ prohibition
Stars and Stripes

Pacific edition, Thursday, January 12, 2006--Along with the security and liberty briefings U.S. sailors and Marines from Japan received before visiting the Philippines for bilateral training in late 2005, they learned about a new article under the Uniform Code of Military Justice that for the first time makes it a crime to solicit a prostitute.

An Oct. 14 presidential order made soliciting prostitution a specific crime under the UCMJ, although it had been punishable under other charges in the past, officials said.

(…)

The awareness is part of a larger Navy campaign to inform sailors and Marines about human trafficking. A Navy instruction in November mandated that all Navy and Marine Corps servicemembers and civilians take an online course by February about recognizing signs of human trafficking.

The training is part of a Defense Department effort to root out military involvement in human trafficking, which in recent years Pentagon officials have called a threat to national security.

The focus, according to DOD Deputy Inspector General Jerry Hansen, began in 2002 with a Pentagon study that found soldiers in South Korea were contributing to human trafficking by supporting prostitution there.

(…)

Under a directive by Brig. Gen. Joseph V. Medina, Marine Corps Bases Japan deputy commander, all Marines on Okinawa will receive training about the new UCMJ article and human trafficking prevention by the end of January, Albrecht said. Marines new to Japan are to receive the training within the first 90 days they are in the country.

(…)

James Duke, a Department of Defense civilian at Yokosuka Naval Base, said he heard about the new UCMJ law in similar human trafficking training.

“Maybe it will make sailors behave better, but it will definitely make civilians think twice,” he said.

Aaaiiiyyyaaah! A minefield!

Oh, how busy the military courts of Okinawa, Sasebo and Yokosuka will be...busy, busy, busy.

Now it is true that many prostitutes are the victims of human trafficking. However, equating prostitution with human trafficking is unsound.

The Department of Defense is furthermore not simply extending the application of U.S. values and laws to its employees working overseas. Prostitution is illegal everywhere in the U.S. but two (?) Nevada counties. However sex therapists, escorts and fortune tellers openly ply their trades in every state, city and hamlet.

Nota Bene - As a father with a 10 year-old daughter, I am fully cognizant of just how wrong prostitution is.

Lord, make me chaste...but not yet

It seems that “Sore wa i-Kanzaki” has finally determined what it is that he finds impossible to endure:

Kanzaki says next prime minister should not visit Yasukuni Shrine
Kyodo

FUKUOKA, Jan. 11 -- New Komeito party leader Takenori Kanzaki said Wednesday that the successor to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi should not visit the war-related Yasukuni Shrine so that Japan can mend ties with Asian countries.

"Repairing the relationships with Asian countries is an important responsibility of the next Cabinet," Kanzaki said at a party meeting in Fukuoka. "The next prime minister should not visit Yasukuni Shrine."

Kanzaki, whose party is the coalition partner of Koizumi's Liberal Democratic Party, said the prime minister's visits to Yasukuni, where Class A war criminals from World War II are also honored, are inconsistent with Cabinet policy as past leaders have issued statements reflecting on Japan's invasions.

There is nothing quite as inspiring as man drawing a line against immorality, especially after only four years of cohabitating with it. One can only hope that Kanzaki and the other members of his party have the strength to endure to these next nine more months of what can only be the purest of tortures for their immaculate souls.

If wishes were fishes

Sometimes I wonder whether I should have established a Tanigaki Sadakazu investment fund. The fund's secret strategy: tracking the Finance Minister's every utterance and then betting on the exact opposite economic policy outcome.

Deflation expected to end this year, Tanigaki says
Kyodo

NEW YORK --Japan may be able to move out of deflation within this year, Finance Minister Sadakazu Tanigaki said Monday.

Tanigaki, who is visiting the United States, made the comment at a lecture at the Japan Society in New York.

"The government compiled an economic forecast last year based on the assumption that Japan will overcome deflation this year," Tanigaki said. "Overcoming deflation has been our aim for a long time. I think everyone has the feeling that Japan will overcome deflation within this year, although my saying so may have attracted attention."

Call it a coincidence, but I have been following a similar strategy of getting myself in the news...

Pulitzer Prize expected this year, MTC says
Kyodon't

Minato-ku --MTC may be able to win a Pulitzer Prize this year, semi-literate blogger MTC said Tuesday.

MTC, who is seated upon his ample behind, made the comment at random passersby at around 5 p.m. in Tokyo.

"I compiled my datebook last year based on the assumption that I will win a Pulitzer Prize this year," MTC said. "Overcoming invisibility has been my aim for a long time. I think everyone has the feeling that I will overcome my invisibility within this year, although my saying so may have attracted attention."

What is it they say, "Hope is not a plan"?

If we are to believe the newspapers, the powers in Washington are already hedging their bets in the post-Koizumi sweepstakes by giving Tanigaki "the full Chalabi"--slipping him into meetings with the soon-to-be-defunct Alan Greenspan, the unprintable John Snow, Richard Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld.

If we are to believe the newspapers...

A gentle reminder

Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Kong Quan has some issues with certain members of the Japanese media:

Japanese media urged to play role in enhancing mutual understanding
Xinhuanet

BEIJING, Jan. 10 -- Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Kong Quan said here Tuesday that he hoped the Japanese media would play a positive role in enhancing mutual understanding between the general public of the two countries.

(…)

He said the media are playing a very important role in increasing mutual understanding and trust between the people in China and Japan.

But he pointed out that some Japanese media are keen on playing up the friction and problems emerging from the currently troubled bilateral relations.

The media should think more of the overall prospect of China-Japan relationship and not play up events that undermine the bilateral ties between the two countries, he said.

Press passes! Get your Beijing Olympics press passes here! Unless you're from a Japanese media organization, of course! Members of the Japanese media must undergo a proctological exam and are limited to one press pass per news conglomerate! Press passes! Get your press passes here!

The Asahi Shimbun (page 4) huffs, "This is bizarre."

When the going gets tough...Road Trip!!!

It must be budget compilation season.

Japan, China to exchange 2,000 students
The Yomiuri Shimbun

More than 2,000 high school students are to be mutually invited to visit Japan and China each year as part of efforts to improve bilateral relations, according to government sources.

The exchange program, which is part of mid- and long-term efforts to boost ties, aims to build a forward-looking relationship. Relations have soured over Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visits to war-related Yasukuni Shrine.

Officials of the Japanese and Chinese foreign ministries held a working-level meeting in late December in Beijing to discuss the plan, the sources said.

At the meeting, the Japanese side officially told their Chinese counterparts that Tokyo would put aside 10 billion yen in a new fund for the exchange program by February at the earliest, and would start accepting Chinese high schoolers in September.

In response, Beijing is to shortly start inviting about 1,000 Japanese high schoolers a year to China.

The Japanese side considers that about 1,100 Chinese students a year will be invited for short visits of 10 days or so; about 100 on middle-term stays of two to three months; and about 50 on long stays of a year.

The short stays will be handled by the Japan-China Friendship Center, with the others to be organized by the planned fund.

Gosh this sounds like a great idea...for the year 2035. Until then, these kids will not be in much of a position to influence the relationship between their two countries. In the meantime, wouldn't it be neat if their parents' generation could learn to get along, if only just a little?

Call METI for a rewrite

I saw yet another fabulous commercial from the amakudari quasi-governmental sector this morning. I only saw it out of the corner of my eye, so I did not catch the entire engrossing drama.

A father and son are out playing in a grassy area behind a levee. In a heartstring-yanking metaphorical demonstration the marvels of technology, the father tells his son, “Now watch this!” and uncorks a mighty throw.

The scene then shifted to a friendly graphic of the nuclear fuel cycle, starring our pal from the lower boroughs of the periodic table, Perky Plutonium, in his brand new and friendly disguise, MOXy Mixed Oxygen Fuel.

We are then switched back to the levee, where the father makes a stirring catch.

The utterly unfraught piece of sports equipment the father uses to illustrate the utterly great benefits of the nuclear fuel cycle?

The boomerang.

The desperate wail you may have just heard was the sound of irony dying.

(Come on here people. "Bumeran koka" is in the damn dictionary!)

Irony may indeed not be dead, however, just resting. One irritated Japanese blogger suggests that in order to depict the reality behind reprocessing spent nuclear fuel, the commercial should be interspliced with the infamous "I'll catch it!" boomerang scene from The Road Warrior.

おとうさん！ブーメラン効果を気を付けて！

Uncharitable Thoughts about a Suicide

As the year came to a close, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs all of a sudden felt a great need to prove that it too could act in a fashion inimical to Japan's interests. With the prime minister's, the chief cabinet secretary's and the foreign minister's repeated provocative statements and the PM's "I'm just an average guy" visit to Yasukuni in late 2005, another year of the Asia Bureau's best efforts (Full Disclosure - I have an annual karaoke outing with Sasae Ken'ichiro) were evidently ruined.

"Might as well just pile on," must have been the MOFA bureaucracy's conclusion.

Otherwise, it is difficult to comprehend what the good ministry was trying to achieve in holding a press conference complaining about Chinese internal security officer's involvement in the suicide of a Japanese diplomat in Shanghai over a year ago.

MOFA certainly could not have been expecting a damburst of remorse flooding out from the Chinese Foreign Ministry in response.

As matters stand, MOFA looks pretty foolish. One of its officers took his life because he was being blackmailed about a sexual relationship he was having/had had with a Chinese woman in violation of...well, what, we do not know. We are not being told the man's name out of concern for his privacy. Forgive for being rude, but if I do not know a person's name, his standing or his story, my concern for him is minimal. Unless he betrayed Japan, my concern is for him is indeed non-existent...and if he betrayed his country, then myconcern shifts to contempt.

If your lust leaves you liable to be blackmailed into betraying your country—do not double your failure by blaming the blackmailer for doing his job.

And if you are the employer of the one with the wandering eye (among other body parts), blaming the blackmailer's employer only makes you look like an idiot for employing the wayward one in the first place.