Yoko Hani - The Japan Times

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Yoko Hani

For Yoko Hani's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:

JAPAN

Jun 26, 2000

Voters sided with unpopular status quo

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's nonstop gaffes and his administration's staggering unpopularity were ultimately tolerated by the voters who preferred the status quo to gambling on the opposition.

JAPAN

Jun 16, 2000

Communists set to sacrifice policies in quest for change

The Japanese Communist Party will ask the people to help it revamp a political setup that has been completely warped by the Liberal Democratic Party's rule, according to JCP leader Tetsuzo Fuwa.

JAPAN

Jun 15, 2000

Stable coalition key for economy, Kanzaki says

New Komeito will campaign for the Lower House election by promising a stable coalition government that will surely bring about a full-fledged economic recovery in Japan, said party leader Takenori Kanzaki.

JAPAN

Jun 10, 2000

LDP-led bloc the only way, Nonaka says

A coalition government led by the Liberal Democratic Party represents the only viable choice when voters go to the polls June 25, according to the party's No. 2 man.

JAPAN / ELECTION 2000

Jun 3, 2000

Ruling coalition awaits voters' judgment at polls

The coming Lower House election will give voters their first chance to express their support, or lack thereof, for the tripartite coalition led by the Liberal Democratic Party.

JAPAN

Mar 18, 2000

Embattled triumvirate seeks to rally the public before polls

Although Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi encountered little difficulty in securing Diet passage of the fiscal 2000 budget Friday, the likelihood of him dissolving the Lower House for general elections in the near future seems more distant than ever.

JAPAN

Mar 1, 2000

Budget's passage puts focus on polls

The Lower House approval Tuesday of the fiscal 2000 budget, a major hurdle in the ongoing 150-day regular Diet session, is expected to give Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi a freer hand in dissolving the chamber for a general election.

JAPAN

Feb 29, 2000

With budget set, elections may be next

Lower House approval of the fiscal 2000 budget, a major hurdle in the ongoing 150-day regular Diet session, is expected to give Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi a freer hand in dissolving the chamber for a general election.

JAPAN

Feb 23, 2000

New century proposals seen as more than unlikely dreams

Staff writer Recent ambitious proposals by the Commission on Japan's Goals in the 21st Century may be eye-catching but are unlikely to be achieved, according to skeptics. Those people, however, are wrong, according to commission head Hayao Kawai, who also serves as director general of the Education Ministry-affiliated International Research Center for Japanese Studies. "I believe most of the proposals will come true 25 years from now," he said. And the key to realizing these reform proposals is to provoke public debate and prompt Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi to take action, he says. The commission's brief was to advise the prime minister on the kind of nation Japan should strive to become in the coming century and how that should be achieved. Proposals in a report released in January by the advisory panel included introducing a three-day school week for compulsory education, adopting English as an official second language, lowering the voting age from the current 20 to 18 and directly electing the prime minister. Government advisory panels are often criticized for merely following scripts prepared by bureaucrats intent on protecting vested interests. Kawai, however, said the 16-member panel, comprising representatives from a variety of sectors, including academia, business, arts and the media, compiled their original report without intervention from the bureaucracy. "The panel members had a real free debate on Japan's future without any guidance from the government," he said. Kawai said the report has drawn a full spectrum of reactions, particularly since some of the panel's proposals -- such as directly electing the prime minister -- will necessitate amendments to the Constitution. In particular, there has been strong opposition to the suggestions to amend the compulsory school education curriculum and to adopt English as the official second language, Kawai said. "Concerning English education, some say Japanese language education is more important," Kawai said. "But we are not suggesting that Japan adopt English as the first language. Using foreign languages helps people understand the way of thinking in other cultures as well as one's own culture. "We wanted to emphasize the importance of trying to understand different cultures," he said. The government, on the other hand, has no obligation to carry out what the panel recommends because its function is merely advisory. Whether the recommendations come to fruition, and to what extent, remains to be seen. Obuchi did mention some of the panel's ideas in his policy speech delivered to the Diet last month, but whether his words will be translated into action is another question altogether. Obuchi has often been criticized for creating advisory councils and then failing to follow their recommendations. He is currently preparing to launch his seventh private advisory panel since taking office in July 1998 -- this one to focus on educational reforms. Government sources indicate that the proposals of Kawai's panel will be difficult to achieve in the short-term. A worst case scenario would see the suggestions effectively ignored altogether. Kawai is optimistic, however. A prominent clinical psychologist, he believes that Obuchi is a politician who is keen to follow public sentiment. With this in mind, Kawai believes the key to carrying out his panel's recommendations is to encourage public debate. To this end, he and other panel members plan to hold nationwide meetings to stir up discussion over the recommendations. "To change social rules such as the voting age may be the government's job, but the change should start from the premise that people want to vote at a younger age," Kawai said. "In that sense, reforms should be realized with the initiative of the public and with the help of the government."

JAPAN

Feb 9, 2000

Sumo: the final gender frontier?

Staff writer With the nation's first female governor taking office in Osaka, an old question is re-emerging: Are women to remain banned from stepping into the sacred sumo ring? Fusae Ota, who won the Osaka gubernatorial election Sunday, is taking aim at that glass ceiling with her eagerness to personally present -- in the ring -- Osaka Prefecture's championship cup to the winner of the annual spring sumo tournament, which is held in the city in March. On Wednesday, Chief Cabinet Secretary Mikio Aoki -- the minister in charge of gender equality policies -- said if Ota really hopes to be the trophy presenter, Nihon Sumo Kyokai, the sumo association, will probably make a decision on the matter after taking various viewpoints -- such as custom and tradition -- into consideration. Aoki welcomed Ota's victory, saying it was a good start for women to participate actively in various fields, and added, "Generally speaking, I don't think gender discrimination is good regardless of whether it's in the world of sumo or judo." Of course, Ota herself is well aware of the hurdle the matter presents. In the past, two female education ministers' aspirations to literally leave their footprints in the ring were turned down by the sumo association. Steeped in tradition and arguably one of the nation's more conservative realms, Nihon Sumo Kyokai argued that no woman has ever stepped into the ring. "I know sumo has its traditions," Ota said at a news conference Tuesday. "But as the first female governor, I want to put the question (to the sumo association) now because I think the association hopes to achieve further development of the national sport through the attraction of a wider following."

JAPAN

Feb 2, 2000

Analysis: Obstinacy may backfire on both sides

The ruling coalition on Wednesday dug its heels in even deeper as a political battle for public sentiment with the opposition camp took another turn.

JAPAN

Dec 31, 1999

Obuchi tasked to dissolve Lower House

Even if Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi manages to see New Year's Day pass without serious Y2K problems, a big decision lies ahead of him — when to dissolve the Lower House and call a general election.

JAPAN

Dec 14, 1999

Majority doesn't mean easy street for coalition

Staff writer The 48-day extraordinary Diet session, scheduled to end today, appears to have exposed the weaknesses rather than strengths of Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi's new tripartite coalition, which controls 70 percent of the seats in the Lower House. Obuchi had hoped the combined majority of 356 seats in the 500-seat Lower House and 141 in the 252-seat Upper House would ensure his coalition, formed in October by his Liberal Democratic Party, the Liberal Party and New Komeito, smooth and easy proceedings on key bills. However, the sheer size of the coalition proved vulnerable to full-scale attacks from the opposition camp, which accused the ruling alliance of trying to bulldoze things with its overwhelming power. The coalition government did pass -- with opposition support -- some key bills, including legislation to crack down on Aum Shinrikyo and to improve nuclear safety in the wake of the nation's worst atomic accident, which occurred in September in Tokai, Ibaraki Prefecture. The bloc also won quick Diet approval of a 6.8 trillion yen extra budget to finance its latest stimulus package. But with more sensitive issues on which the opposition took a confrontational stance, such as the pension reform bills, the ruling alliance was cautious of trying not to look too forceful and accepted opposition demands for negotiations. In a rare move, after coalition lawmakers forced a vote on the pension bills at the Lower House Health and Welfare Committee amid fierce opposition resistance, the ruling bloc eventually agreed to reopen committee debate and hold another vote. The bills later cleared the full Lower House, but time ran out in the Upper House and the bills will probably be carried over to the next regular Diet session, which opens in January. "Prime Minister Obuchi formed the coalition saying he was seeking a stable government to realize his policy goals, but over the past two months, Japanese politics has stagnated (under the new coalition)," said Tsutomu Hata, former prime minister and now secretary general of the Democratic Party of Japan, the largest opposition force. "In reality, Obuchi's administration seems to have become more unstable because of its huge size," he added. The coalition's Diet management appeared weak-kneed compared with the last ordinary session, when the government successfully got a series of controversial bills passed thanks to New Komeito's support, including wiretapping legislation, despite fierce protests from the opposition camp. During the last regular session, New Komeito, although still outside the ruling alliance, mostly cooperated with the LDP-Liberal Party coalition to make up for the bloc's lack of a majority in the Upper House. New Komeito's cooperation also eased the impression that the LDP-led alliance was forcing its way in Diet management. A senior LDP member said it may have been easier for the LDP to handle the Diet when New Komeito belonged to the opposition as a "buffer" between the ruling and opposition camp. Also amid opposition objections concerning the deliberation schedule, passage of a bill to cut 20 proportional representation seats from the Lower House -- one of the policy accords by the ruling parties -- remained uncertain even on the eve of the closing day of the extraordinary Diet session. Coalition leaders started discussing a possible extension of the Diet term to secure more time for debate. The fate of the bill may affect the coalition's unity because Liberal Party leader Ichiro Ozawa has again hinted his party may quit the alliance if the bill, which the party has been strongly calling for, is not approved during the current session. Indeed, the extra Diet session was the first test of Obuchi's ability to control the ruling parties amid their broad differences on some key issues. The sign of instability in the coalition surfaced over the public-care insurance system for the elderly that will be introduced in April. Because of discord over how the elderly-care system should be financed, Ozawa at one time threatened that the Liberals would not support the 6.8 trillion yen extra budget. The coalition also had to postpone some policy plans amid lingering internal differences. These included a proposal to lift Japan's self-imposed limits on participating in the main areas of United Nations peacekeeping missions."Policy differences (among the three parties) were not serious enough to break up the coalition," a senior New Komeito member said. New Komeito leader Takenori Kanzaki also said his party will patiently work toward strengthening the coalition while trying to have his party's ideas reflected in government policy. But recent media opinion polls show Obuchi's Cabinet is steadily losing support. A Kyodo News survey last week said the support rate for Obuchi dropped 6.2 percentage points from October to 45.6 percent. According to the survey, 25 percent of pollees who said they disapproved of the Cabinet said they did not support it "because it is a coalition of the LDP, the Liberals and New Komeito," while another 16 percent cited "Obuchi's lack of leadership." Chief Cabinet Secretary Mikio Aoki defends the coalition, saying more time is needed for the alliance to win public support. But the declining support rate is apparently a cause of headache for Obuchi as he searches for the best timing to dissolve the Lower House and call a general election.It is believed he has given up seeking a snap election before the end of the year -- as was earlier speculated. A general election must be held before next October, when the four-year terms of the incumbent Lower House members expire.The extraordinary Diet session introduced a new system of one-on-one debate between the prime minister and opposition leaders, modeled after the "Question Time" session in Britain's House of Commons. Hidekazu Kawai, professor of comparative politics at Gakushuin University, said such debate -- unlike the traditional Diet deliberations where bureaucrats played a major role in representing the government side -- may enable the public to better judge who is suitable to serve as prime minister. Obuchi twice experienced the full 40-minute faceoff. During the first session, Obuchi had to publicly declare the LDP's about-face on the issue of banning corporate donations to lawmakers, while DPJ leader Hatoyama criticized the prime minister and suggested the LDP may be mulling loopholes in the ban. "The debate before the public was quite effective in that it showed that prime ministership indeed bears a great responsibility," Kawai said.

JAPAN

Nov 10, 1999

New debate catches Obuchi off guard

JAPAN

Nov 8, 1999

Coalition's nursing care rift on the mend

JAPAN

Oct 28, 1999

Extra Diet session to test new triumvirate

JAPAN

Oct 21, 1999

Futenma debate near conclusion

JAPAN

Oct 15, 1999

Aoki sees coalition gaining public support

JAPAN

Sep 8, 1999

LDP race not just about winning

JAPAN

Aug 6, 1999

New Komeito up for tieup, Liberals or no

From easily navigable train stations to the helpfulness of its municipal staff, Tokyo has earned high praise for its commitment to accessibility for disabled travelers.

[Rebroadcast] Japan is doing better on accessibility than you may think

Later this month, author Shogo Imamura will open Honmaru, a bookstore that allows other businesses to rent its shelves. It's part of a wave of ideas Japanese booksellers are trying to compete with online spaces.

The story isn't over for Japan's bookstores

By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Prize winner Maki Imoto catches light with glass

Prize winner Maki Imoto catches light with glass

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