Hisane Masaki - The Japan Times

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Hisane Masaki

For Hisane Masaki's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:

JAPAN

Mar 18, 1998

Japan plans to stage cultural week in Tehran

JAPAN

Mar 17, 1998

U.S., Europe asked to avoid protectionist measures

JAPAN

Feb 17, 1998

APEC draws up program to liberalize nine industrial sectors

JAPAN

Feb 12, 1998

Japan to fund Cambodian election with $4 million

JAPAN

Jan 28, 1998

U.S. wants pact on civilian-use GPS products

Staff writerThe United States has asked Japan to conclude a pact as soon as possible on civilian applications, such as car navigation, of the U.S.-developed positioning system that uses military satellites, government officials said Wednesday.The U.S. wants the proposed pact with Japan to serve as a framework for bilateral cooperation in addressing crimes and a variety of other issues that are expected to crop up with an increase in civilian applications of the Global Positioning System, according to the officials, who asked not to be named.Because demand for GPS products is expected to grow sharply on a global scale, the U.S. also wants to standardize such products with Japan, the officials said. The GPS, which was developed by the Pentagon for military purposes during the Cold War, enables the U.S. to determine almost instantly the positions of its forces from signals they transmit to three or four of the 24 American military satellites now in orbit around the Earth.The U.S., which sees the GPS as an important component of a rapidly developing information infrastructure that includes the Internet, has held three rounds of talks with Japan since August 1996 on civilian uses of the system.The third and final round of consultations was held in Tokyo on Dec. 16 and 17, with officials from various government ministries and agencies from both countries. The U.S. has also held similar consultations with the 15-nation European Union.At present, Japanese companies are allowed to use the GPS free of charge and without permission from U.S. authorities for car navigation systems and other civilian purposes, including aviation, shipping and geodetic and other surveys.The GPS can even be linked up with other devices so family members can track elderly relatives. The U.S., Japan and the EU are also separately engaged in the development of systems to improve the accuracy of information obtained through the GPS for civilian purposes. GPS augmentation systems use radio stations on the ground and satellites in stationary orbit.The U.S., for national security reasons, has intentionally reduced the accuracy of signals transmitted by the GPS for civilian purposes, although it announced presidential directives in March 1996 to halt the practice, known as "selective availability," within 10 years.The U.S. is concerned about the growing exploitation of GPS devices and services by criminal organizations for such crimes as drug trafficking. It is also concerned with the possibility the system could be put to military use by countries hostile to the U.S., such as Iraq, the officials said.In addition to those concerns, the U.S. wants to promote the early standardization of GPS products with Japan for cost benefit reasons since the services they provide are widely expected to become a lucrative business in the future, said one official.The official added, however, that although Japan shares the U.S. view that some arrangements will be necessary in the future to promote bilateral cooperation on issues that could arise from the civilian use of GPS, it is too early to conclude a pact, as the U.S. has been requesting.

JAPAN

Jan 23, 1998

OECD sets guidelines to stop harmful tax competition

Staff writerThe 29 member nations of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development have agreed in principle on guidelines for eliminating "harmful" tax competition designed to attract more foreign capital, government sources said Friday.The guidelines call for the nations to roll back what are seen as harmful preferential tax schemes on "geographically mobile activities," such as international financial and other service activities, by 2003, and also to refrain from introducing new schemes, the sources said.They are deeply concerned that excessive tax measures introduced to attract foreign capital is not only distorting the fair flow of trade and investment but also resulting in the loss of national tax revenues.The guidelines -- which are expected to force many Japanese and foreign companies with global operations to review their business strategies -- were agreed at a meeting of the OECD Committee on Fiscal Affairs in Paris on Tuesday and Wednesday, the sources said.While the scope is limited to geographically mobile activities, the OECD will study and address, in the future, the issue of excessive tax incentives designed to attract foreign investments in the manufacturing sector, the sources said.A report containing the guidelines will be submitted to an annual ministerial meeting of the OECD in Paris at the end of April for final approval. The OECD, often dubbed the "club of the richest," has been working on the guidelines for almost two years.Some OECD members had insisted on removing harmful preferential tax schemes within two to three years while others had argued for a longer grace period of about seven years. This week's decision to set the 2003 deadline is apparently a compromise between the two opposing camps.The guidelines also call for the elimination, by 2005, of any new measures taken by the member economies to cushion the impact of their tax-policy reviews on those who have vested interests, the sources said. Guideline negotiations began when the OECD ministers adopted a communique in May 1996 calling on the organization to "develop measures to counter the distorting impact of harmful tax competition on investment and financing decisions and the consequences for national tax bases, and report back in 1998."The Special Sessions on Tax Competition, a newly created group within the OECD Committee on Fiscal Affairs is directly responsible for the guidelines.

JAPAN

Jan 16, 1998

Japan, EU to recognize test results on electrical goods

Staff writerIn the first breakthrough in nearly two years of tough negotiations, Japan and the 15-nation European Union have agreed in principle to mutually recognize test results for electrical goods and telecommunications peripheral devices, government officials said Friday.The Japanese government will submit necessary legislative amendments for the mutual recognition of test results to the next ordinary Diet session, to be convened early next year, at the earliest, the officials said, requesting anonymity.Japan and the EU have also reached a basic agreement on two of the seven other product categories on the negotiating table, although the agreement stops short of mutually recognizing test results for them, the officials said.The regulatory authorities of Japan and the EU would allow each other's exporters of chemical products and pharmaceuticals to submit for testing identical data, instead of different data for different authorities as they are doing at present.Authorities of each party, however, would continue to decide whether to approve the products, the officials said. The basic agreement on the four product categories has been reached in Japan-EU negotiations on the mutual recognition agreement, or MRA as it is commonly known, the officials said.The MRA would help eliminate double-testing of similar products by Japan and the EU. Under the agreement, European companies waiting for approval of their products by EU regulatory agencies would no longer have to file for similar approval from Japanese regulatory agencies and vice-versa.The agreement would simplify trade-related procedures, save both Japanese and European exporters money and time, grant them greater access to each other's markets and help increase bilateral trade in the medium- and long-term.The EU proposed negotiations on the MRA with Japan in April 1993. The two sides agreed at a ministerial meeting in November 1994 to open the talks. Negotiations on nine product categories, including the four categories on which a basic agreement has been reached, have been held since May 1995. Among the other five categories are construction materials, boilers and medical equipment.In addition to Japan, the EU has held similar negotiations on the mutual recognition agreement in recent years with five other major trading partners, including the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand. At a meeting in the Hague last May, U.S. President Bill Clinton and EU leaders reached a basic agreement on mutual recognition in five product categories -- telecommunications equipment, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, information technology and recreational equipment. Trans-Atlantic trade in the five categories is estimated to total nearly $50 billion a year.

JAPAN

Dec 15, 1997

Tokyo to take Seoul off special low-tariff list

JAPAN

Dec 5, 1997

Japan offers cheap loans to ASEAN

JAPAN

Dec 3, 1997

Hashimoto to propose ASEAN round table

JAPAN

Nov 26, 1997

Japan to host meeting of aid donors to Vietnam

Japan will host its first meeting of aid donor countries and organizations to Vietnam on Dec. 11 and 12, Foreign Ministry officials said Wednesday.

JAPAN

Nov 25, 1997

Japan's 'venture forum' plan targets G-8 jobless problem

JAPAN

Nov 21, 1997

Top Chinese military official to visit Tokyo for security talks

JAPAN

Nov 12, 1997

New APEC panel to promote economic, technical alliance

JAPAN

Nov 4, 1997

Russia seen on verge of joining APEC

JAPAN

Oct 20, 1997

Canada plans to enliven APEC with infrastructure center

Staff writerThe Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum will agree next month to establish a center to promote private-sector investment in public infrastructure projects of the group's developing economies, according to government officials.The agreement will be made at the ninth annual talks of the 18 APEC economies in Vancouver, British Columbia, in late November, the officials said, requesting that they not be named. Canada, which will host the talks, has proposed an infrastructure promotion center, apparently in hopes of highlighting group consensus over the Canadian initiative. There does not appear to be any opposition to the proposal, the officials said.The proposal comes amid the growing prospect that the Vancouver meeting will produce few, if any, headline-grabbing agreements, especially because many Asian members, hit hard by the continued economic slump, are becoming increasingly reluctant to further open their markets to foreign competition. "Unlike the previous meetings, this year's APEC meetings will be plain and colorless," said Noboru Hatakeyama, president of the Japan External Trade Organization and a former vice minister of external affairs at the Ministry of International Trade and Industry.At the meeting, members will conduct their first review of the Individual Action Plans for trade and investment liberalization. But Hatakeyama and many other analysts expect no striking results to emerge from the gathering, and announcements of new liberalization measures are not expected.The Individual Action Plans, adopted at last year's APEC talks in the Philippines as a pillar of the Manila Action Plan, indicates how each member intends to move toward the goal of free trade and investment -- by 2010 for industrialized economies and by 2020 for developing economies. The APEC economies began to implement their individual action plans Jan. 1. There will also be discussion of a possible early liberalization of specific industrial sectors. However, it is uncertain whether any agreement will be reached on the issue.Earlier this year, members submitted individual proposals for such talks, but because as many as 61 sectors were proposed for liberalization, agreement appears unlikely. With regard to the Canadian initiative, officials said the infrastructure promotion center will be set up in Vancouver, and the Canadian government will contribute 5 million Canadian dollars for its operation over at least five years.

JAPAN

Oct 17, 1997

Japan to sign investment pact with Saudi Arabia

JAPAN

Oct 14, 1997

China to get $1 million to save relics from dam

Staff writerJapan will provide up to $1 million in financial aid to China to conserve and restore innumerous cultural relics that will be submerged by the controversial Three Gorges dam project, government sources said Oct. 14.The assistance will be funneled to Beijing through a special cultural assets-preservation fund within UNESCO, the sources said. The decision may be formally announced when Premier Li Peng visits Tokyo in the middle of next month as part of events marking the 25th anniversary this year of normalized Sino-Japanese diplomatic relations, the sources said.During his six-day official visit starting Nov. 11, Li will meet Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto to discuss bilateral as well as international issues. Hashimoto made his first official visit to Beijing as prime minister in early September, and President Jiang Zemin is expected in Tokyo next spring.Hashimoto and Jiang, meeting last November on the sidelines of the annual summit of the 18-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in the Philippines, agreed to the exchanges to help repair bilateral relations that had degraded to their lowest point since Tokyo and Beijing established ties in 1972. The deterioration was caused by disputes over such matters as the Japan-U.S. joint security declaration, repeated Chinese nuclear tests and competing sovereignty claims to the Senkaku Islands, which are called the Diaoyu Islands by China, in the East China Sea.The massive Three Gorges dam project on the Yangtze River, estimated by Beijing to run up a $24 billion price tag, has raised concerns abroad over the environmental damage it will incur and possible human-rights violations in moving residents from areas that will be flooded.The project in the historic Three Gorges region of central China, one of the world's largest infrastructure projects, is also expected to submerge at least eight hundred cultural relics, including the Bai He Liang, a rock bed on which water levels from different time periods are marked with poetry.In his meeting with Li last month in Beijing, Hashimoto expressed Japan's willingness to cooperate with the conservation and restoration of the threatened cultural relics. Li reportedly expressed appreciation for the offer. Afterward, the Japanese government began considering specific measures.

JAPAN

Oct 6, 1997

Product test-recognition talks with EU set to restart

Staff writerAfter a 16-month hiatus, Japan and the European Union will resume negotiations next week on an agreement to mutually recognize test results for certain industrial products, government officials said Oct. 6.The fourth round of talks on the mutual recognition agreement will be held in Brussels from Oct. 13 through 15, the officials said, requesting that they not be named.The mutual recognition agreement helps eliminate double-testing of similar products by the EU and Japan. Under the agreement, European companies waiting for approval of their products by EU regulatory agencies will no longer have to file for similar approval from Japanese regulatory agencies, and vice-versa.The agreement would simplify trade-related procedures, save both Japanese and European exporters money and time, grant them greater access to each other's markets, and help increase bilateral trade in the medium and long terms.The resumption in talks comes less than four months since Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto and the EU leaders agreed at the Hague in late June to work harder toward attaining an early conclusion to the agreement. The officials acknowledged, however, that a breakthrough will probably not be seen at next week's negotiations because of the sharp differences separating Japan and the 15-nation EU.The EU proposed negotiations on the mutual recognition agreement with Japan in April 1993, and the EU and Japan agreed at a ministerial meeting in November 1994 to open negotiations. Talks on mutual recognition in nine categories have been held three times -- in May 1995, December 1995 and in June last year. The categories include electrical products, telecommunications peripheral devices, chemical products, construction materials, pharmaceuticals and medical equipment.In addition to Japan, the EU has held similar negotiations on the agreement with five other major trading partners in recent years, including the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. At a meeting in the Hague in late May, U.S. President Bill Clinton and EU leaders reached a basic agreement on mutual recognition in five categories: telecommunications equipment; medical devices; pharmaceuticals; information technology; and recreational equipment. The trans-Atlantic trade in the five categories is estimated to total nearly $50 billion a year.In Japan, organizations affiliated with government ministries and agencies carry out testing for product standards. In addition to the differences between Japan and the EU, resistance from the ministries and agencies as well as the testing bodies with vested interests is widely seen as a major obstacle to an early conclusion of the Japan-EU negotiations on the mutual recognition agreement.

JAPAN

Oct 2, 1997

Japan to fund repair of Mongolian mine

Staff writerJapan will pledge about 4 billion yen in official loans to Mongolia next week to help rebuild the impoverished and energy-strapped country's Shivee-Ovoo Coal Mine, government officials said Oct. 2.The pledge for Shivee-Ovoo, Mongolia's second largest coal mine, will be made Oct. 7 in Tokyo at the seventh annual meeting of the consultative group of aid donor countries and organizations for Mongolia, the officials said.The group's meetings have been held here since 1991 under the cosponsorship of Japan and the World Bank to help Mongolia make the transition from a centrally planned, socialist-style economy to a free-market one. The officials said Japan will also pledge a few billion yen in grant-in-aid and technical cooperation for the current fiscal year, which ends in March.The loans for the mine will be used for the second phase of its rehabilitation project. Japan provided 5.8 billion yen in low-interest yen loans last fiscal year for the first phase of the project and for another one to rebuild the Baganuur Coal Mine, Mongolia's largest.The loans to be pledged next week will carry an interest rate of 2.3 percent and are to be repaid over 30 years with a 10-year grace period. A contract for the Shivee-Ovoo project will be awarded through an internationally open competitive bidding.Mongolia, once a staunch ally of the former Soviet Union, has pushed ahead vigorously with democratic reforms and market-oriented economic reforms since the early 1990s.

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