Golden Week in Japan (2021)
A Jail, a Female Empress and a Sauna
Hello everyone, welcome to a new entry of my Newsletter!
This week it was Golden Week in Japan. It means it was kind of a slow news time. The vaccination process supposedly has continued unabated for the last few days but the Japanese Government has not, for 7 full days, updated the numbers…🤷♂️
I will update my charts, at @Nihonpolitics, as soon as the Kantei updates its numbers.
Today’s Newsletter:
The Essentials: News and weekly politics about Japan.🏆
Progress on the Vaccination Process of Japan💉
Tweet(s) of the Week💬
Book recommendation📚
Let’s get right into it!
The Essentials🏆
Jail Awaits Kawai Katsuyuki ⚖️
Last week, Tokyo prosecutors finished their closing arguments in the trial against Kawai Katsuyuki「河井克行」 a former Justice Minister and close confidant of Prime Minister Abe, accused of corruption. In the trial, they asked for a 4-years jail sentence (or a penalty of 1.5 million yen) for the politician. By the end of May, the defense is set to finish its own arguments before the sentencing takes place around June, approximately.
In a case that has been running for years, it is alleged that Katsuyuki violated the Public Office Election Law 「公職選挙法」in 2019 over allegations of vote-buying1 that took place in that year’s race for the House of Councillors when he was the campaign-manager「総括主宰者 」of his already sentenced (to 5 years in jail, suspended sentence) wife Kawai Anri, in her race in Hiroshima (you may know her, she has already appeared twice in this Newsletter). The vote-buying scandal, which rippled through the Japanese political world and threatened to damage the new government of Prime Minister Suga, was of such an unprecedented seriousness for its harm to the democratic process of Japan that the prosecutors asserted:
“For a member of the Diet to plot and commit such a crime is damaging and unprecedented in the country’s history. A vote-buying scandal that is responsible for forfeting the people’s trust in the elections”2.
What a fall from grace…
The scandal had electoral consequences, of course, giving her wife’s seat to the Opposition two weeks ago in a special election.3 Kawai Katasyuki himself recently resigned his seat in Hiroshima’s Third District, just in time to avoid a new special election before the general election in the fall. Damaged indirectly by the scandal, Komeito has been jockeying publicly with the LDP to present its own candidate in the district. The resistance by the LDP was fierce in the last months, but it looks like that in the end the LDP will yield, and allow Komeito to run its own candidate: Saito Tetsuo, a heavyweight in the organization and one of the party’s vice-presidents, is a veteran (9-term) incumbent who until now had run in the proportional block of the 比例中国ブロック. It’ll be one of the few Single-Member District where Komeito runs its own candidate and the only one to the West of Kansai4.
The race will not be easy for Komeito given the damage unleashed by the previous LDP incumbent…
Remember Gay Marriage or the question of allowing people (mainly women) to choose which surname to hold once they are married? Well, the question around allowing women to become empress is similar: a huge majority of the Japanese people support it, as a new Kyodo Poll shows; however, a conservative minority within the governing LDP successfully prevents it.
Enraging, isn’t it?🙄
The current Emperor Reiwa has a daughter that could well become the future empress of Japan. People would be fine with it. But it can’t happen because of the Salic Law imported from the West in the nineteenth century and maintained in the Imperial House Law of 1947「皇室典範」. Thus the Emperor right now only has three heirs, all of them are male: his brother Crown Prince Fumihito, his nephew Prince Hisahito and his uncle Prince Hitachi5.
Following a long list of similar polls, the latest Kyodo survey unequivocally shows that:
87% support a female empress (52% strongly)
80% support succession from the maternal line (43%).
Recently the Japanese government set up an advisory panel to discuss the question around the “Stability of the Imperial Succession”, which will likely publish a report by the end of 2021. There is certainly a worry about the future of the Imperial House when 50% of its embers are disbarred right away from becoming the “symbol of the state”.
Nevertheless, despite the overwhelming support of the Japanese people, like in many other issues, the pushback from a vocal conservative minority will be difficult to overcome.
After months of deadlocked politics in the city of Osaka, once that last year the people of the city rejected for a second time the idea proposed by the governing Ishin no Kai of merging the city of Osaka and Osaka Prefecture into one6 (like Tokyo), three members of the LDP at the city council left the party’s caucus and along with two Opposition-linked embers created a new group in the council called “自由民主党・市民とつながる・くらしが第一大阪市会議員団”.
Ishin no Kai, which governs the city with a large plurality, does not enjoy a majority. Thus, to this day, they had needed Komeito to pass its proposals. Now, this new group, which arrives with the intention of easily entering into dialogue with Ishin, might play a new role in facilitating the administration of Osaka,
The new group is formed by three LDP members (who are not leaving the party altogether, just its parliamentary caucus) and two Opposition-linked independents, who have decided to form a joint caucus. They are probably seeking visibility and a renewed capacity of action, especially for the LDP members outside of their own group, paralyzed by its antagonism to Isin no Kai.
Because I lived in Osaka, I always like to take a close look at its politics, and they are fascinating. I have touched it at length on my Twitter account @NihonPolitics.
In the coming months, this new group might play a vital role in a new initiative Ishin no Kai is pursuing in the city. After Ishin lost (AGAIN!) at a referendum on the Osaka Metropolis Plan7 8, they are working on a new trimmed-down proposal to reform the administrative structure of Osaka city:
The 8 Integral Districts Plan 「8総合区」
According to this idea, the city of Osaka would be divided internally into 8 districts, instead of the existing 24, with their own head of wards appointed by the Mayor of the city, with the consent of the city council. Osaka city itself thus would not disappear though. Functionally, these new districts would receive the administration of different policies from the city itself, like the department of Roads & Parks or the management of local nurseries. It is a way of administrative reform contemplated by the Local Autonomy Law (1947) 「地方自治法」which has never been put in place anywhere in Japan yet. The initiative is part of Ishin no Kai’s push to decentralize politics in Osaka, which continues after their failure in trying to abolish Osaka city last November.
With this new political group in place, Ishin no Kai has renewed its push for the plan. They have said they would like to introduce the proposal after the summer (September of 2021) into the plenary session. Until now, Koemito and the LDP, both, had been very cautious about the reform.
***
Just before leaving, I would like to send love and strength to my city of Osaka, which is living through an awful time as the fourth wave of covid hits hard the city. ❤️❤️
When a Sauna Makes Your Resign Your Office
Up north of Osaka, there is the city of Ikeda, part of Osaka Prefecture which is awfully close to the Toyonaka Campus of Osaka University where I used to study (懐かしいな～」。
In 2020, the media started reporting (this linked article from the Nikkan Gendan is worth your time lol) that Tomita Hiroki「冨田裕樹」 the young new Mayor of the city, had brought into the city hall building, next to the office, his own sauna along with other home items like gym equipment. Immediately, he received widespread criticism for the expenses he was causing to the city coffers; he even had to reimburse part of the energy bill.
However, it was not enough for some members of the city council, which is not controlled by Ishin no Kai, the party of the mayor. In March of this year, Tomita Hiroki was summoned to appear at a hearing of a special investigative committee「市議会調査特別委員会（百条委)」specifically set up to investigate the allegations: He was not only accused of lying about the question of the sauna and his expenditures but also of power harassment. A few days ago, the final written report was released and it concluded that he was “lacking the qualities to be mayor”. As a response, the local LDP proposed a “vote of no confidence”「不信任決議」against him.
To approve the censure, which would have triggered a double election of the mayor and the city council itself, 17 Ayes out of 22 were needed. From the start, the LDP was in favor of the motion; Komeito had publicly agreed.
However, in the end, Komeito backtracked and voted against censuring the mayor9, making the motion fail!
Anyways, even though he was not censured, Tomita Hiroki recently announced that he will resign, eventually, the office of Mayor of Ikeda City.
Vaccination in Japan💉
For the last few days, it has been Golden Week in Japan, so we don’t have data about the number of doses administered during this time.
I do wonder how many…
The vaccines we have are awesome, we just have to use them!
👀
Tweet(s) of the Week💬
What a great photo of Shinjuku Station (新宿驛) in 1945!
可愛い
If you want to see Osaka City in the distance, there are a lot of options and mountains to hike on the eastern side of the Osaka Plain, at the border with Nara. I like to hike for the views. Can’t wait to go back. 😍⛰️🌆
Book recommendation📚
Last month, I finished reading a book I wanted to share with all of you.
Amy Stanley’s “Stranger in the Shogun City” is a fantastic book that goes beyond usual history books, detailing the life of an ordinary woman of the Edo Period: Tsuneno, born in current Niigata Prefecture and who sought freedom and a future in Edo (Tokyo) far away from the conservative, restrictive, family-life she was foreordained to have in the age she was born.
Totally recommended reading. You can feel the handwork behind it. 📚
Recently, I came across (too late because I had already finished the book) a wonderful tool by Hiromu Nagahara through which to follow Tsuneno’s steps around old Edo.
Go check it out.
Thank you for reading! I am sorry I could not add the data from the vaccination process in Japan. Follow me at @Nihonpolitics for the latest updates as soon as it is available.
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Each Thursday on your Inbox👇📧👏
This article in the Tokyo Shinbun sums up the case: in order to overcome the resistance of the local LDP chapter to Kawai Anri’s candidacy (because there was already an LDP incumbent), the couple doled out close to 30 million yen to local officials.
This is the quote in Japanese “国会議員が犯行全般を首謀し、わが国の犯罪史上、突出して悪質で前代未聞だ。地元の政界を大きく混乱させた現職による買収事件で選挙に対する信頼を失墜させた“
This is interesting and somewhat surprising because Komeito is especially strong in western Japan.
Article 1 of the Law clearly states that: “The Imperial Throne shall be succeeded to by a male offspring in the male line belonging to the Imperial Lineage. “
If you want to know (more) about the so-called Osaka Metropolis Plan, take a look at my Twitter thread.
Background reading on my old Medium Account about the Ishin no Kai political party. Check it out!
Sigh…I did not have this Newsletter for the time of the referendum last year.
Komeito has a weird liking for saving Ishin’s as*。 The party alleged that it would gave been reckless to trigger a new election while the pandemic rages on in the region. It makes sense, but they should have been aware of that from the beginning...
if a son or daughter of an empress takes the throne, wouldn't that create a new dynasty and end the old one?