Vaccines Strengthen the Ties Between Japan & Taiwan
Former LDP MP is Released from Jail, CDP Member Makes Abhorrent Remarks about Sex with Minors while the Vaccination Picks Up Speed!
Hello everyone. Thank you for your feedback in the last weeks. I’m finally getting confident about the direction of the newsletter. I hope it is becoming a good resource for all of us that like Japan and its politics. 😊
Your support, as always, is appreciated!
「恥ずかしいながらも」I decided to set up a Paypal donation link for those of you that would like to help me out with contributions, so I can continue doing this work daily.
Currently, I have no other source of income.
If you like the work I do here on Subtack and also on Twitter at @Nihonpolitics, I welcome any contribution at:
Thank you so much for your support 😊😇
Let’s go with today’s Newsletter:
Election News🗳️
The Essentials: News and weekly politics about Japan.🏆
Progress on the Vaccination Process of Japan💉
Tweet(s) of the Week💬
Election News🗳️
Amagasaki City Council Election 🏯
Last Sunday, the city of Amagasaki, in Hyogo Prefecture, which borders Osaka and forms an integral part of the suburban structure of the city, went to the polls to elect in the city council. The result amounted to a strong increase in seats for Ishin no Kai, the regional party that has been dominating Osaka politics for years. Now, they finally would like to make the jump to neighboring Hyogo, too.
Amagasaki「尼崎市」is a historical stronghold of Komeito, a party with a strong base in both Hyogo and Osaka. On Sunday, after an early night scare, the party managed to retain a plurality in the council, despite the important strides Ishin no Kai made in the city.
Komeito: 12 seats (=)
Ishin no Kai: 10 seats (+3)
LDP: 7 seats (+1)
JCP: 5 seats (-1)
CDPJ: 2 seats (=)
DPFP: 1 seat (=)
Green party: 0 seats (-1)
Independents: 5 seats (-2)
The city of Amagasaki, with so much influence from Osaka, was a prime target for the expansion of Ishin no Kai beyond the borders of Osaka Prefecture, and the party delivered, with an increase in votes and seats, almost rivaling Komeito for control of the city1.
In the tweet below, you can see several charts about the votes won by each political party in the city in the last elections:
These results have buoyed Ishin supporters online, and the party itself, which is already considering expanding the set of candidates of the party in the periphery of Osaka, for example, to Kyoto for the next general election in the fall.
The Essentials: News and weekly politics about Japan.🏆
China’s Bullying Won’t Break the Friendship between Taiwan and Japan🤝 💉
For decades, the deep friendship between Japan and Taiwan has been a contentious point in the relationship of the former with China, as the CCP does not take well the ties forged between the two island countries. Last week, these bonds were exercised to the fullest extent, with another example of solidarity in times of need:
Japan, which is sitting in a pile of millions of anti-COVID19 vaccines, decided to donate 1.24 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to Taiwan, which is currently struggling with a late wave of covid and a slow vaccination process.
On the night of the fifth of June, the Taipei 101 skyscraper lit words of appreciation for Japan’s friendship! 🇯🇵💗🇹🇼
Since she became President, Taiwan’s leader, Tsai Ing-wen, has been slowly but strongly cultivating a closer relationship with Japan, through political exchanges and in the form of public diplomacy on the internet. In fact, it’s interesting to see how often she writes some of her tweets in Japanese in order to reach her targeted audience in Japan. Nowadays, the government of Taiwan is not only thankful for Japan’s help but overall, it’s content with the state of the relationship. As China becomes more aggressive around the world, including against Taiwan and Japan itself, the bilateral ties between Taiwan and Japan have been ‘de-tabooed’ thankfully, becoming an issue up to a much more open public debate on both sides.
Japan, in its relationship with Taiwan, has the public behind, as the Japanese people overwhelmingly favor closer ties with Japan. Against that current, the government of Japan itself has worked, many times, as a break on the kind of relationship its people would like to develop: much more open and unabashed. Nevertheless, no matter how much it irritates China, Taiwan and Japan have an unbreakable friendship built on mutual trust built throughout the decades, which rises to the surface in times of need, like the current pandemic or the natural disasters Japan suffers recurrently, cases in which Taiwan always rushes to help.
According to Taiwanese media, as reported by William Yang (@WilliamYang120), adviser(s) to former Prime Minister Abe played a role in the cautious negotiations between the Taiwanese Vicepresident Lai and high-ranking Japanese officials who were ready to help Taiwan from the start. It looks like that the parliamentary and non-partisan Japan-Taiwan Friendship group「日華議員懇談会 」 also played a role in mediating between national governments2.
As Tobias Harri points out, it is in the least surprising to see former PM Abe around dealings with Taiwan, even though. In recent months, he’s been seen promoting Taiwanese pineapples, under a Chinese boycott. Freed from his role of Prime Minister, in which the relationship with China was upheld as essential to the national security of Japan,
Abe is back, publicly, to the pro-Taiwan roots of his family3.
Conservative Split in Kagoshima’s Second District Risks an Opposition Pickup 🍠
Last weekend, the former Governor of Kagoshima, Mitazono Satoshi「三反園訓」 who lost his reelection campaign for a second term in July of 2020, declared that he would run as an independent for the Second District of Kagoshima, a movement that risks dividing the conservative vote in this district to the south of the prefecture
Currently, the district is represented by an LDP incumbent, Kaneko Masuo「金子万寿夫」who has no intention to give up his set to the former governor. Even though it’s a conservative district, the Opposition parties sense an opening if the right circumstances take place4. There’s a bad flavor left by Mitazono in the LDP: the party divided in 2020, chose to support him (at least, some did within the LDP), in last year’s election but he fumbled the race in the end, losing by 30k votes to an independent newcomer, current Governor Shiota Kouchi.
Now, he seems ready to create a new headache for the LDP in Kagoshima, a very conservative prefecture where the party should be on the offense, instead, fighting to take back District 1, where an Opposition candidate won in 2017 for the first time since 2009, by just 18k votes (that’s Kawauchi Hiroshi 「川内博史」).
Former LDP Member Akimoto Tsukasa Released on Bail over Corruption Case
On Tuesday, LDP incumbent Akimoto Tsukasa「秋元司」who represents Tokyo’s 15th District (in Koto Ward), was released on bail after paying the huge sum of 700k dollars😮. Akimoto had been detained for more than 9 months in jail over alleged corruption he partook in while he was in charge of the development of Integrated Resorts of entertainment (IR) which includes casinos5, in Japan.
Akimoto Tsukasa, who claims to be innocent, is accused of taking bribes from Chinese businessmen looking to invest in the development of casinos in Japan; projects that have always been surrounded by controversy, claims of graft and corruption.
After the scandal broke, Akimoto left the LDP but he has publicly declared that he would like to run again, getting ready as soon as possible.
The Identity of CDPJ Member Who Made Abhorrent Remarks about Sex with Minors is made Public 🔥
Last Friday, the Sankei Newspaper shocked the political world in Japan when it reported that a member of the Constitutional Democratic Part on Japan had made shocking remarks about “sex with minors” in a party meeting about the age of consent in Japan. Specifically, He said that:
“For people around my age (in the 50s), having sex with someone 14 years old, even with consent, might get you arrested. That’s ridiculous”
「5 0歳近くの自分が１４歳の子と性交したら、たとえ同意があっても捕まることになる。それはおかしい」 🤮
On Monday, after the backlash, the name of the politician was made public: it is Honda Hiranao「本多平直」, a backbencher of the party that just likely forfeited his presence on the ballot after these shameless remarks.
In recent days, He was reprimanded by the Secretary-General of the party Fukuyama Tetsurou「福山哲郎」, forcing Honda to apologize for his words, even though he still pointed out that he was citing the mentioned case as a mere “exception” given the supposed existence of consent in that case…
At this moment, we cannot rule out a possible censure or disciplinary measure against him by his party, or the Diet as a whole.
The remarks took place in a working group meeting where the party was discussing the idea of raising the “age of consent”, nationally in Japan from 13 years old to 16 years old6. However, the lack of agreement forced the group to give up on issuing a recommendation. It’s expected that the debate continues within the part in the next few weeks though.
Apparently, by the way, this dude Honda Hiranao, is married to a fellow CDPJ member of the Diet, Nishimura Chinami「西村智奈美」from Niigata’s District 1.
Progress on the Vaccination Process of Japan💉
The vaccination process continues in Japan. As time goes by, I am getting more and more optimistic about the direction the pandemic is taking in Japan thanks to the growing vaccination. The current daily pace is set at 600k doses per day, and I think we could get to 700k by the end of the week. In fact, on the second of June of 2021, last Wednesday, we had a record number of doses administered: 715k!
On the last three weekends (Saturday thru Monday) we had consecutive records, north of 1.5 million doses. At this moment, the sky is the limit!
Japan should easily reach 1 million doses per day in the coming weeks. Let’s hope demand does not run out too soon.
The weekly rate has been clearly growing since the start, in both first and second doses. Japan appears to have enough doses to continue with a healthy rhythm of first doses to Japanese seniors, and second doses meanly to health care workers (which are at 100% vaccinated with at least one dose). The number of second doses for the first seniors inoculated is also slowly growing.
But, if there’s an impressive chart, that’s the monthly one below.
During the fourth month of vaccination, from mid-may to early June, almost 14 million doses were administered, close to 70% of all the doses administered since the process started in February. 👏👏
Let’s see what the fifth month, which started this week, brings us!
Regionally, we still some variability in the share of the population with at least one dose in Japan. Nationally, almost 12% o the Japanese population has received one dose of the vaccine. The daily rate is increasing!🚀🚀
<iframe src="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/daily-covid-vaccination-doses-per-capita?country=~JPN" loading="lazy" style="width: 100%; height: 600px; border: 0px none;"></iframe>
In only five prefectures, though, more than 16% of their population have received at least one dose of the vaccine:
Yamaguchi 17.2%
Wakayama 17%
Kochi 16.9%
Saga 16.6%
Tottori 16%
The share of the population with two doses sits at almost 4% of the population, with even starker regional differences. It is over 6% only in Wakayama (6.7%) and Yamaguchi (6.2%)
We have to like the current rate. It is expected that in the coming weeks it keeps growing as some cities start opening up the vaccination to those below 65 years of age!
<iframe src="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-people-vaccinated-covid?country=JPN~ESP~USA~DEU" loading="lazy" style="width: 100%; height: 600px; border: 0px none;"></iframe>
Thankfully, these vaccines (well, not the Chinese ones…) are the BEST VACCINES IN HISTORY! And they will get us out of the pandemic. We just have to get vaccinated ASAP. 💉💉
Tweet(s) of the Week💬
I love food maps of Japan.
On which side are you on: Soba or Udon? 🍜
Soba🟢 or Udon🔴?
I’ve lived in Osaka, so I think I’m on Udon’s Team! But If I had to choose between Soba🟢, Udon🔴 or Ramen🟡? In this case, I’d fall for Ramen.
(Anything goes tho😋😋)
流石日本 (笑)
Thank you so MUCH for reading today’s entry in the Newsletter.
This week I am especially happy about two things:
One, the vaccination is really picking up speed in Japan. We can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Two, I am growing confident about the newsletter. Currently, I am busy working on a preview of the election on the fourth of July to the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly. Buckle up.
In the meantime, you can contribute and help me continue working on the newsletter in the link below (it’s so 恥ずかしい to do this, haha but I appreciate it😄)
Thank you so much for your support 😊😇
お疲れ様です
As a right of center party, the goal of Ishin no Kai is to slowly gobble up the political space of conservatives, part of the LDP, in Osaka, which they have been able to wean in the last decades effectively. Komeito, at times, has become an ally and a threatened partner in Ishin no Kai’s rise.
For years, this non-partisan friendship group in the Japanese Diet has played a central role in the relationship between Japan and Taiwan, given that both countries *do not* have an official, diplomatic or public relationship since the ties with China were restored in the 1970s.
Currently, Taiwan has a fervent ally in the name of Defense Minister Kishi Nobuo「岸信夫」, younger brother of PM Abe, who’s been even more vocal than him in his support of Taiwan throughout his political career.
At this moment, the Japanese Communist Party is set to nominate a candidate for this seat.
They are called「カジノを含む統合型リゾート施設 」in Japanese.
As the Mainichi Shinbun reports, the chairman of the Working Group Terada Manabu「寺田学」 pushed back against Hiranao, reminding him that even though local laws in each prefecture set penalties for sexual relationships with minors, the possible existence of a “sincere love relationship”, which he alleged, creates a loophole that can be widely exploited. It should be revised.
