JSDF Out to Africa

After the tragic comedy of the "terror bill", Japan's ruling coalition forced its law through parliament to revive an international U.S. led anti-terrorism mission in the Indian Ocean. Done. Now what does it mean for other engagement of Japan's defense on mini scale and expeditionary cute missions overseas? Well, simple, a Japanese military specialist said: "Chinese sent troops for PKO in recent missions", they did it, then the Japanese did it too and they will follow Beijing's mood again. "士馬 tel le Samouraï chevauchant son noble destrier."



Absolutely true, nationalisme oblige "China joined the UN PKO both in East Timor and in Cambodia" as Professor Edward Friedman wrote, "China has launched a major effort to train Chinese PKO forces and has brought trainees to China from all over Asia." Remember the early 90's, when JSDF did a deployment for PKO to Cambodia, helped by France defense personal, and, to Mozambique * in addition to Middle East? The Japanese armed forces specialist continues: "So, Japanese will do it again, as Chinese do", and this time following the mood of the time, to Africa too because things changed there.

This China Japan watching each other moves is an "interesting element", fact of major importance, a fresh update, in substance, according to political scientist Dr. Richard J Samuels, author of "Securing Japan: Tokyo's Grand Strategy and the Future of East Asia" (Cornell Studies). "Japan is more rational than we think", Dr. Samuels said to an informal group of Japan watchers recently in Tokyo.

Indeed Japan is "considering sending members of its Self-Defense Forces to a peacekeeping training facility in Africa as instructors, this is according to government sources on Thursday. The first dispatch is intended to highlight Japan's international contribution, as it often faces difficulty sending peacekeeping troops to Africa due to stringent domestic rules according to sources.

In Africa, instructors from European and other countries' forces are training military personnel and other experts at facilities such as the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Center in Ghana and the Peacekeeping School in Mali.

Tokyo has recently rejected a request from Burundi to send an SDF helicopter unit to help airlift its soldiers to take part in the United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur, Sudan, and a similar request from Tanzania, citing the lack of a comprehensive peace accord there.

Under the PKO cooperation law enacted in 1992, Japan requires parties of a conflict to have agreed on a cease-fire and accept Japan's participation in a peacekeeping operation in the area, and that Japan remains neutral and withdraws if these conditions are no longer met."

* The law has allowed the SDF to take part in operations in Cambodia, Mozambique and three other countries. SDF troops are participating in the U.N. Disengagement Observer Force in the Golan Heights to maintain the cease-fire between Israel and Syria, and the U.N. Mission in Nepal under a cease-fire accord between the Nepalese government and Maoist rebels.


One cannot say one day that China is backward and the day after that China is a growing threat thanks to European, Russian, Israel military technologies... Click the title to access to this blog "angrychineseblogger" which describes the contradicting views prominently growing in the "Kick China's butt" sphere.

Defense Inc. generous funds

I remember attending some superb seminars in Tokyo on Japan US defense, invitations of VIPs entirely paid by US Japan institutions linked with defense firms. At that time officials from both US and Japan attended and offered their speeches about the issue of the moment. North Korea, China, Integration etc. But who paid such seminars and for what reason, some people asked...? Here is a good answer in this article: "Akiyama reveals sphere of influence" (Click the title to access the story.)

The answers are obvious except for Mr Akiyama and his American colleagues. Insiders know who is targeted in Nagatacho and in town, will these people be moved out? There is one who dares to talk about it these days. From Tottori (furusato), he is born in the year of the Rooster* and he's rising in Japanese politics. He, no doubt, is ready to wash his hands and money a.s.a.p. from the Akiyama Moriya Miyazaki case.



Quote: " Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba effectively admitted Tuesday that the Defense Ministry controls a slush fund worth tens of millions of yen pooled from money earmarked for gathering information and investigating crimes committed by Self-Defense Forces personnel. "We are not in a situation where we can answer correctly whether (the fund) is worth ¥20 million or ¥70 million," Ishiba told the House of Councilors Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defense, rather than dismissing the existence of such a fund. He was responding to a question by an opposition lawmaker over a recent news report on the fund. Ishiba said he has a "vital interest" in whether money is used for its original purpose of collecting information or other activities, indicating the ministry will announce how it will deal with the allegation after fully investigating the alleged slush fund, including its total amount. Some retired ministry officials have said the Defense Ministry and the SDF built up the slush fund over several decades using fake receipts." (Agencies)

Defense Ministry plans to talk about " the alleged slush fund " later, in January.


Born in the year of the Rooster? It means "hardworking, resourceful, courageous and talented, Roosters are self-assured people. They possess powerful personalities and are notoriously dominant. In groups they are vivacious, amusing and popular. But Roosters can be conceited creatures, vain and boastful, with a strong egotistical need to constantly be the center of attention."

Sarkozy wants Japan and Brasil among permanent members at U.N.S.C.

In Tuesday's Paris press conference attracting waves of journalists caught by the media frenzy curiosity for the new France President, Nicolas Sarkozy declared that the UNSC should get 5 new members: Japan, Germany, Brasil, India and an African nation. "How can things work out well in XXIst century with a system built in the XXth Century? Sarkozy told reporters.



French leader also announced he would most probably marry model-turned-singer Carla Bruni. Sarkozy's romance with Bruni reportedly started shortly after the French leader and his second wife, Cecilia Sarkozy, divorced three months ago. Sarkozy, 52, and Bruni, a 40 year old Italian born French model with a successful folk music career, have since been photographed together in recent weeks in locations from Disneyland Paris to the pyramids in Egypt, often entwined arm-in-arm, looking happy.

The conservative president has been accused of publicizing his relationship with Bruni to try to distract from a dramatic recent slide in polls. Some analysts also say that "Sarkozy's flaunting of his private life is a turnoff for many voters, especially more traditional ones." Sarkozy said he wanted "to break with a long tradition of French leaders keeping their love lives secret, with the media's tacit accord." He alluded to late former French President Francois Mitterrand, who kept the existence of a mistress and illegitimate daughter a secret for most of his 1981-95 presidency. Sarkozy pointed out that "journalists felt comfortable" asking him questions they had never dared to ask his predecessors. "I have been a part of a break with a deplorable tradition in our country: hypocrisy and lies," he said.

Sarkozy's approval rating stands around 48 percent, a drop of seven points in a month, a sharp departure from his highest level, 65 percent, in July, according to a recent poll from CSA. People got bored and disappointed with French politics during former president Jacques Chirac. Today, media commentators claim that "Sarko" succeeded in attracting, thanks to the paparazzi stories, more French voters than ever who now want to get informed with their president's policy in addition to his private life, and therefore raising interest for national politics.

A kind of Koizumi Gekijo (theater) "a la mode française"?

On the international economy, France president stated that he expects the G-8 to transform in a G-13. How? "By thinking sound and fair, and by discussing the question with Paris "allies."

Sarkozy's wide-ranging news conference Tuesday touched on questions from the economy to the environment to ways to promote diversity. Sarkozy gave a one-hour speech, then opened the floor to questions. The second question was about his relationship to Bruni — an issue that has had France buzzing for weeks. "What is extraordinary is that you were kind enough to wait until the second question," he told the reporters, drawing laughs.

I feel like people are in a mood of hypnotic fascination same as what fans feel for a rock-star, with Sarko, maybe a new political phenomenon is re appearing in the "City of Lights" fascinated by the Napoleon's ego and decisive rules. Locally here, Toyako remote G8 Summit, while US and Japan communication and leadership are transitionally weakened, will no doubt flash on Sarkozy and his talk-true-to-people tailored communication to gain what I would call a raison d'être médiatique for the costly G8 show.


Yes, but is it enough to deliver and then convince electors on voting day?

2008 Nippon Verbatim

Entendu hier a la réception de nouvel an 2008 de la Chambre japonaise de commerce, de la Keizai Doyukai et du Keidanren a laquelle participaient le premier ministre Fukuda et le Gotha de la politique, du commerce et de l'économie japonaise.

"2008 sera très dure pour l'économie japonaise et mondiale et les échéances électorales internationales nuiront a l'adoption de mesures appropriées pour améliorer nos économies, mais cela, personne n 'osera vous le dire aujourd'hui ici." Relations Chine Japon: "Notre voisin chinois ne risque-t-il pas l'implosion emmêlé dans ses contradictions politiques et économiques?" Source nippone éminente qui adhère a son anonymat.



Citation d'une autre autorité en la matière: Tadashi Okamura, puissance invitante a cette même "Shinenkai" tenue au splendide hotel New Otani et dirigeant la "Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry": Quote: "We have to be cautious about the economy's prospects, as there are the clouds over the U.S. and European economies and high oil prices." Les mauvais génies contrediraient-ils les prédictions de l'année du Rat théoriquement réputée pour sa prospérité?

Japan new rich... a performance!

"They customize the headrests of their Rolls-Royces with "Harry Potter writing," sip martinis poured over diamonds and buy $130,000 watches on a whim....

... The spending habits reflect a deepening economic divide. Japan, long known for its safe and stable corporate culture, introduced performance-based wages and stock options and made it easier to hire and fire temporary workers to boost competitiveness after the 1990s economic slump. This has produced a new business elite as well as a growing number of poor and unskilled temporary workers. For luxury goods makers, the new rich are an appetizing prospect. The number of people in Japan holding more than $1 million in financial assets grew 5.1 percent... to some 1.5 million, about three times as many as in China, Taiwan and Hong Kong put together, according to the Capgemini/Merrill Lynch World Wealth Report." (To read the report, click the title)

Japan "sales day"

Back to work! I attended the Prime Minister New Year press conference at Kantei, and my ears were caught with these words, more an enigma than a statement. What is the wise man (some call him the Tanuki) up to? "I would like to make this year the start of a society where the people and the consumers play the center role," Prime minister Fukuda also wants politicians and the government to drastically change their way of thinking and assume a more public and a consumer-oriented viewpoint.



Have sales started, is it a wishful thinking, a good or bad points to bad ministers or is there a cabinet reshuffle ahead? By the way, during the conference the Prime minister clearly stated his anger in diplomatic words towards Japanese press, (I remember that the Emperor too showed his dissatisfaction with Japanese media interpretations recently...)

At the end of December, during his visit to China, Fukuda is reported to have told Japanese press that he would keep an open mind toward reshuffling the Cabinet in the new year (2008). Right after, reports said Fukuda would do a reshuffle mid-January before the Diet opens.

Fukuda: "I don't know whose practical joke it was, but I think the media reporting went against my intentions, what I said was that everything about it was still a blank sheet of paper, including the possibility of reshuffling the Cabinet, or not."

Er... Then it is up to media to sale paper.

And then, I went to the Stocks exchange. Bad bad time... Tokyo stocks plunged on the new year's first day of trading, -700 something points, the market, it is said, focussed on American economic slowdown and surging oil prices, ($100 per barrel overnight in New York)

Shortly before the massive selling began, the TSE held a ceremony to mark the beginning of the year's trading. It started with the ringing of the stock exchange's bell by Financial Services Minister Yoshimi Watanabe and women dressed in kimono.



TSE President Atsushi Saito then gave a speech warning of the bourse's declining appeal and pledging his utmost efforts to make it more attractive:

"Last year, the subprime loan problem dealt a hard blow to stock markets worldwide. While most markets in developed countries managed to end 2007 higher despite the subprime woes, stock markets in Japan and a few other countries finished lower, this means our country is losing its appeal as an investment target although huge excess funds, including oil money, are flowing across global markets." He wants to make the Japanese market more attractive, as by making new financial products available and by setting up a "high-risk, high-return" market that will limit participation to professional investors.


January resolutions and sales day, indeed, Yasuo Fukuda wished YouTube users a happy New Year in a 5 minutes video posted in English and Japanese and spoke about the challenges facing the world and that Japan would become a key player on the international scene. “Of these challenges, those that concern the environment seriously affect all who live on this earth. Japan’s mission is to play a major role in this area.” From what I saw, it was not very clear what the G-8 nations would do about it in his press conference at the Kantei prime minister residence just a few months before the Hokkaido G8 Summit. Besides, the US and Japan were quite dull in Bali summit. Right? So what role are we talking and playing about? By the way, if I check the Prime minister conference picture, isn't it a can of Sapporo beer standing on the desk? For a Kanpaiiii live or... what? Sales day, I say!

Quest for common value: Japan and China utopia

What value do Japan and China share in common except images of two nations infatuated by contempt and short sighted stubbornness of past leaders? Prior to Japanese prime minister Fukuda's visit to the country of Confucius, there is not much constructive talks that is murmured about what could be sketched on the way to achieve major progress in their bilateral relations and Asia house building. I mean in the non - sino - american condominium way. But is this timidity a pre-requisite as a first step into the right direction? They finally decided to talk to each other and call at each other's.

Raising the banner of progress and happiness is not enough. The question for China and Japan remains: how to re discover the limit, the sense of proportion and avoid theatrical stances and at what realistic price? "This form of paranoia and unprecedented social dementia reactions will occur again, unpredictable. One has never played the impunity road-map of the "de-civilisation." (Historian Pierre Legendre in "Dominium Mundi". "La theatralisation est inherente a l'espece douee de parole." (Click the title to access to the article)



Light output so far. Yielding on environmental empty pledges, doing nothing on hot talks such as China Sea territorial struggle, achieving nothing on massive reduction of defense spending, not reviewing historical, political, technological and cultural program drive to the expected fate: Utopia! As if Japan and China had never succeeded in getting out of the post colonialism values system dictated by bigger powers, far away nations. Japan remains unable to wake up and move on reform on the spiritual scale of what was achieved in the Meiji revolution (yes a revolution, not a mere "renovation", which means that there were people who lost their lives). Tokyo neither assumes its sovereignty on foreign affairs nor boost its defense on his own feet while China is too eager to show off building its condominium world-stage. Tokyo sneezes when Beijing shouts and the world is bored, so is my editor when he watches Japan news wires.



Not an easy task. How could decades of suspicion, confrontations, trade - only would shift into a paradigm of harmoniously built relation, a perception of common destiny? First, there is no shortcut to playing a greater role internationally than in deleting misconceptions. Second, building common shared values, integrate, assimilate. The "metissage we say in French." And to achieve this pyramidal-size political objective, as Alexis de Tocqueville wrote: "There is one necessity that is to dissipate history in a society that claims herself as equalitarian". Probably up to the next - next generation.



In the twenty-first century especially, wouldn't it be in the interest of national power to follow Tocqueville advises as power depends more on the accuracy of the validated domestic institutions and on country’s openness to flow goods, people, money, and ideas? Therefore favoring integration is not the utopia. Without fundamental reform in the Asian village, how Japan and China will educate their children, train their youth, provide ease for its elderly, interact with the global village, culturally, economically, and contribute to the world peace and safe-environment... How will neighbors use workforce and conduct politics in the fair way. Behind the myth of enrichment, a huge populations remains in need and is not in total anesthesia, unsatisfied with their leaders lack of imagination and policies ' diversity.

Hu and Fukuda have not yet reached the variable that might boost confidence outside. Tokyo and Beijing governments need to be more concerned about these aspects of life than about the outward robot-alike manifestations of strength.



"Architects of the modern Japanese state have to understand that national power depends on the quality of domestic institutions. It will determine where Japan will go from 2007." The question is not to reinvigorate Japan and China's muscles but to create a new code of behavior in international relations, a model's role of harmonious values, not an easy task as Professor Amako of Waseda told foreign correspondents and diplomats at a Foreign Press Center (FPCJ) briefing: "These values still have to be created." "Maybe harmony" is a sound road-map.


"Opera mundi" and show-off only politics, is it ?

Commercial whaling: Has it ever stopped ?

Isn't it a gorgeous image of what nature is if kept free ?

It would have been too nice gift for a Xmas day... and Japan once again might have fallen after taking its feet in the carpet? Really? Well, technically not. Commercial whaling never stopped so it can't re-start! Oh, boys!

Facts: Japan's plan to hunt whales in the Antarctic for the purpose of "scientific study" was temporarily suspended on December 21, 2007. Although they still plan on hunting whales in other areas, Japan's Antarctic mission was especially controversial because they had planned on killing not only 935 minke whales and 50 fin whales, but also up to 50 humpbacks. A global moratorium on hunting humpbacks was put in place in the mid-1960s, when it was discovered that humpbacks were on the verge of extinction.

Japan, which says whaling is part of its culture, is carrying out the hunt in the Antarctic Ocean using a loophole in a 1986 global moratorium on commercial whaling that allows "lethal research" on the giant mammals.

The Japan Fisheries Agency argues for ages that whales are just another type of marine resource and should be treated like fish. Many countries, including USA, Scandinavia, Japan and Britain, engaged in over-whaling in the history, especially in the early decades of the 20th century, leading to a sharp decrease in stocks. But "now some species have increased to the point that limited catches will not put them at risk of extinction," according to Tokyo.

Japan in fiscal 2006, produced some 4,154 tons of whale meat as a byproduct of the research, down from 5,560 tons in fiscal 2005. Recently as Australia and other countries and conservation groups heated up their outcry against Japan's whaling program, Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura announced that Japan would not go after humpbacks while talks on reforming the IWC are under way.

So it stopped? No! Puzzled...? Why should Japan stop a whaling campaign as it looks to some observers that Japan never stopped the commercial whaling and did it with a catch of about 182 pieces a year! How come? Some of this explanation were aired last night on the BBC by an astute commentator (waiting for the "Père Noël" gifts). I am told by a precious source, quote:" that Japan coastal whaling industry has a quota of 62 Baird's Beaked Whales (tsuchi), 100 Short Finned Pilot Whales (gondō) and 20 Risso's Dolphins (hanagondō)". So to speak. (Click the title to access the MP3 of BBC to listen to the BBC program.)

Final point: Why is it that Japan carry on with killing whales? "One big reason is that it evokes a sense of nationalism and that Japan does not want to stop whaling simply because it is told to do so by Western countries, including those that encouraged Japanese to eat whale meat after the war, when other food sources were scarce," according to some critics expressed in the local press.


Question: The "Japan's barbaric whale slaughter" as some organizations said is indeed bad sight, but isn't it the same regarding all hunting forms, including barbaric slaughter of turtle, elephant, gorilla, tiger, shark, fox and deer, not really basic food, er?