Hashimoto takes on isle spats in debate with Diet members

OSAKA – Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto said Sunday that Japan should continue to use diplomacy, political precedent and international law to settle its various territorial battles with China, South Korea and Russia.

During a public debate with Diet members about the policy platform of Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party), the outspoken mayor’s new national political group, Hashimoto said he does not favor calls by some conservatives to station Self-Defense Forces personnel on the Japan-controlled Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea.

“I’m opposed to stationing the SDF on the Senkakus,” Hashimoto said in response to a question by noted journalist Soichiro Tahara, who served as the unofficial moderator for the event.

“If you look at the situation in the Senkaku islet group, the dominant facts are that China is there and Chinese fishing boats have begun surveys within Japan’s exclusive economic zone” around the isles, he said. “If, as the Liberal Democratic Party says, it was necessary to nationalize the Senkakus, they should have done it before,” during their five decades in power.

Hashimoto also expressed the view that Japan and South Korea should jointly control the South Korean-held islets situated roughly halfway between them, known as Takeshima in Japan and Dokdo in South Korea.

“You cannot change the fact that (the isles) are effectively dominated by South Korean armed forces. We should steer a path toward bringing them under joint management,” he said.

ERIC JOHNSTON, Japan Times Staff writer, Sep. 24, 2012
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20120924a3.html

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Hashimoto’s party, barely out of the starting gate, already hitting snags

OSAKA – Even as Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto makes plans to expand his Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party) beyond its Osaka base, media polls indicate his popularity bubble may have burst and the party’s road to the next Lower House election will not be easy.

On Sunday, Hashimoto held the second of what he says will be a series of discussions with current Diet members and other supporters of the party. Seven Diet members have committed to the new party and another two, Takashi Tanihata from the Liberal Democratic Party and Masato Imai from the Democratic Party of Japan, attended Sunday’s discussion on foreign and defense policy and are expected to join up with Hashimoto soon.

The party will open a Tokyo office Tuesday headed by former LDP Lower House member Nobuhiro Omiya. Once all nine Diet members have finalized their membership in the fledgling party, they plan to join Hashimoto for a series of speeches around the country next month to garner support.

But if polls over the past two weeks are accurate, the reception they get could be colder than expected just a couple months ago. Criticism is growing of both the party’s policies – which have been blasted as vague, unrealistic, or both – and the debates themselves, which include only participants who agree with Hashimoto.

Recent polls show that the party’s support in the Tokyo area has dropped dramatically since the first debate two weeks ago. One poll by Fuji TV indicated support had fallen from 9.4 percent on Sept. 13 to 4.8 percent on Sept. 20.

Other polls conducted in the past two weeks showed that the party’s support rate nationwide was running between 2 and 5 percent, far behind both the LDP and DPJ.

Hashimoto has admitted that the first debate, held Sept. 9, received a lot of criticism for not delving deeply into the issues and for being less a debate and more an effort to ensure everybody was on the same page. But Sunday’s debate drew criticism as well. The inclusion of noted TV journalist Soichiro Tahara as an invited guest was meant to liven up the debate, but some critics said his presence turned the event into little more than entertainment.

Bloggers and headlines Monday in Osaka indicated that while the debate was lively, Hashimoto’s conservative supporters were angered by his suggestion that Takeshima (Dokdo in South Korea) be jointly managed by Japan and South Korea.

ERIC JOHNSTON, Japan Times Staff writer, September 25, 2012
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20120925a9.html

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 Hashimoto’s party struggling over policy

OSAKA – Two days after a public discussion on foreign policy, Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party) officials appear at odds over how to resolve the long-stalled issue of relocating the Futenma air base in Okinawa, while party head Toru Hashimoto faces continued questioning over his proposal to have Japan and South Korea jointly manage the disputed islets in the Sea of Japan.

Differences within the party and among its outside advisors on Futenma and other foreign policy issues have highlighted the party’s lack of consensus, and foreign policy experience, just as Nippon Ishin no Kai, the only national political party based in Osaka, opened a Tokyo branch office Tuesday.

The party’s basic platform calls for all of Japan to create a new road map to reduce the burden of U.S. military bases in Okinawa. But it does not spell out what that means. At a public meeting of party officials Sunday, Osaka Gov. and party Secretary General Ichiro Matsui said he was prepared to discuss reducing the burden.

Questioned about whether that meant Osaka Prefecture would agree to having Futenma relocated, Matsui at first indicated it might, but he then corrected himself and said the prefecture was only prepared to make preparations if asked.

Hashimoto, who is the mayor of Osaka, had a different take on the issue. “There are no other proposals besides the agreement to relocate Futenma to Henoko, in the northern part of Okinawa,” he said.

In November 2009, while governor of Osaka, Hashimoto said that if the central government initiated the conversation, he would be willing to discuss the possibility of relocating Futenma to Kansai airport, essentially the same thing Matsui indicated Sunday. But after strong opposition from prefectural residents and lawmakers, Hashimoto dropped the idea. However, in 2010 he suggested Kobe airport might also be a possible candidate for relocation.

As Nippon Ishin no Kai tries to get its story straight on Futenma, Hashimoto was receiving even more attention Å\ and intense criticism from his more nationalistic supporters Å\ for his proposal to have Japan and South Korea manage the Takeshima islets. On Tuesday, he once again defended his position, which has been criticized as not well-considered.

“Joint management of Takeshima is something I’ve been thinking about for a long time. If each side simply argues that the islets belong to them, what is going to happen to the Japan-South Korea relationship?,” Hashimoto said, rejecting arguments from those, including within his party, who favor a more militarily aggressive stance toward Seoul.

ERIC JOHNSTON, Japan Times Staff writer, September 26, 2012
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20120926a6.html

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 Hashimoto now wary of Abe alliance - Nippon Ishin no Kai chief turns cool after wooing new LDP head

OSAKA – Top officials of the Osaka-based Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party) were pleased but cautious over Wednesday’s election of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as head of the opposition Liberal Democratic Party.

Over the past few months, Nippon Ishin no Kai leaders Toru Hashimoto and Ichiro Matsui, who also serve as Osaka mayor and governor, respectively, have grown close to Abe, who has praised Hashimoto’s leadership. Talk has been growing of some sort of cooperation between Nippon Ishin no Kai and an Abe-led LDP following a Lower House election, despite emerging disagreements over key issues.

Following Abe’s surprise election Wednesday afternoon, Hashimoto offered praise for Abe but said key policy differences meant that his party could not now consider tying up with the LDP during a Lower House election campaign.

“Abe is a politician you can really trust. But we have differences over the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement, nuclear power policy and diplomatic problems. And we’re definitely not in agreement on the issue of turning the consumption tax into a local tax and abolishing the way the central government distributes local tax money. So, when elections come, we’ll have to do battle with him,” Hashimoto said.

Nippon Ishin no Kai Secretary General Ichiro Matsui, who first sounded out Abe this past spring about political cooperation, agreed that a formal alliance before the election was extremely difficult but left open the door for some sort of cooperation afterward.

“We can cooperate and work to realize policies. However, while there are areas we agree with such as education and civil service reform, there are also areas where we have differences. But rather than the political situation, I want things that have to be decided to be decided,” Matsui said Wednesday evening.

Political analysts say that a formal tieup between Abe’s LDP and Hashimoto’s Nippon Ishin no Kai is looking unlikely at the moment, not only because of policy differences but because a growing number of people have doubts about Nippon Ishin no Kai’s ability to be an effective political party on the national stage.

“The most likely scenario is that, rather than tie up with Nippon Ishin no Kai, the LDP, the DPJ and New Komeito will come together after the election to form a three-party coalition government. Recently, a lot of advisers to Nippon Ishin no Kai have begun to notice the various problems with it, and Hashimoto’s popularity is decreasing.”A major concern with a Lower House election is the Upper House, where the LDP still has a majority. A Lower House election where Nippon Ishin no Kai didn’t win a majority of seats would still mean a twisted Diet with the LDP, so I see a double election next summer," said political commentator Harumi Arima.

Osaka-based freelance journalist Yuji Yoshitomi agrees that a formal tieup between Abe and Hashimoto is now quite difficult. But he predicts that, even though Hashimoto and Nippon Ishin no Kai may be losing ground outside of Kansai, their candidates will win enough seats to be a force in the Diet.

"The real question concerns the true influence, especially the behind-the-scenes influence, of Nippon Ishin no Kai after Diet elections are held. At the moment, I think they would win about 50 seats, mostly in the Kansai region. That’s not likely to be as many as the LDP or the DPJ.

But in combination with other like-minded smaller parties, or even as a single minority bloc, they can still influence a coalition government, even unofficially," Yoshitomi said.

Meanwhile, Nippon Ishin no Kai continues with its national plans. Matsui said Thursday a committee would be formed next month to select the party’s candidates for an Upper House election. It will be headed by Heizo Takenaka, who served in former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi’s Cabinet as the minister in charge of economy issues as well as privatizing postal services.

The party hopes to field around 350 candidates, including those from among the nearly 900 students currently studying at a school Hashimoto established for aspiring politicians.

ERIC JOHNSTON, Japan Times staff writer, September 28, 2012
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20120928a7.html

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