OTSU, Shiga Pref. – With just a week to go until campaigning starts for the Dec. 16 general election, Shiga Gov. Yukiko Kada formally announced a new political group Tuesday that aims to get Japan out of nuclear power, create more opportunities for women and promote a work-life balance that makes it easier for families to raise children.

Kada immediately gained new recruits, as political don Ichiro Ozawa and his Kokumin Seikatsu ga Daiichi (People’s Life First) party have decided to disband and join her group.

“I think we’ll merge (with Kada’s party) after dissolving our party,” Kenji Yamaoka, vice president of Ozawa’s party, told reporters.

Kada’s group, Nippon Mirai no To (Japan Future Party), seeks to offer voters another third-party alternative to the emerging Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party), which is challenging the Democratic Party of Japan and the Liberal Democratic Party.

But with no office, no official candidates and concern among Shiga voters that the party will distract Kada from her duties as governor, cooperation with, and perhaps a merger between Mirai no To and similar-minded parties besides Ozawa’s, in the next few days appears likely.

“We’ll see what parties want to merge with us,” Kada said Tuesday afternoon.

The newly formed Green Wind party as well as a small party led by Nagoya Mayor Takashi Kawamura and veteran lawmaker Shizuka Kamei are also considering joining hands with Kada’s new party, lawmakers said.

Kawamura told reporters later Tuesday that “it would be good” for his party to merge with Kada’s party.

Kada heads the new group, and the second in command is the nation’s leading renewable energy expert, Tetsunari Iida of the Institute for Sustainable Energy Policies. Iida, who is also adviser to a joint Osaka prefectural and municipal energy committee, has very different political views than Osaka Mayor and Nippon Ishin deputy leader Toru Hashimoto. He said, however, that he had no plans to run for a Diet seat.

Kada and Iida released a six-point policy platform that includes ending nuclear power, not restarting any reactors currently shut down and pursuing renewable energy.

“The greatest risk of another nuclear plant accident is at the Wakasa Bay area of Fukui Prefecture, which is close to Shiga Prefecture and Lake Biwa and where there is a large concentration of aging atomic plants. Lake Biwa provides drinking water to 14.5 million people, and unless I, as governor, send a message to the central government, I’ll have failed those who came before me who protected Lake Biwa,” Kada said in announcing her reason for pursuing the new party.

Nippon Ishin initially also pledged to end Japan’s reliance on nuclear power, but since recently absorbing ex-Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara’s new party and putting him at the overall helm, Hashimoto’s group has dropped this goal.

The role of women, in both the workplace and as mothers, is also a key part of Mirai no To’s platform and one Kada hopes will attract voters turned off by the male-dominated Nippon Ishin.

“There are two differences between my party and Nippon Ishin. First, Nippon Ishin is urban-based, in Osaka and Tokyo, while I’m based in Shiga, a more rural area with different concerns. Second is the importance of the role of women and children in our platform,” Kada said.

She did not announce a merger with any other parties that had similar goals but indicated she hopes to cooperate with Ozawa. As Mirai no To does not have any Diet members officially signed up at present, it is not technically a political party, although that will change if lawmakes defect from other parties to join.

The group also has support from several prominent people, including Kyocera founder and Japan Airlines honorary Chairman Kazuo Inamori and musician Ryuichi Sakamoto, both of whom have long been close to Kada. However, whether they will offer Kada more financial support to field candidates remains to be seen.

ERIC JOHNSTON, Japan Times staff writer

(Information from Kyodo, Jiji added)

* November 28, 2012
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20121128a1.html

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 Kada’s party sets 2022 end for atomic power

Shiga Gov. Yukiko Kada said Wednesday her new party, once made official, will pledge to phase out nuclear power within 10 years, aiming to make energy a key issue in the Dec. 16 election.

“We’ll abolish nuclear power plants as soon as possible. My proposal is we’ll do so by 2022,” said Kada, who plans to field around 100 candidates in the poll.

Kada suggested her Nippon Mirai no To (Japan Future Party), which has agreed to merge with the party headed by Ichiro Ozawa and his 48 Lower House members, as well as other small parties, will promise to immediately shut down the Monju prototype fast-breeder reactor.

While the ruling Democratic Party of Japan has pledged to phase out reactors by the 2030s, the Liberal Democratic Party’s stance is it will decide within three years whether to restart all of those now idled nationwide.

Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party), recently founded by Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto, ended its goal of reducing Japan’s nuclear dependency to zero after it absorbed the party formed earlier this month by ex-Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara, an advocate of atomic energy. Ishihara was put at Nippon Ishin’s helm.

Kada is apparently trying to confront the major parties by vowing to swiftly abandon nuclear plants, but criticism is growing that her target is impossible.

“I don’t know how realistically she thinks” the policy of phasing out nuclear energy is, DPJ policy chief Goshi Hosono told reporters.

Besides Kokumin no Seikatsu ga Daiichi (People’s Life First), led by former DPJ head Ozawa, also joining forces with Kada will be a small party led by Nagoya Mayor Takashi Kawamura and veteran lawmaker Shizuka Kamei, as well as three Lower House members of the new Midori no Kaze (Green Wind) party.

Kada’s party could end up boasting more than 60 veteran Lower House lawmakers, all seeking to end nuclear power.

The poll is shaping up as a four-way battle between the DPJ, the LDP, Nippon Ishin and Kada’s party. But Kada and her allies have yet to set policies other than phasing out nuclear power, raising criticism from the other parties that her group is an alliance of convenience for the election.

Kyodo Press, November 29, 2012
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20121129a1.html

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 Kada’s new party and Nippon Ishin

OSAKA Å\ Despite the last-minute announcement, Shiga Gov. Yukiko Kada’s Nippon Mirai no To (Japan Future Party) political group is the culmination of months of behind-the-scenes preparation, and its advent spells trouble for the hopes of Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party) to become the main third political force.

“There were lots of voices saying they had no choice from among the various political parties, and they said they wanted a true ’third force’ party,” Kada said in explaining her reason for forming Mirai no To after months of consultations with Shiga politicians and voters.

Mirai no To’s prime campaign pledge is to end all reliance on nuclear power in 10 years. In addition, Kada, one of only three female governors, is emphasizing a greater role for women in society. While not officially opposed to raising the consumption tax, she is calling for the elimination of wasteful public spending first.

The list of those who want to ally themselves with Kada reads like a who’s who of Nippon Ishin opponents, especially those against its founder, Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto.

Mirai no To’s No. 2, Tetsunari Iida of the Institute for Sustainable Energy Policies, was a Hashimoto adviser who grew disillusioned with the mayor’s flip-flop on nuclear power, particularly after his party joined forces with the pronuclear Ishihara.

Others are politicians like Ichiro Ozawa, whose Kokumin no Seikatsu ga Daiichi (People’s Life First) said it will disband and merge with Kada, leading to speculation he will be the true power.

Kada was also in discussions Wednesday with Your Party just a day after its leader, Yoshimi Watanabe, said he would not team up with Hashimoto. Kada and Watanabe share similar views on nuclear power but differ on issues like the Trans-Pacific Partnership initiative.

The rush by Hashimoto’s former allies to merge or cooperate with Kada had Nippon Ishin officials worried about a sudden influx of money and organization tipping the balance for Mirai no To candidates in tight races, particularly in the Kansai region.

Hashimoto, campaigning in the Tohoku region this week, reacted to news of Kada’s party by challenging her to a debate on energy and saying he no longer believes a nuclear power-free Japan is possible anytime soon.

“This new political group was formed to get out of nuclear power. But no matter how much they say they will do so, it can’t be done,” Hashimoto said.

ERIC JOHNSTON, Japan Times staff writer, November 29, 2012
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20121129a2.html

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 Kada party seen banking on Ozawa

OSAKA – Shiga Gov. Yukiko Kada’s Nippon Mirai no To (Japan Future Party) is expected to issue an 80-point platform Sunday that will be a combination of ideas espoused by Ichiro Ozawa’s Kokumin no Seikatsu ga Daichi (People’s Life First), antinuclear groups, renewable energy advocates and supporters of Kada in Shiga, especially women.

Several other parties are reportedly in talks to merge with Nippon Mirai, which could end up fielding more than 70 candidates by the time official campaigning kicks off next Tuesday.

Ozawa’s party, as well as another led by former Kokumin Shinto (People’s New Party) head Shizuka Kamei and Nagoya Mayor Takashi Kawamura, are now part of Kada’s force.

Ozawa’s presence has many of Kada’s critics in established parties convinced he will be the real power behind the throne and that Nippon Mirai’s campaign platform will be similar to the manifesto the Democratic Party of Japan issued in 2009 when Ozawa was in the DPJ.

Talks between Kada and Ozawa about forming a new national party began in September. Kyocera Corp. founder and current Japan Airlines Corp. Chairman Emeritus Kazuo Inamori, who is extremely close to both Ozawa and Kada, played a key role in bringing them together.

This took many political observers by surprise, given Inamori’s stated support of nuclear power and his close ties to DPJ national policy minister and former Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara, who hails from Kyoto.

But Kyocera has large solar power manufacturing plants in Shiga and Inamori has supported solar power development in Japan for more than three decades.

While Kada has said Ozawa will not play a formal leadership role in the new party, Nippon Mirai’s platform already contains ideas Ozawa has fought for. During a debate Friday between party leaders, Kada said she wanted to borrow Ozawa’s power and influence to help weaken the bureaucracy.

In 2009, the DPJ’s platform contained a provision for providing families an annual allowance of \312,000 per child, and Nippon Mirai plans to include this idea, with the same amount, in its manifesto.

In addition, Kada’s party will use the Tokyo office of Ozawa’s now-defunct party as its headquarters.

While the final platform will be released Sunday, Kada has already said it will contain about 80 points ranging from getting out of nuclear power to strengthening the role of women in society.

Other small parties are likely to join, or at least agree to cooperate after the election.

Individual politicians, including Social Democratic Party Lower House member Tomoko Abe, a child care specialist who recently quit the party, are also planning to sign up. Kada has indicated there may be local-level politicians in Shiga who might also be interested in running for the Lower House.

ERIC JOHNSTON, Japan Times staff writer, December 1, 2012
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20121201a4.html

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 Nuke power foe Kada open to reactor restarts

Shiga Gov. Yukiko Kada, who founded the antinuclear Nippon Mirai no To (Japan Future Party) last week, on Saturday signaled the possibility of supporting the restart of atomic reactors if their safety is verified.

“If the Nuclear Regulation Authority guarantees their safety and the government concludes there is a need, (reactors) would resume operations,” Kada said on a TV program.

“It may sound correct in theory to say that we can approve (reactor) operations if there are safety standards. But, first of all, we will not allow any further increase in (nuclear) waste,” she said.

Kada has previously insisted that none of Japan’s 48 idled reactors should be restarted because the NRA has yet to lay down new safety rules.

Her remarks could cause controversy at a time when Nippon Mirai no To is gearing up for the Dec. 16 election on a platform backing the complete elimination of atomic energy, and given the strong opposition to firing up reactors within her party.

Kada said she will make her first poll speech Tuesday in Fukushima Prefecture, home to the crippled Fukushima No. 1 plant.

Jiji Press, December 2, 2012
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20121202a2.html

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