Nukes not the only issue

January 23, 2014

Other issues getting overlooked

Tokyo voters unhappy with nuclear focus

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2014/01/23/national/tokyo-voters-unhappy-with-nuclear-focus/#.UuJgibQo-aQ 

by Atsushi Kodera, Magdalena Osumi, and Tomohiro Osaki 

Staff Writers

As campaigning for the Tokyo gubernatorial race got under way Thursday, just a little more than a month since Naoki Inose resigned over a money scandal, voters expressed bewilderment over how fast the focus seems to have turned to nuclear energy.

A 50-year-old construction company employee from Itabashi Ward said he was disappointed.

“It’s completely wrong (for nuclear power to become a key issue),” he said. “I think the (2020 Tokyo) Olympics is a big subject. Inose’s resignation came so unexpectedly it has clouded what the real issues are.”

The man, who did not want his name used, added that none of the 16 candidates has earned his vote yet in the Feb. 9 race.

According to pre-campaign polls conducted by media organizations, the strongest contenders are former health minister Yoichi Masuzoe and former Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa, followed by lawyer Kenji Utsunomiya and nationalist Toshio Tamogami.

Hosokawa, after spending the last 15 years away from politics, has enlisted support from another former prime minister, Junichiro Koizumi, to push his anti-nuclear agenda.

The Hosokawa-Koizumi duo has quickly become a favorite among those who consider nuclear power the most important issue.

But Yoshitaka Shimoda, a 20-year-old university student, said his vote will go to Masuzoe.

While admitting that none of Masuzoe’s pledges resonate with him, Shimoda said he finds the former health minister the most affable candidate, citing his telegenic smile.

“Plus he’s the only one (of the candidates) I can recognize by name,” he said.

Meanwhile, foreign residents expressed what they want the next Tokyo leader to do.

Pole Piotr Grzywacz, 38, who works for a major U.S. company specializing in Internet-related services, said his natural interest in politics has weakened somewhat, influenced by what he described as Japan’s general political apathy.

Grzywacz said that during his 13 years in Japan he hasn’t noticed any major changes in his daily life despite many changes on the political stage.

He added, however, that the tourism infrastructure in Tokyo should be made more convenient for foreigners, especially those who can’t speak Japanese.

While refraining from commenting about the candidates, 36-year-old German Stephan Matthiesen said he expects some changes in economic policies.

“The economy is growing now,” said Matthiesen, a financial controller at a firm in Tokyo. “The question is how you can stimulate the domestic economy sustainably, and deregulating and opening the country more towards foreign investors is one of the key issues.”

Asked his opinion about nuclear energy, Matthiesen said that the country is not ready to build the infrastructure for a grid in which nuclear power plays no role.

“You need to build the whole infrastructure and you can’t do it over one night. It takes a couple of decades,” he said.

Besides nuclear energy and the Olympics, preparing for a major earthquake and child-rearing support have climbed to the top of the election agenda.

Candidates are also expected to be scrutinized for corruption because of Inose’s resignation.

But Japan’s strained relations with South Korea and China appear to have strengthened support for Tamogami, a nationalist whose platform features building disaster preparedness through use of the Self-Defense Forces.

Tamogami is said to enjoy strong support from the Internet crowd in particular, making him a wild card in the race.

A 24-year-old university student who came to listen to Tamogami deliver a speech Thursday morning in front of Shibuya Station expressed support to the nationalist candidate.

The student, who only gave his family name, Miura, said he supports Tamogami because he finds the former top Air Self-Defense Force officer most ideologically consistent and agrees with his hawkish stance.

Miura, a self-acknowledged frequent Internet user, also said he supports Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

January 23, 2014

Editorial: Tokyo election a chance to tackle national problems

http://mainichi.jp/english/english/perspectives/news/20140123p2a00m0na010000c.html 

The battle for the Tokyo governor's chair officially began on Jan. 23, and it's shaping up to be a fierce fight among first-time gubernatorial candidates.

The Feb. 9 poll will also be to choose the face of the capital that will host the 2020 Summer Olympics. However, the candidates will lock horns over a whole raft of serious issues, such as atomic power policy in the post-Fukushima nuclear disaster era, the quickly aging Tokyo metropolitan population, and disaster prevention. In other words, the election will be fought over issues of national importance, and will address not just the state of Tokyo but the state of Japan.

On Jan. 22, the day before the start of the campaign, 76-year-old former Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa officially announced his candidacy. He joined a slate that already included former Health Minister Yoichi Masuzoe, 65, former Japan Federation of Bar Associations President Kenji Utsunomiya, 67, former Air Self-Defense Force Chief of Staff Toshio Tamogami, 65, and inventor Doctor Nakamatsu, 85.

All the major candidates are running as independents. However, the Tokyo branches of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and New Komeito are endorsing Masuzoe, and the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), Unity Party, and People's Life Party are effectively backing Hosokawa. The Japanese Communist Party (JCP) and Social Democratic Party (SDP) have endorsed Utsunomiya, while Tamogami has the support of Japan Restoration Party (JRP) co-leader and former Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara. It's notable that, as has been the case for the past several Tokyo gubernatorial elections, the major parties were unable to take the lead in finding candidates to back.

Due in great part to the candidacy of Hosokawa and his high-profile backer, former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, the election battle this time around will almost certainly be fought over nuclear energy policy.

Hosokawa has declared that he will not accept the restart of any nuclear reactors in Japan. He has also pledged to make Tokyo the top city in terms of energy conservation and the adoption of renewables, blazing a path for growth that does not depend on nuclear power. Of Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), in which the Tokyo Metropolitan Government owns stock, Hosokawa demanded transparent management and reasonable electricity charges.

The Great East Japan Earthquake of March 2011, which knocked out many power stations in a system that had become increasingly concentrated in just a few rural locations, laid bare the fragility of Tokyo's electricity supply. As such, it would be strange for the local government to leave energy policy entirely up to the central government.

Going cold turkey on atomic power, however, would at least in the short term leave Tokyo, and Japan as a whole, dependent on fossil fuels for energy, and very likely push up electricity prices. It would also be necessary to consider ways for Tokyo to help promote the economic livelihood of the local governments forced to watch as nuclear plants in their jurisdictions -- major sources of funds and employment -- were shut down for good.

Hosokawa says that, if elected governor, he'll establish an expert committee to propose concrete policy measures. If, however, he is to emphasize a breakaway from nuclear power as the most important point at issue, those concrete policy measures must be debated during the campaign so that we the voters can pass judgment on them. We also need to hear a convincing explanation from Hosokawa about the 100 million yen loan from courier company Sagawa Express Co. that triggered his resignation as prime minister back in 1994.

Utsunomiya is also running on a zero-nuclear power platform, while Masuzoe has emphasized the need to break Japan's dependence on atomic energy. Masuzoe, however, has the support of Rengo Tokyo, a labor union that has the Federation of Electric Power Related Industry Worker's Unions of Japan under its umbrella -- in other words, power company workers. The Cabinet of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, leader of the LDP, is moving toward reactor restarts, so Masuzoe must explain exactly what route he plans to take as Tokyo governor.

Former air defense chief Tamogami, on the other hand, approves of atomic energy. What, though, does he think about how to dispose of highly radioactive nuclear waste? Whether or not nuclear power ends in Japan, as the country's greatest consumer of electricity, Tokyo must take some responsibility for energy policy.

However, the Tokyo election also must not be fought solely over nuclear power. While the Olympic mood may be in the air in the capital, Tokyo has serious problems to contend with.

Two especially pressing issues are how Tokyo will deal with its quickly aging population, and the need to set up anti-disaster policies in preparation for a possible powerful earthquake right under the city.

Five years after the Olympics has left town, it's estimated that the number of people in metro Tokyo aged 75 and over will reach around 2 million. The metropolis is, in other words, a microcosm for the sudden aging that will hit all of Japan's major cities.

In 2020, when the Olympic party comes to Tokyo, the city's population will just have begun to decline. It's estimated that there will be 3 million fewer Tokyoites in 2060 than there are now, and there are already wards in the capital with waiting lists a thousand names long for places at intensive-care homes for the elderly. The problem is made more acute by the honestly weak bonds among Tokyo residents. So how will the city create an effective medical, nursing care and social welfare system?

In the disaster-prevention realm, the metro government must learn from major earthquake measures of other areas of Japan and present a concrete plan to establish "damage reduction" policies in cooperation with local residents. The problems that face Japan as a whole are distilled in Tokyo, so Tokyo should present plans that can be models for the rest of Japan.

Of course, how Tokyo will host its second Olympics will also come up for debate in the campaign, and not just the tremendous cost of the new National Stadium. Compared with the 1964 Summer Games, which were the symbolic embodiment of Japan's economic re-emergence, the 2020 Games will be much more about the vision for Tokyo's future, including issues like environmental conservation, the distribution of public works, transportation network maintenance, and the potential lifting of the city's ban on casinos.

The Tokyo gubernatorial election has often vividly reflected changes in Japanese society and politics. The 1995 election of independent Yukio Aoshima to the post signaled a sudden shift away from mainline party-sponsored candidates, while it could be said that the long run of former Gov. Ishihara presaged the Japanese conservative resurgence that brought Shinzo Abe back to power.

We are bothered by how late the debate on policy has begun in the current election. With Hosokawa waiting until the day before the campaign's start to formally announce his candidacy and his policies, no public debate or news conference with all the candidates was possible before the contest officially began.

Metro Tokyo's population now stands at 13.29 million, its GDP roughly equivalent to that of the Netherlands. The governor of Tokyo is the face of Japan. The battles over nuclear power, social welfare and disaster preparedness that will play out in the gubernatorial election race will work to push us to consider the state of Japan as a whole after such an accelerating centralization in Tokyo.

As such, the election has the significance of questioning the way the capital should stand ahead of the 2020 Olympics. Utilizing Internet campaigning and other means will help ignite the belated start of real debate. We sincerely hope that this election becomes a chance for not just the voters of Tokyo but also the whole nation to consider the present and future of this country.