2003.08.20

SDF to Iraq -- Not This Year (Mainichi)   Fallout from the blast in Baghdad at U-N HQ reached Tokyo today in the form of politicians and bureaucrats reaching consensus that Japanese soldiers won't be going anywhere near Iraq this year. Well, this whole dispatch plan (aka Show The Flag - Part Two) was pretty tentative anyway with even supporters in search of just about any excuse to delay it indefinitely. Now they have a big one. 2003.08.20

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Japan's Hidden Agenda in Iraq (PNS)   A caveat before you read the linked article... PNS is pretty far out there in left field and the writer is not a journalist, although he apparently likes to parade as one. I had a good laugh at his premise that it is "problematic" that the dispatch of SDF to Iraq will pave the way for Japanese military action against North Korea.  Not quite. But any military action against the DPRK would only come if the Japanese felt an attack by the DPRK was imminent and it would be a good thing. I guess academics such as Dr. Beeman would prefer that Japan sit idly until after a substantial chunk of Tokyo has been set alight, gassed or radiated. But I guess that is part of being a pacifist or an opera maniac parading as a journalist. Dr. Beeman, an anthropologist at Brown University, does not have a track record for accuracy, apparently. See this link. Under past administrations and previous parliaments, Japan would have been able to do absolutely nothing except plead for US Forces in Japan and South KOrea to retaliate (which they would).  Well both Japanese conservatives and the Bush administration are eager for the Japanese to start putting some skin in the game. Rule one of sovereignty is being able to defend yourself if under attack. Even the Swiss are smart enough to understand this and so does Japan's governing coalition. As a resident of Japan I would be thrilled to see Japan actually do something on the northern part of the Korean peninsula in response to a DPRK missile attack or invasion.  Those feeling areshared by just about every Japanese person I know. Dr. Beeman keeps propagating the myth that most Japanese do not want their country to have an adequate defensive capability. But, as is apparently the case with Dr. Beeman,  if the only Japanese you know are perennial radicals at Waseda University then that will be prism through which you view Japan. It's a bit of a stretch to regard the comments of someone such as Dr. Beeman as credible when he tries to talk about Japanese defense policy. Apparently his expertise in Japan deals with kabuki or noh or something like that. But I guess all the world's a stage, as they say. Anyway, as you can probably tell I think the PNS article is basically ridiculous and pretty biased, but there is a link posted above for you to decide. If Dr. Beeman will promise not to write again about Asian geo-politics, I will promise not to write a thesis on the hand gestures of Balinese Legong dancers. 2003.08.20

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U-N Bombing/Japan reax (VOA)   The United Nations today prudently decided to pull all of its foreign staff out of Baghdad. 2003.08.20

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Japan's Most Convenient Bank I suspect this might be the fate of more debt-laden bank storefronts in Japan in the future Lawson Opens Japan's First Convenience Store In A Bank TOKYO (Dow Jones)--It's gone postal, and it's gone underground, but now Japanese convenience store operator Lawson Inc. (2651) is going financial. It's hard to walk more than a few minutes in central Tokyo without finding a convenience store, but customers of Hokuriku Bank Ltd.'s (8357) main Tokyo branch may be surprised to find a Lawson store open for business inside the bank as of Wednesday. Under its tie-up with the regional lender, Lawson also becomes Japan's first nonfinancial firm to accept loan and foreign currency exchange applications. Lawson takes applications on behalf of Hokuriku via computer terminals outside of the bank's office hours and gets a fee in return. Lawson, Japan's second-largest convenience store operator, has taken a number of steps this year to diversify its operations in the face of growing competition, particularly in the Tokyo metropolitan region. In seeking new locations for its outlets, the firm has opened shops in hospitals and unwrapped its first store in a post office in central Tokyo Aug. 1. Lawson plans to open a second post office-based store Aug. 26. Last Thursday Lawson announced a tie-up with the Teito Rapid Transit Authority to allow the opening of a Lawson outlet in a subway station in downtown Tokyo in November and another in December. Japan has a total of roughly 42,000 convenience stores, spread throughout urban and rural areas. At the new store in Hokuriku Bank's Nihonbashi branch in central Tokyo, Lawson has leased floor space from the bank along with coffee-shop chain operator Doutor Coffee Co. (9952). At a press conference before the opening ceremony, Hokuriku Bank President Takagi Shigeo said one of the main advantages of the tie-up is that the convenience store is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, while the bank is only open from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. on week days. The two firms also said they will extend these joint operations by opening similar stores in Hokuriku Bank's regional base of Toyama Prefecture, central Japan. Lawson President Takeshi Niinami told Dow Jones Newswires the latest move won't affect the company's earnings forecasts or store-opening targets for the fiscal year through February. <snip> But with sales declining due to an unusually cool summer, one analyst has voiced skepticism over the firm's earnings targets. Credit Suisse First Boston senior analyst Yasuyuki Sasaki noted that Lawson's existing-store sales have been edging down on year since March, falling a hefty 4.9% on year in July. <snip> 2003.08.20

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Let My People Go (Kyodo)   N Korea Ready To Let All Abductees' Kin Go To Japan: Report TOKYO (Kyodo)--North Korea has decided to conditionally allow all the kin of five Japanese it abducted 25 years ago and returned last October to go to Japan for family reunions, a Japanese daily reported Wednesday. Quoting diplomatic sources in Tokyo, the Tokyo Shimbun said North Korea has set two conditions for the visits -- the two countries reaffirming their commitments in the Pyongyang Declaration issued last September and Japan offering food aid to the North. But Japan is unlikely to accept the offer as it is calling for the kin to be allowed to make an unconditional visit, the daily said. In addition, there is little chance the government will win public support for food aid to the North, it said. Japan and North Korea are continuing behind-the-scenes contact over the abduction issue and other issues ahead of a bilateral meeting expected to be held on the sidelines of the Aug. 27-29 six-nation talks in Beijing over the North's nuclear development program, the daily said. By reaffirming the declaration in which Pyongyang admitted responsibility for the past abductions and promised no further kidnappings, North Korea wants to achieve closure on the issue, the daily said. But Tokyo has been demanding more information about other abductees the North claims have died and is calling for an investigation into other suspected abduction cases. The declaration, issued when Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi made a landmark visit to Pyongyang last September, commits Japan to offering economic aid after the two countries normalize ties. During Koizumi's visit, North Korea admitted it abducted 13 Japanese nationals in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It later repatriated five, though their kin had to remain behind in the North. Pyongyang said the other abductees are dead, a claim their families dispute. Kaoru and Yukiko Hasuike have two children in North Korea, and Yasushi and Fukie Chimura have three there. Hitomi Soga, the other returnee, left her husband and their two children behind. The U.S. military lists Soga's husband, Charles Robert Jenkins, as a deserter. 2003.08.20

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KEDO Finito (Kyodo)   This project has been dead in everything but name only for nearly a year 2003.08.20

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Koizumi says NKorea talks must also study abduction issue. AFP via SpaceWar: Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi insisted on Monday that the issue of Japanese people abducted by North Korea would be a key part of forthcoming six-naiton talks on the North Korean nuclear crisis. On a visit to Germany, Koizumi described the abductions as "unforgiveable and inhumane" and warned Pyongyang that "a return (of the Japanese) would be much better for North Korea". He said that although the six-party August 27-29 talks in Beijing would focus on resolving the 10-month crisis over North Korea's nuclear programme, the abductions were "equally important" to Japan. [The Agonist] 2003.08.20

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North Korea Lashes Out at Neighbors and U.S.. NYTimes: TOKYO, Aug. 18 — Amid signs of growing diplomatic and military isolation, North Korea lashed out at the United States, South Korea and Japan today, barely a week before the scheduled start of international talks on North Korea's nuclear program. Russia, traditionally an ally of North Korea, embarked today on a 10-day maritime exercise, partly in waters near North Korea, that will involve two traditional enemies of the North, Japan and South Korea. The exercise is the first time that warships from those three countries have conducted joint maneuvers. [The Agonist] 2003.08.20

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