Author: Toshio Aritake

TOKYO, Sept. 16, 2021—Almost day in and out, China’s successisve invasions of Japanese territorial waters, ruthless catching of marine resources around Japan, acquisitions of precious Japanese resort properties and numerous other aggressive acts splash the Japanese media.
Chinese naval forces’ increasing intimidations of Japanese fishing boats around Senkaku Island, impolite and overt investments in prime Niseko, Hokkaido and many other resorts, acquisitions of Japnese companies through obscure Hong Kong entities are quietly taking hold, while Japanese cities are largely devoid of floods of Chinese tourists after the COVID-19 outbreak 1-1/2 years ago. The absence of boiterous Chinese tourists on Tokyo and Osaka streets give a semblance of pre-tourism tranquility to Japanese residents.
It probably is an ephemeral quietness before the pandemic is harnessed firmly and tourists, notably the Chinese, come back. And the Japanese are going to welcome the mobs next time, many of them armed with some Chinese language capabilities. Their hope is to transact with Chinese more professionally in Chinese languages that they are learning now.
It’s the reason why Chinese language schools are gaining traction in Japan. Japanese celebrities are attending Chinese language classess, the likes of Ruriko Kojima. Some Japan-resident Chinese, encouraged by a fresh Japanese interest in Chinese languages, have begun offering on-line classes. And although a small but growing cadre of Japanese school children are attending Chinese and Hangul Korean language classes after school hours, on top of English in schools.
‘Animal instinct is telling Japanese to learn Chinese (and Korean to a lesser degree),’ a friend of mine told me recently. ‘China’s global expansion is difficult to stop, so they need to be prepared to welcome Chinese.’
On Sept. 15, 2021, the Biden administration announced that it would help deploy Australia nuclear-powered submarines with capabilities to mount nuclear weapons to counter growing Chinese threats in South China Sea. Washington is known to be negotiating similar deals with South Korea. Japan doesn’t have nuclear-powered submarines nor nuclear weapons under its peace constitution.
Almost contrary to the Japanese government’s anti-China rhetorics, lay Japanese seem lukewarm to the idea of confronting Chinese. For one thing, they are skeptical of the U.S.-led military approach toward China because of China’s geographical proximity to many conflict areas of the seas and airs around China.
Japanese also seem overwhelmed by the fact that the Chinese population is more than 10 times that of Japan’s 126 million. If a war ereupts, Japan’s military capabilities would be pulvarized in a matter of days, and worse, in a nuclear war, the entire Japanese archipelagoes would be annihilated in a matter of hours.
It’s this doomsday fears that are prompting the Japanese to practise Chinese languages.

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TOKYO, Sept. 15, 2021—Auto journalists have been bewildered about this announcement: ‘Hydrogen Vision 2040’ that aims to power all commercial vehicles with hydrogen fuel cell and/or electric battery systems by 2028 and further widen the technology’s applications to many other industries by 2040.
Not from Toyota Motor Corp., which has been boasting itself as the world’s leading fuel cell vehicle manufacturer with the commercial sale of its ‘Mirai’ passenger car a few years ago, the announcement came from Hyundai Motor Group.

The Korean automaker’s Sept. 7 worldwide announcement, which was hardly reported by the Japanese media, told its Hydrogen Wave on-line forum that it would ‘popularize hydrogen by 2040 through the introduction of new technologies and mobility solutons in transport and other industrial sectors.’
It pledged the electrification of ‘all new commercial vehicle models – which would be ben powered by FC or battery powertrains – by 2028.
Other points of the announcement were:

· Hydrogen Wave represents the Group’s plans for a new ‘wave’ of hydrogen-based products and technologies toward a hydrogen society
· The Group to introduce next- generation fuel cell system – 100kW and 200kW variations – in 2023 with costs being lowered by more than 50%, total package volume reduced by 30% and power output doubled 
· The Group to become the first automaker to apply fuel cell systems to all commercial vehicle models by 2028 
· The Group to achieve a fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) price point comparable to a battery electric vehicle (BEV) by 2030
· The Group to apply fuel cell systems to all types of mobility and furthering the technology to all other aspects of society including homes, buildings and powerplants as energy solutions 
· Future product concepts featuring fuel cell technologies also revealed, including Trailer Drone, high-performance sports car, and fuel cell equipped vehicles for emergency relief and rescue missions 
· Chairman of the Group, Euisun Chung, outlines the journey ahead: “By developing advanced technologies and innovative systems – as well as encouraging close collaboration between public and · private sectors across the globe – it is possible to make this sustainable vision a reality for all.” 
 
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TOKYO, Sept. 9, 2021—On Sept. 7, 2021, Toyota Motor Corp. announced it would spend 1.5 trillion yen (US$14 billion) over the next 9 years to develop more efficient batteries for its carbon neutrality policy by 2050. It’s hardly news. It was clearly timed to the Sept. 7-12 Frankfurt Motor Show being held in Munich, Germany to remind the world that the Japanese automaker is at the forefront of electric vehicle development, not a laggard.
Toyota engineers explained at length about the rapidly changing global auto market, from gas-powered, then hybrid (primarily in Japan), and finally to electric, as well as its vehicle electrification efforts. ‘There’s no time to lose when it comes to reducing ‘CO2,’ Masahiko Maeda, Toyota’s chief tech officer, read his statement.
Toyota’s previous policy had been to prioritize gas-electric motor hybrid vehicles (HEVs), which it had commercialized as the world’s first automaker in the late 2000s, as the interim powertrain to combatting auto-emitted CO2 reductions before shifting to hydrogen fuel cell, instead of batteries. Maeda said Toyota now prioritizes EV development over HEVs. ‘CO2 reducion effect of three HEVs (hydrogen electric vehicles) is almost equal to that of one BEV (battery EV),’ he said, acknowledging that Toyota positions EVs as top priority in R&D and product launches.
Maeda camouflaged the company’s policy shift by emphasizing that Toyota is a leading automaker for vehicle electrification. It claims gas-electric motor hybrid vehicles can be counted as part of vehicle electrification, with hybrid cumulative sales totaling 18.1 million cars.
Cold fact, however, is the global auto industry over the past two years or so has morphed into mostly EV developers, leavng Toyota and other Japanese manufacturers plus a few others in the dust.
It’s a reason why Toyota said it would invest 1.5 trilion yen for EV development to woe Munich motor show visitors and Maeda’s lengthy explanations about the company’s battery R&D and development, though devoid of anything new as far as products and technology. We’ll see abou that in coming months.
Cold fact II is the Japanese auto industry is at the threshold of becming a bunch of so-called Galapagos companies for having failed to pay due respect to Tesla and other EV startups as well as Chinese EV makers.
My hope is that Toyota can lead the pack to catch up with foreign rivals, not an easy task. Honda dropped out of the Japanese automaker EV alliance and decided to gang up with General Motors for battery development. Who is next? Nissan perhaps!?

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TOKYO, Sept. 2, 2021—On Sept. 1, 2021, the Japanese government opened a new government agency, the Digital Agency, that the current administration claims – the public doesn’t buy the idea seeing it as yet another entity to create jobs for bureaucrats by wasting taxpayer money – as imperative for accelerating Japan’s lagging information-technology development.
It was a new government office created by the cabinet of PM Suga, whose political life is looking on the line every day. He also has instructed aides to create ‘a child agency’ over the next several months.
Suga, who faces a general election by mid-October, is not alone about creating a new government office. One of his contenders vying for the prime minister’s seat, Fumio Kishida, former policy affairs chair of Suga’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party, Sept. 2 told reporters that he would create ‘a health risk management agency’ if he wins the LDP presidential race to be held later in September.
Those developments aren’t a coincidence or coming out of necessity: It underscores the growing incompetence of politicians that want to cling to power and the Japanese bureaucracy’s shrewdness and chicanery for survival.
True to this view, the Digital Agency has zero substance yet lots of staff already.

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TOKYO, Sept. 2, 2021–The erratic policy-driven, hot-temper-hiding prime minister, Suga, is expected to be booted out of his office in several weeks for his highly erratic policies on just about every vital issue confronting Japan. Will his departure change Japan, now near the bottom of key OECD rankings, and help resuscitate its society and economy? A short answer is NO.

First off, the Japanese political theater suffers a dearth of lawmakers, not even mediocre ones the likes of past prime ministers and ministers as well as opposition.

If Suga’s Liberal Democratic Party retains majority no matter how in a general election that must be held by mid-October, a next cabinet would comprise the lethargy of conservative souls to be picked by seniority and/or power.

If opposition wins, the scene would be fraught with chaos as competing opposition parties scamper to secure visible cabinet posts, making the Japanese bureaucracy quietly grinning that the confusion would reign for a long time during which bureaucrats can mind their business rather than subserviently reporting to lawmakers.

The bureaucracy’s capacity to ride out the folly of Japanese politics has strengthened significantly over the past several years when Suga and his predecessor Abe reigned. It has spread bureaucracy regimes to local governments throughout the country, as well as to businesses and industry that have come to sheepishly and closely follow bureaucracy textbook rules.

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CHINO, Japan, July 20, 2021—A perfect example of the Japanese public sector’s bureaucratic psyche toward civilians: A local public school in Kashima City west of Tokyo has circulated notice to elementary and junior-high school students’ guardians that the students can bring only Coca Cola, and no other drinks, when they go to Kashima Stadium for an Olympic soccer game viewing.
Coca Cola is one of major sponsors of the Tokyo Olympic/Paralympic games.
The Mainichi newspaper website reported Juy 20 that a city public school’s July 15 circular to the guardians said: ‘Please make sure that PET bottle beverages (to be brought by students to the stadium) are Coca Cola bottles.
The daily quoted the city’s education board officials as claiming that Japanese Olympic Committee officials who visited the stadium venue on July 9 told the city’s public school teachers: ‘Excluding Coca Cola bottles, PET bottles are banned inside the stadium, and other containers should be brought in by removing labels.
The education board told schools to remove labels of rival makers, the daily said.

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CHINO, Japan, July 19, 2021—It happened before: At the 2008 G7 Hokkaido Toyako summit, the 2010 APEC conference, Trump’s 2019 visit to Japan, and several other smaller international events over the past 20 years that mobilized tens of thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands of police, local city office employees, and other public servants, a majority of them subserviently doing what they are told to do to collect othertime pays.
All those events were, according to planners that are bureaucrats and their cronies, supposed to promote Japan’s shrinking local communities and local brands, tourism and services. Lake Toya, the venues where heads of state from 21 member economies of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, briefly became a Japanese tourist attraction after the May 2008 conference, filling up the hotel where the conference was held. Bookings have been tapering off since then. The 1998 Nagano Winter Olympic skating rink also has been underutilized since the games were held.
As such, many in the private sector that cooperated with the government to host the events have been obliged to stomach the pain of shrinking business and struggle for survival, while bureaucrats and maniple employees, who collected fat overtime pays during the events, forget about the past in search of new undertakings, such as green tourism.
The 2021 Tokyo Olympics is exactly the reincarnation of many past events. The national government is fielding hundreds of thousands of police, health, sanitation, logistics officials for security and other necessary arrangements to accommodate athletes. That’s creating huge loads of work for those public and quasi-public servants. Those that register good performances are expected to be promoted, on top of getting overtime pays.
The financial daily Nihon Keizai July 19 front-paged an article, Can the Tokyo Olympics in the Pandemic Give Lessons to the Future? That’s a wishful thinking. The 1964 Tokyo Olympics were credited for Japan’s resurfacing from the World War II rubbles and enabled reentering the rich countries’ clubs, such as G5 and OECD. Examining closely, the games did more and countless damage to Japan than rewarding the country of 126 million.
The Nihonbashi Bridge, where highways to all destinations, was canopied under the expressway so passersby won’t recognize the famous bridge, many canals used for centuries for transport were buried underground, street car tracks that linked the city extensively were replaced by roads for ‘Kamikaze’ taxis and cars, and community parks were sold or leased to businesses, making Tokyo look like an urban desert with little green.
Those were executed by central government and city offices, where as Akira Kurosawa’s Film ‘The Bad Sleep Well,’ public servants laughed, were well-fed, and slept well.

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TOKYO, July 15, 2021—Calls for suspending the controversial, no-Tokyoite-Want Olympic games grew July 15 when Tokyo’s Covid-19 infections soared 46 percent over a week ago to a new record 1,309 cases as a lawyer submitted as many as 450,000 signatures of Japanese demanding the scrapping of the games. The day was also punctuated by a reporter’s shouting at International Olympic Committee chairman Thomas Bach: ‘Bach, You’re (a) liar! Airport is dangerous! (The Olympic athletes’) Bubble is broken!’
The Tokyo City Office July 15 afternoon announced as many as 1,309 Covid-19 infections, up 412 over 896 on July 8, or a rise of 45.9 percent. The weekly daily average as of July 15 was 882, up 32.9 percent. Medical experts, including Shigeru Omi, the chair of the government’s Covid committee, today warned that wearing the mask, hand-washing and other passive sanitary means have run the course, and he predicted that cases now are poised to grow sharply as people’s moves are becoming more rapid in tandem with the Olympic games. Scientists now predict that cases would shoot through 2,000-3,000 during the games, which start July 23.
Kenji Utsunomiya, chair of the Japan bar association federation, today said at a news conference that he had submitted 451,867 signatures of people who are demanding calling off the games immediately. He said Japanese prime minister Suga’s recent remarks that the games are meant to be proof of human’s overcoming of the Covid-19 pandemic are totally false and forcing to hold the games would arbitrarily cause infection spikes. The campaign’s website is change.org.
As IOC’s Bach was presenting a bouquet of flowers to Tokyo governor yuriko koike at a ceremony at the Tokyo city office July 15, an unidentified reporter shouted to Bach: ‘Bach, You’re (a) liar! Airport is dangerous! (The Olympic athletes’) Bubble is broken!,’ according to Japanese and foreign media reports.
It was a second incident for Bach following one of his own making at the Tokyo Olympic organization committee July 13 by addressing the Japanese people as Chinese.

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CHINO, Japan, July 10, 2021—Beleaguered Japanese Prime Minister Suga’s key minister July 8 said he would instruct commercial banks to cub lending to bars and restaurants that refuse to observe the government ban on serving alcoholic beverages during the Tokyo Olympic games, with total disregard for laws and regulations that do not give such authority to the government. It’s a clear reflection of the Suga administration’s domination policy toward the private sector that is fostered by the growing bureaucracy-lawmaker control of government.

Economy minister Yasutoshi Nishimura’s said at a July 8 news conference, in which he presented his policy on the white board: ‘I believe financial institutions have various day to day business (with bars and restaurants that serve alcohol). Since this (the state of emergency announcement that bans serving alcoholic beverages) is based on law and government orders, I would like the financial institutions to urge (bars and restaurants) to strictly observe. The former Ministry of Economy Trade and Industry bureaucrat also said he would instruct liquor wholesalers to suspend business with bars and restaurants.

Bars and restaurants and their lobbies tweeted against Nishimura that his comments were excessively high-handed and that there’s no law and regulations allowing the government to implement such orders. Some tweeted, ‘Ban Nishimura’s visit to all bars and restaurants!’

Nishimura later tried to clarify his comments saying that it was his hope that banks will cooperate in not serving alcohol and that he did not intend to abuse government authority. He did not apologize. He rolled back his comments July 9 in response to complaints from his Liberal Democratic Party.

Nishimura is a typical bureaucrat-turned politician, having studied at University of Tokyo, the assembly line producing bureaucrats, then joined METI and elected to the House of Representatives in the mid-2010s. His attitude is one of the Edo period samurai serving a domain lord, diligently executing the master’s orders with total disregard for ordinary citizens. He is not the only such politician. In fact, many LDO lawmakers have similar traits if not executing policies as shrewdly as Nishimura – until now.

Nishimura faces resignation pressure from within LDP and voters.

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CHINO, Japan, July 8, 2021—For weeks since the original schedule of the Tokyo Olympic Games – late July 2020 – was derailed by the Covid-19 pandemic and postponed by one year, leading media entities and journalists have been warning about the danger of the pandemic’s spread and urged the International Olympic Committee and Japan to call it off or postpone it again. But none of them as far as I am aware said they will boycot the coverage, and in fact, all are gearing to cover the games – even though Japan’s infections are screeming to rise sharply. It’s the reason why journalists cannot be trusted if not all of them.
What’s going on?! My take is that they all are after money. In the fast place, most major Japanese media – newspapers, television networks, Internet sites – are sponsors, including the Asahi newspaper group, Mainichi, and so on. Japanese media not alone: New York Times, Washington Post, and wire services, which wrote in editorials and articles, pieces fearcelly opposted to the games’ opening, have not declared that they will boycot coverage. News wires that delivered articles that suggested they were opposed to openining are now covering nitty-gritty details in the run-up to the games, which start in two weeks.
Reuters, for example, released a lengthy report about how Japanese sponsors are coping with surging Covid-19 infections – clearly covering it because it can generate viewers.
Members of the Foreign Press In Japan (FPIJ), which include editors and reporters from the local bureaus of foreign newspapers, wire services, television networks and others, as well as freelance that account for the bulk of FPIJ, are registering their names with the Japan Olympic Committee for coverage. When the pandemic hit Japan head-on, they expressed opposition to the games.
But they have transited to covering the games. One FPIJ member told The Prospect that he thought it was his ‘responsibility’ to cover the games. What a BS! His real purpose is to get into the Olympic village and interact with athletes, as well as getting paid!
Sometime over the past two decades or so when the global media had undergone a sea change with the internet’s penetration into the industry, media policy and moral also have changed dramatically, to one that’s driven by money rather than by journalism ethos, as was elucidated often by such luminaries as Jim Lehrer of the PBS and further earlier Walter Cronkite.
Maybe time has changed for good.

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