Author: Toshio Aritake

Chino, Japan, May 9, 2020—For the first time ever, China’s coastguard ships May 8 chased after a Japanese fishing boat inside the Japanese territorial waters near the Japanese sovereign islands of Senkaku, in the Sea of Japan, a Japanese coast guard spokesman confirmed to me May 9.
‘This is the first time that Chinese government ships chased a Japanese ship in the greater Okinawa waters,’ Akihiro Nakatsuyama, head of the public affairs office of the 11th Regional Coast Guard Headquarters in Naha, Okinawa, told The Prospect in a telephone interview. In May 2019, Chinese coastguard ships cruised close to Japanese fishing boats operating near Senkaku but did not chase, he said.
Two Chinese coastguard ships, out of the fleet of four of them that had been spotted within the Japanese territorial waters off Senkaku Islands, sped after the Japanese fishing boat with three crew members at 04:50 a.m., May 9, Nakatsuyama said.
Asked how the headquarters confirmed the chase, the spokesman said the Japanese fishing boat radioed the headquarters, which immediately instructed a Japanese coastguard ship patrolling nearby to rush to the scene about 12 kilometers west-southwest of Uotsuri Shima Island, one of the Senkaku Islands.
The two Chinese ships left the area when the Japanese coastguard ship radioed the Chinese ships to end the chase and leave, the spokesman said.
Nakatsuyama declined to comment on whether Chinese ships are entering Japanese territorial waters more frequently than before or the reasons of the chase as a matter of policy. The latest hustling incident was the eighth Chinese violation of the Japanese waters near Senkaku, he said.
On April 11, the Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning and five Chinese Navy cruisers and supply ship traveled in open waters between Japan’s southern islands of Miyako Island and Okinawa, the first time since June 2019, the Japanese Defense Ministry said.

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Chino, Japan, May 9, 2020–Robert Blackwell, Henry Kissinger senior fellow of the Council of Foreign Relations, analyzed lucidly China’s global ambitions in July 2018. He downplayed military confrontation over geo-economic means to rebalance the global societal structure that’s been tilting steadily toward China-centric.

https://youtu.be/y3z5UmZKH7w


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Chino, Japan, May 5, 2020—At around 6:47 p.m. May 4, Japan’s public radio NHK Radio cut off airing Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s national emergency extension news conference when a speaker was confirming to a reporter’s question that the country’s coronavirus testing was way behind the United States, Italy and other countries.
It was a virtual, blatant confirmation that the national broadcasting station had no qualm about serving as Abe’s mouthpiece, the work the station visibly and unabashedly has been doing over the few past years and now has drawn the Japanese public’s attention.
At the news conference, Abe read out a long statement that he apparently had practiced, slowing here and there where he wanted to emphasize in extending the mouth-long national emergency period, which was to end on May 6 but would continue through the end of the month, and removing a face mask when he declared that conditions permitting, the lockdown may be lifted on May 14.
As Kantei (Japanese version of the White House) Press Club reporters asked what sounded to me naive questions about the extension, Abe replied smoothly. But when a reporter asked about reasons why the number of Japan’s coronavirus tests, the PCR test, was so few compared with other countries, the moderator asked Shigeru Omi, the vice chair of an expert panel on the pandemic, to comment.
As Omi pulled out data and acknowledged that Japan’s testing was much fewer than the United States, Italy and other countries, and started commenting effectively criticizing the government structure, NHK Radio cut off the broadcasting. I called my friend who was catching the NHK TV broadcasting of the same news conference and he said the television broadcasting also was cut off around 6:47 p.m. ‘NHK is conniving with the prime minister,’ my friend declared.
That NHK has shelved its membership of the Japanese journalism profession also can be verified by the fact that it rarely reports about American public and the U.S. Democratic Party’s boisterous criticisms of Trump and the Republicans. It did not report about Trump’s suggestion that drinking bleach can kill the coronavirus. ‘Don’t trust NHK,’ quipped Hiroshi Kume, a Saturday TBS radio show host, May 3.
Abe’s 6-year reign over Japanese politics has intimidated the Japanese news media for sure. Reporters and columnists do not cover Abe like the U.S. and foreign media, let alone making fun of him like CBS late night show’s Stephen Colbert. In Japan, there’s no comedian who taunts Abe, and if there was, he/she would be ‘silenced.’
But news entities are supposed to be independent in not only covering news but also in management. NHK is a national broadcasting station but it does not receive government money to pay for its business and reporters. And yet, its annual budget must be approved and its chairman and board members appointed by the government. That government intervention is one of key reasons whey NHK has shied away from overt criticism of the government. And I find that there are more.
Japanese journalists working for major entities often are asked by ministries and agencies to sit on government policy, advisory and study commissions. That helps add to their CVs and an extra line to their name cards as useful positions that they can use in self-promotion to more visible jobs. Ambitious reporters covering Kantei (prime minister’s office) would try to become national and local politicians, as many are doing, and those that want stability would want to become university and college professors. In either and other occupations, experience of serving on government commissions is a big plus.

–Toshio Aritake

Chino, Japan, April 19—Just as I am watching on YouTube on Sunday, April 19, 2020 (April 18 US EDT) the One World: Together At Home curated by with support of global musicians and others concerned about the coronavirus , I’ve realized one thing: There’s no input or coverage of Japan thus far since the program began at 9:00 p.m. Japan time.

Video footages of healthcare workers, food delivery guys, scientists, politicians, broadcasters and many others from all over the world are streaming by along with soul-soothing, empathic music to connect people and countries confronting the virus infection. Jennifer Lopez sang ‘People’ and her song – melody and lyrics – sank deeply into my heart. 

Steven Colbert of CBS put aside his nightly attack against Trump and exuding his warmth and seriousness, anchored his part of the program with Jimmy Fallon of NBC and Jimmy Kimmel of ABC. Elton John sang and played the piano. Steven Colbert interviewed on-line the former first ladies Barbara Bush and Michelle Obama, as well as Bill and Melinda Gates.

There were footages from Italy, the first country seriously hit by the virus, Africa, India, China (if I am not mistaken), South Korea… But except an image of a Tokyo subway station attendant, I have not seen anything about Japan. That made me wonder why.

Simply put, the world has forgotten Japan! Why? Over the past few decades when the country’s bureaucracy stretched its reach across the country and its people, save a few, Japan has become an island managed by robots called bureaucrats. In other words, its people have los compassions, warms, and most other human traits, their feeling replaced by mechanical commands.

While Venetians and New Yorkers get up onto the roofs and balconies in the evening to blare trumpets and belt songs to cheer up, most Japanese? – barely half stay at home while others visit retail stores that are still open, socialize at parks, and mind other things of their business. They all wear masks in part because it is part of the Japanese trademark act even before the pandemic hit Japan.

Last count of Japan’s coronavirus infections: As of April 17, 2020, 9,167 people tested positive out of ONLY 106,372 PCR-tested. A total of 148 died. The number of positives and dead are rising sharply and Japan’s PCR testing is not even reaching 5,000 a day, while other countries are increasing tests by 10 and 100 times that figure.

–Toshio Aritake

Chino, Japan, April 12—This is a story I have told again and again and again, and it’s the reason why Japan’s manufacturing, much of it having drifted to China save autos and a handful of high-tech segments, won’t come back home for a long time: Earlier in April, Toyota Motor Corp., Sharp Corp., and a handful of Japanese non-medical companies said they would start manufacturing surgical and consumer-use face masks. But the manufacturing pace and shipment remains stagnant not necessarily because those non-medical supply companies are not familiar with manufacturing processes but because of JAPANESE GOVERNMENT RED TAPE.
It takes several months before companies manufacture or import medical devices that concern human health. Excluding scissors, scalpels, pin sets and other devices that are deemed to have limited risks to human health, all other devices must meet safety risk and quality clearance of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare as quasi-pharmaceutical devices as well local Japanese municipalities under the Pharmaceutical and Medical Devices Law.
In addition to clearing government regulations, facial mask products need to carry labeling on quality and materials, country of manufacture, purpose of use such as for pollen shielding or for surgical.
So it was not a numerical error when Toyota announced on March 7 that the company would produce 500-600 face shields a week – not 500,000 to 600,000. Toyota didn’t say when it will start manufacturing and shipping the products. Sharp Corp. has claimed that it began shipping consumer-grade face masks from March 31 but consumers reported not sighting the products at all.
Obtaining government clearance for manufacturing ventilators would take at least 10 months, the Japanese business newspaper Nihon Keizai April 10 reported, blaming the long lead time to government red tape. It’s the reason why Toyota and other automakers did not ask suppliers to manufacture ventilators despite growing demand for them to save lives of coronavirus stricken patients, it said.
In the meanwhile, Japanese media said Prime Minister Abe tweeted on his twitter post of his video relaxing in his residence on April 11 to the tune of the singer songwriter, Gen Hoshino.

–By Toshio Aritake

Chino City, Japan, March 10—The modern monetary theory – That outlandishly sounding thinking that traditional monetary theory entrenched pros label as ignominious and unrealistic March 9 became a virtual reality with Jerome Powell’s Fed’s announcement of a $2.3 trillion loan facilities, the program that almost amounts to unlimited printing of money as a means of rescuing businesses and secure jobs.
Even before the Fed announcement, which helped lift the stock market visibly, the United States was preparing to inject trillion of dollars to both Wall Street and Main Street. Trump announced a $2.2 billion fiscal program on top of other multi-billion dollar facilities.
The European Union has yet to dip into its coffers or take additional monetary stimulus in a coordinated move because of Germany’s reluctance for measures that would lead to inflation, while Japan is gearing for a multi-billion-dollar fiscal stimulus. Ultimately, finance and monetary authorities in those countries, who are concerned about inflation even in depression times, are likely to follow the Fed’s lead as the world economy decompresses under the coronavirus pandemic impact.
Nothing is more accurately reflecting the portends of eventually inflationary pressure than the price of gold, which soared 3.34 percent to a record $1,740.60 per ounce on NY Comex March 9. Silver registered an even sharper rise of 4.67 percent to $15.915 per ounce. Crude oil plummeted 7.57 percent to $23.19 per barrel despite the agreement of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries plus Russia to cut output by 10 percent.
What’s most ominous is a creeping rise of base metals like copper, grain and other soft commodity futures and the closing of U.S. meat packing plants in response to the coronavirus infections of workers. Meat price futures do not move in lockstep with soft commodities because of different production cycles.
That those base metal and soft commodity prices have been inching up over the past month illustrates that countries around the world are being forced to pump money into their respective economies with short-term disregards for fiscal austerity. Effectively, they are mobilizing the modern monetary theory, which Bernie Sanders’ economist supporter, Stephanie Kelton of Stony Brook University, espouses vigorously.
MMT means in theory that governments spend freely since they can always print money to pay off debts in their respective currencies and stop printing when they see inflation on the horizon. And government spending won’t lead to inflation, according to the theory, inasmuch as the economy is running below capacity and unemployment is high, as is expected to be the case over the coming months.
If governments around the world step on the gas pedal deeper, then that would confirm that they have adopted MMT for certainty – and inflation will be rekindled over the horizon.

–Toshio Aritake

TOKYO, March 30, 2020—Ken Shimura had made the entire country of 127 million people laugh at his hilarious ad rib gigs in his TV variety shows ever since the 1970s. From toddlers to octogenarians, viewers would stop channel surfing to keep the station locked on to the shows. Late March 29, Shimura, a core member of the comedian group Drifters, succumbed to pneumonia caused by the coronavirus infection and died. He was 70.
Shimura’s death almost drew the entire country to express grief. Chief cabinet secretary Yoshihide Suga expressed his condolence at a regular news conference March 30 and that Japan at a ‘a very critical period,’ according to Reuters.
Kazumasa Kusaka, a former trade vice minister of international affairs, told me that Shimura left ‘an invaluable message to us’ to take extra precautions against the pandemic. A senior Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry official, who was Tsukasa’s superior, told me that it would be conceivable that the third phase of soft lockdown would be announced ‘if the number of infections continue at the three-digit level.’
On March 29, the number of infections rose 173 to 1,866, spiking to the three digit for the first time from two digit. The number of deaths rose 2 to 54.

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TOKYO, March 30, 2020—Twice in the 13th century, Kublai Khan’s Mongolian navy attempted to conquer Japan, only to be repelled not necessarily by Japanese samurai forces but by ‘kamikaze’ divine god-sent winds. To this day, Japanese have kept the kamikaze belief deep in the back of their heads, and that’s making them adventurous against the coronavirus pandemic and abetting their discriminating streak about what’s happening in Italy, the United States and other high-infection nations.
On Sunday, March 29, 2020, Tokyo streets and parks were deserted with cherry blossoms looking forlorn absent viewers and party crowds sitting on tarps and toasting and belting karaoke around this time of every year. But it was not really for the soft lockdown request that prime minister Abe and Tokyo governor Koike announced a few days earlier: Heavy, wet snow pelted the city and sakura (cherry) blossoms, making it impossible to throw ‘hanami’ parties. Had it not been snow, crowds should have flocked to parts and streets.
That the Japanese paid little attention to the first social-distancing request in March is evidenced in the fact that the long weekend of March 20-22 drew heavy crowds at popular hanami spots across Japan, and many people were believed to have hit night spots afterwards. Koike said at a news conference last week that new daily infection case spikes resulted from the people’s long weekend adventure.
Japanese televisions and internet sites showed footages of Italy’s surging infection cases, lockdown life and Italians ‘ deaths by the hundreds earlier this month. Most Japanese saw and read the reports as events unfolding in a remote foreign land — as they did when SARS epidemic spread in China and Asian countries – since Japanese cases and deaths remain limited at 1,866 and 54, the latter 0.4 percent per million. And Japanese experts are warning the risks of visiting enclosed spaces, close contracts, and failure to keep social-distancing.
And yet, the Japanese still do not seem to believe the virus’ danger. ‘Asian populations seem to have stronger immunity to this virus than Europeans and Americans,’ a friend of mine told me on the phone when I asked him about his recent lifestyle. Even after the soft lockdown, he visits local restaurants almost daily for lunch or dinner. Yet another friend, who is a contract worker dispatched by a human resources agency to the Tokyo city office, commutes to that office even though Governor Koike urged for telework instead of physically showing up in office.
That the Japanese bureaucracy is grasping the pandemic’s danger half-heartedly is evident: A city office in central Japan is asking members of a local volunteer group to attend meetings in the early part of April right in the middle of Abe’s soft lockdown period.
Where is this Japanese complacency or boldness come from? Clearly, deep in the back of Japanese people’s head lurks the kamikaze belief, the belief that the land of the rising sun and its people are indomitable and immune to foreign attacks, the belief that seemed to have first come to be used after two aborted Mongolian massive navy attacks against Japan in 1274 and 1281. In both, powerful gusts of wind – the divine kamikaze wind – ravaged the Mongolian fleets, toppling hundreds of their battle ships and drowning most of the soldiers.
During the latter part of World War II, when the Japanese imperial army was losing battle after battle in the Pacific theater, its commanders would bow in front of the Shinto shrine alter for kamikaze to repel the approaching U.S. and foreign military forces. Did their payers help?

–Toshio Aritake

TOKYO, March 29, 2020—Japan is asking for a second wave of soft lockdown to its people, asking them to voluntarily avoid gatherings, visits to closed spaces, and observe social-distancing to prevent further spiking of coronavirus infections. Surreptitiously, there is one segment that remains intact from the lockdown, and it relates to Kim Jong-un’s North Korea.
What has become a daily televised briefing recently, prime minister Shinzo Abe March 28 said reiterated that people should take extra precautions against the pandemic at the current crucial time. Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike March 26 asked the city’s 11 million residents to stay away from enclosed, crowded places and avoid close contact with each other until-April 12, and that the March 28-29 weekend was a test for whether her request would help reduce infection spikes. Tokyo earlier asked its residents to voluntarily observe those steps but in a vague way.
Neither Abe or Koike did not offer details of what kind of places were subject to the voluntary visit restraint. A Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare commission on infectious diseases earlier, however, identified them as ‘live houses, sports gyms, meal-serving river boats, buffets, mahjong parlors, enclosed tents, karaoke rooms, etc.’ So the two politicians did not need to cite examples.
So, from March 27 through March 29, Tokyo’s streets spanning business district of Marunouchi to a major entertainment area of Shinjuku were sparsely populated, a far cry from a month ago when they were flooded shoulder-to-shoulder with tourists from the world over and locals. There were no lines in front of a famous tempura restaurant in Asakusa, and inside a luxury hotel bar, clients were few. The soft lockdown was observed in earnest, so it looked.
But, but! There seemed to be no change at many Pachinko pinball game parlors: People were seen queuing to wait the 10:00 a.m. opening times, and when the doors opened at 10:00, the people rushed into the parlor, looking for their favor machines that are lined barely 60 feet apart.
The riddle that the Pachinko industry was excluded from the soft lockdown reg is easy to solve: Many retired cops are hired by pachinko machine makers and and parlors as ‘advisors.’ Plus the industry is one of key foreign exchange earning operations run by North Korea.
On March 29 morning, North Korea launched missiles into the Sea of Japan, probably a warning to Abe and a knell to the industry to wire money to Pyongyang where more than 100 North Korean soldiers reportedly died of coronavirus and far more civilians.

–Toshio Aritake

TOKYO, March 28, 2020—It’s widely known that China can do anything it targets at speeds multiple times faster than its western rival countries and dominates the world marketplace. Now China could do just that and become the first and largest manufacturer of products in global efforts to contain the coronavirus pandemic while the United States and other developed countries are desperate at containment.
China already is the world’s largest manufacturers of five varieties of medical personal protective equipment such as facial masks, garments, gloves and goggles, supplying 43 percent of world imports, according to the Peterson Institute for International Economics. The coronavirus outbreak in China’s industrial city of Wuhan sparked fears that Chinese PPE exports would sharply decline but ‘not as badly as feared,’ it said.
China expanded its capacity sharply after the Wuhan coronavirus breakout. New companies sprang up as manufacturers of existing industries converted their assembly lines to make PPE products, the shift that they did in a matter of a month, like building the hospital for the infected in Wuhan in less than a month. EV carmaker BYD could make 5 million masks and 300,000 bottles of disinfectants a day, the New York Times reported March 27. Taiwan electronic maker and iPhone manufacturer in China, Foxconn, is making 2 million masks a day, NYT said.
No, the manufacturing shift is not a surprise at all. China did it in the manufacture of electrical and electronic products in the 1980s by counterfeiting piracy and look-alike products of SONY, Panasonic, Toshiba and other Japanese companies’ portable radios, television sets, and white goods the Japanese were making at their Chinese factories. Then in the 1990s and on, China began manufacturing high-speed trains that look similar to Japan Rail’s Shinkansen bullet train, and in the 2020s, it shifted gear further to more high-tech products including cars, smart phones, and medical devices.
The NYT said Mr. Cody Zhang’s robot start-up in Shenzhen called Youlbot developed an antivirus robot ‘over a frenzied two weeks.’ Not a surprise given the Chinese built the Wuhan hospital in a month. (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/27/business/china-coronavirus-masks-tests.html?action=click&module=moreIn&pgtype=Article®ion=Footer&action=click&module=MoreInSection&pgtype=Article®ion=Footer&contentCollection=Business)
Speed is China’s forte, and not only redoubling PPE products, China is performing clinical tries of various anti-CORVID-19 pharmaceuticals. Who knows that a Chinese pharma could be the first to claim completing clinical trials by next year!

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