A file photo of Naoto Kan (R) and Ichiro Ozawa in Tokyo. The ruling party power broker has hinted he would back the no-confidence motion if the premier refused to quit
Unpopular Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan today refused to step down in the face of a no-confidence motion in parliament this week, saying he wanted first to resolve the world’s worst nuclear crisis in 25 years.
Analysts expect Kan to survive the vote, which could be submitted as early as tomorrow, but say he will still face major hurdles pushing policies through a fractious parliament, including an extra budget to help pay for the recovery from the damage caused by the huge earthquake and tsunami in March which devastated the Fukushima nuclear plant.
“I cannot give up the responsibility to do what needs to be done now. I would like to resolve the nuclear crisis first,” Kan told a panel in parliament.
A candidate backed by Japan’s ruling Democratic Party won a local election late yesterday, giving temporary relief to struggling Prime Minister Naoto Kan as he faces a potential challenge to the party leadership.
But Kan, his support slipping following his party’s defeat in July upper house elections, is still fighting for his political life ahead of the Democratic Party leadership vote on Sept. 14.
In the first electoral test for the Democrats since their coalition lost its upper house majority in July, Shuichi Abe, who had worked in a government unit focusing on cutting waste, won Sunday’s gubernatorial election in Nagano prefecture, northwest of Tokyo.
In this March 12, 2010 file photo, Japan Coast Guards officials hold a blue sheet to cover Pete Bethune, captain of the Sea Shepherd vessel Ady Gil, following the New Zealander's arrest or illegally boarding the Japanese whaling ship Shonan Maru 2 in February upon the ship's return at Harumi pier in Tokyo. A quarter-century ban on commercial whaling, one of the world's most successful preservation agreements, could crumble altogether if conservationists cannot persuade Japan to cut back on the tradition it champions. Delegates to a meeting of the International Whaling Commission which starts on Monday, June 21, 2010 in Morocco will consider whether to allow limited commercial hunts if Tokyo stops pursuing whales in a southern sanctuary.
In this photo taken on June 17, 2010, whale meat restaurant Magonotei manager Tomohiro Akio slices a chunk of lean meat of a whale caught in the Antarctic as he prepares for a sashimi dish at its kitchen in Tokyo Thursday, June 17, 2010. Makoto Ito, managing director of Kyodo Senpaku Co., the company that runs the annual Antarctic hunt, said he didn't think they should be ended, because "we need to collect more data." Japan's refusal to give up its Antarctic hunt puzzles even observers within the country. Current coastal catches, also conducted for scientific research, provide fresher meat and are cheaper.
Press and members outside the IWC meeting venue in Agadir, Morocco, Sunday June 20, 2010. The IWC, the international body that regulates whaling, will gather for its 62 annual meeting next week in Agadir. The meeting is expected to seek a compromise between pro- and anti-whaling countries, which may include allowing commercial whaling on a limited scale.
Accusations that Japan uses aid money and personal favors to buy votes have quietly circulated for years around the International Whaling Commission, which oversees the conservation of the whales that Japan regularly hunts.
Now, a sting operation by a London newspaper that secretly filmed officials from six developing countries negotiating for bribes has brought such allegations into the open, at least in the corridors of the commission's annual meeting.
Former Democratic Party of Japan's secretary general Ichiro Ozawa
Japan's new Prime Minister Naoto Kan (R) receives a certificate from Emperor Akihito (L)
Japan's new Prime Minister Naoto Kan (front, C) and his cabinet
Japanese media gave a guarded welcome Wednesday to Prime Minister Naoto Kan's new government, which took office weeks before key elections pledging to reinvigorate the world's second-largest economy.
A sense of cautious optimism greeted Japan's new centre-left leadership a day after Kan unveiled his cabinet and vowed to create a "vigorous country", restore its public finances and mend strained US relations.
The media has until now praised the 63-year-old's humble beginnings as the "son of a salaryman" and drawn a contrast with the privileged background of his predecessor Yukio Hatoyama, the millionaire grandson of a prime minister.
But the press warned Wednesday that Japan's fifth premier in four years needed to match words with action and restore credibility to Japan's recent merry-go-round of governance that some fear has eroded its standing.
"We hope that the prime minister will show, through his actions, his resolve to break away from 'escapism politics' of avoiding decisions on serious issues," the Nikkei business daily said in its editorial.
People take part in a rally as a part of a mass rally in Tokyo, Japan, April 25, 2010. People take part in a rally as a part of a mass rally in Tokyo, Japan, April 25, 2010. People staged a mass rally Sunday in the village of Yomitan on the western coast of the Okinawa Island, demanding the central government relocate a U.S. marine base outside of the southernmost prefecture.
People take part in a rally as a part of a mass rally in Tokyo, Japan, April 25, 2010.
Okinawa citizens opposed to relocating U.S. marine facility within Japan's southernmost prefecture staged a sit-in protest in front of the Diet members' buildings on April 27, 2010.
Okinawa citizens opposed to relocating U.S. marine facility within Japan's southernmost prefecture staged a sit-in protest in front of the Diet members' buildings on April 27, 2010.
Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama will meet Okinawa Governor Hirokazu Nakaima on May 4 to discuss the thorny issue of relocating the U.S. Marine Corps' Futemma Air Station in Japan's southernmost prefecture, political sources close to the matter said Wednesday.
Hatoyama's visit comes on the back of a mass protest rally held Sunday in which 90,000 local residents and politicians, including the governor, gathered in the village of Yomitan in Okinawa to call for the relocation of the Futemma base outside the island.
Sources also revealed Wednesday that Japan's Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa submitted to Hatoyama a set of proposals for modifying an existing bilateral accord reached in 2006 between the U.S. and Japan to relocate the Futemma base from the crowded residential area of Ginowan to a less densely populated coastal area of the U.S. Marines' Camp Schwab in Nago, also in Okinawa Prefecture.
Japanese protesters gather in a rally against the US airbase at Yomitan
The Okinawa dispute threatens the political future of centre-left Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama
Protesters stage a rally with placards reading 'No need for the US-Japan Security Treaty'
Protesters stage a rally with placards demanding 'No base, No military' in Tokyo
Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama on Monday reiterated his pledge to relieve the U.S. marine base-related burden on people in Okinawa Prefecture and rid them of safety risks posed by the base.
Nearly 100,000 protesters attended a rally on Okinawa Sunday to demonstrate against a US air base in a row that is dominating Japan's national politics and souring its ties with Washington.
Okinawa governor Hirokazu Nakaima, the speaker of the Okinawa assembly and most of the mayors of the Okinawa prefecture's 41 towns joined the huge protest near Kadena Air Base, the Asia-Pacific region's largest US military facility.
Under a blazing sun at an athletics ground on the subtropical island, protesters applauded and whistled as speakers addressed them from a podium.
Demonstrators held yellow banners with messages protesting against the US military presence, including: "No Base!" and "US bases leave Okinawa!"
The row centres on US Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, which under a 2006 pact with Washington was to be moved from the crowded city of Ginowan to the quieter coastal Henoko area of Okinawa.
Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, whose party won September's general election by a landslide, has said he will review the 2006 deal and move Futenma off Okinawa island. But a search for alternative locations has provoked more local protests.
Japan's eight-year-old Princess Aiko has missed several days of classes after being bullied by boys at her primary school, a spokesman for the royal family said.
The revelation is likely to shock the country as the imperial family is treated with deep reverence.
Before Tokyo's defeat in World War II, Princess Aiko's great-grandfather, Emperor Hirohito, was worshipped as a living god.
The spokesman for the Imperial Household Agency said the princess complained of a stomach-ache, expressed deep anxiety, and has not been back to school since coming home early on Tuesday.
An investigation had revealed that she and several other students had suffered 'violent things' from boys in another class. The spokesman did not elaborate.
The news provided a rare glimpse into the private affairs of the world's oldest hereditary monarchy, which usually abides by strict, formal protocols and is tight-lipped about personal matters.
The princess goes to the elite Gakushuin Primary School in Tokyo's central Shinjuku district. A representative of the school said the incident may have been a simple misunderstanding.
'She had decided to leave school, and just as she had returned from changing into her normal shoes from her school shoes, I hear it was two boys that approached very suddenly and nearly collided with her, which scared her,' school director Motomasa Higashisono told reporters.
Japanese schoolchildren often have a separate pair of shoes for school use.
Aiko is the daughter of Crown Prince Naruhito, son of the current emperor, and Princess Masako. The Imperial Household spokesman declined to comment on the reaction of her parents or when she would return to school.
Naruhito is to visit Africa starting Saturday but won't be accompanied by Masako, who hasn't attended official duties for several years.
She has long suffered from a nervous disorder attributed to the difficulties of adjusting to palace life and the pressure to bear a son.
After suffering a miscarriage in 1999, Masako gave birth to Aiko in 2001. The lack of a male heir fanned a movement to change the law to allow Aiko to succeed her father.
But Naruhito's younger brother, Prince Akishino, and his wife Princess Kiko had a baby boy in 2006, who is now third in line to the throne.
The news that Princess Aiko, left, has missed school due to bullying will shock Japan as the monarchy is treated with deep reverence. Her great-grandfather, Emperor Hirohito (right) was worshipped as a living god until his country's defeat in 1945
Imperial family: Japan's Crown Prince Naruhito and Crown Princess Masako with their daughter Aiko in 2006
Tsutomu Yamaguchi, who survived both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombs in World War II, died on Monday from stomach cancer aged 93
70,000 people were killed after the second atomic bomb was dropped over Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. Japan surrendered six days later
A survivor walks over the rubble left after the Hiroshima bomb. 140,000 people were killed, and many more died afterwards as a result of exposure to radiation
Victims of the bomb are sheltered at a temporary hospital in Hiroshima. Mr Yamaguchi is the only person officially recognised as having survived both blasts
Devastation: Mr Yamaguchi was in Hiroshima on a business trip when the first U.S. atomic bomb was dropped on August 6, 1945
An aerial view of the ground zero site in Nagasaki before the atomic bomb was dropped and, below, another image afterwards showing the same area flattened
Nagasaki flattened at ground zero.70 000 people dead. While Hiroshima 140 000.
Tsutomu Yamaguchi, the only person officially recognised as a survivor of both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings at the end of World War II, has died at the age of 93.
Mr Yamaguchi, known as 'Lucky', was in Hiroshima on a business trip for Mitsubishi Heavy Industries on August 6, 1945, when a U.S. B-29 dropped an atomic bomb on the city.
He suffered serious burns to his upper body as well as temporary blindness and spent the night in the city.
He then returned to his hometown of Nagasaki, about 190 miles to the southwest, which suffered a second U.S. atomic bomb attack just three days later. On August 15, 1945, Japan surrended - ending the war.
Mr Yamaguchi died on Monday morning from stomach cancer, according to Japanese newspapers. It is not clear if the cancer is related to his exposure to radiation.
His family were also badly affected. His son Katstoshi, a baby at the time of the bomb, and his daughter Naoko were ill for much of their lives as a result of exposure to radiation. His son died of cancer in 2005 aged 59.
His wife died last year, aged 88, from kidney and liver cancer.
He was the only person to be certified by the Japanese government as having been in both cities when they were attacked, although other dual survivors have also been identified.
'My double radiation exposure is now an official government record,' he told the Mainichi newspaper last year.
'It can tell the younger generation the horrifying history of the atomic bombings even after I die.'
He added: 'Having been granted that miracle of survival it is my responsibility to pass on the truth to the people of the world.'
The mayor of Nagasaki wrote 'a precious storyteller has been lost' in a message posted on the city's website today.
In his later years, Mr Yamaguchi gave talks about his experiences as an atomic bomb survivor and often expressed his hope that such weapons would be abolished.
He spoke at the UN in 2006, wrote books and songs about his experiences and appeared in a documentary about survivors of both attacks.
Last month he was visited in hospital by filmmaker James Cameron, director of Titanic and Avatar, who is said to be considering making a film about the bombings.
Immediately after the war, Mr Yamaguchi worked as a translator for American forces in Nagasaki and later as a high school teacher.
Japan is the only country to have suffered atomic bomb attacks. Around 140,000 people were killed in Hiroshima and 70,000 in Nagasaki.
Mr Yamaguchi was one of a handful to have survived both blasts. Around 260,000 people survived one atomic bomb attack, known as hibakusha - literally 'the explosion-affected people'.
Some bombing survivors have developed various illnesses from radiation exposure, including cancer and liver diseases.
Certification as an atomic bomb survivor in Japan qualifies individuals for government compensation, including monthly allowances, free medical checkups and funeral costs.
Thousands of survivors continue to seek official recognition after the government rejected their eligibility for compensation.
The government last year eased the requirements for being certified as a survivor, following criticism the rules were too strict and neglected many who had developed illnesses that doctors have linked to radiation.
Read more about Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, left, sits with UN Ambassador Susan Rice as they wait for President Barack Obama to address the UN Climate Change Summit, Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2009, at the United Nations Headquarters.
Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama ascends to the podium to address the summit on climate change at the United Nations headquarters in New York Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2009. Finland President Tarja Halonen, left, and Kuwaiti Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Mohammed Al-Ahmed Al-Sabeh chair a discussion on climate change during a climate change summit, Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2009, at the United Nations headquarters.
Actor Djimon Hounsou, a native of Benin, speaks at the Summit on Climate Change at the United Nations, on Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2009.
President Barack Obama addresses the United Nations Climate Change Summit, Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2009, at the United Nations Headquarters.
China's President Hu Jintao is, left, awaits President Barack Obama's address before the United Nations Climate Change Summit, Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2009, at the United Nations Headquarters.
Former U.S. Vice-President Al Gore enters a press conference during a climate change summit, Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2009, at the United Nations headquarters.
U.S. President Barack Obama addresses the Summit on Climate Change, Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2009, as U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon listens at the United Nations.
- China pledged for the first time to reduce its greenhouse-gas emissions in proportion to economic growth in an effort to fight global warming.
President Hu Jintao, without giving any numbers, offered to reduce the so-called carbon intensity of factories and power plants in the world’s third-biggest economy yesterday at a United Nations summit on climate change in New York.
President Barack Obama speaks at the Clinton Global Initiative 2009 Annual Meeting in New York, 22 Sep 2009
U.S. President Barack Obama is calling on leaders from all sorts of backgrounds to come together to tackle worldwide problems. Mr. Obama says it is time for a new spirit of partnership.
The comments came in a rather philosophical address to the Clinton Global Initiative. It is a forum set up by former President Bill Clinton to encourage leaders from government, business, academia and other fields to join forces to deal with global challenges.
President Obama left no doubt he believes in their cause.
"If you want to bring about change in the world, you can't just be an advocate of somebody else doing it," said President Obama. "You can't just preach lofty goals and wait for somebody else to act. You have to step up. You have to serve."
He said groups like the Clinton Global Initiative are making a difference around the world by working with business to cut dangerous emissions, empowering entrepreneurs with micro-loans, and giving hope to some of the world's poorest children.
"That is the meaning of service," said Mr. Obama. "That is the difference we can make when we remember our common humanity, when we embrace our common responsibilities, when we recognize our common destiny."
President Obama lavished praise on his Democratic Party predecessor at the White House. He said the Clinton Global Initiative has had an impact on more than 200 million people in more than 150 countries.
Mr. Obama said such a contribution is always welcome, but more so now.
"As hard as it may be to sustain in these economic times, your commitments have never been more needed, they have never been more inspiring," he said.
The Clinton Global Initiative also heard from the prime ministers of Turkey, Australia and the Netherlands, and the presidents of Argentina and Chile. The heads of two major international firms - Walmart and Coca-Cola - also took part in the group's annual meeting in New York City.
China agree to reduce carbon emission but give no details or numbers. - China pledged for the first time to reduce its greenhouse-gas emissions in proportion to economic growth in an effort to fight global warming.
President Hu Jintao, without giving any numbers, offered to reduce the so-called carbon intensity of factories and power plants in the world’s third-biggest economy yesterday at a United Nations summit on climate change in New York.
The pledge prompted former-US vice-president and environmental activist Al Gore to praise China's leadership.
Chinese President Hu Jintao gave no details about the measures, which should mean emissions grow less quickly than the economy.
China is the world biggest polluter, according to some measurements.
The US, the world's other major emitter, said China's proposals were helpful but figures were needed.
In other Leader speeches at the summit:
US President Obama acknowledged that the US had been slow to act, but promised a "new era" of promoting clean energy and reducing carbon pollution
The new Japanese Prime Minister, Yukio Hatoyama, pledged to reduce emissions by 25% by 2020 compared to the 1990 level, calling it the Hatoyama Initiative
French President Nicolas Sarkozy called on leaders to meet again in mid-November ahead of the crucial Copenhagen conference
China and the US each account for about 20% of the world's greenhouse gas pollution from coal, natural gas and oil.
The European Union is responsible for 14%, followed by Russia and India with 5% each.
