AM
12:00 At official residence (no visitors)
07:08 Depart from official residence
07:09 Arrive at office
07:16 Meet with Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Seko Hiroshige
08:27 End meeting with Mr. Seko
08:29 Cabinet meeting
08:41 Meeting ends
08:42 Meet with Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Seko Hiroshige
08:49 End meeting with Mr. Seko
08:55 Depart from office
08:57 Arrive at Diet
08:58 Enter Upper House Committee Room No.1
09:02 Meeting of Special Committee of the House of Councillors on the Legislation for Peace and Security of Japan and the International Community opens
11:31 Meeting recesses
11:32 Exit Upper House Committee Room No.1
11:35 Enter State Ministers’ Room
11:46 Exit State Ministers’ Room
11:47 Enter Upper House Committee Room No.1
11:48 Meeting of Special Committee of the House of Councillors on the Legislation for Peace and Security of Japan and the International Community reopens. Meeting recesses
11:49 Speak with Minister of Defense Nakatani Gen, LDP Upper House member Sato Masahisa, and other colleagues
11:51 Finish speaking with Mr. Nakatani, Mr. Sato and other colleagues
11:54 Depart from Diet
11:55 Arrive at office

PM
12:55 Depart from office
12:56 Arrive at Diet
12:58 Enter Upper House Committee Room No.1
01:00 Meeting of Special Committee of the House of Councillors on the Legislation for Peace and Security of Japan and the International Community reopens
06:19 Meeting adjourns
06:20 Exit Upper House Committee Room No.1
06:22 Depart from Diet
06:24 Arrive at office
06:25 Meeting with Minister in charge of Tokyo Olympic and Paralympics Endo Toshiaki
06:40 End meeting with Mr. Endo
06:46 Meeting with Director of Cabinet Intelligence Kitamura Shigeru
06:52 End meeting with Mr. Kitamura
06:58 Depart from office
07:07 Arrive at the building of Urban-Net Ōtemachi Building in Ōtemachi, Tokyo. Dinner meeting with Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Shimomura Hakubun, Chairperson of National Public Safety Commission Yamatani Eriko, JR Tokai Honorary President Kasai Yoshiyuki, and President of Research Institute for Peace and Security (RIPS) Nishihara Masashi, and other colleagues in Level 21 Tokyo Hall in the building
08:42 Depart from the building
08:57 Arrive at private residence

Wednesday, August 26, 2015

AM
08:00 At private residence (no visitors)
08:52 Depart from private residence
09:08 Arrive at office
09:30 Phone conference with U.S. President Barack Obama. Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Kato Katsunobu, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Seko Hiroshige, Director of National Security Council (NSC) Yachi Shotaro, and Director of Cabinet Intelligence Kitamura Shigeru also attend
10:10 Phone conference ends
10:45 Meet with Chairman of Science and Technology in Society (STS) Forum, former Minister of State for Science and Technology Policy Omi Koji
11:05 End meeting with Mr. Omi
11:06 Meet with former Minister for Reconstruction Nemoto Takumi
11:35 End meeting with Mr. Nemoto
11:36 Meet with LDP Lower House member Kawai Katsuyuki
11:47 End meeting with Mr. Kawai
11:50 Meet with Ministry of Defense (MOD)’s Director-General of Bureau of Finance and Equipment Mimura Toru

PM
12:10 End meeting with Mr. Mimura
12:12 Meet with Chief Representative of New Komeito Yamaguchi Natsuo
01:05 End meeting with Mr. Yamaguchi
02:30 Meet with Minister of State for Economic and Fiscal Policy Amari Akira and Cabinet Office’s Director-General for Policies on Cohesive Society Tawa Hiroshi
02:48 End meeting with Mr. Amari and Mr. Tawa
02:52 Meet with Chairman of LDP Research Commission on Tax System Noda Takeshi
03:21 End meeting with Mr. Noda
03:22 Meet with LDP Secretary-General Tanigaki Sadakazu
03:51 End meeting with Mr. Tanigaki
04:14 Receive a courtesy call from a congressional delegation of the U.S.-Japan Caucus led by U.S. Representative Joaquin Castro (TX-20)
04:32 Courtesy call ends
05:30 Meet with new Chairman of Sankei News Ota Hideaki and former Chairman of Sankei News Kiyohara Takehiko
05:52 End meeting with Mr. Ota and Mr. Kiyohara
05:53 Attend a meeting of the Ministerial Council on the Monthly Economic Report and Other Relative Issues
06:08 Meeting ends
06:09 Meet with Secretary-General of Headquarters for Abduction Issue Ishikawa Shoichiro
06:23 End meeting with Mr. Ishikawa
06:24 Meet with Special Advisor to the Prime Minister Kimura Taro
06:26 End meeting with Mr. Kimura
06:29 Depart from office
06:31 Arrive at official residence
08:15 Depart from official residence
08:34 Arrive at National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation in Aomi, Tokyo. Communicate with Kimiya Yui, an astronaut assigned to the Japanese Experiment Module “Kibo” of International Space Station (ISS), and other astronauts
09:25 Depart from museum
09:48 Arrive at private residence

Thursday, August 27, 2015

AM
12:00 At private residence in Tokyo (no visitors)
08:55 Depart from private residence
09:11 Arrive at office
09:20 Meet with Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Seko Hiroshige
09:44 End meeting with Mr. Seko
09:54 Depart from office
09:56 Arrive at Diet
09:57 Enter Upper House 32nd Committee Members’ Room
10:00 Meeting of the Committee on Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of the House of Councillors opens
11:08 Leave seat during proceedings
11:10 Depart from Diet
11:12 Arrive at office
11:33 Meet with Chairman of Central Union of Agricultural Co-operatives (JA-Zenchu) Okuno Choei, and colleagues
11:44 End meeting with Mr. Okuno
11:50 Meet with MOFA’s Director-General of Foreign Policy Bureau Hiramatsu Kenji and Director of Gender Mainstreaming Division Matsukawa Rui

PM
12:08 End meeting with Mr. Hiramatsu and Ms. Matsukawa
12:46 Meet with Minister in charge of Tokyo Olympic and Paralympics Endo Toshiaki
01:22 End meeting with Mr. Endo
01:42 Receive a courtesy call from a delegation of Latin Americans of Japanese descent
01:49 End reception
01:54 Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Saiki Akitaka enters
02:11 Administrative Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Sugiyama Shinsuke enters
02:18 MOFA’s Director-General of Foreign Policy Bureau Hiramatsu Kenji enters
02:35 Mr. Hiramatsu leaves
03:02 Everyone leaves
03:07 Record video message for the First Ise-Shima Summit Forum
03:26 End recording
03:27 Meet with Minister of State for Measures for Declining Birthrate Arimura Haruko, Cabinet Office Director-General for Policies on Cohesive Society Takekawa Mitsuo, Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT)’s Director-General of Lifelong Learning Policy Bureau Kawamura Junko, and Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (MHLW)’s Director-General of Equal Employment, Children and Families Bureau Ando Yoshiko
04:02 End meeting with Ms. Arimura, Mr. Takekawa, Ms. Kawamura and Ms. Ando
04:03 Meet with Minister of State for Disaster Management Yamatani Eriko
04:08 End meeting with Ms. Yamatani
04:24 Meet with President of Japan-Korea Parliamentarians’ Union Nukaga Fukushiro
04:47 End meeting with Mr. Nukaga
04:48 Meet with Chairman of Parliamentary League for Volcanic Eruption Prediction and Countermeasures of the LDP Furuya Keiji
05:13 End meeting with Mr. Furuya
05:17 received proposal from the Parliamentary League for Volcanic Eruption Prediction and Countermeasures of the LDP
05:30 End reception
05:31 Meet with Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications Takaichi Sanae
05:56 End meeting with Ms. Takaichi
06:32 Welcome President of the Republic of Liberia Mrs. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. Attend commemorative photo session
06:33 Attend ceremony by the guard of honor
06:38 Ceremony ends
06:42 Attend Japan-Liberia Summit Meeting with Mrs. Sirleaf
07:18 Summit meeting ends
07:22 Joint press release
07:34 Joint press release ends
07:35 Depart from office
07:37 Arrive at official residence. Host banquet
08:42 Give a send-off to Mrs. Sirleaf
08:44 Send-off ends



Friday, August 28, 2015

AM
12:00 At official residence (no visitors)
07:42 Depart from official residence
07:44 Arrive at office
07:48 Attend Meeting of the Council for Combating Childhood Poverty
08:01 Meeting ends
08:06 Attend fourth meeting of Ministerial Council for the Further Consideration of the New National Stadium Construction Plan
08:17 Meeting ends
08:26 Cabinet Meeting
08:36 Cabinet meeting ends
08:38 Meet with Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Shimomura Hakubun
08:58 End meeting with Mr. Shimomura
10:37 Depart from office
10:55 Arrive at Grand Prince Hotel New Takanawa in Takanawa, Tokyo
11:05 Receive a courtesy call from Chief of Staff to the First Lady of U.S. Tina Tchen and her colleagues
11:26 End reception
11:37 Receive a courtesy call from former president of Latvia Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga and her colleagues

PM
12:11 End reception
12:31 Luncheon with Executive Director of UN Women Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka and other UN officers
01:41 Luncheon ends
02:03 Attend the opening of World Assembly for Women in Tokyo (WAW! Tokyo 2015) Public Forum. Deliver speech
03:31 Public Forum ends
03:48 Receive a courtesy call from President of the National Assembly of the Lao PDR Pany Yathotou and her colleagues
04:16 End reception
04:28 Receive a courtesy call from Former Vice-Chancellor of the Asian University for Women Fahima Aziz and her colleagues
04:57 End reception
05:12 Receive a courtesy call from Australia’s Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Women Michaelia Cash
05:35 End reception
05:47 Receive a courtesy call from Côte d'Ivoire’s Minister of Commerce Jean-Louis Billon and her colleagues
06:25 End reception
06:58 Attend commemorative photo session with student volunteers
07:02 Photo session ends
07:04 Attend reception and deliver speech
07:30 Reception ends
07:39 Dinner with CEO of Lockheed Martin Marillyn A. Hewson and her colleagues
08:52 Dinner ends
08:53 Depart from hotel
09:18 Arrive at private residence

Saturday, August 29, 2015

AM
12:00 At private residence (no visitors)
09:57 Depart from private residence
10:20 Arrive at Grand Prince Hotel Takanawa in Takanawa, Tokyo
Continue to attend World Assembly for Women in Tokyo (WAW! Tokyo 2015)
10:30 Receive a courtesy call from former British Prime Minister's wife Cherie Blair
10:58 End reception
10:59 Attend commemorative photo session with Brazilian entrepreneur Aoki Chieko and her colleagues
11:02 Photo session ends
11:24 Attend small group breakout session of WAW! Tokyo 2015. Deliver speech

PM
12:12 Leave breakout session
12:14 Depart from hotel
12:16 Arrive at Grand Prince Hotel New Takanawa in Takanawa, Tokyo
12:19 Attend small group breakout session of WAW! Tokyo 2015. Deliver speech
12:27 Leave breakout session
01:11 Luncheon with President of the Republic of Liberia Mrs. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and other attendees
02:10 Luncheon ends
02:11 Visit a tea ceremony booth with US Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy
02:21 Leave tea ceremony booth
02:53 Attend small group breakout session of WAW! Tokyo 2015. Deliver speech
03:07 Leave breakout session
03:09 Depart from hotel
03:11 Arrive at The Prince Sakura Tower Tokyo in Takanawa, Tokyo
03:12 Attend small group breakout session of WAW! Tokyo 2015. Deliver speech
03:35 Leave breakout session
03:37 Depart from hotel
04:03 Arrive at private residence

Sunday, August 30, 2015

AM
12:00 At private residence (no visitors)
Stay at private residence throughout morning

PM
01:06 Depart from private residence
01:31 Arrive at Bunkyo Civic Center in Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo. Attend opening Ceremony for the UN Women Japan Liaison Office. Deliver speech and attend commemorative photo session
02:04 Depart from Bunkyo Civic Center
02:26 Arrive at private residence

Provisional Translation by APP staff, Han Yanchu and Lu Pengqiao.

On September 2nd, General MacArthur had broadcast the announcement of peace to the world. His words expressed the thoughts of one who had felt both the bitterness of defeat and the gratification of victory, who knew well the horrors of warfare and the futility of attempting to achieve peace by resort to the sword.

So, while Abe falsely brags that he has gotten firms to hike wages, when he got a chance to do something that would make a real difference, he went the opposite way. On top of that, he offered these firms a tax cut while hiking taxes on consumers, to terrible effect.


>For a fuller discussion of this issue, email Richard Katz at rbkatz@orientaleconmomist.com and request a copy of the September lead of The Oriental Economist Report.

The debate over this decree will continue for some months, as schools plan to begin effecting change no sooner than April 2016, the start of the next Japanese fiscal year. Of the country’s 744 universities, about one-quarter are public and directly subject to these MEXT orders. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe believes this change will promote what he has called “more practical vocational education that better anticipates the needs of society.”

At present, the only Western press that has reported on this development has been the British Times Higher Education and the US National Science FoundationHereandHere.

Wednesday, February 25, 2015

AM
12:00 At official residence (no visitors)
07:48 Depart from official residence
07:49 Arrive at office
07:50 Meet with Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Kato Katsunobu
08:13 End meeting with Mr. Kato
08:52 Depart from office
08:53 Arrive at Diet
08:55 Enter Lower House 1st Committee Members’ Room
09:00 Lower House Budget Committee opens

PM
12:02 Lower House Budget Committee recess
12:03 Leave room
12:05 Depart from Diet
12:06 Arrive at office
12:54 Depart from office
12:55 Arrive at Diet
12:57 Enter Lower House 1st Committee Members’ Room
01:00 Lower House Budget Committee reopens
02:00 Leave seat during Lower House Budget Committee proceedings
02:03 Depart from Diet
02:05 Arrive at office
02:33 Meet with President of American think tank Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) Richard Haas
02:52 End meeting with Mr. Haas
03:00 Interview with Mainichi Shimbun
03:33 Interview ends
04:09 Meet with LDP Secretary-General Tanigaki Sadakazu
04:43 End meeting with Mr. Tanigaki
05:30 Attend the first meeting of the Advisory Panel on the History of the 20th Century and on Japan’s Role and the World Order in the 21st Century
06:24 Meeting ends
06:27 Depart from office
06:28 Arrive at official residence. Dinner meeting with relevant State Ministers. Chief Cabinet Secretary Suga Yoshihide and others also attend
08:01 Depart from official residence
08:18 Arrive at private residence in Tomigaya, Tokyo

Thursday, February 26, 2015

AM
12:00 At private residence in Tomigaya, Tokyo (no visitors)
08:00 At private residence (no morning visitors)
09:32 Depart from private residence
09:48 Arrive at office
10:22 Meet with Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Kato Katsunobu
10:42 End meeting with Mr. Kato
10:43 Meet with Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Saiki Akitaka
11:18 End meeting with Mr. Saiki
11:47 Receive courtesy call from Miura Peninsula Dairy Farmers Cooperative Union
11:57 Courtesy call ends

PM
12:54 Depart from office
12:55 Arrive at Diet
12:57 Enter Lower House Plenary Meeting Hall
01:00 Speak with Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Shimomura Hakubun
01:01 Finish speaking with Mr. Shimomura
01:02 Lower House Plenary Session opens
02:41 Leave seat during Lower House Plenary Session proceedings
02:42 Depart from Diet
02:44 Arrive at office
04:43 Film video message regarding the Great East Japan Earthquake
05:04 Finish filming
05:05 Meet with Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Saiki Akitaka and Director-General of Economic Affairs Bureau Saiki Naoko
05:29 End meeting with Mr. Saiki and Ms. Saiki
05:31 Attend National Security Council (NSC) Meeting. Chairperson of National Public Safety Commission Yamatani Eriko also attends
06:15 NSC Meeting ends
06:22 Meet with Japanese ambassador in Brazil Umeda Kunio and other attendees to Meeting of Ambassadors to South and Central America
06:42 End meeting with Mr. Umeda and others
06:44 Arrive at official residence. Dinner meeting with Chairman of Upper House Budget Committee Kishi Koichi and other ruling party Directors of Upper House Budget Committee. Chief Cabinet Secretary Suga Yoshihide and Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Seko Hiroshige also attend
07:54 Everyone leaves

Friday, February 27, 2015

AM
12:00 At official residence (no visitors)
07:07 Depart from official residence
07:08 Arrive at office
07:10 Meet with Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Kato Katsunobu
08:15 End meeting with Mr. Kato
08:18 Cabinet Meeting begins
08:28 Cabinet Meeting ends
08:48 Depart from office
08:49 Arrive at Diet
08:51 Enter Lower House 1st Committee Members’ Room
08:52 Speak with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Aso Taro
08:54 Finish speaking with Mr. Aso
08:59 Lower House Budget Committee opens

PM
12:02 Lower House Budget Committee recess
12:03 Leave room
12:04 Depart from Diet
12:06 Arrive at office
12:54 Depart from office
12:55 Arrive at Diet
12:57 Enter Lower House 1st Committee Members’ Room
12:58 Speak with Mr. Aso
12:59 Finish speaking with Mr. Aso
01:00 Lower House Budget Committee reopens
05:01 Lower House Budget Committee adjourns
05:02 Leave room
05:04 Depart from Diet
05:05 Arrive at office
06:02 Ceremony by the guard of honor to welcome President of Poland Bronisław Komorowski
06:06 Ceremony ends
06:08 Japan-Poland Summit Meeting
06:53 Summit Meeting ends
06:56 Signing Ceremony and Joint Press Conference
07:15 Press Conference ends
07:17 Depart from office
07:18 Arrive at official residence. Dinner meeting hosted by Prime Minister and his wife
08:21 Give a send-off to President Komorowski
08:22 Send-off ends
08:23 Depart from official residence
08:51 Arrive at private residence in Tomigaya, Tokyo

Saturday, February 28, 2015

AM
12:00 At private residence (no visitors)
08:00 At private residence in Tomigaya, Tokyo (no morning visitors)
Stay at private residence throughout the morning

PM
12:27 Depart from private residence
12:52 Arrive at JR Tokyo Station
01:00 Depart from station on Yamabiko No. 139
02:18 Arrive at JR Koriyama Station
02:20 Depart from station. Minister for Reconstruction Takeshita Wataru accompanies
02:35 Arrive at Higashihara-kikuta public restoration housing in Koriyama City, Fukushima Prefecture. Reception by Governor of Fukushima Prefecture Uchibori Masao. Visit disaster-stricken households. Exchange of opinions with residents
02:58 Depart from public restoration housing
03:29 Arrive at children’s facility Smile Kids Park in Motomiya City, Fukushima Prefecture. Reception by Mayor of Motomiya City Takamatsu Gigyo
03:42 Welcome reception for Duke of Cambridge of the United Kingdom, Prince William in front of the facility
03:44 Reception ends
03:45 Visit the facility with Prince William. Mingle with children. Plant trees
04:17 Visit ends
04:21 Depart from children’s facility Smile Kids Park
04:59 Arrive at Hotel Shikisai Ichiriki in Koriyama City, Fukushima Prefecture
06:06 Reception dinner meeting hosted by Prime Minister for Prince William at banquet hall Takasago within hotel
07:49 Dinner meeting closes

Sunday, March 1, 2015

AM
12:00 At Hotel Shikisai Ichiriki in Koriyama City, Fukushima Prefecture (no visitors)
07:59 Depart from hotel
09:44 Arrive at Joban-Tomioka Interchange of Joban Expressway in Tomioka, Fukushima Prefecture. Attend opening ceremony, deliver speech. Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ohta Akihiro; Minister of the Environment Mochizuki Yoshio; Minister for Reconstruction Takeshita Wataru; and Governor of Fukushima Prefecture Uchibori Masao also attend
10:11 Depart from Joban-Tomioka Interchange
10:33 Arrive at Futaba Town Office in Fukushima Prefecture. Reception by Mayor of Futaba Town Izawa Shiro. Visit proposed construction site for interim storage facilities
10:49 Depart from Futaba Town Office
11:20 Arrive at Minamisoma City Sports Center in Minamisoma City, Fukushima Prefecture. Attend graduation ceremony of Odaka Technical High School. Deliver address
11:42 Interview open to all media: When asked “You’ve visited the proposed construction site for interim storage facilities. How will you proceed with the reconstruction?” Mr. Abe answers “I will etch in my heart everyone’s feelings—starting from landowners—towards their hometown while carefully proceed with the reconstruction work.”
11:46 Interview ends
11:48 Depart from Minamisoma City Sports Center

PM
01:13 Arrive at JR Fukushima Station
01:50 Depart from station on Yamabiko No. 46
03:24 Arrive at JR Tokyo Station
03:28 Depart from station
03:40 Arrive at hotel The Prince Park Tower Tokyo in Shiba Park, Tokyo. Attend the wedding reception banquet of LDP Lower House member Yamaguchi Taimei’s second son
07:09 Depart from hotel
07:32 Arrive at private residence in Tomigaya, Tokyo

Provisional Translation by: Erin M. Jones and Yanchu Han

AM
12:00 At private residence (no visitors)
08:00 At private residence in Tomigaya, Tokyo (no morning visitors)
09:38 Depart from private residence
09:54 Arrive at office
10:15 Meet with Minister in charge of TPP Amari Akira, Governmental Headquarters for TPP’s Chief Domestic Coordinator Sasaki Toyonari, Chief Negotiator Tsuruoka Koji, and Deputy Chief Negotiator Oe Hiroshi
11:10 End meeting with Mr. Amari, Mr. Sasaki, Mr. Tsuruoka, and Mr. Oe
11:11 Meet with Director of National Security Council (NSC) Yachi Shotaro, Director of Cabinet Intelligence Kitamura Shigeru, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA)’s Director-General of Foreign Policy Bureau Hiramatsu Kenji, and Ministry of Defense (MOD)’s Director-General of Bureau of Defense Policy Kuroe Tetsuro
11:27 End meeting with Mr. Yachi, Mr. Kitamura, Mr. Hiramatsu, and Mr. Kuroe

PM
12:00 Ruling Party Liaison Conference
12:24 Conference ends
01:38 Meet with Director of National Security Council (NSC) Yachi Shotaro, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA)’s Director-General of Foreign Policy Bureau Hiramatsu Kenji, and Ministry of Defense (MOD)’s Director-General of Bureau of Defense Policy Kuroe Tetsuro
02:36 End meeting with Mr. Yachi, Mr. Hiramatsu, and Mr. Kuroe
02:59 Receive courtesy call from Foreign Minister of Ukraine Pavlo Klimkin
03:20 Courtesy call ends
03:21 Meet with Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Saiki Akitaka
03:53 End meeting with Mr. Saiki
04:00 Meet with Chief Justice of Supreme Court Terada Itsuro
04:16 End meeting with Mr. Terada
04:58 Depart from office
04:59 Arrive at Diet
05:00 Enter LDP President’s Office
05:01 LDP Officers Meeting
05:20 Meeting ends
05:21 Speak with LDP Secretary-General Tanigaki Sadakazu, Chairman of LDP General Council Nikai Toshihiro, and colleagues
05:34 Finish speaking with Mr. Tanigaki, Mr. Nikai, and colleagues
05:35 Leave room
05:36 Depart from Diet
05:38 Arrive at office
05:54 Depart from office
05:59 Arrive at Imperial Hotel. Attend a party to honor the 60th Anniversary of the Productivity Movement of the Japan Productivity Center in banquet hall Peacock Room within hotel, deliver address
06:27 Depart from hotel
06:34 Arrive at Japanese restaurant Shimonoseki Shunpanro Tokyo in Hirakawa-cho, Tokyo. Dinner meeting with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Aso Taro, Ministry of Finance (MOF)’s Vice-Minister Kagawa Shunsuke, Vice-Minister for International Affairs Yamasaki Tatsuo, Deputy Vice-Minister Fukuda Junichi, Director-General of Budget Bureau Tanaka Kazuho, and Director-General of Tax Bureau Sato Shinichi, and Director-General of International Bureau Asakawa Masatsugu
09:06 Depart from restaurant
09:22 Arrive at private residence

Tuesday, March 3, 2015

AM
12:00 At private residence (no visitors)
07:00 Depart from private residence in Tomigaya, Tokyo
07:10 Arrive at office
07:13 Meet with Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Kato Katsunobu
08:00 End meeting with Mr. Kato
08:17 Cabinet Meeting begins
08:30 Cabinet Meeting ends
08:49 Depart from office
08:50 Arrive at Diet
08:52 Enter Lower House 1st Committee Members’ Room
08:53 Speak with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Aso Taro
08:54 Finish speaking with Mr. Aso
08:58 Lower House Budget Committee opens

PM
12:02 Lower House Budget Committee recess
12:03 Leave room
12:05 Depart from Diet
12:06 Arrive at office
12:54 Depart from office
12:55 Arrive at Diet
12:57 Enter Lower House 1st Committee Members’ Room
01:00 Lower House Budget Committee reopens
05:01 Lower House Budget Committee adjourns, leave room
05:02 Speak with Governor of Hokkaido Prefecture Takahashi Harumi in LDP President’s Office. Secretary-General for LDP in Upper House Date Chuichi also attends
05:03 Finish speaking with Ms. Takahashi
05:04 Leave room
05:06 Depart from Diet
05:08 Arrive at office
05:15 Meet with State Minister of Cabinet Office Taira Masaaki
05:35 End meeting with Mr. Taira
05:43 Attend 12th Meeting of the Council on National Strategic Special Zones
05:59 Meeting ends
06:00 Meet with Director of NSC Yachi Shotaro, MOFA’s Vice-Minister Saiki Akitaka and Director-General of Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau Ihara Junichi
06:29 End meeting with Mr. Yachi, Mr. Saiki, and Mr. Ihara
06:31 Speak with Mr. Yachi, Director of Cabinet Intelligence Kitamura Shigeru, and Deputy Director-General of Public Security Intelligence Agency (PSIA) Sugiyama Haruki
06:41 Finish speaking with Mr. Yachi, Mr. Kitamura, and Mr. Sugiyama
06:42 Meet with Mr. Kitamura
07:02 End meeting with Mr. Kitamura
07:05 Depart from office
07:06 Arrive at official residence

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

AM
12:00 At official residence (no visitors)
08:00 At official residence (no morning visitors)
09:45 Depart from official residence
09:46 Arrive at office
10:49 Meet with LDP Lower House member Hatoyama Kunio and President of Kurume Chamber of Commerce and Industry Motomura Yasuto
11:15 End meeting with Mr. Hatoyama and Mr. Motomura
11:37 Meet with Chairman of Diet Promotion Council for National Reservoir Maintenance Project and former minister of Home Affairs Fukida Akira

PM
12:07 End meeting with Mr. Fukida
12:09 Meet with LDP Secretary-General Tanigaki Sadakazu
12:52 End meeting with Mr. Tanigaki
01:29 Meet with former Minister in charge of Financial Affairs Kamei Shizuka
02:18 End meeting with Mr. Kamei
02:31 Meet with LDP Lower House member Kawai Katsuyuki
02:50 End meeting with Mr. Kawai
03:00 Meet with JR Tokai Honorary President Kasai Yoshiyuki
03:30 End meeting with Mr. Kasai
03:40 Meet with Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Shimomura Hakubun and Vice-Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Yamanaka Shinichi
04:05 End meeting with Mr. Shimomura and Mr. Yamanaka
05:17 Meet with Japan-side Chairman of Japanese-German Forum and Honorary Chairman of Kikkoman Corporation Mogi Yuzaburo
05:32 End meeting with Mr. Mogi
05:35 Education Rebuilding Implementation Council meeting
05:50 Council meeting ends
05:51 Meet with Director of NSC Yachi Shotaro, Director of Cabinet Intelligence Kitamura Shigeru, MOFA’s Director-General of Foreign Policy Bureau Hiramatsu Kenji, MOD’s Director-General of Bureau of Defense Policy Kuroe Tetsuro and Chief of Staff for Maritime Self-Defense Force Kawano Katsutoshi
06:20 End meeting with Mr. Yachi, Mr. Kitamura, Mr. Hiramatsu, Mr. Kuroe, and Mr. Kawano
06:30 Depart from office
06:39 Arrive at Tokyo Prince Hotel in Shiba Park, Tokyo. Attend LDP ??? in banquet hall Ho-Oh-No-Ma within hotel, deliver address
06:51 Depart from hotel
07:08 Arrive at Japanese restaurant Innsyotei in Ueno Park, Tokyo. Dinner meeting with State Minister for Reconstruction Nishimura Akihiro, State Minister for Foreign Affairs Nakayama Yasuhide, LDP Lower House members Kameoka Yoshitami and Akimoto Tsukasa, and others
08:26 Depart from restaurant
08:53 Arrive at private residence in Tomigaya, Tokyo

Thursday, March 5, 2015

AM
12:00 At private residence (no visitors)
08:00 At private residence in Tomigaya, Tokyo (no morning visitors)
09:32 Depart from private residence
09:50 Arrive at office
09:54 Meet with Minister for Reconstruction Takeshita Wataru and Reconstruction Agency’s Director-General for Reconstruction Policy Okamoto Masakatsu
10:22 End meeting with Mr. Takeshita and Mr. Okamoto
10:35 Meet with Ministry of Finance (MOF)’s Vice-Minister for International Relations Yamasaki Tatsuo, Director-General of International Bureau Asakawa Masatsugu, and Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA)’s Director-General of International Cooperation Bureau Ishikane Kimihiro
10:58 End meeting with Mr. Yamasaki, Mr. Asakawa, and Mr. Ishikane
10:59 Speak with MOFA’s Vice-Minister Saiki Akitaka, Director-General of Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau Ihara Junichi, and Director of Northeast Asia Division Ono Keiichi
11:11 Finish speaking with Mr. Saiki, Mr. Ihara, and Mr. Ono
11:12 Inaugural address by Sato Kuni and other ambassadors of Permanent Delegation of Japan to UNESCO
11:17 Address ends

PM
12:06 Meet with Cabinet Advisors Hamada Koichi and Honda Etsuro
01:12 End meeting with Mr. Hamada and Mr. Honda
02:21 MOFA’s Mr. Saiki and Director-General of Foreign Policy Bureau Hiramatsu Kenji enter
02:39 Mr. Hiramatsu leaves
02:49 Mr. Saiki leaves
03:09 Film video message for news programs
03:18 Finish filming
03:22 Meet with Director of Cabinet Intelligence Kitamura Shigeru
04:08 End meeting with Mr. Kitamura
04:58 Depart from office
05:06 Arrive at National Archives of Japan in Kitanomaru Park, Tokyo
05:07 Visit the JFK-His Life and Legacy Exhibit. Resident U.S. Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy accompanies
05:23 Finish visiting exhibit
05:24 Attend exhibit’s opening ceremony, deliver address
05:42 Depart from National Archives
05:51 Arrive at office
06:28 Depart from office
06:49 Arrive at chanko restaurant Tomoegata in Ryogoku, Tokyo. Dinner meeting with former classmates of Seikei Elementary School
08:47 Depart from restaurant
09:13 Arrive at private residence

Friday, March 6, 2015

AM
12:00 At private residence (no visitors)
07:01 Depart from private residence in Tomigaya, Tokyo
07:12 Arrive at office
07:16 Meet with Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Kato Katsunobu
08:16 End meeting with Mr. Kato
08:17 Cabinet Meeting begins
08:24 Cabinet Meeting ends
08:26 Speak with Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Kato Katsunobu
08:39 Finish speaking with Mt. Kato
08:49 Depart from office
08:50 Arrive at Diet
08:52 Enter Lower House 1st Committee Members’ Room
08:53 Speak with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Aso Taro
08:55 Finish speaking with Mr. Aso
08:58 Lower House Budget Committee opens

PM
12:01 Lower House Budget Committee recess
12:02 Leave room
12:04 Depart from Diet
12:05 Arrive at office
12:54 Depart from office
12:55 Arrive at Diet
12:57 Enter Lower House 1st Committee Members’ Room
01:00 Lower House Budget Committee reopens
05:01 Lower House Budget Committee adjourns
05:02 Leave room
05:03 Depart from Diet
05:05 Arrive at office
05:52 Attend a ceremony by the guard of honor welcoming Prime Minister of Laos Thongsing Thammavong
05:58 Ceremony ends
06:00 Japan-Laos Summit Meeting with Prime Minister of Laos Thongsing Thammavong
06:43 Summit Conference ends
06:46 Signing ceremony, joint press release
06:59 Ceremony and press release end
07:00 Depart from office
07:01 Arrive at official residence. Dinner meeting hosted by Prime Minister Abe Shinzo
08:14 See off Prime Minister Thongsing

Saturday, March 7, 2015

AM
12:00 At official residence (no visitors)
08:00 At official residence (no morning visitors)
Stay at official residence throughout morning (no visitors)

PM
12:14 Depart from official residence
12:21 Arrive at hotel Grand Hyatt Tokyo in Roppongi, Tokyo. Exercise at NAGOMI Spa and Fitness within hotel
01:55 Depart from hotel
02:20 Arrive at facility complex Nakano Zero in Nakano, Tokyo. Watch the dance of sign language performed by NPO Shuwa Dance You&I in Main Hall within Nakano Zero. Mr. Abe’s wife Akie also performs.
02:40 Depart from Nakano Zero
03:01 Arrive at Itochu Aoyama Artquare in Kita-Aoyama, Tokyo. Visit Japan-Mongolia Calligraphy Exhibit
03:13 Depart from Artquare
03:19 Arrive at LDP Party Headquarters
03:21 Speak with LDP Secretary-General Tanigaki Sadakazu and Chairman of LDP Party Organization and Campaign Headquarters Tanaka Kazunori
03:27 Finish speaking with Mr. Tanigaki and Mr. Tanaka
03:29 Attend LDP National Joint Convention of Youth Division·Youth Bureau and Women’s Affairs Division, deliver address
03:52 Convention ends
03:59 Attend LDP National Leadership Conference, deliver address
04:13 Conference ends
04:23 Speak with former Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications Shindo Yoshitaka
04:32 Finish speaking with Mr. Shindo
04:33 Depart from LDP Party Headquarters
04:47 Arrive at salon HAIR GUEST in Shibuya, Tokyo. Hair cut
06:20 Depart from salon
06:33 Arrive at Akasaka Excel Hotel Tokyu in Nagata-cho, Tokyo. Attend a social gathering of Federation of Yamaguchi LDP Party Branches in banquet hall Hikari within hotel
07:03 Depart from hotel
07:21 Arrive at private residence in Tomigaya, Tokyo

Sunday, March 8, 2015

AM
12:00 At private residence (no visitors)
08:51 Depart from private residence in Tomigaya, Tokyo
09:08 Arrive at Grand Prince Hotel New Takanawa in Takanawa, Tokyo
09:10 Enter banquet hall Hokushin within hotel
09:15 Commemorative photo session with LDP Prizewinners
09:27 Photo session ends
09:34 Award ceremony of LDP's international foreign policy essay contest
09:39 Ceremony ends
10:01 Leave banquet hall Hokushin enter banquet hall Konron
10:03 LDP Party Convention commences

PM
12:05 LDP Convention closes
12:07 Leave room
12:08 Enter banquet hall Hokushin
12:17 A social gathering of LDP Party Convention commences
12:58 Leave seat during the social gathering
01:12 Depart from hotel
01:31 Arrive at private residence


Provisional Translation by: Erin M. Jones and Lu Pengqiao

First appeared in Nikkei Business, September 17, 2015 in Japanese

Newly elected Okinawa Governor Takeshi Onaga, supported by both conservatives and reformists, which is quite a rare phenomenon in Okinawa, announced his team leaders on the US military base issues at the end of 2014 and the beginning of 2015. Mr. Mitsuo Ageta, the former speaker of the Naha City Assembly, was appointed as Vice Governor (VG) in charge of base issues--the Okinawa Prefectural Government (OPG) has two vice governors. Mr. Masaru Machida was appointed Director General of the Governor’s Office. He had been an executive at the Okinawa Churashima Foundation, an affiliated organization of the OPG. VG Ageta used to be a member of the Okinawa Chapter of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), yet left after the party switched its policy on the Henoko plan from against to accommodation. He formed the Shimpuh-kai (New Wind Group) as a counter. It is considered a "faction" of the LDP.

The Regional Security Policy Division, of which I was a member, is still alive. People wondered whether this section could survive the Onaga administration, since it was created by his predecessor, Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima. Gov. Onaga created another division to deal with “the issue on the construction of new Henoko base” and called it more directly the Henoko Base Construction Countermeasures Division.

Onaga can play only “All-or-Nothing” negotiation
Despite his landslide victory in the November 2014 gubernatorial election, Gov. Onaga’s power base is not solid. As his slogan during the campaign was “all-Okinawa,” Mr. Onaga limits his own maneuverable space to the minimum. In other words, all he can say  “No Henoko” and “No Ospreys” are acceptable by all Okinawans, including supporters of the US military bases. “All-Okinawa” does not indicate any realistic compromise. Should he make a statement beyond “No Henoko” his power base shatter.

In other words, Gov. Onaga can only play an “all-or-nothing” game, namely accept everything he says or no deal. Thus, he cannot be a reasonable negotiator with either the Government of Japan (GOJ) or the US Government (USG).

Since the inauguration of the Onaga administration in December 2014, senior officials of the GOJ have refused to meet Gov. Onaga. This was considered  “extra-ordinary.” (Other governors rarely meet with the prime ministers.) This “all-Okinawa” phenomenon has never happened since the return of Okinawa to Japan in 1972. People speculated that Tokyo viewed Naha, the capital of Okinawa Prefecture, cautiously, wondering whether the Governor could maintain his power base with both conservatives and reformists.

Nevertheless, Gov. Onaga and senior officials of the GOJ did start to meet in April 2015. In August, the two parties held a series of meetings discussing how to reduce Okinawa’s hosting responsibility and on the economic development. The last one was September 7th. It ended with no conclusion.

During the meetings, Gov. Onaga did not step back from his “No Henoko” stance, however hard the Abe cabinet tried. In office barely a half year--out of four--it is unreasonable to expect the governor to destroy his power base by backing down. This would be political suicide.

Gov. Onaga has few options to take
What can Gov. Onaga do to stop the landfill at Cape Henoko? Gov. Onaga’s advisory committee issued a report in July 2015 concluding that there were flaws in the process of Gov. Nakaima’s approval. The Ministry of Defense (MOD) resumed its boring investigation on September 12th, soon after the break-up of the intensive August and September meetings between the GOJ and the OPG. Gov. Onaga reacted to this by starting a procedure to cancel the landfill authorization on September 14th. This legal process is expected to take about a month.

Still, the OPG is powerless if the Abe cabinet simply ignores it. The OPG can appeal to the court to stop the landfill, but the court has no authority to interrupt the boring investigation and its ensuing landfill until a verdict is given. this could be months or years. Should the OPG win at the court after the landfill is completed, the result is that no one can bring back the nature as before. Thus, Gov. Onaga’s cancellation of the landfill is nothing other than a political performance.

Left in Gov. Onaga’s hand is un-approving any petitions for changes and additions to the original plan. The plan was submitted by the MOD to Gov. Nakaima in March 2013. At the time, the MOD did not anticipate working with an unfriendly OPG to develop or alter the plan.  The results of the boring investigation are certain to cause construction changes. Onaga could use these changes to stop the landfill and slow down the project.

Driving Gov. Onaga to the corner simply drives Okinawans to protests
Gov. Onaga has very limited options. Is it politically productive to force him to say yes to the Henoko plan? Sure, he might approve change petitions to smooth the landfill.

On the other hand, once the Okinawans hear that Gov. Onaga has succumb to the Abe cabinet, the anger demonstrated at the gubernatorial election in 2014 would explode at Cape Henoko. Okinawan people have made clear their rejection of the Henoko plan many times through elections. LDP administrations, however, have forced their leaders to “flipflop.” Okinawans view this as negligence against their will. If their voices raised democratically are unheard, they believe they have no choice but to resort to force at the construction site.

In Tokyo, I am often asked whether the protesters at Cape Henoko are non-Okinawans, mostly “professional” protesters similar to those during the construction of Narita Airport. There is no official and accurate data on where these protesters come from and I doubt such question is relevant for two reasons:

1. First, during the American Occupation (1945-72), the islanders in Ie-Island and other parts of Okinawa protested and succeeded in stopping the construction of  US military bases and expansion. Okinawans can protest with success by themselves, without the help from others.
2. Second, casualties caused by wrestling with the police and Coast Guard during protests or lying before the bulldozers and circling the landfill site with small  boats (slight injuries have already occured), would encourage  Okinawans to massively and aggressively embrace anti-base sentiments and demand the removal of all base, regardless of where the hometown of the casualty is.

If this happened would the Abe cabinet have the capability to deal with such situation? Also, would the USG, especially the US Forces in Okinawa (USFO), want to expand such anti-base sentiments in Okinawa? The USG wants the GOJ to manage prudently Okinawa to keep the islands safe enough to deploy its forces. The USG should not want to miss the forest (the USFO, especially Kadena Air Base) from the trees (the Futenma Air Station).

Paradoxically, the more the Abe cabinet pushes Gov. Onaga into a corner, the more Okinawans are driven to resort to force, which is a political suicide to the GOJ. The worst scenario can be avoided only by understanding this logic in Okinawa, by seriously searching for alternatives to the Henoko plan, and by seriously addressing the necessity to reduce the heavy hosting responsibility of Okinawa.

AM
12:00 At private residence in Tomigaya, Tokyo (no visitors)
08:00 At private residence (no morning visitors)
09:25 Depart from private residence
09:42 Arrive at office
10:45 Meet with Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Saiki Akitaka
11:00 End meeting with Mr. Saiki
11:08 Receive courtesy call from Study Group on Making the New National Stadium a Showcase of New Japanese Technology
11:27 Courtesy call ends
11:28 Speak with former Prime Minister Mori Yoshiro
11:39 Finish speaking with Mr. Mori
11:40 Meet with Minister in charge of Women’s Empowerment and Minister of State for Measures for Declining Birthrate Arimura Haruko

PM
12:01 End meeting with Ms. Arimura
12:07 Meet with Director of LDP Headquarters for the Abduction Issue Furuya Keiji
12:31 End meeting with Mr. Furuya
03:24 Depart from office
03:33 Arrive at Nezu Museum in Minami-Aoyama, Tokyo
03:39 Visit museum with Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany Angela Merkel
03:55 End visit
03:56 Depart from museum
04:04 Arrive at office
04:10 Reception for Chancellor Merkel. Commemorative photo session
04:11 Reception and photo session end
04:12 Ceremony by the guard of honor to welcome Chancellor Merkel
04:18 Ceremony ends
04:19 Small group summit meeting with Chancellor Merkel
05:32 Meeting ends
05:38 General summit meeting with Chancellor Merkel commences
06:27 Meeting ends
06:34 Ceremony for the exchange of memorandums and Joint Press Conference
07:01 Ceremony and Joint Press Conference end
07:05 Receive courtesy call from Japanese and German business figures
07:48 Courtesy call ends
07:49 Depart from office
07:50 Arrive at official residence. Dinner meeting hosted by Prime Minister Abe Shinzo
09:18 Give send-off to Chancellor Merkel
09:20 Send-off ends

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

AM
12:00 At official residence (no visitors)
07:26 Depart from official residence
07:27 Arrive at office
07:33 Cabinet Meeting begins
07:42 Cabinet Meeting ends
08:00 Meet with Director of National Security Council (NSC) Yachi Shotaro, Cabinet Office’s Director General of Secretariat of the International Peace Cooperation Headquarters Yamamoto Jota, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA)’s Director-General of Foreign Policy Bureau Hiramatsu Kenji, Ministry of Defense (MOD)’s Director-General of Bureau of Defense Policy Kuroe Tetsuro and Director-General of Bureau of Operational Policy Miyama Nobuaki
09:09 End meeting with Mr. Yachi, Mr. Yamamoto, Mr. Hiramatsu, Mr. Kuroe, and Mr. Miyama
09:18 Depart from office
09:37 Arrive at Tokyo Memorial Hall in Yokoami, Tokyo. Attend Spring Memorial Service for the Victims of War Damage in Tokyo and the Victims of the Great Kanto Earthquake
10:47 Depart from Tokyo Memorial Hall
11:12 Arrive at office
11:40 Meet with Cabinet Office’s Director-General of Gender Equality Bureau Takegawa Keiko

PM
12:00 End meeting with Ms. Takegawa
12:01 Attend Ruling Party Head Meeting with Chief Representative of New Komeito Yamaguchi Natsuo
01:03 Meeting ends
01:51 Interview with Iwate Nippo, Kahoku Shimpo, Fukushima Minpo, and Fukushima Minyu
02:05 Interview ends
02:06 Meet with Ministry of Finance (MOF)’s Vice-Minister Kagawa Shunsuke and Director-General of Budget Bureau Tanaka Kazuho
02:59 End meeting with Mr. Kagawa and Mr. Tanaka
03:03 Speak with Cabinet Office’s Vice-Minister Matsuyama Kenji and Director-General of Decoration Bureau Kuroba Ryosuke
03:12 Finish speaking with Mr. Matsuyama and Mr. Kuroba
03:21 Meet with Secretary-General of Headquarters for the Abduction Issue Ishikawa Shoichiro
03:36 End meeting with Mr. Ishikawa
03:37 Meet with Minister of State for Economic and Fiscal Policy Amari Akira, Cabinet Office’s Mr. Matsuyama and Director-Generals for Policies on Cohesive Society Maekawa Mamoru, Habuka Shigeki, and Tawa Hiroshi
03:53 End meeting with Mr. Amari, Mr. Maekawa, Mr. Habuka, and Mr. Tawa
04:00 Meet with Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Saiki Akitaka
04:27 End meeting with Mr. Saiki
04:50 Meet with Director of National Security Council (NSC) Yachi Shotaro, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA)’s Director-General of Foreign Policy Bureau Hiramatsu Kenji, Ministry of Defense (MOD)’s Director-General of Bureau of Defense Policy Kuroe Tetsuro and Director-General of Bureau of Operational Policy Miyama Nobuaki
05:16 End meeting with Mr. Yachi, Mr. Hiramatsu, Mr. Kuroe, and Mr. Miyama
05:17 Joint Meeting of Reconstruction Promotion Council and Nuclear Emergency Response Headquarters
05:35 Meeting ends
06:00 Press Conference
06:23 Press Conference ends
06:25 Depart from office
06:26 Arrive at official residence

Wednesday, March 11, 2015

AM
12:00 At official residence (no visitors)
08:00 At official residence (no morning visitors)
09:17 Depart from official residence
09:18 Arrive at office
09:19 Meet with Chairman of Science and Technology in Society (STS) Forum and former Minister of State for Science and Technology Policy Omi Koji
09:52 End meeting with Mr. Omi
10:40 Meet with Vice-Minister of Health, Labor and Welfare Muraki Atsuko
11:21 End meeting with Ms. Muraki
11:36 Speak with Minister of Health, Labor and Welfare Shiozaki Yasuhisa
11:46 Finish speaking with Mr. Shiozaki
11:47 Meet with Minister in charge of Economic Revitalization Amari Akira

PM
12:07 End meeting with Mr. Amari
01:03 Film video message for civilian policy symposium. President of Graduate School of Management, Globis University Hori Yoshito also attends
01:09 Finish filming
02:08 Depart from office
02:12 Arrive at National Theater of Japan in Hayabusa-cho, Tokyo
02:42 Attend Memorial Ceremony Marking the Fourth Anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake. Deliver ceremonial address, and offer flowers
03:32 Leave ceremony
03:34 Depart from National Theatre
03:39 Arrive at office
04:01 Director of National Security Council (NSC) Yachi Shotaro, Director of Cabinet Intelligence Kitamura Shigeru, and Ministry of Defense (MOD)’s Director of Defense Intelligence Headquarters (DIH) Miyagawa Tadashi enter
04:10 Mr. Yachi and Mr. Miyagawa leave
04:28 Mr. Kitamura leaves
05:17 Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy meeting
06:05 Council meeting ends
06:29 Meet with participants of Japanese American Leadership Delegation [individual pictures taken]
06:42 End meeting
06:43 Depart from office
06:44 Arrive at official residence

Thursday, March 12, 2015

AM
12:00 At official residence (no visitors)
08:00 At official residence (no morning visitors)
09:18 Depart from official residence
09:19 Arrive at office
09:38 Meet with Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Kato Katsunobu
10:39 End meeting with Mr. Kato
10:40 Meet with Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Saiki Akitaka
11:09 End meeting with Mr. Saiki
11:14 Receive courtesy call from Vice-President of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Cuba Ricardo Cabrisas Ruiz
11:29 Courtesy call ends
11:39 Meet with LDP Secretary-General Tanigaki Sadakazu

PM
12:05 End meeting with Mr. Tanigaki
12:54 Depart from office
12:55 Arrive at Diet
12:57 Enter Lower House Committee Room No. 1
01:00 Lower House Budget Committee reopens
05:03 Lower House Budget Committee adjourns
05:04 Leave room
05:05 Enter LDP Secretary General’s Conference Room. Endorse candidate for Kanagawa Prefecture gubernatorial election. Commemorative photo session
05:07 Leave room
05:09 Depart from Diet
05:10 Arrive at office
05:12 Meet with Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Saiki Akitaka
05:33 End meeting with Mr. Saiki
05:34 National Security Council meeting
06:13 Meeting ends
06:17 Depart from office
06:26 Arrive at Japanese restaurant Fukudaya in Kioi-cho, Tokyo. Dinner meeting with former Prime Ministers Nakasone Yasuhiro, Kaifu Toshiki, Mori Yoshiro, Koizumi Junichiro, Fukuda Yasuo, and Aso Taro. Chief Cabinet Secretary Suga Yoshihide also attends
08:55 Depart from restaurant
09:15 Arrive at private residence


Friday, March 13, 2015

AM
12:00 At private residence in Tomigaya, Tokyo (no visitors)
07:05 Depart from private residence
07:16 Arrive at office
07:18 Meet with Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Kato Katsunobu
08:00 End meeting with Mr. Kato
08:18 Cabinet Meeting begins
08:29 Cabinet Meeting ends
08:50 Depart from office
08:51 Arrive at Diet
08:53 Enter Lower House Committee Room No. 1
08:59 Lower House Budget Committee opens

PM
12:29 Lower House Budget Committee adjourns
12:30 Leave room
12:33 Enter State Ministers’ Room
12:52 Leave room
12:57 Enter Lower House Committee Room No. 15
01:00 Meeting of Lower House Committee on Financial Affairs opens
03:00 Leave seat during proceedings
03:01 Depart from Diet
03:03 Arrive at office
03:20 Speak with Director of Cabinet Intelligence Kitamura Shigeru
03:31 Finish speaking with Mr. Kitamura
03:32 Meet with Minister in charge of Abduction Issue Yamatani Eriko and Secretary-General of Headquarters for Abduction Issue Ishikawa Shoichiro
03:49 End meeting with Ms. Yamatani and Mr. Ishikawa
04:03 Receive courtesy call from President of International Olympic Committee (IOC). President of Japanese Olympic Committee (JOC) Takeda Tsunekazu and Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Shimomura Hakubun also attend
04:16 Courtesy call ends
04:25 Meet with Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Development of the French Republic Laurent Fabius and Minister of Defense of the French Republic Jean-Yves Le Drian. Minister for Foreign Affairs Kishida Fumio and Minister of Defense Nakatani Gen also attend
04:45 End meeting with Mr. Fabius and Mr. Le Drian
04:55 Depart from office
04:56 Arrive at Diet
04:57 Enter Lower House Speaker’s Reception Room
04:59 Leave room
05:00 Enter Lower House Chamber
05:02 Lower House Plenary Session opens
06:29 Leave seat during Plenary Session proceedings
06:31 Enter State Ministers’ Room
06:51 Leave room
06:52 Enter Lower House Chamber
07:00 Lower House Plenary Session adjourns
07:01 Exchange greeting with Lower House Speaker Machimura Nobutaka, Lower House Vice-Speaker Kawabata Tatsuo, Chairman of Lower House Committee on Rules and Administration Hayashi Motoo, and each faction in ruling and opposition party. each political party ruling or opposition. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Aso Taro and Chief Cabinet Secretary Suga Yoshihide accompany
07:15 Finish greeting
07:16 Depart from Diet
07:17 Arrive at official residence
07:32 Reception dinner for President of the Republic of Kenya Uhuru Kenyatta hosted by Prime Minister
08:49 Give send-off to President Kenyatta
08:51 Depart from official residence
09:06 Arrive at private residence

Saturday, March 14, 2015

AM
12:00 At private residence in Tomigaya, Tokyo (no visitors)
07:26 Depart from private residence
07:47 Arrive at JR Tokyo Station
07:56 Depart from station via Hayabusa no. 101
09:30 Arrive at JR Sendai Station
09:34 Depart from station
09:44 Arrive at Sendai International Center in Aoba Ward, Sendai City
10:00 Hold meeting with Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon
10:24 Meeting ends
10:25 Greet the Emperor and Empress
10:27 Finish greeting the Emperor and Empress
11:03 Attend opening ceremony of the Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction, deliver address
11:30 Ceremony ends
11:57 Deliver speech at General Meeting Session of Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction

PM
12:10 Finish delivering speech
12:21 Hold meeting with Acting Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Thailand Prayut Chan-o-cha
12:59 Meeting ends
01:09 Hold meeting with President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov
01:21 Meeting ends
01:38 Lunch meeting hosted by Prime Minister Abe Shinzo
02:39 Lunch meeting ends
03:00 Attend High Level Partnership Dialogue on Women’s Leadership. Deliver address
03:24 Finish delivering address
03:27 Depart from Sendai International Center
03:57 Arrive at Sendai Royal Park Hotel in Izumi Ward, Sendai city
04:08 Hold meeting with King of the Kingdom of Swaziland Mswati III
04:24 Meeting ends
04:36 Hold meeting with President of the Republic of Vanuatu Baldwin Jacobson Lonsdale
04:50 Meeting ends
05:05 Hold meeting with Prime Minister of the Republic of Rwanda Anastase Murekezi
05:30 Meeting ends
05:50 Receive courtesy call from Vice-President of Indonesia Jusuf Kalla and others
06:48 Courtesy call ends
07:10 Attend reception hosted by Japanese government in banquet hall Royal Hall within hotel. Deliver speech
07:48 Leave reception
07:49 Dinner with wife Akie and secretary at restaurant Chef’s Terrace within hotel
09:25 Finish dinner

Sunday, March 15, 2015

AM
12:00 Stay night at hotel (no visitors)
09:15 Hold meeting with Prime Minister of the United Republic of Tanzania Mizengo Kayanza Peter Pinda at Sendai Royal Park Hotel in Izumi Ward, Sendai City
09:34 Meeting ends ends
10:22 Hold meeting with President of the Republic of Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe
11:05 Meeting ends
11:12 Receive courtesy call from heads of Inter-Parliamentary Union and other international organizations
11:37 Courtesy call ends
11:42 Hold meeting with President of the Federated States of Micronesia Emanuel Mori
11:54 Meeting ends

PM
12:10 Hold meeting with Prime Minister of Kingdom of Cambodia Samdech Hun Sen
12:45 Meeting ends
12:59 Hold meeting with President of the Republic of Kiribati Anote Tong
01:15 Meeting ends
01:34 Depart from hotel
02:14 Arrive at JR Sendai Station
02:30 Depart from station via Hayabusa no. 20
04:03 Arrive at JR Tokyo Station
04:08 Depart from station
04:24 Arrive at private residence in Tomigaya, Tokyo

Provisional Translation by: Erin M. Jones and Yanchu Han

>First appeared in the The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol. 13, Issue. 39, No. 1, September 28, 2015

On June 8 the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) sent a ten-page directive to all 86 national universities in Japan, apparently calling on them, inter alia, to abolish or reorganize their humanities and social sciences (HSS) departments.1 I use the word “apparently” because the wording of the letter is ambiguous. A former Ministry of Education official’s Facebook posting in September is quoted by the European Association of Japanese Studies asserting that the directive has been misinterpreted.2 Be it as it may, the Yomiuri reports that 26 of 60 public universities operating HSS departments have agreed to stop accepting students into these programs or reduce relevant electives. Nevertheless, how far reaching this compliance will be remains unclear. What is clear is that prominent national universities, including the elite University of Tokyo and Kyoto University, are not shutting down HSS, demonstrating that powerful institutions with access to sufficient funding and no shortage of applicants are not beholden to MEXT.

Various organizations in Japan have also issued statements critical of MEXT’s initiative, including Keidanren, the big business lobby, so if indeed there is a misunderstanding about MEXT’s intentions, it is fairly widespread. This directive has also incited a chorus of criticism in the international press, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Times Higher Education, Time, Bloomberg, and Japan Times, prompting a petition campaign among European scholars keen to protect HSS. Overseas researchers are alarmed that this hollowing out of higher education will adversely affect their research in Japan and stifle intellectual inquiry about subjects the rest of the world still highly esteems and deems essential for a well-rounded education. Numerous postings on NBR, an Internet discussion forum on Japan, have also criticized both the directive and the quality of education provided by Japan’s universities.

Japanese government officials are concerned that Japans universities don’t come out well in international rankings and apparently believe that focusing on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) is the fastest way to catapult more universities into the top 100 world rankings. There are good reasons to doubt whether these world rankings are in fact a reliable and objective measure of education, learning outcomes and research output, especially given the bias in favor of Anglophone institutions, but Japanese officialdom’s obsession with such rankings renders them a powerful pretext for reforms. Can Japan really launch more of its universities into the top 100 world rankings by gutting the study of subjects that constitute the core of what universities embody?

The QS World University Rankings for 2015/16 rank five Japanese universities in the top 100: Kyoto University (38), University of Tokyo (39), Tokyo Institute of Technology (56), Osaka University (58) and Tohoku University (74).3 This relatively poor showing—with tiny Singapore boasting two universities in the top 15, while China and Hong Kong each have four in the top 100 and South Korea has three—has been a longstanding sore point , sparking national hand wringing and an action plan. PM Abe has targeted getting 10 Japanese universities into the world’s top 100 by 2025. However, he has been better at setting unrealistically ambitious targets on a range of issues—i.e., 30% female managers by 2020—than actually doing what is necessary to achieve them. The new emphasis on natural sciences overlooks the fact that most top universities around the world maintain vibrant HSS departments so it’s not clear that favoring STEM at the expense of HSS is an inspired or pragmatic strategy.

There is a risk that rather than improving Japan’s mediocre universities, the MEXT foray will make them the global punch-line for jokes about educational reform. It is hard to imagine that scrapping the study of humanities and social sciences at Japan’s national universities will bring any tangible benefits, while the downside could well be staggering. This anti-intellectual salvo from Prime Minister Abe’s government fits into a larger pattern of dumbing down education, whitewashing textbooks, promoting patriotic education and stifling dissent.

But not everyone agrees with the alarmist interpretation of the MEXT letter. I contacted several national university professors and experts on higher education in Japan and elicited a range of responses. Some Japanese professors declined to comment while others said that it is hard to predict the outcome of the reform proposals because it is not clear what MEXT intends or how universities will respond. Education ‘big bangs’ in the past have fizzled over time, so it will take time to assess the actual consequences.

Following numerous denunciations of the June directive from across the domestic spectrum, Education Minister Shimomura Hakubun explained at a news conference in late July, “We do not mean to treat the studies of humanities lightly. We also do not put special priority just on fields of practical sciences that immediately become useful in society.” 4 But, this rhetorical concession has not altered the reality of looming budget cuts that will force significant changes and a lingering anxiety that HSS remains in the crosshairs of Abe’s educational reforms for political reasons.

Minister of Education Shimomura Hakubun
In 2015 the government also tabled legislation that will concentrate all decision-making power in university presidents’ hands while downgrading the role of faculty councils, a major shift from the current situation that is consistent with what Keidanren, a big business federation, has lobbied for.5 Currently the faculty is in charge of hiring new faculty and appointing department heads, but that power would shift to the president, who also stands to gain greater control of discretionary funding in the form of MEXT block grants. This reform is aimed at weakening the power of professors and making it easier to impose reforms from above that they have been resisting.

Structural Impetus for Reform
How bad are the budget cuts? Between 2001 and 2009, basic subsidies for national universities dropped nearly one third, while support for basic expenditures out of total allocations dropped from 86% in FY 2001 to 71% in 2009, marking a shift to competitive resource allocation that favors universities that meet MEXT performance criteria.6 In 2014 the OECD found that Japan’s public expenditures on higher education amounted to 0.5% of GDP, lowest in the OECD, compared to an average of 1.1% among member nations.7

The reforms are also driven by private university lobbying and grim prospects for enrollments and government finances. Currently about 40% of the nation’s private universities are not meeting their quotas for enrollments as the pool of high school graduates is shrinking. In addition, only half of Japan’s high school graduates enter universities (excluding junior colleges), well below the OECD average of 62% and far below Australia where more than 90% do so and South Korea where the university enrollment rate for high school graduates is 82%.

So with a shrinking population and a low enrollment rate, some of Japan’s numerous universities are facing dire times. The number of 18 years olds has plunged from 2 million in 1990 to 1.5 million in 2000 and 1.2 million in 2010, a demographic time bomb that is hitting many lower ranked universities hard, intensifying stiff competition among the best universities for the best candidates. Private universities complain that they enroll nearly 80% of freshmen undergraduates while national universities get nearly 80% of government funding for education. This disparity is the source of vigorous lobbying by private universities to spread the funding more equitably and to downsize national universities, a pitch that plays well with a conservative government eager to cut budgets and rely more on the private sector. In addition, given demographic trends there is an oversupply of universities in Japan with 86 national universities, 90 universities run by prefectures or municipalities, and 606 private institutions, so consolidation is inevitable. And, so is intensified marketing aimed at convincing students of the merits of particular programs with increasing emphasis on where a degree will lead.

Stifling Dissent
Reforming Japan’s universities may indeed require bold initiatives, and everything I have read, and everyone I contacted, suggests that much is amiss in these institutions. Indeed, the international reputation of Japanese higher education is dismal, mirroring domestic perceptions that university is a four-year hiatus, often dubbed “leisure land”. Such disparaging assessments are the kindling of reformist impulses, but many of those I contacted see this as an attack on the academy and academic freedom in the guise of reform. Indeed, stifling dissent under the pretext of reform is a longstanding concern as politicization “of Japan's youth is a source of uneasiness for the government. The government fears that those who receive a university education will become supporters of opposition political parties. This fear is not without basis.” (Kitamura and Cummings 1972)

Red Army Protestors in 1960s
Those sentiments expressed in the wake of the widespread and often violent protests by university students in the 1960s resonate decades later among conservatives who remain wary of politically engaged students even though contemporary student demonstrators embrace moderate tactics in order to mainstream their message about protecting liberal democratic values and constitutionalism. The point is that conservatives prefer a quiescent citizenry, and are content with low voter participation rates and a tame democracy because it gives them a free hand. Demonstrators in recent months have been targeting PM Abe because they see him as a threat to Japanese democracy and pacifism, earning the ire of authorities. It is emblematic of conservative attitudes that Ishiba Shigeru, then LDP secretary general, said that demonstrators against the controversial state secrets legislation in December 2012 should be arrested as ‘terrorists’, even though they were only exercising their democratic rights in a peaceful manner and opinion polls indicated that nearly 80% of the public agreed with them. The students involved then in Students Against Secret Protection Law (SASPL) are now the core of Students Emergency Action for Liberal Democracy (SEALDs) and remain committed to revitalizing democracy. It is in this context that there is deep distrust regarding the political agenda of Team Abe’s educational reforms targeting HSS.

This past August, Sawa Takamitsu, President of Shiga University, a national university, condemned the reforms in his Japan Times column, drawing a parallel to the wartime exemption from conscription accorded to students in natural sciences and pointing out that Kishi Nobuske, Abe’s grandfather and prime minister from 1957-1960, also favored science and practical training. (Sawa 2015a) Sawa argues that the recent reform which targets HSS is a big mistake, pointing out that, “A majority of Japanese political, bureaucratic and business leaders today are still those who studied the humanities and social sciences. This is because those who studied these subjects have superior faculties of thinking, judgment and expression, which are required of political, bureaucratic and business leaders. And the foundation for these faculties is a robust critical spirit.” But perhaps this critical spirit is exactly what troubles Japan’s conservative leaders.

Echoing Sawa, Nakano Koichi, a political scientist at Sophia University, describes the proposed reforms as, “an utter disaster. Liberal arts education is what Japan needs more of, not less.” He adds, “There is also something even more politically ominous about the move—that the government may be trying to silence academic opposition to its policies by threatening and undermining the subject areas that produce and hire those critical voices.” Indeed, HSS faculty constitute the vast majority of signatories of a scholar’s petition opposing Abe’s security legislation and have been prominent at rallies protesting the unconstitutionality of the laws.

Are reactionary forces imposing their agenda from the commanding heights of power and targeting those most critical of their agenda? Relatively few of the roughly 300 core members of SEALDs who have taken to the streets to protest PM Abe’s security legislation, are students at national universities, but most are in the humanities and social sciences. With their social media savvy, they have inspired similar protests all over the nation, mobilizing well over a million protestors since June, designing open access placard designs that like-minded groups can print out at any convenience store across the archipelago. This “conbeni revolution” takes advantage of social media and the extensive convenience store infrastructure to launch street protests by likeminded local citizens who find inspiration in SEALDs effort to revitalize democracy precisely because they agree that politics is too important to be monopolized by today’s motley crew of politicians.

Downsizing HSS is seen as an attack on Japanese democracy
While liberals, including the older generation, support these students for acting as the conscience of society and highlighting the power of principles and ideals, conservatives view them as inconvenient troublemakers. Seeing them in action and at press conferences, however, it is striking how poised and articulate they are with the ability to initiate, improvise and motivate. Moreover, they demonstrate excellent cross-cultural communication, marketing and design skills. Surely they are exactly the kind of people Japan needs more of, embodying the virtues of a liberal arts education.

Higher education at its best prioritizes critical thinking and preparing students to engage in an increasingly globalized workplace, hence business executives are also dismayed about plans to marginalize HSS. Interestingly, Keidanren, the Japanese business lobby, took issue with MEXT, saying that its emphasis on science and vocational skills is misguided and “exactly the opposite” of what employers want. In its September 9 statement, Keidanren emphasized the value of HSS and the importance of liberal arts education for future employees, imbuing them with problem-solving skills and the ability to understand other cultures and societies. Indeed, in June 2013 Keidanren made a proposal for fostering global talent, writing “it is necessary to enhance liberal arts education for better training of global citizens.”8

It also called for more interdisciplinary studies to break down barriers between HSS and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), expanded overseas student exchanges and international collaboration, introduction of a gap year for students to broaden their experience and perspectives, and improvement in English skills and teaching capabilities of educators. Apparently Keidanren felt that critics of MEXT were blaming employers for pushing the latest reforms towards a utilitarian education and sought to clarify that it fully supports HSS.9

In September, the Society for Japanese Linguistics also weighed in against the new reform, lamenting the utilitarian bias and failure to discern the importance of what is being lost. While acknowledging the value of scientific advances, the Society points out the necessity of harnessing them for the good of society. The atomic bomb was cited as an example of how technology can threaten the existence of mankind, highlighting the critical need for honing knowledge aimed at harnessing such developments. In defending the diversity of academic communities, the Society asserts that the humanities are essential to realize and protect the richness of civilization. In July the Science Council of Japan, a national organization of some 2,000 scientists, also expressed “profound concern over the potentially grave impact” of the MEXT directive, saying that, “Any disparagement of the HSS may result in higher education in Japan losing its richness.” The Science Council calls for maintaining liberal arts education because it promotes critical thinking, nurtures “global human resources” and promotes understanding of, “the human and social, contexts within which scientific knowledge operates.”

Foreign firms in Japan often lament that it’s hard to recruit suitable employees because most candidates lack strong critical thinking skills, have poor English and are overly passive, waiting for instructions rather than taking the initiative. Liberal arts education is no panacea, but downplaying its role in university education is more likely to exacerbate than rectify such deficiencies.

Linda Grove, professor emeritus at Sophia University and program advisor at the Social Science Research Council, believes the emphasis on science is based on a “mistaken belief “that this will somehow”…fit graduates better for the job market. They forget that the aim of education is not just to match people to jobs, but to educate people for a more fulfilling life and also to be responsible citizens in a democracy.” Certainly, she adds, “science alone is not going to save the world. We need the social sciences and humanities to …help identify problems, and to search for solutions--some of which may be technical, but others of which will be related to changing systems, organizations and institutions.”

Shirahase Sawako, a professor of sociology at the University of Tokyo, notes that fiscal and demographic pressures are generating impetus for budget cuts and reform. In her opinion, MEXT seeks immediate tangible results in terms of educational outcomes and job placement, and is shifting and cutting budget allocations accordingly. Shirahase says, “We have to raise our voices and let them know that the current pressure on higher education, particularly humanities and social sciences, is irrational and wrong.” Since MEXT seeks to prepare youth to enter the “globally competitive arena” and emphasizes international education, HSS, in her opinion, remains essential. In poignant understatement she avers, “Sociology does matter a lot for contemporary Japan, and in fact we face quite a few social problems now.”

Global Perspectives
At the mid-September British Association of Japanese Studies conference in London, British academics were not especially sympathetic to the concerns I raised about the downsizing of HSS in Japan, pointing out that MEXT reforms are mild and limited compared to the far more draconian budget cuts enacted in the UK where academics are groaning under paper work and expanding administrative hierarchies making excessive, time wasting and often pointless demands that detract from the key task of teaching students, conducting research and producing scholarship. The drudgery, endless assessments and Taylorism that now prevails in UK universities sounds quite grim, but gives me new admiration for the scholars who remain productive despite such unfavorable conditions.

Assessing the war on the humanities currently being waged by the conservative Cameron government, a Guardian article earlier this year came out swinging, “Higher education is stuffed with overpaid administrators squeezing every ounce of efficiency out of lecturers and focusing on the ‘profitable’ areas of science, technology, engineering and maths.” (Preston 2015) He adds, “our universities are under attack by an austerity-obsessed government looking to maintain the excellence of our institutions at a fraction of the cost. The dictates of the market economy have been unleashed … and academics wear the haunted looks of the terminally battle-scarred.” In this brave new world, “the onus is on academics to “monetise” their activities, to establish financial values for their “outputs,” and to justify their existence according to the remorseless and nightmarish logic of the markets.” He quotes an academic who acerbically notes, “Every dean needs his vice-dean and sub-dean and each of them needs a management team, secretaries, admin staff; all of them only there to make it harder for us to teach, to research, to carry out the most basic functions of our jobs.” Preston laments that “The humanities, whose products are necessarily less tangible and effable than their science and engineering peers (and less readily yoked to the needs of the corporate world) have been an easy target for this sprawling new management class.”

Max Nisen (2013) writes about the ongoing war against HSS in the US, resulting in, “a generation of students who get out of school and don't know how to write well or express themselves clearly.” He cites a study that argues students majoring in liberal arts fields see "significantly higher gains in critical thinking, complex reasoning, and writing skills over time than students in other fields of study."(Arum and Josipa, 2011)

Similarly, a 2013 study by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS) entitled The Heart of the Matter makes a strong case for HSS by detailing the massive benefits in terms of educational outcomes and the heavy costs to society by downplaying HSS. In a call to arms it asserts that, “As we strive to create a more civil public discourse, a more adaptable and creative workforce, and a more secure nation, the humanities and social sciences are the heart of the matter, the keeper of the republic—a source of national memory and civic vigor, cultural understanding and communication, individual fulfillment and the ideals we hold in common.” (AAS 2013) As Nisen concludes, “De-emphasizing, de-funding, and demonizing the humanities means that students don't get trained well in the things that are the hardest to teach once at a job: thinking and writing clearly.“

Plus ca Change?
Writing back in 1972, two education specialists wrote, “Japan seems destined to a future of low quality higher education until some truly great shock shakes the very foundations of Japanese society and challenges all concerned to face the dismal realities.” (Kitamura and Cummings 1972, 324) Apparently such a great shock has not yet occurred and the “bold” prediction has stood the test of time, but the momentum created by the 2004 reforms, pushing national universities to become more self-reliant, sustained by fiscal cutbacks and declining population, is having an impact on the business of education. (Christensen 2011) In 2004 all the national universities were transformed into independent administrative entities, faced annual 1% budget cuts, and government grants were adjusted based on performance. The 2004 reforms introduced annual reporting requirements, granted universities greater discretion over use of government funds, and gave presidents more leeway to set priorities. (ibid.)

Bruce Stronach, Dean of Temple University and former president of Yokohama City University, thinks that the MEXT directive might serve a useful purpose, pointing out that many universities are in dire need of sweeping reforms to improve education and better prepare students for the demands of the 21st century. Traditionally, he says, “faculty saw themselves as intellectuals and not necessarily as educators. That attitude among the faculty of holier than thou and a belief that the unworldly as good, persists in the arts and humanities although it is in decline.” In this system, “students could go through university basically doing nothing …because companies spent years educating and training them once they became company employees. As long as that was the case no one had to really worry about the practical nature of university education.” However, “… rapid advances in technology, communications and science created a greater and greater need for specialization, and as financial problems cut down on life-time employment and corporate education, budget adjustments had to be made.”

In his view, “What is necessary today are the critical thinking, communication with others, diversity, flexibility, lifelong learning, IT etc., skills that will help us cope with the rapidity of changes on a global scale and in a global context and in a global language. Like it or not that is the world we live in and education has to prepare people for life in that world.”

He adds, “If the attempt is to eliminate the arts and humanities at national universities then that is obviously a horrible policy. I say if because it isnot clear to me that is the real intent here. When Japanese talk about global human resource development that means creating graduates who are able to communicate, understand and deal comfortably with others unlike them. In order to do that they have to blend what are traditional elements of the liberal arts into their curricula. This is a recognized component of MEXT policy, and they have spent one helluva lot of money doing just that. So, I think it is too simple to say that they are trying to kill the humanities and arts as there is a tremendous amount of evidence to demonstrate that they are trying to instill what is essentially an international, liberal arts based educational philosophy and pedagogy in Japanese universities.” Yet, he also believes there is a political dimension: “I think they are trying to forcefully reform HSS because these are the faculty members most resistant to reform in the university over the past 10 years.” The aim is thus to improve education, better prepare students and to shift power from the faculty to the administration.

The government has not backed down despite the negative backlash. Philip Seaton, a professor of history at Hokkaido University’s International Student Center and convenor of the Modern Japanese Studies Program (a bilingual bachelor's degree in which students are required to take courses on Japanese history, culture, society and political economy in both English and Japanese to graduate), is remarkably well informed about the MEXT reforms and how his university is adjusting to the new realities. Like Stronach, he is unconvinced by caricatures of the reforms as a barbaric assault on the humanities and academic freedom, pointing out that some universities are responding to the trends in post-2004 educational reforms by establishing new faculties and programs that meet MEXT criteria, serve students and seek to boost student enrolments and revenues. From this perspective, MEXT is nudging universities to undertake overdue reforms that are in their own interests in a climate of declining student numbers and educational budgets.

Seaton argues that, “There is a big difference between universities at which the humanities/social sciences (HSS) play a key role in other strategic goals and universities at which the HSS are relatively isolated. For example, when HSS are central to an in-bound degree program or international student exchange program (which contributes to internationalization and/or rankings strategies) they are not in danger of being cut. But, if the departments are providing education mostly to Japanese students and enrollment is declining, then pressures to reorganize are somewhat inevitable.”

Nonetheless, “blanket targeting of HSS is short-sighted. Even if the bigger universities retain their departments, in a country with such a rich history and culture, treating HSS as peripheral is very “uncultured". However, “On a more practical level (which the government is keen to stress), a key growth area for academic research is interdisciplinary research covering science and the humanities, such as digital art, care technologies for an aging population that take into account their lifestyle preferences, and debates over the ethics of new technology. For these and other areas, a vibrant academic sector in universities big and small researching humanities and social sciences is important.”

Thus he asserts, universities must strategically respond to the new situation: “The challenge for HSS departments in Japan is to internationalize and make themselves more globally relevant by targeting their research at a global audience. Then they will become central to a key policy of the Japanese government, namely getting more Japanese universities into the group of the world’s top institutions according to rankings.” Essentially universities need to make HSS relevant to an internationalization strategy or reorganize departments into interdisciplinary entities with the natural sciences to attract more students, raise tuition revenues and attract government funding. According to Seaton and Stronach, such reforms could actually strengthen HSS, attract greater numbers of students for these courses and improve educational opportunities for graduates. But for some of Japan’s numerous national universities, some operating at only 50% capacity, this might be the beginning of an accelerated decline if they can’t boost enrollments and revenues at a time when MEXT subsidies are declining.

President Sawa at Shiga University recently announced that his institution will launch a new department of data science to “ train data scientists who will not only be equipped with professional knowledge of statistics and informatics but will also be capable of communicating with businesspeople, civil servants, journalists, medical doctors and schoolteachers, and of creating new values. This university department will become the first one in Japan aimed at nurturing future-oriented talents who will be equipped with “true scholastic ability” consisting of the faculties of thinking, judgment and expression through the learning of languages, mathematics and data science in a well-balanced manner.” (Sawa 2015b) This appears to be an interdisciplinary endeavor responding to market needs that highlights a role for HSS in conjunction with data science and enables the university to reallocate rather than retrench existing faculty and staff.

Another academic involved in launching a new reform-driven initiative at his national university points out that MEXT emphasis on globalization opens opportunities for preserving HSS. Preferring anonymity and asking that I not go into specifics, he explained that some existing departments are being reconstituted and rebranded as a new undergraduate program from 2017 that appeals to government priorities, but requires minimal changes in faculty and curriculum. A new related interdisciplinary MA program will be launched from 2019 and, because it “contributes to rankings by internationalizing the student population, should require the hiring of a few more international staff, and will get the entire faculty looking more outwards.” This will address MEXT demands and, he argues, put needed pressure on deadwood faculty who have gotten by in contributing the obligatory article a year to the university journal. He thinks getting these colleagues to ”up their game” will not only secure a better ranking, but improve educational opportunities, attract good new students and boost scholarly engagement.

Conclusion
Thus it appears that some universities are responding creatively and productively to the new MEXT reform in ways that will sustain HSS, save jobs and help universities stay relevant and solvent. But in the Abe era when the government is imposing a conservative ideological agenda across the policy spectrum, there are good reasons why the political aspect of reform, and the potential harm to HSS, remains a source of deep concern to liberals, intellectuals, students and pro-democracy activists. They suspect that the real targets of this reform are university departments that nurture appreciation for liberal democratic values, hence endangering democracy. In this respect, the Abe epoch presents a target rich environment for liberal activists, but it remains to be seen whether the educational reforms will spark demonstrations and activists’ ire. So far SEALDs has not weighed in on this debate and instead has focused for good reason on the urgent issues of security legislation aimed at undermining constitutional constraints on the military. Now that these bills have passed the Diet and they shift priorities to mobilizing voters for the upper house elections in 2016 targeting conservative politicians, this may change. Since informed and engaged citizens are essential to democracy, the implications of Abe’s higher education reforms could prove detrimental.

At this point it is too soon to draw conclusions about the proposed educational reforms because the impact will only begin to become apparent from 2016 when universities’ responses take effect. Early reports that many universities are complying to some extent with the government directive regarding HSS are not surprising given MEXT’s power of the purse, but there are also signs that the repercussions may prove significant. Of particular significance is whether the innovative reforms discussed above will improve the poor level of education that currently prevails at too many Japanese universities.


Related articles
• Robin O’Day, Differentiating SEALDs from Freeters, and Precariats: the politics of youth movements in contemporary Japan

• David Slater, Robin O’Day, Satsuki Uno, Love Kindstrand and Chiharu Takano, SEALDs (Students Emergency Action for Liberal Democracy): Research Note on Contemporary Youth Politics in Japan

• Tawara Yoshifumi, The Abe Government and the 2014 Screening of Japanese Junior High School History Textbooks

• Koide Reiko, Critical New Stage in Japan’s Textbook Controversy

• Nozaki Yoshihiko and Mark Selden “Japanese Textbook Controversies, Nationalism, and Historical Memory: Intra- and Inter-national Conflicts.”

• Ishiyama Hisao Japanese Textbooks Censored to Support US Wars

References

Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS) (2013) “The Heart of the Matter”

Arum, Robert and Josipa Roksa (2011) Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses. (University of Chicago Press)

Christensen, Tom (2011) “Japanese University Reform — Hybridity in Governance and Management”, Higher Education Policy, 24, (127–142).

Kitamura, Kazuyuki and William K. Cummings, (1972) “The "Big Bang" Theory and Japanese University Reform” Comparative Education Review, Vol. 16, No. 2, University Reform (June), pp. 303-324

Nisen, Max. (2013) “The War Against Humanities”Business Insider.

Preston, Alex. (2015) “The war against humanities at Britain's Universities”, The Guardian March 29.

Sawa, Takamitsu, (2015a) “Humanities under Attack”Japan Times

Sawa, Takamitsu, (2015b) “Big data and the building of ‘true scholastic ability’ “, Japan Times

Notes

1 For a succinct summary of various recent higher education reforms in Japan see here. MEXT National University Reform Plan.

2 See here. The poster refers to an article in Japanese by Suzuki Kan, Special Advisor to Japan’s education minister.

3 In the Times Higher Education 2013 World University Rankings, only five Japanese universities ranked in the top 200 — University of Tokyo (23rd), Kyoto University (52nd), Tokyo Institute of Technology (125th), Osaka University (144th) and Tohoku University (150th).

4 See here.

5 See here.

6 See here.

7 See here.

8 See here.

9 See here.

07:10 Reception for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and his wife. Dinner meeting hosted by Prime Minister and his wife
08:28 See off Secretary-General Ban and his wife

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

AM
12:00 At official residence (no visitors)
07:23 Depart from official residence
07:25 Arrive at office

07:30 Meet with Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Seko Hiroshige
08:25 End meeting with Mr. Seko
08:28 Cabinet Meeting begins
08:35 Cabinet Meeting ends
08:53 Depart from office
08:55 Arrive at Diet
08:56 Enter Upper House Committee Room No. 1
08:58 Speak with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Aso Taro
09:00 Finish speaking with Mr. Aso
09:01 Upper House Budget Committee opens
11:54 Upper House Budget Committee recess
11:55 Leave room
11:57 Depart from Diet
11:59 Arrive at office

PM
12:31 Meet with Administrative Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Nagamine Yasumasa and Ministry of Finance (MOF)’s Director-General of International Bureau Asakawa Masatsugu
12:54 End meeting with Mr. Nagamine and Mr. Asakawa
12:55 Depart from office
12:56 Arrive at Diet
12:58 Enter Upper House Committee Room No. 1
01:00 Upper House Budget Committee reopens
04:53 Upper House Budget Committee adjourns
04:54 Leave room
04:56 Depart from Diet
04:57 Arrive at office
05:18 Attend the Conference on Promoting Direct Investment into Japan
05:55 Conference ends
05:56 Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA)’s Vice-Minister Saiki Akitaka and Director-General of Disarmament, Non-Proliferation and Science Department Hikihara Takeshi enter
06:14 Mr. Hikihara leaves
06:20 Mr. Saiki leaves
06:33 Depart from office
06:34 Arrive at official residence
06:49 Receive courtesy call from former President of the United States Bill Clinton. Commemorative photo session. Former Prime Minister of Japan Mori Yoshiro and resident U.S. Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy also attend
06:50 Commemorative photo session ends
06:51 Dinner meeting with former President Clinton
08:16 Dinner meeting ends

08:17 See off former President Clinton
08:21 Finish seeing off former President Clinton

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

AM
12:00 At official residence (no visitors)
08:00 At official residence (no morning visitors)
08:45 Depart from official residence
08:46 Arrive at office
08:53 Meet with Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Seko Hiroshige
09:42 End meeting with Mr. Seko
09:53 Depart from office
09:55 Arrive at Diet
09:56 Enter Upper House Committee Room No. 1
09:57 Speak with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Aso Taro
09:59 Finish speaking with Mr. Aso
10:00 Upper House Budget Committee opens
11:59 Upper House Budget Committee recess

PM
12:00 Leave Upper House Committee Room No. 1
12:02 Depart from Diet
12:03 Arrive at office
12:54 Depart from office
12:56 Arrive at Diet
12:57 Enter Upper House Committee Room No. 1
01:01 Upper House Budget Committee reopens
04:12 Upper House Budget Committee adjourns
04:13 Leave room
04:14 Depart from Diet
04:16 Arrive at office
04:20 Meet with Director of Cabinet Intelligence Kitamura Shigeru
04:49 End meeting with Mr. Kitamura
05:34 Depart from office
05:51 Arrive at Waseda University in Nishi-Waseda, Tokyo. Attend the JFK Symposium, “The Torch Has Been Passed: JFK’s Legacy Today”, deliver a speech
06:57 Depart from Waseda University
07:19 Arrive at official residence. Dinner meeting with Lower House Budget Committee’s Chairman Oshima Tadamori, Director Moriyama Hiroshi, and other colleagues. Cabinet Chief Secretary Suga Hiroshige and Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Kato Katsunobu also attend
08:29 Everyone leaves

Thursday, March 19, 2015

AM
12:00 At official residence (no visitors)
08:00 At official residence (no morning visitors)
09:14 Depart from official residence
09:15 Arrive at office
09:16 Interview open to all media: When asked “How will the government respond to the Bardo National Museum terrorist attack in Tunisia?”, Mr. Abe answers “terrorism cannot be tolerated. In the future we will deepen cooperation with international community and do everything we can in the fight against terrorism.”
09:17 Interview ends
09:19 Meet with LDP Lower House member Nukaga Fukushiro
09:39 End meeting with Mr. Nukaga
09:51 Receive a courtesy call from next generation Latin American leaders of Japanese Descent
10:05 Courtesy call ends
10:35 Receive a courtesy call from the winners of the High School Speech Contest on the Northern Territories
10:42 Courtesy call ends
11:10 Meet with Parliamentary Vice-Minister of Cabinet Office Koizumi Shinjiro
11:36 End meeting with Mr. Koizumi
11:37 Meet with LDP Secretary-General Tanigaki Sadakazu

PM
12:11 End meeting with Mr. Tanigaki
12:47 Meet with Minister of State for Disaster Management Yamatani Eriko
01:12 End meeting with Ms. Eriko
01:13 Meet with Mr. Tanigaki and Secretary-General of New Komeito Inoue Yoshihisa
01:37 End meeting with Mr. Tanigaki and Mr. Inoue
01:38 Meet with Vice-Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications Oishi Toshio
02:00 End meeting with Mr. Oishi
02:36 Depart from office
02:44 Arrive at Imperial Hotel in Uchisaiwai-cho, Tokyo. Attend the 121st Annual General Meeting of the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) in banquet hall Fuji within hotel, deliver address
03:07 Depart from hotel
03:12 Arrive at office
03:13 Meet with Minister of State for Special Missions Arimura Haruko and Cabinet Office Director-General for Policies on Cohesive Society Takegawa Mitsuo
03:20 End meeting with Ms. Arimura and Mr. Takegawa
03:48 Receive a courtesy call from Mrs. Michelle Obama, First Lady of the United States of America
04:09 Courtesy call ends

04:34 Receive a courtesy call from Harvard University graduate students
04:43 Courtesy call ends
04:48 Meet with MOFA’s Director-General of Foreign Policy Bureau Hiramatsu Kenji, MOD’s Director-General of Bureau of Defense Policy Kuroe Tetsuro and Chief of Staff for Joint Staff Council Kawano Katsutoshi
05:18 End meeting with Mr. Hiramatsu, Mr. Kuroe, and Mr. Kawano
05:34 Attend the13th meeting of the Council on National Strategic Special Zones
06:01 Meeting ends
06:02 Meet with Minister for Foreign Affairs Kishida Fumio, Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Saiki Akitaka, MOFA’s Administrative Vice-Minister Sugiyama Shinsuke, and Director-General of Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau Ihara Junichi
06:34 End meeting with Mr. Kishida, Mr. Saiki, Mr. Sugiyama, and Mr. Ihara
06:35 Meet with LDP Lower House member Kawai Katsuyuki
06:50 End meeting with Mr. Kawai
06:58 Arrive at izakaya Umaizo in Akasaka, Tokyo. Dinner meeting with Yomiuri Shimbun’s Director of Politics Bureau Tanaka Takayuki and colleagues
09:38 Depart from izakaya
09:59 Arrive at private residence in Tomigaya, Tokyo



Friday, March 20, 2015

AM
12:00 At private residence (no visitors)
07:03 Depart from private residence in Tomigaya, Tokyo
07:15 Arrive at office
07:19 Meet with Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Seko Hiroshige
08:05 End meeting with Mr. Seko
08:08 Cabinet Meeting begins
08:25 Cabinet Meeting ends

08:53 Depart from office
08:55 Arrive at Diet
08:56 Enter Upper House Committee Room No. 1
08:57 Speak with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Aso Taro and Minister of Defense Nakatani Gen
08:59 Finish speaking with Mr. Aso and Mr. Nakatani
09:00 Upper House Budget Committee opens

11:55 Upper House Budget Committee recess
11:56 Leave room

11:57 Depart from Diet

PM
12:01 Arrive at subway Kasumigaseki Station in Kasumigaseki, Tokyo. Offer flowers for those who perished in the sarin gas attack on Tokyo's subway system.
12:04 Interview open to all media: When asked “Twenty years have passed since the sarin gas attack on Tokyo's subway system. What thought did you hold when you offered flowers today?” Mr. Abe answers “I want to express my condolences for all who perished and my sympathies to bereaved family members and those who are suffering from the after-effects of the gas.”
12:05 Interview ends
12:07 Depart from station
12:09 Arrive at office
12:54 Depart from office

12:55 Arrive at Diet
12:57 Enter Upper House Committee Room No. 1
01:00 Upper House Budget Committee reopens
05:11 Upper House Budget Committee adjourns
05:12 Leave room

05:14 Depart from Diet
05:16 Arrive at office
05:21 Meet with Director of Cabinet Intelligence Kitamura Shigeru
05:46 End meeting with Mr. Kitamura
06:08 Attend the motivational ceremony for the FY2015 Regional Vitalization Personnel Support System, deliver address. Commemorative photo session
06:24 Commemorative photo session ends.
06:25 Depart from office
06:26 Arrive at official residence

Saturday, March 21, 2015

AM
12:00 At official residence (no visitors)
09:21 Depart from official residence

09:29 Arrive at Imperial Palace. Attend the Spring Korei-sai Festival and the Spring Shinden-sai Festival
10:53 Depart from Imperial Palace
10:59 Arrive at official residence

PM
01:01 Depart from official residence
01:09 Arrive at hotel Grand Hyatt Tokyo in Roppongi, Tokyo. Exercise at NAGOMI Spa and Fitness within hotel
03:15 Depart from hotel

03:25 Arrive at official residence

Sunday, March 22, 2015

AM
12:00 At official residence (no visitors)
09:16 Depart from official residence
09:17 Arrive at office
09:22 Depart from Kantei rooftop heliport on Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (JGSDF) helicopter
09:40 Arrive at National Defense Academy (NDA) in Yokosuka City, Kanagawa Prefecture
09:52 Speak with Minister of Defense Nakatani Gen, President of NDA Kokubun Ryosei, and colleagues in main building reception office
10:03 Finish speaking with Mr. Nakatani, Mr. Kokubun, and colleagues
10:13 NDA Graduation Ceremony commences in auditorium

PM
12:30 Graduation Ceremony closes
12:43 Lunch meeting with Mr. Nakatani, Mr. Kokubun, and colleagues in NDA President’s Reception Office
01:07 Lunch meeting ends
01:11 Appointment and Oath Ceremony in auditorium
01:20 Ceremony ends
01:29 Depart from Defense Academy on JGSDF helicopter
01:46 Arrive at Kantei rooftop heliport
01:50 Depart from office
02:09 Arrive at private residence in Tomigaya, Tokyo

Provisional Translation by: Erin M. Jones and Lu Pengqiao

BY DAVID MCNEILL, writes for The Independent, The Economist and other publications. He is co-author of Strong in the Rain, a collection of survivors’ stories from Japan’s 2011 Tohoku disaster and is an APP member.

SPECIAL TO THE JAPAN TIMES, AUG 15, 2015

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in April delivered a speech to the U.S. Congress — the first by a Japanese leader — that lauded deepening trade ties and the military alliance with the United States.

The speech, carefully tuned for his U.S. audience, cast Abe as a defender of strong democratic principles, a leader with “deep repentance” in his heart for the “lost dreams of young Americans” who died fighting Japan in World War II.

Conspicuously missing, writes veteran Japan watcher Gavan McCormack, was any mention of the core Abe values that Congress could hardly be expected to share: “take back Japan,” “cast off the postwar regime” and revise the U.S.-imposed Constitution; teach “correct” history to make the country’s youth proud and “revere the spirits of Japan’s war dead,” including those convicted by the Allies as war criminals.

Such views are deeply controversial outside Japan but, 70 years after the end of the war, they appear to hold sway among a remarkably large number of the nation’s political class. About a third of the Diet and well over half of Abe’s Cabinet support them. All are members of the parliamentary league of Japan Conference (Nippon Kaigi), arguably the country’s most powerful nationalist lobby group. Abe is its “special adviser.”

Japan Conference’s charter lists six key goals: respect the Imperial Family as the center of Japanese life; nurture patriotism; promote a new Constitution “based on our nation’s true characteristics”; protect the sovereignty and honor of the nation’s independence; nurture young people to grow up with pride and love for their nation; and establish a strong army and promote the nation’s status in the global community.

In practice, says Yoshifumi Tawara, who heads a small nonprofit organization called Children and Textbooks Japan Network 21 that monitors the group, this is a shopping list of revisionist causes: applaud Japan’s wartime campaign to “liberate” Asia from Western colonialism; rebuild the armed forces; instill patriotism among students brainwashed by “left-wing” teachers; and revere the Emperor as he was worshipped until the calamity of Japan’s defeat in World War II.

“(Japan Conference members) have trouble accepting the reality that Japan lost the war,” says Setsu Kobayashi, a leading constitutional scholar and former Japan Conference member.

Kobayashi says the group is run by people who want to bring back much of Japan’s pre-war Meiji Constitution, before it was scrapped during the American-led Occupation between 1945 and 1952. Some are descendants of the people who started the war, he says.

Japan Conference’s supporters say the liberal Constitution has emasculated Japan. Many despise the “victor’s justice” meted out by the Americans, and the pacifist clause that neutered the country’s armed forces. In Abe, they have a prime minister who is considered one of their own, says Tomomi Yamaguchi, an anthropologist at Montana State University who studies the group.

Japan Conference has 242 local chapters (in addition to 47 prefectural headquarters), around 38,000 fee-paying members and a network that reaches deep into the government. Its members or affiliates include the former heads of large corporations, university presidents, Self-Defense Force chiefs of staffs, several party chiefs and at least one former chief justice, who chaired the group for several years.

Despite this impressive firepower, determining the group’s exact influence is difficult. The country’s media mostly shy away from covering it, says Tamotsu Sugano, a journalist and researcher.

Sugano believes Japan Conference’s most important achievement has been to unite right-wing movements under a like-minded program.

“Throughout 40 years of history,” Sugano says, “it has been sending almost the same message and focusing on the same priority: educating the young generation.”

Japan Conference’s signature drives have helped pass laws and legal changes in local councils and in the Diet, Yamaguchi says. It has helped banish much of what it calls “left-wing” teaching from schools and has brought back the tradition of singing the national anthem and standing for the Hinomaru flag. A key supporter is former Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara, who mandated punishment for teachers who refuse stand, face the flag and sing the anthem during school ceremonies.

A decade ago, Japan Conference collected 3.6 million signatures demanding revisions to the education law that would make it compulsory to teach children patriotism. Most of its current energies are aimed at getting 10 million to sign for a national referendum on revising the Constitution. It also wants to remove the pacifist clause, Article 9, and, instead, enshrine supposedly traditional family values in it. A draft of a new charter drawn up by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party in 2013 reflects much of Japan Conference’s agenda.

The group gives nationalists in China and South Korea an excuse to claim that Japanese militarism is on the rise again. It wants Abe to continue to visit Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine, though such pilgrimages are seen in much of Asia as an endorsement of the country’s wartime leaders and their war aims. Abe triggered a major diplomatic row when he last went in 2013. Japan Conference’s growing political heft is partly credited with increasingly unabashed displays of allegiance to the shrine — a record 168 Diet members visited during the spring festival of 2013.

Unsurprisingly, this project of national self-love beautifies the ugly past. Japan Conference’s members reject what they call the country’s apology diplomacy and say the historical account of the 1937 Nanking Massacre, when Japanese troops sacked the Chinese city, is exaggerated or fabricated. Supporters have campaigned against anything that shows Japan’s wartime behavior in a bad light, bombarding exhibitions on war crimes, for example, with petitions and phone calls.

Tessa Morris Suzuki, a professor of modern Japanese history at Australian National University, calls Japan Conference a “really well-coordinated network.”

“I am just enormously concerned about the way Japan is going,” Suzuki says. “The Abe administration doesn’t think there was anything wrong with what Japan did in the war — they just think it was unfortunate that they lost.”

Much of the far-right agenda in Japan slips past American politicians, she says.

“They don’t really see how this will play out in East Asia because they need the U.S. bases (in Japan),” she says.

A closely allied group is the Shinto Association of Spiritual Leadership. In the late 19th century, the country’s oldest religion, Shinto, was reinvented as a tool of state, serving as an ideology that helped mobilize Japanese to fight wars in the Emperor’s name.

In 2007, lobbying by the association and Japan Conference helped to persuade the government to restore April 29 as a national holiday. It was previously observed before 1989 as wartime monarch Hirohito’s birthday.

Even opponents are impressed at how radical conservatives have quietly transformed the landscape of Japanese politics. Japan Conference members, however, are believed to be frustrated with the slow pace of change.

“We are simply trying to make Japan a normal country,” says Yoshiko Sakurai, a leading supporter. That means possessing a strong economy and military, as well as a proud citizenry, she says.

It remains to be seen how far this project will go. Despite the fact that nobody had shown deeper hostility to the postwar state forged by the Americans in 1945-52 than Abe, McCormack says, Washington has turned a blind eye to his revisionism. In return, Abe has pursued a dream long cherished by both sides: shrugging off the country’s pacifist shackles and deepening the military alliance with America.

According to Tawara, that could be a costly deal.

“I don’t think many people have grasped yet what is happening in Japan,” he says. “The situation is very dangerous.”

By Jeff Kingston director of Asian Studies, Temple University Japan and APP member

SPECIAL TO THE JAPAN TIMES OCT 3, 2015

As discussed last week, in June the education ministry sent a directive to all 86 national universities in Japan, apparently calling on them to abolish or reorganize their humanities and social sciences departments.

I use the word “apparently” because the wording of the letter is ambiguous. Kan Suzuki, special adviser to Japan’s education minister, recently explained in Diamond magazine that the ministry failed to consult various stakeholders and admitted the new policy was not well articulated, but insists that the ministry is not moving to abolish the liberal arts. Rather, he says, the government wants the national universities to concentrate on what they do best and develop survival strategies based on market forces, budget cuts and demographic trends. But given his job, he would say that.

Fellow Japan Times contributor Takamitsu Sawa, the president of Shiga University, raised the alarm in August, asserting that liberal arts programs are being targeted due to an anti-democratic conservative ideological agenda. This view is shared by prominent Japanese academic organizations that issued statements critical of the government’s directive. Since then there has been an international storm of criticism in numerous publications and Internet discussion groups decrying this assault on the humanities and social sciences and the potentially stark implications for Japanese democracy.

In the context of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s assertive ideological policy agenda, there are deep suspicions that the proposed reforms are aimed at eliminating precisely the departments that nurture critical thinking and liberal democratic values because those graduates are more likely to oppose conservative initiatives. Will this imperil Japanese higher education and democracy? Probably not very soon, as the new reforms are more likely to spur universities to reorganize and rebrand rather than retrench and eliminate. Down the road, the ongoing shift of power from the faculty to university presidents will make it easier for the latter to impose change from above as appointment of department heads, selection of new hires and discretionary budgetary allocations will facilitate more sweeping reforms.

The competition for students and budget that is causing some national universities to revamp liberal arts programs is not necessarily affecting such programs at the top national universities that attract many applicants and sufficient funding. Nonetheless, it is apparent that winds of change have been gaining momentum throughout higher education for quite some time due to dire demographic trends. Given the oversupply of Japan’s universities — comprising 86 national universities, 90 universities run by prefectures or municipalities and 606 private institutions — consolidation is inevitable.

The shrinking pool of 18-year-olds, from 2 million in 1990 to 1.2 million in 2010, is old news for all universities as they try to attract more applicants by offering appealing programs. Only half of Japan’s high school graduates enter universities (excluding junior colleges), well below the OECD average of 62 percent and far below Australia (90 percent) and South Korea (82 percent).

Many national universities face intensified pressure to reorganize programs that dovetail with government priorities in order to secure more financial support. In the first decade of the 21st century the education ministry’s general budget support for public universities declined by nearly one-third, while an increasing proportion of such allocations are based on competitive assessments. What this means is that the ministry’s designated Global 30 universities will do fine, but smaller national ones outside major urban areas are facing tough times. Budgets are tight as in 2014 the OECD found that Japan’s public expenditures on higher education amounted to 0.5 percent of GDP, the lowest in the OECD, and less than half the average of 1.1 percent among member nations.

The QS World University Rankings for 2015/16 places five Japanese universities in the top 100: Kyoto University (38), University of Tokyo (39), Tokyo Institute of Technology (56), Osaka University (58) and Tohoku University (74). This mediocre showing — with tiny Singapore boasting two universities in the top 15, China and Hong Kong each with four in the top 100 and South Korea with three — has been a long-standing sore point, triggering national hand-wringing and an action plan. The prime minister has targeted getting 10 Japanese universities into the world’s top 100 by 2025, and hopes to do so by promoting natural sciences at the expense of liberal arts, even though most top universities maintain robust programs in both areas.

Requesting anonymity, a national university professor currently in an administrative role says he thinks the reforms won’t have much immediate impact, largely due to pushback from faculty and students. He attributes the attack on liberal arts to “idiots” in the LDP who want to stifle democracy and who “dislike the social sciences and humanities for ideological reasons.”

“I do not know why they did this in such a clumsy way to make it sound like a bunch of philistines attacking the social sciences and humanities,” he said. “Talk about bad PR.”

Bruce Stronach, dean of Temple University and former president of Yokohama City University, thinks that the controversial directive might serve a useful purpose, pointing out that many universities are in dire need of sweeping reforms to improve education and better prepare students for the demands of the 21st century.

“I think it is too simple to say that they are trying to kill the humanities and arts,” he says, “as there is a tremendous amount of evidence to demonstrate that they are trying to instill what is essentially an international liberal-arts-based educational philosophy and pedagogy in Japanese universities.”

Philip Seaton, a professor of history at Hokkaido University, is also unconvinced by caricatures of the reforms as a barbaric assault on the humanities and academic freedom, pointing out that some universities are responding by establishing new faculties and programs that meet ministry criteria, serve students and seek to boost student enrolments and revenues.

“There is a big difference between universities at which the humanities and social sciences play a key role in other strategic goals, and universities at which they are relatively isolated. For example, when they are central to an in-bound degree program or international student exchange program (which contributes to internationalization and/or rankings strategies) they are not in danger of being cut. But if the departments are providing education mostly to Japanese students and enrollment is declining, then pressures to reorganize are somewhat inevitable.”

“We have to raise our voices and let them know that the current pressure on higher education, particularly humanities and social sciences, is irrational and wrong,” says Sawako Shirahase, a professor of sociology at the University of Tokyo.

“The humanities and natural sciences are interdependent, not mutually exclusive,” says Christopher Simons, a literature professor at Tokyo’s International Christian University. “Humanities education has a bright future in Japan, but only if authorities have the courage to throw away old stereotypes and binary thinking.”

The international reputation of Japanese higher education is dismal, mirroring domestic perceptions that university is a four-year romp through “leisure land.” Such disparaging assessments are the kindling of reformist impulses.

Bottom line, can these reforms improve the poor level of education that currently prevails at too many Japanese universities? Optimism is unjustified.