The Asahi Shimbun

24

OpinionThursday, November 8, 2007

EDITORIALSFukuda has chance to tighten future U.S. ties
Special to The Asahi Shimbun

His party must now make a fresh start.

O

is not yet completely ready to assume the responsibilities of a ruling party.” He also noted that the party will have a hard time
winning the next Lower House election.
Naturally, party members wonder bitterly
if they can really unite under this leader forthe next general election.
But what is most pathetic is the weaknessof the party itself, which had to almost cling
on to Ozawa and beg him to stay.
Apparently, there were concerns that once
Ozawa stepped down, he might leave the party, taking along lawmakers who support him.
If Ozawa formed a new party and joined theruling coalition, that would indeed be a big
blow to Minshuto.
The party has no front-runner who will
eventually succeed Ozawa. A presidential
election could create an intraparty rift, andthis is certainly a concern within Minshuto.
However, with Ozawa remaining at the helm,
it will not be easy for Minshuto to regain thetrust of the public.
From now, voters may doubt whatever positive promises the party may make for achange of government.
The LDP will definitely capitalize on Ozawa’s flip-flop by telling voters: “You don’t
want a prime minister who constantly changes
his mind on important national issues.”
Minshuto needs to try to make a fresh startat once, not shrink into itself for fear of an internal rift or loss of popular support. The
first step is for Ozawa to explain clearly to the
public what has transpired and how he intends to lead the party in the days ahead.
Only then, should the party explore ameans to rebuild the party’s shaken credibility. After the Diet adjourns, the party
should immediately call a full-fledged presidential election, with all party members voting.
Without a fresh start, Minshuto’s rebirthwill be difficult.
—The Asahi Shimbun, Nov. 7

J-Green scandal
Necessity of J-Green projects must be reexamined.
In its ruling convicting two former executives of a government-affiliated agency involved in a bid-rigging scandal, the Tokyo
District Court handed down a guilty rulingand bitterly criticized their behavior. Muneo Takagi, 59, who was then executive director of Japan Green Resources Agency(J-Green), was handed a two-year prison term,suspended for four years. Tsuneo Shimooki,
57, a former chief of J-Green’s forestry-roadplanning section, was sentenced to 18 months
in prison, suspended for three years.
The court said the two former senior officials tried to secure the survival of their organization at the expense of the public bycontinuing the traditional practice of rigging
bids for the agency’s contracts. They madeno effort to end this unfair practice, whichwasted a huge amount of taxpayers’ money,
in a shameful betrayal of the people’s trust,
the ruling said.
The two men were found guilty of bid-rigging for geological surveys, measurement anddesigning for forestry road construction projects contracted out by the agency. Many of
the convicted executives of the four companies that won these contracts through collusive bidding are former officials of the agency
or the Forestry Agency. This is the ultimate
example of kansei dango, or bid-rigging at theinitiative of government officials, since bureaucrats and former bureaucrats played aleading role.
Still, the prison terms for the former J-Green
officials were suspended because the collusive bidding had been going on at the agency
for years and had become a crime beyond
any individual’s control. The court ruling acknowledged how deep-rooted the corruption
at the agency was by pointing out that themain culprit, a former J- Green executive director, had to be ready for resignation to stop
the bid-rigging.
In connection with this scandal, Toshikatsu Matsuoka, who was the minister of agriculture, forestry and fisheries when therevelations emerged, killed himself in May
amid allegations that he had received political donations from the contractors involved.
On the following day, a former senior officialof a forerunning public corporation of J-Green
jumped to death from the apartment building housing his home. The two shocking suicides were part of the factors that prevented
the investigation into the scandal from un-covering the corrupt nexus between public
officials and special interests benefiting fromgovernment spending on agricultural civil engineering works.
The scandal has led to the government’s
decision to scrap J-Green at the end of March.
After so many years of wrongdoing, theagency certainly deserves the fate. To ourgreat surprise, however, most of the agency’s
public works projects are likely to be continued at local governments and another organization. That means many of the wastefulprojects created for the sole purpose of securing juicy jobs for retiring officials could
be kept alive.
J-Green may be an unfamiliar name formany people. It was created through a merger between two public corporations—the Forest Development Corp. and the Japan
Agricultural Land Development Agency. Its
main job is the development of forests andfarmland. The farm ministry plans to transfer
to prefectural governments the forestry roadprojects in which the bid-rigging took place.
The ministry appears to help the prefectures
to receive necessary money for these projects from the central government.
J-Green’s remaining projects, including plansfor developing water source forests and integrated agricultural-forestry development
projects in intermediate and mountainous areas, will be taken over by another independent administrative agency supervised by thefarm ministry. The some 730 employees of JGreen will also be transferred to the agency.
All these steps will turn the abolition of JGreen into a change of name.
Even more outrageous, the ministry has requested 59 billion yen of outlays in the budget for next fiscal year for the projects thathave been carried out by J-Green. The amountrepresents a slight increase from the J-Greenbudget for current fiscal year.
This agency kept the costs of its projects
unreasonably high through the bid-rigging
scheme. Even if some of its projects need tobe continued, the budgets for them should beslashed substantially. The farm ministry’splans for J-Green’s projects leave little doubtthat it is not doing any soul-searching about
the scandal.
The government should put all the J-Green
projects back on the drawing board. Then, it
should reexamine them to evaluate their necessity and review their costs rigorously.

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POINT OF VIEW/ Robert DujarricOzawa’s flip-flop
nly two days after announcing his
resignation as Minshuto (Democratic Party of Japan) president, Ichiro
Ozawa changed his mind and said
Tuesday, “This may seem really embarrassing, but I want to take another shot (as party president).” His
extraordinary flip-flop must have stunned thenation.
Ozawa submitted his resignation on Sunday to take responsibility for causing intraparty confusion by suggesting a “grandcoalition” with the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and New Komeito. But on Tuesdaynight, Ozawa agreed to remain in his post on
the premise that his party would never consider joining the ruling camp.
After his meeting with Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda on Friday, Ozawa called an emergency meeting of party executives to explain
the proposed grand coalition he and Fukuda
had discussed. But the party executives unanimously opposed the proposal. “I consideredthat the equivalent of a vote of no-confidence
in me,” Ozawa later commented, and his assessment of the situation was accurate.
Yet, urged by senior party members to“reconsider his decision and continue to leadthe party,” Ozawa retracted his resignation.
Where are his principles?
Whether to form a coalition with the LDPor seize power by winning a general electionis the most crucial strategic question Minshuto should be asking itself.
Only 100 days ago, Minshuto triumphed in
the Upper House election by promising achange of government. But as if this was already forgotten, Ozawa flip-flopped on theparty’s basic strategy by considering a grandcoalition one day and then changing his mind.
What he has done verges on betraying thetrust of those who voted for Minshuto in thelast election.
Announcing his resignation on Sunday, Ozawa went so far as to tell the press, “Minshuto

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Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, sonof late Prime Minister Takeo Fukuda,
will fly to the United States thismonth, three decades after his father’s
first summit in America. He will land
in a country that has changed considerably in 30 years.
Most noticeably, in 1977, 220 million people lived in the United States;
today there are more than 300 million, a gain equivalent to nearly twothirds of Japan’s population. Japan, bycontrast, has only grown by fewer than
14 million citizens since 1977. The
Japanese population is now declining.
In 2037, when another Fukuda might
be prime minister, there could be 380
million Americans. Thus, Japan looks
increasingly small and elderly compared with the United States.
On the economic front, there wasmuch anxiety about the Japanese industrial juggernaut in 1977. Americans
feared that the “American Century”
was giving way to the era of Japanese
dominance. In 1979, Ezra Vogel of Harvard, in his “Japan as Number One,”advised his fellow citizens to emulate
Japan.
Thirty years later, however, America has demonstrated its primacy inthe key technologies of our era, andthere is less concern about U.S. decline, although the long shadow of thesubprime crisis is darkening this rosy
picture.
Japan is now seen as lagging in thetechnological revolution headquarteredin Silicon Valley and throughout theUnited States. If Americans think thatthey will be dethroned economically,
they fear China rather than Japan.
America’s international position andits attitude to the outside world havealso evolved. In 1977, the Cold War
bound the United States to its allies.
The Soviet threat dictated the massive deployment of American forcesin Eurasia backed by the political, economic, cultural, and military weightof U.S. partners.
In 2007, the Soviet Union is nomore. Russia is unfriendly, but manytimes less dangerous than the USSR.
Even if China harbors hostile ambitions, it is surely not a threat comparable to the Soviet one.
North Korea, Iran, al-Qaida, Cuba,
and Venezuela have nuisance value,
but taken together amount to a fraction of the menace posed by the Red
Army and international bolshevism.
Therefore, Prime Minister Fukuda
should expect to find an America thatprojects self-confidence and calm. But
on the contrary, he will find the American psyche gripped by anxiety.
Americans, regardless of party affiliation, are still traumatized by the
Sept. 11 attacks. The suicide hijackings
were an imaginative plot by foes withlimited resources
and unable to seriously threaten the
United States. But
Americans believe
a new “world war”
had been declared.
In part due to this“post-traumaticstress disorder,”which afflicts theAmerican elite
even more than the Robert Dujarricgeneral public,
President George W. Bush was able
to invade Iraq, hence precipitating acascade of catastrophic events for theUnited States.
Moreover, 9/11 fueled a Manichaean
world view, best exemplified by thepresident’s Leninist slogan: “You’reeither with us or against us.”
Prime Minister Fukuda would bewrong to think that only President
Bush and his neo-conservative advocates have adopted this attitude. The
acceptance by many American politicians of torture and their support forcontinuing the war in Iraq, or at best
their tepid opposition to it, indicatethat the president reflects the feelingsof the American political and intellectual establishment of both parties.
One of the consequences of this situation is the replacement of “alliance”
with the concept of the “coalition of
the willing,” which in plain English

means that the United States makes
all decisions even if the allies contribute resources.
How do these developments makethe Fukuda’s visit different from thatof his father? One positive change isthat, partly due to the focus on China and the opening of Japan’s markets, there is much less hostility to
Japanese trade than there was in the
1970s. Therefore, the Japanese leader
will not have to face a barrage of criticism from protectionist lobbies.
But due to the relative decline ofJapan’s population and the economic
rise of the rest of East Asia, Japan now
looks less important in American eyes.
Additionally, the current American focus on “terror” and the unwillingness
to listen to allies make the UnitedStates a difficult partner to deal with.
As the Bush administration enters
its twilight, Fukuda should use his timein Washington to get to better know
members of Congress and the presidential candidates and to enlighten
them about issues that are of importance to Japan.
It may not yield immediate results
but could help lay the foundations fora better Japan-American relationshipin the future.
The author is director of the Instituteof Contemporary Japanese Studies at
Temple University Japan Campus inTokyo.

POINT OF VIEW/ Kultida Samabuddhi

Fight terrorism by stopping sources of funding
Walking the streets of Colombo, one
can easily bump into the anti-car bomb
barriers, steel barricades with razorsharp barbed wire, watchtowers witharmed police, roadblocks, and so on.
Why the Sri Lankan government anddefense agencies have to come up withsuch stringent security measures is understandable. Even those who have notfollowed the long battle between thegovernment and the Liberation Tigers
of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) can quickly
sense the tension that grips this nation. Simply scanning local newspapers reveals reports of LTTE attacks.
Suicide bombings, assassinations andattempted assassinations of hundredsof prominent figures and foreign dignitaries, as well as mass killings of civilians, have haunted this island state formore than three decades.
According to the Sri Lankan Foreign
Ministry, the Tigers’ trail of atrocities
has resulted in the killing of some
60,000 people since the organization
was formed in the mid-1970s.
The fact that the LTTE, which has
been described by one terrorism expert as “probably the most sophisticated terrorist organization in theworld,” also runs activities in othercountries and could have links withinternational terror networks has
prompted the Sri Lankan government
to come to the conclusion that theycannot fight the Tigers alone.
Thailand has been named part of the
LTTE’s global web. The country has
long been identified by Sri Lankan officials as a transit point in the LTTE’s

arm-smuggling network.
Geographically speaking, shipping
smuggled arms can be done easily fromThai ports, and across the Bay of Bengal to Sri Lanka.
In a fresh bid to draw international
cooperation, particularly among Asian
countries, to help combat terrorism on
their home soil, the Sri Lankan Ministry of Foreign Affairs recently organized the first International
Conference on Countering Terrorism(Oct. 19-21) in Colombo.
The three-day event brought together terrorism experts, academics,
intelligence officers, diplomatic officials and media from 23 countries.
Terrorist financing was discussed
by conference participants, who agreed
little has been done to cut the financial pipeline of terrorist groups.
“Terrorists’ money-laundering activity works 24 hours. They are much
more committed to their work thanus,” said David Leppan, director of the
London-based World-Check, a private
intelligence provider.
According to the agency, methods
used by terrorist groups to fund theiroperations include credit card fraud,arms trafficking, human trafficking, extortion, cigarette smuggling, and thesale of pirated CDs.
Terrorism expert Shanaka Jayasekara,from the center for policing, intelligence and counter-terrorism at Australia’s Macquarie University, said using
front organizations was a popularmethod for terrorist groups, including
the LTTE, to earn money.

“The LTTE international network
established several humanitarian front
organizations that successfully engage
in fund-raising activities. In most cases these front organizations have a dual
function—the organizations engage inhumanitarian activities with much publicity and are a channel for LTTE fundraising,” he said.
The LTTE is known to own and operate business enterprises, including
restaurants and supermarkets in Europe, Canada and Southeast Asia. Prepaid phone card and Hindu temple
management businesses were othersources of income for the group, according to his research.
“The LTTE has found the businessof temple management to be lucrative,
and also has the benefit of charitablestatus and earns funds with a minimum paper trail. There are several cases recorded in the U.K., Canada, andAustralia where strong-arm tactics
were used to gain control of temple
management,” said the expert.
Jayasekara said fund-raising tactics
employed by the LTTE will “definitely be replicated by other terrorist andcriminal groups.” Therefore, it was amust for governments and anti-terrorism task forces around the world
to watch these businesses.
Joan De Zilva Moonesinghe, former
director of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka’s bank supervision and consultant,financial intelligence unit, said thattsunami donations and the establishment of non-profit organizations fortsunami rehabilitation had emerged asa potential channel to fund the LTTE.
Sri Lanka is one of the countries
hardest hit by the December 2004
tsunami, which killed almost 40,000
people there.
Within a year of the catastrophe, as
many as 256 new NGOs were set up
there with about $400 million (45.6 billion yen) in funding.
Concerned authorities had neither
examined these NGOs nor their financial reports because the damage
was so great and a lot of money wasurgently needed to restore the tsunami-ravaged country, she said.
Within a year, 80 percent of the donations left the banks and there wasno proof if the money had been used
for tsunami rehabilitation or not,Moonesinghe told the conference.
“Banks have been reluctant to perform the due diligence on the remittance for fear of losing clients,” said
the former banker.
Inspection units should be set up in
tsunami-hit countries with active insurgency groups to monitor the NGO
operations and track down the money used by these groups, she said.
Without an effective scheme tocounter terrorism financing, each country will waste a lot of money and manpower on anti-terrorism operations
and devices, including those which dot
the city of Colombo, to safeguard people from terrorist attacks.
And no one knows if these devices
and security operations will be enoughto prevent the next strike.
The Bangkok Post

Fuel price hikes do not advance energy conservation
The recent 8-percent price hike on
major oil products highlighted the needto address the supply shortage that is
creeping across China.
Price hikes for basic necessities
should not be treated as a stopgap way
to boost production. Policymakers must
do more to promote energy conservation.
When announcing that the prices ofgasoline, diesel oil and jet fuel would
be raised by 500 yuan (7,648 yen) per
ton, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the country’s top economic planner, stressedthat the revision was intended to ensure domestic fuel supplies and encourage energy saving.
The first argument is self-evident.
The gap between the prices of global crude and domestic oil products iswidening significantly, especially since
the former recently topped $90 (10,264
yen) a barrel. Consequently, Chinese
oil refiners are losing money by selling
fuel at below-market prices.
When some domestic refineries stop
processing to avoid losses, a price hikefor oil products becomes necessary toease shortages or tighten supplies.

It is not easy for policymakers tomake such decisions.
In the face of the mounting pressureof inflation, which stood at 6.2 percent
in September, the authorities have kept
a tight lid on domestic fuel prices tokeep prices in check. Though it is estimated that the latest price hike will
only lift the monthly consumer priceindex by 0.05 percentage point, it isfar from clear what ripple effects it
will have on prices of other products
and the overall rate of inflation.
It appears that policymakers haverisked inflation to ensure oil supply inthe domestic market.
But this costly hike addresses what
is really just a short-term price problem. Policymakers should take this opportunity to advance China’s long-termgoal of conserving energy.
A blanket fuel-price rise will do little to dent use by energy-consuming
enterprises and individuals. The authorities should speed up efforts to introduce a market-driven pricing systemthat will push fuel prices high enoughto punish those who are dragging theirfeet over energy saving.
—China Daily editorial, Nov. 2

VOX POPULI, VOX DEI

Ozawa needs to come clean on discussions
Nowadays, we rarely see bushes inurban areas. But yabu, the Japaneseword for bush, is still used in idioms.
For example, if we beat a bush, snakes
come out of it as in the idiom yabuhebi, which means something has the
opposite effect as was intended. Yabu
kara Bo is another common idiom,which literally translates as “sticks
come out of bushes.” It means something happens without the slightest
warning.
Indeed, the talks toward forming a
grand coalition held between the leaders of the ruling Liberal Democratic
Party and opposition Minshuto (Democratic Party of Japan) on Friday
were so unexpected that it would
make a good example of how the idiom is actually used. With the same

abruptness, Minshuto President Ichiro Ozawa, who tendered his resignation, then decided to remain in thejob.
However, what both sides say differs, and the truth remains a mystery,or Yabu no Naka (in the bush). According to Ozawa, Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda completely accepted his
pet argument on the overseas dispatchof the Self-Defense Forces. But when
asked to confirm the truth, the prime
minister gave an evasive answer. Also with regard to a new law aimed athaving the Maritime SDF resume refueling activities in the Indian Ocean,
the two differ on whether the prime
minister is set on passing the bill into law.
To begin with, it is wrong for thetwo men to try to decide important
issues that affect the course of the nation by themselves. If they want todiscuss them, they should do so in the
open for all to see. The way theytalked about the SDF behind closed
doors brings to mind the image of children playing with fire behind a bush.
Speaking of uncertainty, Ozawa himself has continued to be a flashpoint ofpolitical reorganization. Perhaps, when
Minshuto accepted him as its leader,
it should have been prepared to sufferburns to some extent. Minshuto supporters must have felt disillusioned
watching Ozawa going up in flames
and those around him trying to put
out the fire in an attempt to have him
stay on.
Since Ozawa made up his mind toremain as Minshuto president, I urge
him to settle the talks he had “in thebush” with Fukuda in a Diet debatethat was postponed. They should actively exchange views and discuss
their differences, including who
brought up the idea of forming a grandcoalition, not in the bush but in the
open field called the Diet.
Ozawa was quoted as saying: “Thismay seem really embarrassing, but I
want to take another shot (as party
president).” Even if it means embarrassing himself, he should come out
in the open to give a full explanation.
Ozawa’s first job as the “new” president of Minshuto is to show what wasin the bush at a news conference
Wednesday.
—The Asahi Shimbun, Nov. 7