Lifting the lid on one of the most influential, and secretive, political organisations in Japan

ABC News:  2 Deecember 2015

80 percent of Japanese Cabinet ministers belong to “Nippon Kaigi” or “Shinto Association”, a nationalistic right wing party.
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Nippon Kaigi, or 'Japan Conference', has an impressive list of members and aims to reshape Japanese politics and policies, and Lateline gains rare access to this secretive and ultra-conservative organisation.


TONY JONES, PRESENTER: It's been described as one of the most influential political organisations in Japan. Nippon Kaigi, or Japan Conference, has an impressive list of members and advisors, including the Prime Minister and much of his cabinet. But very little is known about this right-wing nationalist lobby group which aims to reshape Japanese politics and policies and even change the Constitution. It operates mostly out of the public eye, but North Asia correspondent Matthew Carney gained rare access to file this exclusive story for Lateline.

MATTHEW CARNEY, REPORTER: A call has gone out and people from all over Japan have responded. To hear a vision from one of Japan's most powerful political organisations, the Nippon Kaigi. And it's back to the future. Nippon Kaigi want to restore the status of the Emperor, keep women in the home to nurture family and rebuild the might of the armed forces.
To do that, they have to scrap the pacifist constitution that was imposed by the Americans. This is the first step, they say, to shake off the shame of the defeat in World War II and restore pride.

YOSHIKO SAKURAI, JOURNALIST (voiceover translation): We need to ask ourselves: will the current constitution of Japan protect Japan and its people? The answer is no. We need a constitution that reflects the true Japanese identity.

MATTHEW CARNEY: The biggest champion to the cause and the group's specialist advisor is Prime Minister Shinzo Abe himself.

SHINZO ABE, JAPANESE PRIME MINISTER (voiceover translation): To create a constitution suitable for the 21st Century, that's where it needs to be spread throughout Japan. I seek your continued support on this. Let's move forward towards changing the Constitution.

MATTHEW CARNEY: The Nippon Kaigi has serious clout. The Deputy Prime Minister is also a member, as well as 80 per cent of the cabinet, as are almost half of all parliamentarians. It's a kind of uber lobby group that uses its 38,000 members to mobilise support.
The Nippon Kaigi has pledged to collect 10 million signatures by next April to change the Constitution. Some say it's a cult-like organisation.

KOICHI NAKANO, SOPHIA UNIVERSITY: I think it is, you know, cultish, in the sense that it's very sectarian. They have a very strong view of us and them. They have a sense of the inner group because they feel victimised, marginalised and they have been subjected to severe injustice, that they need to take back Japan.

MATTHEW CARNEY: But their spokesperson says they are only trying to normalise Japan.

AKIRA MOMOCHI, NIPPON KAIGI, STRATEGIC COMMITTEE (voiceover translation): It is proper for an independent sovereign nation to have an army. There are no sovereign nations without one. Armies are deterrents. They exist to prevent war. We'll keep our pacifist traditions, but we need to respond to the rising threat of China.

MATTHEW CARNEY: The fundamental vision for many in the group is to go back to a time when they say Japan was pure and free from foreign influence, like the Edo Period in the 16th to 18th centuries when outsiders were strictly forbidden and Japanese culture flourished. They believe this beautiful Japan has been lost.

HIDEAKI KASE, NIPPON KAIGI, TOKYO BRANCH: There are two Japan. One is traditional Japan and one is Westernised Japan. And we wish to revert to the traditional Japan.

KOICHI NAKANO: They are romantic, they are irrational, they live in their own world. So they lack strategic thinking in terms of what they are going for and for what reason and how does that serve national interest in realistic terms?

MATTHEW CARNEY: The darker side to the organisation is to deny any wrongdoing in Japan's war-time past. They assert World War II was one of defence, not aggression. They say comfort women were not sex slaves, but well-paid prostitutes and the rape and pillage of Nanjing in China that historians say killed up to 200,000 was a fiction.

HIDEAKI KASE: There was no massacre at all. That is an utterly false accusation.

KOICHI NAKANO: They try to rewrite history in order - and they think that this is fundamental to what they see as Japan's need to restore pride. They think that because the kids and the - you know, the adults of Japan are being brainwashed by self-blame and a sense of shame in their history.

MATTHEW CARNEY: Many in Japan think Nippon Kaigi's ideas are dangerous and have to be countered. Professor Setsu Kobayashi is one of the country's top constitutional experts.

SETSU KOBAYASHI, CONSTITUTIONAL EXPERT (voiceover translation): They're thinking about Asia before the war when Japan was the leader of Asia. They want to repeat that. They openly say that.

MATTHEW CARNEY: On his Friday lunchtime radio spot, he warns against reform of the Constitution, arguing it could lead Japan down the warpath. So far, Prime Minister Abe and Nippon Kaigi have succeeded in passing security bills that let the armed forces fight overseas again. Kobayashi says the move is unconstitutional.

SETSU KOBAYASHI (voiceover translation): The majority of people are not convinced. We have to fight and not give up, otherwise we'll live under a dictatorship. Freedom and democracy will not exist.

MATTHEW CARNEY: Professor Kobayashi was once a member of Nippon Kaigi, but is now one of its biggest critics. He tried to change them from the inside, but couldn't. As a self-described commoner, he says the organisation is one of elites, out of touch with the people. Polls consistently show that the majority of Japanese don't want the country's pacifist constitution to change.

SETSU KOBAYASHI (voiceover translation): They want to achieve the dream that Japan pursued pre-war to be one of the top five military powers in the world. To enable this, our country will go around the world fighting wars alongside the Americans. Mr Abe went to the United Nations and said that Japan will seek aggressive peace; militarism is another name.

MATTHEW CARNEY: Professor Kobayashi now devotes much of his time fighting the Nippon Kaigi and the reform of the Constitution. He believes it's a battle for the very hearts and minds of the Japanese and the outcome will decide the country's future. The Nippon Kaigi say their ambition is to simply protect Japan and its identity.

AKIRA MOMOCHI (voiceover translation): It is a difference of opinion. We want to retain the Japanese traditions, to make Japan as it should be. We have the power to do it.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-12-02/nippon-kaigi-and-the-rise-of-nationalism-in-japan/6994560

Religious agency conducts signature drive misleading public into supporting abolition of pacifist Article 9

Japan Press Weekly: 10 January 2016

It has come to light that a religious corporation, the Tokyo Shrine Agency, during the New Year’s holiday period collected signatures from shrine visitors in support of constitutional revision while concealing its true aim of abolishing the war-renouncing Article 9 of the Constitution.

Seeking to defeat the pacifist, democratic Constitution, a signature-collection campaign has been carried out by a major constitutional revisionists’ group, many of whose members belong to the rightist Japan Conference (Nippon Kaigi), with the aim of gathering 10 million signatures. The group in its petition provided its goal in detail: recognizing the Japanese Self-Defense Forces in Article 9, inserting an emergency provision into the Constitution, and relaxing requirements for constitutional revision under Article 96.

The shrine agency, which has close ties with the Nippon Kaigi, in its signatures drive used its own petition which only calls for revising “contents of the Constitution”. The agency supposedly tried to mislead shrine visitors into supporting constitutional revision in general terms by hiding the truth that it shares the same goal as the revisionists’ group of undermining of Article 9.

In response to an Akahata inquiry, a public relations official of the agency took a so-what attitude and said that the agency only cooperated with the national association of shrines.

http://www.japan-press.co.jp/modules/news/index.php?id=8858

Think tank gives Japan-U.S. diplomacy an Okinawan voice

The Japan Times : 5 January 2015

In an interview with The Washington Post in November, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called the U.S.-Japan alliance “the cornerstone of Japanese diplomacy,” a stance supported by the U.S. State Department, whose website asserts, “Japan contributes irreplaceable political, financial and moral support to U.S.-Japan diplomatic efforts.”
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However, such official comments on Tokyo-Washington ties are misleading, believes Sayo Saruta, the director of Japanese think tank New Diplomacy Initiative.
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“In reality, the diplomatic channels between Japan and the U.S. are very narrow. The Japanese side is limited to a small number of conservatives who fail to reflect the variety of opinions held by the Japanese public,” explained Saruta in a recent interview at her Tokyo office. “On the U.S. side, there are only around a dozen people influencing the final decisions in the U.S.-Japan relationship.”
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Saruta, a lawyer specializing in human rights who has worked closely with Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, had numerous opportunities to witness the flawed realities of U.S.-Japan diplomacy while based in New York and Washington between 2007 and 2012. What particularly troubled her was American decision makers’ lack of knowledge or interest about Okinawa, the Japanese island where the U.S. maintains more than 30 military bases.
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In 2009, Saruta met the chair of the U.S. House Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific, the group overseeing relations with countries including Japan, to discuss military issues in Okinawa. According to Saruta, during the meeting, the chairman speculated that the population of Okinawa was probably around 2,000 (at the time the actual number was almost 1.4 million); then he wondered whether the island — a major international tourist destination — even possessed a civilian airport.
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In December 2010, Saruta’s suspicions that those in control of U.S.-Japan relations might be poorly suited to the task were further heightened when she attended a meeting at which Kevin Maher, a State Department official in charge of Japanese affairs, reportedly criticized Okinawans for being “masters of manipulation and extortion” who were “too lazy to grow goya,” referring to the bitter fruit cultivated locally. The comments, which Maher later claimed were inaccurate, kicked up a storm of controversy and cost the diplomat his job.
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Saruta says this indifference toward Okinawa was widespread among U.S. experts and the Japanese diplomatic community in Washington. Convinced that there needed to be alternative channels of communication between the U.S. and Japan, she searched for any diplomatic organizations that shared that belief. To her surprise, none existed, so she decided to found her own.
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Launched in 2013, New Diplomacy Initiative is a think tank that, according to Saruta, aims to input fresh voices into debate between Japan, the U.S. and other East Asian countries. With Saruta at its helm, the current board of directors includes TV journalist Shuntaro Torigoe, former Defense Ministry official Kyoji Yanagisawa and George Washington University professor Mike Mochizuki.
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In 2014, New Diplomacy Initiative organized 13 symposiums in Japan and four in the U.S. to discuss issues such as Sino-Japanese relations and Abe’s push to enable the Self-Defense Forces to come to the defense of an ally. However, New Diplomacy Initiative’s main concern remains the issue that spurred Saruta to create the think tank in the first place: Okinawa.
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Last year was a tumultuous one for the island as the Japanese government stepped up long-stalled efforts to build a new U.S. military facility in Henoko Bay, Nago. At sea, peace campaigners who attempted to block survey work were assaulted by the Japanese Coast Guard, while on land, elderly demonstrators were injured in scuffles with the police. November saw the election of a new anti-base governor, Takeshi Onaga, and in last month’ election, all of Abe’s pro-base Lower House candidates were defeated in Okinawa’s four single-seat constituencies. But despite such overwhelming opposition, the Japanese government announced that construction on the new base would proceed as planned.
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With the U.S. media largely failing to report Tokyo’s disregard for democracy and the violence being committed in the name of the U.S-Japan security alliance, New Diplomacy Initiative has been bringing Okinawan leaders to the U.S. to voice their anger.
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In May, Saruta accompanied Nago Mayor Susumu Inamine to New York and Washington. During the 10-day visit, Inamine met U.S. civic groups to explain the Pentagon’s plans for his city, and attended a series of discussions with members of the House of Representatives and former National Security Advisor James L. Jones.
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In September, Saruta arranged a visit to Okinawa by Morton Halperin, a former Pentagon official who was one of the key negotiators for the island’s reversion from U.S. to Japanese control in 1972. During the trip, Halperin was critical of the ongoing Pentagon presence in Okinawa, and he emphasized that the U.S. and Japanese governments ought to respect the democratic will of the island’s residents.
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The 1972 reversion agreement Halperin helped broker was supposed to reduce the military presence on Okinawa to a similar level to that on mainland Japan (the so-called hondo nami pledge). But today, Okinawa hosts more than 70 percent of the nation’s U.S. bases on less than 1 percent of its land mass.
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In the years since reversion, a long list of crimes, accidents and instances of environmental pollution have angered Okinawa residents. In November, for example, a drunk U.S. serviceman trespassed into an apartment in Chatan, central Okinawa; in December, a U.S. Marine major admitted seriously injuring a 67-year-old man in a hit-and-run accident and an army captain allegedly assaulted an Okinawan police officer; and on New Year’s Day, a U.S. Air Force staff sergeant was arrested, again for trespassing, in Okinawa City.
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Since the mainland Japanese media rarely report such incidents, few Japanese people realize the extent of the problems caused by the U.S. military presence on Okinawa, Saruta believes.
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“Geographically, Okinawa is so far from Tokyo that it is easy for mainland Japanese people to ignore what happens there,” she said. “Many people are indifferent to Okinawa’s problems. Or they think the U.S. bases on Okinawa are necessary to protect Japan.”
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In August, New Diplomacy Initiative published a book titled “Kyozo no Yokushiryoku” (“The Pretense of Deterrence”) designed to dispel the myth, as they see it, that the U.S. Marine presence in Okinawa defends Japan and helps maintain stability in the region.
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Journalist Tomohiro Yara, the author of one of the book’s chapters, cites a 2003 South Korean government white paper that estimates almost 700,000 troops would be needed to quell any conflict on the peninsula.
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“On Okinawa, there are only 18,000 U.S. Marines, so they can’t deter any real contingency in Korea. For the Japanese government, the U.S. troops on Okinawa are like a sedative: They only make them feel calm,” he told The Japan Times.
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Yara sees plans for the new mega-base at Henoko as symptomatic of a lack of imagination.
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“The U.S. and Japanese governments have given up thinking of an alternative,” he said. “The public servants in both Tokyo and Washington don’t want to make work for themselves. It’s inertia — they just want to blindly follow what their predecessors decided.”
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Last month, such skepticism about the deterrence value of Okinawa’s U.S. bases won unexpected support from Joseph Nye, who served as assistant secretary of defense during the Clinton administration. In an interview with the Asahi Shimbun, Nye urged the U.S. military to become a more mobile force and move away from an overdependence on fixed bases — including the new installation planned for Henoko. He also stressed that the opinions of Okinawan residents need to be considered in any plans to push forward with construction of the new base.
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Think tank director Saruta encourages people to consider the problem from an economic perspective. With the Pentagon taking roughly 20 percent of the main Okinawa island’s land but contributing less than 5 percent to the prefecture’s overall economy, U.S. bases hobble economic growth, she says.
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Moreover, Saruta believes that bringing U.S. troops back to the States would benefit its domestic economy. Relocated troops and their families could inject much-needed cash into U.S. base towns, many of which are suffering due to Pentagon budget cuts. With this in mind, Saruta is hoping to orchestrate meetings between Okinawan Gov. Onaga and U.S state leaders, including Hawaii’s recently elected governor, David Ige, who has Okinawan ancestry.
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It looks like 2015 will be a busy year for New Diplomacy Initiative. Saruta plans to help Okinawa Prefecture establish an office in Washington that will give the island’s elected officials better access to the U.S. decision makers whose policies affect Okinawa’s future. New Diplomacy Initiative is also planning a major project comparing the U.S.-Japan Status of Forces Agreement with similar deals struck with other countries hosting Pentagon bases.

Okinawa’s lobbyist-in-chief scores a subtle win in Washington

The Japan Times : 27 June 2015

  

At the interview with Japanese magazine, Ms. Saruta (lawyer) disclosed that the following government related organizations donated to US lobbyist group according to the US source.

In 2012, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) donated 25-30 million yen to The Brooking Institution. In 2013 Japan Embassy donated 29 million yen to The Brooking Institution. In 2014, Japanese government donated 60 million yen to Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). From 2010 to 2013, Japanese government donated 136 million yen to the lobbyist group which promoted TPP.  

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Chie Mikami’s new documentary, “Ikusabanu Todomi” (which loosely translates as “Bring the War to an End”), is about the protests against the new U.S. Marine Corps base in Henoko, Okinawa. Her previous film, “Hyoteki no Mura” (“The Targeted Village”), was about protests against the deployment of the controversial Osprey aircraft on the island.

 

Mikami was born in Okinawa but raised on Honshu, and returned to the archipelago as an adult to take a job as a reporter for Ryukyu Asahi Hoso in 1995. As she has stressed in promotional interviews, it is impossible to live on Okinawa “without thinking about the U.S. military” every day, because the bases affect everything. She estimates that three or four days a week during her 19 years at the TV station, she worked on base topics, but when she dispatched these reports to Tokyo, they were never picked up by other news shows. She quickly came to realize that “the top news in Okinawa is no news everywhere else.” That’s why she quit her job and started making documentaries she could distribute independently of the mainstream media.

This column has already discussed how the Okinawan media and the media from “Yamato” (what Okinawans call the rest of Japan) treat news about Okinawa differently. This disparity has been especially remarkable with regard to the coverage of Okinawan Gov. Takeshi Onaga’s recent trip to the United States. Tokyo’s mainstream press said Onaga’s purpose was to convince powerful people in Washington that the Okinawan people did not want the Henoko base and its construction should be halted. Since work is continuing despite active protests by locals, Tokyo concluded the trip was a failure. However, the Okinawan press thinks it was a success. The difference has something to do with the Tokyo press corps’ misinterpretation of Onaga’s purpose, but it also points to its ignorance of American politics.

One of the only mainstream media to get it was Nikkan Gendai, a tabloid that normally trades in sensationalism. For what it’s worth, the paper’s reporter, Hajime Yokota, seems charmed by the “beautiful female lawyer” (bijin bengoshi), Sayo Saruta, who is licensed to practice in both Japan and the U.S. and has extensive experience with Washington lobbyists. She is helping Onaga navigate the city and its denizens.

Yokota’s article points out that other Japanese media assume “American politicians believe the move to Henoko is the only solution” to the problem of what to do about the closure of the marine base in crowded Futenma, “but such a belief is only the default opinion of Japan’s U.S. alliance mafia and America’s Japan handlers.”

Saruta’s aim is to steer Onaga toward others whose view is “wider.” To that end she has set up a think tank in the U.S. capital dedicated to Okinawan issues. Yokota thinks, based on Saruta’s strategy, the mission could be successful, because “the U.S. may decide it does not want to build a base in a place where local residents are opposed to it.” The trick is to make them see the real situation.

Saruta herself elaborated on this matter on the independent web channel DemocraTV, in which she made it clear that the Henoko story is being written by the Japanese government, which has convinced the mainstream press that there is no alternative, a stance that takes advantage of the media’s laziness. When reporters asked Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga about Onaga’s trip to Washington before he left, Suga dismissed it out of hand by saying that if the government was forced to “cancel the landfill work,” which Onaga is trying to do, it means that the governor “accepts the reality” that the Marine base will have to remain at Futenma, setting up a false dichotomy that the reporters bought.

Keeping the press clueless is important to the government, according to Saruta. On DemocraTV she explained that there are about five American experts on bilateral relations who control the message, and maybe another two dozen politicians who have knowledge of Japan. When the Japanese press needs a quote from the American side, they go to former State Department official Richard Armitage, Harvard University professor Joseph Nye or Michael Green, vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. All three want to maintain the status quo on Okinawa, but they get their latest information from Japanese parties, mainly the Foreign Ministry, which has an interest in the status quo. So when the Japanese media conveys what they say back to Japan, their opinions mimic the Japanese government line and are magnified out of proportion.

Saruta points out that even Armitage believes that alternatives to Henoko should be explored, but this sentiment is rarely picked up by the media. Bucking the trend, the Asahi Shimbun last week interviewed former Ambassador to Japan Michael Armacost, another hawk who nevertheless said the marines don’t need to be in Okinawa, but they get support in Washington because they have good public relations.

It is Onaga’s mission to expand the conversation beyond the usual suspects through Saruta’s established network. The purpose of the governor’s visit was to establish a base for that mission, which requires money and time, and in that regard it was a success, but the mainstream press didn’t see any immediate changes so they deemed it a bust.

On DemocraTV, Saruta related an anecdote that implies she has her work cut out for her. When Yukio Hatoyama was about to resign as prime minister due to his failure to keep his promise about closing Futenma, she discussed it with a member of the U.S. Congress’s House Armed Services Committee whose brief was Asia. He asked her how many people live on Okinawa, and when she didn’t come up with a number right away, he said, “What, maybe 2,000?” The population of Okinawa is 1.42 million.

The fact that a politician whose job it is to help formulate policy toward Okinawa knows nothing about the place may sound discouraging, but Saruta thinks it shows potential. When you start from nothing, you have nowhere to go but up.

“The Sunagawa Ruling, the Japanese Government’s Pretext for Allowing the Collective Self-Defense, Was Ordered by the US”

Taro Yamamoto, Cabinet Member of Upper House, Diet Session Record  19 August 2015

This is the English translation of the Japanese Diet session debate between Abe government ministers and Taro Yamamoto, the opposite party member at Upper House. Yamamoto disclosed that The Sunagawa Ruling (Japanese supreme court case in 1959), which was the Japanese Government’s Pretext for Allowing the Collective Self-Defense, was ordered by the US ambassador of the time.

Yamamoto also noted that the US defense magazine published in May 2015 said that the US defense budget of 2016 had already taken Japan’s new Self-Defense measure into consideration (before the Diet pass the bill in September). He also referred to the article on Foreign Policy “Japan’s Expanding Military Role Could Be Good News for the Pentagon and its Contractors” (Please refer to the attached link at the bottom.)
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Taro Yamamoto:  This is Taro Yamamoto representing The People’s Life Party & Taro Yamamoto and Friends.  I would like to continue questioning the obvious, the topic we all know in Nagatacho but we never discuss.  This time, I would like to introduce another “request” by the US.

The image panel please.  (The image shown)

This panel shows material indicating the Supreme Court ruling on the Sunagawa incident, which became the legal precedent for allowing the Self-Defense Force to participate in collective self defense with the US, was made according to a request, an order, by the US.  It was quoted from the homepage of professor Asaho Mizushima, a constitutional scholar from Waseda University, with his permission.

(Chairman leaves his seat and director Masahisa Sato takes his seat)

In the Sunagawa ruling, though it might be redundant to describe it to you, in 1959, after the unconstitutional ruling was handed on March 30th against the US military base presence in Japan at the Tokyo District Court , the defense directly appealed to the Supreme Court, stepping over the District Court, in order to avoid affecting the new national security bill being negotiated at the time.  It’s called chouyakujyoukoku (direct appeal to the supreme court).  These chouyakujyoukoku cases are extremely rare, and this case is even rarer, there are only three cases including the Sunagawa incident in which it was initiated by the prosecutor.  Moreover it was a request by the US.

On March 30th, 1959, the day after the unconstitutional ruling by the Tokyo District Court against the US Military presence was handed, at 8 o’clock in the morning, the US Ambassador Douglas MacArthur II–as you all know, this is the nephew of General MacArthur — General Headquarters, the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers–had met the Foreign Minister Aiichiro Fujiyama to inform that it is critical that the Japanese government act urgently to correct the District Court ruling and stressed the importance of directly appealing to the Supreme Court.

In turn, Foreign Minister Fujiyama said that he would like to recommend to permit the appeal in the Diet session starting right away at 9:00am in the same morning

Three days later, on 4/3, the prosecutor directly appealed to the Supreme Court.

Then, three weeks later, on 4/24, then Supreme Court Chief Justice Koutaro Tanaka reported to Ambassador MacArthur that according to Japanese law, it will take at least a few months to reach the verdict.  Just this very fact tells the state of the Japanese Supreme Court.  Why would he go all the way to make a report on such a thing, isn’t that odd?

But the major surprise comes after that.

This panel, you all probably know what it is already.  (Someone speaks)  Yes, that’s right, someone just said “telegram”.

It is from three months later, on July 31st, the image came from professor Asaho Mizushima’s home page, and it was made available as a result of the Freedom of Information Act request for the US National Archives by the former professor of Yamanashi Gakuin University Reiko Yukawa.  It’s an official telegram from the Embassy of the US in Tokyo to the Japanese Secretary of State, it reports the content of the story told by the Supreme Court Chief Justice Tanaka to the Deputy Chief of Mission William Leonhart, it’s a copy of it, and what I just showed you is the content.

Let me ask you, did you know of the existence of this document?  Starting from the Foreign Minister please.  I am sorry that it is an unannounced question, I apologize.

Foreign Minister (Fumio Kishida):  There have been many official documents being disclosed in the US.  My understanding is that the US generally refrains from commenting on them as well.  We consider that, as the Japanese government, commenting on those documents individually would not be appropriate.

Taro Yamamoto:  So you knew the existence of the document, is that right?

Foreign Minister (Fumio Kishida):  It has been indicated by some, along with the aforementioned document, that the Sunagawa incident was negotiated between Japan and the US during the screening process.  Regarding the allegation, we do not consider that there has been such a negotiation.  I do not think that your assessment that the direct appeal of the Sunagawa incident case to the Supreme Court was due to the request of the US is a correct one.

The document from March 31st was also brought up during a Committee of the House of Representatives.  We have reported that the Ministry of Foreign Affaires of Japan has conducted a reconfirmation process for the document, however, our record has shown that there is no such document existing in our archives.

Taro Yamamoto:  You are saying that there was no negotiation, and the US did not pressure for the direct appeal to the Supreme Court, but, the main point really should be that there is no such document probably means that they just threw it away.  Cause it came out of the US National Archive.  From the US Embassy official to the Japanese Secretary of State.  The content of the conversation between the Deputy Chief of Mission and Director Tanaka is noted here, right?

So the content, what was the content, it was like this.  The Chief Supreme Court Justice Kotaro Tanaka told the Deputy Chief of Mission William Leonhart that the verdict for the Sunagawa incident will be out by December and he is determined to place the focus, the focus of the litigation I assume,  to be a legal issue instead of the issue of facts, the hearing will begin during the beginning of September and be conducted twice a week, he believes that if he opens the Court in the morning as well as in the afternoon, he can finish it in three weeks, and, he stated that he hopes the agreement at the Supreme Court will bring about a virtual unanimity in order to avoid the minority opinions, which can disrupt the public opinion.

Some of you who are watching the streaming on the internet might be a little confused what was being said, basically, the Chief Supreme Court Justice had highly accurate info and he himself decided to share it with the US.  He utilized his position to the maximum , with tender loving care in colluding with the US in obtaining a necessary verdict all for the sake of realizing the Japan-US Security Treaty.

It’s the extraordinary story of the Japanese Supreme Court showing an extraordinary loyalty to US political manipulation, the legendary loyal dog Hachiko would be very proud.  And it’s right out of the US National Archive.  It’s written right here.  Isn’t it just appalling that you just deny it, YOU DO NOT KNOW?  You just say that there has been no fact like that in a matter of fact manner, that is how you answered.

And as the Chief Justice Tanaka predicted, on December 16th, 1959, with a unanimous decision of the 15 judges, Justice Tanaka handed the Sunagawa verdict himself ruling that the US bases on Japanese soil is constitutional.  By this verdict, the Tokyo District Court’s verdict ruling that the US bases were unconstitutional, so called Date verdict, was scrapped.

Really, as we hear so far, it remind me of Noble laureate in physics Shuji Nakamura stating that the Japanese judiciary is rotten, we’ve heard words like that often.  The fact that the Chief Supreme Justice himself took action in lightening speed to present what the US wishes demonstrates that the Japanese judiciary has been rotting for a while.  The Sunagawa verdict indicates that the independence of the judiciary in Japan is just a fantasy and it was a rotten verdict by those who were desperate for self-preservation.

Foreign Minister Kishida, I’ve already asked you at the beginning.  I’d like to ask again.  I want to ask just the part that applies here, this Sunagawa verdict, did you have the knowledge that the direct appeal of it was suggested by the US?

Foreign Minister (Fumio Kishida):  First, regarding the Sunagawa verdict, we have no confirmation of an existing document indicating the US involvement.

(The Director Masahisa Sato leaves his seat, The Chairman takes his seat)

And, in addition, there was a mention on the exchange between the Supreme Court and the Embassy of the US in Tokyo.  Since it was an exchange between the Supreme Court and the Embassy of the US in Tokyo, I am not certain if it is appropriate for me to comment, however, as far as I know, I believe that on May 9th, 2013, there was a deliberation at the Upper House Legal Affairs Committee stating that there was no documentation of indicated exchange in the Supreme Court.

Taro Yamamoto:  So, really, the truth about this nation is only available through disclosed information from overseas, right?  The thing is that when the State Secret law goes into effect it will get even worse, I think.

The Sunagawa verdict, which the government and the governmental party regard as the basis for allowing the collective self-defense, does not state anything about allowing the collective self-defense, does it?  The argument of the government and the governmental party makes no sense, it can’t be trusted and it is just incomprehensible from any point of view.  And the Sunagawa verdict, the Sunagawa verdict itself is such a fraudulent piece of work made by the demand of the US, forced through the direct appeal process by the request, demand and order of the US.  What I am saying is that it is not convincing at all to have such a rotten verdict as a basis, especially, when it doesn’t even talk about the very topic at all, in insisting that the act of collective self-defense is constitutional.

Professor Asaho Mizushima has noted that, the day after the verdict, Ambassador MacArthur had congratulated the Chief Justice Tanaka’s skill and statesmanship.  He said “statesmanship”, what does “statesmanship” mean?  Does selling his soul and striving to be as useful as possible mean having good statesmanship?  The thing is that there certainly is a force that sells its soul, engages in spy activities and has turned the Sunagawa verdict over.

How could we put our faith in such a verdict?  By the way, The Rockfeller Foundation was very intimate with Chief Justice Tanaka, inviting him to the US, helping him to build a network.  We can not possibly trust the Sunagawa verdict.

And, as the Japanese government itself admits, provisions of ammunitions, refueling aircrafts during start-up preparation for combat maneuvers and maintenance, which were all unconstitutional, have been deemed not unconstitutional, changing the interpretation of the Constitution, saying it’s not the same as joining military actions, this, also, was because of the needs and request by the US, right?

The government just jumps on any request, but none of the needs for the people who live in the nation are heard, but , it comes up with a myriad of creative ways to forward the demands by Mr. America, the US military or the multinational corporations.
So what’s America’s need regarding these bills.  It’s rebalancing. What do they mean?  They are talking about shouldering America’s burden.

I have a copy of Stars and Strips news paper from May 13th, 2015.  What does it say?  The US defense budget already takes Japan’s new Self-Defense measure into consideration.  The latest figure for the 2016 US budget already assumes that the new bills being pushed by the Japanese government will be enacted to provide defense for the allied nation.  So, the US reduced the numbers of military personal by 40,000.  Not only that.  The latest defense budget clearly shows reduction.  The one who shoulders the burden, that’s Japan.

Moreover, you’ve heard of the publication “Foreign Policy”, right?  The prestigious US foreign policy research magazine, Foreign Policy, had an article titled:  Japan’s Expanding Military Role Could Be Good News for the Pentagon and its Contractors.  What’s that all about?  It says that it doesn’t cost a penny and it makes tons of money.  Who’s making money?  The Japanese government can buy a bunch of new equipment.  And that is very good for the US defense industry.

F35, manufactured by Lockeed Martin based in Texas, and Assault Amphibious Vehicles for the Marines, manufactured by BAE Systems based in Northern Virginia — Japan is planning to purchase them.  The Japanese government also plans to buy Global Hawks made by Northrop Grumman.  Also, it is developing two Destroyers with Aegis Radar System and the missile defense system.  Foreign Policy says that they are made by Lockeed Martin.

We are completely used!  When will we stop being their ATM machine?

And as the Third Armitage Nye Report that I introduced this morning clearly stipulates, the national security bill, the war act, restart of the nuclear plants, TPP, the Act on the Protection of Specially Designaated Secrets, the Three Priniciples on Trensfer of Defense Equipment and Technology, the Basic Act on Cybersecurity, the Development Cooperation Charter, all of them are requested by the US.  When will we stop being a US colony.  It must be now.

This war act, this American act by the US, for the US, the defense industry act for the defense industry by the defense industry, I am absolutely against it, there is no way other than scrapping it. Period.  With these words again, I would like to end our questions.

Thank you very much.

https://www.taro-yamamoto.jp/english/5304

Please also refer to:

“Japan’s Expanding Military Role Could Be Good News for the Pentagon and its Contractors”
http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/07/16/japans-expanding-military-role-could-be-good-news-for-the-pentagon-and-its-contractors/?utm_content=buffer24684&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

 

“The national security bills are an exact copy of the third Armitage Nye Report”

Taro Yamamoto, Cabinet Member of Upper House, Diet Session Record 19 August 2015

Below is the English translation of the debate in Japanese Diet between Abe government ministers and Taro Yamamoto, the opponent against new security bills. Yamamoto disclosed that the foreign policies applied by Abe Administration are exactly following the policies guided in "the third Armitage-Nye Report" issued in　USA (2012). The report was co-issued by Richard Armitage, former naval officier, a Republican politician and former U.S. Deputy Secretary of the State under G. Bush, and Joseph Nye, an American political scientist from Harvard University, the member of Foreign Affair Board and the member of the Defence Policy Board. Many Japanese feel that Abe government is giving priority to US government needs over Japanese public sentiment and its constitution..............................................................................................................................................................
Taro Yamamoto:  This is Taro Yamamoto representing The People’s Life Party & Taro Yamamoto and Friends. I would like to ask the obvious, the topic we all know in Nagatacho but we never discuss.  Please answer in a simple and clear manner.  Thank you.

First, Defense Minister Nakatani please.
Minister Nakatani, in answering committee member Mizuho Fukushima’s question during the committee session on July 31st–why provision of ammunitions, which was prohibited under the Act on Perilous Situations in Areas Surrounding Japan,  is possible now–you have answered that there had been no need on the part of the US military to require provision of ammunitions, refueling aircrafts during start-up preparation for combat maneuvers and maintenance, therefore those were excluded, however, after reevaluating the Guidelines for Japan-U.S. Defense Cooperation, the U.S. has expressed its expectation for Japan’s broader logistical support.
Which means, Minister Nakatani, as a legislative fact for the enactment of the national security bills, there have been needs for the US military, a request from it, is that right?

Defense Minister (Gen Nakatani):  When the current regulation was enacted, there were no such needs from the US, therefore they were excluded.  Which, I have stated during the Diet session.

However, during subsequent discussion on the Guidelines for Japan-U.S. Defense Cooperation, the US has expressed an expectation for Japan to pursue a broader logistical support including the aforementioned matters. In addition, as I have stated already, last year, as the Japanese Self-Depence Force participating in the UN Peace Keeping operation in Southern Sudan has provided ammunitions to a South Korean troops after a request from the UN, there are unexpected circumstance in which provisions of ammunitions can be expected, moreover, circumstances have shifted in various ways, so now, we have recognized those and we consider that it is necessary to lay down a legal measure for them.

Taro Yamamoto:  Minister Nakatani, could you tell us, in order to make those matters such as the provision of ammunitions, which were impossible under the Act on Perilous Situations in Areas Surrounding Japan, possible under the national security bills, what sort of needs were expressed in what form and when by the US military?

Defense Minister (Gen Nakatani):  The Japan-U.S. Defense Cooperation has progressed, and its guideline was reevaluated while the capability of the Self-Defense Force has improved — these prompted the US request for the broader logistical support, therefore, basically, the needs came out during the discussion between Japan and the US.

Taro Yamamoto:  That really did not answer what I have asked…
In any case, the needs of the US military are the legislative facts, right? There was a request and there were those needs, accordingly, the way our country should be and its rules are being altered, right?  Provisions of ammunitions, we transport them.  And according to the law, we can transport bullets, shells, grenades, rockets, even missiles or nuclear weapons can be delivered.  Moreover, refueling of aircrafts during start-up preparation for combat maneuvers and maintenance are allowed. These are clearly the logistical support during military actions which are integral parts of the military actions, and they are clearly unconstitutional.  But now, you changed the interpretation of the Constitution, upon the US military request.
In fact, I would like to let you know how big and detailed the nature of the US request is.

Image please (reference shown)

This image was taken, two weeks after the unconstitutional cabinet decision to approve the right of collective self-defense, on July first, 2014,at the Prime Minister’s official residence on July fifteenth, 2014.  It was taken from the home page of Prime Minister of Japan and His Cabinet.
The gentleman who is shaking Prime Minster Abe’s hand is the famous, with his quotes “Show the flag”, “Boots on the ground”, Richard Armitage, the former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State. The one after next, the second from the left, with the red tie, with the side of his head barely showing, the one who’s back of his head is only showing, is Joseph Nye, Harvard University.

These two people, for those who have no idea who they are, are introduced in detail at the home page of Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan. Representing the U.S.-Japan Commission on the Future of the Alliance, John Hamre, the president of Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), tells us that 14 years ago Armitage, a former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State and Professor Nye at Harvard University, published Armitage Nye Report proposing the approach on Japan U.S. security issues.
It’s the story of the extremely influential gentlemen:  That the precious words endowed by these two are faithfully reflected in the Japanese national policies.

The first report in October of 2000, the second in February of 2007 and the third in August of 2012, each of the Armitage Nye Report has significant influence on the security policies of Japan.

Please switch the image panel, thank you.

The second panel shows 9 suggestions to Japan from the third Armitage Nye Report, and other notable points from it.  As we see this, it becomes clear that almost everything, from the unconstitutional cabinet decision to unconstitutional national security bills, derives from the request of the US.

First, at the bottom, sorry to get to the bottom first, please look at 10 among “others”.  In the main text of the report it says as following.  “The irony, however, is that under the most severe conditions requiring the protection of Japan’s interests, our forces are legally prevented from collectively defending Japan.  A change in Japan’s prohibition of collective self-defense would address that irony in full. A shift in policy should not seek a unified command, a more militarily aggressive Japan, or a change in Japan’s Peace Constitution. Prohibition of collective self-defense is an impediment to the alliance.”

Could you place the first panel to the second one for a second?

This picture, you wonder what it is all about and then you see that these are the people who suggested the unconstitutional cabinet decision about the collective self-defense, right?  They suggested it and the suggestion was realized.  So, they came all the way to the Official Residence of the Prime Minister to say “well done”, “good job”, it’s that sort of a heart warming scene, one must wonder.

Excuse me, please take the panel off, we are going back to the 2nd panel.

The suggestion no. 1, it’s at the very top. Surprisingly, they are asking for restart of the nuclear plants.  Prime Minister went for it without considering the safety issues.

The suggestion no. 3, participating in TPP negotiation. The Abe administration blatantly broke the Liberal Democratic Party’s 2012 Lower House election campaign promise, faithfully following this suggestion.

The suggestion no. 8, protection of national security secrets of Japan, and secrets between the US and Japan.  This is an exact recipe for the Act on the Protection of Specially Designated Secrets.  It certainly has been realized.  Next one is a little lower…

No. 12 under the heading Others, encouraging the Japanese defense industry to export its technologies.  This is also realized as the Three Principles on Transfer of Defense Equipment and Technology.

In the Japan-U.S. joint statement for the new guidelines for Japan-U.S. Defense Cooperation, it is stated that “As Japan continues its policy of “Proactive Contribution to Peace,” based on the principle of international cooperation, the United States welcomes and supports Japan’s recent monumental achievements.  Among these are: the cabinet decision by the Government of Japan on July 1, 2014, for developing seamless security legislation; the creation of its National Security Council; the Three Principles on Transfer of Defense Equipment and Technology; the Act on the Protection of Specially Designated Secrets; the Basic Act on Cybersecurity; the new Basic Plan on Space Policy; and the Development Cooperation Charter.”  These are “the monumental achievements”, that come from the new guidelines’ accuracy in following the suggestions of the third Armitage Nye Report, right?

And as we compare the national security bills, the war act, to the list on the panel, no.2 protection of the sea lane, no. 5 cooperation with India, Australia, Philippines and Taiwan, no. 6 systematic cooperation beyond the territory of Japan on intelligence, surveillance and spy activities, and peace time, contingencies, crisis and war time systematic cooperation between the US military and Japanese Self-Defense Force, no. 7 independent Japanese operation involving mine sweepers around Strait of Hormuz, and joint surveillance operation in South China Sea with the US, no. 9 expansion of legal authority during UN peace keeping operations, no. 11 joint military trainings and joint development of weapons: most of these are included in the national security bills.

I would like to ask Foreign Minister Kishida.
Do you consider the suggestions included in the third Armitage Nye Report to be actualized as “Japan’s recent monumental achievements” as they were written in the joint statement for the new guidelines and as the national security bills?

Foreign Minister (Fumio Kishida):  First, the aforementioned report is a private report, therefore I must refrain from commenting on it from the official stand point, but at least, regarding this year’s new guidelines and the peace and security bills, I consider them not to be made according to the report.

In terms of the peace and security bills, it is an independent attempt to consider, strictly, how to protect the lives of the Japanese population and the way of life.  Regarding the new guidelines also, we consider that, as our security environment continue to reflect a harsh reality, suggest a general framework and policy directions of the Japan U.S. defense cooperation.

Taro Yamamoto:  Thank you very much.
Nakatani Defense Minister, the supplied material, the summary of the third Armitage Nye Report, was taken right out of the JMSDF (Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force) Command and Staff College home page.  Do think the third Armitage Nye report suggestions are reflected in the content of the national security bills?

Defense Minister (Gen Nakatani):  The Defense Ministry and Self-Defense Force take various people’s perspectives broadly from the world into consideration of the intelligence collection, research and analysis.

Regarding the peace and security bills we have made it strictly as an independent attempt to protect the lives of the population and the way of life, it was decided as a result of lengthy open discussions with various opinions, especially, it has gone through meetings with experts in the government, moreover, among the governmental party, Liberal Democratic Party of Japan and Komei Party have conducted twenty five thorough meetings in the making process, therefore it is not made according to the Nye Report, moreover, as we will continue to research and examine it, although we do recognize that some portions of the bills overlap with the report, as it was pointed out in the report, we do insist that it is a strictly independent attempt through our consideration and research.


Taro Yamamoto:  You say that this is a private think tank, and you say that it’s just a coincidence, and the people from the private think tank visit Japan all the time and our Prime Minister gives speeches to them as well.  How intimate, and, how can you say that it’s a coincidence? You say that it is not made according to the report, although some portions overlap, no, this is overlapping almost identically.  It is just as it is. You have done a  splendid job making a perfect replica, it is an exact copy (1).

If we just look at the unconstitutional cabinet decision on July first last year and this unconstitutional national security bill, the war act, it’s been exactly as they were requested by the US. What in the world? Moreover, restart of the nuclear plants, TPP, the Act on the Protection of Specially Designated Secrets, repeal of the Three Principles on Arms Exports, anything and everything is going as wished by the US.  What’s with this absolute cooperation with 100% sincerity in complying with the US, the needs of the US military, even if we must step on our Constitution and destroy our way of life in the implementation? Could we call this an independent nation?  It’s completely manipulated, whose country is it, that’s what I’d like to discuss.

And despite this extraordinary dedication to the colonial lord, the US, on the other hand, has been eaves dropping on the “allied nation” Japan’s agencies and corporate giants and sharing the info with Five Eyes countries, England, Canada, New Zealand and Australia. We’ve heard about that last month, which is just idiotic.

How long are we going to keep sitting on this convenience?  How long are we going to stay as a suckerfish hanging onto a declining super power? (Someone speaks)  Now, I heard someone speak from behind me.  It’s the 51st state, the last state of the US, that’s a way to look at it.  But if it’s the 51st state, we’ve got to be able to choose the president.  That’s not even happening.

Are we just being helpless?  When will we stop being the colony? It’s got to be now.  Equal relationship, we’ve got to make it a healthy relationship.  It’s ridiculous that we just keep working on their demands.

I am absolutely against the war act, no way, it’s an American war act by America and for America. There is no other way other than scrapping it. Period.

If you insist on the threat of China, creating a situation in which the Self-Defense Force can go all the way to the back of the planet dilutes the defense capability around the nation.  Why does the Self-Defense Force have to join the US to the back of the planet and run around with it?  And that makes it OK to go around with other nations as well, right?  Where do we stop? There is no end.  And you seem to be not concerned at all about the lack of defense around Japan for someone who is so adamant about the threat of China.

The act must be scrapped, that is the only way there is, with these words I would like to end our questions for the morning. Thank you very much.



Translator’s note

(1), Taro Yamamoto refers to the cultural phenomenon of appreciating the craft of faithfully reproducing musical performance, scenes from movies, TV shows and so on in a similar or different format  by using the associated term “kancopi”.  The direct translation of the term would be “perfect copy”. In the session, he is mocking the extreme degree of the servitude of the administration by praising the commendable job they did in kancopying the Armitage Nye Report suggestions.

http://www.taro-yamamoto.jp/national-diet/5047

 

 

The Fukushima Endgame: The Radioactive Contamination of the Pacific Ocean

Global Research : 6 October 2015

First published in December 17, 2014.  This article by Professor Michel Chossudovsky was granted the 2015 Project Censored Award.  Ranked No. 5 among the 25 most censored news stories.

Nuclear radiation resulting from the March 2011 Fukushima disaster –which threatens life on planet earth– is not front page news in comparison to the most insignificant issues of public concern, including the local level crime scene or the tabloid gossip reports on Hollywood celebrities.
The shaky political consensus both in Japan, the U.S. and Western Europe is that the crisis at Fukushima has been contained. 

The truth is otherwise. Known and documented, the ongoing dumping of highly radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean constitutes a potential trigger to a process of global radioactive contamination. 

This water contains plutonium 239 and its release into the Ocean has both local as well as global repercussions.  A microgram of plutonium if inhaled, according to Dr. Helen Caldicott, can cause death:

Certain isotopes of radioactive plutonium are known as some of the deadliest poisons on the face of the earth. A mere microgram (a speck of darkness on a pinhead) of Plutonium-239, if inhaled, can cause death, and if ingested, radioactive Plutonium can be harmful, causing leukemia and other bone cancers.      

“In the days following the 2011 earthquake and nuclear plant explosions, seawater meant to cool the nuclear power plants instead carried radioactive elements back to the Pacific ocean. Radioactive Plutonium was one of the elements streamed back to sea.” (decodescience.com).

It would appear that the radioactive water has already penetrated parts of the Japanese coastline:

Environmental testing of shoreline around the nuclear plant (as well fish, especially Tuna) showed negligible amounts of Plutonium in the seawater. The Plutonium, from what little is reported, sank into the sediments off the Japanese coast.”  (Ibid)

A recent report suggests that the Japanese government is intent upon releasing the remaining radioactive water into the Ocean. The proposed “solution” becomes the cause of radioactive contamination of both the Japanese coastline as well as the Pacific Ocean, extending to the coastline of North America.      

While the chairman of the Nuclear Radiation Authority recognizes that the water in the tanks is heavily “tainted”, a decision has nonetheless been taken to empty the tanks and dump the water into the Ocean:

The head of Japan’s nuclear watchdog said contaminated water stored at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant should be released into the ocean to ensure safe decommissioning of the reactors.      

Shunichi Tanaka, the chairman of the Nuclear Regulation Authority, made the comment Dec. 12 after visiting the facility to observe progress in dismantling the six reactors. The site was severely damaged in the tsunami generated by the 2011 earthquake.      

“I was overwhelmed by the sheer number of tanks (holding water tainted with radioactive substances),” Tanaka told reporters, indicating they pose a danger to decommissioning work. “We have to dispose of the water.”    

With regard to expected protests by local fishermen over the discharge, Tanaka said, “We also have to obtain the consent of local residents in carrying out the work, so we can somehow mitigate (the increase in tainted water).”
Tanaka has said previously that to proceed with decommissioning, tainted water stored on the site would need to be released into the sea so long as it had been decontaminated to accepted safety standards.     

“While (the idea) may upset people, we must do our utmost to satisfy residents of Fukushima,” Tanaka said, adding that the NRA would provide information to local residents based on continuing studies of radioactive elements in local waters.
The inspection tour was Tanaka’s second since he became NRA chief in September 2012. He last visited in April 2013.     

During his visit, Tanaka observed work at a trench on the ocean side of the No. 2 reactor building, where highly contaminated water is being pumped out. He also inspected barriers set up around the storage tanks to prevent leaks of tainted water.    

Tanaka praised the completion in November of work to remove all spent nuclear fuel from the No. 4 reactor building, as well as changes to work procedures that he said allows for the completion of the work at the No. 2 reactor trench.  Hiromi Kumai , NRA Head Signals Massive Release of Tainted Water to Help Decommission Fukushima Site Asahi Shimbun December 13, 2014

The contradictory statements of  the NRA chief  avoid addressing the broader implications, by giving the impression that the issue is local and that local fishermen off the Fukushima coast will be consulted.

----------------------------------------
TEXT BOX
 Nuclear Radiation: Categorization
At Fukushima, reports confirm that alpha, beta, gamma particles and neutrons have been released:

“While non-ionizing radiation and x-rays are a result of electron transitions in atoms or molecules, there are three forms of ionizing radiation that are a result of activity within the nucleus of an atom.  These forms of nuclear radiation are alpha particles (α-particles), beta particles (β-particles) and gamma rays (γ-rays).
Alpha particles are heavy positively charged particles made up of two protons and two neutrons.  They are essentially a helium nucleus and are thus represented in a nuclear equation by either α or .  See the Alpha Decay page for more information on alpha particles.
Beta particles come in two forms:  and .  particles are just electrons that have been ejected from the nucleus.  This is a result of sub-nuclear reactions that result in a neutron decaying to a proton.  The electron is needed to conserve charge and comes from the nucleus.  It is not an orbital electron.  particles are positrons ejected from the nucleus when a proton decays to a neutron.  A positron is an anti-particle that is similar in nearly all respects to an electron, but has a positive charge.  See the Beta Decay page for more information on beta particles.
Gamma rays are photons of high energy electromagnetic radiation (light).  Gamma rays generally have the highest frequency and shortest wavelengths in the electromagnetic spectrum.  There is some overlap in the frequencies of gamma rays and x-rays; however, x-rays are formed from electron transitions while gamma rays are formed from nuclear transitions. See the Gamma Rays  for more” (SOURCE: Canadian Nuclear Association)
“A neutron is a particle that is found in the nucleus, or center, of atoms. It has a mass very close to protons, which also reside in the nucleus of atoms. Together, they make up almost all of the mass of individual atoms. Each has a mass of about 1 amu, which is roughly 1.6×10-27kg. Protons have a positive charge and neutrons have no charge, which is why they were more difficult to discover.” (SOURCE: Neutron Radiation)

“Many different radioactive isotopes are used in or are produced by nuclear reactors. The most important of these are described below:
1. Uranium 235 (U-235) is the active component of most nuclear reactor fuel.
2. Plutonium (Pu-239) is a key nuclear material used in modern nuclear weapons and is also present as a by-product in certain reprocessed fuels used in some nuclear reactors. Pu-239 is also produced in uranium reactors as a byproduct of fission of U-235.
3. Cesium (Cs-137 ) is a fission product of U-235. It emits beta and gamma radiation and can cause radiation sickness and death if exposures are high enough. …
4. Iodine 131 (I-131), also a fission product of U-235, emits beta and gamma radiation. After inhalation or ingestion, it is absorbed by and concentrated in the thyroid gland, where its beta radiation damages nearby thyroid tissue  (SOURCE: Amesh A. Adalja, MD, Eric S. Toner, MD, Anita Cicero, JD, Joseph Fitzgerald, MS, MPH, and Thomas V. Inglesby MD, Radiation at Fukushima: Basic Issues and Concepts, March 31, 2011)

The original source of this article is Global Research

Copyright © Prof Michel Chossudovsky, Global Research, 2015

 

http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-fukushima-endgame/5420188?utm_campaign=magnet&utm_source=article_page&utm_medium=related_articles

 

Fukushima Update - 5 years after Nuclear Power Plant meltdown

Japan Press Weekly : 25 February 2016

On March 11, 2011, the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant was hit by a magnitude-9 earthquake and massive tsunami, which led to the nuclear meltdown at the plant.

Nearly five years on, even now, endless efforts are being made to contain the nuclear accident. There is still a long way to go before full decommissioning of the crippled reactors.

On the sea side of the plant stand four reactor buildings. At the No.3 reactor building (third from the right), repair work on its roof, which was blown off by an internal hydrogen explosion five years ago, has yet to be finished. Three other reactor buildings, which were also damaged by internal explosions, now have temporary white covers under which recovery works is taking place.
The radiation level is still dangerously high at the plant. It is feared that the 120-meter high funnels attached to the reactor buildings may collapse due to excessive corrosion, but high radiation doses prevent workers from even getting close to them to repair or replace them.

On the hill side, a thousand-plus water storage tanks are placed close together and are full of highly-radioactive water. The number of tanks keeps increasing as the plant operator pumps up around 500 tons of toxic radioactive water from the site every day. The storage pit is gradually encroaching on nearby woods due to the scarcity of space

5 Years Later Fukushima Still Spilling Toxic Nuclear Waste Into Sea, Top Execs Face Criminal Charges

Ecowatch : 1 March 2016

 

Five years after the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl, three former executives of Tokyo Electric Power Co. (Telco) were indicted Monday for allegedly failing to prevent the tsunami-sparked crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

 

Former Tepco chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata and former vice presidents Ichiro Takekuro and Sakae Muto were charged with contributing to deaths and injuries stemming from the nuclear meltdown triggered by the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

Their indictment is Japan’s first criminal action taken in connection with the nuclear crisis. If convicted, the three men could face up to five years in prison or a penalty up to 1 million yen.
According to The Japan Times, the trio have been blamed for injuries to 13 people, including Self-Defense Forces personnel, hydrogen explosions at the plant and the deaths of 44 patients who were forced to evacuate from a nearby hospital. The indictment seeks to answer in court the question of whether the three bosses should be held criminally responsible for the disaster, the publication stated.

Tepco had been warned years earlier about the dangers of an earthquake and a tsunami hitting the plant. According to The Japan Times, the inquest committee said the former executives received a report by June 2009 that the plant could be hit by a tsunami as high as 15.7 meters and that they “failed to take pre-emptive measures knowing the risk of a major tsunami.”

The three executives were not taken into custody and are likely to plead not guilty to the charges arguing that it was impossible to predict the size of the tsunami, according to Abc.net.au. The trial is not expected to begin until next year.

Still, many have been encouraged by the indictment.

“I’m full of emotion,” Ruiko Muto, head of a campaign group pushing for a trial, told a Tokyo press briefing. “This will be a great encouragement for hundreds of thousands of nuclear accident victims who are still suffering and facing hardship.”

Environmental group Greenpeace also called the charges against the Tepco executives a step forward for Fukushima victims.

“The court proceedings that will now follow should reveal the true extent of Tepco’s and the Japanese regulatory system’s enormous failure to protect the people of Japan,” Hisayo Takada, deputy program director at Greenpeace’s Japan office, said in a statement. “Tepco and the Japanese regulator continue to ignore demands to disclose key details of what they know about the causes of the accident. The hundred thousand people who still can’t return home deserve to have all the facts.”
In response to the indictment, a Tepco spokesman said, “We will continue to do our utmost to sincerely address the issue of compensation, decontamination and decommissioning of the plant, and at the same time we express our unflagging resolve to ensure strengthening the safety measures at our nuclear power plant.”

The nuclear meltdown forced the evacuation of 160,000 locals who lived around the power plant with many who will never return. The devastating fallout continues to this day, as Scientific American wrote in their upcoming issue:

The plant has yet to stop producing dangerous nuclear waste: its operator, the Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco), currently circulates water through the three melted units to keep them cool—generating a relentless supply of radioactive water. To make matters worse, groundwater flowing from a hill behind the crippled plant now mingles with radioactive materials before heading into the sea.

 

Tepco collects the contaminated water and stores it all in massive tanks at the rate of up to 400 metric tons a day. Lately the water has been processed to reduce the concentration of radionuclides, but it still retains high concentrations of tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen. Disputes over its final resting place remain unresolved. The same goes for the millions of bags of contaminated topsoil and other solid waste from the disaster, as well as the uranium fuel itself. Health reports, too, are worrisome. Scientists have seen an increase in thyroid cancers among the children who had lived in Fukushima at the time, although it is too early to tell if those cases can be attributed to the accident.

 

Indeed, as Beyond Nuclear reported in October, a study examining children who were 18 years and younger at the onset of the Fukushima nuclear meltdown found an increase in thyroid cancers, as predicted by World Health Organization initial dose assessments.

Despite the environmental and human health catastrophe—as well as widespread public opposition—Japan restarted its first nuclear reactor in August.

“Five years since the Fukushima accident began, Japan’s nuclear regulator is repeating the same kind of mistakes that led to the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Last week, the plutonium-fueled Takahama 4 reactor was restarted, just days after a radioactive leak in the primary coolant system,” Kendra Ulrich, senior global energy campaigner at Greenpeace Japan, said in a statement Monday.

“Japan’s nuclear regulator continues to look the other way on major safety issues. The government continues to press ahead with nuclear restarts despite unresolved safety problems that put the public at risk. It’s time to break free from nuclear and embrace the only safe and clean technology that can meet Japan’s needs—renewable energy.”

Last week, Greenpeace’s Rainbow Warrior vessel surveyed waters near the Fukushima plant to take samples from the seabed to be analyzed in independent laboratories in Japan and France.

“It’s very important (to see) where is more contaminated and where is less or even almost not contaminated,” Greenpeace’s Jan Vande Putte told AFP, stressing the importance of such findings for the fishing industry.

 

Japanese TV anchors lose their jobs amid claims of political pressure

Supporters of the three news broadcasters say prime minister had private dinners with top media executives before the departures
The Guardian : 17 February 2016

Many British politicians would doubtless rejoice at the news that Andrew Marr, Emily Maitlis and Andrew Neil were to leave their jobs almost simultaneously.

That is the fate that has befallen what could loosely be described as their counterparts in Japan – Ichiro Furutachi, Hiroko Kuniya and Shigetada Kishii – three respected broadcasters with a reputation for asking tough questions.

Their imminent departure from evening news programmes is not just a loss to their profession; critics say they were forced out as part of a crackdown on media dissent by an increasingly intolerant prime minister, Shinzo Abe, and his supporters.

Only last week, the internal affairs minister, Sanae Takaichi, sent a clear message to media organisations. Broadcasters that repeatedly failed to show “fairness” in their political coverage, despite official warnings, could be taken off the air, she told MPs.

Under broadcast laws, the internal affairs minister has the power to suspend broadcasting that does not maintain political neutrality.

“This is nothing but intimidation against broadcasters,” the Japan Federation of Commercial Broadcast Workers’ Union said in a statement. “[Takaichi’s] remarks represent a glaring misinterpretation of the law and we demand that she promptly retract her remarks.”

What passes for a probing interview in Japan would be unlikely to set political pulses racing in Britain. But the three Japanese anchors have all courted controversy for refusing to follow the anodyne approach many of their colleagues take towards political coverage.

As the host of Hodo Station, a popular evening news programme on TV Asahi, Ichiro Furutachi was at the centre of a row last spring over claims by one of the show’s regular pundits, Shigeaki Koga, that he had been forced to quit under pressure from government officials angered by his criticism of the Abe administration.

Shigetada Kishii, who appears on News 23 on the TBS network, angered government supporters last year after criticising security legislation pushed through parliament by Abe’s Liberal Democratic party (LDP).

Perhaps most striking of all is the departure of Kuniya, the veteran presenter of Close-up Gendai, a current affairs programme on public broadcaster NHK.

Her “crime” had been to irritate Yoshihide Suga, the chief cabinet secretary and a close Abe ally, with an unscripted follow-up question during a discussion about the security legislation.

While the anchors themselves have refused to comment, experts say Abe and his allies had made their feelings known about the broadcasters during secretive dinners with top media executives.
“It was not their decision to leave,” said Sanae Fujita of the Human Rights Centre at Essex University. “But their bosses gave in to pressure from their senior colleagues, who are ‘friends’ with Abe.

“It is very worrying that the Japanese media are practising self-censorship in this way. They do not seem to be aware of their role as a watchdog.”

Koichi Nakano, a politics professor at Sophia University, said it was impossible to prove a direct link between the government and the termination of the anchors’ contracts.

“But there is plenty of anecdotal evidence that shows that Abe, and Suga in particular, have been very active in applying pressure and wining and dining media bosses,” Nakano said.

Critics cite the LDP’s decision last April to summon TV Asahi and NHK before a commission, where party officials accused the former of failing to be impartial in its political coverage – a reprimand Tatsuro Hanada, a professor of media studies at Waseda University in Tokyo, calls “de facto intimidation”.

Hanada said it was “no accident” that the trio of broadcasters had been targeted, since they all believed in the role of journalism as a guardian of the public interest against the abuse of power. “It was obvious that all three were unwilling to leave their jobs voluntarily,” he added.
It is not the first time that Abe has been embroiled in controversy over broadcasters’ editorial independence. In 2005, he admitted he had urged NHK staff to alter the contents of a documentary about wartime sex slaves.

When he called a snap election in late 2014, the LDP wrote to TV networks in Tokyo demanding that they “ensure fairness, neutrality and correctness” in their coverage.

Abe has also been accused of attempting to influence editorial decisions at NHK by hand-picking Katsuto Momii, a fellow conservative, as chairman.

Momii caused consternation after his appointment when he suggested that NHK would toe the government line on key diplomatic issues, including Japan’s territorial dispute with China. “International broadcasting is different from domestic,” he said. “It would not do for us to say ‘left’ when the government is saying ‘right’.”

Attempts to intimidate the media as well as the passage of a state secrets law in 2013 under which reporters can be imprisoned for up to five years have battered Japan’s international reputation.
Last year it came 61st out of 180 countries in Reporters Without Borders’ global press freedom rankings. That compares with 12th place in 2010.

Fears that Japan’s government is resisting international scrutiny arose last December when it abruptly cancelled a visit by David Kaye, the UN special rapporteur for freedom of expression, saying it had been unable to arrange meetings with officials. Kaye is now scheduled to visit Japan in April.

“The ongoing attack on media freedom in Japan by the government and its rightwing associates is not about being on the right or the left — it is about destroying the foundations of a liberal democracy,” Nakano said.

“I find it very disappointing that the press is incapable of presenting a united front. It is as if the media are accepting the government’s position that anything critical of the government is politically biased, and that reporting factually about government policies is commendable, neutral journalism.”

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/17/japanese-tv-anchors-lose-their-jobs-amid-claims-of-political-pressure

 

Anchors away - Media freedom in Japan

Criticism of government is being airbrushed out of news shows
The Economist : 20 February 2016

FOR a decade, millions of Japanese have tuned in to watch Ichiro Furutachi, the salty presenter of a popular evening news show, TV Asahi’s “Hodo Station”. But next month Mr Furutachi will be gone. He is one of three heavyweight presenters leaving prime-time shows on relatively liberal channels. It is no coincidence that all are, by Japanese standards, robust critics of the government.

Last year another anchor, Shigetada Kishii, used his news slot on TBS, a rival channel, to question the legality of bills passed to expand the nation’s military role overseas. The questioning was nothing less than what most constitutional scholars were also doing—and in private senior officials themselves acknowledge the unconstitutionality of the legislation, even as they justify it on the ground that Japan is in a risky neighbourhood and needs better security. But Mr Kishii’s on-air fulminations prompted a group of conservatives to take out newspaper advertisements accusing him of violating broadcasters’ mandated impartiality. TBS now says he will quit. The company denies this has anything to do with the adverts, but few believe that.

The third case is at NHK, the country’s giant public-service broadcaster. It has yanked one of its more popular anchors off the air. Hiroko Kuniya has helmed an investigative programme, “Close-up Gendai”, for two decades. NHK has not said why she is leaving, but colleagues blame her departure on an interview last year with Yoshihide Suga, the government’s top spokesman and closest adviser to Shinzo Abe, the prime minister.

Mr Suga is known for running a tight ship and for demanding advance notice of questions from journalists. In the interview Ms Kuniya had the temerity to probe him on the possibility that the new security legislation might embroil Japan in other countries’ wars. By the standards of spittle-flecked clashes with politicians on British or American television, the encounter was tame. But Japanese television journalists rarely play hardball with politicians. Mr Suga’s handlers were incensed.

It all shows how little tolerance the government has for criticism, says Makoto Sataka, a commentator and colleague of Mr Kishii’s. He points out that one of Mr Abe’s first moves after he returned to power in 2012 was to appoint conservative allies to NHK’s board. Katsuto Momii, the broadcaster’s new president, wasted little time in asserting that NHK’s role was to reflect government policy. What is unprecedented today, says Shigeaki Koga, a former bureaucrat turned talking head, is the growing public intimidation of journalists. On February 9th the communications minister, Sanae Takaichi, threatened to close television stations that flouted rules on political impartiality. Ms Takaichi was responding to a question about the departure of the three anchors.

Political pressure on the press is not new. The mainstream media (the five main newspapers are affiliated with the principal private television stations) are rarely analytical or adversarial, being temperamentally and commercially inclined to reflect the establishment view. Indeed the chumminess is extreme. In January Mr Abe again dined with the country’s top media executives at the offices of the Yomiuri Shimbun, the world’s biggest-circulation newspaper. Nine years ago, when Mr Abe resigned from his first term as prime minister, the paper’s kingpin, Tsuneo Watanabe, brokered the appointment of his successor, Yasuo Fukuda. Mr Watanabe then attempted to forge a coalition between ruling party and opposition. Oh, but his paper forgot to alert readers to all these goings-on. The media today, says Michael Cucek of Temple University in Tokyo, has “no concept of conflict of interest.”

It has all contributed to an alarming slide since 2011 in Japan’s standing in world rankings of media freedom. Mr Koga expects a further fall this year. He ran afoul of the government during his stint as a caustic anti-Abe commentator on “Hodo Station”. On air last year he claimed that his contract was being terminated because of pressure from the prime minister’s office. His aim, Mr Koga insists, was to rally the media against government interference. Yet TV Asahi apologised and promised tighter controls over guests. Now Mr Furutachi is quitting too. The government is playing chicken with the media, Mr Furutachi says, and winning.

From the print edition: Asia