Constitutional revision in Japan by 2020?

Emperor Hirohito signing
1947 Constitution

Don’t count on it

EastAsiaForum, 13 September 2018

by Michael Cucek, Adjunct Professor of Political Science and History at Temple University Japan and an Adjunct Professor of Social Science at Waseda University.

Revision or amendment of the 1947 US-drafted Constitution of Japan has been the aim of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s existence since the day it was founded. Yet in 60 years of nearly unbroken rule, the party has failed to table a single draft proposal for a constitutional amendment.

Scepticism is justified regarding the vow Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made to Nippon Kaigi — a group that advocates constitutional revision — that before the opening ceremony of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, he would lead the National Diet and the people to vote for the first amendment of the post-war constitution.

Abe has advantages in this endeavour that his previous Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) presidents did not. His LDP–Komeito ruling coalition holds over two-thirds of the seats in the House of Representatives and has held on to this supermajority the coalition through two successive elections. Together with allied micro-parties, independents and revision-sympathetic conservatives of the Ishin no Kai party, the ruling coalition also secured a two-thirds supermajority in the House of Councillors (the upper house) in 2016.

These two supermajorities guarantee the first two requirements for the passage of a constitutional amendment: a more than two-thirds vote of approval in both houses of the Diet.

None of Abe’s projected opponents in the scheduled September 2018 LDP presidential election are noted opponents of revision. Indeed, former defence minister and LDP secretary-general Shigeru Ishiba, Abe’s most viable opponent in an intra-party power struggle, desires much more radical revisions than Abe and his allies have been considering.

Crucially for a party driven by factionalism, the LDP’s internal constitutional revision apparatus is in the grasp of Abe loyalists. An overlooked achievement was Abe’s wresting the chairmanship of the LDP Headquarters for the Promotion of Revision of the Constitution away from Hajime Funada. Funada had used control of the revision committee as means of hobbling the initiatives of his fellow party members. Buoyed by the great victory in the October 2017 election, Abe shoved Funada aside, replacing him with a more senior and supportive leader: Hiroyuki Hosoda, the head of Abe’s own faction within the LDP.

But things are not so sanguine outside the Party. A unique feature of Abe’s years in power has been a lack of voter enthusiasm for his policies. While public opinion poll numbers in support of the Abe cabinet have fluctuated in between 40 and 60 per cent — remarkably high for any Japanese administration, particularly one in its sixth year — the numbers supporting his administration’s policies have almost never risen above 50 per cent. These approval ratings usually hover in the mid-30s, with most voters either doubtful about or actively opposed to constitutional change. Expending time and effort justifying changes has proved counterproductive for Abe: support for policy proposals has consistently declined the more that Abe and his lieutenants have tried to explain them.

The combination of these two phenomena — initial low support for Abe policies and declining support for those policies over time — seems deadly for constitutional revision. Article 96 of the constitution requires a national referendum to be held on any proposed amendment or revision, and a strict majority of votes must be in favour of the proposal for it to pass. Any significant amendment will start out with less than 50 per cent support, if the history of the Abe cabinet is any guide, meaning that it will have an essentially zero chance of surviving the referendum process. And polling has shown that at least 60 per cent of voters do not want the constitution altered under Abe.

Of the four main constitutional revision proposals that Abe and his allies have considered, one (the emergency powers revision) is seen as too controversial and has been shelved. Two others (free education through high school and the assignment of at least two senators to each House of Councillors electoral district) are matters of legislation, not constitutional revision. Indeed, the senator assignment issue was resolved by legislation in the recently concluded Diet regular session.

This leaves the proposal to add a sentence to Article 9 — the Peace Article — constitutionalising the Japan Self-Defense Forces. This is the amendment proposal that many voters fear.

First, this proposal is completely unnecessary. The Self-Defense Forces are broadly admired, and their constitutionality is accepted by nearly every part of Japan’s political spectrum. Second, putting the amendment to the voters could backfire spectacularly. A ‘No’ vote in the first ever constitutional revision referendum would force Abe’s immediate resignation. It would also bury, possibly for perpetuity, further attempts at revision.

Finally, a rejection would be the equivalent of finding that the Self-Defense Forces are unconstitutional. Abe has testified that his government would ignore a referendum rejection and continue to consider the Self-Defense Forces constitutional, whatever the voters say. But given that a rejection would force his resignation, he and his team would not be in charge to make that decision.

Nevertheless, Abe promised at a conference in August that he would add the extra sentence to Article 9. What is more, he said he wanted the amendment proposal through the Diet by the end of 2018.

Abe’s speech triggered a lot of speculation about his intentions. The conventional wisdom is that Abe is averse to career-ending challenges. His ignominious premature exit from his first term as prime minister in 2007 made him a more cautious and patient radical. He does not succumb to time pressures and never takes any stance on which his side does not have an overwhelming chance of prevailing.

The question revolves therefore around what Abe means when he says he ‘wants’ to have a constitutional amendment before the year is out. We all ‘want’ many things, most of which we cannot have. Abe’s most fervent supporters want a constitutional amendment, now. Abe seems to have merely been playing to the crowd.

Besides, Abe knows of a precedent on pushing against public opinion — one he does not want to follow. In 1960, Abe’s grandfather Nobusuke Kishi staked his premiership on a deeply unpopular renewal of the Japan–US Security Treaty. Kishi lost power because of his commitment to deliver the renewal. Abe is not likely to follow in his grandfather’s self-sacrificial path — not for a promise that the LDP has failed to honour for 63 years.

Why modern Japan’s founding moment still divides a nation

Omuta Mine's POW Slave Labor Camp
Mitsui's Miike Mine
UNESCO World Industrial Heritage Site

The Meiji restoration initiated not just modernisation, but also militarism

by Banyan, The Economist, January 11, 2018.

THE story of Japan’s modernisation began 150 years ago this month, when a band of young samurai and their allies overthrew the Tokugawa shogunate and with it seven centuries of feudal rule. Under the shoguns (military rulers), merchant and cultural life—centred upon bustling Edo—had been far from stagnant, as the stunning woodblock prints of Hokusai and Hiroshige attest. But Japan had for more than two centuries been closed and inward-looking. Its stratified society was absurdly rigid.

Above all, the warrior class was ill-equipped to deal with the growing threat posed by the gunboats of America and other Western countries, which had been sailing into Edo Bay and forcing the shoguns to sign treaties opening the country to foreign trade. The contest was unequal. The West had ironclad vessels and the latest guns. The samurai had ceremonial armour with face masks designed to show off impressive false moustaches.

The leaders launched their coup with the slogan “Revere the emperor, expel the barbarians”. For the first part, they called on tradition. They put the imperial line, hitherto mere props in Kyoto, back at the centre of the polity. They brought the 12-year-old emperor, Mutsuhito, up to Edo (now renamed Tokyo, or Eastern Capital), affirmed his unbroken descent from the sun goddess and claimed to rule on his behalf. Mutsuhito died in 1912; posthumously he was given the title of Emperor Meiji. Hence the name for the coup: the Meiji restoration.

As for the second part, far from expelling the barbarians, the new leaders embraced them. In April 1868 a famous “Charter Oath” decreed that “knowledge shall be sought throughout the world” to strengthen imperial rule. Fifty high officials set off on a 22-month world tour to take in everything they could about American and European government, industry, trade, education and warfare. Back in Japan they launched a frenzy of industrial development, administrative reform and military modernisation not even matched by China’s more recent headlong growth. The Meiji restoration was actually a revolution.

For Shinzo Abe, Japan’s current prime minister, the restoration resonates. Mr Abe comes from Yamaguchi, known in feudal times as Choshu. Leaders from Choshu were at the head of the revolution. Mr Abe once told this columnist he identified with them because they did “not simply look inward, but looked…to the world’s wider horizons”. The Choshu men, he explained, saw the threat from Western imperialism. Japan’s harsh choice was either to be the meat served at a Western banquet or a guest at the table. By modernising, Japan became the only big country in Asia to safeguard its independence. It joined the Western high table.

Mr Abe sees lessons in all this, and since he came to office in 2012 he has appeared to be in a tearing hurry to implement them. At home Japan is imperilled by a weak economy, a risk-averse establishment and an ageing, shrinking population. Overseas, China threatens Japan not just in economic terms but, as it grows more assertive, militarily too. A revived economy (with more opportunities for women at work), a vigorous diplomacy and, notwithstanding the constraints of a pacifist post-war constitution, a stronger defence are to him the right responses. (They also help confront the threat posed by a nuclear North Korea.)

The government has gone all-out to promote the 150th anniversary, starting with a push in 2015 to acquire UNESCO “world heritage” status for various spots important in the ensuing industrial revolution. One striking site is Hashima, an island off the coast near Nagasaki that sits above a former coal mine, operated by the Mitsubishi conglomerate, that ran under the sea bed. It was once the most densely populated spot on Earth, housing miners and the families. (Today its post-apocalyptic ruins are best known as the lair of James Bond’s nemesis in “Skyfall”.)

The government website celebrating the Meiji restoration idealises the period as one of grass-roots change and human rights as much as innovation. Yet for ethnic groups whose territory was annexed and culture stifled, such as the Ainu in the north and Okinawans in the south, it was not much fun. The rank-and-file in the new conscript army were brutalised. Workers in the mines and mills led harsh lives. And women, points out Tomomi Yamaguchi of Montana State University, were kept down. They could not vote, divorce or own property. Most Japanese women find little appeal in the nostalgic push by Mr Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party to return to the Meiji era’s “family values”.

Don’t mention the war

There is another problem. The Meiji restoration sowed the seeds of Japan’s 20th-century aggression. The first war dead whose souls were honoured at Tokyo’s Yasukuni shrine, later controversial for honouring war criminals, were those who died fighting for the restoration (though even the losing side was supposedly fighting for the emperor). The authoritarian constitution of 1890, borrowed from that of Bismarck’s Germany, fostered emperor-worship and glorification of the armed forces—powerful features of Japan’s war machine.

By the time of Japan’s defeat in 1945 thousands of Koreans and Chinese had been forced to work the mines in Hashima, among many other sites. [Editor: this was a policy designed by PM Abe's grandfather Kishi.] Mr Abe’s government, after much resistance, promised UNESCO it would reflect this history. Yet on Hashima neither the guides nor the pamphlets and signs refer to it. Members of Mr Abe’s government, and at times the prime minister himself, seem to deny the existence of forced labour at all. [Editor: There was also extensive Allied POW slave labor at most of the UNESCO World Industrial Heritage sites of which there is no mention.]

You can see the conundrum without sympathising with it. Those, like Mr Abe, who are less than frank in acknowledging Japan’s wartime past, are worried about pulling on a thread. No clear event, no Reichstag fire, marked the moment when the country lurched into militarism. If aspects of what the Meiji restoration wrought come into question, what is there left to be proud about? The quest to find a modern identity for Japan continues.

Abe After The Election

What To Do With Power?

By Daniel Sneider, Lecturer in East Asian Studies at Stanford University and APP member

Tokyo Business Today, October 24, 2017

Shinzo Abe has once again defied his critics and proven himself to be one of the most skillful Japanese politicians of the post-war era. Facing scandals eroding his popular support, and a challenge from within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party to his continued leadership, Abe opted for a frontal attack.

Calling early elections before his opponents were ready to seriously confront him, and taking advantage of the vague sense of impending crisis surrounding North Korea, Abe successfully re-established his power, in the country and in the ruling party.

Now the question is what Abe intends to do with that newly refreshed authority. Will he spend it on a possibly chimerical pursuit of his life-long goal of constitutional revision, or will he finish another part of his wartime time history agenda and make a peace treaty deal with Russia? How will he continue to manage the constant chaos created by U.S. President Donald Trump, who arrives shortly on his doorstep? And what indeed will happen with North Korea? Perhaps most important of all, can he ever fulfill his promises of economic revitalization of Japan?

“In policy terms, the impact of the general election will be limited,” predicts Tobias Harris, a leading American analyst for Teneo Intelligence. “The ruling coalition’s victory was a victory for stability and continuity,” he wrote just after the vote was counted. That means moving first on domestic policy issues such as passage of a supplemental and then general budget and a crucial decision on the Bank of Japan’s governorship. Constitutional revision will likely take a back seat to those priorities, Harris believes.

But Abe is a Prime Minster who sees foreign and security policy as his main legacy and those questions will be at the forefront of his concerns. Before tackling those other questions, however, it is important to understand what happened in this election. As exit polls make clear, once again, the Japanese voters present a paradox.

They supported the continuation of the LDP-Komei government but not its policies, nor even Mr. Abe personally. When it comes to constitutional revision, or tax policy, or even the purported threat of North Korea, the majority of Japanese voters either oppose Abe’s policies or do not fully share his views.

Rather, Abe has brilliantly exploited the electoral system that was created more than 25 years ago to drive the LDP out of power. The single member districts were intended to encourage the creation of a two-party system, to give voters a choice between two centrist parties in the style of American politics.

That worked well in 2009 when the Democratic Party of Japan offered a credible left of center alternative – and swept the vote. But the collapse of the DPJ administration splintered the opposition and now the system works instead to the advantage of an LDP that easily wins most of the SMDs despite the fact that it does not command a majority of votes.

Abe had a brief scare when Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike moved to try to fill the void created by the DPJ and set up a serious centrist alternative to the LDP. By calling the early election, Abe caught her off guard – and the campaign exposed her own arrogance and unpreparedness to lead a national party.

Ironically, it also destroyed the unwieldy DPJ and replaced it with a more cohesive leftwing party – one that may be very effective at mobilizing opposition to constitutional revision but, like the old Socialist Party, is unable to come to power by itself.

That leaves Abe in a somewhat odd situation. He has great power but he lacks the popular support to really wield it effectively.
When it comes to foreign and security policy, particularly relations with Japan’s only ally, the United States, a somewhat similar dilemma exists. Abe enjoys an almost unique position among American allies in having created a close relationship with President Trump. His senior advisors claim to wield an influence over Trump that is the envy of other U.S. allies. But that relationship depends on Abe consciously avoiding any challenge to Trump’s policies. Does his influence disappear the moment he crosses Trump?

The view of Trump inside the senior levels of Japanese officialdom, as conveyed to this writer in numerous conversations since coming to Tokyo last month, is typically pragmatic. There is no moral posturing about the threat to democracy posed by the Trump presidency.

Rather, as one Abe advisor put it to me, there are two basic conclusions held in Tokyo. The first is that Trump’s foreign and security policies are a mess, both in their content and in the lack of professional knowledge within the administration. Trump, in this framework, has no respect for the sovereignty of other countries, including Japan. However, the advisor goes on, after all we have to deal with this President -- we have no other choice.

That relationship will be put on full display on November 5 when Trump arrives for his brief visit to Japan. From a golf outing to private dinners, an audience with the Emperor, and a visit to Japanese and American military forces, the visit is designed to not only offer visual evidence of the close partnership but also to avoid any uncomfortable issues, such as trade. Officials on both sides are working overtime to ensure the success of the visit and there is no reason to think it won’t go well.

Under the calm surface, lies the iceberg of North Korea. Despite the talk of war that one hears increasingly in Washington – whether it is a preventive strike on North Korean missiles or other scenarios for conflict – Japanese senior officials continue to express confidence that the military option is not really on the table.

They see the threat of the use of force mainly as a tool to both press the Chinese into action and to deter the North Koreans from doing anything too provocative, such as testing a missile in the direction of the U.S. bases on Guam.

Indeed Japanese officials say they are more worried that Trump will make a deal with North Korea at Japan’s expense. They envision some kind of bargain in which North Korea agrees to halt the testing and development of long-range missiles that can reach the continental U.S. in exchange for a lifting of sanctions and perhaps a cutback in U.S. military exercises.

It is a deal that Trump could proclaim protects the U.S. and is the product of his policy of pressure, but one that would leave Japan and South Korea even more exposed to the nuclear blackmail and threat from North Korea.

Still, even those officials admit they worry about the possibility that Trump may opt for a military strike, one that would expose Japan to a possible North Korean response. Even in that situation, it is far from evident that Abe would defy Trump, a likelihood that concerns some Japanese policy makers. “Japan’s responsibility is to do something,” says a former Japanese senior foreign ministry official. “Japan should be more active and let Trump understand that you cannot destroy Japan.”

Anchored within the alliance system, there are some signs of Japan’s search for greater autonomy. Japan has asserted leadership in convening the talks among the signees of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the so-called TPP11 negotiations. Japanese negotiators are hoping to reach a deal among the TPP11 that can be announced at the Asia Pacific summit in Vietnam next month. Though Japan is hopeful that the U.S. will eventually return to join the TPP, they are also increasingly comfortable with playing this leadership role.

Abe also hopes to convene the long-delayed trilateral summit of Japan, China and South Korea in December. And he still is searching for a way to reach the long-sought agreement with Russia on a peace treaty, settling the territorial dispute over the Kurile Islands. But that will require Abe to finally back down and agree to a territorial compromise along the lines of the 1956 talks – which he now has the power to do, if he wants.

These tentative steps toward Japanese leadership could fall apart, however, if Abe decides to use his newly restored power for the purpose of settling, at least symbolically, what he, echoing his grandfather Nobusuke Kishi, sees as the fundamental loss of Japanese sovereignty in the American-imposed constitution and its famous peace clause.

Mr. Abe has been compelled to offer a much watered down version of what he seeks to change in Article 9 – but he may chose to go back to the LDP’s original more ambitious goal of rewriting the entire clause.

It is evident, however, that a serious push for constitutional revision would trigger renewed tensions with China and South Korea, all amidst the North Korea problem. Nor is it clear that the Japanese public, not to mention the political system, is truly prepared to take on a long-stalled and potentially highly divisive debate about the postwar role of Japan in global security.

This election has once again put Abe in a position of almost unchallenged power, for now. But, as Spiderman put it, with great power comes great responsibility.

Japan reconsiders and reinterprets the Pearl Harbor attack

And ignores the Prime Minister's upcoming visit

BY MARK SCHREIBER, a Tokyo-based writer

THE JAPAN TIMES, December 24, 2016

In May, U.S. President Barack Obama became the first sitting U.S. president to make a historic visit to Hiroshima, the city that became the birthplace of the age of nuclear warfare. It should come as no surprise that Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, is scheduled to make a reciprocal gesture of reconciliation this week, possibly making him the first sitting Japanese prime minister to visit the USS Arizona Memorial.

So far, however, news coverage in Japan has been disappointingly spotty, partly because the story has been eclipsed by the usual year-end roundups, interspersed with breaking news stories: the Osprey crash in Okinawa and resulting blowback; the terrorist incident in Berlin; heavy pollution in Beijing; and President-elect Donald Trump’s latest tweet.

In December, the January 2017 issue of prestigious monthly magazine Bungei Shunju was released with a 13-page essay by history critic Masayasu Hosaka titled “Pearl Harbor: The true nature of the blunder.” Though written long before the announcement of Abe’s upcoming visit, it nonetheless provides some scholarly insights into how Japanese reacted to news of the attack 75 years ago.

At 7 a.m., on Monday, Dec. 8, 1941, a young NHK announcer named Morio Tateno told radio listeners, “The Naval department of Imperial headquarters announced that at 6 a.m. today the Imperial Navy, during predawn hours, initiated hostilities with the British and American navies in the Western Pacific.”

On the night of Dec. 8, Prime Minister Hideki Tojo invited the heads of the army and navy to celebrate with a Chinese-style repast at the prime minister’s residence, during which he effused over the “better than anticipated results” of the attack and expressed anticipation of President Franklin Roosevelt’s imminent downfall. Extra editions of newspapers were passed out to pedestrians on the streets and stirring martial tunes such as “Warship March” emanated from loudspeakers. Company workers at their morning assemblies were exhorted to exclaim “banzai” cheers. Stock prices on the Tokyo exchange shot up by 10 percent.

As Hosaka observes in Bungei Shunju, “The exhilaration over the successful attack on Pearl Harbor was the beginning of what was to become a stream of glorified lies on the progression of the war.”

But, unlike Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, who went to war with the specific goal of recovering their former empires’ lost territories, Japan had no clearly defined purpose for initiating hostilities.

“Having gone to war with vague goals,” he wrote, “Japan had no means of determining how to bring the war to an end. Even after Tojo’s Cabinet fell, it could not speedily halt the war.”

This year, several magazines chose to run articles about Pearl Harbor with strongly revisionist slants. The January issue of conservative monthly Rekishi-tu featured two, one that accused the wily President Roosevelt of “maneuvering” Japan into attacking the U.S., and another maintaining U.S. intelligence had broken the Japanese naval code before Pearl Harbor and, therefore, had advance knowledge of the attack. The January issue of Shincho 45 magazine ran an article that claimed British leader Winston Churchill knew of the Japanese plans but chose not to inform the Americans. Move on folks, nothing new here.

In a live telephone interview on New York’s WABC Radio, Tokyo-based American entertainer Dave Spector remarked, “In America, it’s ‘Remember Pearl Harbor.’ In Japan it’s more like ‘Forget Pearl Harbor.’ “

Nonetheless, in a poll of 959 people conducted earlier this month by NHK, 34 percent of respondents said they “strongly approve” of Abe’s visit, with another 48 percent giving their qualified approval. Only 3 percent voiced completely negative opinions.

On the other hand, Sunday Mainichi (Dec. 25) opined, perhaps Abe’s not the right person to go there. After all, over the past several years it has been the Emperor and Empress who traveled to Saipan, Palau and the Philippines to console the war dead. A visitor from the Imperial Family would carry more weight than a prime minister and, Abe’s good intentions notwithstanding, it’s unlikely his visit will erase the lingering U.S. sentiment that the attack on Pearl Harbor was a “cowardly act.”

Contradicting most news reports, meanwhile, it appears that Abe might not necessarily be the first sitting Japanese prime minister to visit the USS Arizona Memorial after all. Shukan Post (Jan. 1-6) claims the former Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita also went there in June 1988, during his tenure as Japan’s leader.

Takeshita, while traveling aboard a government-chartered Japan Airlines DC-10, stopped in Hawaii on the return leg of a summit meeting in Toronto. The magazine’s check of airport flight records notes that Takeshita’s aircraft first flew from Toronto via Chicago to the island of Maui on June 24, for a two-night stay. At 8 a.m. on June 26, he flew to Oahu, and returned to Tokyo’s Haneda at 6:23 p.m.

Allowing for a flight of 30 minutes from Maui to Oahu, and the seven to eight hours flying time between Honolulu and Haneda, Takeshita would have had a stopover of from one to two hours in Oahu. No records exist, however, of his having gone to Pearl Harbor.

“While no record of such a visit exists, there have been cases where visitors do not go through military channels,” Daniel Martinez, chief historian at the USS Arizona Memorial, explained to Shukan Post.

A member of Takeshita’s entourage says that the prime minister slipped away to Pearl Harbor while the others in his entourage went golfing, so only a few Diet members could have accompanied him. Efforts to identify other eyewitnesses were inconclusive, but the story’s source emphasized, “I’ve only been to the Arizona memorial once, so my recollection couldn’t possibly be wrong.”

The Dec. 24 Tokyo Shimbun can claim bragging rights for nick-of-time historical research. It has discovered that two other prime ministers, Ichiro Hatoyama and Nobusuke Kishi, also visited Pearl Harbor during their tenures, in 1956 and 1957 respectively. The Hawaii Hochi newspaper covered the events.

Is Abe A True Nationalist? No just another ultra nationalist

Tomomi Inada

by Kevin Rafferty, journalist and commentator

The Japan Times, August 9, 2016

OSAKA - Now that he has announced his latest stimulus package, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe faces a dilemma: Will he now put his energies into the more difficult task of nursing the economy back to full health, including treating long-term cancers eating at society? Or will he perform a bait and switch again to claim that his Diet majority gives him the authority to change the Constitution?

Abe's appointment of the strongly nationalist Tomomi Inada to the key and sensitive post of defense minister can hardly be reassuring either to Japan's neighbors or to the majority of Japanese who don't want to change the country's long-revered constitution. A small test will be whether Inada visits Yasukuni Shrine in the next week to honor the country's war dead, as has been her wont. [She was sent out of the country to avoid the issue.]

But her appointment and political gossip that she is being lined up to succeed Abe when his term expires in 2018 — unless he changes the rules to be able to continue in office — suggest that Abe and friends are hell-bent on amending the Constitution, in their eyes a humiliating imposition by the victorious U.S. forces.

Abe had specifically asserted that the election was about economics, not about the Constitution, On a television program before the election, Liberal Democratic Party Vice President Masahiko Komura declared that "there is zero possibility" that Abe would revise the war-renouncing Article 9 of the Constitution, even if he won a two-thirds majority.

Put on the spot immediately after the results came in, Abe declared, "The nation has given me a powerful mandate to further accelerate Abenomics. I am grateful for this." But in the cold light of victory the next day, he changed his tune, claiming that it was his "duty" as leader of the LDP to revise the Constitution, which he regards as being forced on defeated Japan by the WWII victors. "We have always set a goal of revising the Constitution," he said. "That is my duty."

His appointment of Inada, known for her visits to Yasukuni and vigorous challenges to claims of Japanese wrongdoing during the Pacific War, suggests that Abe has his eye on what he considers his main mission, constitutional change.

Giving priority to changing the Constitution would be a major mistake, ultimately for Japan.

Winning big with a relatively low 54 percent turnout on an economic platform does not give Abe a mandate for constitutional change. This would be dishonest and wrong, especially since all opinion polls show that most Japanese do not want to change the Constitution. A recent poll by public broadcaster NHK showed that only 26 percent agree with constitutional reform, and only 11 percent believe that it is a priority.

Also worrying, Abe has not come clean about how he plans to revise the Constitution, whether he would merely abolish Article 9, thus allowing Japan to have a fully-fledged military, or whether he wants to change the whole document along the lines of an LDP draft.

The full LDP document is both far-reaching and flawed. Besides creating military forces, it would change the relationship between the citizen and the state, giving more powers to the government, diminishing the rights of citizens, as well as imposing new duties on them. It would put the family, not the individual, as the fundamental unit of society.

Such a document requires a full airing and debate clause by clause, which has not taken place even within the LDP. It would be dangerous to try to propose such a constitution without having the full commitment of the Japanese people.

Abe and his colleagues have hesitated because opinion polls have consistently reported that the people — sensibly — don't see the urgency in changing the Constitution.

Even to get into serious debate about changing the Constitution would consume political energies, alarm Japan's neighbors, trigger military tension and spending in the region, and divert attention from sorting out serious economic problems of Japan's aging and arthritic economy and society.

It is a measure of Abe's stubbornness that he has three times promised the electorate that the economy and Abenomics were his priority, only to get diverted twice by his mission to change the Constitution. We can only hope that it will not be third time unlucky.

Japan's economy badly needs attention, which the latest stimulus does not address. The headline number for the stimulus was ¥28 trillion, but the fillip of new money in the current year will be ¥5 trillion or less. Throwing money at the problem won't work because Japan needs initiative and innovative ideas. The government can lay the foundations, but needs to encourage bright people with new ideas to transform the economy. It needs to bring the energy and talents of women and elderly people into the economy, and needs to discuss how greater immigration could energize a rapidly graying country set in its ways.

It is unlikely these economic revolutionaries will emerge if Abe is preoccupied in creating a Big Brother state.

There is a bigger issue that needs consideration. Abe's constitutional vision is impaired. Inspired by his grandfather Nobusuke Kishi, a wartime minister and postwar prime minister, he wants to make Japan "normal" again; but that normality is the normal of the imperial 1930s. No wonder that Japan's neighbors, including South Korea and China, are sounding alarm bells.

In the 21st century, Japan has to find a new normal that recognizes the importance of a world where Japan is a middling power, even in Asia. It is a difficult task, not least because Beijing is becoming more nationalist and more assertive, using facts and excuses that for 200 years foreign powers have bullied China. There is no future in trying to slug it out with China, either in claims about history or, less still, in military posturing.

There is also the awkward question whether Japan, with its aging and declining population and cash-strapped budget, can afford to be more aggressive militarily. If Donald Trump becomes president of the U.S., he may follow the advice of right-wing loonies to withdraw U.S. forces from Asia — which would send a terrible destabilizing signal and encourage an Asian arms race, which could involve nuclear proliferation.

In the month when the atrocities of war, including slaughter in China, fire-bombings and finally the horror of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, are commemorated, Japan should be leading the way in the difficult quest for a peaceful world.

Someone should have the guts to remind Abe that the policies of his revered grandfather and friends led to widespread misery, death, atomic destruction and defeat. A true Japanese nationalist and patriot would be searching for a better future, not looking back to an inglorious past.

There is a saving grace. Even if he can summon the two-thirds majority in both houses to initiate constitutional change, Abe still needs approval from the people in a referendum. The lessons of Brexit should teach him that it is not a good idea to mess with popular fears.

LDP draft Constitution differentiates between 'big' and 'small' human rights. Mainichi Shimbun, May 28, 2016

Prime Minister of Japan’s Schedule August 8-14, 2016

August 8, 2016


AM
09:22 Meet with National Security Secretariat Secretary General, Mr. Yachi, Cabinet Intelligence Director, Mr. Kitamura, and the Foreign Affairs Ministry’s Foreign Policy Bureau Director General, Mr. Ishikane at the Prime Minister’s Office, followed by former Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Minister, Mr. Ota. Later meet with Supreme Court judges, Mr. Kizawa (newly appointed) and Mr. Yamaura (retiring).
10:09 Attend a cabinet meeting, followed by a meeting of the Reconstruction Promotion Council. Later attend a meeting of the Strategic Headquarters for Space Development.
10:53 Meet with Finance Minister, Mr. Aso, Vice Finance Minister, Mr. Sato, Vice Finance Minister for International Affairs, Mr. Asakawa, and Director General of the Budget Bureau, Mr. Fukuda. Later meet with Economic Revitalization Minister Ishihara, Cabinet Office Parliamentary Vice Minister, Mr. Nishikawa, Cabinet Office Deputy Director General, Mr. Habuka, and Cabinet Office Director Generals for Economic, Fiscal and Social Structure, Mr. Niihara and Mr. Tawa.
11:54 Meet with National Personnel Authority President, Ms. Ichimiya. Minister in Charge of Civil Service Reform, Mr. Yamamoto, Cabinet Bureau of Personnel Affairs’ Director General, Mr. Hagiuda and Chief Cabinet Secretary, Mr. Suga are present. Later attend a liaison conference between the government and the ruling parties. Later meet with Komeito Chief Representative, Mr. Yamaguchi.

PM
12:35 Meet with Defense Minister, Ms. Inada. Later meet with Economy, Trade and Industry Minister, Mr. Seko.
13:26 Meet with LDP Policy Research Council Chairman, Mr. Motegi. Later meet with Mr. Yachi, Mr. Kitamura, Mr. Ishikane, Defense Policy Bureau Director General, Mr. Maeda and Admiral Mr. Kawano, Joint Staff Chief.
14:38 Meet with Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Sugiyama and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Akiba, followed by a meeting with Prime Minister’s Special Advisor, Mr. Eto.
15:24 Interview open to all media. Later attend a meeting of the Council on Economy and Fiscal Policy. Afterwards meet with Mr. Kitamura, Mr. Maeda and the Defense Ministry’s Intelligence Headquarters Director, Ms. Miyakawa. Mr. Kitamura stay behind.
16:54 Meet with LDP Secretary General, Mr. Nikai and Kochi Prefectural Governor, Mr. Ozaki and others.
17:06 Meet with Mr. Yachi and Mr. Sugiyama. Later meet with Mr. Ishikane, Mr. Maeda and Mr. Kawano, followed by Mr. Yachi, Mr. Sugiyama and Mr. Akiba.
18:49 Meet with Japan Business Federation Honorary Chairman, Mr. Imai and the prime minister’s secretaries at the “Kioi Club” in town of Kioi.
21:34 Arrive at his private residence in Tomigaya.

August 9, 2016

AM
07:02 Depart his private residence in Tomigaya.
07:55 Depart Haneda Airport by JAL flight 605 accompanied by Health, Labor and Welfare Minister, Mr. Shiozaki.
09:19 Arrive at Nagasaki Airport.
10:29 Attend the Nagasaki Peace Memorial Ceremony at the Peace Park in Nagasaki City.

PM
12:19 Attend a “town hall for A-bomb survivors” at Hotel New Nagasaki followed by a press conference.
14:11 Depart Nagasaki Airport by ANA flight 666.
15:38 Arrive at Haneda Airport.
16:22 Meet with National Police Agency Commissioner Generals, Mr. Sakaguchi (newly appointed) and Mr. Kanetaka (retiring) at the Prime Minister’s Office. Later meet with Consumer Affairs Agency Commissioners, Mr. Okamura (newly appointed) and Ms. Bando (retiring). Afterwards meet with Minister for Working-style Reform, Mr. Kato.
18:28 Arrive at his private residence.
20:20 Dinner with friends at “Sumibi-Kushiyaki IW” restaurant in Fujiyoshida City, Yamanashi Prefecture.
22:34 Arrive at his private villa in village of Narusawa.

August 10, 2016

AM
07:22 Depart his private villa in Narusawa.
07:27 Play golf with friends at Narusawa Golf Club.

PM
15:32 Arrive at his private villa.
18:21 Dinner with the prime minister’s secretaries at “Ryo” restaurant in Kawaguchiko.
20:37 Arrive at his private villa.

August 11, 2016

AM
06:19 Depart his private villa in Narusawa, Yamanashi Prefecture.
06:42 Play golf with Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation Vice President, Mr. Takahashi Seiichiro, Kake Educational Institution Board of Trustees Chairman, Mr. Kake Kotaro and others at Fuji Golf Course in Yamanakako.

PM
16:15 Arrive at his private residence in Tomigaya.
18:14 Dinner with Mr. and Mrs. Takahashi and the prime minister’s secretaries at “en boca Tokyo” pizza restaurant in town of Motoyoyogi.
20:35 Arrive at his private residence.

August 12, 2016

AM
09:36 Depart his private residence in Tomigaya.
10:52 Depart Haneda Airport on ANA flight 693.
11:55 Arrive at Yamaguchi Ube Airport.

PM
12:06 Lunch with his secretaries at the restaurant “Curry House NEW OX.”
13:21 Visit his former secretary’s house to express sympathy in Mine City.
14:57 View bronze statue of [poet and songwriter] Misuzu Kaneko
15:58 Meet with Nagato Mayor, Mr. Onishi Kurao.
16:31 Pay homage at Iiyama Hachiman Shrine.
17:07 Visit workshop of ceramic artist, Mr. Sakakura Shinpei.
18:09 Dine with his wife, Akie, Nagato mayor, local supporters, and others at the Japanese inn “Otanisanso” and stay the night there.

August 13, 2016

AM
08:45 Depart Japanese inn “Otanisanso” in Nagato City, Yamaguchi Prefecture, with his wife, Akie.
09:10 Make condolence visit to his supporter’s house.
09:40 Visit his father’s grave [former Foreign Minister Abe Shintaro]. Later, grant interviews to various media outlets.
11:30 Make condolence visit to house of person involved with his support group in Shimonoseki City.

PM
12:03 Hold meeting of his support group at his residence.
13:57 Make condolence visit to house of person involved in his support group.
15:43 Attend Buddhist memorial service for the person involved with his support group held at Shimonoseki Tenreikaikan Hall.
16:09 Visit his supporter at Takeshisa Hospital.
16:33 Make condolence visit to his supporter’s home.
17:20 Arrive at his residence.
18:38 Meet Yamaguchi Bank Chairman, Mr. Fukuda Koichi at Yamagin Museum.
19:17 Deliver speech at the Kanmon Straits fireworks display. View fireworks.
20:29 Enjoy summer festival at Iminomiya Shrine. Deliver speech.
21:05 Visit Uzuhouse mall with his wife, Akie.
21:35 Dine with persons involved with his support group at Japanese restaurant “Kinkei.”
22:52 Arrive at his residence.

August 14, 2016

AM
07:52 Depart his residence in Shimonoseki City, Yamaguchi Prefecture.
08:25 Make condolence visit to his supporter’s house.
09:11 Make condolence visit to his office staff member’s house.
10:18 Commemorative photo with people at Sanyo Jidoshado Tonomi Parking Area in Hofu City.
11:03 Make condolence visit to former Home Affairs Minister Ms. Fubuta Akira’s house in Tabuse Town, with Lower House member, Mr. Nishimura Yasutoshi and Upper House member, Mr. Kitamura Tsuneo.
11:37 Pay respects at gravesite of his grandfather, former Prime Minister, Mr. Kishi Nobusuke, accompanied by Senior Vice Foreign Minister, Mr. Kishi Nobuo and Mr. Fubuta.
11:50 Meet with Mr. Fubuta and Mr. Nishimura at Mr. Kishi’s residence.

PM
12:22 Visit restaurant “Western” at Sanyo Jidoshado Kudamatsu Service Area in Kudamatsu City.
14:31 Depart Yamaguchi Ube Airport on JAL flight 294.
15:46 Arrive at Haneda Airport.
16:21 Arrive at his private residence in Tomigaya.

Prime Minister of Japan’s Schedule May 18-24, 2015

Monday, May 18, 2015

AM
08:00 At private residence (no visitors)
09:41 Depart from private residence
09:54 Arrive at official residence
10:07 Meet with Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Seko Hiroshige
10:38 End meeting with Mr. Seko
11:53 Depart from office
11:55 Arrive at Diet
11:56 Enter Upper House President’s Reception Room
11:57 Leave Upper House President’s Reception Room, enter Upper House Chamber

PM
12:01 Plenary session of the Upper House begins
01:08 Plenary session of the Upper House adjourns
01:09 Leave Upper House Chamber
01:10 Depart from Diet
01:12 Arrive at office
01:32 Interview with monthly journal Seiron
02:12 Interview ends
02:19 Receive a courtesy call from Japanese Co-Chairman Kazuo Tsukuda, Acting EU Co-Chairman Danny Risberg, and other members of the EU-Japan Business Round Table
02:31 Courtesy call ends
02:45 Meet with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Aso Taro, Ministry of Finance’s Director-General of Budget Bureau Tanaka Kazuho, and Ministry of Finance’s Director-General of the Financial Bureau Nakahara Hiroshi
03:24 End meeting with Mr. Aso, Mr. Tanaka, and Mr. Nakahara
03:25 Meet with Minister of State for Economic and Fiscal Policy Amari Akira, Vice-Minister of Cabinet Office Matsuyama Kenji, Cabinet Office Director-General for Policies on Cohesive Society Maekawa Mamoru, Cabinet Office Director-General for Policies on Cohesive Society Habuka Shigeki, Cabinet Office’s Director-General for Policies on Cohesive Society Tawa Hiroshi
03:40 End meeting with Mr. Amari, Mr. Matsuyama, Mr. Maekawa, Mr. Habuka, and Mr. Tawa
03:47 National Security Council meeting
03:56 Meeting ends
03:57 Meet with Director of National Security Council (NSC) Yachi Shotaro, Director of Cabinet Intelligence Kitamura Shigeru, MOFA’s Director-General of Foreign Policy Bureau Hiramatsu Kenji, Ministry of Defense (MOD)’s Director-General of Bureau of Defense Policy Kuroe Tetsuro, Chief of Staff for Joint Staff Council Kawano Katsutoshi
04:20 End meeting with Mr. Yachi, Mr. Kitamura, Mr. Hiramatsu, Mr. Kuroe, and Mr. Kawano
04:32 The fourth meeting of the Council for the Protection of Information
04:57 Depart from office
04:58 Arrive at Diet
04:59 Enter LDP President’s Office
05:00 LDP Officers Meeting
05:25 Meeting ends
05:35 Leave LDP President’s Office
05:36 Depart from Diet
05:38 Arrive at office
05:39 Meet with President of the Party for Future Generations Hiranuma Takeo, Secretary-General of the Party for Future Generations Matsuzawa Shigefumi, and others
05:56 End meeting with Mr. Hiranuma, Mr. Matsuzawa, and others
06:04 Film video message for universities
06:07 Finish filming
06:32 Depart from office
06:43 Arrive at the Headquarters Building of Yomiuri Shimbun in Otemachi-cho, Tokyo. Dinner meeting with Chairman of Yomiuri Group, Inc. Watanabe Tsuneo, Yomiuri Shimbun’s Special editorial board member Hashimoto Goro, Chairman of Sankei Shimbun Kiyohara Takehiko, Nikkei Shimbun’s Chief Editorial Writer Serikawa Yoichi, President of NHK Enterprises, INC. Imai Tamaki, and Commentor Yayama Taro
09:22 Depart from Yomiuri Shimbun
09:37 Arrive at private residence

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

AM
12:00 At private residence (no visitors)
08:00 At private residence in Tomigaya, Tokyo (no morning visitors)
08:07 Depart from private residence
08:20 Arrive at office
08:28 Cabinet meeting
08:41 Cabinet meeting ends
09:50 Film video message for American groups
09:57 Finish filming
10:06 Meet with Chairman of LDP General Council Nikai Toshihiro and LDP Lower House member Hayashi Moto
10:33 End meeting with Mr. Nikai and Mr. Hayashi
10:34 Meet with Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Saiki Akitaka, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA)’s Director-General of Middle Eastern and African Affairs Bureau Uemura Tsukasa, MOFA’s Director-General of Intelligence and Analysis Service Oka Hiroshi
11:03 End meeting with Mr. Saiki, Mr. Uemura, and Mr. Oka
11:05 Director of National Security Council (NSC) Yachi Shotaro, Director of Cabinet Intelligence Kitamura Shigeru, and Ministry of Defense (MOD)’s Director of Defense Intelligence Headquarters Miyagawa Tadashi enter
11:14 Mr. Yachi and Mr. Miyagawa leave
11:31 Mr. Kitamura leaves
11:32 Meet with Chairman of Young Diet Members’ Association for Promoting Japan-Taiwan Economic and Cultural Exchange Kishi Nobuo, and the Association’s Secretary-General Hagiuda Koichi
11:54 End meeting with Mr. Kishi and Mr. Hagiuda
11:55 Meet with LDP Lower House member Kawai Katsuyuki 

PM
12:04 End meeting with Mr. Kawai
12:54 Depart from office
12:55 Arrive at Diet
12:57 Enter Lower House Chamber
12:59 Speak with Senior Vice-Minister of Defense Sato Akira
01:00 Finish speaking with Mr. Sato
01:02 Plenary session of the Lower House begins
01:04 Leave in the middle of the plenary session of the Lower House
01:05 Depart from Diet
01:07 Arrive at office
01:35 Meet with MOFA’s Director-General of Foreign Policy Bureau Hiramatsu Kenji, Ministry of Defense (MOD)’s Director-General of Bureau of Defense Policy Kuroe Tetsuro
02:13 End meeting with Mr. Hiramatsu and Mr. Kuroe
05:18 The 6th meeting in 2015 of the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy
06:19 Meeting ends
06:23 Reception for Prime Minister of the Republic of Fiji Josaia Voreqe Bainimarama. Commemoration Photograph Session. Attend a ceremony by the guard of honor
06:30 Ceremony ends
06:32 Japan-Fiji Summit Meeting with Prime Minister Josaia Voreqe Bainimarama
07:31 Summit meeting ends
07:33 Joint press announcement. Exchange uniforms with Rugby representatives
06:41 Depart from office
06:43 Arrive at official residence. Dinner meeting hosted by Prime Minister Abe Shinzo and wife Akie
08:52 Send off Prime Minister Josaia Voreqe Bainimarama
08:53 Finishing send-off

Wednesday, May 20, 2015

AM
12:00 At official residence (no visitors)
08:00 At official residence (no morning visitors)
09:40 Depart from official residence
09:42 Arrive at office
09:43 Interview open to all media: when asked his comments on surpassing the tenure of his grandfather and former Prime Minister Kishi Nobusuke, Prime Minister Abe says, “I have a long way to go. What is important is not the number of days in office but what I have achieved. I will devote myself to tackling our policies.”
09:44 Interview ends

PM
02:54 Depart from office
02:55 Arrive at Diet
02:58 Enter Lower House Committee Room No. 1
03:00 Party Leaders’ Debate
03:49 Party Leaders’ Debate ends
03:51 Leave Lower House Committee Room No. 1
03:53 Depart from Diet
03:54 Arrive at Diet
03:56 Minister of Finance Aso Taro, MOF’s Deputy Vice-Minister Fukuda Junichi, and Ministry of Finance (MOF)’s Director-General of Budget Bureau Tanaka Kazuho
04:46 Mr. Fukuda and Mr. Tanaka leave
05:00 Mr. Aso leaves
05:01 Meet with Mayor of Nagoto City, Yamaguchi Prefecture Onishi Kurao
05:05 End meeting with Mr. Onishi
05:06 Meet with Director of Cabinet Intelligence Kitamura Shigeru
05:55 Reception for President of Mongolia Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj. Commemoration Photograph Session
05:56 Attend a ceremony by the guard of honor
06:02 Ceremony ends
06:04 Japan-Mongolia Summit Meeting with President Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj
06:43 Summit meeting ends
06:46 Joint Press Conference
06:55 Joint Press Conference ends
06:56 Depart from office
06:57 Arrive at official residence. Dinner meeting hosted by Prime Minister Abe Shinzo
08:10 Send off President Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj
08:11 Finishing send-off

Thursday, May 21, 2015

AM
12:00 At official residence (no visitors)
08:00 At official residence (no morning visitors)
09:45 Depart from official residence
09:47 Arrive at office
10:00 Meet with Special Advisor to the Prime Minister Kimura Taro
10:07 End meeting with Mr. Kimura
10:09 Meet with Director of Cabinet Intelligence Kitamura Shigeru
10:19 End meeting with Mr. Kitamura
11:03 Depart from office
11:13 Arrive at Hotel New Otani in Kioi-cho, Tokyo. Host a luncheon for Prime Minister of the Independent State of Papua New Guinea Peter O'Neill and other guests in banquet hall Ho-Oh-No-Ma.

PM
12:40 Receive a courtesy call from Chairman of the State Duma Sergey Naryshkin
12:55 Courtsey call ends
01:04 Depart from hotel
01:10 Arrive at office
01:34 Meet with Minister of the Environment Mochizuki Yoshio
01:55 End meeting with Mr. Mochizuki
01:56 Meet with LDP Secretary-General Tanigaki Sadakazu
02:29 End meeting with Mr. Tanigaki
04:17 Meet with Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) Shimomura Hakubun, Vice-Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Yamanaka Shinichi, MEXT’s Director-General of Sports and Youth Bureau Kubo Kimito
04:37 End meeting with Mr. Shimomura, Mr. Yamanaka, and Mr. Kubo
05:20 Meet with Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs (MOFA) Saiki Akitaka, Administrative Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Nagamine Yasumasa, MOFA’s Director-General of European Affairs Bureau Hayashi Hajime, MOFA’s Director-General of Economic Affairs Bureau Saiki Naoko
05:55 End meeting with Mr. Saiki, Mr. Nagamine, Mr. Hayashi, and Ms. Saiki
05:58 Depart from office
06:03 Arrive at Imperial Hotel in Uchisaiwai-cho, Tokyo.
06:13 Receive a courtesy call from Deputy Prime Minister of Kingdom of Thailand Pridiyathorn Devakula in the banquet hall Chidori
06:21 Courtesy call ends
06:26 Receive a courtesy call from Deputy Prime Minister, Socialist Republic of Vietnam Vu Van Ninh
06:41 Courtesy call ends
06:47 Receive a courtesy call from Vice President of Indonesia Jusuf Kalla
06:57 Courtesy call ends
07:05 Attend the banquet of the 21st International Conference on the Future of Asia held in Tokyo, delivered a speech, exchange views with attendants
08:47 Finishing attending the banquet
08:49 Depart from the hotel
08:56 Arrive at Palace Hotel Tokyo. Attend a social gathering of Columbia University Business School personnel, alumni, and others
09:58 Depart from the hotel
10:14 Arrive at private residence in Tomigaya, Tokyo

Prime Minister of Japan’s Schedule January 5-11, 2015

Monday, January 5, 2015

AM

12:00 At private residence (no visitors)

08:00 At private residence in Tomigaya, Tokyo (no visitors)

08:32 Depart from private residence

08:55 Arrive at JR Tokyo Station

09:00 Depart from station on Nozomi no. 213. Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Seko Hiroshige accompanies

10:40 Arrive at JR Nagoya Station. Reception by JR Tokai Honorary President Kasai Yoshiyuki

10:43 Depart from station

10:44 Arrive at Kintetsu Nagoya Station

10:50 Depart from station on Kintetsu Limited Express. Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretaries Kato Katsunobu and Mr. Seko accompany

PM

12:15 Arrive at Kintetsu Ujiyamada Station. Reception by Governor of Mie Prefecture Suzuki Eikei and colleagues

12:19 Depart from station

12:22 Arrive at Ise Jingu Outer Shrine in Ise City, Mie Prefecture. Conduct shrine visit with Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications Takaichi Sanae, Minister for Foreign Affairs Kishida Fumio, Minister of Defense Nakatani Gen, Minister in charge of Economic Revitalization Amari Akira, and others

12:49 Depart from shrine

12:55 Arrive at Ise Jingu Inner Shrine. Conduct shrine visit with Mr. Takaichi and others

01:31 Kagura Presentation at Kagura-den (Hall for Special Prayer) in Inner Shrine

01:54 Presentation ends

02:03 Presentation of bouquets by Ise Boy Scout Council’s 7th Group and Mie Girl Scout Council’s 1st Group in front of Jingu Administration Office, commemorative photo session

02:05 Presentation and photo session end

02:20 Press conference in Jingu Administrative Office

02:39 Press conference ends

02:50 Depart from Ise Jingu

02:57 Arrive at Kintetsu Ujiyamada Station

03:04 Meet with Mr. Takaichi; Mr. Kishida; Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Miyazawa Yoichi; Mr. Nakatani; Mr. Amari; Chairperson of National Public Safety Commission Yamatani Eriko; and Minister in charge of Promoting Women’s Empowerment Arimura Haruko in station’s VIP room

03:12 End meeting with Mr. Takaichi, Mr. Kishida, Mr. Miyazawa, Mr. Nakatani, Mr. Amari, Ms. Yamatani, and Ms. Arimura

03:14 Depart from station on Kintetsu Limited Express

04:38 Arrive at Kintetsu Nagoya Station. Reception by Governor of Aichi Prefecture Omura Hideaki

04:39 Depart from station

04:40 Arrive at JR Nagoya Station

04:43 Speak with Mr. Omura and JR Tokai Honorary President Mr. Kasai Yoshiyuki in station’s VIP room

04:52 Finish speaking with Mr. Omura and Mr. Kasai

04:54 Depart from station on Nozomi no. 34

06:33 Arrive at JR Tokyo Station

06:37 Depart from station

06:59 Arrive at Italian restaurant Ristorante ASO in Shibuya Ward, Tokyo Prefecture. Dinner meeting with actors Tsugawa Masahiko, Nakai Kiichi, and Okuda Eiji

09:49 Depart from restaurant

09:58 Arrive at private residence

Tuesday, January 6, 2015

AM

12:00 At private residence (no visitors)

08:00 At private residence in Tomigaya, Tokyo (no morning visitors)

09:44 Depart from private residence

09:56 Arrive at LDP Party Headquarters

09:58 Attend LDP Resumption of Work after New Year Holiday, deliver address

10:25 Resumption of Work event ends

10:30 LDP Officers Meeting

10:51 Meeting ends

10:52 Depart from LDP Party Headquarters

10:54 Arrive at office

11:04 Cabinet Meeting begins

11:20 Cabinet Meeting ends

11:47 Meet with Cabinet Advisor Iijima Isao

PM

12:03 End meeting with Mr. Iijima

12:05 Ruling Party Liaison Conference

12:28 Conference ends

01:47 Depart from office

01:57 Arrive at Hotel New Otani in Kioi-cho, Tokyo. Attend New Year Party hosted by Three Economic Associations in banquet hall Tsuru within hotel, deliver address

02:33 Depart from hotel

02:41 Arrive at office

02:57 Minister of Finance Aso Taro, Ministry of Finance (MOF)’s Vice-Minister Kagawa Shunsuke, Director-General of Budget Bureau Tanaka Kazuho, and Director-General of Tax Bureau Sato Shinichi enter

04:07 Mr. Kagawa, Mr. Tanaka, and Mr. Sato leave

04:34 Mr. Aso leaves

04:35 Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA)’s Vice-Minister Saiki Akitaka and Director-General of Middle Eastern and African Affairs Bureau Uemura Tsukasa enter

04:48 Mr. Uemura leaves

05:09 Mr. Saiki leaves

05:10 Director of National Security Council (NSC) Yachi Shotaro, Director of Cabinet Intelligence Kitamura Shigeru, Ministry of Defense (MOD)’s Director-General of Bureau of Defense Policy Kuroe Tetsuro and Director of Defense Intelligence Headquarters Miyagawa Tadashi enter

05:18 Mr. Yachi, Mr. Kuroe, and Mr. Miyagawa leave

05:38 Mr. Kitamura leaves

05:52 Meet with former Prime Minister Mori Yoshiro. Chief Cabinet Secretary Suga Yoshihide also attends

06:26 End meeting with Mr. Mori

06:47 Depart from office

06:59 Arrive at Nippon Budokan (Japan Martial Arts Hall) in Kitanomaru Park, Tokyo. Enjoy American singer Diana Ross Concert with wife Akie

08:30 Depart from Nippon Budokan

08:47 Arrive at private residence

Wednesday, January 7, 2015

AM

12:00 At private residence (no visitors)

08:00 At private residence in Tomigaya, Tokyo (no morning visitors)

09:43 Depart from private residence

10:01 Arrive at office

10:03 Meet with Minister in charge of Civil Service Reform Arimura Haruko. Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Kato Katsunobu and Cabinet Bureau of Personnel Affairs Director-General for Personnel Policy Planning Wako Toshihiko also attend

10:31 End meeting with Ms. Arimura

10:32 Meet with former Minister of Home Affairs and current Chairman of Diet Promotion Council for National Pond Maintenance Project [全国ため池等整備事業推進協議会： Zenkoku Tame Ike to Seibijigyo Suishin Kyogikai] Fukida Akira

10:51 End meeting with Mr. Fukida

11:23 Meet with Director-General of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Amano Yukiya. Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretaries Mr. Kato and Seko Hiroshige, and MOFA’s Director-General of Disarmament, Non-Proliferation and Science Department Hikihara Takeshi also attend

11:38 End meeting with Mr. Amano

PM

12:02 Meet with LDP Secretary-General Tanigaki Sadakazu

12:37 End meeting with Mr. Tanigaki

01:44 Meet with Chairman of Science and Technology in Society (STS) Forum and former Minister of State for Science and Technology Policy Omi Koji

02:04 End meeting with Mr. Omi

02:37 Meet with Minister of State for Economic and Fiscal Policy Amari Akira, Cabinet Office’s Vice-Minister Matsuyama Kenji and Director-General for Policies on Cohesive Society Maekawa Mamoru

03:04 End meeting with Mr. Amari, Mr. Matsuyama, and Mr. Maekawa

03:05 Meet with Minister of Defense Nakatani Gen, MOD’s Director-General of Minister’s Secretariat Toyota Katashi, Director-General of Bureau of Defense Policy Kuroe Tetsuro, Director-General of Bureau of Local Cooperation Nakajima Akihiko, and Director-General of Bureau of Finance and Equipment Mimura Toru

03:33 End meeting with Mr. Nakatani, Mr. Toyota, Mr. Kuroe, Mr. Nakajima, and Mr. Mimura

04:49 Depart from office

04:55 Arrive at Imperial Hotel in Uchisaiwai-cho, Tokyo. Attend New Year Party hosted by Jiji Press, Research Institute of Japan [内外情勢調査会：Naigai Josei Chosa Kai] and other Jiji-affiliated organizations

05:20 Depart from hotel

05:28 Arrive at office

06:15 Depart from office

06:22 Arrive at Japanese restaurant Fukudaya in Kioi-cho, Tokyo. Dinner meeting with Honorary Chairman of Federation of Economic Organizations (Keidanren) Mitarai Fujio, Chairman of Keidanren Sakakibara Sadayuki, Honorary Executive Consultant of JX Holdings Watari Fumiaki, and other financiers

08:30 Depart from restaurant

08:47 Arrive at private residence

Thursday, January 8, 2015

AM

12:00 At private residence (no visitors)

08:00 At private residence in Tomigaya, Tokyo (no morning visitors)

09:39 Depart private residence

09:57 Arrive at office

10:09 Meet with Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism’s Vice-Minister Honda Masaru and Director-General of Railway Bureau Fujita Kozo

10:34 End meeting with Mr. Honda and Mr. Fujita

10:35 Meet with Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare Shiozaki Yasuhisa and Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare’s Health and Welfare Bureau for the Elderly Miura Koji

11:06 End meeting with Mr. Shiozki and Mr. Miura

11:07 Meet with Representative Director of International Economic Exchange Association and former Lower House member Yoneda Kenzo

11:31 End meeting with Mr. Yoneda

11:32 Meet with journalist Tahara Soichiro

PM

12:05 End meeting with Mr. Tahara

12:09 Meet with Honorary Chairman of Seven & i Holdings Ito Masatoshi and former Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Matoba Junzo

12:58 End meeting with Mr. Ito and Mr. Matoba

01:54 Interview with women’s magazines Tamago Club and Hiyoko Club

02:26 Interview ends

02:27 Speak with Cabinet Advisor Nakamura Yoshio

02:36 Finish speaking with Mr. Nakamura

02:44 Meet with LDP Upper House member Maruyama Kazuya

03:21 End meeting with Mr. Maruyama

04:54 Meet with Minister of State for Space Policy Yamaguchi Shunichi and Cabinet Office’s Director-General of Office of National Space Policy Komiya Yoshinori

05:12 End meeting with Mr. Yamaguchi and Mr. Komiya

06:25 Depart from office

06:35 Arrive at Japanese restaurant Matsuyama in Ginza, Tokyo. Dinner meeting with Minister of the Environment Mochizuki Yoshio, President of New Renaissance Party Arai Hiroyuki, and colleagues

08:34 Depart from restaurant

08:50 Arrive at private residence

Friday, January 9, 2015

AM

12:00 At private residence (no visitors)

08:00 At private residence in Tomigaya, Tokyo (no morning visitors)

08:41 Depart from private residence

08:55 Arrive at office

09:03 Cabinet Meeting begins

09:12 Cabinet Meeting ends

09:17 Strategic Headquarters for Space Development meeting

09:33 Meeting ends

09:34 Meet with Minister of State for Economic and Fiscal Policy Amari Akira

09:54 End meeting with Mr. Amari

09:55 Meet with Minister for Foreign Affairs Kishida Fumio, MOFA’s Vice-Minister Saiki Akitaka, Administrative Vice-Minister Sugiyama Shinsuke, Director-General of Foreign Policy Bureau Hiramatsu Kenji, and Director-General of European Affairs Bureau Hayashi Hajime

10:33 End meeting with Mr. Kishida, Mr. Saiki, Mr. Sugiyama, Mr. Hiramatsu, and Mr. Hayashi

10:34 Meet with Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Shimomura Hakubun

10:55 End meeting with Mr. Shimomura

10:56 Meet with former Advisor to Vice-President of US (Joe Biden) Jake Sullivan and Chairman of Rebuild Japan Initiative Funabashi Yoichi

11:30 End meeting with Mr. Sullivan and Mr. Funabashi

11:31 Meet with Mr. Kishida, Mr. Saiki, and MOFA’s Director-General of Economic Affairs Bureau Saiki Naoko

11:58 End meeting with Mr. Kishida, Mr. Saiki, and Ms. Saiki

PM

01:36 Meet with Director of Cabinet Intelligence Kitamura Shigeru

01:56 End meeting with Mr. Kitamura

02:02 NSC meeting

02:42 NSC meeting ends

02:54 Forum for Consultations between the National and Regional Governments

03:01 Forum ends

03:06 Ceremony to Commend Leading Companies Where Women Shine

03:22 Ceremony ends

03:23 Speak with Minister of State for Science and Technology Policy Yamaguchi Shunichi, Cabinet Office’s Vice-Minister Matsuyama Kenji and Director-General for Policies on Cohesive Society Morimoto Koichi

03:37 Finish speaking with Mr. Yamaguchi, Mr. Matsuyama, and Mr. Morimoto

03:59 Meet with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Aso Taro, MOF’s Vice-Minister Kagawa Shunsuke, Director-General of Budget Bureau Tanaka Kazuho, and Administrative Vice-Minister for Policy Planning and Coordination Sakota Hidenori

04:59 End meeting with Mr. Aso, Mr. Kagawa, Mr. Tanaka, and Mr. Sakota

05:01 Nine Ministers’ Group of NSC meeting

05:05 Meeting ends

05:17 Extraordinary Session Cabinet Meeting

05:22 Cabinet Meeting ends

05:23 Depart from office

05:37 Arrive at Embassy of France in Minami-Azabu, Tokyo. Register condolence call to victims of shooting incident at French newspaper

05:40 Speak with resident French Ambassador to Japan Thierry Dana

05:47 Finish speaking with Mr. Dana

05:48 Depart from Embassy of France

05:57 Arrive at office

06:00 Meet with MOFA’s Mr. Sugiyama and Director-General of Middle Eastern and African Affairs Bureau Uemura Tsukasa

06:37 End meeting with Mr. Sugiyama and Mr. Uemura

06:49 Depart from office

06:50 Arrive at official residence

Saturday, January 10, 2015

AM

12:00 At official residence (no visitors)

07:15 Depart from official residence

08:45 Arrive at golf course Dai-Hakone Country Club in Hakone Town, Kanagawa Prefecture. Play golf with Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Seko Hiroshige, secretaries, and others

PM

03:51 Depart from golf course

04:15 Arrive at Higashiyama Kyukishi-tei, former private residence of Mr. Abe’s grandfather and former Prime Minister Kishi Nobusuke in Gotenba City, Shizuoka Prefecture

04:32 Depart from Higashiyama Kyukishi-tei

05:19 Arrive at holiday home in Narusawa Village, Yamanashi Prefecture

05:54 Depart from holiday home

06:03 Arrive at Chinese restaurant Isai Chugokusaikan Kokyu in Fujikawaguchiko Town, Yamanashi Prefecture. Dinner with Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Seko Hiroshige and mother Kishi Yoko

07:58 Depart from restaurant

08:08 Arrive at holiday home

Sunday, January 11, 2015

AM

12:00 At holiday home (no visitors)

10:00 At holiday home in Narusawa Village, Yamanashi Prefecture (no morning visitors)

Stay at holiday home throughout morning (no visitors)

PM

01:30 Depart from holiday home

02:17 Arrive at Fuji Cemetery in Oyama Town, Shizuoka Prefecture. Along with mother Kishi Yoko, visit the graves of Mr. Abe’s grandfather and former Prime Minister Kishi Nobusuke, and Mr. Abe’s father and former Minister of Foreign Affairs Abe Shintaro

02:28 Interview open to all media: When asked “What were your feelings during the visit to their graves?” Mr. Abe answers “I swore to make this a suitable year as the 70th year after the war.”

02:29 Interview ends

02:30 Depart from Fuji Cemetery

03:11 Arrive at holiday home

06:00 Depart from holiday home

06:11 Arrive at restaurant Sumibi Kushiyaki I. W in Fujiyoshida City, Yamanashi Prefecture. Dinner with mother Kishi Yoko and secretaries

07:57 Depart from restaurant

08:08 Arrive at holiday home

Provisional Translation by: Erin M. Jones