1. CDPJ To Seek For Tokyo Governor’s Position To Further Drive LDP Into A Corner
The Shizuoka Prefecture’s gubernatorial election was held on May 26 and Mr. Yasutomo Suzuki, Mayor of Hamamatsu, who was supported by CDPJ won over Mr. Shinnichi Omura, former Vice-Governor of Shizuoka, who was supported by the ruling LDP.
Before this gubernatorial election, there were three by-elections for one each of House of Representative in Nagasaki’s 3rd District, Shimane’s 1st District and Tokyo’s 15th District, and the CDPJ’s candidates won all the three elections.
With these series of wins as background, CDPJ’s President Izumi has decided to recommend Ms. Renho, a House of Councilor and former President of CDPJ as the party candidate for Tokyo Metropolitan gubernatorial election, which is scheduled in July this year.
The incumbent Governor Yuriko Koike has already declared to stand for her 3rd term.
Reportedly, PM Kishida and his party are approaching Ms. Koike to see if she accepts LDP’s recommendation and election support.
For Kishida and the LDP’s political calculation, if Koike wins the election with the support by the party, it might somewhat heal the damage of the party’s image being caused by the off-the-book accounting scandal of the party’s factions leaders.
Now that CDPJ positions the Tokyo gubernatorial election as part of the national anti-LDP campaign, Governor Koike is carefully analyzing the electoral landscape to judge if she should accept LDP’s support or decline it.
2 Japan-China-Korea Summit Aimed At Boosting Regional Economy And Denuclearization Of North Korea
The trilateral summit was held in Seoul on the 27th of May by the participation of PM Kishida, Premier Li Qiang of China and President Yoon Suk Yeol of Korea.
It’s been four and a half years since the last summit was held.
A joint statement was released on the same day declaring the three nations’ agreement and confirmation in the following three fields:
- Full and entire denuclearization of North Korea
- International order: Abide by international laws and agreements and no forceful or coercive way is taken to change the status-quo.
- Economic cooperation and trade: Rule based, open and fair international economic order shall be maintained and strengthened. The three nations shall share the target of increasing the trilateral trade volume to US$1 trillion per year. For this purpose, the three nations shall accelerate the Japan-China-Korea FTA negotiations to be concluded.
The three leaders also agreed to promote three-way cooperation in the following six fields:
- people-to-people’s exchange
- sustainable development and climate change
- economic cooperation and trade
- public health and aging society
- science technology and digitization
- disaster relief.
3. Japan And Korea To Further Strengthen The Relationship For The 60th Anniversary Of The Normalization
Taking the opportunity of the trilateral summit meeting, PM Kishida had a bilateral meeting with President Yoon Suk Yeol on the 26th.
It was the 10th meeting of Kishida and Yoon.
The two leaders agreed in the meeting to have close communication in every layer of the two governments so that Japan and Korea will have strengthened the relationship utmost to celebrate in the next year the 60th anniversary of the normalization of the diplomatic relationship, which was made in 1965.
In the meantime, Japan-China’s bilateral meeting didn’t yield visible fruits except for reaffirming the mutually beneficial strategic relationship between the two.
China didn’t compromise its position against Japanese seafood after the release of the treated water out of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, while Japan declined China’s offer to discuss building industrial chains between the two nations.
4. Japanese Government To Release A New “Cool Japan” Strategy
Yomiuri revealed on May 25 several key points of the new “Cool Japan” strategy that the Japanese government is expected to release in June.
The last revision of the Cool Japan strategy was made in 2019.
Now that the pandemic was over and the record number of inbound visitors are coming to Japan while the geopolitical landscape is changing, the government of Japan states that it is necessary to reboot “Cool Japan” now.
The annual revenue of Japanese contents business such as anime and game in 2022 reached 4.7 trillion yen, which is almost comparable to its steel industry (5.1 trillion yen).
So, the new strategy positions these contents-based industry as a fundamental industry and plans to support Japanese young creators and artists to explore international market.
The strategy will also promote the digitization of cultural and academic materials as part of the effort to generate new values.
5. Weak Yen Inflates Japan’s Net Foreign Assets’ Value
The Ministry of Finance announced on the 28th that Japan’s net external assets as of the end of Japan’s fiscal 2023 (March 31, 2024) was increased by 12.2% to 471.3 trillion yen from a year ago.
Japanese individuals and companies possess assets in foreign countries in the amount of 1,488.3 trillion yen, which is a 11.1% increase from the previous year, while foreign individuals and companies possess assets in Japan in the amount of 1,017.4 trillion yen, which is a 10.6% increase from a year ago.
Japan keeps the world largest net external assets for 33 years in row.
6. METI And Top Companies Promote Corporate Transformation
METI has been facilitating discussion between senior management of Japanese large companies and university professors since last December to come up with key recommendation for Corporate Japan to further thrive in the global market.
The group used a key word “Corporate Transformation” to strengthen the management of their overseas operations.
Concretely, they recommend that the overseas operations should be organically integrated with their individual headquarters and other overseas operation in the field of finance, human resources and digital operations.