1. Amendment Of The Political Fund Control Law Didn’t Improve Kishida’s Approval Rating
According to Yomiuri’s monthly survey, which was conducted from June 21 through 23, the Kishida Cabinet’s approval rating went down by 3 points to 23%, which is the lowest ever since Kishida inaugurated his cabinet in October of 2021.
Its disapproval rating went up by one point to 64%.
56% of the respondents did not appreciate the restrictions and transparency rules out of the Amended Political Fund Control Law that was crafted during this ordinary Diet session to avoid the recurrence of the series of the political fund scandals that were revealed this year.
The Kishida Administration launched this month a one-time tax break, 40,000 yen flat to every individual to mitigate the impact out of the inflation.
But only 39% appreciated the tax break, while 59% didn’t.
As for the preference of the next prime minister (post-Kishida), 23% chose Rep. Shigeru Ishiba, followed by Rep. Shinjiro Koizumi (15%), former prime minister Rep. Yoshimasa Suga (8%), and Rep. Sanae Takaichi (7%).
PM Kishida shared the 5th position (6%) with Digital Minister Taro Kono and Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa.
2 Emperor And Empress’ Visit To London
Japan’s Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako are visiting the U.K. this week as state guests.
Although an official invitation had been given by late Queen Elizabeth to the emperor and empress much earlier, the corona pandemic made it difficult to realize in the past several years.
Emperor Naruhito studied at Oxford University for two years from 1983, while Empress Masako also studied at Oxford University as an MoFA trainee for two years since 1988.
The Japanese royal couple are going to make a sentimental journey to the university campus today and to meet with mutual friends after they finished all the official schedule with King Charles and his family members.
Photo by Yomiuri Shimbun
3. Japan Presented Its View To UN Against Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems
Last December, the United Nations’ General Assembly adopted the resolution to make a rule with regard to AI based Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems (LAWS).
UN’s Secretary-General António Guterres requested after the resolution that each member nation provides its own view about LAWS.
Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs publicly announced through its website on June 24 that it presented its view on LAWS as follows:
With regard to the utilization of emerging technology for military use, Japan considers that it is important to apply such technology by maintaining the human-centric principle, securing reliability and
predictability as well as accountability.
Weapon systems that do not allow human involvement may cause unintended casualty in the public regardless of the developer’s original intent.
Japan, therefore, explicitly states that it has no intent to develop any lethal autonomous weapon systems that do not have human involvement.
Japan also appeals to the world that neither development nor use of any such LAWS shall be allowed internationally.
However, Japan believes that LAWS that allow human involvement would have the national security value in terms of reducing human errors, automatization and saving resources.
Japan will proactively and constructively contribute to making an international rule with regard to LAWS.
4. Broken Pottery To Fertilizer
A large pottery company in Ishikawa Prefecture by the name of Nikko produces “Fine Bone China” - white colored high-quality pottery for the use of first-class hotels and restaurants in Japan.
Yomiuri reported this week that Nikko, within this fiscal year, would launch a recycle project, under which the company retrieves damaged or broken Fine Bone China from its client hotels and restaurants and then it reprocesses the retrieved pottery into fertilizer for the use of local farmers, who eventually supply their grown rice or vegetables to the hotels and restaurants that provided Nikko with their damaged or broken Fine Bone China.
Fine Bone China contains a much more share of tricalcium phosphate deriving from beef bone, which will become the main source of material for phosphate fertilizer.
Coupled with around 12 tons of annually accumulating bad inventory of pottery that are rejected by its internal inspection, Nikko plans to annually produce several tens of tons of fertilizer by retrieving damaged and broken Fine Bone China through about a hundred of retrieving points throughout Japan.