SNA (Tokyo) — The following stories were reported today by the Shingetsu News Agency.

Politics

—Akira Nagatsuma, deputy leader of the progressive Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, calls for political donations by business and corporations to be banned. He calls for citizens movement in favor of public financing of political campaigns.

—Central Committee of Japan Communist Party closes its meeting. Decides that while they are happy to work together with progressive Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and the Social Democratic Party, they will take more cautious stance to unpredictable and unreliable Democratic Party.

—Yukio Edano suggests Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan will establish its caucus in the House of Councillors before January Diet session begins. This implies some lawmakers will quit the Democratic Party and join the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan in the near future.

International

—Okinawa Governor Takeshi Onaga tells visiting Foreign Minister Taro Kono that US Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) needs to be fundamentally revised into order to protect the lives of residents of Okinawa.

—Foreign Minister Taro Kono meets Lt. Gen. Lawrence Nicholson, head of US military forces in Okinawa, and asks him to prevent accidents and crimes so as to provide for “stable stationing of the US military forces in Japan.”

—US National Security Adviser H. R. McMaster says the chances of a war with North Korea are “increasing every day.”

Economy

—Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora may ask Japan to accept international monitors over its likely violation of treaty, related to the continuing Japanese whale hunt.

Society

—Japanese leftist newspaper in Kansai raided by police and editor arrested, apparently for suspicion of illegal links to Japanese Red Army. The paper issued an English and French statement against “unfair repression.”

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