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

The Top Headline

—Abe administration outraged as South Korean President Moon Jae-In says, “We cannot say that the Comfort Women issue has been settled.” Moon Jae-In’s message for Japan’s history deniers: “Inhumane violation of human rights during war cannot be covered by saying it is over. A true resolution only comes from remembering history and learning from that history, especially when it is history of an unfortunate past. I wish Japan will truly make up with its neighboring countries that it oppressed and together walk the path of peaceful co-prosperity. I do not demand special treatment from Japan. I simply want Japan to move into the future with us based on its sincere reflection and apology.” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga gives his entirely predictable response to President Moon Jae-In’s Comfort Women comments: “It’s a violation of the Japan-South Korea agreement. It’s extremely regrettable.” Abe government’s First and Only Rule for Solving the Comfort Women Issue: Don’t TALK about the Comfort Women issue!

Politics

—Liberal Party leader Ichiro Ozawa now sees Yukio Edano and the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan as the fulcrum of the opposition. Ozawa says he wants to unite the opposition behind the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan.

—Yukio Edano blasts Democratic Party lawmakers for asking soft and sycophantic questions of the prime minister as if they were ruling party members, not the opposition. The Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan favors a stronger, more proactive approach to the Abe government.

International

—Tokyo MX announces that it is shutting down its program “News Girl” at the end of this month. This is the program that got in trouble in January 2017 for broadcasting a discriminatory program against Okinawan protesters.

Economy

—Prime Minister Shinzo Abe retreats on key parts of Way of Working Reform Bill: “We’ve decided to delete every single element of discretionary labor from the reform bills at this time and have the labor ministry grasp the actual situation once more, and then to debate over again.”

—Labor Ministry Vice-Minister Hideki Makihara gets in trouble after he declares that facing opposition party questions over flawed data provided by the ministry was “like a public lynching.”

—Court case producing clear evidence that TEPCO executives were warned by their own employees in March 2008 that tsunami protection walls needed to be built at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. The disaster was not only foreseeable, but foreseen by TEPCO itself.

—TEPCO sort of admits that its vaunted underground “wall of ice” meant to stop radioactivity from Fukushima Daiichi plant from seeping into the local groundwater hasn’t actually been particularly effective.

—Taisei Corporation, Obayashi Corporation, Kajima Corporation, and Shimizu Corporation likely to face prosecution over Central Japan Railway maglev bid-rigging scandal.

—Moves afoot to have a Japan-European Union trade agreement in place and effectuated before April 2019. The urgency is get it up and running before the United Kingdom formally leaves the European Union, meaning that it would remain in effect in Britain for a time.

—Labor Ministry on Average Monthly Salary in Japan: Men – 335,500 Yen; Women – 246,100 Yen. Women’s average salary is 73.4% of men’s average salary.

—Prime Minister Shinzo Abe defines his economic philosophy as follows: “I am not in favor of so-called neoliberalism. What I’m aiming for is a kind of capitalism that knows true richness, not motivated by greed.”

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