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

Top Headline

—Abe protege and Liberal Democratic Party executive Koichi Hagiuda: “We speak of cool ideas such as a gender-equal society and men’s child-rearing, but they are unwelcome ideas for children. Children need an environment in which they can stay with their mothers.”

Politics

—Finance Minister Taro Aso claims that it was appropriate for his ministry’s officials to request falsely inflated costs for garbage removal from the Moritomo Gakuen land sale. It seems that whatever the government did, it was alright by Aso.

—Finance Minister Taro Aso says that his ministry officials producing forged documents for Diet examination isn’t such a big deal. It’s basically okay to lie to the people’s representatives because it wasn’t intended in any “malicious” sense.

—The ruling coalition refuses to call Kotaro Kake as a witness to the Diet, as per opposition demands. Same goes for First Lady Akie Abe. Same goes for Ehime Governor Tokihiro Nakamura. Basically same goes for anyone who might contradict Abe government narratives.

—Liberal Democratic Party firming up intention to extend Diet session by several weeks in order to pass its legislation.

International

—Lee Hoon, tourism professor at Hanyang University, tapped by the South Korean government to lead a task force to bolster grassroots relations with Japan. The Moon government trying to take bilateral relations seriously even if the Abe government is hung up on Comfort Women.

—Defense Ministry resumes its lobbying effort to get Saga Prefecture to accept the deployment of Osprey aircraft. This effort was suspended in the wake of the major Self-Defense Forces helicopter accident in the prefecture in February.

Economy

—Shinzo Abe: “Japanese automakers have created jobs and made huge contributions to the US economy. As a country that prioritizes a rule-based, multilateral trading system, Japan believes that any steps taken on trade must be in line with World Trade Organization rules.”

—Wataru Takeshita, head of the ruling party’s Takeshita Faction, says that Japan’s economic policy needs to shift its focus to addressing the massive public debt as opposed to economic growth. This is effectively a repudiation of Abenomics.

Society

—Two Native Americans, Myron Dewey and William Patrick Kincaid, were in Tokyo on May 28 to call upon Japanese banks to disinvest from the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL).

—Rainy season has now started in Okinawa, Kyushu, and Shikoku.

Note: There was no separate “Today in Japan” report issued on May 28.

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