SNA (Tokyo) — The following stories were reported in the last half of September 2020 by the Shingetsu News Agency.

Politics

—The final Shinzo Abe Cabinet resigns. Yoshihide Suga is now officially the prime minister of Japan, and he has entered the Kantei, the official residence. For the first time since 2012 there is a new leader of the nation.

—With no fewer than eight Cabinet ministers staying in their current posts and no inspired picks, the first Suga Cabinet has a rather tired feeling about it. Taro Kono in charge of administrative reform, however, may prove to be interesting in light of Suga’s priorities.

—Yoshihide Suga’s Cabinet picks show that gender balance has no particular priority within his agenda. None of the top Cabinet ministers or ruling party officials are women. The highest appointment is Yoko Kamikawa, who is returning as Justice Minister.

—Yoshihide Suga begins his premiership with about two-thirds of Japanese supporting him. Quite notable is the 13% disapproval rate, which indicates that his key role in leading scandal cover-up efforts on behalf of the Abe government have essentially been wiped clean for now.

—Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga says he will be cancelling the state-funded spring cherry blossom party events going forward. They became the source of one of the Abe administration scandals, and Suga wants to avoid future problems.

—Minister Takuya Hirai to spearhead Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga’s key initiative to create a new “digital agency” that will promote government digitization and bind the ministries together. It appears they are targeting an autumn 2021 launch for the agency.

—The forthcoming digital agency may be created with some unheard of innovation. It will apparently not be created by transferring bureaucrats from other ministries, but by recruitment from the private sector. It may also aim to have no physical office, but to work remotely.

—Jiji Press reports that Suga’s initiative to create a digital agency “is expected to trigger a backlash from ministries and agencies.”

—Digital Transformation Minister Takuya Hirai suggests that a woman should lead the forthcoming digital agency: “In the digital world, meetings held overseas are dominated by women… but in digital meetings in Japan, all I see are men dressed in black.”

—Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga instructs Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications Ryota Takeda to put the squeeze on Japan’s three main mobile phone operators to force them to lower consumer fees. In the past, Suga has said that such fees should be about 40% lower.

—Liberal Democratic Party policy chief Hakubun Shimomura says that there is basically a consensus among ruling party lawmakers that Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga should dissolve the Diet soon and call general elections.

—Suga government planning to spend about ¥80 million (US$760,000) in taxpayer money for funeral of former Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone. This essentially involves the ruling party celebrating itself and its own policy legacy, including the smashing of labor union power.

—NHK has launched a lawsuit against Takashi Tachibana, head of the Protect the Nation From NHK political party, over his broadcasting footage of individual NHK workers visiting homes to collect fees. NHK says it is business obstruction.

—Natsuo Yamaguchi gains a seventh two-year term as Komeito leader. Since he became the party leader in 2009, he has never faced a leadership challenge.

—Keiichi Ishii appointed Komeito secretary-general. Considering his long experience as Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism as well, it seems likely that Inoue is being groomed to become the next Komeito leader when Natsuo Yamaguchi steps down.

—Shuichi Takatori, caretaker leader of the ruling party’s far right Conservative Solidarity Association, ideologically close to Shinzo Abe and who recently called for increased confrontation with South Korea, has become the first lawmaker confirmed to have Covid-19.

—Shinji Inoue, minister in charge of the 2025 World Expo, has decided to self-quarantine at his home due to the fact that he sat next to Covid-19 positive lawmaker Shuichi Takatori at a recent meeting.

—Shinzo Abe uses his first days out of power to visit War Criminal-worshipping Yasukuni Shrine, and then he quickly brags about it on Twitter.

—Japan Federation of Newspaper Workers’ Unions and Women in Media Network Japan have raised concerns that part of a government draft on a Basic Plan for Gender Equality could be used to bring the news media under government control on pretext of ensuring women’s empowerment.

—Kyodo News: Rightwing ruling party lawmaker Mio Sugita states in response to a briefing on a government support program on sexual violence, “Women can tell lies as much as they want.” After the briefing, Sugita tells reporters that she didn’t say what others said she said.

—Kobe Gakuin University Professor Hiroshi Kamiwaki sues the government over its failure to allow disclosure of how much it paid for the Abenomasks and which companies benefitted from the contracts to produce them. The government has been treating it like a state secret.

—Ruling party faction leader Hiroyuki Hosoda to become chairman of the House of Representatives’ Commission on the Constitution. Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga is ostensibly committed to move forward with Constitution revision, but is not seen as very enthusiastic about it.

International

—The Suga government, which seems to have renewed determination to hold the Olympics next summer, has decided to create a system whereby Olympic athletes will be exempted from Covid-19 entry bans, much like the privileges of the US military.

—Tokyo Olympics Organising Committee President Yoshiro Mori: “No matter what happens, we will hold the Olympics”

—In their first bilateral phone call, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and US President Donald Trump apparently had little substantial to talk about except platitudes of “strengthening the US-Japan Alliance.”

—US Forces Japan reports seven new cases of Covid-19 on US military bases, including five cases at Yokosuka Naval Base in Kanagawa Prefecture.

—First Defense Ministry budget under the Suga administration to continue the Abe era trend of being a record high figure every year. This time, the budget request has reached over ¥5.4 trillion (US$51.7 billion).

—In a “historic” development, the local authorities have begun to asphalt the roads on Shikotan. Poor-quality transport infrastructure has long been a problem on the Southern Kurils. Conditions have improved in recent years, but Shikotan has lagged behind until now.

—On same day Yoshihide Suga held first call with Vladimir Putin, Japan protested Russian military activities on the disputed islands. Russia conducting anti-amphibious landing operation involving 1,500 troops and 200 units of military equipment.

—Immigration Services Agency seems to be tiring of international criticism of its human rights violations, and so is trying to create a new system that will prevent the long-term detention of those seeking asylum in Japan.

—Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato demands removal of Comfort Women statue in Berlin, Germany: “It is extremely regrettable and incompatible with the position and efforts of our government.”

—Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga meets the families of North Korea abductees: “I’ll take the lead in efforts to find a way to bring back all abduction victims as early as possible without missing any chance.”

Economy

—Hitachi has decided to pull the plug on its ¥3 trillion (US$28 billion) plan to build the Wylfa Newydd nuclear power plant in Wales, despite recent reports that the troubled project could be revived. Hitachi wanted additional financial support from London, but no luck.

—Nuclear Regulation Authority concludes that TEPCO is fit to reenter the nuclear power generation business less than a decade after the Fukushima Daiichi disaster. TEPCO is seeking permission to restart the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant in Niigata Prefecture.

—At the beginning of October, the Suga government reopen borders to all foreign visitors with visas to stay in the country, including students and business people, but excluding tourists.

—Government now admits that up to 29 people who used the “Go To Travel” subsidy program are confirmed to have caught Covid-19, possibly due to their trips. From tomorrow, residents of Tokyo also become eligible to utilize the subsidies.

—Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga visits the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant and vows to carry on reconstruction efforts. He suggests that Japan cannot recover unless Fukushima recovers.

—Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan leader Yukio Edano says that reducing the national consumption tax from 10% to 0% for a period of two years in an “option” for overcoming the current economic crisis.

GreenTech

—Main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan leader Yukio Edano says that a key pillar of the party’s platform will be to make Japan into “a renewable energy nation.”

—Environment Ministry to offer subsidies to companies and nonprofit organizations that work with local governments to reduce the use of single-use plastics. This will likely begin from April 2021.

—Suga government preparing a subsidy plan to promote teleworking outside of the Tokyo region. The plan is to cover 75% of municipalities’ expenses for setting up teleworking systems for satellite offices of companies and shared office spaces.

—Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga aiming to make use of MyNumber cards almost universal by March 2023, although only about 20% of the public has obtained them at present. Various incentives and measures being considered to force adoption of the cards.

Society

—Kane Tanaka of Fukuoka city becomes the oldest Japanese ever recorded in history as she surpasses the former record of 117 years, 261 days. She is also at present the oldest person in the world.

—The last couple weeks have seen the number of confirmed new Covid-19 cases in Japan continue to decline, though the curve is flattening out at a much higher level than in May and June after the first wave had subsided. The coronavirus is still spreading.

—The number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in Japan since the pandemic began has now crossed the 80,000 level. The cumulative death toll is over 1,500. At the moment, the rate of infection is slowing down.

—A woman running a sex worker-dispatching business has sued the government, arguing that the exclusion of the sex industry from Covid-19 relief programs is a form of discrimination that is banned by the Constitution.

—Japan Rugby Football Union rules that Japanese citizens who are not ethnic, native-born Japanese are effectively “non-Japanese” as far as their organization is concerned. In other words, discrimination has been authorized even against naturalized Japanese citizens.

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