#7 Rising corona cases – “Go To travel” suspended – Expanding missile defense – Digital & Green initiative stimulus packages
HIGHLIGHTS: 1st Dec – 15th Dec.
● Amidst rapidly increasing coronavirus cases, Japan emerges as the only G7 country to have contained COVID-19 without strict measures.
● Suga announces nationwide suspension of Go-To Travel over the year-end holiday.
● The Diet is about to approve the plan to build two new Aegis ships despite facing questions over legality of Japan’s defense policy.
● Japan’s greenhouse gas emission fell, owing to the pandemic and US-China trade war.
● Suga announces an economic package focusing on green and digital innovation.
1. POLITICS
● Amendment to the Prevention vaccination law for providing free coronavirus vaccine was enacted in the Diet. By the amendment, the government will bear the cost for the free vaccine, and on behalf of the manufacturer, the government will shoulder the responsibility of compensation when the manufacturer is questioned over any health hazards caused due to the inoculation.
● The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare announced that currently, the cost of medical drugs is 8% higher than the actual transaction price, the brunt of which is borne by the people. The government is investigating ways to accommodate this price difference in its next year’s budget by bringing down the cost of medical drugs.
● A special bill was enacted in the Diet, which establishes a parent-child relationship in case of a child born out of Assistive Reproductive technology. As per the law, the third-party egg or sperm donor becomes the mother or father of the child, respectively. The bill is aimed at preventing instability in a parent-child relationship and to protect the welfare of the child. However, the bill lacked details on ‘right to know origin’, which may be included in the next revision of the bill.
2. CORONAVIRUS RELATED STORIES
● Toshio Nakagawa, the chairman of Japan’s Medical Association said that the medical system is about to collapse and expressed that a crisis is about to happen. “With infections spreading due to the new coronavirus, it is becoming difficult to admit other patients to hospitals who have ailments. A shift in the age group of the infected people has been identified, who are mostly middle-aged or elderly, which is on the negative side as anticipated”.
● Medical groups and experts consider that the Go-To Travel campaign has triggered a spike in coronavirus cases in Japan, while Prime Minister Suga defended the travel subsidy campaign amidst growing resentment.
● With the onset of winter, the country is facing a steep rise in Covid -19 cases. The rise in infections is mainly concentrated in the four metropolitan areas of Sapporo, Aichi, Osaka and Tokyo. The authorities from the Health Ministry are preparing to face the situation by ensuring the availability of enough beds and medical practitioners along with the early closure of bars and restaurants. The difference in current rise from the coronavirus surge in summer is that the elderly population aged 80 or older are the main victims.
● A recent article in The Economist discusses that Japan’s early exposure to COVID-19 through the “Diamond Princess” in February, enabled the government to understand the risks better and gain insights on preventive measures, making the country’s epidemic, the mildest among the big economies. Japan does fewer tests, on an average of 270 a day for every million people, compared with 4,000 or so in America and Britain. Based on data analysis Japan is the only G7 country to contain the Covid -19 without strict lockdowns or mass testing.
3.ECONOMY
● Suga announced an economic package of 2 trillion yen and 1 trillion yen towards promoting ecological business and digitization of the administrative process, respectively. He said, “The fund is to bolster environmental investment as we aim to become a global leader in this area”. After becoming the Prime Minister of Japan, Suga in his first speech in the Diet pledged to go carbon neutral by 2050. Also, one of his main agenda items is to modernize bureaucracy through digital transformation.
● To boost the country’s green and digital investment, Suga’s government has proposed a tax credit of 10% of investment in equipment that reduces carbon emission and 5% in digital infrastructure. A two-year extension of tax breaks for eco-friendly cars is being planned to come into effect in the fiscal year starting in April.
● Prime Minister Suga said he feels extremely thankful to Docomo as the company announced its new plan, which offers a steep discount on voice and data services. Suga has been pressurizing mobile phone carriers to lower their mobile charges even when he served as the Chief Cabinet Secretary under Shinzo Abe. He expressed hopes that Japan’s other big wireless carriers like KDDI (au) and Softbank also come forward with similar plans.
● Japan follows America, Europe and China in banning the sales of gasoline-powered passenger cars from mid of 2030. The government’s initiative is likely to affect major automobile companies as domestic sales of the gasoline-powered automobile is at 60%.
● Kazuyoshi Akaba, the tourism minister, announced the government’s plan to extend Go-To Travel from January to June, next year. This extension implies a continuation of discounts and subsidies on domestic travel. The Go-To Travel program was introduced to encourage and promote domestic travel, thereby reviving the tourism industry and boosting the economy.
4. BUSINESS
● Amid the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, the corporate economic forecast survey reported that the business climate index of large manufacturing companies for Oct-Dec is 21.6, a remarkable improvement from the previous quarter when it was only 0.1.
● Following the U.S led crackdown on Huawei and ban by the U.K. on the installation of Huawei 5G equipment, Japan has come to the forefront. It is being looked upon as an alternative in the new and growing global supply chain of the telecommunication network. Suga’s stimulus package towards suppliers building 5G technologies is a welcome step.
5. FOREIGN AFFAIRS
● The proposal for abolition of nuclear weapons, submitted by Japan has not gained unanimous support at the United Nations General Assembly with 150 countries in favor, 4 opposing and 35 withdrawing to vote. The support in favor of the resolution has decreased by 10 countries when compared to last year.
● The Japanese government is planning to make Koji Tomita, the current ambassador to South Korea, as their new US envoy. Having played key diplomatic roles, hopes have been placed on this veteran diplomat that he will strengthen the ties with President-elect Joe Biden, using his experience and personal connections. He had earlier served at the Japanese embassy in Washington during the administration of then US President Barack Obama, in which Biden was the Vice-President.
6. DEFENSE CAPABILITIES
● Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi said that Japan will build two naval vessels equipped with Aegis missile interceptors to strengthen defense capabilities. The announcement raised concern amongst opposition party lawmakers who see the plan as a deviation from the country’s post-war defense policy. But Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato said, “The improvement is aimed at strengthening defense capabilities. It is not aimed at striking foreign bases, nor is it developed under a new policy regarding missile interceptions”. As per the Defense Ministry, other than its main purpose as an alternative to the land-based system to deal with ballistic missiles, these interceptors will give the flexibility to counter the assertive attitude over territorial claims of China in the east and south China seas.
7. ENVIRONMENT ROADMAP
● Japan’s greenhouse gas emissions fell to a record low in fiscal 2019 due to the decline in production in the steel industry and others, hit by the US-China trade war, and expansion of renewable energy. A fall in the consumption of electricity by the steel and machinery sectors with a parallel increase in the ratio of electricity generated by renewable resources was observed. The Environment Ministry believes if the current situation continues, it would be possible for Japan to achieve targeted reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Suga’s government is aiming to attain carbon neutrality by 2050.
● In a first of its kind move, the Osaka district court ruled in favor of nearly 130 Plaintiffs, revoking government’s approval to the operations of a nuclear power plant in Fukui prefecture, citing that the Nuclear Regulation Authority’s (NRA) safety screening “has errors and flaws that cannot be overlooked”. The government had approved the operation of a nuclear power plant KEPCO in Fukui prefecture, under new safety regulations developed in the aftermath of the Fukushima disaster in 2011. While the ruling was welcomed by the plaintiffs’ lawyers and the residents, KEPCO is likely to appeal with the NRA.
8. Other Stories of Interest
● The asteroid explorer, “Hayabusa2” of Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency(JAXA), successfully delivered a capsule in a remote desert of Australia, containing samples taken from under the asteroid’s surface. The Hayabusa2 completed its mission after a 6 year, 5-billion-kilometer journey. JAXA officials expressed their eagerness to study the samples, which is likely to unravel hints on the birth of life and also how water arrived on our earth.
● The first phase of COVID-19 vaccination has started in the UK using the vaccine that was developed by US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and German biotech company Biontech. This is the same vaccine that Japan plans to provide its people and has initially ordered a supply for 60 million people.
● The sacred deers that live in a park on the way to the towering wooden pagoda of Kofuku-Ji in Nara, are devoid of Shika senbei, a special kind of rice cracker, usually fed to them by the tourists. With the trickling down of tourism due to the pandemic situation, many deers have begun wandering in the town in search of food, while the less enterprising ones have become impoverished.