Japanese Cabinet Research Articles

Post-WWII Reforms: How the U.S. Transformed Japans Domestic Legal System

Abstract: The deep connection between the U.S. and Japan began at the end of World War II and has transformed from an initial enemy relationship to the U.S. occupation of Japan to the current deep strategic partnership. The U.S. undertook a thorough legal reconstruction during the occupation of Japan. From the representative contents of the changes, the cabinet officials and the Supreme Commander for the Allied Power, who was the U.S.'s all-powerful leader in the legal reconstruction process, the analysis of the entanglement and bargaining between the U.S. and Japan in the process of legal changes and the characteristics of the law after the changes were made. In this way, the fundamental interests of both sides are analyzed. It is found that the U.S. dominated the legal aspects to serve its strategic objectives in Asia. For instance, ensuring that Japan no longer became a threat of war, while using Japan to hamstring socialist expansion in Asia. The Japanese cabinet was not influential enough in reconstructing the law.

The improvised expert: Staging authority at an OECD Nuclear Energy Agency workshop in Fukushima.

In recent years, concerns about a crisis of expert authority have been expressed across the globe. Japan is no exception to this trend. Scandals surrounding the (mis)management of the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant disaster severely damaged public confidence in state institutions, posing an additional challenge for those engaged in radiological protection. This article examines how claims to expert authority are made in these conditions of low public trust. To this end, I offer an ethnographic account of the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency's (NEA) Workshop on Post-Accident Food Safety Science-an event staged at the request of the Japanese Cabinet Office with the aim of inspiring confidence in Fukushima produce. I analyse the practices through which the organizers craft a credible public persona using the idiom of dramaturgical improvisation; drawing attention to the 'performed resourcefulness' with which they adapted extant institutional scripts in response to a discerned crisis of public reason. Concretely, improvisation invites us to consider how and why nuclear policy actors have sought to demarcate two variants of the deficit model: the (psychological) discourse of 'radiophobia' and the (economic) discourse of 'reputational damage'. Where prior scholarship has identified the continuities between the two discourses, an attention to this boundary work reveals the dramaturgical advantages of 'reputational damage' over 'radiophobia' in contesting critics' claims to the mantle of victimhood, securing international support, and producing the expert's body as a site of evidence.

Examining Loneliness: A Comparative Analysis of Face-to-Face, Telephone, and Online Communication among Japanese Young Adults

(1) Background: Loneliness is inherently linked to social connections, with interpersonal communication playing a pivotal role. Despite this connection, limited research exists on the relationship between loneliness and communication among young adults. This study investigates the correlation between face-to-face, telephone, and online communication frequencies and loneliness among individuals in their 20s. (2) Methods: Using a dataset from a nationwide survey conducted by the Japanese Cabinet Office, this study focuses on 1812 respondents aged 20–30, selected from a random sample of 20,000 individuals aged 16 and older across Japan. (3) Results: A Multivariate Logistic Regression Analysis reveals a significant association between communication frequency and loneliness, even after adjusting for demographic characteristics. Notably, decreased communication frequency across all modalities correlated with increased loneliness. Online communication exhibited the highest impact, followed by face-to-face communication, with phone call communication ranking last. (4) Conclusions: This study emphasizes the importance of seamlessly integrating social networking service (SNS)-based communication with various forms of social interaction. A well-balanced integration of these approaches is crucial for mitigating loneliness among young individuals and promoting positive mental health outcomes.

일본 내각관방의 시마네현 독도 영토 편입(1905)에 대한 홍보 영상 분석

In August 2021, the Japanese Cabinet Secretariat released a promotional video titled “Takeshima and Ahn Yongbok’s Statement in the Edo Period” on its website. In March 2023, the Cabinet Secretariat posted three additional promotional videos under the title “Takeshima Shimane Prefecture Incorporation Story.” The Cabinet Secretariat’s promotional video only presents favorable aspects of Nakai’s annexation of Dokdo and sometimes even falsifies historical facts. Objective assessment of the unfavorable aspects is lacking. It is crucial to conduct a thorough analysis of the documents released by the Cabinet Secretariat by comparing them with the contemporary records. This is because there is a significant risk of false information being disseminated

Stop the Immigration Bill: Fighting to End Human Rights Violations and Xenophobia in Japan

Abstract In March 2023, the Japanese Cabinet submitted a controversial amendment bill to the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Law to the ordinary Diet session. As an association working with refugees and foreign workers living in Japan, we strategically formed a protest movement against the bill both inside and outside the parliament. The parliament ignored opposition voices and approved the bill, but this result was far from the opposition’s defeat. The protest movement helped reveal multiple facts that had been concealed by Immigration and caused a drastic increase in recognition of Immigration issues in Japan.

Exploring Temporal and Multilingual Dynamics of Post-Disaster Social Media Discourse: A Case of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Accident

The 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster has led to worldwide disruptive discussions related to crisis. In April 2021, the news that the Japanese Cabinet decided to discharge the stored wastewater into the Pacific Ocean drew global attention once again. Social media platforms like Twitter are ubiquitously used to gain information and exchange opinions during and after a crisis. Analyzing crisis-related tweets can help capture insights for public situational awareness development, crisis global response coordination, and post-disaster policy-making. We examined corresponding Twitter discourse in different languages about the nuclear disaster in 2011 and the follow-up discharge of the stored water until 2021. We utilized NLP techniques including topic modeling and sentiment analysis to identify the dominant topics related to the nuclear disaster, the post-disaster discourses, and the public attitudes towards these topics in different time phases. Our work revealed multilingual disparities of post-disaster discourse dynamics and the regional public attitudes towards the post-disaster management in the long run.

About the New Concept of National Security of Japan

The article analyzes new moments in Japan's national security policy introduced by the documents which have been adopted by the Japanese cabinet in December 2022 — National Security Strategy, National Defense Program Guidelines and Medium Term Defense Program. The main attention is paid to the depiction of the external security environment, and above all to the assessment of China and Russia as the countries of greatest concern from the point of view of security policy. Noting that the documents do not use the term "threat" in China's assessment, the author concludes that Japan takes a more cautious position than the United States, trying not to be drawn into a confrontation between superpowers. As for Russia, the greatest alarmism is expressed not in relation to its policy as such, but in relation to its potential blocking with China on an anti—Japanese basis — the main "nightmare" for Tokyo. The article considers the issue of the "counter-offensive" missile potential provided for by the new strategy, which would allow Japan to strike at the enemy from a remote distance in the event of a direct threat to its security. The acquisition of such a potential has become particularly relevant for Japan in connection with the development of missile technologies of neighboring "hostile" countries — the DPRK and the PRC, as well as the general progress of missile weapons in the world, including the hypersonic ones. As part of the new approach, it is planned to create an integrated air and missile defense system that combines the capabilities of intercepting enemy missiles and counterattacking on strategic and military enemy targets. An important change in the security policy will also be the acute increase in defense spending declared by the documents under review. The biggest problem lies in the unresolved issue of the financial sources of the defense budget, which must ensure the implementation of the adopted strategy.

아시아태평양전쟁기 부산형무소의 수형자 동원

Colonial Korean prisons mobilized the labor force of about one million prisoners nationwide, including the Hainan Island of China, during the war at the end of the war. The purpose of this study is to specifically investigate the reality of a specific region through the case of mobilization of prisoners nationwide. Therefore, Busan was selected as the subject of the case study. The materials used were military data from National Institute for Defense Study, data from the Japanese Cabinet for prison law revision, data from the Justice Department of the Japanese Government-General of Korea, and organized data(1984) from the Pusan Prison, as well as newspaper and magazine articles at the time. Through the above materials, I have summarized the patterns in which prisoners under the wartime system were mobilized into two patterns. That is the production of munitions in the factories of each prison and the work outside the ward. In Busan, the production and transportation of munitions and military facilities were concentrated for the war with the United States at the end of the war. As a result, inmates in Busan Prison were mobilized on a large scale to produce munitions in factories within the prison, to expand Busan city area, or to build an airport. This was a wartime labor mobilization that was different from the existing normal prison work. In this process, many victims have occurred since 1944, but prisoners continued to work like this for 3-4 years before liberation.

아시아태평양전쟁기 부산형무소의 수형자 동원

Colonial Korean prisons mobilized the labor force of about one million prisoners nationwide, including the Hainan Island of China, during the war at the end of the war. The purpose of this study is to specifically investigate the reality of a specific region through the case of mobilization of prisoners nationwide. Therefore, Busan was selected as the subject of the case study. The materials used were military data from National Institute for Defense Study, data from the Japanese Cabinet for prison law revision, data from the Justice Department of the Japanese Government-General of Korea, and organized data(1984) from the Pusan Prison, as well as newspaper and magazine articles at the time. Through the above materials, I have summarized the patterns in which prisoners under the wartime system were mobilized into two patterns. That is the production of munitions in the factories of each prison and the work outside the ward. In Busan, the production and transportation of munitions and military facilities were concentrated for the war with the United States at the end of the war. As a result, inmates in Busan Prison were mobilized on a large scale to produce munitions in factories within the prison, to expand Busan city area, or to build an airport. This was a wartime labor mobilization that was different from the existing normal prison work. In this process, many victims have occurred since 1944, but prisoners continued to work like this for 3-4 years before liberation.

The Chemical Society of Japan: Striving for Chemical Sciences and Technology for a Sustainable Human Society

The Chemical Society of Japan (CSJ), with a long history extending over 140 years and membership of ca. 24,000, is one of the world’s largest, most active, and internationally recognized societies in chemistry. The history of CSJ dates back to 1878 (just ten years after the Meiji Restoration, where Japan was reborn), when about twenty motivated and enthusiastic young scholars launched a small organization, the Chemical Society, in Tokyo for the advancement of chemistry. In the following year, the embryonic society was renamed The Tokyo Chemical Society and eventually the current name, The Chemical Society of Japan, in 1921. In 1948, shortly after World War II, the then CSJ merged with the Society of Chemical Industry, founded in 1898, into an integrated organization with the same name: ”The Chemical Society of Japan”. The integration was in part symbolic in defining the renewed CSJ’s perspective: CSJ consists of comparable numbers of individual members from both academia and industry along with supporting company affiliates; its activities cover virtually all segments of pure and applied chemistry along with diverse interdisciplinary areas now extended to physics, biology, medicine, materials, and advanced technology. Since 2011 CSJ is a public interest incorporated association, a nonprofit tax-exempt organization legitimately certified and under the jurisdiction of the Japanese Cabinet.

Japan’s New Framework on Dementia Care

The number of people with dementia in Japan is ever-increasing. In 2020, 6 million people lived with dementia. The number is expected to increase to 9 million in 2040. This means that a person with dementia will be supported by three working people. To prepare for the big wave of dementia, Japan released the New Orange Plan in January 2015. In 2019, the Framework for Promoting Dementia Care was issued by the Japanese cabinet in which prevention and the opportunity for persons with dementia to age in place were set as the main goals. This framework requires all ministries to promote people’s awareness about individuals with cognitive impairment. The educational targets include taxi drivers, retail shop clerks, bankers, police, and people working in the criminal justice system. I will discuss the New Framework which has potential to assist the country in supporting people living with dementia.

Phenomenological Studies in Reforming Smart Buildings According to the Community Concept 5.0

Today, with the various problems faced by the world community, it requires everyone in various countries to develop technology and science to overcome various problems that are currently faced and predict future problems. Through innovation, the world's technological engineering is felt in the palm of the hand, even if only by means of a cell phone. This condition then inspired the Japanese Cabinet in 2016 to initiate society 5.0 or Society 5.0 through the Japanese Cabinet within the framework of the 5th Science and Technology Basic Plan. The big vision carried by the Japanese Cabinet in the 5th design and technology plan is to create a Super Intelligent Society (MSC). MSC is positioned as the fifth stage of development in the social structure of society, after previously the hunter / gatherer, agrarian, industrial, and information societies. In line with the development and innovation referred to above, the demand for services in the property sector, especially in building buildings, is getting higher. So that the concept of "Smart Building" or better known as Smart Building / Intelligent Building is created. This concept was born as a result of increasing human welfare and changes in modern life patterns that demand a level of service and management of the building environment, which greatly affects the welfare and services in the workplace, which in turn will affect productivity, morality and satisfaction. Therefore, efforts to adjust the current conditions between the speed of information technology development and the growth of a new generation of humans in this era which are almost linear / concurrent, as well as between society and building, are an effort that must be made so that technological and social developments can coincide. . This effort is what is meant by reformulation of Smart Buildings in the Concept of Society 5.0.

Four Types of Japanese Regional Policy in the Perspective of Liberal Intergovernmentalism

What are the determinants of Japan’s regional policies? This article argues that Japan’s regional policy is the result of the government’s strategic choice made through processes of domestic and international bargaining. Based on liberal intergovernmentalism, this article focuses on the level of domestic preferences for East Asia and the threat of China. In the first stage, the preference of the Prime Minister and political winning-coalition groups matter. In the second stage, the level of the threat of China is a pivotal variable. In combining these two variables, the article proposes the following four types of ideal regional policies for Japan: (1) pro-East Asia policy; (2) expanded-Asia policy; (3) interactive policy; and (4) reactive policy. To substantiate this idea, the article traces Japan’s regional policy trajectory from the Yoshida Cabinet to the Hatoyama Cabinet. An in-depth case study shows that Japanese cabinets vary in their regional policies in the way this article expected from each ideal type based on liberal intergovernmentalism.

Study of measurement errors of Cabinet Office opinion survey

Public opinion surveys are important for gauging the feelings and behaviours of societies. However, there is the possibility of error, which means that the data collected may not accurately reflect the thoughts and opinions of society, which can have dangerous repercussions. In order to minimise such error, with a specific focus on the Japanese Government's Cabinet Office public opinion survey, Professor Harumasa Yoshimura, Nara University, Japan, is investigating measurement error and, in doing so, he hopes to more accurately reflect the true opinions of Japanese society. This research involves integrating the different factors that can affect the reliability of survey results and looking at non-sampling error, which refers to human mistakes. Yoshimura is proposing a new style of social research that integrates psychometric research with sociological community surveys and believes this is the key to enhancing the reliability of public opinion surveys. Ultimately, improving the accuracy of public opinion surveys will have far-reaching benefits that include more accurately depicting thoughts and behaviours and therefore improving awareness of Japanese society, as well as preventing the negative impacts that inaccurate opinion survey results can have, including the political utilisation of academic endeavours.

Digital Ads Regulation: A Japanese and Global Perspective

This paper addresses the problem of the regulation of digital advertising from a comparative and global perspective. There are a number of possible concerns about digital advertising, ranging from the lack of transparency of transactions and “unfair” conduct to conflicts of interest and self-preferencing by certain operators, from the way personal data are gathered and used to excessive concentration and market power in the supply chain. Several reports have been produced, including in the United Kingdom, in Australia, in Japan, and in a number of EU Member States. This paper examines the potential concerns that have been identified, focusing on the Interim Report by the Headquarters for Digital Market Competition of the Japanese Cabinet Office. It concludes that an international approach should be adopted, with the right mix of Government intervention, under the aegis of institutions such as UNCTAD, UNCITRAL or the OECD, and Government-backed industry self-regulation. This is the only way to avoid regulatory unilateralism, which would fragment markets, hinder trade and ultimately harm business and consumers world-wide, depriving them of the benefits that the digital economy has already brought about and has the potential to deliver in the future.

Uncertainty quantification of tsunami inundation in Kuroshio, Kochi Prefecture, Japan, using the Nankai–Tonankai megathrust rupture scenarios

Abstract. Nankai–Tonankai megathrust earthquakes and tsunamis pose significant risks to coastal communities in western and central Japan. Historically, this seismic region hosted many major earthquakes, and the current national tsunami hazard assessments in Japan consider megathrust events as those having moment magnitudes between 9.0 and 9.1. In responding to the lack of rigorous uncertainty analysis, this study presents an extensive tsunami hazard assessment for the Nankai–Tonankai Trough events, focusing on the southwestern Pacific region of Japan. A set of 1000 kinematic earthquake rupture models is generated via stochastic source modelling approaches, and Monte Carlo tsunami simulations are carried out by considering high-resolution grid data of 10 m and coastal defence structures. Significant advantages of the stochastic tsunami simulation methods include the enhanced capabilities to quantify the uncertainty associated with tsunami hazard assessments and to effectively visualize the results in an integrated manner. The results from the stochastic tsunami simulations can inform regional and local tsunami risk reduction actions in light of inevitable uncertainty associated with such tsunami hazard assessments and complement conventional deterministic tsunami scenarios and their hazard predictions, such as those developed by the Central Disaster Management Council of the Japanese Cabinet Office.

Korea’s Youth Unemployment and Hikikomori Issues: Middle-aged Hikikomori and 8050 Problems in Japan

Purpose - The study looks at the Hikikikomori problem that Japanese society faces today. In particular, the focus is on the issues of Hikikomori, a middle-aged people, and 8050 problem as a result. Design/Methodology/Approach - The results of the Hikikomori survey conducted by the Japanese cabinet ministry on middle-aged people were very surprising. Accordingly, the study made the most of the Japanese Cabinet’s middle-aged Hikikomori survey. Findings - The Hikikomori issue is not just a matter of Japanese society, it is a matter of any kind of in Korean society. In particular, youth unemployment is a valuable indicator of future Hikikikomori problems, and a detailed analysis is needed. Research Implications - The future issue of Hikikomori as it relates to middle-aged people, could have serious after-effects in Korean society. Unfortunately, Korea’s youth unemployment problem is becoming exactly like Japan. Indeed, it is a big problem. It is time for a broader and more elaborate design of youth unemployment as soon as possible.

Data Validation and Verification Using Blockchain in a Clinical Trial for Breast Cancer: Regulatory Sandbox.

BackgroundThe integrity of data in a clinical trial is essential, but the current data management process is too complex and highly labor-intensive. As a result, clinical trials are prone to consuming a lot of budget and time, and there is a risk for human-induced error and data falsification. Blockchain technology has the potential to address some of these challenges.ObjectiveThe aim of the study was to validate a system that enables the security of medical data in a clinical trial using blockchain technology.MethodsWe have developed a blockchain-based data management system for clinical trials and tested the system through a clinical trial for breast cancer. The project was conducted to demonstrate clinical data management using blockchain technology under the regulatory sandbox enabled by the Japanese Cabinet Office.ResultsWe verified and validated the data in the clinical trial using the validation protocol and tested its resilience to data tampering. The robustness of the system was also proven by survival with zero downtime for clinical data registration during a Amazon Web Services disruption event in the Tokyo region on August 23, 2019.ConclusionsWe show that our system can improve clinical trial data management, enhance trust in the clinical research process, and ease regulator burden. The system will contribute to the sustainability of health care services through the optimization of cost for clinical trials.

DENIAL OF HISTORY? YASUKUNI VISITS AS SIGNALING

AbstractUnder what conditions would Japanese leaders visit the controversial Yasukuni Shrine and why? Previous studies have focused primarily on the domestic benefits and effects of such visits, claiming that leaders employ visits to follow their own conservative ideology and gain domestic political support. Given the harsh international criticism that tends to ensue, however, political leaders should also consider the cost and international effects of such visits. This study proposes three necessary conditions for such visits: a conservative ruling party, a government enjoying high popularity, and Japan's perception of a Chinese threat. With regard to the latter, a security threat from China has allowed Japan to use these visits as a credible signal of its resolve against China. Comparative analyses of Japanese cabinets after the mid-1980s support this argument.

Women and sports development in Japan after 2000:

In 2014, after it was decided that Japan would host the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games, discussions about utilizing sports to tackle social issues, referred to as Sport for Development and Peace (SDP), have increased. Additionally, Japanese policies on women’s participation in business have been reinforced since 2012, when the Japanese cabinet office included it as a key aspect of the nation’s growth strategy. With these trends in Japan, Japan’s Second Basic Sport Plan, established in 2017, included the first strategy for development of women and sports in Japan. Therefore, discussions of how sports can contribute to women’s participation in society have increased. While some previous research has focused on either sports policy or sports and women in general, few studies have been conducted on women and sports in Japanese policy development. Therefore, the present paper examines how the global movement for women and sports and the Japanese national growth strategy can influence women’s position in sports and the perception of gender in sports policy. The data are analyzed historically in an attempt to derive a perception of future directions in Japanese sports policy. The “Development plus sport” and “Sport plus development” models, which categorize development and sport initiatives into 2 categories, were applied in this study as an analytical framework. To understand the global women and sports movement, documents related to the UN, UNESCO, UN Women, IOC and IWG were analyzed. Official documents related to women and sports published by the Japanese government and the government budget concerning women and sports are also examined. The results indicated that the most significant improvement in the relationship between women and sports occurred when both the development and sports sectors were simultaneously interested in using sports to improve gender equality. Many of the previous Japanese sports policies had targeted only women. However, from a “Sport plus development” perspective, it is suggested that a gender and development (GAD) approach needs to be considered in sports policy development. This could result in changes to gendered division of labor, social and organizational structure, and regulation. From the “Development plus sport” perspective, compared to other countries, Japan has not actively used sports to contribute to gender equality in society. SDP projects related to gender that have already been implemented in other countries could be applied to gender issues in Japan.