Prime Minister of Japan's Schedule September 3-9

September 3, 2012 (MON)

AM
09:33 Office
10:42 Make courtesy visits for the first anniversary of his Prime Ministership
11:05 Mr. Edano, Minister of Economy, Trade, and Industry
11:32 Government/DPJ Three Executives meeting

PM
12:16 Meeting adjourns
12:48 Mr. Saito, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary
12:56 Mr. Saito leaves
03:08 Mr. Koshiishi, DPJ Secretary-General
03:42 Mr. Koshiishi leaves
04:09 Mr. Taki, Minister of Justice
04:35 Mr. Keisuke Tsumura, DPJ Lower House member/DPJ Young Bureau Director
05:00 Mr. Saito
05:33 Japan-Finland Summit meeting: Prime Minister Katainen of Finland
06:06 Finish business representative
06:09 See Prime Minister Katainen and others
06:15 Mr. Tezuka, Special Advisor for PM
07:00 Residence

September 4, 2012 (TUE)

AM
09:22 Office
09:31 Ministerial meeting
09:40 Mr. Okada, Deputy Prime Minister
09:45 Mr. Okada leaves
10:41 Mr. Saito
10:59 Mr. Saito leaves

PM
03:53 Mr. Sasae, Administrative Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs
04:31 Mr. Furukawa, Minister of National Strategy; and Mr. Ogushi, Parliamentary Secretary of Cabinet Office
04:58 Both leave
06:00 Mr. Tezuka
06:10 Mr. Saito
06:31 Mr .Saito leaves
06:52 Mr. Tezuka leaves
06:55 Residence

September 5, 2012 (WED)

AM
07:14 Breakfast with former PM Kan, at Japanese Restaurant Suiren, at Capitol Hotel Tokyu in Nagatacho, Tokyo
08:15 Residence
09:32 Office
10:00 Mr. Okada
10:25 Mr. Matsumoto, Administrative Vice Minister of Cabinet Office; and Mr. Takekawa, Director General of Decoration Bureau
11:00 Courtesy Call from FIFA President Blatter
11:29 Mr. Maehara, DPJ Policy Research Counsel Chief; and Mr. Sengoku, Acting DPJ Policy Research Council Chief

PM 
12:02 Both leave
01:31 Follow-up Meeting for Postal Reform Issues
01:44 Mr. Taketoshi, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary
01:57 Mr. Jimi, President of People’s New Party
02:56 Mr. Nakagawa, Minister of Disaster Relief; and Mr. Fukano, Director-General of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency
03:29 Mr. Ishii, DPJ Vice President; Mr. Saito; and Mr. Nagashima, Special Advisor for PM
04:01 Mr. Saito; Mr. Nishimiya, Foreign Ministry councilor in charge of economics; and Mr. Okada, Economy Ministry Councilor
04:31 All leave
05:30 Mr. Tezuka
06:00 Mr. Tezuka leaves
06:52 Residence

September 6, 2012 (THU)

AM
09:21 Office
09:24 Mr. Sugiyama, Director General of Asia and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, Ministry of Foreign Affairs; and Mr. Ono, Northeast Asia Division Director
09:56 Mr. Manago, Administrative Vice Minister of Finance; Mr. Nakao, Vice Minister of Finance for International Affairs; and Mr. Yamazaki, Director-General of the International Bureau, Ministry of Finance
10:31 All leave

PM
12:53 Parliament
12:56 Mr. Maehara, DPJ Policy Research Council Chief
12:58 Mr. Fujimura, Chief Cabinet Secretary; and Mr. Azumi, Ministry of Finance
01:02 Lower House Plenary Session
01:28 Courtesy visits
01:37 Office
02:00 Courtesy Call from the government Chief Information Officer (CIO); Mr. Okada, Deputy Prime Minister; and Mr. Furukawa, Minister of State for National Policy
02:11 Mr. Okada
02:45 Mr. Yonemura, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary for Crisis Management
03:17 Minister of State for Consumer Affairs and Food Safety; Mr. Anami, Director General of Consumer Affairs Agency
03:45 Mr. Saito, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary
04:06 Mr. Saito leaves
05:00 Mr. Tezuka, Special Advisor for PM
05:31 The Central Disaster Prevention Council
06:12 Mr. Kitamura, Head of Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office
06:58 Residence

September 7, 2012 (FRI)

AM
07:58 Parliament
08:04 Aging Society Policy Council
08:17 Ministerial meeting
08:41 Office
08:59 Mr. Maehara, DPJ Policy Research Council Chief
09:29 Mr. Hosono, Minister of Environment; Mr. Fujimura, Chief Cabinet Secretary; Mr. Furukawa, Minister of State for National Policy; Mr. Makino, Senior Vice Minister of Economy, Trade, and Industry; Mr. Ogushi, Parliamentary Secretary of Cabinet Office; Mr. Adachi, Administrative Vice Minister of Economy, Trade, and Industry; Mr. Takahara, Director-General, Agency for Natural resources and Energy
10:24 All leave
10:25 Mr. Hosono
10:33 Mr. Hosono leaves
11:30 Interview with CNN
11:57 Interview ends

PM
12:53 Parliament
01:02 Lower House Plenary Session
01:14 Courtesy visits to Mr. Yokoji, Chair of the Lower House; Mr. Hirata, Chair of the Upper House; and Mr. Shimoji, President of People’s New Party
01:34 DPJ General Assembly of Both Houses’ members
01:55 Office
02:03 Mr. Kazuhiro Haraguchi, Former Minister of Internal Affairs
02:30 Mr. Masaaki Kakinuma; and Ms. Shiori Yamao, DPJ Lower House members
04:15 Mr. Saito, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary
04:42 Mr. Tezuka, Special Adviser for PM
05:00 Press conference
05:25 Mr. Honda, Special Adviser for PM
06:06 Haneda Airport
06:30 Leave the airport for Vladivostok to attend the APEC summit meeting

September 8, 2012 (SAT) * APEC Meeting Day 1

AM
Meeting with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong of Singapore at the APEC venue, Vladivostok, Russia

PM
Meeting with President Putin of Russia
APEC Summit meeting
APEC Business Advisory Council meeting
Meeting with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton of the U.S.
Press interview
Banquet hosted by President Putin
Conversation with the press
Stay in the Hotel in the venue

September 9, 2012 (SUN) * APEC Summit Day 2

AM
Meeting with Prime Minister Najib of Malaysia
Stand talking with Hu Jintao
APEC Summit meeting

PM
Photo Shoot
Working lunch
Stand Talking with President Lee Myung-bak of South Korea
Press interview
Flower tribute to the Japanese victims memorial
Leave Vladivostok Airport
06:16 Arrive at Haneda Airport
06:55 Residence

Book Event: Producing Prosperity

Producing Prosperity: Why America Needs a Manufacturing Renaissance

BOOK DISCUSSION & RECEPTION

Wednesday, October 3, 5:30 -7:00 PM

With Author

Gary Pisano

Harvard Business School

Purchase Book Here

Location: King and Spalding, 1700 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, 2^nd Floor, Washington, DC.

Co-Sponsors: The Conference on the Renaissance of American Manufacturing, The Committee to Support U.S. Trade Laws (CSUSTL), Kearny Alliance, Asia Policy Point

Reservations Requested

Questions, (202) 822-6040

Gary Pisano, a professor of business administration at Harvard Business School since 1988, specializes in management of innovation, technology, competitive strategy, and outsourcing. He is co-author with Willy Shih, a professor of management practice at Harvard Business School, of the forthcoming book, Producing Prosperity: Why America Needs a Manufacturing Renaissance (October 16). They are co-authors of the seminal Harvard Business Review articles “Restoring American Competitiveness” (July 2009) and “Does America Really Need Manufacturing?”

Stress Test for the Alliance

Edwin O. ReischauerCenter for East Asian Studies Seminar Series

Stress Test for the Alliance under the Democratic Party of Japan, 2009-2012 

Professor William L. Brooks

APP Senior Fellow 

Adjunct Professor, Japan Studies

Edwin O. Reischauer Center for East Asian Studies

SAIS, Johns Hopkins

Thursday, September 27, 2012 

4:30p.m. - 6:00p.m. 

Rome Building, Room 806 

1619 Massachusetts Ave., NW 

Washington, DC

RSVP 

Dr. William Brooks is Asia Policy Point's Senior Fellow and an adjunct professor of Japan Studies at SAIS, Johns Hopkins. He retired from the State Department in September 2009 after a 35-year career as a diplomat, research analyst, and linguist. In his final assignment, he ran Embassy Tokyo’s media analyst and translation unit for 16 years (1993-2009). In earlier diplomatic career, Dr. Brooks served in the economic section of the Embassy Tokyo, as well as in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR).

Mostly recently, he published two books, The Politics of the Futenma Base Issue in Okinawa (2010); and Cracks in the Alliance? (SAIS, 2011), in addition to translating a book of Japanese poetry, Beyond the Vast Wasteland (Tokyo, 2011), a memorial to victims of the great earthquake disaster in 2011 to English. He is now writing book on the Democratic Party of Japan, from which a shortened chapter will be published in SAIS Review.

Dr. Brooks earned his Ph.D. in East Asian Languages and Cultures, MA in East Asian Studies and BS in History from Columbia University.

Prime Minister of Japan's Schedule August 27-September 2

August 27, 2012 (MON)

AM

07:31 Mr. Nagahama, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary; and Mr. Tezuka, Special Advisor for PM
08:19 Both leave
08:48 Parliament
09:00 The Upper House Budget Committee

PM
12:01 Office
01:07 Mr. Furukawa, Minister of State for Economic and Fiscal Policy; and Mr. Ogushi, Parliamentary Secretary of the Cabinet Office
01:20 Mr. Furukawa leaves
01:34 Mr. Ogushi leaves
02:58 Mr. Matsubara, Minister of State for the Abduction Issues; and Mr. Mitani, Director, Headquarters for the Abduction Issue
03:15 Mr. Gemba, Minister of Foreign Affairs; Mr. Morimoto, Minister of Defense; Mr. Fujimura, Chief Cabinet Secretary; Mr. Nagashima, Special Advisor for PM; Mr. Ihara, Director General, North America Bureau, MoFA; and Mr. Nishi, Director General of Defense Policy Bureau, MoD
03:57 Mr. Morimoto, Mr. Fujimura, Mr. Nagashima, Mr. Nishi, and Mr. Ihara leave
04:00 Mr. Gemba leaves
04:17 Mr. Okada, Deputy Prime Minister
04:34 Mr. Kawabata, Minister of Internal Affairs; Mr. Fujimura; Mr. Goto, Senior Vice Minister of Cabinet Office; and Mr. Inami, Parliamentary Secretary of Internal Affairs
04:55 Mr. Tezuka
05:30 Mr. Tezuka leaves
07:06 NHK, in Jin Nan, Tokyo
07:30 TV Broadcast
08:20 Residence

August 28, 2012 (TUE)

AM
08:16 Office
08:26 Ministerial meeting
08:41 Ministerial Council on Monthly Economic Report and Other Relative Issues
09:02 Meeting adjourns
10:02 Mr. Koshiishi, Secretary General of DPJ
10:57 Mr. Nakagawa, Minister of Disaster Prevention
11:30 Ms. Maya Yamazaki, DPJ Lower House member, representative of Female Diet Members’ Network for protecting Children’s Future; and Mr. Honda, Special Advisor for PM
11:55 Residence; Lunch with Mr. Yosano, Former Minsiter of Economy, Trade, and Industry; Mr. Fujii, DPJ Tax Research Council Chief; and Mr. Keisuke Tsumura, Lower House member

PM
12:51 Parliament
12:53 Ms. Makiko Tanaka, DPJ Lower House member
12:55 Mr. Higashi, New Komei Party Vice President
01:01 Lower House Plenary Session
01:54 Office
04:26 Mr. Tanaka, DPJ Vice President
04:54 Mr. Sasae, Administrative Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs; and Mr. Sugiyama, Director General of Asia Pacific Bureau
05:30 Receives a Proposal from the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) JAPAN; Mr. Yoshinori Komamura, Japanese Representative for ABAC and Vice President of Komatsu
05:44 Mr. Fukano, Director-General of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency; and Mr. Yonemura, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary for Crisis Management
06:20 Mr. Tezuka
07:02 Dinner with Mr. Hiroki Hanasaki and Mr. Makoto Yamazaki, DPJ Lower House members; and Mr. Tezuka
09:15 Office

August 29, 2012 (WED)

AM
09:45 Office
10:15 Mr. Azumi, Minister of Finance; and Mr. Kinoshita, Director General of Budget Bureau, Ministry of Finance
11:00 Courtesy call from Mr. Djoko Suyanto, Minister for Lega, Political, and Security Affairs
11:23 Meeting ends

PM
02:57 Parliament
03:00 Mr. Koshiishi; and Mr. Tarutoko, Acting DPJ Secretary General; Mr. Takagi, Chair of Election Affairs Council
03:51 Office
04:51 Parliament
05:01 Upper House Plenary Session
05:14 Leave in the middle
05:17 Office
05:20 Mr. Tezuka
05:56 Parliament
06:02 Upper House Plenary Session
07:08 Residence

August 30, 2012 (THU)

AM
09:33 Office
09:50 Mr. Saito, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary
10:18 Mr. Saito leaves
10:57 Mr. Jojima, DPJ Parliamentary Affairs Council Chief
11:27 Mr. Taketoshi, Deputy Cabinet Secretary
11:38 Mr. Taketoshi leaves

PM
02:00 Mr. Yukito Minowa, Fuji TV Broadcasting Bureau Chief
02:07 Mr. Minowa leaves
03:16 Mr. Furukawa, Minister of State for National Policy
03:21 Mr. Ogushi, Parliamentary Secretary of Cabinet Office, joins
03:39 Both leave
04:43 Mr. Gemba, Mr. Sasae, and Mr. Nagashima
04:56 Mr. Nagashima leaves
05:09 Mr. Gemba and Mr. Sasae leave
05:11 The Forum for Consultations between the National and Regional Governments
05:20 Mr. Tezuka
05:46 Mr. Yoko Hashimoto, Representative of International Women’s Year Liaison Group; and Ms. Tomiko Okazaki, DPJ Upper House member
06:01 Mr. Kitamura, Head of Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office
06:58 Residence

August 31, 2012 (FRI)

AM
07:54 Office
08:02 Ministerial meeting on budget formulation
08:15 Ministerial meeting
08:44 Mr. Okada, Deputy Prime Minister
09:07 Mr. Okada leaves
10:30 Mr. Kitamura, Head of Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office
11:00 Mr. Yoshiaki Takagi, DPJ Lower House member and representative of Basic Act on Ocean Policy Study Group
11:15 Mr. Okada; Mr. Ogushi, Parliamentary Secretary of Cabinet Office; Mr. Katori, Director-General for Policy Planning, Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare
11:21 All leave

PM
03:00 Mr. Sugiyama, Director-General of Asia Pacific Bureau, MoFA
03:52 Mr. Nagashima, Special Advisor for PM
04:06 Mr. Tezuka
05:12 Funeral
05:41 Office
06:23 Residence

September 1, 2012 (SAT) *Disaster Prevention Day training and ceremony

AM
07:21 Office
08:00 Mr. Okada; Mr. Fujimura; Mr. Nakagawa, Minister of Disaster Prevention
08:10 Ad-hoc ministerial meeting for comprehensive disaster prevention drills
08:13 Emergency Disaster Response Headquarters meeting
08:50 Press conference
09:05 Second meeting of Emergency Disaster Response Headquarters
09:32 Meeting ends
10:08 Front yard at the Diet
10:10 Leave the Diet on SDF Helicopter
10:21 Arrive at Yokohama Marine Disaster Prevention Base
10:24 Observe the special service vessel The Hashidate of the Maritime Self-Defense Force (MSDF); Mr. Kawabata, Minister of Internal Affairs; Mr. Hata, Minister of Land, Infrastructure, and Transportation; Mr. Morimoto, Minister of Defense; and Mr. Nakagawa, Minister of Disaster Prevention
10:32 Leave the base on the special service vessel;
10:55 Arrive at the training center; Governor Yuji Kuroiwa of Kanagawa Prefecture and Mayor Fumiko Yokohama of Yokohama greet; observe the training
11:35 Press interview

PM
12:00 Deliver an address at the training closing ceremony
12:24 Yokohama Disaster Prevention Base Heliport
12:26 Leave the base on SDF helicopter
12:38 Office
01:13 Aoyama Funeral Home; Farewell ceremony for late Yoshiji Miyata, the Second Director of Matsushita School for Politics and Management
01:40 Residence

September 2, 2012 (SUN)

AM
Residence

PM
01:54 Attend “Rescue all the abductees! National Grand Assembly”; gave remarks
02:44 Residence
05:16 Mr. Fujimura
05:51 Mr. Edano, Minister of Economy, Trade, and Industry; Mr. Hosono, Minister of Environment; Mr. Furukawa, Minister of National Strategy; Mr. Saito, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary; and Mr. Takahara, Director-General, Agency for Natural resources and Energy
06:24 All leave
06:25 Mr. Okada and Mr. Azumi
06:59 Both leave
07:03 Study group on energy policy
09:02 Study group ends
09:04 Mr. Gemba, Mr. Edano, and Mr. Furukawa
09:36 All leave

Next Week in Washington

MEMORIALIZING THE PAST: THE ROLE OF NON-GOVERNMENTAL ACTORS IN GERMAN-POLISH AND JAPANESE-SOUTH KOREAN RECONCILIATION. 9/24, Noon-1:30pm, Washington, DC. Sponsor: American Institute for Contemporary German Studies (AICGS). Speakers: Dr. Seunghoon Heo, JSPS Research Fellow, Aston University and UN Universiy’s Institute for Sustainability and Peace; Alexander Wochnik, PhD candidate, Aston University. 

2012 NATIONAL SURVEY OF ASIAN AMERICANS AND PACIFIC ISLANDERS: PUBLIC OPINION OF A GROWING ELECTORATE. 9/25, 1:00-2:00pm, Washington, DC. Sponsor: Wilson Center, Asia Program. Speakers: The Honorable Norman Y. Mineta, former Congressman and Cabinet member under two administrations; Karthick Ramakrishnan, director of the National Asian American Survey and associate professor at UC-Riverside; Deepa Iyer, chair of National Council of Asian Pacific Americans (NCAPA) and executive director of South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT); Mee Moua, president of Asian American Justice Center (AAJC); Miriam Yeung, executive director of the National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum (NAPAWF); Taeku Lee, professor and chair of political science at UC-Berkeley. 

MYANMAR CONFERENCE. 9/25, 8:30am-4:30pm, Washingon, DC. Sponsor: CSIS. Speakers: Sen. Jim Webb, Chair, Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific, Senate Foreign Relations Committee; Michael Schiffer, Professional Senate Staff, Senate Foreign Relations Committee; David Steinberg, Georgetown University; David Dapice, Professor of economics, Tufts University and Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University; Serge Pun, Chairman, Serge Pun & Associates; Elizabeth Hernandez, Vice President, Government Affairs for Asia Pacific and Japan for Hewlett-Packard Asia Pacific Pte Ltd.; Shigehiro Tanaka, Japanese representative of Senior Economic Official Meeting for East Asia Summit, METI; The Hon. Derek Mitchell, United States Ambassador to the Union of Burma [Myanmar]; Nisha Biswal, Assistant Administrator for Asia, U.S. Agency for International Development; Stephen Groff, Vice-President of Operations, Asian Development Bank; Christopher Herink, National Director, World Vision Myanmar; Thomas Dillon, Senior Vice President, World Wildlife Fund.

CONCEPTUALIZING FUTURE UNITED STATES-CHINA RELATIONS. 9/25, 10:00am-Noon, Washington, DC. Sponsor: John L. Thornton China Center, Brookings; Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies (CNAPS). Speakers: Professor David Shambaugh, George Washington University, Nonresident senior fellow, Brookings, editor, Tangled Titans; Ashley J. Tellis, Carnegie, co-author, Tangled Titans, Harry Harding, University of Virginia, co-author, Tangled Titans, Jonathan Pollack, senior fellow, John L. Thornton China Center, Brookings.

U.S.-CHINA RELATIONS AND THE 18TH PARTY CONGRESS: UNCERTAINTY AMIDST POLITICAL TRANSITION. 9/26, 8:30-10:00am, Washington, DC. Sponsor: CSIS, Freeman Chair in China Studies. Speakers: The Honorable Richard L. Armitage, Former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State; Ambassador J. Stapleton Roy Director of the Kissinger Institute on China and the United States, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars; Christopher K. Johnson, Senior Advisor and Freeman Chair in China Studies, CSIS.

CHINA’S ECONOMIC SLOWDOWN AND ITS POLICY IMPLICATIONS. 9/27, Noon-2:00pm, Lunch, Washington, DC. Sponsor: Carnegie Asia Program. Speakers: Stephen Roach, senior fellow, Jackson Institute of Global Affairs, Yale, senior lecturer, Yale School of Management; Markus Rodlauer, deputy director, Asia and Pacific Department, IMF. 

Prime Minister of Japan's Schedule August 20-26

August 20, 2012 (MON) 

AM
09:30 Office

PM
12:02 Government-DPJ Top executive meeting
01:57 The meeting ends
02:10 Video message recording for APEC CEO Summit
02:21 Recording ends
03:14 Mr. Saito, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary
04:01 Mr. Kitamura, Head of Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office
04:30 Mr. Tezuka, Special Advisor for PM
05:27 Ceremony to Present the Certificate of Honor to the Members of the Japanese National Team of the London 2012 Games of the XXX Olympiad
06:59 Dinner with Mr. Tezuka at a Chinese Restaurant Iwaen, Akasaka, Tokyo

August 21, 2012 (TUE) 

AM
09:26 Office
09:36 Ministerial meeting on the territorial issue of Takeshima
10:01 Ministerial meeting
10:16 Mr. Hirano, Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
10:20 Mr. Gemba, Minister of Foreign Affairs
10:23 Mr. Gemba leaves
11:49 Mr. Tatsuo Hirano, Minister for Reconstruction in the Response to the East Japan Earthquake; Mr. Fujimura, Chief Cabinet Secretary; Mr. Saito

PM
12:27 All leave
02:02 Mr. Kozo Watanabe, DPJ Lower House member; Other DPJ Diet members from Fukushima Prefecture; Mr. Saito attends; and Mr. Honda, Special Advisor for PM, attends
02:27 Mr. Edano, Minister of Economy, Trade, and Industry
02:43 Mr. Maehara, DPJ Policy Research Council Chief
03:04 Mr. Kanazawa, Administrative Vice Minister of Defense
03:33 Mr. Hosono, Minister of Environment; and Mr. Saito
04:01 Mr. Yonemura, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary for Crisis Management; and Mr. Kitamura
05:00 Mr. Tezuka
05:30 Mr. Tezuka leaves
06:03 Conversation with beat reporters
06:59 Residence

August 22, 2012 (WED)

AM
07:56 Mr. Tadashi Okamura, Chairman of the Japan Chamber of Commerce; Breakfast with Mr. Fujio Mitarai, President and CEO of Cannon; Mr. Jiro Ushio, Chairman of Ushio Inc.; Mr. Motoyuki Oka, Chairman of Sumitomo Corp; and Mr. Yoshihiko Miyauchi, President and CEO of Olix Group, at Hotel the Prince Park Tower Tokyo
09:26 Office
09:41 Mr. Taketoshi, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary
10:01 Mr. Saito
10:15 Mr. Ssato leaves

PM
12:03 Government-DPJ Top executive meeting
12:53 Meeting ends
02:01 Meets with Former Prime Minister Naoto Kan, anti-nuclear Citizens’ Groups and Others
02:31 Meeting ends
03:31 Mr. Tadashi Okamura, Chairman of the Japan Chamber of Commerce; and others
03:51 Mr. Okamura, leaves
04:52 Mr. Sasae, Administrative Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs
05:50 Mr. Tezuka
06:20 Mr. Tezuka leaves
06:57 Dinner with Mr. Yoshio Okubo, President of Nihon TV; and Mr. Azumi, Minister of Finance, at Japanese Restaurant Nadaman, in the Imperial Hotel
09:34 Residence

August 23, 2012 (THU) 

AM
09:32 Office
09:40 Mr. Saito; and Mr. Tezuka
11:09 Both leave

PM
12:51 Parliament
12:59 Lower House Budget Committee
05:49 Office
06:00 Mr. Tezuka
06:22 Ambassador Roos of the U.S.; Mr. Baucus, Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee; Mr. Fujimura, Chief Cabinet Secretary; Mr. Nagahama, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary; and Mr. Nagashima, Special Advisor for PM
06:35 Mr. Kitamura, Head of Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office
07:02 Residence
07:03 Mr. Kawabata, Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications; Mr. Hirano, Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology; and Mr. Nagahama
08:45 Mr. Hirano leaves
09:05 Mr. Kawabata; and Mr. Nagahama leave

August 24, 2012 (FRI)

AM
07:31 Mr. Nagahama; and Mr. Tezuka
08:16 Parliament
08:25 Ministerial meeting
08:36 Mr. Gemba; and Mr. Fujimura
08:46 Office
09:24 Parliament
09:42 Lower House Finance and Monetary committee
11:29 Office

PM
12:04 Parliament
12:12 Lower House Plenary Session
12:37 Office
12:40 Mr. Okada, Deputy Prime Minister
12:51 Parliament
01:00 Upper House Budget Committee
05:10 Office
05:22 Mr. Saito and Mr. Nagashima
06:00 Press conference
06:46 The Council on National Strategy and Policy Meeting
07:42 Residence

August 25, 2012 (SAT) 

AM
11:56 Lunch with Mr. Nobuaki Koga, President of Rengo(Federation of Labour Unions), at Japanese Restaurant Wadakura, at Palace Hotel Tokyo

PM
01:19 Residence

August 26, 2012 (SUN)

AM/PM
Residence

Korea-Japan Standoff: Why Americans Should Care

Korea and Japan have spiraled into their worst relations in decades over tensions surrounding a few rocky islets in the ocean between them. Koreans call the islands "Dokdo" and Japanese know them as "Takeshima." Politicians in both countries assure supporters that these barely inhabited spits of land will be defended as theirs at all costs, and the respective foreign ministries have announced multi-million dollar ad campaigns to further publicize their claims.

This territorial dispute has flared with regularity since the collapse of the Japanese empire in 1945; most recently in 2008 when Washington's Bureau of Geographic Names surprisingly altered the islands' legal status in such a manner that only President George W. Bush's intervention could return it to where it was: intentionally blank. During the most recent fracas, Washington has issued its more standard response that America wants our allies to work this out amongst themselves; last week at the APEC meeting in Vladivostok, Secretary of State Hilary Clinton further directed Seoul and Tokyo to "lower the temperature" (subtitles read: "Get your acts together; we have bigger problems").

North Korea's unknowns coupled with China's militarization would seem to demand greater American attention in Northeast Asia, yet the reality is that these rocks deserve our immediate attention. There are over 200 recognized territorial contests in the world; Korea and Japan's dispute is the only one that obligates United States military involvement on both sides to defend one country from the other in the awful event of hostilities, a predicament that returns us to Washington's insistence that the problem is not ours. A little honesty from Washington about America's historical involvement in the standoff would go a long way to detoxify its potential for violence.

The touchstone for today's disputes is the American-crafted Treaty of Peace with Japan, known as the San Francisco Treaty for the location of its signing on September 8, 1951. The treaty formally ended Japan's war against the Allies and the victors' occupation of the country. It also delineated Japan's new territorial limits, officially dismantling the once massive Empire of Great Japan. Strangely absent in the treaty, though, is mention of the islands now causing such a ruckus, a condition made all the clearer by inclusion of the Kurils, which Japan nonetheless continues to contest, too, even though their Yalta gift from Roosevelt to Stalin is long proven.

Almost as soon as General MacArthur's occupying forces moved into the region in September 1945 Japanese interests ranging from fishermen's cooperatives to nostalgic imperialists lobbied to hold onto whatever they could of Japan's vanished reach. The islands now in question appeared regularly in occupation memos and maps with voices arguing each side's claim; overall, American military maps located the islands within U.S. Korean command, while State Department officials quoted Japanese concerns back to Washington to placate local politicians working for them.

By the time the San Francisco Treaty came about a new war was on -- the Korean War -- and the islands by then had new value to American pilots for target practice, becoming vital to American pilots lightening their payloads while returning south from runs over North Korea. Naming Korea's sovereign control seemed without doubt -- the treaty lists Ulleungdo 47 nautical miles to the east as Korean (under its old French name, Dagelet) -- yet the final 1951 document would table ownership to accommodate another concern: what if northern forces grabbed the rock closest to Japan and the island fell into communist Korean hands?

Tabling sovereignty over these tiny rocks made sense to American planners at the time, yet the treaty's absence of named ownership -- and American determination to avoid the subject since -- has allowed a relatively manageable disagreement to become a truly volatile situation.

Japan maintains that Korea has "illegally occupied" the islands since 1952 when Koreans sent patrol units to guard a lighthouse there. Since 2004, Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs website has explained its rationale equally in Japanese, English and Korean, among other languages: the San Francisco Treaty does not specifically name the islands Korean, thus the Allies did not not name it Japan's. Koreans respond quizzically that such logic would grant Japan claim to all of Korea's 3,000 additional outer islands.

To some, this may be further example of outdated images of Asian diplomatic opera buffa. Matters could not be more different, which Japan's lengthy justification demonstrates. Tokyo claims that its right to sovereignty over the islands today -- prime fishing grounds for anyone who could get there long before Korea and Japan even had their contemporary names -- derive from a 1905 Japanese Cabinet decision that incorporated the islands into the nation's growing empire. Woefully missing is explanation that Japan was beginning to colonize all of Korea at the time. The islands disputed today are shards of that history's early moments; to make it into anything else simply denies Japan's takeover of Korea.

At the end of June this year, Seoul and Tokyo tabled a military intelligence sharing agreement that Washington desperately seeks less than an hour before it was to be signed; many American pundits looked confused and wondered openly why "they" can't get over "it"? The answer is straightforward: until Japan fully confronts the history of its empire and war in Asia without relying on white-washed phrases of "sorrow and regret," no politician in Korea or anywhere else in the region would be able to stay in office should he or she promote something so obviously evocative of past atrocities as a "joint military intelligence pact."

The United States did not colonize Korea in 1905, but Washington marched America right through the door of this history through involvement in the decolonization process. Honest dialogue about this known history would demonstrate that Washington's desired pivot toward Asia is for the peace and stability of the region and world. Seoul and Tokyo are our allied democracies in a region rife with competing claims to the future; the history wars about a bloody past have been on their streets for over a decade and have gained tremendous intensity through the territorial disputes. Both nations should stop playing with fire: brinksmanship only fuels reactionary response. Meanwhile, Tokyo discredits any claim to global leadership while it persists in imagining an empty past.


By Alexis Dudden, professor of history at the University of Connecticut and APP Member and author of Troubled Apologies Among Japan, Korea, and the United States.
This article was originally published in the Huffington Post 9/14/2012 5:37 pm

Prime Minister of Japan's Schedule August 13-19

August 13, 2012 (MON) O Bon Holiday

AM/PM
Residence

August 14, 2012 (TUE)  O Bon Holiday

AM
Residence

PM
04:52 Mr. Yonemura, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary for Crisis Management
05:24 Mr. Yonemura leaves

August 15, 2012 (WED) Anniversary of the end of the Pacific War

AM
11:22 Chidorigafuchi National Cemetary, Flower Tribute
11:30 Nippon Budokan
11:51 Memorial Ceremony for the War Dead

PM
01:07 Residence
01:33 Office
02:30 Mr. Azumi, Minister of Finance; Mr. Fujimura, Chief Cabinet Secretary; and Mr. Katsu, Administrative Vice Minister of Finance
03:19 Mr. Morimoto, Minister of Defense; Mr. Ihara, Director General of North America Bureau, MoFA; and Mr. Nishi, Director-General of the Bureau of Defense Policy, Ministry of Defense
03:24 Mr. Nagashima, Special Advisor for PM
04:12 All leave
04:13 Mr. Masatoshi Muto, Ambassador to South Korea; Mr. Sugiyama, Director-General of Asia-Pacific Bureau, MoFA; and Mr. Nagashima.
04:31 Mr. Nagashima leaves
04:38 All leave
04:40 Mr. Tezuka, Special Advisor for PM
05:00 Mr. Tezuka leaves
06:49 Residence

August 16, 2012 (THU)  O Bon Holiday

AM/PM
Residence

August 17, 2012 (FRI)

AM
09:31 Office
09:36 Mr. Edano, Minister of Economy, Trade, and Industry; Mr. Adachi, Administrative Vice Minister of Economy, Trade, and Industry; and Mr. Suzuki, Director General of Small and Medium Enterprise Agency
10:01 Ministerial meeting
10:22 Administrative Reform Headquarters
10:40Ministerial Council on the Case of the Illegal Landing on the Senkaku Islands
11:04 Mr. Toshihiro Ikeda, President of Japan Federation of Certified Tax Accountant's Associations; and Mr. Tatsumi Yamakawa, President of Japan Political Confederation of Accountants
11:21 Mr. Manago and Mr. Katsu, New and Old Adminsitrative Vice Minister of Finance; Mr. Furuya and Mr. Kawakita, New and Old Director-General of National Tax Administration Agency
11:28: All leave

PM
01:45 Mr. Tanaka, DPJ Vice President
02:29 Mr. Kitamura, Head of Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office
02:56 Mr. Furukawa, Minister of State for National Policy
03:36 Mr. Tezuka, Special Advisor for PM
04:03 Mr. Okada, Deputy Prime Minister
04:20 Mr. Muneo Suzuki, Former Lower House member and President of New Party Daichi/True Democrat; Mr. Tezuka attends
04:56 Both leave
05:31 Residence
05:32 Dinner with Mr. Okada, Deputy Prime Minister; Mr. Azumi, Minister of Finance; Ms. Komiyama, Minister of Health, Labour, and Welfare; and Mr. Shinichiro Furumoto, DPJ Secretary General of Tax Research Council
07:48 Dinner ends

August 18, 2012 (SAT) 

AM
Residence

PM
12:59 Haircut at Spa & Barber Carju Rajah Tiado at the Capitol Hotel Tokyu, Nagatacho
02:38 Residence

August 19, 2012 (SUN)

AM/PM
Residence