Diet showing admirable respect for diplomacy
It has long been accepted for the prime minister and other Cabinet members to cancel official visits to foreign nations because of Diet deliberation schedules. Japan's standing on the diplomatic stage is thus degraded, and national interests are negatively affected. Such a long-standing but wrongheaded custom must end now.
Ruling and opposition parties have agreed to allow Foreign Minister Takeaki Matsumoto to visit four nations during the Golden Week holiday period from late this month to early next month.
Some lawmakers had called for the planned visits by the foreign minister to be canceled as they coincide with scheduled Diet deliberations on a first supplementary budget. But it has been agreed that, when Matsumoto is absent on official foreign trips, state secretaries for foreign affairs may stand in for him in Diet deliberations.
We welcome the agreement.
The prime minister and all Cabinet members have customarily been required to attend the key opening and final question-and-answer sessions for budget deliberations in the Diet. But government leaders must not be insensitive to the negative effects that resulted from sticking to the old custom, which in effect made diplomacy take a backseat.
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The opposition is on board
The opposition Liberal Democratic Party and New Komeito backed the approval of the foreign minister's foreign trips this time, given their own bitter experience of having prime ministers and Cabinet minister restrained from foreign visits when they were in power. They deserve praise for their mature stance on the matter.
Taking advantage of the current agreement, the ruling and opposition parties should aim to establish new customary Diet procedures that would attach high importance to diplomacy.
Matsumoto is scheduled to leave Japan on Friday to meet U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other high-ranking officials in the United States. He then is expected to attend a foreign ministers meeting on nuclear disarmament in Germany and a follow-up meeting of the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) in Senegal. In Belgium, he will meet the European Union trade commissioner.
These are all related to important diplomatic issues. In addition, these occasions will be a good chance for Japan to show its determination to rebuild after the Great East Japan Earthquake and become actively committed to the international community.
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Intl N-fears must be quelled
A number of Japanese agricultural and industrial products have been subject to import restrictions imposed by some nations that are concerned about radioactive contamination. If Matsumoto had canceled his foreign trips, it might have sent the wrong message on the impact of the disaster and further fueled the spread of harmful rumors.
In the diplomatic world, a visit by a foreign minister is treated with much higher courtesy than a visit by a state secretary for foreign affairs. The ruling and opposition parties need to share the recognition that the nation's interests would certainly be damaged if such opportunities are discarded.
For example, Japan announced at the 2008 TICAD meeting in Yokohama that the nation would double assistance to African nations over five years and provide up to 4 billion dollars in loans. But this kind of thing alone could be viewed as so-called checkbook diplomacy.
The nation can build relationships of trust with more than 50 nations in Africa and ensure its voice is heard only by having the Japanese foreign minister attend a ministerial meeting of the forum held every year in Africa and making finely tuned follow-up measures.
In Africa, China is aggressively providing aid in a bid to secure resources there. If Japan fails to take effective measures, its own influence will only decline.
Top court strikes 3rd blow against mammonism
A corporate manager who worshipped the philosophy of "doing whatever it takes to make money" has been struck down three times by the courts.
The Supreme Court has rejected the appeal by Takafumi Horie, former president of Livedoor Co., against a high court ruling that sentenced him to two years and six months in prison. Horie was accused of making false accounting reports in violation of the former Securities and Exchange Law.
With the top court's rejection of his appeal, Horie will be convicted of the charges in line with the lower court ruling. Once a high-flying icon of the online business industry, Horie will soon be behind bars.
Horie sharply increased Livedoor's stock price in a short period by conducting large-scale share splitting. By abusing investment partnerships, Livedoor reported profits from the selling of its shares as "sales" instead of "capital" in accounting books to give the impression that the company was growing.
Disclosure of correct information by listed companies is indispensable for protecting investors and ensuring stock is traded fairly. The crime Horie was involved in was extremely malicious because it undermined the very foundation of these market norms.
We think it is natural that Horie received a prison sentence.
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Market norms belittled
Horie once boasted that "we can do anything unless it's banned by law." One key aspect of this case was that Horie took advantage of the fact there were no specific accounting rules that regulated investment partnerships.
The high court ruling upheld by the Supreme Court recognized the illegality of Horie's deeds and criticized him for "having little awareness of norms." This judicial judgment censured the worship of money.
In almost all past window-dressing cases, the perpetrators were given suspended prison sentences. For this reason, the defense for Horie argued--unsuccessfully--that imprisonment would be too heavy a punishment if he was found guilty.
Our response to that is punishments for accounting fraud in Japan are too light in the first place.
In the wake of the Livedoor case, the Financial Instruments and Exchange Law, including drastic revisions to the former Securities and Exchange Law, came into force in late September 2007. As a result, penalties for making false securities reports were toughened from up to five years in prison to up to 10 years in prison.
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Boost oversight ability
Japan must not leave itself open to criticism that it is an opaque society where illegal practices are not strictly punished. Corporate leaders should recognize anew that defrauding investors is a serious crime.
New types of illegal practices that exploit legal loopholes will doubtless emerge in securities markets in the future. The Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission and other oversight organizations will need to bolster their monitoring activities.
Some observers have pointed out there is a shortage of prosecutors versed in investigations into securities crime. To correct this, it is vital that prosecutorial authorities enhance their investigative abilities by hiring financing and accounting experts.
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