All Episodes
Previous Next
May 3, 2025 02:49-03:40 - CSPAN
50:56
Discussion on U.S.-Japan Relations
|

Speaker Time Text
unidentified
Sunday night at 8 p.m. Eastern on C-SPAN's QA.
You can listen to QA and all of our podcasts on the C-SPAN Now app or wherever you get your podcasts.
Next, a conversation with former Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs and current co-president of the Japan Innovation Party, Seiji Mayohara.
From the Center for Strategic International Studies, this is 50 Minutes.
First, let me say thank you all for coming.
I mean, this is Friday.
Nobody comes to anything in Friday nowadays, you know, except that Japanese are always so intellectually curious.
We're grateful to have the opportunity that you're all here.
Thank you.
And this is a real personal privilege.
I've had the privilege of knowing Maya Hara-sensei for, gosh, probably 20 years, you know.
And I am endlessly grateful to him for the time when he was in charge of transportation and he pushed to get Haneda made, you know, made the modern airport that it is now.
And I don't have to take three hours coming in from Narita any longer.
You know, it's just great.
You know, I love the fact that we can land in Haneda.
And so, Marahara-sensei, thank you for doing that.
And you were also instrumental in the turnaround for JAL.
And that was a very, very important thing, too.
So it's really been, you've had a wonderful career in public service.
This is a bit unusual, but not really unusual.
You know, CSIS is a bipartisan or non-partisan think tank.
We don't take sides.
Now, of course, most of our work is here in the U.S., and we don't take sides between Republicans and Democrats as a matter of policy.
I always tell people we start with the problem, not with the answer.
And most of the think tanks start with the answer.
We start with a problem, but we try to be very bipartisan.
And, you know, that's been challenging in Japan for the last 25 years because the LDP is such a dominant party, you know, that it's almost everybody that's been here for the last five years has been LDP, you know.
So I received a request from Mayahara-sensei that he would like to come.
And he's now the co-leader of the Japan Innovation Party.
And this is really interesting.
I mean, it has an unusual provenance, you know, because a lot of its provenance traces back to Osaka with a more local focus.
And now they are reconfiguring to have a more national agenda.
And I think that's something we should all hear.
Now, I've asked Maya Hara-sensei, don't make this political, you know.
Now, it's pretty hard not to be political when you're representing a party.
Okay, I understand that.
But share with us the vision of the party.
Share with us the philosophy of the party.
Tell us where you think Japan would be stronger as a nation going forward.
And I think that's going to be a real opportunity.
So I want to say thank you, Seiji.
Thank you for you've been a friend for 20 years.
You've been through several different parties along the journey.
But now you're with the Japan Innovation Party.
And I think that this will be an important opportunity for us to hear about your vision, your collective vision for the future of Japan.
So let me introduce to you Dr. Christy Govella.
She's the new Japan chair here at CSIS.
We're very lucky to have her.
Unfortunately, we have to share her with Oxford University because she continues to have a professorship at Oxford.
But we're getting the better share of that time.
And so, Christy, I want to say thank you.
Delighted that you're here.
Why don't you please come up and get this program started here?
Thank you all.
So we'll actually be starting out with some remarks from Maya Hara-Sensei.
But Dr. Hamry already gave a wonderful introduction.
So I'll just say the basic information that, of course, he is a member of the Japan Innovation Party, representing Kyoto's 2nd District in the House of Representatives, and he has been elected 10 times, during which he's held numerous roles, including Minister for Foreign Affairs.
So I'll go ahead and give the floor now to Maya Hara-Sensei.
Maya Hara- Good morning, everyone.
I'm Seiji Mayahara, co-chair of Nippo Shinokai, Japan Innovation Party of Japan.
First of all, I'd like to give thanks to Hamre, Dr. Hamre.
Thank you very much for providing this wonderful situation.
I have visited this institution several times, maybe over 10 times, but I'm permitted to make a speech only once, 20 years ago, when I was president of Chihuahua Democratic Party of Japan, 20 years ago.
So maybe next time, 20 years later.
Free to invite Feng if I still arrive.
Thank you very much.
So I'd like to introduce my delegation members first.
Mr. Sugimoto, our party is Director of International Bureau, House of Representatives Member.
And next, Mr. Mitake Hujita, a member of the House of Representatives, former Secretary General of Japan, our party.
Mr. Arik Saito, a member of the House of Representatives, Huromushiga Prefecture.
Thank you very much.
So today, I'd like to talk about the political movement which the Japan Innovation Party are undertaking and the challenges that both Japan and the United States share.
One afternoon, a man protesting in front of crowd on the street was asked to voluntarily accompany police officers to the station.
His dog had beaten an officer's leg.
Following this small incident, people began to gather in front of the police station.
A few hours later, news of police corruption broke, and by 8 p.m. the night, the crowd had turned into a mob, throwing stones at the station and setting cars on fire.
The riot gradually spread beyond the district.
Things finally calmed down only on the sixth day after the unrest began.
This riot in October 1990 occurred in Nishinari, a working-class district in Osaka, plagued by poverty, dampened crime like theft, drug dealing and violence, and deteriorating public safety.
Even afterward, Nishinari remained poor, burdened by an image of being dangerous to walk around in, left behind by the changing times.
The turning point came in 2012.
The mayor of Osaka, Toru Hashimoto, the founder of the Japan Innovation Party, decreed he would engage in positive discrimination and invested a significant amount of taxpayer money into the area.
Now, over a decade later, this district's safety has markedly improved.
Illegally, damped waste has been removed.
Walls and roads have been cleaned.
Illegal shops and drug dealers are gone.
Former homeless individuals now live in shelters.
And even hotels have been built.
We see a damaging cycle.
Economic disparity due to lower public safety, which in turn breeds more crime and poverty.
We also see the challenges of declining cities left behind as industries shift and other areas develop.
We are intimately familiar with such problems.
This is because our political party was established precisely so to solve these issues confronting cities and improve the lives of ordinary people.
The Japan Innovation Party is a reform-minded, conservative party that started as a regional party in Osaka, as Dr. Hamre mentioned.
We have 38 members in the House of Representatives, 18 in the House of Councillors, and over 700 local assembly members.
The top positions in both Osaka Prefecture and Osaka City are held by our party members, and we hold majorities in both assemblies.
Current leader of the Japan Innovation Party is Osaka Governor Humitake, which is the son.
In future, you are top of our party.
Now, Osaka Governor, Hirohumi Yoshimura.
That's right.
And I serve as leader of our parliamentary group.
The Japan Innovation Party has no supporting organizations.
We accept no corporate organizational donations whatsoever.
Therefore, we pride ourselves on being the only political party capable of carrying out reform without ties and bound by the interests of individual companies or specific groups like medical associations or labor unions.
However, while reformists leading the active executive branch and holding a majority in the legislature can solve urban problems, structurally transforming national level politics is an extremely difficult task.
Even from advocating for change, undoubtedly the legal systems, bureaucratic structures, and vested interests accumulated over long years of post-war peace and simplifying and rationalizing complex and bewildering system is incredibly challenging.
This is a common challenge faced by developed nations.
For example, our party is currently leading the debate in the diet on reforms to lower social insurance premiums.
The core of social insurance premiums is medical expenses.
In Japan, with its aging population, medical costs increase annually, now reaching approximately 47 trillion yen per year.
However, deduction of medical costs has been slow, not only because of double medical treatment and over medication due to the delay in digitalization, but also because of the situation in which drugs available at drugstores, such as cord medicine, stomach medicine,
and complex seeds are still available at 10% or 30% of the cost if prescribed by doctors.
While the digitalization of healthcare is gradually progressing, the adoption rate of electoral health records is still only about 50%.
Moreover, there is no nationally unified platform.
Each medical institution contracts with its own vendor.
Essentially, they are forced to introduce systems at dictated prices and pay high maintenance costs.
This is why it is sometimes called a catch-bar system.
There is no compatibility with other medical institutions.
Many silos have been created.
By tackling vested interests, we can reduce medical costs.
Furthermore, digitalization is lagging in national and local government administration as well.
Various tax notices such as automobile tax and health insurance premium payment slips are delivered to residents by mail.
Enormous costs for postage, outsourcing, and personnel are being wasted.
These expenses, which could be eliminated by digitizing and sending notices online, continue to be wasted.
No developed country experiencing aging has the capacity to continue paying for such waste.
Unless we rationalize the burden of insurance premiums on people, we cannot create a society where working people are rewarded.
Although, this issue should not inherently be an ideological point argued by a specific political party.
We believe the responsibility of existing political forces, we have averted their eyes for fear and backlash is heavy.
If fundamental reforms are not undertaken, the public will ultimately bear the cost of healthcare system corruption and at the point true populism will engulf Japan and other developed societies.
We are a party that prioritizes the economy for the sake of people, above all else, and advocates for reform.
Therefore, we don't present half-hearted reform proposal.
Right sharing, which is commonplace in the United States, has only just begun in Japan.
Our party is the only one submitting legislation for the full liberalization of right-sharing.
The Japan Innovation Party is committed to tackling various reforms such as streaming administration, deregulation, and reviewing the relationship between the national and local governments.
We aim to cut wasteful spending of tax money while pursuing and realize a growth strategy that leverages the power of the private sector.
The populism currently sweeping through developed nations claims there is a magic wand that solving one single thing will make all problems disappear.
In Japan, too, simplistic arguments like simply cutting taxes, slashing defense spending, or printing more money are gaining influence on the social media and the internet.
Our party doesn't ascribe to such magic wand hypothesis.
The proper path for politics is to raise wages, improve lives little by little, invest in human resources, and eliminate future anxieties through social security reform.
Speaking of investment in people, tuition-free education has long been a policy theme advocated by the Japan Innovation Party.
The Japan Innovation Party is supported in Osaka because successive governors and mayors like Toru Hashimoto and Ichiro Matsui carried out through administrative and fiscal reforms,
debuffed finances, and allocated the generated resources to necessary measures like tuition-free education, gaining the understanding of the prefecture and the city residents.
Incidentally, OSAC Prefecture was the first in the country to implement tuition-free high school and university education.
We are not simply aiming for small government or small administration.
We review budgets, cut waste, and implement necessary policies.
We will continue to practice these common sense principles.
Why do we pursue tuition-free education?
There are several reasons.
First, Japan's education budget is small, placing a heavy burden on parents and children.
Among the 38 OECD countries, Japan's public education expenditure as a percentage of nominal GDP is the second lowest.
The proportion of private expenditure in total education costs is extremely high at 63.4%, compared to the OECD average of 28.6%.
In Japan, education must be pursued largely at one's own expense.
Over the past 30 years, wages in Japan alone among developed countries have not risen, yet education costs continue to increase.
Furthermore, tuition-free education combined with appropriate competition policies can help rectify educational disparities.
The fast chosen by 18-year-olds significantly differs based on parental income regarding university enrollment.
About 62% of children from households with an annual income of 10 million yen or more go to university.
Whereas, for those with incomes below 4 million yen, the rate of is about 28%, more than double the difference.
Moreover, research shows a lifetime income gap of about 75 million yen between university graduates and non-graduates.
In all other words, the current reality of Japanese society is that parental income disparity in create sorry Japan society is that parental income disparity create income disparity among children through unequal educational opportunities.
A cycle and fixation of disparity are being generated.
We are not arguing that every child should go to university.
Our primary goal with tuition-free education is to create an environment where children who want to learn can do so equally, regardless of their parents' income.
By drawing out the potential of each individual, we aim to contribute to Japan's development by improving labor productivity and fostering innovation.
Nation building starts with people building is the fundamental principles of the Japan Innovation Party.
As I mentioned, appropriate competition policies, university reform is also urgent, difficult to enter, easy to graduate, is notoriously set of Japanese universities.
The university graduate graduation rate, the percentage of entrants who successfully graduate, is 90 in Japan, the highest in the OECD, compared to the OECD average of 68% and 53 in the United States.
Universities must be transformed into genuine phrases of learning.
While it may be common in the US, venture companies rarely emerge from Japanese universities.
The Japan Innovation Party wants to urge universities to change, positioning major universities as hubs for startups, generating new added values and employment and promoting social dynamics.
The common challenges facing Japan and the United States are not limited to domestic issues like the economy, social security, and education.
I feel that the very framework of the post-war order which has underpinned our peace and prosperity is now being challenged.
This is because the unity and cooperation of our alliance are being tested as we confront issues such as rights of China, which deployed wider while riding on the free trade system and the changing of status quo by force as seen in the war in Ukraine.
This year marks 80 years since the end of World War II.
Japan has respected values such as freedom, the rule of law, democracy, and fundamental human rights and has sought peace.
On the other hand, Japan is surrounded by countries like China, North Korea, and Russia, which possess nuclear weapons and don't hesitate to change the status quo by force,
enhancing our own defense capability and maintaining and strengthening the Alliance relationship based on the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty are vitally important, not only for protecting the Japan people and sovereignty, but also for maintaining peace and stability in Northeast Asia.
During the administration of Prime Minister Naoto Kam of the Democratic Party of Japan, an incident occurred where a Chinese fishing boat dammed a Japan Coastal Guard patrol vessel near the Senkak Island.
When I first met with Secretary of State Clinton in New York as Foreign Minister, I requested confirmation of the application of Article 5 of the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty, essentially the U.S. defense obligation to Japan.
Regarding Senkak Island, Secretary Clinton was the first at the ministerial level to affirm this.
Since then, successive U.S. Presidents have all clearly stated the applicability of Article 5 to the Senkak Islands.
I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to Secretary Clinton and the U.S. government.
It is clear that the United States has supported world peace and stability after World War II.
We understand that significant regional disparities have arisen due to changes in the industrial structure characteristic of developed countries and also due to the recent acceleration of industrial metabolism driven by the green economy.
The task of politics is to promote economic growth while ensuring distribution and to tackle challenges that the private sector cannot.
We are aware that devitarizing cities that have experienced decline and addressing the serious concerns and pains affecting people's lives are not problems that can be solved in a year or two.
However, President Trump's introduction of discipline tariffs undeniably contains elements that cause confusion.
We, the Japanese people, are also perplexed and concerned about the impact on the global economy and uncertainty it brings to business.
Recognizing that productionism and economic blocks were major causes of World War II, the possible global free trade system was established under U.S. leadership.
Through free trade, goods and services move freely, price fall, and consumers in every country have enjoyed the benefit.
Imposing high tariffs make goods harder to sell and lead to economic decision.
Particularly, if the world's two largest economies, the US and China, engage in a tariff war, it will have a significant negative impact on the global economy.
How can the U.S. trade deficit be reduced while upholding the principles of free trade?
How can U.S. manufacturing be divided and employment increased?
I believe there is a great significance in countries increasing foreign direct investment into the United States.
Regarding the Japan-U.S. trade deficit, I believe it's entirely possible to discuss this based on the trust between our two countries.
Specifically, I think there is room for discussion on Japanese automakers increasing local production in the US and Japan further increasing imports of American agriculture products.
Japan's post-war stability and prosperity were only possible under the international order supported by the United States, and we are prepared to uphold it.
Viewed from this perspective, I believe the current debate in our country surrounding defense burden sharing is insufficient.
A U.S. demand for increased cost sharing for US forces stationed in Japan is perceived by the Japanese public solely as unpleasant foreign pressure.
Rather, I feel the time has come to deconsider the astronomical disproportion of the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty.
Where the US bears the obligation to defend Japan and Japan bears the obligation to provide facilities and areas for US forces, President Trump argues it is unfair that only the US has a defense obligation towards Japan.
The Japanese government might counter.
No, no, under the security treaty, Japan has an obligation to provide facilities and areas to the U.S.
However, let's consider this perspective.
Besides Japan, the U.S. has defense treaties or agreements with South Korea, the Philippines, and NATO.
Among these, only Japan does not have a defense obligation towards the United States.
South Korea, the Philippines, and all NATO members' countries have defense obligations towards the U.S. If the U.S. were attacked by another country, Japan, along among its allies, could not contribute military.
Japan cannot come to the rescue.
But if Japan were attacked, would the American people, the U.S. Congress, truly decide to fulfill the defense obligation to Japan, even at the cost of American soldiers' lives?
I believe the time has come to shift from astromerical dispositions to scimitarical disprosity.
At the same time, we should review the facilities and areas used by US forces in Japan.
First, all facilities and areas should be transitioned to management by the self-defense forces with use by US forces.
Then, over time, while carefully assessing the strategic environment and under cross-coordination between Japan and the United States, we should proceed with the consideration and reduction of facilities and areas and the realignment of U.S. forces.
We should begin discussion towards devising the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty.
Transitioning the Japan-U.S. alliance from astronomerical dispositions to scimitarical disposition requires not only revising the security treaty, but also amending the Japan Constitution.
When the peace and security legislation was enacted, a change in constitutional interpretation made the exercise of collective self-defense partially possible.
But for Japan to achieve a defense obligation towards the United States, a constitutional amendment is necessary.
The Constitution of Japan is not an immutable text.
Moreover, the current constitution was promulgated on May 3, 1947, but the self-defense forces were established much later on July 1, 1954, seven years afterward.
The Constitution did not anticipate the existence of the Self-Defense Force, an actual force organization in Japan.
We must explicitly mention the self-defense force in the Constitution.
We must clearly state the right of self-defense, an inherent right of the state, whether individual or collective.
The Japan Innovation Party will actively work towards further evolving the Japan-U.S. Alliance relationship and amending the Japanese Constitution.
Finally, I'd like to conclude by quoting the famous words of the 35th President of the United States: Change is a law of life, and those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.
Precisely, because the Japan-U.S. Alliance is important, I argue that it should be changed in response to societal changes.
With that, I conclude my speech.
Thank you very much for listening.
Thank you so much, Mahogu-sensei, for those remarks.
Thank you very much.
I think you did an excellent job giving everyone a sense of what makes Nihoni Ishinokai's policies more distinct, especially with the domestic ideas as well as the ideas about reform and foreign policy.
You outlined some pretty dramatic proposals for revision of the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty as well as revision of the Constitution.
And you said that you feel like now is the time to reconsider those things.
How would you characterize the domestic debate in Japan right now?
These have often been controversial issues, but do you feel like something is changing that makes now the time to reconsider this?
I'd like to speak in Japanese.
As I mentioned during my speech, the Japanese Constitution was set forth about 80 years ago, so there has been no revision so far.
That's awesome.
I mentioned this during my speech: the existence of the Japan self-defense forces was not mentioned in the Constitution.
So, that means that Japan's defense was actually administered and also conducted by the United States.
The self-defense forces came into existence seven years afterwards.
So I just want to emphasize that the self-defense forces of Japan were not even in the assumption of the Japanese constitution.
I think this is a very important part of the country and I think it's important.
Thank you.
So, currently, both chambers have their own constitutional review councils, and then within those councils, they are now reviewing the process of how to change the constitution.
So, we'd like to take the lead in terms of revising the Japanese constitution as a party because we would like to build a good trust between Japan and the United States in terms of mutual security.
And then, with that kind of revision and also proper administration and also processes, I think we can achieve the true sense of reciprocity.
You also mentioned, of course, tariffs, which have been the subject of conversation everywhere for the last months.
Could you say a little bit more about what your view is of Minister Akazawa's visits to the U.S. and the ongoing negotiations between the U.S. and Japan?
So I don't know the exact content of the negotiations, so I cannot really mention anything in details.
However, I'd like to make a few comments.
So it is obvious that President Trump's announcement on tariffs, that caused much confusion in the world.
So with this current situation, it is very easy to expect or even predict that goods will be fewer and fewer, and also the prices will go up in the future.
And that means that our workers will have less work and also their wages will be limited as well.
And then when we look at the top number one and also top number two, our largest economies in the world, if we do not move or act right now, I think that the economy overall will be shrinking and also we'll see a recession sometime soon.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
So that means that it is better for us to have a solution sooner rather than later.
However, Japan has its own core interests and also some things are not negotiable from our perspective.
So, to say in an overall statement, or my comment is that these tariffs announced by the Trump administration are not fair at all.
So that means that these tariffs should be eliminated.
So I've been in Washington, D.C. and also the United States for a few days.
And also we've spoken to each other about this tariff situation.
Some people suggest that we should start from building blocks to achieve an overall agreement.
But in my opinion, the other way around is also can be successful as well.
Meaning that we should have an overarching agreement and then moving on to a smaller element or maybe sectoral Agreement.例えば経常収支.アメリカ側は貿易収支だけ言ってますけれども我々デジタル赤字を抱えてますのでこういったサービスも含めた経常収支を例えば10年後にどのような形にどのようなものにしていくとかあるいはアメリカに対する投資を10年間でどのぐらいやるとかそういったフレームワークを合意をしそのために努力をしていくためにいろんな分野で努力をしていくというそういった議論をやった方が私はより建設的ではないかというふうに思います。.
So, once again, in my opinion, agreeing on an overarching agreement first and also moving on to smaller elements as a second phase, I think that would be more constructive.
And And then also, the United States has been talking about its trade deficit, but I think that we can broaden that conversation to include ordinary balance as well, because Japan has so much deficit in a digital economy.
And then, also, we can talk about maybe the vision for 10 years' time: what kind of trade balance and also ordinary balance can be achieved between the two countries, and also how much of FDIs can be envisioned from Japan to the United States.
So, once again, this kind of starting with a framework as a first phase and also moving on to the second phase that can be constructive.
Thank you for sharing your perspective.
I know that many, many people in Japan and around the world are waiting to see how these negotiations will turn out since Japan is one of the very first countries to be engaging with the U.S.
So, unfortunately, we were out of time for our session today.
So, I want to thank both our in-person and virtual audience for joining us.
And please join me in thanking our speaker with a round of applause.
Today, the McCain Institute hosts its annual Sedona Forum.
This year, focusing on U.S. power through economic leadership, technological innovation, military strength, and cultural diplomacy.
Our coverage begins at 11:50 a.m. Eastern with a panel on the Russia-Ukraine war featuring Senator Amy Klobuchar.
Then, at 12:30 p.m., an intelligence conversation with the former Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence and Senator Mark Kelly.
Watch the live panel discussions beginning at 11:50 a.m. Eastern on C-SPAN.
C-SPAN Now, our free mobile app, or online at cspan.org.
C-SPAN.
Democracy Unfiltered.
We're funded by these television companies and more, including Sparklight.
What is great internet?
Is it strong?
Is it fast?
Is it reliable?
At Sparklight, we know connection goes way beyond technology.
From Monday morning meetings to Friday nights with friends and everything in between.
That the best connections are always there, right when you need them.
So, how do you know it's great internet?
▲
Export Selection