CHRONOLOGY

MAY — JUNE 2009

MAY

3–5 Prime Minister Asô Tarô travels to the Czech Republic, where he meets with Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek ahead of the Japan-EU Summit in Prague. After the summit, Asô travels to Germany to meet with Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin.

8 Toyota Motor Corp. announces a consolidated loss of ¥46.1 billion for the fiscal year ending March 2009, its first loss in 71 years.

9 Three Osaka residents returning from a stay in Canada become the first in Japan to test positive for the H1N1 swine flu virus.

10 The Agency for Cultural Affairs announces plans to build a media arts center in Tokyo to showcase Japanese manga, anime, and gaming software.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin meets with Prime Minister Asô in Tokyo. The two leaders sign an agreement under which Japan will provide Russia with technical expertise on building nuclear power plants in exchange for enriched uranium.

11 Ozawa Ichirô resigns as president of the opposition Democratic Party of Japan in the wake of the arrest of a senior aide in March on suspicion of accepting illegal political contributions. On May 16, DPJ Secretary General Hatoyama Yukio is elected as his successor.

13 The Ministry of Finance releases preliminary balance of payments data for fiscal 2008. Japan’s current account surplus was down 50.2% from the year before, the largest drop since data became available in 1985.

15 The Japanese government decides to send ¥47 million in tents, sleeping mats, and other assistance-in-kind to Sri Lanka to aid those displaced by that country’s civil war.

Minister of Defense Hamada Yasukazu orders the dispatch of two P-3C patrol aircraft to participate in antipiracy activities in coastal waters near Somalia.

18 The results of a Yomiuri Shimbun public opinion survey are announced, showing approval of the Asô cabinet at 30%.

21 At the fifteenth International Conference on the Future of Asia, Prime Minister Asô announces that Japan will provide $67 billion in development assistance and other support for Asian countries with the aim of boosting the region’s economic output.

Japan’s lay judge system, under which citizen judges join professional judges in adjudicating serious crimes, goes into effect.

22–23 Prime Minister Asô and leaders from Pacific island countries attend the fifth Pacific Islands Leaders Meeting in Tomamu, Hokkaidô. Asô pledges ¥50 billion in aid to Pacific island countries over the next three years to address climate change and other challenges.

25 The Cabinet Office releases its monthly economic report for May, upgrading its overall assessment of current conditions and noting that the pace of the downturn has become moderate.

27 The United States announces the nomination of John V. Roos, a lawyer with close ties to President Barack Obama, as its next ambassador to Japan.

29 The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications announces that the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for April increased 0.2 points from the previous month to 5.0%. The number of unemployed people was up 25.8% from the same period last year. Data from the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare shows the average ratio of job openings to job seekers at 0.46, the lowest level in 10 years.

With unanimous support from the opposition-controlled House of Councillors, a law is passed in the Diet to create a new government agency tasked with overseeing consumer affairs.

The Liberal Democratic Party and New Kômeitô use their supermajority in the House of Representatives to enact a record ¥13.925 trillion supplementary budget for fiscal 2009 (April 2009 to March 2010).

30 Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko, Prime Minister Asô, and numerous foreign envoys are among the attendees at a ceremony to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the opening of the port of Yokohama.

JUNE

1 In an effort to curb the growing numbers and power of so-called hereditary politicians, the DPJ submits a bill to prevent close relatives of deceased or retired members of the National Diet from running for election in the same district. Also in May, a task force within the LDP, many of whose Diet members are themselves hereditary politicians, proposes adopting a rule against nominating such candidates, but sources within the party reveal on June 2 that the move will be postponed until after this year’s lower house election.

2 The Japanese government’s space development strategy headquarters overturns the previous national policy of strictly peaceful development to permit defensive military applications in outer space.

3 The Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare reports that Japan’s fertility rate (the average number of children born to a woman over her lifetime) rose for the third consecutive year in 2008 to 1.37.

4 Mitsubishi Motors begins mass production of its i-MiEV electric car at its Mizushima Plant in Kurashiki, Okayama Prefecture. The company plans to produce 2,000 vehicles in fiscal 2009 and 5,000 in fiscal 2010.

10 Prime Minister Asô unveils an ambitious plan to reduce Japan’s emissions of greenhouse gases by 15% of 2005 levels by 2020.

The Bank of Japan announces that its corporate goods price index for May fell 5.4% from the previous month to 103.0, the sharpest drop in 22 years, reflecting lower prices for oil and other resources.

The New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization, an independent administrative institution, unveils a joint project between Japan’s government, industry, and academia to develop next-generation batteries for hybrid and electric vehicles and homes.

11 According to revised preliminary estimates released by the Cabinet Office, Japan’s gross domestic product in the January–March quarter shrank at an annualized rate of 14.2% from the previous quarter, the fastest decline since 1955. GDP for fiscal 2008 contracted by 3.3%.

12 The Nikkei average of share prices on the Tokyo Stock Exchange closes at 10,135, the first time in eight months for it to end the trading day above the 10,000 mark.

Hatoyama Kunio resigns as minister of internal affairs and communications in opposition to the planned reappointment of Nishikawa Yoshifumi as president of Japan Post Holdings Co. Satô Tsutomu, chairman of the National Public Safety Commission, is named to replace him.

14 Kumagai Toshihito, a 31-year-old independent candidate backed by the DPJ, wins in the mayoral election for the city of Chiba, becoming Japan’s youngest mayor.

15 The results of an opinion poll conducted by Kyodo News show 38.5% of voters supporting the DPJ, compared with a record low 19.8% supporting the LDP. Support for the Asô cabinet declined 8.7 points from the previous month to 17.5%.

16 Japan imposes additional unilateral sanctions on North Korea, banning all exports to the country in response to its nuclear test in June.

The results of a Yomiuri Shimbun survey show that 22.9% of those polled approve and 67.8% disapprove of Prime Minister Asô’s cabinet.

17 The Cabinet Office issues its monthly economic report for June. It notes that while corporate profits and business sentiment are down and the unemployment situation is severe, exports and industrial production are up slightly and there are signs that the economy has bottomed out.

18 Prime Minister Asô meets with Philippine President Gloria Arroyo in Tokyo. The leaders discuss issues including the economic crisis, North Korea, and climate change.

The ruling coalition uses its supermajority in the lower house to pass an antipiracy bill rejected by the upper house. The new law permits the Self-Defense Forces to fire at suspected pirate ships that ignore warnings and to protect foreign vessels traveling in pirate-infested waters.

23 Prime Minister Asô convenes a meeting of the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy, at which the council finalizes its annual policy guidelines. The CEFP abandons the earlier goal of achieving a surplus in the primary balance by fiscal 2011 but adopts targets for lowering the ratio of long-term public debt to gross domestic product.

24 With broad support in both houses of the Diet, a revision to the law on child-care leave is enacted, giving parents of children under age 3 the option of working shorter hours and allowing parents of newborns to take leaves of up to 14 months from the date of birth.

Economic partnership agreements with Vietnam and Switzerland are approved in the upper house, bringing the number of countries and regions with which Japan has concluded EPAs to 11.

28 Prime Minister Asô meets with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak in Tokyo. The two leaders agree to strengthen joint efforts to counter North Korea’s nuclear program.

30 United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon arrives in Japan for a three-day official visit.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications reports that unemployment in May reached 5.2%, the highest level since September 2003.

The Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare announces that the seasonally adjusted ratio of job openings to seekers dropped 0.02 points from the previous month to 0.44, the lowest figure since 1963.

© 2009 Japan Echo Inc.