平成30年4月23日 = (30th Year of Heisei Era, 4th Month, 23rd Day)

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= This week’s poem:

It Happens

Rain falls
Wind blows
Mind wanders
I suppose
Light fades
Time flows
Can’t remember
So it goes
Tomorrow
Never knows…

{ From my Blog: https://carllafong.blogspot.jp }

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= 5 Things Going On Lately:

(1) U.S. Navy Adm. Philip Davidson, the nominee for the new head of the Pacific Command, indicated Tuesday (17 APR)hopes for greater contributions from Japan to regional security. “The U.S.-Japan alliance has served as the cornerstone of peace, prosperity and freedom in the Indo-Pacific region for over 70 years,” Davidson, commander of the Fleet Forces Command, told a hearing of the Senate Committee on Armed Services. He has been nominated for his new post to succeed Adm. Harry Harris. “Japan is carrying a fair share of the burden associated with the U.S. presence in Japan,” he said. “What is crucial to the alliance and the security of the Indo-Pacific is not so much that Japan increases the level of host-nation support contributions, but rather invests additional funds to increase their own services’ capacity and capability in the modern threat environment.” Davidson also expressed caution against the rapid modernization of Chinese military. “Current force structure and presence (of the Pacific Command) do not sufficiently counter the threats in the Indo-Pacific,” he said, calling for increasing forward-stationed forces in Asia. (Jiji Press)

* COMMENT: More forces forward (?) …. Challenge will be infrastructure (e.g., pier space for ships, ramp space for aircraft) …. In the case of Japan, growth in Okinawa is probably a non-starter.

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(2) Fighter jets took off from and landed on the Chinese military’s Liaoning aircraft carrier in the western Pacific on Friday (20 APR), Japan’s Defense Ministry has said. Japan confirmed Chinese aircraft’s flattop takeoffs and landings in the seas for the first time, although they had been observed in the South China Sea, the ministry said, adding it is vigilant more strongly than before against the Chinese military’s maritime expansion. The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force’s destroyer and a P-3C patrol plane spotted at around 10:30 a.m. on Friday seven Chinese warships, including the Liaoning and a missile destroyer, sailing east in waters some 350 kilometers south of the Okinawa Prefecture island of Yonaguni, the westernmost part of Japan, according to the ministry. At around 11 a.m., multiple jets took off from the aircraft carrier, after China issued a notice of conducting a drill in the waters. (Jiji Press)

* COMMENT: A visible reminder of the advent of China’s maritime power …. Reminds me of back in the Cold War 1980s, when the Soviet Pacific Fleet first started operating KIEV-class aircraft carriers in the Pacific …. Sort of a game-changer at the time.

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(3) Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo ABE is facing increasing hurdles to achieve his desire to put a revised constitution for Japan into force by 2020 as his public support has been eroded by a series of scandals involving his government. In a speech at a meeting of prefectural assembly members of his ruling Liberal Democratic Party, ABE reiterated his desire to revise the constitution’s war-renouncing Article 9 to clarify the constitutionality of the Self-Defense Forces (JSDF). According to participants to the closed-door meeting, ABE stressed his desire to correct school textbooks that describe the JSDF unconstitutional to make JSDF members proud of their jobs. But opposition lawmakers insist that Abe is not qualified to amend Article 9, questioning his ability to maintain civilian control of JSDF by citing problems such as the suspected cover-up of daily activity logs of troops sent to Iraq. Friday’s (20 APR) meeting was designed to provide fresh momentum to help ABE win a third term as LDP president in a party leadership election this autumn. The LDP’s leader is virtually assured of being prime minister because of the party’s parliamentary strength. (Jiji Press)

* COMMENT: I’ve avoided commentary on recent Japanese politics, but it seems pretty clear that the minority Opposition Parties are bound and determined to do anything to make Prime Minister ABE’s LDP-Komeito coalition government look bad & untrustworthy, and thereby turn public opinion against revising the Constitution.

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(4) Japan’s population fell for the seventh straight year in 2017, with the native population dropping at a record pace, while the influx of foreign residents forestalled an even steeper decline. The trend highlights a reality that few Japanese policymakers mention in public — that foreigners are rapidly emerging as a key component of Japan’s tight labor market. The number of Japanese fell by 372,000 to 124.64 million as of October, according to data released Friday by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. The drop was partly offset by an influx of foreign residents, whose number increased by 145,000 to 2.05 million as of October, as a serious labor shortage continued to push up demand for foreign workers. The figure has nearly doubled over the past 25 years, according to the Internal Affairs Ministry data. Given Japan’s low birthrate — annual births in 2016 fell below 1 million for the first time since the government began collecting data in 1899 — the decline in the native-born population is expected to accelerate. Japan’s working age population is now only 60% of the total, down 10 percentage points from 1992. While immigration remains broadly unpopular in Japan, policymakers are gradually expanding foreign participation in the labor market. Nikkei recently reported that the government is mulling a plan to allow foreign trainees to remain in the country for an additional five years. The new residency status will be introduced as early as April 2019. (NIKKEI news)

* COMMENT: Not sure how Japan is going to get out of this demographic fix …. Force people work longer and make more robots (?) …. More immigration seems inevitable …. How will the tightly-woven fabric of Japan’s society stretch to accomodate so many foreigners?

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(5) Japanese and Chinese ministers in charge of economic affairs have agreed to work together to develop infrastructure in third countries, based on an agreement reached by their leaders last year in a summit. Japanese Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Hiroshige Seko met on Sunday (15 APR) with Chinese Commerce Minister Zhong Shan, who is visiting Japan. On Monday, they are scheduled to attend the first high-level economic talks between the 2 countries in almost 8 years. Seko told Zhong that the development of economic ties is one of the most important foundations of the relationship between the 2 countries. He also said it is important to back up economic exchanges between their business communities through collaborations in a wide range of areas. Zhong responded that China’s gate of reform is not closing but keeps opening more, and that he wants to exchange opinions on how the 2 countries may cooperate further in the new era. The ministers agreed to develop businesses in third countries, as agreed between their leaders last November, and cooperate in developing infrastructure in those countries. They also agreed to discuss developing a framework for the 2 countries to cooperate in the service sector, including nursing and welfare — an area in which Japan has strengths, and China is seeing demand rapidly grow. (NHK)

* COMMENT: It took 8 years for this meeting to happen …. Sometimes things just move slowly in Northeast Asia.

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< << BONUS >>>

Honda Motor Co Ltd says that it will apply cryptographic technologies to its vehicles to be mass-produced in 2019 and later with the aim of preventing the vehicles from being hacked. Toyota Motor Corp will also start to apply cryptographic technologies to mass-produced cars in the same year. In view of the spread of “connected cars,” the two companies will develop measures against hacking, involving the entire auto industry in Japan. Honda will introduce its “Key Management Center,” which safely creates a cryptographic key to be used for communications among components such as a steering, brake, etc and transmits it to the factories of parts manufacturers. Its basic function seems to be the same as the technology to be used by Toyota. Honda started the development of the Key Management Center at the end of 2017 (about a year behind Toyota), aiming to complete it within 2018. The cryptographic key will be applied to ECUs (electronic control units) that control a steering, brakes, etc. As in the case of Toyota, a message authentication technology that is based on the “AES” block cipher and uses a common key cryptosystem method (CMAC) will be used for exchanging data among ECUs. The cryptographic key means a common key and can be embedded only in the authorized ECU, enabling to distinguish messages sent by people who do not have the common key. As a result, it becomes difficult for outsiders to send fake massages to the automotive LAN and remotely control the brakes and steering. (Nikkei Technology Online)

* COMMENT: Sounds like a good/smart thing to be doing …. But scary to think that it is required …. Can’t imagine what it would be like to get hacked while driving.

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< << EXTRA BONUS >>>

A research team including Japanese government-linked Riken and textile maker Toray Industries Inc. has developed a highly efficient ultrathin organic solar cell that can be ironed thanks to its heat resistance. The team aims to commercialize the solar cell, deemed promising as a power source for wearable device, in the early 2020s, members said. An article on the study was published online in the U.S. journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Monday (16 APR). The team, including Kenjiro Fukuda, senior researcher at Riken’s Center for Emergent Matter Science, developed new semiconducting polymer for a 3-micrometer-thick solar cell, making the cell workable even at 100 degrees Celsius. In addition, the new photovoltaic cell has a relatively good energy conversion efficiency of 10 pct for an organic solar cell. (Jiji Press)

* COMMENT: OK, so, solar-powered business suits? Where is this headed?