Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba yesterday warned in his first policy speech that “today’s Ukraine could be tomorrow’s East Asia,” while also dubbing the nation’s low birthrate a “quiet emergency.”
“Many fear that today’s Ukraine could be tomorrow’s East Asia. Why did deterrence not work in Ukraine?” Ishiba told lawmakers.
“Combined with the situation in the Middle East, the international community is becoming increasingly divided and confrontational,” the 67-year-old former Japanese minister of defense said.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Ishiba made no direct reference to China, but his nation’s relations with Beijing have deteriorated as it asserts its military presence around disputed territories in the region. Of particular concern is Taiwan.
Japan has also irked China with plans for a major increase in defense spending and by boosting security ties with the US and its allies, including the Philippines and South Korea.
A Chinese military aircraft in August staged the first confirmed incursion by China into Japanese airspace, followed weeks later by a Japanese warship sailing through the Taiwan Strait for the first time.
Ishiba has backed the creation of a regional military alliance along the lines of NATO, saying on Tuesday that the security environment in Asia is “the most severe since the end of World War II.”
Japan, like many developed nations, is facing a looming demographic crisis as its population ages and the birthrate stays stubbornly low.
The nation has the world’s oldest population after Monaco, according to the World Bank.
Last year, its birthrate — the average number of children a woman is expected to have in her life — stood at 1.2, well below the 2.1 needed to maintain the population.
Ishiba yesterday called the birthrate situation a “quiet emergency,” adding that the government would promote measures to support families such as flexible working hours.
Kishida was unpopular with voters because of a string of scandals and inflation squeezing earnings in the world’s fourth-biggest economy.
Ishiba wants to boost incomes through a new monetary stimulus package, as well as support for local governments and low-income households.
Within this decade, he said he wants to hike the average ¥1,500 (US$10.26) per hour, up nearly 43 percent from ¥1,050.
The yen surged on Friday last week after the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) voted Ishiba its new leader, because he had broadly backed the Bank of Japan’s exit from its ultra-loose policies, but Ishiba late on Wednesday told reporters he did not think the environment was right for further interest rate hikes, sending the Japanese currency south.
Yesterday afternoon, US$1 bought ¥146.02, having slightly recovered from levels past ¥147 earlier this week.
Ishiba also weighed in on the dearth of eligible male heirs to the imperial throne.
Male-only succession rules mean the imperial family is facing extinction, with only one young heir: Emperor Naruhito’s 18-year-old nephew Prince Hisahito.
“Stable royal succession is extremely important. Stabilizing the number of members of the imperial family is a particularly urgent issue,” Ishiba told lawmakers, calling for a debate on the issue.
TYPHOON: The storm’s path indicates a high possibility of Krathon making landfall in Pingtung County, depending on when the storm turns north, the CWA said Typhoon Krathon is strengthening and is more likely to make landfall in Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said in a forecast released yesterday afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the CWA’s updated sea warning for Krathon showed that the storm was about 430km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point. It was moving in west-northwest at 9kph, with maximum sustained winds of 119kph and gusts of up to 155kph, CWA data showed. Krathon is expected to move further west before turning north tomorrow, CWA forecaster Wu Wan-hua (伍婉華) said. The CWA’s latest forecast and other countries’ projections of the storm’s path indicate a higher
SLOW-MOVING STORM: The typhoon has started moving north, but at a very slow pace, adding uncertainty to the extent of its impact on the nation Work and classes have been canceled across the nation today because of Typhoon Krathon, with residents in the south advised to brace for winds that could reach force 17 on the Beaufort scale as the Central Weather Administration (CWA) forecast that the storm would make landfall there. Force 17 wind with speeds of 56.1 to 61.2 meters per second, the highest number on the Beaufort scale, rarely occur and could cause serious damage. Krathon could be the second typhoon to land in southwestern Taiwan, following typhoon Elsie in 1996, CWA records showed. As of 8pm yesterday, the typhoon’s center was 180km
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