Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan defeated a no-confidence motion yesterday over his handling of Japan’s triple disasters, but the victory may be short-lived — he said he was willing to resign once the country’s recovery kicks in.
Buying himself some time and warding off a challenge that threatened to split his party and send Japan’s government into a deeper morass, Kan won by a margin of 293-152 in the 480-seat lower house of parliament.
Kan, in office just one year, had been criticized for not responding swiftly enough to the crisis caused by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that left more than 24,000 people dead or missing. The tsunami also crippled a nuclear power plant northeast of Tokyo, setting off radiation leaks and the evacuation of tens of thousands of people.
The disaster — believed to be the costliest in history — has been a huge drain on Japan’s economy. The head of the nuclear plant’s operator has already resigned in disgrace, largely over criticism that the plant was not adequately prepared for such a large tsunami.
Before yesterday’s parliamentary session, Kan urged lawmakers to let him stay on and push ahead with measures to bring the country through the crisis, but in a nod to his many critics, he acknowledged “shortcomings” and said he would consider stepping down after the recovery firms up.
“Once the post-quake reconstruction efforts are settled, I will pass on my responsibility to younger generations,” he said. “The nuclear crisis is ongoing, and I will make my utmost efforts to end the crisis and move forward with post-quake reconstruction works.”
Kan has been criticized for delays in the construction of temporary housing and a lack of transparency about evacuation information in the nuclear crisis. His government is also embroiled in a debate about compensation for victims.
Japan’s government has said the cost of the earthquake and tsunami could reach US$309 billion, with extensive damage to housing, roads, utilities and businesses. Japan’s ballooning debt is already twice the size of the country’s GDP.
Kan did not specify a date or say how he would determine that the recovery was on track. Opponents immediately slammed that, saying Japan cannot afford to have a lame duck administration.
“If you are going to quit, quit now,” Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) Secretary-General and lawmaker Tadamori Oshima told Kan over a chorus of cheers and jeers in the chamber.
The LDP introduced the no-confidence motion on Wednesday along with two other opposition groups.
Japanese media reported Kan could stay on for a few months.
“I don’t think it will be long,” said Yukio Hatoyama, a member of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) who preceded Kan as prime minister.
NO RECIPROCITY: Taipei has called for cross-strait group travel to resume fully, but Beijing is only allowing people from its Fujian Province to travel to Matsu, the MAC said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday criticized an announcement by the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism that it would lift a travel ban to Taiwan only for residents of China’s Fujian Province, saying that the policy does not meet the principles of reciprocity and openness. Chinese Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism Rao Quan (饒權) yesterday morning told a delegation of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers in a meeting in Beijing that the ministry would first allow Fujian residents to visit Lienchiang County (Matsu), adding that they would be able to travel to Taiwan proper directly once express ferry
FAST RELEASE: The council lauded the developer for completing model testing in only four days and releasing a commercial version for use by academia and industry The National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) yesterday released the latest artificial intelligence (AI) language model in traditional Chinese embedded with Taiwanese cultural values. The council launched the Trustworthy AI Dialogue Engine (TAIDE) program in April last year to develop and train traditional Chinese-language models based on LLaMA, the open-source AI language model released by Meta. The program aims to tackle the information bias that is often present in international large-scale language models and take Taiwanese culture and values into consideration, it said. Llama 3-TAIDE-LX-8B-Chat-Alpha1, released yesterday, is the latest large language model in traditional Chinese. It was trained based on Meta’s Llama-3-8B
STUMPED: KMT and TPP lawmakers approved a resolution to suspend the rate hike, which the government said was unavoidable in view of rising global energy costs The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday said it has a mandate to raise electricity prices as planned after the legislature passed a non-binding resolution along partisan lines to freeze rates. Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers proposed the resolution to suspend the price hike, which passed by a 59-50 vote. The Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) voted with the KMT. Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) of the KMT said the resolution is a mandate for the “immediate suspension of electricity price hikes” and for the Executive Yuan to review its energy policy and propose supplementary measures. A government-organized electricity price evaluation board in March
NOVEL METHODS: The PLA has adopted new approaches and recently conducted three combat readiness drills at night which included aircraft and ships, an official said Taiwan is monitoring China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) exercises for changes in their size or pattern as the nation prepares for president-elect William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday. Tsai made the comment at a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, in response to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ting-yu’s (王定宇) questions. China continues to employ a carrot-and-stick approach, in which it applies pressure with “gray zone” tactics, while attempting to entice Taiwanese with perks, Tsai said. These actions aim to help Beijing look like it has