The Japanese Olympic Committee (JOC) has decided to move its executive board meetings completely behind closed doors after previously having opened them to the media. It plans to implement the decision next month.
The JOC's executive board comprises about 30 members, from various sporting organizations and elsewhere. At its helm is JOC President Yasuhiro Yamashita. The board is the committee's highest decision-making body, handling issues from measures to enhance athletes' performance to marketing. From its establishment in 1989, it had made its meetings open to reporters, with the exception of some meetings dealing with personnel and other such issues.
On the reason for shifting the meetings behind closed doors, Yamashita stated, "There are many things we can't say in a public forum, and so we can't engage in genuine debate."
The reasoning that executives can't express their true feelings because journalists are present is hard to comprehend. And even supposing it were true that refraining from making meetings public would enliven debate, the JOC needs to provide evidence.
Yamashita took over the role of JOC president in June this year from Tsunekazu Takeda, who is being investigated by French authorities over suspicions relating to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic bid. Expressing a desire to restore trust following domestic scandals in disciplines including wrestling and boxing, Yamashita had stated he wanted to work to fulfill "honorableness" in Japan's sporting world.
We would like the JOC president to consider just how those scandals began. The reason was that a lack of transparency in the internal management of sporting disciplines had gone unchallenged.
The Basic Act on Sports states that sport organizations are to endeavor to ensure transparency of management, among other efforts to boost governance. Standards that the Japan Sports Agency formulated in June for sporting bodies to follow similarly request that an appropriate amount of information be made public. A high level of transparency is thus demanded from the sporting world.
There are no laws stating that meetings of the executive board must be made public, but surely there are no reasons to remove from the public eye a forum to discuss what form the sporting world should have. The Japan Sports Association, which, like the JOC, has a governance role, has left its meetings open. The JOC, which receives subsidies from the government, is a body of a highly public nature. It is lamentable that the first step of reform for that body is to make its executive board meetings private.
Some sporting organizations still leave their executive board meetings open. Yet there are concerns that other sporting bodies under the guidance of the JOC will be influenced by its latest decision. We would like the JOC to be open, serving as a role model and engine for the Japanese sporting world.

Aug. 15 marks the 74th anniversary of the end of World War II, a day when people mourn those who died in the conflict, reflect on Japan's past and renew the country's determination not to wage war again.
This year, a serious disagreement with South Korea has complicated Japan's position, highlighting the difficulties involved in efforts to heal the wounds left by the conflict. It takes generations to mend relations between nations once war has come between them.
The United States and other Allied Powers that occupied Japan after the war initially took a punitive policy of demanding massive compensation from Japan in a bid to reduce its economic might to the minimum level. The Allied Powers took the measures in consideration for the feelings of countries that had been victims of Japan's wartime atrocities.
However, the outbreak of the Korean War and snowballing expenses from occupying the country forced the United States to change its policy. As Japan's strategic value grew because of Washington's engagement in the Cold War with the Soviet Union, it became beneficial to the United States for Japan to be allowed to become economically independent.
Under those circumstances, the Treaty of Peace with Japan, signed in September 1951, allowed it to provide services to countries it owed compensation to, which were favorable terms because they recognized that Tokyo had no capacity to pay such a huge amount of reparations.
By 1977, Japan had completely paid a total of $1.5 billion in compensation to Asian countries, which was not a small figure.
However, the payments ultimately helped Japanese companies to expand their business activities in Asia, because the government fulfilled its obligations to these countries by covering the costs in yen of Japanese products bought by recipients of Japan's reparations.
Some younger politicians today are under the impression that Tokyo has administered sufficient compensation for war damage under severe conditions. However, they do not fully understand that the peace treaty was lenient on Japan. Politicians must improve their grasp of history.
Japan also normalized its diplomatic relations with South Korea in line with the peace treaty, which required special arrangements for areas that had been under Japan's rule that were divided after the war.
It took 14 years for the two nations to finally sign the Treaty on Basic Relations between Japan and the Republic of Korea in 1965 because negotiations were deadlocked over the interpretation of Japan's colonial rule of the peninsula.
Although the treaty was effectively influenced by the United States, it was of great historical significance that Tokyo and Seoul reached a compromise from a broader perspective.
However, a ruling handed down by the South Korean Supreme Court in October 2018, ordering a Japanese company to compensate former South Korean workers for wartime forced labor, has shaken the foundation of the pact.
The two countries had taken the position that the issue was settled within the framework of the treaty. However, the Moon Jae-in administration's attempt to take advantage of the independence of its judicial branch to unilaterally change its position is extremely regrettable.
Still, it is not sufficient for Japan to simply criticize the Moon government for failing to take diplomatic measures to solve the problem. South Korea and China are both distinctive countries in Japan's modern history.
There were an estimated 700,000 Korean forced laborers and around 39,000 Chinese laborers who were forcibly taken to Japan during the war.
Chinese victims filed lawsuits against Japanese companies that forced them to work under harsh conditions. They reached settlements with Kajima Corp. in 2000, with Nishimatsu Construction Co. in 2009 and with Mitsubishi Material Corp. in 2016.
The moves are in sharp contrast to those with South Korea.
There are differences in the situations between South Korea and China. Beijing abandoned demands for wartime compensation under the 1972 bilateral joint communique, while Seoul received $300 million in grant aid from Tokyo under the bilateral agreement on the settlement of problems concerning the claims. Moreover, China was part of the Allied Powers while South Korea was not at war with Japan.
Still, concerns remain that Japan and South Korea will choose to clash head-on with each other and make it extremely difficult to settle their disputes over historical issues.
Politicians played a key role in settling the dispute over the Hanaoka incident in which forced laborers from China revolted against Kajima Corp. and were subsequently suppressed.
When then House of Representatives Speaker Takako Doi was consulted over the lawsuit on the case, she notified former Deputy Prime Minister Masaharu Gotoda about it, who reportedly persuaded former Kajima Chairman Rokuro Ishikawa to settle the suit.
Special legislation to pay condolence money to former servicemen and civilian employees of the Japanese military from the Korean Peninsula and Taiwan was enacted in May 2000 because of former Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiromu Nonaka's commitment to the issue.
Of 709 Japanese Diet members today, only 28, or less than 4%, were born before or during the war. The memory of the war is fading in the political community, but these senior legislators' efforts to settle challenges that are not covered by the treaty should not be forgotten.
Former career diplomat Takakazu Kuriyama, who served as vice minister for foreign affairs, underscored the need for both those responsible for war damage and its victims to make efforts to reconcile.
"People who caused damage to others and the victims need to have courage to seek reconciliation that transcends generational barriers. Those who caused damage must have the courage to squarely face the past and make efforts to reflect on what they did. Victims must have the courage to tell between past history and the present time and make efforts to forgive and accept the other side," he said in the Gaiko (diplomacy) Forum magazine.
The damage wrought by war is too great for the countries involved to deal with in a short time period. Japan should patiently settle problems caused by World War II little by little to solidify its foundation as a peaceful country.

More local governments across Japan are harnessing artificial intelligence (AI) systems in their operations.
With their machine learning capabilities, AIs can easily process large volumes of humdrum clerical work. Japan's local areas are dealing with population decline generally and a public administration staff shortage. We have high hopes for AI applications simply to ameliorate this problem through labor savings.
Providing citizens information on how to separate trash, over-the-counter public services, and public transport: these are just a few of the local services that have been considered for AI applications. The city of Takamatsu in western Japan prefecture of Kagawa, for example, is using AI to help evaluate parents' applications for one of the precious spaces in the city's day care facilities.
Evaluations are based on a point system that rates factors including the household's situation, and then ranks the applications in order of approval priority. This takes a lot of effort for human staff members, but according to the city the AI assigned to handle just part of the process managed to whip through a total of 600 hours of work for four people in less than a minute.
Meanwhile, the Minato Ward in Tokyo is using AIs to run English-speaking chat bots to handle service inquiries by foreigners, and to keep ward assembly meeting minutes, among other applications. It is also set to introduce an AI system to help with child care space application processing, just as Takamatsu is doing.
Prefectural and municipal governments have been cutting positions, but have been dogged by a lack of employees nonetheless. The sinking population has only exacerbated the problem, and so people are looking enthusiastically to AI as a solution.
However, it should be understood that the point of applying AI to government administration -- which focuses on serving citizens -- will naturally differ from applications in business -- which prizes management efficiency and profit-generation.
For example, checking and approving child care space applications is a sensitive task, and so it is very important for municipalities looking to use AI in the process to test the system to make sure it produces the same results as all-human evaluation teams. Even then, they must verify the AI's processes and carefully explain them to the public to make sure that there are no "black box" elements to the decision-making.
We must not forget that implementing AI should be for improving resident services. Unless AIs are used to relieve local government staff of simple administrative duties so they can use their time for more creative work or community outreach, then the technology will simply become a staff-cutting tool.
Furthermore, implementing AI systems is an expensive undertaking. That being the case, there is a risk an uptake gap will develop between rich local governments and more fiscally fragile towns and villages. Automating services will also require solutions to a number of issues, including how to handle personal information.
In the near future, it may become necessary to sort out what local administrative duties can be done by AIs and which need a human touch. This will be a major theme in how local governments evolve going forward. We hope they do not fall into the trap of prizing efficiency above all else.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev visited Etorofu Island, one of the four Japanese islands controlled by Russia, last week as it continues to provoke Japan over the dispute. Earlier this week, Russian forces held live-fire drills near Kunashiri, another of the islands that form the Northern Territories off Japan's northernmost prefecture of Hokkaido.
Medvedev insists the islands belong to Russia. The drills are reportedly part of military exercises in Sakhalin. By taking such provocative acts on Etorofu and Kunashiri, Moscow obviously aims to assert that the country has sovereignty over the two islands.
The Japanese government lodged a protest with Russia saying that such actions are "unacceptable." A Japan-Russian foreign ministerial meeting that was to be held in Bangkok was consequently cancelled.
Tokyo and Moscow have held consultations based on a framework for negotiations on the settlement of the territorial dispute and the signing of a peace treaty, If Medvedev visited Etorofu Island amid such consultations without considering the other party's position, it would constitute betrayal of Japan's trust in Russia. The visit has only made bilateral negotiations more difficult.
Medvedev is said to have visited Etorofu partly for the purpose of supporting a ruling party candidate in the Sakhalin gubernatorial election. The approval rating for the government of President Vladimir Putin is low because of a prolonged economic slump. Under the circumstances, the prime minister obviously visited Etorofu to appeal to the Russian public.
At the same time, it is clear that Russia took advantage of Japan's weak-kneed response to the territorial issue to take such self-righteous acts. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been refraining from asserting Japan's long-held claim that the four islands -- Kunashiri, Etorofu, Shikotan and Habomai -- are "an inherent part of the territory of Japan."
Russia's strategy of using its claim to the four islands for a domestic election, while continuing talks with Japan over the issue, is problematic.
The tough stance that Russia has adopted recently is intolerable. It is particularly dangerous that Russia is heightening tensions by intensifying its military pressure.
In June, a Russian Air Force plane violated Japan's airspace for the first time in four years by flying over the Pacific Ocean from Okinawa to the Northern Territories. Another Russian military aircraft then flew over Takeshima, which is also claimed by South Korea, in July. It was reportedly part of the first joint military exercise between Russia and China.
These provocative acts have raised suspicions that Russia is trying to overturn the United States' military supremacy in Asia.
Russia is repeatedly trying to keep U.S. forces in Japan away from the Northern Territories during territorial talks with Tokyo obviously because Moscow wants to prevent the United States from wielding influence in the Far East.
Aug. 9 marks 74 years since Russia waged war against Japan at the end of World War II in 1945. Russia unilaterally nullified a bilateral neutrality pact, invaded the Northern Territories and occupied the islands after Japan's surrender.
Prime Minister Abe intends to visit Russia next month to hold talks with President Putin. The prime minister can hold constructive talks only if he cautions the president against Russia's provocations.

The main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDP) has proposed to form a parliamentary alliance with the Democratic Party for the People (DPFP) and the Reviewing Group on Social Security Policy, a group comprised of former Democratic Party (DP) legislators, in the House of Representatives.
The CDP will aim to join hands with other opposition parties in confronting the government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in an extraordinary Diet session in autumn and take over the reins of government through cooperation over policies such as the elimination of nuclear power and working together in the next lower house election.
However, CDP leader Yukio Edano had stuck to the party's own policy line and repeatedly denied that the party will join hands with any political force for the sole purpose of forming a large bloc in the legislature.
The CDP and the DPFP were formed after breaking away from the now-defunct DP, while the Reviewing Group on Social Security Policy comprises former DP legislators who joined neither the CDP nor the DPFP, including former Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda.
Questions have been raised over how the CDP will keep consistency between its latest proposal and its past refusal to form a parliamentary alliance with other opposition parties on the grounds that reintegration of former DP legislators into a single group would never win understanding from the public.
Edano has suggested that he is aiming for such an alliance for the sole purpose of confronting the huge ruling bloc. "I don't think our basic stance has changed. We've entered a phase in which such a struggle is necessary to counter the high-handedness of the ruling coalition," he said.
If so, the CDP should have taken action much earlier. The opposition camp failed to get to the bottom of favoritism scandals involving two school operators -- Moritomo Gakuen and Kake Educational Institution -- and the Finance Ministry's doctoring of documents on the heavily discounted sale of state-owned land to Moritomo during last year's regular Diet session, raising questions about the Diet's function of monitoring the executive branch.
Nevertheless, the CDP and the DPFP continued their tug-of-war over the initiative in the opposition camp during this year's ordinary Diet session. One cannot help but wonder whether Edano has reflected on such actions.
What Edano called a "phase" changed apparently in the July 2019 House of Councillors election. The CDP won 17 seats, six more seats than the DPFP but falling far short of the 57 garnered by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). Reiwa Shinsengumi, a political group led by actor and politician Taro Yamamoto, captured some of the votes from those critical of the Abe administration while the CDP and the DPFP were preoccupied with their conflict.
If the CDP's influence continues to decline, it could lead to the rise of Reiwa Shinsengumi in the next lower house race. Under such circumstances, the CDP appears to have hastily changed its policy in a bid to take the initiative in fielding joint candidates with other opposition parties in single-seat constituencies in the next lower chamber election.
The parliamentary bloc led by the CDP currently has just 70 seats in the lower house. A parliamentary alliance between the CDP, the DPFP and the Reviewing Group on Social Security Policy would have 117 seats, far from enough to counter the ruling bloc that has more than 300 seats.
Even though the entire opposition camp is supposed to seriously consider how to overcome the undesirable situation in the Diet, Edano has failed to provide a rational and convincing explanation of the party's latest proposal to the public.

Japan has been sweltering in a heat wave recently, with temperatures soaring to 35 degrees Celsius or higher in several areas. The Japan Meteorological Agency expects the hot weather to continue in extensive areas nationwide, and people need to remain on their guard against heatstroke.
With the exception of the Hokuriku region on the Sea of Japan coast, the rainy season finished later than normal across Japan this year, and so there was an extended period of cooler weather with fewer hours of sunshine, particularly in the Kanto-Koshin region including Tokyo.
The Mainichi Shimbun compiled data on heatstroke for July 31, when the rainy season had finished throughout Japan, excluding the northernmost prefecture of Hokkaido, which does not have a rainy season. Data for that day alone showed that at least 830 people in Tokyo and 17 other prefectures in eastern Japan came down with symptoms of heatstroke and were taken to hospital or received other such treatment.
Heatstroke occurs when the body's ability to adjust its temperature stops functioning properly as a result of the heat. People particularly need to be on guard when the temperature rises quickly before their bodies are used to it. This sudden rise in daily temperatures is apparently what caused many people to fall ill this year.
If a person starts having convulsions or feeling dizzy due to the heat, they should move to a cool place immediately. It is important to control the room temperature with an air conditioner, and for the person to protect themselves by replenishing their fluids in small, regular amounts, even if they aren't thirsty.
It is said the global warming is pushing up the average yearly temperature in Japan at a pace of 1.21 degrees Celsius every century. Hearing of "record" high temperatures is now common, and that trend probably won't change. It is important for each person to adopt preventive measures as part of their lifestyle.
Efforts to protect people from the heat in regional communities, workplaces and schools are also important.
Elderly people living alone face a high risk of succumbing to heatstroke, as they tend to not feel heat and thirst as easily as young people, and they can develop serious symptoms of heatstroke before they are fully aware of it. Neighbors need to check on each other on hot days, adopting a similar system to that employed during times of disaster.
Companies that allow people to work from home on extremely hot days have started to appear in Japan. It would be good if teleworking, in which people are not bound to certain times or locations, became more widespread as a measure against heatstroke.
After an incident in July last year in which a boy at an elementary school in the central Japan prefecture of Aichi died from heatstroke, elementary and junior high schools across the country have started to install air conditioners in classrooms. Some local bodies that were unable to install them in time for this summer took measures such as starting school summer vacation earlier. We hope to see action in the future that places top priority on children's health.
Over the four months from June last year, a total of 1,518 people across Japan died of heatstroke. People need to put their heads together more to reduce this large number of deaths, which is comparable to that of a major disaster.

The U.S. Federal Reserve on July 31 cut interest rates for the first time in 10 1/2 years. Based on past statements from the central bank's officials, this was a widely predicted move. Nevertheless, we have to say it is incomprehensible.
For one thing, the U.S economy remains robust. Furthermore, the Fed chair, Jerome Powell, said himself that the outlook for the U.S. economy remains "favorable." If that is the case, then why are interest rates being lowered?
The move is apparently a precautionary measure. The logic is that with the Fed's 2% inflation target not having been reached, the future of the world economy has become uncertain, so measures need to be taken quickly.
There are indeed moves among U.S. firms to hold back on capital investment, but the root of this is nothing more than the trade war started by U.S. President Donald Trump. If the United States truly wants to guarantee favorable economic conditions to continue, then it should immediately cease sanctions and pressure against its trading partners, including China.
Not only does the interest rate cut at this time come without a convincing argument, there are concerns that the move could destabilize the global economy, and we cannot help but be apprehensive.
Major monetary easing by leading world economies has continued since the global financial crisis sparked by the collapse of investment firm Lehman Brothers in 2008 -- the so-called "Lehman shock." This has resulted in excessive liquidity, and stock markets have heated up, particularly in the United States. The European Central Bank is expected to follow the Fed and resume monetary easing including interest rate cuts, adding further fuel to the markets.
An increase in asset prices will further widen the gap between haves and have-nots. If the economic bubble that recent moves are creating swells and bursts, then it could result in a global financial crisis and long-term stagnation.
In a news conference, Powell said that the Fed's move did not mark the beginning of a long series of rate cuts. After the announcement, investors sold stocks in disappointment, further increasing the pressure that President Trump had applied in pursuit of lower interest rates.
The Bank of Japan (BOJ) may now be left in a difficult position. The easing policy may be fraught with problems, but if the United States and Europe move in step, then the value of the yen could rise in foreign currency markets. The BOJ might also want to embark on yet more monetary easing to try to keep the yen low, but having already taken the nation's cheap money policy to the limit, it has no viable options left.
At the same time, if the central banks of the United States, Europe and emerging countries start competing in monetary easing to stop the appreciation of their currencies, which negatively impacts exports, then the economic bubble will only grow larger.
In order to avoid such a situation, Trump must end his trade war.

The deteriorating diplomatic relationship between Japan and South Korea has begun to have an impact on grassroots exchanges between the two countries.
The South Korean city of Busan announced that it would suspend administrative exchanges with Japan. Busan is located in the very south of the Korean Peninsula and has historically had very active exchanges with Japan. But it has said it will halt citizens' visits to Nagasaki Prefecture, with which it has had friendly relations, and other interactive programs until bilateral ties improve.
Furthermore, the city of Seosan in South Chungcheong Province, South Korea, notified its sister city in Japan -- Tenri, Nara Prefecture -- that it would temporarily stop its exchange programs. A soccer team and a choral group from the South Korean city of Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province, lodged a request to postpone their respective visits to the Gifu Prefecture city of Ogaki, both of which are part of youth exchange programs between the two countries.
According to the Council of Local Authorities for International Relations (CLAIR), 162 local governments in Japan and South Korea are in sister-city or friendship-city relationships. The number of sister cities and friendship cities that Japan has with South Korea is the third most it has with any country after the United States and China, and yet, exchange programs have been subjected to suspension one after another.
South Korea, which has decided to halt these exchange programs, sees Japan's beefed-up restrictions on exports as problematic. The city of Busan argued that it was keeping in step with the administration of South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who is demanding the retraction of the restrictive trade measures.
However, the point of sister cities is to further mutual understanding at the civic level regardless of what is happening at the government level. It is precisely at a time when tensions are high between the governments of the two countries that bilateral exchange at the grassroots level becomes important. The cancellation of exchange programs, therefore, comes as a great disappointment.
President Moon is enthusiastically advocating that the South Korean public come together as a whole against the export restriction issue. This attitude is indirectly nudging the suspension of civic exchange programs.
"Exchanges between local governments comprise the pillars of civic exchange, so we would like them to continue carrying them out responsibly," Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono has emphasized. But Japan appears to be doing little but silently observe the situation. It's merely sending a cool gaze at South Korea's handling of the situation against a backdrop of unforgiving public opinion.
As early as Aug. 2, the Cabinet of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe plans to approve a government ordinance revision that would remove South Korea from its "white list" of countries that enjoy an expedited export process. As Seoul has requested that the step not be taken, if Abe's Cabinet does indeed approve the move, South Korea's anti-Japanese sentiment is bound to grow even further.
Aug. 15, or National Liberation Day of Korea, on which the liberation of the Korean Peninsula from Japanese colonial rule is celebrated, is coming up. It is a time when nationalism on both the Japanese and South Korean sides can easily flare up.
When Japan and South Korea normalized diplomatic relations in 1965, the number of people going back and forth between the two countries was around 10,000. Last year, the number reached 10 million. Multilayered ties among everyday people from the two countries continue to expand. We must not allow this progress to reverse itself.

While the overall number of people in Japan who take their own lives is on a downward trend, the No. 1 cause of death among people in their teens to 30s is still suicide.
According to a 2019 white paper on suicide prevention, 20,840 people killed themselves in 2018 -- the ninth straight year of decline since 2010. Among members of the Group of Seven (G-7) developed countries, however, Japan is the only country where suicide is the No. 1 cause of death among people aged between 15 and 34. The report warns that suicide among the young is still in a serious state.
Problems involving school students, such as poor academic performances and concerns about career options and advancement to higher education, have been cited as the main cause and motive behind suicides among teenagers. On the other hand, many of those in their 20s to 30s who took their own lives had health problems. However, research that has been conducted thus far shows that multiple factors are intertwined behind suicide.
All the more for that, numerous local bodies are struggling to draw up and implement measures to prevent such deaths, including support for youth. Some local governments called for the establishment of an organization with which they could consult over specific countermeasures against suicide.
In response, a new body to be set up to take countermeasures against suicide is expected to play a key role in providing counseling to municipal and prefectural governments.
The group will be formed by reinforcing and reorganizing the Japan Support Center for Suicide Countermeasures (JSSC) of the National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry. The organization is expected to begin operations as early as fiscal 2020.
The JSSC was established under 2016 revisions to the Basic Act on Suicide Prevention. The center investigates and analyzes the actual situation involving suicide in each municipality and helps local bodies draw up countermeasures against people killing themselves as required by the legislation.
Out of reflection on inadequate responses to welfare, education and labor problems that tend to cause people to take their own lives, the JSSC's successor will appoint more experts who can deal with these problems. Opinions from citizens' organizations working to prevent suicide should be taken into consideration in working out more detailed countermeasures.
The new organization will not only investigate the situation concerning suicide in each municipality but also play a role of directly helping local governments implement measures to prevent such deaths.
Staffing scales and budgets for suicide preventive measures, as well as specific challenges, differ between local bodies. A gap has emerged between local governments over how far they have drawn up and implemented suicide countermeasures.
It is necessary for the new organization to give insightful advice to municipalities on specific measures they should take to respond to their own situations.

Fixating on one's own arguments will not help lead anyone toward a path of resolution.
At a World Trade Organization (WTO) General Council meeting convened to discuss Japan's imposition of restrictions on some key exports for South Korea's high-tech industry, the two countries exchanged bitter words.
South Korea criticized Japan for violating WTO rules by discriminating against a specific country based on a political issue such as compensation for wartime forced laborers. Japan, meanwhile, countered that the restrictions that it placed on exports to South Korea were unrelated to the forced labor issue, and were rather measures based on concerns over national security. However, Japan has yet to clarify what specifically it considers a national security-related problem.
The administrations of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korean President Moon Jae-in have both taken a hard-line stance, and probably feel they are unable to retreat at this point. If things continue in this manner, however, the dispute will only get worse.
As early as next month, Japan plans to remove South Korea from its "white list" of countries that enjoy an expedited shipment process. Currently, only three items, including materials necessary for manufacturing semiconductors, have been made ineligible for this expedited process. But the complete removal of South Korea from the list will mean that a wide range of items will no longer be eligible for the speedy process. There is no denying such a measure could negatively impact South Korean corporations.
The South Korean government has strongly objected to Japan's planned move, and has not ruled out the possibility of filing a lawsuit with the WTO. Anti-Japanese sentiment has spread at the civic level as well, in the form of boycotts of Japanese-made products.
A chain of retaliation, once begun, will only complicate a problem. No matter what is being disputed, there can be no diplomacy if the parties involved are not always searching for a way out. Japan and South Korea must reach a compromise through dialogue.
The international community's reaction to the bilateral row was the focus of attention at the WTO General Council meeting. But no countries aside from Japan and South Korea made any remarks, indicating they wished to distance themselves from the row. The current chair of the council, Thailand's Sunanta Kangvalkulkij, said she hoped the two countries would seek a cordial resolution to the problem, nudging them toward direct dialogue.
No matter how much the Japanese government denies it, its export restrictions are being viewed as retaliatory measures for the forced laborer issue. The apparent use of trade as a political tool is drawing criticism from South Korea.
Even when the relationship between Japan and South Korea has deteriorated politically due to differences in historical interpretation and other issues, close economic ties and civic exchange have provided a strong foundation for the two countries. It is the government's job to ensure that political issues do not affect the economy.
We would like South Korea to rethink their handling of the issue as well. Seoul has not responded to Tokyo's request for the establishment of an arbitration committee for the forced labor issue based on a 1965 bilateral agreement concerning the settlement of problems in regard to property and claims. If South Korea is going to demand that Japan comply with international laws such as WTO rules, then it should respond in kind with the forced labor issue.