As Japan faces serious domestic and diplomatic challenges, a 64-day extraordinary Diet session started Friday with Prime Minister Naoto Kan's policy speech. The speech drew particular public attention because it was his first policy speech following his re-election as head of the Democratic Party of Japan on Sept. 14, beating former DPJ Secretary General Ichiro Ozawa and thus securing his job.
He pointed out in his speech that, at home, Japan faces economic doldrums that have lasted 20 years, a high suicide rate, and poor progress from measures aimed at coping with the low birthrate and rapidly graying population.
In the row with China over the Sept. 8 arrest of a Chinese fishing boat captain following the fishing boat's collision with two Japan Coast Guard patrol boats inside Japanese territorial waters near the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, Japan demonstrated a lack of dexterity in handling the matter and was criticized for being weak-kneed to China.