A Wine Tasting and Discussion About Japan meeting was held on October 14, 2015 as always at the representative’s home. The guests included House of Councilors Member Mr. Takumi Ihara, who served as the mayor of Shikokuchuo City for nine years before turning to national politics; freelance journalist Mr. Osamu Miyata, who holds significant clout in Mongolia; President and Executive Director of Evolable Asia Corp. Mr. Hideki Yoshimura, who at the ripe age of 33 created his own enterprise raking in 20 billion yen per year while attending the University of Tokyo, among other accomplishments; and General Manager of the Japan Branch Office of Mongolian Airlines Mr. Purevsuren Sodnomdorj, who commutes between six world capitols including Tokyo. They animatedly discussed various topics ranging from business to politics.

　Hoshino Resort plans to open the “Hoshinoya Tokyo” hot springs resort in Tokyo’s Otemachi area in 2016. Hot spring water is now flowing in the area after drilling 1,500 meters underground. As I have learned from personal experience digging for many hot springs in Tokyo, hot spring water can be found almost anywhere in Tokyo if one digs deep enough. This hot spring inn, which will be established in central Tokyo, will surely attract the attention of foreign tourists. Mongolian people love hot springs. More than 500 Mongolians stayed at the APA Hotel & Resort (Tokyo Bay Makuhari) in 2007 for Kyokushuzan’s retirement ceremony from sumo wrestling. During their stay, some Mongolian guests who were not accustomed to large public baths entered the water wearing their underwear. Now, instructions for how to enter the bath are being communicated, so this is no longer an issue. An APA Hotel with 1,000 rooms will be completed next to the Ryogoku Sumo Hall in 2018. There is no doubt that large numbers of sumo enthusiasts will stay there.
　In the preface of the representative’s recent writing, “Theories on Modern History” traditionally established theories on historical events are reexamined from a logical point of view. Readers are likely to walk away from this text with a different view on history. The text includes a description of the Nanjing Massacre that was fabricated by the Chinese government. It is possible that Chinese people will change their perception of this if they read a Chinese version of the next online. Until now, Japan has shied away from PR. In light of this, the delegate has recently been advocating for the Japanese government to make a contingent upon success contract with Jewish-American PR/marketing companies and spread the government’s opinions around the world. Japan’s foreign embassies are bad at making presentations in their various countries. This is likely because the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is a joke in the first place. The Japan Society for Textbook Reform and textbooks that do not include the falsified account of 300,000 deaths in the Nanjing Massacre in their contents are all the making of Jiyusha Inc. Other textbooks made by The Society for Textbook Improvement (an offshoot group of The Japan Society of Textbook Reform), such as Ikuhosha Publishing Inc., all include the Nanjing Massacre. The use of Jiyusha Inc. textbooks is quite low, and as a result of this Ikuhosha Publishing Inc. textbook use is increasing. In Ishikawa Prefecture’s Kanazawa, Komatsu, and Kaga, Ikuhosha Publishing Inc. textbooks are in use.

　With Masazumi Gotanda as its chairman, The Committee for the Promotion of Regulatory Reform of the Liberal Democratic Party, in which Takumi Ihara serves as the Deputy Secretary-General of the Executive Bureau, was formed under the supervision of the Headquarters for Japan’s Economic Revitalization, in which Tomomi Inada serves as the Chairperson. It has exhibited significant power such as abolishing The Central Union of Agricultural Cooperatives right to guidance and other reformations of agricultural cooperatives. Additionally, they have begun working on regulatory reform of lodging establishments, including the Hotel Industry Act. In particular, discussions are focused on work-sharing, private residences taking guests, and illegal share-houses. As a part of the Liberal Democratic Party’s Research Commission for the Promotion of Healthy Development of Youths activities, secret investigations were carried out on manga & Internet cafes, and the results showed that some places charge high school aged children a few ten thousand yen to use their facilities as a love-hotel for 30 minutes. Services that operate within the blind spots of the law must be regulated.
　In terms of the expenditures of members of the National Diet, one cannot make light of the amount of money members spend for a ticket to other Diet member’s fundraising parties. While some politicians such as former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori do not ask other politicians to purchase tickets to their parties at all, many Diet members do ask this of fellow members and collect funds from them. In 2001 when the Ehime Maru collided with an American nuclear submarine, Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, who was highly regarded by the people of Ehime Prefecture, held urgent talks with President Bush and received an apology for the incident. The people of Ehime were very grateful to him for this, but the fact that he continued playing golf at the time of the incident was viewed as an issue. After his statement about Japan being a “country of deities” in 2004, Prime Minister Mori was put in the hot seat by mass media. This case revealed that the media still applies self-imposed restrictions on “the divinity of Japan propaganda”, put into place by the Unites States during its occupation as Clause 17 of the press code. There are politicians that are easy to insult and there are those that are not. Tomomi Inada makes clear assertions and is very good at issuing a counter-attack. It is good for politicians to posses the strength to say what they must with force, such as the previous Governor of Tokyo Prefecture, Shintaro Ishihara. The representative has connections with a wide number of politicians, but most connections are formed without political contributions, but rather ideological solidarity.

　Prime Minister Abe disliked Democratic Party Diet member Kiyomi Tsujimoto’s questions so much that they haunted him in his dreams. When consulting a psychological counselor, he was admonished for damaging his health over someone he does not like, and he accepted this. After this, he stopped becoming distressed by Diet member Tsujimoto’s question. During committee voting on the US-Japan Security Treaty at the House of Councilors, Takumi Ihara received a blow while protecting the documents held by Chairman Konoike. The opposition party employed extremely shameful tactics, such as pretending to submit a written letter of demands to Chairman Konoike and then surrounding him and making a female Diet member wearing a pink headband yell “sexual harassment.” Majority rule is the appropriate way to make decisions in today’s parliamentary democratic Japan. During debates the minority party’s opinions should of course be respected, but abiding by minority opinions carries no reason. The final decision should be made in the National Diet by voting. To have the attitude that stopping the vote on a bill that one disagrees with is to disagree with democracy itself. Surely this has caused a major blow to the Democratic Party’s image.
　Prime Minister was reelected as president of the ruling party without a vote, and he should remain as such not just for three more years, but until the Tokyo Olympics. Former Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone of the Liberal Democratic Party also has extended his term of office as president of both houses of parliament. As these are internal party issues, extensions of terms should be allowed.
　Shigeru Ishiba, who is seen as some to be a possible successor post-Abe, has criticized Abe’s faction. He should have become the Secretary General, but while Abe was absent overseas Ishiba formed his own faction, spurring on a third recording of Abe’s cabinet, and getting the wheels of the government stuck in the mud with this incoherent activity.
　The Liberal Democratic Party’s stance on the IR (integrated resort) bill, commonly referred to as the Casino Bill, is known. Deliberation was continued during the meeting of the Diet that ended the other day, but Abe intends to approve the bill at the next meeting. Enthusiastic invitation of the bill is developing in Hokkaido, Yokohama, Osaka, and Sasebo. It is almost without a doubt that casinos will become a reality in Japan, however there are many issues that must be addressed such as how will the pachinko industry be treated, will there be an effect on Japanese hotels, and how will foreign investments in casinos be treated. Still, gambling is legal in more that 140 countries around the world. Amongst developed countries, Japan is one of the few countries in which it is illegal, and this causes underground gambling such as pachinko. Addiction counter measures are another big issue, which can be addressed by taking steps similar to Singapore, such as raising the entrance fee for domestic users, and denying entrance to users whose families have reported an addiction.

　Until recently, the common theory on the hotel business was that it really doesn’t make much money. APA Hotel is a type of miracle. In regional areas, love-hotels have a higher rate of operation, thus many hotels are beginning to convert to this type of business. This is really a question of how one feels about the dignity of their business. APA Hotel has become the top hotel in the industry through careful analysis of nightly rates by thinking about the average amount from one customer multiplied by the rate of operation. This is by no means an absolute focus on operation rate. 100% operation rate can be achieved right now by simply lowering the prices. Glamorous hotels such as the top three hotels in Tokyo must make money from not just hotel services; bust also food, drink, and banquets. Through this, the focus on superb hotel services can be lost. On the other hand, APA Hotel thoroughly considers how guests use their amenities, and puts effort into specialized amenities from room size to the location of light switches. As a hotel that seeks to sell not merely room space but a satisfying experience too, APA Hotel has free Wi-Fi and large 50-inch TVs on which BBC can be viewed for free, along with communal indoor and outdoor hot spring baths at its larger hotels.
　Mongolian Airlines offers 600,000 seats, and services up to 500,000 customers. Based out of the capitol city of Ulaanbaatar, the airlines flies regularly to Tokyo, Berlin, Moscow, Beijing, Hong Kong, and Seoul with its five Boeing 747 planes. The father of the General Manager of the Japan Branch Office Mr. Sodnomdorj was the final Minister of Agricultural and Forestry from Mongolia’s socialist days. The representative visited Mongolia while Enkhbayar served as prime minister. The representative was escorted by patrol cars from the airport to the prime minister’s residence to meet with him, and likewise has visited eighty-one other countries to meet with the top person. The time of departure is proportionate to the traveling distance. This foreign travel was no doubt a supporting factor in APA’s rush to the top. Currently, the number of APA Hotel APA cardholders is more than 9,860,000. Due to the requests of these members, APA Hotel is opening up locations throughout Japan. In terms of profitability, Tokyo is overwhelmingly better than regional locations, with one room in Tokyo raking in the same earnings as four in a smaller city. Additionally, APA Hotel is developing franchises, partner hotels, and buying up hotel building already in existence in regional areas. In Tokyo however, hotels are being built completely new and are directly managed by APA. The condition for choosing locations of APA Hotels is that they must be within three minutes of a train station. Inbound tourists are increasing in Tokyo and there is a shortage of hotel rooms, so there are currently days on end in which the hotels are completely sold out. There are currently four locations of APA Hotels in Tokyo. If one tells a taxi driver at Tokyo Station to take them to APA Hotel, there are multiple locations you could be taken to.
　Finally, the first overseas APA Hotel will open as a franchise near the Newark Liberty International Airport in the United States. It is located about twenty minutes from Manhattan, New York via the nearby Metropark train station. At the request of the owner, who owns about ten hotels, the hotel will change its name from Hilton Woodbridge Hotel to APA Hotel . Frankly speaking, with the Olympics drawing near, Japan offers more of a business chance than overseas ventures at the moment. Businesses that can launch themselves abroad can only do so because they are the best of the best in Japan. Just like APA Hotel, Starbucks and McDonalds became number one domestically before going abroad. This is the key to success.