As the year winds down and Japan's political establishment evaluates the first several months of the Abe Cabinet -- and wonders whether Abe will be able to bounce back in the new year -- several important dates have been set.The Diet's regular session will open on January 25th, and run through June 23rd, ending about …
Month: December 2006
Abe turns a corner?
After weeks of depressing news, has Prime Minister Abe Shinzo finally turned a corner and found a way to boost his sagging poll numbers?Two recent decisions in particular suggest this may be in the offing.First, Mr. Abe announced yesterday that the LDP would not accept campaign contributions from three major Japanese banks that had announced …
The cuts continue
No, not Japan's budget cuts, because, according to this article in the IHT, the government's draft budget shows that next year's budget will increase slightly.Rather, I'm referring to this other article in the IHT, which reports that Japan's defense budget will continue to carry the burden of budget cuts. Makes you wonder why people are …
Chinese Siberia
This piece in today's Japan Times by Cambridge's own David Wall spells out in detail the silent, slow-motion annexation of Pacific Russia by China.Russia is in quite a bind as far as the Russian Far East is concerned. As Wall points out, the region is being depopulated of Russians, and millions of Chinese are migrating …
"Jimintology"
The LDP -- 自由民主党 / 自民党 (jiyuuminshuto, abbreviated as jiminto) -- was formed out of an alliance between two rival parties in 1955, and throughout its history it has been a patchwork of factions, clubs, and policy tribes (zoku) and has encompassed a broad range of ideologies. For most of its history, factions have been …
From 庁 to 省 (From agency to ministry)
Aside from the highly controversial education reform bill, the special session of the Diet now concluding -- it was extended an extra four days -- also passed a bill elevating Japan's Defense Agency from an agency subordinate to the Cabinet to a ministry with full status equivalent to other government ministries.This reform has been in …
Bush, Sr. meets Abe
Former US President George H.W. Bush visited Japan on Saturday and met with Prime Minister Abe Shinzo (and, incidentally, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who was in Tokyo for meetings with Abe).I can't help but laugh at the symbolism of Abe meeting with George H.W. Bush, with whom I compared Abe in this post. Abe …
The government comes clean
One story that I've neglected to follow here is the ongoing scandal regarding allegations that the Abe and Koizumi governments had arranged "plants" to ask friendly questions at town hall meetings that were inaugurated in 2001. I held off on commenting because it was unclear how the 「やらせ問題」(yarase mondai, the "fake" problem) fit with the …
Matsuzaka is signed
So at the last minute, the Red Sox reached a deal with Seibu Lions pitcher Matsuzaka Daisuke (or rather, Scott Boras, his agent).Total price tag, including the posting fee? $103.11 million.There's no question that Matsuzaka is a phenomenal pitcher, but then you read an article such as this from the IHT, which includes the following …
Paulson’s long-anticipated journey
US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is in Beijing this week at the head of a mission that includes Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke.Will these talks achieve concrete results?I have my doubts, because I don't think talks of this nature can "resolve" long-term structural changes in the global economy. As noted in this article in the International …
Tobias S. Harris 