I spoke earlier today about Abe Shinzo running into trouble with LDP members of the Upper House; now the FT reports that a number of surveys by Japanese newspapers have shown substantial drops in Abe's popularity. Even Yomiuri -- the leading conservative daily -- registered a major fall in his public support.The article notes, "Survey …
Continue reading The 総理 (souri) goes slowly, and pays for it
Fresh off a bruising battle over the readmission of a dozen LDP postal rebels, Mr. Abe has apparently caused an uproar among the party's caucus in the Upper House of the Diet in suggesting that as the party's executive nominates candidates for the summer 2007 elections, some sitting LDP members could potentially find themselves replaced …
Reuters has a story today on Japan's booming "elderly services" industry. As I've written before in this space -- and noted in a number of conversations -- Japan may be poised to reap an enormous economic windfall not only from its own "greying," but from the greying of the world, include its soon-to-be-considerably-older neighbor, China.As …
Nikkei reports today on the results of the Japanese government's annual survey of public opinion on Japan's foreign relations. The results are not particularly surprising. Nikkei leads by reporting that the ratio of respondents (57%) who thought that Japanese-South Korean relations were bad was the highest since the survey began in 1986 -- this likely …
Jeane Kirkpatrick, US ambassador to the UN during Reagan's first term and AEI senior fellow before and after her service, died last week at the age of eighty.Having spoken with her at length on one occasion and seen her speak on a number of occasions (and having helped her down the stairs once when a …
The Japan Times on Sunday ran a long profile of the American-born wife of a local politician in Kyoto, which provides an excellent account of Japanese local electoral politics.It pretty much confirms what I've seen over the past month. Electoral politics at all levels are low-tech affairs, for the most part lacking TV or internet …
Following in the wake of last month's APEC summit in Hanoi, Asian leaders are gathering in Manila for the second annual East Asian Summit.Prime Minister Abe has departed, but he leaves behind a sticky political situation at home. He is facing declining popularity (his cabinet is polling below fifty percent for the first time since …
Nikkei's lead editorial today discusses a meeting this week between Prime Minister Abe and BOJ President Fukui.The meeting itself was uneventful, but Nikkei uses the occasion to warn of undue political pressure by the government on the BOJ in advance of the 2007 elections. It concludes with a call for the government to respect the …
Two recent articles provide an excellent look at the bundle of contradictions that is modern China.First, the Atlantic's James Fallows, currently residing in China, presents his "Four Cautions and Two Mysteries" about rapidly changing China. His look is largely limited to urban China, but it is still worthwhile, because Fallows also was on hand when …
Yomiuri reports today that the US and Japanese governments will likely convene a meeting of the Security Consultative Committee -- known as a 2 + 2 meeting, because it will consist of the foreign and defense ministers / secretaries of both countries -- in mid-January, following the elevation of the Japan Defense Agency (JDA) to …
Tobias S. Harris 