The big story, worldwide, out of Japan today was, of course, the assassination of Nagasaki Mayor Ito Itcho. (BBC; CNN; Yomiuri editorial)The suspected assassin, Shiroo Tetsuya, a local Yakuza boss, seems to have had no other motive than to avenge a trivial wrong.The coverage within Japan seems to hinge on the supposed threat to democracy …
Year: 2007
Japan’s own Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act
The Abe Cabinet, in the interest of promoting a more globalized and more competitive Japanese economy, has announced that it will seek to repeal Japan's equivalent to the US New Deal-era Glass-Steagall Act, which was repealed in the US in 1999 with the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Financial Services Modernization Act. (The FT's coverage can be read here.)The …
Demographics and political change
The Japan Times has a brief article about the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications' latest survey of Japan's population, conducted in October of last year.The survey found that Japan's population held steady at roughly 127 million people, but there was considerable change in the populations of Japan's prefectures, a continuation of the shift of …
Weird moment of the week
Seated next to Dr. NakaMats at a study group at the International House of Japan, I listened to researcher Watanabe Tsuneo -- not the onetime Yomiuri boss -- explain the meaning of "nappy-headed hos" in Japanese to an audience of businessmen and retired diplomats and politicians.Beat that, if you can.
Towards a trilateral mechanism
Robert Zoellick, former deputy secretary of state and architect of the Bush administration's "responsible stakeholder" approach to Sino-US relations, has an op-ed in the FT -- subscription required -- in which he calls for a new "Shanghai Communiqué."He wrote:Chinese leaders place value on determining the principles that should guide policy. That is sound logic. Yet …
Japan’s campaign trucks
Over at Japan Probe, James writes about Japan's ubiquitous -- during election season -- campaign sound trucks, about which I have a certain appreciation, having been on the working side of several election campaigns now. (See this post, for example.)As annoying as noise pollution is at 8:30am, foreigners resident in Japan must realize the severe …
Friction in the coalition?
The Mainichi Shimbun reports in a brief article that the New Komeito Party, the LDP's coalition partner, wants to maintain clauses one and two of Article 9 and does not seek the ability to exercise the right of collective self-defense.Surely a disagreement within the LDP-Komeito coalition on constitution revision and the related question of collective …
Not surprised at all
The Japan Times reported today that when Vice President Cheney visited Japan in February, he asked Abe for clarification as to what constitutes progress on the abductions issue.I knew there had to be more to those meetings than Cheney simply reassuring Japan of US support.Amazing, though, that it took two months for this story to …
Legislative happenings
In the shadow of the passage of the national referendum bill by the Lower House, the Abe Cabinet managed to push another bill through the Lower House, over active DPJ opposition: the bill supporting the advance of the realignment of US forces in Japan, which calls for increasing responsibility for realignment to local communities and …
Sunday in Yokosuka
I was the guest of a friend -- thank you, again -- to the 18th annual Yokosuka sumo exhibition. Some pictures follow:Banners outside the Yokosuka taiikukan where the exhibition was held; the banner for the yokozuna Asashoryu is on the leftNo explanation necessaryEntrance of the top-grade wrestlersThe exhibition was attended by a number of VIPs, …
Tobias S. Harris 