The big story out of Japan today, aside from Chinese Premier Wen's final day in Japan, spent visiting Kyoto, is that the Lower House's Special Investigative Committee on the Constitution passed the LDP draft of a national referendum bill that is a critical precursor to constitution revision.A massive piece of legislation (printed in its entirety …
Continue reading Constitution revision — still a long way away
Alex Pappas at Japundit calls attention to this recent Asahi article on DPJ President Ozawa Ichiro.When the political history of Japan during the two decades following the breakdown of the 1955 system is written -- although in The Logic of Japanese Politics, Gerald Curtis has already provided a fantastic account of change (or the lack …
The Council on Foreign Relations links to a "major" foreign policy speech by former governor of Massachusetts and Republican candidate for president Mitt Romney, delivered at Texas A & M with former President George H.W. Bush in attendance.Numbers of times China mentioned?Zero.Number of times Asia mentioned?Zero.How a serious presidential candidate can deliver a foreign policy …
That's the question asked by Carsten Holz, economist at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, in an article in the Far Eastern Economic Review. (Hat tip: Arts and Letters Daily)He asks:Does it matter if China researchers ignore the political context in which they operate and the political constraints that shape their work? Does it …
So after years of the Sino-Japanese leg being the weakest in the US-Japan-China strategic triangle, it seems that Premier Wen's visit will go a long way towards strengthening the Sino-Japanese relationship to a level similar to the Sino-American relationship.Similar to the US Military's links with the PLA, Japanese Defense Minister Kyuma announced before Wen's arrival …
Continue reading The first day of a new Sino-Japanese relationship?
In an article in yesterday's Shonan edition of the Yomiuri Shimbun -- as usual, not online -- entitled "The governor's expanding clout," LDP members of the Kanagawa prefectural assembly sound despondent in the face of Governor Matsuzawa's landslide victory Sunday, and, more significantly, the victory of DPJ and independent allies in campaigns for prefectural assembly …
Frank Jannuzi, Hitachi fellow, China expert, and Democratic staffer at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (on leave), spoke tonight at Temple University Japan on the second Armitage-Nye Report.I'm not going to give a full summary of his talk -- much of it was spelling out the thinking of the report's drafters and explaining the points …
It seems that today is a China kind of day, as Chinese Premier Wen begins his three-day visit to Japan today.The much-quoted purpose of this trip is to "melt the ice" between Japan and China.Call me a skeptic, but I think I'm with the Carnegie Endowment's Minxin Pei, who wrote in an op-ed in the …
With the Bush administration's recent move to press a suit against Chinese violations of intellectual property in the WTO sparking fears of a full-blown Sino-American trade war, I must ask the same questionI asked when the US Commerce Department announced tariffs on Chinese glossy paper: is this administration pursuing a coherent strategy in Asia, or …
Continue reading Is the Bush administration thinking about the China relationship?
I have held off from posting on the results of Sunday's local elections because I am not entirely sure what conclusion should be drawn.I think it would be a mistake to draw too-firm conclusions about the prospects for July's Upper House elections from the results.Is Ishihara's reelection a clear precursor of LDP victory in July? …
Continue reading Reading the local elections with an eye on July
Tobias S. Harris 