The House of Councillors has, as expected, passed a new space basic law on the back of cooperation between the LDP, Komeito, and the DPJ.As noted previously, the law ends the 1969 ban on the use of space for military purposes, permitting the government to deploy high-resolution spy satellites. The law also calls for the …
Month: May 2008
Summer in Japan
I will be in Japan again as of next week, this time for longer. I'll be staying the summer, writing (possibly working on a book) and perhaps giving talks in the Tokyo area.Stay tuned.
Schieffer bemoans Japan’s (lack of) defense spending
On Tuesday, J. Thomas Schieffer, US ambassador to Japan, spoke at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan, where he called on Japan to spend more on defense.Judging from the coverage in the foreign and domestic press, it appears that the ambassador spoke bluntly, declaring, "I think the Japanese are getting a bargain in the (US-Japan) …
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The post-Fukuda landscape remains open — for now
Aso Taro, who has presumably been vying for the LDP presidency since losing it to Fukuda Yasuo in September 2007, was asked about his intentions at a speech on Monday. Like his potential rival, Yosano Kaoru, Mr. Aso demurred, declining to declare what has been openly acknowledged for months.I suppose it would be inappropriate for …
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Nakagawa sees an end to the Fukuda slide
Break out the champagne! The prime minister's slide has stopped!So declares Nakagawa Hidenao, in response to a Hodo 2001 poll that showed Mr. Fukuda's approval rating rise four points to 24.2% and his disapproval rating fall two points to 70%.A net six-point shift in a single poll (which is limited to 500 people in the …
The balkanization scenario
Sasayama Tatsuo, onetime HR member from Akita who followed Ozawa Ichiro out of the LDP in 1993 and remained with him through the New Frontier and Liberal party eras before losing his seat in 2000, has an idea for the future of the LDP that has the virtue of at least being different.Mr. Sasayama has …
Bowling against democracy
When not bowling together, former prime ministers Koizumi Junichiro and Mori Yoshiro apparently spend their time scheming against Japanese democracy.Both have signed on as advisers — along with Abe Shinzo, another former prime minister from the Machimura faction — to a new LDP study group called the "Diet members league to integrate both houses of …
The post-Fukuda era looms
Asahi conducted a poll of LDP and DPJ prefectural chapters asking about support for the current party leaders.In the DPJ, Ozawa Ichiro's relationship with the prefectural chapters is secure: forty-four of forty-seven want him to remain as party head to lead the DPJ into the next general election.The news for Fukuda Yasuo, however, is bleak. …
The DPJ will use administrative reform as a wedge issue
With the government's having finally dispensed with the gasoline tax and road construction issues — for now — attention is now turning to other portions of the Fukuda agenda, such as it exists.Item number one is the government's — or perhaps more accurately, Administrative Reform Minister Watanabe Yoshimi's — administrative reform plan (previously discussed here). …
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Shuffling districts?
At a press conference Wednesday at DPJ headquarters, Ozawa Ichiro hinted at the possibility that he, along with several other prominent figures from the DPJ and other opposition parties, will change districts in the next general election to campaign against governing coalition heavyweights holding seats in Tokyo.Asahi suggests that if Mr. Ozawa makes the jump …
Tobias S. Harris 