The DPJ is scheduled to hold a leadership election in September.There is some debate about the election. Should the party even bother with an election (see this article in Liberal Time), or should it just reaffirm Ozawa Ichiro as party president to minimize the risk of election-related instability? Should it wait until September, when the …
Year: 2008
The consequences of the US-Japan rift on North Korea
With North Korea expected to deliver its account of its nuclear program Thursday — excluding its existing nuclear weapons, which Chris Hill has said will be addressed in the next round — the US is prepared to move forward in removing North Korea from the list of state sponsors of terrorism.The long-awaited blow to the …
Continue reading The consequences of the US-Japan rift on North Korea
The world’s top public intellectuals…
Foreign Policy and Prospect have released the results of their joint poll asking who are the world's top public intellectuals.Of the top ten, all ten are Muslims and write about Islamic issues.The twenty-first century will be profoundly shaped by developments in the Islamic world, but I think this result overeggs the pudding, as the British …
DPJ ranks swell
Nikkei reports that the DPJ now has more "party members/party supporters" than ever before.The total number at the end of May was 270,000 members/supporters nationwide, compared with 244,000 in September 2006 (when Ozawa Ichiro's current term as party leader began) and 201,000 in 2007 (the month isn't specified).What matters is where these new members are …
On the national interest
In the 20 June edition of his column in Yukan Fuji, an evening newspaper, Nakagawa Shoichi tackled recent developments in Japan's relations with its neighbors.Not surprisingly, he wrote that the government should be taking a harder line in negotiations with North Korea over the abductee problem, China over East China Sea gas rights, and Taiwan …
Waiting for Obama
A new LDP club has formed that some have described as "capable of inciting the overthrow of the government." The group, known as the "Association for the implementation of a new presidential election [for the LDP]," was instigated by Yamamoto Ichita and is a response to the freefall in the LDP's public approval. They will …
The curtain comes down on the ordinary Diet session — and Fukuda and the LDP?
The 169th ordinary session of the Diet comes to an end Saturday, with the comprehensive economic partnership agreement with ASEAN passing naturally. The session ends with the prime minister's having been censured by the upper house and three opposition parties' boycotting proceedings (with a handful of exceptions). Mainichi reports that of eighty bills submitted by …
Continue reading The curtain comes down on the ordinary Diet session — and Fukuda and the LDP?
Japan is number five
In the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute's (SIPRI) 2008 yearbook, released earlier this month, Japan ranked fifth in military expenditures (valued at $43.6 billion in market exchange rate terms and amounting to 4% of total world military expenditures), behind the USA, the UK, China, and France.But it turns out that Japan also ranked fifth in …
Republic of Bloggers
It's two months after the fact, but readers can listen to my comments on political blogging in Japan delivered at the Korea Society of New York's "Republic of Bloggers" event in April.Click here to listen. (I'm the fourth speaker.)
Fukuda, a glutton for punishment
On Tuesday, at the same press conference where he complained about the stress of the job, Prime Minister Fukuda made a statement guaranteed to ensure that his stress will increase inexorably."Since [the consumption tax rate] is only 5%, we are burdened with a budget deficit. We must decide — this is an extremely important period. …
Tobias S. Harris 