Prime Minister Abe, on tour in South and Southeast Asia, has left behind a political situation in Tokyo in which the only certainty is Mr. Abe's continuing ability to say no to those who want him to step down.But in Mr. Abe's absence, his opponents are, as expected, on the move.Mr. Ozawa, speaking to assembled …
Author: Tobias S. Harris
Tobias Harris is Japan analyst at Teneo Intelligence. He is the author of a forthcoming biography of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
I have returned
I am back in stifling Japan after spending most of August in the United States.Posting will now return to a more normal schedule, especially now that Japanese political life will be returning to normal (although I'm not quite sure what's "normal" about the present circumstances).
Beautiful no more
Since election night, there has been a conspicuous absence from the pronouncements of the Abe government: we no longer hear Mr. Abe speaking of building a "beautiful country."Mainichi suggests that the Abe camp has been reflecting on the meaning of the slogan, despite Abe's assertion that he doesn't think the election results repudiated his "course …
Recommended book: The End of Alliances, Rajan Menon
If there is one affliction that is all too common in all places and times, it is "presentism." People latch on to reality as they know, and refuse to even conceive that another way of doing things might just be possible and even likely. Inertia governs humanity.Rajan Menon's The End of Alliances (OUP, 2007) attempts …
Continue reading Recommended book: The End of Alliances, Rajan Menon
"Contemporary reality is like an overlapping set of dire science-fictional scenarios"
When I was younger, I was a flat-out science-fiction nerd. I think I have this in common with a lot of other policy wonks: there's something about memorizing numerous details about imaginary worlds that translates well into memorizing details about the slightly less imaginary but no less bizarre worlds of Washington (and in my case, …
The frog and the scorpion?
From August 3rd to 6th, Jiji asked voters what kind of government they would prefer. The top? An LDP-DPJ grand coalition, with 27.5% of respondents supporting it. Only 11.9% wanted the LDP-Komeito coalition to continue, while only 10.8% wanted a solely LDP government. Respondents seemed indifferent to which party was at the center of the …
More prime ministerial trouble
With Prime Minister Abe set to depart on his latest diplomatic jaunt on August 19th, the situation in Tokyo continues to worsen.The latest scandal involves Defense Minister Koike Yuriko, who is in a showdown with Administrative Vice Minister Moriya Takemasa, a long-serving defense bureaucrat who rose from within the ministry's ranks (instead of being seconded …
Sankei pays tribute to the war dead by calling for a more activist Japan
In honor of the day of memorial for the end of the war on August 15, each of Japan's dailies has published an editorial marking the occasion.They are, in general, fairly innocuous: Yomiuri's discusses history and Yasukuni Shrine, Asahi's looks at relations with Asian neighbors. Sankei's editorial, however, single-handedly illustrates the fundamental incoherence of the …
Continue reading Sankei pays tribute to the war dead by calling for a more activist Japan
Ambassador Schieffer, stand down please
J. Thomas Schieffer, US ambassador to Japan, is continuing with his campaign to convince the DPJ to change its opposition to the extension of the anti-terror special measures law, giving interviews to major dailies on the spat between the US and the DPJ. (Mainichi interview here; Asahi interview here.)The message is more or less the …
A step forward?
It seems that incumbent LDP Diet Strategy Committee Chairman Nikai Toshihiro is being considered as Shiozaki Yasuhisa's replacement as chief cabinet secretary. Nikai, a onetime member of the Takeshita faction (like Ozawa) who left the LDP to join former Prime Minister Hosokawa's Japan Renewal Party in 1993 and served as a vice-minister in Hosokawa's cabinet, …
Tobias S. Harris 