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 …
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.
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, …
Constitution revision — still a long way away
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
Ozawa Ichiro, Japan’s Gingrich?
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 shape of months to come?
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 …
Have China Scholars All Been Bought?
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 …
The first day of a new Sino-Japanese relationship?
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?
LDP gloom in Kanagawa
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 …
Seen and heard this evening
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 …
Tobias S. Harris 