Another day, another session of the budget committee, with the opposition once again raking the Abe Cabinet over the coa...by which I mean soberly discussing Japan's policy goals and requirements.As such, I want to take a brief break from tracking the current Diet session to post some notes on a book I recently finished reading.But …
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.
Now, the waiting game
So the six-party talks have produced a tentative agreement -- although it seems that there's no sign of a timeline, and at this point all North Korea has agreed to do is close the Yongbyon reactor that has apparently fuelled its nuclear weapons program, with no mention of what happens to North Korea's existing arsenal.Japan …
Nagata-cho, day one
My service in Kanagawa Prefecture is at an end. I am now making the long commute -- along with most of the Tokyo metropolitan area, it seems -- to central Tokyo, to Nagata-cho, Japan's Capitol Hill.No time was wasted today, as I was very rapidly thrown into the Nagata-cho life this morning. Almost immediately upon …
No surprise here
The Japan Times is reporting here that Vice President Cheney will not be meeting Defense Minister Kyuma when he visits Japan later this month.This was all too expected, being entirely consistent with how the Bush administration has dealt with critics throughout its tenure.Not really much more to say here, other than that this is another …
Finally!
It seems that someone in Washington is finally calling attention to the US government's dangerous fixation on the Middle East -- as freelance writer and onetime NYT correspondent Richard Halloran writes at RealClearPolitics, the Congressional Research Service has produced a report (available for downloaded here) warning that insufficient attention is being paid to the Asia-Pacific …
Much ado about nothing in Essen
So the meeting of G7 finance minister and central bank presidents has concluded, and, despite grumbles from the Democratic US Congress and the EU's ECOFIN about the weakness of the Japanese yen, the final statement in Essen included nothing that directly referred to Japanese monetary policy.Instead, the only country named directly in the paragraph on …
Second time farce…
An embattled George Bush in the White House, a Democratic Congress riled up about Japanese practices to give itself an unfair advantage in international economic competition...is it 2007 or 1992?But seriously, as this FT article reports, Congress is pushing hard for Secretary Paulson to join with European governments to pressure Japan to raise interest rates …
Revolution from below
This article at Mainichi online, on ceremonies to commemorate Northern Territories Day, caught my eye for a couple reasons.The first is that I can't help but wonder if a push to resolve longstanding territorial disputes with Russia is driven by rising fears of abandonment in the government of Japan. Outside the alliance with the US, …
All fungoes, all the time
Believe it or not, the year-round extravaganza that is Japanese baseball is gearing up for another season.It seems like only yesterday -- mere weeks after my arrival here -- that the Trey Hillman-managed Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters bested the Chunichi Dragons in the Japan Series.What prompted this post? One of the sports channels offered by …
Japan’s multilateral blues
Yesterday I wrote about rising concerns that Japan will be criticized regarding the cheap yen at the G7 meeting this weekend in Germany; Japan, however, may also be running into trouble at the six-party talks due to restart this week in Beijing.This article in the FT hints at growing signs that Washington is increasingly open …
Tobias S. Harris 