The Aso government, looking to hasten the passage of the FY2009 budget (the third stage of Prime Minister Aso's plan to overcome the recession), has promised to accelerate the timetable for introducing the ban on the practice of amakudari and the related practice of watari, whereby a retired bureaucrat wanders to other employers who might …
Continue reading Can the LDP — or anyone — eradicate amakudari?
After being misled twice (perhaps thrice) by premature reports in Japanese newspapers regarding some aspect of the Obama administration's Japan policy — despite articles in both Asahi and Yomiuri, the administration has yet to announce an ambassador to Japan, and the State Department has yet to confirm that Hillary Clinton's first foreign trip will take …
The US State Department has told the Yomiuri Shimbun that it intends to initiate a high-level "comprehensive strategic dialogue" with China that will address political, economic, and security issues and will include an exchange of visits by Vice President Joe Biden and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao.Naturally, Yomiuri's report is quick to note that many Obama …
Will the Machimura faction live to fight the next election after all?Nakagawa Hidenao, a member of the triumvirate that leads the faction and a leading critic of Mr. Aso, was defiant in the face of criticism from Mori Yoshiro, don of the faction, seeing no reason for stepping down from the triumvirate. He denied claims …
I have returned from Tokyo to Boston.Normal blogging to resume shortly.I should also thank all of you because even with another day left in January 2009 more readers have visited Observing Japan this month than in any month since the blog was created. So, thanks for that.
Prime Minister Aso Taro, having had his second stimulus package pass the Diet Tuesday, appeared before the Diet on Wednesday to deliver his latest policy address.Rhetorically, the address contains few surprises. In the opening sections, in which Mr. Aso addressed the principles behind his policies. He spoke of the "once in a century economic crisis" …
I recently recorded an episode of Transpacific Radio's podcast Seijigiri, hosted by Garrett DeOrio and Ken Worsley.You can listen to it here.
Curzon at Coming Anarchy is fed up with the DPJ.Considering the DPJ's muddled position on the dispatch of JSDF ships to fight pirates alongside the naval forces of eighteen countries, he maintains that by waffling on the Somalia question, the DPJ has shown that it is incapable of governing.I do not want to appear as …
Leaving a meeting at Japan's House of Representatives this morning, I happened upon a group of schoolchildren on a field trip at the Diet, who proceeded to greet me by shouting "YES WE CAN!"Can you feel the change?
Dear Professor Nye:Congratulations on your appointment to the position of United States Ambassador to Japan.Your arrival comes at an auspicious time. It appears exceedingly likely that during your ambassadorship the Liberal Democratic Party will be bounced from power and replaced most likely by the Democratic Party of Japan, although possibly a ragtag coalition as in …
Tobias S. Harris 