With the regular Diet session entering its final week (or penultimate week), it's possible that Prime Minister Fukuda may emerge from the session stronger than seemed possible.His bolstered stature has less to do with personal victories — the pork-and-patronage members of the LDP are no less angry with his leadership than before, and he still …
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.
Here comes a censure motion
The power to pass a non-binding censure motion in the upper house has been burning a hole in the DPJ's pocket since the moment it took control of the House of Councillors, and it looks like the DPJ will finally make good on its threat to use it against the Fukuda government.For those keeping score …
Prisoners of war
Lester Tenney, commander of the American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor, a veterans organization, who spent most of the war as a prisoner of war in Japan working in a Mitsui mine, spoke yesterday at a hall in the shadow of the Japanese Diet.Mr. Tenney is currently visiting Tokyo, hoping to raise awareness of what …
Australia and Japan in the same boat
After being criticized at home (and, supposedly, in Tokyo) for failing to visit Japan on a swing through Asia in March, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will be in Tokyo this week for meetings with Prime Minister Fukuda.Andrew Shearer, a fellow at Australia's Lowy Institute for International Policy, has an excellent op-ed in The Australian …
Japanese boots, Afghan ground?
In the Fukuda government's continuing quest to determine its strategy in regard to the time-limited MSDF refueling mission in the Indian Ocean, Machimura Nobutaka, chief cabinet secretary, floated a new idea over the weekend: expanding the Japanese contribution in Afghanistan to include JSDF personnel on the ground. The prime minister addressed Mr. Machimura's remarks the …
The Ozawa interview in the FT
Ozawa Ichiro recently sat down for an interview with the FT's David Pilling and Lionel Barber.A transcript is available here.There is nothing surprising in this interview. Mr. Ozawa opened by reminding the interviewers that he remains more interested in reform than in wielding power, saying, "If I happen to be the party head and if …
The Koizumi mystery
I hesitate to link an article in Shokun!, but I think this short article raises an important point.The article wonders about Koizumi Junichiro's support for Koike Yuriko as a candidate for the premiership and his renewed involvement in politics more generally, particularly his recently formed nonpartisan study groups that may resemble proto-parties. It dismisses Ms. …
Gates in Asia
Robert Gates, the US secretary of defense, is in Asia for the Shangri-La Dialogue, an annual meeting of defense ministers in Singapore. Mr. Gates has also stopped in Guam, and will visit Thailand and South Korea before returning to the US.Before addressing the substance of the secretary's swing through the region, it is worth pointing …
Peering into the void that is Japanese foreign policy
Uesugi Takashi, a Japanese freelance journalist, has an article at Diamond Online (Shukan Daiyamondo's web site) reporting live from the press room at TICAD IV in Yokohama.As usual, the title says it all: "It's incompetent to do only aid / Japanese foreign policy's fruitless effort at the Africa development summit."Uesugi paints a portrait of the …
Continue reading Peering into the void that is Japanese foreign policy
The elderly are important to the LDP
http://youtube.com/v/QPBICWwKVZIIn this, the LDP's latest commercial, Hamada Koichi, a former LDP Diet member-turned TV personality known as the "hooligan of the political world," stands with elderly voters to declare that the LDP is one with Japan's seniors and that the party will ease their insecurities.Something tells me that Hamako's bellowing will do little to fix …
Tobias S. Harris 