I've just returned to New York City from Japan, and I'm off to Boston tomorrow morning.Posting will probably be light through Wednesday.
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.
The BOJ battle’s winners and losers
The big news of the day is, of course, the government's decision to submit a new candidate for the BOJ governorship in place of Muto Toshiro. It is still unclear who the government will submit in his place — the LDP is reportedly sounding out the plausibility of Mr. Fukui's staying in office, although the …
Hiranuma’s kiss of death?
After nearly returning to the LDP in the waning days of the Abe cabinet, Hiranuma Takeo, holdout postal rebel and conservative stalwart, is not particularly popular among the LDP's elders.Recall, for example, that in January Mori Yoshiro scolded Nakagawa Shoichi for working with Mr. Hiranuma in their "True Conservative Policy Research Group," AKA the HANA …
Signs of compromise?
With the end of Fukui Toshihiko's term as BOJ president rapidly approaching, there are signs that the LDP and the DPJ might be able to come to terms on the nomination of his successor.Messrs. Oshima and Yamaoka, Diet strategists for the LDP and DPJ respectively, met once more on Thursday and agreed that a vacancy …
Will Fukuda last?
Many analysts of Japanese politics assumed at the inception of the Fukuda cabinet that his was little more than a caretaker government.Now more than 100 days into the Fukuda administration, it remains difficult to say whether that assessment will turn out to be accurate. If the caretaker's job is to stabilize the ruling party and …
Why a realignment is inevitable
Janne Morén's recent post on institutional loyalty (thanks for the reminder, MTC) provides an excellent argument for why to anticipate a new political realignment in the near future.He writes:If we return to politics, the situation shares some similarities and there is a clear possibility of a similar dissolution of loyalty between lawmakers and their parties. …
Bank chaos
The fight between the LDP-Komeito governing coalition and the DPJ over the leadership of the Bank of Japan shows no sign of abating.On Wednesday, of course, the DPJ-led House of Councillors formally rejected the government's nomination of Muto Toshiro to be the new president of the BOJ. The government has resubmitted Mr. Muto's nomination in …
Watering down administrative reform
It appears that the administrative reform package desired by Watanabe Yoshimi, minister responsible for administrate reform, will be watered down as expected. Given the reception Mr. Watanabe's proposals received in the cabinet, I can't say that I'm surprised.According to Mainichi, the powers of the Cabinet Personnel Agency, the central feature of Mr. Watanabe's plan, will …
Irony watch
I couldn't resist linking to this item at Foreign Policy's Passport, which notes that Australia's navy is struggling for recruits.Why?It can't compete with Western Australian mining companies that are expanding operations to take advantage of growing Chinese demand (and accordingly, rising prices) for commodities.This may be the single best illustration of why the simplistic, "arc …
Ishiba remains the scourge of the bureaucrats
With the fight over the nomination of Muto Toshiro taking center stage, opposition calls for Defense Minister Ishiba Shigeru to resign due to the Atago incident appear to have receded, leaving Mr. Ishiba to proceed with his efforts to clean up the Defense Ministry.The latest piece of that effort is his project team to "promote …
Continue reading Ishiba remains the scourge of the bureaucrats
Tobias S. Harris 