Much has been made among English-language bloggers about Mr. Fukuda's delivering a version of his New Year's message in English at the LDP's YouTube channel, the launch of which I discussed in this post. (Asia Exile; TPR; Japundit)Steven Clemons at The Washington Note took one of his occasional forays into matters Japanese to comment on …
Continue reading The real meaning of Fukuda’s New Year’s message
After a tumultuous and uncertain five months since taking control of the House of Councillors, the DPJ faces the new year full of hope that this will be the year the party takes power, but hope tempered by the difficulties the party has faced since winning in July. The party has struggled to use its …
Sankei's Komori Yoshihisa, arch-conservative and China hawk, has published at his blog a list of complaints about Prime Minister Fukuda's visit to China last week, criticizing the prime minister for failing to criticize China for every perceived and actual failing of the Chinese Communist Party.Sounding much like his American peers, including the Washington Times's Bill …
It has become increasingly clear that Prime Minister Fukuda will play the cabinet reshuffle card in response to sagging poll numbers, as early as mid-January, right around the time the House of Representatives will likely be voting a second time on the anti-terror law.He will have an extremely short window with which to launch a …
Fukuda Yasuo is in China, and the contrasts, both with his earlier trip to Washington and Ozawa Ichiro's trip to China, are stunning, if not surprising.Recall how earlier this month I criticized Mr. Ozawa for his over-the-top visit to Beijing, when he traveled with an entourage of hundreds and spoke in effusive terms about the …
A recent article in the Yomiuri Shimbun surveying the Japanese political situation as 2007 gives way to 2008 included a sidebar that compared the present day with the bakumatsu, the last days of the Tokugawa.Looking back over the events in political Japan over 2007, that comparison does not seem inappropriate. The picture that emerges is …
Continue reading 2007: The Year That Was In Japanese Politics
Voting at What Japan Thinks for the Japan blogs of the year closes in less than twelve hours.My colleagues at Transpacific Radio and I have been running neck and neck in the category of Best serious blog on Japan.If you like what you've read on this blog over the past year, you can vote here.
The DPJ's Nagashima Akihisa, writing at his blog, cites Max Weber's "Politics as a vocation" to criticize not just Mr. Fukuda but his predecessors and express his hope for a different style of politics under DPJ rule.Mr. Nagashima quotes from the concluding paragraph of the essay:Politics is a strong and slow boring of hard boards. …
In the latest twist in the saga over Japan's involvement in operations in and around Afghanistan, the DPJ has decided that it will submit its own bill today.Asahi notes that the DPJ move is in response to recent public opinion polls that show rising opposition to the MSDF's resuming its refueling mission.Hatoyama Yukio explained that …
At least for a bit...I will be in Japan for two weeks from Tuesday. Blogging will probably be light. Although I am going to try to make this an actual vacation, I would consider doing a casual bar get-together with readers if there's enough interest.Let me know.
Tobias S. Harris 