Meanwhile, Thanksgiving here has come and gone. Happy Thanksgiving to my American readers.Thanksgiving being my favorite of American national holidays, I would have liked to find somewhere to have Thanksgiving dinner tonight, but emails went unanswered, so I made pancakes and watched Simpsons DVDs while waiting for Kamakura Cable to set up my internet and …
Category: Observing Japan Blog
Morning in Japan
In my Cambridge M.Phil dissertation, I wrote the following:Koizumi, a self-described ‘henjin’ (literally ‘odd person’), was elected on a platform calling for extensive political and economic reforms, in a sense similar to Ronald Reagan’s conservative, reform-minded campaign in 1980. Like Reagan, Koizumi was elected as Japan confronted debilitating economic turmoil and a profound crisis of …
Tightrope walking
Before I continue with my running commentary on Japanese politics, I want to just make it clear to my readers the fine line I'm treading. Because I'm on the staff of a senior member of the opposition DPJ, I'm perhaps not as free to be objective about Japanese politics as my academic's mind would prefer …
Summiting in Hanoi
So President Bush and Prime Minister Abe have had their first meeting, in the wake of the APEC summit in Hanoi.As the recap provided by the White House indicates, the agenda of their conversation was not particularly surprising and the meeting provided no major changes in US-Japan alliance policy. (Although, as this Yomiuri summary indicates, …
Setting the record straight
On the sidelines of the APEC summit in Hanoi, Japanese Foreign Minister Aso Taro and Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhao Xing discussed plans to convene a joint Sino-Japanese committee to review Sino-Japanese history. The committee is expected to meet before the end of the year, consist of ten members, and have subcommittees that discuss both …
I move to Kamakura, and the education bill moves to the Upper House
I have now moved out from Kaiyo Gakuen -- where I spent my last night speaking to the students, pegged as future leaders of Japan, about the importance of learning about foreign societies and appreciating Japan's responsiblities as a great power. (I previously wrote about my surveying of students' ideas here.)I have moved to Kamakura, …
Continue reading I move to Kamakura, and the education bill moves to the Upper House
What were the Red Sox thinking?
Switching gears, the big news in sports this week is that the Boston Red Sox had the highest bid in the auction for the right to talk -- that's right, talk -- to Seibu Lions pitcher Matsuzaka Daisuke. They reportedly paid $51.1 million.Mull that over for a minute.$51.1 million. To talk....Sorry Red Sox fans, but …
The Susanoo boom?
Once again David Pilling, the FT's Tokyo correspondent, has a superb analytic piece on Japan, in this case the Japanese economic recovery (unfortunately subscription only). He reports that forthcoming statistics are expected to confirm that the economic recovery that began in 2001 will surpass the fifty-eight-month "Izanagi" boom that lasted from 1965 to 1970.He cautions …
Takenaka criticizes Fukui (and the Abe cabinet?)
With the Bank of Japan sending signals that it will raise Japan's interest rates soon, Takenaka Heizo, former Prime Minister Koizumi's point man on the economy and structural reform, has criticized the BoJ (and implicitly its president) for prematurely tightening monetary policy, reports the FT.For a high-ranking "Koizumian" to criticize Japan's monetary policy -- which …
Continue reading Takenaka criticizes Fukui (and the Abe cabinet?)
Asia’s hotel lobby
With Vietnam set to host the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit next weekend, a recent spate of news suggests that it will be a busy weekend...but not necessarily because of what's on the official agenda.While this year's formal agenda will consist of the usual calls for greater openness among APEC members and a push to …
Tobias S. Harris 