It seems that while Prime Minister Abe is busy fending off opposition attacks in the Diet on nuclear weapons, Fukui Toshihiko, the president of the Bank of Japan, has been signaling that the BoJ will be raising interest rates again soon, this despite ambiguous signs about the strength of Japan's recovery.There are serious questions whether …
Category: Observing Japan Blog
Recent reading on China
As long as this blog is already banned by China, there's no reason for me not to post on a recent book I read by exiled Chinese writer Ma Jian. Called Red Dust, the book traces the author's journey across most of China in the early 1980s, just as Deng Xiaoping's "Four Modernizations" came into …
Final roundup on the Democratic victory
In the past day several writers have produced worthwhile post-mortems on the elections that have echoed my concerns about the Democratic victory.First, at the New Republic website (free registration required), John Judis -- who must be happy now that he can return to his "emerging Democratic majority" trope -- provides a sober review of the …
Ozawa v. Abe, round two
DPJ President Ozawa Ichiro and Prime Minister Abe Shinzo had their second sparring match in the Diet yesterday, much of which was spent discussing the ongoing 『核保有』 問題 (the possession of nuclear weapons problem). The FT provides a good summary of the debate up until now here.The Mainichi Shimbun reports that Ozawa spent fifteen of his …
Japan watches and waits
As the Election Day dust settles in Washington, foreign governments are watching closely to see what will change.Japan is no exception. Arguably, for Japan and Asia as a whole (with the potential exception of congressional retaliation aimed at China), the impact will mainly be felt in its impact on how the Bush administration conducts foreign …
An end to openness?
Obviously the biggest stories of the day -- pretty much all around the world -- are the Democratic majorities in the House and the Senate and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's resignation.I gave my take on the former yesterday, in this post, but I want to call attention to comments on the election over at …
The importance of Henry Paulson
So the Democrats reclaim the House. And the Senate remains within reach, with results from two races pending.There's not much I can say about this that isn't being said elsewhere, but what I will say is that Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson may now be the most important man in the Bush administration, if not in …
A changing US-Japan alliance?
Meanwhile in the midst of the nuclear weapons flap, two senior US State Department officials were in Tokyo for meetings with Foreign Minister Aso. Nicholas Burns, undersecretary of state for political affairs, and Robert Joseph, undersecretary for arms control and international security, met with Mr. Aso to continue alliance coordination in response to the DPRK's …
The Yomiuri Shimbun weighs in
Having already written at length on the nuclear debate once today, I still feel the need to comment on the Yomiuri Shimbun's editorial today (in Japanese) -- 「議論すら封じるのはおかしい」 (roughly, "It is laughable to even try to stifle the discussion."The Yomiuri argues, as I have elsewhere, that the debate is less about nuclear weapons and more …
The nuclear debate "fallout" continues to spread
Quite a bit has happened in the intervening days since Mr. Nikai called for restraint. As I expected, it seems that the "loose lips" of Mr. Aso and Mr. Nakagawa have led to greater outrage from other parties and more calls for prudence from LDP senior officials.First, as this article in the Asahi Shimbun reports, …
Continue reading The nuclear debate "fallout" continues to spread
Tobias S. Harris 