I said that I would try to limit my discussion of American politics, but I read a few pieces today upon which I couldn't resist commenting.First, in the FT Alan Beattie writes about American attitudes towards globalization, noting that despite the common perception that Americans are much more tolerant than Europeans of the "negative" consequences …
Category: Observing Japan Blog
Nuclear "indiscretion" causing problems for Abe?
The Yomiuri Shimbun reports today that Nikai Toshiro, head of the LDP's Diet Strategy Committee (国会対策委員会, kokkai taisaku iinkai, usually abbreviated as 国対, kokutai), publicly cautioned Foreign Minister Aso Taro and LDP Policy Affairs Research Council chief Nakagawa Shoichi to exercise "prudence" in their remarks on Japan's acquiring nuclear weapons.The source of this comment is …
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North Korea as schoolyard bully
North Korea has demanded that Japan be excluded from the next round of six-party talks, to be held in Beijing sometime before the end of the year. What did Japan do to deserve Pyongyang's scorn? Well, aside from colonizing Korea during the first half of the twentieth century, Japan is guilty of having questions about …
Nukaga calls for Japanese cruise missiles
The Yomiuri Shimbun reports (article in Japanese) that former JDA Director-General Nukaga Fukushiro gave a talk at a Keidanren (the Japan Business Federation) symposium on North Korea's nuclear test and East Asian security. In his remarks, Mr. Nukaga asked: "If North Korea decided to use force and fired a Nodong at Japan, which American warships …
Pulling the rug from under Chen
Forty-eight hours after Chen Shui-bian, Taiwan's embattled president, spoke of drafting a new constitution, he finds his presidency in danger of being cut short by a vote in parliament in light of corruption charges that have implicated his wife and further tarnished his damaged reputation.It seems that Taiwan's constitution won't be frozen and replaced after …
The perils of being noncommittal
As I discussed here and here, Abe Shinzo has been extremely reluctant to present anything that resembles a detailed agenda for his cabinet.During his first month, it seemed that the Japanese people were prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt that sooner or later he would present a detailed program that they could …
China and the "land of myth and miracles"
Apparently that's what propaganda posters advertising the current China-Africa Summit in Beijing are calling Africa, according to this article by Joseph Kahn in the New York Times.I'm not even going to try to figure out what makes Africa a land of myth and miracles. Apparently the CCP's propaganda department hasn't benefited from China's rapid growth.But …
New survey on Japan’s Iraq mission
The Yomiuri Shimbun reports today on a government survey that shows that among those surveyed (around 1800 people), 71.5 per cent said they "valued" the JSDF's reconstruction operation in Iraq, with only 22.6 per cent saying that they didn't value the mission.Among those who said they valued it, as with earlier polls, they pointed to …
Japan’s (predictable) response
As I discussed here, Japan has little reason to celebrate North Korea's returning to the six-party talks.As this article in the Japan Times shows (link in English), senior cabinet and party officials have been cool to the news out of Beijing. The Japanese government, of course, was not in position to insist on the importance …
A mountain of debt, 1,400 times higher than Mt. Fuji
That would be the height of Japan's debt if converted into ￥10,000 notes, according to a Japanese Ministry of Finance (MoF) budget report cited by FT columnist Guy de Jonquières, in his column, "No need to panic about Japan's debt mountain" (sorry, subscription required).No need to panic, maybe, but certainly need for concern -- and …
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Tobias S. Harris 