For an explanation of my purpose in making this guide, see here. For previous installments, see here and here. North Kanto is comprised of four prefectures to the north of Tokyo: Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma, and Saitama. These prefectures have a total of thirty-two single-member districts, and the block has twenty proportional representation seats. Saitama is …
Over the past week, we have seen more signs of the shape that international relations in East Asia will take over the coming decades. I’ve written before about the role that middle powers — most notably Japan, Australia, South Korea, ASEAN acting as a bloc, and to a lesser extent India — will play in …
After seeing the response to my recent post on the US-Japan alliance, I find it necessary to develop a few ideas further. First, MTC rightly points out that an alliance based on the partnership of Japanese conservatives and their counterparts in Washington is by no means doomed, because the organizations pushing this line “deal death …
Having previously written about the strategic and political questions surrounding China’s rumored aircraft carrier program, I found this VOA article (hat tip: China Digital Times) on Admiral Keating’s visit to China fascinating. VOA reports that Keating discussed the operational difficulties of deploying and maintaining aircraft carriers with Vice Admiral Wu Shengli of the PLAN — …
Frank Jannuzi, Hitachi fellow, China expert, and Democratic staffer at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (on leave), spoke tonight at Temple University Japan on the second Armitage-Nye Report. I’m not going to give a full summary of his talk — much of it was spelling out the thinking of the report’s drafters and explaining the …
How interesting that on the same day that the US and South Korea conclude a “landmark” trade agreement — legislative approval in both countries pending — the Yomiuri Shimbun runs an editorial looking at the impact of North Korea on the February agreement to dissolve the US-ROK Combined Forces Command, giving primary responsibility for the …
With Australian Prime Minister John Howard set to arrive in Japan today for a four-day visit, Australia and Japan have reportedly agreed to a new security declaration that will likely (I say likely because it hasn’t been released to the public yet) enhance bilateral cooperation on a range of defense issues, including intelligence sharing, PKO, …
I spent Friday afternoon at the headquarters of the Keidanren — a classic example of Tokyo-style brutalism if I’ve ever seen one — at a symposium convened by the World Trade Center Tokyo and the Tokyo American Center on “China’s Rise and the Emerging Architecture of Trade and Investment in the Asia-Pacific Economy.” Keynotes by …
Apologies for the lag in posting; life in Nagata-cho has gotten busy, leaving little time to dash off notes. In any case, I want to call attention to an article in Foreign Affairs by Tufts University professor and blogger Daniel Drezner, called “The New New World Order.” Drezner argues that US foreign policy in recent …
The vice president has swooped in, addressed US navy personnel in Yokosuka, talked and dined with Prime Minister Abe and Foreign Minister Aso (I wonder if Aso had anything to say about the “comfort women” resolution currently being debated in Congress), met with the parents of abductee Yokota Megumi, and is now en route to …
Tobias S. Harris 