http://youtube.com/v/VjnygQ02aW4The impression I got from watching President Barack Obama's inaugural address is that he is acutely aware of the burden that has now fallen upon his shoulders.But I also think that in this address he accomplishes what Prime Minister Aso Taro has thus far failed to do. He does not hesitate to state his appreciation …
Tag: Barack Obama
The alliance is dead, long live the alliance
Barack Obama's inauguration is just about a month away. His transition team is gradually filling in cabinet-level positions. His Asia and Japan policy teams are as of yet unknown, however, leaving Japanese elites to continue to fret about Japan's place on the Obama administration's agenda.They have good reason to worry.The reasons to worry have nothing …
Continue reading The alliance is dead, long live the alliance
The US finally goes through with delisting North Korea
The thinkable is finally the actual.After more than a year since it became plausible for the US to remove North Korea from its list of state sponsors of terrorism as a reward for cooperation in negotiations over the North Korean nuclear program, the US State Department has announced that it will remove North Korea from …
Continue reading The US finally goes through with delisting North Korea
A problem-oriented or a partner-oriented US Asia policy
The Asahi Shimbun has published an op-ed by Richard Danzig and Joseph Nye, who as foreign policy advisers to Senator Barack Obama outline how an Obama administration will approach relations with Japan.Superificially, there are not too many points of divergence with the Yomiuri op-ed penned by Senators John McCain and Joseph Lieberman last month.Both Danzig-Nye …
Continue reading A problem-oriented or a partner-oriented US Asia policy
Waiting for Obama
A new LDP club has formed that some have described as "capable of inciting the overthrow of the government." The group, known as the "Association for the implementation of a new presidential election [for the LDP]," was instigated by Yamamoto Ichita and is a response to the freefall in the LDP's public approval. They will …
The campaign comes to Guam
This weekend, the US presidential campaign comes to Guam, the island territory closer to Japan than the continental US that will soon be home to a vastly expanded US military presence, if all goes according to plan.Guam will be holding a Democratic caucus, and with Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton struggling for every delegate, the …
Obama, Koizumi, and the DPJ
I have learned that Ozawa Ichiro reportedly dispatched a DPJ member to observe Barack Obama's presidential campaign in Texas in advance of Tuesday's voting.He could have saved some money and looked closer to home at the politics of former prime minister Koizumi Junichiro.There are a few obvious superficial similarities — and a few equally obvious …
"Certain Victory" for Obama
...Now that the city of Obama has given him his very own hissho daruma, described by Asahi as an "indispensable item" for Japanese elections.
Discarding the old mantras
After winning the Florida Republican primary on Tuesday, Arizona Senator John McCain has more or less solidified his position as the likely Republican presidential candidate. Sankei's Komori Yoshihisa was quick to praise Senator McCain today for his unstinting support for the US-Japan alliance, pointing to lines from Senator McCain's essay in the November/December issue of …
The Iowa winners
I am back to New York after my sojourn in Tokyo.In honor of my return to the US, here are links to a couple posts at The Reality-Based Community on Barack Obama and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, written by Steven Teles, a former professor of mine. I particularly like his dissection of the sheer …
Tobias S. Harris 