Two Maritime Self-Defense Forces (MSDF) destroyers, the Sazanami, last mentioned on this blog when she paid a visit to China last year, and the Samidare, have departed from Kure naval base in Hiroshima prefecture for a four-month tour patrolling for pirates off the horn of Africa. The destroyers are expected to arrive in theater April …
Tag: DPJ
Unpacking the DPJ’s divisions
Curzon at Coming Anarchy looks at a couple recent statements by DPJ officials and concludes that the DPJ suffers from cognitive dissonance.He also suggests that I believe that the Obama administration plans to create an alliance "focused solely on joint security declarations." If he read my post on the subject more carefully, he'd notice I …
Time to go to the bullpen?
Looking at the debate in the DPJ over whether Ozawa Ichiro should be forced to step down, a metaphor — appropriate for this time of year — comes to mind:The Pedro incident.Boston Red Sox fans will undoubtedly know what I'm talking about, but for everyone else, the Pedro Incident occurred in the deciding Game 7 …
The space between Ozawa and the DPJ
The first round of polls following last week's arrest of Okubo Toshinori, Ozawa Ichiro's secretary, has been released, and not surprisingly there are few bright spots for Ozawa and the DPJ.Oddly enough, the most favorable poll for Ozawa was the Sankei/Fuji News Network poll, which despite Sankei's having pulled out all stops to push for …
Ozawa fights back
Appearing at a press conference at DPJ headquarters this morning, DPJ President Ozawa Ichiro, under fire following the arrest of Okubo Takanori, his chief secretary, was defiant.Ozawa stated that he would not step down following the arrest, and insisted that his secretary received money from Nishimatsu construction in compliance with the political funds control law.In …
Did the LDP just find its miracle?
Hold the debate, indeed.Naturally Ozawa Ichiro's top aide had to get himself arrested the day I wrote 1,000 words on what kind of leader Ozawa would be as a prime minister.Jun Okumura has the details here.In brief, Ozawa's aide has been accused of receiving funds for one of Ozawa's political support groups from Nishimatsu Construction, …
The Ozawa debate continues
If and when Ozawa Ichiro becomes prime minister — still not a done deal, despite the Aso government's latest misstep — his will likely be the most highly anticipated premiership in decades, if not ever. I do not mean anticipated in the sense of public hopes for his government, but simply in the sense that …
Ozawa holds his ground
Earlier this week, I discussed the furor that greeted Ozawa Ichiro's remarks about the reduction of US forces in Japan.The LDP, unable to resist the urge to go on the offensive for a change, immediately jumped to condemn Ozawa's remarks as dangerously naive."It's unrealistic," said Kawamura Takeo, chief cabinet secretary."Nothing but irrational," said Machimura Nobutaka, …
Japan loves risk (Noah Smith)
In the past year, Japan's exports fell 45.7%. Exports to all regions were hit - down 52% to America, 45% to China, and 46.7% to Asia as a whole. Japan's mighty national champions, its automakers, have been hit the worst: Toyota's exports are off 56.2%, Honda's 46.3%, Nissan's 62.1%.That's absolutely stunning. It is catastrophic. Words …
What is Ozawa’s angle?
Ozawa Ichiro, a week after his meeting with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, has focused attention once again on the DPJ's approach to the US-Japan alliance, a day after two prominent DPJ members gave their own perspectives on the future of the alliance (mentioned in this post).Speaking with reporters Wednesday, Ozawa indicated that under a …
Tobias S. Harris 