In the comments section of this recent post, I have been accused of overstating Japanese decline and understating the US decline.I have actually said very little about the economic crisis in the US — and what I have said about Japan is not particularly new. For the most part I have simply updated an argument …
Tag: financial crisis
Plus ça change…
There appears to be little doubt that on Thursday Aso Taro will announce a new set of economic measures — and will also announce that he will not schedule an election for the later part of November. Yomiuri reports that Oshima Tadanori, the LDP's parliamentary affairs chairman, has voiced his disagreement with the prime minister's …
Aso pushes back
Prime Minister Aso, holding a press conference in Beijing where he is attending the annual Asia-Europe meeting (ASEM), suggested that in the midst of the current crisis, he will be prioritizing Japan's international role over the "domestic political situation."The press interpretation of this remark is that Mr. Aso was signaling that he will not call …
The LDP looks to delay a general election
His poll numbers slipping (even in Yomiuri, in whose latest poll his approval rating fell 3.6% to 45.9% and his disapproval rating rose 5.2% to 38.6%), the financial system collapsing, the US "passing" Japan on North Korea, and the DPJ refusing to provide an issue with which the government can galvanize public opinion (for now), …
Tobias S. Harris 