Having read and enjoyed Jacob Adelstein's Tokyo Vice, it was with considerable interest that I read his article "The Last Yakuza" in the World Policy Journal (h/t to Corey Wallace).Like Wallace, I have no particular expertise with which to assess the role played by the Yakuza in Japanese society. But also like him, I am …
Tag: Kamei Shizuka
Hatoyama stays above the fray, but his government resists Kamei
In his first two weeks as prime minister, Hatoyama Yukio ought to have learned an important lesson about governing: if you do not set the agenda, someone else will. With the LDP focused on electing a new leader, the policy agenda was clearly set by Kamei Shizuka, trying to make the best of the poor …
Continue reading Hatoyama stays above the fray, but his government resists Kamei
An important week for the Hatoyama government
Prime Minister Hatoyama Yukio has returned to Japan after what appears to have been a successful introduction to the world in New York and Pittsburgh last week. The visit to the US may not have accomplished much in practical terms, but it did have symbolic importance, showing that the Hatoyama government will not shy away …
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Containing Kamei
While Okada Katsuya was securing his position as the undisputed leader in foreign policy making, Kamei Shizuka has made immediately clear that he was going to be a source of trouble for the Hatoyama government as minister of postal reform and financial services.I already noted Friday that Kamei had used a press conference following a …
The Hatoyama government fills more positions and gets to work
On Friday the Hatoyama cabinet met and continued its work of reforming Japan's policymaking system.The cabinet decided to create the national strategy office under the leadership of Kan Naoto, pending legislation to elevate the office to a full bureau attached to the cabinet. Another cabinet decision created the Administrative Renovation Council (ARC), which will nominally …
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Hatoyama delivers an impressive cabinet
The votes are being counted in the House of Representatives, after which the House of Councillors will vote for the new prime minister. Hatoyama Yukio's election as the next prime minister is assured.On the eve of his election by the Diet, Hatoyama decided the presumptive lineup of his cabinet — but he did not share …
The Hatoyama system takes shape
The coalition with the SDPJ and the PNP cemented, the DPJ is getting to work filling in the rest of the cabinet.One question is what posts the SDPJ's Fukushima Mizuho and PNP's Kamei Shizuka will fill. The SDPJ has requested either the ministry of health, labor, and welfare or, it seems, the environment portfolio. Despite …
Assembling the new coalition government
The DPJ has been in intense negotiations with the Social Democratic Party of Japan (SDPJ) and the People's New Party (PNP) to finalize the terms of their coalition government.The DPJ's goal in negotiations is naturally to minimize the disruptiveness from having two parties (and their internal politics) interfere with the DPJ's plans for a streamlined …
The DPJ rattles markets
How much longer can the US count on Japan to buy Treasuries?Nakagawa Masaharu, since 2007 shadow finance minster in the DPJ's Next Cabinet, has raised the specter of DPJ government's forgoing US government bonds (at least those dominated in dollars instead of yen). In a story that originated with the BBC, according to Jiji, Nakagawa …
Tobias S. Harris 