In the latest blow to the Japanese right's ambitions to scold and isolate China, the Sazanami, a Takanami class destroyer, departed today for China, where it will visit Zhanjiang, a port in China's Guangzhou province from June 24-28. The visit will reciprocate last year's visit to Japan by the Chinese destroyer Shenzen.The visit will of …
Tag: Sino-Japan relations
Australia and Japan in the same boat
After being criticized at home (and, supposedly, in Tokyo) for failing to visit Japan on a swing through Asia in March, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will be in Tokyo this week for meetings with Prime Minister Fukuda.Andrew Shearer, a fellow at Australia's Lowy Institute for International Policy, has an excellent op-ed in The Australian …
Strange days
Perhaps showing just how serious China is about not mentioning the war and acknowledging Japan's "consistent pursuit of the path of a peaceful country," not to mention illustrating just how dire the situation in Szechuan is, the Chinese government has reportedly asked the Japanese government to dispatch planes to China in order to deliver tents, …
Fear and loathing in the wake of Hu’s visit
As Jun Okumura notes, a poll by Fuji TV's Hodo 2001 program found that Fukuda Yasuo gained nothing from Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit to Japan last week.The poll recorded that nearly sixty percent of respondents disapprove of Mr. Fukuda's China policy.Beyond public doubts, Mr. Fukuda's action (or inaction) during Mr. Hu's visit have driven …
Continue reading Fear and loathing in the wake of Hu’s visit
Mr. Hu’s relentlessly upbeat visit
Chinese President Hu Jintao will leave Japan Saturday after a five-day visit, a visit that the Chinese Communist Party's external relations bureau has described as a "great success."(Photo from the Office of the Prime Minister)It is hard to dispute that, as far as symbolism goes, the visit was indeed a success. Mr. Hu and Prime …
Violence at the Gaimusho
A twenty-two-year-old suspect, reportedly the member of a right-wing organization, has been arrested after hurling a Molotov cocktail at the front entrance to the Foreign Ministry. No one was harmed but the suspect, who stabbed himself with a kitchen knife after hurling the explosive.He was reportedly demonstrating against the Foreign Ministry's failure to complain to …
The weakness of Fukuda’s (and Japan’s) carbon campaign
As the Fukuda government has insisted at every chance it has to remind Japanese citizens and foreign governments that the focus of this summer's G8 summit in Hokkaido will be climate change policy. Tokyo is eager to be at the forefront of the quest for a post-Kyoto climate change pact.This weekend Mr. Fukuda took this …
Continue reading The weakness of Fukuda’s (and Japan’s) carbon campaign
The bankruptcy of the China hawks
Sankei's Komori Yoshihisa, arch-conservative and China hawk, has published at his blog a list of complaints about Prime Minister Fukuda's visit to China last week, criticizing the prime minister for failing to criticize China for every perceived and actual failing of the Chinese Communist Party.Sounding much like his American peers, including the Washington Times's Bill …
Fukuda’s "catch ball" diplomacy
Fukuda Yasuo is in China, and the contrasts, both with his earlier trip to Washington and Ozawa Ichiro's trip to China, are stunning, if not surprising.Recall how earlier this month I criticized Mr. Ozawa for his over-the-top visit to Beijing, when he traveled with an entourage of hundreds and spoke in effusive terms about the …
Desperate for a win
In the midst of new polls showing that support for his government is waning, Prime Minister Fukuda has announced his plans for traveling to Beijing.The prime minister will leave for China on Thursday, 27 December, meet with President Hu Jintao and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao on 28 December, and return to Japan on 30 December. …
Tobias S. Harris 