What a difference fifteen years make.In his memoir, Abe Shinzo wrote of his lonely fight — alongside Nakagawa Shoichi and a handful of other LDP conservatives — to oppose normalization with North Korea and place the abductions issue at the center of Japan's North Korea policy. They battled against the LDP, the media, academia, and …
Month: June 2008
An Ozawa indiscretion?
Ozawa Ichiro's comments on the US decision to proceed with removing North Korea from the list of state sponsors of terrorism — mentioned here in passing — have apparently caused a tempest in Washington, as US Asia watchers have taken issue with his claim that the US "never" takes Japan's wishes into account when making …
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
No surprises
When is a shock not a shock?Sankei Shimbun's front cover this morning proclaimed, in large print, "Shock to the Japanese nation."The headline, of course, referred to President Bush's announcement Thursday that, in keeping with the principle of "action for action," the Bush administration will (1) lift "the provisions of the Trading with the Enemy Act …
Web developments
The Yomiuri Shimbun, Japan's largest daily by circulation, is finally entering the twenty-first century.Earlier this month it revamped its website, introducing an RSS feed and other web tools. It also created a clipping service, for which users must register.Meanwhile Japan's other political parties have followed the LDP and created YouTube channels of their own (DPJ; …
The DPJ debates its election
The DPJ is scheduled to hold a leadership election in September.There is some debate about the election. Should the party even bother with an election (see this article in Liberal Time), or should it just reaffirm Ozawa Ichiro as party president to minimize the risk of election-related instability? Should it wait until September, when the …
The consequences of the US-Japan rift on North Korea
With North Korea expected to deliver its account of its nuclear program Thursday — excluding its existing nuclear weapons, which Chris Hill has said will be addressed in the next round — the US is prepared to move forward in removing North Korea from the list of state sponsors of terrorism.The long-awaited blow to the …
Continue reading The consequences of the US-Japan rift on North Korea
The world’s top public intellectuals…
Foreign Policy and Prospect have released the results of their joint poll asking who are the world's top public intellectuals.Of the top ten, all ten are Muslims and write about Islamic issues.The twenty-first century will be profoundly shaped by developments in the Islamic world, but I think this result overeggs the pudding, as the British …
DPJ ranks swell
Nikkei reports that the DPJ now has more "party members/party supporters" than ever before.The total number at the end of May was 270,000 members/supporters nationwide, compared with 244,000 in September 2006 (when Ozawa Ichiro's current term as party leader began) and 201,000 in 2007 (the month isn't specified).What matters is where these new members are …
On the national interest
In the 20 June edition of his column in Yukan Fuji, an evening newspaper, Nakagawa Shoichi tackled recent developments in Japan's relations with its neighbors.Not surprisingly, he wrote that the government should be taking a harder line in negotiations with North Korea over the abductee problem, China over East China Sea gas rights, and Taiwan …
Tobias S. Harris 