Former Prime Minister Abe Shinzo was assassinated on July 8 as he gave a stump speech for this Sunday’s Upper House election in the western city of Nara. The shocking act not only marked the death of a towering national figure but triggered new concerns about the state of Japan’s democracy. Read More Here
The overall assessment is that Abe was a “pragmatic realist,” … But such assessments miss one critical point: Abe took Japan’s relationship with South Korea, one of Japan’s most important security and trade partners, and drove it into a ditch for reasons neither realistic nor pragmatic. Read Here | Foreign Policy
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s greatest achievements will be the records he set for his time in office: He’s the country’s longest-serving prime minister, a mark he hit last November, and, as of last weekend, has spent the longest consecutive time in office. Impressive though those accomplishments are, Abe will likely be haunted by the goals […]
Few politicians anywhere are having a better Covid-19 crisis than Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike. An odd claim, perhaps, considering the Summer Olympics on which Japan lavished tens of billions of dollars had to be postponed to July 2021 – if it happens at all. Koike, though, is basking in the glow of Tokyo’s relative – […]
Japanese policymakers often seem like the economic equivalent of Winston Churchill’s take on Americans that they can be counted on to do the right thing after exhausting all other possibilities. There’s nothing new or innovative about Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s revival scheme. Abenomics is merely a list of reforms Tokyo should have tackled 20 years […]
The relationship between the two countries—historically strategically distant—has grown increasingly robust under the stewardship of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Abe, with regular high-level summitry (Abe traveled to Delhi to visit Modi last month) combined with increasingly frequent and deepening exchanges at the diplomatic, defense, and business levels. Read Here – Foreign Affairs
When Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government redrew Japan’s self-imposed arms export restrictions in 2014, it hoped to spark a revolution in a domestic defense industry that had been isolated for almost 40 years. In part, it succeeded. In June, Japanese companies such as Fuji and Kawasaki Heavy Industries displayed military helicopters and warplanes at […]
Since the end of the Cold War, rising gross domestic product and regular elections have come to mark progress in large parts of the world. Such apparent resemblances to Western-style capitalism and democracy still enthuse many commentators. But do they actually conceal the deteriorating political and moral health of emerging economies until it’s too late? […]
It could be expected that military cooperation between the US and Japan could become more focused on containing the rise of China. The more comprehensive their collaboration is, the stronger backlash it will trigger from China, leaving Asia in jeopardy. Read Here – Global Times
The alliance transformation envisioned by Obama and Abe also reflects a changing Asia. In the decade and a half since the Cold War ended, the region has been influenced by new security challenges, such as the nuclear and missile proliferation of North Korea, and has begun to be reshaped by complex economic and political currents […]
looking beyond borders 