Day by day, the US–China confrontation is heating up. The trajectory now appears irreversible. The nations of the Indo-Pacific, Japan included, are sandwiched between the United States and China. It is high time for them to consider strengthening effective regional cooperation by building on ASEAN-centred processes.
Read Here | East Asia Forum
Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe managed to strike a delicate diplomatic balance between China and the United States. But as Sino-American tensions escalate, his successor, Yoshihide Suga, will find it increasingly difficult to avoid taking sides, especially on technology issues and security arrangements.
Read Here | Project Syndicate
Suga Yoshihide, the chief cabinet secretary throughout Abe’s record-long term, does not have a flashy image, nor a celebrity profile. But he is known as a tenacious political fighter, seeking to reform the LDP from within and to force through incremental but profound changes to the major institutions that control Japan’s society. He has warned that the bureaucratic structure of the civil service is hampering the government’s response to COVID-19.
Read Here | The Diplomat
Yoshihide Suga, the low-key son of a farmer who will be named Japan’s next prime minister on Wednesday, is in many ways a policy clone of recently resigned Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. But that doesn’t mean Suga will bring anything like the same effort Abe did to bolstering Japan’s defense capabilities—a transition in Japanese politics both Beijing and Washington will be watching.
Read Here | Foreign Policy
Also Read | Japan’s New Prime Minister Is A Fixer, Not A Leader
Twice in the 20th century, Japan challenged the West, first in a military-led attempt to become an imperial power and then as an industrial powerhouse. Now, it is China’s turn to take the global stage. Seventy-five years after Japan’s surrender in World War II, and 30 years after its economic bubble popped, the emergence of a 21st-century Asian power is shaking up the “status quo.”
Read Here | Taipei Times
Asian history is now repeating itself. Like Japan, China is now another textbook example of power from wealth—and wealth from trade and commerce. For well over a century, China suffered under the West’s humiliation. Indeed, it suffered concurrent humiliations under Japanese aggression while fighting its own civil war.
Read Here | The National Interest
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.
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 that remain beyond his grasp when he officially steps down as prime minister.
Read Here | Japan Times
Japan’s longest-serving Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, 65, announced his resignation on Friday. Citing ill health, he told a press conference in Tokyo that as he “cannot make any mistake in terms of important decision making,” he was not “ready to respond to the mandate by the public.” Due to this, “I made a judgment I should not continue my job as prime minister,” Abe said.
