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 […]
Japanese media featured smiling shots of Shinzo Abe, who has just broken all records to become Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, at 2,887 days and still going strong, striding atop Japan’s political scene like a real-life colossus. For all the celebrations of Abe’s record-breaking past, the real questions are for the future: what is Abe doing […]
The seeds of Japanese aggression and atrocities were sown in the emperor worship and glorification of the armed forces that were essential elements of the Meiji world. This is the unspoken problem with those who, like Mr Abe sometimes, refuse to face up to the wartime past. It risks pulling on a thread to the […]
The nationalist premiers of Japan and India — Shinzo Abe and Narendra Modi — who are meeting this weekend in Delhi have a very different set of ideas. They are betting that Japan and India can influence Asia’s strategic future by reclaiming regional leadership. Translating this ambition into reality, Abe and Modi know, will depend […]
India, as the second most-populous country, has a promising bid for a permanent Security Council seat. However, the nation has strategic problems….In fact, India’s biggest mistake is to ally itself with Japan, Germany and Brazil. First of all, these three countries have opponents in the region. Japan’s bid for permanent membership will definitely invite strong […]
Under the leadership of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Japan is steadily loosening the shackles of its postwar pacifist constitution. The April announcement of the new U.S.-Japan defense guidelines aims to bolster U.S.-Japanese defense cooperation without preset geographical limits and enables “seamless and effective” alliance responses to security threats. Read Here – National Interest
As we wait for Russia to respond to the announcement last month of new U.S.-Japan defense guidelines, it seems that Russia-Japan relations have come to a crossroads. Read Here – The Moscow Times
The murder of two Japanese citizens by Islamic State terrorists shouldn’t be used as an excuse to eliminate the Constitution’s restraints on the use of military force. Read Here – Japan Time
While hard power and soft power are necessary attributes of sustainable power projection by nation states, smart and fast power can help nations, big and small, find their way through or adapt to complex and rapidly changing strategic environments. By acting “fast”, the Modi government can claim it has more than neutralised, in a short […]
The “look-east” policy launched by Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao in 1992 is maturing. Diplomatic and political linkages built up with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as a dialogue partner, as part of platforms such as the ASEAN Regional Forum, East Asia Summit and ASEAN Defence Ministers’ (plus) Meeting provide the Modi government […]
looking beyond borders 