After its Coast Guard arrested the captain of a Chinese fishing trawler in waters claimed by Tokyo, Japan surprised the world by showing uncharacteristic steadfastness in standing up to Chinese pressure. Indeed, despite increasingly bellicose Chinese rhetoric and threats, Tokyo valiantly stood its ground. And the fact that the left-of-center …
Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan survived a leadership challenge from a kingmaker in his own Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), Ichiro Ozawa, and last Friday he reshuffled his cabinet. Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada was named the party’s secretary-general and number two to Kan. Okada leaves the foreign minister’s desk stacked …
In the 1980s and 1990s, Chicken Littles warned that Japan was buying up America. The biggest symbol that our country couldn’t keep up with Japan’s managed-trade policies was the 1989 purchase of New York’s Rockefeller Center by Mitsubishi. Even though the sky didn’t fall, protectionist Chicken Littles are at it …
“Man is a giddy thing,” William Shakespeare might say, looking at the fuss over the relocation project of Futenma Air Station. Nevertheless, the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) would never ask, “Dost thou not suspect my years?” The DPJ’s 2010 election manifesto emphasized the need for a strong alliance between …
Three of The Heritage Foundation’s analysts in the Asian Studies Center provided their thoughts on the upcoming Nuclear Summit in Washington DC. Lisa Curtis: “No one can dispute the significance and urgency of the issues to be addressed at the nuclear security summit, namely that of preventing acts of nuclear …
In publicizing the President’s State of the Union address, Senior Adviser Valerie Jarrett announced that one of the achievements of which the administration was most proud in its first year in office was its action to repair “badly frayed global alliances” and “to restore America’s leadership in the world.” That …
The results of a small town mayoral election on distant Okinawa island risks undermining plans to build a U.S. base and may further inflame tensions in the already strained U.S.-Japan military alliance. Challenger Susumu Inamine, who opposes constructing the U.S. base, beat pro-base Yoshikazu Shimabukuro in the January 24th contest, …
