Ruling Coalition Loses Supermajority
A roundup of the most significant news stories from Japan reported in the second half of July 2019.
Tag Archives: Nobusuke Kishi
The End of the Liberal Party
A roundup of the most significant news stories from Japan reported on January 23, 2019.
The Campaign to Overwrite the Comfort Women Past
In 1993, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono made the most full-throated admission and apology acknowledging that Japan had coerced women across Asia into being sex slaves—euphemistically referred to as “Comfort Women”—for the Japanese military during the Pacific War. More recently, however, conservative politicians such as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Osaka Mayor Hirofumi Yoshimura have engaged in a campaign that is less about carving out a path toward reconciliation than to overwrite memories of an unsavory past.
Korean Forced Labor Ruling Rattles Abe’s Cage
A roundup of the most significant news stories from Japan reported on November 4, 2018.
Abe Government Fails in South Korea Diplomacy
The decision by the Abe government to return Ambassador Yasumasa Nagamine to Seoul and Consul-General Yasuhiro Morimoto to Busan represents a total failure of Japan’s current approach to diplomatic relations with its closest neighbor, South Korea.
Japanese Hawks Lifted by Donald Trump
Donald Trump’s comments about the potential need for the United States to retract its responsibility to defend Japan helps conservative Japanese politicians bolster this East Asian nation’s military posture.
Abe’s Olympic Lies
Shinzo Abe loved his grandfather, and so the chance to follow in his footsteps must be exhilarating indeed. In 1959 Tokyo was awarded the 1964 Summer Olympics. The prime minister of Japan in 1959 was Nobusuke Kishi, the current prime minister’s grandfather. Shinzo Abe, of course, had nothing to do with initiating Tokyo’s bid for the 2020 Olympics.