Pushing Japan to remilitarize was never, and still is not, a good idea. This is not just because an arms race in Asia is the last thing the region needs. But also because Japan, consistently unable to face up to its own history, is simply not the country to represent the world’s liberal democracies in Asia, especially as a military power.
It was exactly a month ago today that Shinzo Abe was assassinated in Nara by 41-year-old Tetsuya Yamagami. As the passions of that event begin to settle, this is an opportune occasion to reconsider both the benefits and the costs of an administration which lasted longer than any other in Japanese history.
The assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has occasioned a lot of valuable, eye-opening discussions in the media, but few if any have focused upon how Abe’s death could be seen as a form of karmic payback–what happens when you ignore the lessons of history in the pursuit of raw political power.
This SNA Speakeasy features Ulv Hanssen of Soka University on the theme of “Anti-Korean Hate Books in Japan.”
Former Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara, who died February 1, was an evil man. Any honest obituary would admit as such.
Ahead of Donald Trump’s second visit to Japan in 2019, a Japanese hotelier invited the US president’s former chief strategist and senior advisor Steve Bannon to give a “special lecture” in Tokyo. That hotelier’s name is Toshio Motoya.
With a constant barrage of berating comments like “you are lowering Japan’s image,” “feminists are garbage,” and “women aren’t fit to be working,” the fight for female rights and dignity within Japanese online spaces seems to be a neverending battle.
The only museum about Taiwanese Comfort Women closed down this month after its four years of operating at a loss. The women’s rights foundation that runs the Ama Museum said that they would try again in a cheaper location beginning in April next year.
A roundup of the most significant news stories from Japan reported in the last half of September 2020.
A roundup of the most significant news stories from Japan reported in the last half of July 2020.
