Speakeasy: US Presidential Election and US-East Asian Relations
This SNA Speakeasy features Glen S. Fukushima on the theme of “US Presidential Election and US-East Asian Relations.”
Tag Archives: Donald Trump
Visible Minorities: Weaponizing the Japanese Language
On August 28, Toshimitsu Motegi, Japan’s foreign minister, was giving an official press conference to reporters in Japanese. A foreign reporter for Japan Times, Magdalena Osumi, asked some questions in Japanese. When Osumi followed up on a point he left unclear, Motegi responded to her in English.
Taiwan Opens to US Beef and Pork Imports
The Tsai Ing-wen administration surprised last week with the announcement that it intended to open Taiwan up to beef and pork imports from the United States. This move is clearly aimed at removing one of the major political hurdles to a bilateral trade agreement with Washington, which had made this a precondition for a bilateral trade agreement with Taiwan for well over a decade.
Abe Maintains Do-Nothing Policy on Covid Second Wave
A roundup of the most significant news stories from Japan reported in the last half of July 2020.
Aegis Ashore and Japan’s Defense Policy Dysfunction
On June 15, Defense Minister Taro Kono announced a suspension of the deployment of the Aegis Ashore missile interception system—a suspension that ten days later became a cancellation. The progression from deciding to deploy Aegis Ashore, to cancelling it, to considering alternatives, reveals policy formation fraught with dysfunction.
Visible Minorities: A Despotic Bridge Too Far
How bad does it have to get? I’m talking about Japan’s cruelty and meanness towards its Non-Japanese residents. How bad before people think to step in and stop it? With Covid-19, we might have an answer.
No Alert as Covid-19 Cases Rise
A roundup of the most significant news stories from Japan reported in the last half of June 2020.
A Cautious Reopening for Business
A roundup of the most significant news stories from Japan reported in the first half of June 2020.
Fascists Would Win a New US Civil War
Since the 1990s, US society has been drawing into two broad camps, which for simplicity’s sake we will call the Reds and the Blues. This year, the polarization between them has reached a new level of passion and intensity. If this polarization descends entirely into a civil war—and the November 2020 elections could very well be a trigger for such a scenario—history suggests that the initial victory would be decisively in favor of the Red fascists.
Trump Uses Taiwan and Hong Kong Only to Score Points Against China
A press conference by US President Donald Trump took an unexpected turn after Trump announced not only the end of Hong Kong’s favorable trade status under American law, but that the United States would be withdrawing from the World Health Organization.
