Ruling Coalition Loses Supermajority
A roundup of the most significant news stories from Japan reported in the second half of July 2019.
Tag Archives: Korean Peninsula
Conservative Landslide in Unified Local Elections
A roundup of the most significant news stories from Japan reported on April 12, 2019.
Shinzo Abe’s Diplomatic Isolation on North Korea
As anticipation builds up for a second summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, now expected to take place in late February, another closely interested figure is sitting out cold on the sidelines—Shinzo Abe.
Ghosn Prosecutors Double Down
A roundup of the most significant news stories from Japan reported on December 24, 2018.
The Fall of Carlos Ghosn
A roundup of the most significant news stories from Japan reported on November 25, 2018.
Diet Extension to Push Immigration Bill
A roundup of the most significant news stories from Japan reported on November 15, 2018.
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.
“Behavior Unworthy of a Nation Governed by Law”
A roundup of the most significant news stories from Japan reported on October 31, 2018.
UN Committee Urges Abe Government to Address Comfort Women Issue
The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) advised the government of Japan to take a more active stance towards the Comfort Women matter. The UN report was published on August 30, and it called for a “lasting solution” based on “a victim-centered approach.”
The Case Against Aegis Ashore
While the Abe administration presents Aegis Ashore as an essential and relatively uncontroversial contribution to the defense of Japan from the North Korean threat, in reality the deployment of this missile defense system risks further destabilizing the security situation in Northeast Asia, especially with regard to Russia.
