When Ichiro Hatoyama finally gained the premiership from 1954-1956, he had become elderly and was in failing health. This did not stop him, however, from scoring two major achievements: he presided over the creation of the Liberal Democratic Party and reestablished diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union.
What Fujimori did with power became a cautionary tale—of how an outsider, once let in, can corrupt everything.
Reform kabuki can never become actual reform until the Liberal Democratic Party is dislodged as Japan’s semi-permanent ruling party.
As he desperately tries to survive the ruling party’s political funds scandal, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida declared that he “will act as a fireball at the forefront of the Liberal Democratic Party and work to restore the trust of the people.” Most analysts, however, see this administration in the midst of a spectacular flameout.
The ghost of Shinzo Abe’s political and financial corruption has again risen up to haunt his successors, staggering the already weak administration of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
Both sides of the political spectrum are disappointed by the newly passed anti-LGBT discrimination law, but for different reasons.
An interview with Jon Heese, a naturalized Canadian-Japanese and elected Tsukuba City Councillor of twelve years. A Caucasian Visible Minority of Japan, Heese has long been advocating that other Non-Japanese Residents naturalize and run for office.
Concerns about the Unification Church’s fundraising activities in Japan have spiraled in the weeks following the assassination of Shinzo Abe; the momentum of public outrage now threatens to carry matters too far.
Unemployed loner Tetsuya Yamagami hoped to use his homemade shotgun on Shinzo Abe not mainly to kill Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, but to take his revenge on the Unification Church, which he blamed for destroying his life and that of his family. Improbably, the assassination has become a wild political success.
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.
