The recent crash of a US Air Force CV-22 Osprey aircraft off the southern coast has once again highlighted Japan’s enduring lack of control over its own territories, even 78 years after the Pacific War.
As they have repeatedly done in the past, Washington and Tokyo have conspired to ensure that, should a military conflict break out with mainland China, thousands of Okinawans will be among the first to be killed.
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.
US military bases spreading cancerous substances was originally seen as an issue primarily for Okinawans to grapple with, but recent discoveries at Yokosuka and Atsugi bases are making clear that it is a nationwide problem.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has outlined what appears to be a sincere effort to realign Japan’s position on nuclear weapons–from one that supports the maintenance of the US “nuclear umbrella” to one that aims for gradual global nuclear weapons disarmament.
The 500 Dot Com casino bribery scandal was yet another instance of major corruption that first emerged in the Shinzo Abe era.
The Shingetsu News Agency presents our own provisional handbook on nomenclature for the Covid variants which have been confirmed to have reached Japan.
This video in our Explained! series is a basic review of why the US Marine airbase at Futenma in Okinawa has become such a source of enduring controversy.
The Covid-19 crisis became a dominating issue for the world, and Japan is no exception. This is a timeline of the events so far.
The US elections captured the world’s attention. No wonder. Given its hegemony as an economic, political, cultural, and military power, the results underpin the future of geopolitics and world order.
