Visible Minorities: Electing The Joker
How being bad became a sales point in choosing a US political leader
How being bad became a sales point in choosing a US political leader
What Fujimori did with power became a cautionary tale—of how an outsider, once let in, can corrupt everything.
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.
US President Joe Biden celebrated an economic agreement last week among fourteen Asia-Pacific countries, including Japan, which implicitly aims to counter China’s regional economic influence.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has been honored, together with South Korean President Yoon Suk-Yeol, with a John F. Kennedy “Profile in Courage Award,” despite the fact that he personally has been unwilling to take any political risks to improve Japan-South Korea relations.
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.
The recent efforts to encourage cooperation between Washington, Tokyo, and Seoul in diverse fields, from science and technology to diplomacy and security, comes as welcome news, especially in light of the decline in collaboration during the Trump administration. Even before that time it was never particularly vibrant.
Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen has announced the extension of the military draft to one year from the current duration of four months, citing the perceived need for increased military preparedness.
The antiviral drug Avigan was developed by the firm Fujifilm Toyama Chemical in 2014, and it was later envisioned as Japan’s leading prospect to solve the global Covid pandemic. The drug was enthusiastically promoted by former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, but this October its development was quietly terminated.
The US House of Representatives passed a mammoth US$858 billion military spending bill, putting the US budget for weapons and war-making higher than the next nine countries combined. Also attached to the bill was unprecedented US taxpayer funding for Taiwan’s military.