Japan’s labor laws have made several several distinct steps forward since the Meiji Restoration of 1868, with workers gradually gaining a degree of protection from the exploitation of business owners and managers. However, the era of Shinzo Abe has been characterized not only by a failure to progress further, but by a distinct step backwards.
For almost two-and-a-half decades, Japan and the United States have insisted that a new US Marine airbase at Henoko—a replacement for Marine Corps Air Station Futenma—is absolutely needed as a solid foundation for the US-Japan Alliance. Last year, however, it was officially revealed that the sea floor where the base is being constructed consists of mayonnaise-soft earth, and that any airstrip built there now could sink into oblivion.
A roundup of the most significant news stories from Japan reported in the first half of February 2020.
The Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman election debates, which took place on the 12th, illustrate the party’s general lack of solutions for its internal crisis as it heads towards the decisive party vote on March 7.
Whereas most Japanese political parties, whether the ruling conservatives or the mainstream opposition, effectively have little in the way of fixed party policies, the Japan Communist Party, the nation’s oldest political party, is very different, taking its own platforms very seriously.
Observing the results of 2020 elections, the international media generally reported on the defeat of the Nationalist Party (KMT) in both presidential and legislative elections as though it were an overwhelming landslide, but a closer examination tells a more nuanced story.
A roundup of the most significant news stories from Japan reported in the last half of January 2020.
The priorities of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) should be clear given its response to the outbreak of the Wuhan Coronavirus. Namely, the CCP has not acted to protect the health of the Chinese people, but instead acted with its priorities on presenting the appearance of stability, so as to maintain political legitimacy.
Plans by Taiwanese company Formosa Plastics to build a US$9.2 billion plastics complex in the St. James Parish of Louisiana should once again call attention to Formosa’s blatant disregard for the environment and human life in other countries.
A roundup of the most significant news stories from Japan reported in the first half of January 2020.
