On June 15, Defense Minister Taro Kono announced a suspension of the deployment of the Aegis Ashore missile interception system—a suspension that ten days later became a cancellation. The progression from deciding to deploy Aegis Ashore, to cancelling it, to considering alternatives, reveals policy formation fraught with dysfunction.
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.
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.
A roundup of the most significant news stories from Japan reported in the last half of January 2020.
A roundup of the most significant news stories from Japan reported in the last half of December 2019.
A roundup of the most significant news stories from Japan reported in the last half of November 2019.
A roundup of the most significant news stories from Japan reported in the last half of October 2019.
A roundup of the most significant news stories from Japan reported in the first half of July 2019.
The Shingetsu News Agency has been keeping a running log of the major developments in Japanese politics since January 2012. The following is our contemporary account of the entire year 2012.
At his press conference at the conclusion of the G20 Summit in Osaka, US President Donald Trump declares that the terms US-Japan security treaty are going to have to change.
