Japanese Diet Members Set for Their First Formal Meeting with the 14th Dalai Lama Next Month
“As Japanese politicians, don’t we owe it to ourselves to do everything absolutely meticulously at this juncture in preparing for the meeting?” To the above appeal by Seishu Makino – a Lower Ho…
Another of the DPJ’s Baffling Moves: the Return of Yukio Hatoyama as “Senior Advisor for Foreign Affairs”
Until just recently, I was fairly confident of not being taken by surprise by virtually anything that the ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPD) might do, since self-contradictions and logical inco…
Japan Must Substantially Increase Its Defense Budget to Cope with China’s Threat over the Senkaku Islands
On September 11, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda went ahead with a decision to nationalize the disputed Senkaku Islands in order to “maintain and manage them in a peaceful and stable manner.” How muc…
A Short Wish List for Prime Minister Noda: Would You Please Leave Office as Soon as Possible?
Now that Yoshihiko Noda has somehow managed to enact a highly contentious consumption tax increase under his Comprehensive Social Security and Tax Reform initiative last August, I think it is time …
South Korea’s Real Crisis: A Rejection of Its Own Identity
South Korean politics continues to stray off course. The most crucial task for South Korea today is to determine how it should cope with the threats of North Korea and China. In terms of its nation…
