April 14,2016 Country Reports

Country Report: Japan (April 2016)

In the late winter of 2016, the Japanese mainstream was pleased with US foreign policy, if nervous about campaign rhetoric: reassured about triangularity opposed to North Korea, but still trying to keep dialogue with the North alive for the sake of the abductions issue; exceedingly quiet on Abe’s plan to meet with Putin in Sochi […]

Editorial Staff
december 28 japan-rok agreement , history textbooks , jica , south china sea , takeshima , trump
February 01,2016 Country Reports

Country Report: Japan (February 2016)

The mood in Japan was unexpectedly hopeful as 2015 drew to an end and a new year began. Nervousness prevalent through much of 2015 had dissipated. Confident leadership, improved bilateral relations with the countries that matter most, and a hopeful mood of expectation were widely present in newspaper and journal articles. Yet, some controversies were […]

Editorial Staff
japan , national security , non-military activity , shuttle diplomacy
December 03,2015 Country Reports

Country Report: Japan (December 2015)

The September 28 Yomiuri Shimbun argued that anti-Americanism is the crux of the opposition to the new law on collective self-defense. Reviewing a book by Miura Ruri (juxtaposing it to Hosoya Yuichi’s writing on internationalism), it credits Abe with the achievement of overcoming grassroots anti-American thinking both in leftist pacifism and in rightist anti-globalism. Deep-rooted […]

Editorial Staff
internationalism , japan-us alliance , national security , rok-sino relations
October 07,2015 Country Reports

Country Report: Japan (October 2015)

The shadow of history hung over Japan in the late summer as Abe’s statement was debated, the seventieth anniversary of the war’s end passed on August 15, and Xi Jinping commemorated the same anniversary on September 3. Various bilateral relations were put in historical context, as was the march to collective self-defense laws that preoccupied […]

Editorial Staff
economic relations , history wars , national security , north korea , post-cold war , rok-sino alliance , russo-sino alliance
August 13,2015 Country Reports

Country Report: Japan (August 2015)

Japan-Russia Relations Relations with Russia appeared to be back on track in the first part of the summer. Plans for Putin to visit Japan were going forward despite unconcealed disapproval by the Obama administration. Japanese writers held out hope for trouble in Sino-Russian relations in the face of many signs to the contrary. Abe’s determination […]

Editorial Staff
japan-rok tensions , japan-us alliance , national security , putin-abe summit , south china sea
March 02,2015 Country Reports

Country Report: Japan (February 2015)

South Korea preoccupied Japanese media more than China, recognized as a threat, North Korea, posing an ever greater threat, and Russia, which was transfixing the media elsewhere. Conservatives were obsessed with the “comfort women” issue and linked progressive dishonor of Japan with South Korean disrespect and campaigns in the United States and elsewhere to sully […]

Editorial Staff
historical revisionism , murayama statement , yasukuni shrine
October 20,2014 Country Reports

Country Report: Japan (October 2014)

Hopes for Japanese diplomacy had grown faint in the late summer of 2014. Russian relations had stalled, as Russia flexed its muscles with rare military exercises on the islands in dispute. North Korea was delaying a report on the abductees, which Japan had been expecting in the middle of September. Possible meetings on the sidelines […]

Editorial Staff
asean asian dream , comfort women , eurasian diplomacy , japanese abductees , northern territories , putin’s visit , sanctions , thailand , ukraine , us pressure