GlobalTalk 21

Prime Minister Abe has been persuaded by two economic advisors, Professor Koichi Hamada and former non-mainstream MOF bureaucrat Etsuro Hon...

According to this joint Japan-China survey , 46.0% of the Japanese responders were okay with the prime minister paying his respects at the ...

Is it my imagination or have my observation skills taken a jump this summer? There seem to be a noticeably higher number of women, mostly y...

Here’s my weekend memo on Aso channeling the Nazis, edited to avoid any duplication with other stuff out there. Someone whose judgment I re...

Not after the Japanese government signs on. I just finished talking to an analyst who wanted to know if there would be any potential ro...

Deputy Prime Minister (and Finance Minister) Taro Aso has turned Godwin’s Law on its head with his latest gaffe about Nazis (Nazis?!?) gen...

I thought that I’d post something that complemented, rather than overlapped with, media reports and also avoided grappling with the polemic...

It is common practice among the metropolitan city folk to lament the despoilment of Japanese coastlines and riverbanks by thick slabs of po...

The following comments have been significantly aided by a conversation with John Campbell. Prime Minister Abe will not go to Yasukuni o...

So we’re a small group of political junkies, and John Campbell reminds us that to settle the vote disparity issue for good like the Supreme...

Here I am on China Radio International . I got a message from a political scientist, who will go unnamed for now since he is at a cr...

If you’ve already figured what the punch line is here, good for you. Otherwise, read on. And if you don’t know what AKB 48 is, there’s alwa...

I thought I’d reboot my blog with my thoughts on the significance of AKB48 but I decided to take it easy and post my talking notes for a pa...

A Q&(My)A that appears not to have been used in that media outlet, so here it is: Q. Given that making it easier for companies to h...

Or am I just late to the conversation? And is it sufficiently explanatory? I’m having lunch with a couple of foreign correspondents, on...

My sentiments, exactly . And yes, it is amazing, even if she had been, as I suspect, a very proficient chess player.

The following exchange took place between me and a Chinese analyst over the working week, edited for typos and augmented for clarity. I (th...