GlobalTalk 21

A quickie, from a late-night, transpacific email exchange with a couple of people whom I deeply respect. (Yes, I’m the wiseguy.) Speaking o...

A friend cites this Japan Times article (translated Kyodo wire) and finds it “very encouraging.” The story is that “Beijing asked Tokyo ...

A week ago, I whacked out answers to four questions put to me and likely a few other talking heads by a journalist writing an Abe profile. ...

The following was an afterthought to the memo that became my preceding post , just in case it might come in handy. Since I’m not getting pa...

I have been harsh on MOFA at times. This time, I had some nice things to say in response to a link that I received today. (I don’t follow t...

Yoichi Masuzoe is the frontrunner for now. Morihiro Hosokawa, his main rival, has stumbled badly before reaching the gate by postponing the...

Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Hakubun Shimomura gave a talk at the Japan National Press Club yesterday (Ja...

Yesterday (Jan. 14), Junichiro Koizumi offered his full support for Morihiro Hosokawa in his bid for the Tokyo governor’s office after a wi...

I wrote the following memos this morning to prepare for a conversation with a client. It turned out that the client had a very specific pro...

And a little something that I’d typed up last night, extensively reedited in the morning light sans (mostly) the influence of alcohol. ...

Morihiro Hosokawa, the 75 year-old former prime minister, is reportedly looking to run for Tokyo governor to oppose nuclear power and will ...

Another Washington source, a person whom I know and trust, has read and confirmed Tatsumi’s account of the mood there. It is being circulat...

I keep hearing from gaijin who think that/wonder if Prime Minister Abe went to Yasukuni to please his conservative base. (This is not infre...

The Sankei-FNN joint opinion poll (Jan. 4-5) put the Abe administration’s approval at 52.1% up a comfortable 4.7 percentage points fro...

Does the one percentage-point rise in support for the Abe cabinet from 54.2% to 55.2% in the post-Yasukuni visit December 28-29 Kyodo poll...

Accept for a moment that China’s new air defense identification zone (ADIZ) has been erected purely from a national security perspective an...

Mainichi Shimbun carried the biggest scoop of New Year’s Day as it revealed—it has pictures!—that the Chinese PLA had given an explanation ...

I have been critical of Tom Berger before, but his comments in this email interview is about as balanced and perceptive as it gets. Incide...

It’s not too difficult to find good reasons why the Chinese response to Prime Minister Abe’s visit has been muted and passive compared to t...

“Economic interests are a different story. Japanese companies doing business in China will be hit. There will be what amounts to an informa...