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November 21, 2024
 

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Michael MacArthur Bosack

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Michael MacArthur Bosack
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba at the Liberal Democratic Party's headquarters on Sunday, the day of a general election in which his party failed to secure even a simple majority together with its junior coalition party, Komeito.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 28, 2024
Breaking down the LDP’s punishing defeat
The LDP has been delivered a crushing electoral setback. How did this happen? What comes next? What does this mean for policymaking? Some of the key questions answered.
Shigeru Ishiba’s Cabinet appointments reveal deep fissures within the party resulting from his victory in the leadership race.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 1, 2024
The new prime minister puts together a ‘disunity Cabinet’
While Ishiba tries to promote his policy priorities, the Cabinet's composition may create challenges for his leadership.
While Shigeru Ishiba’s victory suggests a shift within the Liberal Democratic Party, he still faces challenges from those who remain loyal to the old party guard. 
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 29, 2024
Japan’s perennial political underdog finally gets a win
Ishiba margin of victory was slim, meaning that there is still a sizable portion of the party who will be resistant to his initiatives.
The Liberal Democratic Party's presidential race is expected to have a record number of candidates.
COMMENTARY / Japan / Perspectives
Sep 8, 2024
Unpacking Japan’s messy leadership election
With so many candidates and old rules gone, brace for the most unpredictable LDP race in ages
Considering there is another full year left before the current term of the Lower House expires, Fumio Kishida’s announcement he is standing down as the Liberal Democratic Party's leader has many wondering why.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 15, 2024
With Kishida’s sudden departure, who will lead Japan?
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s unexpected decision to not seek reelection has prompted a leadership race within Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
Hiroshige Seko, former Liberal Democratic Party Upper House secretary-general, announces Thursday his intention to leave the LDP after receiving an official recommendation he do so following the party's political funds scandal.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Apr 5, 2024
Five takeaways from the funding scandal punishments
Political compromise was involved in the LDP punishment process, with many politicians caught up in the scandal remaining in relatively good positions.
Liberal Democratic Party heavyweight Toshihiro Nikai addresses a news conference Monday after he announced that he will not run in the next general election amid the political funds scandal engulfing his party.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 28, 2024
Why LDP elder Nikai's announcement is a big deal (and isn't)
Despite portraying it as a move to preserve Nikai's legacy, it's seen as a proactive attempt to insulate himself and his associates from further scrutiny.
Factions, cliques, caucuses — whatever they may be called, groupings in legislatures are not unusual in many countries.
COMMENTARY / Japan / Perspectives
Mar 2, 2024
Is the funding scandal unraveling the LDP?
The media is caught up in the money-politics scandal of the moment, framing factions as all good or all bad. Things are a lot more nuanced than that.
Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa (far left) and the prime minister of Samoa, Fiame Naomi Mataafa (far right), meet in Apia, the capital of Samoa, on Feb. 10.
COMMENTARY
Feb 21, 2024
Japan plays a game of Pacific islands geopolitical chess
The influx of Chinese investment and activities have introduced risk for some Pacific island nations, moves which Japan cannot ignore.
A sign erected in Hokkaido’s port of Nemuro calls for the return of the Russian-occupied islands that Japan calls the Northern Territories.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 13, 2024
Geopolitical chess: Unpacking the Northern Territories conundrum
While domestic motivation for Tokyo to resolve the Northern Territories dispute may endure, the opposite is true in Moscow.
Ground Self-Defense Force troops participate in a joint military drill and demonstration with the U.S., British, Canadian, German and other countries' militaries in Funabashi, Chiba Prefecture, on Jan. 7.
COMMENTARY / Japan / EXPLAINER
Feb 5, 2024
The Rosetta Stone to decipher Japan's new security deals
Japan has already signed several agreements this year that, together with previous ones, form a dense web of security pacts — one worth untangling.
Foreign Minister Yōko Kamikawa will likely face some institutional challenges in achieving quick and meaningful progress in advancing the United Nation's Women, Peace and Security initiative.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 2, 2024
Japan unveils task force for gender-inclusive security issues
U.N. mandate spurs Japan into action with new task force aimed at enhancing women's roles in global conflict resolution.
The newly appointed leader of the Japanese Communist Party, Tomoko Tamura (front left), addresses the party convention on Jan. 18. The JCP is hoping its recent leadership change will improve its electoral fortunes.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 30, 2024
What the future holds for the Japanese Communist Party
After a decade of steadily declining seat counts in the Diet, the Japanese Communist Party has turned to its first-ever female leader.
Unfortunately for Japan, the demographic cliff is approaching and the government will need more than minor course adjustments to fix its Self-Defense Forces' recruitment woes.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 26, 2024
Cosmetic changes won’t fix the SDF’s recruitment problem
Facing demographic decline, Japan explores innovative solutions to boost recruitment in the Self-Defense Forces.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced the dissolution of his LDP faction on Friday, marking a significant shift in the wake of a political funding scandal.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 22, 2024
Mired in scandal, the LDP chips away at its factions
Three LDP factions, including Kishida's, announced their dissolution last week. While it's unlikely that all groupings will meet the same fate, reform is in the air.
Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa (right) met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on her visit to Kyiv on Jan. 7.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 15, 2024
Kamikawa’s surprise visit to Ukraine sent an important signal
As international support for Ukraine's war effort wavers, Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa's visit to Kyiv last week showed that Japan remains a key Kyiv ally.
Self-Defense Force personnel taking part in the earthquake-relief efforts help residents in an isolated village in Ishikawa Prefecture on Saturday.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 9, 2024
The U.S. role in Japan's domestic disaster relief
The U.S. pledge for support offers another example of how the U.S.-Japan alliance contributes to Japan's domestic disaster relief.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida awaits the results of a no-confidence vote against his Cabinet in the country's parliament on Dec. 13.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 2, 2024
Unpacking the LDP's expected leadership race
LDP politicians are already talking about a leadership change, and the polls have shifted to who the public wants to see in the prime minister’s office.
Prime minister Fumio Kishida reviews Japan Self-Defense Forces troops at Camp Asaka in Tokyo in November 2021.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 27, 2023
Reviewing Japan's security moves in 2023
With Japan's economic malaise and scandals eroding political capital in Tokyo, 2024 may yield an extended waiting period for new security measures.
Investigators from the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office arrive to search the headquarters of the powerful Abe faction within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party in Tokyo on Dec. 19.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 26, 2023
Has the funding scandal doomed the Abe faction?
With criminal investigations under way, there is impetus for the younger generation of the Abe faction members to break away and form a rebranded group.
Ishiba delays meeting with Trump, citing legal restrictions
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba waves upon arrival for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, in Callao, Peru, on Friday.
Two of America’s biggest debt holders are dumping Treasurys
The U.S. Treasury building in Washington. Investors in Japan and China sold a pile of U.S. debt in the last quarter, just before the U.S. presidential election.
Rising sex tourism exposes loopholes in Japan's anti-prostitution law
While financial misfortunes during the COVID-19 pandemic may have driven some women to work the streets, others simply want more money to spend — or want to pay off their debts — at host clubs.
Japan ranks last in romance satisfaction for second straight year
In a survey of 31 countries, Japan ranked last in terms of those who felt loved, with just 51% of respondents saying so.
Ruling coalition and DPP strike last-minute deal over economic policy
DPP policy chief Makoto Mahaguchi speaks at the party's policy gathering in Tokyo on Wednesday.
Japan, U.K. and Italy discuss inviting more countries to joint fighter project
A new concept model of a next-generation fighter jet to be jointly developed by Japan, Britain and Italy is on display in Farnborough, Hampshire, in July.
Haruki Murakami's 'The City and Its Uncertain Walls' gives deep deja vu
For “The City and Its Uncertain Walls,” translated into English by Philip Gabriel, Haruki Murakami confronts the ghosts who won't leave him alone.
Japanese expats in Asia find community through rugby
The Taiwan Fivewoods celebrate their victory at the 2023 Asian Japanese Rugby Cup in December of last year.
In Fukushima, a weekend of prose, poetry and translation
Aomori-based writer JJ Carter presented on tabletop gaming as creative inspiration for building characters and narratives.
For Dr. Nakamats, aging is just experience in action
Though he didn't win the recent gubernatorial election in Tokyo, the 96-year-old Dr. Nakamats' run was seen as inspirational in Japan's aging society.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?
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