Shinzo Abe’s murder raises troubling questions
By Ivan Lim Former AJA President, Contributor to AsiaN SINGAPORE: The tragic untimely death of Shinzo Abe at the hands of an assassin has raised some troubling questions. One: Is there a shortcoming that in a robust democracy like Japan citizens still have to resort toviolence to resolve their grievances against politicians? The former Japanese […]
Seoul seeks US backing over trade war
Calls are growing for the United States to intervene in the deepening trade friction between South Korea and Japan after Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe imposed new restrictions on exports that could hurt South Korea’s tech industry. Thoughts are that if tensions continue to escalate, cooperation outside bilateral economic relations such as coordinating “in efforts […]
Win-win cooperation remains the only right choice
Chinese President Xi Jinping will attend the 14th Group of 20 (G20) summit in Osaka, Japan from June 27 to 29 at the invitation of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. It will be the seventh consecutive time that President Xi to attend or chair the G20 summit, which reflects the great importance attached by China […]
Moon greeted by Abe in G-20 opening ceremony
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the host of this week’s G-20 summit, greeted South Korean President Moon Jae-in at the official welcoming ceremony Friday amid no announcement yet of any schedule on their formal talks. Having entered the summit venue of INTEX Osaka, Moon walked toward Abe and shook hands with him. They then posed […]
Trump, Abe to coordinate N.K. policy at White House meeting
U.S. President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will coordinate their next steps to achieve North Korea’s denuclearization when they meet at the White House this week, a senior U.S. government official said Thursday. Abe will be in Washington on Friday for an official working visit, which will include bilateral meetings involving national […]
From Abe to Outer Space, Can Japan’s Military Techno-Nationalism Survive?
Japan has often been regarded as the forerunner and indeed the very apogee of techno-nationalism in Asia. In the Meiji, Taishō and Shōwa eras, Japan was the first Asian state to industrialize and rise to great-power status, largely due to national policies encouraging importation, indigenization and wielding modern technologies. In the post-Second World War era, […]
Sound and Fury: Does Abe’s Constitutional Revision Really Matter?
Much attention has been paid recently to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s desire to revise the country’s constitution in what would be the first and only change since it was adopted in 1947. The focus especially has been on his intent to change Article 9, which prohibits the country from engaging in war and maintaining […]
Can Abe Get Japan Back on the Korea Bus?
At the United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 20, 2017, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe outlined his hardline approach to North Korea in no uncertain terms. “Again and again, attempts to resolve issues through dialogue have all come to naught. In what hope of success are we now repeating the very same failure a third […]
Can Abe Get Japan Back on the Korea Bus?
At the United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 20, 2017, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe outlined his hardline approach to North Korea in no uncertain terms. “Again and again, attempts to resolve issues through dialogue have all come to naught. In what hope of success are we now repeating the very same failure a third […]
Abe’s More Assertive Japan: Will He Defy Expectations Again?
Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, in power since 2012, has consistently defied expectations. He first came to the office in 2006, as the protégé and successor to Japan’s most popular and arguably most successful post-war prime minister, Junichiro Koizumi. By skilfully using a major electoral reform in 1994 and an administrative reform in 2001 that […]