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News Analysis Archives
Japan's central bank crisis resolved, others remain By Hisane Masaki 
TOKYO - Masaaki Shirakawa's appointment as Bank of Japan governor ends a long-running political standoff in time for the world's second-largest economy to be properly represented at this week's Group of Seven meeting of central bank leaders. Now he must show whether he can steer the country away from recession.
Full Article (Asia Times) |
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More analysis
Japan starts Kyoto climate drive - in reverse By Hisane Masaki 
TOKYO - Gasoline price cuts in Japan could not have come at a more awkward time diplomatically for the world's second-biggest economy and major emitter of gases widely blamed for global warming.
Full Article (Asia Times) Fukuda's losing game of chicken over BOJ By Hisane Masaki 
TOKYO - The decision by Japan's Upper House to reject the government nomination of Toshiro Muto as Bank of Japan governor risks creating a vacuum at the central bank of the world's second-largest economy at a time of global financial crisis. It also further weakens the fragile position of Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda.
Full Article (Asia Times) Japan covets Russian gas, hot air By Hisane Masaki 
TOKYO - Japan, keen to be a leader in creating a successor to the Kyoto Protocol and struggling to meet its goals under the existing deal, wants to buy greenhouse gas credits from Russia as a way towards hitting the targets. Natural gas from its northern neighbor will also come in handy.
Full Article (Asia Times) Political tension rises in Japan over gasoline tax By Hisane Masaki 
TOKYO - Political tension is heating up in Japan over whether to extend the temporary higher rate for the gasoline tax, amid spikes in oil prices and growing concerns about global warming.
Full Article (Asia Times) Japan's Fukuda in a fight for his life By Hisane Masaki 
TOKYO - In his own words, the cabinet of Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda "has its back against the wall". After stepping in for Shinzo Abe in September, it was hoped his experience and moderate reputation would bring political stability, but political deadlock and unresolved scandals have stalled his Liberal Democratic Party's reform agenda and further enraged the public. Fukuda's political future is on the line.
Full Article (Asia Times) Japan steps up its biofuel drive By Hisane Masaki 
TOKYO - Rising oil prices and a struggle to meet Kyoto Protocol greenhouse gas emission targets are prompting Japan to increase research into production of biofuels and encourage motorists to use the products. As it struggles to meet its targets, the government has to contend with the high costs of the alternatives to crude-oil products and a dispute with the petroleum industry
Full Article (Asia Times) Japan goes on an air spending spree By Hisane Masaki
TOKYO - Justly proud of its key role in creating the Kyoto Protocol, Japan is spending billions of dollars to buy up emission credits as the weeks fly toward the kickoff of the treaty's initial commitment period. Failure to fulfill its commitment would both be an embarrassing loss of face and dent its clout as an environmental diplomat.
Full Article (Asia Times) Testing time for Japan's US ties By Hisane Masaki 
TOKYO - Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda on Tuesday won the first round in his battle to resume Japan's naval refueling role in the "war against terror" - and this just days before a meeting with US President George W Bush. But the reality of Japan's politics and other issues - such as North Korea - could yet erode the foundations of the long-time alliance with the US.
Full Article (Asia Times) New PM Fukuda launches his 'do or die' cabinet By Hisane Masaki 
TOKYO - Japan's new Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda says he wants to negotiate with the opposition to get the public's business enacted, but the Democratic Party of Japan will likely use its domination of the Upper House of the Diet to obstruct Fukuda's program and force a general election. The new premier may be another one-year wonder.
Full Article (Asia Times) Fukuda heads Japan's leadership race By Hisane Masaki 
TOKYO - Having taken flight with the flamboyant reformer Junichiro Koizumi and then the youthful Shinzo Abe, Japan's Liberal Democratic Party seems poised to return to the old-style, faction-driven, bureaucracy-led politics symbolized by the current front-runner, Yasuo Fukuda, 71. One thing is certain: the next premier will be the scion of a former prime minister.
Full Article (Asia Times) Embattled Japanese PM takes a political gamble By Hisane Masaki 
TOKYO - One would not think that a weakened and embattled political leader such as Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe would be making threats to resign. But that's the latest tack Abe has taken by threatening to quit should the Diet refuse to extend Japan's support for allied operations in Afghanistan. His gamble might backfire.
Full Article (Asia Times) Abe tries to make a new start By Hisane Masaki 
TOKYO - Humbled by his party's historic defeat in the House of Councilors election one month ago and desperate to fend off calls for his resignation, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has completely revamped his cabinet and the party hierarchy. But many of the "new faces" are old faces, and he will have trouble pushing any new initiatives through parliament.
Full Article (Asia Times) The people speak; Abe's not listening By Hisane Masaki
TOKYO - A defiant Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has shrugged off suggestions that he resign after his party's hammering in Upper House elections on Sunday. By the premier's own admission, though, Japan is now heading for a period of political turmoil and economic doldrums.
Full Article (Asia Times) A moment of truth for Japan's Abe By Hisane Masaki 
TOKYO - When Japanese voters go to the polls for the House of Councilors (Upper House of the Diet, or parliament) elections on Sunday, an opposition victory is widely seen as a safe bet, and attention is focused on how big Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's ruling coalition will lose.
Full Article (Asia Times) Fall of Japan's apostle of 'greed is good' By Hisane Masaki 
TOKYO - Yoshiaki Murakami and Takafumi Horie were once seen as exemplars of a new kind of Japanese businessman. But Horie fell in the Livedoor scandal, and now Murakami too has fallen, convicted of insider trading. These days they are seen more as crass money-grubbers than as real reformers of Japan Inc.
Full Article (Asia Times) More proof of the Rising Sun's eclipse By Hisane Masaki 
TOKYO - Foreign policymakers in the Land of the Rising Sun would be on Cloud 9 if they could turn the clock back just a few years and bask in the glow of seeing their nation vying for the status as the world's top aid donor again.
Full Article (Asia Times) Japan: A political tsunami approaches By Hisane Masaki 
TOKYO - A political tsunami may sweep Japan soon and alter the nation's political landscape amid an ever swelling wave of public anger over the government's pension records-keeping fiasco and other scandals.
Will the government of beleaguered Prime Minister Shinzo Abe manage to keep itself afloat? Or will it be written off by voters and pensioned off in a key national election this month? Or will there
be any other sea-changes?
Full Article (Asia Times) Japan's farm export drive bearing fruit By Hisane Masaki 
TOKYO - Long thought of as a food importer - and a protectionist par excellence - Japan has recently carved out a niche as an exporter of unique boutique foods and upscale rice. But Tokyo is increasingly worried about the quality of establishments billing themselves as "Japanese" restaurants and considered forming a "sushi police" force, until international cries forced them to reconsider.
Full Article (Asia Times) Japan goes prospecting for rare metals By Hisane Masaki 
TOKYO - Resource-strapped Japan's need for rare metals such as tungsten, molybdenum, platinum and cobalt has it mapping out a long-term strategy to ensure supplies. Increased official development assistance and free trade agreements are being used to this end.
Full Article (Asia Times) Early countdown to Japan rate rise By Hisane Masaki
TOKYO - Speculation is rife that Japan's central bank will raise rates soon - as early as August, if not July. The bank seems increasingly confident that the economy will keep expanding moderately and that prices will recover. And it is distancing irtself from political pressure to sit tight until after July elections.
Full Article (Asia Times) Japan's birth rate rises - barely By Hisane Masaki 
TOKYO - The slight uptick in Japan's fertility rate in 2006 is nothing to celebrate. The long-term trends still indicate a country with fewer and fewer young people to support an aging population. This will eventually put a serious strain on Japan's international competitiveness as the working population thins out.
Full Article (Asia Times) An awkward visitor for Tokyo and Beijing By Hisane Masaki 
TOKYO - Former Taiwanese president Lee Teng-hui's visit to Japan is billed as a cultural and academic odyssey. But the staunchly pro-Japan, anti-China octogenarian's trip has "political implications" for Tokyo and Beijing, which want to keep the momentum of their warming relationship on track.
Full Article (Asia Times) Japan revs up its Indochina diplomacy By Hisane Masaki 
TOKYO - Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam are prime targets of Japan's new "value-oriented" foreign policy. Although these countries are economically small, they are an increasingly important avenue to strengthened ties with the 10-member ASEAN bloc. And Japan is playing catch-up with China in the region, both economically and politically.
Full Article (Asia Times) Japan's biofuel drive faces a bumpy road By Hisane Masaki 
TOKYO - Japan is moving toward increased use of biofuels in cars both to curb global warming and for energy security. But the going is slow, with only a handful of stations now offering biofuel mixtures. Japan's domestic production of biofuels and their ingredients is negligible, which means the country will remain dependent on imports - though from Brazil rather than the volatile Middle East.
Full Article (Asia Times) Japan, China as anchors of Asian financial stability By Hisane Masaki 
TOKYO - A decade after the devastating financial crisis that swept through Asia, 13 regional economies have agreed on an ambitious plan to launch a multilateral currency-swap scheme by pooling funds from the region's vast foreign-exchange reserves to weather similar upheavals in the future.
Full Article (Asia Times) New energy to Japan's diplomacy By Hisane Masaki 
TOKYO - The past week has seen an unprecedented flurry of top-level Japanese diplomacy aimed at ensuring the resource-poor nation's energy security through stable supplies of oil and other resources.
Full Article (Asia Times) A dry run for a Japan-US FTA By Hisane Masaki 
TOKYO - Japan has kicked off negotiations with Australia on concluding a free-trade agreement (FTA), in a desperate bid to play catch-up in the ever-intensifying regional and global FTA race. The negotiations with Australia, launched this week, are particularly significant because they are Japan's first with a major agricultural exporter and are widely seen as a dry run for possible future talks with the United States.
Full Article (Asia Times) Head wind for Japanese change By Hisane Masaki 
TOKYO - Even as Japan's Diet takes the first step toward revising its pacifist constitution by passing a law enabling a national referendum on constitutional changes, public opinion is moving against any revision. As the prospect of changing the charter, and its war-renouncing Article 9, comes closer, more Japanese are getting cold feet.
Full Article (Asia Times) Chinese premier's 'ice-melting' Japan journey By Hisane Masaki 
TOKYO - Flowers bloom in spring after the melting of snow and ice. And so, maybe, will relations between Tokyo and Beijing after Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's "ice-melting" journey to Japan.
Full Article (Asia Times) Abe trumpets Iraq support ahead of US visit By Hisane Masaki 
TOKYO - When Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe meets with US President George W Bush in Washington this month, he will come bearing gifts. The most important is his government's support for a two-year extension of its air force mission in Kuwait and Iraq. Though its involvement is unpopular at home, Japan has been a steadfast partner of the US missions in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Full Article (Asia Times) Markets play guessing games over BOJ By Hisane Masaki 
TOKYO - Japan's financial markets are abuzz with two questions: How many more times will the Bank of Japan (BOJ) raise interest rates before its governor, Toshihiko Fukui, almost certainly steps down in a year's time, and then who will step into his shoes?
Full Article (Asia Times) Japan's quest for Bigger Oil By Hisane Masaki 
TOKYO - In an effort to turn Inpex Holdings, Japan's largest oil and natural gas developer, into an enterprise that is even more powerful than its rival international oil majors, Tokyo has been aggressively expanding its overseas business in the past year.
Full Article (Asia Times) 'Axis of democracy' flexes its military muscles By Hisane Masaki 
TOKYO - The US, Japan and India will hold their first-ever joint military exercises in waters near Japan in April. This is one of the first tangible fruits of Tokyo's efforts to stitch together an "axis of democracy" linking Japan with the US, Australia and the world's largest democracy, India. New Delhi is in the enviable position of being courted by Japan, the US and China
Full Article (Asia Times) Japan shields itself from attack By Hisane Masaki 
TOKYO - It's not the fictional Super X project, designed to defend Tokyo, in the Godzilla movie series. It's a real project designed to shield Japan - the capital first and other parts of the country later - from a real threat.
Full Article (Asia Times) The fall of a Japanese business iconoclast By Hisane Masaki 
TOKYO - He burst on the Japanese business scene like a rocket. But Livedoor's former president Takafumi Horie crashed in flames, guilty of fraud and securities-law violations. Fans say Horie breathed new life into a moribund business climate, but the equity market for startups has not yet recovered from the "Livedoor shock".
Full Article (Asia Times) The emerging axis of democracy By Hisane Masaki 
TOKYO - Japan has signed with Australia only its second bilateral security agreement since the end of World War II. The agreement, which does not commit either party to defend the other, rests primarily on commonality of interests as free-market democracies. The Chinese may view it as another attempt by Western-oriented nations to contain its rise.
Full Article (Asia Times) Japan, China gear up for gas talks By Hisane Masaki 
TOKYO - As their political relations slowly improve, Tokyo and Beijing are set to resume talks on disputed natural-gas deposits in the East China Sea, an issue that has been a major source of diplomatic friction between the Asian neighbors for many years.
Full Article (Asia Times) Japan in a bind over North Korea By Hisane Masaki 
TOKYO - Prime Minister Shinzo Abe may find himself in a box of his own construction over how to deal with the abduction of Japanese citizens by North Korea and his own comments regarding Imperial Japan's recruiting (or coercion) of women to serve as prostitutes for soldiers during World War II, an issue that particularly animates South Korea.
Full Article (Asia Times) Moscow's successful business diplomacy By Hisane Masaki 
TOKYO - There was no movement on resolving territorial disputes during Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov's recent visit to Tokyo. But the visit also showed that resolving the Kuril Islands issue isn't the be-all and end-all of Russo-Japanese relations. Japanese businesses are showing a growing interest in investing in economically booming Russia.
Full Article (Asia Times) The great Japan-Mongolia love affair By Hisane Masaki 
TOKYO - You might wonder why Tokyo rolled out the red carpet to honor Mongolian President Nambaryn Enkhbayar this week. For one thing, Ulan Bator graciously gave up its turn on the UN Security Council for Japan. More than that, Japan and Mongolia have been cultivating close relations for many years
Full Article (Asia Times) Japan: When a spy satellite isn't a spy satellite By Hisane Masaki 
TOKYO - The launch of a new radar satellite on Saturday, if successful, will complete Japan's planned four-satellite system for intelligence gathering. While it cannot, under the country's constitution, be labeled a "spy" satellite, many experts agree that the nation needs to boost its space-based surveillance capabilities
Full Article (Asia Times) Japan hikes rates, yen falls By Hisane Masaki 
TOKYO - Taking its cue from recent robust economic data, the Bank of Japan (BOJ) has raised interest rates for the first time in seven months, by a quarter percentage point to 0.5%, in an attempt to rectify what the central bank itself views as the "abnormal" state of the credit policy.
Full Article (Asia Times) Oil-hungry Japan looks to other sources By Hisane Masaki 
TOKYO - After decades of struggling to reduce its excessively heavy reliance on the Middle East for its crude oil, Japan imported 2% less of the commodity from the region in 2006. Does this herald a lasting change in the nation's oil-import structure or represent just a statistical quirk?
Full Article (Asia Times) Japanese nuclear power steams ahead By Hisane Masaki 
TOKYO - The Japanese government is committed to moving the nation's nuclear power industry to the next level using plutonium fuel even though public confidence has been shaken by repeated accidents and cover-ups. The bottom line is that resource-poor Japan has few other options for generating electricity.
Full Article (Asia Times) Happy birthday to Kyoto, but ... By Hisane Masaki 
TOKYO - Japan is proud of the fact that the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, which went into effect two years ago this month, was negotiated in its ancient capital. That hasn't relieved the country of the hard task of meeting its obligation to reduce greenhouse emissions. The government is using many tools to try to bring Japan into compliance.
Full Article (Asia Times) Japan's dovish defense minister By Hisane Masaki 
TOKYO - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has a reputation as a hawk. So why did he appoint a dove from Nagasaki, a city that still nurses grievances from the 1945 atomic bombing, as his defense minister? And why does he treat his colleague's repeated jibes against the US with only mild rebukes?
Full Article (Asia Times) The political stakes are rising in Japan By Hisane Masaki 
TOKYO - The political season has opened in Japan with a crucial election looming in July. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe wants to campaign on constitutional reform. But the opposition thinks it has a more potent issue in the widening income gap, which they blame on reforms initiated by Abe's predecessor, Junichiro Koizumi.
Full Article (Asia Times) Free trade: Japan and ... Switzerland?! By Hisane Masaki 
TOKYO - Japan has key criteria for selecting free trade partners, and Switzerland fails to meet any of them. Why then are the two pushing to conclude a trade agreement by the end of the year? Could it have something to do with China? Or Tokyo's broader foreign policy imperatives?
Full Article (Asia Times) Is Japan a Cultural Looter? By Hisane Masaki 
TOKYO - Japan still has a long way to go before completely shedding its image as a safe haven for illegal cultural traders. The Yomiuri Shimbun, Japan's biggest national daily, reported recently that Italian authorities suspect that some Roman antiquities in Japanese museums may have been looted.
Full Article (Japan Focus) Will BOJ tell Tokyo to take a hike? By Hisane Masaki 
TOKYO - Ever since the Bank of Japan ended its zero-interest policy six months ago, global markets have been speculating endlessly on when it would raise rates again. Thursday could be the day. The betting is on a 0.25-percentage-point rise even though the government is dead against it, fearing that the fragile economic recovery might be killed off, along with its chances in upper house elections later this year. Will the central bank assert its independence and tell the government to take a hike?
Full Article (Asia Times) Japanese bigwig on surprise Pyongyang visit By Hisane Masaki 
TOKYO - While Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is in Europe trying to drum up support for a tough policy toward North Korea, a veteran parliamentarian of Abe's own party is in Pyongyang on his own peace mission. It is doubtful that Taku Yamasaki pulls enough weight to accomplish anything, except perhaps to undercut Abe's diplomacy.
Full Article (Asia Times) Japanese PM Abe sets out on a new-year mission By Hisane Masaki 
TOKYO - This month Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Foreign Minister Taro Aso fan out for a diplomatic blitz of Europe, Abe to the core nations of the NATO alliance, Aso to the fledgling alliance members in the east. On the agenda is a historic first visit to NATO headquarters, which underscores Japan's increasing ties with the nations of the Atlantic alliance.
Full Article (Asia Times) Challenges ahead for Japan premier By Hisane Masaki 
TOKYO - Topping new Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's agenda are a revision of the postwar pacifist constitution and a hike in the broadly levied consumption tax, both of which will be highly divisive and potentially explosive issues for him as he tries to consolidate his grip on power by leading his ruling coalition to victory in next summer's triennial Upper House election.
Full Article (Asia Times) Japan banks on energy, environment By Hisane Masaki 
TOKYO - Growing concerns over energy supplies and global warming have prompted the government-affiliated Japan Bank for International Cooperation, one of the world's biggest international financial institutions, to intensify its focus on energy security and the environment.
Full Article (Asia Times) Slow starter Japan revs up FTA drive By Hisane Masaki 
TOKYO - Japan initially distrusted free trade agreements, preferring to deal multilaterally. But as the Doha talks faltered and China charged ahead, Tokyo did a swift about-face and is now pushing deals with - well, just about everyone. Japan does not want to be left behind in the intensifying competition for oil and gas resources.
Full Article (Asia Times) Japan, US tune up defense policies By Hisane Masaki 
TOKYO - The upcoming "two plus two" meeting of foreign and defense chiefs from Japan and the US will be the first for Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and his Japanese counterpart, Fumio Kyuma. They will discuss accelerated missile defenses, North Korea, base realignment and Iraq.
Full Article (Asia Times) Qatar, Japan's energy white knight By Hisane Masaki 
TOKYO - "We're very committed to Japan," said Qatar's energy minister on a visit to Tokyo. That was music to Japanese ears, since Tokyo has suffered a spate of setbacks in its energy security strategy in recent months. Japanese firms are pouring money into Qatari infrastructure to assure its ability nearly to double gas exports to Japan by 2010.
Full Article (Asia Times) Japan inches toward a full-fledged military By Hisane Masaki 
TOKYO - Fulfilling a long-cherished conservative dream, the Japanese parliament is set to elevate the Defense Agency to the status of a full ministry. The action and companion laws are both symbolic and substantive. They should burnish Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's conservative credentials among nationalists worried he has gone soft on nationalism.
Full Article (Asia Times) Japan nukes:Voicing the unthinkable By Hisane Masaki 
TOKYO - Just to muse out loud that Japan might acquire nuclear weapons was once enough to get a Japanese minister sacked. Circumstances such as North Korea's atomic bomb have changed things. Japan is still averse to becoming a nuclear power, but that no longer stops prominent politicians talking about it.
Full Article (Asia Times) |