The lies of Hiroshima live on, props in the war crimes of the 20th century
By John Pilger (THE GUARDIAN, 06/08/08):
When I first went to Hiroshima in 1967, the shadow on the steps was still there. It was an almost perfect impression of a human being at ease: legs splayed, back bent, one hand by her side as she sat waiting for a bank to open. At a quarter past eight on the morning of August 6, 1945, she and her silhouette were burned into the granite. I stared at the shadow for an hour or more, then walked down to the river and met a man called Yukio, whose chest was still etched with the…
Long March to an Apology
By Mindy Kotler, the director of Asia Policy Point, a research center that studies Asian regional security (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 26/05/08):
Lester Tenney, an 87-year-old veteran of World War II, plans to travel to Japan today to seek a meeting with the prime minister and an apology for the hardship and misery he and other American prisoners of war endured in that country. For a variety of reasons, beginning with the State Department’s stance on the issue, it is an apology that he is unlikely to receive.
In the fall of 1940, Mr. Tenney enlisted in the 192nd Tank Battalion, Company…
El futuro de la alianza entre EE UU y Japón
Por Joseph S. Nye, ex secretario adjunto de Defensa de EE UU y catedrático en la Universidad de Harvard. © Project Syndicate, 2008. Traducción de María Luisa Rodríguez Tapia (EL PAÍS, 16/05/08):
Muchos analistas perciben hoy en Japón cierto malestar a propósito de su alianza con Estados Unidos. En parte tiene que ver con las armas nucleares de Corea del Norte y la preocupación de que Estados Unidos no represente suficientemente los intereses de Japón (como ocurrió, por ejemplo, con la responsabilidad por los ciudadanos japoneses secuestrados por Corea hace años). Otras cuestiones están relacionadas con los marines estadounidenses estacionados en Okinawa y…
Seguridad energética con alta dependencia externa: las estrategias de Japón y Corea del Sur
Por Pablo Bustelo (REAL INSTITUTO ELCANO, 25/03/08):
Además de China, en Asia nororiental hay otros grandes consumidores de energía: Japón y Corea del Sur. Esas economías, que pertenecen a la OCDE, son altamente dependientes de las importaciones (que suponen más del 80% del consumo interno en los dos casos), especialmente de petróleo y gas natural, y su seguridad energética se ha visto sujeta a importantes amenazas en los últimos años. Este documento de trabajo aborda brevemente la situación y las previsiones energéticas de los dos países. Analiza seguidamente las respuestas estratégicas de Tokio y Seúl ante el deterioro (percibido o real) de…
I’m proud to be a pirate
By Paul Watson. Captain Paul Watson is founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (THE GUARDIAN, 23/01/08):
Shiver me timbers, boys and girls, we is awash in a sea of pirates down here in the Southern Ocean and it’s time for a parley to do a little ’splaining on the subject. This ocean now rivals the 17th century Caribbean for reported acts of piracy. The only thing lacking is the Sea Shepherd member Orlando Bloom.Japanese whalers are accusing the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and Greenpeace crew members of being pirates. Sea Shepherd and Greenpeace are accusing the whalers of being pirates.…
Harpooned by hypocrisy
By Peter Singer, a professor of bioethics at Princeton University and the author of Animal Liberation and, with Jim Mason, The Ethics of What We Eat (THE GUARDIAN, 19/01/08):
The change in public opinion about whaling has been dramatic. Thirty years ago Australian vessels would hunt sperm whales with the government’s blessing - but just two days ago an Australian customs ship, in Antarctic waters to video Japanese whaling activities, played a key role in winning the freedom of two anti-whaling activists. The hostage crisis began when they boarded a Japanese harpoon boat on Tuesday. Because Paul Watson, the leader of the conservation…
Bits of dancing rubber. Delicious!
By Ben Macintyre (THE TIMES, 23/11/07):
Only the Japanese truly know how to create a meal to die for. I know this, having once diced with the Sushi of Death, also known as Japanese pufferfish, or fugu. I was living in New York in 1985 when the US Food and Drug Administration relaxed its rules to allow the import of pufferfish for the first time. A particularly sadistic foreign editor thought it would be amusing to make me go and eat it, and see if I survived.
This ugly, spiny, inflatable fish is one of the world’s great delicacies: Japanese poets extol its…
In Japan, Stagnation Wins Again
By Joichi Ito, the chief executive of a venture capital firm and chairman of Creative Commons, a nonprofit group that develops flexible copyright arrangements (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 18/09/07):
Shinzo Abe, who stepped down as prime minister last week, is what we call in Japan an “obocchan.” An obocchan is a type of well-to-do, slightly spoiled child of a powerful family. Mr. Abe may have been an obocchan but, wanting to be liked by everyone, he made efforts to address the concerns of the working class. Yet despite his efforts, most Japanese felt that he was unaware of working-class issues, and…
Irresolute leader who was a magnet for crisis
By Richard Lloyd Parry, Asia editor of The Times (THE TIMES, 13/09/07):
The abrupt departure of a prime minister would be high drama in any country, but in Japan, where politics generally moves at a predictable pace, the fall of Shinzo Abe was a sensation.
The range of possibilities it opens is thrillingly and alarmingly broad. By winter Mr Abe’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party could be under a more assured leader – most likely the lordly, nationalistic former Foreign Minister Taro Aso. It might be governing in some kind of coalition with its opponent, the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ). Or, conceivably,…
In Japan, Leadership at a Crossroads
By Herbert London, president of Hudson Institute (THE WASHINGTON POST, 05/09/07):
The recent upper-house elections in Japan served as a wakeup call for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. His party, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), lost its upper-house majority for the first time since its establishment in 1955, making Abe vulnerable to political opponents who may seek to block important legislation and pressure him to call early lower-house elections.
Abe rode to power almost a year ago — in September 2006, propelled by his pledge to continue the reformist policies of popular former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. But it is one thing…
A rapid descent from grace
By Simon Tisdall (THE GUARDIAN, 26/07/07):
Shinzo Abe’s rapid fall from grace reflects a modern democratic phenomenon - the accelerating pace at which initially enthusiastic voters become impatient and disillusioned with new leaders. Angela Merkel in Germany is following a similar if less dramatic trajectory. Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy may travel the same road. Tony Blair had six years before things really began to go pear-shaped. Japan’s prime minister had little more than six months.
Mr Abe’s public approval ratings plunged from nearly 70% last September, when he was appointed by the ruling Liberal Democratic party (LDP), to 40% in February. Now he…
Japón: la recuperación económica interminable
Por Pablo Bustelo, Investigador principal de Asia-Pacífico, Real Instituto Elcano, y profesor titular de Economía Aplicada en la Universidad Complutense de Madrid (REAL INSTITUTO ELCANO, 16/04/07):
Tema: El año 2006 y los primeros meses de 2007 han confirmado que la recuperación económica de Japón es todavía frágil. La razón principal es que el consumo privado ha vuelto a mostrar signos de atonía, tras dos años de evolución alentadora. Las perspectivas a corto plazo se ven enturbiadas por el signo restrictivo de la política fiscal y por las diferencias entre el Gobierno y el banco central sobre el rumbo que debe tomar la…
Japón y su nueva política de seguridad internacional
Por Félix Arteaga, Investigador principal de Seguridad y Defensa, Real Instituto Elcano (REAL INSTITUTO ELCANO, 10/04/07):
Tema: Este ARI describe la evolución de la política de seguridad de Japón en los últimos años y las expectativas creadas por el surgimiento de un nuevo actor estratégico.
Resumen: La política de seguridad internacional de Japón ha cambiado mucho en los últimos años. Su protagonismo estratégico ha ido en aumento, participando en misiones internacionales de mantenimiento de la paz o proporcionando asistencia humanitaria de emergencia dentro y fuera de la región de Asia-Pacífico. En los últimos meses se han sucedido algunas manifestaciones llamativas de esos cambios, como…
¿Qué quiere EE. UU. de Japón?
Por Francis Fukuyama, decano de la Universidad Johns Hopkins y presidente de The American Interest (LA VANGUARDIA, 27/03/07):
Apenas medio año después de haber asumido el cargo de primer ministro de Japón, Shinzo Abe está provocando ira en toda Asia y sentimientos encontrados en el país que es su aliado clave, Estados Unidos. Pero ¿usará la Administración Bush su influencia para apartar a Abe del comportamiento provocador?
El antecesor de Abe, Junichiro Koizumi, fue un líder que rompió moldes y revivió la economía de Japón, reformó el sistema de ahorro postal y destrozó el sistema de facciones del Partido Democrático Liberal que…
Japón: ¿en la buena dirección?
Por Pascal Boniface, director del Instituto de Relaciones Internacionales y Estratégicas de París. Traducción: José María Puig de la Bellacasa (LA VANGUARDIA, 23/01/07):
Shinzo Abe, el nuevo primer ministro japonés, ha visitado recientemente Europa en un viaje que ha incluido una novedad histórica: la primera visita de un jefe de Gobierno japonés a la sede de la OTAN. Tal acercamiento entre Japón y la Alianza Atlántica corresponde a una doble voluntad. En primer lugar, la de Estados Unidos en el sentido de transformar la alianza nacida durante la guerra fría para unir los esfuerzos de defensa de europeos y norteamericanos frente…
Japan, the Jury
By Robert E. Precht, a co-director of the Juries and Democracy Program at the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Center at the University of Montana (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 01/12/06):
JAPAN is about to embark on a democratic experiment with important consequences for the rest of Asia. After a lapse of 60 years, the country is planning to bring back a jury system — but a huge effort will be required to convince ordinary Japanese about its advantages. Americans can help by sharing their jury experiences with the Japanese.
Beginning in 2009, Japan will institute a jury system called saiban-in. Juries consisting of…
Japan Shrinks
By Fred Hiatt (THE WASHINGTON POST, 20/11/06):
Japan has embarked on a path no developed nation has ever followed — of sustained and inexorable population decline.
Japan won’t be alone, of course. Italy, Russia, South Korea and many others also will get smaller. The United States is the exception among advanced nations, and not only thanks to immigration; its overall birth rate is higher, too.
But Japan, which shrank by about 21,000 last year, is in the forefront, and so everyone else will be watching. Does population decline inevitably sap vitality and doom a country to genteel poverty? Or is there some way out?
“Japan…
A Freedom Agenda for Japan
By Fred Hiatt (THE WASHINGTON POST, 15/11/06):
Shinzo Abe likes to point out that he is Japan’s first prime minister born after World War II.
That was his opening observation in his inaugural address to parliament when he took over in September. He’s likely to mention it when he holds his first official meeting with President Bush later this week, in Vietnam. And he discussed it Tuesday in a conversation here with me and Post Tokyo bureau chief Anthony Faiola.
“It means I am a prime minister born and raised in the new values,” he said, the values of “democracy, freedom and human rights.”
The…
World War II Is Over
By Charles Krauthammer (THE WASHINGTON POST, 20/10/06):
The first stop on Condoleezza Rice’s post-detonation, nuclear reassurance tour was Tokyo. There she dutifully unfurled the American nuclear umbrella, pledging in person that the United States would meet any North Korean attack on Japan with massive American retaliation, nuclear if necessary.
An important message, to be sure, for the short run, lest Kim Jong Il imbibe a little too much cognac and be teased by one of his “pleasure squad” lovelies into launching a missile or two into Japan.
But Rice’s declaration had another and obvious longer-run intent: to quell any thought Japan might have of…
Who’s Afraid of Shinzo Abe?
By Yoshihisa Komori, the Washington correspondent and editor at large for the Japanese daily Sankei Shimbun (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 30/09/06):
LAST Tuesday, Japan’s Parliament elected Shinzo Abe as its youngest prime minister since World War II. Some critics in Japan have called him a “hawkish nationalist,” but in fact, he — like the nearly 80 percent of Japanese also born after the war — has merely been shaped by democracy.
Mr. Abe in particular was also influenced by the course of Japan’s alliance with America. In 1960, the 6-year-old Shinzo Abe sat on the lap of his grandfather, Prime Minister Nobusuke…
