Yoichi Funabashi

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Japanese Emperor Akihito, left, leans in to speak with an evacuee from Futaba in Fukushima prefecture, at their makeshift shelter in Kazo, Saitama prefecture, in 2011. (Toshifumi Kitamura/AFP/Getty Images)

MundoAsia

In the 1,400-year history of the Imperial House of Japan, no emperor has traveled as much as Emperor Akihito. In his 30-year tenure — scheduled to end when he formally abdicates on Tuesday — he has traveled to each of the 47 prefectures of Japan at least twice and has been to as many as 36 countries. Before Akihito’s ascension to the throne in 1989, only Emperor Hirohito, his father, had ever been abroad: on official visits to Europe in 1971 and to the United States in 1975.

Yet Akihito’s journey was not just about travel in its most literal sense.…  Seguir leyendo »

ReflexionesPensamiento, Cultura y Ciencia

La Brookings Institution de Washington, DC, quizás el principal centro de estudios, grupo de expertos o think tank del mundo, se encuentra bajo escrutinio por haber aceptado donaciones de seis cifras del gigante chino de las telecomunicaciones Huawei, en lo que muchos consideran una amenaza a la seguridad. Y desde el bárbaro homicidio del periodista saudí Jamal Khashoggi en octubre pasado, muchos otros centros de estudios están recibiendo presiones para dejar de aceptar donaciones de Arabia Saudí.

Estas controversias han dado paso a una narrativa de que los centros de estudios con sede en Washington sufren una crisis de financiamiento. De hecho, los think tanks tradicionales enfrentan tres retos importantes que los han puesto en una posición complicada.…  Seguir leyendo »

North Korea’s Nuclear Weapons, Japan’s Bind

MundoAsia, ,

Pyongyang’s recent missile launch over Hokkaido and its underground nuclear test have laid bare Japan’s Achilles’ heel: Our country’s national security policy is still woefully ill equipped for this mounting danger. The new sanctions adopted by the United Nations Security Council on Monday will hardly limit Japan’s exposure.

North Korea’s latest provocations pose an unprecedented threat. Even during the Korean War in the early 1950s, Japan, as a rear support base for United States forces, was somewhat insulated; today, it is in the same theater as South Korea, also on the front lines. Any American military strike against North Korea would likely trigger retaliatory measures against Japan.…  Seguir leyendo »

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has unified Japan simply by promoting patriotic symbolism while protecting the welfare state. Rick Rycroft/Associated Press

MundoAsia,

Call them populist or anti-establishment. Some, like Donald Trump, Marine Le Pen or Narendra Modi, are from the right. Others — Bernie Sanders, Alexis Tsipras, Jeremy Corbyn, Pablo Iglesias — are from the left. But in established democracies throughout the world, politicians are rising to power by tapping into the people’s disenchantment with the elite.

Not in Japan. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is as establishment as they come: His father served as foreign minister, and his grandfather and great uncle were prime ministers. Yet his approval rating has consistently exceeded 50 percent, which is extraordinary by Japanese standards, and he has no serious challengers.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo

As a result of the recent agreement on Iran’s nuclear program, over the next 15 years Iran will refrain from enriching or acquiring materials such as uranium or plutonium for use in nuclear weapons. In exchange, the United Nations Security Council, Europe and the United States will begin to lift the sanctions currently in place against Iran.

However, the accord still leaves room for Iran to emerge as a nuclear threshold power over the long term. Israel’s continued opposition to the agreement is thus not unfounded.

Another rival in the region, Saudi Arabia, is also privately less than sanguine about the new detente between the U.S.…  Seguir leyendo »

Support for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s security bills is lowest among Japan’s pensioners. Credit Issei Kato/Reuters

MundoAsia

It’s a hot summer in Japan. The public is outraged by a set of security bills proposing to overhaul the country’s postwar defense policy. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is sweating over a record dip in his approval ratings.

Despite several television and radio appearances, Mr. Abe has not managed to convince Japanese people that these reforms are necessary. Anti-militarist sentiment is stronger than ever, with protests not seen since the 1960s, when students demonstrated against the United States-Japan security treaty. The backlash is partly due to the government’s weak attempts to explain that Mr. Abe’s new defense policy is not the radical departure it appears to be, and to the bills’ having been rushed and rammed through the lower house of Parliament.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAsia, , ,

Last week, 57 nations became founding members of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, the China-led regional development bank. Japan and the United States opted not to join, expressing doubts over governance and transparency at the new organization.

Even if the Obama administration were in favor of the United States becoming a member, Congress wouldn’t allow it; lately, it has even blocked a funding increase for the International Monetary Fund that was backed by the G-20. But the National Diet of Japan faces a different situation. The governing Liberal Democratic Party is split over the A.I.I.B.; its members are still debating the pros and cons.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAsia,

A launch ceremony was recently held in Beijing for the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), which was established by China to meet the growing demand for infrastructure building across Asia. The finance ministers of 21 countries, including all members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, attended the ceremony and have since signed a fundamental memorandum of understanding to establish the bank.

According to estimates by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Asia will require infrastructure investment of over $8 trillion by 2020. The question, however, is whether the ADB will be able to lend $10 billion per year. The ADB’s parent bank is the World Bank, whose largest contributing member is the United States.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAsia,

March 11, 2011, was a transformational moment for the Japanese people. It not only shattered the public myth of absolute safety that had been nurtured by the Japanese nuclear-power industry and its proponents. It also destroyed Japan’s self-image as a “safe and secure nation” that grew out of the country’s pacifism since World War II.

The moment the disaster struck signaled the end of Japan’s long, long postwar period. In the early hours of March 15, Prime Minister Naoto Kan stormed the headquarters of Tokyo Electric Power with an impassioned order that the company not abandon operations at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAméricaInternacionalOrden Mundial,

Well, there’s supposed to be a presidential debate tonight in Oxford, Miss. And it’s supposed to be about foreign policy. With that in mind, the Op-Ed editors asked leaders and writers from around the world to pose questions they’d like to hear John McCain and Barack Obama answer.

How would you work with America’s allies in the Muslim world to turn around the widely held misperception there, as evidenced in opinion polls, that the global war against terrorism is actually a war against Islam?

ASIF ALI ZARDARI, the president of Pakistan

Many developing countries — mine included — have made sacrifices to carry out tough economic reforms and have sought “trade and not aid.”…  Seguir leyendo »