Japan Archives - Page 17 of 39 - Foreign Policy In Focus

Rekindling China-Japan Conflict: The Senkaku/Diaoyutai Islands Clash

by Tanaka Sakai | Sep 29, 2010

Why did the Japan Coast Guard, on September 7th, arrest a Chinese fishing boat captain and detain his ship, setting off the most serious China-Japan conflict in decades? Investigative journalist Tanaka Sakai offers no definitive answer in the following historically-and geopolitically-informed analysis of the roots of the conflict. He does show, definitively, that the Japanese action marked a striking departure from policies that have been in effect since at least 1978 when China and Japan resumed diplomatic relations and Deng Xiaoping crafted an agreement to defer action on competing claims to the Senkaku/Diaoyutai islands.

Japan’s Three Elections

by John Feffer | Sep 14, 2010

Prime Minister Kan is on board with the U.S. military presence in Okinawa, but the island’s residents and politicians are considerably less sanguine about it.

The US-Japan ‘Alliance’, Okinawa, and Three Looming Elections

by Gavan McCormack | Sep 10, 2010

World attention through the early months of 2010 focused on the tiny hamlet of Henoko in Northern Okinawa as Prime Minister Hatoyama struggled to find a way to meet his (and the Democratic Party of Japan’s) electoral commitment to see that no substitute for the existing Futenma Marine Air Station be constructed in Okinawa. Confronted by adamantine pressures from the US government, and surrounded by uncooperative (some would say even traitorous) bureaucrats who insisted there was no other way but to submit to the US-Japan agreement to construct a new base negotiated by the former LDP government.

The US-Japan Alliance Must Evolve: The Futenma Flip-Flop, the Hatoyama Failure and the Future

by Terashima Jitsuro | Aug 20, 2010

In the raging currents of world history, the framework of Cold War-style “alliance diplomacy” has reached its limit. In particular, the mechanism of the US-Japan alliance that has become fixed by inertia and vested interests in the 65 years since the end of the war has clearly begun to squeak, and the need for the rejuvenation of this alliance is becoming sharply visible.

START Now

by Frida Berrigan | Aug 12, 2010

After 65 years, is there anything new to say about nuclear weapons? Their immense and almost incomprehensible destructive power is well known. Their tenacious endurance as the weapon, even after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, is an unavoidable fact as nine nations currently stockpile these world menacers. Their super-power allure to emerging states remains untarnished despite international treaties discouraging proliferation.

If They’d Listened to the Scientists We Might Not Need to Observe Hiroshima Day

by Russ Wellen | Aug 4, 2010

Opinions about using the bomb were solicited from Manhattan Project scientists — but not heeded.

Anti-Base Movements in South Korea: Comparative Perspective on the Asia-Pacific

by Andrew Yeo | Jun 23, 2010

Recent scrutiny of U.S.-Japan base realignment and Okinawan anti-base opposition has overshadowed U.S. military issues in South Korea. As others have argued, the struggle in Okinawa represents only one facet of the larger global struggle against U.S. bases.3

Who Killed Hatoyama’s Career?

by John Feffer | Jun 2, 2010

The Obama administration never warmed to Hatoyama. But it was the Okinawa base issue that sealed the deal.

Okinawa and Obama’s Base-Based Addiction

by John Feffer | May 13, 2010

Japanese PM Hatoyama’s modified base relocation plan looks like a lose, lose, lose proposition for Okinawa, Japan, and President Obama.

Japan’s Military Spending at a Crossroads

by Akira Kawasaki | May 10, 2010

Japan’s military budget has held steady at below one percent of its GDP. Japan spends heavily on personnel for its Self-Defense Forces, support of U.S. bases in Japan, and development of its ballistic missile defense and space development. Yet in recent times, the Japanese business community has also demanded an amendment to Article 9 of the constitution for the promotion of military-civil integrated space development and an end to the ban on arms exports. With the future of Japan’s security policy still uncertain after the election of the new Hatoyama administration, innovative disarmament cooperation would better serve the stability of the region than Japan’s development of high-tech, offensive military capabilities.