HONOLULU — It is an item of faith for many Japanese — and many Japan watchers — that their country will never build or acquire nuclear weapons. Japan’s nonnuclear status, a product of both the searing experience of August 1945 and a calculation of ...

HONOLULU — A gloom is settling over Tokyo. A recent visit revealed deep and deepening frustration and anxiety as Japanese contemplate strategic options. Decision-makers in Tokyo have framed their choices in overly simple terms that do not reflect the range of possibilities in foreign ...

TAIPEI — For all the divisions that define Taiwan politics, parties on both ends of the political spectrum agree on one thing: The island is in trouble. At that point, however, they part ways. The government of President Chen Shui-bian and his Democratic Progressive ...

HONOLULU — As expected, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) were defeated in Sunday’s Upper House election. And, despite concerted attempts to lower expectations, the results still embarrassed the ruling party. Yet, to the consternation of many, Abe has ...

UNITED NATIONS — Since the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, security planners the world over have lost considerable sleep contemplating the prospect of terrorists armed with nuclear weapons. The world has responded with an array of measures to fight this terrifying possibility. A ...

NANJING, China — How good are China-Japan relations today? So good that the museum here to commemorate the 1937 massacre by Japanese Imperial Army soldiers is closed for renovation. That’s remarkable since this is the 70th anniversary of the massacre and criticism of historical ...

HONOLULU — Nuclear strategy has become a core concern in the U.S.-Japan alliance. North Korea is the immediate trigger for Japanese anxiety, but similar uncertainties lie just beneath the surface when Japan contemplates China as well. U.S. assurances are needed — both to Japan ...

HONOLULU — U.S. plans to deploy an antiballistic missile defense system in Europe have raised fears of a new Cold War. Russian responses to the proposal have been fierce: Moscow has warned countries that hosting interceptors would make them targets in the event of ...

HONOLULU — What was he thinking? That is the question most Japan-watchers grappled with following Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo’s fumbled questions about the imperial Japanese government’s role in recruiting “comfort women” during World War II. His responses came close to undoing the progress ...

HONOLULU — There is no mistaking Prime Minister Abe Shinzo’s determination to transform Japan’s foreign and security policies, and reassert itself in the world. Yet while he must seize opportunities as he forges this new role, he must also reassure doubters both at home ...

Chasing the Sun: Rethinking East Asian Policy, by Morton Abramowitz and Stephen Bosworth. New York: A Century Foundation Book, 2006, 165 pp., $15.95 (paper). Slowly but surely, the United States is waking up to the profound changes afoot in the structure of global power. ...

JAPAN IN A DYNAMIC ASIA: Coping With the New Security Challenges, edited by Yoichiro Sato and Satu Limaye. Lexington Books, 2006, 271 pp., 2006 (paper). Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has said he will pursue a more assertive foreign policy. That won’t be easy, report ...