Economy | ANALYSIS
Households to take hit from tax hike
by Tomoko Otake
The consumption tax increase will hit every household in Japan hard, with many people’s financial future hanging on whether their wages rise enough to offset the hike's impact.
Reference | FYI Aug 19, 2013
Clearing way for wider military role
by Mizuho Aoki
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is poised to achieve his long-held goal of reinterpreting Article 9 of the Constitution to allow Japan to exercise its right to engage in collective self-defense under the U.N. Charter. In February, Abe reconvened an advisory panel of security experts ...
Media | MEDIA MIX Aug 17, 2013
Stone weighs in on Japanese defense
by Philip Brasor
It’s August, when the Japanese media’s attention turns to peace, or, at least, the absence of war. The anniversaries of the atomic bombings and subsequent surrender occasion print and broadcast discussions of what Japan learned from its bloody mid-century military campaign. For most people ...
Editorial Aug 9, 2013
Mr. Abe's constitutional runaround
Shinzo Abe's choice for Cabinet Legislation Bureau chief gives away his intention to seek a constitutional justification for Japan's right to "collective self-defense."
Issues | THE FOREIGN ELEMENT Jul 2, 2013
The LDP constitution, article by article: a preview of things to come?
by Colin P. A. Jones
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is pushing for constitutional change. Yet he is playing the political huckster by proposing to first only fiddle with the amendment procedure in Article 96, lowering the threshold for the process to move forward from the approval of two-thirds of ...
Commentary | COUNTERPOINT Jun 30, 2013
Constitutional revision: Proposed Abe-rights look to be all wrong
by Jeff Kingston
After the Upper House elections on July 21, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe may try to revise the Constitution. This longstanding agenda is now within reach because the Liberal Democratic Party he heads might be able to rally the necessary two-thirds of votes in both ...
Issues | THE FOREIGN ELEMENT Jun 25, 2013
Tweak the Constitution now, think later?
by Colin P.A. Jones
Whether it happens or not depends heavily on the results of the upcoming House of Councilors elections, but Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has clearly announced his intention to make amending the Constitution a campaign issue. Although his Liberal Democratic Party issued a comprehensive amendment ...
Global-related Jan 27, 2011
Facing the specter of famine
by Kevin Rafferty
SINGAPORE — In India, a potentially huge economic and social crisis is in the making, involving extensive rewriting of recipe books to exclude a favorite ingredient. Onions are in short supply and their prices have risen by 80 percent, too expensive for many Indians ...