Multiple scandals putting Abe on defensive as Diet session gets underway
With opposition parties focusing on a spate of scandals, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will have to go on the defensive in the upcoming Diet session.
Opposition grills LDP on risks facing Japan's SDF mission to Mideast
Any overseas SDF mission is politically sensitive, but U.S.-Iran tensions are so high that debate on the constitutional hazards has ensued even before the Diet has opened.
Abe vows reforms and voices hope for successful Tokyo Olympics in 2020
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pledges to promote reforms — ranging from social security to the Constitution — while expressing hope the country will successfully host Tokyo 2020 games.
How socialism and the left wing failed in Japan
Three decades ago, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Malta Summit signified the end of the Cold War and the defeat of left-wing forces, including the socialists and communists. The communists lost power in the East, and the socialist parties in the West ...
Tetsu Nakamura's death in Afghanistan exposes a gap of perception in Japan
Following the assassination of Dr. Tetsu Nakamura in Afghanistan earlier this month, the government of Afghanistan held a memorial ceremony for him as his body was delivered to the airplane that would take it out of the country. President Ashraf Ghani was one of ...
Japan discussed collective self-defense with U.S. in 1955, records show
In 1955, Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu told U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles that Japan could send its Self-Defense Forces overseas to protect the U.S. territory of Guam, Japanese diplomatic records showed Wednesday. Such an SDF dispatch for the purpose of defense would be ...
The Reiwa Daijosai: Pomp, circumstance and litigation
The separation of church and state in Japan comes under scrutiny in the new era. However, we've been down this road before.
Abe 'not thinking about' fourth term as Liberal Democratic Party head
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday said he is not thinking about the possibility of seeking another term as leader of the Liberal Democratic Party by changing its rules, despite his aim of achieving constitutional reform during his tenure. Speaking at an event in Tokyo, ...
LDP execs support Abe staying on beyond 2021 to get Constitution amended
Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso says Abe should not leave his successor the task of revising the supreme law, which proponents of revision say will clarify the status of the SDF.
Abe granted brief respite as scandal-hit extraordinary Diet session draws to a close
During the course of the session two ministers resigned, a plan for reforming college English-language tests was withdrawn and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was accused of breaching election campaign laws.
LDP statesman Yasuhiro Nakasone helped shape postwar Japan from the top down
Former Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, who died at 101 on Nov. 29, will undoubtedly be remembered as a giant in Japan's political history. But before he became a political titan and Japan's fifth-longest-serving postwar prime minister, Nakasone was on the fringes of the nation's conservative ...
Vote weight gap in July election ruled constitutional by top Tokyo court
The Tokyo High Court on Wednesday ruled the disparity in the weight of votes in the July Upper House election was constitutional, in the last of 16 similar lawsuits filed nationwide by groups of lawyers. The ruling was the 14th stating that the disparity of ...
