While March’s wage hike by Japan came as a bright spot amidst growing concern over Abenomics, will April’s 3 percentage point tax hike rain on Abe’s parade? Since sweeping back into office in December 2012’s Lower House election, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has pursued an aggressive plan—dubbed Abenomics—to create a “virtuous economic cycle†of increased…
 Japanese Whaling Not “for purposes of†Scientific Research  On 31 March 2014 the International Court of Justice handed down its long-awaited decision in Australia v Japan, concerning the legality of whaling in the Antarctic Ocean. While the decision in Australia’s favour effectively prevents Japan’s continued whaling hunt in the Antarctic under its current…
On December 7, 1970 in Warsaw, Poland, West Germany’s Prime Minister Willy Brandt laid a wreath and fell to his knees at a monument commemorating the lives lost during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. His gesture, appearing to be both spontaneous and genuine, came to symbolize the acknowledgement of past wrongs. Brandt’s act, although unpopular with…
If there is one thing the year 2013 demonstrated, it is that the adage, “Secrets don’t make friends,†is as true for government as it is for people. Edward Snowden’s revelations of numerous National Security Agency programs, including those where the United States spied on its allies and collected enormous numbers of phone records, has…
With the gravity of the situation at Fukushima lessening, attention has begun to shift to larger questions surrounding the accident. What were the failures of the power company TEPCO and government oversight that lead to this incident occurring? Was the accident really preventable given the sheer scale of the tsunami? Discussion and investigation continues, but…
Living in Japan brings a whole new perspective of the country that living outside Japan does not usually afford. Yes, Japanese do drive cars; yes, there are Japanese who do not eat fish; and yes, there is crime in Japan. While still comparatively low, the feeling amongst most Japanese seems to be that the crime rate has been on the rise in recent years. Many foreigners are surprised to learn that Japan does have and enforce capital punishment…
Japan’s arch nemesis, North Korea, was very busy in 2010. Two major engagements with South Korea produced numerous deaths and raised regional and world tensions to levels not seen in many years. Japan has a long and complicated history with both Koreas that affects everyone living here, so it is worthwhile to examine the “North Korea problem†closer.