links for 2007-02-27

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney agreed Wednesday to boost the bilateral alliance and cooperate to resolve the issue of North Korea’s past abductions of Japanese citizens as a common matter of the two nations.

“I must say that it is regrettable to see that when the Chinese people misread the world, they misread Japan most of all due to the special historical entanglements between China and Japan”

“After a strong start, when he deftly used trips abroad to warm Japan’s icy relations with China and South Korea, Abe’s administration has succumbed to inertia, scandal and backbiting.”