Tag: Abe Shinzo

  • Fun With Abe-Bush Rhetoric

    Shisaku has a snarky roundup of Abe Shinzo’s recent visit to the United States. Here’s the blog’s response to Abe’s hinting that maybe “the past is the past.” “The 20th century was a century that human rights were violated in many parts of the world. So we have to make the 21st century a century…


  • Measuring Progress From Wen's Japan Visit

    What’s come out of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo’s visit in Tokyo? Well, the Associated Press has a quick list. Here are the parts that might actually be news, instead of reiterations of things like agreeing to work for a nuclear weapons-free Korean peninsula: Agreements to work for a successor…


  • A Warning on Yasukuni: Out of Nowhere?

    Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in an interview with Kyodo gave a standard warning against any visit by Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo to the Yasukuni Shrine leading up to Wen’s visit to Tokyo next week. This would not be the least bit surprising, except that Abe hasn’t visited the shrine since taking office. Either Wen…


  • Abe Apologizes, Xinhua Seems Satisfied, Reuters More Skeptical

    Surrounding Australian Prime Minister John Howard’s trip to Japan this weekend, Japanese PM Abe Shinzo “expressed an unfeigned apology to ‘comfort women.’” Or did was the headline that he “trie[d] damage control over WW2 sex slaves”? If you ask the Chinese official news agency, which often serves as an outlet for the Chinese government’s scoldings…


  • Abe's 'Comfort Women' denial: U.S. reaction, a victim speaks, and classifieds

    Just joining us? See this entry and this follow-up. New developments: U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte would not comment on Abe’s specific words, but AP reports: “Our view is that what happened during the war was most deplorable,” he said when asked about the sex slave issue. “But … as far as some…