Tag: Abe Shinzo

  • More on Abe's 'Comfort Women' Denial

    Japan Probe has a good entry that digs up the transcript for the October statement I referred to twice previously. Abe was responding to questions from Shii Kazuo, the chair of the executive committee of the Japanese Communist Party, and insisted that his cabinet would follow the Kono Statement. Abe said his previous questioning of…

  • Abe Rescinds Support for 1993 Comfort Women Statement

    In the politics of 20th century East Asian history, the Japanese wartime practice of using women as sex slaves under the putrid euphemism “comfort women” is comparable only to the Nanjing Massacre and the Yasukuni Shrine in its prominence. In 1993, Japan’s chief cabinet secretary, Kono Yohei, acknowledged that “comfort stations” had existed and that…

  • Is Yasukuni Really out of the Picture?

    The Yasukuni Shrine may be making an exit from the rhetoric of Sino-Japanese tensions. The Chinese ambassador to Japan said in a report published yesterday that China and Japan have “finally overcome this political impediment damaging bilateral relations.” “The political stalemate has been broken,” the ambassador, Wang Yi, said in an interview with Xinhua. But…

  • Japan's 'Arc of Freedom and Prosperity'

    Japanese Foreign Minister Aso Taro on Thursday unveiled the new foreign policy rhetoric for Prime Minister Abe’s leadership: the “arc of freedom and prosperity” (自由と繁栄の弧). From Yomiuri Shimbun: “Another new core policy will be added to the basis of Japan’s diplomacy, strengthening the Japan-U.S. alliance and enhancing relations with neighboring countries, including China, South Korea…

  • China Says Relations With Japan at 'New Starting Point'

    Chinese State Councillor Tang Jiaxuan, who in September said Abe Shinzo would have to behave himself on the Yasukuni Shrine issue as a precondition for a meeting with the Chinese president after becoming prime minister, told a Japanese minister that China and Japan are at a “new starting point.” “The two countries have already broken…