Tag: Article 9

  • Japanese constitutional revision, and welcoming Tobias Harris and Observing Japan back to blogville

    After a reasonably long hiatus that led me to remove Observing Japan from the Transpacifica blogroll (which I have capped at 25 in an effort to list only the most valuable sources), author and friend Tobias Harris is back, and with a vengeance. Reasons to welcome him back: (1) While he apparently did not win…

  • What kind of 'hawk' is Japan's Shinzo Abe? Probably not the kind you think

    Shinzo Abe became prime minister of Japan in December, more than six years after he first took the job, succeeding long-serving Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in September 2006. In the U.S. press especially, Abe is often termed a “nationalist” or “hawk” for supporting expanded military activities and a potential revision of the Japanese constitution. Crystal…

  • "Article 9 is the 'God of Peace' that Saves Humanity"

    That’s the title of a new entry into the Article 9 discussion from Japanese blogger Amaki Naoto. He gives a harsh assessment of U.S. failures in the Middle East, saying that after the Cold War “the Middle East became the epicenter of world conflict.” He also blames problems in the Middle East on the influence…

  • McCain on N. Korea, Rearming Japan, and Taiwan (Oct. 2006)

    In a Hannity & Colmes interview last year devoted mostly to attacking U.S. efforts to control North Korea under President Bill Clinton, Senator John McCain—now a leading Republican presidential candidate—said if the United Nations doesn’t do enough to control North Korea, Japan will have to “rearm.” And he said, puzzlingly, that something he refers to…

  • Who's the Bigger Nationalist: Abe or Koizumi?

    Ampontan criticizes English-language media for their “[m]indlessly parroted assumptions based on conventional wisdom” that lead to their labeling Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo as a “nationalist.” The entry notes Abe’s hands-off approach thus far on the disputed island situations with Korea and Russia as evidence that he is no “hawkish nationalist.” Observing Japan, on the…