Tag: Fukuda Yasuo

  • Demonstrations in Tokyo During Hu Visit: Could Be Worse

    From Reuters: But even as Hu spoke, about 200 protesters waved signs outside the university gate saying “Free Tibet” and “No Pandas, No Poison Dumplings,” the latter referring to Hu’s offer to lend two pandas to a Tokyo zoo and a row over Chinese-made dumplings laced with pesticide that made several Japanese people ill. When…

  • Top Japanese Officials Not Among Politicians Visiting Yasukuni

    Tis the season for Yasukuni Shrine visits. Between 62 (per Mainichi) and more than 150 (per AP) Japanese lawmakers visited the shrine on the traditional occasion of the spring holiday. But Jun Okumura notes that none of the very top leaders were among them: The AP report does tell you that “Prime Minister Fukuda did…

  • Japan's New Foreign Policy: Step Back and Focus on Asia

    Fukuda tells the Washington Post that Asia is Japan’s top responsibility, sending a signal to the United States on Japan’s expired Afghanistan refueling mission. This is also a departure from Abe and Aso’s aspiration to “Eurasian” reach. It wasn’t too long ago that then-Foreign Minister Aso Taro declared that Japan would work for an “arc…