In the wee hours of the morning yesterday, Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)–Komeito coalition muscled a suite of security-related bills through the upper house of the Diet. The bills, now certain to become law, fundamentally re-draw the legal parameters of security cooperation in which the Self-Defense Forces (SDF) may now engage.
Recent student protests in Japan against the Liberal Democratic Party’s (LDP) proposed changes to constitutional reinterpretation have Japan watchers asking ‘is the sleepy Japanese student waking up?’ However, what if they were never asleep or they were just waiting for the alarm clock to go off?
For a long time, historical and territorial disputes plagued relations between Japan and China. So far, the frictions show no sign of abating. Instead, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has taken a nationalistic approach towards China. China has reportedly regularly intruded into Japanese territorial waters near the disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu islands and repeatedly demanded Japan to apologise for its wartime atrocities. These events have heightened tensions between the two countries.
On 27 August, Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto abruptly announced his resignation from the Japan Innovation Party (JIP). Hashimoto, who founded the party, has arguably been the single most important driving force behind the JIP’s electoral success and its emergence as the second-largest opposition party after the centre-left Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ). His resignation not only throws the party into disarray, but it could also usher in a wave of political realignment as Japan’s opposition parties respond.
The BOJ placed a hold on easing, hoping the economy will make a recovery. The Japanese economy contracted 1.2 percent from April to June amid such factors as China’s market turbulence, falling domestic demand and lagging exports. So far, the BOJ purchased 79 percent of quota-based bonds and assets in 2015, in order to inject more cash into the economy, notes Bloomberg.
In September 2013, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pledged to create a society in which ‘all women can shine’. Abe acknowledged that women had long been an underutilised resource in the Japanese economy. He promised to boost female labour participation rates, increase the presence of women in corporate boardrooms and improve gender equality. Two years on, is ‘womenomics’ working in Japan?
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s much-anticipated statement to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of the Pacific War provoked relief, surprise and some ambiguity for the future. It was a relief because there had been some reports that Abe would go through with a cabinet decision to pull away from the position of the 1995 Murayama Statement, which was a clear apology to victims of Japan’s wartime aggression. That did not happen.
Japan reported a smaller than expected June current account surplus. Seasonally, June tends experience deterioration from May. In fact, only twice in the past ten years has the current account improved in June over May.
On the other hand, investors can look forward to improvement in July. Since 2003 without fail, Japan’s current account position improved in July over June.
Japan is at a momentous turning point. On 16 July 2015, the government of Shinzo Abe used its big majority in the House of Representatives to override objections from opposition parties and pass legislation permitting collective self-defence (CSD). However, this is one of several misdirected solutions following years of conservative revisionism.
Japan has one of the highest levels of debt of any nation in the world, and it is only growing. According to a recent report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Japan’s national debt will be three times the size of its economy by 2030 unless the government takes action now to control its spending.
