A college professor’s criminal complaint about the Liberal Democratic Party’s sloppy bookkeeping resulted in some of the most influential LDP members being purged from the Kishida Cabinet and the party leadership. After conducting meticulous research, Hiroyuki Kamiwaki of Kobe Gakuin University found out that the members of the leadership of the so-called Abe faction, the … Read more
Japan’s ruling party, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), is at the center of a financial misconduct scandal that threatens to drag down public approval ratings and paralyze the Kishida administration. The LDP’s largest political faction, named after assassinated former Prime Minister Abe Shinzo, is alleged to have failed to report as much as $700,000 from … Read more
Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party is reeling under a political finance scandal that looks set to force a second reshuffle of Prime Minister Kishida Fumio’s Cabinet in three months. Japanese politicians typically host fundraising events, where attendees pay to buy tickets. The various LDP factions set quotas for how much money each legislator must raise … Read more
Japan and Vietnam have officially established a comprehensive strategic partnership, pledging a broad expansion of security and economic ties on the 50th anniversary of the two nations’ diplomatic relations The announcement came after Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Vietnamese President Vo Van Thuong met in Tokyo yesterday for talks, during which the pair pledged … Read more
Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio’s plummeting popularity is raising serious questions about his future prospects. While successfully steering Japan on a course toward major military power status and global diplomatic prominence, his domestic political fortunes have never been more in doubt. A stark contrast is becoming apparent between Kishida’s successes in the conduct of Japan’s … Read more
Advertisement Every year since 1990, the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation announces recipients of the “Profiles in Courage Award,” named after late President Kennedy’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book. The award is granted to individuals – mostly elected U.S. officials – who have demonstrated courage by pursuing the public good amid political risks and blowbacks. This year, … Read more
Advertisement Seoul office worker Kim Mijeong said she intends to stop eating seafood because she deeply mistrusts the safety of Japan’s release of treated radioactive wastewater into the sea from its crippled nuclear power plant. “We should absolutely cut back on our consumption of seafood. Actually, we can’t eat it,” Kim said. “I can’t accept … Read more
Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio (left) is greeted by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ahead of their meeting in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, July 16, 2023. Credit: Prime Minister’s Office of Japan Advertisement From July 16 to 19, Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio traveled to the Middle East for the first time since he took … Read more
The Debate Towards an Indo-Pacific worldview. Advertisement The G7 Hiroshima Summit was a historic success. A key element of this success was the commitment of world leaders to the principle that nuclear weapons should never be used again. This was the first time that representatives from every continent had come together to recognize the enormous … Read more
Advertisement The leaders of the Quad countries – Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of Australia, Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India, Prime Minister Kishida Fumio of Japan, and President Joe Biden of the United States – met in Hiroshima, Japan, on May 20. This was the third in-person meeting of the four leaders and was hosted … Read more