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The kickback scandal involving the fundraising parties of the Abe faction, the largest faction of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), has become a major problem that is shaking the foundations of the Kishida regime in Japan.
The Abe faction has sent many politicians to the heart of (…)
Satoko Kishimoto was elected mayor of Suginami last June - the district’s first-ever female leader, fighting Japan’s sexist attitudes.
Satoko Kishimoto returned to her native Japan in April 2022. She was 47, and for 22 of those years, she had been in Europe, most of them spent working for the (…)
On July 8, Japan’s former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was killed by a man who told police that he had a grudge against a “certain religious group”, the Unification Church. This event incident revealed a facet of Abe’s past as a right-wing nationalist that has never been told in Japan.
On July (…)
Suga Yoshihide, longtime aide to Abe Shinzo, has now replaced him as Japan’s prime minister. Suga will preserve the main features of Abe’s long stint in power: creeping militarism, subordination to the US, and a high-handed approach to political opposition.
On September 14, Suga Yoshihide (…)
The leaders of Japan and the United States have said the time for dialogue with North Korea is over, just as South Korea slapped a new raft of unilateral sanctions against Pyongyang.
Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Monday met with US President Donald Trump, who is in Tokyo as part of a (…)
As expected, the general election of December 14, 2014 gave an absolute majority of the seats again to the ruling coalition of Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and Komei Party. LDP got 291 seats and Komei Party got 35 seats out of the total of 475 seats. The biggest opposition, Democratic Party (…)
The approval rating of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Cabinet fell nine percentage points to 55 percent, the lowest since its launch in December in 2012, according to a nationwide opinion poll recently conducted by The Yomiuri Shimbun.
While the approval rating showed a drop from 64 percent in (…)
JRP candidate’s loss in Sakai mayoral election deals blow to Hashimoto
OSAKA — Incumbent Sakai Mayor Osami Takeyama beat Katsutoshi Nishibayashi, an opponent backed by Japan Restoration Party (JRP), in the mayoral election on Sept. 29, dealing a heavy blow to the JRP and its co-leader Toru (…)
LDP nets quarter of unaffiliated proportional ballots
About a quarter of voters who support no particular political party cast their ballots for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party in the proportional representation part of Sunday’s Upper House election, according to a Jiji Press exit poll. (…)
After facing criticism both at home and abroad, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Taro Aso on Thursday retracted his remark suggesting Japan should learn from the Nazis when it comes to revising the Constitution, saying it has led to a “misunderstanding.”
“It’s very regrettable that (…)
Sunday’s sweeping victory by the Liberal Democratic Party-New Komeito ruling bloc in the Upper House election put an end to the divided Diet and hopefully to the “revolving door” of prime ministers over the past seven years, as ridiculed by foreign media.
That is at least until the next Lower (…)
Japanese Communist Party rides protest vote to major upper house gains
The Japanese Communist Party (JCP) took eight seats in the July 21 House of Councillors election, boosting its seat count in the chamber to 11 and considerably expanding its influence.
The JCP garnered three seats in the (…)
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is expected to promote his nationalistic agenda in full force after the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)’s massive victory in the House of Councillors election gave it a majority in both houses of the Diet, while those in the government and ruling parties urge him to (…)
LDP scores huge win, ending divided Diet
The ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) scored a landslide victory in the House of Councillors election on July 21, enabling the party to control both houses of the Diet with its coalition partner New Komeito and to proceed with the “Abenomics” (…)
JRP suffers sense of defeat, party split feared
A sense of defeat prevailed in the Japan Restoration Party (JRP) following the July 21 House of Councillors election, as the party failed to reach its goal of winning 10 seats despite its strong showing in last December’s House of Representatives (…)
TOKYO (AP) — A retired Japanese politician whose name is on a landmark 1993 apology over Japan’s use of wartime sex slaves says Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s attempts to downplay Japan’s actions before and during World War II have hurt the country’s global image and could undermine its pacifist (…)
Abe’s LDP sweeps Tokyo assembly election ahead of upper house contest
TOKYO (Kyodo) — The Liberal Democratic Party won a sweeping election victory Sunday, securing an overall majority in the 127-seat Tokyo metropolitan assembly with its coalition partner the New Komeito party, giving Prime (…)
Since Shinzo Abe began his second stint as prime minister, observers in both Japan and abroad have been on high alert over Japan’s political swing to the right. In this series, we ask politicians and intellectuals where they think the Abe administration is headed, and whether the direction (…)
Recent remarks by Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto justifying the Imperial Japanese Army’s “comfort women” brothel system have upset relations with the United States and South Korea and enraged human rights activists both at home and abroad.
The impact on domestic politics has also been great, as (…)
The rise of Japan’s reactionary right suggests that the country has yet to come to terms with its actions in World War II.
The words were so brazen that they have created a firestorm globally. Characterized as “outspoken” and “brash” in the international media, Osaka mayor Toru Hashimoto has (…)
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