Japan

This autumn events in Tokyo led many observers to believe that Japan was ready to restructure its profoundly dysfunctional banking system. These hopes were soon dashed, however, as the "forces of resistance" to economic reform marshaled their resources and persuaded Prime Minister Koizumi to eviscerate the banking program. A mood approaching dejection has subsequently fallen over Japan specialists in that country and around the world.

Robert Madsen contends that the temporary surge in optimism was unrealistic. Not only are the political… more

Conventional wisdom regarding Japanese economy holds that it needs structural reform. That is correct, but news and opinion seem to focus too much on banking industry (e.g. writing off bad loans) and government sector reform (like postal savings). When we assess the current situation of Japan, we should focus more on what kind of reforms are needed for the corporate sector to become more efficient, and how much they have achieved in that context.

Actually, there have been a… more

Please join us at the New America Foundation as Adam Posen and Steven Vogel address these compelling issues:

After ten years of stagnation, few people today expect a Japanese return to prominence, either economically or in U.S. consciousness. Of course, at the start of the 1990s, few people expected hyper-competitive Japan to recede so quickly from being the "Number One" economy. Looking beyond today's difficulties, what should American policymakers expect of Japan in 10 years' time? Will relations… more

For some years, American prisoners of war who were enslaved by private Japanese firms during WWII have been pursuing both claims and apologies from the firms that committed inhuman atrocities during the war. In the San Francisco Peace Treaty, John Foster Dulles seemed to trade away the rights of these citizens to pursue these claims -- but recent evidence has emerged that arguably alters the rights of POWs to pursue their claims. Both the U.S. House of Representatives… more

As Japan's political culture evolves under the premiership of the eccentric but popular Junichiro Koizumi, many questions arise about the net results and sustainability of this new "reform" government. Prime Minister Koizumi has proposed sweeping reforms across the governmental spectrum in Japan, from tax allocations to Japan's military relationship with the United States to the organization of power within the central government itself. Koizumi's handling of the telecommunications industry, in particular, will be telling as to whether he can… more

According to conventional wisdom, Japan's Emperor Hirohito was a man of peace, forced by Japan's militarist elites to support his country's wartime aggression. In his provocative new book Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan, historian Herbert Bix offers a dramatic reappraisal of the emperor's wartime role, arguing that Hirohito was in fact far more hawkish and closely involved in Japan's war plans than has been previously acknowledged.

Bix goes on to argue that the post-war whitewash of… more

Kiyoshi Sugawa serves as one of the most significant and senior policy analysts and advisors to the leaders of the Democratic Party of Japan and has just spent a sabbatical at Brookings researching U.S.­Japan security architecture questions and attempting to benchmark American attitudes and concerns about potential operational and constitutional changes in Japan's willingness to use force in international disputes. He has recently completed a paper which he plans to discuss at this meeting.

Sugawa, who had a… more

Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi arrives in Washington today for the first official visit by a Japanese prime minister in 12 years. Other official visits have been planned but none of Japan's many prime ministers over the last decade has lasted in office long enough to make the trip.

Obuchi, memorialized in the… more