- nuclear power
- Trade Pact Progress, Nuclear Plant FaultfindingShiraishi Takashi
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On February 22, Prime Minister Abe Shinzō met in Washington with President Barack Obama, and the Japanese and US governments issued a joint statement concerning the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations. This statement confirmed that if Japan were to participate, “all goods would be subject to negotiation,” but noting that “both countries have bilateral trade sensitivities” and that “as the fin…
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- Abe’s Visit to Southeast Asia and Japan’s Five New Diplomatic PrinciplesShiraishi Takashi
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From January 16 to 18, Prime Minister Abe Shinzō visited Vietnam, Thailand, and Indonesia; this visit to Southeast Asia was his first international trip since taking office on December 26. On the first day of his trip, Abe flew to Vietnam, where he met with Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung in Hanoi. The two leaders agreed to promote bilateral cooperation through trade and investment in areas includ…
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- A US Strategist Speaks on Japan’s Leadership and Energy Policy NeedsTaniguchi Tomohiko
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In early November 2012, Abe Shinzō, president of the main opposition Liberal Democratic Party, was announcing that his party would reactivate Japan’s nuclear power plants if it returned to power. This was in response to Prime Minister Noda Yoshihiko’s announcement of a plan to phase out nuclear power by the 2030s. On November 7, Nippon.com editorial board member Taniguchi Tomohiko spoke to John Hamre, president of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, to hear what he had to say about Japan’s energy policy choices and the outlook for bilateral ties.
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- Japan and the Geopolitics of the Shale RevolutionTaniguchi Tomohiko
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The “shale revolution” offers the promise of energy independence for the United States and another energy option for Japan in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear disaster. But Taniguchi Tomohiko argues that it could also have perilous repercussions—political as well as economic—for which Japan must prepare itself by “thinking about the unthinkable.”
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- Election 2012: The People’s Verdict, Abe’s AgendaShiraishi Takashi
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On December 16 Japan held a general election for the House of Representatives, the lower house of the National Diet. As had been expected, the Liberal Democratic Party, which lost power three years ago, emerged victorious this time. The LDP achieved a sweeping victory, taking 294 of the 480 seats in the chamber. Adding the 31 seats won by the New Kōmeitō, its long-time ally, gives a total of 325, …
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- Five Things to Know About Energy in Japan
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Basic information about Japan’s energy situation is indispensable when examining the prospects for renewable energy sources here. We kick off our series with a quiz to see what you know about things like Japan’s energy self-sufficiency ratio and the price of gas.
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- Reforming Japan’s Electricity SystemItoh Motoshige
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As part of the process of formulating a new set of basic principles for the nation’s energy policy, an Advisory Committee for Natural Resources and Energy has been appointed to report to the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry. I am chairman of the Specialist Committee for Electricity System Reform that is a part of this project. Our job is to consider the shape that Japan’s electricity syste…
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- How to Formulate a Strategy for Energy SupplyKamisato Tatsuhiro
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In the wake of the nuclear crisis in Fukushima, public interest in Japan’s energy policy is fixed on one thing alone: nuclear energy, and how to live without it. Kamisato Tatsuhiro of Osaka University argues that a broader perspective is necessary at this crucial turning point in modern Japanese history.
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- Ozawa Becomes History, While Noda Makes ItTaniguchi Tomohiko
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Just over a month ago a weekly magazine carried a story reporting scandals involving Ozawa Ichirō. A letter said to have been written by Ozawa’s wife revealed two bombshells: One was that he had fathered a child out of wedlock and had made his lover raise this child. The second was a serious revelation relating to his qualifications as a politician, namely, that in the wake of the Great East Japan…
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- Manga Makes It to Academia
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Manga has grown from its beginnings in Japan to become a global phenomenon. Its growing influence is reflected in academia, where manga-related research is on the rise. One of the pioneers in this field is the German scholar Jaqueline Berndt, the vice-director of Kyoto Seika University’s International Manga Research Center. We talked with her to learn more about how she became interested in manga and her approach to manga research.
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