Economic doldrums mean that India is not much of a destination for global investors nowadays and the flight of foreign capital is depressing the rupee’s value to record lows vis-à-vis the U.S. dollar. Even domestic investorsprefer to put their money elsewhere. The country was the toast of the 2006 World Economic Forum in Davos, with “India Everywhere” […]
The Japanese government approved legislation last week to set up a national security council, according to a Thomson Reuters report. The council, a Japanese version of the White House’s National Security Council, is purported to facilitate more rapid foreign policy decisions for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in the face of North Korean saber-rattling and territorial […]
Just when the rhetoric on both sides seemed to be fading, last week the People’s Daily, a Chinese newspaper, ran a lengthy commentary penned by two academics challenging Japan’s sovereign rights to the Ryukyu island chain – not far from Taiwan and home to Okinawa prefecture, the administrative body of the disputed Diaoyu/Senkaku islands directly […]
While ties between China and its neighbors have long been strained by territorial disputes in the South China Sea, Beijing’s policy has typically been one of self-restraint coupled with patient diplomacy. But when the Japanese government announced the purchase of the Senkaku Islands, known as the Diaoyu in China, from private citizens late last […]
On the heels of South Korea‘s recent election, Japan has chosen new leadership as well. Well, not completely new. Shinzo Abe–who was prime minister for a brief term in 2006-7–of the Liberal Democratic Party will lead what he termed “a crisis breakthrough cabinet.” Described and right-wing, nationalist, hawkish, and outspoken, Abe has vowed to shore […]
photo: Suria In one of the biggest landslides in Japan’s electoral history, the conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) of Shinzo Abe surged back to power in Japan’s general election last Sunday – just three years after a devastating defeat. The LDP and its ally, the New Komeito Party (NKP), won a majority with control of […]