“Tokyo and Washington are in final preparations for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to address Congress during a visit to the United States this spring, a Japanese government official said Saturday. Arrangements are well underway for Abe to speak before a joint…
Seifu Kan, a 94-year-old resident of Kyoto whose hand was injured in a U.S. wartime air raid, sends his handcrafted glass pens to “people who are committed to world peace and make progress for the cause.”
“Toshihiro Nikai, a top executive in the ruling party, has so much political clout he was recently able to pull off something that has eluded even Prime Minister Shinzo Abe: a formal one-on-one meeting with South Korean President Park Geun-hye.”
“The [Japanese] government is sending a high-ranking official to the ceremony this Sunday commemorating the day of Japan’s incorporation of the Takeshima islets, despite the organizer’s request for a Cabinet member…”
“Prime Minister Shinzo Abe ’s view of the past is the biggest cloud hanging over the future of U.S.-Japan ties, according to U.S. lawmakers visiting Tokyo this week…”
A Japanese language teacher living in Seoul has been volunteering at a shelter for elderly women survivors, known as the “House of Sharing” and located in southeast Seoul.
“Seoul’s demand for new apology over WWII ‘comfort women’ complicates regional security ties… …Polling data show that South Koreans dislike Mr. Abe as much as they do North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. In Japan, polls show that views of South…
“Ambassador to the United States Kenichiro Sasae has rejected criticism by U.S.-based historians that Japan tried to meddle with descriptions in an American textbook over the use of “comfort women” at wartime Japanese military brothels…”
By Jeff Kingston, director of Asian Studies, Temple University Japan “Global understanding does not come cheaply. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government has budgeted ¥70 billion — yes, that’s more than $500 million — to help get the word out about…