“Chinese Embassy officials in the United States went on a phone call frenzy in November to present their spin on a planned joint statement agreed upon just hours earlier concerning Japan-China relations.”
“If the South Korea-China-Japan Summit is held this year that marks the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, the summit would provide a positive momentum for the three nations to put an end to the historical disputes…
“China apparently used the recent trilateral foreign ministers’ meeting as an opportunity to pressure Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to exercise restraint in the phrasing of his forthcoming statement to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II,…
“In advance of a visit to Washington by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, U.S. lawmakers are pushing Japan to set straight its approach to wartime history, which has frozen relations with neighboring Asian countries.”
“Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been formally invited to address a joint session of Congress when he travels to Washington DC this April, AFP reports.”
‘Comfort women’ issue a controversy in Canada too: “Tina Rafferty, a Japanese-Canadian resident, spoke with the NOW about the statue. ‘This proposal is against the Canadian tradition of multiculturalism,’ she said. ‘This is a country where people come from all…
“Finally, while this may not be a popular topic within the Japanese government, the most productive long-term investment for Japan could be an investment in improving its relations with Korea and China. Public diplomacy programs that foster cultural exchanges among…
“The Japan-South Korea rift has complicated U.S. efforts to forge a stronger security alliance against common foe North Korea and to U.S. strategy aimed at countering China’s rise. Japan and South Korea host 80,000 U.S. troops, the backbone of America’s…
“An organization for former U.S. prisoners of the Japanese and a Korean-American forum say Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe should only be invited to address the U.S. Congress during an expected visit if he acknowledges Japan’s World War Two past.”
“China’s foreign ministry has reproached the Japanese government for displaying a 1969 Chinese map of the Senkaku Islands that identifies the disputed territory by its Japanese name.”
“The Foreign Ministry has published on its website a map released by a Chinese government organ in 1969 calling the disputed Senkaku Islands by their Japanese name.”
“China’s air force needs better central control to avoid miscalculations as territorial tensions rise with Japan over the East China Sea, according to Australia’s air force chief.”
“For Abe and his revisionist clique of likeminded ministers, lawmakers and bureaucrats, it’s high time the severity of the situation is realized and all childish gamesmanship ceased, for the future good of the nation, stability in the region and reputation…
“‘Why would he need to change the words? That is why people have doubts,’ said the 78-year-old Kono. ‘He must erase those doubts and the simplest way to do so is to uphold the Murayama statement unchanged…’ Kono also said he…
A few voices the younger generations should listen to, remember, and pass on: “We old people are puny in influence. But we can not let the Abe administration do whatever it wants to do… I believe in a Chinese saying that…
“Rediscovered film shows attacks by US aircraft on Japanese warships, factories and military installations in dying days of WWII”
The Musashi in brief, by Reiji Yoshida: What was the Musashi? Why were such mammoth battleships planned in the first place? Did the Musashi and Yamato contribute greatly to Japan’s war effort?
“Japan is building up its military forces and strengthening alliances to counter threats from China as the country emerges from decades of isolationism following its defeat in World War II.”
“South Korea and Japan were to hold talks on Tokyo’s sexual enslavement of Korean women during World War II on Monday as the two historical rivals make efforts to improve their strained ties in a landmark year, Seoul’s foreign ministry…
“China should stop fixating on Japan’s wartime past and focus on improving future cooperation, Japan’s top government spokesman said Monday. Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga was responding to a comment by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang who said yesterday that…
Commentary by Jeff Kingston, director of Asian Studies, Temple University Japan. “Next month Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will attend the 60th commemoration of the 1955 Bandung Conference of Asian and African leaders in Jakarta… There are other reasons why Abe’s participation…
Op-Ed by Wang Ping, researcher in Japan studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences: “The war anniversary is an opportunity for Abe to befriend the neighbors and the world. As much as he hates to, Abe is expected to confess…
Presumably democratic governments have at times used states of emergency or “states of exception” (see Giorgio Agamben’s work) in order to ramp up militarily assertive rhetoric, and to claim the right or necessity to suspend or modify existing legal boundaries in order to increase their power.…
“Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has never used the word “apology” on the issue of the country’s sexual enslavement of women during World War II and is unlikely to do so in a statement marking the 70th anniversary of the…