Taking up herewith Japanese Political Trend News by Media. Top News is of course Obama's visiting Japan. This time, Obama only stayed in Japan around 23 hours before he left Japan for visiting Singapore. I hope as one of the Japanese that Obama will have a chance to visit Hiroshima and/or Nagasaki for the first time as US President in the near future.
U.S. President Barack Obama on Saturday called the United States an "Asia-Pacific nation" and vowed to strengthen bilateral relations with Japan and China, as well as multilateral engagement in the region. In a major speech on U.S. diplomatic policies on Asia, made at Suntory Hall in Akasaka, Tokyo, Obama also said the United States would seek to further the prosperity of the Asia-Pacific region and to improve security in the region through "deeper and broader engagement" in multilateral organizations, such as the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.
Since taking office in September, Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has said he wants a more equal relationship with Washington. The tough talk wasn't a bluff. Hatoyama immediately called for a reexamination of the bilateral security alliance under which the U.S. stations troops in Japan. He pushed for a renegotiation of the countries' security agreement, put plans to move a U.S. military airfield by 2014 on hold, and said he would review U.S. plans to reorganize its 47,000 U.S. troops in Japan.
For Japan's media, politics has suddenly become a whole lot more interesting because there has never been a Japanese first lady quite like Miyuki Hatoyama. If there was a premier league for first ladies, she'd be right up beside Michelle Obama and Carla Bruni, the wife of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, except that as far as I know neither of them has ever traveled to Venus. That was the extraordinary claim Hatoyama made in a recent interview. More precisely, she said her spirit had flown there in a UFO, and that it was a beautiful place, very green.
Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and U.S. President Barack Obama will agree at their talks Friday to make joint efforts to realize a nuclear weapons-free world, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned. A communique they will issue will announce a plan to hold a meeting of Asian nations in Tokyo in January to prepare for the Global Nuclear Security Summit to be held in the United States in March.
A U.S. congressman expressed concern Friday about Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's call for an East Asian community, saying a bloc excluding the United States would threaten American interests in the region. A deal "that excludes the U.S. would be very damaging...," Rep. Kevin Brady, a Republican on the trade subcommittee of the House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee, said in response to a question at a press conference.
Plans by the new Japanese government to review the salaries it pays Japanese workers on U.S. bases have angered union leaders and stoked fears of a second pay cut since 2008. The new Administrative Reform Council began reviewing 447 spending projects Wednesday, and one of its targets is the salaries the government pays roughly 23,000 workers on military bases in mainland Japan and Okinawa.
Japan and the United States will agree at a summit on Friday to work together to rid the world of nuclear arms and to fight global warming, Japanese media said, as they strive to put a strained alliance on a firmer footing. U.S. President Barack Obama and Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama are expected to turn down the heat in a feud over a U.S. Marine base that has frayed ties between Washington and Tokyo's new government, which has pledged to steer a diplomatic course more independent of its key ally.
There is more to Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's pledge last week to extend at least 500 billion yen (5.6 billion U.S. dollars) in fresh assistance to the Mekong region than meets the eye, or so observers think. Japan's underlying intentions toward the Asian economies, especially in the Mekong delta regions, have not changed significantly, said Tomohiko Taniguchi, a foreign policy analyst and professor at the prestigious Keio University.
Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama admitted Wednesday that his handling of his own individual assets was "extremely sloppy" after his management office the previous day submitted a correction on the assets for seven years through 2008 with the House of Representatives. Hatoyama failed to report his holdings of stocks and other securities in each of the years, and the total amount of their face values of the undeclared assets exceeded 300 million yen.
The United States and Japan will agree this week to review their decades-old security alliance to tighten ties long term, a Japanese newspaper said Wednesday, as the two countries struggled to keep a feud over a U.S. military base from spoiling their leaders' summit. Tokyo and Washington are expected to turn down the heat in the row during President Barack Obama's two-day stay from Friday, the start of an Asian tour, but recasting the alliance as the partners adapt to China's growing clout will be tough.
Ichiro Ozawa, secretary general of the Democratic Party of Japan, criticized Christianity on Tuesday, saying the religion is "exclusive and self-righteous" and that Western society is "stuck in a dead end." Ozawa also said "Islamism is also exclusive, although it's somewhat better than Christianity" regarding exclusiveness.
The international community may criticize the package of aid measures primarily for Afghanistan that the government announced on Tuesday as lacking "visible aid," because it makes no provision for sending Self-Defense Forces personnel to that turmoil-ridden country. The new measures are partly designed to show the international community that Japan is willing to make contributions to the world in place of the Maritime Self-Defense Force's refueling mission in the Indian Ocean.
U.S. President Barack Obama has said he would be honored to visit Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Japanese cities devastated by atomic bombs during World War II. Obama made the comment in an interview with Japanese public broadcaster NHK on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to Japan.
Japan's government decided on Tuesday to pledge five billion dollars in new aid over five years from 2010 to help rebuild war-torn Afghanistan, an official said Tuesday. Media reports said the government also pledged two billion dollars in assistance for neighbouring Pakistan in a decision that came days before US President Barack Obama visits Tokyo on Friday and Saturday.
Name tags on their chairs so their "teachers" can take attendance; instructions on how to greet their elders politely; orders to turn up on time. Rookie lawmakers in Japan's ruling Democratic Party are, critics say, being treated like first-grade students instead of a talent pool the government can draw on to tackle tough policy problems from a bulging debt to strained ties with Washington.
India and Japan on Monday renewed their commitment to "develop an Action Plan to advance security cooperation." An accord on these lines formed the centrepiece of a joint press statement issued by Defence Minister A.K. Antony and his Japanese counterpart, Toshimi Kitazawa, after their talks in Tokyo.
Around 21,000 people protested against the planned relocation of a U.S. military airfield within Okinawa Prefecture on Sunday ahead of U.S. President Barack Obama's visit to Japan, in a sign of growing local frustration over the new Japanese government's vague stance in reviewing the transfer plan.
Japan's foreign minister said Sunday that no deal on relocating U.S. troops on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa can be expected during President Barack Obama's visit this week, saying the issue needs more time to resolve. Obama is scheduled to arrive Friday, and a meeting with Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama is on the agenda.
The prime minister's keynote policy address in the Diet affords the nation's leader an opportunity to present their overall thinking to the people - as its name in Japanese, shoshin hyomei (declaration of convictions), would indeed suggest. Shigeru Yoshida delivered the first of these "state of the nation" orations in 1953; Eisaku Sato made a whopping 13 between 1964 and 1971; while the last encumbent, Taro Aso, managed just one, in 2008.
One of the most contentious components of the Democratic Party of Japan's manifesto is the pledge to make all expressways free. In media survey after media survey, the portion of respondents who don't support the proposal has been consistently between 60 and 65 percent. The Liberal Democratic Party has used this perceived anxiety to reinforce its portrayal of the new ruling party as dangerously spendthrift.
Thousands of residents of Japan's southern island of Okinawa Saturday staged a protest against the presence of the US military on the eve of a major rally against a controversial airbase. Some 2,500 people living in Kadena town, which already hosts a large US Air Force base that frequently provokes complaints over the noise of jet planes flying day and night, protested a government proposal the city accept another US military installation.
========= UNQUOTE ========= By J.S. on Nov 16, 2009
For Japan's media, politics has suddenly become a whole lot more interesting because there has never been a Japanese first lady quite like Miyuki Hatoyama. If there was a premier league for first ladies, she'd be right up beside Michelle Obama and Carla Bruni, the wife of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, except that as far as I know neither of them has ever traveled to Venus. That was the extraordinary claim Hatoyama made in a recent interview. More precisely, she said her spirit had flown there in a UFO, and that it was a beautiful place, very green. 
Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and U.S. President Barack Obama will agree at their talks Friday to make joint efforts to realize a nuclear weapons-free world, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned. A communique they will issue will announce a plan to hold a meeting of Asian nations in Tokyo in January to prepare for the Global Nuclear Security Summit to be held in the United States in March. 
Japan's government decided on Tuesday to pledge five billion dollars in new aid over five years from 2010 to help rebuild war-torn Afghanistan, an official said Tuesday. Media reports said the government also pledged two billion dollars in assistance for neighbouring Pakistan in a decision that came days before US President Barack Obama visits Tokyo on Friday and Saturday. 
Name tags on their chairs so their "teachers" can take attendance; instructions on how to greet their elders politely; orders to turn up on time. Rookie lawmakers in Japan's ruling Democratic Party are, critics say, being treated like first-grade students instead of a talent pool the government can draw on to tackle tough policy problems from a bulging debt to strained ties with Washington. 
India and Japan on Monday renewed their commitment to "develop an Action Plan to advance security cooperation." An accord on these lines formed the centrepiece of a joint press statement issued by Defence Minister A.K. Antony and his Japanese counterpart, Toshimi Kitazawa, after their talks in Tokyo. 
Around 21,000 people protested against the planned relocation of a U.S. military airfield within Okinawa Prefecture on Sunday ahead of U.S. President Barack Obama's visit to Japan, in a sign of growing local frustration over the new Japanese government's vague stance in reviewing the transfer plan. 
Japan's foreign minister said Sunday that no deal on relocating U.S. troops on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa can be expected during President Barack Obama's visit this week, saying the issue needs more time to resolve. Obama is scheduled to arrive Friday, and a meeting with Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama is on the agenda. 
Thousands of residents of Japan's southern island of Okinawa Saturday staged a protest against the presence of the US military on the eve of a major rally against a controversial airbase. Some 2,500 people living in Kadena town, which already hosts a large US Air Force base that frequently provokes complaints over the noise of jet planes flying day and night, protested a government proposal the city accept another US military installation. 
