Wall Street Journal (April 27, 2013)
“Who started World War II? We thought that one belonged to the Department of Settled Questions, along with any lingering doubts about whether the Earth orbits the sun. But Japan’s Shinzo Abe has a fresh, er, interpretation.” The Prime Minister’s latest revisionism threatens to further enflame tensions, already running high, in Asia. “Much of the world long ago forgave Japan its wartime atrocities. But it hasn’t forgotten them…. Mr. Abe’s disgraceful remark will make his country no more friends abroad.”
Tags: Atrocities, Disgrace, Japan, Prime minister, Shinzo Abe, WWII
The Economist (April 8, 2013)
“As prime minister from 1979 to 1990, Margaret Thatcher transformed Britain and left an ideological legacy to rival that of Marx, Mao, Gandhi or Reagan.” Lady Thatcher was the UK’s first and, to date, only female prime Minister. She also “remains the only occupant of Number 10 to have become an “-ism” in her lifetime.”
Financial Times (February 17)
“Forty governments are signatories to the anti-bribery convention adopted in 1997 by the Paris-based OECD…. So it was reprehensible for Silvio Berlusconi, Italy’s former prime minister, to state last week that bribery in pursuit of international contracts was not an offence. It would be unfair on Italian companies to play by rules scorned by competitors, he declared.” Italy is a signatory to the OECD convention.
Tags: Anti-bribery, Competitors, Contracts, Italy, OECD, Prime minister, Signatories, Silvio Berlusconi
Financial Times (December 9)
“The political comeback of Shinzo Abe is one of the stranger twists in the recent, convoluted history of Japanese politics…. No one should be under any illusion about Mr Abe. He was a lousy prime minister first time around.” If he now looks like the best candidate this can only be due to “China’s misguided foreign policy, and the sorry state of a Japanese political system unable to produce someone better.”
Tags: Abe, China, Foreign policy, Japan, Politics, Prime minister
Wall Street Journal (November 25)
At a time when Japan really needs a leader, none of the candidates for Prime Minister measure up. “As giant problems in need of urgent solutions go, Japan is a thing of beauty. Its economy contracted by 3.5% on an annual basis from July to September, and slack exports and declining industrial production suggest another recession is coming. Demographic decline is well underway and Tokyo’s fiscal position—with debt roughly twice annual output—appears ever more precarious. So it’s a shame, as the Japanese head to the polls next month, that no candidate is offering even plausible solutions.”
Tags: Demographics, Economy, Election, Exports, Japan, Prime minister, Recession
Financial Times (August 29)
How long will Japan’s new Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, the sixth in 5 years, last? “To do better, Japan badly needs political stability,” and yet “Japan’s recent crop of leaders has underwhelmed.” Thankfully, the bureaucracy does a competent job of managing the country, but Japan remains “strategically adrift. The big questions of how it rebuilds after the tsunami, how it manages its debt, how it eradicates deflation and how it deals with China have been postponed or fudged.”
New York Times (September 7)
Japan has had 14 prime ministers in the last 20 years and now faces the possibility of a third prime minister in a single year. The “leadership merry-go-round” must end. “Revolving-door leaders with constantly shifting agendas are not in Japan’s interest — or the rest of the world’s.”
Tags: Japan, Prime minister
