Japan
History haunts Japan–South Korea ties
The Seoul Central District Court last month delivered a verdict requiring the Japanese government to pay $US91,000 to 12 former “comfort women” who endured sexual slavery during…
Using the Australian Open as a Tokyo test run
Focus on the upcoming Australian Open tennis tournament these last few weeks in the local media has been intense. Still, it’s possible that Olympics officials in Japan are…
Japan under Suga: The delicate balancing act
The calm but staunch assertion by China’s Defence Minister Wei Fenghe last month that the Japan-administered islands in the East China Sea belong to China is…
Australia’s Pacific Step-up and the Quad
The growing synergy among the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue powers of Australia, Japan, the United States and India has provided a crucial impetus to the security architecture…
Why Russia will not return the Kuril Islands to Japan
The decades-old dispute between Russia and Japan over the status of the Kuril Islands is far from over. Tokyo, which refers to the islands as the Northern Territories, still…
Japan-Australia: The chance to sweeten the deal
Typically, much of the initial foreign policy interest in a new (or slightly revised) Japanese government tends to look towards the United States – to consider the…
Biden’s comfortable style of diplomacy will be welcome for Japan
US elections are as closely watched in Japan as they are in Australia. In November 2016, Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made the effort to visit president-elect Donald…
Economic diplomacy: Japanese investment takes a Toll
Will the bell Toll?
The quiet flood of Japanese investment into Australia over the past few years amid at times mounting alarm about much lower levels of Chinese investment has…
Commentary
Deepening Japan’s cooperation with Papua New Guinea
Originally published in East Asia Forum.
A Quad of consequence: Balancing values and strategy
What makes the Quad foreign ministers conversation this week in Tokyo consequential? Probably the strategic setting – a pandemic, global economic contraction and an accelerated…