Published daily by the Lowy Institute

← Contributors

Christopher Pokarier

Christopher Pokarier is professor of business and governance at Waseda University, Tokyo, visiting researcher at the Truman Institute, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and at the Australia-Japan Research Centre, Australian National University. He has a PhD from the ANU and was formerly senior lecturer in international business at Queensland University of Technology. His current research interests encompass economic nationalism, energy security, public diplomacy, and the internationalisation of cultural industries and universities.

Articles by Christopher Pokarier (9)

  • Christopher Pokarier 2 Sep 2015 15:30

    Photo essay: Yasukuni Shrine, 15 August

    In the international politics of Japan's war memory, Yasukuni Shrine has become indelibly associated with unrepentant historical revisionism, and a resurgent ethnic nationalism. Each 15 August – the anniversary of the ending of the Pacific War with the unprecedented noon-time radio broadcast by the Showa Emperor – a motley crew of right-wing groups, militaria aficionados and very many 'ordinary' Japanese, visit the shrine.
  • Christopher Pokarier 20 Aug 2015 09:36

    Shinzo Abe and World War II: A subjective repentance

    What should we make of the Abe Statement delivered last Friday on the eve of the 70th anniversary of the end of the Pacific War? Firstly, what did Prime Minister Shinzo Abe need to achieve with the statement? Abe needed to just get through the anniversary without either an international or domestic political firestorm over matters of historical memory.
  • Christopher Pokarier 13 Aug 2015 11:07

    Abe's 70th anniversary statement: History and politics entangled

    Tomorrow Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will make his long-awaited formal statement marking the 70th anniversary of the end of the Pacific War. It has been deliberately scheduled a day before the 15 August anniversary so as to not distract attention from the Emperor and Empress's customary appearance at a memorial service at the Budokan in Tokyo.
  • Christopher Pokarier 24 Mar 2015 08:34

    AIIB, World War II, and more: Tokyo's unsettled spring

    Last Friday the Abe Government shifted publicly towards a more favourable position on foundation membership of China-backed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. This follows dramatic developments during the week as Germany, France and Italy followed the UK's sudden lead in committing to the AIIB, with more favourable reassessments under way in Australia and South Korea too.
  • Christopher Pokarier 2 Feb 2015 08:47

    The killing of Kenji Goto

    Japan awoke Sunday morning to the news that ISIS had beheaded its remaining Japanese hostage, 47 year-old freelance journalist Kenji Goto. Early in the morning, an upset Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told Japanese journalists that the Government considered  genuine an ISIS video depicting Goto's final moments alive and a subsequent scene of his decapitated body.
  • Christopher Pokarier 29 Jan 2015 15:16

    Death and decorum: Japan awaits word of its ISIS hostages

    In the last week, digital graphic designers such as Isaku Ogura have suddenly found themselves in strong demand for media commentary on the plight of two fellow Japanese taken hostage by ISIS. Broadcast media have given exhaustive attention to doubts over the authenticity of several disturbing ransom videos released by is depicting hostages Haruna Yukawa and Kenji Goto.
  • Christopher Pokarier 19 Nov 2014 17:37

    Japan's very strange election

    Japan goes to the polls on 14 December on a very odd pretext. Prime Minister Abe, in calling an election yesterday, justified dissolving the lower house only half way into his four-year term on the grounds that he needed a mandate to defer raising the consumption tax from 8% to 10% in October 2015. The scheduled tax rise was legislated by the former DPJ-led government of Yoshihiko Noda.
  • Christopher Pokarier 18 Aug 2014 11:41

    China's strategy to sow distrust of Japan

    Promoting mutual distrust in the Asia Pacific now appears central to Chinese strategy. As Hugh White has argued persuasively, China seeks greater influence in Asia through weakening the faith of America's regional allies and partners in US resolve to remain engaged in the region.