Politics

Washington Post.: No Relief on Japan's Isle of Pain - Article describing troubles on Hokkaido when economic realities force off the flow of pork barrel spending. <small>(August 1, 2003)</small>
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A13545-2003Aug1?language=printer

Bureaucrats, Politicians, and Policy Change in Japan - Examines a hypothetical model of policy-making by focusing on the relationship between the transition of political power between government agencies and the subsequent policy changes in the process of administrative reform in the 1990s.
http://www.japanesestudies.org.uk/discussionpapers/Kamikubo.html

Consequences - A Change in Security Posture: Japan and North Korea - Discusses Japan's recent proactive stance in foreign policy making.
http://www.japanesestudies.org.uk/discussionpapers/Margerison.html

Children's Rights Council of Japan - Organization fighting international abduction and working to assure children in Japan of meaningful and continuing contact with both their parents and extended family regardless of the parents' marital status.
http://www.crcjapan.com/

The Occupation of Japan as an Exercise in "Regime Change": Reflections After Fifty Years by a Participant - Compares and contrasts the US occupation of Japan after WWII with post-Hussein Iraq.
http://www.jpri.org/publications/occasionalpapers/op29.html

Insular Japan Needs, but Resists, Immigration - A New York Times article on Japan's emerging crisis of depopulation and cultural resistance to the only solution that can save it. [Free registration required]. <small>(July 24, 2003)</small>
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/24/international/asia/24JAPA.html?ex=1060747200&en=0d497edbe64f1c25&ei=5070

Machiavellian Politics and Japanese Ideals: The Enigma of Japanese Power Eight Years Later - Examines Karel van Wolferen's seminal work critical of the Japanese Establishment eight years after its publication, and examines if some camparisons hold up. <small>(January, 1998)</small>
http://www.jpri.org/publications/occasionalpapers/op10.html

Sorry Is the Hardest Word - Asserts that old style politics is why Japanese leaders fail to address Japan's wartime brutalities.
http://www.feer.com/cgi-bin/auth/wwwauth.pl?link=http://www.feer.com/articles/2001/0103_08/p056current.html

Japan as the New South Korea - Essay from the Institute for Corean-American Studies on Japan filling the role of South Korea for influence on China.
http://www.icasinc.org/2003/2003l/2003lrxl.html

Exceptionalism in Political Science: Japanese Politics, US Politics, and Supposed International Norms - A paper intended to demonstrate some problems inherent in the arguments surrounding exceptionalism in Japan and the United States.
http://www.japanesestudies.org.uk/discussionpapers/Matsuda.html

Economist - What Ails Japan? - Author argues that after 12 years of failure in attempted economic reforms, fixing Japan's political system is nearly impossible. <small>(April 18, 2002)</small>
http://www.economist.com/surveys/displaystory.cfm?story_id=1076723

The Economist - Insecure - Article documenting that now along with their jobs and pensions, Japanese now fear for their safety. <small>(October 23, 2003)</small>
http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=2156625

Hollywood's Land of the Rising Cliché - Examines Japan as portrayed in western movies, and how the perceptions have changed with the export of Japanese popular culture. [Free registration required.]
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/04/movies/04RICH.html

Tokyo Progressive - Contains politically oriented news, articles, and links related to grass roots campaigning to improve society, culture, government, and the environment.
http://www.tokyoprogressive.org/

The Demographic Dilemma: Japan's Aging Society - Three articles with differing viewpoints on what effect Japan's rapidly aging society with have on its economy as well as influence on the world. [PDF] <small>(January, 2003)</small>
http://wwics.si.edu/events/docs/ACFE9.pdf

Citizen's Nuclear Information Center (CNIC) - Provide information and public education on nuclear power and nuclear issues in Japan.
http://cnic.jp/english/

The Japan Information Access Project - Conducts scholarly research and analysis on critical Asia policy issues to strengthen international understanding of Japanese and northeast Asian science, technology, economic and security policy.
http://www.jiaponline.org/

Japan Focus - Offers Japanese and international perspectives on contemporary Japanese politics, international relations, economics, social movements, war and terror, and historical memory.
http://www.japanfocus.org/

Beware a More Muscular Japan - Asserts that the US should be wary that Japanese aid and troops for Iraq have strings attached. From the Christian Science Monitor. <small>(October 30, 2003)</small>
http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/1030/p09s02-coop.html