Category: Japan

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s visit to India can be seen as a shift from diplomatic optics to tangible security building, but it also signifies something else. They’ve moved markedly closer together, but also slightly…

Just months after being selected by her party as leader and later the first woman to become prime minister of Japan, Sanae Takaichi announced the dissolution of parliament, which will trigger an election on February…

As the 9th TICAD, the Tokyo International Conference on African Development concluded in Yokohama City, late last month, a seemingly innocent initiative to foster “hometown” partnerships was launched by the Japan International Development Agency (JICA)…

Recently, Japan’s Parliamentary Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs, Matsumoto Hisashi, went to Riyadh to visit to the Saudi Judo Federation in hopes of strengthening bilateral relations. He also met with Saudi officials to discuss opportunities under Riyadh’s…

The more things change the more they stay the same. In the 2024 Diplomatic Bluebook, recently released through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Japan assertively labeled China a global threat, while still carefully trying to balance…

Amid China’s heavy investments in Cambodia, made evident by the vast sums of public and private cash flooding both the capital city of Phnom Penh and port cities like Sihanoukville, two Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force (MSDF) destroyers, the Suzunami and Shimakaze, each…

The late former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sought to improve ties over security concerns about North Korean provocation, but like his counterpart, South Korean Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon in the end, failed. In 2008,…

In what has become a common occurrence in both the East China Sea and the Sea of Japan, Russian Il-38 information-gathering aircraft were found flying too close to Japan for Tokyo’s comfort, who scrambled fighter jets…

In May, Italy’s Chief of Defense Adm. Giuseppe Cavo Dragone gave a speech to the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. in which he warned of the inevitable rise of militaries in…

This October marks the 10th anniversary of the arrival in Okinawa of the MV-22B Osprey, a unique yet troubled tiltrotor aircraft. Based at Marine Corps Air Station Futenma on the island of Okinawa, the aircraft,…