Japan
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…
Commentary
How will Japan's new leader handle growing China-US tensions?
After years warning others to be wary of Beijing, Tokyo is now adopting a low profile. Originally published in the Nikkei Asian Review.
India puts relations with Japan back on the rails
Arguably the greatest, most visible and most impactful legacy of the British Raj in India is the train network that criss-crosses the country. So it perhaps comes as little…
Suga steps in, at least for now
While much has been made of Shinzo Abe’s record-breaking term as Japan’s prime minister, his new successor, Yoshihide Suga, held his role as Chief Cabinet Secretary for the same…
The making of Prime Minister Suga
Suga Yoshihide’s moment in Japanese politics arrived with the premature resignation last month of Abe Shinzo. Suga was considered the indispensable architect of the Abe…
Australia has lost its “best friend” in Asia
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s resignation announcement on Friday caught almost everyone by surprise. Notably Scott Morrison tweeted that he would miss Abe as a friend and a…
Abe aimed to move mountains, setting Japan high goals for the future
With Abe Shinzo’s unexpected announcement last Friday that he would step down as prime minister, Japanese politics stands at a crossroads. Abe became the longest-serving prime…