This is probably the election result that the Chinese were hoping for:
TOKYO — Japan’s voters handed a landslide victory to the Liberal Democratic Party in national parliamentary elections on Sunday, giving power back to the conservative party that had governed Japan for decades until a historic defeat three years ago.
In a chaotic election crowded with new parties making sweeping promises, from abolishing nuclear power after the Fukushima accident to creating an American-style federal system, the Liberal Democrats prevailed with their less radical vision of reviving the recession-bound economy and standing up to China. A victory would all but ensure that the Liberal Democratic leader, Shinzo Abe, a former prime minister who is one Japan’s most outspoken nationalists, would be able to form a new government. [New York Times]
If the Japanese conservatives take a tougher stance against China like they say they will this will allow the Chinese government to further inflame nationalism in their own country in response. If the economy in China begins to slow, nationalism is what the authoritarian government will have to turn to in order to justify their rule.
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7:32 am on December 18th, 2012 1
Japanese right wingers became populist buffoons in order to win the election … now they will have to deliver what they promised ….. Honestly I expect more instability from Japan as they are just diverting the focus from the real problems, and the foreigners and japan’s neighbors will have pay the bill for this nationalist adventure Japan is undergoing now …
Now the one million dollar question is: will Mr. Abe keep visiting Yasukuni? I believe yes he will. Though times looming ahead of Japan’s international policy ….
7:51 am on December 18th, 2012 2
Will he continue Japan’s policy of ignoring Iran sanctions?
http://www.japantoday.com/category/crime/view/bank-of-tokyo-mitsubishi-ufj-fined-8-6-mil-for-flouting-u-s-sanctions
Japan’s Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ has been fined $8.6 million by the U.S. Department of the Treasury over a violation of U.S. rules forbidding the transfer of money to nations such as Cuba and Iran.
“BTMU’s Tokyo operations engaged in practices designed to conceal the involvement of countries or persons subject to U.S. sanctions in transactions that BTMU processed through financial institutions in the United States,” the U.S. Treasury said in its statement.
Washington said the bank’s “egregious” conduct “displayed reckless disregard for U.S. sanctions.”
1:27 pm on January 15th, 2013 3
US FA-18s and Japanese F-4s have carried out joint exercises off the coast of Shikoku, i.e. far from the Senkaku / Diaoyu area, where Japanese and Chinese planes followed each other a couple of days ago. The source of this Al Jazeera report is ‘Agencies’.