Economics, Politics and Public Policy in East Asia and the Pacific
Author: Aurelia George Mulgan, UNSW Canberra
The Abe administration is releasing, in stages, the last of the ‘three arrows’ of Abenomics: a growth strategy designed to lift Japan’s competitiveness through pro-growth reforms.
It is being done under the mantra of ‘no growth without action’ (kōdō nakushite seichō nashi), in the fashion of former Prime Minister Koizumi’s ‘no growth without reform’ slogan. Read more…
Author: Aurelia George Mulgan, UNSW Canberra
Japan’s Prime Minister Abe and the ruling LDP are capitalising on their popularity and the deterioration in Japan’s regional security environment to launch a reinvigorated campaign to amend the Japanese Constitution. In April 2012, the LDP released new draft proposals for revising the document, the most important legacy of the US Occupation of Japan.
Despite the Abe cabinet’s 65 per cent approval rating, Read more…
Author: Aurelia George Mulgan, UNSW Canberra
Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzō Abe successfully stared down opposition from the domestic farm lobby and his own ruling party to take Japan into the TPP negotiations. The other half of the equation — gaining the consent of TPP negotiating countries to Japan’s entry — was sealed at the recent APEC ministerial meeting in Indonesia.
But what does Japan’s largest trading partner, China, think of these developments? Read more…
Author: Aurelia George Mulgan, UNSW, Canberra
The Abe government’s decision to participate in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations on 15 March was a shock to Japan’s domestic farm lobby led by the Japan Agriculture organisation (JA).
Even for the Abe government, the timing of the decision was more accidental than the result of careful planning. Read more…
Author: Aurelia George Mulgan, UNSW, Canberra
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has clearly disclosed his intention to take Japan into the TPP negotiations. All that awaits is his announcement to do so.
Author: Aurelia George Mulgan, UNSW, Canberra
Construction contractors in Japan are dancing with delight at the Abe administration’s public works spending spree.
With the masses of projects that have suddenly come their way, they are now fighting over dump trucks, heavy machinery and construction technicians. Read more…
Author: Aurelia George Mulgan, UNSW, Canberra
Making a decision to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations will not be any easier for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe than it was for his predecessors, Noda and Kan, and it may potentially be harder.
In post-election Japan, the domestic politics of TPP policy making has changed in some ways, but not in others. Read more…
Author: Aurelia George Mulgan, UNSW, Canberra
The recent lower house election in Japan has been widely heralded as a resounding victory for the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).
Certainly it was a massive rejection of the governing Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), whose vote tally fell by more than half, from 45 per cent of the total vote in 2009 to 20 per cent this election. Read more…
Author: Aurelia George Mulgan, UNSW, Canberra
Japan’s party scene in the lead-up to the lower house election is kaleidoscopic — a constantly changing pattern of parties forming, dissolving and merging.
A dozen or so parties are contesting seats — not on a par with the 363 political parties that competed in the Diet elections of April 1946, but still a large number. Read more…
Author: Aurelia George Mulgan, UNSW, Canberra
Whether or not Japan should participate in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations is one of the most contested issues among political parties in the lower house election, which will take place on 16 December.
Author: Aurelia George Mulgan, UNSW Canberra
Japan’s agricultural policy arrangements, particularly those relating to trade, can be seen to favour the priorities of a well-organised farm lobby led by Japan’s agricultural cooperative organisation (JA).
Author: Aurelia George Mulgan, UNSW, Canberra
Last week, Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) elected the man most likely to be Japan’s next prime minister — Shinzo Abe.
Abe has already been in the job once before — for just under one year in 2006–07. Read more…
Author: Aurelia George Mulgan, UNSW Canberra
A recent report in the Wall Street Journal by Mitsuru Obe suggests that Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda will announce a decision to participate in the TPP after a cabinet reshuffle (scheduled for early October).
While a decision to participate in the TPP is highly unlikely, a decision to participate in the TPP talks is certainly possible. Read more…
Author: Aurelia George Mulgan, UNSW Canberra
Having failed to block passage of the Noda government consumption tax legislation in the Lower House, Ozawa has now made good on his threat to leave the ruling DPJ.
Ozawa wants to reprise his political triumph of 1993 when he departed from the ruling LDP and founded the Renewal Party with 40 or so loyalists, and then helped to form the Hosokawa coalition government, knocking the LDP from power for the first time in 38 years. Read more…
Author: Aurelia George Mulgan, UNSW Canberra
Is Japan going to negotiate its way into the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) any time soon?
The short answer is no. The DPJ has not finalised its position on the issue, and in view of the ongoing consumption tax battle, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has no spare political capital to expend on the TPP. Read more…