Renewable energy and civil society in post-Fukushima Japan
Wind turbines of the Ikata Wind Farm stand along the Sadamisaki Peninsula near the Ikata nuclear power plant, western Japan, 23 July 2011. (Photo: AAP)

Author: Sebastian Maslow, Tohoku University

In an attempt to mitigate climate change and to enhance energy security, Japan’s Ministry of Economy and Industry (METI) released a draft ‘New Basic Energy Plan’ in June 2010, which placed nuclear power at the centre of Japan’s energy shift.

In addition to the country’s 54 existing nuclear power plants, the strategy commissioned 14 new reactors. Read more…

Japan faces political trench warfare over consumption tax
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda speaks during a press conference at his official residence in Tokyo, 30 March 2012. Earlier in the day his Cabinet approved a bill to double the consumption tax by 2015. (Photo: AAP)

Author: Aurelia George Mulgan, UNSW, Canberra

The political trench warfare in Japan over increasing the consumption tax has taken on the appearance of a ‘final battle’ between Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and party strongman Ichiro Ozawa.

Noda and Ozawa are said to be playing a game of ‘Russian roulette’, but the reality is much more akin to brinksmanship, where only one victor can emerge. Read more…

Lessons from Japan’s nuclear accident
Inside the central control room of the No. 6 reactor at the TEPCO nuclear power plant in Kariwa village in Kashiwazaki City, 26 March 2012, after it was taken off line. (Photo: AAP)

Author: Yoichi Funabashi and Kay Kitazawa, Rebuild Japan Initiative Foundation

A cataclysmic earthquake and tsunami crippled Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station on 11 March 2011, causing one of the most severe nuclear accidents in history.

The Independent Investigation Commission on the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Accident, a politically neutral panel established by the Rebuild Japan Initiative Foundation, reviewed the emergency responses taken by the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), Japanese government agencies and other relevant actors during the crisis. Read more…

Japan’s foreign exchange misadventure
A man walks past an electronic stock indicator in Tokyo, 14 March 2012 (Photo: AAP).

Author: Masanaga Kumakura, Osaka City University

Japan’s public finances are in dire straits, with government debt already twice the size of the country’s GDP and still growing at an alarming rate.

Juxtaposing its debt, the Japanese government also holds substantial assets, most notably through its foreign exchange reserves. Thanks to its active exchange market interventions, Read more…

Is Japan losing its competitiveness?
An international cargo ship arrives at the Tokyo port on 20 February 2012. Japan posted a record trade deficit in January. (Photo: AAP)

Author: Richard Katz, The Oriental Economist

Although Japan’s merchandise trade deficit in 2011 — the first since 1963 — is a product of the natural disasters of 2011, it is a harbinger of things to come. Sometime within this decade, Japan is likely to start running chronic trade deficits.

While some economists see this happening within three years, it will probably take somewhat longer. Read more…

Japan posts its first trade deficit in more than three decades
A truck carrying a container leaves the Tokyo port on 20 February 2012. Japan posted a record trade deficit in January. (Photo: AAP)

Author: Kozo Kiyota, YNU

The Japanese Ministry of Finance announced on 25 January that the country logged a trade deficit of 2.5 trillion yen (US$31.4 billion) in 2011, its first in more than three decades.

Japan’s imports rose 12 per cent while its exports fell 2.7 per cent compared with the previous year. Read more…

The future of Japanese manufacturing
Workers give the final check on Yaris compact sedans, set for export to North America. Toyota has given itself a high sales goal of 8.6 million cars in 2012. (Photo: AAP)

Author: Yoshisuke Iinuma, The Oriental Economist

The household-electronics industry has long been equivalent in stature to Japan’s automotive industry, and is seen as a symbol of the country’s strong manufacturing sector.

But now its central product — television manufacturing — is on the verge of collapse and the major electronics firms are haemorrhaging red ink. Read more…

Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party: life in opposition
Liberal Democratic Party President Sadakazu Tanigaki and other members of the main opposition party raise their fists during a party convention in Tokyo on 22 January 2012. Tanigaki vowed to pressure Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda to dissolve the lower house as early as possible for an election, saying the country needs the LDP back in power. (Photo: AAP)

Author: Kevin Placek, Melbourne

Having ruled Japan for the better half of a century, it is no surprise that the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has found it difficult to adapt to its role as Japan’s major opposition party.

But with the prospect of further political gridlock, it may be time for the LDP to reconsider its strategy. Read more…

Japan’s ballistic missile defence system
US Navy guided missile destroyer Lassen in Tokyo Bay heading to the US Navy base in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, 3 Feb. 2012. (Photo: AAP)

Author: Norifumi Namatame, ANU

After North Korea tested its Taepodong I missile in 1998 over Japanese airspace, Japan made the decision to develop its ballistic missile defence (BMD) system in cooperation with the US.

The system comprises a mid-course phase (upper-tier) Standard Missile 3 Bloc IA system loaded onto four Aegis ships, and a 16-unit terminal phase (lower-tier) Patriot PAC-3 defence system, which has been deployed to four sites on Japanese soil. Read more…

Noda’s cabinet reshuffle: does it give him a stronger hand?
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, second from right, wearing an eye patch on his right eye, and his party lawmakers raise a fist to pep themselves up during the ruling Democratic Party of Japan's annual meeting in Tokyo 16 Jan. 2012 (Photo: AAP).

Author: Michael Cucek, MIT Centre for International Studies

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda reshuffled his cabinet on 13 January, prior to the 24 January opening of the Diet’s regular session.

The reshuffle was preordained; the opposition-dominated House of Councillors censured two of Noda’s cabinet ministers on the last day of the extraordinary session last year. Read more…

If Putin becomes president (again): implications for Asia
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin (R) speaks with employees of the Kalinin atomic power plant near Udomlya in the Tver region, on 12 December 2011. Putin has recently announced his candidacy for the next Russian Presidential election.

Author: Shigeki Hakamada, Aoyama Gakuin University

Still months out from Russia’s March 2012 presidential election and it is virtually certain that Vladimir Putin will return to the presidency.

Significantly for Asia, Putin called for the creation of a Eurasian Union shortly after announcing his intention to run. The plan, unveiled in a newspaper article on 4 October, is to achieve EU-style economic integration based on Russia’s customs union with Kazakhstan and Belarus that would eventually encompass the whole Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Read more…

Securing China’s energy supplies
This photo taken on 11 August 2011 shows a coal fired power station in Huaibei, China. China produces most of the coal it consumes but now draws over half of its oil supplies from overseas. The IEA projects that, by 2035, China will import nearly 12.8 million barrels per day, or 84 per cent of its total supply. (Photo: AAP)

Author: Peter Drysdale, Editor, East Asia Forum

China’s spectacular industrial growth has been associated with equally spectacular growth in Chinese energy and resource consumption.

While Chinese energy efficiency (the amount of GDP produced per unit of energy consumed) has risen steadily, except for a few years early this decade, aggregate energy consumption has been lifted by a hugely energy-intensive phase of industrialisation and the spread of motorised transportation on a scale and at a speed that is unprecedented anywhere. Read more…

Asian integration and geopolitics
A Pakistani labourer carries an empty fruit basket in Lahore on November 12, 2011. Pakistan removed restrictions on the import of 12 goods from India as part of measures to normalise trade between the nuclear-armed rivals. (Photo: AAP)

Author: Shiro Armstrong, ANU

East Asia’s pursuit of policy strategies of openness to trade and investment have resulted in its being economically one of the world’s most internationally-integrated regions — both intraregionally and towards the rest of the world.

Read more…