Kanagawa University.🇯🇵 domestic/security politics, East Asia geopolitics. Via Freie Universität Berlin 🇩🇪, University of Auckland 🇳🇿.
Jul 5, 2021 • 20 tweets • 5 min read
Tokyo assembly elections and implications for Japan's House of Representative election later this year? ↓↓↓
'Not much because local assembly politics seldom translates into national outcomes in Japan' is generally a safe default position to work backwards from. Furthermore...
Jul 28, 2020 • 10 tweets • 2 min read
Ishiba Shigeru adds his voice to caution about Japan acquiring missile platforms strike capability. Ishiba is a former defense minister. In the past (at least 15+ years) he's been a vocal advocate for Japan acquiring Tomahawk cruise missiles. news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/1a26a…
Ishiba's concern is basically Japan's lack of identifying and tracking capabilities vs mobile launch will take time to rectify under current conditions. Says necessary to consider how it adds to the functioning of the US-Japan alliance.
Jul 16, 2020 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
Missed this great thread last week. Last week's trends similarly suggest that even as raw case numbers rise, the situation may be manageable. Contextual national data ↓
So the big concern has been with new cases per day. And indeed, it has been on a big upswing over the last few weeks. However, so has testing. Total individual tests topped 60,000 this week after topping 50,000 for the first time the week before.
May 14, 2020 • 16 tweets • 5 min read
Japan COVID-19 Stats Update 5: Things have continued to improve these last two weeks. Surely plenty of speculation as to why in the months ahead; and with the state of emergency lifting in many places, a reversal of current trends is likely. But lets see what these trends are:
First, while newly tested individuals dropped off during Golden Week, this week saw the highest number of newly tested individuals yet:
Mar 23, 2018 • 14 tweets • 3 min read
The Yomiuri reports this morning that the LDP has decided to go with a more ambitious proposals for changing Article 9. Apparently there have been changes in internal LDP views over the last week. Basic proposal is to add an Article 9, Section 2, with 2 paragraphs (not a para 3)
In this section 2, rather than previously proposed wording of 必要最小限度の実力組織 (organisation with minimum necessary force [for maintaining Japan's independence]) now proposal is to specify SDF as a "force not prevented from taking the necessary measures for self-defense"
