Japan Analysis – La Lettre du Japon has been a pioneering news bulletin on current political, economic and security debates in Japan and within its decision-making circles, placing those issues in their national context and in their historical background. While identifying new trends and current affairs in Japan, the authors go beyond the news to offer readers a tool for assessing the deep structural mutations, sometimes unfamiliar to the public, of the third economic power.
At the World Economic Forum held in Davos on January 26th, Prime Minister Noda Yoshihiko stated that he was determined to steer his country on a path of administrative, fiscal and social reform destined to redress Japan’s financial situation; and…
The former Minister of Finance, Noda Yoshihiko’s rise to power seems to reflect Japan’s economic priorities. In addition to the structural challenges of the national debt and a strong yen, the DPJ leader must obviously cope with the economic implications…
In the aftermath of the triple disaster of March 2011, this issue is in line with the previous one and proposes a precise vision, after the past months, at the same time of the assessment to draw up and of…
In Japan but also all over the world, everyone keeps in mind the events of last March 11th, with a certain amount of incomprehension and astonishment. How can the Japanese population be so calm when confronted to a disaster? Why…
The two articles of analysis give a first appraisal of the reform law governing finance companies for credit, which came into effect in June 2010. In the archaic financial system of the 1990s, a non-banking market that was not much…
This issue, whose redaction is run by Guibourg Delamotte, proposes a detailed and critical analysis of the debate on the American base in Futenma. It deals with the way the Prime Ministers Kan Naoto and Hatoyama Yukio handled that delicate…
On June 2, Yukio Hatoyama declared his intention to resign from his post as a prime minister. Japan’s diplomacy under Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama had been at a serious deadlock and under continuous attacks. The biggest reason for this was…
The Hatoyama government is undertaking major institutional reforms in order to increase the influence of politicians in the decision- making process. Among the commitments set out in its manifesto, the Democratic Party Japan (Minshutô) has expressed its aim of bringing…
The Democratic Party (Minshutô) won the general election on August 30th, when it gained 191 seats. With 308 seats, it retains an absolute majority in the Lower House (which requires 241). The Liberal Democrat Party, which lost 181 seats, has…
Summary – CLOSE UP ON THE NEWS – The electoral prospects of Minshutô’s (not so) new leadership The repercussions of the North Korean crisis – POINTS OF NEWS – Kitaoka Shin’ichi, “The end of the Tanaka style of politics, and…