A Japan Self-Defense Forces officer smiles as he holds a four-month-old baby girl who was rescued along with her family members from their home in Ishimaki City, Miyagi Prefecture in northern Japan, after an earthquake and tsunami struck the area. (Yomiuri Yomiuri / Courtesy of Reuters)

2011, of course, will be forever remembered as the year of Japan’s “triple disasters.” Only time will tell what this devastating experience will mean for the Japanese people and their society. For so many Americans, March 11 and its aftermath reminded us of why we so admire the accomplishments of Japan, and the civility and humanity of so many Japanese. From Kandahar to Canberra, from Seoul and Beijing, Japan’s friends around the globe responded—in part because of the tremendous scope of the tragedy, but also out of a sense of gratitude for Japan’s own effort to assist and befriend those beyond their own shores.

The impact of the disasters is too broad to discuss here. But as a long time Japan watcher, several aspects of the disaster and its aftermath stood out. The first, and most widely recognized, is the depth of gratitude expressed by the Japanese people for their military, the Self Defense Forces (SDF). As Japan’s “first responder,” the SDF performed search and rescue operations, opened and sustained supply routes, and filled in the manpower for the local governments that lost staff as well as infrastructure and communications. In June, when I visited Ishinomaki, the SDF were just beginning to hand back governance tasks to an inundated municipal staff.

Second, the disasters brought back into focus Japan’s Imperial family as the symbol of national unity. The Emperor spoke out in the early days as the nuclear disaster at Fukushima Daiichi unfolded to remind Japanese to remain calm and to have hope. He and the Empress also traveled back and forth to the devastated regions of Tohoku, visiting evacuation shelters and reassuring those who lost not only their homes but their family members as well. Read more »

Defense Minister Yasuo Ichikawa, left, apologizes to Okinawa Governor Hirokazu Nakaima December 2, 2011 (Tadashi Mizowaki/Courtesy to the Asahi Shimbun).

It is difficult to write about the events of this week in Japan. There are moments that are simply inexplicable, and this is such a moment. Offensive statements by Japanese government officials have exacerbated the tense relations between the national government and the Okinawa governor.

For more than fifteen years now, the effort to reduce the footprint of U.S. forces in Okinawa, and to build a better understanding between local communities and U.S. forces there has been at the top of the U.S.-Japan alliance agenda.

The U.S. and Japanese governments have agreed on a plan to relocate Futenma Marine Air Station, and a new runway is to be built in the northern region of Okinawa for the use of Marine helicopters. The local city mayor has rejected the plan, however, and the governor has suggested that more main island Japanese communities share in the hosting of the U.S. military in Japan.

But officials in Tokyo are now embroiled in yet another controversy that has inflamed local sentiment, making it even less likely that the governor will be able—or willing—to work with the Ministry of Defense. If badly handled, this latest controversy could significantly weaken the Noda Cabinet.

So what happened? Read more »

South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak (front R) walks with Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda (front L) into the presidential Blue House before their meeting in Seoul October 19, 2011 (Kim Jae-hwan/Courtesy Reuters).

Japan’s prime minister Yoshihiko Noda has just completed a two-day visit to South Korea. Noda personally insisted on carrying with him five volumes of the 1,205 royal scrolls confiscated under Japanese colonial rule. Noda spent time with South Korean president Lee Myung-bak, and the tenor of the meeting suggested that the two Northeast Asian neighbors were determined to get their relations back on a more positive footing.

Economic relations were the highlight. Japan and South Korea agreed to a currency swap arrangement that sought to convey to markets that South Korea’s delicate won would have Japanese backing. Likewise, there is talk of Korean encouragement for greater Japanese foreign direct investment, yet another way for Japan to signal its confidence in a vibrant Korean economy.

Read more »

Japan's new Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda speaks during a high-level meeting on nuclear safety and security at the United Nations headquarters in New York September 22, 2011 (Shannon Stapleton/Courtesy Reuters).

Japan’s newest prime minister, Yoshihiko Noda, arrived in the United States this week for his much anticipated first meeting with President Obama, and a debut at the UN General Assembly—the first conversation there since the March 11 earthquake-tsunami disaster struck.

U.S. officials seemed upbeat about the prime minister’s meeting with President Obama. Yet, media questioning about the infamous Futenma Marine base on Okinawa set off another round of speculation about the state of the relationship. Earlier in the week, at a George Washington University conference hosted by Professor Michael Mochizuki, the governor of Okinawa, Hirokazu Nakaima, laid out current political realities in Okinawa and argued the U.S.-Japan governments’ plan to relocate the marine airfield was too difficult to realize. The governor presented his thinking on how to proceed, a position that surprised few of us who have been watching Okinawa politics of late. Pressure is building again here in Washington, as Congressional budget cuts loom, and the governor spent some time on Capitol Hill with Senators Levin, McCain and Webb sharing his thoughts.

But Prime Minister Noda presented a broader—and more strategic—agenda during his New York visit.

Read more »

Japan's Prime Minister Naoto Kan bows to the national flag as he arrives for a news conference at his official residence in Tokyo April 1, 2011 (Issei Kato/Courtesy Reuters).

The Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) has announced that it will hold an election on August 29 for the man who will replace Prime Minister Naoto Kan. Kan is expected to step down this Friday, opening the way for an intense weekend campaign before Monday’s party election.

Already the field of candidates is full. At the moment at least six DPJ members have declared their interest in running. This will be the third DPJ party leadership race since Japan’s new ruling party came to power in 2009.

The distinguishing feature of this race is that it will bring new leadership to the fore. To date, it has been the senior troika of leaders—Yukio Hatoyama, Ichiro Ozawa, and Kan—and the struggles between them that have defined Japan’s new ruling party. The DPJ’s early efforts at governing Japan have been characterized by intense differences between these party founders over the identity of the party, as well as its policy agenda. In fact, it was the intense strife between these three that led to the electoral setback in last summer’s Upper House election as well as the near miss of the no-confidence vote against Kan this past June.

Read more »

Students from Harvard Kennedy School cheer as they receive their degrees during the 360th Commencement Exercises at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts May 26, 2011. (Brian Snyder/Courtesy Reuters)

Japan’s disasters, and our efforts to sustain our support, were the focal point of discussions at the U.S.-Japan Conference on Cultural and Education Interchange (CULCON) meeting I attended two weeks ago. Gathered there were the leading administrators for university, foundation, and people-to-people programs that sustain the U.S.-Japan relationship.

The news on Japan, of course, is difficult given the tragedy of this spring, and all of those who attended had stories to tell of the dampening impact the disasters, especially the nuclear disaster, has had on travel to and study in Japan.

The harder nut to crack, however, will be the impact of fiscal constraints on our ability to invest in the next generation of educators on Japan. Across the board, funding is disappearing in the United States to sustain education, exchanges, and research on Japan.

Read more »

U.S. General David Petraeus and Flournoy speak to Levin and McCain at a Senate hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Jason Reed/Courtesy Reuters)

Senators Carl Levin, John McCain and Jim Webb, all of the Armed Services Committee, have announced that they want a review of the Department of Defense realignment plans in Asia. After a visit to the region, including Okinawa and Guam, the senators declared the “present realignment plans are unrealistic, unworkable and unaffordable.” Read more »

Japan's Prime Minister Naoto Kan (L), Australia's Prime Minister Julia Gillard (2nd L), Vietnam's Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung (C), China's Premier Wen Jiabao (2nd R) and India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh join hands during a photo opportunity as part of the 5th East Asia Summit in Hanoi October 30, 2010. (Christophe Archambault/Pool/Courtesy Reuters)

Over the past year or so, I have been directing a project that brings Japanese and American experts together to discuss how the rise of China and India are affecting the United States and Japan, and if—and how—this shift in global power may alter our alliance agenda. In February, a small CFR team—including my colleagues Elizabeth Economy and Adam Segal—visited Tokyo to meet with Japanese experts from the government, private business, media and academia to hear the range of views in Japan on what exactly this structural shift in world politics means for Japan.  

What we heard from every government ministry was an emphasis on the need for Japan to be more “strategic.” Read more »