I want to start this by saying that I haven’t followed the mass of media (mostly outside of Japan) about “The Cove” particularly closely, and nor have I seen the documentary. But I have seen enough to know the broad strokes, and what I wanted to say is more about general ideas anyway, so I [...]

In late December last year, shipwreck hunters discovered the wreck of the AHS Centaur, an Australian Hospital Ship that was sunk by a Japanese submarine off the coast of Queensland in 1943. Not much is generally known by most Japanese people that I have come across about fighting between the [...]

…or so you would think…

President Obama’s bow to Emperor Akihito in Tokyo over the weekend has made so many waves from Japan to the US that California should probably be on Tsunami warning… So much has already been said about it, but I thought I would just call it what it was – a gaffe.

Was [...]

The latest issue of the annual UN Human Development Index (HDI) from the UN Development Program shows Japan in 10th place in the world. This places it 3 places above the US, but 8 spots below my home country of Australia (see the top 15 ranked countries below). The [...]

A GfK Roper Nation Brand Ranking released a few days ago showed that Japan was the 5th most admired country in the world in 2009. This according to a poll of 20,000 people in rich and developing nations around the world. This is the same position that Japan [...]

Australia’s booming resource sector continues to power ahead, with news that several massive LNG fields will be developed, including a gas field known as Gorgon which will begin construction within weeks. Australia exports much of its resources to Asia, with Japan accounting for 20% of the country’s A$200 billion or [...]

On Thursday (US time), Prime Minister Hatoyama addressed the General Debate of the 64th Session of the United Nations General Assembly. The text and video links (great chance to see the Prime Minister speaking English…) are below:

Prime Minister Hatoyama’s Prepared Speech to the UN [...]

Here is a link to the prepared remarks of Prime Minister Hatoyama, which he delivered at the United Nations Summit on Climate Change:

Statement by Prime Minister Hatoyama

Occassionaly a world leader will stand up and make a speech which truly moves you. This was not such a speech… It is [...]

Prime Minister Hatoyama met on Monday with Chinese President Hu Jintao, where he apparently discussed the idea of an East Asian community, based on the European Union. I will admit that I don’t know all the ins and out of such a plan, and will be interested to learn more [...]