Foreign Ministry spied on Dietmen in National Diet Library

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, an administrative body, had assigned an official to the National Diet Library, a legislative body, to watch and report on what parliamentarians were looking at. This is a serious problem regarding the separation of powers (legislative, administrative, and judicial).

In 1967, US had ideas of totally withdrawing bases from Okinawa

Part of the declassified diplomatic documents made public on February 18 shows that in 1967, the United States was studying the possibilities of relocating U.S. military bases from Okinawa to Guam.

DPJ in crisis, facing public distrust over neoliberal & pro-US policies

The ruling Democratic Party of Japan is experiencing heated inner-party disputes. Following the announcement by 16 DPJ lawmakers that they want to leave the DPJ’s parliamentary bloc, an increasing number of party members are arguing that Prime Minister Kan Naoto’s resignation is unavoidable in exchange for the enactment of the 2011 budget-related bills.