Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi plans another visit to a notorious shrine, even after revelations about why imperial visits stopped almost thirty years ago. Experts say the issue is heating up tensions with China and South Korea.

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi visits the United States for the last time as he prepares to step down after six years in office. The visit, intended to celebrate Tokyo's close relationship with Washington, comes as North Korea's threat to launch a long-range ballistic missile raise concerns across the region.

Japan's military spending is not rising nearly as quickly as that of its neighbor, China, or of its closest ally, the United States. Yet political and military moves by the Japanese are raising neighbors' wariness about a remilitarized Japan.

Japan's constitution forbids a traditional military, allowing only a narrowly defined Self Defense Force, or SDF. Some experts now see acceleration in the longstanding movement to modernize and strengthen the country's national defense.

Japan has actively contributed to the Bush administration's war on terrorism, going far beyond the financial support it provided during the first Gulf War in 1991 and testing the limits of postwar constitutional prohibitions on the deployment of military forces overseas. This has led some observers to suggest that Japan might be positioning itself to become a more active supporter of U.S. global strategy, a "Britain of Asia." This study from the East West Center challenges this view and finds that less has changed in Japan's overseas deployments than is often claimed.

A profile of the Japanese religious cult that carried out the 1995 subway sarin attack.

Unlike capital punishment in the United States, Japan's death penalty is applied regularly. Charles Lane provides a look at a the secretive world of Japanese capital justice.

The MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change reports that the full utilization of international emission trading by Japan reduces the carbon price, welfare loss, and impact on its energy-intensive exports.

Joint Statement of the U.S.-Japan Security Consultative Committee