Electoral politics in Japan have been upended with the defeat of the long-governing Liberal Democratic Party. CFR’s Sheila Smith says the rise of the Democratic Party of Japan could test the U.S.-Jap…

CFR Senior Fellow Sheila A. Smith says Japan is well positioned to offer leadership on coping with the global financial crisis. But a domestic political stalemate, she says, threatens its ability to …

The seventieth anniversary of the end of World War II is being marked in Northeast Asia by efforts to refresh—and revise—understandings of the brutal twentieth century war that laid the foundations o…

The escalating dispute between Beijing and Tokyo about Japan’s detention of a Chinese fishing boat captain is a challenge for Washington and raises concerns about Chinese maritime activities in the A…

In a major electoral comeback, Japan’s conservatives have won a supermajority in parliament. But the results have stirred anxieties about how they will use their power, says CFR’s Sheila Smith.