Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has a fresh electoral mandate to implement structural reforms but many of his intended changes will require the transformation of Japanese society, says CFR’s Sheila Smith…

Smith, a Japan political expert living in Tokyo, says even though Prime Minister Shinzo Abe does not have to resign, there is “intense pressure” on him to do so from within his own party.

While the ISIS executions of two Japanese hostages have reinvigorated a public debate about the country’s postwar pacifism, recent moves by Tokyo to revise its counterterrorism policies should be vie…

Sheila A. Smith, a leading expert on Japanese politics, says the mood in Japan just ahead of parliamentary elections is “disgruntlement” with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Sheila A. Smith, a CFR adjunct senior fellow who lives in Tokyo, says Yasuo Fukuda, the new Japanese prime minister, is likely to be a moderate force in Japanese politics.