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Archive for the 'Japan' Category

Japan Expert To ABC: Obama’s Bow Was “Jarring And Inappropriate”

by Doug Mataconis @ Sunday, November 15th, 2009. Filed under Barack Obama, Foreign Affairs, Japan, Politics

Jake Tapper reports on a conversation with an expert on Japanese protocol who is generally a support of President Obama:
“Obama’s handshake/forward lurch was so jarring and inappropriate it recalls Bush’s back-rub of Merkel.
“Kyodo News is running his appropriate and reciprocated nod and shake with the Empress, certainly to show the president as dignified, and not [...]

White House Claims That Obama’s Bow To Akihito Was “Protocol,” But It’s Not

by Doug Mataconis @ Sunday, November 15th, 2009. Filed under Barack Obama, Foreign Affairs, Japan, Politics

The White House is saying that President Obama’s obsequious bow to the inhabitant of the Chrysanthemum Throne was just a matter of protocol:
SINGAPORE – A senior administration official said President Barack Obama was simply observing protocol when he bowed to Japanese Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko upon arriving at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo on [...]

Flashback: The New York Times Chides Bill Clinton On The Etiquette Of Bowing

by Doug Mataconis @ Saturday, November 14th, 2009. Filed under Barack Obama, Foreign Affairs, Japan, Politics

Via Hot Air, comes this interesting story from 1994:
It wasn’t a bow, exactly. But Mr. Clinton came close. He inclined his head and shoulders forward, he pressed his hands together. It lasted no longer than a snapshot, but the image on the South Lawn was indelible: an obsequent President, and the Emperor of Japan.
Canadians still [...]

Obama Demeans America By Bowing To An Emperor

by Doug Mataconis @ Saturday, November 14th, 2009. Filed under Barack Obama, Dumbasses, Foreign Affairs, Japan, Politics

Unlike conservatives, I was willing to give Obama the benefit of the doubt when he appeared to give a deferential bow to the King of Saudi Arabia. Perhaps it was just a rookie mistake, or the result of some bad advice from the protocol office.
But, this is starting to become a disturbing pattern:
How low [...]

The Beginning Of The End Of The Dollar ?

by Doug Mataconis @ Tuesday, October 6th, 2009. Filed under China, Economics, Europe, Foreign Affairs, France, Japan, Middle East, Russia

In a story that’s receiving headline treatment from Matt Drudge, Robert Fisk is reporting in The Independent that several oil producing states, along with China, Russia, and France are working on a plan to abandon the dollar:
In the most profound financial change in recent Middle East history, Gulf Arabs are planning – along with China, [...]

A Political Earthquake In Japan

by Doug Mataconis @ Sunday, August 30th, 2009. Filed under Foreign Affairs, Japan

A political party that has only been in existence since 1998 has been swept into power in Tokyo:
TOKYO, Aug. 30 — Breaking a half-century hammerlock of one-party rule in Japan, the opposition Democratic Party won a crushing election victory on Sunday with pledges to revive the country’s stalled economy and steer a foreign-policy course less [...]

The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight

by Doug Mataconis @ Friday, April 3rd, 2009. Filed under Barack Obama, China, Europe, Foreign Affairs, France, Japan, Politics, Russia, Saudi Arabia

Sleep well tonight America, for the fate of the world rests in the hands of these men:

H/T: Vodkapundit

Condemning Those Who Forget History

by Doug Mataconis @ Friday, December 19th, 2008. Filed under Auto Industry, Business, Credit Crisis, Economics, Japan, Politics, Sub-Prime Mortgage Crisis

Financial analysts are starting to notice a disturbing correlation between the present economic crisis and the roots of the stagnation that gripped Japan for the better part of a decade starting in the 1990s.
In today’s New York Times, for example, Martin Flacker notes a surprising similarity between what the Federal Reserve has been doing [...]

Demography And Destiny

by Doug Mataconis @ Tuesday, May 6th, 2008. Filed under Japan

Yesterday was apparently Children’s Day in Japan, but, in reality, there aren’t that many children around to celebrate:
TOKYO, May 5 — Japan celebrated a national holiday on Monday in honor of its children. But Children’s Day might just as easily have been a national day of mourning.
For this is the land of disappearing children and [...]

Is Japan Dying ? And What Does That Mean For America ?

by Doug Mataconis @ Monday, April 7th, 2008. Filed under Foreign Affairs, Immigration, Japan, Politics

One blogger seems to think there is a lesson to be learned:
Japan is doomed. It’s partly a problem that other developed countries are facing, but partly a consequence of decades of inflexibility, racism and formality.
The agent of Japan’s death is simple: depopulation.
The fertility rate in Japan is 1.29. That is 1.29 children per woman, whereas [...]

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