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16%  of seats in Lower House and 30% of seats in Upper House of Japanese parliament are filled by women. Japan has set a target of 30% for women in leadership roles in society by 2020. The lack of women's restrooms is not limited to parliament as it extends to public restroom facilities throughout Japan, which authorites have pledged to fix.

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Takaichi Sanae calls snap election with 62% favorability rating Jan 2026. For decades few prime ministers of Japan had such a high rating. Sanae now has the chance to get an absolute majority in parliament.

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DJT endorses Sanae Takaichi and Takaichi says alliance with US has potential that is LIMITLESS after winning a two thirds majority in parliament. DJT had whole heartedly endorsed Takaichi and visited Japan recently. Takaichi visits the US before DJT goes to Beijing for trade talks and improving relations.

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Phillipe Pons in Le Monde on social media and disinformation popular with young people who have fewer employment prospects in the middle of sluggish economic growth.  Japan's Ministry of Education erasing Japan's wartime atrocities in school books in the years LDP in power since 1950's. Sanae Takaichi's comment about Japan willing to intervene if China attacks Taiwan was popular in Japan. Among young people 18 to 39 surveyed by Yomiuri 64% support Takaichi. Broadly speaking straight talk and nationalism iis becoming popular in Japan. The LDP has lost its majority in the lower and upper house in parliament and the Sanseito party with 15 seats and other smaller nationalist parties are increasing in popularity. The Ministry of Education has for many decades kept the Japanese wartime atrocities such as at Nanjing in China of the 1930's, the harsh Japanese occupation in China and Korea, out of the textbooks. The result is that Japanese young people do not have the same level of grasp of what happened in the twentieth century. ...

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Tsutsui Yoshinobu, head of Keidanren, Japan's business federation, says China limiting exports of vital raw materials is "an obvious act of economic coercion." For the first time in 2025 Keidanren cancelled its annual dialogue meeting with China's representatives.  This was a followup to comments by Japanese PM Sanae that it would consider an attack on Taiwan as a danger to Japan's security. Sanae now enjoys 62% popularity rating. After 2 years of the LDp government with aminority in parliament she has announced a snap election to gain an abasolute majority in parliament. In the last elections small nationalist parties gained a large share of votes. Changes are happening in Japanese politics as a younger generation becomes more nationalistic. Sanae was made PM only recently at the end of 2025 after the PM in the LDP party faced criticism and resigned. Before he resigned he quickly signed a trade agreement with the US DJT administration to maintain Japanese exports to US at a 15% tariff. ...

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Iran Proposal that asks $2 million per ship to be split with Oman for opening the Hormuz Straits- April 6 2026. China, Japan can pay this amount to get the 90% of the oil they need from Hormuz, which would go to reconstruction of war damage in Iran. India would shift some of its purchase of oil and gas to the US and so will Japan over 2027-2028. This would result in a shift away from the Persian Gulf dependence to renewable energy and to buying oil and gas from US+Venezuela as more reliable sources. European Union and Britain would also make this shift as shown in the adjoining article by Prof Geoffron of Universite Paris Dauphine in Le Monde. The proposal also requires US and Israel to commit to no future attack on Iran, and Israel to stop its attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon. The US and DJT call the new regime under a Speaker of the Iranian parliament, an elected president who had to respond to people sentiment in the election, and a grandson of Khomeini, one that is easier to talk with than the earlier regime. The problem remains nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles development that the US has as its sole objective which is what the war is about than Hormuz as the US and DJT say Hormuz is China and Japan's problem where for some strange reason these industrial powers import 90% of their oil from Hormuz and have done this after 40 years of disruptions, a mystery they can solve on their own. ...

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Khamanei as leader of post revolution Iran set up Iranian supported military organizations in neighboring countries such as in Lebanon (Hezbollah), in Iraq, and in Syria, in Yemen (Houthis), over two decades, but failed to make the gains that Asian nations in that period made by investing entirely every dollar in the homeland economy of Iran. By comparing with Asian nations such as South Korea/Japan/Taiwan/China and now India/Vietnam the entire region from Iran and Afghanistan, Pakistan, Persian Gulf, Egypt can be seen as having lost some vital decades of the early twenty first century, and the scale of the difference is nothing short of staggering.  China after suffering invasion from Britain and then Japan, after civil wars and the Korean War, after going through this for two centuries sought peaceful development in 1990-2025, working with Japan and Britain countries that caused so much suffering yet China sough rapprochement, patiently with humility, with incredible results.  Gandhi also sought rapprochement with Britain through the British Commonwealth and cherished institutions of parliament and science learned and gathered from Britain. This was woefully missing in West Asia. When considering the access to capital in fossil fuel sales, the region of West Asia around Egypt may be seen as having recorded the largest wasted capital in wars in world history in the period 1920 -2047 (with only 20 years left to 2047),  by which time India, China, Europe and the US will have shifted from fossil to solar nuclear and renewables and fossil will be no longer generating revenue flows. Very little time is left as development will be that much harder by 2047 without the capital and result being one of being left behind in this new world that is facing us all.  ...

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LDP Komeito alliance wins 47 seats. Sanseito nationalist challenging LDP  government wins 14 seats in Japan parliamentary election July 2025. A tariff of 24% on Japanese car imports are increased by DJT to 25% in frustration over slow talks about an agreement. Japanese prime minister Ishiba is unlikely to remain in office more than a few months after losing majority in parliament. This means more uncertainty in the talks with the US over reciprocal and car tariffs. With the nationalists challenging the LDP's stiad party politics the LDP does not want to look weak in defending Japan's national interests.

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NHK Proportional representation exit polls for Japan's  2025 elections for parliament show twice the number of people in 20's 30's and 40's voted for Sanseito over voted for the LDP. The LDP is the party that has run Japan's government for mostly all of the past 75 post war years. It is losing its touch with the common man as issues of cost of living, migration, and income mobility affect the Japanese people as they have done in Europe and the US. The two opposition parties are the Sanseito and the Democratic Party of the People formed in the last ten years to fight the entrenched LDP governments, and the Constitutional Party of Japan that has acted till now as the main Opposition Party. Not just LDP, the Constitutional Party of Japan also draws most of its support from the 50's, 60's and 70's people age groups and are being trounced by Sanseito and Democratic Party of the People with younger age groups. This is a significant observation on the direction Japan is taking with resistance to too much tourism, too much migration, and not enough attention to Japan's national interests. The LDP under Ishiba is now navigating a new environment as it looks to running the government taking credit for the US Japan Trade Agreement and working with the new parties. ...

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Japan's hopes of reaching a trade agreement with the US before tariffs of 24% kick in in July are now nil. Upper House elections coming up in Japan mean that the ruling LDP party could lose seats in parliament if it makes any concessions. US sees Japan as stalling in trade negotiations.

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Next to Uttar Pradesh 242 million population adjacent Bihar with 128 million is decisive in Indian parliament elections since 1947- 2025 state elections show BJP NDA (Modi) sweeping win with over 203 of 243. Assembly seats. Unknown to most of the world is that this region is the birthplace of Buddhist civilization and culture, that later was part of Asian culture and civilization as it spread to China and Japan. Modi plans to add to Nalanda and other seats of Buddhist ancient universities on the world map with UNESCO listings.  The Indian economy needs 15-20 years of stable government dedicated to rapid accelerated growth with full access to US and EU technologies and capital to catch up with China, the US and EU. The road to this starts with 5 regions- northcentral  region Gujarat/Rajasthan/Madhya Pradesh  (99 seats), west central region Maharashtra (48 seats), northern region Uttar Pradesh (80 seats), Haryana and Delhi region (17 seats) and Eastern region Bihar (40 seats) which together provide  seats in Indian parliament  284 seats out of total of 543 seats in the Indian parliament. For the first time with the win in Bihar the Modi government is now within reach of this goal of being able to govern in a democracy for next 15 years by delivering on infrastructure, cost of living and rapid industrialization and growth of the economy similar to Japan's and China's growth since 1950. The LDP delivered this in Japan, the CCP in China and the NDA under Modi is in the same position today. ...

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Junichiro Koizumi's decision to support his son for the seat he held in Yokosuka, a naval port an hour from Tokyo. Fackler points out an astounding fact about second generation and third generation leaders in Japanese politics that make it an insider's terrritory. Second generation politicians in parliament make up an unusually large part of the legislature. About 40% of LDP party members of parliament are descendents of prior lawmakers. Of 7 prime ministers, only one was not a son or grandson of a former lawmaker. Shinzo Abe and Yasuo Fukuda were grandson and son of former prime ministers. Even the Democratic Party of Japan has its share of second generation members of parliament of about 20%. In this fascinating account of Japanese politics Fackler talks to Mr. Yokokume, a DPJ candidate running against the younger Koizumi, at his campaign offices. With a small fraction of the financing received by the younger Koizumi and voters at the train station telling him this is Koizumi country, Yokokume is worried that politics is for too long closed to outsiders in Japanese politics. Public opinion in Japan describes this in negative terms as depriving Japan of the fresh blood and new ideas from newcomers to politics to renew Japanese government....

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Fumio Kishida leads the LDP party in Japan to an absolute majority in parliament in the recent election. The LDP with its partner Komeito won 293 seats in the 465 member parliament. He called for reducing inequality, following a similar effort by president Biden in the US. A supplement to the budget will provide aid to families with children and small businesses suffering from the effects of the pandemic. Kishida will double defense spending to 2% of GDP following tensions in the Asia-Pacific region. 

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Japan's governing LDP party wins over two thirds of the seats in parliament in a snap election called one year before the end of the term in office. Prime minister Abe's popularity by summer 2017 dropped to about 30%, and yet with a divided opposition he managed to win the election with a large majority. The opposition led by the Democratic Party and Tokyo Governor Mrs Koike fragmented with the formation of new parties, Yuriko Koike's Party of Hope, and the Consitutional Democratic Party. Mrs. Koike failed to keep the opposition united with some missteps including asking for a loyalty pledge from candidates. This election win makes it possible for Abe to get a third term as leader of the LDP and eventually becoming the prime minister with the longest term in office. Abe had a poor start during his first effort as prime minister when he resigned in less than a year. This is a comeback for Shinzo Abe from that difficult period. Yet the constitutional changes to support Japan's Self Defense Forces with the growing threat from North Korea are not getting the same level of support. Opinion remains divided on that issue.  One aspect of this election is that very few women candidates are running for parliament. In contrast to the election in Britain with more women running for office and getting elected, in Japan's 2017 snap election less than 10% of candidates elected are women. ...

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The NYT's Motoko Rich and Hikari Hida look at the relationship between Shinjo Abe and Fumio Kishida of Japan. Both entered parliament at the same time in 1993, and both are sons and grandsons of members of parliament. Mr. Abe took the lead and when it resigned in 2021 Kishida was not his first choice to succeed him in the Liberal Democratic Party, Kishida sees increasing defense spending as on of the realities of the changing situation in Asia and the Japanese public now supports this. Kishida is pursuing a different economic policy with an effort to reduce economic inequality which he sees as a problem similar to the US and Europe.

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Parliamentary group of the ruling LDP party elected Fumio Kishida, member of parliament from Hiroshima, as the new LDP leader and prime minister. He has called the abolition of nuclear weapons his life's work. His grandfather and father were both members of parliament. Kishida was elected in 1993 to the Japanese parliament, and was foreign minister under Shinzo Abe. He supports the Hiroshima baseball team and is said to be good when it comes to washing up and cleaning the bathroom. As a child he grew up in New York and pictures of that time show him at a school in Queens, New York as a child. This has given him a sense of social injustice. He shares this in his plans for Japan with Biden in the US and Scholz in Germany, a sense that there should be a reduction in the income gap, and support for low paid temporary workers, families with young children. He also shares with Biden and Scholz plans to invest hundreds of billions of dollars for renewal of the country- for renewal of US, Germany and Japan in the manner of the postwar renewal in the nineteen fifties. ...

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PM Narendra Modi is nominated in the historic old parliament building in New Delhi for a new five year term in office by the parties in the National Democratic Alliance on June 7, 2024. The importance of the event is because of the 294 seats of 543 in parliament of the NDA parties and the nomination based on achieving the vision of a developed country similar to the US, EU, Japan and China, by 2030. With the modernization complete by 2047, the 100th anniversary of Gandhi's struggle that won Hind Swaraj (Indian freedom), the title of a book put out by Gandhiji in 1909 as he negotiated a settlement with the British Empire for South African Indians and Black people. Leaders of every party in NDA cited this as the reason and the goal in their nomination speeches.

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A former Defense Minister of Japan serving twice and senior member of parliament of the LDP, says Japan's arrangement in Asia with the US is for a team approach. This means if the US acts to defend Taiwan, Japan is likely to join the US. creating a wider war engulfing Asia. It is in this context that the G7 conference in Hiroshima, the nuclear war museum, and others, need to broaden the approach to give people everywhere in the US and Asia a chance to understand all narratives of all the countries involved. Including in this case China's as a country subject to invasion by colonial powers, so that all the narratives can be fully understood. There is a reason for this and that is that the 18th 19th and 20th centuries offer a poor example for prevention of nuclear war. China, Japan and India share a common connection to the two thousand years old Buddhist and Vedantic ideas no matter how bruised they were by colonial powers. They offer many openings for the Chinese, Japanese and Indian people in their common history of Buddhist thought and pathways, to find a common ground. ...

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Mark Branson is a 44 year old citizen of Britain, who is head of the division in charge of supervising banks at the Swiss Financial Markets Supervisory Authority, Finma. He headed the UBS bank operations in Japan at the time when traders there were engaging in manipulating the LIBOR rate. This has raised questions in the Swiss parliament about the integrity of the Swiss regulator.

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Fumio Kishida, former foreign minister who called for strengthening Japanese missile defenses, and reducing income inequality in Japan, was elected party leader of the ruling LDP party. Kishida is a choice of the Japanese parliament LDP in a runoff, after he was tied with Taro Kano in a vote of LDP party members. As leader of the LDP he will succeed Yoshihide Suga as prime minister. Kishida says a major problem facing Japan was the widening income and wealth gap during the pandemic. "If the profits from growth are monopolized  by a few people, the gap will widen even  further. It's not just abut growth, it's about distribution."  Kishida also favors government spending of hundreds of billions of dollars to boost the economy in Japan after the difficulties with the pandemic.This is similar to the approach on the economy, infrastructure investment and income inequality, taken by president Biden in the US, and vice chancellor Scholz in Germany.    ...

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Close all asylum hotels in orderly way, says former Justice Secretary under Blair, Charlie Falconer Home Office minister Angela Eagle says: “We inherited a chaotic asylum accommodation system costing billions. This government will close all hotels by the end of this parliament and we appealed this judgment so hotels like the Bell can be exited in a controlled and orderly way that avoids the chaos of recent years that saw 400 hotels open at a cost of £9m a day.”

Labour has to act decisively to meet the shift in the views of people in the UK and because it is plain common sense- UK citizens have no place being in asylum hotels in China or India paid for by the government, it is not even thought of as an idea that makes any sense, and the reverse is also true. Asia has pulled itself up by its bootstraps, Japan Korea, China and India after centuries of colonialism for billions of people only by building up at home.

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The title about Indians in America as an Experiment is a misnomer, and reflects a loss of understanding of American and European civilization, the Scientific and Industrial Revolutions that created the Modern World starting in Britain and the US, and of India's aspirations for modernization. When both China and India aspire to the modern world that the Renaissance and the Scientific Revolution have created.  India's Mohandas Gandhi read Emerson, had the support of FDR, of Christian missionary Charlie in the Bardoli Satyagraha, of a British Admiral's daughter at the Gandhi Ashram,  and Gandhi's prayer service included his favorite Christian hymns. This report shows no appreciation of this India and its relations with America. No country does that, what the US has done for 2 decades according to the National Science Foundation cited in this article, not the countries in the European Union, not France, Germany, Italy and Britain, not India, not China- provide tution and stipend and educate more foreign students than Americans or citizens of the home country in advanced engineering. It has never happened in the history of the world for the major nations that participated in the Renaissance in Europe and the Scientific Revolution, the Industrial Revolution, that have created the Modern World. It puts at risk what we know as the Modern World. It also puts at risk the countries such as China and India in addition to the US, as either these Indian or Chinese engineers stay in the US and take jobs and lower wages for Americans, or go back to their home country and help the development of their home country which has invested vital resouces for their previous education. Only if they return to their home country can 2.4 billion people of China and India gain from the investment made in these engineers education. This is particularly true for India, which is now emerging as the fastest growing country in the world with the access to pools of capital, labor and technology needed to match the US and China in modernization and development. For India these computer and other engineers can play a vital role in development for 1.4 billion people.  India like Germany, Italy and France in Europe and Japan, Indonesia Philippines, need the US and Britain as the leader of parliamentary democracies with a long history of parliament since 1600. Need Britain and the US as the cradle of the scientific and Industrial Revolutions, and see their vital interests in the making of a strong Nation in the American continent that can fulfill this role through it's religious values, scientific spirit, pioneering spirit, and generous impulses towards other nations. ...

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The passage of legislation to double the sales tax to 10% passed the lower house of parliament in Japan by a vote of 363 to 96, with 57 members of the 289 members of parliament of the Democratic Party of Japan voting against it. The IMF in a recent report recommending increasing the sales tax to 15%, raising the retirement age, and cutting social security spending. Moody's investors Service described the move as "credit positive" for Japannese government bonds, and see it as a first step.

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Anna Fifield of the Washington Post provides this exceptional piece on Yuka Ogata, a 42 year old municipal assembly member of the Kumamoto Municipal Assembly. Yuka sat in the assembly seat with her 7 month baby in the front row to the men looking on in amazement. Ogata has a Masters degree in conflict resolution from George Mason University. Ogata was earlier reported to have created a stir by sitting while pregnant while asking questions.  Yuka Ogata says she wants to draw attention to the struggles of women as they seek to work so that they can raise a child and work happily. Japan's government has announced the key goal of "womenomics" to increase participation of women in the economy as a way to increase growth. Earlier Yuka had asked the Assembly authorites to open a day care center or let mothers bring their children to work. Both requests were denied and Ogata's child was removed from the Municipal Assembly. Here Anna Fifield gives other examples. Larissa Waters who according to new rules nursed her baby in the Australian parliament. Licia Ronzulli, an Italian member of the European parliament takes her daughter to the chamber in Strasbourg sine 2010. Yuka Ogata says it helps to know what other countries are doing as she makes her own efforts to get the same opportunities in Japan. ...

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The U.S. and Japan sign a new security agreement in 2015 which removes a geographical constraint on Japan participating in joint action with the U.S. in protecting vital global interests. The agreement is called the Joint Defense Guidelines. The agreement will enable Japan's Defense Forces with the permission of its parliament to participate in such action. Earlier agreements limited action to the defense of Japanese territories. A new alliance coordination mechanism will be established with officials from diplomatic, defense and military departments of the two countries. Consultations between the U.S. and Japan will take place through this mechanism in peacetime and in emergency situations. The new guidelines also include joint development of weapons systems and sharing of military technology, and cooperation on cybersecurity, missile defense, reconaissance activity. Japan's reinterpretation of its Constitution will now be discussed in parliament in the context of this agreement, to clarify what other activities Japan can take on....