{"id":988,"date":"2016-12-14T15:18:41","date_gmt":"2016-12-14T06:18:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.robfahey.co.uk\/blog\/?p=988"},"modified":"2016-12-14T15:18:41","modified_gmt":"2016-12-14T06:18:41","slug":"tokyos-tough-new-governor-is-picking-all-the-right-battles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.robfahey.co.uk\/blog\/tokyos-tough-new-governor-is-picking-all-the-right-battles\/","title":{"rendered":"Tokyo\u2019s Tough New Governor is Picking all the Right Battles"},"content":{"rendered":"

My first piece for Japan Forward, the new English language site launched by the Sankei Shimbun earlier this week, has been published.\u00a0It’s about Koike Yuriko, the new governor of Tokyo, and the uncompromising stances she’s been taking against corruption and crony politics<\/a> in the large projects she inherited from her predecessors.<\/p>\n

Japan Forward<\/a> is a little rough around the edges for the moment – the site is officially still in beta and is certainly still finding its feet both in terms of design and functionality, and in terms of content – but the hope is that it’ll become a good forum for balanced, informed discussion of contemporary Japanese politics, policy and society. The Sankei Shimbun has a (deserved) reputation as a nationalist paper, but the staff involved with Japan Forward seem committed to developing a nuanced, credible and diverse publication with a distinctive identity, not “Sankei English Edition”.<\/p>\n

I don’t agree with the Sankei’s editorial line on a whole lot, but one view we do share is that English language coverage of Japan is something of a monotone echo chamber – a relatively small number of like-minded people (some of whom I respect greatly, I should say) tend to quote one another around and around in a narrow circle that excludes other views and tends, as such echo chambers do, to spiral in towards some quite hardline\u00a0viewpoints. “Abe is a Fascist” is a fine poster to wave at a street demonstration; as an editorial line in a respected publication, it’s not only questionable, it’s arguably\u00a0irresponsible at a time when other countries are electing, or appointing, genuine fascists to positions of power.<\/p>\n

My\u00a0hope, though I am merely a contributor and not on the site’s staff, is that Japan Forward will provide a counterpoint to that kind of coverage – not by trotting out equally extreme viewpoints from the other side of the spectrum, but by highlighting, explaining and signal-boosting the centrist, mainstream political discourse of Japan that’s often lost in English-language coverage.<\/p>\n

Assuming all goes well with the site, it probably means I’ll be posting a little less political material on this blog (and probably a bit more technical information related to machine learning and natural language processing, which are core foci of my doctoral research at the moment). For those following through RSS, though, I’ll be sure to post links to any pieces that are published on Japan Forward as they appear.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My first piece for Japan Forward, the new English language site launched by the Sankei Shimbun earlier this week, has been published.\u00a0It’s about Koike Yuriko, the new governor of Tokyo, and the uncompromising stances she’s been taking against corruption and crony politics in the large projects she inherited from her predecessors. Japan Forward is a …<\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p71QYy-fW","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":171,"url":"http:\/\/www.robfahey.co.uk\/blog\/cries-of-misandry-didnt-sink-himozairu\/","url_meta":{"origin":988,"position":0},"title":"Cries of “Misandry!” didn’t sink Himozairu","author":"Rob Fahey","date":"28\/10\/2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Acclaimed manga author Akiko Higashimura (famous for Kuragehime, or Jellyfish Princess, a series about female otaku) this week cancelled her latest series, Himozairu, after just two chapters, following an online outcry. The publisher, Kodansha (it was being serialised in their Morning magazine) announced the author\u2019s decision on their website, noting\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "gender"","block_context":{"text":"gender","link":"http:\/\/www.robfahey.co.uk\/blog\/category\/gender\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.robfahey.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/l_yx_himo_01.jpg?fit=713%2C343&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.robfahey.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/l_yx_himo_01.jpg?fit=713%2C343&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.robfahey.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/l_yx_himo_01.jpg?fit=713%2C343&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.robfahey.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/l_yx_himo_01.jpg?fit=713%2C343&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":285,"url":"http:\/\/www.robfahey.co.uk\/blog\/koike-grasps-tokyos-poisoned-chalice\/","url_meta":{"origin":988,"position":1},"title":"Koike Grasps Tokyo’s Poisoned Chalice","author":"Rob Fahey","date":"01\/08\/2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Koike Yuriko last night\u00a0became the first ever female governor of Tokyo, elected\u00a0in an emphatic victory with a margin of well over a million votes more than her closest competitor. All other considerations aside,\u00a0Koike's election\u00a0is worthy of celebration simply for smashing through a\u00a0glass ceiling. The Tokyo Governor's office has not only\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "japan"","block_context":{"text":"japan","link":"http:\/\/www.robfahey.co.uk\/blog\/category\/japan\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Koike Yuriko","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.robfahey.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/KoikeYuriko.jpg?fit=594%2C279&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.robfahey.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/KoikeYuriko.jpg?fit=594%2C279&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.robfahey.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/KoikeYuriko.jpg?fit=594%2C279&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":279,"url":"http:\/\/www.robfahey.co.uk\/blog\/abe-struggle-constitution-revision\/","url_meta":{"origin":988,"position":2},"title":"Abe’s Uphill Struggle for Constitutional Revision","author":"Rob Fahey","date":"11\/07\/2016","format":false,"excerpt":"In 2003, when US president George W. Bush and his advisors were preparing the case for invading Iraq, they announced to the world that they had assembled a \"coalition of the willing\" who backed military action against Saddam Hussein. The term has become widely reviled, as\u00a0many of the countries in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "japan"","block_context":{"text":"japan","link":"http:\/\/www.robfahey.co.uk\/blog\/category\/japan\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Could Yamaguchi side with Abe on constitutional revision?","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.robfahey.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/Yamaguchi-Abe.jpg?fit=594%2C270&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.robfahey.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/Yamaguchi-Abe.jpg?fit=594%2C270&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.robfahey.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/Yamaguchi-Abe.jpg?fit=594%2C270&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":219,"url":"http:\/\/www.robfahey.co.uk\/blog\/dpj-jip-merge\/","url_meta":{"origin":988,"position":3},"title":"The Irrelevance of the DPJ – JIP Merger","author":"Rob Fahey","date":"07\/03\/2016","format":false,"excerpt":"The biggest political news in Japan this week - apart, it seems, from a comment from Prime Minister Abe to the effect that he\u2019d like a humanoid robot to replace him in Diet questioning sessions - is the merger of the main opposition party, the Democratic Party of Japan (\u6c11\u4e3b\u515a),\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "japan"","block_context":{"text":"japan","link":"http:\/\/www.robfahey.co.uk\/blog\/category\/japan\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.robfahey.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/DPJMascot.jpg?fit=593%2C261&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.robfahey.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/DPJMascot.jpg?fit=593%2C261&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.robfahey.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/DPJMascot.jpg?fit=593%2C261&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":100,"url":"http:\/\/www.robfahey.co.uk\/blog\/japan-in-2012-anger-apathy-and-the-ballot-box\/","url_meta":{"origin":988,"position":4},"title":"Japan in 2012: Anger, Apathy and the Ballot Box","author":"Rob Fahey","date":"15\/12\/2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Tomorrow, Japan will hold a general election for the first time since 2009. A lot has changed since 2009. At home, the impact of the 2011 Touhoku Earthquake is still felt, especially in the area of nuclear power policy; abroad, Japan has ended up in unwelcome territorial disputes over a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "japan"","block_context":{"text":"japan","link":"http:\/\/www.robfahey.co.uk\/blog\/category\/japan\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.robfahey.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Japanese_diet_outside.jpeg?fit=729%2C316&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.robfahey.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Japanese_diet_outside.jpeg?fit=729%2C316&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.robfahey.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Japanese_diet_outside.jpeg?fit=729%2C316&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.robfahey.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Japanese_diet_outside.jpeg?fit=729%2C316&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":612,"url":"http:\/\/www.robfahey.co.uk\/blog\/what-president-trump-means-for-japan\/","url_meta":{"origin":988,"position":5},"title":"What President Trump means for Japan","author":"Rob Fahey","date":"09\/11\/2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Donald Trump is, failing an electoral college miracle, going to be the next president of the United States of America.\u00a0Countless words will be written about what that means for America,\u00a0but as a resident of Japan and a scholar of Japanese politics, I'd like to talk a little about what a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "japan"","block_context":{"text":"japan","link":"http:\/\/www.robfahey.co.uk\/blog\/category\/japan\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.robfahey.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/TrumpCommander.jpg?fit=594%2C279&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.robfahey.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/TrumpCommander.jpg?fit=594%2C279&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.robfahey.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/TrumpCommander.jpg?fit=594%2C279&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.robfahey.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.robfahey.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.robfahey.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.robfahey.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.robfahey.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=988"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/www.robfahey.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/988\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1009,"href":"http:\/\/www.robfahey.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/988\/revisions\/1009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.robfahey.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.robfahey.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.robfahey.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}