Japan

Trump’s Tariffs Are Uniting China, Europe, Japan, South Korea, And ASEAN

May 10, 2025 Ben Norton, Geopolitical Economy. Resistance Report ASEAN, China, Donald Trump, European Union (EU), Japan, South Korea, Tariffs, Trade War

Trump’s Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent revealed that the US government has what he called a “grand encirclement” strategy aimed at isolating and weakening China. Trump hit China with tariffs of 145%, imposing what is essentially a trade embargo. The Trump administration wanted to pressure Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, and India to follow the US and “approach China as a group”, Bessent said, according to Bloomberg. This strategy is clearly failing. The finance ministers and central bank governors of China, Japan, South Korea, and members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) met in Italy on May 4 and published a joint statement pledging “to further strengthen regional financial cooperation”.

Trump’s Tariffs Turbocharge De-Dollarization

May 6, 2025 Ben Norton, Geopolitical Economy. Resistance Report BRICS, China, De-dollarization, Donald Trump, Japan, Tariffs

Donald Trump has made it clear that one of his top goals is to maintain the dominance of the US dollar as the global reserve currency. When he was running for president in 2024, Trump promised he would punish any country that sought alternatives to the US currency by hitting them with sky-high tariffs. “Many countries are leaving the dollar. They’re not going to leave the dollar with me!”, Trump vowed at a campaign rally. “I’ll say, ‘You leave the dollar, you’re not doing business with the United States, because we’re going to put 100% tariff on your goods'”. Since Trump has returned for his second term as US president, however, his tariffs and trade war have actually accelerated the decline of the dominance of the US dollar, not slowed it.

As US Military Prepares For War On China, Silicon Valley Oligarchs Profit

April 28, 2025 Ben Norton, Geopolitical Economy. Resistance Report China, CIA, Donald Trump, FBI, Japan, Pete Hegseth, Philippines, Silicon Valley, Taiwan, Wars and Militarism

Evidence grows showing that the US military is setting the stage for war on China. A leaked memo obtained by the Washington Post reveals that the US Department of Defense has made preparing for war with China into its top priority, giving it precedence over all other issues. The Pentagon is concentrating its resources in the Asia-Pacific region as it anticipates fighting China in an attempt to exert US control over Taiwan. US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, a fundamentalist self-declared “crusader” who called for overthrowing the Chinese government, took a trip in March to Japan and the Philippines, where he repeatedly threatened Beijing and boasted of US “war-fighting” preparations and “real war plans”.

Close The US Military Bases In Asia

April 22, 2025 Jeffrey D. Sachs, Scheer Post. Educate! Asia, Japan, Korea, Military bases, US Foreign Bases, US Imperialism

President Donald Trump is again loudly complaining that the US military bases in Asia are too costly for the US to bear. As part of the new round of tariff negotiations with Japan and Korea, Trump is calling on Japan and Korea to pay for stationing the US troops. Here’s a much better idea: close the bases and return the US servicemen to the US. Trump implies that the US is providing a great service to Japan and Korea by stationing 50,000 troops in Japan and nearly 30,000 in Korea. Yet these countries do not need the US to defend themselves. They are wealthy and can certainly provide their own defense.

This Is Why Trump’s Tariffs Will Fail

April 5, 2025 Ben Norton, Geopolitical Economy. Resistance Report ASEAN, BRICS, China, De-dollarization, Donald Trump, Inflation, Japan, Tariffs, Trade, Vietnam

In his first term as president of the United States, Donald Trump launched a trade war against China. In his second term, he has expanded that trade war to many countries around the world. In a ceremony outside the White House on April 2, which the US president dubbed “Liberation Day”, Trump announced sweeping new tariffs on dozens of countries, including high taxes on imports from top US trading partners: 54% on China, 46% on Vietnam, 25% on South Korea, 24% on Japan, and 20% on the European Union. Trump falsely claimed that these tariffs were “reciprocal”, but they were actually unilateral.

Blocked Nippon Deal Is Lesson On Tariffs: Workers Need A Say

February 19, 2025 Jenny Brown, Labor Notes. Educate! Japan, Steel, Tariffs, Worker Rights and Jobs

The business press howled in January when outgoing President Joe Biden blocked Japanese steel giant Nippon from buying U.S. Steel. The Steelworkers (USW) had strongly opposed the deal. But Nippon’s promises to invest, and U.S. Steel’s threats to close plants, led some members and local union officials to support it. As a result, the press portrayed the disagreement as “union bosses” versus the rank and file. In fact, most workers were skeptical and the union had good reasons to oppose the takeover. The Trump administration has imposed 25 percent tariffs on imported steel and aluminum, to start March 4.

Amazon Workers Strike From Black Friday To Cyber Monday

November 30, 2024 Michelle Del Rey, Portside. Resist! Amazon, Black Friday, Brazil, Germany, Japan, United Kingdom (UK), United States, Worker Rights and Jobs

Amazon workers are planning to strike from Black Friday through Cyber Monday to hold the company accountable for “labor abuses, environmental degradation and threats to democracy,” organizers say. The “Make Amazon Pay” protest, organized by UNI Global Union and Progressive International, will take place in 20 different countries and major cities in the United Kingdom, United States, Germany, Japan and Brazil. “Amazon is everywhere, but so are we. By uniting our movements across borders, we can not only force Amazon to change its ways but lay the foundations of a world that prioritizes human dignity, not Jeff Bezos’ bank balance.”

Meet The Modern-Day Captain Ahab Held In Jail

September 4, 2024 James Rothwell, Captain Paul Watson Foundation. Resist! Biodiversity, Japan, Paul Watson, whales

With his long silver locks and rugged beard, Paul Watson resembles a modern-day Captain Ahab, the fictional whaler in Herman Melville’s novel Moby Dick. But he’s trying to save whales, not destroy them. For decades, the US-Canadian has waged a sea campaign against the bloody business of whalers, notorious for their use of explosive harpoons to maim and kill their prey. At one point Mr Watson’s antics were so popular that he was the star of a fly-on-the-wall documentary, Whale Wars, which followed his Sea Shepherd crew as they used guerilla-style tactics to block and harass whaling ships. But a new twist in an ongoing legal battle between Mr Watson and the Japanese whaling industry could mean that he never sets sail again.

US And UK To Boycott Nagasaki Memorial After Israel Disinvited

August 8, 2024 Imran Mulla, Middle East Eye. Educate! Hiroshima, History, Israel, Japan, Nagasaki, Palestine, US Imperialism

The American and British ambassadors to Japan have announced they will skip an upcoming ceremony commemorating the victims of the US’s 1945 atomic bombing because the city’s mayor did not invite the Israeli ambassador. The Russian and Belarusian ambassadors have also been excluded from the event this Friday by Japanese authorities. The Nagasaki Peace Memorial Ceremony is intended to mark the 79th anniversary of the US atomic bomb attacks on Nagasaki and Hiroshima that killed tens of thousands of Japanese civilians, with many more later dying from radiation poisoning. The attacks in August 1945 preceded Japan’s unconditional surrender to the US and the end of the Second World War.

As Stock Market Crashes, Is US Facing New Financial Crisis?

August 8, 2024 Michael Hudson, Geopolitical Economy. Resistance Report Capitalism, China, Finance and the Economy, Gaza, Iran, Israel, Japan, Michael Hudson, Nasdaq, Neoliberalism, Palestine, Russia, Socialism, Stock Market, yen, Yuan

Is the United States on the verge of a potential new financial crisis? This is a question that financial analysts are asking after there was a market crash on August 5. It is being compared to the famous “Black Monday” crash in the stock market in 1987. They also both happened on a Monday. So is this another Black Monday? This was the biggest market plunge since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, when many investors were selling off their holdings, fearing that there was going to be a big recession. In fact, as of the August 5th crisis, the volatility index, the VIX, which is a measurement of how rapidly stock prices move in the S&P 500 – which is the stock market index of the 500 biggest companies on U.S. stock exchanges – the volatility index is at the highest level since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic.

US Atomic Bombing Of Hiroshima And Nagasaki Remembered

August 8, 2024 Abdul Rahman, People's Dispatch. Educate! Hiroshima, Hiroshima Day, History, Japan, Nagasaki, Nuclear Disarmament, Nuclear War, Nuclear Weapons, Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), UN, Wars and Militarism

Over 50,000 people, including representatives from 109 countries, joined an event marking the 79th anniversary of the US’s bombing of Hiroshima. The main ceremony was held at Hiroshima’s Peace Memorial Park on Tuesday, August 6. A total of 344,306 people were killed during the bombing as well as in the aftermath. Despite knowing the widespread destruction and irreversible losses caused by the attack, the US dropped another nuclear bomb on Nagasaki just three days later on August 9, killing 40,000 people immediately. The number of people killed in Nagasaki would double that figure in most estimates.

What We Can Learn From Cities With Transit-Oriented Development

July 25, 2024 Shonda Wang, Next City. Create! Canada, Japan, Public transportation, tokyo, Toronto, Transportation, Urban Design

In my early twenties, I lived in Chofu, a city of over 240,000 people on the west side of Tokyo Metropolis. My apartment building was less than a 10-minute walk from Chofu Station, which is at the center of a bustling, fully “amenitized” mini-city, with easy pedestrian access to an urban-scale grocery store, ever-busy retail shops and restaurants, multiple schools, and small-but-mighty parks. Walking and taking transit every day was easy, and without question, my mode of choice. That was more than 20 years ago, but the memories of Tokyo’s transit system and the feelings I had experiencing it stayed with me. And they’ve informed my efforts to build vibrant, livable communities around — and integrated with — public transit stations in Vancouver, Toronto and Mexico.

Threat Of War Looms Over NATO Summit In Washington

July 7, 2024 Friends of Socialist China. Educate! China, Iran, Japan, NATO, North Korea, Russia, South Korea, US Imperialism, Wars and Militarism, Western imperialism

On June 30, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) blasted the joint military exercises conducted by the U.S., Japan, and South Korea in the region, labeling them as “reckless and provocative.” The DPRK pointed out that the military “war games” disrupt peace on the Korean peninsula and the broader region. The hostile military drills expose the formation of an “Asian version of NATO” led by the U.S., declared a statement by the DPRK’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on June 30. The three-day military operation known as “Freedom Edge” took place from June 26 to 29, involving South Korea, Japan, and the U.S.

US Senator Says Israel Should Drop Nuclear Bombs On Gaza

May 13, 2024 Ben Norton, Geopolitical Economy. Educate! Gaza, Hiroshima, Israel, Japan, Lindsey Graham, Nagasaki, Nuclear Weapons, Palestine, Wars and Militarism

US Senator Lindsey Graham argued in a live TV interview that Israel should drop nuclear bombs on Gaza. More than 2 million Palestinian civilians are trapped in the densely populated strip, including 1 million children. Israel has imposed what its Defense Minister Yoav Gallant referred to as a “complete siege” of Gaza, preventing civilians from leaving as Tel Aviv has brutally bombed the strip. To justify his proposal for Israel to nuke Gaza, Graham cited the US atomic bombing of Japan, which he insisted was necessary. However, the US government admitted that the nuclear attack on Japan was not needed to end World War

Opening The Devil’s Door In Asia-Pacific

April 18, 2024 Mick HallI, Consortium News. Educate! AUKUS, Japan, Military Alliance, New Cold War, New Zealand, The Philippines, US Imperialism

Political tensions are increasing in the Asian-Pacific region after a summit in Washington resulted in indications that New Zealand, Japan and the Philippines are moving towards greater integration with the U.S.-led military bloc in the region. Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and U.S. President Joe Biden attended a trilateral summit on Thursday, where they announced an agreement enhancing military operation, including joint naval exercises alongside Australia in the disputed East China Sea.

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