Masahiro Matsumura
Masahiro Matsumura is Professor of International Politics at St. Andrew’s University (Momoyama Gakuin Daigaku) in Osaka.
Masahiro Matsumura is Professor of International Politics at St. Andrew’s University (Momoyama Gakuin Daigaku) in Osaka.
China’s aggressive activities in the South China Sea dominated discussions at the recent East Asia Summit in Kuala Lumpur. But China's rejection of efforts to secure a multilateral agreement to end th… read more
Last December, the world was appalled by the North Korean government’s execution of Chang Song-thaek, the regime’s de facto second in command and China's favorite North Korean interlocutor. It now see… read more
Territorial disputes among several East Asian countries are roiling the South China Sea region, with little prospect of resolution anytime soon. But the San Francisco Peace Treaty, which entered into … read more
Do China’s rulers have full civilian control of their country’s military? As recent incidents in the South and East China Seas have shown, the Chinese state apparatus is largely detached from the mili… read more
Controversy over the US Marines’ deployment of 12 tilt-rotor V-22 Osprey aircraft to the Futenma Air Base on Okinawa has contributed to the decay of the US-Japan alliance. A new approach to alliance m… read more
Japan is now confronting challenges at home and abroad that are more serious than any it has had to face since the end of World War II. That means that Japan’s political system, now entering its third… read more
What the Japanese public has endured over the past year is somewhat analogous to what Americans experienced following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Both events severely distorted public… read more
Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan's defeat of party rival Ichiro Ozawa buys six months of political stability, at most. Without a grand reorganization of the major political parties along ideological … read more
Allegations of match-fixing, dope-smoking, orgies, and ties to gangsters among the sport’s top stars have enraged the Japanese public and mobilized the police. But Sumo's alleged ties with the Yakuza,… read more
