Free Republic

WASHINGTON — As Donald Trump rolled out the red carpet for a parade of foreign dignitaries in recent weeks, some aides to President Joe Biden took notice — and umbrage — at what they saw as the former president playing pretender-in-chief. In less than two months, Trump has hosted Polish President Andrzej Duda, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, former Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso and David Cameron, the former British prime minister who now serves as the U.K.’s foreign secretary. He’s also talked with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and others by phone. It’s not unusual for a party...

Aso ‘thanks’ North Korea for helping LDP win election THE ASAHI SHIMBUN October 27, 2017 at 17:15 JST Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso said the ruling party’s victory in the Lower House election was “thanks to North Korea,” a comment that drew outrage from opposition parties. During an Oct. 26 gathering in Tokyo for Liberal Democratic Party members, Aso, who is also finance minister, talked about how the ruling coalition retained a two-thirds majority in the Oct. 22 Lower House election. “Obviously, (the victory) was partly thanks to North Korea and the various people who have various opinions,” Aso said....

Japanese Deputy Prime Minister Tarō Asō spoke during a Liberal-Democratic party convention in a way which seemingly praised Adolf Hitler’s policies. “I am not doubting a politician’s motives,” Asō said. “I don’t question your motives (to be a politician). But the results are important. Hitler, who killed millions of people, was no good, even if his motives were right.”Asō’s statement ignited the fury of Jewish organizations around the world. The Simon Wiesenthal Center in the US harshly condemned Asō, saying his words “are dangerous.” The center’s Rabbi Abraham Cooper said, “This is just the latest of a troubling list of...

Efforts to monitor a spike in Mount Aso's volcanic activity are in disarray after the recent earthquakes and aftershocks in Kumamoto Prefecture. Power outages caused by the seismic jolts that began April 14 mean that monitoring devices on the mountain are unable to transmit data, leaving experts with few means to gather information on a possible impending volcanic eruption. This grim situation came to light April 18 during a meeting of a task force to deal with earthquakes and volcanic eruptions set up under the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. The Japan Meteorological Agency, Kyoto University, the...

Rescuers and a search dog check the damage around a landslide area caused by earthquakes in Minamiaso, Kumamoto prefecture on April 17. ============================================================================================================ TOKYO -- Seismic activity in southern Japan is mystifying geologists and keeping the nation on edge. The island of Kyushu has been struck by a series of significant earthquakes, with the epicenters moving progressively further inland. The cluster started with the deadly quakes that hit Kumamoto Prefecture last Thursday and Saturday. Temblors subsequently rocked the Mount Aso region and neighboring Oita Prefecture. There is a known concentration of faults in the area. Still, experts say it is...

<p>Plumes of smoke rose some 100 meters into the sky, according to local media and videos captured by witnesses. The eruption of Mt. Aso, located in southern Japan, was recorded at around 11:30pm GMT Friday.</p> <p>Since small eruptions had been recorded at Mt. Aso even before the series of deadly quakes hit the area on Thursday and Friday, the Japanese Meteorological Agency has reportedly decided to keep the alert level at 2 on a scale of 1-5.</p>

TOKYO (Reuters) - Mount Aso, a volcano located on Japan's southernmost main island of Kyushu, erupted on Monday, Japan's Meteorological Agency said, sending up huge plumes of grey ash and smoke. Japan lies on the "Ring of Fire" - a horseshoe-shaped band of fault lines and volcanoes around the edges of the Pacific Ocean - and is home to more than 100 active volcanoes.

JAPAN'S Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) picked Taro Aso as its leader a year ago in the hope he would turn around its sagging fortunes and preserve its five-decade grip on power. Instead, he led the conservative, pro-business LDP to a historic defeat in a general election yesterday. Aso said he took responsibility for the loss after media projections showed the LDP had shed two-thirds of its seats in the lower house election, adding the party should pick a successor soon. After Mr Aso became the party's fourth leader in four years last September

Public support for Taro Aso, Japan’s prime minister, has fallen sharply since the high-profile resignation of his interior minister laid bare divisions in the ruling Liberal Democratic party. A clutch of opinion polls published by domestic media in recent days suggest the opposition Democratic party of Japan is increasingly well placed to achieve what would be a historic victory over the LDP at a general election, to be held by October. The polls, conducted after the departure last Friday of Kunio Hatoyama, showed marked falls in backing for Mr Aso, who had enjoyed a recovery in support as Japan’s recession-hit...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 17 (UPI) -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is trying to boost the political fortunes of Prime Minister Taro Aso on her visit to Tokyo this week. But it looks like Mission Impossible. Clinton has already honored Aso by making him the first major world leader she has flown out to visit since taking her new job as the director of American foreign policy. She followed up Tuesday by inviting Aso to fly out to Washington to meet her and President Barack Obama, making him the very first foreign leader to be so honored. But any bounce...

Taro Aso gives Japanese £100 each to spend way out of recession For £200, a couple could have a sparkling day at the Yunessan spa (Junko Kimura/Getty Images) Leo Lewis, Asia Business Correspondent With Japanese exports plunging and companies retrenching, the fate of the world’s second-biggest economy may now lie in an electronic cigarette, a ripe musk melon or a bag of dumplings shaped like the Prime Minister’s face. Government efforts to stimulate the economy and insulate it from the ravages of recession have failed. The pace and scale of decline, say economists, has proved too big for the country’s...

Ruling party leader Taro Aso was elected Japan's next prime minister Wednesday. Aso, who was chosen president of the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party on Monday, had already begun piecing together a Cabinet expected to include a fellow outspoken hawk as finance chief. The opposition-controlled upper house voted for Ichiro Ozawa, head of the Democratic Party of Japan, as prime minister. But the more powerful lower chamber voted to override that ballot in favor of Aso. The right-leaning former foreign minister will confront a country wracked by political divisions and concerns over the economy, which has stalled in recent months amid...

Taro Aso, Japan’s former foreign minister, was on Monday night poised to become the country’s fourth prime minister in just over two years after easily winning an election to head the ruling Liberal Democratic party. Mr Aso, 68, beat Kaoru Yosano, the fiscally conservative economics minister, by 351 votes to 66, while Yuriko Koike, the first woman to compete for the job, was a distant third with 46. As leader of the biggest party, Mr Aso will be named prime minister in an extraordinary Diet session on Wednesday. He will succeed Yasuo Fukuda, who abruptly resigned after less than a...

Iraqi Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, left, and Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso share a laugh before their meeting at a hotel in Tokyo, Friday, March 23, 2007. (AP Photo/Junji Kurokawa, Pool)

TOKYO (Reuters) - Blond, blue-eyed Westerners probably can't be as successful at Middle East diplomacy as Japanese with their "yellow faces," Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso was quoted by media as saying in a weekend speech. "Japan is doing what Americans can't do," the Nikkei business daily quoted the gaffe-prone Aso as saying in a speech on Sunday. "Japanese are trusted. If (you have) blue eyes and blond hair, it's probably no good," he said. "Luckily, we Japanese have yellow faces." Foreign Ministry officials were unable to comment on the report, which said Aso elaborated by saying Japan had never...

Aso: Japan can possess nuclear weaponsBy MARI YAMAGUCHI, Associated Press WriterTOKYO - Japan has the technological know-how to produce a nuclear weapon but has no immediate plans to do so, the foreign minister said Thursday, several weeks after communist North Korea carried out a nuclear test. Foreign Minister Taro Aso, who has called for discussion of Japan's non-nuclear policy, also asserted that the pacifist constitution does not forbid possession of the bomb. "Japan is capable of producing nuclear weapons," Aso told a parliamentary committee on security issues. "But we are not saying we have plans to possess nuclear weapons." Japan,...