Free Republic

Japan is still in many ways a traditionalist – not to say a sexist – society. But the times they are a changing, and the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) have just chosen Sanae Takaichi as its leader, which means that she will become the country’s first ever female Prime Minister, and it’s most stridently right-wing one. Takaichi, 64, revels in the nickname the “Iron Lady” and is a hardline patriotic right-winger who is an avowed admirer of the original Iron Lady – Britain’s Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who Takaichi has cited as her role model. She was elected...

Renowned Japanese brand Panasonic has announced today that it is returning with immediate effect to the U.S. TV marketplace after a near decade-long absence. The brand has confirmed, too, that its return won’t be some half-hearted toe-dipping exercise; in fact it’s going to be giving U.S. AV fans the opportunity to get their hands on its most premium OLED models—models deemed so good by the home entertainment world that they’re sometimes used as reference monitors in professional mastering suites. It came as a shock to many, including me, when Panasonic announced in 2016 that it was no longer going to...

KUWAIT-IRAQ BORDER, March 20 (Reuters) - A new group of Japanese troops crossed into Iraq from Kuwait on Saturday to join countrymen serving as part of U.S.-led forces in Iraq, days after Spain said it plans to withdraw soldiers from the country. Some 130 Japanese troops rolled into Iraq in a convoy of about 50 trucks and armoured personnel carriers mounted with heavy machineguns. They were heading towards the city of Samawa in southern Iraq, where some 250 Japanese troops are building a base and conducting humanitarian operations. The deployment comes several days after Spain's Prime Minister-elect Jose Luis Rodriguez...