In the first episode of The Observing Japan Podcast, I discuss three things to know about Japan's politics this week, including: how Japan was watching the US-China summit; the Hormuz crisis and the impact on Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae's fiscal ambitions; and the Liberal Democratic Party's deliberations on defense spending.

Then, I talked with Eyck Freymann, a Hoover fellow at Stanford University, about his new book, Defending Taiwan.

Next week, I will talk with Jane Nakano, senior fellow in the energy security and climate change program at CSIS, about the Hormuz crisis and Japan's energy security.

Links

Defending Taiwan (OUP)

More about the book (Stanford)

Japanese-language summary

The OECD Japan survey

Please send questions or comments about the podcast to [email protected].

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit observingjapan.substack.com/subscribe