Japan's pledge to boost defense spending to 43 trillion yen ($312 billion) over the next five years has become a high-stakes gambit for Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who has decided to push through tax increases to fund it.
Experts were divided on the plan to hold a state funeral this autumn for former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, which would be the first for a former prime minister in more than half a century.
A small Japanese opposition party appears to be going all out for its survival beyond a key election this summer, raising the possibility that it could become a dynamo for change in the country's political landscape. The Democratic Party for the People's recent cozying up to Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's…