TOKYO (Reuters) – Five years after staring into a political and personal abyss, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is out to prove that the man who threw in the towel after barely a year in office has what it takes to survive as a long-term leader.

Abe, whose 2006-2007 term as premier ended with his abrupt resignation after a year plagued by scandals, an election defeat and a gastro-intestinal ailment worsened by stress, won a rare second chance when his party surged back to power in December.

TOKYO, Feb 8 (Reuters) – A Japanese electronics firm near
bankruptcy, a ruthless Chinese rival and a laid-off engineer
feature in a popular TV drama that is hitting a public nerve in
a nation fretting over the decline of a once-admired
manufacturing model.

A weaker yen due to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s
expansionary economic policies has lightened some of the gloom
for exporters, but NHK public TV’s “Made in Japan” serial
reflects a deep angst about an ailing manufacturing sector that
was once key to Japan’s success and a source of national pride.

TOKYO (Reuters) – A Chinese navy vessel aimed a type of radar normally used to aim weapons at a target at a Japanese navy ship in the East China Sea, prompting Japan to protest, Japan’s defense minister said on Tuesday, an action that could complicate efforts to cool tension in a territorial row between the rivals.

“Projecting fire control radar is very unusual,” Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera told reporters of the incident, which he said occurred on January 30 but took time to confirm.

TOKYO/SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Two Japanese F-15s scramble as a Chinese plane nears the disputed islands: one in the lead, the other providing cover.

They issue radio warnings to leave the area, but are ignored.

Visual wing-tipping signals go unheeded.

The Japanese pilots consider their last option: firing warning shots – a step Beijing could consider an act of war.

TOKYO/SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Two Japanese F-15s scramble as a Chinese plane nears the disputed islands: one in the lead, the other providing cover.

They issue radio warnings to leave the area, but are ignored.

Visual wing-tipping signals go unheeded.

The Japanese pilots consider their last option: firing warning shots – a step Beijing could consider an act of war.

TOKYO/SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Two Japanese F-15s scramble as a Chinese plane nears the disputed islands: one in the lead, the other providing cover.

They issue radio warnings to leave the area, but are ignored.

Visual wing-tipping signals go unheeded.

The Japanese pilots consider their last option: firing warning shots – a step Beijing could consider an act of war.

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s government will review statements by previous administrations about wartime history including a landmark 1995 apology, Japan’s education minister said, but added that any changes would not mean rejecting those statements but making them more “forward-looking”.

Any moves to renege on the 1995 apology by then-Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama – now in Beijing on a mission aimed at soothing tension over a territorial row – would raise hackles in both China and South Korea, where bitter memories of Japan’s military aggression and colonization run deep.

TOKYO (Reuters) – The Algeria hostage crisis has given ammunition to Japanese conservatives keen to ease limits on military actions abroad, but Japan’s post-World War Two pacifist legacy is forcing Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to tread carefully.

Abe, already labeled a right-wing nationalist, seems wary of upsetting volatile voters – whose top priority is reviving a stagnant economy – by appearing to use the deaths of seven Japanese to push his broader, hawkish security agenda.

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan and China need “rules of the game” to keep a feud over tiny islands from escalating into a military clash, an adviser to Japan’s prime minister said on Friday, as a ruling coalition partner prepared to visit Beijing in search of better ties.

Sino-Japanese ties chilled sharply after Japan bought the disputed islands in the East China Sea from a private Japanese citizen last September.

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan must not allow a leadership vacuum at the Bank of Japan when its governor’s term ends in April, said the leader of Japan’s main opposition party, which delayed the appointment of a new governor at the last leadership change five years ago.

But Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) leader Banri Kaieda also told Reuters on Wednesday that the next Bank of Japan (BOJ) governor should not be a mere “yes man” to the government.