TOKYO -- Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda's visit to Singapore late last month for a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) must have come as something of a relief to the challenges and confusion reigning at home. At the meeting, Fukuda had a chance to reconfirm the warming nature of the relationship between Japan and China, which had become strained under former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, while ASEAN nations also made a point of praising the Fukuda Doctrine as outlined by his father and former prime minister, Takeo Fukuda, which emphasized mutual confidence-building between Japan and the regional bloc. But just as his predecessor Shinzo Abe found solace from domestic problems in international relations, Fukuda, like Abe, is finding himself embattled at home.
As Fukuda Faces Domestic Woes, Japan Gets a Taste of Two-Party Politics
