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The anniversary of Japan’s surrender in WWII has come and gone with two noteworthy developments: no visits from the Japanese cabinet to the Yasukuni Shrine and a strongly-worded apology from Prime Minister Naoto Kan.

August 16th (Geopoliticalmonitor.com) - Japan received two pieces of bad news this month: its quarterly GDP grew at the tepid rate of 0.1 percent, and it has been overtaken by China as the second largest economy in the world.

June 24th (BBC News) - Japan's Prime Minister Naoto Kan has apologised to people in Okinawa for "the burden" of US bases on the island.

June 11th (BBC News) - Japan is at "risk of collapse" under its huge debt mountain, the country's new prime minister has said.

June 4th (BBC News) - Japanese lawmakers have elected Naoto Kan as the country's new prime minister, two days after the surprise resignation of Yukio Hatoyama.

WASHINGTON, June 3rd (AFP) - The White House said Wednesday Japan was one of America's "best friends" in the world, and that the relationship would not be adversely affected by the departure of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama.

May 28th (Kyodo News) - Japan and the United States reached a new accord Friday on the relocation of a key U.S. Marine base in Okinawa that basically endorsed an existing 2006 pact to move the facility within the prefecture, ending a bilateral row but putting the coalition government of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama in danger of collapsing.

May 19th (Reuters) - Kazufumi Ota admits he was skeptical when Japan's then-opposition Democratic Party leader promised last year to try to move a U.S. airbase off his home island of Okinawa, host to half the U.S. forces in the country.

May 5, 2010 (Reuters) - Angry residents of Okinawa rejected on Tuesday a plan by Japan's prime minister to keep at least part of a controversial U.S. base on the island, in what could prove a new blow to support ahead of an election.

In the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, we find a nuclear-armed state with a collapsing economy and a blurred line of leadership succession. In short, a geopolitical time bomb.