Here we go again with historical issues preventing close cooperation between Korea and Japan when they both know it is in their national interests to cooperate:
Akiko Ikuina, a parliamentary vice minister of Japan’s foreign ministry, lays a wreath during a memorial ceremony for the laborers who worked in the Sado mines at Niigata Prefecture, Japan, Sunday. Yonhap
Korean officials skipped Japan’s memorial service held near the Sado mine site, Sunday, in an apparent protest against Tokyo’s “insincerity” in addressing the dark history related to the site, where approximately 1,500 Koreans were subjected to forced labor during Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule.
Critics view that this latest incident, which could reignite historical disputes over the forced labor issue, could undermine the Yoon Suk Yeol government’s efforts to foster closer cooperation with Tokyo.
Diplomatic friction with Japan has been rare under Yoon, whose administration has prioritized mending ties with the neighboring nation after years of strained relations over historical grievances.
The memorial service, held at the Aikawa Development Center on Sado Island in Niigata Prefecture, was attended by Japanese government officials and members of civic groups, with no Korean officials present. Akiko Ikuina, a parliamentary vice minister of Japan’s foreign ministry, represented the government.
You can read more at the link, but the reason for the protest is that the Japanese representative, Akiko Ikuina visited the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo back in 2022. For Koreans if you visit Yasukuni it means you support Japan’s World War II aggression, but that is not how Japanese view Yasukuni, it is a place to remember Japan’s wartime dead. The reason for the boycott may be stupid, but the Japanese probably should of chose someone else to attend the memorial to prevent the boycott by Korea. It was more important to have the Korean representatives there than Ikuina.
It looks like the mayors of the major Tokyo neighborhoods of Shinjuku and Shibuya are trying to prevent crowd crush like incidents from happening like what happened in Seoul’s Itaewon neighborhood:
Leaders of this city’s most popular nightlife districts held a news conference Monday and called on revelers to stay away during Halloween. Shinjuku Mayor Kenichi Yoshizumi said his ward saw an increase of about 3,000 visitors during Halloween last year after Shibuya strongly discouraged street parties and banned public drinking.
Shibuya became a popular place to spend Halloween night in the early 2000s. In recent years, many costumed revelers and those who come to see them have crowded the iconic Shibuya Scramble intersection and narrow streets around Shibuya Station.
So many people were drinking and littering last year in Kabukicho, a popular redlight district in Shinjuku, that ward officials were collecting garbage strewn everywhere the next morning. “To leave garbage behind after drinking and eating is not what an educated and rational person would do,” Yoshizumi said during a joint news conference with Shibuya Mayor Ken Hasebe at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan.
You can read more at the link.
Sailors in Japan are beginning to experience the restrictions that were at one time common place for servicemembers stationed in South Korea:
U.S. Navy sailors have one less hour of revelry in Japan’s bars and nightclubs after Navy Region Japan tightened up liberty restrictions recently imposed on all service members in the country. U.S. sailors in Japan must adhere to a midnight-to-5 a.m. ban on drinking in public establishments off base, according to the order from Rear Adm. Ian Johnson. They may not even be in those places during those hours. The order, which took effect Wednesday, was coordinated with U.S. 7th Fleet, Navy Region Command spokesman Cmdr. Paul Macapagal told Stars and Stripes by email Wednesday.
You can read more at the link.
