Category: Japan

I think all the protesting and activism will have the opposite effect the family is looking for:

Holding the small hands of her three young children, Brittany Alkonis has been protesting near the White House since last week, demanding the Biden administration do more to free her husband, Ridge Alkonis, a 34-year-old Navy lieutenant imprisoned in Japan.

On Wednesday, she was at it again, wearing a blue T-shirt emblazoned with the words “Bring Ridge Home.” Her children – ages 8, 7 and 4 – have stood by her, along with supporters such as Trevor Reed, the former Marine recently released from Russian custody.

Ridge Alkonis is serving a three-year prison term in Japan for a car crash that left a Japanese man and woman dead. As the United States’ efforts to free Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan from Russia make headlines amid the heightened tensions of the war in Ukraine, the Alkonis family hopes their fight will draw attention to detained Americans around the world – not just those held by adversaries, but also allies.

While stationed in Japan in May 2021, Alkonis was driving home with his family and their Australian labradoodle after a visit to Mount Fuji, near Tokyo. They had gone to an area about 8,000 feet high and accessible by car. After parking, the family hiked on a mostly flat trail for a few hours, Brittany Alkonis said. On their way home at 1 p.m., Ridge Alkonis was talking to his oldest daughter as he drove.

But mid-sentence, Alkonis suddenly fell unconscious, his family said. The vehicle, going about 25 mph, veered into a parking lot and crashed into several cars that were then pushed against two pedestrians: an 85-year-old woman and her 54-year-old son-in-law. They both died. A third person, a daughter of the elderly woman, was injured. Brittany Alkonis sustained an ankle injury.

When Ridge Alkonis awoke several minutes after the crash, witnesses said his face looked pale, his family said, citing police reports. His symptoms – paleness and a loss of consciousness – align with those of acute mountain sickness, which can affect people at altitudes above 8,000 feet, according to information published by the U.S. National Library of Medicine. In June 2021, a neurologist told Alkonis that he had suffered from the illness at the time of the crash, his family said.

I bet Alkonis could have quietly had his sentenced reduced or transferred to the U.S. at some point, but he may end up doing the full time in Japan

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but I do not believe the excuse of mountain sickness when the accident happened at a much lower elevation nearer to sea level and not at the higher elevation of 8,000 feet. Dropping in altitude relieves mountain sickness and does not make it worse. He likely got up early for the trip, had been hiking all day and was tired during the drive back. The mountain sickness excuse probably caused him to get a harsher sentence because it made it appear he was not accepting responsibility for what happened.

I think the protesting is making it harder for Japanese authorities to quietly reduce his sentence or transfer him to a U.S. prison. With all the attention this is causing the Japanese public is likely going to expect their politicians to keep Alkonis in jail in Japan for his full sentence.

Another country has finally gained some common sense in regards to COVID testing. Really they should do away with the COVID test for non-vaccinated travelers as well at some point since the vaccine does not prevent you from catching COVID:

Japan plans to drop its requirement that arriving, vaccinated international travelers show proof of a negative COVID-19 test, even as the country is posting record-high levels of the respiratory disease. 

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at an online news conference Wednesday said Japan will end the requirement next month. 

“From Sept. 7, those entering Japan can use proof that they have been vaccinated three times in exchange for proof of a negative COVID-19 test taken within 72 hours of departure,” he said. 

Kishida is recovering from COVID-19 himself.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

This seems like a good compromise approach that allows these wartime workers to be compensated while allowing Japan to maintain the legality of the 1965 treaty:

“We’re now fully considering a plan that would allow the plaintiffs to receive compensation in a way that doesn’t conflict with the sovereignty issues that the Japanese government is concerned about,” Yoon said.

The Japanese government has long maintained that the issue of claims by former requisitioned workers has been settled under the 1965 Agreement on the Settlement of Problems Concerning Property and Claims and on Economic Cooperation between Japan and the Republic of Korea. Yoon’s reference to “sovereignty issues” is believed to refer to this position.

Yoon appears to envision measures such as subrogation in which a fund is created by Japanese and Korean companies to pay compensation to the plaintiffs.

“The historical issue can be resolved amicably through concessions and understanding,” Yoon said, if Japan and South Korea strengthen future-oriented cooperation. It appears that the South Korean president recognizes the need for compromise between the Japanese government and companies and Korean plaintiffs, but he did not refer to specific steps to be taken.

Yomiuri Shimbun

You can read more at the link, but don’t expect the Korean left to support this. What President Yoon will need to do is make sure this is implemented in a way that the Korean left can’t over turn whenever they win a Presidential election again like they did with the comfort women settlement with Japan once President Moon was elected.

I hope no-one from Korea thinks Japan is developing these systems to take back Dokdo. These systems are clearly intended to defend against Chinese and North Korean attacks:

NHK has learned what defensive items will be funded under the Japanese Defense Ministry’s demand for budgetary appropriations for the next fiscal year.

The Defense Ministry has compiled the budget request to drastically enhance Japan’s defense capabilities over the next five years, without showing the total cost.

The ministry plans to start mass production of new long-range standoff missiles that can attack targets from outside enemy range and could be used for counterstrikes.

They include an improved version of the Ground Self-Defense Force’s ground-to-ship missile and high-speed glide bombs to defend remote islands.

The ministry also plans to develop unmanned aircraft that can be used not only for surveillance and information gathering but also to launch an attack.

NHK World

You can read more at the link.

The Unification Church has definitely been in the headlines recently due to its link to the assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe:

The Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, better known as the Unification Church, claimed that the church and its members in Japan faced death threats and hate crimes following the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

The threats were reactions to “abusive” donation practices of the church, founded by self-claimed messiah Moon Sun-myung in 1954 in Seoul. 

Tetsuya Yamagami, the suspected gunman in the assassination of Abe during a campaign speech in the city of Nara on July 8, confessed to police that he came to hold a grudge against the former prime minister for his alleged link to the church. Yamagami’s mother reportedly made a huge donation to the Unification Church that forced her into bankruptcy. 

In a statement released on Monday, the church’s headquarters in Korea blamed media outlets for what it called “inaccurate and biased” news reports, following a news conference hosted by a group of Japanese lawyers on July 12 that it claims triggered a raft of hostile media coverage against it.

Since then, the church noted that several media reports have been produced solely based on comments from the members of the National Network of Lawyers Against Spiritual Sales of Japan, a group that represents former Unification Church members and their families.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but Yamagami’s mother was reported to donated $720,000 of her family’s inheritance to the church and then proceeded to go bankrupt a few years later.

This is a tricky issue that the Yoon administration is likely not going to win any domestic political points from even if they come up with a resolution. This issue is just too easy for the political opposition to demagogue:

The top diplomats of South Korea and Japan agreed Monday on the need for an early resolution of the long-running dispute over Korean victims of wartime forced labor.

Foreign Minister Park Jin and his Japanese counterpart, Yoshimasa Hayashi, held talks in Tokyo to discuss ways to mend soured bilateral ties and settle historical feuds stemming from Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule of Korea. Park arrived earlier in the day in his first official visit to Japan since taking office in May. 

During the talks, Park said the Seoul government will make efforts to draw “a reasonable solution” related to the force labor issue and the two sides shared the view that the issue needs to be promptly resolved, Seoul’s ministry said in a release. (….)

Possible solutions suggested by observers include the creation of a fund with contributions from Korean and Japanese firms or the South Korean government compensating the victims on behalf of the Japanese companies.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It is absolutely bizarre that Shinzo Abe who was demonized by many in South Korea ends up being killed by a Japanese citizens angry because he believed Abe was friendly with a Korean church:

The man who fatally shot former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told police that his mother had made a “huge donation” to a religious body, and he harbored a grudge against the group, which he believed was associated with the Japanese leader, investigative sources said Saturday.

A day after the death of Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, one of the sources also quoted Tetsuya Yamagami as saying something to the effect of “initially, I intended to attack an executive of the group” but decided to target Abe instead.

Japan Today

You can read more at the link, but it has now been reported the religious body that Yamagami was angered with was the Unification Church:

The Unification Church also known as the “Moonies” had ties to Shinzo Abe:

The Unification Church was founded in 1954 in Seoul by Sun Myung Moon who claimed to be the messiah. It has approximately 3 million members worldwide. In the U.S., it is known as the Moonies where it was famous for young church members who left school and careers to devote themselves to the church, especially fundraising, offering flowers in exchange for donations. (…..)

In Japan, the church is known as Touitsu Kyokai 統一教会 where it is famous for its mass weddings, including one in 1988 marrying 8,000 Japanese among the 13,000 brides and grooms that hadn’t even met each other until just before the ceremony.

Medium

You can read more at the link, but Abe had spoken at Moonie events before and the church provided his political party with campaign workers. It appears this was all enough to send Yamagami over the edge to target Abe after his mother gave the Unification Church an unknown amount of money that he probably thought should have gone to a loser like himself.

Very shocking news out of Japan yesterday that former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was shot and killed by an assassin. Even odder about this assassination is that the killer says he did not do it for political reasons:

Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was the victim of a fatal gun attack while taking part in a campaign event for the House of Councillors election in Nara City on Friday. He was 67.

After being shot at around 11:30 a.m., he was confirmed dead at 5:03 p.m. at Nara Medical University Hospital in Kashihara, Nara Prefecture, where he was transported by ambulance and a medical helicopter immediately after the attack.

According to doctors, Abe suffered a wound deep enough to reach the heart, and when he was brought to the hospital, he was in cardiopulmonary arrest, making rescue quite difficult.

He had two gunshot wounds to his neck. The medical team tried to stop the bleeding and gave him a large amount of blood through transfusions, but his heartbeat did not resume, the doctors said at a press conference on Friday evening.

Police sources had earlier said Abe was shot from behind in the upper back and elsewhere. Two shots were heard, according to witnesses.

Tetsuya Yamagami, 41, of Nara City, was arrested at the scene on suspicion of attempted murder at 11:32 a.m. Yamagami is believed to have shot Abe at close range and a gun has been recovered, according to a police officer.

“I had no grudge against former Prime Minister Abe for his political beliefs,” Yamagami was quoted as telling the police during questioning, according to Nara prefectural police sources.

Yomiuri

You can read more at the link, but according to NHK they are saying Yamagami was dissatisfied with the prime minister and that is why he decided to kill him, but it was not because of his politics. Supposedly Yamagami thought Abe had ties to an organization he has a grudge against. The whole thing is bizarre which may mean this guy might just be a nut job trying to make himself famous like so many of the loser mass shooters we have in the U.S.