The Chinese are not going to like how the Japanese continue to expand their naval activities in the South China Sea in support of the U.S.’s freedom of navigation mission there:
The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force ships JS Kashima, bottom, and JS Shimayuki, center, sail alongside the littoral combat ship USS Gabrielle Giffords during an exercise in the South China Sea, Tuesday, June 23, 2020.
The littoral combat ship USS Gabrielle Giffords joined two Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force ships for training in the contentious South China Sea on Tuesday, a Navy statement said.
The Navy vessel sailed with the JMSDF’s training ships JS Kashima and JS Shimayuki to “emphasize the importance of communications and coordination while operating together,” according to the statement.
“The opportunity to operate with our friends and allies at sea is incredibly important for our combined readiness and partnership,” Expeditionary Strike Group 7 commander Rear Adm. Fred Kacher said in the statement.
You can read more at the link, but the Chinese claim nearly the entire South China Sea as part of China. The freedom of navigation patrols by the U.S. and other countries supporting the American effort challenge these Chinese claims.
Just imagine what a message would be sent to Beijing if South Korea joined Japan on one of these patrols. It will never happen under the current government, but maybe a possibility down the road if the politics in South Korea changes.
I wonder if this had more to do with budget belt tightening due to the COVID caused economic crisis than concerns from local residents about hosting the system:
The Aegis Ashore land-based missile defense test complex on the Hawaiian island of Kauai is seen in January last year. | KYODO
The Defense Ministry is halting its plan to deploy the Aegis Ashore land-based missile defense system in Japan, Defense Minister Taro Kono said Monday, citing costs and technical problems.
The move comes a month after the government gave up on deploying the cutting-edge missile defense system to a Self-Defense Forces compound in the city of Akita, following strong opposition from local residents. Kono reported the latest plan to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe last Friday, he said.
In January 2019, the U.S. agreed to sell two Aegis Ashore missile defense systems and other military equipment to Japan at an estimated cost of $2.15 billion (about ¥231 billion).
The Defense Ministry had planned to install two Aegis Ashore systems in Akita Prefecture in eastern Japan and Yamaguchi Prefecture in western Japan sometime after the fiscal year starting April 2025 so that all of Japan was covered by the missile defense systems.
North Korea is threatening military action so this is the perfect time to find something the bash the Japanese with to divert attention:
An exhibit on Nagasaki Prefecture’s Hashima Coal Mine at the Industrial Heritage Information Center in Tokyo | THE NATIONAL CONGRESS OF INDUSTRIAL HERITAGE / VIA KYODO
South Korea called in Japan’s top envoy in Seoul and voiced “deep regrets” Monday after Tokyo failed to honor wartime forced labor victims at an information center on industrial revolution sites registered on UNESCO’s World Heritage list.
Second Vice Foreign Minister Lee Tae-ho called in Japanese Ambassador Koji Tomita, hours after the Industrial Heritage Information Center in Tokyo opened to the public following a monthslong closure due to the new coronavirus.
Upon the 2015 World Heritage designation of 23 Meiji-era sites, Tokyo said it would establish the center to remember the victims based on its recognition of “Koreans and others who were brought against their will and forced to work under harsh conditions in the 1940s at some of the sites.”
“It is deeply regrettable that this center runs counter to Japan’s pledge and includes content that completely distorts historical facts,” Kim In-chul, spokesman for the ministry, said in a commentary.
“Especially, South Korea cannot help but feel concern and disappointment, as we cannot find any effort to commemorate the victims in any exhibitions at the center, though the Japanese government pledged to establish the center as a measure to remember the victims,” it added.
You can read more at the link, but unless you check the Japanese media you would not know that the site does in fact include information about Korean laborers, it just doesn’t feed the narrative of the evil Imperial Japanese slave drivers that one sees in South Korea:
Although the exhibit on the sites, mostly in southwestern Japan and added to the UNESCO list in 2015, include descriptions of Korean labor, it incorporates testimonies from second-generation Korean Japanese residents claiming there was no discriminatory treatment of Korean workers there.
Much of the Korean media’s criticisms were aimed at the display for the Hashima Coal Mine in Nagasaki, known as Gunkanjima (Battleship Island) because of its shape.
Guests can learn about the experiences of former residents. Accounts of Hashima residents include the late second-generation Korean Japanese Fumio Suzuki, who spent his childhood years on the island and said he never heard of Koreans subjected to slave labor.
According to the Chosun Ilbo, a major South Korean daily, the exhibitions deny the reality of forced labor under harsh conditions and threaten to “exacerbate an already fraught” relationship between South Korea and Japan.
The liberal Hankyoreh newspaper likewise reported the exhibits as a “distortion” of history.
The exhibit consists of panels and large screens that illustrate Japan’s rapid industrialization from the middle of the 19th century to the early 20th century.
The display for the Hashima Coal Mine includes digitally archived documents indicating the existence of workers from the Korean Peninsula, who were drafted to the island during World War II, as well as records of a bonus salary paid to a Taiwanese laborer.
An NHK promotional video, shown in this screenshot from Twitter, has come under fire by the U.S. Embassy Tokyo for its “offensive and insensitive” depictions of black Americans.
The ranking U.S. diplomat in Japan criticized public broadcaster NHK on Tuesday for its “offensive and insensitive” cartoon depiction of Black Lives Matter demonstrations in the United States.
NHK posted the 85-second promotional video, or teaser, for its weekly children’s program “This Makes Me Understand! The World Now” on Sunday via Twitter.
Joseph M. Young, the chargé d’affaires ad interim for the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, found fault with the video’s depiction of black people and oversimplification of protests against racism and police brutality, often marked by rioting but later by peaceful demonstrations, that erupted after the May 25 killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Here is the latest on coronavirus prevention on Okinawa:
A floor decal reminds customers to practice social distancing at an exchange store at Camp Foster, Okinawa, March 31, 2020. KAMERON HERNDON/U.S. MARINE CORPS
Marine Forces Japan imposed more stringent off-base liberty restrictions Friday as the coronavirus continues to spread throughout the region.
The orders were announced in the evening by the III Marine Expeditionary Force on Okinawa and took effect immediately, a Marine statement said.
Marines in Japan are now barred from using non-military public and mass transportation, including taxis, and are allowed off-base only to patronize essential services, the statement said. Those are limited to medical and veterinary appointments, grocery shopping, bill paying, purchasing gas at service stations and postal services.
I find it pretty amazing how different the coronavirus infection and death rates are between Tokyo and New York City. Why is New York City being devastated by the coronavirus while similarly densely populated Tokyo is not experiencing the same problems? That is the real story the media should be looking at:
People check out cherry blossoms, which have been blocked off because of the coronavirus pandemic, at Ueno Park in Tokyo, Monday, March 30, 2020.
As of Tuesday, Japan had 1,953 confirmed cases of coronavirus and 56 deaths, according to the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. Tokyo has counted 499 cases and 15 deaths as of Tuesday, according the Tokyo Metropolitan Government website.
A national law passed earlier this month allows the prime minister to declare a state of emergency when rapid spread of the virus poses a serious threat to people’s lives and the economy.
The decision to declare a state of emergency will carefully be made based on advice by a wide range of experts, Suga said.
Unless things drastically improve in the short term I don’t see how the Olympics can be held when many athletes are likely having a hard time even training for them right now:
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe addresses Parliament in Tokyo on March 23, 2020. A decision to postpone the 2020 Olympics “may become inevitable” if the new coronavirus outbreak makes it impossible to hold the Games safely, Japan’s prime minister said on March 23.
Postponing the 2020 Olympics “may become inevitable” if the new coronavirus outbreak makes it impossible to hold the Games safely, Japan’s prime minister said Monday.
Shinzo Abe told parliament that Japan was still committed to a “complete” Games, but added: “if that becomes difficult, in light of considering athletes first, it may become inevitable that we make a decision to postpone.”
The comments were his first acknowledging the possibility that the Games may not open as scheduled on July 24 as the coronavirus continues to spread across the world.
However, these SOFA holders will now undergo yet another two week quarantine on land:
Seven people associated with U.S. Army Japan who spent two weeks potentially exposed to the new coronavirus on a cruise ship in Yokohama must spend another 14 days quarantined at home, officials said Tuesday.
The Japanese government is expected to release the seven, who fall under the status of forces agreement in Japan, from the ship over the next few days, according to a post on U.S. Army Japan’s official Facebook page. A SOFA defines the legal status of the U.S. armed forces stationed in host countries. It governs uniformed service members, civilian Defense Department employees and their families.
The seven spent two weeks aboard the Diamond Princess, a cruise ship at anchor in Yokohama Bay, after the virus, called COVID-19, was discovered on board as the vessel was en route to Japan.
Here we go with yet another dress code controversy; it seems to me that school uniforms would solve all this:
This photo taken Sept. 5, 2019, shows the daughters of Ryukyu Middle School parent Michelle Christensen, who said the child on the left was admonished by school officials for wearing pants without a zipper.
A dress code imposed at a Defense Department middle school on Okinawa in August discriminates against female students, according to a complaint filed by parents with the Department of Education.The complaint — filed Jan. 10 with the department’s Office of Civil Rights — alleges gender discrimination at Ryukyu Middle School, a Department of Defense Education Activity school at Kadena Air Base.
It seeks to remedy what six parents say is an outdated dress code, according to the complaint and the parents’ attorney, Crista Kraics.
The complaint alleges that Principal Lee Ann Mik discriminated against female students by singling them out for their attire and removing them from class. The parents deemed their children’s attire “appropriate.”
Girls were singled out for wearing loose athletic pants with no zipper while boys were permitted to wear basketball shorts, according to the complaint. Girls were also criticized for shirts that weren’t long enough and for showing “collar bone.”
You can read more at the link, but it seems to me that as long as the boys were not allowed to wear zipperless pants and girls were allowed to wear basketball shorts as well that the policy is not discriminatory.
The Kim regime is just upset that the Japanese are likely looking at building up capabilities in space militarily to deal with North Korea and China’s growing ballistic missile threat:
In this Kyodo News photo, dated Oct. 17, 2019, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe greets the country’s Self-Defense Forces soldiers in Fukushima, Japan. (Yonhap)
North Korea on Saturday slammed Tokyo’s plan to establish a military space unit, saying the plan is a dangerous and reckless move to make Japan a “military giant.”
“Japan is madly keen on exploiting even the outer space for its sinister purpose of building up ‘defense capacity,'” the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Pyongyang’s official mouthpiece, said in its editorial. “The outer space can never be reduced to a theatre for the state of aggression, the war-thirsty state.”
Japan last year announced that its Self-Defense Forces (SDF) plan to create a military unit specializing in space matters by 2023.
