Category: Japan

The fact that the U.S. and Japan plan to build this within 10 years may be to late to need:

Fumio Kishida, Japan’s prime minister, speaks during a news conference at the prime minister’s official residence on Oct. 4, 2021 in Tokyo. U.S. President Joe Biden will host Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol for a summit on Aug. 18. (Toru Hanai /Pool/Getty Images/TNS)

The U.S. and Japan are expected to announce an agreement to jointly develop missile interceptors for hypersonic weapons when the leaders of the two nations meet later this week, the Yomiuri reported, citing several people in government.

U.S. President Joe Biden will host Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol for a summit on Aug. 18. Biden will also meet with Kishida separately and one of the issues on which they are expected to reach agreement is the collaboration on missile interceptors, the Yomiuri said.

The U.S. and Japan will aim to develop the new missile defense system within 10 years, according to the report.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

Definitely not the best marketing strategy for the Oppenheimer movie in Japan:

Sachiko Ishikawa, a YouTube video blogger from Tokyo, talks about the “Barbenheimer” controversy in Japan against a backdrop of the fan poster on Aug. 9, 2023. (Sachiko Ishikawa/YouTube)

When “Barbie,” the live-action movie about a plastic doll, opened Friday in Japan, it did so without “Oppenheimer,” the rival film with which it shared a bill in the United States.

“Oppenheimer,” a biopic about the father of the atomic bomb, has no opening date in Japan, thus far, and Universal Studios has said nothing about the film coming to the only country targeted in anger with atomic weapons. 

“Barbie” arrived divorced from its trendy “Barbenheimer” partner, a phenomenon in July in the United States but a cultural faux pas in Japan. (…………..)

Warner Bros.’ official “Barbie” account on X, formerly known as Twitter, re-tweeted a fan-art poster showing Murphy’s Oppenheimer carrying Robbie as Barbie superimposed over a mushroom cloud.

“It’s going to be a summer to remember,” declared the tweet, since deleted.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

So when are the Korean leftists going to start protesting their own nuclear power plants that are releasing more becquerels of tritium per year than what the Fukushima plant is scheduled to release?:

The Japanese government and Tokyo Electric Power say the concentration of tritium in the discharged water will be lowered to 1,500 becquerels per liter, using a unit that refers to the amount of ionizing radiation released from a radioactive element. Officials say the annual limit will be 22 trillion becquerels.

That figure is smaller than what many other nuclear facilities around the world routinely release into water or air. Grossi of the IAEA said the release of radionuclides into water “has a proven record.” He said China, South Korea, the U.S. and France were among the countries doing it.

A nuclear-fuel recycling facility in northwestern France discharged 10,000 trillion becquerels of tritium into the English Channel in 2021, according to operator Orano.

Orano’s spokesperson Gwénaël Thomas said in an email that tritium discharges from its facility “have no health impact,” because the radiation is a tiny fraction of natural radioactivity in France and tritium is a naturally occurring radioactive element.

A spokesman for Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power, the leading operator of nuclear plants in South Korea, said the country’s discharges into water last year totaled about 214 trillion becquerels of tritium. He said that level was safe for the public.

Wall Street Journal

You can read more at the link, but it is pretty clear that if the Japanese stick to the IAEA approved plan, what they are doing is within international norms. This means much of these protests are more politically driven than any concern about the environment. It reminds me of the THAAD protests in South Korea where the activists were saying the radar was going to poison the agriculture around the area which was scientifically proven to be nonsense. However, these protesters are not going to let science ruin a good narrative.

The IAEA analysis supports the best of bad options on how to dispose of radioactive water at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant:

Rafael Mariano Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), speaks about the results of the IAEA’s review of Japan’s plan to release treated radioactive water stored at the Fukushima nuclear power station into the sea during a press conference in Tokyo on July 4, 2023. (Yonhap)

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Tuesday Japan’s plan to release treated radioactive water stored at the Fukushima nuclear power station into the sea is consistent with its safety standards.

After a two-year review, the U.N. nuclear watchdog also said that the discharges of the water treated by the Advanced Liquid Processing System (ALPS), the plant’s custom purification system, would have a negligible radiological impact on people and the environment.

The results of the review are likely to add new momentum to Japan’s push to start discharging the water from the plant — damaged by a massive earthquake and tsunami in 2011 – some time around this summer despite lingering opposition from neighboring countries, including South Korea and China.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

The positive developments in relations between South Korea and Japan continues to expand:

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol (L) and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida shake hands prior to their expanded summit talks at the latter’s residence in Tokyo on March 16, 2023.

Japan announced a decision Tuesday to reinstate South Korea on its “white list” of trusted trading partners, about four years after the removal, in a move to improve the bilateral economic relationship, Seoul’s industry ministry said.

The Japanese trade ministry revised a rule to redesignate South Korea as “Group A,” or a white list nation, which would give Seoul preferential export treatment, effective July 21, according to Seoul’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

In Japan the big news is that a Japanese Ground Self Defense Force (JGSDF) Soldier at a rifle range went crazy and shot three fellow Soldiers, killing two of them:

NHK has learned that the suspect in the shooting that left two Self-Defense Force members dead has told police that he targeted a 52-year-old instructor.

Two SDF members died and another was injured in the shooting incident in Gifu City, central Japan. Police arrested an 18-year-old male SDF candidate on suspicion of attempted murder.

The suspect reportedly started shooting with an automatic rifle shortly after training began at the shooting range around 9 a.m. on Wednesday.

A 25-year-old and a 52-year-old man have been confirmed dead, and another 25-year-old man is hospitalized. The three were SDF members in charge of training.

The suspect reportedly told police that he intentionally shot his instructor. He also said he shot an SDF member who was next to him because he stood between himself and the instructor and blocked his way.

NHK World

You can read more at the link, but JGSDF officials say they will take measures to prevent this from happening again. I am not sure what you can do to stop someone from going crazy like this guy. Will they chain the weapons to the ground?

Anyway this incident reminded me of the Ingman Range Massacre that happened at Camp Casey in 1981 which was far worse than this incident with the JGSDF.

Korean shoppers are supposedly hoarding sea salt due to fears that all the salt off the shores of Korea will soon be contaminated by the release of radioactive water from the Fukushima nuclear plant:

Workers produce sea salt at a salt farm in Sinan County, South Jeolla Province, in October 2021. Korea Times photo by Seo Jae-hoon

The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries denied that the salt price has increased due to hoarding amid the Fukushima concerns. 

“The major cause for the salt price rise was a decrease in production due to more rainy days than usual and retailers’ stockpiling in preparation for the monsoon season,” a ministry official said. 

But the view of industry players was different. They said that while this year’s production decreased by about 30 percent from a year earlier, this was not enough to explain the soaring salt price at present. 

“Japan’s plan has scared consumers off. This would not be the sole reason for increasing salt prices but had some impact for sure,” an official of a salt farm in Sinan County said. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but the IAEA approved of the plan by the Japanese to release the water into the ocean with a small enough amount of radioactivity that it would be diluted. According to the Korean government they have stepped up monitoring of the ocean water around Korea and have not detected any radioactivity.

North Korea is making it clear they are never going to come clean on Japanese abductees. This likely because the unaccounted for abductees provided language training to North Korean operatives still within Japan:

Photos of Megumi Yokota, who was abducted from Japan by North Korea in 1977, are displayed at Shinjuku Station in Tokyo, May 9, 2018. (Stars and Stripes)

North Korea is willing to hold talks with Japan on improving their relationship but considers further discussions over abducted Japanese citizens “a waste of time,” according to North Korean state media.

Nothing prevents the two nations from meeting, provided Japan makes “a new decision from a broad perspective of recognizing each other” and “seeks a way of improving the relations,” North Korean vice-minister of foreign affairs Pak Sang Gil was quoted as saying by the Korean Central News Agency on Monday. 

The abduction issue, still a sticking point in Japan, is already resolved, Pak said.

In 2002, North Korea admitted for the first time to abducting Japanese nationals in the 1970s and ‘80s and apologized at a summit meeting with Japan, according to Japan’s Foreign Ministry. Five abductees returned to Japan in October of that year, but another 12 remain unaccounted for.

Japan continues to investigate more than 800 people who might have been abducted, according to Japan’s Cabinet Office. 

“Without the resolution of this issue, there can be no normalization of relations between Japan and North Korea,” the Foreign Ministry website states.

North Korea said it has returned all living abductees; the remainder are either dead or never entered the North.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.