Maybe the Japanese Navy should start sailing around some of China’s man-made islands in the South China Sea in response to this latest violation of Japanese territory:
Tokyo lodged a series of diplomatic protests with Beijing last week after China sent several coast guard vessels, including one armed with a deck-mounted machine gun, near its islets in the East China Sea.
Four Chinese coast guard ships passed the 12-mile territorial limit around the Senkakus eight times in three separate incidents on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, a Japanese coast guard spokesman told Stars and Stripes by phone Monday. Each ship stayed in those waters for less than 24 hours and left without incident.
Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs complained to the Chinese Embassy in Japan and to officials in Beijing on all three days, a ministry spokesman said by phone Monday.
The usual suspects out protesting increasingly cooperation between South Korea and Japan:
Lee Jae-myung (C, front), leader of the main opposition Democratic Party, and other participants chant slogans during a rally in Seoul on March 18, 2023, denouncing President Yoon Suk Yeol’s March 16 summit with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. (Yonhap)
Political strife escalated Saturday over the recent South Korea-Japan summit, as the liberal opposition took to the streets blasting President Yoon Suk Yeol for cozying up to Tokyo and looking past historical disputes on wartime forced labor.
Yoon held a summit with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Tokyo on Thursday to mend ties strained by historical disputes stemming from Japan’s colonization of the Korean Peninsula from 1910-45.
Earlier this month, South Korea announced its plan to compensate the victims of wartime forced labor through a foundation with donations from domestic companies and not the accused Japanese firms, a move opposed by the victims, opposition parties and activists.
You can read more at the link, but where were these activists and protesters when the last Korean president Moon Jae-in was cozying up to Kim Jong-un? He is in charge of regime that has killed far more Koreans than Imperial Japan could ever dream of. Additionally Kim Jong-un is in charge of regime that continues to regularly threaten South Korea with annihilation and enslaves a large amount of Koreans in labor camps among other human rights violations.
Yet these activists are more concerned about stopping cooperation with a country that actually wants to help South Korea defend itself from annihilation from North Korea. This is despite Japan’s transgressions happening 75+ years ago that they have repeatedly apologized and made compensation for. Where is North Korea’s apologies and compensation for all the destruction and deaths they have committed against South Korea in the 75+ years since World War II?
When the Korean left starts making demands for apologies and compensation from North Korea then maybe I will take their claims against Japan seriously.
With North Korea’s increasing belligerence it only makes sense to tighten military cooperation with Japan:
The defense ministry initiated the process to normalize a military intelligence-sharing deal with Japan on Friday, following a summit agreement between the leaders of both countries the previous day.
The defense ministry said it sent a letter to the foreign ministry requesting measures to normalize the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA).
The foreign ministry is soon expected to send an official letter to its Japanese counterpart in response, officials said.
On Thursday, President Yoon Suk Yeol said he agreed to “completely normalize” the military pact during his summit with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Tokyo as part of efforts to better respond to North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats.
This is just another sign that Tokyo is preparing for future Chinese aggression in the region:
People take shelter during a missile evacuation drill in Naha, Okinawa, Jan. 21, 2023. (Office of the Cabinet Secretary)
Japan plans to guard against a potential conflict with China by building bomb shelters across the Nansei Islands, a move that security experts say is practical and not necessarily a signal of coming war.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in recent months has doubled down on security policies released in December that call for “securing various types of evacuation facilities” should a hot war with China spill over from Taiwan.
Some citizens may view the move as increasing the risk of war, but building shelters is a necessary measure that could save lives, experts said.
By keeping the masks on public transportation this is essentially maintaining a defacto mask mandate. This is because many people will likely just keep their masks on as they walk from the subway or bus to wherever their destination is:
A variety of masks are for sale in Tokyo’s popular Shibuya district, Friday, March 10, 2023. (Akifumi Ishikawa/Stars and Stripes)
The most recognized emblem of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the one likely to persist, is about to lose some of its clout in Japan.
New mask guidelines from the government take effect Monday, three years after face coverings became a universal fashion accessory across the country, according to the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare’s website.
The ministry will recommend individuals decide for themselves whether to wear masks in public. Never an actual mandate, mask wear persists in Japan as the pandemic wanes.
The coronavirus continues to infect an average 9,500 people per day, a declining number. Japan on Jan. 14 experienced its highest one-day pandemic death toll, 503, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.
Under the guidelines revised in February, the ministry recommends wearing masks only in medical facilities and on crowded trains and local buses but says nothing about masks on Japan’s iconic shinkansen trains or long-distance buses.
Unsurprisingly Koreans are not fond of the forced labor compensation plan with Japan:
Nearly 60 percent of South Koreans are against the government’s plan to compensate victims of Japan’s wartime forced labor on its own without involving Japanese firms, a poll showed Friday.
In the poll of 1,002 adults conducted by Gallup Korea on Wednesday and Thursday, 59 percent said they oppose the plan as it does not require Tokyo’s official apology and compensation.
Some 35 percent said they support the compensation plan for the sake of national interest and Korea-Japan relations, while 6 percent were unsure.
Like I predicted, the Korean left is going apocalyptic with the forced labor agreement with Japan:
Yang Geum-deok (C), a forced labor victim, and activists condemn a government plan to compensate victims of Japan’s wartime forced labor without involvement of responsible Japanese firms in an event on March 6, 2023, in the southern city of Gwangju. (Yonhap)
A group of civic groups on Tuesday condemned the government’s plan to compensate victims of Japan’s wartime forced labor on its own, saying the decision amounts to national humiliation similar to Korea’s 1910 forced annexation by Japan.
The government of President Yoon Suk Yeol announced the plan Monday in an effort to restore strained relations with Tokyo. It calls for establishing a foundation charged with collecting public donations and compensating more than a dozen victims.
Critics, including some victims, civic groups and the main opposition Democratic Party, bristled strongly at the decision, arguing that it makes no sense to compensate victims with public donations, rather than money from Japanese companies that exploited them for hard labor.
You can read more at the link, but there was never going to be a deal the Korean left would be happy signing with Japan because they need to keep this issue alive. Stoking anti-Japanese sentiment has long been a way to distract the Korean public from other issues. Even the Korean right has done this before in the past as well. Unfortunately this deal will probably not last because as soon as the Korean left takes power again they will likely scrap it.
