Tag: Japan

This sounds like a positive encounter between President Yoon and Prime Minister Kishida:

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol talked briefly with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida during a gala dinner for NATO summit participants in Madrid on Tuesday and expressed hope for the future-oriented development of relations between the two countries, officials said.

The encounter, which lasted three to four minutes at the dinner party hosted by Spain’s King Felipe VI, began as Kishida offered greetings to Yoon with congratulations on his inauguration and the local election victory of Yoon’s ruling party, according to Yoon’s office.

Yoon said in response that he wishes Kishida’s Liberal Democratic Party good results in Japan’s upcoming upper house elections.

“After the upper house elections, I and my aides plan to resolve pending issues between Korea and Japan as early as possible and move forward in a future-oriented manner,” Yoon was quoted as telling Kishida.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It has been nearly five years since the last trilateral meeting, so it is great to see this coordination happening again:

President Yoon Suk-yeol will hold a trilateral meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Spain this week on the sidelines of a NATO summit, his office said Sunday. 

The trilateral summit, set for Wednesday in Madrid, will be the first such gathering in four years and nine months since the last meeting was held in September 2017 on the margins of a U.N. General Assembly. No trilateral meeting has since taken place amid badly frayed relations between Seoul and Tokyo.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Just think how much crap must have been mixed into this school lunch meal if the principal was able to smell it enough to cancel lunch:

On June 13, a 20-year-old employee of a public school in Okazaki, Aichi Prefecture, was charged with mixing human feces into the lunch there. More specifically it was found in the okazu of the lunch, which loosely translates to “side dish” and refers to the non-rice component of a meal. It’s a pretty wide-ranging term that can refer to pretty much any food from fried chicken to a brick of tofu.

The incident occurred on Oct 8, 2021, when the principal of the school taste-tested the okazu of the day’s meal in advance in the staff room and noticed that it had a peculiar odor and discoloration. He immediately canceled the meal for everyone else and submitted the food to the public health center for examination. The results confirmed that it contained E. coli bacteria, and even though the okazu was made in a separate central facility, no other schools had any trace of fecal matter in their food.

Thanks to the keen senses and quick action of the principal, none of his students or staff members were exposed to the contaminated food and did not suffer any illness as a result. A subsequent investigation led back to the staff member, though it is unclear what her motive was or how she managed to mix the excrement into the food.

Japan Today

You can read more at the link.

This is something that has been done in the past, but was suspended under the liberal Moon Jae-in administration. Now with a new President it appears restarting trilateral cooperation may soon become a reality:

The defense chiefs of South Korea, the United States and Japan agreed Saturday to step up cooperation to counter North Korea’s missile threats through their combined regular security exercises, including missile warning drills, Seoul’s defense ministry said. 

Lee Jong-sup and his U.S. and Japanese counterparts, Lloyd Austin and Nobuo Kishi, reached the agreement during their gathering held on the margins of the annual Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

This was actually quite a large grouping of fighter jets flying over the waters near Korea yesterday. Just the ROK itself flew 16 fighter jets. Unfortunately the ROK and Japan did not fly together, but instead in different groupings with American fighters:

The United States and its Asian allies flew dozens of fighter jets over waters surrounding the Korean Peninsula on Tuesday in a show of force as their diplomats discussed a coordinated response to a possibly imminent North Korean nuclear test.

The flights came as U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman traveled to Seoul for discussions with South Korea and Japanese officials over the gathering North Korean threat and warned of a “swift and forceful” counterresponse if the North proceeds with a nuclear test explosion, which would be its first in nearly five years.

Yahoo News

You can read more at the link.

I don’t think this guy will ever be stepping foot back into the village he once lived at after this:

A Japanese man reportedly gambled away millions of Japanese yen’s worth of COVID relief funds that he received by mistake.

Last month, the Japanese government inadvertently sent a COVID relief fund meant for 463 people worth 46.3 million yen ($360,890) to a 24-year-old man.

After receiving the amount, the man initially said he would cooperate with local authorities but eventually went into hiding. His sudden disappearance prompted the southern town of Abu in Japan’s Yamaguchi Prefecture to file a civil lawsuit while also considering criminal action. (….)

According to his lawyer, the man lost the entire amount via online casino sites on his mobile phone.

“I don’t currently have the money and I don’t have anything with property value at hand. It’s actually difficult to return it,” the lawyer quoted his client as saying.

Yahoo News

You can read more at the link.

Just when you thought things couldn’t get any weirder around sexuality they do:

A Japanese man who married a hologram singer back in 2018 now hopes to raise awareness for “fictosexuals” – someone who is sexually attracted to fictional characters. 

According to New York Times, Akihiko Kondo is married to fictional character Hatsune Miku – a computer-synthesised pop singer who has toured with Lady Gaga and starred in video games. Now, four years into his marriage with Miku, Mr Kondo has opened up about his relationship with his anime wife. The 38-year-old revealed that he found love, inspiration and solace in Miku. 

Mr Kondo was dating Hatsune Miku for a decade before they had an unofficial wedding ceremony in Tokyo. According to the 38-year-old, his relationship with the fictional character helped him get out of deep depression. Speaking to NYT, Mr Kondo said that his assortment of Miku dolls ate, slept and watched movies together, and sometimes even went on romantic getaways. 

NDTV

You can read more at the link.

The U.S. military after World War II controlled Okinawa for 27 years before returning it to Japan 50 years ago this month:

Ceremonies marking the anniversary were held simultaneously in two locations — one in the Okinawan city of Giowan, home to a disputed U.S. air station, and the other in Tokyo. The separate ceremonies symbolize the deep divide in views over Okinawa’s history and ongoing suffering.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said he takes Okinawa’s concerns seriously and will make efforts to reduce the burden while still maintaining U.S. military deterrence on the islands.

Kishida and his minister in charge of the islands were in Okinawa, where hundreds of protesters staged a rally Saturday demanding a speedier reduction of U.S. military forces, as fears grow that Okinawa may become a front line of conflict amid rising China tensions. (…..)

Economic, educational and social development in Okinawa lagged behind as Japan enjoyed a postwar economic surge that was helped by lower defense spending because of the U.S. military presence in Okinawa.

The central government’s development fund since the reversion has improved Okinawa’s infrastructure but the growth of local industry that was largely hampered during U.S. rule is still largely limited to tourism.

Today, Okinawa’s average household income is the lowest and its unemployment is the highest of Japan’s 47 prefectures. If land taken by the U.S. military is returned to the prefecture for other use, it would produce three times more income for Okinawa than the island now makes from bases, Tamaki said recently.

Okinawan authorities regularly face denials by the U.S. side in criminal and environmental investigations.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but to claim that Okinawa would have become an economic powerhouse without U.S. troops I find doubtful. This is because none of the other Ryukus or Southwestern Islands in Japan became economic powerhouses and they have never been host to U.S. troops. In my viewpoint if people want to protest something, they should be protesting China’s provocative activities in the area that is driving the large U.S. troop presence on Okinawa and an expanding Japanese military presence on nearby islands.