Tag: Japan

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:

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.

Stars and Stripes

You can read more at the link.

It will be interesting to see how much of a grip the coronavirus gets in a tropical location like Okinawa:

The 18th Wing has confirmed its first case of coronavirus, according to a message posted Saturday on Kadena Air Base’s official Facebook page.

“The member is active duty Air Force and has been in restriction of movement status for 15 days since returning from overseas travel,” the message said.

“18th Wing leadership and medical teams are tracking this situation very closely and have determined the only close contacts to be immediate family members who are also in restriction of movement status.“

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

That did not take very long to make this common sense decision to postpone the Olympic Games until next year:

The 2020 Olympics, which were scheduled to begin July 24 in Tokyo, have been postponed to a date “no later than summer 2021” due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The International Olympic Committee announced the decision Tuesday amid mounting pressure from athletes and various stakeholders.

“In the present circumstances and based on the information provided by the WHO today, the IOC President and the Prime Minister of Japan have concluded that the Games of the XXXII Olympiad in Tokyo must be rescheduled to a date beyond 2020 but not later than summer 2021, to safeguard the health of the athletes, everybody involved in the Olympic Games and the international community,” the IOC said in a statement.

Yahoo Sports

You can read more at the link.

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.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

It figures that the Moon administration would bring up the GSOMIA issue again before April’s parliamentary elections in order to promote anti-Japanese sentiment:

Controversy is resurfacing over the possible termination of a military intelligence sharing agreement with Japan, ahead of the March 1 Independence Day and the April 15 general election. 

Speculation is mounting that the government could ultimately terminate the General Security of Information Sharing Agreement (GSOMIA), given the absence of any significant outcome from bilateral negotiations to remove Japan’s trade restrictions imposed on certain Korean companies last summer. In response to the restrictions, the government announced the termination of the agreement, but held off on this in November to show its commitment to bilateral negotiations to settle the trade dispute. (……)

During a recent press conference, Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha said that Korea could still consider terminating the GSOMIA depending on what is deemed best for the “national interest.” “There have been talks between the export authorities, but we have still not returned to the situation before July 1 [when Japan imposed the exports ban],” Kang said.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but it is pretty clear how important April’s vote is for the Blue House. They have changed election laws that will increase the number of unelected left wing parliament seats, covered up the investigations into Blue House corruption, fired the head of Statistics Korea to get better economic stats, has not reached a cost sharing deal with the U.S., and now threatening to cancel the GSOMIA pact again.

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:

 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.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

You can see the racist conspiracy theories that the Chinese government promoted against Ambassador Harris when he was the INDOPACOM commander has been successfully promoted in South Korea as well:

“I am American ambassador to Korea, not the Japanese American ambassador.”

The former U.S. Pacific commander and admiral spoke not out of frustration but as a matter of fact, responding to suspicions of some Koreans that his Japanese heritage might make him biased in Japan’s favor and influence a U.S. stance on matters related to Korea and Japan. He was born to a U.S. military man and a Japanese mother in Japan and he was the first person of Asian descent to lead the Pacific Command.

He said that while serving as Pacific commander, China also once accused him of favoring Japan regarding his stance on Beijing’s hegemonic moves in the South China Sea. He said that not in the U.S. or elsewhere had his eth-nicity been made an issue during his career.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but the ambassador’s critics in Korea even accuse him of wearing a mustache to replicate what Japanese colonial governors of Korea once had.

Here is a hit piece from the Hankyoreh describing a USINDOPACOM strategy that doesn’t exist:

A South Korean government official said, “The reason so many senior US officials are visiting South Korea and campaigning hard for a GSOMIA extension is because GSOMIA is just that important to the Indo-Pacific strategy.”

Indo-Pacific Strategy gives Japan priority over S. KoreaThe US’ previous strategy for East Asia positioned the US itself at the center with South Korea, Japan, and Australia acting as “spokes.” Fundamentally, South Korea and Japan were on an equal footing. The Indo-Pacific strategy, in contrast, involves a framework where the US, Japan, India, and Australia form a “quad” hemming China in from all sides, while South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Vietnam, and others are included as lower-level partners.

Under this framework, the US-Japan alliance becomes upgraded to a global alliance. In pushing through security-related legislation, Japan’s Shinzo Abe administration increased its potential for intervention on the Korean Peninsula by concocting the concepts of “situations of major influence” and “existential threat,” with an eye on direct intervention if war breaks out. Under this system, Japan would need to receive initial military information on North Korean nuclear missile launch activity through GSOMIA to attack preemptively in a scenario of imminent armed attack by the North.

Hankyoreh

You can read more at the link, but if Japan was about to face a nuclear missile attack they don’t need the GSOMIA because the US would inform them. The biggest attribute of the GSOMIA is creating a mechanism where the ROK and Japan can work together.

As far as what the Hankyoreh describes as the USINDOPACOM strategy, I have read their strategy and it mentions nothing of what the Hankyoreh is claiming. You can read the USINDOPACOM strategy at this link.