Another example of the increasing cooperation between South Korea and Japan. Previously South Korea had flew Japanese citizens out of Israel as well:
This Kyodo News photo, filed Oct. 23, 2023, shows a Japanese Air Self-Defense Force aircraft parked at Haneda International Airport in Tokyo on Oct. 21, after returning from Israel with Japanese nationals, 18 South Koreans and one foreign family member in an evacuation from the war-torn region. (Yonhap)
A Japanese aircraft carrying a group of South Korean nationals, along with its own people, returned from Israel on Friday, Seoul’s foreign ministry said, the second such flight Japan has offered after South Korea brought Japanese citizens home on its plane last month.
The Air Self-Defense Force aircraft carrying 15 South Koreans and one foreign national family member related to a Korean national landed at Haneda International Airport in Tokyo, at 6:45 p.m., the foreign ministry said.
The cooperation between the U.S., the ROK, and Japan continues to expand:
South Korea, the United States and Japan plan to conduct a joint aerial exercise for the first time near the Korean Peninsula next week, a source said Wednesday, amid efforts to bolster three-way security cooperation against North Korean threats.
The trilateral aerial exercise is scheduled for Sunday over the Korean Peninsula, involving the U.S. strategic bomber B-52 currently deployed to South Korea.
“The joint aerial exercise involving South Korean, U.S. and Japanese Air Forces will consist of a formation flight with the B-52 escorted fighter jets from the three countries,” a source familiar with the matter said.
Just another example of increasing trilateral cooperation:
South Korea, the United States and Japan staged a trilateral maritime interdiction exercise in waters south of the Korean Peninsula this week for the first time in seven years, the South Korean Navy said Tuesday, amid efforts to strengthen security coordination against North Korean threats.
The two-day exercise, which began Monday in international waters southeast of the southern resort island of Jeju along with anti-piracy drills, came after the three countries’ defense chiefs agreed to resume the trilateral exercises during their meeting in Singapore in June.
The three sides last staged a maritime interdiction exercise, which focuses on intercepting suspected smuggling vessels, in 2016 and an anti-piracy exercise in 2017.
It appears this was likely a major mistake by this restaurant in Japan, but the Korean couple that was poisoned by the bleach are claiming it was a hate crime:
The Korean government has requested Japanese authorities to conduct a swift and fair investigation into a case where a Korean national was served water containing bleach at a restaurant in Tokyo.
“We contacted the local police station as soon as we were notified about the incident,” said an official at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, adding that the victim reported the case to the Korean Embassy in Tokyo on Sept. 6.
The official noted, “The Japanese police responded that they will do so, but refused to share details of the investigation at this stage.”
The official also said the ministry was informed that the restaurant’s operations were suspended for four days in relation to the incident.
On Aug. 31, a Korean woman surnamed Kang and her Japanese husband visited a high-end restaurant, famous for tempura, located in a department store in Tokyo’s Ginza.
The couple was served two cups of drinking water upon their request, but after taking the first sip, Kang noticed a strange odor from the water.
“After the second sip, my throat began to hurt so bad I couldn’t even talk properly,” she said during an interview with local broadcaster JTBC, Monday.
She made complaints about the water immediately to the waitress and the manager, but they attempted to take the cup back without offering any explanation. Only after her husband strongly protested to the chef, the waitress admitted that the water was poured from a bottle of water containing bleach.
After showing symptoms of stomach pain and nausea, the victim was taken to a nearby hospital where she was diagnosed with acute food poisoning.
Long time Korea expert Victor Cha, who now teaches at Georgetown University, is a big advocate of trilateral cooperation between the U.S., South Korea, and Japan:
The three leaders agreed to “inaugurate a new era of trilateral partnership” to counter military threats from North Korea and “aggressive behavior” from China in the South China Sea, according to a joint statement at the time.
“As we embark together in this new era, our shared values will be our guide and a free and open Indo-Pacific, in which our half-billion people are safe and prosperous, will be our collective purpose,” the statement said.
Japan’s Maritime Self-Defense Force joined warships from the U.S. and South Korea in several military drills this year, including a ballistic missile defense exercise on Aug. 29 near Jeju Island, south of the Korean Peninsula.
The U.S., South Korea and Japan’s “institutionalization in the broader scope of cooperation really is unprecedented,” Cha said.
“It is transforming the U.S.-[South Korea] and U.S.-Japan alliances from being more than just private goods that provide exclusive benefits to allied partners, to also publicly benefit the world,” Cha added.
This would be a very interesting summit if it ever happened. I wonder if they would do it if China said North Korea has to attend as well?:
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol (L) and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida talk during a visit to the Raj Ghat memorial in New Delhi on Sept. 10, 2023. (Pool photo) (Yonhap)
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida agreed Sunday to work toward realizing a trilateral summit with China, the presidential office said.
The two held talks on the margins of a Group of 20 summit in New Delhi, expressing their pleasure at meeting a total of six times since March, when Yoon traveled to Tokyo to mend bilateral relations badly frayed over historical disputes.
“The president said the two countries should continue active meetings in the second half of the year and smoothly implement the process to hold a South Korea-Japan-China summit,” the presidential office said in a press release. “Prime Minister Kishida said he would actively respond.”
The opposition party and these protesters do not care about the saving the oceans, if they did they would be protesting the stopping of dumping of waste water from Korea’s nuclear plants as well. Better yet they need to protest hospitals that give out CT scans which is more dangerous than the waste water being released. This is all about politics and sliming the Yoon administration:
Korean public sentiment over Japan’s release of wastewater from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant is deteriorating rapidly, with the opposition bloc spearheading protests on Tokyo’s “irresponsible behavior.”
Despite the worsening public sentiment, President Yoon Suk Yeol remains silent on the matter, having Prime Minister Han Duck-soo speak for the government on the matter.
Reps. Woo Won-shik and Yang Yi Won-young of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), Rep. Kang Eun-mi from the minor opposition Justice Party and independent lawmaker Rep. Yang Jung-suk participated in a protest organized by Japan’s Social Democratic Party and a number of civic groups in Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture.
“This protest is not about a fight between Korea and Japan, it is about taking action to protect the ocean and the future generation,” DPK Rep. Woo Won-shik said during the protest.
“The most appropriate way of recovering Japan’s reputation is an immediate stop of the release. Through solidarity between the two countries, Japanese people should fix the problems of the Fumio Kishida administration and Koreans should fix that of the Yoon administration.”
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.
