Tag: Japan

The French Air Force is currently conducting training with their U.S. and Japanese counterparts during the Northern Edge exercise:

A French Rafale fighter prepares for takeoff at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, July 5, 2023. (Hannah Strobel/U.S. Air Force)

 The French air force trained alongside its American and Japanese counterparts across the Indo-Pacific recently even as the French president objected to NATO opening an office in Tokyo.

French President Emmanuel Macron has told NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg he opposes such a plan, Japan’s national broadcaster NHK reported Sunday.

The plan was revealed in May amid concern about Chinese aggression toward Taiwan with one defense expert suggesting Yokota Air Base, the home of U.S. Forces Japan in western Tokyo, as a likely site. 

However, an unidentified official at France’s presidential office told journalists Friday that articles of the NATO alliance specify its geographical scope, which is the North Atlantic, according to NHK.

Meanwhile, the French are training alongside U.S. and Japanese forces as part of Northern Edge, which began July 2 and wraps July 21, Air Force Lt. Col. Keegan Dale, commander of 13th Fighter Squadron, told Stars and Stripes by phone Friday. The squadron, from Misawa Air Base, Japan, was deployed to Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, south of Hiroshima, for the exercise.

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 four remaining families say they don’t want to take the compensation unless it comes straight from the Japanese government:

Lawyer Lim Jae-sung, right, who represents some of the forced labor victims who sued Japanese companies for compensations for their forced labor, speaks with the press just outside the Foreign Ministry building in Seoul on Monday to protest the ministry’s decision to make public deposits of third-party compensation money that four out of 15 plaintiffs refused to accept. [YONHAP]

The Foreign Ministry will deposit at local courts compensation money for victims of wartime Japanese forced labor and their relatives who have so far refused to accept the government’s compensation scheme.  
   
Some of the money will also go to parties who have been unable to receive compensation due to personal circumstances.  
   
As of Monday, 11 out of 15 plaintiffs who sued Japanese companies for compensation of their forced labor during the 1910-45 Japanese annexation of Korea have received third-party compensation, mostly from Korean corporate donations.

For the remaining four plaintiffs, two of whom are surviving victims and the rest relatives of victims who had already passed away, the Foreign Ministry announced it was depositing the compensation money so that they could choose to take it from a local court close to where they live “whenever they wish.”  
   
“This decision was reached so that any of the plaintiffs who change their mind and decide to take on the compensation can do so at their leisure,” said a high-ranking Foreign Ministry official in speaking with the press in Seoul on Monday. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

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.

It looks like the Korean officials that studied the plan to release contaminated water from the Fukushima nuclear plant into the ocean as the best of bad options:

Japan’s decision to release contaminated water from its crippled Fukushima plant was finalized years ago as the most realistic alternative, and there is no point in talking about other ways to dispose of the water now, an official said Monday.

Amid concerns about health hazards, critics have suggested alternative ways, other than releasing the wastewater into the ocean, such as solidifying the water within concrete or storing the water in massive tanks.

“That part is something that was discussed for more than four years in the mid-2010s,” Park Ku-yeon, the first deputy chief of the Office for Government Policy Coordination, said of other methods during a daily briefing on the Fukushima release plan.

“At the time, there were extremely complex discussions within Japan, and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was in the final decision,” Park said. “The current method of releasing it into the ocean was finalized as the most realistic alternative when scientific precedents and safety were comprehensively taken into account.”

Suggesting the IAEA reverse the decision would contradict the principles of faith and trust, Park said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

I people are wondering why Japan is growing their military capabilities this is just another example why:

North Korea sent at least two ballistic missiles into Japan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in waters off Ishikawa Prefecture on Thursday, the Defense Ministry in Tokyo said, further ramping up tensions after a failed satellite launch last month.

Both missiles splashed down some 250 kilometers northwest of Ishikawa’s Hegura Island, traveling about 850 km and 900 km, respectively, Parliamentary Vice Minister of Defense Kimi Onoda told reporters, adding that there had not been any reports of damage to aircraft or ships.

Onoda called the launches into Japan’s EEZ, which extends 200 nautical miles (370 km) from its coast, “absolutely unacceptable” and “a serious matter concerning the safety of residents of the country.”

The launches were the first to land in Japan’s EEZ since mid-February.

Japan Times

The North Koreans are claiming the launches were in response to joint US and ROK live fire exercises:

The allies ended the fifth and last round of the Combined Joint Live-Fire Exercise, the first of its kind in six years, at the Seungjin Fire Training Field in Pocheon, just 25 kilometers south of the inter-Korean border, on Thursday to mark the 70th anniversary of the bilateral alliance.

More than 610 military assets were mobilized for the drills, including F-35A fighters and K9 self-propelled howitzers from the South Korean side, and F-16 fighter jets and Gray Eagle drones from the U.S. side.

The North’s defense ministry accused the allies of escalating tensions, saying the drills warrant its “inevitable” response.

“Our army strongly denounces the provocative and irresponsible moves of the puppet military authorities escalating the military tension in the region despite its repeated warnings and warns them solemnly,” the spokesperson said in the statement carried by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency.

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.