Free Republic

Live Presser.

Japan used to have a pretty good reputation on climate change. Thanks to its robust industrial economy, it has the fourth-largest carbon footprint in the G20 nations. But it gets a sizeable chunk of its power from zero-carbon sources like hydro dams and, at least until the 2011 disaster at Fukushima, nuclear plants. In the aftermath of that disaster Japan decided to indefinitely shutter all of its nuclear power plants. The last one closed in September 2013, completely eliminating an energy source that had once provided nearly a third of the country's power. That hole has since been filled by...

Outgoing First Minister Alex Salmond has been compared to a Japanese soldier who believed World War II was still happening years after peace was declared. Nick Clegg, the deputy prime minister, made the remarks as he called on the SNP leader to accept the result of last month’s independence referendum. […] Mr. Salmond appeared to open the door to an early re-run of the vote last week, saying “circumstances obviously can change” and that a breach of the pre-referendum “vow” to Scotland could pave the way for another ballot. …

A drone marked with a radioactive sign was found on the roof of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s office on Wednesday and media said it tested positive for a “minuscule” amount of radiation. The radiation was so low it was not harmful to humans, media quoted police as saying. Public broadcaster NHK said the bomb squad was called in to take away the drone, which was carrying a small camera and a water bottle. Police would investigate, government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said, adding that the country may need to consider regulating the devices. [...]

A South Korean airliner overran the runway at Hiroshima Airport Tuesday evening. Reports to the transport ministry say Asiana Airlines flight 162 veered off the runway while landing. The ministry says 74 passengers and 7 crew members were on board the Airbus A320. All of the passengers and crew got out the plane. Firefighters say about 20 people were injured. Aviation officials say the plane left South Korea's Inchon Airport and was due to arrive at Hiroshima at 8 PM local time. Hiroshima airport has been closed since the incident.

Decommissioning work at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has suffered a setback after a robot sent in to a damaged reactor to locate melted fuel stalled hours into its mission and had to be abandoned. The plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco), said the robot stopped moving on Friday during its first inspection of the containment vessel inside reactor No 1, one of the three reactors that suffered meltdown after the plant was struck by an earthquake and tsunami in March 2011. Tepco, which recently conceded that the technology for robots to retrieve the nuclear fuel had yet to...

As Japan promises the United Nations it will cut carbon dioxide emissions, the country simultaneously plans on building 43 coal-fired power projects to make up for shuttered nuclear power. Japan told the reporters it would cut carbon dioxide emissions 20 percent below 2013 levels by 2030, reports AFP. It joined a U.S.-led effort to build support for a global warming treaty to be approved this December in Paris. It’s an issue President Barack Obama has staked his legacy on, and is using whatever diplomatic tactics he can to get other countries to join him. So far, only 35 parties (when...

China has signed a contract with the Russian state-run arms exporter Rosoboronexport for the purchase of the S-400 air defense systems, the company's chief executive Anatoly Isaikin said in an interview with the Russian daily Kommersant. "I will not disclose the details of the contract, but yes, China has indeed become the first buyer of this sophisticated Russian air defense system. It underlines once again the strategic level of our relations," Isaikin said, when asked whether it was true that Beijing signed a contract for the purchase of four S-400 divisions in September 2014. Isaykin also said that "many countries"...

...Suggestions abounding on social media that the mass-beaching was a harbinger of a powerful earthquake were dismissed as "unscientific". Net users had pointed out that several dozen melon-headed whales had beached themselves six days before a huge 9.0 magnitude earthquake in 2011 that sparked a catastrophic tsunami.

Japan is preparing to test its first ever domestically built stealth fighter jet, Chinese and Taiwanese media are reporting. “The highly anticipated F-3, Japan's first domestically-made stealth jet, is aiming to conduct test flights this summer,” the Taiwan-based Want China Times reported, citing a story in the PLA Daily, the official publication of the Chinese military. Japan has been building a prototype stealth fighter as part of its advanced technology demonstrator-experimental (ATD-X) program. Some of the first images of the prototype were first published on the web last year. The ATD-X program, which is being run by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries...

A Japanese university has opened a museum acknowledging that its staff dissected downed American airmen while they were still alive during World War Two. The move is a striking step in a society where war crimes are still taboo and rarely discussed, although the incident has been extensively documented in books and by US officials. A gruesome display at the newly-opened museum at Kyushu University explains how eight US POWs were taken to the centre’s medical school in Fukuoka after their plane was shot down over the skies of Japan in May 1945. There, they were subjected to horrific medical...

For more than a decade, the protest movement over the relocation of Marine Corps Air Station Futenma to Camp Schwab was largely characterized by smiling elderly Okinawans holding sit-ins. The most provocative action of these Western-friendly protesters was perhaps temporarily blocking a gate or tying colored ribbons on the chain-link fences surrounding the seaside Marine Corps base. But 2014 brought a new development: Local politicians who spoke against the construction of a controversial runway at Oura Bay on the northern part of the island were swept into power. And when those politicians were unable to fulfill campaign promises to put...

BEIJING: China would soon commission three indigenously-built advance nuclear-powered attack submarines having a vertical launcher capable of delivering its latest supersonic anti-ship missiles, state media reported today. China Central Television (CCTV) showed a satellite picture earlier this week of three submarines anchored at an unidentified port, and reported that the vessels were China's most advanced Type-093G nuclear-powered attack submarines, just completed by a Chinese shipyard and awaiting delivery. With a teardrop hull, the submarine is longer than its predecessor, the Type-093, and has a vertical launching system, China Daily reported. RELATED Ubisoft Announces New Assassin's Creed Games Set in India,...

Japan is not planning to join the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, its government spokesman said Tuesday, while Taiwan announced it would apply for membership, joining dozens of countries in signing up to an initiative opposed by Washington. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters that Japan, the world’s No. 3 economy, is still seeking answers about how the regional financing institution would be governed. “As of today, Japan will not join AIIB and a clear explanation has not been received from China,” Suga said. The U.S. has found itself isolated in its resistance to the bank, with more than...

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is leading a congressional delegation to several Asian nations, including two that are part of a controversial trade agreement the Obama administration is negotiating. The trip includes stops in Cambodia, Myanmar, Korea, Vietnam and Japan, the latter two of which are among the dozen nations in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) talks. “We arrive at an important moment for the United States’ relationship with these countries, and find ourselves presented with fresh opportunities and familiar challenges in the region," Pelosi said in a statement Saturday. “Members are particularly interested in gaining further understanding of how...

What were Talent’s first impressions?“I found him to be exactly what he appears to be: He’s very down to earth, he has an air of confidence about him but there’s no arrogance with it. I like that. He’s just a regular guy.”Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has added one of Washington’s leading advocates of military readiness to the ranks of advisers helping prepare him for a likely campaign for president. Jim Talent, who represented Missouri in both the House and Senate before becoming a fellow at The Heritage Foundation, confirmed Thursday that he has joined Walker’s budding national security and foreign...

China’s latest nuclear submarine design appear to include a shelter capable of holding a miniature submarine for special operations forces (SOF) not unlike vehicles used to deliver Navy SEALs to shore from U.S. nuclear attack boats, according to an image in wide circulation in Chinese online networks. The Chinese boat — a Type-93T or Shang-class nuclear attack submarine — features a hangar for the SOF submersible that would allow People’s Liberation Army troops to discrete deployment much like U.S. forces, according to a translation of a March 17 story in the state-run Reference News. The image was first reported in...

A 24,000-ton helicopter carrier has formally entered the fleet of Japan’s Maritime Self Defense Force (JMSDF) on Wednesday making the ship the largest warship Japan has fielded since the close of World War II. The commissioning ceremony JS Izumo (DDH-183) — the first of two for the JMSDF — was held in Yokohama and attended by Defense Minister Gen Nakatani. Billed by the Japanese as a platform to assist in anti-submarine warfare (ASW) and humanitarian aid and disaster relief (HADR) operations, the ship has flared regional tensions in neighbors— China especially — who view the ship as a power projection...

Despite mounting protests, Japan continues to finance the building of coal-fired power plants with money earmarked for fighting climate change, with two new projects underway in India and Bangladesh, The Associated Press has found. The AP reported in December that Japan had counted $1 billion in loans for coal plants in Indonesia as climate finance, angering critics who say such financing should be going to clean energy like solar and wind power. Japanese officials now say they are also counting $630 million in loans for coal plants in Kudgi, India, and Matarbari, Bangladesh, as climate finance. The Kudgi project has...

<p>Half-Japanese and half African-American, Miss Nagasaki Ariana Miyamoto is the first-ever mixed-race Miss Universe Japan.</p> <p>But changing perceptions here can be an uphill struggle. In a culture that typically prefers pale -- where "pure Japanese" white skin is considered a symbol of beauty -- the darker skinned Miyamoto's crowning last week was a revolution on the runway.</p>