Free Republic

In the late 1980s, all anyone could talk about was how Japanese companies were going to take over the world. The Japanese were smarter than we were, more disciplined than we were, more team-oriented than we were, hungrier than we were. Japan was taking over. We were done. Then Japan's bubble burst. And it was payback time. In the late 1990s, all anyone in America could talk about was why Japan was mired in a "lost decade." It was cultural, everyone explained. The Japanese were just too wimpy and "team-oriented" to face the facts. Instead of just facing reality and...

<p>Taiwan said Wednesday that its giant neighbour China has started building its first aircraft carrier, a move analysts have said could raise military tensions in the region. The head of Taiwan's National Security Bureau told parliament construction of the carrier had begun, Lin Yu-fang, a legislator of the ruling Kuomintang party, told AFP.</p>

LINKNot too hard to figure out, folks!

Taiwan says China starts building first aircraft carrier Agence France-Presse First Posted 19:44:00 11/04/2009 Filed Under: Military, Foreign affairs & international relations TAIPEI – Taiwan said Wednesday that its giant neighbor China has started building its first aircraft carrier, a move analysts have said could raise military tensions in the region. The head of Taiwan's National Security Bureau told parliament construction of the carrier had begun, Lin Yu-fang, a legislator of the ruling Kuomintang party, told AFP. However, the security chief, Tsai Teh-sheng said the carrier's construction "has not been smooth" and that the Chinese navy may struggle to put...

Former President George W. Bush threw out the ceremonial first pitch for a baseball game in Japan Tuesday during his first visit since he left office. Bush joined former Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to watch the game between the Yomiuri Giants and Nippon Ham Fighters. Bush changed into a baseball jacket before taking the mound in the Tokyo Dome to throw the pitch before Game 3 of the Japan Series. He chatted briefly with several players before joining Koizumi in a private box. Also in the box were Japanese home run king Sadaharu Oh and U.S. Ambassador to Japan...

Up shot of article (my snap translation):--Obama in a painful situation, because just one year ago, he took these states. Now, tonight, they fell to the Republicans.--It seems that with the election of the 2 Republicans and defeat of Obama, his prized "Health Care" program is in jeopardy.--The results show the sentiment of the American People in those states toward Obama and is a reflection of what might be expected a year from now in the 2010 midterm elections.--Obama had quite a year in Virginia (in 2008), which did not go for a Democrat for President in 44 years, and...

A well-regarded website devoted to “open source military analysis” believes that the picture [below] is of a Chinese anti-satellite laser weapon...In 2006, China fired lasers at U.S. satellites, possibly blinding the spacecraft...and just this week, the head of China’s air force pledged to militarize space “in order to protect peace"...In a post today, IMINT & Analysis stated that these rectangular buildings in the Tian Shan mountain range of Xinjiang province could be hiding the next phase of the Chinese arsenal.

I don't follow the monetary and fiscal problems of other countries very closely. We've got enough of a crisis here to worry about anywhere else. But during the stim bill debate, you may recall liberals pointing to Japan's "stimulus spending" in the decade of the 1990's as an example of how to get out of a deep recession. Maybe they should have read the fine print as Ambrose Evans-Pritchard of the Telegraph explains: The IMF expects Japan's gross public debt to reach 218pc of gross domestic product (GDP) this year, 227pc next year, and 246pc by 2014. This has been...

At the age of 18, Mitsuhiro Matsushita already has a good idea of his ideal future. After he graduates from university a few years of work will be followed by marriage to an industrious wage earner. When children arrive it will be Mitsuhiro who stays at home looking after them, baking cakes and biscuits and living the traditional life of the Japanese housewife. None of this would be noteworthy but for one thing. Mitsuhiro is not a conventionally minded Japanese woman, but a thoughtful, articulate and fashionably dressed young man. And far from being a marginal eccentric he is a...

Japan denies friction with US by Kyoko Hasegawa Mon Nov 2, 1:57 am ET TOKYO (AFP) – Japan's centre-left government on Monday denied US ties were being strained by a row over an American airbase, amid confusion over whether its foreign minister will travel to Washington this week. The US State Department on Saturday said Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada would meet US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday, but within hours dropped mention of the meeting from Clinton's schedule. In Japan, media reports suggested Okada was still seeking a meeting late this week, ahead of a Tokyo visit...

As I have repeatedly noted, China has been blowing a bubble with easy credit. MarketWatch's Craig Stephen warns investors to be wary of a potential correction, at least in some sectors: Policy tightening could soon become the dominant market theme, meaning it's time for a rethink. After recent rate hikes in Australia and Norway, tightening is back on the agenda in many countries, including China. And with the U.S. just clocking up 3.5% annualized GDP growth for the third quarter, dollar bears will have something to think about. Nomura says its time to get a little more defensive in the...

At the age of 18, Mitsuhiro Matsushita already has a good idea of his ideal future. After he graduates from university a few years of work will be followed by marriage to an industrious wage earner. When children arrive it will be Mitsuhiro who stays at home looking after them, baking cakes and biscuits and living the traditional life of the Japanese housewife. None of this would be noteworthy but for one thing. Mitsuhiro is not a conventionally minded Japanese woman, but a thoughtful, articulate and fashionably dressed young man. And far from being a marginal eccentric he is a...

Nikkei (Japan Stocks) Slides On Strong Yen, Wall St Drop Sun Nov 1, 2009 7:09pm EST TOKYO, Nov 2 (Reuters) - The Nikkei average slipped 1.3 percent at the open on Monday, with shares falling across the board, hit by a stronger yen and after Wall Street tumbled on weak consumer spending data and renewed worries about Citigroup's (C.N) balance sheet. The benchmark Nikkei .N225 shed 130.97 points to 9,903.77 at the open before falling to its lowest point in three weeks.[snip]The Nikkei is down 2.5% as I post this. See here.

It Is Japan We Should Be Worrying About, Not AmericaJapan is drifting helplessly towards a dramatic fiscal crisis. For 20 years the world's second-largest economy has been able to borrow cheaply from a captive bond market, feeding its addiction to Keynesian deficit spending – and allowing it to push public debt beyond the point of no return. By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard Published: 5:33PM GMT 01 Nov 2009 The rocketing cost of insuring against the bankruptcy of the Japanese state is telling us that the model has smashed into the buffers. Credit default swaps (CDS) on five-year Japanese debt have risen from...

Ministers mulling options over Nago base move In light of next year marking the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty, Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said Thursday it's time the overall defense alliance is reviewed. While stressing how the alliance is still a significant cornerstone in Japan's foreign policy, Hatoyama said his administration plans to promote a "multilayered development" of the alliance in the medium to long term. "The Japan-U.S. Security Treaty will be marking its 50-year milestone," Hatoyama said on the second day of the Diet's question-and-answer period, responding to questions posed in the Upper House...

Japan and the United States have tentatively agreed to expand co-operation in the missile defence field.. a [Japanese] spokesman said its scope is not expected to include Japan allowing the export of the Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) Block IIA, which is currently being jointly developed....both sides said they wanted to further co-operation in jointly developing missile defence systems..[the US asked Japan to consider permitting export of jointly-developed missiles, most likely to Europe].

Japanese naval forces successfully shot down a medium-range missile off Hawaii in a test of Tokyo's missile defense weaponry, the US military said on Wednesday. A Japanese destroyer detected, tracked and knocked out the missile in mid-flight with an SM-3 interceptor rocket, the US Missile Defense Agency (MDA) said in a statement. The missile was launched on Tuesday at 6:00 pm Hawaii time (0400 GMT) at a missile range site off Kauai in Hawaii and at 6:04, an SM-3 interceptor was fired in response, the MDA said. "Approximately three minutes later, the SM-3 successfully intercepted the target approximately 100 miles...

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates asked Japan last week to export a new type of ship-based missile interceptor under joint development by Tokyo and Washington to third countries, presumably European, sources close to Japan-U.S. relations said. Gates' request could lead to a further relaxation of Japan's decades-long arms embargo and spark a chorus of opposition from pacifist elements in the ruling Democratic Party of Japan and one of its coalition partners, the Social Democratic Party. Gates made the request concerning Standard Missile-3 Block 2A missiles during talks with Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa on Wednesday, the sources said. The SM-3 Block...

Japan's Tokai Challenger solar vehicle has taken victory against a strong international field in the 2009 Global Green Challenge. After covering almost 1860 miles (3000km) in four days across Australia's baking red center, the entry from Japan's Tokai University crossed the finish line at 3.39pm local time. The team's run was nearly flawless, reporting only a single flat tire with just over 100 miles of the course to race and the win breaks a string of four consecutive victories by the Dutch Nuon team, which is currently battling it out for second place against University of Michigan Solar Car Team....

A speech and a Nobel prize have raised hopes in Japan that Barack Obama will become the first sitting U.S. president to visit Hiroshima or Nagasaki, the two cities leveled by atom bombs in World War II. But the issue is seen as a political minefield, and U.S. officials say it is unlikely Obama will visit either city during a two-day stop in Tokyo next month. Yesterday, the mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki went to the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo to formally invite Obama to their cities before a U.N. review of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in May. Sunao Tsuboi,...

In February of this year, I wrote a study (co-authored with Mike Flynn) about the lessons of the Japanese “Lost Decade.” At the end of the 1980s, Japan faced a very similar situation to ours: an asset bubble burst, the economy went into recession, and the financial sector stumbled. In that study we argued (as did others in separate publications) that if American didn’t properly learn the lessons of the Lost Decade, that we too would suffer a similar long night of economic malaise. Unfortunately, the warning has not been heeded. Japan spent most of the 1990s screwing around with...

Land of Rising Debt: Falling Tax Revenue Forces Japan to Sell More Bonds By Bob Blandeburgo Associate Editor Money Morning Japan’s government will have to sell more bonds – and grow the country’s record debt – in the face of declining tax receipts. The central government’s tax revenue may fall below $442 billion (40 trillion yen) considerably less than the $439 billion (46 trillion yen) forecast a year ago, Japanese Finance Minister Hirohisa Fujii told The Wall Street Journal. “This is due to the global recession that began last year, and we will deal with this through the additional issuance...

Some of the vets needed canes or wheelchairs to navigate the vast decks of the new Navy amphibious assault ship Makin Island...Legions of military VIPs will attend this morning...None will be held in higher esteem than the World War II Marine Raiders who sacked an enemy-held island in the Western Pacific, boosting American morale during the dark early days of the war, when the enemy seemed unstoppable. ...“Just to be able to sit down and have a beer with these guys — I'm star-struck,” said Lt. Cmdr. Matt Polzin, 39, of Bay City, Mich., who served as a guide for...

For 64 years, Norton Anenberg guarded a present. He kept it in the attic. Or tucked in his desk. But one day in 1990, acting on a longtime desire, the then-vice president of an oil company pulled open his office's file cabinet and declared it was time to act. "You know something," the now-76-year-old Covina resident remembered saying. "I'm gonna find this family." The present was the war flag of a World World II Japanese soldier, given to Anenberg by a family friend returning from fighting in the South Pacific in 1945. And it wasn't until August, after nearly twenty...

How much debt can an industrialized country carry before the nation’s economy and its currency bow, then break? The question looms large in the United States, as a surging budget deficit pushes government debt to nearly 98 percent of the gross domestic product. But it looms even larger in Japan. Here, years of stimulus spending on expensive dams and roads have inflated the country’s gross public debt to twice the size of its $5 trillion economy — by far the highest debt-to-G.D.P. ratio in recent memory. Just paying the interest on its debt consumed a fifth of Japan’s budget for...

Few days ago, I have seen a section of article” Eiffel Tower, New York's Empire State Building, Tokyo TV Tower are western three famous buildings” it amazes me, here the Tokyo TV Tower isn’t in Japan. Traditionally in geography and culture Japan belongs to east, but why the international presses reported japan as a western country? Does Japan really belong to “western countries”?

U.S. pressures Japan on military package Washington concerned as new leaders in Tokyo look to redefine alliance Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, with Japanese Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa in Tokyo, pushed Japan to stick with a 2006 deal. By John Pomfret and Blaine Harden Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, October 22, 2009 Worried about a new direction in Japan's foreign policy, the Obama administration warned the Tokyo government Wednesday of serious consequences if it reneges on a military realignment plan formulated to deal with a rising China. The comments from Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates underscored increasing concern among U.S....

TREASURIES-Edge Up In Asia After Bleak U.S. Data Tue Oct 20, 2009 11:34pm EDT TOKYO, Oct 21 (Reuters) - U.S. Treasuries edged higher in Asia on Wednesday after bleak data on the U.S. housing market and inflation suggested the pace of the economic recovery may be only tepid. * Moderate losses in Asian stocks also encouraged investors to pick up government debt, dealers said. Tokyo's Nikkei average .N225 slipped 0.3 percent and the MSCI index of Asia stocks excluding Japan dipped 0.8 percent .MSCIAPJ. * Dealers said it is questionable if the U.S. housing market will be able to sustain...

AFP - The world's most comprehensive collection of armor, weaponry and art covering 700 years of Japan's fabled Samurai culture goes on exhibit this week at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Art of the Samurai: Japanese Arms and Armor, 1156-1868" will open Wednesday, showcasing "214 masterpieces, including 34 national treasures, 64 important cultural properties, and six important art objects," the museum said in a statement. Open until January 10, the exhibit includes "armor, swords, sword fittings and mountings, archery and equestrian equipment, banners, surcoats... as well as painted screens and scrolls," some of which have never left Japan. "This...

Since WWII, America has enjoyed too many of Democratic lies. As a matter of example, many Americans today think they run Western Civilization. This is a major delusion. French president Sarkozy and the elite of European bankers do. America is presently scrapping much of her industrial core while Europe is gearing up in that department. Anyone who today would drive between the Ruhr district (Germany) and Antwerpen, Belgium, would have to admit Europe, again, constitutes the center of the world economy. The Asians? The Japanese will never make a car as safe as a Volvo and as drivable like a...

Japan A Deflation Death? - Nope Stagflation Oct 17, 2009 - 12:29 PM By: Phill_Tomlinson Gordon Brown this week announced what can only be described as a car boot sale of UK PLC's bric-a-brac goods, an attempt to sooth markets regarding the budget deficit. Many of the items have been for sale before, but I'm sure the government in their current desperation will be willing to accept lower offers this time around. I agree with privatisation in getting the state out of our lives, but a student loan book and a crossing in Kent are hardly big ticket items, never...

Japan has told the United States it will end a naval refueling mission [in the Indian Ocean] that supports the war in Afghanistan, a top defence official said...Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, who took office last month, has said he wants "more equal" relations with the United States and that he opposes plans to build a new US air base on the southern island of Okinawa...

HEDGE-FUND MANAGER OF OUR acquaintance waxes apocalyptic when painting Japan's economic future. Within 50 years or so, he contends, high-tech aircraft will be taking Chinese and American tourists on fly-overs there to view the dilapidated remains of what was once the world's second-largest economy. By then, all that survives will be blighted megalopolises like Tokyo, populated mostly by the elderly, and decaying, weedchoked highways, bridges and bullet-train right-of-ways, spectral reminders of a once-vibrant society that lost its way. There is, of course, more than a measure of hyperbole in his Spenglerian ruminations. Nonetheless, the manager's fund is positioning itself to...

Despite decades of denials by Washington and Tokyo, US officials believe they enjoyed a secret pact to transport nuclear weapons through Japan, newly declassified documents showed. The disclosure came after Japan's left-leaning government ended more than half a century of conservative rule and launched a probe into thousands of files to settle longstanding suspicions of a hush-hush pact. Any evidence of an agreement would trigger charges of hypocricy as Japan is the only nation to have suffered nuclear attack and has campaigned for the worldwide abolition of the ultra-destructive weapons. The National Security Archive at George Washington University released documents...

Out on stands in Japan today!Title:"Obama Wa Nobel-sho Ni Ataeshinai" ("Obama Unworthy of Nobel Prize")Sub-title caption (also on cover overlay of monochrome Obama photo):""The Idiocy Of Him Receiving Such An Award, With Less The One Year In Office With No Accomplishment"

When Utako Sakai was changing the background music in her beauty parlor recently, she did not opt for the classical piano pieces she usually chose. Instead, she picked her favorite CD: “President Obama’s Inaugural Address,” released by Asahi Press, a Japanese publisher of language books. She says the speech lifts her spirits and helps her to learn English all at once. “All our customers love it,” said Ms. Sakai, who is based in Ayase City, in Kanagawa Prefecture, outside Tokyo. The speech CD and its accompanying book have been a resounding success, selling 200,000 copies since its release in January....

Details sought on Japan debt holiday plan By Michiyo Nakamoto in Tokyo Published: October 11 2009 23:21 | Last updated: October 11 2009 23:21 Japan’s financial industry and investors will seek clarity this week from the government over its plans to give small and medium-sized companies a debt holiday. Leading Japanese banks have suffered a sharp share sell-off in recent weeks, partly on concerns about the potential impact of these measures. “We need clarity on where this policy is going to go,” said Robert Feldman, chief economist at Morgan Stanley in Tokyo. The Financial Services Agency was expected on Friday...

A Japanese company, Haruyama Trading Co., has developed a suit that it claims protects the wearer from the deadly H1N1 strain of influenza. The company has produced 50,000 of the suits and will start selling them on Thursday, according to a company spokesman. The suit is coated with the chemical titanium dioxide, which reacts to light to break down and kill the virus when it comes into contact with it, according to Junko Hirohata.

A Japanese menswear company is selling an "anti-swine flu" business suit that it says can reduce the risk of catching the H1N1 virus. Haruyama Trading has developed a wool suit coated with titanium dioxide, which it says breaks down the virus molecules on contact under ultraviolet light, according to Reuters . "If a person with the flu virus coughs, it might get on someone else's suit and from there, another person might get infected," Shinto Hirata, vice director of merchandising at Haruyama told Reuters. "Small children might catch the virus after touching their father's suit. We came up with this...

KDDI Pairs a Mobile Phone With a Robot Martyn Williams, IDG News Service Oct 11, 2009 10:50 am As mobile phones add more features and more users connect with social media, the cell phone becomes a more important part of people's lives. Japanese carrier KDDI has developed a robot companion that seeks to bridge the gap between a phone and its user and a prototype was shown at this week's Ceatec expo near Tokyo. The robot, called Polaris, is spherical and opens up to reveal a cradle on which a cell phone can sit. While in the cradle the phone...

Japan is negotiating a contract with the United States that will provide Tokyo with sensitive information about the systems and performance of the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) as it seeks to evaluate the aircraft in a bid to procure a next-generation fighter (FX) for the Japan Air Self-Defense Force. A source at the Japanese Ministry of Defence (MoD) told Jane's on 6 October that the contract is expected to be signed shortly....the development signals a clear move by Japan towards the JSF - and away from the F-22 Raptor ...the MoD has been requesting the US government...

Airline asks passengers to pee before flying By Kesavan Unnikrishnan. Japanese airline All Nippon Airways is asking its passengers to use the bathroom before they board the plane in an attempt to reduce carbon emissions. The new policy was implemented by the airline from October 1. Signs are being put up at airport gates asking passengers to visit the lavatory before boarding. The new policy started a one-month trial but the airline plans to expand it indefinitely if it's effective. According to ANA, empty bladders will cut down passengers' overall weight which will result in lighter aircrafts and lower fuel...

Japanese prosecutors are investigating political donations made to new Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama - including some which appeared to come from dead people. Mr Hatoyama, who won a historic election victory in August, admitted in June that some donations to his fundraising body had been misidentifed and blamed an aide for the mistake. He told reporters he is co-operating with the inquiry and hopes that everything will soon be clear.

My claim is that Koreans are still unable to acknowledge that it was natural for some people to have benefitted under Japanese rule and that these people still loved Korea and the like (I'm thinking more along the lines of a Park Chung Hee than the founders of either Dong-a-Ilbo or Samsung), but the opportunities they had in life only existed if they accepted that Korea was for the time being a Japanese colony and that they realistically couldn't do a single thing about it. And, more so, and this is a claim purely along the lines of the early...

To celebrate its revival after the 1995 earthquake, the city of Kobe held the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the "life-size" statue of Mitsuteru Yokoyama's Tetsujin #28 ("Ironman #28" or Gigantor) robot on Sunday. Minoru Yada, the 78-year-old voice actor of Tetsujin #28's fictional inventor Dr. Shikishima, led the the 28 people who cut the ribbon by yelling out "Tetsujin-28-go!" Yada was holding a mockup of the trademark remote control that the manga and anime's hero, schoolboy Shoutarou Kaneda (Jimmy Sparks), carried to control the robot. MBS News, Jiji Press, and The Kobe Shimbun all posted video reports from the ceremony. The...

Tiger Management Chairman Julian Robertson says that if China and Japan stop buying our debt, inflation could hit 20 percent. "It's almost Armageddon if the Japanese and Chinese don't buy,” Robertson told CNBC. "I don't know where we could get the money. I think we've let ourselves get in a terrible situation." Robertson’s 2008 picks, which included Visa, Baidu, Apple, and Google, handily beat the market. His worst performing choices went up 40 percent, the best more than doubled. Robertson says his firm still owns many of last year’s picks, but says he’s “not as berserk over owning stocks as...

Japan is sliding into the deepest deflation since the Second World War, forcing the new-broom Democrats to abandon their strong yen policy within weeks of taking office. BY AMBROSE EVANS-PRITCHARD Core inflation fell a record 2.4pc in September, a steeper drop than at any time during the country's Lost Decade. A surging yen is twisting the knife further. The currency has risen 22pc against the euro, 27pc against the dollar, and 43pc against sterling since mid-2007. Hirohisa Fujii, finance minister, ditched his non-intervention policy yesterday, saying Tokyo would "take necessary steps" to prevent disorderly currency moves. Yen strength is asphyxiating...

War II ThoughtsWe can learn a lot about our present dilemmas through looking at the past. This month I’m teaching an intensive class on World War II, and again reminded how history is never really history. One lesson: do not judge past decisions by present considerations or post facto wisdom from a Western point of view, but understand them given the knowledge and thinking of the times from an enemy perspective.We ridicule the disastrous Japanese decision to go to war against the American colossus on December 7, 1941. But that correct analysis enjoys the benefit of hindsight, and does not...

(CNN) -- In trendy neighborhoods of Tokyo customers are lining up for vitamin injections that promise to improve health and beauty. These intravenous vitamin "drips" are part of the latest quick-fix, health fad catching on in Japan: the I.V. cafe. Each drip pack contains saline solution and specific vitamins and minerals to target a particular health aliment or beauty concern. "I used to take vitamin supplements, but changed to the I.V. drip because I feel the effects more quickly," a 20-something woman at the Tenteki 10 Café told CNN. She said she receives specific injections to get better skin, burn...

Japan prices tumble at record rate in August Japan core consumer price index falls by record 2.4 percent in August By Tomoko A. Hosaka, Associated Press Writer On Monday September 28, 2009, 9:17 pm EDT TOKYO (AP) -- Prices in Japan tumbled at a record pace in August, intensifying concerns that deflation could undermine the country's fragile economic recovery. The country's key consumer price index, which excludes volatile fresh food prices, fell 2.4 percent from a year earlier amid rising unemployment and falling wages, the government said Tuesday. The figure marks the steepest decline since officials began compiling comparable data...