Free Republic

For over 50 years, one party ruled Japan virtually uninterrupted. During that time, Japan remained a loyal ally and supporter of U.S. policy. This month, a historic event took place. Japan has new leadership. In a landslide victory, a new party has done the seemingly impossible. A new freshman class of leaders now governs the Land of the Rising Sun. The effects are already rippling across the Pacific toward America. Yukio Hatoyama is Japan’s new leader. He officially took office last Wednesday, and he is already threatening to split with the United States. Hatoyama blames America for the global economic...

You could also look at what South Korean historians are doing. Historians in South Korea put weight, as I've pointed out earlier (in Part I), on theories now that would otherwise be of little relevance were it to not the case that Korea still remains divided today. Specifically, the North-South States Period (남�국시대) serves mainly to justify the division of the peninsula in the mind of Koreans and to make it seem as if the division is entirely natural (since it happened before and the country eventually unified) and that it's perfectly alright to think of other things for the...

Change Comes to Japan by: Brittany Fortier, September 24, 2009 Change has come to Japan, according to a panel hosted by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) on September 2, 2009. On August 30, 2009, the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) was elected to an overwhelming margin, giving them 308 out of 480 seats in the Japanese House of Representatives. The DPJ and its allies, the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and the People’s New Party (PNP) have a combined total of 318 out of 480 seats, giving them a solid two-thirds majority in the House. The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) now...

United States President Barack Obama and members of his administration are going to great lengths to explain the reasons why the US abruptly changed course with respect to its anti-missile strategy for Europe. In the process, little or nothing has been said about the impact of this new plan on Asia. Silence or not, both China and Japan must assess the consequences of this activity because what the US is now proposing for Europe in terms of missile defense is right in line with what has been unfolding all along in East Asia, where the US Navy forms the front...

Reversing privatization at Japan Post. Yukio Hatoyama's new government in Tokyo is wasting no time bringing "change" to Japan. After only a week in office, the Hatoyama cabinet has resurrected the idea that the government should retake the economy's commanding heights. Front and center is the government's confirmation Sunday that it intends to reverse plans to privatize Japan Post. Far more than a letter carrier, Japan Post is the world's largest bank by deposits, at around 178 trillion yen ($2 trillion). Its privatization would have reaped the government much-needed revenues to pay down debt and encouraged private capital formation through...

A boy with no official nationality who lives in Thailand captured third place in a Japanese paper aeroplane contest on Sunday after his tearful pleas to be allowed to attend prompted authorities to grant him a rare temporary passport for the event. Mong Thongdee prepares to let fly during the individual indoor flight competition Mong Thongdee, 12, won a national paper aeroplane championship in Thailand in August 2008 after he threw a plane that flew for 12 seconds, and was later chosen to attend the Japanese contest in Chiba, near Tokyo. But Mong, who lives in Chiang Mai in northern...

GREENSBURG, Ind. -Less than a year after starting mass production, the Honda Manufacturing of Indiana plant is announcing the building of Honda Civic Sedans for sale in Mexico and export to 22 Latin American and Caribbean nations and U.S. territories. The first Civics destined for export were shipped last week. Until now, the more than 50,000 Civics built at the Greensburg plant had been sold exclusively in the United States.

Security: An Iranian mullah once said "a world without America and Zionism" was a real possibility. Our sellout of Eastern Europe and missile defense brings that dream closer to reality. It would take only one warhead."Is it possible for us to witness a world without America and Zionism?" Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad asked at a "World Without Zionism" conference in Tehran in 2005. "But you had best know that this slogan and this goal are attainable, and surely can be achieved." He added that Iran had a strategic "war preparation plan" for what it called "the destruction of Anglo-Saxon civilization." A...

HEREThe various biggovernment.com and FOX News videos are linked. The group ACORN is explained in Japanese to the Japanese readers. It also points toward the Obama Administration and structural corruption with respect to this group, misuse of tax dollars, etc..There is another updated web page in Japanese separate from this one, entitled "They Did It Again!", showing further videos of ACORN people involved in such sordid actions and suggestions, caught by hidden camera.This is only a blog, but it could be picked up by mass media in Japan very easily, which will latch on to something like this if encouraged...

Mobsters in Japan hit the books to beat new laws ELIZABETH JACKSON: They're members of the biggest, meanest organised crime group in Japan. But these tattooed gangsters are being sent back to school by their godfathers. Under new laws, mob bosses can be sued for the misdeeds of their underlings. So the leaders of the feared Yamaguchi-gumi have begun testing their mobsters' knowledge of the laws.

Great, short Video!A short streaming report from the the national news tonight, here in Tokyo, and run throughout the country seen by countless MILLIONS of Japanese viewers.Shows a bunch of Washington D.C. Tea Party participants' placard signs yesterday, starting with the march yell, "You work for us!", "You work for us!", some of them with signs insulting of Obama and very funny. NHK said the crowd of Americans in Washington was MASSIVE. Also intimated that nearly 1/2 of Americans now oppose Obama.Video is HERE.This will probably stream for a day or two.

Here in Tokyo, folks, Japanese news article claims that anger with President Obama is increasingly rapidly and that it escalated into a massive rally against him and his health care and tax/spend policies, to the tune of ONE MILLION DEMONSTRATORS in Washington, D.C. on Saturday...

TOKYO (Reuters) - Proposals by Japan's new ruling party to slash greenhouse gas emissions may trigger a shake-out in smokestack industries like paper, cement and steel, but boost firms investing in solar and other green technologies. A Democratic Party (DPJ) pledge to cut emissions by 25 percent from 1990 levels by 2020 is one of several proposals causing a stir across businesses. Another is a plan aimed at banning most temporary factory workers. Corporate executives say that could hit profits and push more investment overseas.

Best of luck to Japan:

MOSCOW, September 7 (RIA Novosti) - Japan will launch its first domestic cargo spaceship to the International Space Station ISS on September 10, a Russian space official said on Monday. R The spacecraft was built by Japan's space agency JAXA, and will lift off on board the country's new H-2B rocket. It will deliver about 4.5 metric tons of scientific equipment to the orbital station.

Original in Japanese: グリーン雇用��唱者�米特別顧�辞任　政権�打撃My translated synopsis: Reporter Mr. Katsuta from Washington reports for Asahi Shimbun news that the one person who asserted "Green Jobs" for the Obama Administration, Mr. Van Jones, has resigned. He was in charge as a special advisor to the President for Environmental Quality....right in the middle of President Obama's declining popularity as being hit on his health care reform policies, comes this resignation. As for the Obama Administration, this development has all the trappings of being a new smack in the face. ....Jones had signed on to a petition questioning the culpability of previous President Bush...

Japan's first unmanned spacecraft to haul cargo to the International Space Station (ISS) is nearly ready for its maiden launch next week. The new cargo ship is poised to launch toward the station on Sept. 10 at 1:01 p.m. EDT (1701 GMT) from the Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan on a shakedown cruise. If all goes well, the inaugural spacecraft, called the H-2 Transfer Vehicle 1 (HTV-1), should arrive at the station on Sept. 17.

What makes an economy tick? What makes it grow? In 1890, Japan's average income was only somewhat higher than Mexico's and lower than Argentina's. Yet a century later -- despite the devastation left by World War II -- Japan's average income was nearly three times as great as Mexico's, more than twice as great as Argentina's and only modestly lower than that of the United States. From the late 19th century to the end of the 20th, Japan's economy managed to grow twice as fast as Britain's. How does a nation do that? Japan is not alone. In the early...

“Everyone was convinced that there had to be a change. The DPJ will form the Government but we will not be arrogant and we will lead according to the will of the people.” The DPJ promises free secondary education, free treatment and delivery for expectant mothers, and an annual allowance of 312,000 yen (£2,000) to all children until they leave junior school. There will be a crackdown on the practice known as amakudari — “descent from the heavens” — whereby retiring civil servants secure jobs in the industries that they formerly supervised. “Japan now needs to make a clear shift...

The historic vote in Japan's recent national election, in which the Liberal Democratic Party which ruled nearly continuously for more than six decades has lost control of the government, is testament to deep undercurrents of discontent in a country whose economy is no bigger today than it was in 1996. The victorious Democratic Party, which touts Keynesian stimulus and more protections for Japanese firms, didn't inspire confidence among voters, according to polls, but the party carried the day anyway with an electorate hungry for change. But change will come slowly for Japan because the roots of its economic problems are...

Earthquake Details Magnitude 6.2 Date-Time Thursday, September 03, 2009 at 13:26:18 UTCThursday, September 03, 2009 at 10:26:18 PM at epicenter Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones Location 31.128°N, 130.051°E Depth 161.5 km (100.4 miles) Region KYUSHU, JAPAN Distances 70 km (45 miles) SW of Kagoshima, Kyushu, Japan160 km (100 miles) WSW of Miyazaki, Kyushu, Japan760 km (470 miles) SSE of SEOUL, South Korea1035 km (640 miles) WSW of TOKYO, Japan Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 6.3 km (3.9 miles); depth +/- 5.3 km (3.3 miles) Parameters NST=234, Nph=240, Dmin=234.9 km, Rmss=0.79 sec, Gp= 50°,M-type=teleseismic moment magnitude (Mw), Version=6 Source USGS...

Japan's new First Lady Miyuki Hatoyama: 'I went to Venus in a UFO' Richard Lloyd Parry in Tokyo Japan’s new Prime Minister, Yukio Hatoyama, faces formidable foreign policy challenges in dealing with an expansionist China, a nuclear armed North Korea and a sinister Russia. But he need have no concerns about establishing friendly relations with the planet Venus — his own wife is a friend of the Venusians, having travelled there in a UFO in the 1970s. The distinctions of 66-year-old Miyuki Hatoyama do not end there. As well a being a musical actress, cookery writer, clothesmaker and television personality,...

Link only due to copyright issues: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/i-have-been-abducted-by-aliens-says-japans-first-lady-1780888.html

The historic vote in Japan's recent national election, in which the Liberal Democratic Party which ruled nearly continuously for more than six decades has lost control of the government, is testament to deep undercurrents of discontent in a country whose economy is no bigger today than it was in 1996. The victorious Democratic Party, which touts Keynesian stimulus and more protections for Japanese firms, didn't inspire confidence among voters, according to polls, but the party carried the day anyway with an electorate hungry for change. But change will come slowly for Japan because the roots of its economic problems are...

Japan's next prime minister might be nicknamed "the alien," but it's his wife who claims to have had a close encounter with another world. "While my body was asleep, I think my soul rode on a triangular-shaped UFO and went to Venus," Miyuki Hatoyama, the wife of premier-in-waiting Yukio Hatoyama, wrote in a book published last year. "It was a very beautiful place and it was really green."

The Phoebe A. Hearst Museum's collection of human remains from Saipan appears to have touched Japan's cultural, political and religious sensitivities concerning World War II, causing Japanese officials to balk at accepting UC Berkeley's offer to return the skulls and bones. "The remains are not verified as ones of Japanese, so the Japanese government is asking for additional information," Tadayuki Mizutani, a first secretary at Japan's Embassy in Washington, said Friday. But the museum's documentation on the remains is sketchy. Although its card catalogs list some of the Saipan remains as "Japanese who committed suicide during the American invasion," UC...

Japan's Democratic Party has won a resounding general election victory, surpassing the 241 seats required for a majority less than two-and-a-half hours after polling stations closed. The outgoing Liberal Democratic Party had just 57 of the 480 seats being contested and Taro Aso, the prime minister, said he would resign as party leader to take responsibility for the debacle. Photographers are pictured in front of posters of Democratic Party politicians "The result of the election is very severe," he said in a press conference in Tokyo. "I believe this is the judgement of the public and we have to accept...

JAPAN'S Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) picked Taro Aso as its leader a year ago in the hope he would turn around its sagging fortunes and preserve its five-decade grip on power. Instead, he led the conservative, pro-business LDP to a historic defeat in a general election yesterday. Aso said he took responsibility for the loss after media projections showed the LDP had shed two-thirds of its seats in the lower house election, adding the party should pick a successor soon. After Mr Aso became the party's fourth leader in four years last September

The Democratic Party of Japan won the Lower House election by a landslide Sunday and was poised to grab more than 300 seats in the 480-seat chamber. The victory by the main opposition party would end more than half a century of almost uninterrupted rule by the Liberal Democratic Party. It would also usher in DPJ President Yukio Hatoyama, 62, as the new prime minister by mid-September. As of 11:40 p.m., the DPJ-led opposition camp had already secured 296 seats against just 100 for the LDP-New Komeito ruling bloc, early results from Kyodo said. Flush with victory, DPJ executives started...

TOKYO, Aug. 28 (UPI) -- Japanese voters are expected Sunday to vote the country’s Liberal Democratic Party out of office for the first time in 55 years. The latest Kyodo news poll indicates 35.9 percent of voters are planning to back the opposition Democratic Party of Japan, an increase of 3.3 percent over last week, The Daily Telegraph of London reported Friday. Prime Minister Taro Aso has been portraying his opponent, Yukio Hatoyama, as inexperienced and says he is trying to win over voters with promises that are impossible to keep.

Previously, I alluded to the Balhae(발해,渤海) topic or the North-South States Period: "By the way, on a tangent here, for those Koreans, who believe in this newly created North-South States Period Theory or 남�시대 (신�+발해 = Korea), let me tell you -- it's pure rubbish, which I would like to address in detail one day(The main question behind that issue comes down to who were the Mohe (�갈, �鞨) people (A Schizophrenic Han : Breaking Down Borders: Korea)." Well, I'm not sure if it's "pure rubbish" anymore. A lot of information that is available on this topic is the subject...

A report on Internet speed in the United States says the country isn’t likely to catch world leader South Korea for 15 years. Or for much longer — at current growth rates, the United States will only reach South Korea’s speed today in 15 years. The report, by the Communications Workers of America, details Internet download and upload speeds all over the United States and some of its affiliated territories. In the last year, the average upload speed in the United States “barely changed,” the report said, and download speed only grew a little, from 4.2 megabits per second in...

The jobless rate rose to an all-time high of 5.7 percent in July, government data showed Friday, dealing a further blow to Prime Minister Taro Aso's already embattled government just two days before Sunday's Lower House election. The jobless rate hit a seasonally adjusted 5.7 percent, the highest level in the postwar era and worsening from 5.4 percent in June, the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry said. The previous record was 5.5 percent, last seen in April 2003. Japan's jobless rate has been rising every month since January's 4.1 percent. The total number of jobless in July jumped 40.2 percent...

It is no surprise that an adult entertainment broadcaster would be concerned about the spread of the HIV virus and AIDS. But for one satellite channel in Japan known for silly parodies and wacky porn programming, that concern goes beyond immediate commercial interests — to trying to reverse wilting media attention on these debilitating illnesses even as they affect more lives in our communities. "A decade ago, the AIDS issue was a priority in all media around the world," says Paradise TV President Tsuyoshi Shiba from his office in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward. "But now global warming — and its consequences,...

Jobless rate hits record 5.7%; CPI continues to slide THE ASAHI SHIMBUN 2009/8/28 The unemployment rate in July rose 0.3 point from June to a record high 5.7 percent, while fears of deflation increased with the latest drop in the consumer price index, reports showed Friday. The jobless rate, on a seasonally adjusted basis, has now risen for six consecutive months, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said. The previous record high was 5.5 percent marked in June and August 2002 and April 2003. The ratio of job offers to job seekers in July fell 0.01 point from June...

There are queues at expensive oyster restaurants and the housewives are once again trading foreign exchange — signs that Japan’s return to economic growth has restored its confidence. The world’s second-largest economy is expected to grow 1% next year after contracting 3%. The recession has led to Japanese firms shedding 100,000 jobs since the collapse of Lehman Brothers, pushing unemployment up to 5.4%. ...Now the apocryphal “Mrs Watanabe” and her fellow traders have ventured back to the Tokyo Financial Exchange, according to brokers who report that transactions are up by more than half on a year ago.

Overblown announcements heralding the supposed coming of the Age of China have become a staple of journalistic futurism in recent years. When Maclean's magazine banners across the top of its cover "When China Rules the World," as it did last month -- and it is not a Monty Python send-up of swarms of incomprehensible people in Mao suits -- I know it is time to raise a peep of dissent. Does any of this sound familiar? It was not even 20 years ago that the same was being said about Japan, when U. S. president George H. W. Bush went...

A TROUBLING insight into ultra-conservative thinking at the top of Japan’s armed forces has emerged after the dismissal of Toshio Tamogami, the chief of the air staff. He has become a hero to right-wing groups since being sacked last year for writing an article that said imperial Japan was not an aggressor in the second world war. His popularity has caused outrage in China and it could provide an early diplomatic headache for the opposition Democratic Party of Japan if, as expected, it wins the general election on August 30. Former Air Defense Force Chief of Staff General Toshio Tamogami...

In what would be a historic defeat for the ruling Liberal Democratic party, the poll suggested that the DPJ was likely to secure more than 300 of the 480 seats in the lower house election on August 30. The LDP’s presence could shrink to a little more than 100 seats in the house, compared with its 300 seats now, the poll suggested.

I know, I may sound like I’m beating a dead horse – how much printer cartridge can one spill over China? – but I have a very high burden of proof to overcome. Let me demonstrate it by this analogy: Let’s rewind 20 years. It is 1989 and I am writing that the Japanese economy is on the verge of severe decline. I’m facing a lot of skepticism. Most people are calling me crazy and throwing heavy objects at me. After all, the Japanese are on top of the world. Their economy has been a consistent grower for decades, with...

Sixty-four years ago this month, the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were devastated by the first and only wartime use of nuclear weapons. The death toll totaled approximately 200,000. The shock of the unprecedented destructiveness of the weapon, combined with the Soviet declaration of war, compelled Tokyo to announce its surrender several days later. Emperor Hirohito, in his radio address to the nation, stated that “the enemy has begun to employ a new and most cruel bomb.” The turbulent and traumatizing experience of that week has led analysts to conclude for over six decades that Japan would never “go...

Just checked the news index for articles in Japanese here in Tokyo on Barack Obama and his current difficulties. Japan (their MSM and general populace) still is more or less in the mesmerized if not idolotrous mode over Obama akin to what was common six months ago there in the USA. (OK, give 'em time, folks!).Link is here to the series of Japanese articles on Yahoo Japan datelined today, and linking to major Japanese newspapers online versions. Their challenge would appear to be to try to lead in and report to the Japanese People who may have the widespread impression...

GENEVA (Reuters) - The World Trade Organization is due on August 31 to adopt a ruling by its top court condemning U.S. anti-dumping measures, allowing Japan to seek retaliation against Washington, a WTO agenda showed on Friday. The move is one of several under which various U.S. trade policies are coming under pressure at the end of the month. The WTO's Appellate Body rejected a U.S. appeal on Tuesday and upheld earlier rulings in favor of Japan condemning zeroing, a controversial U.S. method of calculating duties on imports sold for less than they cost at home. Under WTO rules an...

Japanese Pop Idol Recast as Junkie Earthquakes, tsunami tidal waves, typhoons, floods and landslides kept Japanese news gatherers busy over the Obon week when Japanese traditionally return home to pay respects to departed relatives who return briefly from the spirit world. It wasn't, however, any act of God that shocked the nation but alleged drug use by singer Noriko Sakai. Manufactured pop idols cranked out by Japan's powerful production companies have dominated Japan's music charts for decades. Sakai, who debuted at 15 in 1987 with squeaky voice, clean-cut image and cute nickname, Nori-P, was one of the most successful winning...

A group of Sakhalin residents, after a visit to Tokyo, are not only studying Japanese but also collecting signatures for a petition asking that Moscow hand over their island to Japan so that they can live and raise their children in a rich, modern country that is not at war with anyone. This remarkable action surfaced this week when radical Moscow commentator Valeriya Novodvorskaya reported in her Grani.ru column that one of the organizers, who she indicated had to remain anonymous for obvious reasons, had approached her to ask to whom he should forward their appeal. Novodvorskaya said she advised...

State lawmakers have called upon the University of California to immediately return to Japan the skulls and bones of Japanese war victims from World War II's Battle of Saipan that are being stored in an anthropology museum on the UC Berkeley campus. They also asked UC officials to issue a formal apology to the Japanese government for not only keeping the Saipan remains in the museum's vast collection of skulls and bones, but also for using the remains in scientific research. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, has also voiced concern and made inquiries about the remains. "What they've been...

Every year on the first of September, in a small town called Taiji on the southeast coast of Japan's Honshu Island, a new fishing season begins: the dolphin season. Twenty-six fishermen in 13 boats corral a few dozen dolphins into a small cove, where they kill the animals by stabbing them repeatedly with long harpoons and knives. The 50-square-foot (4.6-square-meter) inlet turns crimson, as if filled only with blood. In the course of a six-month season, fishermen kill roughly 2,000 dolphins and sell the meat to local supermarkets for about U.S. $500 a dolphin. The fishermen supplement their income by...

Bush's "ownership society" has collapsed under the dead weight of debt. There is too much debt and too little income to support it. Please consider President shifts focus to renting, not owning. The Obama administration, in a major shift on housing policy, is abandoning George W. Bush’s vision of creating an “ownership society’’ and instead plans to pump $4.25 billion of economic stimulus money into creating tens of thousands of federally subsidized rental units in American cities. The idea is to pay for the construction of low-rise rental apartment buildings and town houses, as well as the purchase of foreclosed...

TOKYO — Japan's prime minister expressed deep regret over the suffering his country inflicted on Asian countries during World War II in a solemn ceremony Saturday that marked the 64th anniversary of Tokyo's surrender. Prime Minister Taro Aso joined some 4,800 families to pay respect to millions of Japan's war dead at the Nihon Budokan hall in Tokyo. Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko also attended the ceremony, leading a one-minute silence at noon. "Our country inflicted tremendous damage and suffering on many countries, particularly people in Asia. As a representative of the Japanese people, I humbly express my remorse for...

Looks like new English buzzwords the Japanese have learned recently such as "change!" and "hope!" and "yes we can!" are being accompanied with caveats these days....Here in Tokyo, Japanese news media (outside of some magazine articles and new books out) has generally glossed over Obama's new administration to date, but now more and more articles are surfacing calling into question his leadership and support. LINK TO ARTICLE