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YOKOHAMA, Japan, Nov. 28 (UPI) -- An aquaculture company in Japan says it raised 50,000 fogu, or puffer fish, that are non-poisonous when consumed. The Daily Telegraph reported Saturday while scientists have created a safe version of the potentially deadly culinary delicacy, at least one chef in Japan remains dedicated to the art of carefully preparing puffer fish for customers. Shinichi Ueshima, chef of the Dote fugu restaurant in Yokohama, Japan, said the thrill associated with eating puffer fish is part of the animal's allure. "It's a very tasty fish, but that's not the only reason people choose to go...

Japan's Hirano: expects PM, BOJ gov to discuss QE By: AFX | 29 Nov 2009 | 09:47 PM ET Text Size TOKYO, Nov 30 (Reuters) - Japan's top government spokesman said on Monday that he expects Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and Bank of Japan Governor Masaaki Shirakawa to discuss whether the central bank is considering quantitative easing.

World powers united in condemnation of Iran's nuclear activities yesterday in a rare show of international consensus on the threat posed by Tehran's continued nuclear defiance. China and Russia joined the United States, Britain, France and Germany in backing an International Atomic Energy Agency resolution censuring Iran and ordering it to halt construction of a secret uranium enrichment plant. The resolution, the first since February 2006, passed with 25 votes and six abstentions. Only Malaysia, Venezuela and Cuba supported Iran. ...China, which has shared Moscow's reluctance to take a hard line with Tehran, was reportedly persuaded to support the resolution...

This is an older video, by a couple years but it is amazing to watch. The experiment pits Japanese researchers vs chimps in a memory experiment.

The Japanese ministry of defence has selected the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning-II as its next mainstay fighter jet but will sign a contract for 40 of these 'high-tech' fighters only in 2011, in order to ensure that the much-talked about stealth jet actually delivers on its performance parameters. Japanese agency reports say the defence ministry will seek fiscal allocation only in the 2011 budget for the purchase of 40 of these advanced 'stealth' fighter jets. The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II is a fifth-generation, single-seat, single-engine, stealth, multirole fighter that, currently, is estimated to cost 9 yen billion ($101 million)...

Venomous redback spiders are on the march in Japan, where they are believed to have arrived years ago as stowaways on cargo ships, a wildlife expert has warned. The creepy-crawlies, named after their fiery markings, have infested the Osaka region and are drawing closer to the capital Tokyo, said Japan Wildlife Research Centre official Toshio Kishimoto. A dozen people have reportedly been bitten in Osaka prefecture alone, media reports say, including a six-year-old boy who was treated with antivenom in June, the first time the medication had been used in the country. "Their poison is strong and they are particularly...

OSAKA (Kyodo) The Osaka Prefectural Government has come up with a plan that calls for scrapping Osaka airport at Itami in 2035 when maglev trains are scheduled to start running between Tokyo and Osaka, officials said Thursday. The blueprint proposes using the site to build an international academic town for intensive English-language study with a population of 20,000. The plan also envisages selling the airport site and using the proceeds to build a new maglev line linking downtown Osaka with Kansai International Airport in Osaka Bay. The prefecture expects the plan to accelerate the flow of travelers to Kansai airport...

Obama hits a rough spot Published: 25/11/2009 at 12:00 AM Newspaper section: News President Barack Obama of the United States has hit the one-year political wall hard, and it especially showed during his recent trip to Asia. In the year since Mr Obama was elected, both the excitement of the polls and the expectations have worn off. As with all democratic leaders, election hullabaloo has been replaced by reality. Not all promises can be achieved quickly, or in the way they were presented in a free-wheeling election. In some ways, Mr Obama has been brought down to Earth, and his...

Everywhere Obama traveled during the thousands miles covered by him and his entourage across Asia, the U.S. President was rebuffed by the leaders of every country he visited. The trip resulted in no palatable results. They smiled nicely at him and then showed him their backs.

Japan is considering buying around 40 F-35 fighter jets as the future mainstay of the nation's air force, it was reported Monday. Japan has officially been pacifist since World War II but has been gradually expanding the role of its military, in part due to concern over nuclear-armed North Korea and China's continued military growth. The defence ministry will likely seek funds in the fiscal 2011 budget for the fighters, Kyodo said citing unnamed sources. The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF), being developed by the United States, Britain, Australia and other countries, is estimated to cost about nine billion yen...

If you have been following what America's right-wing bloggers and radio talk-show hosts have been saying about President Barack Obama's just-concluded trip to the Asia-Pacific, you would be under the impression that Obama was not treated by officials in that region as the leader of the world's only remaining superpower and the largest and most advanced economy....

Former Vice President Dick Cheney gave an interview to conservative talk radio host Scott Hennen today, in which he slammed President Obama's "fundamentally harmful" bow to the Japanese Emperor during his trip to Asia. In the interview, Cheney says that when the President bows to a foreign leader, "our friends and allies don't expect it and our adversaries perceive it as a sign of weakness." "I think it's fundamentally harmful and it shows in my mind that this is a guy, a president, who would bow, for example, who doesn't fully understand or have the same perception of the U.S....

President Obama's bow to Japan's Emperor Akihito in Tokyo earlier this month ignited anger from some conservatives who complained, in the words of blogger Donald Douglass, that the United States "now willingly prostrates itself before the rest of the world." Now the president is responding – kind of. The Atlantic quotes "a US government official who was on the trip" who says the president was left "speechless" by the controversy. "Obama's attitude was, this is an elderly gentleman in a country where this kind of greeting is customary," said the official. "It does not seem extraordinary to show this kind...

Obama's foreign policy attitude may be change, but it's not the one America hoped for!Saturday Night Live's opening skit was a mock press conference between China's Hu Jintao and President Obama. It perfectly highlighted the failure of Obama's Asia trip to strengthen U.S. overseas relations. But just as it was with Obama's bow to the Japanese Emperor, these scenes are not all jokes and giggles. The issues behind the humor are very serious with potentially dramatic negative consequences for the United States and the maintenance of world peace. Speaking on Fox News Sunday, Brit Hume summed the problem up well:...

The Japanese media has reported that Obama's recent state visit to their island nation was a big failure, but the U.S. media is mum on the mess that Team Obama made in Japan. He made multiple diplomatic gaffs and this is quite aside from the absurdly low bow that the incompetent president perpetrated upon greeting the Japanese Emperor Akihito. Before we get to his other multiple fluffs and diplomatic errors, let's explain what Obama was telling the Japanese people with his absurdly low bow. The sort of bow that Obama made is almost that of a "dogeza" bow. This is...

Obama’s Fundamental Misconception [Gordon G. Chang] The best the defenders of President Obama’s trip to Asia can say at this moment is that the resounding chorus of criticism is premature. Of course, no presidential visit can be fully assessed until months — and sometimes years — after the event.But the president has united the political spectrum against him for his abandonment of human rights as a central element of the American dialogue with China. The New York Times gently put it this way this weekend: “The American president must always be willing to stand up to Beijing in defense of...

Could England Be Headed For A Sudden Stop? Rolfe Winkler November 21, 2009 Britain may finally be emerging from recession, but many analysts warn that it is a false dawn. In fact, they argue, the economy here is so ravaged by growing debts and ruined banks that it could well be following in the steps of Japan’s lost decade of the 1990s. I still don’t understand why we refer to Japan’s “lost decade,” as singular. The country is now moving into its third consecutive lost decade.The Nikkei is still at 1984 levels. But back to the UK: the NYT piece...

Barack Obama's first visit to Asia since his inauguration was one of the most disappointing trips by any U.S. president to the region in decades, especially given media-generated expectations that "Obamamania" would make it yet another triumphal progression. It was a journey of startlingly few concrete accomplishments, demonstrable proof that neither personal popularity nor media deference really means much in the hard world of international affairs. The contrast between Asia's reception for Obama and Europe's is significant. Although considered a global phenomenon, Obamamania's real center is Europe. There, Mr. Obama reigns as a "post-American" president, a multilateralist carbon copy of...

Sitting here in Singapore as President Obama went through China and flew home from his 8-day trip to Asia, it is perhaps easier to see the true truth of his trip—it’s deep failure....

Obama Blunders Through Asia Undoing Bush's years of deft diplomacy. by Ross Terrill 11/30/2009, Volume 015, Issue 11 Much dire rhetoric has been unleashed in liberal quarters about the damage done by George W. Bush's foreign policy. The alleged damage, however, is not evident in Asia. When Ken Lieberthal, a respected China specialist and Democratic loyalist, spoke at Harvard early this year, I asked him to name a single year in memory when Washington had as good relations with India, Japan, and China as under Bush. He changed the subject. The White House stated as Obama left Asia for home...

A magazine in Tokyo is reporting that President Obama's summit with Japanese Prime Minister Hatoyama was a frosty disaster, precipitated by incompetence on both sides and an entirely avoidable diplomatic slight to the Japanese side by Obama. The visit was abruptly re-scheduled, seriously inconveniencing the Emperor of Japan, as well as the Prime Minister, whose intricate schedules require meticulous planning and coordination. Japanese weekly magazine Shukan Bunshun cites an unnamed insider at the Foreign Ministry, who delivers a devastating account of not merely a failure to agree, but figurative slaps in the face of the rude president, delivered in retaliation....

"(Japan Prime Minister) Hatoyama Vs.Obama -- The Scandal That Nobody Will Report" (由紀夫 vs オ�マ「書�れ�るスキャンダル�）Reporters at the weekly Shukan Bunshun news magazine here in Tokyo, Japan have written a rather caustic report about President Obama's 23 hours in Tokyo last week, from a frank Japanese perspective, exclusively in the Japanese language, and released to the newstands just now. In that sense this is more or less an *FR Exclusive*. A number of eye-opening claims, pieces of information and details emerge about Obama's brief stay in Japan as part of his disastrous Asian trip--over and above the very controversial, near-"dogeza"...

TOKYO — The Epicurean king who oversees the Michelin Guide fears he may be banished from France. His shocking crime? Awarding Tokyo more three-star restaurant ratings than Paris, thereby crowning the Japanese metropolis the new gastronomic capital of the world. “Trust me, they’ll wait for me at customs there,” Jean-Luc Naret, director general of the famed guide to exceptional eateries, joked Thursday at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan. “Because they’ll say how dare could you have more three-stars in Tokyo than in Paris?” Michelin’s latest Tokyo edition goes on sale in Japan on Friday, and Naret has been in...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: The Gallup poll will announce -- they effectively have announced it -- the Gallup poll will announce that for the first time in their poll Barack Obama's approval rating has fallen below 50%. In fact, a little story about this. This from Ben Smith at The Politico: "His approval numbers have bounced down to the 50% mark several times, driven by weaker support from independents and Republicans, but hadn't crossed it. The slide is worrying for the White House, but it's probably not yet panic time. Ronald Reagan's approval numbers dropped well below 40% during the depths...

US admiral defends Obama's Japan bow (AFP) – 1 day ago WASHINGTON — The former top commander of US troops in Asia on Thursday strongly defended President Barack Obama against critics of his bow to Japan's Emperor Akihito, calling it a gesture of respect. Admiral Timothy Keating, who retired last month ...

Highlights of Tokyo Speech: "We seek this deeper and broader engagement because we know our collective future depends on it." "We simply cannot return to the same cycles of boom and bust that led to a global recession. We can't follow the same policies that led to such imbalanced growth."

resident Barack Obama may not be getting many more invitations from foreign governments after an embarrassing display of submissiveness in front of the Japanese emperor and a delegation of Chinese technocrats. Members of the Obama team say he's afflicted with a severe case of submissive urination that causes him to leak when he feels nervous or is in the presence of Alpha males... and alpha females. And, occasionally, beta males, females, and children. He once peed through a meeting with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, an unnamed Obama official said. The official also said Obama repeatedly urinated in Tokyo's Imperial...

Original article from Thursday (19), links to the Japanese "Sankei Shimbun" website. FReepranslation is provided as a summary; the original Japanese version directly by the author governs and takes precedence over the unofficial English.Troubling developments.

Nikkei Set To Fall After Wall St Losses, Tech Tumble Thu Nov 19, 2009 6:27pm EST TOKYO, Nov 20 (Reuters) - Japan's Nikkei average is set to fall on Friday, with tech stocks such as Advantest Corp (6857.T) vulnerable after disappointing U.S. data fed concern about the economic recovery and tech shares fell on a brokerage downgrade. Investors will also watch Sony Corp (6758.T), which on Thursday pushed back an elusive target of an operating profit margin of 5 percent to March 2013 as it heads for its second straight loss and loses ground to overseas competitors. [ID:nT265644] "It's possible...

Even President Obama himself during his just-concluded trip to Asia admitted that he was surprised to receive the Nobel Peace Prize earlier this year without actually producing any peace. In fact, the rookie American president ordered his own troop surge, boosting U.S. troops fighting in Afghanistan to 68,000. Now, the Democrat may be preparing to send more again. And a Gallup Poll showed 61% of Americans didn't think he deserved it either.Anyway, there he was in Seoul, South Korea on the last stop of his journey.And out of the Seoul sky, President Lee Myung-bak hands over to the American...

On President Obama’s trip across Asia, the major news has not been America’s policy posture, but rather our president’s personal posture. On Saturday, photo and video emerged of President Obama bowing at a 45 degree angle, head down, hand outstretched to Japan’s Emperor Akihito. Even within Japanese culture, this bow was certainly excessive. And the flood of pictures now surfacing of other world leaders greeting the Emperor without so much as a head nod prove that this bow was more than a simple diplomatic gesture. The bow certainly plays into the image that President Obama is overly obsequious during his...

Here is video of Karl Rove tonight talking to Sean Hannity about President Obama's conduct on his overseas trip to Asia. Rove agreed with former Vice-President Dick Cheney, who said: "There is no need for an American President to bow to anyone. Our friends and allies don't expect it, and our enemies see it as a sign of weakness." - Dick Cheney Rove said a slight nod would have been seen as respectful, but the low bow to the waste was not viewed as needed or appropriate by the Japanese or others. Rove pointed out that if it is appropriate...

No president has ever owned the presidency.  It belongs to the people.Like all patriotic Americans, I'm fed up with the president's apologizing, bowing and scraping.  The latest disgrace took place in Japan when he bowed from the waist in deference to their emperor. Here's a story Obama would do well to learn from... When I was promoted to Master Sergeant, an older Senior NCO who I greatly respect took me aside, and in a time-honored tradition that predates the Air Force, gave me an old set of his stripes.  He also imparted this advice:  Respect the rank the Air...

Over the weekend, the Conservative blogosphere has pounced on the "bow seen round the world", a photograph of the supposed Commander in Chief bowing to the Emperor of Japan, something no other American President or world leader for that fact, has ever done. This Obama "bow", is not only a continued indicator of Obama's weakness as a President, and his sick admiration for world leaders. This is the new United States of America as Obama views it, we are no longer a Nation that stands proudly before the rest of the world, America now is humbled before the rest of...

JOIN THE MOCKING IN SONG - the classic "SUKIYAKI"

Nov200916 admin Comments Obama Says He Did Not Bow to Japanese Emperor, Shoe Teleprompter Was Malfunctioning As controversy spread of the “bow� heard round the world, President Obama sheepishly admitted in a Chinese press conference that his apparent subservient bow to Emperor Akihito was actually just an attempt for him to get a closer look at his malfunctioning shoe teleprompter. “I’m tired of hearing all of the speculation about the bow,� said Obama. “So I’m just going to come clean and admit the truth. And the truth is that my staff provided me with a high tech teleprompter that...

For some reason, Barack Hussein Obama, 44th President of the United States, bowed to Akihito the Emperor of Japan. And the internet is abuzz! Even some people in the U.K. have dubbed him "Groveller-in-Chief." Why? Because we're not talking about one of those nice polite little 10 degree bows which you've seen Japenese people do on TV. This was a "let me show you how low I can go" type of bow. "Let me show you the back of my head" type of bow. "Let me defer to you because you are superior to me" type of bow. Some may...

ABC’s Good Morning America finally picked up on the deep bow President Obama performed for the Emperor of Japan over the weekend. Co-host Diane Sawyer ran through how other U.S. Presidents have greeted either Emperor Akhito or his father, the late Emperor Hirohito over the years — some bowing, some not. Sawyer claimed that Americans are “not trained to greet royalty” and “it’s just too confusing.” Actually, the government employs lots of experts on culture and protocol to make sure that our presidents are fully “trained” on what to do when they represent our government overseas — which is not...

President Barry Hussein Soetoro by his own admission is a man who is concerned with notions. The word ‘victory’ conveys the wrong notion has far as Soetoro is concerned. So naturally I’m curious about what notion does Mr. Soetoro think he is sending each time he as President of the United States of America curtseys before a foreign monarch? If in Soetoro’s mind the word victory conveys the wrong notion, they say a picture is worth a thousand words, what notion does pictures of him bowing before the Saudi King and now the Japanese Emperor send?

While the book of that precise title has yet to be written (and might be a good book albeit a rather short book), the poor, bumbling White House only need to look at the following online information in order to be corrected once and for all and to also appreciate just what and what is not done in Japan, as they may continue to presumptuously assert that the "first Asia-Pacific President" schooled in these cultures was somehow being polite and sticking to protocol with the Emperor of Japan.Here, we will be kind enough to translate it for them--spinning, apologetic, damage-control...

Title in-full is: "Obama Bow To Emperor Inappropriate-- U.S. Conservative Faction Criticizes"(オ�マ��天皇��辞儀���切　米�守派�批判 (They are essentially saying that US Conservatives are asserting that. (But it is fairly widespread here as a perception, and growing, although to-date Japanese have been their typical polite goodselves in playing down the faux paus of an ignorant, visiting, protocol-devoid foreigner, in this case POTUS).(http://www.47news.jp/CN/200911/CN2009111601000125.html)Goes on to say that U.S. Conservative blogosphere, FOX News, etc. have picked up on the Obama bow as inappropriate. Also tied it into the earlier Obama bow/genuflection to Saudi Arabian King.For your information.It is actually from a Kyodo News report, which means...

(UPDATES: 12:22 p.m. A brief news video has been added below, showing the greeting in this photograph. Contrary to some claims, the video shows no reciprocal bow by the emperor, who traditionally bows to no one. And we've added a file photo from 2007 of Vice President Dick Cheney greeting the Japanese Emperor at the same residence in a different fashion.) How low will the new American president go for the world's royalty? This photo will get Democrat President Obama a lot of approving nods in Japan this weekend, especially among the older generation of Japanese who still pay attention...

President Obama Bows Down To Hirohito's Son… Question Is How Low Can He Go

Well, Zero mess up again....so I found this article by Shizuko Mishima on "How to Bow Properly in Japan". Now only if Zero had taken lessons from this person it would have saved millions of Americans from "losing face". "Here’s the tricky parts about bowing – the depth of the bow and the number of seconds devoted to performing it, as well as the total number of bows, depends on who you are, to whom you’re bowing, and how they’re bowing back. When bowing, hands are usually straight at the side, palms inward as they bow for men, but for...

Obama bowed to emperor as 'protocol' By: Mike Allen November 14, 2009 11:08 PM EST SINGAPORE – A senior administration official said President Barack Obama was simply observing protocol when he bowed to Japanese Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko upon arriving at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo on Saturday. “I think that those who try to politicize those things are just way, way, way off base,” the official said. “He observes protocol. But I don’t think anybody who was in Japan – who saw his speech and the reaction to it, certainly those who witnesses his bilateral meetings there –...

We all remember when Obama nauseated freedom-loving Americans with his groveling bow before the King of Saudi Arabia. Apparently his inability to stand upright in front of a royal extends to Japan's Emperor, too, as the LA Times reports in this disheartening photo. For 200 years, our elected Presidents proudly stood before the heads of state the world over, even those who claimed divinity. We were over all that divine-right-of-kings nonsense. Or so we thought. Strange that he doesn't engage in this kind of obsequious groveling to the Queen of England. For those who think I'm being too tough on...

Standing at over six foot in height, Barack Obama had to bow deeply as he paid his respects to the diminutive Japanese Emperor Akihito. But the comical sight, which saw the President bend almost double, will no doubt earn him nods of approval in Japan, where a low bow is a sign of great respect and deference. Obama met the emperor and Empress Michiko at the Imperial Palace today, a stop on his nine-day Asian tour that will also see him take in Singapore and China.

There is no massive statue at Sagami Bay of an angel with a sword and a coronet. No rows of white crosses above “99 Beach.”*** That the region around Tokyo isn't dotted with American war memorials is a matter of science, luck, politics – and endless controversy. These were all objectives in Operation Coronet, the planned seaborne attack on Tokyo in World War II. The greatest battle that never was. Guadalcanal, North Africa, Italy, Tarawa, Saipan, D-Day, Iwo Jima, Okinawa – even the planned invasion of the southern Japanese island of Kyushu – were all prelude. Each a step toward...

I though Americans do not bow to members of royalty? The King of Saudi Arabia, and now the Japanese Emperor? And as the LA Times points out …. there was no reciprocal bow from the Emperor. Contrary to some claims, the video shows no reciprocal bow by the emperor, who traditionally bows to no one. And we’ve added a file photo from 2007 of Vice President Dick Cheney greeting the Japanese Emperor in the same door way in a different fashion. And all the Queen got was an ill advised pat on the back. I guess when it comes to...