Free Republic

... The drop in popularity occurred after it was revealed that LDP factions and the individual parliamentarians associated with them had failed to report all revenues from ticket sales at fundraising events. The slush fund, estimated to be millions of dollars, was used for political purposes, violating the Public Funds Control Law. The Public Prosecutors Office has launched investigations into the LDP’s largest and most influential faction, the Seiwakai, commonly referred to as the Abe faction. Reports suggest that four other major factions, including the one led by Kishida, might also be implicated. Kishida has replaced four key cabinet ministers...

In the late 16th century, the enigmatic warrior fought alongside a feudal lord dubbed the “Great Unifier”Seconds into the first episode of the Netflix anime “Yasuke,” viewers witness a massacre. Hundreds of warriors lie dead near the Honnoji Temple in Kyoto, Japan. The year is 1582, and flames envelop the area surrounding the fallen. Inside the temple, a Black samurai named Yasuke has a tense conversation with the Japanese daimyo (warlord) Oda Nobunaga. While Nobunaga is resigned to his fate, Yasuke remains hopeful the pair can evade their enemies and live to fight another day. “All that is left for...

On this date in 1865, the Japanese samurai Okada Izo was dispatched by crucifixion. He was one of* the “Four Hitokiri“ — manslayers — whose legendary blades coruscated in the Bakumatsu era that marked Japan’s pivot from an isolationist feudal state, one where samurai were big men on prefectures, to a burgeoning modern power ruled by industry and mass conscription. The irony was that dinosaurs like the Hitokiri helped bring the asteroid down on their own heads. During the chaotic Bakumatsu period, triggered by Japan’s becoming involuntarily opened to the outside world, the emperor — long a figurehead marginalized by...

Radioactive cesium found in Meiji baby formula TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Radioactive cesium of up to 30.8 becquerels per kilogram has been found in baby formula manufactured and sold by Meiji Co., sources familiar with the matter said Tuesday, citing a sampling by the major food company. While it is unclear how the isotope got into the powdered milk, retailed as "Meiji Step," the company suspects a link with the radioactive leaks from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant damaged by the March earthquake and tsunami, they said. Radioactive cesium has been found in baby formula for the first time since...

Did Hirohito play an active part in planning and conducting the war? Japanese emperor Hirohito expressed doubts about going to war with China in the 1930s and 40s, extracts from a diary of one of his advisers reveal. They show Hirohito was afraid the Soviet Union would intervene. The diary by Kuraji Ogura, who worked as a chamberlain to Hirohito in World War II, was found recently and parts have been published in Japan's media. The full text may help solve the debate about how much responsibility the emperor had for Japan's wartime action. South Pacific visit The document...