Free Republic

Japan is more Patriotic towards America than many American cities and citizens.

Hours before Haruki Murakami's new book was set to go on sale in Japan on Friday, dozens of fans gathered outside a major Tokyo bookstore for a special event to get their first copies as soon as the clock struck midnight. “The Tale of KAHO” is the Japanese author's first full-length novel featuring a lone woman protagonist, according to Shinchosha Publishing Co. “Kaho, a picture book author, is just an average young woman. But truly bizarre things start happening around her,” Murakami said in a brief message posted on the publisher’s campaign website. “I wrote this novel as I put...

37 year old Japanese farmer Ishii Ryōtarō has been arrested for burning down a illegally constructed mosque by Pakistanis in Ebetsu, Hokkaido. The mosque was there for over 5 years & the local government did nothing to demolish it. Vigilantism was Inevitably going to happen.

A video has been going viral on social media wherein a man in yellow attire can be seen vandalising a worship place. The video is reportedly from the Tarumi Ward in Japan’s Kobe City where the accused identified as Mamadou Balde had vandalised the Mizuoka Hachiman shrine in the area. Balde is a Muslim native of the Republic of Gambia in West Africa, who migrated to Japan and now lives in Tarumi Ward, where the incident took place. The accused, who was later arrested by the Japanese police, reportedly broke an offering box kept in the shrine. He also, reportedly,...

SpaceX may have just dropped its biggest hint yet about what comes after Starship Flight 13. Indeed, FINALLY! Starship's Next Giant Leap may be here as the new filings point toward an Orbital Return Demo that could mark the next major milestone on the road to full reusability. With that work continues at Starbase on Pads 1 and 2, the Gigabay, and future launch infrastructure. Elsewhere this week, we cover Falcon 9 launches carrying BlueBird satellites, Starlink, and another classified NRO mission, Cargo Dragon’s return from the International Space Station, Astrobotic’s Griffin lunar lander preparing for launch, Ariane 6’s impressive...

The wreck of a Japanese prison ship that was sunk by U.S. warplanes and went down with more than 1,000 Allied prisoners of war in 1944 has been discovered in the Philippines. The vessel was one of the notorious "hellships" used by the Japanese to ferry POWs between work camps. Many of the prisoners who died when the ship sank had worked on the infamous Burma-Thailand "Death Railway." "Sadly, a lot of these prisoner transport ships were sunk by the Allies," expedition leader and American TV show host Josh Gates told Live Science. "The ships were painted to just look...

The mayor of the city of Shimotsuma in eastern Japan's Ibaraki Prefecture was found dead in a drainage canal early on June 15. Based on the circumstances at the scene, police are investigating the possibility that he took his own life. The body of Mayor Toyoji Sudo, 67, was found in the drainage canal in Yachiyo, Ibaraki Prefecture, at about 12:50 a.m. According to Shimotsuma Police Station, Sudo's family visited the station at about 11:15 p.m. on June 14, saying that he was late in coming home, and reported him missing. During a subsequent search, a police officer found Sudo...

Japanese World Cup fans put American sports culture to shame over the weekend as videos circulated across social media showing Japanese supporters staying behind after matches to clean up trash throughout the stadium. Many even brought their own trash bags, viewing it as a sign of respect for the host country, the players, fellow fans, and the venue itself. Their display of courtesy was quickly contrasted with the aftermath of the New York Knicks' NBA Finals victory over the weekend, when crowds poured into the streets, smashing vehicles, setting fires, and causing widespread destruction across parts of the city.

They fought a world war, and they lost it, and their populations spent the next 85 years with shrunken militaries and a heavy reliance on their former enemy, America, for security. Now, both countries’ wariness of America has resurfaced, alongside heightened fears about a surging world power, China, and an aggressive Russia. Tokyo and Berlin are rushing to rebuild their militaries. And, once again, they are strengthening ties. Their cooperation is expected to gather momentum at the meeting of the leaders of the Group of 7 nations in Evian, France, this week. It already includes sharing know-how, technology and weapons,...

Japan has resumed operations at the world's largest nuclear power plant to help the country meet huge electricity demands during a global oil crisis, but the reboot highlights a big problem: Japan is running out of space for spent nuclear fuel and has no viable plans for permanent disposal of the radioactive waste. The restart of No. 6 reactor at Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Station earlier this year was meant to spur a movement to bring more nuclear reactors online. Kashiwazaki-Kariwa is one of three plants whose cooling pools will be full in five years, according to the Federation of Electric...

Capt. Wendel Penetrante, Capt. Edwin Catubig and Master Chief Petty Officer Thomas Dean Howell were relieved on Wednesday. No specific reason for their firing has been given. The commanding officer, executive officer and senior enlisted leader of a Navy ship repair facility in Yokosuka, Japan, have been fired, service officials announced on Wednesday. Capt. Wendel Penetrante, Capt. Edwin Catubig and Master Chief Petty Officer Thomas Dean Howell were relieved of their duties on Wednesday as commanding officer, executive officer, and command master chief, respectively, a Navy news release says. They were all assigned to the U.S. Naval Ship Repair Facility...

The Chinese Coast Guard said on Monday it is conducting “law enforcement” patrols east of Taiwan in response to Japan and the Philippines reaching an agreement on maritime boundaries. China denounced the Japanese-Filipino agreement as “completely illegal, null, and void” because it could disrupt China’s expansive territorial claims. “This is a necessary action taken in response to Japan and the Philippines unilaterally announcing the initiation of maritime boundary delimitation negotiations in the waters east of China’s Taiwan island,” the Chinese Coast Guard said. “We urge Japan and the Philippines to immediately cease all illegal actions that infringe upon ​China’s sovereign...

Japan's Environment Ministry said 13 people were killed in more than 230 bear attacks in 2025, exceeding the number of fatalities and attacks in any preceding year. A bear injured four people in a residential area of Japan on Tuesday in the latest case of an attack by the animals in an area of the country where bears have increasingly encroached on the human population in recent years. Police and fire department officials rushed to the scene in the Sasakino district of Fukushima in northeastern Japan after receiving an emergency call from the Fukushima Steel Works reporting bear attacks on...

A decades-old bomb exploded beneath a home, killing at least five people. The explosive detonated in Biak Numfor Regency in Indonesia's Papua Province on Sunday, May 31, leaving at least five people dead and five others hospitalized with injuries, The Jakarta Globe and Antara reported, citing local authorities. Three more people are missing, according to the Indonesian news outlets. The Jakarta Globe reported that the explosion occurred below a stilt house located near the shoreline on Biak town's Walter Mongonsidi Street. Authorities believe the bomb was left in the area during World War II. “The explosion is suspected to have...

Reikado Hall on Miyajima Island's Mount Misen has been known as the home of the "eternal flame" for over 1,200 years. And the thing about eternal flames is that if they do get out of control, you can't really put them out. Otherwise they're not so eternal are they? And then the inevitable happens: A Buddhist hall in Western Japan known for housing an "eternal flame" that has been burning for over 1,000 years caught fire and burned to the ground on Miyajima Island. pic.twitter.com/8HPHGdDu4A— The Associated Press (@AP) May 21, 2026Yep, according to News on Japan, the eternal flame...

The Communist Chinese government rebuked a U.S. Army general for using the words “dagger” and “shield” to respectively describe regional allies South Korea and Japan. Four-star Gen. Xavier Brunson, the commander of the United States Forces Korea (USFK) and United Nations Command, made the analogy during a May 22 podcast interview conducted by the United States Army War College, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) first reported. Nearly a week later, the Chinese embassy in South Korea responded by issuing what it called a “solemn warn[ing]” to the general, claiming his use of figurative language to characterize the U.S.’s East...

A U.S. Navy sailor who died at age 17 aboard the battleship USS West Virginia during the 1941 Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor will be buried May 30 in his Arkansas hometown. Fireman 3rd Class Royle Luker will be buried with full military honors at New Bethel Cemetery in Plainview, where he was raised before enlisting in June 1941, according to a Navy news release Wednesday. He was the son of George Luker, a World War I veteran, and Nettie Estelle David Luker. He is survived by two nephews and a niece, according to his obituary on the Cornwell...

A genetic study of the remains of four 2,000-year-old dogs recovered from two archaeological sites on the Korean Peninsula suggests that the canines belonged to a lineage separate from other dog populations in East Asia, according to the Korea JoongAng Daily. It had been previously thought that dog populations in East Asian shared a single lineage. Hyeongcheol Kim of the Gaya National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage, Suyeon Kim and A-reum Yu of the National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage, and their colleagues determined that ancient Korean dogs resembled the Australian dingo and the New Guinea singing dog. Korean dogs...

The Free and Open Indo-Pacific vision, initially articulated by Prime Minister Abe Shinzō in 2016...includes capacity-building assistance aimed at strengthening governance, maritime security, and navigational safety. FOIP represented a major step forward in Japan’s strategic engagement in the Indo-Pacific region, particularly in Southeast Asia. For example, the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force has conducted Indo-Pacific Deployment long-range training missions, mainly in the South China Sea, since 2017. These deployments deliberately incorporate port visits and joint exercises with regional navies, reflecting broader strategic considerations. Over the past decade, China’s maritime law-enforcement capabilities and naval power have expanded significantly, fundamentally transforming the security...

A mutant super pig population has spiraled out of control — thanks to their inherited, rapid reproductive cycles — in the ghost towns of a nuclear fallout zone in Japan, according to reports and researchers. The 2011 Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant disaster, spurred by a massive 9.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami, forced roughly 164,000 people to flee from their homes to escape the radiation zone. Amid the chaos, domestic pigs escaped into abandoned farmland and began interbreeding with indigenous feral boars — creating a mutant pig population with alarming genes, Popular Science reported. Researchers from Fukushima and Hirosaki Universities discovered...