May 23rd, 2013 at 8:00 am » Comments (1)

The Japanese right wing continues to dig a hole for themselves with this latest incident: Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party), whose coleader, Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto, has sparked global outrage for trying to justify Japan’s wartime sex slaves as well as his call that U.S. forces in Okinawa use the local sex industry, will expel a party lawmaker who claims Japan has “swarms” of South Korean prostitutes, officials said Friday. The party member, Shingo Nishimura, a conservative Lower House lawmaker known for discriminatory remarks against women and foreigners,
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May 14th, 2013 at 10:01 pm » Comments (28)

The Mayor of Osaka sure knows how to draw attention to himself for the wrong reasons: U.S. servicemembers should consider soliciting prostitutes to control their “sexual energies,” the mayor of Osaka said Monday. It was a suggestion that apparently didn’t get very far with a Marine commander in Okinawa. Toru Hashimoto, who also co-leads the Japan Restoration Party in the Japanese national parliament, told reporters Monday that he visited with Marine Corps Air Station Futenma’s commander last month and told him that servicemembers should make more use of Japan’s legalized
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May 14th, 2013 at 4:17 pm » Comments (29)

One of Japan’s rising political stars says the use of wartime sex slaves was necessary for brave soldiers bit.ly/12q7D3C — ABC News (@abcnews) May 13, 2013

May 14th, 2013 at 8:06 am » Comments (4)

It looks like the Navy found themselves a volunteer for the expected force draw down: Japanese police arrested a USS Stethem sailor Sunday night on suspicion of unlawful entry after he was found in a Zushi city elementary school. Petty Officer 2nd Class Kristopher Lee Murphy, 23, is suspected of breaking the glass front door at Hisagi Elementary School and was found sleeping in a second-floor classroom at 7:45 p.m., a Zushi police spokesman said. Police were alerted when a school alarm went off, the spokesman said Monday. Murphy was
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May 10th, 2013 at 5:51 pm » Comments (8)

Japanese man arrested for sneaking into apartments & using scissors to cut off the clothing of sleeping women. Police investigating 6 cases — Mark Willacy (@markwillacy) May 10, 2013

May 9th, 2013 at 6:20 am » Comments (10)

Here is the latest from the territorial spat between Japan and China: China criticized Japan on Thursday for lodging a diplomatic protest against a Chinese state media commentary calling into question Japanese sovereignty over the southern Ryukyu Islands, which include Okinawa. The latest angry exchange could further strain tense relations between Asia’s two-largest economies, which are involved in a stand-off over a group of uninhabited islands in the East China Sea, called the Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China. On Wednesday, the People’s Daily, the Chinese Communist Party’s mouthpiece,
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April 29th, 2013 at 3:10 am » Comments (3)

I guess we now know why all the Yasukuni Shrine stuff went on last week, so Abe could reassure his far right base in Japan as he begins what appears to be the beginning of a process to better ties with the Russians who still hold the Japanese Kuril Islands: Shinzo Abe is making the first visit to Russia by a Japanese prime minister in a decade, seeking to shift an almost seven-decade-long stalemate over disputed islands and win more access to energy resources. Abe is visiting Moscow for three
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April 25th, 2013 at 11:55 am » Comments (23)

It looks like Japanese Prime Minister Abe has no fear of provoking a diplomatic dispute with China and South Korea: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Wednesday responded to criticism of his Cabinet from Korea and China by saying officials have the right “not to submit to any threats.” Seoul and Beijing slammed a visit by Japanese Cabinet members and lawmakers to Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine, which houses the remains of Japan’s war dead including convicted war criminals. The right-leaning Japanese leader again seemed to sail close to denying Japan’s responsibility
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April 22nd, 2013 at 7:58 am » Comments (49)

I guess with Shinzo Abe as the Japanese Prime Minister it was only a matter of time before more Yasukuni Shrine nonsense materialized: SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea‘s foreign minister canceled a trip to Japan on Monday after Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made an offering to a shrine seen as a symbol of Japan’s former militarism, a South Korean government official said. China also objected to Abe’s offering on Sunday to the Yasukuni shrine, where 14 Japanese leaders convicted as war criminals by an Allied tribunal are honored, saying Japan had to face up to its past nationalistic
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April 10th, 2013 at 9:43 am » Comments (1)

I don’t tweet and don’t follow Twitter. Officials in the Japanese city of Yokohama have been left red-faced after mistakenly announcing the launch of a North Korean missile to 40,000 followers on Twitter. The city, south of Tokyo, prematurely fired its tweet just before noon (local time), announcing “North Korea has launched a missile” with blank spaces to indicate the exact time. “We received a call from one of our followers who had noticed the mistake,” a city official said. “We had the Tweet ready and waiting, but for an
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