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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May 4th, 2013 at 4:17 am » Comments (5)

This analysis is probably not to much of a surprise to those who have been following China’s aggressive policies towards its neighbors: It’s not just corruption. More than three decades of peace, a booming economy, and an opaque administrative system have taken their toll as well, not to mention that the PLA is one of the world’s largest bureaucracies — and behaves accordingly. “Each unit has a committee with a commander, political commissar, and deputies, to the point they have a meeting now for everything,” says Nan Li, associate professor
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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 8th, 2013 at 6:08 pm » Comments (12)

At least that is what this Stars & Stripes report says: Amid concerns that North Korea could be preparing to launch on if its new missiles, Pentagon officials told the New York Times that it could calculate the missile’s trajectory within seconds and attempt to to shoot it down if threatened South Korea, Japan or Guam, an American territory. However, if the missile was headed for the open sea, even if flew over Japan in the process, military action would not be taken, the Times reported. [Stars & Stripes] I
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