Archive for November, 2010

Fearing China’s Soft Power

NTV news looks at how Chinese “soft power” is spreading in the United States:

As the report explains, China is “not just seeking territorial expansion,” it is seeking cultural and ideological influence across the world. Examples shown include a Chinese English language media outlet opening an office in downtown New York and the funding of Chinese language/culture education programs.

We are shown an example of a public school in Oklahoma that has a Chinese language class that is funded by the Chinese government. The Japanese reporter looks on in awe as the students practice tai chi. It is an example of some 3,000 such programs the Chinese government has funded across the world. This includes 12 “Confucius Institutes” in Japan.

There are some people who are fighting back against China’s soft power offensive. Concerned Americans are shown speaking out against a PRC-funded “brain-washing” in California public schools.

A Waseda University professor tells NTV that China will keep pushing these programs because it wants to convince the rest of the world that it’s way of doing things, as opposed to the “Western” way of doing things, has value.

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Security Beefed-up in Yokohama for APEC Summit

With the APEC Summit about to begin in Yokohama, Japanese hosts have been taking a very serious approach to security. Here is a report from NTV’s “Bankisha” about the beefed-up security:

Some interesting points:

• Thousands of police officers from across Japan have been deployed to Yokohama, filling up hotels across Kanagawa prefecture. Local businesses have been trying to target business from the police, sometimes offering special deals to officers. Police officers from Osaka have been told to tone down their “scary” Kansai dialect and speak normal Japanese when dealing with people.
• Authorities have prepared armored cars and patrol boats. Mini sonar boats scan the waters for possible submarine attack.
• Cars entering the secured area will have to undergo scans for explosives. Special devices placed on the road can scan the bottom of cars.

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Chinese Authorities Try to Block Citizens from Seeing Senkaku Boat Ramming Video

The Yomiuri Shimbun reports that the Chinese government has been trying to censor all sites that feature the video clips of the Sept. 7th ramming of a Japanese coast guard ship. However, some Chinese netizens who saw the clip are nonetheless supporting their government:

The Chinese government apparently hoped to keep the footage from spreading among the country’s more than 400 million Internet users by deleting it as soon as it appeared on other sites.

However, Chinese who saw the footage posted such comments as “Great and brave captain! We Chinese support you forever,” and “It’s obvious that only the parts of the evidence that are favorable to Japan were shown.”

Some users said they downloaded the footage, but did not want to post it on the Internet because it would have an extremely negative impact on the homeland.

Others were more forthright, with some calling for anti-Japan demonstrations Saturday and saying every Chinese should take action.

Diplomats and other officials fear that the footage may trigger a backlash in China and that Japan will be accused of releasing the video on purpose.

China’s state-controlled media has decided that the content of the video does not matter:

“I would like to reiterate that the Japanese patrol boats had disturbed, driven away, intercepted, surrounded the Chinese fishing boat, which led to the collision,” spokesman Hong Lei said.

Their action was illegal in itself, he said when asked to comment on the release and distribution of the collision video on the Internet, according to a Foreign Ministry press release.

“The so-called video cannot change the fact and cannot conceal the unlawfulness of the Japanese action,” he added.

Meanwhile, the Japanese government is trying to track down the source of the leak. According to TV news reports, the Kan administration has asked Google to hand over information on the YouTube user who uploaded the video.

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Plastic Water Bottles vs. Cats

If you’ve been to Japan, you’ve probably noticed all the water-filled plastic bottles that can be found in residential areas. A lot of people seem to believe that the bottles frighten away cats.

The “Mezamashi TV” morning show recently put this superstition to test by surrounding a bowl of food with water bottles and seeing how cats would react:

Surprise, surprise! The plastic water bottles did nothing. The cats just went right through and ate the food. Even when backed up with the reflective power of mirrors and CD’s, the cats are only distracted from the food for a split second.

An expert consulted confirms what most of us already know: there is no evidence backing up the belief that plastic water bottles will keep cats away.

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Senkaku Footage Leaked on to Internet: Shows Chinese Trawler Ramming Japanese Patrol Boat

The DPJ government’s efforts to appease Chinese anger by refusing to release the video footage of the Sept. 7 collisions between a Chinese trawler and Japanese patrol boats near the Senkaku Islands have failed. Somebody has apparently gone behind their backs and leaked the videos to YouTube.

Here are the two main clips. The first shows the ramming from the point of view of the Japanese patrol boat that was hit:

Longer clip from another collision (at around 2:00 into the video, you can see the Chinese trawler plow head-on into the side of the Japanese ship):

There are a few longer clips on the user’s YouTube channel. The uploader’s user name is sengoku38, a name that was probably picked to send a big middle finger to Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshito Sengoku, the man responsible for the decision not to release the video to the public.

As you can see, the video does not show Japanese patrol boats ramming a Chinese ship. Instead, we can see the Chinese trawler turning into the side of the Japanese vessel. I think it would be safe to say that the Chinese state media’s “attacked by Japanese boats” version of the story (pictured above), was complete bullshit. The Chinese trawler looks to be the one doing the ramming.

Here is what Japanese lawmakers had to say about the video:

After watching an edited version of the Sept. 7 collisions near the Senkaku Islands, Toranosuke Katayama, a House of Councillors member of the Sunrise Party of Japan, said, “The Chinese boat, which I think should have fled the scene, intentionally came straight toward [the Japanese patrol boat]. It was very provocative.”

While the lawmakers felt the Chinese trawler captain warranted arrest, most of them questioned why the government waited more than 50 days to release footage of the collisions that chilled diplomatic ties between Tokyo and Beijing–and why the video was shown only to a select group.

Hiroshi Kawauchi, a lower house member of the Democratic Party of Japan, said the video should have been shown to the public.

“One principle of democracy is to disclose information to the public. A delicate issue like this should have been widely discussed among people by airing [the video] to the public,” he said.

The trawler captain is said to have taunted the Japan Coast Guard vessels that repeatedly ordered the ship to stop. One lawmaker, who watched the footage, said the captain made a universally recognized gesture using his hand in the direction of the JCG vessel. But another lawmaker said he did not clearly see such a gesture.

The Justice Ministry and the Public Prosecutor’s Office said they had seriously considered Diet requests to release the footage. However, some other officials said showing the video was not helpful.

Thanks to the YouTube leak, the video is now playing over and over again on Japanese TV news.

Update: The original video clips were removed after the mysterious sengoku38 YouTube account was closed. However, mirror copies have been uploaded by other YouTube users. I’ll try to keep the post updated with video clips that work.

For those of you without the time or ability to watch video clips, here are some screen captures:

[hat tips to VGS & Aki]

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Dutch Court: Sanrio’s “Cathy” Character is an Unauthorized Copy of Miffy

A Dutch court has ruled that Cathy the rabbit, a character that is part of Sanrio’s Hello Kitty universe, is actually a rip-off of famous Dutch character Miffy (aka Nijntje):

The ruling came after Mercis BV, a copyright management firm representing Dutch children’s book author and Miffy’s creator Dick Bruna, 83, filed a suit against the Japanese company complaining that it has violated Bruna’s copyrights.

Mercis released a statement saying it is satisfied with the court ruling. It is set to file a damages suit against Sanrio if the Japanese company does not comply with the ruling, which is believed to equal a temporary injunction under the Japanese judiciary system.

The ruling determined that Cathy is an imitation of Miffy and called for immediate halt to production, sale and marketing of Cathy goods in the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. It ordered Sanrio to pay 25,000 euros a day in damages in the event of noncompliance.

Unfortunately for the owners of the Miffy copyright, the ruling does not have authority in the many other countries in which Sanrio sells its products.

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