Japan Probe » Anti-Japan

Japanese Documentary About Sea Shepherd’s Protest Activities in Taiji (English Subtitles)

James — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 01:04:28 +0000

Somebody has translated an Japanese TV documentary about Sea Shepherd’s activities in Taiji and uploaded the video to youtube:

Part 1

Part 2

The documentary mentions how “The Cove” won the Academy Award for best documentary “last year,” so this probably aired on Japanese TV some time in 2011.

The network that created the documentary, Asahi TV, is considered politically liberal/left. However, even a liberal network has great difficulty feeling any sympathy for the SS members, who harass both fishermen and documentary filmmakers.

The fishermen are pleased to receive attention from legitimate journalists, and even tell the TV crew about a hill where they can film the dolphin hunt. In the early days of the filming, SS members were also willing to be interviewed, but they later decided to sop doing so. ( It’s probably not good PR to have your people make asses of themselves on Japanese TV by talking about how “fun” it is to harass fishermen. )

They also interview Peter Bethune, a former member of Sea Shepherd who resigned after he was arrested and jailed for illegally boarding a Japanese ship. Bethune thinks that Paul Watson and other leaders of Sea Shepherd are dishonest and do more harm than good. Examples of this dishonest include scuttling a ship and claiming that the Japanese whalers “sunk” it, as well as Watson’s infamous “I’ve been shot” episode.

We are also shown activists who oppose the dolphin hunt but do not support Sea Shepherd’s tactics. One is Ady Gil, a former donor to Sea Shepherd who thinks that people should help Taiji develop and eco tourism business. And there is a Japanese woman (formerly a member of the Sea Shepherd anti-whaling crew) and a group of foreign activists who are protesting without hatred towards the people of Taiji.

Here are a few links to additional information about this issue:

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Does K-Pop Group KARA Have Ties to North Korea?

James — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 06:11:04 +0000

Some Japanese netizens have a theory about this man, who has often been seen accompanying the South Korean pop group KARA:

They think he’s the same person as this ruffian who clashed with police outside the offices of Chongryon (Chosen Soren), an organization of pro-DPRK Korean residents of Japan:

They both share some facial features:

Those that see the “Korean Wave” in Japan as a fabrication are claiming that this is yet another example of how Korean pop culture’s popularity in Japan is part of an anti-Japanese conspiracy. They are not at all surprised that KARA would be seen associating with North Korean agents.

According to an article on the Rakuten/Infoseek Woman news site, the entertainment company that handles KARA has stated that the man is a “schedule manager” for the music group. They are looking into the accusations that he is a member of Chongryon.

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Korean Ultra-Nationalists Lobby Virginia: Demand Textbooks Use Korea-centric Geography (“East Sea”) @SenDaveMarsden

James — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 06:23:44 +0000

For the last several years, South Korean ultra-nationalists have been lobbying publishing companies and governments around the world, demanding that “East Sea” replace or be written alongside “Sea of Japan” in maps and books. They are angry about how people in other countries call the sea to the east of Korea by a
“pro-Japanese” name.

Although there are mountains of historical evidence that show widespread international use of the name predates Japan’s opening to the world in the 1850′s, these Korean ultra-nationalists insist that Japanese imperialists are responsible for the name.

As an alternative, they suggest that the entire world adopt the translation of their Korea-centric term for the sea: “East Sea.”

Their misinformation campaign appears to have gained some ground in areas of the United States with large ethnic Korean populations. Several days ago, they tried to trick the state of Virginia into requiring the use of “East Sea” in its textbooks. Luckily, the State Senate rejected their plan.

As reported by Korea’s Arirang News:

The Senate’s Education and Health Committee voted down the legislation 7 to 8, brought to a vote by Democrat Dave Marsden representing a constituency with a large Korean-American community.

The bill was strongly opposed by Republicans who called the measure “micromanagement” and raised concerns over possible strife and disorder that could arise from the legislation.

Korea argues that historically the more common name for the body of water between Korea and Japan is “East Sea” and NOT the “Sea of Japan.”

If you live in Virginia and would like to express your displeasure with Senator David Marsden’s blatant pandering to foreign ultra-nationalists, contact him via Twitter, Facebook, or his website.

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Remember World War II: Sea Shepherd Depicts Japanese As Uniquely Cruel & Dishonest

James — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 04:26:15 +0000

In response to yesterday’s blog post about the existence of racism and prejudice among opponents of Japanese whaling, some readers complained that I was focusing too much on the words of a anonymous internet lunatics. Why should Sea Shepherd be mentioned in connection with these extremists?

Paul Watson and his organization do not openly resort to racism. But they do use arguments that stir up ugly racism and hatred. As Brendan O’Neill mentioned, anti-whalers have revived “World War II propaganda that tended to depict the Japanese as a uniquely wicked people.” The Sea Shepherd website is full of material that tells readers that the Japanese have a long history of brutality and dishonesty.

Below are a few quotations from Sea Shepherd founder and president Paul Watson. All are taken from official articles posted on Sea Shepherd’s homepage.

Paul Watson in November 2007:

The Japanese say that whaling is a matter of national pride. What kind of sick perverse culture can take pride in the cruel and bloody slaughter of whales and dolphins? oh yes, I almost forgot, the same culture responsible for the Rape of Nanking and the beheading of Australian, American, Canadian and Dutch soldiers and civilians.

Paul Watson in June 2006:

The brutal killing of whales has become an icon for the Japanese identity. This is not unusual. Japan has always closely identified with blood and slaughter. From the decapitations by the Samurai upon innocent peasants to the suicidal insanity of the Kamikaze, violence and self destruction have been a part of Japanese culture.

Paul Watson in October 2007:

Almost half a million dolphins have died in the annual dolphin death drives. The bays run red with the hot blood of these screaming creatures as Japanese fishermen slash, stab, spear, and club the animals to death. Witnessing the slaughter and watching innocent children being fed poison is reminiscent of another era, a time that many of us thought had long past-the time of the Rape of Nanking, comfort women, medical experiments on humans, the Bataan death march-a time when Japanese ruthlessness shocked and horrified the world. And now this! This unimaginable horror! Every bit as disturbing as the events of a generation ago. And yet just like in pre-war Japan, the media are complicit, the public apathetic, and the politicians compromised.

Paul Watson in May 2008:

I guess we can add it to the long list of major conspiracies at the heart of Japan’s government like the rape of Nanking that apparently did not happen and “dolphins, what dolphins are being killed in Taiji?”

Paul Watson in May 2006:

This level of imperialist exploitation has not been seen since the Japanese army swept in and slaughtered the Chinese people and invaded their lands.

Paul Watson in March 2008:

this is the nation that still denies the Rape of Nanking, that still denies enslaving Korean and Chinese women as “comfort women,” that still denies torturing POW’s during the war, that still denies destroying the rainforests of Indonesia and over-fishing the world’s oceans. Japanese history is a chronicle of deceptions.

Those interested in the Japanese government’s stance regarding war atrocities can check its official statements online: Rape of Nanking / Comfort Women / Prisoners of War

Paul Watson in January 2010, comparing the wartime sinking of an Australian hospital ship to sinking of a Sea Shepherd ship:

Nothing has changed much. The sinking of the Centaur, a hospital ship in 1943 was deliberate and it was a war crime that killed 278 Australians, yet Japan still to this day refuses to acknowledge responsibility in the face of overwhelming evidence. The same holds true for the sinking of the Ady Gil, no matter what evidence or the results of Australian and New Zealand investigations, Japan will refuse to acknowledge responsibility.

( It later came to light that Sea Shepherd members had deliberately scuttled the Ady Gil to “garner sympathy” towards their cause. )

Paul Watson in April 2010, comparing Pete Bethune’s arrest for illegally boarding a Japanese ship to the wartime treatment of Allied POW’s:

Bethune was not brought back to Japan as a criminal. He was brought back as a prisoner on the ship that had so viciously attacked him and when that ship arrived it was greeted with a nationalist rally of cheering and jeering Japanese right-wingers in the same manner as they cheered the marching of POW’s down the Kokoda Trail or through the streets of Tokyo in 1942.

This was the first time since the Pacific War with Japan that an ANZAC soldier (Pete is a veteran) was transported back to Japan from the Southern Ocean after the sinking of his ship, and the first time that a prisoner was greeted with such jingoistic hatred. They treated him as a prisoner of war and that is exactly what he is.

Paul Watson and Sea Shepherd will, of course, say that they do not condone racism and do not mean to denounce all Japanese people. But, whether intended or not, Sea Shepherd’s persistent use of World War II atrocities is extremely effective in encouraging the revival of old hatreds that existed in the 1940′s.

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Anti-Whaling Groups Display “Open Prejudice” Towards Japanese

James — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 03:31:21 +0000

The Australian has printed an excellent opinion piece by Brendan O’Neill (“Shades of open prejudice in war on whalers“). He argues that prejudice and racism are behind the views of some anti-whalers:

The attempt to transform Sea Shepherd’s cynical seafaring shenanigans, this overblown act of adrenalin-pumping adventure tourism, into a clash between the Australian and Japanese authorities shows what lies behind concern for whales today: a desire to exert the moral authority of what are presumed to be Good People (in this case Australia) over Bad People (Japanese).

One of the key driving forces behind much international animal rights activism is not so much love for animals as disgust and disdain for wicked human beings especially human beings with dark or “yellow” skin.

So Australia’s anti-whalers have successfully rehabilitated what many of us considered to be long-dead prejudices against the Japanese.

Echoing World War II propaganda that tended to depict the Japanese as uniquely wicked – far more weirdly sadistic than the Germans, say – the Sea Shepherd website informs us that the whaling carried out in the Southern Ocean is “cruel and barbaric, a gross sadistic perversion”.

A columnist for The Courier-Mail once lamented the “uncivilised barbarity” of that whaling nation of Japan, in contrast to Australia, which is “a civilised nation of pet-lovers”.

Here, the issue of whaling is openly used to advertise the decency of white folk who own puppies over yellow people who scoff whale meat.

Sea Shepherd has also referred to Japanese whalers as “viciously cruel” and as “terrorists”. On one eco-website, a contributor to an online debate about Japanese whaling said explicitly what other people generally only hint at – that the Japanese kill whales because they are “f . . king evil bloodthirsty amoral wankers”.

Sometimes, there’s a very thin line between international animal rights activism and xenophobia. Often, expressing concern for God’s creatures is a cover for communicating disgust with ungodly human beings.

Over the last few days, I had a chance to experience the prejudice of some of Sea Shepherd’s most fanatical supporters. Several SS members stumbled upon last week’s post about the Australian government having to spend “hundreds of thousands of dollars” to pick up activists who illegally boarded a Japanese ship as part of a SS-directed operation. They noticed a poll asking JapanProbe readers whether the activists should reimburse the Australian government for the expense of the rescue, so they used tweets to send hundreds of supporters to spam the poll with pro-SS votes.

I altered the poll to void their spam votes. I don’t know what they expected to achieve by changing the results of an unscientific poll on a blog post that was already off the front page of this blog. After the poll was voided, I figured it might make them go away and could reduce the number of racist comments that were flooding the post. Judging from some of the death threats I received, it seems that quite a few of them thought that I was a Japanese government official or part of the “yakuza-controlled” Japanese media. Many of them seem to think that people in Japan get their news from English language blogs that occasionally translate Japanese media reports. So, by altering the results of a poll that had been skewed by Sea Shepherd spamming, I was hiding the “truth” from the Japanese people.

Below are a few excerpts from e-mails and comments I received this week. Several clearly reflect the kind of prejudice that O’Neill mentioned in his article.

From Maria, a “Proud Resident of Fair Australia” who assumed that I was a Japanese person who worked for the “jap government” and was announcing her intent to report my blog to the Australian government:

“I understand what type of a lying and hateful breed of people the Japanese people are….

[...]

….It will be a very happy day when Japan is brought to its knees for their crimes and the world will be rejoicing because finally Japan has shamed themselves for the last time. I hope one day that all Japanese people are banned from entering my wonderful, caring and honest country. I dont want my children to grow up with your terrible children.“

A line from an e-mail from Sonya McNerk:

“You lot are such idiots….I have yet to meet and honest and honourable Japanese person.“

And a comment from Celeste:

“…if you have family like i do and you care about their future please donate to Sea Shepherd so they can fund these very important campaigns and hopefully save the planet and keep the disgusting japanese race out of our beautiful and caring country.“

A comment from Martinguest, who thinks that “under evolved” Japanese are killing whales, and that SS should “research” the Japanese (or, in other words, kill the Japanese):

“How can anyone condemn Sea Shepherd? These are people merely carrying out ‘research’ on lowlife that carry out cowardly attacks on whales! Sea Shepherd would gladly accept the handing over of their ‘kidnapped’ crew members so they can continue their ‘research’! There is obviously a number of under evolved humans that think chasing families then hacking to death (a long agonising death) the adults of the family is acceptable behaviour. However this is not the view of civilised people so, unfortunately Sea Shepherd will have to continue its’ highly valuable ‘research’!“

There are, of course, plenty of non-prejudiced people who oppose whaling. However, a great many of Sea Shepherd’s most loyal supporters seem to carry outrageously ugly prejudices against the Japanese.

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Sea Shepherd’s Idiotic Antics Cost Australian Taxpayers “Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars”

James — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 05:52:43 +0000

Here is a follow-up on the three animal rights activists who illegally boarded a Japanese whaling ship a few days ago. The Japanese have agreed to the Australian government’s request that the men be released, but an Australian customs vessel will have to come pick them up. Attorney-General Nicola Roxon is making it clear that Sea Shepherd’s antics are going to be expensive for Australian taxpayers:

The mission to retrieve the men would cost “hundreds of thousands of dollars” and bad weather could increase the taxpayers’ tab further, Ms Roxon said.

“I would very much like these three men to consider what contribution they would make, or the Sea Shepherd (environmental group) for that matter,” Ms Roxon said.

“I’m not going to be holding my breath. The truth is the taxpayer will foot the bill for this sort of action.”

Sea Shepherd has insisted that there is no need for an Australian ship, since they can accept the direct return of the men. The Japanese are, of course, will not hand over criminals to the organization directly responsible for their illegal act (especially since the organization has a history of ramming whaling ships).

Meanwhile, even Prime Minister Julia Gillard has expressed her lack of approval for Sea Shepherd’s activities:

“People might want to make their views heard, and they should, but people need to make sure they stay on the right side of the line and engage in legal activity.”

Should Sea Shepherd reimburse Australian taxpayers for the cost of this rescue?

Update: The men who illegally boarded the Japanese ship are glad that Australian taxpayers will be paying for the costly rescue mission. The stunt, which did not save any whales, was “worth it.”

The Sydney Morning Herald has a printed a very good letter to the editor:

Although my wife and I have for many years been lovers of whales and avid supporters of measures to protect them, we strongly object to Australian taxpayers bearing the cost of thousands of dollars to assist the three Australians who committed stupid and illegal acts against a sovereign Japanese ship (”Whalers gain upper hand in protest boat chase”, January 11). We should never reward criminal behaviour.

The actions of these so-called ”activists” have damaged Australia’s international image and our efforts to protect whales. They and their supporters should be forced to pay for their release.

David Harris, Clifton Grove

Note to the people being directed to spamvote: Listen to Mr. Harris.

Note: I noticed a huge increase in racist and bigoted comment posts this morning, and found that Sea Shepherd twitter accounts have been calling on their loyal fanatics to spam this poll. Prior to calls from SS Twitter accounts to spamvote, the poll results overwhelmingly called on SS to pay back Australian taxpayers. The poll answers have been altered to reflect the spamming. You guys are welcome to spam the poll some more, but flooding an online poll with votes won’t change anything.

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Australian Activists Illegally Board Japanese Whaling Ship

James — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 00:00:09 +0000

Three members of the radical animal rights groups Sea Shepherd and Forest Rescue Australia have been detained after illegally boarding a Japanese whaling ship. The incident took place 40 kilometers offshore, outside Australian territorial waters.

Here is Sea Shepherd’s version of the story from the West Australian (one of the many media outlets that uncritically acts as a PR outlet for SS):

“Some of our crew members with experience in boarding the Japanese ships met them in two of our inflatable boats in waters off Bunbury,” Sea Shepherd leader Paul Watson said.

“We (The Steve Irwin) stopped, called in that we were having engine trouble and also posted that on our website, because we know the Japanese monitor our website.

“Our vessel was 12 miles away, and I think being boarded was the last thing the Japanese thought would happen.

“It was total darkness on that ship and they had to climb around razor wire, we also know they carry military equipment.”

Forest Rescue Australia spokeswoman Amy Flee said the three men were well aware of the risks involved when they volunteered.

“They knew full well that they would probably be arrested,” she said.

As the activists note, the people who did this were fully aware that they could be arrested. They were certainly aware of the case of Pete Bethune, who was arrested in 2010 after acting under the orders of Sea Shepherd and carrying out a similar “raid” on Japanese ships. Bethune was convicted, but released with a suspended sentence.

The men were carrying a note that said “Return us to shore in Australia and then remove yourself from our waters.” But, as Australian Attorney-General Nicola Roxon has admitted, the incident did not take place in Australian territory:

”If this vessel is close to Australian waters, you’d think there was a possibility that [they] would promptly have discussions with us about a safe and immediate return,” Ms Roxon said.

But Ms Roxon expressed no confidence this would happen, saying the government’s options were restricted because the incident happened outside territorial waters.

”It is likely that these three Australians may be taken back to Japan,” she said.

Sea Shepherd, which has a consistent record of outright dishonesty, has claimed that they boarded the vessel within Australian territorial waters. (Don’t take my word for it, just ask Pete Bethune, who says the organization is dishonest and morally bankrupt.)

This latest act of illegal boarding seems to show that Japan was being too lenient when it gave a suspended sentence to Bethune. The same organization has repeated the same crime, fully aware of its illegality, and probably thinks that its members will not face actual prison sentences.

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Firebomb Attack on Japanese Embassy in Seoul

James — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 10:07:42 +0000

South Korean police have detained a Chinese man who threw several Molotov cocktails at the Japanese embassy in Seoul:

The man from Guangzhou, who came to South Korea on a tourist visa on Dec. 26 via Japan, claimed he also set fire to Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine before leaving that country, Park said.

Before entering South Korea, Liu had stayed in Japan for two months since October as a volunteer to help victims of March’s massive earthquake and tsunami, the officer added.

“We discovered Liu is the one who claimed to have set fire to the door of Japan’s Yasukuni Shrine last month,” Park said.

Much like the fire set at the Yasukuni Shrine, no serious damage was inflicted and nobody was hurt.

The man told police that his grandmother had been a “comfort woman” during the war and he threw the firebombs “to protest Japan’s refusal to apologize for its war crimes.”

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Koreans Plaster Tokyo With Comfort Women Posters

James — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 21:37:33 +0000

Last week, South Korean nationalists bought a full page ad in the Wall Street Journal:

Singer Kim Jang-hoon and Sungshin Women’s University professor Seo Kyoung-duk used ad space in the Wall Street Journal on Thursday (Dec 29), requesting compensation or a public apology from the Japanese government on former sex slaves.

Headlined “Do You Hear?” the ad shows a photo of Korean elderly women who were “comfort women” forced to serve as sex slaves for Japanese soldiers during World War II and explains that they have been holding weekly meetings outside the Japanese Embassy in Seoul since 1992. It adds that the number of attendants to the gatherings has grown to about 1,000.

The poster is highly misleading. It falsely claims that the Japanese government never paid compensation to the victims . It also incorrectly states that there have been no official apologies (“The Japanese government….has never expressed any intention of compensation or public apology for its atrocities”).

A few days later, the Korean media reported that Japanese translations of the advertisement had been printed as posters and placed throughout Tokyo. Searchina has translated some of the information from the reports into Japanese.

The two nationalists called on Korean residents of Japan to put up the posters. Some South Korean students in Japan were apparently inspired by her message, and about 1,500 posters were put up around Tokyo. The students targeted areas that received a lot of pedestrian traffic (such as Shinjuku, Shibuya, and Harajuku).

There are plans to do the same thing in the Kansai region of Japan.

Given the inflammatory content of the posters, it is highly unlikely that they found over a thousand places that would willingly display them. As angry 2channelers have pointed out, the Koreans are probably illegally putting up posters without the permission of property owners.

[ Since some people who come across this story may only be familiar with the Korean nationalist spin on the comfort women issue, here is a repost of some background information I wrote for a previous post.]

Background Information on Japan’s Official Response to the Comfort Women Issue

The issue of war reparations was addressed during the negotiations of the 1965 Treaty on Basic Relations between Japan and the Republic of Korea. The South Korean government accepted a huge sum of money from Japan, stating that it would take care of the distribution of reparations to individual Korean victims of Japanese imperialism. The South Korean government agreed that its citizens would no longer have the legal right to demand compensation payments from the Japanese government.

Unfortunately for the victims, the South Korean government hid the reparations agreement from its citizens and used the money for other purposes. For decades, South Koreans believed that Japan had not properly paid reparations to their country. The South Korean government eventually admitted the truth in 2005:

In January 2005, the South Korean government disclosed 1,200 pages of diplomatic documents that recorded the proceeding of the treaty. The documents, kept secret for 40 years, recorded that South Korea agreed to demand no compensations, either at the government or individual level, after receiving $800 million in grants and soft loans from Japan as compensation for its 1910–45 colonial rule in the treaty.
The documents also recorded that the Korean government demanded a total of 364 million dollars in compensation for the 1.03 million Koreans conscripted into the workforce and the military during the colonial period, at a rate of 200 dollars per survivor, 1,650 dollars per death and 2,000 dollars per injured person.However, the South Korean government used most of the grants for economic development, failing to provide adequate compensation to victims by paying only 300,000 won per death in compensating victims of forced labor between 1975 and 1977. Instead, the government spent most of the money establishing social infrastructures, founding POSCO, building Gyeongbu Expressway and the Soyang Dam with the technology transfer from Japanese companies.

The documents also reveal that the South Korean government claimed that it would handle individual compensation to its citizens who suffered during Japan’s colonial rule while rejecting Japan’s proposal to directly compensate individual victims and receiving the whole amount of grants on the behalf of victims.(emphasis added)

Despite this evidence, many Koreans insist to this day that Japan never paid any form of compensation to their country. They have also dismissed or ignored the Japanese government’s numerous apologies to victims of imperialism.

When the comfort women issue gained international attention in the 1990′s, the Japanese government decided that it was a special case. Despite the fact that the previous treaty had legally settled the reparations issue and despite the fact that South Korea had paid compensation to the women, measures were taken to provide additional aid to former comfort women. Directly paying reparations would violate the 1965 agreement, so the Japanese government instead established the Asian Women’s Fund to raise funds and deliver compensation payments.

As noted on the Japanese Foreign Ministry’s homepage, the official response to the issue included apologies and the distribution of billions of yen in reparations to surviving comfort women:

Recognizing that the issue known as “comfort women” was a grave affront to the honor and dignity of a large number of women, the Government of Japan, together with the people of Japan, seriously discussed what could be done for expressing their sincere apologies and remorse to the former “comfort women.” As a result, the Asian Women’s Fund (AWF) was established on July 19, 1995 in order to extend atonement from Japanese people to the former “comfort women.” Having decided to provide necessary assistance for the AWF by a Cabinet decision in August 1995, the Government of Japan, with a view to fulfilling its moral responsibility, had been providing all possible assistance for the AWF, including bearing the total operational costs of the AWF, assisting its fund-raising and providing the necessary funds to implement its activities (approximately 4.8 billion yen from the AWF’s founding through fiscal year of 2005), in order for the AWF to attain its goals.

The AWF closed its doors in 2006, after having spent a decade searching for surviving comfort women and delivering compensation and apologies to those willing to accept them. Sadly, many former comfort women rejected the apologies and compensation. This was because Korean nationalists had convinced them that a foundation established and funded by the Japanese government was “unofficial,” and thus the AWF’s work did not amount to a “sincere” effort by Japan. The civic group that erected the bronze statue is made up of people who hold such a view of the AWF.

And finally, here are two frequently mentioned points that should probably be addressed.

“Korea wasn’t a democratic country in 1965” – Apparently, some people think that the entire 1965 agreement should be scrapped because Park Chung-hee was not a democratically elected ruler. Unfortunately, that’s not how diplomacy works. Japan had no control over the form of government in South Korea, and it had to deal with the South Korea that existed at that time. Compensation payments were necessary to normalize relations, and Japan had to agree to pay that money to the South Korean government before the treaty could be signed. Waiting decades to see if South Korea would ever democratize was not a realistic option. And it isn’t fair to expect that Japan should repay that money because the South Korean government didn’t properly execute the domestic end of the agreement. [ It's also strange to think that Japan should be held accountable for the actions of its pre-1945 undemocratic regime, but that Korea should ignore the actions of its previous undemocratic regime.]
“Why doesn’t Japan just make a direct payment of compensation to the women?” – Since the end of World War II, Japan has used bilateral agreements to settle reparations issues with all of the countries that suffered due to Japanese imperialism. Billions of yen were paid to the national governments of countries. The agreements made individual compensation a legal matter between the people of those countries and the governments of those countries. These kinds of state level agreements are widely recognized throughout the world, and are far more common than agreements that leave open the possibility of compensation lawsuits from individuals. If Japan were to void its agreement with South Korea by paying direct individual compensation to the former comfort women, it would in effect void all the other postwar reparations agreements. Reparations that were already legally settled and already paid at the state level would have to be re-paid at the individual level. The Asian Women’s Fund allowed Japan to avoid the legal mess of voiding treaties, while still being able to satisfying a desire to pay special compensation to the surviving comfort women. (To learn more about Japan’s state level compensation policy, check out Japan’s Contested War Memories by Philip Seaton and flip to page 59.)

This summary of the apology/compensation issue is not meant to belittle or insult the former comfort women. Their suffering was great, and they deserved compensation and apologies. This summary was meant to provide a calm and rational look at how the postwar Japanese government has already taken very real actions in response to the situation – including very real apologies and very real monetary compensation.

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Prime Minister Noda: Comfort Women Issue Already Resolved

James — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 14:30:03 +0000

South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak visited Japan today to meet with Prime Minister Noda. Unfortunately, this week’s placing of a comfort woman “peace” statue in front of the Japanese embassy Seoul meant that Lee had to use the meeting to pander to his country’s anti-Japanese nationalists:

Japan, which insists the issue was legally settled four decades ago, promised only that it would “think carefully” from a humanitarian standpoint, but stopped well short of offering a fresh apology, officials said.

“South Korea and Japan should become real partners for peace and stability in this region,” the visiting South Korean president told his opposite number.

“And for that to happen, we need to have the courage to resolve as a priority the issue of military comfort women, which has been a stumbling block between our countries,” Lee said.

Noda, on his part, correctly calmly pointed out that the issue had already been resolved. In 1965, South Korea accepted payments from Japan, agreeing that the matter of individual compensation would be settled. Despite the legal settlement, Japan offered extra compensation payments and apologies to surviving comfort women in the 1990′s. The Japanese government has also issued numerous apologies to Korea and the other nations it occupied prior to 1945.

Lee, who once declared that he would not seek further apologies from Japan, seems to recognize that Korea’s new demands for compensation have zero legal standing:

“This is a matter of national sentiment and emotion rather than laws,” Lee said, urging Noda to make a “political” decision based on “warm heart”, rather than technical judgement.
“If there is no sincere measure, there will be second or third monuments like this whenever each old lady passes away,” Lee said, referring to the statue.

For some Japanese, this will appear to be a matter of national sentiment – of a nation that does not honor agreements and will never be satisfied.

(See this post for information about how Japan has already apologized and paid hundreds of millions of dollars to South Korea.)

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Comfort Woman Statue Erected Outside of Japanese Embassy in Seoul

James — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 04:49:40 +0000

A South Korean civic group has erected a bronze statue of a comfort woman in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul:

A civic group demanding that the Japanese government apologize to and compensate Korean “comfort women,” who were forced to provide sexual services to Japanese soldiers before and during World War II, erected a bronze monument symbolizing the victims in front of the Japanese Embassy here on Dec. 14.

The monument, referred to as a “peace statue,” was unveiled during an official ceremony on Dec. 14, a day that also marked the group’s 1,000th protest in front of the Japanese Embassy, held every Wednesday since January 1992.

The statue sits directly across the street from the gate to the Japanese embassy. There is an empty chair beside it, allowing tourist to have their picture taken with the comfort woman.

As you can see from the embedded news clip from Japanese TV, this has received a considerable amount of attention in Japan. In addition to clips of South Korean protesters demanding more compensation for surviving comfort women, it shows footage of Japanese people holding protests in Tokyo. Japanese police kept apart two groups of protesters: one in favor of more compensation for comfort women, and one opposing the statue.

When the Japanese news anchors discuss the issue at the end of the clip, they call on Prime Minister Noda bring up the issue of the statue during an upcoming meeting with South Korea’s President Lee Myung-bak. The statue could hurt Japan’s image and encourage an incorrect understanding of the comfort women issue.

The Japanese government has already officially objected to the statue, citing the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, a treaty that both Japan and Korea have signed. Article 22 of the Convention states that host countries must impair the “dignity” of foreign embassies:

2. The receiving State is under a special duty to take all appropriate steps to protect the premises of the mission against any intrusion or damage and to prevent any disturbance of the peace of the
mission or impairment of its dignity.

The South Korean government brushed aside official Japanese complaints about the plan to erect the statue, and now that it’s complete, it seems doubtful that they will change their minds.

Background Information on Japan’s Official Response to the Comfort Women Issue

In January 2005, the South Korean government disclosed 1,200 pages of diplomatic documents that recorded the proceeding of the treaty. The documents, kept secret for 40 years, recorded that South Korea agreed to demand no compensations, either at the government or individual level, after receiving $800 million in grants and soft loans from Japan as compensation for its 1910–45 colonial rule in the treaty.
The documents also recorded that the Korean government demanded a total of 364 million dollars in compensation for the 1.03 million Koreans conscripted into the workforce and the military during the colonial period, at a rate of 200 dollars per survivor, 1,650 dollars per death and 2,000 dollars per injured person.However, the South Korean government used most of the grants for economic development, failing to provide adequate compensation to victims by paying only 300,000 won per death in compensating victims of forced labor between 1975 and 1977. Instead, the government spent most of the money establishing social infrastructures, founding POSCO, building Gyeongbu Expressway and the Soyang Dam with the technology transfer from Japanese companies.

The documents also reveal that the South Korean government claimed that it would handle individual compensation to its citizens who suffered during Japan’s colonial rule while rejecting Japan’s proposal to directly compensate individual victims and receiving the whole amount of grants on the behalf of victims.(emphasis added)

When the comfort women issue gained international attention in the 1990′s, the Japanese government decided that it was a special case. Despite the fact that the previous treaty had legally settled the reparations issue, measures were taken to aid former comfort women. Directly paying reparations would violate the 1965 agreement, so the Japanese government instead established the Asian Women’s Fund to raise funds and deliver compensation payments.

As noted on the Japanese Foreign Ministry’s homepage, the official response to the issue included apologies and the distribution of billions of yen in reparations to surviving comfort women:

Recognizing that the issue known as “comfort women” was a grave affront to the honor and dignity of a large number of women, the Government of Japan, together with the people of Japan, seriously discussed what could be done for expressing their sincere apologies and remorse to the former “comfort women.” As a result, the Asian Women’s Fund (AWF) was established on July 19, 1995 in order to extend atonement from Japanese people to the former “comfort women.” Having decided to provide necessary assistance for the AWF by a Cabinet decision in August 1995, the Government of Japan, with a view to fulfilling its moral responsibility, had been providing all possible assistance for the AWF, including bearing the total operational costs of the AWF, assisting its fund-raising and providing the necessary funds to implement its activities (approximately 4.8 billion yen from the AWF’s founding through fiscal year of 2005), in order for the AWF to attain its goals.

Update: Here are two important points that should probably be addressed.

“Korea wasn’t a democratic country in 1965” – Apparently, some people think that the entire 1965 agreement should be scrapped because Park Chung-hee was not a democratically elected ruler. Unfortunately, that’s not how diplomacy works. Japan had no control over the form of government in South Korea, and it had to deal with the South Korea that existed at that time. Compensation payments were necessary to normalize relations, and Japan had to agree to pay that money to the South Korean government before the treaty could be signed. Waiting decades to see if South Korea would ever democratize was not a realistic option. And it isn’t fair to expect that Japan should repay that money because the South Korean government didn’t properly execute the domestic end of the agreement. [ It's also strange to think that Japan should be held accountable for the actions of its pre-1945 undemocratic regime, but that Korea should ignore the actions of its previous undemocratic regime.]
“Why doesn’t Japan just make a direct payment of compensation to the women?” – Since the end of World War II, Japan has used bilateral agreements to settle reparations issues with all of the countries that suffered due to Japanese imperialism. Billions of yen were paid to the national governments of countries. The agreements made individual compensation a legal matter between the people of those countries and the governments of those countries. These kinds of state level agreements are widely recognized throughout the world, and are far more common than agreements that leave open the possibility of compensation lawsuits from individuals. If Japan were to void its agreement with South Korea by paying direct individual compensation to the former comfort women, it would in effect void all the other postwar reparations agreements. Reparations that were already legally settled and already paid at the state level would have to be re-paid at the individual level. The Asian Women’s Fund allowed Japan to avoid the legal mess of voiding treaties, while still being able to satisfying a desire to pay special compensation to the surviving comfort women. (To learn more about Japan’s state level compensation policy, check out Japan’s Contested War Memories by Philip Seaton and flip to page 59.)

This summary of the apology/compensation issue is not meant to belittle or insult the former comfort women. Their suffering was great, and they deserve compensation and apologies. This post was meant to provide a calm and rational look at how the postwar Japanese government has already taken very real actions in response to the situation – including very real apologies and very real monetary compensation.

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Sound Equipment Failure Reveals Japanese Boy Band’s Atrocious Singing

James — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 05:40:12 +0000

A few days ago, Fuji TV aired a 2011 music special that included live performances of some of the year’s most popular songs. When boy band Arashi took the stage, there was some kind of technical trouble. Instead of the CD-like quality of the other groups’ performances, audiences were given a taste of some raw audio:

A sloppy machine translation of a J-Cast article about the incident:

Arashi singing performance of 2011 FNS song gest is topical as too bad, this has theory that is sound trouble. Fuji TV twitter erupted by Arashi fans.[from beginning, no voice, singing voice come to dissonance> Arashi performed Labyrinth Love Song with violinist, Taro Hakase, Emiri Miyamoto-san. this came to bad. from start no voice at all, and pitch was not stable. and chorus part also brink of collapse, from start to end singing voice come to dissonance. it seemed members embarrassed too. Kazunari Ninomiya-san who start sing begging part makes embarrassed face. Sho Sakurai-san also makes bitter smile.

Arashi fans have denied that the incident reflects the actual singing ability of the group.

Some internet conspiracy theorists have pointed out the lack of technical trouble during K-pop performances as proof of Fuji TV’s devious plot to promote Korean culture. They believe that Fuji TV intentionally screwed up Arashi’s microphones, while allowing the Korean artists to lip sync…

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Korean Copies of Japanese Products

James — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 03:45:03 +0000

A Japanese TV report about snack companies in South Korea that have been blatantly copying some of Japan’s most famous products:

Since there was just a scandal involving bugs in Pepero, a Korean copy of Japan’s famous Pocky snack, this news report aired to remind Japanese viewers about the ongoing existence of Korean copies.

After taking a look at several of these copies, they ask random people on the street in Japan and Korea to comment. Both Japanese and Korean people think the copying is blatant and it is not a good thing. Few of the Koreans seem aware that so many popular Korean products are copies of popular Japanese products. One Korean guy notes how people in his country always speak ill of China for copying products, but Korea has been doing the same thing!

[The report ends with the older news anchor laughing about how it is similar to Japan during the immediate postwar period, when there were many Coca-cola knock-offs. His example, however, may not be exactly relevant because the term "cola" had already been recognized as a generic term at that point in history. Companies like Pepsi-Cola had been using "cola" in their name for years.]

Here are some of the examples shown in the report:

The Japanese vitamin/energy drink Ripobitan D has been sold since 1962. South Korea’s Bacchus D energy drink, which has the same label design and similar ingredients, has been sold since 1963. When asked about the striking similarities, the company claimed it was just a coincidence.

Kinoko no Yama snacks have been sold in Japan since 1975. A similar product popped up years later in Korea. When reporters called the Korean manufacturer and asked why the products were so similar, the company spokesman refused to comment.

There have also been more recent examples, such as Korea’s “17 Tea,” which has been sold since 2005. The manufacturer denies copying Japan’s much older and much more famous “16 Tea” and says its ingredients are totally different.

There is at least one case of a Japanese company taking legal action against Korean manufacturers who are violating trademarks. In 2004, Morinaga sued the Korean company that makes “My Chew” – a copy of its “Hi Chew” snacks. This TV report mentions that the two companies reached a settlement. [I am not sure of the details. The Japanese Wikipedia entry for trademark infringement states that the lawsuit was rejected by a Korean court in 2005.]

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Profitable Activism: Sea Shepherd’s Skyrocketing Income

James — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 08:03:33 +0000

A graph from a recent Sankei Shimbun article shows the amount of money that the radical animal rights organization Sea Shepherd has brought in over the last ten years:

The graph, using the latest data from 2010, shows that Sea Shepherd’s income has sharply risen since the non-profit organization escalated its violent actions against Japanese whaling ships. The airing of the “Whale Wars” TV series has had an especially profitable influence.

In February, Sea Shepherd claimed victory over whalers when its aggressive and dangerous attacks forced an early end to a hunting expedition. Japan has responded by dispatching a Fisheries Agency patrol boat to provide security to its latest hunt. As usual, almost all of the 900 whales on this year’s quota will be unendangered minke whales.

Western media reports about this year’s hunt have predictably followed anti-whaling talking points about the alleged misuse of government disaster relief funds to aid the whaling program, downplaying or ignoring the fact that an important whaling community was destroyed by the March 11th tsunami. One Television New Zealand has included this quote from Sea Shepherd leader Paul Watson:

“I think that its totally disgraceful. People from around the world sending money to help the victims of the Tsunami-earthquake were not expecting their money to be used to fund killing whales in the Southern Ocean.”

Like so many of Watson’s past statements, it is a lie. The whaling program is subsidized by the Japanese government, not by international charity donations for tsunami relief. The Japanese government does not have authority over the millions of dollars of international charity donations, which are being handled by non-profit relief organizations. Television New Zealand’s failure to fact-check is lending credibility to a very ugly falsehood.

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Chinese Cyberattacks Threaten Japanese Industry

James — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 06:27:13 +0000

Earlier this year, Japanese police investigating a cyberattack on Mitsubishi Heavy Industries determined that there was a very high likelihood that the attack originated in China. The Japanese government asked the Chinese government to investigate, but as the Japan Times has reported, the Chinese government doesn’t seem to be doing anything about it:

China said in its reply it would contact the relevant authorities, but there has been little progress since, leaving the investigation at a standstill, they said.

After its own investigation, Mitsubishi Heavy said viruses had infected its in-house servers and computers in mid-August but there was no sign important defense-related data was taken.

NPR ran a story yesterday about how the same kind of thing has been happening in America. The U.S. authorities have privately complained to China, but they’ve also seen no significant action to stop the cyberattacks. This kind of industrial espionage is costing the American economy billions of dollars:

Rep. Mike Rogers has actually spoken with executives from some of the American businesses hit by cyberattacks, and he says stolen intellectual property from just one hi-tech company cost them billions of dollars in research and revenue as well as thousands of U.S. jobs.

“Those are 10,000 jobs that would be in this economy, that would employ Americans, that are gone because of Chinese economic espionage,” he says.

New estimates put losses from intellectual property espionage at about a trillion dollars a year, Rogers says. And he says U.S. companies that deal in intellectual property fall into two camps: those that know they’ve been hacked and those that don’t know.

“There really is no other exception than that,” he says.

And if that’s the case in America, you can be assured that the same thing has happened in Japan. The attack on Mitsubishi is probably just the tip of the iceberg.

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Japanese National Anthem Drowned Out By North Korean Boos

James — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 01:15:49 +0000

A week ago, I posted about how a small group of Japanese soccer fans would be traveling to Pyongyang. Here is the follow-up:

On Tuesday, the Japan national soccer team traveled to North Korea to play against the DPRK team in a World Cup qualifier match. Japan had already won enough games to qualify, and North Korea had already lost enough games to ruin its changes of qualifying. But, since it had been 20 years since the DPRK last hosted a match against Japan, it was an important match for the North Koreans.

The match ended in an upset: North Korean defeated Japan 1-0. It was Japan’s first loss in 15 matches.

Several explanations have been thrown around about why Japan lost. North Korea fielded its best players into the game, while Japan did not; it was the first time Japanese players had played on astroturf; the North Koreans had to win or they’d face punishment, and so on.

The Japanese media, however, seems to have given particular attention to the unfair treatment of Japanese fans and the rude behavior of North Korean fans. Here’s a short report from Fuji TV:

The number of Japanese fans was restricted to about 100 people. The other 50,000 people were North Korean fans.
When the Japanese national anthem was played, the North Koreans booed and shouted so much that one could barely even hear the melody. ( As a contrast, the TV program plays a clip from a DPRK-Japan match hosted in Japan, where Japanese spectators respectfully did not boo during the North Korean anthem.)
Japanese fans were banned from bringing noise makers and flags into the stadium. The North Korean fans didn’t have any such restriction, and were making a huge amount of noise. They even spelled out giant slogans, as if it were the Mass Games.

The situation is quite different from past incidents involving rude fans in South Korea or China. In those cases, authorities try to prevent rudeness. The same cannot be said for North Korea.

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After Fukushima: The Fear Factor (Examining Scaremongering Journalism)

James — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 00:04:12 +0000

Here is a great work of citizen journalism that really deserves attention (it’s from August, but wasn’t really widely noticed at the time):

The ‘apocalyptic’ media frenzy post Fukushima which displaced the real disaster story and horrific loss of life wrought by the earthquake & tsunami, sickened Japanese born Mari Shibata. Along with WORLDbytes volunteers she investigates the fear factor. Why did a nuclear incident affecting only a small area fuel global meltdown stories? In an interview with the Director of the Science Media Centre we learn of news values shaped by a concern to terrify people, journalists removed from stories for being too measured and scientists accused of lying. Granted unique access to Oldbury, the oldest nuclear power station in the world we learn how seriously safety is taken and due to fears of terrorism post 9/11 its tragic shut down to visitors. Through talking to relatives in Japan we learn of the progress being made to clear up the real mess made by a natural disaster, a story neglected by the Western media.

Todd Kreider at the NBR forums has typed up a transcript of the interview with Fiona Fox of the Science Media Center (starts at 8:55 in the video):

Fox’s job is to have her staff compile a list of top scientists who the BBC and others can interview. She says that she compiled a list for the tsunami and earthquake stories but 24 hours later the only ﾀuestions journalists asked were about the Fukushima reactors.

“It seemed like there was an agenda set by the editors. And later on when I started to reflect on this and talked to journalists off the record and asked ‘Why was there such a massive desire for *that* scare story when you already had a terrible scare story?’ It wasn’t as if we were asking them to cover the good news and not the bad news. There is plenty of bad news. One or two of them were very open with me and said, ‘Fiona, our editors think there is something uniquely terrifying about radiation. There is something unique to that word that has the capacity to terrify people.’ “

“And at that moment you have to pause for a moment and think ‘My goodness, what a strange set of news values: what justifies your – the amount of coverage – is what your editors feels terrifies people.’ There are some more sophisticated explanations for why these news values set in, but I think the one you really have to question is the one that says, ‘Because you couldn’t see it, because it is uniquely terrifying, therefore we felt compelled to cover it.’ And on that, I just beg to differ. I beg to differ that that is morally justifiable as a news value.”

Skipping ahead to about 13:40 in the video:

” what you really, really need at times like this is the *real* experts, the people who really know what they are talking about. And the Science Media Center’s job is to line up people who know about radiation, who know about the effects on humans, the effects on the environment and soils and food, etc. And we lined them all up and without exception there were all giving quite measured…

They said that this is a very, very serious incident but in terms of it being a threat even to people in Tokyo, never mind to people in Glasgow, they were expressing time after time that this threat was very, very, very, very small. And they were all dismayed that the world’s media was focusing on the threat of radiation which they thought was very very small for people outside the exclusion zone…

Fox again from 16:30 adds that many journalists told the Science Media Center that their editors would say, “So what are the apologists (nuclear scientists) saying today?” in response to their daily press conferences. She points out the wide variety of experts were on the list since nuclear includes so many sub areas. Fox adds that no scientist was from the nuclear industry and were scientists writing in top journals.

This is maybe the most damning quote:

Fox:　”The way that this was covered was wrong. I feel confident in saying that because of how many journalists felt uneasy about this. I know of journalists who were taken off this story because what they were writing was too measured and that’s in a really significant, major news room in this country.”

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Is China Trying to Strengthen the Yen?

James — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 02:18:25 +0000

Yesterday, the Japanese government intervened in the currency market in an attempt to stop the yen’s continuing rise versus the dollar. The intervention managed to push the value from about 75 yen to the dollar to about 79 yen to the dollar. If the value of the dollar doesn’t drop again, this will be good news for Japanese exporters.

Finance Minister Jun Azumi said in Tokyo he will “continue to intervene until I am satisfied,” after yen sales yesterday that Credit Suisse Group AG analysts estimated may have exceeded $50 billion. The intervention was the first since August, when Japan spent 4.51 trillion yen ($57 billion) seeking to stem the currency’s surge to a postwar high against the dollar.

However, it may not be enough. There are outside forces that can cancel out the billions that Japan spent in this latest intervention. One of these forces is the Chinese government, and it seems that some people suspect that China is deliberately trying to drive up the value of the yen (article is from September):

As the yen hovered near a 15-year high against the US dollar yesterday, Japanese Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda called for talks with China over its recent yen buying spree, which has helped drive the Japanese currency higher, making Japanese goods less competitive with China’s.

“I don’t know the true intention” of China regarding its growing appetite for yen-denominated bonds, Mr Noda said before parliament’s upper house. He promised that Tokyo would “closely co-operate,” with Beijing on the subject. “We are paying close attention” Mr Noda said.

As this news report from ANN shows, Japan’s intervention in August was canceled out within a single day. If yesterday’s intervention is to have lasting results, the Japanese government may have to repeatedly intervene and purchase billions of dollars, especially if it has to counteract large Chinese purchases of yen.

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Ultra-Nationalist High School Club

James — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 03:17:36 +0000

I recently stumbled upon this YouTube video, which proudly shows how ultra-nationalism has become a club activity at a South Korean high school:

The children are participating in a club set up by the radical nationalist Voluntary Agency Network Korean (VANK), which aims to spread propaganda about the “correct” history of Korea. Participants in this particular after school club are learning nationalist dogma about Korea’s territorial disputes and sharing their views with other Koreans at Busan Station.

Although it is not mentioned in this video, VANK is also known to use school children as part of its international campaign against the use of term “Sea of Japan.” Because they hate Japan, Korean nationalists dislike the fact that non-Koreans named the sea after Japan. They want the entire world to call it by their own Korea-centric name for the sea: the “East Sea.”

I mention this because I just had the pleasure of receiving a propaganda spam letter from a Korean ultra-nationalist organization. It came from an organization that seems to have the exact same goals as VANK:

Hi, I’m Kang Soyoung and I am a member of HIFCO,
which stands for Historical Fallacy Correcting Organization.
HIFCO, as the name indicates, finds out and corrects fallacies about Korea
in terms of history and culture by providing correct information
and requesting correction of the very fallacy.

Recently, I visited the website and was quite surprised to notice you are still describing “Dokdo” as “Liancourt Rocks” or Takeshima ,which is incorrect.
Also, the sea where Dokdo locates is “East sea” ,not “Sea of Japan”
As a member of HIFCO, I could hardly overlook such fallacy which can bring about misconstruction and further diplomatic conflicts.

The following is the address of website which contains the fallacy.
—————————————————

http://www.japanprobe.com/2008/05/28/education-ministry-drops-takeshima-plans/

—————————————————
“East Sea” has been recognized all over the world “Sea of Korea”. For instance, in the Asia map, which was made by John Senex in 18C, “of Japan is Oki Islands. East Sea” is stipulated as “THE EASTERN OR COREA SEA”. According to the map of which was made by Woold in Engalnd(1845), just until the middle of 19C “East sea” had been called as “Sea of Korea”.

When it comes to “Dokdo”,
In the middle of 17C, old documentary record of Japan admitted Dokdo is not their territory.
Late in the 17C, when Japan´s feudal government asked if there are islands except for Jookdo(Ullung Island) in Dottorybun. Then Dottorybun said that there aren’t any islands as well as Jookdo(Ullung Island) and Songdo(Dokdo). That is to say, Japan proved Ullung Island and Dokdo are not their territory.

Therefore, the term “Dokdo” ,not “Liancourt Rocks(or Takeshima)” should be used to describe the island in “Eastsea”.

As a member of HIFCO, I urge the correction of the fallacy
to prevent further confusion and misunderstanding.

I look forward to your response.
Thank you.

Sincerely,

Kang Soyoung

HIFCO

www.hifco.or.kr

I’m not sure if the e-mail was written by a high school student, but it does appear to have been a standard copy-paste nationalist propaganda message, intended for any website that dares to commit heresy against the church of Great Corea. The claim about a few maps using “Sea of Corea” is probably true, but it ignores the overwhelming evidence that shows that “Sea of Japan” was widely used in the 17th and 18th centuries and became the standard English language name of the sea in the early 19th century.

If the author’s argument about Japan recognizing the Liancourt Rocks as Korean territory is legitimate, the author should favor the idea of accepting Japan’s proposal to settle the dispute at the International Court of Justice. Instead of spamming random websites, these nationalists should be spamming their own government. Since the evidence is so obviously in Korea’s favor, they would easily win and the issue would be settled once and for all, right?

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Seoul National University May Finally Establish A Japanese Studies Program

James — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 08:13:51 +0000

For the first time since its establishment in 1946, South Korea’s Seoul National University plans to have a Japanese Studies program for undergraduates:

SNU said Friday that deans of its colleges held a meeting concerning the 2012 curriculum a day earlier and decided to set up a new undergraduate studies department, named the Department of East Asian Language and Civilization Studies. It said a board of trustees’ meeting will make the final decision on the issue.

The envisioned academic unit will cover a comprehensive study of the languages, literature and culture of two countries and two regions _ Japan, India and Southeast Asia and the Middle East.

In 2012, it is expected to enroll 10 students, five each for Japanese and Southeast Asian majors. From 2013, 20 students will be recruited annually, five each for four majors. The school plans to assign around 13 professors and part-time lecturers to the new department.

Considering Japan’s geographic proximity and its economic significance, it is very odd that South Korea’s top university lacks such a program.

Why was there no program? An article in the Dong-A Ilbo argues that it is a result of anti-Japanese sentiment and a desire to ignore Japan:

The “absence of Japan” phenomenon remains in Korea. A case in point is the lack of a Japanese studies department at Seoul National University, the most prestigious and largest university in Korea. This is based on deep-rooted hostility toward Japan and the groundless perception that Korea knows Japan better than any other country. Another misconception is that Japan has nothing deserving scientific study.

Arirang News also reported a similar reason:

The university has refused to open any Japan-related courses since its establishment in 1946 due to anti-Japanese sentiment among some people in the country.

And an editorial author for the Korea Times seems to think so too, and blaming the situation on Korea’s “combination of strong antipathy and an inferiority complex” towards Japan:

Many Japanese people might have felt hurt but laughed inside at Koreans’ naïve emotionalism. So it is welcome, albeit quite belated, that Seoul National University (SNU) has decided to set up a Japanese studies department for the first time in its 65-year history.

Of course, many private universities, and 17 of the 43 national and public institutions, have long set up such departments. That cannot hide the significance of SNU’s decision, which indicates the nation’s top school, which was Gyeongseong (Seoul) Imperial University in colonial days ― and Korean people ― have overcome much of the complex.

One may not have to quote here what the ancient Chinese strategist, Sun Tsu, said in his “Art of War”: “If you know your enemy and yourself, you will not fall into danger in any battle you fight.” Korea no longer regards Japan as an enemy. If one replaces the battle with today’s diplomatic and economic war, however, this advice still holds good.

The editorial praises the move as, and “important first step toward more correct understanding of the seemingly well-known but actually hardly-known neighbor.”

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Korean Soccer Fans Celebrate Japanese Earthquake

James — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 23:20:46 +0000

The owners of South Korea’s Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors soccer team have apologized after some of its fans displayed a banner celebrating an earthquake that caused over 15,000 deaths in Japan:

A paper banner reading Let’s celebrate Japan’s big earthquake! in Japanese was hung from the stands occupied by Jeonbuk supporters during Tuesday’s Asian Champions League quarter-final second leg against Japan’s Cerezo Osaka.

The banner was removed about 20 minutes into the game in the southwestern city of Jeonju after Cerezo lodged a complaint with organisers. The Japanese club sent a letter of complaint to the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).

The grammar wasn’t 100% correct (お祝い isn’t a verb), but the message is still obvious.

When Fuji TV showed images of the sign to Japanese people (including some earthquake survivors), many couldn’t believe what they were seeing:

Although the South Korean media has widely reported the incident, Fuji TV notes that one Korean newspaper criticized the Japanese media for not censoring the faces of the fans.

This isn’t the first time that Japanese soccer players have faced ugly disaster-related taunts from non-Japanese fans. In August, Belgian soccer fans taunted a Japanese goalkeeper with a “Fukushima” chant. The team later apologized and was forced to pay a fine.

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One Year Anniversary of Senkaku Boat Ramming Incident

James — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 10:26:59 +0000

A little over one year has passed since a Chinese trawler rammed two Japanese coast guard ships in the waters around the Senkaku islands.

Here’s a short TV news report that aired on the anniversary:

They talk to former Chief Mate Masaharu Isshiki, the Japanese Coast Guard officer who leaked the video clip onto the internet. Isshiki expressed his dissatisfaction with the Japanese government’s weak response to the incident (printed in greater detail in the Sankei Shimbun). He wonders why has there been no clear and public answer to Chinese demands for an apology and compensation. On the topic of the leak, he said that he used Youtube because it allowed him leak the raw video to a place where anyone could watch it and judge for themselves.

Isshiki lost his job because of the leak. Back in China, the trawler captain who rammed the Japanese coast guard ships was treated as a hero. (But the Mainichi has reported that Chinese authorities have banned the “hero” captain from going to sea again.)

The situation near the Senkaku islands remains tense. In the last six months, Japan’s Air Self-Defense Force needed to scramble fighter jets 99 times in response to Chinese military aircraft that approached Japanese airspace near the islands.

At the end of the clip, news anchor Taro Kimura comments on how the Senkaku incident should be viewed within the context of China’s other maritime disputes with neighbors. Around the same time the Senkaku issue flaired up, China was also taking a very provocative stance towards territorial disputes in the South China Sea. The disputes have raised concerns from the United States.

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Related Link: An editorial in yesterday’s Japan Times looked back on the incident and recommended that the Japanese government maintain a strong stance about his sovereignty over the islands. Reviewing the history of the dispute, it was noted that China had clearly violated Japanese territorial waters:

It must be pointed out that the Senkaku Islands have been integral part of Japanese territories since Japan declared the islands to be part of Okinawa Prefecture in January 1895 after confirming that they were not ruled by what was then China’s Qing Dynasty.

The Senkakus were not among the islands — Taiwan and the Penghus — that China had ceded to Japan under the Shimonoseki Treaty signed by Japan and China after the Sino-Japanese War (1894-95). The treaty took effect in May 1895.

After the islands’ incorporation into Japanese territories, Japanese nationals built a wharf and a factory to process dried bonito on the islands. They became uninhabited in 1940.

Under the San Francisco Peace Treaty of September 1951, the Senkaku Islands were placed under U.S. administrative power as part of Japan’s Nansei Islands. China at that time raised no objection to this provision.

It must be remembered that China and Taiwan did not start making sovereignty claims over the Senkaku Islands until the existence of offshore resources, including oil, was confirmed in the sea near the islands around 1970.

Before the resources came to light, China’s maps and the Chinese government recognized the islands as part of the Ryukyu Islands (Okinawa Prefecture).

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“Divine Wind” – Sea Shepherd Leader Praises Typhoon That Killed Over 45 People

James — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 23:08:37 +0000

A few days ago, Typhoon Talas hit western Japan, inflicting serious damage. Wakayama prefecture was in the middle of the storm’s path of destruction:

In worst-hit Wakayama, rescuers recovered nine more bodies Tuesday afternoon, with 34 others still missing, according to prefectural police. That brought the nationwide death toll to 46. Japan’s Fire and Disaster Management Agency said 54 people were missing Tuesday, including those in Wakayama.

Paul Watson, head of the radical animal rights group Sea Shepherd, has written an article praising the typhoon as an example of nature’s “Divine Wind” protecting dolphins from Japanese people:

The storms are a fitting herald to Sea Shepherd’s campaign against Japanese whaling this upcoming season. This year’s campaign is titled Operation Divine Wind (kamikaze: Japanese for ‘wind of the Gods’). It was the kamikaze that destroyed the invading Mongol fleets between 1274 and 1281.

Where once the typhoons protected Japan, the Japanese fishermen have fallen from grace with the sea and now the typhoons have returned to protect the dolphins. It is now the Cove Guardians that embody the spirit of the kamikaze.

This is, of course, not the first example of such behavior. A few months ago, Watson wrote a poem about the March 11th tsunami (death toll: 22,000+), describing it as the sea god Neptune punishing Japan:

[Hat tip to Day-Bee-Toe]

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Typhoon Delays Taiji Dolphin Hunt

James — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 07:42:23 +0000

On September 1st, the town of Taiji in Wakayama prefecture was scheduled to begin its annual dolphin hunt. A group of animal rights activists came to protest, but found that the hunt had been delayed because of the approach of Typhoon Talas:

A bus brought in 23 foreign protesters, led by Ric O’Barry. Because no hunt was in progress, there wasn’t much for them to do other than stand around on the beach and say a prayer for the dolphins.

Because past protests have involved illegal activities such as net-cutting, police will be reinforcing their presence in Taiji during this year’s dolphin hunting season.

Although the typhoon prevented them from filming something that might help them produce some anger about hunting dolphins, Ric O’Barry managed to find a few dolphins in a sea pen, which were apparently would soon be killed by the typhoon:

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Chinese Cyberattacks on Japan

James — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 05:47:33 +0000

Japan’s National Police Agency has concluded that a July 10th cyberattack on its website was likely the work of angry Chinese nationalists:

Access to the NPA website was temporarily interrupted on the night of July 10 through the early hours of the following day as the apparent number of users accessing the website surged to about 20 times the normal level, the NPA said, adding that no data was breached.Through the International Criminal Police Organization, or Interpol, the NPA asked the Chinese side to determine those involved in the act, it said.The NPA said there was writing on an Internet message board in China calling for attacks on the NPA website. The message referred to an incident in which Japanese Air Self-Defense Force fighter jets scrambled in response to the flight of a Chinese reconnaissance plane near the disputed Senkaku Islands, it said.

The website of Japan’s Finance Ministry experienced a cyber attack in July 12th, which seems to have been organized on the same Chinese message board.

An Asahi Shimbun editorial recently pointed out that the Japanese government has not been giving much attention to this very serious issue:

In sharp contrast to many Western countries that have been steadily expanding their budgets for research and development efforts to enhance cyber security, Japan has cut such spending by nearly 50 percent in the past five years.

This year’s defense white paper featured security threats in cyberspace for the first time.

It is obvious that the Japanese government needs to step up its efforts with a sense of urgency to make more effective responses to the problem.

Needless to say, Japan should focus on strictly defensive efforts in responding to the cyber menace to its security.

Japan should try to build sturdy systems for monitoring and defense by tapping available advanced technologies. Then, it should use these systems to strengthen cooperation with other countries and thereby play a leading role in the global battle against cyber attacks. With a strong commitment to these ambitious goals, the government should pour energies and resources into helping establish necessary international rules.

That’s a duty that Japan, as a major information technology power, has to undertake.

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Uyoku Are Actually Korean? (Protest March Against Fuji TV)

James — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 14:32:33 +0000

On August 21st, a few thousand people participated in the second big street protest against Fuji TV, marching around the network’s Odaiba headquarters with placards denouncing the network’s alleged anti-Japanese bias.

This protest was definitely larger than the August 7th event. It also attracted uyoku sound trucks, which had not been present in the first protest:

As you can see from the video clip, the uyoku are annoying everyone, including the protesters. As the right-wingers drive by, protesters shout out, demanding that they go away. The participants in the street protest clearly do not want to be associated with uyoku.

Several YouTube videos of the street protest direct international viewers to an English language explanation of the event. One section emphasizes the fact that most protesters did not approve of the uyoku audio spammers, and even suggests that they could actually be Koreans:

The truth about so-called “ultra right-wing”

There were three groups at the site of demonstration: non-political public demonstrators, conservative political demonstrators, and the “ultra right-wingers.” There are real differences among these groups.

First is the group of ordinary people who gathered to protest. They were by far the majority on that day. Many of these people never protested before. Second is the conservative group who shares conservative political views. Their argument is more comprehensive than non-political demonstrators, ranging from protest against Korean occupation of Japanese island Takeshima to claim for increased defense spending. The difference of non-political group and politically motivated group forced the two groups to hold separate demonstrations on that day, which both turned out to be successful.

Third is the so-called “ultra right-wing.” They appeared toward the end of demonstrations, driving in with a few cars with loud speakers. These “ultra right-wingers” typically uses black painted buses and vans equipped with loud speakers, playing Japanese national anthem, praising the Emperor, and giving hate speech. The truth of these organizations is now revealed that at least 30% of these right wingers are actually Koreans or of Korean descend. If fact, these right-wingers are usually very pro-Korea.

The behavior of these “ultra right-wingers” is malicious and is threatening to the general public. The goal of their behavior is to plant bad image of conservatism and to tarnish the image of national anthem and Japanese flag. This is one of the major reasons why Japanese today feel guilty about singing national anthem or showing Japanese flag. Some demonstrators even suspected that Fuji hired these “ultra right-wingers” to disrupt the demonstration and tarnish the image of demonstrators.

The idea of “fake uyoku” is not exactly new, and may have some truth to it. However, there doesn’t seem to be much evidence that Zainichi Koreans were driving the uyoku sound trucks that appeared near Fuji TV on August 21st.

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Belgian Soccer Fans Taunt Japanese Player With “Fukushima” Chant

James — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 13:16:23 +0000

A Belgian soccer match had to be halted after some fans mocked Lierse goalkeeper Eiji Kawashima with “Fukushima” chants [the incident occurs five minutes into the following video clip]:

….visiting Beerschot fans threw a projectile in the direction of Japanese international ‘keeper Kawashima before insulting him with chants of “Kawashima-Fukushima! Kawashima-Fukushima!” the Belga agency reported.

Following protests by Kawashima, the referee decided to bring play to a halt for several minutes until order was restored.

The match ended in a 1-1 draw, but Kawashima, 28, left the pitch at full-time in tears, and spoke of his anger at the chants.

“I am prepared to forget about a lot of things, but not that. It is not remotely funny,” he said.

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Kevin Maher Disputes Media Reports About His Views on Okinawans

James — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 03:50:35 +0000

Kevin Maher lost his position as director of the U.S. State Department’s Office of Japan Affairs after the the media reported some disparaging remarks he made about Okinawans during a speech to American students. Now that his diplomatic career is over, he’s back in Japan to promote his new book and repeat his denials about the accuracy of the quotes:

The disparaging remarks Maher allegedly made about Okinawa residents were based on notes students made during the meeting that were subsequently obtained by Japanese media.

As news of Maher’s alleged comments made headlines, the State Department scrambled to limit the fallout, saying the remarks did not represent the U.S. government’s views.

Maher was removed from his post March 10, the day before the Great East Japan Earthquake, but was immediately called in to help lead the State Department’s disaster-relief task force.

Maher called for the facts behind the article to be reinvestigated, saying the American University students who gave Ishiyama the notes were on close terms with the reporter, and even stayed at his Tokyo home when they visited Japan in late December.

He also noted that a followup Kyodo article claimed the students gave Ishiyama the notes in mid-February — about 2½ months after Maher’s controversial briefing.

“The main point is, for a journalist to host someone like that and then have them write something and claim that it’s an objective record of something that was said almost three months earlier just doesn’t have credibility, it violates journalistic standards,” Maher told The Japan Times after the news conference.

Shortly after the March 11th earthquake, the ROK Drop blog reported about Maher’s service during the disaster relief efforts. In the comment thread of the post, somebody claiming to be a relative of Kevin Maher wrote that the whole episode was part of a scheme David Vine of American University, an “activist” professor who opposes the existence of overseas American military bases:

His 30 career of service to Japanese-American relations was trashed because an anti-base professor convinced his students to compile “notes” weeks after the actual speech, then take those “notes” to the Japanese press. There is one particularly idiot kid named Tory Miyagi who became the spokesman for the group to get his 15 minutes of fame. The professor from American University has said that all American military bases not on American soil should be shut down. A real moron.

[...]

…the day of the earthquake he had his retirement papers to turn in.His immediate boss defended him, but the next level went into defense mode, not allowing him to defend himself publicly. He could have retired 6 years ago and gotten a much better paying job in the private sector. I doubt that the State Department will let him deal with Japan again in an official capacity. It’s ironic that the Japanese called him racist and his wife is Japanese. He has worked closely with the military on the Okinawa issue and he had to put up with tons of abuse when he was Consul General there.

[...]

Kevin had his reputation trashed by an activist professor, who manipulated his students, and who stayed at the home of the editor of the newspaper who originally published the “transcripts” of Kevin’s speech. That “transcript” was prepared by 4 of the 14 students with the assistance of the Japanese editor and the professor. Kevin has recently resigned and will now be free to defend himself publicly, something he wasn’t allowed to do by the state department, which caved to one editor, one professor, and some students who thought it would be cool to be in the media. I believe Kevin will be in Japan in a couple of weeks to help with the earthquake recovery as a private citizen.

And the same person left this comment on an article by Vine in the Eurasia Review:

David Vine is an anti-base activist and peacenik who used his students to generate press for himself. He is a master of self promotion who appalling used his students to compile a “memo” which he presented to the Japanese press as facts. He has no recording of the speech, yet he continues to claim he can remember verbatim everything that was said based on his “notes” which just amazingly coincide with his opinions about base issues in Okinawa. His agenda and his motives are obvious as are his lack of respect for basic rules of evidence, proof, and attribution. I could attend one of his lectures, create a document containing anything that suited my beliefs, and release it to the press as facts and call his denials “unbelievable” and have just as much credibility as he does in this situation. He and his “memo” are a joke.

As these are just comments on the internet, it’s hard to tell if the comments were really written by a member of Maher’s family. Whoever it is, he/she is taking a very active role in trying to defend Maher’s reputation.

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Taiwanese Politician Faces Charges Over Yasukuni Protest

James — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 14:17:12 +0000

Taiwanese Legislator Kao Chin Su-mei (May Chin) is apparently facing criminal charges in Japan because she led a group of protesters who trespassed onto the grounds of the Yasukuni Shrine:

In its charges laid out in a letter to a Tokyo district prosecutors office, the Metropolitan Police Department said Kao Chin led a group of aborigines from Taiwan who entered the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo Aug. 11, 2009 without permission.

Using a megaphone, Kao Chin shouted “No to Yasukuni” repeatedly, while her group member carried protest banners and chanted slogans, demanding Japan return the name tablets of Taiwanese aborigines who died in the service of the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II, according to the charges.

Kao Chin and her group also “physically assaulted” the shrine’s security guards when they tried to stop them, according to the charges.

According to Wikipedia, Kao Chin is known for her “anti-Japan and China-friendly standpoints,” and has been denouncing the Yasukuni Shrine for years. She objects to the fact that the shrine honors the souls of Taiwanese who died while serving in the Japanese Imperial armed forces.

The shrine refuses all such demands, whether they come from Japanese, Taiwanese, Koreans or people from other nationalities. As a private religious entity, it can belief whatever it wants about intangible human spirits and souls. Japan’s constitution protects freedom of religion, so lawsuits demanding that the shrine alter its practices have been thrown out. The grounds of the shrine are also private property, so unauthorized protesters can be charged with trespassing (and assault – if protesters really did assault security guards).

Kao Chin is apparently undisturbed by the charges:

“Even if I am indicted, no-one can sway me from my resolve to have the names of those Taiwanese aboriginal ancestors removed from the Yasukuni Shrine,” she said.

Kao Chin said she felt sorry for Japan, which she described as “a so-called democracy and free country,” for pressing the charges. “The whole world is watching,” she said.

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Chinese Government Dismantles Memorial to Dead Japanese Civilians

James — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 06:36:44 +0000

In the 1930′s, the Japanese government encouraged thousands of its citizens to settle in Manchuria. Most were poor farmers in Japan, and their lives in Manchuria weren’t much easier.

When the Soviets invaded Manchuria in 1945, these civilians were left to fend for themselves:

these unprotected civilians were abandoned by fleeing Japanese forces and became easy targets for attack. Many of those who eluded the fighting died of disease, malnutrition, and “compulsory group suicides” while seeking to return to Japan. In order to save the lives of their children as well as their own lives, thousands of mothers faced the agonizing decision, in their words, to “leave,” “give up,” “abandon,” “sell,” or “entrust” their loved ones to Chinese families.

In the 1980′s, many of the war orphans who had been raised by Chinese families were given special visas so they could live in Japan. Fangzheng county in Heliongjiang province has benefitted economically from money that the war orphans have sent back to China:

“Our economy profits thanks to people who went to Japan from our county, and I support promoting friendship between China and Japan,” said the owner of an appliance store, who put up a Japanese sign last year. “But some people criticize residents of our county as if they were traitors.”

[..]

The county has one of the largest amounts of foreign currency being exchanged among the same level of local governments, largely because people who have moved from the county send large amounts of money back home in yen.

Last month, the Fangzheng county government erected a memorial to the Japanese civilians who started to death in 1945:

The 3.8-meter high memorial wall was emblazoned with the names of 229 Japanese immigrants who were among the thousands settled in Heilongjiang province by Japan’s government during its World War Two-era occupation.

An official said the memorial to the immigrants who died of hunger following Japan’s surrender was a mark of the Chinese people’s humanness.

Unfortunately, such feelings were not shared by many Chinese netizens, who expressed outrage at the idea that public funds would be spent to honor hated Japanese invaders. Encouraged by the internet postings, five men came up on a train from Beijing and defaced the memorial with red paint and hammers on August 3rd:

When a group of five men spray painted the memorial and knocked chunks off it with hammers on Aug. 3, an act which resulted in them being taken into custody, they drew praise as “men of courage” on the Internet.

The men were released the following day. They told the media that since Japanese immigrants came from the country that invaded China, they should not be commemorated.

Some Chinese media also blasted the municipal government.

The Global Times, an English-language newspaper operated by the People’s Daily, mouthpiece of the Communist Party of China, ran a number of articles Aug. 6 that said the memorial ran counter to the basic values of Chinese society.

The articles suggested that the municipal government in Fangzheng should apologize to Chinese people and remove the memorial.

Shortly afterwards, the local government removed the memorial. A nearby memorial, honoring the Chinese families who adopted Japanese orphans, was not removed.

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Cameraman Visits Liancourt Rocks

James — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 01:40:17 +0000

NTV’s “Bankisha” recently paid a Korean journalist to take a tour boat to the Liancourt Rocks ( Takeshima / Dokdo ):

The issue has flaired up in recent months after Korean Air made a highly-publicized “test flight” over the disputed territory and the Japanese Foreign Ministry responded by asking its officials not to fly on Korean Air for one month (a meaningless action, because they never fly on Korean Air anyway). In response to the Korean anger of the “boycott,” a handful of Japanese lawmakers announced that they’d be taking a trip to South Korea’s Dokdo Museum, which exhibits evidence supporting Korea’s territorial claim. The lawmakers were denied entry to South Korea because authorities considered them a threat to public safety.

NTV’s trip to the rocks took place a few days after the lawmakers returned to Japan.

At Ulleungdo’s ferry port, the journalist filmed several Japanese language signs that had been put up. One sign tells Japanese politicians to come and apologize, and they’ll be given bananas (this is probably meant to be a racist insult, because Koreans have been known to mock “Japanese monkeys”). Another sign, written in very rude and direct Japanese, says something along the lines of, “You came? Take a look. What the hell do you bastards think belongs to you?”

As tourists board the ferry to the rocks, policemen are checking each passenger. Apparently they are there to enforce the recently-imposed ban on Japanese passengers. Korean police seem to be actively assisting the discriminatory policy of this ferry business. If NTV had sent a Japanese camera crew, they probably would have been turned away.

Inside the ferry, a concession stand sells snacks – many of which have nationalist slogans and images of the rocks on their packages. (The narrator reminds viewers are of recent actions by Koreans that have tried to escalate the tension between the countries, such as the Korean Air “test flight” and the purchasing of an advertisement in New York’s Times Square.)

The trip to the rocks takes about an hour. The passengers are allowed to disembark for 30 minutes, but their movements are restricted to a concrete observation platform. Policemen watch over them, making sure nobody does anything suspicious.

From the platform, one can observe the various buildings that South Korea has constructed on the rocks: a police station, a heliport, a radar tower, and several solar panels. The solar panels are a very recent addition. It seems that South Korea thinks that building more structures on the islands will help bolster its territorial claim.

They can also see the house of Kim Sung-Do and Kim Shin-yeol, a couple who are the only permanent residents of the rocks. Like some of the other structures on the island, Kim’s house has been upgraded in the last couple years. According to a recent article in the Los Angeles Times, the South Korean government paid for Kim’s house and also pays him a monthly stipend. When NTV calls up Kim’s government-subsidized phone line, he tells them that he has a very comfortable life, with access to plenty of electricity and fresh water.

The report closes with footage of tourists re-boarding the ferry. Two men scream about Korea’s ownership of the islands as a friend snaps a final photograph.

Look forward to more drama in the coming week: The Sound Korean National Assembly’s “Special Committee on Measures for the Safeguarding of Territory” plans to hold an official meeting at the rocks on August 12th.

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Protesters March Against Fuji TV

James — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 00:36:04 +0000

Several of the most-viewed videos on YouTube Japan today show an August 7th protest march against the headquarters of Fuji TV:

The protesters were people who agreed with Sousuke Takaoka’s complaints about Fuji TV airing way too many Korean dramas. In addition to complaints about the “Korean Wave” being forced on Japanese views, recent grievances against Fuji TV include:

Under Japanese law, foreign ownership of broadcast television networks cannot exceed 20%. For years, foreign ownership of Fuji TV stock has been quite close to the limit. In recent weeks, articles have appeared on the internet pointing out that foreign ownership of Fuji Media Holdings now exceeds 28%.
One of Fuji TV’s regional networks accidentally aired a joke about radioactive rice.
Fuji TV did not air Asada Mao’s figure skating victory ceremony, which included the Japanese national anthem and flag. [The network did not air the victory ceremonies for Japanese wins in 2007(Miki Ando), 2008(Mao Asada), 2010(Mao Asada) and 2011(Miki Ando). When South Korean Kim Yu-na won in 2009, they aired the full ceremony.]
Japan’s victory in the Women’s World Cup was treated in the same way.
The South Korean government has been spending millions of dollars to help export its TV dramas and movies. The “Korean Wave” is seen as a way of expanding Korean soft power and gaining influence over other countries.
When viewers called up Fuji TV to express their opinions on Takaoka and the alleged foreign ownership of the network, staff were extremely rude and cut off their calls.

Some have claimed that 2,000 people participated in the protest. However, the video doesn’t seem to show more than about a couple hundred people.

Another demonstration is being scheduled for August 21st.

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Brazilian Soccer Team Uses “Slanty-Eyes” Photo to Advertise Japan Match

James — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 10:47:36 +0000

This is how Brazil’s Santos FC is advertising its upcoming appearance at the 2011 FIFA Club World Cup in Japan:

Some information from Hypervocal, who thinks it “might be a wee bit insulting” to Japan:

“…the Marca reporter in the clip above never even discusses the casual racism contained within the ad. He simply says the four guys in the picture are getting psychologically prepared for the tournament in Japan, calls Neymar the face of the club (some face!) and talks about Real Madrid’s efforts in trying to woo the Brazilian striker. “

[hat tip to TomoAkiyama]

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Japanese Lawmakers Not Allowed to Visit South Korea

James — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 10:47:43 +0000

Several weeks ago, a group of nationalist Japanese lawmakers announced that they would be visiting South Korea for a fact-finding mission about the territorial dispute over the Liancourt Rocks (Takeshima / Dokdo). They did not plan to visit the rocks, but they did hope to visit the Dokdo Museum on Ulleungdo island, which has exhibits that educate visitors about South Korea’s territorial claim to the rocks.

Because the lawmakers were known for their support of Japan’s territorial claim, a lot of South Koreans didn’t think they should be allowed to visit the country or the museum. News of the lawmakers’ plans caused an eruption of anti-Japanese nationalism.

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak even got in on the act, by making veiled threats about how his government wouldn’t be able to protect the lawmakers:

Lee, at a cabinet meeting Tuesday, ordered officials to advise Tokyo that Seoul “cannot guarantee the lawmakers’ safety” and to urge them to cancel the visit, a presidential spokesman said.

And Korea’s Special Affairs Minister Lee Jae-oh made the following announcement on Twitter:

Korea’s Special Affairs Minister Lee Jae-oh had condemned the plan to visit Ulleung-do, saying via Twitter: “If their visit is intended to back up their country’s groundless territorial claim on Dokdo, it amounts to the encroachment of Korea’s sovereignty. I will block their landing on the island by all means.”

Despite the threats of physical violence and statements warning that they would be banned entry to Korea, three LDP lawmakers (Yoshitaka Shindo, Tomomi Inada and Masahisa Sato) went ahead with the plan:

Speaking to reporters before their departure, Shindo said, “If we don’t go, it would mean we have bowed to intimidation. A question will arise about the friendly relationship between Japan and South Korea if South Korea refuses our entry.”

In this clip from Asahi TV, Yoshitaka Shindo unequivocally states that his group had no intention of engaging in any activism during their trip:

“We are not going there to wave around Japanese flags or carry out any activities to promote our territorial right to Takeshima,” he said. (一切、あちらで日の丸を振り回したり、我々の竹島の領有権の主張運動をするわけではない)

Waiting at Gimpo airport was an ultra-nationalist welcoming committee who were displaying anything but feelings of friendship towards Japan:

Hundreds of activists protested at Gimpo, waving banners asserting South Korea’s ownership of the islands and burning photos of the lawmakers.

Some banners read “Stop Japan!” or “You die!” Other protesters carried a coffin plastered with photos of the lawmakers, amid tight security.

According to the AP, the protesters were also throwing curry powder, salt, and pepper at an empty arrival gate.

The lawmakers did not see the protest banners or taste the salt, however, because South Korean authorities refused to allow them into the country. The refusal is apparently on the basis of a South Korean law prohibiting entry of foreigners “who could harm South Korea’s national interest” and foreigners who pose a “threat to public order.” A Japanese university professor who specializes in the study of the territorial dispute was also rejected for the same reason.

South Korean authorities hoped that the lawmakers would quietly accept the decision and get right back on a plane to Japan. However, Shindo and the other lawmakers stayed for hours at Gimpo Airport, demanding that South Korean authorities explain the rejection.

“There is no change in our policy to send them back home as we are following official orders,” said an immigration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.”In light of our two countries’ relations, we are doing our best to convince them to return voluntarily.” Speaking to reporters at the airport, Shindo reiterated Tokyo’s claim that Dokdo belongs to Japan.”However, we must discuss this issue as there is a difference in opinion between Japan and South Korea,” he said.”If our entry is denied, we will visit once again,” he added, warning that the entry ban may evolve into a diplomatic row between the nations.”We’re not terrorists. I don’t understand on what basis they are claiming that we are a threat to South Korea’s safety. They should first hear the purpose of our trip.”

If they don’t give up, they’ll probably be physically forced back onto a plane.

It seems doubtful that the lawmakers would have been able to accomplish anything if they had actually been able to visit the museum. The best they could have done was make a few bland statements criticizing the exhibits of “evidence” supporting South Korea’s territorial claim. The visit probably wouldn’t have even deemed newsworthy enough for television network news broadcasts.

By reacting with so much nationalistic drama and refusing to allow them entry to country, South Korea probably provided the exact kind of response that the Japanese lawmakers were hoping for…

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Interesting Fact: Yoshitaka Shindo is the grandson of Tadamichi Kuribayashi, the General who commanded the Japanese garrison defending Iwo Jima in 1945. Ken Watanbe played the role of Kuribayashi is Clint Eastwood’s “Letters From Iwo Jima.”

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Japanese Actor Fired After Complaining About Korean Television Dramas

James — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 23:53:01 +0000

The showbiz career of Japanese actor Sousuke Takaoka is in shambles after he posted an angry rant on Twitter about his feelings about seeing so many Korean television dramas aired on Japanese TV.

Apparently he can’t watch Fuji TV (channel anymore because it airs too many South Korean dramas. It’s like the network has become a Korean TV channel. He wants to see Japanese TV channels airing Japanese dramas. He turns off the TV whenever its showing something Korean.

Takaoka is married to actress Aoi Miyazaki. In one of the tweets after his rant, he claimed that his wife shared his views. However, after the story blew up in the media, he posted a tweet announcing that his wife had ordered him to write that she does not share his views. As one of Japan’s most popular actresses, Miyazaki has a lot more to lose than her husband. It is rumored that their marriage could now be in jeopardy.

Takaoka has since been fired by his talent agency. He seems to have accepted the fact that his acting career is finished.

After the firing, he set up a new personal blog. In his first post (translated into English by Tokyo Hive), Takaoka confessed that he had attempted suicide several years ago. He claims that he had been driven into despair after the South Korean media coverage of his role in the movie “Pacchigi!” included fabricated quotes that made it sound like he hated Japan:

Some time later, the things I said at the campaign for “Pacchigi!” in Korea were published differently from the truth. When I returned to Japan, the media and internet labeled me as ‘Anti-Japanese’. It was at that time that my hate for the media took root within me.

What were the “anti-Japanese” things he claims he didn’t actually say? Apparently a South Korean newspaper (the Chosun Ilbo) had included a question about the Takeshima/Dokdo dispute in a interview about the “Pacchigi!” movie. Takaoka was quoted as saying, that he didn’t particularly like Japan, thought Japanese treatment of Korea has been unfair/cowardly, and that he wanted the Japanese government to give its people the truth. (個人的には、日本という国はあまり好きではない。韓国に対して、日本は卑劣なように思える. 日本政府は正しい情報を国民に伝えるよう願う)

His blog post also contained the accusation that Korean TV dramas were part of a conspiracy to keep the masses from realizing the horrible truth about the radiation from Fukushima:

Reports about the March 11th incident were only good in the beginning. Then they became hypocritical.

They turned their eyes away from the radiation problem, and put restraints on things that were inconvenient to them.

What these people were doing was just as it was before.

There were many reports that weren’t delivered to the citizens. Instead, they aired irrelevant foreign dramas, and on the morning news, they reported biased information.

I became suspicious of this country.

With this flow in my mindset, I made those recent remarks.

I couldn’t tolerate it anymore.

The things that built up inside me gushed out.

Although his mainstream entertainment career seems to be finished, his vocal denunciation of the mainstream media, hatred of Korean dramas, and support of Fukushima conspiracy theories has made him extremely popular on the internet. Perhaps he’s looking to make a new career for himself in the nationalist or conspiracy theorist niche markets?

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Fukushima Residents Angrily Shout at Mid-Level Bureaucrat & Demand He Accept Bottled Urine

James — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 10:54:01 +0000

This video, which allegedly shows how the Japanese government is “killing its own people” with radiation, is going viral:

It was filmed at a July 19th meeting in Fukushima city, where government bureaucrats were supposed to explain the possible effects of radiation on health and answer questions from concerned citizens. Akira Satou, director of a Local Nuclear Emergency Response Team, seems to be the main government spokesman at the meeting.

English-speaking bloggers and twitter users have posted links to this video, expressing concern about “arrogance” and “disgraceful” behavior of Mr. Satou and the Japanese government. It is unfortunate that so many of them seem to have ignored the questionable nature of the video.

Its ridiculously biased title (“Japanese government killing its own people in Fukushima”) should have been enough to tip off most people. It’s also fairly obvious that the video has been heavily edited. It’s about 3 minutes of a meeting that was presumably much longer. Satou may have tried to answer some questions, but whoever edited the video didn’t seem to care much about including the government’s answers. We are only shown scenes that make it look like the government look cold and arrogant.

The video also contains a couple translation errors that compliment its fearful and sensational tone. For example, one of the subtitles reads:

“Well, you are free to evacuate at your own risk if you want to. If people live in a safe place, the government asks them to stay there.”

When the bureaucrat is actually saying something along the lines of, “”You can leave whenever you want to, the government is not requiring anyone to stay.”

Similarly, the uploader translates a general question about “Where is it safe?” as the more dramatic “Where on Earth is safe?”

The most dramatic part of the video is at the end, when one woman chases Satou and demands that he accept a bottle of urine:

She claims it is a child’s urine and it needs to be tested for radiation. The bottle is big, containing far more urine than would be necessary for any scientific test, and far more than any single child could plausibly excrete in a single trip to the bathroom.

Understandably, the bureaucrat refuses to accept the bottle of urine. Urine tests, which are already being carried out by authorities, are not under his jurisdiction. Nevertheless, angry citizens continue to scream about how he is “running away” from their reasonable questions and demands. How dare he not accept random bottles of piss? Who the hell does he think he is?!!

While it is easy to sympathize with the citizens, many who have been living under extreme stress for the last few months, it is nonetheless important to stand back and take a rational look at the situation. Simply put, most of the demands they make in this video are unrealistic and unreasonable.

Mr. Satou is a mid-level bureaucrat. He clearly didn’t have the authority to authorize new mass evacuations or discuss the merits of the Soviet Union. And he wasn’t there to collect urine. He was only qualified to answer questions that pertained to his limited field of expertise.

The people in the video apparently believe the evacuation zone should include Fukushima city, which has a population of nearly 300,000 people. One man wonders why the Soviet Union was able to evacuate a similar number of people, suggesting that the Japanese response has been weaker than the Soviet response. We are shown footage of Satou waiting for the audience members to stop screaming, but the video cuts away before we know if he tried to answer the question (leaving viewers with the impression that the government is “stonewalling” or “arrogantly ignoring” legitimate questions).

In asking why “a free nation” like Japan couldn’t replicate the policy of the Soviet Union, the audience member answered his own question. The forced evacuation of such a large city would be no problem for a Soviet-style totalitarian regime: they could just order it and it would be done, with all criticism of the decision being censored and suppressed. However, democratic countries cannot easily force thousands of citizens to abandon their homes. If the Japanese government were to force a costly evacuation of Fukushima city, it would need strong evidence to convince citizens that the decision was justified. Because the available data shows that radiation in the area isn’t high enough to present a significant threat to human health, the evacuation of Fukushima city is not going to happen.

The government certainly has a responsibility to warn and protect citizens from deadly pollution or radiation. Evacuations did take place, initially in areas that were in the immediate vicinity of the nuclear plant, and later in areas where significantly high levels of radiation were measured. Tests in other areas – such as Fukushima city – have found lower and less serious levels of radiation. The people in the video demanding that the government guarantee their “right to avoid radiation exposure and live a healthy life” have concluded that they are in danger and require a government-funded evacuation. Their conclusion seems to be based on misunderstanding and fear, rather than actual evidence of significant danger.

The situation in Fukushima is no laughing matter, and citizens should be putting pressure on the government to improve its handling of the crisis and clean-up. However, it would probably be best if citizens focused on making reasonable demands instead of unrealistic cries for evacuation and hysterical piss bottle theatrics.

Relevant Links: As has been widely reported in the Japanese media, authorities are already conducting health checks in Fukushima, and they intend to monitor the health of every single resident of the prefecture and provide free lifetime thyroid tests for children. So far, tests by the government and NGOs have found miniscule amounts of radiation in some residents’ urine, but nothing at a dangerous level.

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More Chinese Plagiarism of Japanese Anime?

James — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 05:57:21 +0000

A video compares scenes of the Japanese anime “Hikarian: Great Railroad Protector” with a Chinese cartoon called “高鉄侠”:

It is painfully obvious that the Chinese cartoon is a copying the Japanese cartoon. The discovery was made by Chinese netizens, who found clips of the cartoon online and questioned its origin after noticing that it used a map of Japan and its main character ate Japanese-style onigiri

Japan’s NTV sent reporters to the Chinese animation company that created the cartoon:

The side-by-side clips are shown to random Chinese people, all of whom seem to agree that it’s a blatant copy. We are also shown angry comments from netizens who disapprove of the plagiarism. The incident is compared to Chinese state television’s unauthorized use of “Top Gun” footage.

They visit the offices of the animation company (its English name is, ironically, “Creativity Pictures”). Its walls are lined with prizes and awards. Apparently it is one of China’s top 10 animation companies. Two animated series from the company are currently airing on Chinese television.

The vice president of the company tells them that the clips being shown on the internet are pre-production “samples” that were created during the planning phase for the cartoon. She doesn’t know how they made it onto the internet, but she claims that the final product will look totally different from the “sample” clips.

An online advertisement for the cartoon shows characters from the “sample” that copied the Japanese anime. When shown the ad, the woman claims it was for promotional purposes, and her company is currently working on a totally original bullet train cartoon.

NTV found a blog post written by a former employee of the animation company. He writes that government subsidies are handed out to companies that can create huge quantities of animation, so the company cuts corners by copying old cartoons.

An article from SearChina contains more excuses. A company representative questioned critics by suggesting that it wouldn’t make sense for a Chinese cartoon about new Chinese bullet trains to copy a Japanese cartoon about Japanese trains from the 1990′s.

The Chinese cartoon was originally scheduled to air on television in August. Now, for unexplained reasons, the air date has been pushed back to October.

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Japanese Court Rejects Koreans’ Yasukuni Demands

James — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 00:26:46 +0000

In the past, Korean groups have filed lawsuits in Japan demanding that the Yasukuni Shrine remove names from its list of enshrined war dead. Most of the lawsuits have come from surviving family members of Koreans who served and died in the service of the Imperial Japanese armed forces. Because the Yasukuni Shrine is a private Shinto shrine, Japanese courts have rejected all such lawsuits. Japan’s constitution guarantees freedom of religion and the separation of church and state, so courts simply do not have the power to order Yasukuni to comply with the demands of the Koreans.

Despite the obvious unconstitutionality of these demands, lawsuits of this kind are still being filed. The latest came from a group that included an 86-year-old Kim Hui-jong, a former “civilian worker” in the Japanese Imperial Navy who survived the war but somehow ended up enshrined at Yasukuni:

Learning the embarrassing news that his tablet was enshrined at Yasukuni with millions of Japanese war dead in 2006, he launched his legal battle the year after, the first such case for a living man, with the help of several South Korean civic groups. In his preparations, he visited Japan three times and held a press conference there in spite of his delicate health.

“When I visited the Yasukuni Shrine, I asked officials there to show me my tablet. But they barred me from even entering the temple,” he said. “I was so furious that I wanted to blow the shrine up.”

The former draftee also expressed regret at lukewarm responses from the South Korean government, as well as the lack of “any plausible reasons” explaining Japan’s response.

When the lawsuit was predictably rejected by a Japanese court, one of Kim’s lawyers had the following to say:

“The ruling is the worst ever, and I feel ashamed as a Japanese citizen,” an attorney for the plaintiffs said. “Judges seem to have no idea about what Japan should repent of, while putting priority only on the freedom of religion.”　

The attorney seems to have no idea about the importance of freedom of religion.

The court “only” put priority on freedom of religion because the lawsuit demanded that the government violate constitutionally protected rights. If the court had ruled in favor of the Mr. Kim, it would have been an illegal and unconstitutional ruling.

Update: The original article wasn’t very clear about why Yasukuni refused Mr. Kim’s request. It made it sound like Yasukuni was stubbornly insisting that Mr. Kim still be counted among the war dead.

In fact, the situation is quite different. An article in the Japanese edition of the Chosun Ilbo contains the following passage:

靖国神社は合祀者名簿で、キムさんたちの名前の横に「生存確認」と付記したが、名簿自体の修正は拒否した。これについて同地裁は「教義上、極めて神聖な名簿を訂正するのは困難だ」との理由を挙げ、請求を棄却した。

It says that the shrine actually wrote “confirmed alive” next to Kim’s name after discovering that he had not died in the war. However, for unspecified doctrinal reasons, that is the limit of what can be done to the “holy” list. They refused to completely remove his name.

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Ugly American Racism: “Japs” & “Pearl Harbor” Trending on Twitter During World Cup Match

James — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 00:18:50 +0000

I woke up this morning to headlines of Japan’s victory in the 2011 Women’s World Cup. Congrats, Nadeshiko Japan!

There are other headlines too. It seems that the ugly online behavior of American fans was newsworthy:

As USA and Japan battle it out on the field to be the considered best women’s soccer team in the world, Americans have taken to twitter to air some racist thoughts. The game has created numerous trending topics on Twitter including names of American players as well as “Japs” and “Pearl Harbor.”

Pearl Harbor is when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, killing thousands and spurring the American’s entry into World War 2. It is considered one of the saddest days in American history. Japs is a racist term Americans and other allies used against the Japanese in WW2.

In my previous post about pre-match ugliness on Facebook, I thought I was highlighting only a few American soccer fans. It was only a few dozen Facebook updates. Unfortunately, it seems I may have been highlighting only the tiny tip of a gigantic iceberg. If “Japs” and “Pearl Harbor” were on in the top trending terms on Twitter, it means that thousands and thousands of users would have needed to use them in tweets.

A quick search on OpenBook.org revealed that Facebook had also been hit by huge numbers of hateful status updates:

The number of hateful facebook status updates visible on Openbook is pretty huge – far more than what I found the other day.

As I write this post, it’s been over 4 hours since the end of the match. I checked Twitter, and the terms were still trending!

Fortunately, most of the tweets right now seem to be from people commenting on how embarrassing it is to see both terms on the trending list. We can also see that “Congrats Japan” has a higher place on the list.

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World Cup Facebook Status Updates: Remember Pearl Harbor / Bomb Japan / Here Comes Another Tsunami

James — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 12:57:36 +0000

The 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup championship match between the United States and Japan will be held on Sunday in Germany. A lot of American soccer fans have posted Facebook status updates expressing their support for their team. Most are good-natured displays of excitement about the upcoming match. However, it would appear that quite a few people have written cringe-worthy updates that call on team USA to get revenge for Pearl Harbor, drop bombs on Japan, or unleash a new tsunami on the Japanese.

Here is a sampling of ugly Facebook status updates from some nationalistic Americans [found via the OpenBook.org's search function]:

And that’s just what’s been posted so far. Unfortunately, another tide of stupidity will be probably be unleashed upon Facebook on the actual day of the championship match.

[hat tip to Hamachiman]

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Korean Air’s Nationalistic Showmanship

James — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 11:51:19 +0000

Last month, Korean Air’s new A380 airliner took a publicity “test flight” over the Liancourt Rocks, islets that are claimed by both Japan and South Korea.

From an official Japanese government standpoint, the test flight was conducted over Japanese territorial airspace. However, the area has been under South Korea’s effective control since its military seized and occupied the rocks in the 1950′s.

Japanese Foreign Ministry responded to Korean Air’s action by asking its diplomats to refrain from using the airline for one month:

Given the short duration of the “boycott” and fact that Japanese diplomats almost always fly on Japanese airlines, it was a very weak response.

Nonetheless, the South Korean government and media seems to be making a big stink out of it, beating their nationalistic drums with stories about how Japan is boycotting their airline. Apparently the South Korean government is even threatening “countermeasures” against Japan, which could include a Korean boycott of Japanese airlines.

It seems that this is has been some pretty good PR for Korean Air. The Japanese Foreign Ministry’s one-month of restraint would have had almost zero impact on the airline’s profits. The test flight itself probably received very little attention when it first took place. Now, thanks to the Korean backlash against Japan’s puny boycott, Korean Air is getting all kinds of positive media coverage in its own country. Meanwhile, the vast majority of Japanese people don’t know or care about what’s going on, and many will continue traveling via Korean Air.

Related story: The Korea Times & Korea’s Northeast Asia History Foundation have awarded prize money to foreign students who wrote essays supporting Korea’s territorial claim to the islets.

[hat tip to ROK Drop]

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Sea Shepherd’s Paul Watson – Interview With an Eco-Terrorist

James — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 08:27:03 +0000

Photojournalist Yoichi Watanabe and a studio audience of Japanese school children interview Paul Watson, the leader of the radical animal rights group Sea Shepherd:

The video about 15 minutes long. Here is a summary of its contents, followed by a few comments of my own.

Summary

Watson is introduced as a man who the FBI has called an eco-terrorist. His organization of modern day pirates has carried out unforgivable acts of violence against Japanese whaling ships in the Southern Ocean. Sea Shepherd has been obstructing the work of the whaling fleet, even though Japan’s actions are in compliance with international rules.

Before going into greater detail, Watanabe introduces some basic information about Japan’s history of eating whale meat:

Back in the old days, Japanese people didn’t eat beef or pork. Whale meat was seen as a valuable food source.

Japan’s culture of eating whale meat survived into the modern era. It is still served in some school lunches today.

Humans caused whale populations to decline, so international rules were created to protect whale stocks. Japan’s whaling program follows those rules.

However, some countries with no cultural tradition of eating whale meat think it is bad to kill whales. They want Japan to stop. Japan has been trying to defend a culinary tradition that has existed for hundreds of years.

The disagreements between Japan and other countries led to the emergence of Sea Shepherd, a violent extremist group.

The narrator describes the various vehicles that Sea Shepherd has at its disposal. This includes high tech speedboats, a helicopter, and a large boat, which is sometimes used to ram Japanese ships.

Paul Watson is the man in charge of it all. He thinks his organization has the authority to act as police on the high seas, and he thinks that the Japanese whalers are criminals.

Watson’s past actions includes sinking several whaling ships in the 1980′s. His actions have led the FBI to brand him an “eco-terrorist” and Japan has issued an international warrant for his arrest.

Yoichi Watanabe wants to know why Paul Watson thinks it is just to use violence. He wants to know why Sea Shepherd throws bottles of acid at Japanese whaling ships and injures Japanese whalers. He wants to know why Watson denies that Sea Shepherd is using violence.

The popularity of the “Whale Wars” TV series has helped make Watson a hero in some parts of the world. A lot of people don’t seem to care about the Japanese arrest warrant. They like Watson and they support Sea Shepherd.

On the TV show, Watson and his organization are shown as heroes fighting against the evil Japanese murderers. In one famous scene, Watson declares that he had been shot by the Japanese. His bulletproof vest and SS badge supposedly stopped the bullet and saved his life.

Thanks to the shocking claims made on it television program, Sea Shepherd’s income has skyrocketed. But was the assassination attempt real?

A Japanese whaler says it didn’t happen. There was no gunfire. The “muzzle flash” photo that Sea Shepherd had posted on its website was a clock. Watson’s was lying.

They set up an interview Watson. Because of the Japanese arrest warrant, he cannot come to Tokyo to speak to them in person. Instead, they use a live video link. Watanabe and the Japanese audience are joined by Masaaki Sasaki of the Sankei Shimbun, a reporter who is knowledgeable about Sea Shepherd.

Question 1: Is it justifiable to tell lies in the pursuit of your goal?

Watanabe mentions the questionable nature of Watson’s claim to have been shot by the Japanese. Watson claims he never made such a claim. That claim may have come from the show’s producers (Animal Planet). He doesn’t know who fired the shot.

[While Watson is answering, we are shown a clip from the show, in which Watson says that the Japanese ("they") shot him.]

Question 2: Ever since your TV program began to air in 2005, you’ve seen a huge increase in contributions. Do you think it is okay to use a dishonest TV program to raise money?

Watson acknowledges that the television program has been an success, but he resents being called a liar. He says that he has not lied.

Question 3: In your 2002 book Earthforce: An Earth Warrior’s Guide to Strategy, you write that activists should use dramatic tricks to confuse your enemies and use claims of victimization to increase public support for their causes. Isn’t that what you are doing now?

Watson says he wrote that activists should not cause harm to other people. He says it is a book of strategy. It’s kind of like Miyamoto Musahi, only Watson advocates non-violence.

A schoolgirl asks Question 4: We saw video footage of you throwing bottles of acid at Japanese whaling ships. Isn’t that an act of violence?

Watson says his group doesn’t use acid. They throw rotten butter at the whalers.

[As Watson says this, we are shown an image of one of the bottles that was thrown at the Japanese whalers. The word "ACID" is clearly visible on its label.]

He says that Coca-Cola is more acidic than the rotten butter used by Sea Shepherd. It smells really bad (the kids laugh at this line).

Question 5: In the video clips, we can see Sea Shepherd ships ramming Japanese whaling ships. We can also see Sea Shepherd members throwing bottles of chemicals at the Japanese whalers. How do you explain this?

Watson says that Sea Shepherd hasn’t rammed any whaling vessels. They were hit by the whalers. The whalers are trying to murder them, but Sea Shepherd isn’t trying to hurt anyone. Sea Shepherd wants to protect the whales.

Question 6: What about the Japanese crew members who were injured and hospitalized?

Watson says that it’s not true. Nobody was injured by Sea Shepherd. It’s a lie.

Question 7: And What about the Icelandic whaling ships you sank in 1986?

Watson says Sea Shepherd sunk those ships. He challenged Icelandic authorities to arrest him, but they never did.

He says that Sea Shepherd has never hurt anyone in its 35 years of activism. Watson is confident that they have done nothing wrong. He defiantly challenges those who seek to arrest Sea Shepherd members.

Question 8: So you have never used violence?

Watson defines violence as acts that hurt or kill. By this definition, Sea Shepherd does not use violence. The real violence is taking place when intelligent whales are being killed. Staining the seas with blood is violence.

A little boy asks Question 9: If you think it’s bad to kill whales, what do you think of killing cows? In Australia, lots of cows are being killed and eaten.

Watson says he doesn’t eat beef, and neither do his crew members.

Another boy follows up with Question 10: So you don’t eat beef. Is that enough? Why aren’t you trying to protect cows?

Watson says that they are the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. Cows do not live in the sea.

Question 11: Why don’t you come to Japan and spread your message?

Watson responds by asking Watanabe to visit Sea Shepherd in the Southern Ocean. After being asked again, Watson says he’d come for a visit if Japan stops whaling.

After the interview, Watanabe makes some closing remarks to the audience. He says that every country has its own unique history and culture, but all agree that violence and dishonesty are wrong. He thinks that the world will judge Watson’s words and deeds.

Comments

Japanese-speakers will no doubt notice that Watson is continually referred to as “the accused” (容疑者). I suppose that it’s not improper to use that term, since Japan has issued a warrant for his arrest. However, I kind of got the impression that they were tying to say it as much as possible so they could emphasize the fact that Watson stands accused of a crime.

This is not an unedited interview. At the very least, cuts were made to speed up the Japanese-to-English and English-to-Japanese translations. Watson’s original English answers were dubbed over with a Japanese voice. Some questions and answers may have been cut, and it could have been put together in a way that deliberately made Watson look bad. His answers, however, were consistent the things he’s being saying for years. I doubt they would have needed to do much editing to make Watson look like a lying douche.

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Taiwanese Ultranationalist Tries to Visit Senkaku Islands

James — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 05:40:31 +0000

A Taiwanese ultranationalist tried to take a small fishing boat to the Senkaku islands yesterday, but was forced to turn back after encountering patrol boats:

The boat, escorted by two Taiwanese patrol vessels, turned around after a brief standoff with the Japanese side and was expected to return to a port in northern Taiwan around midnight, the coastguard and local media said.

It was the latest of a number of incidents in recent years involving a standoff between Japanese patrol craft and Taiwanese activists trying to sail to the disputed area to press Taipei’s claim.

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Rampage Jackson Teaches English to Japanese Fans

James — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 01:42:45 +0000

A newly viral video clip shows how MMA fighter Quinton “Rampage” Jackson gets cheap laughs by tricking Japanese fans into saying insulting things about themselves in English (“I am a fag“/”I suck dick“/”I have big tits“):

A few comments from YouTube users who watched the video:

“How immature can you be to be entertained by doing this in another country. Rampage is a douchebag.” – ilmostro696

“I first saw this video on an MMA (mixed martial arts) and believe me, I’m not the only one who thinks this is disrespectful. How would you feel if a Japanese MMA star got you to say “I suck dick” in their language and you had no idea what you’re saying… I’m sure you woldn’t find it funny. I have a sense of humor, but this is f-cked up man!” – mmafanatic90

“funny at the time Mr. Jackson. But guarantee you lost a sh-tload of Japanese fans.” – jpmorgan187

Seems like just a matter of time before some Japanese netizens discover this and create a Japanese subtitled version of the video. Say goodbye to your fans in Japan, Rampage.

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Fearing Radiation, New York Opera Stars Cancel Japan Tour

James — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 01:45:43 +0000

New York’s Metropolitan Opera Company is in Japan to put on shows in Nagoya and Tokyo. Two of its stars, Russian soprano Anna Netrebko and Maltese tenor Joseph Calleja, had to be replaced at the last minute because they feared radiation from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident:

The radiation scare due to the world’s worst nuclear accident since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster sent foreigners fleeing from Japan and saw the number of visitors from abroad plunge.

Netrebko, who was born in 1971 in the southern Russian city of Krasnodar, “changed her mind because of the emotional weight of having also lived through the tragedy of Chernobyl,” the Met statement said.

“She didn’t feel that she would be able to present her best performances and didn’t want to disappoint her Japanese fans.”

Calleja, 33, “also had last-minute misgivings about performing in Japan at this time,” the Met added.

Their decision is quite ridiculous, when you consider the situation in Japan:

Tokyo and Nagoya are far away from Fukushima. As of Yesterday, the radiation level in Tokyo was lower than the amount measured in cities such as New York, Hong Kong, Seoul, Singapore, Berlin, and Taipei.
If one stays away from the contaminated area of Fukushima, the biggest radiation risk from a trip to Japan would come from radiation exposure during air travel. (And even that would be at a harmless level.)
There is no measurable amount of radiation in Tokyo’s tap water. Until about a month ago, a tiny amount of radiation was detected, but it was far below the safety standards. Now the tests find no radiation.
Safety checks on food are constantly being carried out. When radiation exceeds standards, the sale of the food in question is halted. A foreign tourist would have very little chance of consuming any food that contained a significant amount of radiation.

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Right-wing American Vlogger Visits Taiji

James — Mon, 30 May 2011 10:02:57 +0000

YouTube Vlogger PropagandaBuster [real name: Tony Marano] is has visited Japan.

If you are unfamiliar with him, here’s an excerpt from a 2010 post about his Japanese book deal:

….after his discovery by Japanese netizens, PropagandaBuster seemed to transform into a cheerleader for Japanese nationalism. When he’s not busy uploading videos defending Glenn Beck and loony rants about Obama’s attempts to turn America into a Muslim nation, he’s been parroting support for whatever cause his Japanese viewers seemed to be angry about. He’s made a video ranting in support of Japanese businesses that put up “no foreigners allowed” signs, a video about the DPJ’s anti-Japan/pro-China agenda, a video laughing about how Koreans eat dog meat, a video attacking Japan’s leftist education system, and a video defending Emobile’s Obama Monkey commercial. Right-leaning Japanese bloggers and 2-channelers seem oblivious to the fact that PropagandaBuster often comes off as a loon that likes to hear the sound of his own voice, and his Japan-related videos have received thousands of views. To spread his message, loyal followers subtitled some of his videos in Japanese and re-uploaded them on other YouTube accounts.

Earlier this month, Tony the Texas Daddy flew to Japan for a 10-day trip. He met with fans of his book and videos, visited the Yasukuni Shrine, went to a Japanese baseball game, and generally had a good time.

Here’s his video about visiting Taiji, the dolphin hunting village that has become the target of foreign animal rights activists:

Because Tony was a pro-whaling vlogger, he was given VIP treatment. He met with the mayor and was given a delicious meal that consisted of several dolphin and whale dishes. The mayor arranged for Tony to take a special tour of the Taiji whaling museum and aquarium.

The visit to Taiji also included a press conference. Articles about Tony’s visit have appeared in the Sankei Shimbun, Zakzak, the Chunichi Shimbun, and the Yomiuri Shimbun. (After th press conference, he made a new friend: the driver of a right wing sound truck.)

Related Link: In the video he mentions that Sea Shepherd are up in Tohoku harassing people in the disaster area. It seems he is correct. The Japan Times recently ran an article about how fishermen in Iwate were enraged to see Sea Shepherd members walking around the ruins of their community.

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Nationalist South Korean Lawmakers Visit Kuril Islands

James — Wed, 25 May 2011 01:53:01 +0000

A couple South Korean lawmakers are visited one of the Southern Kuril islands this week. The lawmakers are members of the National Assembly Subcommittee on the Protection of Rights on Dokdo, a group that stirs up nationalist fury over the Liancourt Rocks territorial dispute. They were apparently on a fact finding mission to see how Russia counteracts Japan’s territorial claim to the Southern Kurils.

An editorial in the Korea Herald has criticized the visit:

We have no intent to present an opinion on the ongoing dispute but we have to make clear the differences between Dokdo and the Kuril islands in terms of legal, historical and geographical factors, so that no improper analogy is allowed regarding the two international issues. Dokdo, in the sea contiguous to Ulleung Island, was claimed by Japan through a unilateral edict in 1905 in the beginning of the Japanese imperialist encroachment on Korea after the Russo-Japanese War and Korean sovereignty was restored on the island upon the termination of Japanese colonial rule over Korea at the end of World War II.

As for the Kuril islands, there were the treaties of 1855 and 1875 between Japan and Russia and the 1951 San Francisco Peace Treaty plus a number of official statements by the governments of the two countries concerning the status of the archipelago, some of which cause differences in interpretation. Russia has offered the return of Shikotan and Habomai while Japan claims that Kunashiri and Etorofu too are the proper parts of its territory.
Our lawmakers should have studied more on the differences between Dokdo and the Kuril islands before making their visit plan.

There are many differences between the two disputes, but there are similarities. From a Japanese perspective, both territories were officially incorporated into Japan in a peaceful and legal manner, and both are now occupied by foreign powers that seized the islands/islets by military force.

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“Fukushima Is Good for Whales”

James — Tue, 17 May 2011 06:10:01 +0000

Time.com’s Ecocentric blogger Krista Mahr has written a post explaining some “good news” that came about because the the March 11th earthquake and tsunami. It would seem that Iceland has postponed its fin whale hunt because the tsunami destroyed the town in Japan that had processed the meat:

Japan is the biggest consumer of Iceland’s fin whale meat, and three of the facilities that process Icelandic whale meat were destroyed in the March 11 disasters, according to the owner of Iceland’s primary whaling company, Hvalur. According to Iceland Review, Kristjan Loftsson recently went to Japan to assess the situation, and returned saying because of the destroyed facilities and the general mood of austerity in Japan, his company’s fin whale hunt would not begin in June as it normally does. He said it may start later in the summer. Hvalur employs up to 150 people in the summer during whaling season. Fin whales can grow to be nearly 90 feet long and are listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

One reader left the following comment on her blog post:

What kind of horrid person celebrates people losing their jobs because of a massive natural disaster… You need to get out, and think about life on earth a little.

However, most of the other comments have generally agreed with Mahr’s anti-whaling slant.

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Fukuoka Prefecture Faces Lawsuit After Tax Funds Used For North Korean School

James — Sun, 15 May 2011 09:26:08 +0000

The Sankei Shimbun reports that a citizens’ group has filed a lawsuit against the Fukuoka prefectural government over the use of public funds to support North Korean schools.

Last year, Fukuoka Prefecture gave 8 million yen ($99,000) of public funds to three private North Korean schools. The funds were budgeted as “educational promotion” money [教育振興費].

The lawsuit was filed by the Fukuoka chapter of the Association of the Families of Victims Kidnapped by North Korea (AFVKN), a group with little sympathy for supporters of Kim Jong-Il’s murderous regime.

The AFVKN believes that the payment was a violation of Japan’s Fundamental Law of Education. The North Korean schools have a DPRK-approved curriculum that teaches students loyalty to the Workers’ Party of Korea. The lawsuit argues that it would be illegal to use public funds to support schools that teach children to support a single political party. Because of this, the lawsuit demands that the government policy be revoked and the funds be returned.

For those who are not familiar with the existence of North Korean schools in Japan, here is a short excerpt from the Wikipedia entry about the Pro-DPRK resident’s association in Japan (Chongryon):

All lessons, and all conversations within the school are conducted in Korean. They teach a strong pro-North Korean ideology and allegiance to Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-Il. They are not classified as regular schools under Japanese law as they do not follow the national curriculum.

Their militant stance is increasingly coming under criticism from pupils, parents and the public alike. The number of pupils receiving ethnic education from Chongryon-affiliated schools has declined sharply in recent years, down to about 15,000 in 2004 from a high of 46,000 in the early 1970s, with many, if not most, Zainichi now opting to send their children to mainstream Japanese schools. As of March 2010, there were 12 Chosen high schools with an enrollment of about 2,000 students.

The schools were initially funded by North Korea, but this money has now dried up. Today funding comes partly from local Japanese authorities, but many schools are facing financial difficulties. The Japanese government has refused Chongryon’s requests that it fund Korean schools, citing Article 89 of the Japanese Constitution, according to which use of public funds for education by “schemes not under public control” is prohibited. Chongryon calls this an act of racial discrimination. Funding from local authorities usually takes place in the form of special benefits paid to the families of pupils, as opposed to paying the schools directly, in order to avoid a blatant breach of Article 89.

The Sankei article mentions that Fukuoka paid the money to the incorporated educational institution (学校法人) that manages the North Korean schools, so the policy may have been a departure from the indirect means mentioned in the Wikipedia article.

Regardless of whether payments are direct or indirect, it is abhorrent to see local governments using public funds to prop up pro-DPRK schools. Illegal or not, such payments should stop.

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American Court Orders Japanese Ex-Wife to Pay $6.1 Million to Christopher Savoie

James — Tue, 10 May 2011 01:56:20 +0000

Back in 2009, the American media made a huge deal out of the case of Christopher Savoie, an “American” man whose Japanese wife “kidnapped” their children and brought them to Japan in violation of an American court order. When Savoie went to Japan and tried to reclaim his children by force, he was arrested. The Savoie case was presented as a case of an American trying to rescue his American children from an unjust country that had refused to sign the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.

American media reports often left out important details of the Savoie case, such as the fact that he was a Japanese citizen (who was technically required to renounce his American citizenship when he naturalized). The fact that his children had spent most of their lives in Japan and the fact that he filed for divorce shortly after his Japanese wife and children arrived in the United States were downplayed or simply not reported. Savoie’s new wife, with whom he had an affair before divorcing his Japanese wife, was given free reign to appear on CNN and slander the Savoie’s Japanese ex-wife. It was a very ugly spectacle.

Savoie was released soon after his arrest and allowed to return to America. He continued to campaign for the return of his children, and the American media continued to print stories that were sympathetic to his cause.

Now, there is a new development in his case. It seems that he filed a court case in America, demanding that his Japanese ex-wife pay damages. He won the case:

A judge has awarded a Tennessee man $6.1 million from his ex-wife who took their two children to Japan and never returned.

It remains unclear whether Christopher Savoie will ever actually get the money on behalf of his children, 10-year-old Isaac and 8-year-old Rebecca.

Savoie, who was quite wealthy as the founder CEO of a bio tech firm, had paid $800,000 to his ex-wife as part of their American divorce. Beyond that amount, it’s highly unlikely that she has much money to pay the damages that the court has ordered.

A couple weeks ago, Japan announced that it will be joining the Hague Convention. Since Savoie’s ex-wife had brought her children back to Japan in defiance of an American court order, it seems that Savoie ~~will have the advantage under the Convention, so he might be able to take the children “back” to their “home” in the United States~~. The settlement of financial damages, however, may be another matter.

Update: I must make a correction. Someone has pointed out to me that the Hague Convention is not retroactive, so it could not apply to the Savoie case.

As the Hague Convention can provide no help to Savoie, he will be using this latest court order as an alternative method. According to a local news source in Tennessee, an American court ruling regarding the “breaching their custody contract and infliction of emotional distress” could have authority in Japan:

“The main purpose is so that we can obtain orders that can be actually enforced in Japan. They will only enforce orders that award money damages for breach of contract, money damages for committing civil wrongs,” said Christopher Savoie’s attorney, Joseph Woodruff.

If that’s true, Savoie might be using this to force his ex-wife to give up custody of the children. If she refuses, she would probably be forced into bankruptcy, since she obviously does not have 6 million dollars. Savoie is sending her a message: “Give back the kids, I don’t bankrupt you.”

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Japanese Government Complains After French TV Show Jokes About March 11 Disaster

James — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 13:05:54 +0000

N-H-K reports that the Japanese embassy in France has officially complained to the Canal+ channel after a television show made some insensitive jokes about Japan after the recent earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear accident:

The offending jokes were on Les Guignols de l’info, a famous satirical latex puppet show. According to the embassy, the following types of jokes could offend and hurt the feelings of disaster victims:

Putting a radiation mark on the Japanese flag.
Depicting rescue work like it was a video game.
Commenting on how the wreckage of Sendai city looked like Hiroshima after the atomic bombing.

Canal+ has responded to the complaint by stating that the show’s creators were exercising their right to freedom of expression. The network has refused to apologize.

N-H-K notes that the video it used came from YouTube, so I searched around and dug up a few examples. Here are some screen captures, with links to the actual clips. (As I am not fluent in French, I do not know what kind of jokes are introduced in each clip.)

Prime Minister Naoto Kan introduces Mr. Burns to deliver some remarks about the nuclear accident in Fukushima:

The Mario Brothers discuss rescue work:

Surfers excited by footage of the tsunami:

N-H-K said this clip apparently shows photos of post-March 11th Japan with post-bombing Hiroshima with the comment that not much has changed in the last 60 years:

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Increased Russian & Chinese Military Flights Near Japanese Airspace

James — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 09:13:57 +0000

The Yomiuri reports that 2010 saw a very big increase in the number of times Japan’s Self-Defense Forces needed to scramble fighters to intercept foreign military aircraft near Japanese airspace. As the graph shows, it has reached a high not seen since 1991:

ASDF jets were scrambled to ward off planes from China 96 times, an increase of about 2.5 times from the previous fiscal year, and Russian aircraft on 264 occasions, an increase of 30 percent.

According to the ministry’s Joint Staff Office, Russian aircraft accounted for 68 percent of the total number and Chinese planes 25 percent. Taiwan jets comprised 2 percent, or seven instances, while planes of other nationalities together made up 5 percent, or 19 incidents.

Last fiscal year, there were no instances of North Korean aircraft approaching Japanese airspace, although the ASDF scrambled on eight occasions against that country’s jets in fiscal 2009.

The ministry said no foreign aircraft actually violated Japanese airspace in fiscal 2010.

The article implies that the increase is because of the DPJ and a perceived decline in U.S.-Japan relations:

The increase in sorties to ward off foreign aircraft approaching the nation’s airspace appears to correlate with the Democratic Party of Japan’s 2009 ascent to power and subsequent tensions in the Japan-U.S. defense relationship.

A Defense Ministry senior official said, “[Foreign countries] might have been testing Japan’s defense capability as they regarded Japan-U.S. relations as weakened.”

The increased flights were also probably linked to the Chinese anger after the Senkaku boat incident and Russia’s increasing emphasis on its ownership of the Southern Kuril islands.

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International Herald Tribune Prints Apology to Japan / Screws Up Mao Asada Photo on Next Page

James — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 05:34:12 +0000

A few days ago, I made a blog post about the Japanese government officially complaining to the International Herald Tribune over its printing of a cartoon that joked about radioactive contamination of Japanese food. The newspaper has since printed an apology to Japan:

The information is contained on the editorial page of the publication’s latest issue. It states that “the caricature offends the sensibilities of Japanese people.” “The publication of the caricatures was a mistake we seriously deplore,” – recognize the newspaper’s authorities.

The sketch published last Thursday shows the figure of Snow White, looking suspiciously at a witch, offering her an apple, and asking: “Wait a minute! You’re not, by any accident, from Japan, are you?”

The apology appeared in the April 25th edition of the paper. On the page after the apology, the IHT messed up the photo for an article about Japan:

The picture caption mentions Japanese skater Mao Asada, but the photo shows South Korean skater Yuna Kim. ( Asada and Kim are sometimes portrayed as rivals, and whenever they compete, nationalists in both countries tend to get worked-up. )

Although it’s probably just an error by ignorant American journalists and editors, some will no doubt see the photo as a deliberate attempt to annoy the people who complained about the radioactive apple cartoon.

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Anti-Japanese Nationalism Sours Korean Efforts to Donate Relief to Japanese Tsunami Victims

James — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 06:05:16 +0000

After the March 11th earthquake and tsunami, there was great sympathy in South Korea for the plight of Japanese victims. Millions of dollars were donated by ordinary citizens and celebrities, and the the government sent search and rescue teams to Japan.

Optimists said it was a new sign of improved relations between Japan and Korea. However, it only took a few weeks for anti-Japanese nationalism to fuel protests and retractions of charity donations.

What happened?

At the end of March, a Japanese government screening panel approved a textbook that mentioned Japan’s territorial claim on the Liancourt Rocks. It should not have been unexpected, as the Japanese government has been approving similar textbooks for years now.

The Japanese government’s territorial claim to the rocks has not changed in the past 100 years. For some reason, Korean nationalists go into a rage whenever the continued and unchanged existence of Japan’s territorial claim is mentioned. The routine printing of Japanese government white papers or routine approval of new editions of textbooks are seen as Japanese attempts to “re-assert” its claim and “escalate” the dispute.

One poor nationalist go so worked up that he almost cut off his finger:

The 47-year-old identified only by his surname Choi shouted ‘Japanese ambassador apologise!’ outside the Japanese embassy, with his left little finger almost severed, an officer told AFP.

He threatened to commit suicide and pointed a knife at his jugular. Police took him to a nearby hospital.

Japanese Government Complains About International Herald Tribune’s Radioactive Apple Cartoon

James — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 04:16:48 +0000

The Yomiuri reports that the Japanese Consulate in New York has officially complained to the International Herald Tribune after the newspaper printed the following comic:

The consulate complained that it was “regrettable” to see such a comic, given the fact that the safety of Japanese food exports is being verified by customs officials in both Japan and America.

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