Posts Tagged ‘Politics’

Visualizing complaints about the American military presence in Japan

In a news segment yesterday morning about the Okinawa military base issue, FTV included a summary of some of the complaints Japanese have about American troops enjoying special privileges in Japan. To help the audience understand, they put their cartoonist to work.

Shown in the video:

• Members of the US military do not need alien registration cards to live in Japan.
• They don’t need to pay Japanese sales tax when shopping at on base stores.
• Japanese police are only allowed to arrest US troops if they are caught in the act of committing a crime. In other cases, they must request permission from the US military to question or detain members of the US military. This makes it difficult for Japanese police to carry out investigations.
• The Japanese government must pay for base expenses, including the salary of Japanese civilians who have jobs working for the bases.

The DPJ recently agreed to a coalition government, giving in to requests from its partners, the Social Democratic Party and New People’s Party, that it take a more aggressive stance towards revising the status of forces agreement between the US and Japan. Hatoyama has also maintained that his government will end Japan’s military aid to the international mission in Afghanistan.

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Related link (Japanese): The Social Democratic Party is an extreme leftist party that advocates the total dismantling of Japan’s military and an end to the U.S.-Japan alliance. It recently made headlines for its strong opposition to a parade of Japan Self-Defense Forces troops, referring to their carrying of unloaded rifles as “menacing” and dangerous.

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• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
• Kirainet.com – A geek in Japan (Subscribe)

At home with the Hatoyamas

Back in July, FTV had a chance to visit Yukio Hatoyama and his wife Miyuki and observe their morning routine. Here’s a video clip of them eating breakfast together and fixing Yukio’s hair:

Miyuki prepares some okonomiyaki for breakfast. It is usually a lunch or dinner food, but she believes that it is good for breakfast because it contains a healthy amount of vegetables. After the meal, Yukio dons rubber gloves and washes the dishes! His wife supervises him. Apparently dish washing is a part of his daily routine.

Miyuki is in charge of coordinating her husband’s clothing and managing his unwieldy hair. After breakfast, we are shown a scene of her combing his hair into place and then declaring him to be “cool” when she finishes. It is said that her positive attitude is a great boost to Yukio.

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Related video clip: Al Jazeera, like the rest of the international media, has had trouble finding anything interesting to report about Yukio Hatoyama, so they’ve focused on his weird wife instead:

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• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
• Kirainet.com – A geek in Japan (Subscribe)

Company rushes to produce Yukio Hatoyama merchandise

TBS TV news reports on how a company is rushing to produce merchandise related to Japan’s soon-to-be Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama:

A company that makes novelty tea mugs featuring a timeline of Japanese prime ministers has begun to produce mugs that include Hatoyama. However, since it isn’t 100% clear how long Hatoyama will take to form a cabinet and assume his office, the company is printing leaving the exact date blank and printing that he took office in the month of September.

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• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
• Kirainet.com – A geek in Japan (Subscribe)

11-year-old accidentally allowed to vote in Japan – her vote will remain valid

A kid was allowed to vote in Osaka yesterday:

The 11-year-old elementary school girl, who visited a poll station in Osaka’s Nishi-Yodogawa Ward with her father, voted for a party in a proportional representation bloc as well as a review of the Supreme Court justices, the election committee said.

Election staff believed the girl, who is relatively tall for her age, was an adult voter. It was only after she finished voting that the staff noticed the error.

As it is impossible to identify the girl’s ballots, they have been regarded valid in accordance with the Public Offices Election Law.

This story really makes one wonder about the quality of the ballots from that ward. Why would staff allow someone to vote before checking their eligibility?

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• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
• Kirainet.com – A geek in Japan (Subscribe)