A message for Prime Minister Abe

It's a sad state of affairs when people are protesting their government. Abe has only the best interests of the people at heart, but they dont realize it. If they got to know him better, they would protest so much.

The Japanese hardly do rallies. They don't do organized rallies like this, especailly not just for "...Day".

Tessa - poodle would also work, except that Blair seems to have the copyright to that one. :-)

I thought right-wingers are conservative and they won't be willing to sell out their nation.

there are hardly any right-wing politiciens in Japan except a few. These protesters and Japan's media are demanding to sell Japan completely to South Korea and China.

“Right Wing Sell-Out Nation”

Does that even make sense? I thought right-wingers are conservative and they won't be willing to sell out their nation.

"If these protest help people learn their kanji"

That indeed could be the most important thing, so I'm happy!!

原発ない未来 ----- genpatsu nai mirai ----- nuclear free future

If these protest help people learn their kanji(s) -then I am happy. Very different than the violent anti-Trump USA protests it seems.

Hello "the Minority," I am looking forward to the entertainment of your agony this summer.

Abe is obviously incapable of holding his country together.

He's destroyed the economy, is totally ignoring his country's constitution and has completely pissed off the neighbours. He doesn't handle the important things like confronting and handling the nuclear problem and international relations and wastes time discussing what percentage of women should be employed in Japanese companies and where there are enough pre-schools or not.

Looks like time for him to leave.

I would say lapdog, or poodle. (No offense to poodles.)

tinawatanabe: "looks like a hand-made."

Yes, the one is, obviously. The rest are not, and there's even a "No Hineno" in there -- the EXACT same one as the mass produced signs at anti-base rallies. At least one person is creative.

狗 is also used in 走狗 (running dog) and 狗肉 (dogmeat).

In the context of the placard, I think I would translate it 'America's cur'. It isn't complimentary.

Impressive, it is too bad PM Abe can not read.

hence the mass-produced placards!!! :-)

looks like a hand-made.

"America's 'little' dog"

But more importantly it has other negative connotations: snoop / detective / spy / fake / counterfeit / inferior / useless / wasteful

So the protesters are trying to get as many insults in as possible using the one character (狗) instead of using the simple (犬) which is obviously not to be taken literally.

That is what intelligent people do, hence the mass-produced placards!!! :-)

狗 is a 会意形声文字：犭(犬) + 句 = 狗 also means small dog. Hence used in such form like 狗盗 (koso doro) since it expresses thief stealing like a little dog. So in the above picture, it means that Abe is America's 'little' dog.

Anybody know when 犬 replaced 狗?

Both are still used.

Interesting that the kanji 狗 was used instead of the more common 犬; the former is used in China but very seldom in Japan. The 訓読み for both is いぬ, but the 訓読み are different - the former く or ぐ as in 天狗, the latter けん. It appears the former character is still used as insults such as 狗盗 (one who steals like a dog) and that old classic 走狗 (running dog). Anybody know when 犬 replaced 狗?

According to past comments on JT, the presence of mass-printed signs at any rally is irrefutable evidence that the people at the rally are not believers in their cause, they were just bused in and paid to stand around holding the signs and make their numbers look artificially big.

What a shame that Japan apparently doesn't have a grass-roots anti-nuclear movement after all. Apparently.

Not too far off the mark, but I doubt that he is listening.