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Standing guard

36 Comments

Riot police stand guard in front of a group of extreme rightists demonstrating with anti-South Korea banners outside the Foreign Ministry's Iikura Guesthouse in Tokyo where the foreign ministers of South Korea and Japan were meeting Sunday. The banners, from left, read: "Break up Japanese-South Korean diplomatic relations," "Eliminate the fabricated issue of so-called military comfort women" and "Recapture Takeshima island, Japan's territory."

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36 Comments
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Maybe one or two from these pages there.

4 ( +7 / -3 )

Cool-looking riot gear. Too bad the cop (featured w/glasses) still only weighs a buck-0-five (47kg) even in full gear.

-26 ( +5 / -30 )

I'm just glad the J-cops are policing their own instead of asking us for our Registration cards.

13 ( +15 / -2 )

Even morons have freedom of speech

8 ( +9 / -3 )

Nice try wc626. The average adult Japanese male weighs 68kg. You're off by over 20 kilograms.

11 ( +13 / -3 )

Wc626JUN. 22, 2015 - 07:30AM JST Cool-looking riot gear. Too bad the cop (featured w/glasses) still only weighs a buck-0-five (47kg) even in full gear.

Funny he could put you on your backside. Size doesn't mean jack. I've seen the riot training first hand, and my friend Siyun (from South Korea) trained after school with them as a part as his role. These guys are the real deal.

6 ( +9 / -4 )

It's good to be prepared, but it's not good to intimidate (hopefully it's not the latter). That's should not be the role of police or the SDF.

-6 ( +0 / -6 )

@cortes. Yeah, you're right. J-cops are pretty tough & this cop could tap me out no doubt. Just wanted to take a cheap shot at the pic. LoL-

-8 ( +1 / -9 )

Dokdo

-3 ( +6 / -10 )

Idiots.

7 ( +10 / -3 )

Those Japanese rioters are fed by the Japanese media, in their hate.

1 ( +10 / -9 )

i've seen quite a few demonstrations in japan where the police outnumber the protesters. hope that was the case here.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Those right-wing fellas are loving all the heavy police attention. It validates their purpose. A couple of obaasan with traffic-directing sticks would have sufficed.

8 ( +8 / -0 )

Is it just the right wingers who riot in front of the police? No. Far from it. It's the Japanese government in conjunction with the Japanese media using the right wingers to redirect Japanese dissatisfaction and frustrations towards South Korea. Just watch the flood of anti-Korean programs on the airwaves of Japan, are they coincidence? Listen to the Japanese interviewee starting at 0.38.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1cwKQexegE

-2 ( +7 / -9 )

Keeps them in gainful employment and keeps the loonies from waking me up with their noise outside the Russina and Chinese embassies.....

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Beautiful Japan. These are the kind of fools (the protesters, not the police) inspired by the current crop of politicians, when said politicians should be pushing for hate speech to eliminate said fools. Shame on these people and anyone who supports them.

6 ( +10 / -4 )

I just want something to be clear about my earlier statement. I support free-speech, but I don't support the protester's demonstration. I support the police being prepared for a potential riot, but as long as they don't intimidate a person or group for displaying their right to free-speech, no matter how absurd or hateful that speech is.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Even the little kids are screaming for mass ethnic massacres, and the crowd around her beams with agreement and laughter. Not a single Japanese had any problems with this at all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zju9HiqtG2c

2 ( +9 / -7 )

If abe were there I wonder which side of the coppers he would be on!!!

2 ( +4 / -2 )

Papi2013: "Even the little kids are screaming for mass ethnic massacres, and the crowd around her beams with agreement and laughter. Not a single Japanese had any problems with this at all."

And yet if you asked them WHY they support it, most could not give you any reason at all except that "China/South Korea say bad things about Japan!" forgetting that that is EXACTLY what they are doing!! At least if you asked a South Korean about why they could give you a dozen reasons off their top of their heads, like denial of atrocities, comfort women, and more.

Hate does nothing but beget more hate, and yet these people would have you believe they are doing nothing wrong, it's not them that started anything, etc. etc.

The sooner they ban hate speech, the better. Unfortunately, as Papi has shown, it's more likely the kind of 'hate speech' that would be banned is not supporting the filth coming from these morons because it's 'unpatriotic' to be against them.

4 ( +7 / -3 )

Didn't the J-Gov just make 'hate speech' illegal? Shouldn't these protestors holding hate speech banners be arrested?

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Papi, if there is a small army of riot gear-wearing police trying to pressure the right-wingers to stop; I highly doubt the entirety of Japan is screaming for the blood of their Chinese and Korean neighbors. Racism is an issue, but it isn't a pandemic. Don't generalize a populace off of some right-wing nuts.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

The sooner they ban hate speech, the better. Unfortunately, as Papi has shown, it's more likely the kind of 'hate speech' that would be banned is not supporting the filth coming from these morons because it's 'unpatriotic' to be against them.

Utter tosh but plays well with the anti-Japan crowd. These people are fools, certainly, but do not represent the Japanese population at large.

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

It's the Japanese government in conjunction with the Japanese media using the right wingers to redirect Japanese dissatisfaction and frustrations towards South Korea. Just watch the flood of anti-Korean programs on the airwaves of Japan, are they coincidence? Listen to the Japanese interviewee starting at 0.38.

Sounds like turn about is fair play huh? SK and China seem to do the same things, people with no history or experience with any of the things they are protesting about . Maybe Abe is paying them off with funds under the table.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Riot police stand guard in front of a group of extreme rightists demonstrating with anti-South Korea banners outside the Foreign Ministry’s Iikura Guesthouse

The Japanese government is allowing them to practice their freedom of speak. How nice of them

1 ( +1 / -0 )

@ Disllusioned

The one on the left reads - Sever diplomatic ties with S.Korea Middle one reads - The Comfort Women issue is fabrication The one on the right reads - Take back Takeshima

Slogans loaded with anti-S. Korean sentiment? Yes Hate speech? A bit of a stretch IMO.

Like NZ2011 says, everyone is entitled to their opinions and expressing them so long as its not hate speech.

-4 ( +0 / -4 )

These nutsos are milling around my house too right now. Is that the same, I wonder? (Sakurada dori/Meguro dori)

0 ( +0 / -0 )

The Comfort Women issue is fabrication The one on the right reads - Take back Takeshima

Would one see such signs in Berlin, or Vienna? For example, denying the Holocaust, praising Hitler. I think we know the answer to that one. And thus lies the problem with Japan

5 ( +5 / -0 )

Papi2013,

Even the little kids are screaming for mass ethnic massacres, and the crowd around her beams with agreement and laughter. Not a single Japanese had any problems with this at all.

The little kid you refer to is an adult, and you know it.

Untruthful exaggeration brings your argument down to the level of the fascists. At what stage did she scream for mass ethnic massacres (the sound is poor)? I only caught her saying 'Go Home.'

Smith, did you watch the video?

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

hatsoff: "Utter tosh but plays well with the anti-Japan crowd."

How is it 'utter tosh'? If that's not the case, why are laws against hate speech not more of an issue here? Newspapers and professors are now censored if they don't toe the party line (which is why it was so hilarious when the guy the LDP hired to speak on behalf of them about the new defense initiatives said it was unconstitutional!), and lest we forget the whole "Secrets Bill" that can jail your for saying things that might 'harm the security of the nation', with its extremely vague wording. Politicians literally get votes on spouting the kind of garbage written on these signs (especially comfort women denial), and Abe is a prime example, so again, how is it 'utter tosh'?

" These people are fools, certainly, but do not represent the Japanese population at large."

I agree with you 100%, but a lot of Japanese paint a pretty general brush on the people in Korea and Japan when the shoe is on the other foot, and not just these idiots, either.

Christopher Glenn: "Would one see such signs in Berlin, or Vienna? For example, denying the Holocaust, praising Hitler. I think we know the answer to that one. And thus lies the problem with Japan"

Exactly. But it's like I said above, you're more likely to get in trouble (politician or just a person visiting) by trying to do something about it then you are just pretending it doesn't exist.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

These riot police look bored. Re-deploy them to Okinawa where they might have their hands full draggin away protesting obasans to the patty-wagon!

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

A trend I often see is that when Koreans hold anti-Japan protests, most of the participants are past retirement age, but when Japanese hold anti-Korean protests, many seem to be in their 20s, 30s and 40s (although obviously not apparent from this story).

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

These same type of idiots march down Midosuji about once or twice a month in Osaka. There are only like 20-30 of them but they all wear face masks. If you are adamant about your hatred towards Korea, why hide your face?

2 ( +2 / -0 )

@DaDude "Why hide your face?"

I totally agree.

@Cortes Elijah "Funny he could put you on your backside."

LMAO! You must be kidding.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Cowards. That's why they hide their faces. One of the biggest taboos in Japan is outright confrontation with others. And to be identified as an agitator would certainly bring loss of face. So why not hide it- is the logic.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

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