Bruce Chatwin comments

In 2017, the Simon Wiesenthal Center was made aware of Tweets made by Katsuya Takasu in 2015, in which he praised Nazism for the progress made under the Nazi regime. He stated that no doubt that the Jews were persecuted by the National Socialist German Workers' Party, but the toll of Auschwitz and the Holocaust victims was exaggerated by Allies. On November 8 2017, the Simon Wiesenthal Center announced that the American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery expelled him due to the Holocaust and Nanjing Massacre denial.

Less then $30,000 US. Pathetic.

@Ganbare Japan!

the Indonesian girl has same religion as the extremists running Malaysia

Just out of curiosity, what's the religion of the extremists running Japan?

@ Ilovecoffee

 They also privatized the Osaka metro

If by privatize, you mean creating a company where all the shares are owned by the City of Osaka,

The subway will be operated by a new stock company, Osaka Metro, whose shares are held entirely by the city of Osaka. (Mayor) Hirofumi Yoshimura, won the assembly's approval after proposing that the municipal government own all shares in the new company.

then I guess they privatized it. Seems to me more like an unnecessary name change and an opportunity for a retired guy to parachute into a plumb position....

The idea to create the "Osaka metropolis" -- originally a pet project of former Osaka Gov and Mayor Toru Hashimoto -- is aimed at consolidating the power of the political party Osaka Ishin no Kai.

A feed is informing Ghosn has been bailed, the conditions ?

BBC and JTimes reporting this.

The court reportedly set bail at one billion yen (£6.8m; $8.9m) and reports said he could be released as early as Tuesday.

Meiyouwenti,

from the original Reuters article:

Carlos Ghosn’s lawyers have submitted a dossier to a United Nations’ working group which showed that the former head of Renault’s rights had been violated during detention in Japan, one if his lawyers said on Monday.

Fun fact: Koyasan's Okunoin Temple houses a monument to more than 1,000 "Showa martyrs," referring to soldiers who fought in World War Two in the name of the late Showa Emperor (Hirohito). The monument also honours 14 "Class A" war criminals who were military leaders.

I hope this works out better for them than the ill-fated investments they made in derivatives in the early 2000s.

Wonder where that picture was taken.

"Plastic pollution in Ghana, 2018"

Helix,

Scandinavia succeeds predominantly because it's full of Scandinavians, not because they've discovered some magic ratio of tax rates and welfare payments which allow socialism to work everywhere. These are high IQ, high trust, largely homogenous societies with low populations and pre-existing wealth.

According to Statistics Sweden, in 2017, around 3,193,089 (31.5%) inhabitants of Sweden were of a foreign background,  i.e., born abroad or born in Sweden with at least one parent born abroad.

Thanks, Bertie

This is not Brexit-related. It is a reflection of the global market.

Yeah. Right. What a muppet.

Robert Mugabe is more deserving of the Nobel Peace Prize than Trump.

Robert Mugabe is more deserving of the Nobel Peace Prize than Trump.

The billion-dollar Olympics are awash with cash. But volunteers work for free.

It's exploitation.

It sure looks as if Abe is sleeping in the photo that comes with this story.

I guess the hundreds of billions of dollars and millions of British lives spent creating, protecting and helping to liberate Tusk's Poland and Juncker's Luxembourg (twice) doesn't really count for anything

You're right. The Brexiteers don't seem to give a damn.

According to CNBC, "a number of industry executives — as well as some Nissan insiders — are asking whether the Brazilian-born Ghosn has actually become a pawn in an increasingly bitter dispute between France's Renault and Nissan over control of their global empire, according to interviews with at least a half-dozen people close to Nissan, the alliance or Ghosn himself. They asked not to be named because they still have strong ties to the industry or directly to Nissan."

Bloomberg was reporting that the Ghosn situation was part of a coup in November.

> “It’s a coup,” said Tatsuo Yoshida, an analyst at Sawakami Asset Management, who used to work at Nissan. “Ghosn’s era is over.”

The removal follows probes by Nissan and Japanese authorities into alleged financial misconduct by long-time leader Ghosn, with Chief Executive Officer Hiroto Saikawa emerging as a driving force behind the investigation. Prior to his surprise arrest in Tokyo on Monday, Ghosn had been preparing to push for a full merger of Nissan with French partner Renault, which he also heads as CEO and chairman. That combination plan has faced resistance from Saikawa, who Ghosn in the past presented as his protege.

Without Ghosn at the head of Nissan’s board, a merger looks very unlikely. The charismatic French-Brazilian executive was architect and linchpin of the two-decade-old alliance, created as an attempt to add heft against global rivals. Ghosn’s arrest has now laid bare resentments that have built as the Japanese and French sides alternated successes and struggles over the years.

Lately, the structure has become increasingly controversial in Japan due to Nissan’s strong financial performance. Although it’s generally outgrown Renault in sales and profits, the Japanese company has far less influence within the alliance. It owns a 15 percent non-voting stake in Renault, which in turn owns 43 per cent of Nissan

In a few days we will find out that Trump has got his "information" on Iran from a movie or TV show. Just as he appears to have based his human trafficking story on the movie Sicario.

Five or six years ago, I was stopped by a couple guys in plain clothes claiming to be undercover cops. It was 8:30 in the morning and I was leaving a train station in Kyoto on my way to work. The guys demanded my passport, but presented no identification themselves. I told them we could go to a Koban or I could just walk away, and that was the end of it. They never got to see my ID.

100,000 Yen lamp? Sounds like Roppongi... It's best to avoid that area. There are too many scammers.

Fu,

Meng’s lawyer David Martin applied to alter her sureties, who contributed to Meng’s $10 million bail. It was noted one surety wanted to be released while another, Meng's realtor Robert Cheng, required more cash to compensate for the old surety but also because of a decline in property value to Cheng’s home. Meng was arrested on December 1, 2018, and released on bail on December 11, 2018.

Two Canadians, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, detained by China in retaliatory arrests on December 10, 2018 continue to be by China and are not free on bail as Meng is. The two men are being held on vague allegations of “engaging in activities that endanger the national security” of China. They reportedly face up to four hours of questioning each day and have no access to a lawyer, according to Canada's top diplomat in Beijing. Kovrig and Spavor have limited extremely limited access to consular officials. Kovrig reportedly has met with consular officers just twice since being detained by the Chinese government on December 10, 2018. There is no indication that either man has appeared in court, nor is there any indication when they will. It should be noted that China is infamous for its closed courts and the lack of independence of its judiciary.

In Japan, demand for high-priced large electrical home appliances continued to be robust. By product, refrigerators rose 3.3 percent to 437 billion yen and washing machines grew 6.1 percent to 347 billion yen.

The looming consumption tax increase is causing a mini-boom for retail sales. What will happen after the increase?

In Japan, demand for high-priced large electrical home appliances continued to be robust. By product, refrigerators rose 3.3 percent to 437 billion yen and washing machines grew 6.1 percent to 347 billion yen.

Could this possibly be due to the looming consumption tax increase?

six years after Abe's return to power, nominal GDP had grown to a record-high 550 trillion yen as corporate profits scaled new heights and unemployment fell to the lowest level in 25 years.

According to the World Bank, when Abe took over in 2012, Japan's GDP was 6.2 trillion current US $. In 2017, Japan's GDP had dropped to 4.9 trillion current US $. Corporate profits are up because Abe has been cutting the corporate tax rate, which was 38% in 2012 and is at 31% today. The unemployment rate has fallen in lockstep with Japan's ever decreasing population.

six years after Abe's return to power, nominal GDP had grown to a record-high 550 trillion yen as corporate profits scaled new heights and unemployment fell to the lowest level in 25 years.

That must be why I haven't had a raise in 15 years.

Well, as long as Aso is on the case, everything will be fine. I mean, what could possibly go wrong?

@alwaysspeakingwisdon

Japan hasn't invented anything.

Japanese scientists, engineers and inventors, on the other hand, have been behind many great inventions. Unfortunately, they're not really the ones you've listed.

For example, while the first commercial production of the Li-ion battery was by Sony and Asahi Kasei, to say that Japan invented it is perhaps overstating the case a wee tad.