Bruce Chatwin comments

For some reason I am reminded of a horse and a barn door...

I don't get it. Why does Yoshimura "intend to ask"? He's been intending to ask for a week now. When's he actually going to get round to it?

As is well known, Japan was one of the three major signatories of the Tripartite Pact that formed the basis of the Axis alliance during World War II.

Not sure this is in fact well known.

autoimmune issues have shot up drastically after widespread use of vaccines"Took a little digging, but I fornd this to support your statement

There's no mention of autoimmune issues in the link you posted.

Trudeau and Canadian MP’s are doing disservice to some Canadians and disrespectful for even call it a genocide. They should be ashamed of themselves.

Thanks for sharing the talking points of the Chinese Communist Party propaganda machine.

China the little dog with the inferiority complex is barking again

The little dog that owns over $1 trillion of US debt?

Surely nothing diminishes the seven Olympic values of friendship, excellence, respect, courage, determination, inspiration and equality more than the host country saying "no foreigners allowed".

Cancel the damn Olympics.

J Mark Ramseyer is sponsored by Mitsubishi.

Mitsubishi is already distancing themselves from the paper:

Spokesperson Jeremy J. Barnes of Mitsubishi Motors North America wrote in an emailed statement Friday that “the program at Harvard Law School is not in any way related to our company (Mitsubishi Motors North America) or our parent company (Mitsubishi Motors Corporation).”

https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2021/3/8/governments-worldwide-criticize-ramseyer/

The Harvard Crimson article in the link above is highly recommended. It adds a lot of information to the story.

It is in 1957, prostitution was banned in Japan by law.

Well, that explains Tobita Shinchi... /s

What about allowing people from lower risk countries or better still having a requirement to be vaccinated prior to entry and undergoing brief quarantine?

I don't believe that there is conclusive evidence that the COVID-19 vaccines presently available have a transmission-blocking effect. While there is evidence that the COVID-19 vaccines prevent the disease, it is presently not known whether the COVID-19 vaccines prevent the vaccinated from infecting others.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00450-z

foreign fans will not be allowed

Because nothing expresses the seven Olympic values of friendship, excellence, respect, courage, determination, inspiration and equality like saying "no foreigners allowed".

Cancel the damn thing.

If there were any justice, Suga would be on the sidelines with Yamada.

The go to travel program is essentially the state subsidizing those wealthy enough to be able to afford the luxury of travel.

Those who do not take advantage of the program, be it because of lack of funds or because they see the program as ill-advised, are paying for the junkets of those who use the program.

Marukawa is a pathetic sycophant. She needs to be consigned to the trash heap.

Never mind the spectators, new Olympics minister Tamayo Marukawa, has announced that athletes participating in the Tokyo Olympics will not need to be vaccinated against Covid: "We are putting together a number of comprehensive measures to realize a safe and secure event without needing vaccinations to be a prerequisite".

Japan's vaccination program is beset with delays, which makes it unlikely that Japanese athletes can receive their vaccinations before the Olympics. Thus the new policy.

Never mind the gender equality problem, the J govt has announced that athletes participating in the Tokyo Olympics will not need to be vaccinated against Covid: "We are putting together a number of comprehensive measures to realize a safe and secure event without needing vaccinations to be a prerequisite," Tamayo Marukawa, Olympics minister.

Japan's vaccination program is hobbled by delays, which makes it unlikely that Japanese athletes can receive their jabs in time for the Olympics. This creates the unpleasant scenario where foreign competitors may be vaccinated while Japanese athletes are not.

Hiroshige Seko is yet another of the many dynastic politicians that Japan is cursed with.

No intelligence or common sense is required for these creatures as it is family connections not competence that assure their positions.

Another male dinosaur to replace the previous male dinosaur. The senior executive board of the Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games does not have one woman amongst its eleven members; not one. on the committee. The committee continues to be completely out of touch with reality.

https://tokyo2020.org/en/organising-committee/officer/

Perhaps Mr. Mori's remarks were taken out of context and not clearly representative of his real feelings towards all women in public service but simply came out the wrong way in expressing his words.

Perhaps the moon really is made of cheese.

Was it really that sexist what Mori said?

Women on average do speak 13,000 more words than men. It's a scientific fact.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2281891/Women-really-talk-men-13-000-words-day-precise.html

From the article: "It has been claimed that women speak about 20,000 words a day - 13,000 more than the average man"

Note the word "claimed". It's a claim, not a fact.

Again from the article: "Based on our observations, we postulate higher levels of Foxp2 in girls and higher levels of Foxp2 in male rats is an indication that Foxp2 protein levels are associated with the more communicative sex."

Note the term "postulate"; it's a theory, not a fact.

"one of the Oxford team (of researchers behind the report) ... cautioned against drawing big conclusions from a study of such a small number of children."

Even the researchers who produced the report caution against making too much of it.

kohakuebisuToday  12:04 pm JST

Here's a poll on Yahoo Japan that has nearly half a million votes on whether Mori should resign. Yahoo is still very popular in Japan, where people like pages crammed with info. It is way more popular than change.org where the oft-quoted petition is.

90% of the 500K respondents to the Yahoo Japan poll want Mori to resign. Only 8.5% of respondents say resignation is not necessary.

Not to worry. LDP grand poohbah #2 Toshihiro Nikai says that Mori's comments are "not a problem".

Mori made an insincere non-apology; he will not do the right thing by resigning nor will the LDP mandarins do the right thing and demand his resignation. It is the LDP old boys club after all.

Well done Kirin for doing the right thing, even if a little late. Unfortunately, Kirin is a comparatively small player in Myanmar; investment by the Japanese government and other companies dwarfs the Kirin investment.

The Japanese government has encouraged Japanese companies to invest in the Thilawa Special Economic Zone, a project to develop a huge site south-east of Yangon into a base for foreign investment in factories. In 2013 three of Japan's largest trading companies joined the project. The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), a government development assistance organisation (funded with your taxes), holds a 10% stake in the project, while the Japanese firms hold a combined 39% stake and Myanmar firms hold 51%.

A large Yokohama corporation won a tender in 2014 to build a $1.4bn new airport north-east of Yangon.

A major Japanese trading company and an airport operator won a tender in 2014 to renovate and operate Mandalay’s airport.

Three of Japan's biggest banks paid $75m each to obtain licences to serve foreign investors in Myanmar.

A large Japanese private equity firm is a partner with Singapore and Myanmar firms in the proposed $1.7bn Paluzawa coal mine and power plant project, and a large Japanese trading company is partnering with Thai and Myanmar firms in the proposed $3.5bn Myeik coal power plant. In real estate, a large Japanese trading company is investing with Hong Kong, Singapore and Myanmar firms in a $350m mixed-used development in downtown Yangon called The Landmark Development.

Japan's largest retailer is in a joint venture with plans to open a huge mall in Yangon.

We are confused. Are you saying Mori & AsianNikkei were more complimentary to the women on his staff??

NHK's reporting echoes that of Reuters and Japan Today. Nikkei is the outlier in this case; Nikkei's reporting seems to be distorting Mori's comments. The NHK reporting in Japanese is at the link below:

https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20210203/k10012848591000.html

その上で、自身が会長や名誉会長を歴任した日本ラグビー協会で女性の理事が増えていることを例にあげ「今までの倍、時間がかかる。女性というのは競争意識が強い。誰か1人が手をあげて言うと自分も言わなきゃいけないと思うのだろう。それでみんな発言する」などと述べました。

For China, Myanmar is the important corridor open to the Indian Ocean.

Meanwhile, Japan is busy building a highway linking Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam in order to provide transport infrastructure to all the Japanese corporations that have left Japan to set up offshore in Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Jax

Japan today;

"We have about seven women at the organizing committee but everyone understands their place."

Asian Nikkei:

"We have about seven women on our (Olympic) committee," Mori said. "They are experienced in international arenas. That's why their talk is sophisticated, gets to the point, and they are very useful."

Me: somebody is crossing the line with free translation.

NHK's (Japanese) reporting seems to be far more in line with the JT article than with the Nikkei's.

https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20210203/k10012848591000.html

When it comes to idiotic comments by Japanese politicians, Aso and Mori are in a class by themselves.

A majority of all foreign investment in the country is Japanese. For decades, they've been quite happy to work with the various brutal dictatorships that have ruled the country.

Indeed. The site below lists in sad detail Japanese government and corporate investment in the general's Myanmar:

https://oxfordbusinessgroup.com/analysis/japanese-investment-flowing-range-sectors

To be fair, European countries, especially the UK and France, and the US and Canada, are more than happy to do business with nasty regimes such as Saudi Arabia.

Japan's second largest brewer Kirin is a majority shareholder in Myanmar Brewery Ltd. and Mandalay Brewery Ltd. in partnership with the Myanmar military-owned-and-operated Myanmar Economic Holdings Ltd. In 2015, Kirin bought 55 percent of Myanmar Brewery Ltd., 4 percent of which it later transferred to Myanmar Economic Holdings Ltd. In 2017, Kirin acquired 51 percent of Mandalay Brewery Ltd. in a separate joint venture with tthe Myanmar military-owned-and-operated Myanmar Economic Holdings Ltd.

Given the military coup in Myanmar, Kirin will certainly dissolve its partnership with the Myanmar military. /s

970 is up over the January 4th report of 884 new cases. January 4th was the first day back after the New Year holiday.

Still, the number of 970 would have more meaning if the context of the number of cases was available.

Suga is dithering while according to Daisuke Kurai, professor of infectious diseases at Kyorin University Hospital in Tokyo, "the medical care system is already in a state of collapse".

At the same time, Suga and the denizens of Kasumigaseki don't have to worry about access to timely medical care. And so they focus on maintaining a facade of normalcy.

(Osaka) case numbers have been going down for months 

Osaka Prefecture is facing record daily infections and record numbers of seriously ill COVID-19 patients.

The occupancy rate of hospital beds for those suffering serious cases in Osaka has been hovering around 70 percent since December, with the western prefecture logging a record 171 such patients earlier this month. (it's 168 such patients today.)

Hospitals have been moving to increase their coronavirus wards, including Osaka City General Hospital, which closed four wings last spring and reassigned doctors and nurses to support medical care for COVID-19 patients.

However, the surge in cases continues to grow and the prefecture has been unable to secure necessary beds. "We don't have any more staff to spare and are barely dealing (with the pandemic). It is even becoming increasingly difficult to accept people in need of emergency care" for other reasons, said Michinori Shirano, the head doctor at Osaka City General Hospital.

https://japantoday.com/category/national/focus-coronavirus-third-wave-puts-many-japanese-hospitals-on-overload