daveinjapan comments

To truly understand China, you have to look at its impressive history and social conditioning.... Whoever said China brainwashes its children?

The politicians of today grew up with this, another fine example of Chinese culture:

http://www.chinasmack.com/2014/pictures/red-guard-betrays-family-in-1976-cultural-revolution-comic.html

To Lowly, Kwabene, others, thanks for taking the time to post your opinions and provide some objectivity to this case.

Tmarie, and some of the others... Being an "Illegal alien" or whatever other crime this gentleman may have committed does NOT justify his death at the hands of these cruel and incompetent immigration officials. Since when does the end result come back to "would this have happened if he had not been illegal" or whatever? They are entirely different matters, and need to be addressed separately. Japan's penal code addresses the crime of being an illegal alien. It also covers manslaughter and other potential crimes associated with a wrongful death. They are not related. Please don't confuse the conversation with annoying comparisons. So if someone has a faulty taillight on this car and gets pulled over by 10 coppers and somehow gets beaten and killed in the process, you would ask the question "but would he have been pulled over and killed had he not had a faulty taillight"? Hopefully you can put your emotional response aside and see where I'm going with this...

A range of viewpoints here, and interesting to see how opinions can change based on the wording and news articles. Most gaijin see anything Ishihara says as nonsense, and so in this case many are taking a stand against Ishihara and Japan. But no reason to rush to arms against Japan because Ishihara is in the middle of things.

Not that I agree with everything Yuri says, but completely agree with his stance on this island issue. I'm an American living in Japan, and have been following these developments closely over the years. The Senkaku Islands are in fact viewed as Japan's from the U.S. perspective, and that's that. Whatever "claims" Red China might have had on the islands in the past are no longer relevant.

Japan does not need to be pushed around by China. Stand your ground Japan, and be proud. Your country is one of the most beautiful, safest, cleanest, and overall best places to live in the world. Believe me, no one is saying the same about China.