happyhere comments

Jeff Lee, if it is that easy why does the government collect any tax at all?

Just cancel income tax, consumption tax, juuminzei, health tax etc and print away!

Whoopee!

As long as Japan has a large current account surplus printing money works, as there is always more demand to buy yen than to sell it.

It remains to be seen if a country falling behind economically, with a huge demand for energy imports and with a declining population can maintain this surplus.

I doubt it.

@zichi Russia shares its borders with NATO countries.

Yes it does.

Adding Ukraine to Nato adds 2200 km to that border (with Russial and another 1000km for the border with Belarus. This combined is the length of the US/Mexican border.

Putin is not mad to oppose this.

If Nato wants this they outcome they will need cold war level troop strengths again. Madness.

Actually this is a good outcome for almost everyone.

The EU has enough problems with eastern European countries like Poland and Hungary to try and absorb Ukraine.

Nato is far more secure without Ukraine than with it. A neutered Ukraine is almost as good as a neutral one.

Even Ukraine is better off for the short to medium term at least, as their annoying Russian minority will no longer be voting and things will calm down.

Kosovo finally came back to haunt Nato. Over 4 years later 4000 Nato troops are still there.

This move by Putin stops Ukraine joining either Nato or the EU, unless Ukraine is willing to cede the territory, which it won't. Nato should have negotiated.

Right investment

Australia says Chinese warship fired a laser at its spy plane

There, fixed the title.

kaimycahl:IF China thinks everyone is a spy then the world over should detain Chinese citizens because we know they are not only spies but thieves!

Moderator : this and other similar posts are clearly hate speech.

@strangerland

China is the enemy. They are the single biggest threat this planet faces. The people of the free and independent nations of Taiwan and Hong Kong would agree.

Well I don't and would prefer to let the people living in Taiwan and Hong Kong speak for themselves.

@martimurano

If you make even the briefest internet-search, you will learn of the huge numbers of people who have become disappeared, murdered, and tortured 

Think you must be talking about the CIA, Guantanamo bay and so on here. This is what my internet search came up with :

Extraordinary rendition is state-sponsored "forcible abduction in another jurisdiction and transfer to a third state". The phrase usually refers to the United States-led program of extraordinary rendition during the War on Terror,[1] which had the purpose of circumventing the source country's laws on interrogation, detention, extradition and/or torture.

It is always assumed that foreign people arrested in China are not spies. Like this Japanese guy or the two Canadian Michaels.

Does anyone seriously believe that no foreign countries have spies in China? What is the purpose of spy agencies if they don't spy on the enemy?

And does anyone seriously believe with all the surveillance apparatus in China they are not able to locate any of these spies? Obviously they can and do. Same as everyone else.

@2020hindsight

Absolutely not. It would undermine the US intelligence in the reason. If you have intelligence, you don't tell you enemies what that is. That's basic.

Basic? Biden announcing the "invasion" date obtained by US intelligence, complelely contradicts your statement.

Or are you saying that Biden lied?

One minute Biden was leaking to the world "secret intelligence reports" that there would be an invasion Feb 16. Now he is giving no details on "secret intelligence reports" predicting false flag operations.

If and when the invasion occurs I think we will all know without Biden's help.

But if he has details of false flag operations these should obviously be announced before they are supposed to happen, not afterwards.

Peter 14: Relying on renewable energy is the future for everyone and most have been on that trail for years.

Then how do you explain that Australians elect a government clearly on a different trail :

...despite the conservative administration's insistence on backing new coal projects.

Pro-coal government coalition MP Matt Canavan said the closure is "going to be a disaster," predicting high energy prices.

Peter14: If getting nuclear submarines mean starting a war then I wonder who China has plans to attack with theirs?

Australia of course, that is why you are buying the subs mate. Lol

Seriously though, do not misquote me. I said "fighting an imaginary war" not "starting an imaginary war".

Environmental groups cheered the news, but other experts warned it underscored the need for Canberra to face the reality that coal-fired plants will soon be a thing of the past.

Facing reality is not something Scott Morrison's government seems very good at, pushing uneconomical coal plants and spending billions on nuclear subs for his imaginary war against China.

Meanwhile Australian companies seem to know what they are doing, good on ya Origin!

Direct government subsidies to oil companies in the hope that they will lower pump prices is an absurd and outrageous waste of our money. We are supposed to be moving away from oil, remember?

The path to a peaceful solution is to get the US to butt out instead of inflaming the situation.

Use Minsk 2 as the starting point and work from there.

European problem, Europeans can find the solution.

Gustavo Caruso, director of the IAEA's Office of Safety and Security Coordination, said on Monday that the mission “in an objective, credible and science-based manner will help send messages of transparency and confidence for the people in Japan and beyond.”

objective, credible, science-based? Yup, all in favour of that.

But then why start by meeting bureaucrats from METI?

None of those adjectives apply to them.

@Elvis

the influence of traditional Chinese culture is undoubtable in this region

You can say that again. The entire street layout of former capitals Nara and Kyoto is a grid, based on Chang'an, the capital of the Tang dynasty.

By mid-summer last year Canada had it made: one of the highest vaccination rates (85%) in the world with almost no seriously ill Covid patients. The federal gov't got the vaccines distributed across the huge country and the provinces did the rest.

Then, idiotically, provincial governments overplayed their hands. Vaccine passports were created and you needed one to enter a restaurant or even sit on a terrace and so on. Some unvaccinated people lost their jobs. Omicron made the governments panic even more.

Plenty of vaccinated people were against these mandates and joined what was then a tiny fringe antivax movement. A united county has become divided.

Boeing again.

@Blacklabel

Bullseye!

Why is it that criticizing Biden gets us labelled as far right? I am a social democrat.

Plenty of Europeans of all stripes are against the US position.

Russia no more wants Nato/US troops on its border with Ukraine than the US would want to see Russian troops on its border with Canada or Mexico.

The US says each country has the right to choose its own security arrangements. Utter and total BS.

Biden has said the U.S. military will not enter a war in Ukraine...

Strange statement for a man that wants Ukraine in NATO. It does indeed look like the US is inciting Russia to invade, upping the tension and justifying more US troops in Europe.

“The hysteria of the White House is more indicative than ever,” said Maria Zakharova, a Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman. “The Anglo-Saxons need a war. At any cost."

Yup. Remember Iraq?

The Kyodo article is just part of the campaign to prepare the Japanese people for the imminent border opening, which has already been decided by the LDP overlords.

Foreigners don't need to be convinced of this.

I don't understand why Toyota gets so much publicity in JT.

They are absolutely last among major automobile companies in EV production.

They count hybrids as 'electrified vehicles' whereas they run completely on gasoline. This article promises a $73 million investment for EVs which is complete peanuts in the EV game. Eg:

Global automakers are planning to spend more than half a trillion dollars on electric vehicles and batteries through 2030, according to a Reuters analysis

Yes, that is more than $500 billion.

Now is the time to go, before the place is beseiged by Lonely Planet toting tourists again.

Abe/Kishi whipping up anti-Chinese hysteria again.

Actually Japan knows all about these trackers as they had me install two of their own when I came back to Japan last year. Random video calls would come to snoop on me, very annoying.

Was going to smash the phone with a hammer but decided it was a lot cheaper to just delete them with Playstore. Lol.

@gintonic

Just imagine if women in Japan were able to come out with the sexual harassment stuff that takes place here...would put Canberra to shame.

Ever heard of Shiori Ito?

She was just awarded 3.3 million yen in damages after being sexually assaulted by "Noriyuki Yamaguchi, a prominent TV journalist and acquaintance of then-Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiori_Ito