melonbarmonster comments

The dishes are not gold. It's traditional Korean handforged bronzeware called Bangjja or Yugi.

It's definitely a step in the right direction but it's not an apology.

What kind of scumbag dismissed first hand account of women from dozen different countries in Asia including women from Netherlands and Australia while defending prostitution 'contracts' of impoverished 10 year, 14 year old girls?????

You can't deny that kidnapped and enslaved teenage girls into sexual slavery and then claim you apologized for what you're denying what you did all at the same time.

It's hilarious that Korea is being hailed all over the world and press is covering how Korea is dealing with the pandemic but almost zero coverage from Japanese press. Really says a lot when Abe's Japan is more comparable to People's Republic of China rather than South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore.

LOL Japan finally tested enough to reach 100. There are 10's of thousands more infected. It looks like Abe is trying to perpetually under test until Japan reaches herd immunity. That way he can claim low number of infections and keep political impact low. Doesn't bode well for old people and people with health issues who will make up the mortality rate. How disturbing is it that Japan is following China's lead of misleading and hiding reality rather than open testing and transparency?

LOL Spared mass outbreak??? Says who??? What kind of monkey business is this? There's no testing and now that the Olympics are canceled there's a mysterious outbreak??? Yea right. Is this China or Japan or is there a difference anymore? Nippon Ganbare.

LOL. China and Japan doing a good job of suppressing infection rates. Nippon Ganbare.

LOL... "they should grow eyes in the back of their head." Yea that would true in Japan, not Korea. Korea has a long and dynamic history and culture of self-criticism. Movies, TV shows that criticize the government and ruling class was and is a national past-time even when it would get the creators jailed. It's one of the things that is very different between Korea and Japan.

Wow, I don't know why Japan is terrible at handling these emergency situations...

Buy more kits. wth

Kazu was probably abused and repressed in the Japanese film industry. Where are the political satire movies in Japan???? The genre doesn't exist. Japan is more like PRC China in this regard.

Abe is such a sycophant

Kind of hard to maintain good relationship with neighbors who think rape and pillaging and then denying it is par for course. Why focus on beer and on not on the array of other industries that are taking significant dents from this stupid trade dispute?

Same right wing Japanese trope. The real news is that these nut jobs are actually getting their way with Shinzo Abe. This is not going to end well for Japan.

Same old right wing tactic in Japan.. except the crazies are in the same boat as Shinzo Abe and right wing revisionist, racist policies. Great stuff Japan.

Alls well but why does Abe administration lie about this not being in retaliation to Korea's Supreme Court case ruling regarding forced laborers and the reversal of the Comfort Women agreement?

When you 'apologize' by saying you regret that atrocities to young women happened and then you have a press conference saying that the said women weren't coerced, that's not an apology. You can't apologize for something that you deny all at the same time.

Korea was one of the first countries to send aid and volunteer rescue squads when Fukushima disaster happened. Knowing that radioactive water is being held in precarious containers with no clear plan for how to safely store them for the long run is insane. How the hell would you not be worried about it if you're Korea.

Samsung just got their own patents for producing some of the Japan produced materials. It's supposed to be in production in 6 months. These are first steps in Korea developing their own supply chain for electronics and future generation of semiconductor. Korea will have lost out on profits bc of delays and R&D and Japan will lose out on being able to sell to Korean tech companies. It's lose lose for both countries but in the long run Japan is not going to retake the electronics and semiconductor market. Silicone Valley gave up on semiconductors when Japan outcompeted the US and it's the same story for Japan Inc.

Are they inviting the Nazi's next year to celebrate Japan's alliance with Nazi Germany during WWII?

Welcome to bizarro world where rabid racist fascists dress up in war criminal regalia and the Japanese PM kowtows to them in some insane fantasy world where Japan was the hero nation in WWII.

This article highlights how tone deaf Japan is to the reality of how things are perceived outside of Japan. The Korean right wing nuts described in this article are akin to the right wing nuts who ride in black vans in Japan. They are on the fringe. The need for Japan to admit, apologize, and resolve it's WWII issues is literally the one thing that is shared by North and South Korea, China, Taiwan, et al. It's 2019, let's call a spade a spade. Japan committed atrocities during its WW2 and has trouble admitting let alone recompense and reconcile with neighboring nations. The more that people outside of Asia learns about the festering issue the more they will are learning about Japan's history and contemporary problem with its history. The fact that these things have spilled over into trade and policy at Abe's initiative really hurts Japan's business credibility overseas.

The Supreme Court settled the case and there's nothing that any South Korean president can do anything about it. What seems to escape right wing Japanese politicians is the extent to which Koreans will not forget about the war atrocities and wrongs suffered. Unlike most Japanese who are simply ignorant about Japan's atrocities during WWII, most Koreans have family stories about ills suffered during Japanese occupation. Japan will never be able to just side step this responsibility without admission and compensation akin to truth and reconciliation endeavors in South Africa, Chile, Germany, etc. For those of you who think Japan already apologized, as a general principal you can't apologize for things you deny all at the same time. E.g. Abe will made statements of remorse or regret over comfort women.... while claiming that the women were paid prostitutes. That's not an apology nor admission.

Japan is miscalculating how this is going to turn out. This will just force Korean companies to phase out Japan out of its production line which has now become inevitable. The chip game isn't going away anytime soon and Japan will end up losing market share in due time... this makes Abe feel good and but will hurt Japan Inc in the long run.

Historical issues have always been a problem and Japan definitely crossed the line by moving this into the economic trade arena. Seems like Korea isn't escalating at this point. Will be interesting to see where this goes.

"Japanese officials have rejected any link to historical disputes."

LOL Who believes this lie?

LOL. Nice move by Shinzo Abe. Somehow you can rape, murder, and abduct millions of people and then claim you already apologized, and paid for crimes you claim you didn't commit all at the same time.

What a true stain on humanity. This place needs to be bulldozed down. There's no better way to NOT LEARN from history than to continue to herald virulent ideology and tradition of Japanese war criminals and racist, militaristic aggression.

The abduction issue be resolved if Japan adopted a reconciliatory and apologetic attitude towards its war crimes. It's literally the only thing that North Korea, South Korea, China, Taiwan all agree on.