northlondon comments

And how a manager of a high-profile club such as Arsenal can disregard players with experience who have won things is beyond me.

Arsenal are my home town team and I've been supporting them since I was in junior school in 1971. Whilst Miyaichi has been another valuable find, I think that Mr Wenger has finally been found out. He was handed the great defence of Adams, Dixon, Winterburn, Keown and Bould from George Graham and Bruce Rioch and Wenger has not developed another good defence since then. Whilst he may well be one of the best scouts in the world, Wenger is a pretty poor tactician and person manager.

Arsenal have the finance, the stadium, the training facilities, 10 years or so of Champions League football, the waiting list for season ticket holders, so there are no more excuses for not having won the league or the Champions League during the last 6 years. It's time for Wenger to go and for Arsenal to get a manager who wants to win some silverware. And I hope Miyaichi gets to play next season.

The Japaneses government announced Saturday it will ban farmers from planting rice in soil contaminated by radiation from the tsunami-flooded nuclear power plant

Do you mean to say that there hasn't been a ban in place already?!

Sounds great. No more need for TEPCO anymore then. Nationalise it, then hand the TEPCO business over to others who will do a safer job.

It was reported at the time - sorry can't find the link, but I do recall this - that the problem was put down to too many withdrawals of large amounts of cash.

bobo's right. It was reported at the time that the problem was down to too may panic withdrawals. That's when they shut the whole thing down. Now they are making other excuses and lies. My advice would be to change your bank.

paul, Japan timezone mate. Should have cleared on the 15th and my bank at the other end sent it without a hitch. This idiot at Mizuho is saying the ATM's went down on the 16th. It's a big lie. My money didn't even register in my account until yesterday 24th. They pulled the plug well before the 16th scared that panic mass withdrawals would leave them without cash reserves.

Mizuho says quake donations crippled ATMs

They're lying through their teeth. Mizuho wasn't the designated bank for victim donations. And the 16th was only 5 days after the earthquake and tsunami.

Something tells me that Mizuho bottled it when people started to withdraw their cash after the earthquake, tsunami and radiation threat. So to ward off a huge withdrawal from their cash reserves, they concocted a tale to close down withdrawals until Fukushima settled.

Mizuho Bank said Friday a surge in transactions for donations to earthquake victims caused computer glitches that froze all of its 5,600 ATMs last week.

Mizuho’s automatic teller machines stopped nationwide on March 16

What an outright lie! My overseas transfer was scheduled to clear on the 15th and didn't. That's a whole day before what Deguchi says here. And there is no way that such a large number of donations would start to come in only 4 days after the quake. We had no idea at that stage just how many victims there would be. How can they lie at a time such as this?

AdamB: "The Japanese do not control the islands so what gives them the right to dictate who can go there or not is my point, yes they can be upset but this have been blown out of preportions and escalated the situation."

Exactly, and Medvedev is using it as an excuse to escalate things himself. Unfortunately, it means putting more weapons on the islands, which absolutely cements the chance of Japan getting them back as nil.

The question is still not being answered. But does that mean that the Japanese government are not permitted to voice their displeasure at the political show on those islands? The recent news articles were just about the political fallout between Japan and Russia in 2011. Yet people are concentrating their posts about Japan's war crimes record all the way back in WWII, instead of debating the political fallout in 2011.

Adam,

I totally understand that these islands will never be handed back. I totally accept that what happened with the Northern Territories in 1945 was unfortunately a consequence of Japanese military aggression during WWII. But I find it insulting when posters start posting about Japanese war crimes in China and Korea during that war, as justification for the Russian invasion of the Northern Territories and the current political showboating from Medvedev. It would be much more honest for the Russians just to keep their territory without having to use them to earn cheap votes. That way would be far more acceptable. And I find it very insulting when posters try to claim that the islands were taken fairly during some kind of battle. They invaded when Japan had already lost everything and that makes it quite a dirty theft, even though they will remain Russian territory.

If you read smithinjapan's posts you can easily work out what is going on in that mind. If you ask directly whether smithinjapan would have reacted the same way as the Japanese government under the same circumstances, you do not get an answer. Instead the question swerves violently to some war crime or act of aggression that the Japanese once carried out. And when you come to the conclusion with smithinjapan finally admitting that the Japanese government will of course make these protests for their own political life, he refuses to admit the Japanese have the right to speak out and swerves off again to comments about the Senkaku Islands. In other words, in his posts the Japanese can never ever be forgiven for their old history and will always be a target.

Moderator: Smithinjapan can speak for himself. Please focus your comments on the story and not at or about other readers and do not let your emotions carry you away.

No, it's according to most people, actually.

smithinjapan and gogogo are most people apparently. By the way, my comment that you quoted was in response to gogogo's post.

Well, as Medvedev is nothing more than the public mouthpiece for Putin, this is Putin's idea. Possibly diplomatic speak, cat-and-mouse game for some leverage from Japan to "renew negotiations" later on and invariable to squeeze a new factory or some-such. Getting the islands back just isn't going to happen, ever. This is the fallacy and legacy of all wars so there's nothing else to do but just get used to it for the Japanese. That doesn't mean it's 'right' but it just will never happen, ever.

Every now and then there is something actually worth reading on this site. An intelligent piece, instead of all the other jokes and insults aimed at Japan.

Japan lost the islands in the wars, get over it please Japan you are making yourself look so stupid in the international eye, no one is on your side

But that is only according to you. There are just as many people who recognise Russia's little games and how Russia neglects those islands until it needs a vote earner. And there are just as many people who feel that Japan are within their rights to protest. 'No one is on your side'? That's a rather sweeping statement from someone who is just a poster on a chat site and someone who is clearly not a player of any sorts on the international stage.

I have no doubt this sparks concern with the US, so now would be a good time to pressure Japan to give the issue up before Russia arms up even further. The islands are Russian, and Japan putting up a stink over things they lost long ago after their war of aggression isn't helping the region. They're gone, Japan. Deal with it.

Here we go again. So I suppose Russia's invasion back in 1945 isn't seen as an act of aggression in your eyes? Only Japan's war was aggressive?

And once again Japan's sudden overreaction towards a Medvedev trip that took place 4 months ago bears fruit. I swear, the whining these guys are doing about things that are theirs, or about other nations broadcasts, are really starting to come back and bite them in the arses.

I really wonder. What would your reaction be if another country who invaded and took territory from you as you lost a war against another country, then started using that territory as a political stage? Are you so weak and accepting that you wouldn't put in a diplomatic protest as the Japanese so rightly did? You seem to have a real issue with the recent Japanese protests about Russia's political show, when they have every right to speak out against the current use of those islands.

Just to spell it out for you, the Russian government haven't given a damn about those islands for generations. But when Medvedev and the like require some political booster, all of a sudden they are travelling out there and walking around in front of the cameras.

Protesting an illegal occupation and demanding the return of islands rightfully belonging to Japan makes these guys idiots?

As usual, Sarge tells it how it really is.

I'd like to see Putin go head to head with a Japanese judo expert.

As I recall, didn't Putin bravely challenge some Japanese elementary school child to a demonstration bout? And it was a girl too?

these guys are idiots. Russia is probably laughing its face off, if it even bothered to take notice.

Like I said. At least people are free to voice such opinion in Japan. I never saw this in Russia.

Why is it the police only WATCH these guys do illegal stuff and never actually arrest them? If it's a bus priority lane they're in that's at least a parking ticket or something. But nope... the J-cops are simply valets for them instead.

The big difference being smith, that in Japan you are permitted to voice your political opinion. You want to know why you never see such scenes in Moscow?

It IS amusing to watch Kan and Japan shake the little fists as big 'ol Russia just sits there and grins.

Big ol' Russia is big because of land it took from others (these northern territories for starters) and because of it's "democracy" of Russia under Putin and theres nothing any political election can do to change. The Japanese government are easy targets for such internet posters sitting comfortably in their free living rooms because they never experienced life under Russian rule. What is so stupid about these posters is that they don't realise they are justifying the Russian governments way of democracy and the manner in which they took these islands. Instead they just find an excuse to bring all the anti-Japanese world war 2 comments out again. What a cheap way to write anti-Japanese sentiment.

Moderator: Please tone down your rhetoric and do not be impolite toward other posters.

Medvedev went on a political media show last year and the defense minister quite recently. 2010 and 2011. The Russians should have avoided that if they don't like the Japanese getting angry about it.

Everyone knows that the Japanese cannot do a thing about the Northern Territories and that's that. There is no way that the Russians will hand anything back. But that does not mean that the Japanese government do not have the right to complain about the use of those territories for Russia's political sideshow.

If the Russians feel the need to treat the islands as some kind of political war trophy, when they should have just kept quiet about it if they intend to keep those territories, then I don't see why so many posters are upset with the Japanese quite rightly voicing their displeasure at these political visits. The islands are still under dispute and negotiation by both sides, so the Japanese are right in being angry about these visits.

AdamB,

You definitely have a real chip on your shoulder about the Japanese. Unfortunately that blinds your knowledge of the history between Japan and the Russians during World War II. Read my post above, and maybe you should go back to school to learn what really happened. How anyone can condone the Russians dirty invasion of those islands and not recognise it is beyond belief.

Let me see if l got it right, you declare war, invade, kill, rape etc and when your territory is captured in said war before you surrender you complain. Damn thats funny

Your complete lack of knowledge about Japan's history of hostilities with the Russians during the Second World War is truly alarming.

The Japanese never declared war on the Russians. In fact, a non-aggression pact was negotiated between Matsuoka Yösuke and Stalin in 1941 and Stalin was the one who broke the terms of the agreement. The dirty Russians declared war on Japan after the 1st atomic bomb and when Japan was all but finished off (the 2nd atomic bomb did that). A little bit like kicking the school bully whilst he was on the floor after he received a final beating from the kid who stood up to him. The kid who stood up to him (the US) never felt the need to steal any oil-rich territory from that bully (Japan). But the sneaky kid (Russia) who never had any issues with the bully decides it's a good time to stick the boot in regardless.

'The territory was captured in a war'? Damn that's more funny.

I'm with the Japanese government on this one. What all the anti-Japanese posters on here do not realise, is that the Japanese government were content until now just to show quiet disapproval with the Russian ownership of these islands, but not to make too much of it. That was, until that puppet Medvedev and now the Defense Minister decided to put on their vote-seeking roadshows and highlight Russia's ownership of the islands.

The Japanese government are totally in the right to step up their protests about this flagrant use of the islands as some political vote earner, considering the dirty manner in which the Russians sneaked in when Japan had already surrendered to the US.

Sarge, I think you just worked it out. Pres O and Hilary C put pressure on Mubarak to leave. The Islamic Bros take power. The Islamic Bros step out of line, prompting Pres O and Hilary C to move into Egypt and thus take full control of the Suez Ditch. You heard it here first.

What happens if these Islamic Brotherhood wackos take over from Mubarak?

Then the pro-Mubarak supporters would also be entitled to bring their country to a standstill because they didn't agree with the government. In turn gaining sympathy from the BBC and from Pres Obama. No?

anyone who disagrees should Youtube the following but I warn you, Its a horrible, horrible thing to see.

"Egyptian Revolution The diplomatic car that ran over 20 people in cairo"

and for balanced impartial reporting, also watch the BBC report showing pro-Mubarak supporters taken away by the opposition mob, bundled into cars, and never heard of again. This is not a one-way argument.

and after their serious political rally about the future of Egypt, they all went back home to their comfortable homes in Tokyo/ Saitama/ Chiba and had tonkatsu for tea...

Have you signed the statement on avaaz.org? "We stand with the people of Egypt in their demand for freedom and basic rights, an end to the crackdown and internet blackout, and immediate democratic reform. We call on our governments to join us in our solidarity with the Egyptian people."

Or alternatively you could sign your name on the website dontallowactiviststochangegovernmentwithrioting.com

You stand with a minority of activists wanting to put their man in control. Not with the people of Egypt.