RationalReader comments

Shameful. He should be executed.

Japan has an obvious alternative to keeping the US bases. Kick them out (like the Philippines did). Then, if somebody (e.g. China) comes and steals your territory, you can complain to the International Court of Justice (as the Philippines did). When you win, you can wait for the ICJ to come and kick out the People's Liberation Army (as the Philippines is, and, no doubt, will be for many years to come).

Your math is faulty. $8 billion over 127 million citizens is a little over $60 per year. About 7,000 yen unless there was a big change in the forex overnight.

This is good news. If more countries start taking responsibility like this, we can pull back the US military. You guys guard the Gulfs of Oman & Aden, we'll guard the Gulfs of Mexico & Alaska.

So backward and primitive to ban these useful services.

I never hired anyone who smoked. Even if they don't smoke in the office, they smell so bad if you are sitting next to them or if they come to your desk.

We all owe a great debt to Ishihara for forcing the Japanese government to see sense over the international use of Haneda.

If the South Korean government has a smidgen of common sense, they will realize that (i) their economy is still at a stage where they need to import foreign capital, and (ii) this is a great way to stop all direct investment from their richest neighbor.

One small step towards a clean country.

Good to see Japan taking a sensible and active stance for a change. Almost like a normal country.

Ban the products that emit second-hand smoke. If you want to damage yourself with the others, knock yourselves out. Once it stops harming others, it ceases to be the government's business.

Russia is a corrupt, failing kleptocracy with a male life expectancy of only about 66 years and very low birth rate. Give them a few years to collapse upon themselves and they will be desperate to sell the islands back to Japan.

Of course, the question then arising will be how many Japanese will be still young enough to have any interest in buying them.

The government is desperate for cash, and the primary tax levers - income tax and sales tax - are difficult to use now, so they have to cast around for all these secondary sources of revenue. (e.g. look what they've being quietly doing to the inheritance tax over the last few years).

As the Chinese people tire of being dominated by authoritarian kleptocrats, provinces will leave the PRC one by one and rejoin the ROC. Just as the DDR dissolved into the BRD, one land at a time.

Unfortunately too little too late on the birthrate. Maybe if they had doe this 20 years ago......

Drug addicts often have trouble controlling their emotions, especially in matters involving scoring their fix.

Vaping is less anti-social than smoking. But wouldn't it be easier for the rest of us if these addicts just injected their nicotine, like all the other druggies?

That should be NKs.

It's getting better. If we can slow the Ks down maybe we will have a defense before they have a reliable 3 stage missile.

This is a relatively small burden on domestic travel compared to, for example, the extortionate fees charged by Haneda in order to maintain its status as a lucrative retirement home for amakudari Transportation Ministry bureaucrats.

Somebody has todo the work and pay the taxes as the Japanese get too old.

Since the Japanese seem to have forgotten how to make babies, this is the only alternative.

"There is is no way they can enforce their laws in a foreign country. This is just a hollow threat that amounts to nothing more than governmental bullying."

try pointing that out to the IRS next time you earn some income overseas.

I don't think this is really our problem.

Tell the Japanese, if you want to be defended by the US, fix this - with the new base or the old base, whichever. If you don't want to be defended by the US, cancel the Security Treaty.

Either way, it's up to you.

Who cares if they quit or not. So long as clean people can live unpolluted lives and go to smoke-free restaurants and bars, that will suffice, If the druggies want to kill themselves, more power to them.

Musk has lost it. Unstable and clearly unsuitable as a CEO. Tesla's days are numbered.

Allow Uber/Lyft/Grab and let customers decide whether it is worth using.

"What is the difference between Japan democracy vs China Communism ?"

In Japan you don't get disappeared or arrested for speaking against the government.

Let's face it, who else is there.

If the other parties actually had specific policy manifestos they might be a better opposition.

Just another example of how Japan is a first world country with a third world government.

Imagine a serious mature country dealing with these issues. Would the UK insist that any airline flying there recognize the Falklands as British, or Japan insist that the Senkakus are recognized as Japanese, or Spain insist that Gibraltar is recognized as Spanish? Of course not. Not only would it be demeaning for a democratic government to flail around trying to control the speech of private corporations, also they would be laughed out of court on free speech grounds (not a concern, of course, for a third world dictatorship).