Richard Burgan comments

Actually, water bags are much better than rigid jugs. They are easy to carry and store when empty. You can keep an extra supply of water bags stored for a long time without using much space.

@thepersoniamnow

Fish don't swim in reactors, so you are safe. If you are referring to fish from the ocean near the reactor, you're safe there too. All of the radioactive materials in the reactor originated in the environment. Humans did not create any of it. What humans did is concentrate the radioactive materials and build the reactor. Eventually, the material will have to be put back into the environment. That can be done by diluting it to levels that are safe. So, you shouldn't have to worry. We should all continue to monitor that they remove and dispose of this material in a safe way.

Why can't Japan be first in the world at something?

Monday is always low. Wait until Tuesday to get the real results.

Good job Seven Eleven (Holdings)! Time to pull out of China. They are going to take your stores away anyway.

The sign at the Camp Hansen Gate has nothing to do with COVID. Signs with the same wording are at all the gates and similar ones are posted frequently along all the fence lines. Signs like these have been up sing 1945. Yes, they are paid for by the Japanese government (aka Taxpayers) just as all other base costs are. What they really need is a sign facing in explaining the rules for behavior off base and the punishment for disobeying. Something like if you don't like the fence around you, you surely won't like the bars at the jail.

This is actually worse than most people realize. The US Military population in Okinawa is about 40,000 while the local population is 1,400,000 (ratio 35). The daily infection rate of 235/40000 would be 8225/1400000. And at last check, they still don't wear masks on-base.

@FYI Since the US military population is 35 times smaller (1,400,000/40,000) than the Okinawan civilian population, 235 military infections are equivalent to 8,225 local infections! That reflects a situation that is totally out of control. Commanders who cannot control their troops are normally removed from command. (The situation in Okinawa is mostly on the USMC bases.)

The decision to test all arriving personnel (which I hope includes civilians and families) should have been made long ago. Maybe I shouldn't be (but I am) surprised that military commanders are so slow to make decisions. It doesn't give me much confidence in their ability to defend Japan.

What is a floppy disk? I guess it's better to lose ancient media that only stores 38 files than an SSD stick with the capacity to store millions. As far as I know, only the Tokyo Police and NORAD still use floppy disks...

@Frank Ellis: Japan has limited COVID deaths to less than 18,000 whereas the US has had over 830,000 deaths. Americans must be stupid.

@Gaijinjland US bases are not US territory. The US simply has an agreement (SOFA) to use them. The Japanese people pay for the land (renting it from landowners), buildings, housing, maintenance, and other costs. The US pays for the troops, military equipment, operations, etc. Japanese law does apply on base with exceptions listed in the SOFA agreement.

US Forces in Japan are part of a community here in Okinawa. Japan has done an excellent job in mitigating the COVID-19 pandemic. Whereas the US has done a fairly pathetic job. The US has had over 52 million cases with over 833 thousand deaths. Japan on the other hand has had only 1.7 million cases with 18 thousand deaths. The US population is about 3 times larger than Japan.) US Forces have an obligation to cooperate with Japan to prevent COVID-19 infections from spreading to the local population. For those who have followed the daily infection statistics in Okinawa, you will know that the US Forces infection rate has mostly been far higher than the local population. Military personnel reused to get vaccinated, constantly violated mask mandates, and ignored rules of behavior when off-bases. This is not how US Military forces should behave. Commanders must get this under control. I would suggest that PM Kishida make a call to President Biden and request that US Forces (SOFA personnel) be restricted to base until commanders can guarantee compliance. Japanese base workers (which the US depends on) should be guaranteed COVID safe working conditions equal to those off base. And, US personnel who live off base must comply with Japanese regulations (this is already required).

Good for them. Foreigners should not be voting in Japanese elections. That should be reserved for citizens. I pay plenty of taxes in Japan. I feel I do have a voice just by calling the city office or talking to local representatives. They have listened and provided clear answers or actions on several occasions. I know in the US I didn't want foreigners voting in our elections either.

In my opinion, fire regulations and firefighting methods in Japan are lacking compared to many other modern countries. Based on the statement that the arsonist kicked over a container of flammable liquid near a heater indicates that a catalytic kerosene heater was in use. There is also no report of anyone discharging a fire extinguisher. There are a number of obvious shortcomings here. 1) lack of fire escapes, 2) use of an open flame heater, 3) lack of fire extinguishing equipment (extinguishers, water hoses, blankets, etc.), 4) poor fire codes, 5) lack of staff training. Any one of those things could have saved many lives.

@Mat The reason for the large number of Fire Department vehicles may be that it included ambulances. When there are so many casualties you need a lot of ambulances.

Government and speed are not a thing in Japan. Japan is the only country that has a 'plan' to give COVID booster shots eight months after the second vaccination. Everyone else is doing it ASAP. Yesterday they announced they would speed things up and give boosters in only seven months starting in March. I would call that SLOWING DOWN LESS!

I too wish they weren't expanding Camp Schwab. But, they are and it has taken thirty years to get this far. It is not a new base. Camp Schwab has been here for over 60 years. A great deal of the land has been turned back to civilian use in the past. The Futenma Airbase is the reason for the whole project. All sides agree that Futenma is in a dangerous location and needs to be relocated. Protestors at Camp Schwab are nothing new. Not all of them are from Okinawa either. Pretty much the only reason Okinawa doesn't have a Chinese government is the US military presence there. Anyone who thinks that the JSDF could even discourage China is mistaken. It would be great if people would settle down and focus on how to exist peacefully with a neighboring country of 1,400,000,000 people who think they have a superior form of democracy.

As I have said before any persons who were directly in charge of Wishma's detention, care, and supervision should be held liable and tried for manslaughter under Japanese law. If they are found guilty they should be punished by imprisonment. Just because they are officials of the government should not excuse them for their responsibility to care for fellow human beings.

Other first-world countries are rushing to administer the vaccine booster shots starting a soon as 3 months after completion of "full vaccination". Japan is holding off until people reach eight months after full vaccination. I suppose they're still studying the issue.

I wonder if the scenario they ran included passengers fighting back. That doesn't seem to happen in Japan. But, if it did the perpetrators would be so shocked that they would probably run and hide. I'm waiting for the first instance when a perpetrator gets shot in the face with the public fire extinguisher, tied up by the passengers, and turned over to police.

@Yrral the US cannot deny GPS to individual countries, areas, or users. It doesn't work that way. The GPS satellites only broadcast very accurate time of day and the precise orbital details for each satellite. The satellites do not know who is receiving them. It's up to the user equipment to do the calculations to find their position. They can completely turn off or degrade the accuracy of the entire system while keeping access for the military running. That has never been done and would be a severe impact on the world economy if it was done.

The policemen are for show, but the dog means business. You misbehave on my train and I'll bite you.

When something like this happens does anyone do anything to stop it? I never hear about a passenger grabbing one of these guys and putting a stop to his mischief. In this case who was first on the scene with a fire extinguisher? Or did the passengers wait for the train crew to show up and take charge?

Where were the heroes? All I saw was everyone running away. Didn't anyone think to help people? Fight back? Subdue the attacker? Come on people there are plenty of ways to fight back and subdue a guy like this. Use your belt or purse as a weapon, shoot him in the face with a fire extinguisher, throw a drink in his face, just do something. Attackers like this are not smart almost any resistance and they cave and cower. Why didn't anyone even use a fire extinguisher?

And, the trains have buttons to open doors in emergencies by law. If they didn't work it needs to be fixed. If the crew locked the doors their procedures need to be updated. Why didn't the platform barriers open? It seems this is another sort of emergency we are not properly prepared for. Let's prepare!

The press, especially in Japan, thrives on scandalous news. To get the most attention in Japan you need to dance, sing, act silly/childish, cheat, steal, commit a crime, or be involved in a scandal. Just watch TV for a few minutes to see. Mr. and Mrs. Komuro deserve to be left alone and have a happy normal life.

Haggarty is correct on this. Japan needs to change its Justice system if it wants to be known internationally as a country that respects human rights. American executives do think twice about working in Japan. In fact, every foreign visitor to Japan has this in the back of their mind.

@GBR48 People in Japan point all the time. Let's get over all the petty Japanese taboos the so-called experts on Japan write about. I hear this crap all the time. Don't point, stick your chopsticks in your food, talk loudly, walk against the crowd, etc. There's not a day when I don't see all of these things being done by Japanese people. ;-}

The headline to this story should read something like "Japan chose to announce that it detected a submarine..." Japan detects and tracks numerous submarines and underwater drones on a continuous basis. In conjunction with the US the ocean around Japan and nearby oceans are wired with all sorts of systems to detect ocean traffic below, on, and above the surface. China being a newcomer, is not up to speed yet in this area. We can assume they are working on it.

This is the way they do it in Japan. Even school teachers are trained to use the poles to subdue a person. In my opinion, it's a more humane way than using a deadly weapon. Yes, it's only a first method. If the poles won't work the police have more decisive methods. Yes, it won't work if the perp has a gun.