Rick.H comments

US and UK universities should do a good bit more of that.

So many comments about this by people who can't read Japanese, and I'm not talking about the tabloids either, and as a result don't know what the devil they're talking about. This business is a lot more complicated, with a lot of ramifications, that the short blurb from Japan Today cannot even hint at. Komuro himself is shifty. It isn't only his mother.

@ Paul, 18:30 JST

Or is it?

@ letsberealisticToday  07:31 pm JST

Was there an investigation? Kids falling from high rises seems all too frequent in Japan.

Oh! Get real will you!

Reprehensible comment!

When a toddler goes silent, you'd better go and find out what the child is up to -- right now!

Looks as if the Olympics spike is winding down at last.

'Druther work till I drop, whatever age that turns out to be. Can't stand for idleness; rots the brain and body.

@ Japan Violet, 13:09 JST.

Being held forcibly under an extremely hot shower could cause shock resulting in heart failure even in a toddler, or perhaps especially in a toddler.

Beyond being pedantic about language, I should post that the killing of the poor child is shocking and unimaginably cruel. What can society do with a person who would do such a thing to a little tyke?

You can scald someone to death with hot water, but you can't burn someone to death with hot water.

Too slow. The status quo has already been changed by the PRC, aggressively and very much for the worse.

There is nothing progressive about Takaichi: more like a mad dog rampant. As for Noda, a facade is all that's there: a few nice words to fool the credulous. They are both dyed-in-the wool Jimintou (Liberal Democratic Party).

The LDP is neither liberal nor democratic, and some of its members are downright deranged, while others are just plain malevolent. It's an unfortunate state of affairs when we have to depend on a supposed conservative party in the face of PRC and DPRK aggression, while the whole lot of them are navel-gazing incompetents and big-money puppets.

Like it or not, and who could like it outside of the Kim family and their criminal regime, the DPRK is in possession of nukes and the means of delivering them in ever-increasing quantity and sophistication. It's a done deal. The only way forward is to accept the reality, because they aren't going to give those weapons up.

Time to deal with the DPRK as a nuclear power and forget all the talk about disarmament. No sense in making an extremely dangerous situation worse than it already is.

Oh, what a world we live in!

Covid isn't just infectious; it's highly contagious, devastating, deadly.

Better to get the license plate number and let the buggers drive on off.

People falling asleep on a train or subway in Japan a pet peeve.

I can't count the times I've had someone -- male or female makes mo difference -- nod off and end up leaning on me. I push them off, and sometimes they come right back. On a few occasions I've had to get up and stand. Now, that leaning on you IS a public nuisance. Groping, when that's true, is FAR WORSE than a public nuisance. Frankly, I wouldn't want to be a woman and have to ride on public transport here.

In Osaka a few years ago I actually saw a scrawny little middle-aged guy goose a young woman on a subway coach. Couldn't believe it! She squealed, turned on him and grabbed him by the arm, hauled him off the car at the next stop. Incidentally having to get off at that stop, I followed silently along till she got him to the police box upstairs. He went meekly, I guess trying to avoid more public embarrassment.

Weird what some guys think they can get away with -- and what pleasure do they get out of it?

The center of the storm, downgraded to TD by that time, passed right over us. It was traveling so fast that its forward speed, which made it look still powerful, made the wind speed number misleading. All we felt was a fresh breeze when it was still supposed to have 25 knot winds. I guess people were not so lucky out west.

エさ。

McDonald's may be okay on rare occasions when you're away from your usual haunts and in need of a quick feed in order to carry on, but that's about it.

Gross!

If fear of China is the driving force behind regional defense spending, then the United States has appeared happy to speed the process along, actively helping regional allies to beef up.

That paragraph is written without quote marks. Is this article reporting news or editorializing?

@ Ossan

The US pivot to Asia started under Pres Obama, who invited Xi Jing Ping to Washington where he told Obama that China will not militarize the South China Sea. 6 months later China was militarizing the South China Sea by arming their artificial islands. Make no mistake, the arms race in the Pacific was created by China's massive military buildup and aggressive territorial claims.

Spurious, illegitimate claims at that.

@ "Invar" 18:01

Like Finland and the other Baltic states? Hah!

Historically, like Turkey? Hah!

Eastern Europe? Hah!

@ "Kazuaki Shimazaki"

And your source is? Post it to prove your claim.

Craft breweries abound in Japan today. Look one up in your area for a real treat. Some have websites where you can order their brews delivered. I won't name my favorite, because everyone's taste in beer and ale rightly differs. Just google craft beer Japan.

@ Mr Kipling

Japan is surrounded by open ocean.

There is only one channel to speak of, that between Japan and the ROK. Neither country would welcome an intrusion of PRC warships there, but it includes a passage avoiding territorial waters, so sending through a PRC naval force could not be prevented if the Chinese so chose. If memory serves, at least one small Chinese flotilla passed through the strait during the past few years.

PRC forces already have repeatedly carried out naval exercises passing between islands of the Ryukyu Archipelago and the Japan main islands, and in areas surrounding many offshore Japanese islands. To complain of the arrival of a small contingent of British naval craft in Japan is the height of hypocrisy.

PRC vessels and aircraft repeatedly violate Japanese territoriality along the western bounds of the Ryukyu Archipelago and the Sentakus.

As for the English Channel, Russia frequently carries out naval exercises passing through that narrow strait, but it's a far reach for China which, by the way, has no allies in the region, thus no justification. For Russia, passage on either side of the British Isles is its only route onto the high seas from it's naval station at Kaliningrad on the Baltic Sea and it's arctic naval stations. There is, therefore, conceivable justification, despite some British discomfort, for Russian naval passage through the Channel. No such justification exists for the PRC.

Britain has not seized any atolls or rocky outcroppings in the vicinity of the PRC to build threatening military bases on them. Neighbors of the PRC are justifiably concerned and happy to have a show of support by an allied nation.

The strong concern being shown by several non-Asian nations, no only Britain, to the aggressive behavior of the PRC in East and SE Asia, is understandable and fully justified because PRC behavior threatens continued peace in the area and amounts to coercive behavior against some of the smaller, weaker nations.

Well, it's Florida you know.

Taking liberty with a famous line from a popular old movie:

"You're going to need a bigger drone."

@ MICKELICIOUS

Not surprising though, is it? The methods of a "fixer" are not the same as leadership talent and so-called gravitas.

One more saurian waddles into the pond.

"Another one bites the dust."