Samit Basu comments

Choice of Japanese people : Ishiba Shigeru

Choice of LDP factions : Koizumi Shinjiro(Backed by Koizumi and Abe factions)

@Mr Kipling

North Korea doesn't have a functional air force. It doesn't need one. It has enough missiles and artillery tubes to flatten South Korea. That is why there hasn't been conflict on the peninsula.

A shocking news for you. The ROK has more missiles than North Korea does.

@Abe234

If the girls were wearing seatbelts as the person said, then something wasn't right. Were they on properly?

Seat belt won't do it for young children under than 9. Car seats are a must for children under 9.

@isabelle

No, it will depend entirely on who is voted in. 

There is no depend, it's Lee 100%, it's not even 99%, but 100%. There is no other possibility this time.

There is a greater possibility of Kim Jong Un taking over Seoul than conservatives winning the next presidential election, the conservatives are thoroughly destroyed by Yoon.

@isabelle

1) Despite the lack of majority, Yoon is certainly not "politically comatose" in foreign policy,

Which will be thrown out on the day Yoon's gone.

2) You phrase it (purposely) as if Lee taking over is a done deal.

It is a done deal. There is an immense public hatred of Yoon and the conservatives by voters right now. Yoon's miraculous 0.7% victory margin engineered by a Harvard Computer Science graduated politician in his 30s is gone, He now leads the anti-Yoon coalition whose primary objective is to get rid of Yoon ASAP to save the country.

Yoon has damaged the conservatives so much it's now on the path to extinction, they have been losing every election for 2 years now and the conservatives are literally a fringe regional party whose job is to protest and boycott the parliament. Lee Jae Myong's ascendancy to presidency is a given, nothing can stop it now.

@OssanAmerica

As long as the Russia-China alliance continues, one can expect the US-JPN-SK one to do so as well, even with a change in leaders as we go forward.

US : Biden is gone after January 2025, there is no guarantee that Harris's foreign policy will be same as Biden's, or Trump's.

Japan : Kishida's gone after September.

Korea : Yoon is politically comatose and is waiting to be replaced by the most anti-Japan Korean president in history, Lee Jae Myong.

@Gaijinjland

I don’t think South Korean talent agencies are any less stringent with dating…

Again I am not sure why there is a misconception in Japan that a dating ban exists in Korea, which would be illegal. Korea is a complete opposite of Japan in many ways, starting with women's rights.

You can literally see who's dating who here right now, it's all public info. In fact, the busiest leak time is when some massive political scandal is brewing, to divert public's attention away.

https://www.j-14.com/posts/k-pop-stars-who-are-dating-korean-singers-in-relationships/

https://www.lifestyleasia.com/hk/entertainment/celebrities/k-pop-idols-who-are-dating-in-2024-hyuna-jihyo-and-more/

This is why Japan's most talented idols flee Japan and move to Korea, where they are free to date anyone they want.

@happyhere

I thought Kishida was supposed to be a dove.

Kishida is anti-nuclear, not anti militarization.

Kishida opposes Japanese nuclear submarines due to his opposition of military use of nuclear power, even though Korea has started its nuclear submarine program.

https://armyrecognition.com/news/navy-news/2024/south-korea-to-build-testing-facility-for-nuclear-submarine-reactors-by-next-year

South Korea to build testing facility for nuclear submarine reactors by next year.

7 Aug, 2024 - 12:17

According to information published by Chosun Online on August 6, 2024, it has been revealed that South Korea is moving forward with plans to develop small nuclear reactors for submarines in an exclusive report.

@Derrick Smith

The US needs to stay out of these countries business and let them handle it themselves.

Rahm Emanuel is a pro-Israel Jew so I guess it was his personal call.

EV era winners : US, Korea, China

EV era losers : Japan, France, Germany

@konjo4u

Whale and dolphin tourism is mostly a Western and Southeast Asian thing, dolphins living there know humans do not mean harm to them and are known to even ask humans for help when they are in trouble.

But not dolphins in Japan. Dolphins appear to have languages of their own and and transfer knowledge amongst themselves, that humans are dangerous and harm them.

@lunatic

Well, dolphins in Japan have learned humans hunt them and are dangerous, and behave accordingly in self-defense.

How will Japanese government pay back interest on its 250% GDP debt if the interest rate is rising?

The US treasury is paying more for interest than on defense right now due to rising rates.

Shogun is a Japan-themed American TV series, not a Japanese TV series.

Japanese cannot produce TV shows that rivals US TV shows.

@TaiwanIsNotChina

We don't know what friendly countries may accept US aircraft

Hosting US combat jets and letting them fly off and then comeback in combat sorties are two totally separate things. Of course both Japan and the Philippines can host US combat jets. But they cannot allow the US jets to fly combat sorties because doing so makes Japan and the Philippines direct enemy combatants.

This is the reason why NATO countries do not allow Ukrainian jets to be based on their soil and fly combat missions. The best they can do is the transit of weapons through their territories.

This is why Taiwan is indefensible, and one man alone decides the fate of Taiwan, Xi Jinping. The US is powerless to stop and "sanctions" do not work after China takes over Taiwan.

@TaiwanIsNotChina

Of course the US forces can transit through Okinawa but cannot return during the duration of conflict, which precludes the deployment of air assets, because they cannot come back to Okinawa, must stay and operate from Taiwan. But this is impossible since there is no onground logistics on Taiwan, nor will they last more than a couple of days thanks to intense PLA bombardments.

@wolfshine

With regard to S. Korea, I think it's extremely unlikely that they would intervene in the case of a Taiwan invasion

Neither will Japan. The US can't intervene due to Japanese prohibition of the US use of Okinawan bases because doing so makes Japan an official legal combatant, opening the door for China to strike Tokyo with thousands of ballistic missiles, a chance of vengeance that China will not refuse.

@OssanAmerica

A bilateral joint JPN-SK exercise is probably going to be seen soon.

Nope.

South Korea is going to have to get a handle on their domestic anti-JPN faction

You don't understand, the anti-Japan folks are the SUPERMAJORITY of the Korean parliament. Do expect the formal criminalization of Rising Sun Flag bill to pass once the Democrats retake presidency(This is a given due to the collapse of right), which prohibits Korean military's interactions with JSDF until SDF drops Rising Sun Flag.

SK may soon join the QUAD in FON missions.

Nope.

Also rather refreshing to read a mention of the Senkakus without the needless Chinese name.

The official name of Diaoyu Islands in Korea is Joe-do, the Korean pronounce of Diaoyu Islands.

@Agent_Neo

In the first place, why should we have to deal with Koreans who make unsubstantiated claims based only on the testimony of self-proclaimed victims?

It's because of the Japan proposed rule at UNESCO.

Japan introduced a rule where historically contentious listings must be agreed by all parties, to block the UNESCO listing of the Imperial Japanese Army documents left behind in China that prove the Imperial Japanese Army high command was involved in the forced conscription of comfort women at gunpoint.

@sakurasuki

Will Japan actually do that?

Yes, Japan agreed to the specific location and the text of forced labor history to be displayed at Sado mine.

@Agent_Neo

but what kind of story have they come up with this time?

Japan supposedly agreed on the text and location of where they would display the forced labor history this time.

This is the fate that awaits all of Japan's automakers, not just Nissan.

Failing to keep up with changes, Japan's auto industry will be left behind during EV transition and there will one day be a time in our lifetime when a Japanese child asks his/her parents if Japan used to make automobiles because all the new cars he/she sees outside are Telsas, Hyundai/Kias, Chinese brands, and a handful of German luxury brands.

This means Japan buying Swedish defense equipment, not the other way around. There is nothing of Japanese make that Sweden would want.

On the other hand, former defense minister Ishiba Shigeru is a big fan of Gripen, and promoted scrapping expensive US fighters like F-35 and buying hundreds of Gripens instead for less money.

Film photography can get expensive real quick with not just film rolls, but the cost of development. Yes, film photography can be a hobby, but not the primary means of taking photos today.

@TokyoLiving

I already bought my ticket for 7:30 PM showing tomorrow night.

Days of Japan's chip manufacturing is over. Japan hasn't built a new advanced fab for more than 14 years. Japan is behind the industry leaders by 7 generations, a gap too large to overcome.

It's simply a waste of money trying to re-establish Japanese chip manufacturing, the best Japan can do is subsidize TSMC's Japanese operations.

@OssanJapan

That means that if whatever crime a person is charged with is a crime in another country, 

Except in this case it can be argued that it's the Japanese whaling ships that are committing crimes under international maritime law and Paul Watson was doing the righteous thing.

A person trying to stop a crime taking place at high sea is not a crime, thus mutual criminality doesn't establish, Paul Watson is released and is celebrated as a hero while Japan is once again mocked by Europe as committing crimes under International commercial whaling ban convention.

My guess is that Paul Watson will be released and extradition denied, because Denmark doesn't want to get the flak for aiding in the persecution of a whale rights activist from EU.

As you know most EU countries are anti-whaling.

Japanese anime studio MAPPA had no problem making a Yasuke anime for Netflix, so I don't see what the problem is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijKAtzQY1wc