Shinjuku No Yaju comments

Laguna - exactly.

His policy is what the world SAID they wanted, and what the majority of Americans want. We'll do us, You do You. An America that's willing to help if asked, but not willing to throw around wars of choice like skittles on Halloween. It sounds really good.

I wonder how this will effect the US Marines who are suing TEPCO

Lots of comments about race, but not so many about the facts. People are killed by police every day in America, the reason THIS time exploded in protest is because it was done in a residential area in broad daylight and the body was left lying in the street for HOURS like roadkill. I'd like to believe that had it been a white teen, asian teen, hispanic teen, the people of the neighbor would also protest for at least an arrest. Remember, an arrest is not a conviction, but this SHOULD be investigated. Just because the victim is black doesn't automatically make it a "race thing".

Is it wrong that I literally sighed in relief hat it WASN'T a junior or senior high school student he was photoing?

Ugh..that IS scary. (should still say "alleged"...journalisticly speaking)

Is there any proof this guys is really American, and didn't just say he was? Was there a reason they linked him to the two other car thieves other than the fact that they WERE car thieves?

There's a world of difference between rape and state sponsored sex slavery. why does insane crazy guy still hold the hearts of the people of Osaka. I love Osaka, please vote this joke out of office!

smithinjapan, "effort is a two-street" means nothing. And if you're trying to say it takes two to tango or something similiar in this case you're wrong. While the crimes of the Imperial Army were real, unlike the former comfort women, China isn't looking for resolution. It's looking for a bogey man it can point to in the interest of keeping its people subdued, and the international community off-balance enough for it gobble up all of the SouthChina Sea. So in this case Effort is a one-way street, with a dead-end labeled "xenophobic propaganda"

For all the apologists...don't complain when a Japanese tourist goes to Sri Lanka or Vietnam and is shocked that people there don't like them. These students will go home with stories of Japanese personal racism and subsequent institutional indifference if this young adults aren't disiplined. To suggest the parents will do it is ridiculous. Where do you think they got their attitudes from in the first place? I'd expect a face-to-face apology at the very least.

According to initial data, the April decline in spending is large, but less than expectations. The 5 large department store companies surveyed are averaging declines of 20% in April, with sales improving each week, and according to the Nikkei, 80% of retailers expect sales volumes to return to normal levels by June.

I like mountains more already... Now give me my Beer Day in June and we're all set.

This is something of a non-story. I love sushi, but 20-pieces is a LOT of sushi...

Actually Obama made it VERY clear that in exchange for security assurances, he demanded that trade restrictions be eased. This is all about the TPP, nothing more nothing less. Obama will sell out Japan to the Chinese unless Japan enters the TPP, which is VERY unpopular in this country. He wants nothing less than that. And even if Japan does enter the TPP, there's no guarantee that Obama will commit those forces to help Japan deal with the Chinese.

Obama WILL go to China. He WILL tell them one of two things - either assure that he won't get the US involved, or he'll politically back China, just to appease them. Chinese appeasement has kept him, Clinton when this whole thing began and now Kerry, and Kennedy from doing ANYTHING even remotely close to honoring the security agreement.

Nonesense. The defense agreement has absolutely nothing to do with TPP, and Obama has more to worry from his own party in the US than from Japanese demands regarding its success. The fact that you name every major Democratic party leader as anti-Japan/pro-China is a clear tell that your statement is less analysis than demagoguery

Kazuaki san, I don't care if it was 300,000 or 12. NOONE who participated in the things that went on during that "Nanking thing" deserves so much as a flower on their tombstone.

What Abe and the Emperor should both do is stop with the visits to Yasukuni

The Emperor doesn't visit Yasukuni. Get your facts straight before launching into tirade

A very interesting story, but the tag line of "How law abiding are Japanese?" is a bit stereotypical no? if this was normal behavior it wouldn't be news...and it is on a page with not one but TWO articles on people murdering the elderly...

"How law abiding are Japanese?"...depends on the person!

Gotta love the abject disdain for the FIRST one on the scene to help after the horrible events of 3.11...Japanese are the best friends in the world until it comes to being a friend in return. I'm sure the sailors effected are also going through channels of command for recompense as well. Now to sit back and await my 50 "down" votes

Hahaha AGAIN? Did this same thing happen a couple of year ago?

I'm pretty sure the numbers are inflated by foreigners who don't speak the language or know the culture enough to know when to walk away or that walking away is an option. The friend I mentioned before got into an argument with the staff at a bar about a bag of chips that ended in a screaming match and police taking him away. I'm sure that at any point if he'd just said "Sorry" and maybe forked over 200 yen for chips he didn't eat as a "don't go to jail" tax it would have just ended up as a funny story... Still, as an African-American I'll say that even if it is some form of benign racism...it's better than having kids getting killed for wearing a hoody at night, or playing music too loud. IMHO

Considering that fact that I know a guy who was arrested for what at the end of the day amounted to be "being drunk and unable to speak Japanese" at a HUB, I think the number of CONVICTIONS would mean more than arrests...

Holy ****! This is some next level crazy stuff. RIP

Alright boweevil and CH, I knew that your response would be "not the same". So lets say America did what I described above in parts of Okinawa where the US military outnumbered local citizens. They then said that "we won the war, and gave the region back to japan, but now japan shouldn't have it because we don't like the new government." America then does what I described and (of course) the vote is a resounding success and swaths of Okinawa are now an American territory. Is that not worthy of sanctions? I'm just trying to understand where the line is...because it seem like the line is "anything that isn't THIS EXACT SITUATION is bad"

Boweevil, I ask you to do a thought experiment than. Imagine if right after Abe was elected the Chinese landed 15,000 troops in southern Okinawa, seized every military base they could. They block all TV and Radio stations and in their place broadcast intense anti LDP propaganda. Then, with Chinese troops walking the streets, Chinese tanks parked on corners and Chinese flags hanging from buildings they declare a vote. "You can become an independent nation called Okinawa, or you can become a province of China". No option is given to remain Japanese. Would you regard the outcome valid, and would you denounce other nations for not excepting this results as 100% legitimate? (knowing that the mods will erase it for some reason but hopefully you'll read it before they do). :)

@ zichi, of course it could be inconvenient but every country (including Japan) has a stake in the whole Nation-state-with-sovereign-borders thing. If Crimea really wants to join Russia, the way to do it is to have Russian troops fully withdraw and do an internal referendum free of foreign intervention. I think the damage to the Japanese economy in a world where you can just roll tanks into a country and POOF it's mine now, is more than the damage of minimal sanctions. The slap on the wrist sanctions are just a way of showing Russia that the world is not cool with how this was done. I really don't understand why so many seem to be for this thing...I'd HONESTLY love it if someone could explain that.

@boweevil, You disagree with what? You think that if someone broke into your house, put a gun to the head of your child and said “Sell me this house for a dollar”, that that contract should be legal and binding? That the world should recognize that as legitimate? I wonder what you’d say if Mexico decided to invade Cuba and did that. Or Canada invaded Seattle? Or if China did it to Taiwan? In all those cases, I’m sure a percentage (maybe even a majority) might actually LIKE the result…but that doesn’t make it legal.

If we accept that, then strap in and get ready for world war 3. If being strong enough to take something means you should then the world better prepare to speak a lot more Chinese, eat a lot more Big Macs and drink a lot more vodka because it’s gonna 3 massive “nations” and a lot of vassal states.

And sorry for using a colloquial expression. Fisher-Price makes toys for babies, I’m just saying that the activity is easily understood.

@ boweevil No, democracy DOESN'T count when it's done with a gun to your head. We have laws for a reason. There are proper channels to seek independence (look at Scotland, for example), whats going on in Crimea is Fisher Price "My First Empire" level obvious

@tmarie, if the 3rd largest economy in the world isn't "important" than I don't know what we're even talking about. If Japan "fell of the face of the Earth", we'd lose the largest stock exchange in Asia, many of our advanced technological components makers, the leader in biomedical research, etc.... I think someone would miss it

I'm onboard for everything except for the "accord aimed at preventing risky military activities"... that one might come in handy.

I think it's good that Japan speaks up here. It's an important player on the world stage and it SHOULD be on the record as being against blatant land-grabs from overly aggressive continental powers under the flimsiest of pretenses....and Russia.

Congratulations. May the pride in the moment of this GRAND accomplishment be remembered forever...

does this mean a new holiday?

He'll get life. Then he and the Romanian guy and his friend can all enjoy their no-money-worries lives together. How do you just strangle someone? For a few yen! Horrible.

5:20 am? Shady gang deal or lovers quarrel?