SolomonKane comments

the case could set a precedent.

Yes, one that simply dictates that the Japanese parent needs to be arrested and detained indefinitely to give the foreign parent about a 20% chance of ever seeing their child again - some precedent.

Inoue was arrested in April when she visited Hawaii to renew her U.S. permanent residency status.

Talk about 'having your cake and eating it too' - it's keep your daughter OR your permanent residency Ms. Inoue. DUH!

Ozawa's supporters say he has been unfairly targeted by opponents of his drive to weaken the overwhelming influence of bureaucrats in Japanese decision-making

This drive doesn't include his own overwhelming bureaucratic influence apparently.

and bring politics back to the people

And bring politics back to his pocket more like.

But fear not, he won't have suffered any lasting pain in his ample posterior - it's far too well protected by Yukio Hatoyama's tongue being wedged firmly up there all the time.

I made this comment on a related thread but it's probably worth repeating here:

How utterly pathetic.

Someone should point out to these spineless, inbred idiots who pass themselves off as politicians (because "daddy and grand-daddy were") that quitting - or forcing others to quit - over the slightest problem is neither noble nor honourable. It is actually unbelievably weak (certainly in the eyes of other world politicians) and displays a total contempt for their voters.

Perhaps it's about time that these endlessly procrastinating clowns actually started doing something constructive for the people who suffered and are still suffering in the Tohoku region. Oh, but that's the real world isn't it? Not the pampered alternative reality of forever re-shuffling, professional nonentities where a family name and four years spent partying in the "right" university buys you a never-ending, free and totally effortless ride through life.

I wish more than anything else that the new cabinet would grow a collective pair and tell the LDP to kiss their collective a$$es and let them get on with their jobs instead of wasting time on this petty BS.

Nicky Washida - right on too!

How utterly pathetic.

Someone should point out to these spineless, inbred idiots who pass themselves off as politicians (because "daddy and grand-daddy were") that quitting - or forcing others to quit - over the slightest problem is neither noble nor honourable. It is actually unbelievably weak (certainly in the eyes of other world politicians) and displays a total contempt for their voters.

Perhaps it's about time that these endlessly procrastinating clowns actually started doing something constructive for the people who suffered and are still suffering in the Tohoku region. Oh, but that's the real world isn't it? Not the pampered alternative reality of forever re-shuffling, professional nonentities where a family name and four years spent partying in the "right" university buys you a never-ending, free and totally effortless ride through life.

To the person who immediately gave me a "thumbs down" for my comment above (perhaps an administrator?), it was obviously intended as pure sarcasm. I would have hoped that anyone with a modicum of sense would realise this and that I am as repulsed by this "carer's" vile actions and abuse of her position as any other normal human being.

Also, as any person with an interest in the Pacific war between 1941 and 1945 knows, the Japanese Kempeitai did indeed enjoy using the same sick techniques as Akemi Sato - hence the sarcastic comment.

Maybe her grandfather was in the the Kempeitai in WWII and she's just carrying on a noble family tradition?

@ Moondog

The tsunami in 1896 was higher than the 2011 tsunami and killed 27,000 people so TEPCO and the government must have been aware of it when the plant was first build.

I totally agree, and, as the Tokai earthquake is even more regular and easy to predict, it makes you wonder which bright spark located the Hamaoka plant right on top of the expected Tokai epicentre?

Maybe the Japanese equivalent of Helen Keller was given a map and a pin and told to choose the sites for Japan's nuclear plants - in which case I suppose we should be grateful that we didn't end up with one in the still-active crater of Mount Fuji.

I would have thought that - allegedly - funding an organisation that killed several innocent Japanese might also be construed as a fairly "non Japanese" thing to do.

Reading the Wikipedia entry on Ishihara, it states:

"According to noted politician Koichi Hamada, Ishihara gave financial and political support to Aum Shinrikyo, a religious cult that was involved in several murders and assassination attempts during the early 1990s."

And, when considering his close friendship in his youth with far-right author Yukio Mishima, perhaps Ishihara's own book Kurutta kajitsu (Crazed Fruit) is actually an autobiography?

Kan - get out NOW! Japanese think you are worst leader for Japan ever! Too weak for manage disasters, too weak for stand up to Koreas and CHina always bully, very weak terrible leader.Japan is weak and embarrassing because of you, get out of here now! We want LDP back NOW!

Kentaro75 - so you're talking about the same LDP that built all the totally unsafe nuclear reactors in Japan right? So Kan is actually mopping up the mess the LDP made in the first place? Oh, and in the 6 years I've lived in Japan, he is the first of 6 Prime Ministers to actually do something for the Japanese people (by shutting doen the Hamaoka nuclear plant - even if he supposedly got a little nudge from Obama) - what exactly have the LDP ever done? I await your reply with baited breath - even if it's only two words long and the second word is "all".

I understand why people are buying these - governments lie. I am English and, when the radiation cloud from Chernobyl passed over the UK 25 years ago, the British government issued - almost word-for-word - the same statements of reassurance as the Japanese Goverment is now doing. Then, a few years ago when restricted documents pertaining to that incident were de-classified, it was revealed that the radiation had indeed effected the population - causing miscarriages etc. Even as of 2009, "sheep farmed in some areas of the UK are still subject to inspection which may lead to them being prohibited from entering the human food chain because of contamination arising from the accident" (quote from Wikipedia)