spaghettiplease comments

Russia lost 20 million lives during WW2, most Russian believe giving back these islands is an afront to those comrades that lost their lives

You mean 20 million lost against fighting the Nazis while blissfully observing the Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Pact until the US dropped the a-bombs?

Just say it's traditional Chinese

Had the American founding fathers been aware of modern parliamentary democracies, would they have allowed mid-term elections?

Putin has already stated a week ago that Russia has no confidence in Japan,s ability to refuse any potential request from the US in the future re. stationing miltary assets on the islands. Japan,s govt. will never go against its US master on security issues, hence Japan can never give the guarantee you mention.

Darn right, US presence is what prevented the Russians from seizing Hokkaido shortly after Japan's surrender. They should pray that Japan will not repeal article 9 and be a thorn at their side like coordinating with NATO or become home to US land based nukes.

So basically clamour for a peace treaty while rushing to fulfill gramp's grand vision of a remilitarized japan huh? K

Why, the Russians who invaded and robbed us of the islands after we were a-bombed will definitely respect us in a perpetually meek and docile state. Heck, if we disbanded the JSDF tomorrow they might even give us back half of Karafuto.

What if Japan started aiding Ukraine

I'm glad I live in a country where the executive and legislative branches of government are controlled by the same political party, as opposed to following some system that was designed by 18th century slave owners.

Japan could just leave the UN like it did with its precursor, the League of Nations, right?

This system has been around since 1908 and none of us gave it much thought until a CEO of a big auto maker became subjected to it?

While rural areas face more serious labor shortages

farming?

It’s interesting to see that person holding up a sign stating, NO WAR! Has he stopped to consider why the US are in Japan in the first place? Japan waged war on Asia for the first half of last century and the US base in Okinawa is the result. If he wants to hate anybody, he should hate himself.

Yeah, because the protester, probably being no older than a teenager back in the 1940s had a lot of say in how Japan was governed. Very astute

A sign in the picture says "No War." How does one argue with that sentiment? However, the lack of military preparedness, and the lack of military alliances, does not assure the prevention of aggression. Just ask the peoples who were subjugated by Imperial Japan.

I don't get why this is a bad idea, why should Okinawans care about Japanese self-preservation interests, the last time they did and resisted, the whole island was shelled.

Don't all indirect taxes create dead weight loss in the economy, unless, rarely, demand is perfectly inelastic? meaning the amount of taxes collected is less than the amount of sales lost

as far as I am aware HMS Furious was the first operational aircraft carrier.

Ah. but she was a battlercruiser until conversion in 1925

Highly intelligent AI is inherently dangerous. What if they become contemptuous of their human masters and, good grief, form robot trade unions?

What indication has Japan given that they would start another war? None. Where do these conclusions come from?

The Japanese government did support the 2003 Iraq invasion, so its commitment to the territorial integrity of sovereign states in Asia (yes, Iraq is in the Asian continent) is nebulous.

For many foreigners who work in some glitzy office in the southern 23 wards, the idea that you need Japanese to communicate with Japanese customers/patients must come as a brutal revelation.

the government is considering applying stricter eligibility rules for health insurance system benefits.

What a give away.

Every year comes Dec 7. I always think about the US could have prevented the Pearl Harbor attack.

At least none of the aircraft carriers were present during the attack.

Oddly enough after WW2 our Constitution was written by Americans. 

The system dates back to 1908, I wonder why it was never reformed by our beloved American liberators...or the fact that we weren't given the right to bear arms.

Why can't man and nature live harmoniously? Will someone please think of the children!

So can somebody care to explain why this system continues to exist instead of entering into a chauvinistic rant please?

I cannot understand how a country that has borrowed so much in terms of modern culture from Japan would be so vindictive at the same time.

I wonder how foreign products will fare in Japan if all tarrifs are removed because I'm pretty convinced that Japanese products are not perfect substitutes to whatever crap foreigners try to export here.

As someone mentioned here, most Japanese will defend their own barbaric justice system as any perceived slight of anything Japanese is always met with indignation... until they themselves are the victim of their own disgusting so called 'justice'.

and as if you cared or knew about Japanese victims of the system until Ghosn, a Westerner, was added to the list.

When you detain a Western CEO, it is a tragedy

When you detain 1,000 Japanese, it is a statistic.

Finally, the mess caused by Western and Eastern imperialism is starting to heal.

South Korea can finally connect its railway to the rest of the continent

This is as pathetic as Japanese right-wing nutjobs denouncing the jurisdiction of the International War Crimes Tribunal of the Far East.

Hopes were dashed much quicker than you could say "Crimea"