#Japanese ​Prime Minister Fumio Kishida

[xtruss]

Former Australian Premier Paul Keating © Mick Tsikas-Pool/Getty Images

Former Australian Prime Minister: North Atlantic Terrorist Organization (NATO) Is ‘Malicious Poison’

Paul Keating has argued that the military bloc should remain confined to Europe and the Atlantic and not try to expand into Asia

North Atlantic Terrorist Organization (NATO) has no place in Asia and should stick to its original focus, that is the security of the Transatlantic region, Former Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating has argued. The Labour politician, who served in office from 1991 to 1996, also warned against attempts to “Circumscribe” China.

In his statement published on Sunday, Keating appeared to refer to a recent report in Politico, which claimed French President Emmanuel Macron had blocked North Atlantic Terrorist Organization’s plans to establish a liaison office in Japan.

The former premier lauded the French head of state for “Doing the World a Service” by apparently emphasizing the military bloc’s focus on Europe and the Atlantic.

According to Keating, the alliance’s very existence past the end of the Cold War “has already denied peaceful unity to the broader Europe.”

A Criminal Family Photograph on the first day of the 2023 North Atlantic Terror Organization (NATO) Summit on July 11, 2023 in Vilnius, Lithuania 🇱🇹. © Paulius Peleckis/Getty Images

Exporting such “Malicious Poison to Asia would be akin to Asia welcoming the Plague Upon Itself,” he insisted. The former prime minister warned that NATO’s presence on the continent would negate most of the region’s recent advances.

Keating went on to describe North Atlantic Terrorist Organization Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg as the “Supreme Fool Terrorist” on the international stage who is conducting himself like an “American Agent.”

He cited a comment Stoltenberg made back in February when he called for the West not to repeat the “MISTAKE” it had made with regard to Russia, suggesting it should work to contain China.

The former Australian leader noted that the NATO chief conveniently ignored the fact that “China represents twenty per cent of humanity and now possesses the largest economy in the world.” He added that Beijing, unlike Washington, “has no record of attacking other states.”

Over the weekend, Politico cited an anonymous Elysee Palace official who claimed that Paris is against NATO expansion beyond the North Atlantic. “NATO means North Atlantic Terrorist (Treaty) Organization,” the French presidential staffer reportedly emphasized.

Back in May, the Japanese ambassador to the US, Koji Tomita, revealed that his country was working toward opening a NATO liaison office in Tokyo, which would become the bloc’s first in Asia. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida confirmed the plans to Japanese lawmakers, noting that Tokyo did not intend to join the US-led organization.

Commenting on the news, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning advised NATO against “Extending Its Geopolitical reach.” The diplomat pointed out that the “Asia-Pacific does not welcome bloc confrontation or military blocs.”

— Monday July 10, 2023, RT

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Dana Summers

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

April 11, 2024

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

APR 12, 2024

When Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida addressed a joint meeting of Congress today, he tried to remind lawmakers of who Americans are. “The U.S. shaped the international order in the postwar world through economic, diplomatic, military, and technological power,” he reminded them. “It championed freedom and democracy. It encouraged the stability and prosperity of nations, including Japan. And, when necessary, it made noble sacrifices to fulfill its commitment to a better world.”

He explained the bigger picture. “The United States policy was based on the premise that humanity does not want to live oppressed by an authoritarian state, where you are tracked and surveilled and denied from expressing what is in your heart and on your mind,” he said. “You believed that freedom is the oxygen of humanity.” 

Keenly aware that MAGA Republicans have rejected the nation’s role in protecting freedom and democracy and are standing between Ukraine and U.S. aid, Kishida said: “The world needs the United States to continue playing this pivotal role in the affairs of nations.”

“Freedom and democracy are currently under threat around the globe,” he said. “Climate change has caused natural disasters, poverty, and displacement on a global scale. In the COVID-19 pandemic, all humanity suffered. Rapid advances in AI technology have resulted in a battle over the soul of AI that is raging between its promise and its perils. The balance of economic power is shifting. The Global South plays a greater role in responding to challenges and opportunities and calls for a larger voice…. China's current external stance and military actions present an unprecedented and the greatest strategic challenge, not only to the peace and security of Japan but to the peace and stability of the international community at large.”

In the midst of all this dramatic change, Kishida said, “the leadership of the United States is indispensable. Without U.S. support, how long before the hopes of Ukraine would collapse under the onslaught from Moscow?” he asked. “Without the presence of the United States, how long before the Indo-Pacific would face even harsher realities?”

He noted that Japan has pledged $12 billion to Ukraine and “will continue to stand with” the vulnerable country. In this fraught hour, he said, “[t]he democratic nations of the world must have all hands on deck. I am here to say that Japan is already standing shoulder to shoulder with the United States. You are not alone. We are with you.”

As Kishida gently warned lawmakers that the United States is abdicating its role in world affairs by its apparent abandonment of Ukraine, Russian forces last night destroyed the largest power plant in the Kyiv region. U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Bridget A. Brink reported that “Russia last night launched more than 40 drones and 40 missiles into Ukraine…. The situation in Ukraine is dire; there is not a moment to lose,” she wrote. 

House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) surely knows the situation in Ukraine is dire; he has held up U.S. aid for six months. The Senate passed a national security supplemental bill that would provide aid to Ukraine back in February, but while Johnson has said he would bring the supplemental bill to the House floor, where it will certainly pass, somehow it has never been the right time.

American refusal to support Ukraine is causing global concern. When British foreign secretary David Cameron came to the U.S. this week, he not only met with lawmakers and State Department officials, but also traveled to Florida to meet with former president Trump at Mar-a-Lago in hopes of persuading him to support additional U.S. military aid to Ukraine. That Johnson refused to meet with Cameron when he returned to Washington, D.C., the next day suggests that Cameron’s effort achieved little. 

Johnson is facing pressure from extremists in his conference like Georgia representative Marjorie Taylor Greene who oppose aid to Ukraine and who are threatening to challenge his speakership if he brings the bill to the floor of the House. Those extremists fired another shot across his bow today when they blocked a law to extend a section of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act after Trump urged them to kill it. 

When the measure failed, security expert and former Trump administration official Miles Taylor wrote: “The House’s failure to renew FISA is *BAD.* If these powers lapse, it would be like blind-folding U.S. spies and tying their hands behind their backs as they try to protect Americans from China, Russia, terror groups & beyond. Get it together, Congress.”

To enable Johnson to ignore the extremists if it means getting aid to Ukraine, Democrats have thrown Johnson a lifeline, if only he will use it. House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) suggested today that Democrats would vote against a challenge to Johnson’s speakership, keeping him in place. Jeffries said: “If the speaker were to do the right thing and allow the House to work its will with an up or down vote on the national security bill, then I believe there are a reasonable number of Democrats [who] would not want to see the speaker fall as a result of doing the right thing.” 

But instead of actually doing the people’s business and passing a measure the White House, Pentagon, and a majority of Congress think is vital to our national security, MAGA Republicans appear to be consumed by the effort to get Trump back into the presidency. 

Today the House Rules Committee got a new chair as Michael Burgess (R-TX) took the reins from Tom Cole (R-OK). Burgess will oversee his first hearing on Monday as the committee meets to examine six bills that appear to be designed to feed the Republicans’ culture wars by denying the secretary of energy’s power to establish new energy conservation standards. Those bills are the “Hands Off Our Home Appliances Act,” the “Liberty in Laundry Act,” the “Clothes Dryers Reliability Act,” the “Refrigerator Freedom Act,” the “Affordable Air Conditioning Act,” and the “Stop Unaffordable Dishwasher Standards Act.” 

Johnson is also in on the act. He is scheduled to visit Mar-a-Lago tomorrow to promote a bill to prevent noncitizens from voting. This is purely political theater: it is already illegal for noncitizens to vote in federal elections. Trump seems eager to push the idea of “election integrity” to bolster his lie that the 2020 election was stolen and the 2024 election will be too, evidently trying to chum up distrust of American elections.

Under its new co-chairs, Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump and Trump loyalist Michael Whatley, the Republican National Committee last week sent out a robocall to voters’ phones saying that Democrats committed “massive fraud” in the 2020 presidential election and that “If Democrats have their way, your vote could be canceled out by someone who isn’t even an American citizen.” This is a straight-up lie, of course—Trump and his loyalists have never produced any evidence for their accusations and lost more than 60 court cases over it—but Trump clearly intends to make it a centerpiece of his campaign. 

While Republicans are pushing the Big Lie, in The Bulwark today, conservative commentator Mona Charen noted that Ukraine president Volodomyr Zelensky this week warned the U.S. that Ukraine will lose the war against Russia’s aggression if it does not get U.S. aid. 

“Putin seems to have pulled off the most successful foreign influence operation in American history,” Charen wrote. “If Trump were being blackmailed by Putin it’s hard to imagine how he would behave any differently. And though it started with Trump, it has not ended there. Putin now wields more power over the [Republicans] than anyone other than Trump…. [T]hey mouth Russian disinformation without shame. Putin,” she said, “must be pinching himself.”

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[politicoscope]

Why Fumio Kishida Visited Ukraine

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s trip to Kiev will allow him to raise his rating within the country. This conclusion was reached by the expert community. Of the Asian leaders, he became only the second after Indonesian President Joko Widodo, who decided to honor Ukraine with his personal presence, but among the leaders of the G7, in which Japan now presides, he is the last. At the same…

[studentofshinto]

I'm posting this here because I feel that we would all benefit by listening to what he has to say.

[panimoonchild]

"Today it is Ukraine, and tomorrow it may be East Asia," said Fumio Kishida, the Japanese prime minister

The Peace Summit Declaration was supported by 80 countries and 4 organizations.

Earlier, Reuters published a draft declaration stating that Russia should hand over control of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant to Ukraine, open access to ports in the Black and Azov Seas, release all Ukrainian prisoners of war, and return children deported from Ukraine.

Among those who did not sign the declaration are Saudi Arabia, Thailand, India, Mexico, South Africa, Brazil, and the United Arab Emirates.

The picture shows the countries and organizations that supported the declaration.

Important statements that were made: ▪️ "Putin has put forward proposals to resolve the war. But he's not talking about negotiations, he's talking about Ukraine's surrender," US Vice President Kamala Harris. For context, Putin was talking about the withdrawal of the Defense Forces from Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson regions, the lifting of sanctions, and Ukraine's refusal to join NATO.

▪️The president of Georgia confirmed that Russia plans to open a new naval base in Abkhazia. The Austrian chancellor called for pressure on Moscow to agree to a real peace process, while the Croatian prime minister added that his country is for peace where victims should not surrender.

▪️"Our efforts have led to the reunification of 34 Ukrainian children with their families. And we continue to work on the reunification of many others," the Prime Minister of Qatar.

▪️"The consequences of war are felt all over the world. Today, a farmer in Kenya knows about the war in Ukraine… This summit should not be a meeting of friends only, and both friends and enemies should be here," the President of Kenya. The need to involve Russia was also mentioned by a representative of Saudi Arabia, who said that "difficult compromises" are needed for the negotiations.

▪️"Today it is Ukraine, and tomorrow it may be East Asia… Peace in Ukraine should be based on international law and without changing borders," the Japanese prime minister said.

Zelensky responds to Putin's ultimatum

"This is a mistake that is useful for us. Here, behind the scenes, countries said that with this message, Putin conveyed to the whole world that everything he had said before about a real desire to end the war was multiplied by zero. All countries said this. Even those that have a different view, or had a different view. And this is also a success for us," the President said.

[milkboydotnet]

Marcos Jr. sells out PH sovereignty for US war preparations vs China

NDF-International | National Democratic Front of the Philippines

April 10, 2024

Marcos Jr.’s trip to the United States for a trilateral summit with US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is an utter and complete sell-out of Philippine sovereignty to US war designs in Asia. The so-called “trilateral summit” is set to discuss “maritime security cooperation” between the three countries.

Marcos Jr. is willingly offering the Philippine archipelago to serve as a ‘theater of war’ by allowing the US to position its military arsenal on land, sea, and air. The Philippines is a crucial piece in the “US Island Chain strategy” to contain China. The Philippines’ strategic location allows the US to constrict regional waterways and position readily deployable military air power in close proximity to China. In order to achieve its objectives, the US is escalating war preparations in the region by encouraging Japan and other imperialist allies to join the geopolitical chess game.

In the said trilateral meeting, Marcos Jr. seeks to further increase US military footprint in Philippine soil while talks are underway with Japan for a reciprocal access agreement that will allow Japanese military presence in the country. In fact, preparations are already ongoing for the biggest Balikatan Exercises in history which is expected to draw at least 16,000 troops to participate. The Balikatan war games this year aims to test the so-called ‘Comprehensive Archipelagic Defense Concept (CDAC)’ patterned after US imperialist war plans in the region. These actions form part of the US strategy to provoke China into “firing the first shot” demonstrating the US government’s bloodthirst.

On the other hand, Marcos Jr.’s actions prove his outright subservience to US imperialist war preparations and his readiness to drag the Filipino people in the middle of a brewing inter-imperialist conflict. Marcos Jr. must be held accountable for his reprehensible sell-out of Philippine sovereignty and his blatant disregard for the lives of the Filipino masses. More importantly, the Biden administration must be denounced for its continued exportation of wars of aggression from Ukraine to Palestine and now using the Philippines as a pawn in its attempt to stifle China’s growing influence.

[falseandrealultravival]

Fumio Kishida " The Man with Glasses Who Increases Tax": The Opposite - Emperor Nintoku (Essay)

Emperor Nintoku

Fumio Kishida

Whether he was a real person or not is up for debate, but Emperor Nintoku (the 16th emperor) is known as a monarch who was kind to his subjects, as his name (Jin: gentle) suggests. When he looked out of the palace, he saw no smoke coming from the kitchen and realized that his subjects were struggling to make ends meet, so he exempted them from taxes for three years and did not re-roof the palace.

Truly "Jin". However, in modern Japan, there is a man who is the exact opposite, "Non-Jin: Never gentle". He is Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. This guy taxes the people at every opportunity and boasts they can achieve a primary balance surplus of 800 billion yen in fiscal 2025. In other words, he has robbed the people of their money and transferred it to government offices. He has been nicknamed " The Man with Glasses Who Increases Tax". He gives away that hard-earned tax money to foreign countries such as Ukraine without consulting the people.

The voices of resentment from the Japanese people are gradually growing louder, and it has been almost a year since the cabinet's approval rating fell to 20%. However, Japanese politics is controlled by the corrupt Liberal Democratic Party, and its head, Fumio Kishida, has not resigned as prime minister and is clinging to his job.

It is especially noteworthy that he has done nothing in response to the major earthquake in the Noto region in early 2024, has not repaired the roads and water supply even six months after the earthquake, and has publicly declared that he will "abandon" this region, while at the same time saying that he will go ahead with the construction of the World Expo and international resort hotels in all the national parks. This man is a psychopath without a human heart. Far from being gentle, he is cruel.

Note: On August 14, 2024, Fumio Kishida announced that he would not run in the next LDP presidential election. This is a late decision.

Rei Morishita

2024.08.04

「増税メガネ」岸田文雄：逆―仁徳天皇（エッセイ）

実在の人かどうか、議論の余地はあるが、仁徳天皇（１６代）は、その名（仁: gentle）の通り、臣民に優しい君主として知られる。彼が宮殿から外を見たとき、炊事の煙が上がっておらず、臣民が生活に困窮していると見て取った彼は、その後３年間租税を免除し、宮殿の屋根も葺き替えなかった。

まさしく「仁」。だが現代日本には、その真逆を行く「不仁」の男がいる。岸田文雄内閣総理大臣だ。この野郎は、ことあるごとに国民に課税し、２０２５年度のプライマリーバランスを８０００億��の黒字にできると威張っている。つまり、国民から金を強奪し、役所に移転したことに他ならない。ついたあだ名が「増税メガネ」。その血税を、国民になんの相談もなくウクライナなどの外国にホイホイくれている。

日本国民の怨嗟の声も次第に大きくなっていて、内閣支持率が２０％に下落して１年になろうとしている。でも日本の政治は、腐敗した自由民主党が握っているので、その長の岸田文雄は、それでも総理を辞めず、職にしがみついている。

特筆すべきは、２０２４年初の能登地方の大地震に対して、何もせず、地震発生から半年経っても道路、水道を直さず、この地域を「見捨てる」と公言し、一方では万博、国立公園の国際リゾートホテル建設は進めると宣言している。この男は、人の心のないサイコパスである。彼は、仁：gentleどころか、残忍である。

注：２０２４年８月14日、岸田文雄は、次期自民党総裁選への不出馬を表明した。決断が遅い。

[allthegeopolitics]

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said he will step down in September, ending a three-year term marred by political scandals and paving the way for a new premier to address the impact of rising prices. "Politics cannot function without public trust," Kishida said in a press conference on Wednesday to announce his decision not to seek re-election as the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) leader. "I will now focus on supporting the newly elected LDP leader as a rank-and-file member of the party," he said. His decision to quit triggers a contest to replace him as president of the party, and by extension as the leader of the world's fourth-biggest economy.

Continue Reading

[xtruss]

70 Years After WWII, Japan Brings New Disaster To The World

— Chen Yang | August 24, 2023

Illustration: Liu Rui/Global Times

Japan kick starts discharging the Nuclear-Contaminated Water Stored at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear ☢️ Power Plant into the sea on Thursday afternoon. This move, prioritizing Japanese government's own interests over the common interests of all humanity, will ultimately lead to Japan's isolation and leave another indelible permanent stain on human history.

On March 11, 2011, a magnitude-9 earthquake struck off the coast of northeastern Japan, triggering a towering tsunami that caused a nuclear leak at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear ☢️ Power Plant. As of now, the amount of nuclear-contaminated wastewater stored in Japan has exceeded 1.3 million tons, and it is increasing by 100 tons per day. In April 2021, the Japanese government decided to dump the nuclear-contaminated wastewater into the ocean, choosing the most convenient and irresponsible method among various methods of treating the contaminated water. Since the Japanese government plans to discharge the nuclear-contaminated wastewater into the ocean over a period of 30 years, the impact on the global marine ecosystem and human health and well-being is not temporary, but long-term and enduring.

Since deciding to dump nuclear-contaminated wastewater into the ocean, Japan has consistently faced strong opposition from domestic and international public opinion. On Tuesday, the chairman of the National Federation of Fisheries Co-operative Associations in Japan, Masanobu Sakamoto, reiterated during a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, "Nothing will change in our opposition to the release of water into the ocean without the understanding of fishermen and the public."

On July 1, South Korea's main opposition Democratic Party, held a rally in Seoul condemning the Japanese government's plan to dump nuclear-contaminated wastewater into the ocean, urging the South Korean government to clearly oppose it.

Cooperation Needed to Minimize Economic Risk Brought by Fukushima Nuclear ☢️ Contaminated Water Dumping — Hu Weijia! August 23, 2023. Japan's reckless dumping of nuclear wastewater poses a grave danger to Earth. Cartoon: Carlos Latuff

Despite the continuous doubts and opposition to the discharge of nuclear-contaminated wastewater into the ocean from Japan domestically and internationally, the Japanese government has turned a deaf ear and insisted on pushing forward with the discharge process. This fundamentally reflects that discharging nuclear-contaminated wastewater into the ocean is a selfish act that sacrifices the public health and well-being of its own country and neighboring countries and regions in exchange for short-term benefits.

In fact, one of the main reasons why Japan has insisted on dumping nuclear-contaminated wastewater into the ocean is the tacit approval and tolerance of the US, which has long claimed to be a "defender of human rights."

The US is Japan's ally and has had a wide range of influence on Japanese politics, diplomacy, culture and other aspects. It can even influence Japan's domestic and foreign policies to some extent. In theory, the US should exert its influence to prevent Japan from adopting irresponsible practices in dumping nuclear-contaminated wastewater into the ocean. However, unfortunately, regarding this public issue that poses a threat to the global marine ecosystem and human health and well-being, the US did not criticize or condemn it, worse, it praised the Japanese government for its "transparent efforts" in dealing with the issue and considered Japan's dumpingplan to be "safe."

Fishers Against Fukushima Nuclear ☢️ Contaminated Water Dumping! Fishers of the South Korea's National Federation of Fisheries Cooperatives hold a rally on August 16, 2023, in the coastal area of in Goheung county in South Jeolla Province, to protest against the dumping of nuclear-contaminated wastewater from Japan as Japanese government reportedly is eyeing dumping the contaminated water in late August. Photo: VCG

Perhaps it is precisely because of the support and "double standards" from the US that Japan has the confidence to push forward with the process of discharging nuclear-contaminated wastewater into the ocean without any scruples until a specific date is determined and the discharge is implemented.

During World War II, Japan launched aggressive wars against neighboring countries, bringing great disasters to neighboring countries and regions. Today, the discharge of nuclear-contaminated wastewater can be said to be a new disaster that Japan, which has gone through defeat and surrender for more than 70 years, has brought to neighboring countries and regions.

The ocean is the common property of all humanity, not a dumping ground for Japan's arbitrary disposal. Regarding the issue of nuclear-contaminated wastewater, Japan should recognize its own responsibility, adopt a scientific attitude, fulfill its international obligations, and respond to the serious concerns of its own citizens, neighboring countries and the international community. If it simply ignores these concerns, it will ultimately leave an indelible permanent stain on Japan in human history.

— The Author is a Guest Research Fellow at the Centre for Japanese Studies, Liaoning University.

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Brazil’s Lula invites Japan’s prime minister to eat his country’s beef, and become a believer

Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Friday welcomed Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on his first visit to the country, with the two meeting in the capital of Brasilia and the South American leader pushing his counterpart to buy his country’s beef.

Brazil had wished to seize on the bilateral meeting to push forward an agreement to open Japanese markets to Brazilian beef, a goal the Latin American country has pursued since 2005. In an appeal to the prime minister, Lula insisted he should eat at a steakhouse during his trip.

“I don’t know what you had for dinner last night,” Lula said during the press conference, looking at Kishida and the Japanese delegation, then turning his attention to Vice President Geraldo Alckmin, who is also Minister of Industry, Commerce, Development and Trade. “Please, take Prime Minister Fumio to eat steak at the best restaurant in Sao Paulo so that, the following week, he starts importing our beef.”

Continue reading.

[howwelldoyouknowyourmoon]

Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was assassinated in July 2022. Inset: Unification Church founder Sun Myung Moon and his wife, Hak Ja Han Moon, in 1984.

SEPTEMBER 18, 2023

On the last morning of his life, Shinzo Abe arrived in the Japanese city of Nara, famous for its ancient pagodas and sacred deer. His destination was more prosaic: a broad urban intersection across from the city’s main train station, where he would be giving a speech to endorse a lawmaker running for reelection to the National Diet, Japan’s parliament. Abe had retired two years earlier, but because he was Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, his name carried enormous weight. The date was July 8, 2022.

In photos taken from the crowd, Abe—instantly recognizable by his wavy, swept-back hair; charcoal eyebrows; and folksy grin—can be seen stepping onto a makeshift podium at about 11:30 a.m., one hand clutching a microphone. A claque of supporters surrounds him. No one in the photos seems to notice the youngish-looking man about 20 feet behind Abe, dressed in a gray polo shirt and cargo pants, a black strap across his shoulder. Unlike everyone else, the man is not clapping.

Abe started to speak. Moments later, his remarks were interrupted by two loud reports, followed by a burst of white smoke. He collapsed to the ground. His security guards ran toward the man in the gray polo shirt, who held a homemade gun—two 16-inch metal pipes strapped together with black duct tape. The man made no effort to flee. The guards tackled him, sending his gun skittering across the pavement. Abe, shot in the neck, would be dead within hours.

At a Nara police station, the suspect—a 41-year-old named Tetsuya Yamagami—admitted to the shooting barely 30 minutes after pulling the trigger. He then offered a motive that sounded too outlandish to be true: He saw Abe as an ally of the Unification Church, a group better known as the Moonies—the cult founded in the 1950s by the Korean evangelist Reverend Sun Myung Moon. Yamagami said his life had been ruined when his mother gave the church all of the family’s money, leaving him and his siblings so poor that they often didn’t have enough to eat. His brother had committed suicide, and he himself had tried to.

“My prime target was the Unification Church’s top official, Hak Ja Han, not Abe,” he told the police, according to an account published in January in a newspaper called The Asahi Shimbun. He could not get to Han—Moon’s widow—so he shot Abe, who was “deeply connected” to the church, Yamagami said, just as Abe’s grandfather, also a prime minister and renowned political figure in Japan, had been.

Investigators looked into Yamagami’s wild-sounding claims and found, to their alarm, that they were true. After a quick huddle, the police appear to have decided that the Moonie connection was too sensitive to reveal, at least for the moment. It might even affect the outcome of the elections for the Upper House of the Diet, set to take place on July 10. At a press conference on the night of the assassination, a police official would say only that Yamagami had carried out the attack because he “harbored a grudge against a specific group and he assumed that Abe was linked to it.” When reporters clamored for details, the official said nothing.

After the election, the Unification Church confirmed press reports that Yamagami’s mother was a member, and the story quickly took off. The Moonies, it emerged, maintained a volunteer army of campaign workers who had long been a secret weapon not just for Abe but for many other politicians in his conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which remains in power under Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. Later that month, the Japanese tabloid Nikkan Gendai published a list of 111 members of parliament who had connections to the church. In early September 2022, the LDP announced that almost half of its 379 Diet members had admitted to some kind of contact with the Unification Church, whether that meant accepting campaign assistance or paying membership fees or attending church events. According to a survey by The Asahi Shimbun, 290 members of prefectural assemblies, as well as seven prefectural governors, also said they had church ties. The rising numbers exposed a scandal hiding in plain sight: A right-wing Korean cult had a near-umbilical connection to the political party that had governed Japan for most of the past 70 years.

The Japanese were outraged not just by the appearance of influence-peddling but by a galling hypocrisy. Abe was a fervent nationalist, eager to rebuild Japan’s global standing and proudly unapologetic for its imperial past. Now he and his party had been caught in a secretive electoral alliance with a cult that—it soon emerged—had been accused of preying on Japanese war guilt to squeeze billions of dollars from credulous followers.

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[the-eternal-quest-for-balance]

Seriously, he's the poster boi for the entire Democrat Party, Liberals, and Progressives. Their characters, their values, their policies, their plans, and their very souls.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Dave Granlund

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

April 10, 2024 (Wednesday)

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

APR 11, 2024

Prime minister Fumio Kishida of Japan and his wife, Yuko Kishida, are in Washington, D.C., tonight at a state dinner hosted by President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden. The dinner is part of a state visit, the fifth for this administration.

Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken have worked to strengthen ties to countries in the Indo-Pacific to weaken the dominance of China in the region, and Japan is the key nation in that partnership. “We celebrate the flourishing friendship between the United States and Japan,” Dr. Biden said Tuesday. “Our nations are partners in building a world where we choose creation over destruction, peace over bloodshed, and democracy over autocracy.”

During talks today, Biden and Kishida committed to strengthening the defense and security frameworks of the two countries so they can work together effectively, especially in a crisis. The new frameworks include intelligence sharing, defense production, satellite cooperation, pilot training, cybersecurity, humanitarian assistance, and technological cooperation. Affirming the ties of science and education between the countries, the leaders announced that two Japanese astronauts would join future American missions and, Biden said, “one will become the first non-American ever to land on the moon.” 

That cooperation both takes advantage of and builds on economic ties between the two countries. In a press conference with Kishida on Wednesday, Biden noted that Japan is the top foreign investor in the U.S., and the U.S. is the top foreign investor in Japan. Microsoft, Google, and Amazon have announced investments of $2.9 billion, $1 billion, and $15 billion respectively in Japan over the next several years, largely in computer and digital advances. Japanese corporations Daiichi Sankyo, Toyota, Honda Aircraft, Yaskawa Electric Corporation, Mitsui E&S, and Fujifilm announced investments in the U.S., primarily in manufacturing.

In a press conference, Kishida told reporters that “[t]he international community stands at a historical turning point. In order for Japan, the U.S., the Indo-Pacific region, and, for that matter, the whole world to enjoy peace, stability, and prosperity lasting into the future, we must resolutely defend and further solidify a free and open international order based on the rule of law.”

“This is the most significant upgrade in our alliance…since it was first established,” Biden said. While he noted that lines of communication with China remain open—he spoke with Chinese president Xi Jinping last week—the strengthening of ties to Japan comes in part from concern about the Chinese threat  to Taiwan, a self-ruled island that the Chinese government considers its own. Leaders are increasingly concerned that the Republicans’ refusal to fund Ukraine has emboldened not only Russia but also China. 

Tomorrow, President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., of the Philippines will join Biden in a bilateral meeting before Marcos, Biden, and Kishida join in the first trilateral meeting of the three. Kishida will also address a joint session of Congress.

Kenneth Weinstein of the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank, suggested today that Japan “has quietly become America’s most important ally,” “playing a central role in meeting our nation’s principal strategic challenge: the threat posed by the People’s Republic of China, especially the defense of Taiwan.” Weinstein also notes that Japan’s longstanding engagement in Southeast Asia means it has “forged relations of deep trust” there among countries that often eye the U.S. with deep distrust. 

Outside of news about the Japanese prime minister’s visit, U.S. news today was consumed by reactions to yesterday’s decision by the Arizona Supreme Court to permit the enforcement of an 1864 law that is currently interpreted as a ban on all abortions except to save the mother’s life. 

President Biden issued a statement condemning the “extreme and dangerous abortion ban,” calling it “a result of the extreme agenda of Republican elected officials who are committed to ripping away women’s freedom.”

“Vice President Harris and I stand with the vast majority of Americans who support a woman’s right to choose,” he continued. “We will continue to fight to protect reproductive rights and call on Congress to pass a law restoring the protections of Roe v. Wade for women in every state.”

Vice President Kamala Harris will travel to Tucson, Arizona, on Friday to respond to the ruling. According to Hans Nichols of Axios, she had been planning to travel to Arizona anyway but quickly shifted her visit to make it a campaign trip, allowing her to comment more freely on Trump and the Republicans who were responsible for the overturning of Roe v. Wade and the imposition of abortion bans since. 

Harris has been out front on the issue of reproductive rights, meeting more than 50 times with groups in at least 16 states since the Supreme Court handed down the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision in June 2022, overturning the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that recognized the right to abortion. This year, on the January 22 anniversary of the Roe decision, she announced a “Fight for Reproductive Freedoms” tour. 

“Extremists across our country continue to wage a full-on attack against hard-won, hard-fought freedoms as they push their radical policies,” she said. “I will continue to fight for our fundamental freedoms while bringing together those throughout America who agree that every woman should have the right to make decisions about her own body—not the government.”

Yesterday illustrated what the overturning of Roe v. Wade has wrought. The Republicans who were celebrating that overturning two years ago are now facing an extraordinary backlash, and they are well aware that Arizona is a key state in the 2024 presidential election. Former president Trump has boasted repeatedly that he was responsible for nominating the Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe, supported a national abortion ban, and even called for women who get an abortion to be punished. 

But today he swung around again, telling reporters that he would not sign a national abortion ban if it came to his desk. To be sure, as Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo notes, there’s no reason to think he wouldn’t sign such a bill, but the fact he is denying that he would and is running away from the issue shows just how much it hurts the Republicans with voters. 

Harris’s trip, along with Biden’s constant travel, shows a willingness to crisscross the country to meet voters that dovetails with new statistics out about the Biden-Harris campaign. While Trump has largely stayed at Mar-a-Lago, has fewer than five staffers in each of the battlefield states, and has closed all the offices that made up the Republican National Committee’s minority outreach program, the Biden-Harris campaign has 300 paid staffers in 9 states, and 100 offices in regions crucial to the 2024 election. 

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[bopinion]

2024 / 47

Aperçu of the week

“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it.”

(Nelson Mandela, anti-apartheid activist and politician who served as the first president of the current Republic of South Africa from 1994 to 1999)

Bad News of the Week

They try to spin it as a success, even a breakthrough: using a newly developed telescopic robotic gripper arm over 20 meters long, it has been possible to retrieve 0.7 grams of radioactive material from a reactor at the Japanese nuclear power plant in Fukushima. The plant was damaged by a tsunami 13 years ago. No, that's not a bad joke: 0.7 grams after 13 years. 880 tons still need to be salvaged. There are so many things that upset me about this story that I don't even know where to start. So I will limit myself to two aspects.

If things continue at this rate, it will take over 16 billion years to completely decommission the plant. That won't be the case, of course. But it is a fitting image to illustrate the immense time spans that are fundamentally involved with radioactivity - keyword half-life. Specifically, the operator TEPCO expects to be able to complete the decommissioning of the reactor units by 2051. Experts consider this timetable to be completely unrealistic. In addition, there is still no suitable equipment for recovering the nuclear waste, nor is there an interim storage facility, let alone a final repository.

For me, this is precisely the core reason for being against nuclear energy: the problem of final storage. According to Wikipedia, in 2022 there were 423 reactors in operation worldwide, 56 under construction and more than 100 planned. There are already more than 250,000 tons of heavy radioactive waste awaiting final disposal. The world's first final repository is due to be completed in Finland in the next few years. In Germany - incidentally, we shut down all nuclear power plants after the Fukushima meltdown and have already dismantled some of them - almost 2,000 employees of the state-run Federal Company for Final Disposal are working on this issue. Depending on the scenario, the planned end date for the search for a site is currently 2046 to 2068. The issue is therefore obviously highly complex. And only one thing is certain: future generations will be burdened with high costs and high risks for literally eternity.

Another issue is that of site security. Since Three-Mile-Island, but at the latest since Chernobyl, everyone knows how fatal any serious system failure at a nuclear power plant is, or must be. So you have to rule out as many eventualities as possible from the outset. Therefore - please excuse the direct question, dear Japanese - I wonder how stupid you have to be to build a nuclear power plant on the coast of an earthquake-prone tectonic plate boundary? As a result of the Niigata-Chūetsu coastal earthquake in 2007, the company's largest power plant, Kashiwazaki-Kariwa, had to be shut down for 21 months due to earthquake damage. The consequences of the Tōhoku earthquake and subsequent tsunami in 2011 for the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant were therefore anything but a surprise, but rather a disaster with an announcement. The question was not if, but when the catastrophe would occur.

What have we learned from this? Nothing. In March 2022, a majority of Japanese voted in favor of nuclear energy for the first time since 2011. In 2022 and 2023, the Japanese government adopted guidelines that provide for the lifetime of existing reactors to be extended beyond the previous limit of 60 years. And the current government under Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is even planning to build new nuclear power plants: “We need to make full use of nuclear energy”. In order to reduce its dependence on oil and gas imports, avoid electricity shortages and achieve its climate protection targets more easily. But at what cost?

Four lithospheric plates - the Eurasian, North American, Pacific and Philippine plates - meet beneath Japan. At their boundaries, the permanent plate displacement creates tensions that must discharge regularly but unpredictably - in the form of earthquakes that lead to tsunamis in the sea. Three-Mile-Island and Chernobyl are hundreds of kilometers away from such influences. And the meltdowns happened anyway. In Japan, it has always been madness to build such sensitive systems as nuclear power plants. And it will always be.

Good News of the Week

Oops, they did it again. The International Criminal Court in The Hague has issued an arrest warrant for a top politician. Last time, all the staunch democrats applauded - because it was issued against Vladimir Putin for war crimes against Ukrainians. This time, far fewer apparently convinced Democrats are applauding - because it was issued against Benjamin Netanyahu for war crimes against Palestinians. At this point, I must once again make one thing very clear: I am a German. Who is fully aware of the historical guilt that our nation has for the suffering of the Jewish people. And who nevertheless refuses, as is expected of Germans and usually happens reflexively, to criticize nothing and absolutely nothing that Israel does.

Okay, now let's all take a deep breath and devote ourselves to the facts without any emotion. All kinds of independent observers - from journalists to the Red Cross to the United Nations - agree that the actions of the Israeli military in Gaza are also massively endangering the life and limb of civilians. To put it mildly, 43,972 people have been killed and 104,008 injured - according to figures released by the Israeli military itself on November 21, 2024. And according to the Geneva Conventions, this is a war crime. For which the head of state is, so to speak, vicariously liable under international law. In the past, no one has doubted this in the case of African despots, and they have not slaughtered thousands single-handedly either.

Many victims on the Palestinian side are not even in focus. This is because they live in the Israeli heartland, with many families having been resident there long before the Israeli state was founded. And they come to terms with their Jewish neighbors. After all, they are all human beings and not everyone allows themselves to be radicalized by political or ideological currents. And these Palestinians are now suffering from a tipped mood. And little Fatima wonders in the playground why little Sarah is no longer allowed to play with her. The same applies to the labor market, where low-skilled jobs were traditionally held by Palestinians. Now they are being thrown out and replaced by guest workers from India or Pakistan - “Hindus only” is the slogan of the hour.

At this point I have to take a short detour. Apartheid in South Africa shaped my political youth. In 1987, I enthusiastically sang along to white Zulu Johnny Clegg and Savuka: Asimbonanga, Asimbonang′ uMandela thina, Laph'ekhona, Laph′ehfeli khona. We have not seen him, We have not seen Mandela, In the place where he is, In the place where he is kept. “Free Mandela” was one of the first political pins I pinned to my school backpack back then. And when Nelson Mandela, Madiba, Tata, became South Africa's first truly freely elected president in 1994 and didn't spend a second contemplating revenge that would have been so well understood, I was proud to be a young man working for the South African Economic Consul to get the country back on its feet after years of sanctions.

What Israel is doing to the Palestinians is nothing less than apartheid. Part of the population is treated as second-class citizens. This has always been unjust and inhumane. And it will always remain unjust and inhumane. Condemning this has nothing whatsoever to do with anti-Semitism. It's also not automatically sexist if I think a female colleague is stupid. After all, I don't think that because she's a woman. It's because I think she's stupid.

The latest chapter is the so-called “administrative detention” that Israel has invented. In principle, this means being arrested without any concrete accusation or suspicion. Just like that. Which should not exist in a state governed by the rule of law. This is how Israel is taking action against terror suspects in the West Bank. And now there should only be detention for Palestinians. And no longer for Israeli settlers, even though they are known to be much more militant.

The whole thing makes me so incredibly sad. And I would be so incredibly happy if someone were held accountable for this. Preferably Benjamin Netanyahu. I have no illusions that one day he will actually sit in the dock, let alone be convicted. But I find it more than just symbolic value that an internationally recognized institution based in Europe has come to the conclusion, that he would deserve it. And nobody is above the law.

I couldn't care less...

...about the ridiculous results of the UN Climate Change Conference COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan. “When reality doesn't give more” is the headline of the German Tagesschau news portal. And that is exactly what happened: not enough was given. Especially from the rich polluter countries in the North to the poor countries in the global South that are suffering the most from the consequences. My hopes are now pinned on the next conference in Brazil. Because Lula da Silva is undoubtedly the most convinced ecologist of all the G20 heads of state.

It's fine with me...

...that the SPD once again wants to go into the early federal elections with Olaf Scholz as its lead candidate. A spirit of optimism and glamor may look different to the beleaguered Chancellor, who is not called “Scholz-o-mat” for nothing. But he stands with both feet in the here and now and follows a solid moral compass. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of his main rival - the conservative candidate Friedrich Merz, who is far ahead in all polls. It's rare that Russia and I are of the same opinion: Scholz is the lesser evil.

As I write this...

...as a Swede, I would be reading the booklet “When a crisis or war comes”. The Swedish Civil Protection Agency (MSB) wants to prepare the population for an emergency with this information brochure, which has been sent to all households: “The security situation is serious and we must all strengthen our resilience in order to be able to face various crises and ultimately a war”. This reminds me darkly of the Cold War era with its fear of a fatal nuclear strike.

Post Scriptum

A colorful coalition - the red-yellow-green traffic light coalition of Social Democrats, Liberals and Greens - has just collapsed at federal level in Germany and it is almost surprising how long it has lasted without a fundamental consensus. Another colorful coalition - the black-purple-red blackberry coalition of conservatives, populists and social democrats - has just come together at state level in Thuringia and it is surprising that they have found a basic consensus.

A general newcomer, and not only in this constellation, is the populist party Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht (Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht). Formed less than a year ago through a split from The Left, it is difficult to categorize, as the party is considered left-wing in socio-economic terms and right-wing in socio-cultural terms. As a protest party, the BSW was quickly accused of focusing on fundamental opposition and shying away from taking responsibility.

This is why the down-to-earth pragmatism with which the Thuringian state association has set itself apart from its eponymous founder and drawn up a coalition agreement with the CDU and SPD is surprising. And regardless of what this agreement says, it is already a democratic victory. Because the association of these three parties prevents the election winner AfD (Alternative für Deutschland / Alternative for Germany), which is classified in Thuringia as definitely right-wing extremist, from taking power. Thank you.

[stele3]

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/least-35-people-killed-fire-southern-kuwait-state-media-2024-06-12/