#Junichiro Nagasaki

[ultimate-waifu-bait]

Here is the first official character in Ultimate Waifu Bait! Fittingly, we start with the protagonist. Junichiro "Jiro" Nagasaki is an average highschool boy who isn't particularly good at anything. He's a slacker who doesn't take school, or anything, seriously. However, his dad was a famous baseball star, which earns Jiro a lot of popularity at school. He wants to get a girlfriend so that his parents and his friends will get off his back about 'doing something'. With his lack of skills and accomplishments, he thinks he'd be lucky to get any girl. But his popularity and friendly reputation means that he could take his pick of the girls in his class. Which one will be the right match for him?

[honhonluigi]

Whatcha thinking for the love interest? 👀

I don't have too many design details, but as far as everything else goes: Junichiro Nagasaki, a guy who's popular because his father was a famous sports star in his youth, and who's moderately wealthy too. But Junichiro doesn't really have many skills of his own. He's kind of a lazy, apathetic slacker who doesn't take anything seriously.

[christinamac1]

Japan's power companies move to reduce plutonium stockpiles held overseas

Japan’s power companies move to reduce plutonium stockpiles held overseas

Utilities move to reduce plutonium stockpiles held overseas, https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14556963 By JUNICHIRO NAGASAKI/ Staff Writer, March 8, 2022   Japan’s leading power companies decided to transfer ownership of tons of plutonium stored in Britain and France for reprocessing in a quest to reduce the stockpile as quickly as possible. The plan was unveiled Feb. 18 by the Tokyo-based…

[orbemnews]

The Mayor’s House Was Bombed. The Message: Keep Our Town Nuclear-Free. SUTTSU, Japan — It seemed like easy money. The Japanese government was conducting a study of potential locations for storing spent nuclear fuel — a review of old geological maps and research papers about local plate tectonics. It put out a call for localities to volunteer. Participating would commit them to nothing. Haruo Kataoka, the mayor of an ailing fishing town on the northern island of Hokkaido, put up his hand. His town, Suttsu, could use the money. What could go wrong? The answer, he quickly learned, was a lot. A resident threw a firebomb at his home. Others threatened to recall the town council. A former prime minister traveled six hours from Tokyo to denounce the plan. The town, which spends much of the year in a snowbound hush, was enveloped in a media storm. There are few places on earth eager to host a nuclear waste dump. Only Finland and Sweden have settled on permanent repositories for the dregs of their atomic energy programs. But the furor in Suttsu speaks to the deep anxiety that remains in Japan 10 years after an immense earthquake and tsunami caused the meltdown of three nuclear reactors in Fukushima Prefecture, the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl. The black mark left on Japan’s nuclear industry has profound implications for the country’s ability to power the world’s third-largest economy while also meeting its obligations to combat climate change. Of Japan’s more than 50 nuclear reactors, all of which were shut down after the disaster on March 11, 2011, only nine have restarted, and the issue continues to be politically toxic. As the share of nuclear energy in Japan has plummeted from about a third of total power to the single digits, the void has been filled in part by coal and natural gas, complicating a promise that the country made late last year to be carbon-neutral by 2050. Even before the Fukushima calamity, which led to three explosions and a release of radiation that forced the evacuation of 150,000 people, ambivalence toward nuclear energy was deeply ingrained in Japan. The country is haunted by the hundreds of thousands killed by the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II. Still, most Japanese had come to terms with nuclear power, viewing it as an inevitable part of the energy mix for a resource-poor country that must import about 90 percent of the materials it needs to generate electricity. After the nuclear disaster, public opinion swung decisively in the other direction. On top of a newly galvanized anxiety came a fresh mistrust of both the nuclear industry, which had built reactors susceptible to being overwhelmed in a natural disaster, and the government, which had allowed it to happen. A parliamentary commission found that the meltdowns had been the result of a lack of oversight and of collusion between the government, the plant’s owner and regulators. “Utilities and the government and us nuclear experts kept saying, ‘don’t worry, there won��t be a serious accident,’” said Tatsujiro Suzuki, director of the Research Center for Nuclear Weapons Abolition at Nagasaki University. Now “people think that the industry is not trustworthy and the government that is pushing the industry is not trustworthy.” The Japanese government, which has increased safety standards for nuclear power plants, says it plans to bring more reactors back online. But Fukushima’s legacy now taints all discussions about nuclear power, even the question of how to handle waste produced long before the disaster. “Every normal person in town is thinking about it,” said Toshihiko Yoshino, 61, the owner of a seafood business and oyster shack in Suttsu, who has become the face of the opposition to the mayor. “It’s because that kind of tragedy happened that we shouldn’t have nuclear waste here,” Mr. Yoshino said in an interview at his restaurant, where large picture windows look out onto the snow-swept mountains rising above Suttsu Bay. For now, the politics surrounding the waste indicate that, if it is not entombed beneath Suttsu, it will find its way to a place much like it: a town worn down by the collapse of local industry and the steady attrition of its population from migration and old age. The central government has tried to incentivize local governments to volunteer for consideration by offering a payment of around $18 million for taking the first step, a literature review. Those that go on to the second stage — a geological study — will receive an additional $64.4 million. Only one other town in the entire nation, neighboring Kamoenai — already next to a nuclear power plant — joined Suttsu in volunteering. One thing Fukushima has made clear, said Hirokazu Miyazaki, a professor of anthropology at Northwestern University who has studied how communities were compensated after the disaster, is the need to find an equitable way of distributing the social and economic costs of nuclear power. The problem is symbolized both by Fukushima’s partly uninhabitable towns and a battle over the government’s plan to release a million tons of treated radioactive water from the site into the ocean. The government says it would make small releases over 30 years with no impact on human health. Fishermen in Fukushima say that the plan would wreck their long journey toward recovery. “We have this potentially dangerous technology and we still rely on it and we need to have a long-range view on nuclear waste and decommissioning, so we better think about a much more democratic way to handle the cost associated with it,” Mr. Miyazaki said in an interview. Critics of nuclear power in Japan frequently point to the decades of failure to find a solution to the waste problem as an argument against restarting the country’s existing reactors, much less building new ones. In November, former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi took his campaign against nuclear energy to Suttsu at the invitation of local activists. Speaking in the town’s gymnasium, he said that after visiting Finland’s underground waste storage site — a facility much like the one proposed by the Japanese government — he had decided that Japan’s active geology would make it impossible to find a workable location. Japanese reactors have generated more than 18,000 tons of spent fuel over the last half century. A small proportion of that has been turned into glass — through a process known as vitrification — and sheathed in giant metal canisters. Almost 2,500 of the huge radioactive tubes are sitting in temporary facilities in Aomori and Ibaraki Prefectures, waiting to be lowered 1,000 feet beneath the earth’s surface into vast underground vaults. There, they would spend millenniums shedding their toxic burden. It will be decades — if ever — before a site is selected and the project begins in earnest. The Nuclear Waste Management Organization of Japan, known as NUMO and represented by a cartoon mole cautiously sticking its snout out of a hole, is in charge of finding a final resting place. Long before he took NUMO up on its offer to conduct a study in his town, Mr. Kataoka, the Suttsu mayor, had taken an entrepreneurial view toward government subsidies. Suttsu has a population of just under 2,900, spread thinly around the rocky rim of a deep cerulean bay, where fishing boats prowl for mackerel and squid. Beginning in 1999, with government-supported loans, Mr. Kataoka championed an initiative to install a stand of towering wind turbines along the shore. Many in the town were initially opposed, he said during an interview in his office, but the project has delivered handsome returns. The town has spent the profits from selling electricity to pay off debts. Townspeople have free access to a heated pool, a golf course and a modest ski slope with a rope tow. Next to a sleek community center is a free day care for the few residents with children. The facilities are not unusual for small-town Japan. Many localities have tried to stave off decline by spending large sums on white elephant projects. In Suttsu, the effect has been limited. The town is shrinking, and in early March, snow was piled to the eaves of newly built but shuttered stores along the main street. Mr. Kataoka nominated Suttsu for the NUMO program, he said, out of a sense of responsibility to the nation. The subsidies, he admitted, are a nice bonus. But many in Suttsu doubt the intentions of both Mr. Kataoka and the government. The town, they argue, does not need the money. And they question why he made the decision without public consultation. At a meeting of the town council on Monday, residents expressed concern that once the process had begun, it would quickly gather momentum and become impossible to stop. The plan has fiercely divided the town. Reporters have flooded in, putting the discord on national display. A sign in the hotel by the harbor makes it clear that the staff will not accept interviews. In October, an angry resident threw a Molotov cocktail at Mr. Kataoka’s home. It broke a window, but he smothered it without any further damage. The perpetrator was arrested and is now out on bail. He has apologized, Mr. Kataoka said. The mayor remains bewildered by the aggressive response. Mr. Katatoka insists that the literature review is not a fait accompli and that the townspeople will have the final say. In October, he will run for a sixth term. He wants voters to support his proposal, but whatever the outcome, he hopes the town can move forward together. Losing the election would be bad, he said, but “the saddest part of all this has been losing the town’s trust.” Motoko Richcontributed reporting from Tokyo. Source link Orbem News #Bombed #House #mayors #message #NuclearFree #Town

[newsintheshell]

VVVVID, tutte le novità del palinsesto invernale

Arrivano in simulcast le serie di Darwin’s Game, Magia Record e l’originale ID: INVADED!

Svelate finalmente tutte le novità in arrivo sul catalogo di VVVVID che andranno a comporre il palinsesto invernale della piattaforma di streaming gratuito, offerto in collaborazione con Dynit che ne ha acquistato le licenze. 

SIMULCAST

DARWIN’S GAME - Ogni venerdì a partire dal 10 gennaio alle 20:30 solo su VVVVID

Serie di 11 episodi tratta dal manga “Darwin’s Game”, ad opera dei FLIFLOPs, edito in Italia da Planet Manga.

Kaname Sudo, un normale studente delle superiori, riceve un invito a provare un'app misteriosa chiamata "Darwin’s Game".  Kaname, dopo aver lanciato l'app, viene attirato in un gioco in cui i partecipanti si sfidano l'un con l'altro usando superpoteri chiamati Sigils. Senza conoscere la ragione di tutto ciò, Kaname può sopravvivere a furiose battaglie contro potentissimi giocatori!

L’anime è diretto da Yoshinobu Tokumoto (Comic Girls) presso lo studio Nexus. La sceneggiatura è curata da Shuu Miyama, uno dei membri dei FLIFLOPs. Il character design è ad opera di Kazuya Nakanishi (direttore d’animazione in Granbelm e Comic Girls), mentre la colonna sonora è composta da Kenichiro Suehiro (Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World-, Golden Kamuy).

MAGIA RECORD: PUELLA MAGI MADOKA MAGICA SIDE STORY - Il primo episodio domani, venerdì 10 gennaio! Ogni sabato a partire dal 18 gennaio alle 20:30 solo su VVVVID

Serie tratta dal videogioco per dispositivi mobili “Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story” (Magia Record: Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica Gaiden) che andrà in onda per 2-cour. 

In cambio della concessione di un desiderio, le Ragazze Magiche combattono in segreto. Ma Iroha Tamaki ha dimenticato quello che era il suo desiderio... "Qual è stato il mio desiderio quando sono diventata una ragazza magica?" La sua vita quotidiana è caratterizzata da un grande vuoto. C'è qualcosa che ha perso e giorno dopo giorno, continua a combattere senza sapere perché... Inizia così la storia di Iroha Tamaki, la ragazza che cerca il suo desiderio perduto!

Il progetto in lavorazione presso lo studio Shaft (Bakemonogatari, Un marzo da leoani) sta venendo diretto Gekidan Inu Curry con l’assistenza di Yukihiro Miyamoto. La sceneggiatura sta venendo supervisionata sempre da Gekidan Inu Curry, in collaborazione con Elsewhere, lo studio di sviluppo del gioco. Junichiro Taniguchi si sta invece occupando sia del character design che di supervisionare il comparto animazioni assieme ad Akiyuki Shimbo. Altri direttori d’animazione coinvolti sono e Nobuhiro Sugiyama (Arakawa Under the Bridge, Monogatari Series Second Season) e Hiroki Yamamura (Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie Parte 1: L’inizio della storia, Fate/Extra Last Encore)

ID: INVADED - Il primo episodio domani, venerdì 10 gennaio! Ogni lunedì a partire dal 20 gennaio alle 19:00 solo su VVVVID

Serie originale diretta da Ei Aoki (Fate/Zero, Aldnoah.Zero, Re:Creators) e sceneggiata dallo scrittore specializzato in mistery e sci-fi, Otaro Maijo (Biorg Trinity, Jorge Joestar, The Dragon Dentist).

Sakaido è un detective che cerca di risolvere il raccapricciante omicidio di una giovane ragazza di nome Kaeru. Ma la soluzione di questo caso sarà diversa da qualsiasi altra in quanto il mondo intorno a Sakaido inizia a stravolgersi… sfidando tutto ciò in cui crede e pensa.

Il design dei personaggi parte da quello abbozzato da Yuuki Kodama (Blood Lad, Hamatora The Animation) ed è adattato per l’animazione da Atsushi Ikariya (Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works, Hataraku Maou-sama!). Al progetto partecipa come assistente di regia Takehiro Kubata, mentre Yoshihiro Sono (Psycho-Pass, Kabaneri of the Iron Frotress) ed Emi Chiba (After the Rain) figurano rispettivamente come concept artist e colorista.

IN PROSECUZIONE

MY HERO ACADEMIA 4 - Ogni sabato alle 21:00 solo su VVVVID

Quarta stagione di “My Hero Academia”, la popolarissima serie supereroistica tratta dall’omonimo manga di Kohei Horikoshi, edito nel nostro paese da Star Comics.

Fin dalla più tenera età Izuku Midoriya voleva diventare un supereroe come il suo idolo All Might, simbolo di pace mondiale. La sete di grandi imprese e l'ardore di giustizia lo hanno portato ad allenarsi con lui fino a ricevere l'Unicità “One For All”. Beh, non siete curiosi di vedere come continua la storia di Midoriya, allora non perdete la 4° stagione di My Hero Academia!

I 25 episodi di questa stagione sono diretti da Masahiro Mukai (Hyperdimension Neptunia, Trickster) presso lo studio Bones (Bungo Stray Dogs, Carole & Tuesday, Mob Psycho 100), ma comunque sotto la supervisione Kenji Nagasaki (No. 6, Classroom Crisis), il regista delle precedenti stagioni e dei film del franchise.

NOVITÀ (DOPPIATE)

DEMON SLAYER - I primi due episodi doppiati in italiano da venerdì 10 gennaio solo su VVVVID

Serie di 26 episodi tratta dal manga “Demon Slayer - Kimetsu no Yaiba” di Koyoharu Gotouge, edito in Italia da Star Comics.

È il periodo Taisho, Tanjiro Kamado vive una vita modesta ma tranquilla tra le montagne insieme allla sua famiglia. Un giorno, quando torna dalla vendita del carbone in città, trova i resti della sua famiglia massacrata dopo un attacco demoniaco. Tanjiro si precipita giù per la montagna innevata con l'unico sopravvissuto, sua sorella Nezuko, sulla schiena. Ma sulla strada, Nezuko improvvisamente incomincia a ringhiare, spaventando Tanjiro. Inziano qui le vicende del Demon Slayer!

L’anime è diretto da Haruo Sotozaki (Tales of Zestiria the X, Tales of Symphonia the Animation) presso ufotable (Fate/stay Night: UBW, Katsugeki/Touken Ranbu), seguendo la sceneggiatura concordata dallo studio (non viene riportato nessun membro specifico per il ruolo). Il character designer principale è Akira Matsushima (Tales of Zestiria the X), assistito da Miyuki Sato, Yoko Kajiyama e Mika Kikuchi. La colonna sonora è ad opera di Yuki Kajiura (Fate/Zero, Madoka Magica) e Go Shiina (Juni Taisen: Zodiac War, God Eater).

NOVITÀ (SOTTOTITOLATE)

SAKAMICHI NO APOLLON (Kids On The Slope)

Serie di 12 episodi tratta dal manga “Jammin' Apollon” di Yuki Kodama, edito in Italia da Planet Manga.

L’introversa pianista classica Kaoru Nishimi è appena arrivata nel Kyushu per il suo primo anno di liceo. Dopo essersi trasferita costantemente da un posto all'altro fin dalla sua infanzia, sembra aver abbandonato ogni speranza di adattarsi, preparandosi così ad un altro anno solitario e insignificante. Almeno fino a quando non incontra Sentarou Kawabuchi, un noto delinquente appassionato di jazz…

La serie è stata diretta da Shinichiro Watanabe (Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo) e prodotta nel 2012 da Tezuka Productions (The Quintessential Quintuplets) e MAPPA (Doror, Banana Fish). La colonna sonora è firmata da Yoko Kanno (Wolf’s Rain, Cowboy Bebop).

MONONOKE

Serie originale di 12 episodi prodotta nel 2007 da Toei Animation (), spin-off della precedente serie antologica “Ayakashi: Japanese Classic Horror”.

Il Venditore di Medicine è un misterioso maestro dell'occulto che viaggia attraverso il Giappone feudale alla ricerca di spiriti malvagi chiamati "mononoke". Quando individua uno di questi spiriti, non può semplicemente ucciderlo; deve prima imparare la sua forma, la sua verità e la ragione per cui agisce prima di poter maneggiare la potente spada dell'Esorcismo e combattere contro lo spirito.

L’anime è stato diretto da Kenji Nakamura (Gatchaman Crowds, Kuuchuu Buranko, Tsuritama) e sceneggiato da Chiaki Konaka, Michiko Yokote e Ikuko Takahashi. Il character design e la direzione delle animazioni sono ad opera di Takashi Hashimoto, mentre i fondali sono stati realizzati da Takashi Kurahashi. Le musiche sono state composte da Yasuharu Takanashi (Terra e..., Gegege no Kitaro, Jigoku Shoujo).

Autore: SilenziO))) (@s1lenzi0)

[FONTE]

[seanews11]

Wood Chip Carrier “SOUTHERN TREASURE” Delivered -Will Serve Hokuetsu Corporation-

Wood Chip Carrier “SOUTHERN TREASURE” Delivered -Will Serve Hokuetsu Corporation-

Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. (MOL; President & CEO: Junichiro Ikeda) today announced that on October 31, the wood chip carrier SOUTHERN TREASURE with a cargo capacity of 4.3 million cubic feet, was delivered at Oshima Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. (President: Eiichi Hiraga; Headquarters: Saikai-shi, Nagasaki Prefecture). MOL will operate the vessel, which transports wood chips for Hokuetsu Corporation…

[indicajapao]

Resumo

Primeiro-Ministro do Japão  Período 26 de dezembro de 2012 a presente Monarca Akihito Antecessor Yoshihiko Noda Período 26 de setembro de 2006 a 26 de setembro de 2007 Monarca Akihito Antecessor Junichiro Koizumi Sucessor Yasuo Fukuda Secretário-geral do Gabinete Período 31 de outubro de 2005 a 26 de outubro de 2006 Primeiro-ministro Junichiro Koizumi Antecessor Hiroyuki Hosoda Sucessor Yasuhisa Shiozaki Membro da Câmara dos Representantes pelo 4º Distrito de Yamaguchi Período 19 de julho de 1993 presente Dados pessoais Nascimento 21 de setembro de 1954 (64 anos) Tóquio,  Japão Progenitores Mãe: Yoko Kishi Pai: Shintaro Abe Alma mater Universidade Seikei Universidade do Sul da Califórnia Esposa Akie Matsuzaki (1987–presente) Partido Liberal Democrata Religião Xintoísmo

Shinzō Abe (安倍 晋三, Abe Shinzō, Nagato, 21 de setembro de 1954) é um político japonês, atual primeiro-ministro do Japão.

Carreira

Shinzō Abe estudou Ciência Política na Universidade de Seikei graduando-se em 1977. Ingressou na carreira política em 1982, seguindo os passos de seu pai Shintaro Abe e avô Kan Abe. Abe foi eleito pela província de Yamaguchi em 1993.

Porta-voz e ministro-chefe do gabinete de Junichiro Koizumi, Abe derrotou Sadakazu Tanigaki e Taro Asona disputa pela presidência do do Partido Liberal Democrata, em 20 de setembro de 2006, o que lhe garantiu a indicação para o cargo de primeiro-ministro ao fim do mandato de Koizumi. Seis dias depois, Abe foi eleito premiê do Japão, com 339 dos 446 votos na Câmara Baixa e 136 dos 240 na Câmara Alta, além de contar com um apoio popular de quase 70%, mas era considerado por analistas como um político inexperiente. Aos 52 anos, ele seria o mais jovem ocupante do cargo desde a Segunda Guerra Mundial.

Político de perfil conservador, Shinzō Abe tinha como principal objetivo conduzir uma reforma constitucional. Outro desafio do novo premiê no cargo era restabelecer relações com a República Popular da China e a Coreia do Sul, prejudicadas pelas visitas do antecessor Koizumi ao Santuário Yasukuni, em Tóquio, que homenageia mortos da Segunda Guerra Mundial.

Primeiro governo

Em outubro de 2006, Shinzō Abe visitou a China, sua primeira viagem ao exterior como primeiro-ministro e que foi considerada histórica para as relações entre os dois países, e a Coreia do Sul.

Mas seu mandato foi marcado por uma série de escândalos de corrupção política e gafes de seus subordinados. Ainda em dezembro daquele ano, Genichiro Sata, vice-ministro de Reforma Administrativa, renunciou devido a envolvimento em um caso de fraude.

Em janeiro de 2007, Abe teve de ouvir do seu ministro da Defesa, Fumio Kyuma, que o presidente dos Estados Unidos George W. Bush – principal aliado internacional de premiê japonês – tinha se equivocado na Guerra do Iraque. No mesmo mês, o primeiro-ministro teve de repreender o seu ministro da Saúde, Hakuo Yanagisawa, que havia declarado que as mulheres são “máquinas de ter filhos”.

Ao completar seis meses no cargo, a popularidade de Abe caiu para 35%.

Após a polêmica defesa ao exército japonês, acusado de recrutar mulheres estrangeiras como escravas sexuais durante a Segunda Guerra Mundial, Abe teve de voltar atrás e pedir desculpas.  O pedido veio em tempo da visita ao Japão de Wen Jiabao, primeiro-ministro da China, em abril, que foi considerado um gesto de reaproximação entre os dois países. No mesmo mês, Abe admitiu durante ma entrevista à revista “Newsweek” a responsabilidade do Japão no caso das escravas sexuais.

No fim de abril e início de maio, pela primeira vez como chefe de governo japonês, Abe visitou os Estados Unidos e as tropas japonesas no Kuait.

Também em maio, Abe envolveu-se em uma nova controvérsia com a República Popular da China e a Coreia do Sul, ao despachar uma oferenda floral ao Templo de Yasukuni. E no campo doméstico, Toshikatsu Matsuoka, ministro da Agricultura demissionário e acusado de envolvimento com a cobrança de comissões de empresas construtoras, cometeu suicídio.

Outro ministro de Estado a renunciar ao cargo foi o ministro da Defesa Fumio Kyuma, devido a polêmica causada por suas declarações, nas quais considerou “inevitáveis” as bombas atômicas lançadas pelos norte-americanos em Hiroshima e Nagasaki no fim da Segunda Guerra Mundial.

Esses casos culminaram com a derrota do PLD nas eleições para o Senado japonês, perdendo para a oposição a maioria na casa. Políticos oposicionistas e alguns correligionários pediram a runúncia de Abe, mas o primeiro-ministro recusou-se a entregar o cargo. No final desse mês, a Câmara dos Representantes norte-americana aprovou uma resolução recomendando que o Japão pedisse oficialmente desculpas reconhecendo a prática de escravidão sexual durante a Segunda Guerra Mundial, o que causou irritação em Abe.

Em agosto, o premiê japonês exonerou o ministro de Agricultura Norihiko Akagi, por envolvimento em escândalo de corrupção. Em resposta à queda de popularidade do seu governo e à derrota eleitoral sofrida por seu partido no mês anterior, Abe fez uma reformulação no gabinete ministerial.

Em setembro, uma semana após a reforma ministerial, o ministro da Agricultura Tokohiko Endo renunciou ao seu cargo, acusado de corrupção. Enfraquecido, Abe anunciou que renunciaria caso não conseguisse prorrogar a Lei Especial de Medidas Antiterroristas, que expiraria em 1º de novembro de 2007, que entre outras coisas é responsável pela missão japonesa no Afeganistão. Em 12 de setembro de 2007, Abe anunciou sua renuncia ao cargo, por não contar com apoio da população e não conseguir estender a Lei Antiterrorista.

Segundo governo

Após as eleições parlamentares em 16 de dezembrode 2012, o Partido Liberal Democrata conseguiu eleger a maioria da Câmara Baixa da Dieta. Assim, em 26 de dezembro, Abe é reconduzido ao posto de primeiro-ministro.

Cultura popular

Na Cerimônia de encerramento dos Jogos Olímpicos do Rio de Janeiro, Shinzo Abe surpreendeu o mundo, ao fazer um cosplay do famoso personagem dos videogames Super Mario. Sua aparição surpresa fez parte da apresentação de Tóquio, sede das Olimpíadas de 2020.

Fonte: wipedia

O post Shinzō Abe, Primeiro-Ministro do Japão apareceu primeiro em Indica Japão.

[usnewsaggregator-blog]

North Korea Rouses Neighbors to Reconsider Nuclear Weapons

New Post has been published on https://usnewsaggregator.com/north-korea-rouses-neighbors-to-reconsider-nuclear-weapons/

North Korea Rouses Neighbors to Reconsider Nuclear Weapons

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has campaigned for a military buildup against the threat from the North, and Japan sits on a stockpile of nuclear material that could power an arsenal of 6,000 weapons. Last Sunday, he won a commanding majority in parliamentary elections, fueling his hopes of revising the nation’s pacifist Constitution.

This brutal calculus over how to respond to North Korea is taking place in a region where several nations have the material, the technology, the expertise and the money to produce nuclear weapons.

Beyond South Korea and Japan, there is already talk in Australia, Myanmar, Taiwan and Vietnam about whether it makes sense to remain nuclear-free if others arm themselves — heightening fears that North Korea could set off a chain reaction in which one nation after another feels threatened and builds the bomb.

In a recent interview, Henry A. Kissinger, one of the few nuclear strategists from the early days of the Cold War still living, said he had little doubt where things were headed.

“If they continue to have nuclear weapons,” he said of North Korea, “nuclear weapons must spread in the rest of Asia.”

“It cannot be that North Korea is the only Korean country in the world that has nuclear weapons, without the South Koreans trying to match it. Nor can it be that Japan will sit there,” he added. “So therefore we’re talking about nuclear proliferation.”

Photo

The launch of a Hwasong-12 missile by North Korea in September. Credit Korean Central News Agency

Such fears have been raised before, in Asia and elsewhere, without materializing, and the global consensus against the spread of nuclear weapons is arguably stronger than ever.

Continue reading the main story

But North Korea is testing America’s nuclear umbrella — its commitment to defend its allies with nuclear weapons if necessary — in a way no nation has in decades. Similar fears of abandonment in the face of the Soviet Union’s growing arsenal helped lead Britain and France to go nuclear in the 1950s.

President Trump, who leaves Nov. 3 for a visit to Asia, has intensified these insecurities in the region. During his presidential campaign, he spoke openly of letting Japan and South Korea build nuclear arms even as he argued they should pay more to support the American military bases there.

“There is going to be a point at which we just can’t do this anymore,” he told The New York Times in March 2016. Events, he insisted, were pushing both nations toward their own nuclear arsenals anyway.

Mr. Trump has not raised that possibility in public since taking office. But he has rattled the region by engaging in bellicose rhetoric against North Korea and dismissing talks as a “waste of time.”

In Seoul and Tokyo, many have already concluded that North Korea will keep its nuclear arsenal, because the cost of stopping it will be too great — and they are weighing their options.

Photo

A nuclear power plant in Ikata, Japan. The country has a stockpile of nuclear material that could power an arsenal of 6,000 weapons. Credit The Asahi Shimbun, via Getty Images

Capability to Build the Bomb

Long before North Korea detonated its first nuclear device, several of its neighbors secretly explored going nuclear themselves.

Japan briefly considered building a “defensive” nuclear arsenal in the 1960s despite its pacifist Constitution. South Korea twice pursued the bomb in the 1970s and 1980s, and twice backed down under American pressure. Even Taiwan ran a covert nuclear program before the United States shut it down.

Today, there is no question that both South Korea and Japan have the material and expertise to build a weapon.

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All that is stopping them is political sentiment and the risk of international sanctions. Both nations signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, but it is unclear how severely other countries would punish two of the world’s largest economies for violating the agreement.

South Korea has 24 nuclear reactors and a huge stockpile of spent fuel from which it can extract plutonium — enough for more than 4,300 bombs, according to a 2015 paper by Charles D. Ferguson, president of the Federation of American Scientists.

Japan once pledged never to stockpile more nuclear fuel than it can burn off. But it has never completed the necessary recycling and has 10 tons of plutonium stored domestically and another 37 million tons overseas.

“We keep reminding the Japanese of their pledge,” said Ernest J. Moniz, chief executive of the Nuclear Threat Initiative and an energy secretary in the Obama administration, noting that it would take years if not decades for Japan to consume its fissile material because almost all its nuclear plants have remained offline since the 2011 Fukushima accident.

China, in particular, has objected to Japan’s stockpile, warning that its traditional rival is so advanced technologically that it could use the material to quickly build a large arsenal.

Analysts often describe Japan as a “de facto” nuclear state, capable of building a weapon within a year or two. “Building a physical device is not that difficult anymore,” said Tatsujiro Suzuki, former deputy chairman of the Japan Atomic Energy Commission.

Japan already possesses long-range missile technology, he added, but would need some time to develop more sophisticated communications and control systems.

South Korea may be even further along, with a fleet of advanced missiles that carry conventional warheads. In 2004, the government disclosed that its scientists had dabbled in reprocessing and enriching nuclear material without first informing the International Atomic Energy Agency as required by treaty.

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“If we decide to stand on our own feet and put our resources together, we can build nuclear weapons in six months,” said Suh Kune-yull, a professor of nuclear engineering at Seoul National University. “The question is whether the president has the political will.”

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President Moon Jae-in of South Korea has been firm in his opposition to nuclear weapons. But his is increasingly a minority view. Credit Yonhap/European Pressphoto Agency

In Seoul, a Rising Call for Arms

President Moon Jae-in has been firm in his opposition to nuclear weapons. He insists that building them or reintroducing American ones to South Korea would make it even more difficult to persuade North Korea to scrap its own.

Though Mr. Moon has received high approval ratings since his election in May, his view is increasingly a minority one.

Calls for nuclear armament used to be dismissed as chatter from South Korea’s nationalist fringe. Not anymore. Now people often complain that South Korea cannot depend on the United States, its protector of seven decades.

The opposition Liberty Korea party called on the United States to reintroduce tactical nuclear weapons to South Korea in August after the North tested an intercontinental ballistic missile that appeared capable of reaching the mainland United States.

“If the U.N. Security Council can’t rein in North Korea with its sanctions, we will have no option but to withdraw from the Nonproliferation Treaty,” Won Yoo-chul, a party leader, said in September.

Given the failure of sanctions, threats and negotiations to stop North Korea, South Koreans are increasingly convinced the North will never give up its nuclear weapons. But they also oppose risking a war with a military solution.

Most believe the Trump administration, despite its tough talk, will ultimately acquiesce, perhaps settling for a freeze that allows the North to keep a small arsenal. And many fear that would mean giving the North the ultimate blackmail tool — and a way to keep the United States at bay.

“The reason North Korea is developing a hydrogen bomb and intercontinental ballistic missiles is not to go to war with the United States,” said Cheong Seong-chang, an analyst at the Sejong Institute near Seoul. “It’s to stop the Americans from intervening in armed skirmishes or full-scale war on the Korean Peninsula.”

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The closer the North gets to showing it can strike the United States, the more nervous South Koreans become about being abandoned. Some have asked whether Washington will risk the destruction of an American city by intervening, for example, if the North attempts to occupy a border island, as its soldiers have practiced.

For many in South Korea, the solution is a homegrown nuclear deterrent.

“If we don’t respond with our own nuclear deterrence of some kind, our people will live like nuclear hostages of North Korea,” said Cheon Seong-whun, a former presidential secretary for security strategy.

With nuclear weapons of its own, the South would gain leverage and could force North Korea back to the bargaining table, where the two sides could whittle down their arsenals through negotiations, some hawks argue.

But given the risks of going nuclear, others say Seoul should focus on persuading Washington to redeploy tactical nuclear weapons.

“The redeployment of American tactical nuclear weapons would be the surest way” to deter North Korea, Defense Minister Song Young-moo said last month, but he added that it would be difficult to get Washington to agree to that.

Photo

A training exercise in August by the Japanese Self-Defense Forces. Credit Issei Kato/Reuters

In Tokyo, Cautious Debate

The discussion in Japan has been more subdued than in South Korea, no surprise after 70 years of public education about the horrors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

But Japan has periodically considered developing nuclear weapons every decade since the 1960s.

In 2002, a top aide to Junichiro Koizumi, the prime minister then, caused a furor by suggesting Japan might one day break with its policy of never building, possessing or allowing nuclear arms on its territory.

North Korea has reopened that question.

Shigeru Ishiba, a former defense minister seen as a potential challenger to Prime Minister Abe, has argued that Japan needs to debate its nuclear policy given the threat from North Korea.

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Mr. Abe has stopped short of calling for a re-evaluation of the country’s position on nuclear weapons. But he has increased military spending and echoed Mr. Trump’s hawkish position against the North.

Mr. Abe’s administration has already determined that nuclear weapons would not be prohibited under the Constitution if maintained only for self-defense.

The Japanese public is largely opposed to nuclear weapons with polls indicating fewer than one in 10 support nuclear armament.

But Japan’s relations with South Korea have long been strained, and if Seoul armed itself, those numbers could shift.

Some analysts say the discussion is aimed at getting additional reassurance from Washington. “We always do that when we become a little upset about the credibility of the extended U.S. deterrence,” said Narushige Michishita, a professor at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies in Tokyo.

Tobias Harris, a Japan analyst at Teneo Intelligence, a political risk consultancy, said Japan would rethink its position on nuclear weapons if it suspects the United States would let it down.

“We’re kind of in uncharted waters as far as this goes,” he said. “It’s hard to know exactly what the threshold is that will lead the Japanese public’s switch to flip.”

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Hey guys! There's a new gaming series on my youtube channel featuring the characters of Ultimate Waifu Bait! Come check it out!

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Bookshelf Overload: April 2017

I started at my new job in April, which has gone pretty well so far, but it has still been a bit of a stressful transition moving from one library to another. As a result, considering my tendency to stress-buy books, my personal library increased in size a fair bit. (Still, I did do a little better reigning myself in in April than I did in March.) Lately I’ve also noticed that my buying habits have changed somewhat, too. I’m not pre-ordering as much as I once was and so each month am playing more catch-up with past releases. Which is why I’ve only recently discovered that I tremendously enjoy series like Natsuki Takaya’s Twinkle Stars. As for more current releases that I was particularly excited about, the fifth omnibus of Inio Asano’s Goodnight Punpun and Wataru Waanabe’s Yowamushi Pedal were both published in April. I’ve apparently also been craving prose works. One of the more interesting projects that I’ve come across in a while is Keshiki, a series of eight chapbooks from a new publisher, Strangers Press, which are translations of short fiction by Japanese authors. (You’ll find them individually listed below in the section for novels, even though that’s not an entirely accurate categorization.)

Manga! Aoharu X Machinegun, Volume 2 by Naoe Earthian, Volumes 1-2 by Yun Kouga Flying Witch, Volume 1 by Chihiro Ishizuka Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma, Volume 17 written by Yuto Tsukuda, illustrated by Shun Saeki Goodnight Punpun, Omnibus 5 by Inio Asano Haikyu!!, Volume 10 by Haruichi Furudate I am a Hero, Omnibus 3 by Kengo Hanazawa Kase-san and Morning Glories by Hiromi Takashima Love Com, Volume 4 by Aya Nakahara Mobile Suit Gundam: Thunderbolt, Volume 1 by Yasuo Ohtagaki My Hero Academia, Volume 2 by Kouhei Horikoshi Nichijou, Volume 2 by Keiichi Arawi Of the Red, the Light, and the Ayakashi, Volumes 4-5 by Nanao Pet Shop of Horrors, Volumes 1-8 by Matsuri Akino Record of Lodoss War: Lady of Pharis, Volumes 1-2 written by Ryo Mizuno, illustrated by Akihiro Yamada Twinkle Stars, Omnibuses 1-2 by Natsuki Takaya Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches, Volumes 10-12 by Miki Yoshikawa Yona of the Dawn, Volume 5 by Mizuho Kusanagi Your Lie in April, Volumes 10-11 by Naoshi Arakawa Yowamushi Pedal, Omnibus 5 by Wataru Watanabe

Manhwa! Lethe by Kimjin

Comics! Afar by Leila Del Duca and Kit Seaton Bird Boy, Volumes 1-2 by Anne Szabla Cafe Suada, Volumes 1-5 by Jade Sarson Creature Feature, Volume 1 by Kelly Matthews and Nichole Matthews Diana’s Electric Tongue by Carolyn Nowak Girl Town by Carolyn Nowak Head Lopper, Volume 1 by Andrew MacLean Henchgirl by Kristen Gudsnuk In These Words, Chapter 16 by Guilt | Pleasure The Meek by Der-shing Helmer My Favorite Thing Is Monsters, Volume 1 by Emil Ferris The Nameless City, Volume 2: The Stone Heart by Faith Erin Hicks Pang, The Wandering Shaolin Monk, Volumes 1-2 by Ben Costa Radishes by Carolyn Nowak Small Favors by Colleen Coover Sweaty Palms edited by Liz Enright and Sage Coffey

Artbooks! Chain Reaction by Jo Chen

Novels! At the Edge of the Wood by Masatsugu Ono Belka, Why Don’t You Bark? by Hideo Furukawa Bullfight by Yasuhi Inoue Devils in Daylight by Junichiro Tanizaki Friendship for Grown-ups by Naocola Yamazaki Frontier by Can Xue The Girl Who Is Getting Married by Aoko Matsuda The Hunting Gun by Yasuhi Inoue The Impossible Fairy Tale by Han Yujoo The Longshot by Katie M. Kitamura Mariko/Mariquita by Natsuki Ikezawa Me Against the World by Kazufumi Shiraishi Mikumari by Misumi Kubo Punk Samurai Slash Down by Kou Machida Record of a Night Too Brief Hiromi Kawakami Spring Garden by Tomoka Shibasaki Spring Sleepers by Kyoko Yoshida Time Differences by Yoko Tawada Transparent Labyrinth by Keiichiro Hirano White Elephant by Mako Idemitsu

Anthologies! Ground Zero, Nagasaki by Yūichi Seirai Life of a Counterfeiter and Other Stories by Yasuhi Inoue March was Made of Yarn edited by Elmer Luke and David Karashima

Poetry! When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities by Chen Chen

Nonfiction! Goodbye Things: The New Japanese Minimalism by Fumio Sasaki The Tale of the Heike translated by Royall Tyler

Anime! Bodacious Space Pirates directed by Tatsuo Sato Tegami Bachi: Letter Bee, Seasons 1-2 directed by Akira Iwanaga

Film! Tampopo directed by Juzo Itami

By: Ash Brown

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Japan to renew subsidies for plutonium nuclear recycling

Japan to renew subsidies for plutonium nuclear recycling

Ministry to resume subsidies for stalled pluthermal plan  https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14526390 By JUNICHIRO NAGASAKI/ Staff Writer  February 2, 2022   The economy ministry plans to bring back its subsidy program for areas that host pluthermal generation facilities in an attempt to break the logjam in the nuclear fuel recycling program. The funds will be offered by the end of fiscal…

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As U.S. Power Wanes, Japan Reboots Its Military

In an uncertain world, Japan rethinks its global posture.

Photo : http://www.thetower.org 

By Anthony Berteaux - 4th January 2016 / Re :https://goo.gl/tAEeR6

In the early morning of February 1, after months of secret negotiations between the Japanese government and ISIS over the release of two of the terrorist group’s hostages, Haruna Yukawa and Kenji Goto, ISIS released Goto’s execution video, entitled “A Message to the Government of Japan.” Aired on major television networks throughout Japan, the chilling video featured the executioner known as Jihadi John responding to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s decision to send $200 million in humanitarian aid to nations battling ISIS.

To the Japanese government: You, like your foolish allies in the Satanic coalition, have yet to understand that we, by Allah’s grace, are an Islamic Caliphate with authority and power, an entire army thirsty for your blood. Abe, because of your reckless decision to take part in an unwinnable war, this knife will not only slaughter Kenji, but will also carry on and cause carnage wherever your people are found. So let the nightmare for Japan begin.

By the time the video finished by showing what appeared to be a beheaded Goto, an illusion long held by Japanese leaders and ordinary citizens alike was shattered. The unprecedented act of Islamic terrorism against Japan has led to a growing understanding that despite its longstanding security relationship with the United States, Japan remained helpless and vulnerable in the face of a hostage crisis spurred by non-state actors half the world away. And thus, perhaps, even more vulnerable against its increasingly aggressive neighbors.

Since Japan signed the Potsdam Declaration after World War II, its military has been constitutionally prohibited from pursuing offensive operations on behalf of itself or its allies. American security guarantees have ensured Japan’s regional and international safety. But Japan’s essential lack of military and foreign policy autonomy, combined with growing criticism of President Barack Obama’s regional strategies in both the Middle East and East Asia, has raised questions about whether Japan’s 70-year constitutional commitment to pacifism and demilitarization remains wise today.

“This is 9/11 for Japan,” Kunihiko Miyake, a former diplomat who has advised Abe on foreign affairs, told The New York Times shortly after Goto’s murder. “It is time for Japan to stop daydreaming that its good will and noble intentions would be enough to shield it from the dangerous world out there. Americans have faced this harsh reality, the French have faced it, and now we are, too.”

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Since the hostage crisis, Abe has vowed to “make terrorists pay the price,” and has referred to the crisis to secure Parliamentary approval to reinterpret Article 9 of the constitution, which prohibits a Japanese military, so that Japan can defend allies as part of “collective defense,” establish a national security council, increase spending to its “Self-Defense Force,” and open up a domestic defense industry. “No country is completely safe from terrorism,” Abe told Parliament the week before Goto’s execution. “How do we cut the influence of ISIL, and put a stop to extremism? Japan must play its part in achieving this.”

The Abe administration’s security bill is currently sitting for approval in the Diet’s upper house; should it pass a final vote, it would give the Japanese military the ability to fight with allies in foreign conflicts for the first time in 70 years. Since the bill’s introduction, massive opposition has uncharacteristically erupted from the Japanese public—56 percent of whom, according to Asahi Shimbun opinion polls, are against militarizing Japan. In July, anti-war protests led by grassroots organizations were attended by 60,000 people, garnering national media attention in front of the Parliament building. In August, 50 former journalists created a coalition to deliver a message from five former Japanese prime ministers demanding that Abe withdraw the bill. Criticism against Abe has even come from within his own party. Liberal Democratic Party member Seiichiro Murakami tearfully and passionately opposed his party’s support for the revisions. “Why are we gambling the fate of the next generation, all the 20 year olds who have a bright future?” Murakami said. “As a human being, I can’t send young people to war.”

But Abe’s determination to push the legislation despite widespread public dissent indicates that his convictions lie not in what his detractors claim is “warmongering,” but in significant policy concerns regarding Japan’s security in East Asia and abroad. It reflects the tangible threat that the current unequal U.S.-Japan defense relationship poses for Japan’s national security. As China’s military and territorial hegemony over the South China Sea continues to grow, conflict between South and North Korea flares up once again, and American security guarantees to Iraq and Ukraine ring hollow, it is clear that Abe’s ambitions are in response to an unsettling decline in U.S. authority. While the main goal of the legislation is ostensibly to allow Japan to come to the “collective defense” of its allies, it’s not hard to spot Abe’s real concern that allies will fail to come to the collective defense of Japan.

Continuing in the footsteps of his grandfather, Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi, who fought to make similar revisions during his time in office, Abe seeks to establish Japan as a military power to fill in the vacuum left by the United States. His legacy hinges on his ability to secure Japan’s future as a legitimate, reliable, and independent military player in ensuring regional and international peace. In a rapidly changing East Asia, and an increasingly global world with increasingly global threats, revising archaic definitions of constitutional pacifism are a complicated but necessary response to the current unequal security relationship between the U.S. and Japan.

After its unconditional surrender to the U.S. in 1945, stripped of military capabilities, Japan has had only the U.S. to rely on for national security. Since Article 9 of the largely U.S.-written constitution declared that Japan would never again maintain “land, sea or air forces or other war potential,” a Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security was reached in 1952 to ensure Japan’s safety from foreign threats, stipulating that the U.S. would help defend Japan against external enemies, while a Japanese defense force would handle internal threats and natural disasters.

The treaty allowed the United States to have military bases across Japan in order to preserve regional security. There are currently around 50,000 U.S. military personnel stationed in 23 military bases across Japan. During the Vietnam War, Japanese bases acted as strategic and logistical posts for American troops. More recently, the United States has used the bases to deploy long-distance surveillance drones over China and North Korea. Japan’s constitutional constraints on military action, combined with the pacifist sentiments deriving from the still-anguishing nuclear devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, have led to the rejection of any measure that might alter the status quo. And the rhetorical and tangible security commitments that America has made to Japan has warded off threats, leading to 70 years of peace.

Photo : http://www.thetower.org

But despite analysts calling the defense relationship a “mutual” one, the U.S.-Japan alliance has always hinged more on support from the U.S. than from Japan. In 1990, the lack of involvement of Japan’s military forces in the Gulf War was widely criticized by the U.S., when Japanese assistance to Kuwait was limited solely to cash because of domestic opposition to military deployment. A decade later, however, Japan deployed 600 soldiers in humanitarian capacities during the Iraq War, a decision that attracted fierce domestic opposition and numerous unsuccessful lawsuits. Sending the first foreign deployment of Japanese troops since World War II to build water purification facilities in Iraq would seem to have little connection to Japan’s self-defense, the only constitutionally acceptable reason for military activity. But as Gavan McCormack, a professor at the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies at the Australian National University, wrote in 2004, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi made his decision not because he supported President George W. Bush’s regional agenda, but because he needed to ensure that the alliance that guaranteed Japan’s security was upheld.

Although the [Bush-Koizumi] relationship is close, that does not necessarily mean that Koizumi, or Japan, really wanted to go to war against Iraq or that it supports the US position on Palestine; for Japan under Koizumi North Korea is the key factor. In February 2004, he declared that it was of overwhelming importance for Japan to show that it was a “trustworthy ally,” because (as he put it) if ever Japan were to come under attack it would be the US, not the UN or any other country, that would come to its aid. When he declared support for the US-led war on Iraq in March 2003, and when he sent Japanese forces to aid the occupation in January 2004, it was not Iraq that was in the Japanese sights so much as North Korea.

Abe’s anti-ISIS rhetoric and actions, combined with his attempt to alter his country’s interpretation of Article 9 despite domestic opposition, parallel the actions and thought processes of his predecessor and fellow party member Koizumi. If Abe succeeds, Japan will be able to more fully support the U.S. in security issues, which would hopefully ensure steadfast U.S. support for Japan’s security.

Abe’s ambitions to establish a domestic defense industry could also be taken as not just a method to strengthen bonds with the U.S, but a representation of his anxiety towards the U.S.’s military commitments. Such an industry would help to assert Japan’s independence in the region, no longer being beholden to a foreign country for security.

As far back as 2000, when he was just a member of the Diet, Abe has raised concerns about the unequal power relationship with the U.S., codified by Japan’s constitutional constraints. Article 51 of the UN Charter details a member nation’s inherent right to practice “collective self-defense if an armed attack occurs against a member of the United Nations.” As Abe noted, “It is extremely strange to think that we have the right but cannot use it.”

Abe has devoted most of the past decade to move Japan towards becoming a “Western force” with a larger role in global affairs. His historic address to Congress earlier this April, the first ever by a Japanese Prime Minister, showed his desire to strengthen U.S.-Japan ties, while simultaneously asserting Japan’s reputation as a reliable, independent player on the international stage. And after the Diet’s decision to move the bill for consideration, Abe asserted that “These laws are absolutely necessary because the security situation surrounding Japan is growing more severe.”

Photo : http://www.thetower.org

Abe is right: Japan faces a series of security issues from its neighbors, which has grown at the same time that the U.S. military presence in East Asia has shrunk. Nearly 9,000 Marines are scheduled to be redeployed from Japan to Guam and Hawaii, partially as a cost-cutting measure due to the high cost of living in Japan and partially due to sustained public opposition to the American presence on the island of Okinawa. Sequestration and budget cuts are forcing the U.S. military to, as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey said while touring a U.S. base in Japan in 2013, “find a way to accomplish the same thing but with smaller force structures.” The effects of this withdrawal have been incorporated into Japanese military policy. A 2014 report issued by the Japanese Ministry of Defense opened by noting that “the patterns of U.S. involvement in the world are changing.” It went on to note that budget cuts have led to “suspension of training, delayed deployment of aircraft carriers, and grounding of air squadrons,” and if those cuts continue, “risks for the U.S. forces posed by shifts in the security environment would grow significantly.”

The move to militarize Japan is therefore supported by the U.S., UCLA associate professor of history Katsuya Hirano told me, because America “is now trying to reduce the size of its military operation due largely to its weakening economic status. The U.S. wants Japan to have a more visible military presence in the Asia-Pacific region, especially against China and North Korea.” Indeed, with growing military aggression from China, renewed military tension between South and North Korea, the ever-present North Korea’s nuclear threat, and further Russian military development on the Kuril Islands, Japan faces questions of U.S. military authority in a new East Asian power dynamic where neither the U.S. nor Japan is on top. That spot is now taken by China.

Napoleon Bonaparte supposedly once said of China, “Let her sleep, for when she wakes she will shake the world.” His warning proved to be right. Led by nationalist President Xi Jinping, who took over in 2013, China has grown to become the second-biggest military spender in the world. In 2015, it announced that it was boosting its defense budget more than ten percent to $145 billion, almost three times larger than that of Japan’s Self-Defense Force. While the growth of China’s military capabilities can be attributed largely to its economic growth, what truly worries Japanese leaders is China’s increasingly powerful nationalist movement. These sentiments have been indoctrinated into the population by a 20-year “patriotic education” campaign that asserts China’s right to dominate East Asia and vilifies Japan’s “evil” actions during its colonial rule. The atrocities of Japanese colonialism have been used to justify the defense budget increase; as one Chinese official was ...

.... in Foreign Affairs, “Our lesson from history—those who fall behind will get bullied—this is something we will never forget.” Perhaps what epitomizes the Chinese quest for supremacy in the region is the September 3 Beijing military parade, which will be led by 12,000 troops, celebrating China’s victory over Japan in World War II. Xi’s “Chinese Dream” extends far beyond “rich nation, strong army,” as is popularly said. China is committed and determined to modernize and improve its military to usurp U.S. control over East Asia. Backed up by a nationalist-supremacist ideology reminiscent of Imperial Japan, China’s aggressive military policies seek not regional security but regional dominance.

Photo : http://www.thetower.org

This problem is exacerbated by a decline in American regional hegemony. As Adm. Samuel J. Locklear, the commander of U.S. Pacific Command, admitted at a naval conference last year, “Our historic dominance, that most of us in this room have enjoyed, is diminishing. No question. So let me say it again. Our historic dominance, that most of us in our careers have enjoyed, is diminishing.” Trey Obering, the former director of the Missile Defense Agency, argued in a speech this August that China was strategically challenging all foundations of U.S. power in East Asia: “I believe that China is challenging the United States, specifically targeting our strategic ISR [intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities], our power projection capabilities, and our technological advantages with their missile programs.”

Indeed, it was discovered two years ago that Beijing had developed a medium-range ship missile that, as Obering said, was designed “clearly and specifically” to target U.S. carrier battle groups. And earlier this year, China successfully created a Wu-14 hypersonic vehicle, which can deliver nuclear warheads while flying ten times the speed of sound. This is to say nothing of China’s cyberwarfare capabilities: In 2014, Senate Armed Service Committee investigators officially found China’s military to be responsible for nine cyberattacks on civilian transportation companies, spreading malware onto airline computers and effectively stealing confidential information. The NSA has accused China of more than 600 hacks of corporate, private, or government entities. And China is widely accused of having perpetrating the hacking of the Office of Personnel Management, accessing the records of over 18 million people. The threat of Chinese hacking affects Japan too: the National Institute of Information Communications Technology said that Japan experienced more than ten billion hacking attempts from China in 2014 alone.

Photo : http://www.thetower.org

In almost all occasions, China’s military actions have shown a blatant disregard for foreign powers and international law. “China does not acknowledge freedom of navigation and overflight for foreign militaries, while at the same time it is threatening other countries’ territorial waters and airspace. Unless China respects international law and rules, these crises will continue,” Tetsuo Kotani, a senior fellow at the Japanese Institute of International Affairs, told The Guardian this January. On almost all fronts, China’s military is beginning to assert dominance over the U.S., disregarding America’s history of regional authority. Japanese journalist Hidaka Yoshiki, currently a visiting senior fellow at the Hudson Institute in Washington D.C., wrote an essay in the Japanese monthly Voice in 2013, as the negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program were ongoing. Titling his article “The Day that the Weak-Hipped Obama Administration Bows to North Korea,” Yoshiki argued that as the number of U.S. forces in Japan decreases, Japan should be concerned with the Obama administration’s seeming lack of interest in Japanese security. “While Obama has continuously stated that he is making the ‘big turn to Asia,’ there is no reality nor substance to his statement…Even currently the number of U.S. troops is decreasing…this phenomenon can be attributed to mostly the decreasing U.S. defense interests in Asia.” As China grows increasingly defiant, it is becoming clear that the U.S. is losing its grip over East Asia.

In response, Japan announced its biggest defense budget ever in January, totaling $42 billion – the third straight year of budget increases after more than a decade of cuts. Jun Okumura, a scholar at the Meiji Institute for Global Affairs in Tokyo, told The Guardian that while the budget increases were partly due to concern over increased North Korean belligerency, they were largely in response to China’s dominance: “China’s increasingly assertive behavior in the East China Sea and air space, plus, of course, its overtly hostile actions against the Philippines and Vietnam certainly have a major influence on the direction of Japan’s military spending, the thrust of its military doctrine and its approach to security alliances.”

Photo : http://www.thetower.org

The increase in the military budget – allowing the purchase of surveillance technology and aircraft, F-35 fighter jets, drones, radar-equipped destroyers, and a missile defense system – is a necessary response to current growing tensions not just with China, but also Russia, whose annexation of Crimea has endured despite Western security guarantees to Ukraine. Abe traveled to Kiev on June 6 to announce that Japan would provide Ukraine with $1.5 billion in credit guarantees and a $1.1 billion development loan. Three days later, perhaps emboldened by American inaction and perhaps piqued by Abe’s announcement, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced plans to accelerate military construction on the disputed Southern Chishima islands, which the Soviet Union seized from Japan at the end of World War II. Japanese anxiety over Russian buildups in the north is exacerbated by increasingly aggressive Chinese designs over the disputed Senkaku islands in the south.

Domestic discussions of Japan’s security have also been concerned with North Korea’s military and nuclear capabilities. The 1994 U.S.-brokered nuclear deal with North Korea – coordinated on the American side by Wendy Sherman, who would later serve as chief nuclear negotiator with Iran – fell apart in 2002 after confessions from Pakistan and Libya that North Korea was secretly continuing nuclear enrichment in violation of the deal. Six-party talks, which included Japan, were unsuccessful in persuading North Korea to dismantle its nuclear weapons program. Since then, Pyongyang has admitted to administering plutonium device tests, banned International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors from conducting inspections, and fired multiple ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan.

In April 2009, at the beginning of his presidency, Obama struck a chord with many Japanese nationals when he made a speech in Prague stating his commitment to creating a world free of nuclear weaponry.

As the only nuclear power to have used a nuclear weapon, the United States has a moral responsibility to act. The United States will take concrete steps towards a world without nuclear weapons.

The fact that North Korea had launched a rocket over Japan earlier that same morning made the speech all the more powerful or all the more empty, depending on your point of view. Since then, many have raised questions about whether U.S. foreign diplomacy really has Japan’s security interests in mind. Chief amongst those critics is Yoshiki, who saved his harshest rhetoric for the U.S.’s failure to eliminate North Korea’s nuclear capabilities, leading him in light of the Iran deal to question whether the U.S. could be trusted to ensure Japan’s security.

As I have criticized before, President Obama has barely been in contact with North Korea for four years. The bitter truth is, he has no clue of how to stop North Korea’s nuclear weaponry. And it’s not just North Korea that he has no clue about, it’s Asia as a whole…The fact that Obama is has thrown the North Korean nuclear weapon problem at China just shows fundamentally that he has no idea nor strategy when it comes to diplomacy in Asia.

In 2013, Pyongyang threatened that if Japan dared to try to stop a missile attack directed towards it, it would be seen as “provocative” of war, leading to Tokyo being “consumed in nuclear flames.” “Japan is always in the cross-hairs of our revolutionary army and if Japan makes a slightest move, the spark of war will touch Japan first,” the Korean Central News Agency declared. That same year, the Pentagon uncovered evidence that North Korea had been able to miniaturize a nuclear warhead onto a ballistic missile. 

As tensions rise once again between North and South Korea, the possibilities of further warfare within the region must factor into the discussion of revising Japan’s peace constitution to create an insurance policy should conflict break out. In light of North Korea’s unpredictability, as well as China’s increased aggression despite the U.S.’s supposed military dominance in East Asia (not to mention Russia’s brazen snubbing of international law without major consequence in Europe, and Syria’s unpunished violation of “red lines” and ISIS’s continued rampages in the Middle East), there is a nagging question on everyone’s minds: does the U.S. truly have Japan’s back?

This is the context in which the debate over Japan’s constitution is being waged. Japanese liberals argue that a revision of the constitution is will not only end Japan’s pacifist policies but is an affront to democracy itself, while conservatives argue, as Abe said, that the bills “are not for engaging in war,” but to “prevent war” by establishing a truly sovereign defense force.

There is a crucial difference between the two arguments. Abe’s detractors, such as the grassroots organization Students Emergency Action for Liberal Democracy, are looking at the past, when Imperial Japan’s military posed a humanitarian threat to East Asia. They argue that the military should never again be implemented in this way. In contrast, supporters of Abe’s security bill are looking at East Asian policy concerns in the present and the future. The domestic politics of Japan today would simply not allow for Japan’s military to start an offensive war, draft Japanese youth for battle, or repeat the mistakes of the past. These are claims based on unfounded fears.

The security bill will allow for Japan to deploy foreign military forces only if Japan or a close ally is attacked, and if not doing so would threaten Japan’s survival and pose a clear danger to its people. The bill also specifically states that Japan is allowed to deploy armed forces only if there is no other appropriate means available to repel an attack. Looking at the bill within the context of security concerns in East Asia today, one can see that it is designed to ensure regional peace, and further assert Japan’s historic pacifism, rather than endangering it.

Photo : http://www.thetower.org

There are good reasons that Abe is an unpopular figure: he has repeatedly attempted to downplay Japan’s war crimes during the occupation, he argued in 2007 that Korean comfort women were not forced into sex slavery, and his recent public apology for war-era crimes was deemed by many as “insincere.” But Abe’s concerns – that Japan’s security is inadequate while its borders are being violated, its citizens are under terrorist threat, and U.S. military hegemony is weakening—are real and valid.

Yusuke Takahashi, the Washington correspondent for the public broadcaster NHK, said during a television segment titled “The Threat of Terror in the World? In Japan?” that ISIS’s awareness of Japan’s inability to conduct military action in the Middle East is what made the country vulnerable.

What’s often misunderstood is that it isn’t just military action that made makes a country a target. Last September, America released a list of 60 coalition partners that have committed themselves to fight ISIS and among them is Japan. It is understood that Japan will only engage in humanitarian causes, and not militarily. ISIS wasn’t under a misunderstanding of Japan’s policies in the Middle East, they knew we couldn’t engage militarily. I believe it is under this understanding that [ISIS] was taunting us.

Under current conditions – in Tokyo, Washington, Beijing, Pyongyang, Moscow, Raqqa, and beyond – it is not only ISIS that can taunt, harm, or attack Japan. As former Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama prophetically said before he left office, “Someday, the time will come when Japan’s peace will have to be ensured by the Japanese people themselves.” That time has finally come. Abe is adapting policy to adjust to a growing realization: as the world evolves, Japan must too.

F:@theeagency3651 / I:@TheAAgency3651 / T:@theaagency3651

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Newbuilding LNG Carrier for JERA Named Nohshu Maru

Newbuilding LNG Carrier for JERA Named Nohshu Maru

MOL’s President & CEO: Junichiro Ikeda announced the naming of a newbuilding LNG Carrier ordered by a JV of MOL and JERA Co., Inc. Trans Pacific Shipping 5 Ltd. The ceremony was held at the Nagasaki Shipyard. The new vessel will serve JERA.

Among those attending the event were Chubu Electric Power Co., Inc. President Satoru Katsuno, who named the ship the Nohshu Maru, after which his wife cut the…