Category: Japan

I find it pretty amazing how different the coronavirus infection and death rates are between Tokyo and New York City. Why is New York City being devastated by the coronavirus while similarly densely populated Tokyo is not experiencing the same problems? That is the real story the media should be looking at:

As of Tuesday, Japan had 1,953 confirmed cases of coronavirus and 56 deaths, according to the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. Tokyo has counted 499 cases and 15 deaths as of Tuesday, according the Tokyo Metropolitan Government website.

A national law passed earlier this month allows the prime minister to declare a state of emergency when rapid spread of the virus poses a serious threat to people’s lives and the economy.

The decision to declare a state of emergency will carefully be made based on advice by a wide range of experts, Suga said.

Stars and Stripes

You can read more at the link.

Unless things drastically improve in the short term I don’t see how the Olympics can be held when many athletes are likely having a hard time even training for them right now:

Postponing the 2020 Olympics “may become inevitable” if the new coronavirus outbreak makes it impossible to hold the Games safely, Japan’s prime minister said Monday.

Shinzo Abe told parliament that Japan was still committed to a “complete” Games, but added: “if that becomes difficult, in light of considering athletes first, it may become inevitable that we make a decision to postpone.”

The comments were his first acknowledging the possibility that the Games may not open as scheduled on July 24 as the coronavirus continues to spread across the world.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

However, these SOFA holders will now undergo yet another two week quarantine on land:

Seven people associated with U.S. Army Japan who spent two weeks potentially exposed to the new coronavirus on a cruise ship in Yokohama must spend another 14 days quarantined at home, officials said Tuesday.

The Japanese government is expected to release the seven, who fall under the status of forces agreement in Japan, from the ship over the next few days, according to a post on U.S. Army Japan’s official Facebook page. A SOFA defines the legal status of the U.S. armed forces stationed in host countries. It governs uniformed service members, civilian Defense Department employees and their families.

The seven spent two weeks aboard the Diamond Princess, a cruise ship at anchor in Yokohama Bay, after the virus, called COVID-19, was discovered on board as the vessel was en route to Japan.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

Here we go with yet another dress code controversy; it seems to me that school uniforms would solve all this:

A dress code imposed at a Defense Department middle school on Okinawa in August discriminates against female students, according to a complaint filed by parents with the Department of Education.The complaint — filed Jan. 10 with the department’s Office of Civil Rights — alleges gender discrimination at Ryukyu Middle School, a Department of Defense Education Activity school at Kadena Air Base.

It seeks to remedy what six parents say is an outdated dress code, according to the complaint and the parents’ attorney, Crista Kraics.

The complaint alleges that Principal Lee Ann Mik discriminated against female students by singling them out for their attire and removing them from class. The parents deemed their children’s attire “appropriate.”

Girls were singled out for wearing loose athletic pants with no zipper while boys were permitted to wear basketball shorts, according to the complaint. Girls were also criticized for shirts that weren’t long enough and for showing “collar bone.”

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but it seems to me that as long as the boys were not allowed to wear zipperless pants and girls were allowed to wear basketball shorts as well that the policy is not discriminatory.

The Kim regime is just upset that the Japanese are likely looking at building up capabilities in space militarily to deal with North Korea and China’s growing ballistic missile threat:

 North Korea on Saturday slammed Tokyo’s plan to establish a military space unit, saying the plan is a dangerous and reckless move to make Japan a “military giant.”

“Japan is madly keen on exploiting even the outer space for its sinister purpose of building up ‘defense capacity,'” the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Pyongyang’s official mouthpiece, said in its editorial. “The outer space can never be reduced to a theatre for the state of aggression, the war-thirsty state.”

Japan last year announced that its Self-Defense Forces (SDF) plan to create a military unit specializing in space matters by 2023.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

The relocation of MCAS Futenma on Okinawa is starting to turn into the Yongsan Garrison relocation boondoggle that Korea experienced over multiple decades:

The relocation of a U.S. Marine Corps base to a less-crowded area of the southern Japanese island of Okinawa will take more than twice as much money and time as previously estimated because of the need to stabilize the reclaimed land it will be built on, Japan’s government said Wednesday.

The Defense Ministry said the relocation of U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma from densely populated Ginowanto Henoko on Okinawa’s eastern coast will cost $8.5 billion and take 12 years, pushing its completion into the 2030s. That adds more than a decade to the plan, which has already been delayed by more than 20 years because of local opposition and other reasons.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but I wonder if this project will be filled with the shoddy construction and corruption like what we saw in the Yongsan Garrison relocation?

Now the Moon administration is bickering with the Japanese on why they caved on the cancellation of the GSOMIA:

South Korea and Japan clashed Sunday over an agreement on keeping alive their military information-sharing pact, casting a pall on upcoming negotiations over the agreement.

The move came two days after South Korea conditionally suspended the expiry of the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA), six hours before it was due to lapse.

South Korea also decided to temporarily halt a petition process at the World Trade Organization while negotiations with Japan on the two sides’ export control policies go on.

“In the future negotiations, everything depends on Japan’s attitude,” Chung Eui-yong, director of Cheong Wa Dae’s national security office, told reporters at an exhibition center in the southeastern port city of Busan, noting South Korea’s recent decisions are conditional and provisional.

A key condition of the suspension is that South Korea can terminate the military pact at any time it wants and Japan has expressed “understanding” over it, according to South Korea. (………)

“We have no choice but to express deep regret” over the Japanese behavior, Chung said, calling the Japanese moves a “breach of faith.”

Chung also slammed Japanese leaders for their reported remarks that South Korea caved in to U.S. pressure and that Japan had achieved a diplomatic victory, describing them as untrue.

A senior presidential official also said it would be very disappointing if Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s reported comments are true. Japanese media reported that Abe said Japan had made no concessions.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It appears that the media in Japan is pushing the 5x times greater spending narrative for U.S. troops just like the Korean media:

Japan’s government on Sunday denied a report it had been asked to fork over five times as much as it now pays to support United States forces stationed in the country.

Kyodo News reported Saturday that Japan had rejected a request for the funding increase that was delivered by John Bolton, then national security adviser to President Donald Trump, when he visited Tokyo in July.

Japanese Defense Minister Taro Kono refuted the report, according to a transcript of a Sunday press conference posted on the Defense Ministry’s website.

In Japan’s fiscal 2019 draft budget, about $1.8 billion has been earmarked to host U.S. forces, which include more than 50,000 servicemembers, mostly stationed on Okinawa. Japan would have to pay more than $9 billion annually if it had acceded to the request, Kyodo reported.

The talk about cost-sharing echoes news from South Korea, where U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper on Friday called on the government to increase its share of the cost to support 28,500 U.S. troops stationed on the divided peninsula.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but this is called negotiations. I am sure the U.S. side gave a big number to start out with that will be reduced over time to amount both sides can live with. What will be interesting to see over time is the difference in reactions between the Japanese and Korean governments over this issue.

I guess we will see if this leads to any resolution to the trade dispute between the two countries:

President Moon Jae-in said Tuesday he has had a “meaningful” meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that could herald the start of dialogue for mending soured ties between Seoul and Tokyo.

Moon held an 11-minute conversation with Abe on Monday ahead of an ASEAN Plus Three summit in Bangkok, the first one-on-one talks in more than a year amid frayed ties.

“I’ve held a meaningful meeting with Abe that could be a start point for dialogue,” Moon said on his social media, wrapping up his three-day trip to Thailand for ASEAN-related summits.

The presidential office Cheong Wa Dae characterized it as a face-to-face conversation, neither a formal summit nor a “pull aside.” But Moon and Abe agreed to resolve pending issues via dialogue during a meeting held in a “very friendly and serious” mood, Cheong Wa Dae spokesperson Ko Min-jung said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

This should come as no surprise the Okinawa governor is against any weapons that could be used to defend the island:

As the Pentagon hunts for sites to deploy missiles against a rising China, Okinawa’s governor is warning the U.S. to steer clear of the southern Japanese prefecture.

Governor Denny Tamaki said in an interview Friday that any U.S. attempt to base intermediate-range ballistic missiles in Okinawa would be firmly opposed by the local people. Tamaki, who was elected last year on a campaign to get the Marines’ Futenma air base out of the prefecture, argues the region already shoulders an unfair burden by hosting about half of the 50,000 U.S. military personnel in Japan.

“Intermediate-range ballistic missiles can be used to attack other countries, so deploying them would conflict with the constitution and lead to a further build-up of the U.S. bases,” Tamaki, 60, told Bloomberg News. “To have new military facilities would be absolutely unacceptable.”

Bloomberg

You can read more at the link, but it will be interesting to see where the U.S. is able to put missiles to counter China.