Considering Japan’s pacifist Constitution, I am not sure legally how they would be allowed to respond if just Taiwan was attacked. Additionally the Chinese would more likely blockade Taiwan prior to any attack which makes Japanese involvement even more Constitutionally difficult:

Tokyo would step up militarily to defend Taiwan if Beijing moved to reunify the island with mainland China by force, former deputy national security adviser Matt Pottinger said in a panel discussion on Tuesday with other top Trump administration officials.

Pottinger, considered one of the key architects of the Trump administration’s hardline China policies, said Japan first suggested a quadrilateral alliance with the US, India and Australia – now known as the “Quad” – as a defense strategy against China. He also pushed back on assertions that the former administration strained ties with Japan and other allies in the region. (…….)

“There’s a saying in the Japanese military: ‘Taiwan’s defense is Japan’s defense.’ And, and I think that Japan will act accordingly,” Pottinger added.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Here is an update on the case of the ROK Air Force NCO who committed suicide after what the ROK media is calling sexual harassment by another NCO. However, the fact that she was groped and forced to touch the body parts of the other NCO is by the American definition actually sexual assault. What makes this incident even worse is that her parents said that one of the superiors pushing her to stop her complaint had harassed her as well in the past:

 An Air Force noncommissioned officer, who took her own life after being sexually harassed by a colleague, had suffered similar abuse twice before, a lawyer for her family said Thursday, as two of her superiors were relieved of duties for mishandling the latest case.

Public outrage strengthened amid growing suspicions that her unit attempted to cover up the crime. President Moon Jae-in ordered a thorough investigation and stern punishment of those responsible, saying his heart aches to think of how much despair the victim must have felt.

The two superiors — a warrant officer and a senior master sergeant — were accused of attempting to persuade the victim to reach a settlement with the suspect. One of them was even accused by her family of abusing the victim himself earlier. The suspect in the latest case, surnamed Jang, allegedly groped the victim and forced her to touch his body parts inside a car on their way to the base after a drinking session she was forced to attend in March.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but there is a severe lack of leadership going on with the unit the deceased NCO was in.

It looks like major tech companies like Netflix and Google will no longer be able to avoid paying taxes in South Korea and possibly other countries as well:

The Korean offices of Netflix and Google will have to pay higher corporate taxes, upon the agreement of over 130 participants in the OECD blueprints drawn up to tackle global tax challenges.

Apart from the two firms, global IT giants including Amazon, Facebook and Apple will be subject to the so-called “Google tax,” whereby large digital companies will have to pay a certain amount of corporate tax, the rate of which is yet to be determined. 

“The government will have the grounds to tax them, if the agreement is reached. Nothing has been finalized yet,” a finance ministry official said, Tuesday. 

This is part of the global wave of efforts to tax the lucrative firms based on where their revenues are generated, not where their regional headquarters are located. Many global tech heavyweights have long managed to pay only a fraction of their profits as taxes here, largely by routing them to lower rate tax jurisdictions where their headquarters are based. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Apparently the ROK service member was pressured by colleagues to reach a settlement with her harasser before committing suicide:

An Air Force officer has died in an apparent suicide after being sexually harassed by a colleague, officials said Tuesday.

In March, the female master sergeant stationed in the central city of Seosan was sexually harassed by the man surnamed Jang inside a car on their way back to the base after a private gathering that she was forced to attend, according to the officials.

She then reported the case to the authorities the following day, but the military allegedly failed to take appropriate steps to protect the victim.

Jang, as well as his family members and senior officers, had instead tried to cover up the case and persuade her to drop the complaint, according to the bereaved family members.

After taking two months off, she was transferred to another base by her application, but she was found dead at her residence inside the base late last month.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

It is the summer protest season which means the Dokdo crazies are showing up again:

South Korean university students burned a Japanese flag in Seoul for the second consecutive day on Wednesday in protest of the Tokyo government’s claim to South Korea’s easternmost islets of Dokdo.

Members of the Korean Progressive University Student Union set the Rising Sun Flag, formerly used by the Japanese imperial army, on fire in front of Dongnimmun (independence) Gate in central Seoul in the afternoon after condemning the Japanese government and Tokyo Olympics organizers for claiming Dokdo.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Here we go again, this same thing happened last year at Haeundae Beach:

U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) said Monday it is cooperating with local authorities over allegations some of its members were involved in no-mask parties on a Busan beach over the weekend in violation of social distancing rules.

According to police, around 2,000 foreigners, including U.S. soldiers, set off firecrackers and held parties without masks at Haeundae Beach in the southeastern city of Busan, marking U.S. Memorial Day. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.