Tokyo just like Seoul has seen a recent increase in COVID infections and this has caused the Japanese government to cancel fans attending the games:
Organizers of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics on Thursday agreed to hold the Games without spectators, after Japan declared a coronavirus state of emergency for the capital that will run throughout the event.
The widely expected move was made following talks between the government, Tokyo organizers and Olympic and Paralympic representatives.
It was “regrettable” that the Games were going to be held in a limited format, Tokyo 2020 President Seiko Hashimoto told a briefing, adding her apologies to those who had bought tickets.
Korea Times
You can read more at the link.
It will be interesting to see if local fans includes expats and military that are living in Japan:
The Tokyo Olympics will allow some local fans to attend when the games open in just over a month, organizing committee officials and the IOC said on Monday.
Organizers set a limit of 50% of capacity up to a maximum of 10,000 fans for all Olympic venues.
The decision was announced after so-called Five Party talks online with local organizers, the International Olympic Committee, the International Paralympic Committee, the Japanese government and the government of metropolitan Tokyo.
Stars & Stripes
You can read more at the link.
This would have been the stupidest reason ever to boycott the Olympics:
South Korea is not considering boycotting the Tokyo Olympics, the foreign ministry said Tuesday, after presidential hopefuls of the ruling Democratic Party mentioned the possibility of a boycott amid a renewed territorial spat with Japan over the East Sea islets of Dokdo.
Korea Times
Rep. Lee Nak-yon and former Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun raised the need to mull boycotting the Games, slated to take place from July 23-Aug. 8, should Japan not revise the map of the Olympic torch relay route that included Dokdo as its territory.
You can read more at the link.
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.
According to this article Japanese citizens that worked even decades ago in the U.S. are receiving U.S. government sponsored coronavirus stimulus checks:
A 79-year-old man in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, received an official-looking piece of mail printed in English in late April.
The addresser was the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Inside the envelope, he found a check for $1,400 (153,000 yen).
His wife also received a check for the same amount.
They are among the Japanese recipients of U.S. stimulus checks to boost the economy during the pandemic, who are at a loss of what to do with the surprise payments.
According to a person who is related to a major bank, the bank’s call center has been inundated with inquiries about U.S. stimulus checks since May 11.
“As far as the bank is concerned, if a person wants to cash a check and the person’s identity is verified, we have to ask the U.S. side to pay,” the person said. “We don’t have a way to examine if the person is eligible to receive the check.” (…….) The man entertained the idea of pocketing the $2,800 and said to himself, “The United States has so much money to spare that it gives out (the checks) to foreigners like me who lived there about 40 years ago.”
Asahi Shimbun
You can read more at the link.
The North Koreans probably see no irony in them complaining about Japan’s proposed changes to their pacifist constitution when they have in fact started a major war and launched multiple attacks against their neighbors since World War II while Japan has caused no aggressive actions. The only reason Japan wants to modify its constitution is to better respond to aggressive acts from neighboring nations like North Korea:
North Korea condemned Japan on Wednesday for pushing to revise its pacifist constitution, calling the move a “declaration of war against humankind.”
The North’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) made the criticism as Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga mentioned the need to discuss the possible revision of its war-renouncing constitution earlier this month to officially recognize its self-defense forces by the law.
“Japan has made desperate efforts to turn itself, which renounced war, into a war-capable country, remaining unchanged in its wild ambition for launching reinvasion to avenge the past defeat,” KCNA said in a commentary.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
President Biden is sending one of his buddies to Japan:
President Joe Biden is expected to nominate former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel to serve as the U.S. ambassador to Japan, according to a person familiar with the president’s decision.
The person, who was not authorized to comment publicly about the matter and spoke on condition of anonymity Tuesday, said the White House plans to announce Emanuel’s nomination later this month.
Emanuel is a former three-term congressman who served as Barack Obama’s first White House chief of staff and was a senior adviser in Bill Clinton’s administration. Biden had considered naming Emanuel to serve as his transportation secretary but ultimately passed him over in the face of fierce opposition from some in the liberal wing of the Democratic Party and liberal activists.
Asahi Shimbun
You can read more at the link, but a good thing about being an ambassador to Japan is that if he needs to send a dead fish to anyone they will be easy find.
I wonder if anyone on the Korean left is going to claim this is training to assault Dokdo:
French forces are training on Japanese soil for the first time during drills this week that will include beach raids alongside U.S. Marines and Japanese amphibious troops supported by an Australian frigate.
The Jeanne D’Arc 21 exercise began Tuesday at Camp Ainoura, home of Japan’s Amphibious Rapid Deployment Brigade at Sasebo in Nagasaki prefecture, III Marine Expeditionary Force said in a statement Wednesday.
The brigade, modeled on U.S. Marines, has about 100 people in the exercise, including infantry, engineers and command and control troops, according to Marine Capt. Thomas Delaney, a firepower control team leader on Kyushu.
Stars & Stripes
You can read more at the link.
If there wasn’t enough issues of contention between South Korea and Japan and here is yet another one:
South Korea is considering lodging a complaint with an international tribunal against Japan’s decision to dump a huge amount of contaminated wastewater from a crippled nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean, Cheong Wa Dae said Wednesday.
President Moon Jae-in issued the instruction before meeting with Japan’s new ambassador here, Koichi Aiboshi, to receive his credentials.
In an internal meeting, Moon ordered his government to “proactively consider” bringing the matter to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, according to Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Kang Min-seok.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link, but the Chinese are loving this decision as well because they can bash Japan while they continue to freely pollute the oceans themselves. Additionally the waste water will not be released until 2 years from now as they treat it. The treatment is supposed to clean it enough to be safe to release. This seems like something that international nuclear inspectors should monitor just build confidence in the process. It probably won’t matter though to those bashing Japan.
