The Chinese are not going to like how the Japanese continue to expand their naval activities in the South China Sea in support of the U.S.’s freedom of navigation mission there:
The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force ships JS Kashima, bottom, and JS Shimayuki, center, sail alongside the littoral combat ship USS Gabrielle Giffords during an exercise in the South China Sea, Tuesday, June 23, 2020.
The littoral combat ship USS Gabrielle Giffords joined two Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force ships for training in the contentious South China Sea on Tuesday, a Navy statement said.
The Navy vessel sailed with the JMSDF’s training ships JS Kashima and JS Shimayuki to “emphasize the importance of communications and coordination while operating together,” according to the statement.
“The opportunity to operate with our friends and allies at sea is incredibly important for our combined readiness and partnership,” Expeditionary Strike Group 7 commander Rear Adm. Fred Kacher said in the statement.
You can read more at the link, but the Chinese claim nearly the entire South China Sea as part of China. The freedom of navigation patrols by the U.S. and other countries supporting the American effort challenge these Chinese claims.
Just imagine what a message would be sent to Beijing if South Korea joined Japan on one of these patrols. It will never happen under the current government, but maybe a possibility down the road if the politics in South Korea changes.
North Korea is threatening military action so this is the perfect time to find something the bash the Japanese with to divert attention:
An exhibit on Nagasaki Prefecture’s Hashima Coal Mine at the Industrial Heritage Information Center in Tokyo | THE NATIONAL CONGRESS OF INDUSTRIAL HERITAGE / VIA KYODO
South Korea called in Japan’s top envoy in Seoul and voiced “deep regrets” Monday after Tokyo failed to honor wartime forced labor victims at an information center on industrial revolution sites registered on UNESCO’s World Heritage list.
Second Vice Foreign Minister Lee Tae-ho called in Japanese Ambassador Koji Tomita, hours after the Industrial Heritage Information Center in Tokyo opened to the public following a monthslong closure due to the new coronavirus.
Upon the 2015 World Heritage designation of 23 Meiji-era sites, Tokyo said it would establish the center to remember the victims based on its recognition of “Koreans and others who were brought against their will and forced to work under harsh conditions in the 1940s at some of the sites.”
“It is deeply regrettable that this center runs counter to Japan’s pledge and includes content that completely distorts historical facts,” Kim In-chul, spokesman for the ministry, said in a commentary.
“Especially, South Korea cannot help but feel concern and disappointment, as we cannot find any effort to commemorate the victims in any exhibitions at the center, though the Japanese government pledged to establish the center as a measure to remember the victims,” it added.
You can read more at the link, but unless you check the Japanese media you would not know that the site does in fact include information about Korean laborers, it just doesn’t feed the narrative of the evil Imperial Japanese slave drivers that one sees in South Korea:
Although the exhibit on the sites, mostly in southwestern Japan and added to the UNESCO list in 2015, include descriptions of Korean labor, it incorporates testimonies from second-generation Korean Japanese residents claiming there was no discriminatory treatment of Korean workers there.
Much of the Korean media’s criticisms were aimed at the display for the Hashima Coal Mine in Nagasaki, known as Gunkanjima (Battleship Island) because of its shape.
Guests can learn about the experiences of former residents. Accounts of Hashima residents include the late second-generation Korean Japanese Fumio Suzuki, who spent his childhood years on the island and said he never heard of Koreans subjected to slave labor.
According to the Chosun Ilbo, a major South Korean daily, the exhibitions deny the reality of forced labor under harsh conditions and threaten to “exacerbate an already fraught” relationship between South Korea and Japan.
The liberal Hankyoreh newspaper likewise reported the exhibits as a “distortion” of history.
The exhibit consists of panels and large screens that illustrate Japan’s rapid industrialization from the middle of the 19th century to the early 20th century.
The display for the Hashima Coal Mine includes digitally archived documents indicating the existence of workers from the Korean Peninsula, who were drafted to the island during World War II, as well as records of a bonus salary paid to a Taiwanese laborer.
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:
People check out cherry blossoms, which have been blocked off because of the coronavirus pandemic, at Ueno Park in Tokyo, Monday, March 30, 2020.
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.
It will be interesting to see how much of a grip the coronavirus gets in a tropical location like Okinawa:
An airman from the 18th Medical Group at Kadena Air Base on Okinawa screens a driver for coronavirus in this undated photo posted to the base’s official Facebook page Thursday, March 26, 2020.
The 18th Wing has confirmed its first case of coronavirus, according to a message posted Saturday on Kadena Air Base’s official Facebook page.
“The member is active duty Air Force and has been in restriction of movement status for 15 days since returning from overseas travel,” the message said.
“18th Wing leadership and medical teams are tracking this situation very closely and have determined the only close contacts to be immediate family members who are also in restriction of movement status.“
That did not take very long to make this common sense decision to postpone the Olympic Games until next year:
The 2020 Olympics, which were scheduled to begin July 24 in Tokyo, have been postponed to a date “no later than summer 2021” due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“In the present circumstances and based on the information provided by the WHO today, the IOC President and the Prime Minister of Japan have concluded that the Games of the XXXII Olympiad in Tokyo must be rescheduled to a date beyond 2020 but not later than summer 2021, to safeguard the health of the athletes, everybody involved in the Olympic Games and the international community,” the IOC said in a statement.
Uniqlo donated 15,000 masks to the children & those working around kids in Daegu. Uniqlo was boycotted last year when the Moon admin, his party & their supporters stirred up anti-Japan sentiment & called for boycotting it.#WuhanVirus#ChinaPneumoniahttps://t.co/MMMx68Ksws
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.
It figures that the Moon administration would bring up the GSOMIA issue again before April’s parliamentary elections in order to promote anti-Japanese sentiment:
Presidential NSO second deputy chief Kim Hyon-chong Yonhap
Controversy is resurfacing over the possible termination of a military intelligence sharing agreement with Japan, ahead of the March 1 Independence Day and the April 15 general election.
Speculation is mounting that the government could ultimately terminate the General Security of Information Sharing Agreement (GSOMIA), given the absence of any significant outcome from bilateral negotiations to remove Japan’s trade restrictions imposed on certain Korean companies last summer. In response to the restrictions, the government announced the termination of the agreement, but held off on this in November to show its commitment to bilateral negotiations to settle the trade dispute. (……)
During a recent press conference, Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha said that Korea could still consider terminating the GSOMIA depending on what is deemed best for the “national interest.” “There have been talks between the export authorities, but we have still not returned to the situation before July 1 [when Japan imposed the exports ban],” Kang said.
You can read more at the link, but it is pretty clear how important April’s vote is for the Blue House. They have changed election laws that will increase the number of unelected left wing parliament seats, covered up the investigations into Blue House corruption, fired the head of Statistics Korea to get better economic stats, has not reached a cost sharing deal with the U.S., and now threatening to cancel the GSOMIA pact again.
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:
In this Kyodo News photo, dated Oct. 17, 2019, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe greets the country’s Self-Defense Forces soldiers in Fukushima, Japan. (Yonhap)
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.
