Category: Current Events

“Ritual” Pro Wrestling at Yasukuni Shrine: ＺＥＲＯ－ＯＮＥ　ＭＡＸ


From SANSPO:

Yasukuni Shrine in Kudan, Tokyo, held the first “ritual” pro wrestling match “Yamato Land of the Gods Strength Festival” in 44 years on April 10th.

Six matches were held by the ZERO1-MAX wrestling league in the outdoor compound, where the burning flames lit up the fully bloomed night cherry blossoms. The main event, AWA heavyweight world champion Omori Takao (35) successfully defended his title for the second time. Ogawa Naoya (37) of UFO and Takefuji Keiji (42) of AJPW made guest appearances, exciting the 3627 fans crowded into the shrine. “It’s wonderful to be at such a special place,” gushed ZERO1 Representative Otani Shinji (32).

The last ritual match was held in April 1961 with Rikidozan protegees Giant Baba and Antonio Inoki. 5000 people came to see it back then. There was also an historic March 1921 mixed styles wrestling match at Yasukuni between American pro wrestler Ad Santel and Judo star Shoji Hikoo.

ZERO1-MAX would like to make the “ritual” pro wrestling a yearly spring tradition at Yasukuni.

Reaction to irrational protests begins

UPDATE: The Japan Times seems to be listing events as they are reported, so keep checking there.

Good wrapup by MSNBC

Shenzhen city protests

Thanks FG

Japan Olympic Committee wonders if China can handle the Olympics in 2008

China’s Foreign Minister says protests “not China’s fault”

Anti-Japanese UNSC Entry Protest Planned in front of UN Apr. 11

Japanese in China fear for their safety: “Hide the Japanese flag” they’re told.

Ishihara criticizes both governments: “China is just directing its internal strife at Japan… Japan is simply calling for calm and not expressing the Japanese people’s frustration to China”

China is said to have “banned journalists” from photographing the damage at the Japanese Embassy.

OK, that’s all. I have work to do.

China keeps it real… Real dumb


China’s protests and harassment of Japanese people and business owners continue to remind the world of Kristallnacht. This is receiving broad coverage, so I’ll just link to some of it:

Nichinichi
WP
Japan Today:

2 Japanese students beaten up at Shanghai restaurant

Two Japanese students were beaten at a restaurant in Shanghai on Saturday night and sustained injuries, the Japanese Consulate General in Shanghai said Sunday. The students were beaten with a beer mug and an ashtray by an unknown number of Chinese, consulate officials said.

Japan Times
Mainichi
NYT:
Continue reading China keeps it real… Real dumb

A “what if” scenario from Murakami Ryu


Author Murakami Ryu has taken a break from writing about heroin-addicted prostitutes for the time being to present the Japanese public with a question: What would you do if North Korea attacked?

An ad for his new novel, “Hanto wo Deyo” (Depart the Peninsula), describes the scenario:

As 9 North Korean commandos storm the Fukuoka Dome on opening day, 484 of Kim Jong Il’s special forces storm the beaches in mass transport boats, overwhelming the unsuspecting city a mere 2 hours later. They called themselves the “North Korean Resistance Army”. Read about the miracle that occurs in near-future Japan, where the economy has collapsed and international isolation deepens.

What would Japan do in the event of an invasion? It is entirely possible that even a minor attack could cause mass panic or a run on the banks that would leave Japan even more vulnerable. Comments?

(Thanks to Saru for the link)

J. Thomas Schieffer arrives in Japan


I’m too lazy to really do any research about this guy (personal friend of Bush, owned the Rangers with him, on the board at JP Morgan) or who came before him, why he’s the ambassador, what happened to Baker (“In March 2005, he joined Citigroup as a advisor to senior management on international matters.” — Wiki) or anything really. I’ll just let you guys take a look at some clips from his Narita Airport speech. It’s full of meaningless platitudes, but I think there were some interesting bits:

Arigato gozaimasu. Kon nichi-wa.

Can’t imagine how badly he mangled that.

Last week shortly after I was sworn in, the President called to emphasize again how much our relationship with Japan meant to him and to the peace of the world. He asked me to convey to you, the people of Japan and to Prime Minister Koizumi his deep appreciation for your friendship and understanding. The President believes that there is much good that we can do together in the world.

Translation: If you had any doubts about how America feels about you beefing up your defense capabilities, read my lips: keep up the good work!

There is no doubt that we live in dangerous, difficult times but there is also no doubt that these can be times of great opportunity. Sixty years ago, World War II was ending and the world realized that a new era was beginning. In my judgment, September 11th was the last day of that old era and the first day of something new.

Opportunities for Japan? Read further:
Continue reading J. Thomas Schieffer arrives in Japan

WP: Pentagon to Stress Foreign Languages

When I went to a job fair a few weeks ago, an encounter with the woman at the Defense Intelligence Agency counter stuck out in my mind. After giving her spiel about how their agents are given full weapons training and get shipped to a different foreign country every 2 years, she mentioned that they were especially looking for people who spoke foreign languages. When I said I spoke Japanese her eyes lit up and she asked me to stay after and talk with her in more detail. I had to decline though — I’m not ready for that kind of responsibility.

This article gives me an idea as to why they were so interested:

Pentagon to Stress Foreign Languages

By Bradley Graham
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, April 8, 2005; Page A04

The Pentagon has ordered a broad effort to expand the foreign language skills of the U.S. military, calling for recruitment of more foreign language speakers, higher proficiency levels for linguists and increased language instruction for U.S. forces.

Among measures still under consideration, a senior defense official said, is adoption of a requirement that all or most U.S. military officers understand a foreign language.

This next passage indicates that they have a need for Japanese. While I guess we won’t be fighting the Japanese any time soon, a friend of mine was saying that they often take Japanese speakers and force them to learn how to read Chinese. Kanji gives them a big head start:

“We’re really aiming to move a big part of the force — that would otherwise only know a few words or nothing — up to some kind of middle category,” he said in an interview.

One option under review is whether to require every officer, in Chu’s words, to “have some degree of competence in one or more of what we call the ‘investment languages,’ ” meaning Arabic, Chinese, Japanese or Korean. “We’ve asked the military services for a concept on how we’d do this,” Chu said.

The “defense readiness index” might give us some indication of where we’ll be attacking next:

Titled “Defense Language Transformation Roadmap,” the report outlined a series of directives to the military services and regional commands, with deadlines for action stretching over the next several years.

By the end of the year, for instance, a Pentagon survey is to be conducted to determine how many military and civilian personnel in the Defense Department speak a foreign language. A Pentagon “Language Office” is being established, and a “language readiness index” will be devised to measure the military’s capabilities.

Italy allows Chen entry as president – or do they?

The Taipei Times today published an article leading with the incredible headline Italy allows Chen entry as president. The article states:

President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) departed for the Vatican yesterday afternoon to join 200 state and religious leaders paying a final tribute to Pope John Paul II.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday said the Italian government pledged to grant Chen entry to the country in his capacity as head of state.

Chen’s attendance at the papal funeral today will mark the first time a president from Taiwan has visited the Holy See since the establishment of diplomatic ties 63 years ago.

The visit will also make Chen the first president from Taiwan to set foot in a European country.

Is this in fact entirely accurate?

Let’s have a look at the article the BBC published a day before the trip happened.

A Chinese spokesman expressed “strong dissatisfaction” at Italy for granting Mr Chen a visa to go to the Vatican.

Italy has diplomatic ties with Beijing, rather than Taiwan, which China sees as part of its territory.

And later on in the same article-

If Mr Chen goes ahead with his trip, he will become the first Taiwanese president to visit the Vatican – one of only 25 nations that officially recognises Taipei diplomatically, and the only one in Europe

He is scheduled to leave Taipei on Thursday for Rome, and stay in the Vatican until after Friday’s funeral.

In fact, the Taipei Times is making a very subtle, but highly misleading mis-statement. President Chen is being received by the Vatican as a head of state, but he is not, as the Taipei Times implies, being so received by Italy. From where does this confusion arrive?

To understand, let’s go to Zimbabwe for a moment. The NYT reported this morning that-

Zimbabwe’s president, Robert G. Mugabe, arrived in Rome on Thursday to attend Pope John Paul II’s funeral, apparently using a diplomatic loophole to evade European Union sanctions that ostensibly bar him from traveling to any of the union’s member states.

[…]

Under normal circumstances, Mr. Mugabe would not be permitted to fly to Rome. He is among 95 Zimbabweans whom the European Union has barred from entering its territory on the grounds that they “commit human rights violations and restrict freedom of opinion, association and peaceful protest.”

Mr. Mugabe appears to have evaded the travel ban because he is going to the Vatican, which is not a member of the European Union. A treaty obliges Italy to grant safe passage to visitors bound for the Vatican, which has no airport.

While I imagine that Chen is certainly not a criminal like Mugabe and has as much right as any Taiwanese citizen to visit European nations as a private citizen, the assertion that he is being received as a head of state by Italy is quite false. Italy is simply giving him landing permission as a head of state on a diplimatic visit to the Vatican, but this is based entirely on their treaty obligations to the Vatican, and in no way reflects their position towards Taiwan.

Taiwan is only formally recognized as a country by a few countries around the world, in Europe only by the Vatican. The Vatican’s reasons for maintaining relations with Taiwan over communist China are clear. Unlike the other nations of the world whose responsibilities are the economic and physical safety of their citizens, the Vatican’s primary concern is the spiritual guidance of Catholics around the world. China, despite what they claim, does not allow freedom of religion, forcing Catholics to choose between either a state organized Catholic church, which was forced to cut ties to the Vatican so long ago that they still conduct Mass in Latin, or pray in secret, at risk of prosecution by Chinese authorities.

In the flurry of news related to the Pope’s funeral The New York Times also has an article on this topic. As they say,

China’s 12 million Catholics are mourning the death of John Paul II, but his passing is also a reminder of an unfinished legacy: the division of Chinese Catholics from the rest of the church, and from each other. Indeed, if John Paul II helped bring down Communism in Eastern Europe, the Communist Party that rules China proved resilient. The two sides never came to agree to normalize relations between the Vatican and China and end the diplomatic break that began more than a half century ago under Mao.

On a personal level, the pope never achieved his goal of visiting China.

Of significant interest is that fact that a Chinese spokesman for the laughably named ‘Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association’ is quoted in the BBC article above as saying “The decision to let Chen Shui-bian attend has hurt the feelings of the Chinese people, including five million Catholics.” Clearly the Vatican holds the combined interests of the 7 million hidden Catholics in China, as well as the hundreds of thousands of Catholics in Taiwan, are also worth looking out for.

School conducting most classes in English opens in Gunma

From Japan Today. I think they need to make all schools in Japan like this. Why is Japan so afraid to let its people become fluent in English??

School conducting most classes in English opens in Gunma

Thursday, April 7, 2005 at 07:26 JST
MAEBASHI — An elementary school that will teach nearly all subjects in English opened Wednesday in a Gunma Prefecture city that has been authorized to run schools emphasizing foreign language education under the state’s deregulation initiative.

Gunma Kokusai Academy, a privately run school funded in part by the Ota city government, admitted a total of 166 pupils in the first and fourth grades. The school has no students in the second and third grades and plans to fill up the remainder of classes up to the sixth grade in the next two school years. (Kyodo News)

Watch Diet Sessions on the Internet ネットで国会テレビ？！

The first little tidbit I’d like to share with you all that I found from JANJAN is their feature Kokkai Watch. It covers all events related to the Japanese Diet.

Some Interesting links I saw:

衆議院ＴＶ (Lower House TV)

参議院審議中継 (Upper House Live)

These are like a Japanese C-Span — watch any meeting of Japan’s legislature at your leisure.

Whenever something important comes up I’ll be sure to keep an eye on these. I also like the UN’s video archive, while we’re on the topic.

Foreigners Required to Register Once More at Japanese Lodgings

MF was telling me the other day that he read in an old tourism guide that foreign visitors used to have to register at hotels when they wanted to stay the night. But now that Japan has modernized that kind of suspicious behavior would be unthinkable right? Wrong:

Registration Procedure at lodging facilities in Japan
to be changed as of April 1, 2005

March 2005

Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare

As of April 1, 2005, foreign nationals who visit Japan will be required to do the following when they check in at lodging facilities such as hotels and inns in Japan for the purpose of effective prevention of infectious diseases and terrorism.

* To fill in their “Nationality” and “Passport Number” in addition to “Name”, “Address” and “Occupation”, which are already required, to the guest registration form.

* To present their passports to be photocopied (The proprietors of lodging facilities will be obligated to keep the photocopies).

Your understanding and cooperation will be appreciated.

Unbelievable. Where was this policy when SARS broke out? I saw on the news they were scrambling in the dark to find some Chinese guy who went to Universal Studios and might have spread the disease. And really I think Japan should be worried more about domestic terrorists than foreigners, despite some empty-sounding threats from al-Qaida. The government must be jittery about the influx of foreigners coming to see that half-baked exposition that no one is talking about.

There’s so much lip service paid to bringing more foreign tourists to Japan these days, but I can’t help but suspect trepidation on the part of some sectors of the government in accepting the new visitors.

Here are some helpful ideas on what to do if the hotel staff gives you a hard time.