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Japan

Okinawans see duplicity in US withdrawal
The United States has agreed to shift 4,700 marines from Okinawa to Guam and acquiesced on a prior condition of the transfer: that it be accompanied by the construction of a fiercely opposed airbase on Okinawa. However, despite the US's strategic realignment in the Asia-Pacific and planned defense cuts, islanders know Washington is unwilling to completely scrap the airbase plan. - Kosuke Takahashi (Feb 10, '12)

Nightmare at Narita
The deportation and arrest of foreign journalists in Japan has raised suspicions Tokyo is punishing foreigners critical of its response to the Fukushima nuclear crisis, with the apparently harsh interrogation, detention and deportation procedures at Narita Airport adding to the controversy. First-hand experience suggest the airport's immigration agency is acting as a law unto itself. - Christopher Johnson (Feb 3, '12)

INTERVIEW
Healing Southeast Asia's 'comfort women'
Those who doubt angels of mercy exist among us should heed the heart-warming career of Cristina Rosello, a Filipina therapist who treats former "comfort women" forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese army during World War II. In this exclusive interview with Asia Times Online contributor Victor Fic, Rosello describes her creative methods and how she is both healer and healed. (Feb 1, '12)

SPEAKING FREELY
Time for Japanese opposition to stand tall
Japan is mired in a deep socioeconomic malaise and is still struggling to recover from the tsunami and nuclear disaster of last year. This makes it hardly the right time for the opposition party to engage in the petty politicking it seems to prefer.- Brad Williams (Jan 31, '12)

Tsunami sinks Japan aquaculture
Seaweed and oyster harvesters are struggling to get back to business along vast stretches of Japan's remote Tohoku coastline devastated by the tsunami last year. As many affected communities are being asked to make tough decisions, the disaster is an important turning point for local economies. - Suvendrini Kakuchi (Jan 24, '12)

East Asian energy dilemma over Iran
Pressure on Japan and South Korea to sacrifice vital oil supplies from Iran to meet United States policy interests is driving the US allies further towards China. Tokyo faces aversion to nuclear power and political rumblings over kow-towing to Washington. Meanwhile, Seoul - perhaps believing the US campaign will create larger security problems - will reject assertions that punishing Tehran impacts on North Korea. - Yong Kwon (Jan 23, '12)

Probes dig deep into Fukushima disaster
Establishing the causes of the Fukushima meltdown last year and concrete measures to prevent other nuclear disasters in earthquake-prone Japan is the goal of the first independent commission set up in the history of the Japanese parliament. The commission, one of a handful of investigations now seeking the truth about the worst accident since Chernobyl 25 years earlier, met for the first time this week and is set to release its report mid-year. - Daniel Leussink (Jan 19, '12)

Nuclear drive defies cloud
Japan is driving hard to build nuclear plants overseas, from India and Bangladesh to Turkey and Vietnam, as it competes with South Korea for contracts in spite of increased hostile perceptions of nuclear power in both countries following last year's Fukushima disaster.
- Suvendrini Kakuchi (Jan 19, '12)

Little lift from end to Japanese arms ban
As Japan relaxes a near blanket ban on arms exports, government officials say weapons sales to communist states, countries under United Nations embargoes and nations involved in international conflicts will still be blocked. The decision, while a potential boon for Japanese manufacturers, comes too late for them to participate in the American-made F-35, Tokyo's pick for its next frontline fighter. - David Isenberg (Jan 18, '12)

INTERVIEW
Overcoming the 'Japanese only' factor
When US-born Dave Aldwinckle became a Japanese citizen named Arudou Debito in 2000, Japanese officials told him that only now did he have human rights in Japan. Such prejudice galvanized him into becoming a crusader against anti-gaijin (foreigner) discrimination. In an exclusive interview with Asia Times Online contributor Victor Fic, he sees Japan turning inward. (Jan 11, '12)

New fissures open in Japan
Japanese exporters are struggling against a strong yen, 20% of workers are on the poverty line, a power shortage threatens to drive up electricity bills and thousands of people remain refugees in their own country after the Fukushima disaster, creating new fissures in a struggling economy. - Suvendrini Kakuchi (Jan 3, '12)

Japan delivers Lockheed some cheer
United States firm Lockheed Martin Corp will likely toast Japan on Tuesday, with Tokyo widely expected to confirm the selection of its F-35 Joint Strike Fighter in a $4 billion deal to supply 40 to 50 jets. The F-35 program faces increased scrutiny in Washington over costs and delays, while Japanese military experts had speculated that its high-stealth capabilities were undermined by dog-fighting and endurance limitations. - Kosuke Takahashi (Dec 19, '11)

US the loser in Asia push
A switch of focus by the United States to Asia continues a long-held ambiguity towards China that does define it as an enemy. Yet as the US, through its trade pacts and other relations exports its corrupt economic system, China, also supporting "free trade", will be the ultimate beneficiary. - Tanaka Sakai (Dec 13, '11)

Returnees fear Fukushima's invisible touch
For all the assurances that they live within safety limits, residents of Minamisoma don't really believe they are free from radiation. Streets are near-empty in the coastal city on the northern edge of the 20-kilometer "exclusion zone" around where the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant exploded in March, but many among half the city's population who have returned cannot escape anxiety about ''invisible substances'' and fear the government is lying to them. - Donald Kirk (Dec 8, '11)

Japan's dirty laundry hung out
As the whistleblower in Olympus Corp's accounting scandal addressed a packed Foreign Correspondents Club in Tokyo and the ousted manager of the Yomiuri Giants baseball team let fly at his former boss, Japan's tradition of hushed criticism this week seemed in revolution. The chances of the cases impacting on the government or corporate culture depend on how courts treat those who speak out. - Christopher Johnson (Dec 6, '11)

Osaka voters revolt against the status quo
Anyone looking for evidence of life in Japanese politics and established parties that are increasingly regarded as paralyzed need look no further than the "double' election" held in Osaka at the weekend. A landslide victory for popular former Osaka governor Toru Hashimoto to city mayor and the elevation of his close ally to head the prefecture herald the beginnings of a local revolt against the national status quo. - Purnendra Jain (Nov 30, '11)

Japan torn over US-led free-trade pact
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's decision to negotiate joining the United States-led Trans-Pacific Partnership has provoked fierce debate on whether the free-trade pact suits the national interest. While Noda says it sets high standards for trade and investment, opponents insist the agreement will "ruin" the healthcare sector and see Tokyo lose control over key sectors like agriculture. - Daniel Leussink (Nov 22, '11)

EU and Japan talk the talk ...
Although European Union Foreign Affairs Minister Catherine Ashton met her Japanese counterpart briefly last week in Tokyo, the agenda was broad, encompassing North Africa, the Korean Peninsula and piracy. While Ashton says the EU and Japan make "important contributions" in these hot spots, history and a raft of unsigned agreements suggest grand plans for bilateral cooperation will never get past the design stage. - Axel Berkofsky (Nov 9, '11)

Japanese look for timber boost
Japan has an abundance of forests yet imports 70% of its building requirements from oveseas. Better management of its woodlands could make the country self-sufficient, say environmentalists, and further the goal of sustainable harvesting of timber. - Suvendrini Kakuchi (Oct 26, '11)

Buyers spot ray of light for Olympus
Shares in scandal-hit Olympus rose 8% in Tokyo, the first shaft of light since the stock crashed after the camera maker fired new chief executive Michael Woodford, accusing the Briton of ruining its credibility by exposing suspect payments that have prompted a US probe. The price of Woodford transgressing Japan's tight-knit business culture - US$4 billion. - Chris Stewart (Oct 25, '11)

BOOK REVIEW
Hidden eyes and ears
Spies for Nippon by Tony Matthews
Using recently declassified United States intercepts of World War II Japanese intelligence, this book offers a rare glimpse into how Tokyo ran diplomat spies in Axis-leaning "neutral" European capitals to track Allied troop movements across Asia and establish Latin American cells. Though lacking insight into individual spy operations, it holds compelling revelations on how cracking Japan's "Purple" code altered the war's course.
- George Amurao (Oct 14, '11)

INTERVIEW
Revisiting Japanese-American internment
Research by American historian Linda Goetz Holmes challenges notions that the United States' internment of Japanese and Japanese-Americans in camps after the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor was race-based and violated human rights. While the evacuation of Japanese residents from the US West Coast halted a stream of espionage, conditions in American "gulags" were incomparable to Japanese camps. - Victor Fic (Oct 12, '11)

Fighters duel for Japan air defense contract
As Japan nears decision time on a $4 billion contract for its next mainstay fighter jet, the stealth capabilities of Lockheed Martin's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter lend it an edge over Boeing's F/A-18E/F Super Hornet and BAE Systems' Eurofighter Typhoon. Pressure is growing on Tokyo's aging fleet as Russia and China increasingly exploit air-defense gaps. - Kosuke Takahashi (Oct 11, '11)

Tsunami clears way for solar-powered Japan
Claims for the safety and cost-effectiveness of nuclear power in Japan have been discredited. Other energy forms can be used for thousands of years without contaminating the Earth. A start could be made by building a "solar belt" on tsunami-wrecked land - and point to energy fit for the future. - Masayoshi Son (Sep 22, '11)

Pressure builds in Japan's nuclear divide
A leader of the anti-nuclear power movement that protested in Tokyo this week says it took the Fukushima disaster to awaken Japanese to the reality that power plants can be as deadly as atomic bombs. Satoshi Kamata agrees the high costs and upheaval demanded by a shift to renewable energy would be significant, but says Japan owes it to its future generations. - Daniel Leussink (Sep 20, '11)

Crouching dragon, rising sun
With the completion of its aircraft carrier, China's capacity to further up the ante in disputed East Asian waters has drastically increased. Japan's deep reach into the East China Sea, a capability to contribute to the security of Northeast Asia, and above all an increasingly predominant political role in the region, give Tokyo the power to be a natural counterweight to the growing influence of China. - Yong Kwon (Sep 6, '11)

Eels and the way ahead for Japan
New Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda - who has described himself as a bottom-feeding eel - is expected to press for safety and recovery from the Fukushima nuclear power disaster but not for turning back the clock on nuclear energy. If he could do that, it would be his ultimate success. - Donald Kirk (Sep 2, '11)

Another disposable leader for Japan?
Yoshihiko Noda, Japan's new premier, like his disposable predecessors, is the product of a political culture dominated by older men who patronize their junior subordinates. And, given his low profile and lack of public support, he won't last long either, especially as he will face the same problems that forced Naoto Kan to resign after 14 months. - Christopher Johnson (Aug 30, '11)

Another year, another premier in Japan
Yoshihiko Noda was elected president of the Democratic Party of Japan on Monday, paving the way for the finance minister to become the country's sixth prime minister in five years. Cynics have good cause to say Noda is just another new face in high office who, like his predecessor, is politically vulnerable, since the ruling party remains as bitterly divided as ever. - Purnendra Jain(Aug 29, '11)

BOOK REVIEW
War without end
Roads of Bones: The Epic Siege of Kohima 1944 by Fergal Keane
Almost forgotten, Kohima in the mountains of northeastern India was where British and British-Indian troops inflicted the Japanese Imperial Army's worst defeat and forced a retreat back into Burma (Myanmar). Keane's outstanding account of "Asia's Stalingrad" shows remarkable understanding of Japanese soldiers who fought and died, and has important contemporary value since it is often argued that in the hills of northern Myanmar and northeastern India, World War II never ended. - Bertil Lintner (Aug 26, '11)

Clean power opening for Japan
A public campaign in Japan to cut electricity consumption voluntarily to avoid brownouts linked to power plant closures following the Fukushima disaster is an opportunity to make promotion of clean energy national policy. - Suvendrini Kakuchi (Aug 22, '11)

What happened at Fukushima?
A key remaining question for Tokyo Electric Power Co and its regulators concerns how much damage the March 11 earthquake inflicted at the Fukushima nuclear plant before the tsunami hit. With the safety of 10 other reactors in Japan at stake, the answer is critically important. - David McNeill and Jake Adelstein (Aug 11, '11)

Japan at peace with China cash
Chinese funds are flooding into the Japanese securities markets, and finding a warm welcome, despite local antagonism towards Chinese themselves. It is a far cry from the defensive response of the United States when its businesses attract Asian interest. - Hussain Khan (Aug 4, '11)

Engineer dismantles facade
of Japan's nuclear industry
Nuclear engineer Koide Hiroaki has emerged at the forefront of Japan's nuclear power debate with scathing critiques of the industry, its fatal assumptions, and the huge waste in resources it attracts. How long a sentence should be meted out for the fraud involved? 100 years per official would about do it. - Koide Hiroaki (Aug 4, '11)

China drives up yen
Chinese surging demand for Japanese government bonds and equities, up US$173 billion last year alone, accounted for about 60% of Japan's current balance of payments surplus, and to a large extent is behind the strong appreciation of the Japanese currency. - Hussain Khan (Aug 1, '11

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