Random Japan

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YEAH, THANKS FOR THAT…

At a ceremony in Boston, the president of the Japan-America Society of New Hampshire was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette. The honor was in recognition of the man’s efforts to promote “friendly Japan-US relations by raising awareness of the 1905 Treaty of Portsmouth,” whatever that is.

Reassuring absolutely no one, newly installed Defense Minister Yasuo Ichikawa labeled himself an “amateur” when it comes to national security issues.

Meanwhile, the new justice minister “expressed reluctance” about enforcing the death penalty.

An advisory council reporting to the culture minister recommended that Japan nominate Mt Fuji and the city of Kamakura as UNESCO World Heritage sites.

One year after the Akatsuki planetary probe failed in its attempt to enter the orbit of Venus, JAXA says the spacecraft may be capable of making another try in 2015.

Stats

47

Percentage of Japanese in 2005 who said they approve of the US military presence in Japan, according to an AP-GfK poll

57

Percent of Japanese who say they approve in 2011, according to the same pollsters

600

Number of eruptions detected on Mt. Sakurajima in Kagoshima Prefecture so far this year

IN HOT WATER

It was reported that, one year after a Chinese fishing boat collided with two Japanese Coast Guard ships near the disputed Senkaku Islands, authorities in Beijing have prohibited the captain of the boat “from ever going back to sea.”

That incident may be a motivating factor behind the recent agreement between Japan and China to establish a “a maritime information liaison system.”

At the same time, China’s agriculture ministry has dispatched three ships to the waters around the disputed Paracel islands in the South China Sea to “protect [its] sea sovereignty and fishery interests.”

Sentence of the Week: “South Korea’s Constitutional Court ruled Tuesday that it is unconstitutional for the South Korean government to make no specific effort to resolve a dispute with Japan over its refusal to directly compensate women for their sexual enslavement during Japan’s 1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.” (via Kyodo)

Just What The World Needs

More Nuclear reactors

Its Real

It Just Seems Fake

Plenty Of Questions  

But No Answers  

Daughter receives letter from mom who died March 11



BY KAZUHISA KUROKAWA STAFF WRITER

WATARI, Miyagi Prefecture–On Sept. 18, 8-year-old Nozomi Ono received an unexpected and poignant letter, written by her mother, Yumiko, who was swept away by the tsunami caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake.

Using mainly hiragana characters so even an elementary school child could read it, Yumiko wrote, “The day after the school entrance ceremony you walked by yourself to school. At night you were so tired you went to sleep without eating dinner. When we tried to wake you, you were in a bad mood. You made such a fit that we could not do anything.”

However, Yumiko went on to write, “I felt very at ease when you would go off to school in a healthy way.”