Japan's Princess Mako loses Royal status for marrying boyfriend

 

Japanese Princess Mako has quietly married a commoner without traditional wedding celebrations and said their marriage "was a necessary choice to live while cherishing our hearts."

There are only 17 people left in the Japanese royal family and only one of them, a 15 year old boy is in line to ascend the throne. You can thank Japan's Liberal Democratic Party for this. Following the second world war they pass a law that forbid female members of the family to take the throne. Because of their short sighted stupidity and misogyny they've helped to bring an end to Japan's royal family.

Japan's rising right-wing nationalism

Like many nations, Japan is undergoing a surge in right-wing nationalism, the brand of nationalism that is skeptical of globalization and outsiders. But while Japan's nationalism looks similar to other right-wing movements in the West, when you look under the surface, you see a totally different story.

'Fear' and 'favor' chill newsroom at Japan Times after 'forced WWII laborer,' 'comfort women' changes

With the assent of Donald Trump to the Oval Office, thus giving him an unimaginable bully pulpit allowing him to accelerate his attacks on journalists and the press.  With his unveiled criticisms it gave other world leaders the green light to follow his lead.  In Japan for example direct criticism is usually avoided. Yet, given the OK, political leaders in Japan began directly attacking what they considered the liberal press.  The focus of  their grievances was the Asahi Shinbun over their coverage of Japan's actions during World War especially in the areas of comfort women and forced labour. 

At the Japan Times, following the papers sale its editorial policy on these issues was changed and terms comfort women and forced labour were dropped. 

Early in December, dozens of journalists and editors from the Japan Times gathered for an emergency meeting in a glass-walled conference room in their brand-new 14th floor office.

On the agenda was a single, incendiary issue: the newspaper's new descriptions of how Japan compelled thousands of foreigners into military brothels and labour during World War Two.

In the past, the Japan Times described Korean workers as "forced laborers" and comfort women as those "forced to provide sex for Japanese troops before and during World War II."

But the five-sentence note published on Nov 30 said the country's oldest English-language paper would refer to Korean workers simply as "wartime laborers."

The paper also said that because of the varied experiences of comfort women, it would describe them as "women who worked in wartime brothels, including those who did so against their will."

Such terms are social flashpoints in Japan and a topic of bitter dispute with South Korea, whose government argues comfort women were clear victims of wartime abuse.

Japan Times Caves To Shinzo Abe

The Japan Times joins NHK, Asahi Shinbun and the Yomiuri Shinbun  in capitulating  to Japan's conservative Liberal Democratic party in reporting on the many controversial policies and war crimes committed by the imperial government and the imperial army.  Shinzo Abe Japan's current Prime Minister has worked diligently to alter how the Japan's war time history is portrayed.  From out right denial to historical revisionism.  Perhaps, that's due to his grandfather (His hero) former Prime Minister Kishi, who was a member of Tojo's wartime cabinet. Serving as Minister for Arms Procurement.  

At the bottom of an article the Japan Times published following a court decision on forced labour in Seoul which ruled in favour of the plaintiffs. 

In a decision that critics said aligned it with the conservative agenda of the prime minister, Shinzō Abe, the Japan Times said it had used terms “that could have been potentially misleading” when reporting on the contentious subjects.

It was the latest media row about how to define notorious parts of the country’s wartime record.

The Japan Times said: “The term ‘forced labour’ has been used to refer to labourers who were recruited before and during world war two to work for Japanese companies. However, because the conditions they worked under or how these workers were recruited varied, we will henceforth refer to them as ‘wartime labourers.’”

The explanation appeared at the foot of an article about the South Korean supreme court’s decision this week to order Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to compensate 10 former forced labourers. The ruling, and a similar decision last month, have soured ties between Tokyo and Seoul, with Japan’s foreign minister, Tarō Kōno, calling them “totally unacceptable”.

Don't Bother Seeking Asylum In Japan: You'll never Get It

If you come from a conflict zone or you're member of minority group persecuted by your government or its security services.

— Taro Aso (@Nishinasuno) May 4, 2017

Don't come to Japan seeking asylum the government will never grant it to you.

— Taro Aso (@Nishinasuno) May 4, 2017

Not welcome: Japan tough to crack for refugees

200 protest in Tokyo against APA Group over Nanjing Massacre book in hotels

When the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) regained power in December of 2012 it meant, not only the return of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe but his odd beliefs on history.   Abe like many of the LDP's members are historical revisionists and war crimes deniers.   This is especially true of Japan's military aggressions in the 1930's and the various war crimes committed during that time and through World War II.   For these men and women incidents like the Nanjing massacre,  comfort women and the execution of prisoners of war by the Imperial Army just didn't happen.  It's all part of a larger conspricy to undermine Japan.   That these beliefs persist into the 21 century is alarming.  Recently a Japanese hotel chain began placing  books written by the company's president in the rooms which deny the Nanjing massacre ever took place.

About 200 protesters marched through the streets of Tokyo’s Shinjuku district on Sunday carrying banners to protest a hotel chain under fire for books its president wrote denying the Nanjing Massacre in wartime China ever happened.
Tokyo-based hotel and real estate developer APA Group is at the centre of a furore over books by its founder and president, Toshio Motoya, which contain his revisionist views on history and are placed in every room of the company’s 400-plus APA Hotels.
Motoya, using the pen name Seiji Fuji, wrote of the Nanjing Massacre that “these acts were all said to be committed by the Japanese army, but this is not true.” He also denied stories of Korean women forced to work as prostitutes in wartime military brothels, the so-called “comfort women”.

Japan's Defense Minister Tomomi Inada Sent To Africa

Japan's new Defense Minister Tomomi Inada has been sent on an offical trip to Africa so as to prevent her from visiting Yasukuni shrine where 14 Class A War Criminals are buried.  She's a historical revisionist and war crimes denier.  

Japan’s new defense minister Tomomi Inada will visit Djibouti to encourage Self-Defense Forces members who are engaged in an antipiracy mission off Somalia, the Defense Ministry said Friday in announcing an itinerary including the day she has visited the war-related Yasukuni Shrine in past years.
Before taking up her cabinet post, Inada regularly visited the controversial Tokyo shrine on the Aug 15 anniversary of Japan’s surrender in World War II. She is to promote the SDF’s international contributions during her four-day trip from Saturday, including Monday’s anniversary.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is expected to continue his practice of the past several years, sending an offering to the shrine in lieu of a visit. He has sent the offerings in his capacity as president of the Liberal Democratic Party and not as prime minister.

Every year officials from the LDP visit the Yasukuni and it just angers the governments of East Asia  because it shows a lack of historical understanding of the countries of the region endured during Japan's occupation.

Japan's Defense Minister Tomomi Inada Is What I Said She Was: A War Crimes Denier

A couple days ago I wrote that Japan's new Defense Minister was a war crimes denier and she has proven to be just that.  When asked at a press conference about the Nanjing massacre she wouldn't answer the question.  Any other government minister or politician from Europe would have acknowledged what had taken place and stated it shouldn't happen again. But not Tomomi Inada who offered up this line of b.s.

   When repeatedly asked whether Japan's World War II actions were acts of aggression or self-defense, Inada said, "I'm not in a position to express my personal opinion here," according to The Japan Times. She added that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe or Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga are the only ones who should express the government's official views.Her comment that Japan's actions during the war "depends on one's point of view" has sparked anger from neighboring South Korea and China.
Inada has become known for her regular visits to Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine, which honors Japan's war dead, including World War II leaders who were convicted of war crimes by Allied war tribunals.

Shinzo Abe Picks Defense Minister Whose A Historical Denier Surprised? Don't Be

So, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has chosen as Defense Minister a person who like him and a majority of the Liberal Democratic Party's members are war crimes deniers,  historical revisionists and deniers of actual war time Japan's military history.  Every August Tomomi Inada travels to Yasukuni shrine  to pray for Japan's war dead. The fact that 14 class war criminals are also interred there seems to escape them.  Reactions from South Korea and China are quite predictable as might expect having suffered tremendously under Japanese military occupation.  

Party members like Tomomi Inada deny that the Nanjing massacre ever took place or that the imperial army had sex slaves and conducted unnecessary medical experiments on people of various nationalities and  prisoners of war.    The optics of these rather stupid positions seem to escape the LDP and its membership.

Tomomi Inada, a former reform minister who most recently held one of the top posts in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, replaced Gen Nakatani as defense minister. She's the second female to fill the post.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe changed more than half of the 19-member Cabinet in a bid to support his economic and security policies, as well as his push for a revision of Japan's postwar constitution.
While keeping the economy as the top priority for the Cabinet, Abe said he would do his "utmost to achieve the revision during his term," which ends in September 2018.
A lawyer-turned-lawmaker, Inada is one of Abe's favorites. She is a regular at Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine, which honors war dead including convicted war criminals, a gesture seen by neighbors as an endorsement of Japan's militaristic past.

Abe says it is his duty to revise constitution

Shinzo Abe and the Liberal Democratic Party gain a majority of seats in the recent upper house elections giving them, when including New Komeito and smaller nationalist parties a 2/3 majority. Abe's first turn as Prime Minister ended when he was forced to resign over his insistence of revising Japan's constitution to the detriment of other pressing issues facing the country.  Shinzo Abe and his allies think in the long term and now they may have achieved their long sought after goal. Restoring Japan to its pre World War II status as a major economic and military power.

Shinzo Abe is a member of a prominent Japanese political family his grandfather Nobusuke Kishi served as minister of munitions during World War II was arrested and briefly imprisoned, released and went on to become Prime Minister.  His views on the Second World War come through his grandfather a man he greatly admired.  Like many of his fellow travelers he believes history has distorted Japan's imperialist history starting with the occupation and annexation of Korea, the invasion of Manchuria and the rape of Nanjing to Japan's role in the war.  Never mind that many in his party and cabinet believe the rape of Nanjing never took place or that the imperial army never committed war crimes.  In 1974 a group of politicians and like minded supporters formed a group whose goal is to restore the dignity of  emperor and Japan following the humiliation of its defeat in World War II and the imposition of its pacifist constitution by the United States.  That group with  30,000 members is now called Nippon Kaigi.

      

Less than two days after winning that election Shinzo Abe has declared that the most import issue facing Japan isn't its declining birth rate, aging population or a struggling economy. No, the most important issue is the revision of the constitution. Thus restoring Japan's supposed loss of dignity and allow Japanese military forces to once again in engage in military adventurism.

An emboldened Shinzo Abe called Monday for debate on Japan’s pacifist constitution, which he said it was his “duty” to revise after scoring a strong win in weekend elections.

Voters backed the hawkish prime minister, despite a lacklustre economic performance, handing his Liberal Democratic Party and its allies control of more than half of the upper house of parliament.

Analysts say with the support of small nationalist parties, Abe may now have the numbers to push through a change to the constitutional bar on Japanese troops waging war.

“We have always set a goal of revising the constitution…that is my duty as president,” Abe said.

“But the party does not have more than two-thirds of seats in both chambers by itself, so I don’t expect the draft would pass as is,” he said, referring to the parliament’s lower house as well, and suggesting compromise was needed. “So I hope debate will steadily deepen.”

The Government of Shinzo Abe Is Working Hard To Silence Its Critics

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) have been using subtle threats to silence its media critics since their return to power in 2012.

Last week a member of Abe's cabinet had this to say about TV. broadcasters.

Japanese Internal Affairs and Communications Minister Sanae Takaichi has decided that the best way silence critics of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government is to rescind the licenses of TV. broadcasters.   

From June of last year

A friend of Shinzo Abe's Naoki Hyakuta and a former board  member of public broadcaster NHK suggested in a speech to Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) backbenchers that two Okinawan newspapers be forced to cease publication over their criticism of government policy concerning Okinawa and the U.S. bases there.

      The furor erupted on Thursday when novelist Naoki Hyakuta—a former NHK board member and close friend of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe—said during his lecture that the Okinawa Times and the Ryukyu Shimpo should be put out of business, Fuji TV reported. Other lawmakers present suggested the government put pressure on the Japan Business Federation to urge members not to advertise in the two Okinawan newspapers.

 On Friday in the Diet, opposition lawmakers questioned Abe. “Don’t you feel ashamed or sorry as the LDP leader? Is there anything you want to say about it?” asked lower house member Kiyomi Tsujimoto of the Social Democratic Party. Abe said that freedom of the press is a fundamental part of democracy and called the remarks regrettable, if that is what was actually said. However, he said it was not up to him to apologize but the speakers, because the attendees at the gathering were just putting forward their personal opinions.

From April of last year 

Shinzo Abe And The LDP Work To Stifle The Press And They're Succeeding

Recently their efforts have focused on individual reporters and commentators appearing on various news programs.

 It was an unexpected act of protest that shook Japan’s carefully managed media world: Shigeaki Koga, a regular television commentator and fierce critic of the political establishment, abruptly departed from the scripted conversation during a live TV news program to announce that this would be his last day on the show because, as he put it, network executives had succumbed to political pressure for his removal.
“I have suffered intense bashing by the prime minister’s office,” Mr. Koga told his visibly flabbergasted host late last month, saying he had been removed as commentator because of critical statements he had made about Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Later in the program, Mr. Koga held up a sign that read “I am not Abe,” a play on the slogan of solidarity for journalists slain in January at a French satirical newspaper.

Now there's this

Supporters of the three news broadcasters say prime minister had private dinners with top media executives before the departures

That is the fate that has befallen what could loosely be described as their counterparts in Japan – Ichiro Furutachi, Hiroko Kuniya and Shigetada Kishii – three respected broadcasters with a reputation for asking tough questions.

Their imminent departure from evening news programmes is not just a loss to their profession; critics say they were forced out as part of a crackdown on media dissent by an increasingly intolerant prime minister, Shinzo Abe, and his supporters.

As the host of Hodo Station, a popular evening news programme on TV Asahi, Ichiro Furutachi was at the centre of a row last spring over claims by one of the show’s regular pundits, Shigeaki Koga, that he had been forced to quit under pressure from government officials angered by his criticism of the Abe administration.

Shigetada Kishii, who appears on News 23 on the TBS network, angered government supporters last year after criticising security legislation pushed through parliament by Abe’s Liberal Democratic party (LDP).

Perhaps most striking of all is the departure of Kuniya, the veteran presenter of Close-up Gendai, a current affairs programme on public broadcaster NHK.

Her “crime” had been to irritate Yoshihide Suga, the chief cabinet secretary and a close Abe ally, with an unscripted follow-up question during a discussion about the security legislation.

Japanese soldiers could fight abroad again after security bill passed

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has finally achieved one of his political goals.  The restoration  of Japan's dignaty after having America under the ageis of General Douglas MacArthur, as he saw it force upon the Japanese people its pacifist constitution.   Article 9 of the constitution prevents Japan from sending its military forces outside the counrty to fight in foreign wars. Since the 1990's Abe's Liberal Democratic Party has sought a means by which the constitutuion could be amended.  Abe's first turn as Prime Minister ended when, during his one year in office his sole focus was the removal of article 9. He failed and was forced to resign.  

He staged a poitical comeback in 2012 becoming the first person to serve twice as Prime Minister.  That first year he consentratred on fixing Japan's moribound economy.  Abe still dreamt of allowing Japan to send its military overseas to fight in foreign wars.  In December 2014 he disolved parliament   and a snap election was held.  With the opposition parties still in disarray after their defeat in 2012 the Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner New Komeito won a super majority eboldening Abe and his desire to return Japan to its "glory" days.  Thus, the introduction of the security laws.  One little problem Abe never counted on: The people of Japan being overwhelminly against the legislation.  

Japan has passed controversial security bills that will allow the country’s troops to fight overseas for the first time since the second world war, despite widespread voter opposition and mass protests in central Tokyo.

MPs in the upper house of parliament passed the legislation in the early hours of Saturday morning Japanese time, following days of high political drama marked by scuffles, delaying tactics and fierce exchanges on the floor of the chamber.

The new laws effectively ease constitutional restraints on the country’s forces to allow them to exercise collective self-defence, or coming to the aid of an ally, even if Japan is not directly threatened.

The move, the biggest shift in the country’s defence posture since its wartime defeat in August 1945, prompted mass demonstrations and frantic attempts by the opposition MPs to delay the bills’ passage.

Editorial: We strongly oppose passage of government-backed security bills

September 16, 2015 (Mainichi Japan)

#StandWithAhmed

Does Prime Minister Shinzo Abe think he's a prophet? "The public's understanding and support toward the security bills will undoubtedly spread after the bills are enacted and time passes," he told the House of Councillors special committee on special legislation on Sept. 14.

Saying that "people will understand in time" while having provided no convincing counterarguments to the many objections that have been voiced against the bills demonstrates the great extent to which Abe, full of conceit, belittles the public.

The objections toward the bills are not temporary, nor are they purely emotional. They are based on the real fear of the possibility that common sense will be distorted and Japan's accomplishments over the years as a peaceful nation will be sabotaged.

Japan's national security policy is the result of a delicate balancing act between war-renouncing Article 9 of the Constitution and the Japan-U.S. security treaty. It has comprised the solid backbone of post-World War II Japan, born from a coexistence of deep remorse for a reckless war and the realistic need to protect the country.

Huge Protest Against Shinzo Abe's War Legislation

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe believed that the Japanese people would just accept his move to allow the Japanese Self Defense Force to operate overseas without a whimper.  He thought complacency was his friend.  Of course he was completely wrong.

Tens of thousands of protesters gathered near Japan's parliament building on Sunday to oppose legislation allowing the military to fight overseas, the latest sign of public mistrust in Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's security policy.   

In one of Japan's biggest protests in years - organizers put the crowd at 120,000 - people of all ages braved occasional rain to join the rally, chanting and holding up placards with slogans such as "No War" and "Abe, quit".

Demonstrators swarmed into the street before parliament's main gate after the crowd size made it impossible for police, out in heavy numbers, to keep them to the sidewalks. A second nearby park area also filled with protesters.

The rally was one of more than 300 this weekend in Japan protesting Abe's move to loosen the post-war, pacifist constitution's constraints on the military. 

Japan should stop apologising over war: poll

Japan should stop apologising for its war record, according to a majority of voters surveyed in a poll published Wednesday.

However, future generations should not be "pre-destined" to say sorry for Tokyo's wartime record, he added on Friday.

The poll published by Yomiuri newspaper found 63 percent of those surveyed agreed that Japan should refrain from saying sorry in future, while 27 percent said it should continue.

 The poll published by Yomiuri newspaper found 63 percent of those surveyed agreed that Japan should refrain from saying sorry in future, while 27 percent said it should continue.

What the writer of this article fails to state is that the Yomiuri Shinbun is a conservative publication which supports the policies of Shinzo Abe and the Liberal Democratic Party.  Is it any wonder that 63% of the polls respondents agreed with the question.

Further last year the Yomiuri Shinbun advocated for the closure of the Asahi Shinbun a liberal daily over a series of articles they had published in the 1990's dealing with the Japanese Imperial Armies use of sex slaves during World War II.   The Yomiuri Shinbun wasn't a lone actor in these efforts as other major conservative media organizations and outside pressure groups joined in the effort. 

Kobe air raid survivor in letter to PM Abe: 'You really have no idea what war is'

"Do people in elite positions not understand the sadness felt by average people who have suffered during times of war?"
Kobe resident Asako Zaii, 87, has found that her feelings regarding the security legislation passed by the Lower House on the afternoon of July 16 are almost unbearable.
"Mr. Abe, you really have no idea what war is, do you?" her letter asked pointedly.
Zaii's history -- what she refers to as her "real experience with war" -- involved relentless bombing during U.S. military air raids in March 1945, which instantaneously turned the city streets of Kobe into a sea of fire.
She was 17 years old at the time. Wrapping herself in a futon for protection against the fist-sized sparks of fire flying all around her, she ran to seek safety.
Her house, which was located near a new district in Kobe's busiest area, burned down -- reducing to ashes the chest of goods that her parents had prepared for her to take with her when she left home to marry.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry testifying before Congress about his time in Vietnam:

When he came home, he protested against the war, and in testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1971, famously asked: "How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?"

Shinzo Abe Get's His Sercurity Blanket: Japanes Public Totally Against It

Shinzo Abe's dream has come true.  At least as his delusional self see's it when the Lower House of the Japanese Parliament passed  legislation giving the government the right to send Japanese military forces into armed conflict in support of the United States.  This despite the Japanese public's opposition, constitutional scholars stating that the legislation as passed is in contravention of the Constitution's Article  9  which clearly states that Japanese military forces are prohibited from involvement in armed conflict outside of Japanese territory and that any revisions to the constitution requires a referendum to be voted on by those eligible.      None of which has taken place: Shinzo Abe and his ruling Liberal Democratic Party took these actions unilaterally.  

Abe's grandfather Prime Minister Kishi was forced to resign when he forced through similar legislation in 1960 which constitutes the current Japan-U.S. Security Treaty.  

China has warned Japan against “crippling regional peace and security” after the lower house of parliament in Tokyo passed bills to allow Japanese troops to fight abroad for the first time since the second world war.
The two bills were passed despite widespread popular opposition and questions over their constitutionality. Opposition parties staged a walkout in protest before the vote, while tens of thousands of protesters demonstrated outside parliament. But, with the governing Liberal Democratic party (LDP) controlling two-thirds of the seats, the outcome was never in doubt.
The legislation, part of a long-running bid by the prime minister, Shinzo Abe, to reinterpret Japan’s US-authored pacifist postwar constitution, now has to go before the upper house, where the LDP and its allies are also in the majority. It will have 60 days to vote but if the upper house rejects the bills, it can be overridden by the lower house. Opposition parties, deeply attached to the doctrine of collective self-defence, are planning legal challenges.

The Week That Was

 The Hair rises to the top.  In an amazing show of ignorance and racism The Hair has ascended to the top of the Republican Presidential national polls.  The Hair appeals to the lowest form of conservative voter, racists, homophobes, the anti immigrant, anti Muslim and the white privilege crowd.  Even with NBC, Univision and and other business partners dropping him like underwater basket weaving 101 it hasn't stopped The Hair from inflecting his racism on the masses at every turn.
 The Hair hit back at Univision by banning them from using his golf course in Florida located next to Univision headquarters.  I'm sure that left a mark.  He'll also be suing Macy's, NBC Universal and Univision. 



Hideo Onishi a member of Japan's Liberal Democratic Party was "reprimanded" by the LDP for voicing their actual feelings about a free press in a public forum.  The editors of the newspapers in question both published in Okinawa slammed Onishi for his asinine remarks.  Last year the LDP sent letters to all of Japan's media outlets "urging" fair coverage in the run up to December's general election. What that letter really meant: LDP policies must always been shown in favorable light.



While America trumpets about freedom of expression and the press the NSA seems to be quite busy not only spying on America's allies but trying to thwart the press in those countries as well.  The NSA's ire was directed at the German magazine Der Spiegel which was involved in the publication of the documents from former NSA contract worker Edward  Snowden.

America loves telling the rest of worlds countries just how screwed up they are. Especially authoritarian governments. Yet, here's America acting just like a second rate dictatorship.




One has to wonder just how obtuse Japanese politicians are?  These people live in, either a parallel universe or  another dimension.  What else explains the ultra stupidity behind nominating  23 sites in the country six of which are associated with forced or slave labour to be designated World Heritage sites by  UNESCO.   That's like nominating the Confederate States of America as a symbol of racial tolerance.  


North Korea is so secretive that most of its citizens have no idea its called North Korea has decided to crack down on the use of the internet by the 50 people who actually have access.  Talk about abject paranoia.  It's like Richard Nixon wiring the Oval Office so he can spy on himself or The East German government hiring half of the population to spy on the other half.  What's Kim Jong-un afraid of?  That given enough information the good citizens of North Korea might rise up and over throw his fat ass after learning they're being allowed to starve just so he can get fat.

The Week That Was

China which 2 years ago claimed 90% of the South China sea continues to assert its svoengerty.  It's latest argument is that the feelings of its ancestors who died 1,000 years ago would be hurt. How, would  people who've been dead for 1,000 years ever know?


While the United States has finally started to confront the meaning of the Confederate Battle Flag of Northern Virginia another country has a flag problem.  Japan continues to use the Rising Sun flag even though many in Asia associate it with the war crimes committed by the Japanese Imperial Army.  Given the the historical pretzel hole the Liberal Democratic Party have twisted themselves into  don't think for a moment  these fools are ever going to change their minds.

There's a new sex symbol in Japan, no it's not the usual symbol.  So, why has this sex symbol drawn such a large following of women when he's not exactly a man of your dreams.  Is it his smoldering good looks,  his large physical presence or those eyes?  Who knows?  But, he certainly has a large following.

LDP comes under fire over anti-newspaper comments

A friend of Shinzo Abe's Naoki Hyakuta and former member public broadcaster NHK suggested in a speech to Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) backbenchers that two Okinawan newspapers be forced to cease publication over their criticism of government policy concerning Okinawa and the U.S. bases there.

      The furor erupted on Thursday when novelist Naoki Hyakuta—a former NHK board member and close friend of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe—said during his lecture that the Okinawa Times and the Ryukyu Shimpo should be put out of business, Fuji TV reported. Other lawmakers present suggested the government put pressure on the Japan Business Federation to urge members not to advertise in the two Okinawan newspapers.

 On Friday in the Diet, opposition lawmakers questioned Abe. “Don’t you feel ashamed or sorry as the LDP leader? Is there anything you want to say about it?” asked lower house member Kiyomi Tsujimoto of the Social Democratic Party. Abe said that freedom of the press is a fundamental part of democracy and called the remarks regrettable, if that is what was actually said. However, he said it was not up to him to apologize but the speakers, because the attendees at the gathering were just putting forward their personal opinions.

That's rich coming from group of people who have done this.

8,700 Japanese consrvative wingnuts have filed suit agianst the Asahi Shinbun over a series of articles published in the 1980's and 1990's about Confort Women which is just a substitute for forced prostitution   by the Japanese Imprial army.   

The 18 articles were formally retracted last year. 

According to the suit filed with the Tokyo District Court, the plaintiffs, including researchers, journalists and lawmakers, demanded that ¥10,000 in compensation be paid to each person, arguing the major daily “damaged Japanese people’s personal rights and honor.” 

It also demands the paper run an ad to apologize for “spreading erroneous facts to international society.”
The left-leaning daily withdrew the 18 stories last August because they focused on a man named Seiji Yoshida, who claimed to have participated in rounding up females for use as sex slaves by the Japanese military.

 

Of course the LDP loves a free press

Shinzo Abe And The LDP Work To Stifle The Press And They're Suceeding

The Japanese government under the leadership of Shinzo Abe and the Liberal Democratic Party have since returning to power in December of 2012 worked hard to marginalized, intimidate and quash any voice which is critical of the ruling party.   Members of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) are about half a step from being out right authoritarian.

When Abe appointed the new director of NHK Japan's national public broadcaster (paraphrasing here) he stated that the broadcaster wouldn't stray from the government line.  NHK is supposed to be neutral, giving all sides a place to voice their agreement or disagreement with government policy.  By coming straight out and articulating a policy that parrots the governments NHK can no longer be seen as objective observer of the news or government policy.


NHK hasn't been the only target of the government the Asahi Shinbun has been on the receiving end of an endless string of abuse from the government and more than 8,000 right wing activists  who have sued the newspaper over a series of articles they published in the 1980's and 90's about Comfort Women.

The 18 articles were formally retracted last year. 

According to the suit filed with the Tokyo District Court, the plaintiffs, including researchers, journalists and lawmakers, demanded that ¥10,000 in compensation be paid to each person, arguing the major daily “damaged Japanese people’s personal rights and honor.” 

It also demands the paper run an ad to apologize for “spreading erroneous facts to international society.”
The left-leaning daily withdrew the 18 stories last August because they focused on a man named Seiji Yoshida, who claimed to have participated in rounding up females for use as sex slaves by the Japanese military.