When is a kid getting a bloody nose after being hit by a golf ball a newsworthy event? When the child is Japanese and the golfer a US service member stationed in Japan.
HT to ROKdrop.
The whole story was a little weird in the first place. It just got weirder. There actually appears to be some history behind it and the story is a bit more complex then one would think off hand.
It turns out that Tak Kyung-hyun’s Japanese name is Fumihiro Mitsuyama and he’s the subject of [...]
For those of you who don’t know, yes there were in fact Korean Kamikaze pilots during WWII. There were in fact 18 confirmed and probably more.
The actress Fukumi Kuroda is leading the charge (and footing most of the bill) to set-up a monument to Kamikaze pilot Tak Kyung-hyun in his hometown of Sacheon. It’s actually been built, it [...]
And for something completely different, we have this piece of culturally insensitive, NSFW fun. Note the expression on the face of the girl to the left.
(HT to reader)
Today’s Washington Posts asks if the new LMB administration will really put its food aid where its mouth is and choose principle over hunger in the North.
Does President Lee withhold food aid that may prop up the government of the North or will he help avert a possible humanitarian crisis? Choices.. choices…
Whereas some may [...]
A reputed Japanese right-wing extremist shot himself in the head in front of the Japanese Diet in Tokyo, reports FOX:
The man, who was not immediately identified by police and appeared to be in his 60s, died at a hospital shortly after the shooting. He bore a protest letter to Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda calling for [...]
In Japan Focus, there’s an extract from Arudou Debito and Higuchi Akira newly released book, Handbook for Newcomers, Migrants, and Immigrants to Japan.
Give it a look.
(HT to reader)
If you ever needed proof that great minds think alike, Joshua at One Free Korea and I both used Monty Python references in pieces published yesterday about the ongoing (and ongoing and….) talks on NK nukes.
Joshua invokes the Dead Parrot Sketch when pointing out part of the problem with the six party talks and the Geneva sideshow in [...]
Nations have no permanent friends or allies, they only have permanent interests:
President Lee Myung-bak on Tuesday called for a pragmatic diplomacy to maximize the national interest, adding, “I don’t agree with such concepts as pro-American or pro-Chinese policy.”
Lee made the remarks to Foreign Ministry officials at a ministry policy briefing. “If their national interests are [...]
Be sure to check out Brendan Eagan (and Co.?)’s photo-documentary on Japan’s Kakure Kirishitan (Hidden Christian) culture. From the website:
The purpose of this site is to provide a visual record of our studies of Kakure Kirishitan (Hidden Christians) in Japan. The site will display the photographs of artifacts, places, and people that put Kakure [...]
As a Japanese pin-up model’s court case proves, large breasts are more than just nice to look at.
A group of Japanese lawmakers are interested in building a railway tunnel from Japan to South Korea. The could connect Tokyo to London by rail, some time in the future.
This might actually be more feasible and useful than a canal that uses currently non-existent ship elevators and imposes unwanted hardships upon the local ecology.
Seoul has apparently decided to take corrective measures — finally — to stop dumping waste in Japanese waters.
This church in Mokpo look a tad funny? There’s a reason — built in the early 1930s, it was originally a Japanese Buddhist temple. In fact, it’s one of not-even-a-handful of examples of colonial Japanese Buddhist architecture left in Korea (another in Gunsan’s Dongguk-sa, which still functions as a Buddhist temple).
Japan has lodged a protest against Moscow, accusing a Russian Tu-95 bomber of violating Japanese airspace south of Tokyo.
The Japanese responded to the alleged incursion by scrambling 24 planes, including F-15s and an E-767 AWACS.
The Russians, meanwhile, deny that their planes violated Japanese airspace.
The fun continues — check out the videos over at Japundit.
Osaka has a new governor, 38-year-old Toru Hashimoto, a young man who can apparently think outside the box about foreign aid:
The young governor, though, has one characteristic important to politicians: the ability to turn a phrase. Among his gems is the opining that Japanese men who hire Chinese prostitutes are “providing a kind of Overseas [...]
The KT reports that the “Japanese Wave” is taking root in Korea, and among the hit cultural items is natto. Which, I’ve got to say, I can’t stomach. Cheonggukjang? OK, it smells like a rotting corpse, but it’s yummy. But natto? I guess it’s an acquired taste.
As GI Korea says, this is the weirdest defense in a rape case I’ve ever heard.
The Joongang is reporting that the Japanese government had made detailed maps of Dodko(pic below), and that the Korean government isn’t doing anything about the matter.
According to the Joongnag, the Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport used the ALOS(Advanced Land Observation Satellite) and American satellite data to survey Dokdo and produce detailed 1/25,000 scale maps of [...]
Korea News via Google