Japan needs a thread too

[Monoriu]

Evangeline AK McDowell in Negima.  A 700 year old female vampire who is stuck with the body of a 10 year old forever. 

Is she considered a child or not?   

[The Brain]

Evangeline AK McDowell in Negima.  A 700 year old female vampire who is stuck with the body of a 10 year old forever. 

Is she considered a child or not?   

Is she a real person?

[Monoriu]

Evangeline AK McDowell in Negima.  A 700 year old female vampire who is stuck with the body of a 10 year old forever. 

Is she considered a child or not?   

Is she a real person?

Of course not 

[The Brain]

Evangeline AK McDowell in Negima.  A 700 year old female vampire who is stuck with the body of a 10 year old forever. 

Is she considered a child or not?   

Is she a real person?

Of course not 

OK.

[Josquius]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-31129817

A hacker who hijacked computers to make death threats has been jailed for eight years.

Yusuke Katayama played a game of cat and mouse with the authorities, leading them to make numerous wrongful arrests.

He threatened a massacre at a comic book event, as well as to attack a school attended by the grandchildren of Japan's Emperor Akihito.

Katayama's campaign highlighted the difficulties the country's police force has had in dealing with cyber crime.

"He committed the crime, and the purpose of it was [for police] to make wrongful arrests," said presiding judge Katsunori Ohno at Tokyo District Court, adding that Katayama's actions had been "vicious".

Riddles
Throughout 2012, the 32-year-old used a virus to gain control of strangers' computers. He then issued threats - which appeared to come from the computer's owner - and a series of riddles that captured the attention of the national media.

Among the other threats made by Katayama - who went by the alias Demon Killer - was one to attack a plane.

The case highlighted the Japanese police's tendency to extract confessions from suspects, as four people owned up to crimes which the National Police Agency (NPA) later admitted they did not commit.

Computers belonging to each had been infected with a Trojan Horse virus, introduced via a link on the popular Japanese chat forum 2channel.

The NPA's chief apologised, acknowledging his force had been tricked by the hacker, and promising his cyber crime unit would improve.

Reward
Police held one falsely suspected person for several weeks before media and a cyber crime expert received anonymous messages containing information that investigators conceded could only have been known by the real culprit.

Katayama had taunted police in emails that sent them all over Japan.

In one message, investigators were told to go to Enoshima, an island off Tokyo, and to look for a cat that turned out to be wearing a collar on which was a memory card.

The card held details of the code and malicious program he had used to gain remote control of victim's computers.

In December 2012, the police offered a 3m yen (£16,822) reward for information leading to the arrest of the culprit.

But it was the cat that led police to arrest Katayama in February 2013, who was seen on CCTV footage with the animal.

On the one hand this makes me laugh. Quite cool, like something from a comic.
On the other hand it really underlines something fucked up in Japan, I've read a lot of stories about this one; the vast majority of criminal cases are settled with confessions that the police try to achieve by all sorts of underhand means, including borderline torture.

[jimmy olsen]

Long live the Emperor. 

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/02/26/opinion/japan-crown-prince-ww2-comments/index.html

Coded rebuke as Japan's crown prince says: Remember war 'correctly'

By Jeff Kingston, Special for CNN
Updated 0124 GMT (0924 HKT) February 27, 2015

Jeff Kingston is Director of Asian Studies, Temple University Japan and author of "Nationalism in Asia Since 1945" (Wiley-Blackwell, forthcoming later in 2015)

Tokyo (CNN)Japanese Crown Prince Naruhito celebrated his 55th birthday by weighing in on the current controversies swirling around Japan's wartime past.

At a news conference on February 23rd, Naruhito stated, "I myself did not experience the war... but I think that it is important today, when memories of the war are fading, to look back humbly on the past and correctly pass on the tragic experiences and history Japan pursued from the generation which experienced the war to those without direct knowledge."

His remarks might seem unobjectionable, but in the oblique and abstract lexicon of the Imperial Household Agency, he has fired shots across the bow of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his fellow revisionists.

Diplomatic silence broken
The Imperial Household almost never strays into political affairs due to constitutional constraints, but Emperor Akihito has on occasion stretched his tether to its limits, and when he has done so it has always been to repudiate right-wingers who prefer to think they are acting in his name.


It appears that his son is letting it be known that the Imperial Household remains steadfast on the issue of war responsibility, following up his father's similar rebuke at the beginning of January.

Prince Naruhito's remarks were in response to a question regarding the 70th anniversary of the end of WWII in August this year, and comes amid feverish speculation about what Abe intends to include and exclude from his pending statement on that occasion.

So when the prince talks about the need for humility and correctness in assessing wartime Japan, and passing on the lessons of that tragedy to future generations, many Japanese understand his ineffable message calling on Abe to tread carefully.

It is for us pundits to say what he can't: "Humbly" means not glorifying this inglorious past, while "correctly" means not ignoring all the evidence of Japanese aggression and war crimes.

Examining the past
Future generations, in his view, deserve to understand all that went wrong instead of the chest-thumping, valorizing revisionist history favored by the reactionaries who hold political power in Japan.

Given Abe's woeful track record on history, this pointed reminder is useful and also demonstrates that Naruhito is ready to take on a bigger role when it is time to do so, and that he plans to continue Emperor Akihito's reconciliation activism.

Recently, tabloid conservatives questioned whether he was up to the job so this may be a riposte to his critics. The problem about interpreting the utterances of Japan's royals is that bureaucrats vet everything they say, and the wording of statements is intentionally ambiguous to provide plausible deniability.

The deliberately veiled vagueness, however, cannot disguise the symbolism of the royals expressing their unease about wartime history two months in a row precisely at a time when Abe is under intensified scrutiny. This unprecedented double rebuke is not a coincidence.

Ironically, they both obliquely censure military aggression during the reign of Emperor Hirohito, Naruhito's grandfather, while Abe frequently invokes his own grandfather, Nobusuke Kishi, as an inspiration.

This is jarring given that Kishi was a "Class A" war crimes suspect -- although never indicted or even tried -- for his record of mobilizing forced labor in Manchuria and prominent role as Minister of Munitions from 1941-45.

PM's upcoming statement on the war
Abe recently appointed a committee of advisers to provide input on his 70th anniversary statement. Their views won't really matter, but it is politically useful that Abe is at least going through the motions of asking the opinion of other eminent people even though none of them is remotely likely to challenge his revisionist views.

The Japanese media is riveted by Abe's vacillating remarks regarding the content of the forthcoming statement because the implications are potentially explosive for regional relations. Beijing and Seoul will carefully scrutinize his words for any sign of backsliding on war responsibility and expressions of remorse.

Washington has also made it clear that Abe will undermine U.S. relations if he doesn't come clean on war guilt.

Abe thus faces tremendous international pressure to swallow his deeply felt views on the wartime issue, but domestic opinion is more divided.

Nationalist resurgence
Under Abe there has been a resurgence of jingoistic nationalism -- rightwing extremists have become emboldened, attacking the liberal press, threatening journalists and academics, and engaging in hate speech targeting Japan's ethnic Korean minority.

They have done so with virtual impunity. Abe's core constituencies are eager to see him redeem the unredeemable and members of reactionary groups such as Nippon Kaigi (dubbed Japan's Tea Party) and the Association of Shinto Shrines dominate his cabinet, and share his views on history and shaking off the shackles of the past.

In defiance of majority public opinion, they also support his security agenda of boosting defense cooperation with the U.S. and eliminating constitutional curbs on Japan's military forces.

The gathering forces of darkness apparent in Abe's Japan are troubling to the nation's friends and allies because they are incrementally eroding the foundations of liberal democracy.

Moral support
Against this backdrop, Japan's besieged liberals welcome the moral support given by Emperor Akihito and Crown Prince Naruhito. But will the royal reproaches matter?

Since the 1995 Murayama Statement commemorating the 50th anniversary of WWII's end, all Japanese leaders have dutifully repeated then-Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama's heartfelt apology and expression of remorse. This statement has thus become a benchmark against which the Abe Statement will be judged.

Murayama, 89, recently reassured South Korean leaders that Abe would uphold his statement, but doubts linger because Abe has been evasive and waffling about what he plans to say. He has said he will generally uphold the statement, but this provides room for caveats and ellipses.

It is precisely his disputing of the historical details that lands Abe in hot water as he questions what the term aggression means, quibbles about the level of coercion used in recruiting comfort women and in January expressed outrage about what he deems inaccurate accounts of the comfort women in a U.S. history textbook.

The Imperial Household understands that Abe risks undermining Japan's dignity and isolating it from neighbors and allies. By expressing their concerns about war memory, both royals seek to steer Japan back onto the course of reconciliation and a brighter future.

In doing so they provide political cover for Abe to disappoint his jingoistic supporters and make the right call on the past.

[mongers]

Good for him, that seems very much what a member of any historic dynasty should be commenting on. And he did it in a subtle but effective way.

[grumbler]

Long live the Emperor. 

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/02/26/opinion/japan-crown-prince-ww2-comments/index.html

So you are saying that you want to defer Naruhito's rise to the throne as long as possible?  That seems odd, given the article.

[Monoriu]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ViwSeuWVfE

Live demonstration on how to make a fried dumpling in 3 seconds. 

The video is hilarious on another level for HKers, because the song played during the "cooking" process is actually sung in Cantonese!  The way the song is performed and the lyrics are wacky to the extreme.  The melody is a bit similar to the theme of regular police anti-crime programme, the singer uses a comedic and melodramatic tone, the lyrics are like "add more herbs to get better taste!  Garlic smells great!  Through the fire!  CHARGE..."

[Syt]

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/09/world/in-a-test-of-wills-japanese-fighter-pilots-confront-chinese.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&smid=fb-nytimes&bicmst=1409232722000&bicmet=1419773522000&smtyp=aut&bicmp=AD&bicmlukp=WT.mc_id&_r=0

In a Test of Wills, Japanese Fighter Pilots Confront Chinese

NAHA, Japan — Once a sleepy, sun-soaked backwater, this air base on the southern island of Okinawa has become the forefront of a dangerous test of wills between two of Asia's largest powers, Japan and China.

At least once every day, Japanese F-15 fighter jets roar down the runway, scrambling to intercept foreign aircraft, mostly from China. The Japanese pilots say they usually face lumbering reconnaissance planes that cruise along the edge of Japanese-claimed airspace before turning home. But sometimes — exactly how often is classified — they face nimbler Chinese fighter jets in knuckle-whitening tests of piloting skills, and self-control.

"Intercepting fighters is always more nerve-racking," said Lt. Col. Hiroyuki Uemura, squadron commander of the approximately 20 F-15 fighters stationed here at Naha Air Base. "We hold our ground, but we don't provoke."

The high-velocity encounters over the East China Sea have made the skies above these strategic waters some of the tensest in the region, unnerving Pentagon planners concerned that a slip-up could cause a war with the potential to drag in the United States. Japan's refusal to back down over months of consistent challenges also represents a rare display of military spine by this long-dovish nation, and one that underscores just how far the rise of China and its forceful campaign to control nearby seas has pushed Japan out of its pacifist shell.

Under its nationalistic prime minister, Shinzo Abe, Japan has embarked on the most sweeping overhaul of its defense posture in recent memory. Not only has Mr. Abe reversed a decade-long decline in military spending as part of what he calls "proactive pacifism," but his government is also rewriting laws to lift restrictions on Japan's armed forces, which are already taking a more active role as far afield as the Gulf of Aden.

It was, in fact, a speech by Mr. Abe that included tough statements on the Islamic State and an aid package to fight extremism that the militants cited as the reason they beheaded two Japanese hostages in January. Videos showing the men's bodies, posted online, gained Mr. Abe some traction for his notion that Japan must be more prepared to take on those who mean it harm.

At the heart of Mr. Abe's strategy is a drive to create a more public profile for Japan's military, the Self-Defense Forces, which have been strictly limited to defending the Japanese homeland since their creation in 1954, and which for decades afterward were barely acknowledged by a public leery of anything resembling Japan's World War II era militarism. Although Mr. Abe still does not have enough public support for his long-stated goal of constitutional changes to permit Japan a full-fledged military, he is pushing Japan's purely defensive armed forces into an unfamiliar role as the standard-bearer of a more assertive foreign policy, and a deterrent against a modernizing Chinese military.

"Japan is saying, 'Uh-oh, maybe with a rising China we have to start thinking differently,' " said Sheila A. Smith, senior fellow for Japan studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington. "For the first time since World War II, Japan is finding itself on the front line. And for the first time, it has to ask itself, what does an independent defense plan look like?"

Rebuilt after Japan's defeat in 1945 at the encouragement of the United States, the country's technologically advanced military took a secondary role to American forces, helping patrol strategic sea lanes in the face of a Cold War-era Soviet threat. The Self-Defense Forces' role has expanded over the decades — Japan sent 1,000 noncombat support troops to Iraq in 2004, its biggest overseas deployment since World War II — even though the country still bars itself from possessing offensive weapons like cruise missiles considered necessary to launch full-blown attacks.

With a quarter of a million uniformed personnel, Japan has slowly built up a military larger than that of other midlevel powers like France or Israel, though still far smaller than the 2.3 million-strong People's Liberation Army in China.

Just how far the Self-Defense Forces have come is evident here in the islands of Okinawa, where Japan's armed forces have been assigned a more demanding — and publicly visible — mission.

The Naha base is just a 20-minute flight by fighter jet from disputed islands that Japan controls, but China claims as its own. The islands, known as the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in China, have provided the kindling for smoldering resentment between the countries.

As China has stepped up the pressure in recent years by sending more planes and ships to patrol the islands, Japan has scrambled jets to shadow potential intruders and deployed advanced E-2 radar planes with huge dishes mounted on top to keep tabs on the Chinese while it builds a radar station on nearby Yonaguni island, Japan's first new base in decades.

The tug-of-war over the islands is a proxy for a much larger battle over the shifting power balance in Asia, where China has begun to overturn the century-long supremacy of Japan, its ancient rival. Chinese military planners have called the Okinawan islands, including the disputed ones, part of China's "first island chain" of defense, meaning that they hope to eventually control the waters west of Japan where the United States and Japan have long held sway.

While low-growth Japan is aware that it cannot match China's rapidly expanding military spending, it is trying to position its Self-Defense Forces to thwart China from trying to snatch the disputed islands, as well as to deter any designs on other Japanese-held islands. The legal changes Mr. Abe's government is working on would further free the military to come to the aid of an ally under attack, part of a broader strategy to turn Japan into a fuller military partner of the United States to try to ensure that Washington will come to Tokyo's aid if fighting breaks out over the islands.

Defense analysts and American commanders agree that Japan's strongest asset is its Maritime Self-Defense Force, or MSDF, widely regarded as the world's second-most capable navy after the United States's. With a tradition dating back to Japan's formidable wartime fleet, and top hardware like the Aegis radar system, the Japanese have the only naval force, except perhaps Britain's, with the ability to work so fully and seamlessly with the United States fleet, American commanders say. Japanese and American warships. As the huge American aircraft carrier George Washington launched F-18 jets, its closest escort was the Japanese guided-missile destroyer Kirishima. For the first time during such a complex exercise, a Japanese admiral was in charge of both navies' defense against simulated seaborne attacks.

This was apparent during naval war games in November involving almost 30 Japanese and American warships. As the huge American aircraft carrier George Washington launched F-18 jets, its closest escort was the Japanese guided-missile destroyer Kirishima. For the first time during such a complex exercise, a Japanese admiral was in charge of both navies' defense against simulated seaborne attacks.

"The MSDF is the most capable maritime ally that we have," said Vice Adm. Robert L. Thomas Jr., commander of the Japan-based Seventh Fleet.

While China's navy added its first aircraft carrier in 2012, defense analysts say Japan still enjoys a decades-wide advantage not only in technology but also in experience operating large warships. Japan has more of these larger, blue-water vessels like destroyers, and some of the world's stealthiest submarines.

Last year, Japan launched its largest warship since World War II, the Izumo, a small aircraft carrier capable of carrying vertical-takeoff jets. The Izumo is part of a more mobile military that Japan is building to defend its far-flung islands to the south, including the contested ones — with or without the United States, if necessary.

Still, analysts say, time is on China's side, as its economic growth rates allow ever larger military budgets. While Japan's defense budget rose 2.8 percent to a record 4.98 trillion yen, or $42 billion in 2015, China announced on Thursday that its own military spending would jump 10.1 percent in the same year, to an estimated $145 billion.

"The more the U.S. and Japan will do, the more China will do," Shen Dingli, associate dean of the Institute for International Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai, wrote in an email.

Here at the Naha Air Base, the Japanese pilots said they tried to keep their edge with constant training. On a recent morning, they sent up a pair of F-15s to respond to a simulated intrusion, played by three other F-15s.

A growing number of Chinese aircraft over the East China Sea is also keeping Naha busy, so much so that the base plans to add a second F-15 squadron this year. In a nine-month period ending last December, its pilots scrambled 379 times to intercept foreign aircraft — a sixfold jump from those same months in 2010.

"Every year, China's operational capabilities seem to be rising," said the Naha base commander, Maj. Gen. Yasuhiko Suzuki. "Every year, our level of anxiety rises along with them."

[grumbler]

Yet another writer who doesn't know the meaning of big words like "unnerving," but uses them anyway.

[CountDeMoney]

Yet another writer who doesn't know the meaning of big words like "unnerving," but uses them anyway.

"Intercepting fighters is always more nerve-racking," said Lt. Col. Hiroyuki Uemura,

MAH NERVE SHELVING