JAPAN: Okada does not rule out introduction of nuclear weapons in emergency

Mar 16 11:21 PM US/Eastern

TOKYO, March 17 (AP) - (Kyodo)—Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada on Wednesday did not rule out the possibility that nuclear weapons may be brought into Japan by U.S. forces in a defense emergency in the future, while reiterating that the current government would stick to Japan's three non-nuclear principles.

"In a case in which Japan's security cannot be protected unless we accept temporary port calls by U.S. ships carrying nuclear weapons, the government at that time would make a decision even if it may affect its political fortunes," Okada told a parliamentary committee.

The issue of introduction of nuclear weapons into Japan has drawn renewed attention after a recent investigation conducted by a Foreign Ministry panel acknowledged that "a tacit agreement" was reached between Japan and the United States in the Cold War era which led Tokyo to allow U.S. nuclear-armed vessels to visit Japanese ports.

The move revealed that Japan's non-nuclear principles of not possessing, producing or allowing nuclear weapons on its territory were a mere facade.

But in 1991, after the Cold War ended, U.S. President George W. Bush announced he would withdraw tactical nuclear weapons from U.S. vessels, making the secret pact with Japan obsolete.

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JAPAN: Hatoyama 'seriously reflecting' on role of money in politics, says reforms coming

March 17, 2010

(Mainichi Japan)

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said Tuesday that he is "seriously reflecting" on the relationship between politics and money, an issue that has dogged his administration in its first six months in power, and suggested political funding reforms are on the way.

Talking about the priorities for the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ)-led government as it moves past the half-year mark, Hatoyama said he hopes "to complete the program of government reform and eliminating government waste."

At the beginning of his comments to the media at his office, the prime minister reflected on the money scandals which have tainted his fledgling government, saying,

"We have been scolded severely by the people for not changing (politics), and over the problem of the role of money in politics. They demand that we fulfill our responsibilities and provide a proper explanation.

"I want to speed up political reforms such as the prohibition of donations from business organizations and defining the status of politicians' private secretaries in cooperation with all parties, and present an answer on these issues (to the people)," Hatoyama continued, suggesting that reforms to the Political Funds Control Law are forthcoming.

Click here for the original Japanese story

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JAPAN: Tokyo rediscovers long-forgotten waterways

The Nihonbashi bridge and the river it spans are overshadowed by a Tokyo Metropolitan Expressway overpass. (DAISUKE TSUJIOKA)

2010/03/17

BY DAISUKE TSUJIOKA THE ASAHI SHIMBUN

The custodians of the grand canals in Venice and the colorful floating markets in Bangkok need not worry about their status just yet, but in Tokyo a group of concerned citizens is convinced it can transform the city's sludge-clogged waterways into a magnet for tourism.

The hubbub on the capital's rivers and canals was once one of its most celebrated sights.

During the Edo Period (1603-1867), boats carried people and goods on an intricate water system that was the equal of any in the world.

The late Edo Period chronicle "Yureki Zakki" marveled at the sheer density of the traffic: "Boats paddling away, floating by leisurely, others mooring, it is impossible to see the river surface."

But decades of modernization have left many of the city's waterways filthy and neglected.

Most canals no longer serve the logistical purposes for which they were built. Many were filled in to create a network of roads.

The rivers that once carried the lifeblood of the city are often completely overshadowed by the elevated highways that resulted from a construction spree that preceded Tokyo's hosting of the Olympic Games in 1964.

Boat traffic has been reduced to a trickle, rendering the craft little more than eyesores.

Nowhere is the decline of the capital's water system more dramatic than at Nihonbashi bridge in Chuo Ward at the heart of the city.

The first Nihonbashi bridge, a steeply arched wooden span made famous in numerous woodblock prints, was built around the time the warlord Tokugawa Ieyasu established the Edo Shogunate in 1603. It became closely associated with that long running dynasty.

The bridge was the symbolic center not just of the Edo capital's transport system but also the transport system of the entire nation.

All distances along Japan's five main land routes, including the vital Tokaido road to Kyoto and Osaka, were calculated from the Nihonbashi bridge.

The surrounding neighborhood, centering on the famous Kisarazu-gashi fish market, was a thriving commercial center.

Nowadays, people cross the span without even realizing the history that is associated with it.

An elevated expressway built in 1963 runs along the Nihonbashigawa river, crossing directly over the stone river bridge and almost completely obscuring both it and the river.

"Now we have elementary school children who are surprised to learn that a river actually runs through here," said Taito Yamamoto, 61, vice president of Yamamoto Noriten Co. The family business, selling nori dried seaweed, traces its history back to 1849.

Yamamoto said he hoped to help revive river transportation and encourage Tokyoites to rediscover the city's water culture.

Eventually, he hopes to convince enough people of the charm of the Nihonbashigawa river to add impetus to a campaign to get the overpass expressway dismantled and replaced by an underground highway.

But the short-term objective is to capture hearts and minds.

A 5-kilometer cruise passing under 17 bridges on the Nihonbashigawa river has proven popular since its launch last September.

As of January, 90 cruises had been run by the Consortium of Rediscovery Edo-Tokyo Tourism Walk, an organization that brings together nonprofit groups and businesses in the area. All of the cruises were booked out.

A tiny 12-seat electric-powered boat is being used for the trips to help reduce the environmental footprint and to recreate the slower, more sustainable transportation methods of the Edo Period.

Participants are treated to a detailed running commentary on the history of the storied river and the districts through which it runs.

At one point, a large black smudge on the side of a bridge is pointed out. It is a somber relic of a direct hit by an incendiary bomb dropped during the March 10, 1945, Great Tokyo Air Raid, which killed more than 100,000 residents.

With the current Nihonbashi bridge due to mark its 100th anniversary next year, local authorities are showing renewed interest in the waterways.

Officials in Chuo Ward have plans to build a new jetty near the span at the former site of the Kisarazu-gashi fish market.

The city of Kisarazu in Chiba Prefecture, the market's namesake, is hoping to re-enact the shipping of clams, seaweed and other local products to Nihonbashi for the celebrations, just as in the Edo Period.

Yamamoto, at Yamamoto Noriten Co., has even more expansive plans. He hopes to eventually link up Nihonbashi with the Asakusa district by boat, creating a link to the Sumidagawa river and the rest of the city.

That idea may not be far-fetched.

Officials in Sumida Ward, where the 634-meter Tokyo Sky Tree tower is scheduled to open in 2011, plan to capitalize on the event by launching pleasure boat cruises along the Kitajukkengawa river, a canal that cuts through the ward and passes near the tower.

Neighboring Koto Ward is also hoping to use its waterways to take advantage of the tower's opening to draw tourists to the Fukagawa district, a quaint neighborhood with a multitude of old temples and traditionally designed houses which retain much of the ambience of the Edo Period.

The metropolitan government has a more ambitious 30-year plan to create a boat transport network, which will link the bay area near Haneda Airport with the Sumidagawa river and other tourist attractions, such as Yokohama and Tokyo Disney Resort in Urayasu, Chiba Prefecture.

According to the blueprint, unveiled in 2006, the network would also provide a crucial alternative route for transporting relief supplies in a natural disaster.

Hidenobu Jinnai, a Hosei University professor of architecture, who helped write the plan, said his fieldwork on Tokyo's network of waterways had convinced him that the city was an "aquapolis," with a water culture and history to rival cities such as Venice, Amsterdam and Bangkok.

"Through its affinity with water, Tokyo has grown over the years to nurture industry and culture," said Jinnai, "Tokyo's network of waterways is its greatest asset."

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JAPAN: Heavier snowfalls in Japan due to big chill blowing from the Arctic

2010/03/17

BY KOSUKE SO, THE ASAHI SHIMBUN

Bitterly cold air blowing south from the Arctic Circle triggered highly unusual weather fluctuations that brought heavier snowfalls to areas of Japan this winter.

A committee of experts under the Japan Meteorological Agency said the highly unpredictable weather is an anomaly that may occur "only once in 30 years."

A key factor was a dramatic change in what meteorologists call the Arctic oscillation. When the oscillation is positive, atmospheric pressure in the Arctic Circle is lower than in regions to the south and warm air flows north into the Arctic.

This year, however, the oscillation turned strongly negative, meaning pressure in the Arctic Circle was markedly higher than in mid-latitude regions and blasts of Arctic cold flowed south to Japan and other parts of the Northern Hemisphere.

The difference in the atmospheric pressure between the Arctic Circle and mid-latitude regions this year was the biggest since records began in 1979.

Japan experienced wide fluctuations in temperatures as a result. Although average temperatures for the country as a whole were higher than in an average year, the central Tokyo area had snowfalls on 10 days this winter for the first time in 26 years.

The northern Tohoku region and the Sea of Japan coast of eastern Japan recorded more than 1 meter of snow in December, for the first time since 2005.

Tokamachi in Niigata Prefecture had 3 meters of snow in January for the first time in four years.

Extreme weather conditions were seen across the Northern Hemisphere. Unusually low temperatures claimed numerous lives in Europe.

"We seldom make a conclusive statement, but we can say we are having abnormal weather this year," said Masahide Kimoto, the University of Tokyo professor of meteorology who heads the meteorological agency's experts committee.

"Finding out about the mechanism of the Arctic oscillation will lead to more accurate weather forecasts for the winter," Kimoto told a news conference on March 3.

"We hope to improve the precision of weather forecasts by analyzing in detail this winter's weather phenomena."

The meteorological agency says two negative Arctic oscillations have occurred this winter--one between early December and early January and one from late January to the present. The effect is currently weakening.

Three phenomena contributed to the unusual pattern. First, dramatic deviations of the prevailing westerly winds over Alaska in early December and over the North Atlantic immediately afterward caused high atmospheric pressure to develop near Alaska and Greenland.

This helped induce the negative Arctic oscillation.

Second, there was "sudden warming" in the stratosphere, which raised the temperature over eastern Siberia by more than 30 degrees in December and over the North Pole by a similar amount in January.

Finally, the El Nino climate pattern in the Pacific Ocean may have strengthened the Arctic oscillation.

But it also had a contrary effect of warming Japan, contributing to the higher average temperatures recorded by the Japan Meteorological Agency.

View Asahi Article

SHANGHAI, CHINA: Suzhou Creek cruises coming

Wednesday, 17 March, 2010

CRUISES of Suzhou Creek begin before the World Expo opens in May, Putuo district officials said this week. The cruise will cost 45 yuan (US$6.40) for a single trip, the officials said.

The trip will last one hour, from Moganshan Dock to Changfeng Ecological Shopping Area, or from Waibaidu Bridge to the area. So far, three small boats that seat 10, and two vessels seating 20 have been prepared. A bigger ship, seating 50, will also be available during the Expo.

View Shanghai Daily Article

CHINA: Film Star Responds to Accusations on Quake Charity

Published: March 16, 2010

By EDWARD WONG

Zhang Ziyi, a star of “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” and the best-known Chinese actress internationally, has denied accusations that she committed fraud while trying to raise money for victims of the devastating earthquake that hit Sichuan Province and surrounding areas in 2008. Ms. Zhang’s statements, published Tuesday in The China Daily, were the first by her on a scandal that has riveted many Chinese in the last few months. Chinese Internet users, after scouring public records, have accused Ms. Zhang, who also starred in “Memoirs of a Geisha,” of failing to fully donate $146,000 of her own money that she had pledged to the Chinese Red Cross. They also say she has never handed over $1 million that she said she hoped to raise from foreign donors. Ms. Zhang, above, said in the interview that a “communication glitch” led to her donating only $123,000 of her own money, and she asserted that she had donated the rest since the shortfall came to light.

A version of this brief appeared in print on March 17, 2010, on page A5 of the New York edition.

View New York Times Article

CHINA: World's shortest man dies at age 21

In this January 14, 2010 file photo, the world's shortest man, He Pingping of China, and the world's tallest man, Sultan Kosen of Turkey, 27, pose together during an event organized by Guinness World Records in Istanbul, Turkey. He died on Saturday.

Wednesday, 17 March, 2010

THE world's shortest man, He Pingping, who was just 74.6 centimeters tall, has died at the age of 21 from apparent heart complications.

He died on Saturday afternoon at a hospital in Rome after being sent there for chest pain two weeks ago. He was taking part in a filming of a television program, reported Xinhua.

His body will be sent to China at the request of his family.

He was born with a form of primordial dwarfism in Huade County, Wulanchabu City, in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in 1988. At birth, he was only the size of an adult's palm, said his father He Yun.

He was a heavy smoker and his family said he stopped growing after he turned 18.

Guinness World Records officially recognized him as the world's shortest man in 2008 as he measured 74.6 centimeters in height and 7 kilograms in weight.

Craig Glenday, editor-in-chief of the London-based Guinness World Records, recalled measuring Mr He in Inner Mongolia in 2008.

"For such a small man, he made a huge impact around the world," Glenday told the Associated Press. "From the moment I laid eyes on him, I knew he was someone special - he had such a cheeky smile and mischievous personality, you couldn't help but be charmed by him."

He regularly traveled around the world to promote Guinness World Records. His family said he was always happy his performances could bring happiness to others.

View Shanghai Daily Article

JAPAN: Campbell cancels Tokyo visit despite scheduled Wed. meeting

Kurt Campbell

Satoshi Ogawa / Yomiuri Shimbun Correspondent

WASHINGTON--Kurt Campbell, U.S. assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, has canceled a planned visit Wednesday to Tokyo for discussions with senior Foreign Ministry officials, a U.S. official said Monday.

Speaking at a news conference, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs Philip Crowley attributed the abrupt cancellation to a change in Campbell's itinerary for his tour of Southeast Asian countries that has been cut short due to political unrest in Thailand.

Campbell left Washington for a 10-day tour of Singapore, Malaysia, Laos, Brunei, Indonesia and Thailand, that was to be capped by a stop in Tokyo on Wednesday as he headed back to Washington via Narita Airport.

He was scheduled to be in Japan for about seven or eight hours, during which he was to meet with high-ranking Foreign Ministry officials to discuss pending bilateral issues, including the relocation of the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma Air Station in Ginowan, Okinawa Prefecture.

But the stop in Thailand scheduled for Monday and Tuesday was canceled due to the country's unstable political situation caused by antigovernment protests.

With the change to the itinerary, Campbell went back to Singapore on Monday and was to leave for Washington on Tuesday via Narita Airport.

Crowley said it had become impossible to secure sufficient transit time for discussions with officials in Tokyo.

But when a U.S. civil airplane is used for a flight from Singapore to Washington via Narita, the transit time is usually about one hour, observers said.

A U.S. government official did not give a clear answer why his return to Washington was advanced by one day while skipping his scheduled meeting in Tokyo.

With the meeting set for Wednesday, it would have been possible to arrange a Tuesday night stay in Tokyo and have the meeting as scheduled before heading to Washington, the observers said.

Futenma was expected to be a major topic at the meeting.

The observers said Campbell canceled the visit to Japan probably because he did not expect any progress would be made over the Futenma issue even if he met with Japanese officials, and a meeting at this juncture might further complicate the issue.

The Japanese government has yet to decide on a new relocation site to replace the offshore site near Camp Schwab in the Henoko district of Nago, Okinawa Prefecture that was agreed on between the two countries in 2006.

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama told reporters Tuesday morning that Campbell's cancellation of his visit was "not a matter we can be involved in."

===

Okada, Clinton might meet

Tokyo and Washington are making arrangements for Foreign Minister Katsu-ya Okada and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to hold a meeting later this month.

The two governments are considering having the meeting in Washington on the weekend before the Group of Eight foreign ministerial meeting set for March 29-30 in Canada.

(Mar. 17, 2010)

View Yomiuri Article

VLADIVOSTOK, RUSSIA: The Japanese Occupation

A 1919 poster depicting the Japanese occupation of Vladivostok. Note the Russian flag is in a French pattern.

Vladivostok became capital of the Maritime Territory in 1888 and grew rapidly after the completion (1903) of the Trans-Siberian RR.

During the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905 a Japanese squadron of warships attacked the city with over a hundred shots. The Vladivostok Cruiser Group participated in the war, blocking the approaches to the besieged Port-Arthur.  It developed as a naval base after the loss of Port Arthur to Japan in 1905.

In World War I the Allies used the city as a major supply depot, and after the Russian Revolution of 1917 they occupied it. On December 31, 1917 Japanese, British, and American cruisers entered the Golden Horn Bay. In April 1918, the Japanese firm Isido was attacked in Vladivostok. After this incident the Japanese and British Commands landed their troops under the pretext of protecting their citizens.   Most of the occupying forces were Japanese, but there were also about 7,500 Americans and contingents of British, Italian, and French troops. Canada sent 4,000 troops, with headquarters in the Pushkinskaya Theatre and barracks at Second River and Gornostai Bay.

By 1920, when Vladivostok was included in the newly proclaimed Far Eastern Republic, the Japanese continued to occupy the region and installed a counterrevolutionary Russian puppet government. By 1922 all the interventionist forces had withdrawn and the city came under Soviet control.

RUSSIA: On this day: 17 March

Designed and built in the Kharkov Tractor Factory in Ukraine, the T-34 tank made its way to Moscow and was first presented on 17 March 1940 at Red Square. The successful 400-mile journey from Ukraine was the first real test for the armored vehicle that was to become the best tank of World War II.

Its technical design was radical, a major step up from the pre-war light tanks, which were high-speed but lacked firepower and armor and were complex in construction. The T-34 medium tank was built simple and durable with excellent firepower, armor, mobility and shape. The tanks were mass produced before the German invasion and made a successful debut in battles against the Japanese headed by the legendary military commander Georgy Zhukov.

The Germans were advancing deep into Russia, closing in on Moscow and forcing the relocation of the entire Russian military industry to Siberia. New factories exceeded their pre-war production. Outnumbering the German tanks in the great battles of Stalingrad (now Volgograd) and Kursk, the T-34s crushed the enemy.

Western experts and even Russia’s opponents in the war still respond with admiration to the T-34 tank.

German General Friedrich von Mellenthin called it “the most remarkable example of an offensive weapon in the Second World War” and German Field Marshal Paul von Kleist said the T-34 was the best in the world.

More advanced than German tanks, they were the main ‘war-winning’ weapons against the Germans. In 1945, when summing up the results of the World War II, British Prime Minister Lord Winston Churchill had this to say when asked what he thought the best weapon was: “There were three: the English canon, the German Messershmitt plane and the Russian T-34 tank. The first two, I understand how it was done, but I completely don’t understand how such a tank appeared…” Another example of its popularity is its inclusion in Stephen Biesty’s “The Incredible Cross-sections,” an internationally known picture book about the greatest creations of mankind.

View RT Article

JAPAN: Pro-N.Korean school mums rally in Japan

AFP – Ethnic Korean mothers living in Japan hand out fliers to pedestrians on a street in Tokyo.

Tue Mar 16, 7:02 am ET

TOKYO (AFP) – Hundreds of mothers whose children attend pro-North Korean schools in Japan rallied on Tuesday, demanding that the government include them in plans to make high school tuition free.

Japan's six-month-old government on the same day passed a lower house bill to scrap school fees and give aid to private schools, meeting one of their key pro-family election campaign pledges.

The pro-Pyongyang schools have so far been excluded from the programme that starts in April after opposition from conservatives who say Tokyo should not support schools linked with the nuclear-armed communist country.

About 2,000 students attend 10 pro-Pyongyang schools in Japan, which are run under the instructions of the North Korean residents' association Chongryon, Pyongyang's de facto embassy, and feature portraits of national founder Kim Il-Sung and his son Kim Jong-Il in their classrooms.

On Tuesday about 300 ethnic Korean mothers, many walking with toddlers and pushing prams, rallied in Tokyo, urging the centre-left government of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama not to discriminate against their children.

"We must move the government to include our schools in the tuition-free programme with the power of omoni ('mothers' in Korean)," one woman shouted at the rally organised by a network of Korean mothers in Japan.

Ryang Son-ryo, a 37-year-old mother, said: "We were born in Japan and will continue living here. We have been discriminated against in many ways in Japan, but we don't want our children to go through the same thing."

Some 700,000 ethnic Koreans live in Japan, mostly descendants of migrants and forced labourers who were brought to the country during its 1910-1945 era of occupation of the Korean peninsula.

Most identify with South Korea or hold that country's passport, but a minority are affiliated with the Pyongyang regime, which has angered Japan with missile and nuclear tests, and by kidnapping its citizens in the 1970s and 80s to train the regime's spies.

Hiroshi Nakai, state minister in charge of handling the North Korean abduction issue, has openly voiced his opposition to letting pro-Pyongyang Korean schools receive Japanese public funds under the programme.

At the rally 17-year-old pro-Pyongyang high school student Cho Ei-Ok said: "Can the Japanese government solve the kidnapping and nuclear issues if they discriminate against us?"

View AFP Article