OssanAmerica comments

YubaruMar. 16  03:16 pm JST

Local authorities in Japan handle various citizen-related matters, they do not issue Japanese passports; applications are submitted to the Passport Offices of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA).

Wrong.

Applications and issuance, of Japanese passports, have been handled by both municipal offices and passport centers within prefectures, for nearly 2 decades now.

Wrong. The Iwakuni City Municipal office does not handle J-Passports. But Passport applications are handled entirely by the 山口県旅券センター岩国支所 which is located within the same Municipal Office. But they have to submit everything to the 山口県旅券センターwhich is located at 〒753-8501 山口県山口市滝町1-1. The Iwakuni Municipal Office itself does not handle Passports, only usual 市役所 matters.

virusrexMar. 17  01:41 pm JST

Taiwan would be justified in rescinding their support for the expo and not making any exposition at all, 

Which is exactly what China wants.

GuruMickToday  01:38 pm JST

Ossan...just let it go...

GuruMick....YOU need to just let it go. Look things up if you don't know the answer. Too many people don't bother to do that before posting and just parroting what they "heard".

I couldn't give a rodent's hindquarters whether Japanese, Norewgian or Icelanders eat whale meat. I give a damn when an individual carries out acts of violence on the high seas, using a controversial issue as an excuse, and putting the lives and safety of seamen at risk. Excuses don't justify criminal actions.

GuruMickToday  11:46 am JST

Correct me if I am wrong...but hadnt most whaling nations stopped well before the "moratorium " in 1986. ?

If so, why.

Most (using US,UK,Austr,NZ) had ended whaling in the 1960s-70s.

I think some other international framework was applied in the years before 1986.

Don't see any. If you know of any please list it.

What whale products had the use that plastics currently do , how long have plastics been in production ?

Do you know how to use google?

Whalebone (baileen) used for corsets and umbrellas. Fans, combs and brushes.

Whale Ivory, decoative for furniture and artwork, scrimshaw.

Plastics, while in use as early as 1920s, came into widespread global use in hte 1960s-70s.

If Japan stopped subsidising whaling, Japans whaling would die, no Watson adventurism and no Interpol warrant.

Maybe yes, maybe no. But that doesn't justify Watson's criminal actions.

taekwondoToday  12:01 pm JST

Only in Wakayama, not all of Japan.

The nationwide eating of whale meat in Japan only began after WW2, when the US encouraged it because people were not getting enough protein.

Another famous fallacy that anti-whalers believe.

Whaling itself, documented, goes back to the Heian Period (AD 794–1185).

Large scale Whaling started from Wakayama in the 1570s and spead to other parts of Japan. German physician Philipp Franz von Siebold wrote of the whaling he saw in Nagasaki in his work "Nippon (1832-1852).

There are Kujirazuka, mounds honoring whales that go back to the Edo Period (1603-1868) found in Wakayama, Nagasaki, Kochi, Osaka, Yamaguchi, Chiba, Aomori, Iwate, Miyagi, Kumamoto, Kagoshima, etc.

The first steam powered harpoon-gunned whaling ship built in Japan was in 1899, and the technology was all from Norway.

When WWII ended the US had been supplying the Pacific Islands with canned meat (ie; SPAM) but when GHQ realized that Japan still had a sizeable operable whaling fleet, they directed Japan to resume whaling operations as a protein source.

So no, whaling in Japan did not start after WWII.

Doesn't sound like a spook to me. As mentioned, he left way too much evidence. If the Belarussian claim of 9000 photos is true. Which it may or not be.

GuruMickToday  10:54 am JST

Ossan....you could discuss why Japans taxpayers support whaling .

Why? What does that have anything to do with an Interpol arrest warrant for Watson on charges that have nothing to do with "whaling" itself?

BTW whaling was stopped because whales were close to extinction...some species at least...and it was hard to find commercial reasons to continue.

The moratorium went into effect in 1986 with the stipulation that the data would be reviwed in 10 years. It was never meant to be a permanent IWC position. But the actions of the anti-whaling activists in convicing non-whaling nations to join to IWC, and converting many IWC members into anti-whaling positions caused the review to never happen. Japan just stupidly followed the original IWC rules 1987-2019.

The IWC came into existence in 1946 to "regulate the whaling industry" when all the founding nations were whaling. After the 1986 moratorium, Norway, Iceland, Japan and the USSR(Russia) continued whaling. You are correct that the worldwide demand for whale products diminished over this time period as plastics (which now has given us another problem) replaced them.

deanzaZZRToday  10:59 am JST

Fine, then hunt whales who unfortunately find themselves in Japanese territorial seas only as the J gov claimed it would do when it withdrew from the IWC.

Japan has only hunted whales in Japanese territorial waters and EEZ since 2019.

Biden issued an order to block the $14.1 billion takeover of U.S. Steel by the Japanese company, citing national security grounds, following a recommendation by the panel also known as CFIUS.

This statement suggests that Biden followed a recommendation by the CFIUS.

That is not true. It was widely reported that the CFIUS were unable to reach a definitive conclusion, and therefore left it to the POTUS.

sorakToday  10:05 am JST

Hunting whales in the South Pacific has never been part of Japan's traditional culture.

Japan first started whaling in the Southern Ocean in 1934. This is back when all the presently anti-whaling nations were still whaing. Whaling itself is part of traditional Japanse culture.

Indigenous peoples like the Inuit hunt whales because it is a tradition. But now they use high powered rifles, outboard engined motorboats and snowmobiles to carry off the meat. None of which is "traditional" in the strictest sense. But whaling itself is part of their tradition and culture.

WoodyLeeToday  07:53 am JST

One would think that Japan should be done with it's ""Scientific Research"" !!?? by now.

Japan's"Research Whaling" ended in 2019. Since then Japan has conducted "Commercial Whaling".

I know you think that's a cute comment, but the fact is that "scientific whaling" has been ongoing from even before the Moratorium in 1986 .The IWC has a Scientific Comittee that gathers and analyzes data, obviously necessary since the the IWC was created to regulate International whaling. Japan was submitting this data prior to 2019 as required by IWC rules.

while continuing to monitor whether Japanese ships return to the Southern Ocean to hunt the marine mammal in the area.

Waste of doner money. Japan hasn't hunted whales outside of their own territorial waters and EEZ since 2019.

RIP. Yea, Blue Light Yokohama.....brings back old memories.

quercetumToday  11:36 am JST

War will never happen between China and Taiwan. Dream on.

You don't know. We all don't know. Maybe you should be telling that to the CCP.

"China Orders Military Changes To Prepare for 'Engaging in Warfare'"

Newsweek 2/22/25

GuruMickToday  10:06 am JST

The US could not care less about " democracy in Taiwan "but they do want to hedge China in.

That must be why the U.S. has supported the Republic of China (now Taiwan) continuously since 1913. That's 112 years of not caring. You have no grasp of what the US cares or doesn't care about.

Paul NovaxToday  09:28 am JST

 "I hope people from both Japan and abroad, as well as those who will lead the next generation, will continue to visit" and recognize that nuclear weapons are an "absolute evil."

Where's the memorial to all the victims of Japan's aggression preceding and through WWII?

In Nanjing China. Although that's not well documented like the A-bombing were.

I was just there last week, and it was sickening to hear tour guides make out that the Japanese were the victims.

All civilians who died or suffered in every country during WWII were "victims". Your comment is what's sickening.

Most people on this planet would be moved, and readily accept that War is a terrible thing.

Yet we have people like Putin who start wars and threaten the use of nuclear weapons today.

GuruMickToday  08:50 am JST

Why is Taiwan Japans problem ?

The same reason that Taiwan is also Australia's problem. And many other nations in the area. Any military conflict caused by China to take Taiwan will have massive repurcussions on the entire region. It's not that hard to figure out.

I've been forced to skip real corned beef ever since coming to Japan. For a week or more every supermarket in NY has mountains of tri-tip corned beef.

Cauliflower I can get but even if tasty, not the same thing.

Sushiro outlets use non-Japanese ingredients.

I wouldn't eat sushi in China. There's plenty of other dishes.

Good thinking Mr. Roth. Maybe 30 years late, but better late than never. Mercedes and Lexus have been doing it and they are highly regarded globally.

I have yet to see any Jeep model in Japan with LHD. On the other hand, every American muscle car I've seen was LHD.

English references haven't adopted the new reading of 硫黄島. Can be read as Iwojima or Iwoto. The US will likely keep the old name from WWII, lest they have to rename The USS Iwo Jima (LPH-2 Assault ship).

There are different causes of prejudice. There is prejudice because of a long historically and culturally establised sense of majority and supriority, as in White folks in the U.S. Then there is prejudice because of unfamiliarity, with the appearance language and culture that is alien. In the case of Japan I think most of the prejudice is the latter.

For sure there is prejudice in Japan, predominantly from older Japanese men. Most of whom have never had any contact with anyone outside of their country. There is a significant difference between the older people and younger people who are more "wordly" due to the internet.

One thing I'll say is that if you feel like you're being looked at as though you don't belong here.....now you know how non-white people feel when they are in your country.

GuruMickToday  09:18 am JST

Ive been here for nearly 8 years this time, with a number of 1 or 2 year stays in the past 20 years. Frankly, I am sick of older Japanese , or even kids, looking at me like I am some freak show."If you cut me do I not bleed "...LOL.Posters on here might not see the countryside as I do...its where I live.

Just say Konnichiwa with a slight nod. If they respond back no issues. If they ignore you or run away, then yea, you're a freak show. lol

It was much worse 20-30 years ago.

I don't see any issue with Permanent Residents from any country, they live, work and pay taxes in Japan. Well ok, as long as those from China are not spies. lol

Refugees wouldn't be either if their status in Japan provides a path for them to become Permanent Residents. But since their entry into Japan is based primarily on escaping persecution in their home countries, the linguistic and cultural familiarization is not there. Which results in difficulty working and requiring considerable support services which Japan must provide.

YubaruToday  08:48 pm JST

Everyone seems to be assuming it was about an American passport. Japanese passports, depending upon the location and municipality, are issued by some/many municipal offices.

The article states "arrested a 41-year-old American man"

Obviously this was about a US Passport, not a Japanese Passport. That's assuming this article is correct.

Of course the man could be totally nuts and asked for an Australian Passport.

BTW, the Iwakuni City Hall does not even issue Japanese Passports. You have to go to the Yamaguchi Prefectural Passport Office.

deanzaZZRMar. 14  10:08 am JST

Tell that to the ROC and ROK who scuppered their nuke programs under pressure from Washington.

They didn't have to but gave in. Japan does not have to.

Who TF applies for a US Passport at a Japanese city hall? LOL! He must have been told "we don't issue them here" in the first 10 minutes. Way to get an arrest record.

his accusations that the government was "confiscating" land from white people.

Umm...does he really think that even compares to the amount of land white people have confiscated froｍ non-white people over the last several centuries?

Who started this oddball translation of 残念 as "regrettable"? It's usually translated, and accurately, as "unfortunate".