China warns US after Mattis says Diaoyu islands covered by treaty.

China warns US after Mattis says Diaoyu islands covered by treaty. (channelnewsasia).

China warned the United States Saturday (Feb 4) not to destabilise East Asia after Donald Trump's new defence secretary said an island chain claimed by both Tokyo and Beijing was covered by a US-Japan military accord.

The Senkaku islands, known in China as the Diaoyus, sit in rich fishing grounds and are at the centre of a festering row between Tokyo and Beijing, which claims they have been part of Chinese territory for centuries.

"The Diaoyu Island and its adjacent islets have been an inherent part of Chinese territory since ancient times, which is a unchangeable historical fact," Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said, according to the official news agency Xinhua.

"We urge the US side to take a responsible attitude, stop making wrong remarks... and avoid making the issue more complicated and bringing instability to the regional situation".

Speaking in Tokyo at the tail end of a visit to East Asia, new US Defence Secretary James Mattis said the islands were subject to a long-standing treaty between Washington and Tokyo.

"I made clear that our long-standing policy on the Senkaku Islands stands -- the US will continue to recognise Japanese administration of the islands," Mattis said.

"And as such Article 5 of the US-Japan Security Treaty applies."

Article 5 commits the United States to defend Japan or territories it administers against any attack.
Lu said the US-Japan treaty was a product of the Cold War, and should not affect China's territorial sovereignty, Xinhua reported.

Japan's top court approves extensive surveillance of Muslims.

Japan's top court approves extensive surveillance of Muslims. (ET).

Japan’s Supreme Court has approved the government’s blanket surveillance of Muslims in the country.

The country’s top court struck down a second appeal by Japanese Muslim plaintiffs against what they perceive an unconstitutional invasion of their privacy and freedom of religion. Mohamed Fujita, whose name has been changed to protect his identity is one of the 17 plaintiffs in a lawsuit that challenged extensive monitoring of Japan’s Muslims, Al Jazeera reported.

Fujita and the other plaintiffs sued the government following a 2010 leak of 114 police files revealed nationwide surveillance of Muslims in the country. The files revealed that Muslim places of worship, halal restaurants and Islam-related organisations across Japan’s capital, Tokyo, were being monitored.

The plaintiffs hoped the courts would deem the police practices illegal. However, after two appeals, the Supreme Court dismissed the case on May 31. The justices agreed with a lower court that the plaintiffs deserved a total of ¥90 million ($880,000) in compensation because the leak violated their privacy. 

The court, however, did not interject on the police profiling or surveillance practices, which a lower court ruling upheld as “necessary and inevitable” against the threat of international terrorism.

“We were told we don’t have a constitutional case,” says Junko Hayashi, a lawyer for the plaintiffs. “We’re still trying to figure out, how is it not constitutional?”

During a United Nations human rights committee hearing on the matter in 2014, an official from the National Police Agency said “details of information gathering activities to prevent future terrorism could not be disclosed”, but that “police collected information according to the law”, UN records show.

The leaked files alarmingly included resumé-like pages citing a host of personal information, including the individual’s name, physical description, personal relationships as well as the mosque they attended, along with a section titled “suspicions.”

The files further showed that by 2008 at least 72,000 residents from Organisation of Islamic Conference countries had been profiled, including about 1,600 public school students in and around Tokyo.

Within a few weeks of the leak, the data had been downloaded from a file-sharing website more than 10,000 times in over 20 countries.

According to Hiroshi Miyashita, a law professor at Chuo University who’s an expert on privacy issues, the lawsuit was the first major legal case in Japan to highlight mass surveillance. However, a state secrets law that came into force in 2014 would shield the issue from public and judicial scrutiny. “Even judges cannot access information” about police practices under the new law, he added.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Police and the National Police Agency refused to comment on the court decision, and would not confirm whether they continue to profile and monitor Japan’s Muslim community.

Merkel allegedly 'Proposed NATO Membership to Japan' in March 2015.

Merkel allegedly 'Proposed NATO Membership to Japan' in March 2015. (JapanNews).

German Chancellor Angela Merkel reportedly told Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe last year that his country could joint NATO counting on her support.

“We recognize the importance of maintaining dialogue with Russia.” This was inserted in a joint communique from the Group of Seven foreign ministers’ meeting held in Hiroshima at the Japanese government’s desire.

Ever since Russia annexed Crimea in southern Ukraine in March 2014, the G-7 nations have continued to impose sanctions against Russia. Among these countries, the United States is particularly distrustful of Russia and U.S. President Barack Obama even gave bitter but sincere advice to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who maintains a close relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The word “dialogue” was incorporated in the joint communique, according to a Japan-Russia diplomatic source, because “if Abe visits Russia before the G-7 Ise-Shima Summit to make progress in negotiations over the northern territories, Japan can claim that his visit will not cause disarray among the G-7 nations.”

The northern territories issue is a weighty task that Abe has been focusing on.

In March last year, visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel made an unexpected proposal to Abe during a dinner meeting.

“Shinzo, why not join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization?” Merkel asked. “I can convince British Prime Minister Cameron and French President Hollande.”

Japan and Russia have long been caught in a dispute over the disputed islands referred to as the Northern Territories by Tokyo and the Kuril Islands by Moscow.

Abe reportedly said if Japan joined now, negotiations with Russia over the territories would stop. Read the full story here.

Japan police arrest 18 year old teenager for 'Islamic State-inspired' killing.

Location where the 13 year old was found.

Japan police arrest 13 year old teenager for 'Islamic State-inspired' killing.(Telegraph).

Japanese police on Friday arrested an 18 Year old teenager on suspicion of killing a 13-year-old schoolboy, in a chilling murder some local media suggested was inspired by Islamist extremist executions.

The brutalised and naked body of Ryota Uemura was found in undergrowth near a river last Friday. His neck had been repeatedly hacked at, apparently using a blood-soaked knife that was discovered nearby.

Low-crime Japan has been captivated by the killing, with media reporting every twist and turn in the investigation, including details of how the youngster's mobile phone was used to send a friend request on a messaging app around the time of his death.

Populist weekly Shukan Shincho reported the wounds appeared to indicate that whoever killed Ryota may have been trying to decapitate him.

"Some investigators suspect (the criminals) watched Internet videos showing the execution of hostages by Islamic State (IS) fighters and sought to mimic them," the magazine said, quoting an unnamed source close to police. read the full story here.

Russia to provide China with at least six S-400 AA missile systems.

Russia to provide China with at least six S-400 AA missile systems. (Vedomosti).[GoogleTranslate].

Manager of one of the Russian enterprises of the military-industrial complex and a person close to the leadership of the Russian Defense Ministry, told " Vedomosti "that at the beginning of this autumn a contract was signed between " Rosoboronexport "and the Ministry of National Defense to supply at least six divisions anti-missile system S-400 for more than $ 3 billion.

The representative of " Rosoboronexport "was yesterday unavailable for the press representative Concern PVO " Almaz-Antey " ( developer of the C-400) declined to comment.

Negotiations on the supply of S-400 in China has been going on for several years, while in 2011, leadership of the Russian military department stated that the delivery system for export may be no earlier than 2016 - because of the need to implement a program for the supply of the Russian Armed Forces.

In the spring of 2014 the newspaper " Kommersant "reported that President Vladimir Putin has approved the delivery of S-400 in China, and in July the head of the Russian presidential administration Sergei Ivanov said that the first foreign customer of this system can be precisely China.

Long-range systems such as the S-300P exported after the collapse of the Soviet Union and Vietnam, Algeria, Azerbaijan and Cyprus ( now set Cypriots systems are in the armed forces of Greece) and in the presence of the Russian Armed Forces - in Kazakhstan and Belarus.

The contract for the supply of S-300 to Iran was canceled for political reasons in 2010, and execution of the contract for the supply of S-300 to Syria suspended due to the civil war in this country.

In Venezuela and Egypt were delivered than the S-300P systems such as S-300B, originally developed not for the defense forces of the country, and for the defense of the Ground Forces.

Despite the fact that over the past 15 years, the Chinese defense industry sharply raised its level remained segments where it has not yet been able to prove their worth, the director of the Center for Strategic conditions Ivan Konovalov . According to him, most likely this latest system, along with other modern weapons systems will be placed by the Chinese army in the south of the country in order to control the airspace over Taiwan and the disputed islands in the surrounding waters.Read the full story here.

 HT and Source:

ARTICLE: #Russia to provide #China with S-400 AA missile systems. Six for $3 billion USD. http://t.co/Sz4Q77bz8G pic.twitter.com/ajBMVnhezR
— Military Studies (@ArmedResearch) November 26, 2014

Video - A Samurai in Brazil "So you think you can play Soccer?"

 Want to know more!? Visit CUPNOODLE brand website!
⇒http://www.cupnoodle.jp/samurai_in_br...

Far away, on the other side of the world...An armor-clad SAMURAI travels alone to Brazil to hone his skills.

Our warrior is Japan's Freestyle Football champion Kotaro Tokuda (Tokura).

What fate awaits him...?

China to US: Stop meddling in region.

China to US: Stop meddling in region.(Chinadaily).

China will not initiate trouble, but it will never compromise on territory, Hagel is told.

Beijing warned Washington on Tuesday to "stay vigilant" about Japan and not to be "permissive or supportive" of Tokyo's provocations as Chinese and US defense chiefs vowed wider cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region.

In a "candid, constructive and productive" discussion, Defense Minister Chang Wanquan told visiting US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel that the US should respect China's core interests as Washington is implementing a pivot strategy to the region.

Chang asked the United States to keep Japan "within bounds" and criticized the government of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

"It is Japan who is being provocative toward China," Chang said at a news conference after talks with Hagel.

"If you come to the conclusion that China is going to resort to force against Japan, that is wrong."

Hagel, meanwhile, struck a belligerent tone at the news briefing by claiming that China did not have the right to establish an Air Defense Identification Zone in the airspace over China's Diaoyu Islands without consulting other countries.

He also said that the US will protect Japan under treaty obligations.

Chang said that China "will not take the initiative to stir up trouble" with Japan, but it would use military force, if necessary, to defend its territory.

"We will not compromise, nor concede, nor trade on territory and sovereignty. We will not tolerate these being infringed upon, even the least bit," he said.

He said that remarks and provocation from the Abe administration have caused severe difficulties for China-Japan relations.

He also said that the Philippines has illegally occupied parts of China's islands and reefs in the South China Sea and "disguised itself as a victim".

China and the US will conduct a joint military medical exercise after the Pacific Rim military exercise led by the US later this year.

Observers said growing cooperation mixed with harsh criticism reflects the current condition of China and US military ties.

Zhao Xiaozhuo, deputy director of the center on China-US defense relations at the PLA Academy of Military Science, said Washington is stuck in a security dilemma in the Asia-Pacific region since it is pursuing balance between China and Japan.from page 1

"For example, the US perceives the security alliance with Japan and other Asian countries as the cornerstone of its rebalancing strategy, but China sees it as a barrier for development," Zhao said.

"As the two countries seek to build a new type of military relations focusing on common interests, the strategic suspicion and the latent contradictions will become more acute," he said.

Hagel said China-US relations are essential to peace and prosperity in this century and his focus is on how to develop the new model of military-to-military relations.

"My tour to the aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, yesterday was a good beginning because it represented an effort that we are both striving to do more on, which is the openness and transparency," he said.

On Monday, Hagel became the first foreign visitor to board the aircraft carrier in Qingdao, Shandong province. He is also scheduled to visit a non-commissioned officers school in a Beijing suburb on Wednesday.

"Our vision is a future where our militaries can work closely together on a range of challenges, such as humanitarian assistance and disaster relief missions. However, to reach this objective, we must be candid about issues where we disagree," Hagel said.

On Tuesday afternoon, Fan Changlong, vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission, criticized Hagel's remarks as "tough, and with a clear attitude".

"I can tell you, frankly, ... the Chinese people, including myself, are dissatisfied with such remarks," Fan told Hagel at the presence of the press.Read the full story here.

Japan has ordered to strike any ballistic missiles that may be launched by North Korea in the coming weeks.

Japan has ordered to strike any ballistic missiles that may be launched by North Korea in the coming weeks. (Reuters).

Japan will strike any North Korean ballistic missile that threatens to hit Japan in the coming weeks after Pyongyang recently fired medium-range missiles, a government source said on Saturday.

Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera issued the order, which took effect on Thursday and runs through April 25, the day that marks the founding of North Korea's army, the source told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

Following the order, meant "to prepare for any additional missile launches," a destroyer was dispatched to the Sea of Japan and will fire if North Korea launches a missile that Tokyo deems in danger of striking or falling on Japanese territory, the source said.

Tensions have been building between North Korea and its neighbors since Pyongyang - in an apparent show of defiance - fired two Rodong missiles on March 26, just as the leaders of Japan, South Korea and the United States were sitting down to discuss containing the North Korean nuclear threat.Read the full story here.

Hundreds of Copies of Anne Frank’s Diary torn up in libraries across Japan.

Hundreds of Copies of Anne Frank’s Diary torn up in libraries across Japan.HT: PJTatler.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center said they fear an organized anti-Semetic effort is behind the shocking tearing-up of copies of The Diary of Anne Frank in libraries across Japan.

Hundreds of copies of the famous book have been vandalized at about two dozen libraries in metropolitan Tokyo.

According to an official of the Japan Library Association today, pages have been torn out of over 200 copies of Anne Frank’s Diary of a Young Girl in multiple libraries across Tokyo, including those in Nakano, Nerima, and Suginami.

In addition, Japanese media are reporting that other Holocaust-related literature was also found to have been vandalized.

The incident has drawn sharp condemnation from the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles. “The geographic scope of these incidents strongly suggest an organized effort to denigrate the memory of the most famous of the 1.5 million Jewish children murdered by the Nazis in the World War II Holocaust,” said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, the center’s associate dean. “I know from my many visits to Japan, how much Anne Frank is studied and revered by millions of Japanese.

Only people imbued with bigotry and hatred would seek to destroy Anne’s historic words of courage, hope, and love in the face of impending doom. We are calling on Japanese authorities to step up efforts to identify and deal with the perpetrators of this hate campaign.”Read the full story here.

"To Lose Face or not?" - Chinese jets shadowed US and Japanese planes in new air defense zone.

"To Lose Face or not?" - Chinese jets shadowed US and Japanese planes in new air defense zone.(RT).

Two US surveillance aircraft and 10 Japanese F-15 jets were ‘tailed’ by Chinese pilots on Friday.China ordered an urgent dispatch of its Su-30 and J-10 fighter jets to an area in the East China Sea after the foreign aircraft “invaded” the air defense zone, they said. 

The reported intrusions came in defiance of the East China Sea Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ), established by Beijing last week.

China’s move has triggered outrage from several states in the region and critical rhetoric from the US, as the vast zone covers disputed areas, including the islets claimed by both China and Japan. 

Earlier on Thursday, the Chinese Air Force conducted its first air patrol flights over the zone, as Japan and South Korea sent their own military aircraft into the zone's airspace in an act of defiance.

China has stressed its decision to enforce the airspace identification zone - which requires all aircraft flying over or near it to identify themselves - follows common international practices and “is a necessary measure in China’s exercise of self-defense rights.”

No international flights will be affected by the setup of the zone, Chinese Air Force spokesman, Shen Jinke, told Xinhua.

Japan and its US ally blasted the decision as “unacceptable” and rejected the “unilateral” declaration, saying it would create dangerous tension. However, Chinese officials gave a reminder that both countries have long had their own ADIZ, and that the Japanese never discussed theirs with their neighbor.

“If they want it revoked, then we would ask that Japan first revoke its own air defense identification zone and China will reconsider it after 44 years,” China’s Defense Ministry spokesman, Yang Yujun, said in a statement posted on the ministry’s website on Thursday.

While possible action against the zone’s infiltrators has been vaguely defined as “defensive emergency measures,” The Global Times, a Chinese state media newspaper, on Friday called for “timely countermeasures without hesitation,” should Tokyo violate the new ADIZ.


At the same time, the paper suggested China could ignore violations by some other states, including the US. Two US military B-52 bombers flew over the area on Monday without prior notice, with a Pentagon spokesman telling Reuters we “have continued to follow our normal procedures.” 

Chinese 'Red Lines': China sends warplanes to newly declared air zone

CHINA – China has sent warplanes to its newly declared air defense zone in the East China Sea, state media reports.

The vast zone, announced last week, covers territory claimed by China, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea. China has said all planes transiting the zone must file flight plans and identify themselves, or face “defensive emergency measures.”

But Japan, South Korea and the U.S. have all since flown military aircraft through the area. Japanese restraint in the face of Chinese efforts to modify the status quo is currently keeping the peace, potentially to the detriment of Japan’s claim to the island.”

The new dispute in an already tense region has raised concerns it could escalate into an unplanned military incident.

China’s state news agency Xinhua quoted air force spokesman Col Shen Jinke as saying several fighter jets and an early warning aircraft had been deployed to carry out routine patrols as “a defensive measure and in line with international common practices.”

He said the country’s air force would remain on high alert and would take measures to deal with all air threats to protect national security. In Xinhua’s Chinese language version of the article, the colonel said the aircraft would “strengthen the monitoring of targets in the air defense zone and do their duty.”

B-52s sing the ‘pivot to Asia’ song....Another 'Obamination' in the make?

B-52s sing the ‘pivot to Asia’ song....Another 'Obamination' in the make?(RT).


The twin B-52s took off from a US base in Guam and breached China’s Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) only a few days after it had been announced. Lost in the usual ‘exceptionalism’ fog was the fact that both the US (in 1950) and Japan (in 1969), not to mention Russia, Indonesia and others, also imposed their own ADIZ – which essentially means planes entering a particular airspace must identify themselves.

Predictably, the Washington/Wall Street reaction to the B-52 show was loud cheers for the “cause of global security” against “China's increasingly aggressive military actions,” “Beijing's brinksmanship,” “serious violation of international law,” “threat to freedom of navigation” and attempt of “naked aggression.”

Even US ambassador to Japan, Carolyn Kennedy, went out on a limb to scold China for “raising tensions”.

Nonsense: The Pentagon – via Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel – and the State Department – via Secretary John Kerry – gave the game away when both condemned China’s ADIZ as an attempt to change “by force” the “status quo” over the Senkakus.

Worse: Washington insists Beijing is allegedly trying to “control” an immense area of the Western Pacific, which, of course, are God-given American waters. Thus Washington had to “send a message”; otherwise President Obama’s “pivot to Asia” will be stuck in credibility limbo.

So it’s all here, in a nutshell: the “pivot to Asia” once again proved to be a fundamental military strategy to “contain” China, part of the Pentagon’s Full Spectrum Dominance doctrine, which has been the US military Bible since 2002.  It’s always crucial to remember the “pivot” was officially announced by Obama at the Pentagon.

SUBHEADER: There will be payback

The US Air Force insisted the B-52s were unarmed and there was “no communication” with the Chinese. That implies the Chinese had to infer, in a flash, that the B-52s were not lethal. China’s Ministry of Defense duly confirmed they “monitored” the B-52s all along.

An ADIZ is essentially a notification zone. Even Taiwan – not exactly a cheerleader of Beijing – officially announced that China’s ADIZ is peaceful. And the islands in fact are closer to Taiwan than to either Japan or China. So the B-52 adventure cannot be construed as anything else but a provocation.
Now imagine if Beijing had decided to scramble jet fighters to intercept the B-52s, followed by the US Air Force scrambling their jet fighters from Japanese bases. The whole B-52 adventure could have gone lethally wrong.

The provocation, on top of it, has made a mockery of the “international law” so prized by Washington. Nothing now prevents China or Russia, for example, to fly their own nuclear bombers through Japan's ADIZ.

Chinese media accused both the US and Japan of overreacting, stressing China has an equal right to impose its own ADIZ, which is not targeted at “any particular country.”
What makes it even more absurd is that China and Japan made a deal in 2008 to cooperate on the joint development of the East China Sea. Yet nothing concrete came out of it.

There’s also a crucial factor that Beijing cannot admit publicly. Based on reams of ancient texts, Beijing is adamant that the islands have been Chinese territory since “immemorial times”, until they were captured by the Japanese in 1895. So it’s back to those venomous strands of mutual nationalistic hatred and their manipulation by current Japanese Prime Minister Shinto Abe. One of the reasons Beijing has imposed the ADIZ is to prevent deranged Japanese nationalists from parachuting into the islands to literally plant the flag.

This post by The Saker argues the definitive case about Washington’s cowboy behavior and its implications for the geopolitics of the Western Pacific. When it comes to the Pentagon’s Full Spectrum Dominance and its offshoot, the “pivot to Asia,” there’s no room for soft power and diplomacy, not to mention the alleged superpower’s “responsibility.” The B-52s splendid adventure is the equivalent of the NSA snooping on the mobile phones of political leaders around the world. 

Did Beijing get the message? You bet they did. Professor Sun Zhe at Tsinghua University in Beijing observes China won’t allow itself to be in a position of being a paper tiger: “If the United States conducts two or three more flights like this, China will be forced to respond. If China can only respond verbally it would be humiliating.”

There will be a non-verbal response. Expect stealth, lightning fast developments regarding Chinese nuclear submarines, missiles with multiple nuclear warheads, and all sorts of asymmetric strategies. 

Yet, most of all, don't expect a spectacular response. Sun Tzu rules. Payback will come. It will be swift. And when US exceptionalism least expects it.

Video - Holes near bottom of containment vessel at Fukushima plant — “Gushing out” of Reactor No. 1 — Similar damage suspected at Units 2 and 3.

Holes near bottom of containment vessel at Fukushima plant — “Gushing out” of Reactor No. 1 — Similar damage suspected at Units 2 and 3.(EneNews).

NHK WORLD, Nov. 13, 2013: A robot at the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has for the first time identified exactly where highly radioactive water is leaking from a reactor [...] the lower part of the No.1 reactor’s containment vessel. [...] A camera on the robot captured images of water leaking from 2 holes in the containment vessel [...] TEPCO engineers [...] say one of the leaks looks as if tap water is gushing out. Radiation levels in the area were extremely high at 0.9 to 1.8 sieverts an hour. Engineers suspect that damage to containment vessels at the No. 2 and 3 reactors is also causing similar leaks [...]

Jiji Press, Nov. 14, 2013: [...] “Part of the containment vessel is damaged, and water leaking from there is likely to be flowing down into the ground via the pipe,” a TEPCO official said. [...] Water used to cool molten fuel debris is believed to be leaking from the three reactor containers, with highly radioactive water accumulated in the basements. The newly found incident is the first apparent identification of a containment vessel-basement flow [...]

Related:

Alaska Island Shows Impacts From Fukushima – ‘Significant Cesium Isotope Signature’ Detected – Scientists Anticipate More Marine Life To Be Impacted As Ocean Plume Arrives

Top Iranian diplomat hopes to expand crude oil exports to Japan.

2012 numbers

Top Iranian diplomat hopes to expand crude oil exports to Japan.(TheIranProject).

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqhchi has expressed hope Iran’s oil exports to Japan to rise.

Araghchi talked to The Yomiuri Shimbun last week after attending nuclear negotiations with top officials from Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States in Geneva. He was the chief negotiator of Iran’s nuclear delegation in the talks, which Iran hopes will help end economic sanctions placed on the country and thus expand crude oil exports.

Araghchi, who served as Iranian ambassador to Japan from 2008 to 2011, hopes in particular for improved ties between Japan and Iran to help revive Iran’s economy.

“As a result of negotiations with 5 + 1 [the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany], we hope that we can conclude these negotiations so that the negotiations with Japan would expand much better than before,” Araghchi said, suggesting that lifting the sanctions would benefit both Japan and Iran.

Historically, the two countries have friendly relations with each other. The amount of crude oil Iran exported to Japan in 2012 was the fifth-largest by country. Due to the influence of the economic sanctions led by the United States, however, exports to Japan dropped from 560,000 barrels per day in 2006 to 120,000 barrels per day in June this year.

Crude oil exports make up almost half of the total revenue of the Iranian government. Araghchi aims to recover the rapidly declining amount of the country’s crude oil exports to Japan partly to support the financial recovery of Iran.

As for Iran’s nuclear development, Araghchi said the country aims to be like Japan, emphasizing the idea of promoting the use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.

Araghchi, a career diplomat, was posted to Japan after serving as a vice minister in charge of international laws. During his time as the ambassador to Japan, he had his surname printed in kanji on his business cards. Shortly after the Great East Japan Earthquake in March 2011, he visited Sendai with a donation of 50,000 cans of food. He is also very knowledgeable about Japan’s nuclear energy administration.

There are signs of the bilateral relations between Japan and Iran becoming more active of late. In September, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Liberal Democratic Party Vice President Masahiko Komura both held talks with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.

According to the Iranian Foreign Ministry, Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida is scheduled to visit Iran in November. Hmmm.....If Obama's BFF Turkey can get 'Carte Blanche' consercing oil purchases then so should Japan and the rest of Europe, this comes only down to unfair concurency to other allies.

Related:  

As expected Obama will give BFF Turkey a waiver from sanctions, they 'only' import 45 percent of their oil from Iran and aid Iran avoiding sanctions.

Video - BBC News - Fukushima radioactive water leak an 'emergency', A Must See!

Video - China Syndrome At Fukushima: Corium Hits Groundwater.

Related: - You Won’t BELIEVE What’s Going On at Fukushima Right Now

Japan Cancels U.S. Wheat Order on GMO Fear.

Japan Cancels U.S. Wheat Order on GMO Fear.

SINGAPORE/TOKYO, May 30 (Reuters)By Naveen Thukral and Risa Maeda.  - A strain of genetically modified wheat found in the United States fuelled concerns over food supplies across Asia on Thursday, with major importer Japan cancelling a tender offer to buy U.S. grain.

Other top Asian wheat importers South Korea, China and the Philippines said they were closely monitoring the situation after the U.S. government found genetically engineered wheat sprouting on a farm in the state of Oregon.

The strain was never approved for sale or consumption.

Asian consumers are keenly sensitive to gene-altered food, with few countries allowing imports of such cereals for human consumption. However, most of the corn and soybean shipped from the U.S. and South America for animal feed is genetically modified.

"We will refrain from buying western white and feed wheat effective today," Toru Hisadome, a Japanese farm ministry official in charge of wheat trading, told Reuters.

An agriculture ministry source in South Korea said the government is reviewing the discovery, adding the country thoroughly inspects products from the United States as part of safety checks.

"I won't be surprised if other countries start cancelling or reducing their purchases of U.S. wheat, particularly Asian countries, putting pressure on wheat demand," said Joyce Liu, an investment analyst at Phillip Futures in Singapore.Read the full story here.

Related: Monsanto Modified Wheat Not Approved by USDA in Field

Discovery of Monsanto GMO wheat threatens US exports

Fukushima kids have skyrocketing number of thyroid abnormalities - report.

Fukushima kids have skyrocketing number of thyroid abnormalities - report.(RT).

A recent report into the Fukushima Nuclear disaster of 2011 has shown that more than forty percent of children have thyroid abnormalities.

­The Tenth Report of the Fukushima Prefecture Health Management Survey, released earlier this week, with data up to January 21, 2013, revealed that 44.2 percent of 94,975 children sampled had thyroid ultrasound abnormalities. 
The number of abnormalities has also been increasing over time as well as the proportion of children with nodules equal to and larger than 5.1 mm and any size cysts have increased.
The report has also revealed that 10 of 186 eligible are suspected of having thyroid cancer as a result of the exposed radiation.
On Wednesday, the Fukushima Prefectural Government announced that two people who were teenagers at the time of the Fukushima No. 1 meltdown have been diagnosed with thyroid cancer, bringing the total number of cases officially confirmed by authorities to three. All have undergone surgery and are now recovering.
Around 360,000 youths at the time of the disaster have to be repeatedly checked to see if they have been affected by the radiation.
In the meantime on Friday, a government-backed researcher claimed that no health effects have been detected in people living in the contaminated area because the radiation level is not high enough.
“Since the accident in Fukushima, no health effects from radiation have been observed, although we have heard reports some people fell ill due to stress from living as evacuees and due to worries and fears about radiation,” Kazuo Sakai of Japan's National Institute of Radiological Sciences has said.
He went on to argue that people in the area had a radiation exposure of 20 millisieverts or less, while “we know from epidemiological surveys among atomic-bomb victims in Hiroshima and Nagasaki that if exposure to radiation surpasses 100 millisieverts, the risk of cancer will gradually rise.”
Sakai says that it will take years to establish a clear link between the nuclear catastrophe and health risks “as empirical knowledge says it takes several years before thyroid cancer is detected after exposure to radiation.”
Scientists and activists across the globe are still arguing about the possible long-term effects of the nuclear catastrophe while activists accuse the government of concealing the crucial data from people ever since the disaster.
Global environmental watchdog, Greenpeace, has criticized Tokyo of undermining the severity of public health risk.Read the full story here.


Related: 36 Percent Of Fukushima Children Have Abnormal Growths From Radiation Exposure.

               Chernobyl - Thyroid Cancer Effects in Children.

               Fukushima.greenaction-japan.

Japan - Welfare payments to be slashed ¥74 billion to root out the 'comfortably poor'.

Japan - Welfare payments to be slashed ¥74 billion to root out the 'comfortably poor'.(JT).Welfare benefits will be slashed by ¥74 billion over a three-year period starting from fiscal 2013, after a government panel found that some people are making more on the dole than the average low-income person who is not spends on living costs, it was learned Sunday.
The decision to lower standard benefit payments by 6.5 percent was made by welfare minister Norihisa Tamura and Finance Minister Taro Aso. The reduction will hit in August.
Since the standard benefit payment provides the basis for determining other levels of public assistance, such as subsidies for school expenses, reducing it may also affect low-income earners even if they are not on welfare.
Tamura said after the meeting that he will implement the measures so the decision does not adversely affect such earners.
The actual amount doled out per household will be slashed by a maximum of 10 percent from the current level, which is based on age, number of family members and area of residence.
Welfare recipients hit a record high of 2.14 million in October 2012 and the state budget for benefits, including medical assistance, stood at around ¥2.8 trillion for fiscal 2012 ending in March.
Later Sunday, the government and ruling parties approved the fiscal 2013 budget proposal, with expenditures in the general account budget totaling ¥92.61 trillion.Hmmm......'comfortably poor'....lets create only 'Uncomfortable poor' people....problem solved.Read the full story here.

Related: The Number Of Desperately Poor People In Japan Is Growing At An Alarming Rate

Beijing slams US over island dispute comments

Beijing slams US over island dispute comments.(RT).Beijing has spoken out against Washington’s warning to China not to challenge Japan’s control of disputed islands in the East China Sea – a brewing argument between the two Asian countries that has intensified in recent months.
­The Chinese Foreign Ministry expressed its displeasure a day after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton assured Tokyo of American support for its territorial rights and warned China against any unilateral action in the dispute.
On Friday, Clinton in a press conference meeting with the Japanese Foreign Minister did not mention China directly but said she wanted the dispute to be resolved peacefully.
"Although the United States does not take a position on the ultimate sovereignty of the islands, we acknowledge they are under the administration of Japan," Clinton said, adding "we oppose any unilateral actions that would seek to undermine Japanese administration, and we urge all parties to take steps to prevent incidents and manage disagreements through peaceful means."

China is "strongly dissatisfied with and resolutely opposes" the comments made by Clinton, Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said in a statement.

The maritime quarrel which has been going on for years intensified last year when Tokyo nationalized the islands. China’s response was to increase maritime and air patrols of the Senkaku /Diaoyu islands. Japan meanwhile sent fighter jets over the disputed territory. No clashes have yet taken place.
"We urge the US side to treat the issue of the Diaoyu islands with a responsible attitude," Qin said, asking Washington to be "careful in words, cautious in actions" and to take "realistic actions to protect the peace and stability of the region and Chinese-US relations."
George Koo, the founder of International Strategic Alliances, believes the US is stoking the conflict between the two Asian powers.
“The US has created this mess and the US is continuing to prolong the problem between the Japan and China. The US is again playing the strategic ambiguity game by on the one hand saying, we’re neutral about this, and we’re not taking sides between China and Japan but on the other hand we recognize that Japan has administrative control and therefore, we would be opposed to any unilateral action. But how did Japan get military control? The US turned it [the islands] over to them. From the beginning to end, the US was responsible for this particular mess,” Koo told RT.
The Islands historically belonged to China for centuries, but Japan assumed control of the territory following 1894-95 Sino-Japanese War.
"After the WWII the terms of unconditional surrender specifically excluded any of the offshore islands as being part of Japan. But somehow the terms of surrender were changed during the peace treaty written in San Francisco. The Chinese had no part in forming of that treaty," Kono explains.
In 1971, the US and Japan agreed on a deal giving Japan so-called "administration" over the islands. Washington insists it is a neutral party in the dispute yet says the islands are under Japan's de facto administration. The islands are believed to be rich in natural resources.Read the full story here.