Servant of the Omnissiah
That bit about the accuracy of history will probably fly over the LDP's heads.
I hold the secrets of the machine.
Oh, bother.
Japan confirms it will quit IWC to resume commercial whaling
The country’s fleet will resume commercial operations in July next 2019, the government’s chief spokesman, Yoshihide Suga, said of the decision to defy the 1986 global ban on commercial whaling.
Suga told reporters the country’s fleet would confine its hunts to Japanese territorial waters and exclusive economic zone, adding that its controversial annual expeditions to the Southern Ocean – a major source of diplomatic friction between Tokyo and Canberra – would end.
Cringe but free
Because if anything will turn out well for Japan, it's antagonising giant sea creatures.
Who's still making demands for whale products in this day and age, anyway? Not like there's a line of elegant-yet-enigmatic Victorian bachelorettes lining outside Uniqlo for the latest model of whalebone corsets. If it were about joining the rest of the world in fucking over the yellowfin tuna population in the southern Pacific, I could understand.
Edited by eagleoftheninth on Dec 26th 2018 at 4:23:35 AM
Echoing hymn of my fellow passerine | Art blog (under construction)
Generally for domestic consumption like sashimi. My suspicion is that a lot of it is to keep the job and economic sector alive artificially, which pops up in Japanese job market all the time (constant, unnecessary roadworks etc.).
Edited by TerminusEst on Dec 26th 2018 at 4:39:43 AM
Si Vis Pacem, Para Perkele
Oh, bother.
On top of the moral and environmental issues, there are health issues concerning whale consumption. Whales have a lot of mercury in'em. Especially the organs.
Disgusted, but not surprised
Cringe but free
I thought that whale meat mostly disappeared from the market after the fifties? I mean, the traditionally-hunted minke whale is doing pretty alright these days. If anything, the Pacific bluefin tuna is a lot more threatened, and does actually show up in a lot of dishes. But between this, the coal mining debacle in the US and Australia and the palm oil boom along the equator, there's a seriously shady governmental trend to subsidise unsustainable primary industries with little prior demand, ostensibly to create a relatively small number of jobs.
Echoing hymn of my fellow passerine | Art blog (under construction)
China's Information War Against the Uyghurs
However, China has also deployed elements of this strategy to counter a primarily domestic security challenge: the perceived threat of Uyghur militancy, radicalization, and terrorism in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR).
Although Beijing’s approach to combating Uyghur opposition has always rested on the capabilities of the security forces, this has been augmented by policies that are consistent with a core objective of China’s IW strategies: to not only deter but ultimately degrade the will and capability of the adversary to initiate or sustain political-military struggle contra the interests of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
@Tech
- Naruhito shares some of his father’s thoughts, so his legacy is in good hands.
——
Got word from Japanese media in Tokyo that Seoul is denying allegations that they targeted a JMSDF P-1 even with witness statements that transmissions made to South Korean navy frequencies were ignored.
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
Because there is nothing better to combat militancy and radicalization than enacting policies that'll push people to the edge of the cliff with nothing to lose.
Cringe but free
Damn. I know that a lot of ostensibly secular/government-leaning media outlets in Muslim-majority countries have been sending journalists on guided tours of Xinjiang, who would then parrot the official line that the camps are a security necessity to combat Uyghur separatism. The CCP took the global trend towards partisan virtue signalling and turned it into an art form.
Edited by eagleoftheninth on Dec 26th 2018 at 7:59:38 AM
Echoing hymn of my fellow passerine | Art blog (under construction)
Former Head Of Chinese Counter-Intelligence Sentenced To Life In Prison
Ma Jian, appointed deputy head of the Ministry of State Security in 2006, was convicted on charges spanning a 15-year period that began years before his appointment to the post that oversees Beijing's counter-intelligence operations, according to sources quoted by The South China Morning Post.
He was dismissed from his post in 2015 and placed under investigation. Ma was expelled from the Communist Party the following year.
In addition to his life sentence, the Dalian Intermediate People's Court ordered Ma to pay a fine of $7.35 million.
Servant of the Omnissiah
In all likelihood, it's less about corruption and more about cheating the Party out of it's cut from said corruption. Or him becoming a threat to some political fatcats within the CCP.
@SteamKnight The party got the results they wanted in Tibet. It’s not surprising they’re using the same tactics in Xinjiang.
Oh no, this is standard operating procedure for removing members of the party in the opposite faction. Everybody is corrupt by default, but you can't just start removing everyone it would tear the establishment apart.
Si Vis Pacem, Para Perkele
Servant of the Omnissiah
Van ploughs into Tokyo pedestrians headed for New Year's prayers.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-46726401
The driver claimed it was a terrorist attack, then claimed it was an anti-government move to protest executions. Which execution was not made clear.
I hold the secrets of the machine.
Rebel without a cause, most likely. That, or a very lazy serial killer.
Only executions recently were leaders of Aum Shinrikyo.
Si Vis Pacem, Para Perkele
To be honest, I could see it as a reaction from them....
Servant of the Omnissiah
I was under the impression that Aum Shinrikyo had more or less disbanded. They did rebrand themselves as Aleph IIRC, but they're far less capable than in their heyday.
That devil Shoko Asahara was executed fairly recently though, come to think of it now that Terminus brought it up. Could be one of Aleph's more deluded cultists. Or it could be something unrelated.
Bizarre though, that sort of thing happening in Japan, of all the places.
Edited by TechPriest90 on Jan 2nd 2019 at 6:28:32 AM
I hold the secrets of the machine.
Oh, bother.
Japan's always had shit like this. There isn't an epidemic of mass shootings there thanks to Japan's gun control laws, but there's still people who find ways to commit mass murder there. For example, some asshole stabbed a bunch of people in a care home for disabled people to death in 2016.
Wikipedia's page on the Sagamihara stabbings
I keep saying over and over in these threads that East Asia was and still is a pretty bloody and violent place.
Edited by M84 on Jan 2nd 2019 at 7:53:10 PM
Disgusted, but not surprised
Basically they split in two, Aleph and Hikari no Wa. The latter is basically not considered a threat, and surveillance on them was ended some time back. Aleph is still under surveillance and a part of it still reveres Asahara, others renounced him after the attacks in the 90's.
Very possible that this was one of those members that was left adrift in the decades following. But until we get something it's all speculation. We just know that the man seemingly had a terroristic motive, rather than the more spontaneous stabbings and the last time somebody drove into a crowd.
There's little terrorism since the days of JRA and Aum Shinrikyo, mostly bitter and/or highly unstable people.
Edited by TerminusEst on Jan 2nd 2019 at 4:17:13 AM
Si Vis Pacem, Para Perkele
The only thing the TMPD worries about is IIRC, from their security briefings I read online, from foreigners trying to get into Japan and conduct a terror attack aside from potential lone wolves like the driver in Harajuku.
China's Xi threatens Taiwan with force but also seeks peaceful 'reunification'
Servant of the Omnissiah
Having a gun pointed at someone's head, or with an implied threat, is the exact opposite of peaceful. It would seem the PRC overlooked that.
A Paradise at Gunpoint is still a prison.
I hold the secrets of the machine.
HRH Akihito made his final message.
Courtesy of BBC:
More than 80,000 people have paid their respects to Japan's Emperor Akihito as he gave his final birthday address before his abdication in April.
The emperor, 85, said he took "deep comfort" that his reign had passed without Japan again engaging in war.
He became emotional as he thanked the people of Japan and his wife Empress Michiko for their support.
Akihito is the first living monarch to relinquish the Chrysanthemum throne in nearly 200 years.
The emperor, who has had heart surgery and treatment for prostate cancer, will be succeeded in April by his eldest son, Crown Prince Naruhito.
His three-decade reign is known as the "Heisei" era, which means "achieving peace" in Japanese.
During his brief address, Emperor Akihito also offered condolences and sympathy to Japanese who had lost family members or suffered damage - a reference to the earthquakes, severe storms and heatwaves that have hit the country over the past year.
Although his position is ceremonial and he has no political power, Akihito has spent much of his reign spreading awareness of Japan's actions during World War Two under the rule of his father, Emperor Hirohito.
He has expressed regret over Japan's military actions in both China and the Korean peninsula, and has also visited several Pacific battlefields to honour the dead, actions that have brought him into conflict with right-wing groups at home.
Ahead of his birthday he told reporters: "It is important not to forget that countless lives were lost in World War Two... and to pass on this history accurately to those born after the war."
In October the head priest at Japan's controversial Yasukuni Shrine - which honours Japan's 2.5 million war dead but also enshrines convicted criminals of World War Two - agreed to resign after criticising Emperor Akihito, saying he was trying to destroy the shrine by not visiting it.
Some top politicians including Prime Minister Shinzo Abe have visited the shrine, sparking an angry response from critics including China.
In his address, Emperor Akihito also said he hoped Japan would be able to welcome immigrants to the country under new legislation to let in more foreign, blue-collar workers to ease a labour shortage owing to an ageing population.
Japan has hitherto had restrictive immigration laws and accepts few workers from other countries.