Billions of Japan’s Post-Quake Relief Funds Didn’t Help Victims · Global Voices
Japan’s major newspaper reported that billions of budgets that had meant to employ the local people in disaster-stricken area were largely out-flowed to unrelated projects that victims of disaster-stricken area do not benefit. The news of misappropriation draw criticism among social media users.
Nuclear advocacy lands Abe in hot water with wife | The Japan Times
at least someone has some sense in this household
Edward Snowden, NSA whistleblower: 'I do not expect to see home again'
Source for the Guardian’s NSA files on why he carried out the biggest intelligence leak in a generation â and what happens next
Q&A with whistleblower Edward Snowden
The mathematician who could be a movie star | The Japan Times
“The fascinating part is how Zhang succeeded where others had failed. There was no flash of genius, no invention of an entirely new methodology. He saw the promise in an approach that others had abandoned, and — mirabile dictu! — had enough faith in his idea to stick with it until everything clicked. (Note to producers: Be sure to write in mocking younger colleagues, who think the old guy is past it. See if Benedict whatshisname — the “Star Trek” guy — is available.)”
All attempts apart from the ballot box are not democratic,” Erdogan said.
This is the most disingenuous and plainly false thing I’ve heard anyone say, ever.
Said by the Turkish PM in reference to the protestors.
First-tier cities, including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, failed to make the list of habitable cities even though they are in the top 10 in terms of commercial advantages, unification of city and countryside, and culture development, according to a report on China’s urban competitiveness from the National Academy of Economic Strategy under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences…
Beijing ranks best in terms of academic resources and intellectual atmosphere, second-best in business environment and sustainability, and third in cultural industry. But it dropped to 74th and 119th in habitable and ecological environment, the report said.
“In 1992, 80 percent of young Japanese workers had regular jobs. By 2006, half were temps.”
— See “What Americans Should Understand About Japan’s 1990s Economic Bust: The Slacker Trap” by Ethan Devine, The Atlantic, 24 April 2013.
Image: Akio Suga / EPA / Corbis
This is a really excellent article, and good follow-up to the outpouring of material on Japan’s economic miracle that the world has since quietly forgotten. I think people write Japan off as fundamentally stable these days, just a nice place where our cars come from and that has really cool culture, but Japan is in deep shit in a lot of ways, and this article discusses that nicely.
Also the fact that many of these “irregular” workers are women, and that women felt the burst bubble really acutely. That’s something that doesn’t get mentioned quite as often…
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe vowed that his Cabinet would stand firm against threats from neighbors, and he was not even referring to North Korea’s saber-rattling on missile launches…
Abe also seemed to place the blame for the recent controversy on the changing stances taken by Japan’s neighbors.
Regarding criticism from South Korea about visits to Yasukuni by Cabinet ministers, Abe said, “There was some criticism” when Kim Dae-jung was president from 1998. “There was very little before that.”
He made the same point about China.
“There was no protest when the prime minister visited after Class-A war criminals were included among those memorialized there (in 1978),” Abe said.
Yasukuni visits make unified response to N. Korea difficult
At a time when North Korea’s erratic behavior has underscored the need for cooperation in Asia, Japan’s delicate ties with China and South Korea have become even more tenuous amid …
OH REALLY. ARE THE VISITS MAKING IT DIFFICULT. DO YOU KNOW WHAT ELSE MIGHT BE.
SHINZO ABE SAYING THAT THE DEFINITION OF “AGGRESSION” (IN THE CONTEXT OF JAPAN INVADING THE SHIT OUT OF EVERYBODY) ISN;T REALLY SET IN STONE SO WHY DOESN’T EAST ASIA JUST CHILL OUT????
Seoul protests Abe for defending shrine visits
South Korea’s Foreign Ministry on Thursday summoned the Japanese ambassador to lodge an official protest against Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s remarks defending his Cabinet members’ visits to Yasukuni Shrine. …
YOU HAVE GOT TO BE FUCKING KIDDING ME
