“More than 2,100 Japanese, including three living in the United States, filed a lawsuit against the Asahi Shimbun Co. on Wednesday, demanding that the newspaper publisher run advertisements in major U.S. and European dailies to apologize for its past stories…
“Japan and China plan to hold in bilateral security talks in Tokyo as early as April — the first in four years between their foreign and defense ministries, diplomatic sources said on Wednesday.”
“In order to win, Japan should give China a dose of its own medicine,” some argue, but could that lead to an arms race, increase distrust, exacerbate tensions in the region, and solve nothing in the end?
“Regional maritime disputes put Cambodia in an awkward spot. It must not take sides,” by Phoak Kung, Vice President for Academic Affairs at Mengly J. Quach Education
“Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi warned against whitewashing “past crimes of aggression” at a United Nations meeting, in a thinly-veiled barb at Japan’s nationalistic moves to downplay Tokyo’s wartime atrocities.” Click here for Kyodo News coverage. Click here for Yomiuri…
“I myself did not experience the war, but it is important to look back on the past humbly and correctly pass down tragic experiences and the history behind Japan to the generations who have no direct knowledge of the war,…
“Seoul on Sunday slammed the Japanese government’s dispatch of a high-level official to a local event designed to stress its claim to the Korean islets of Dokdo.”
“Tokyo and Washington are in final preparations for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to address Congress during a visit to the United States this spring, a Japanese government official said Saturday. Arrangements are well underway for Abe to speak before a joint…
Seifu Kan, a 94-year-old resident of Kyoto whose hand was injured in a U.S. wartime air raid, sends his handcrafted glass pens to “people who are committed to world peace and make progress for the cause.”
“Toshihiro Nikai, a top executive in the ruling party, has so much political clout he was recently able to pull off something that has eluded even Prime Minister Shinzo Abe: a formal one-on-one meeting with South Korean President Park Geun-hye.”
“The [Japanese] government is sending a high-ranking official to the ceremony this Sunday commemorating the day of Japan’s incorporation of the Takeshima islets, despite the organizer’s request for a Cabinet member…”
“Prime Minister Shinzo Abe ’s view of the past is the biggest cloud hanging over the future of U.S.-Japan ties, according to U.S. lawmakers visiting Tokyo this week…”
A Japanese language teacher living in Seoul has been volunteering at a shelter for elderly women survivors, known as the “House of Sharing” and located in southeast Seoul.
“Seoul’s demand for new apology over WWII ‘comfort women’ complicates regional security ties… …Polling data show that South Koreans dislike Mr. Abe as much as they do North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. In Japan, polls show that views of South…
“Ambassador to the United States Kenichiro Sasae has rejected criticism by U.S.-based historians that Japan tried to meddle with descriptions in an American textbook over the use of “comfort women” at wartime Japanese military brothels…”
By Jeff Kingston, director of Asian Studies, Temple University Japan “Global understanding does not come cheaply. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government has budgeted ¥70 billion — yes, that’s more than $500 million — to help get the word out about…
“Japanese officials cried alarm on Sunday as Chinese patrol ships entered the waters of the Japanese-controlled Senkaku Islands, and Chinese officials vowed to increase their presence in the area.”
“The confusion Tony Abbott has injected into the future submarine issue is undermining Japan’s efforts to sell a more assertive new security policy to the region.”
“Contemporary art has become borderless, with visual presentations coming to focus less on national identity and more on individuality. In what appears to be an attempt to go against this trend, Art Sonje Center is seeking to explore the national…
“Once a source of fortune for Japanese fishermen hunting sea lions and abalone, a pair of remote rocks is stopping the U.S.’ two biggest allies in Asia from getting along…”
“Japan’s new Development Cooperation Charter will allow for non-combat military aid and prioritize Southeast Asia.”
“The head of Japan’s national broadcaster said the station will be “very careful” about covering the issue of forced prostitution at Japan’s wartime military brothels due to what he said was a lack of clarity on the government’s “official stance”…
19 U.S.-based Historians, members of the American Historical Association, issued a collective statement entitled “Standing with Historians of Japan,” strongly condemning PM Abe’s recent efforts to revise depictions of ‘comfort women’ in a history textbook published by McGraw-Hill (“Tradition & Encounters:…
“’Dokdo Bread’ made by a baker in his 40’s is the talk of town in Pohang, a southeastern port city in South Korea. Kim Ki-seon, the baker, began baking the bread last year to protect Dokdo from Japan, after the news…