The Divorce of Naver and Softbank

River Akira Davis from The New York Times:

Executives from South Korea’s Naver and Japan’s SoftBank Group said they would jointly own the operator of Line, a South Korean-developed messaging app popularized in Japan. They gave the project a code name that emphasized cooperation: Gaia.

But late last year, cracks started opening in the Naver-Softbank venture.

Paywalled, but a good retelling of a century of strained relations between Japan and South Korea through the tale of a little green app called Line. For me, the cute stickers are the only good part of the Line ecosystem. The messaging portion of the app remains much like it was a decade ago and competitors like WhatsApp and Messages are taking laps around it. But it is still the king of text communication in Japan and no one seems able to topple it.

The Fight Between Okinawa and Tokyo Explained

From The Mainichi:

Unless the current situation in which Okinawa is forced to make sacrifices on the grounds of security is changed, the rift between the central and prefectural governments will only deepen. The national government must amend its stance of forcing decisions on Okinawa and engage in sincere dialogue.

This is a good explainer about the burden placed on Okinawa Prefecture by the central government and how the local people are basically powerless to stop it.

Kishida Approval Rating at 10.4 Percent

From Kyodo:

Only 10.4 percent of the Japanese public want Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to win the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's leadership race slated for September and continue serving as premier, the latest Kyodo News poll showed Sunday.

At this point, he should see if the number could go any lower just for the sport of it.

Kashiwazaki Nuclear Plant Idles as Governments Wary About Restart

Shoko Oda from The Japan Times:

The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant, a sprawling 4.2-million square meter complex by the sea, was once the crown jewel in Japan’s strategy to boost atomic power to 50% of the country’s energy mix by 2030. Inside, a framed certificate from Guinness World Records acknowledges the facility’s potential output of 8.2 gigawatts as the most globally.

Right now that output — which would be enough to power more than 13 million households — is zero. The seven reactors at KK, as the facility is known, were shuttered after the 2011 tsunami and meltdown at the Fukushima No. 1 plant in the Tohoku region that prompted the government to rethink its dependence on nuclear energy.

Fascinating article about this one plant in Niigata but also the general pulse of the population on nuclear energy, the total fecklessness of Tepco, and government officials avoiding being the one in charge of allowing power generation to resume.

ICC Pushing Japan to Sign 1948 Genocide Convention

From The Mainichi:

"It is inadequate...that Japan has not established domestic laws to punish war crimes or crimes against humanity," ICC President Tomoko Akane said at a recent press conference in Tokyo. She is the first Japanese to lead the independent judicial body, which is based in The Hague.

Did not realize Japan was not a party to this treaty until I saw this article. Very surprising, curious, and troubling considering the nation's brutal treatment of Chinese during the Sino-Japanese Wars.