Nipponica

Japan’s Defense Ministry on Tuesday began its first full-scale U.S. base relocation work on the Oura Bay side of the Henoko coastal area in the city of Nago, Okinawa Prefecture.

The work, which involves the construction of seawalls on the Oura Bay side with soft ground, is part of the project to build a replacement facility for the U.S. Marine Corps’ Futenma air station in the Okinawa city of Ginowan. The ministry plans to fill in the area surrounded by the seawalls with soil.

Japanese government workers will survey an uninhabited southwest Alaskan island from Monday to pave the way for the first recovery in over 70 years of remains of World War II soldiers who died fighting U.S. forces there.

Some 2,600 Japanese soldiers died on Attu Island in May 1943, according to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, in a doomed attempt to hold the northern Pacific island, captured in June 1942, from over 10,000 U.S. personnel.

Remains of around 320 soldiers were recovered in 1953, but later inspections in 2007 and 2008 did not culminate in the collection of any remains.

U.S Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel "has not decided on his departure date," the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo said Sunday, after a media report said he was considering leaving his post in November.

Bye bye.

Rahm Emanuel would not attend the event on Friday because it had been “politicised” by Nagasaki’s decision not to invite Israel, the embassy said. Instead, he would honour the victims of the Nagasaki bombing at a ceremony at a Buddhist temple in Tokyo and a lower-ranked US official would attend the Nagasaki event, it said.

The mayor of Nagasaki, Shiro Suzuki, said his decision not to invite Israel was unchanged despite announcements by the US, five other G7 countries and the EU that they would send lower-ranked envoys instead of ambassadors to the ceremony.

“We only want to hold the ceremony in a peaceful and solemn atmosphere” to honour the victims, Suzuki said on Thursday. “It is absolutely not because of political reasons.

This is a bad call for the US and its undeserving ambassador to Japan. The US destroyed Nagasaki and should always be there to acknowledge its past.

The helicopter did not emit fire or smoke, and no injuries had been reported, according to police. Authorities are investigating details of the incident.

Against the backdrop of the evolving security environment, the statement stipulated that the United States "intends to reconstitute U.S. Forces Japan as a joint force headquarters" to "facilitate deeper interoperability and cooperation on joint bilateral operations (with Japan) in peacetime and during contingencies."

The reconstituted USFJ is expected to serve as an important counterpart of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces' joint operation headquarters that will be launched by March 2025 to unify the command of its ground, maritime and air services, it said.

We are living through a transition period in world affairs. The power and the unity of Western countries to act as the ultimate arbiters of global affairs is not collapsing, but is in clear decline.

Most of us can agree on this point, but where is the better place to spectate this era of transition, from inside the West or from outside? Perspective is everything. For those of us from Western countries, on both sides of the Atlantic, the politics of populism inevitably becomes a major talking point when viewing the changing world.

While I broadly agree with the overall point of the shift of global power away from the west, almost no mention was made in the article about the rise of Africa to fill some of the western vacuum. Nigeria alone is quickly becoming a powerhouse in population while China and the rest of East Asia is declining. Factor in India and ASEAN and the multipolar future looks quite clear.

The pavilion's exterior adopts a minimalist design inspired by the Japanese traditional aesthetic of "wabi-sabi," featuring two triangular buildings with wooden facades juxtaposed by an illuminated, suspended cube.

Under the cube, visitors will find an open-air courtyard with a performance stage, allowing them to explore music, dance and other entertainment, as well as cuisine. Images to be shown at the pavilion are expected to include U.S. landmarks such as the Golden Gate Bridge and the Grand Canyon.

Quite lack the design and the understatedness that is absent from many American monuments. Should be a good fit for an expo. Looking forward to seeing more pavilion designs to see if there is going to be a cohesive theme or architectural chaos.

U.S. Forces Japan said Monday it will create a "new forum for cooperation" with Okinawa's government and local residents, amid criticism over recent revelations of cases of alleged sexual assault involving U.S. military members in the southern island prefecture.

The forum, to be launched in coordination with Japan's central government, will "serve as a venue for the constructive exchange of ideas in the pursuit of shared goals," U.S. Forces Japan Commander Lt. Gen. Ricky Rupp said in a press release.

Japan on Saturday extended its designation of its continental shelf to the eastern part of islands some 1,000 kilometers south of Tokyo, enabling the resource-poor country to start research on extracting maritime natural resources such as rare metals from the region.

A revised Cabinet order took effect designating a significant portion of the Ogasawara Plateau sea area as part of its continental shelf, an area of around 120,000 square kilometers. Its move to enlarge the shelf has triggered opposition from China.

As this expansion is on the Pacific side of Japan, there is no credible claim or complaint that could be made on this expansion, assuming it gets approved by all relevant authorities in the UN. Since the US, the area’s closest territorial neighbor, did not reject the proposal, should be a done deal.