Samit Basu comments

@Agent_Neo

The issues of forced laborers and comfort women have already been resolved.

No they are not. The Korean supreme court ruled "Yoon's agreement" illegal and resumed ordering asset seizures of Japanese defendants.

It has been pretty much decided that the seventh mining area will be developed by Japan alone.

Unfortunately, ZDZ is Korea's continental shelf, not Japan's. Japan claimed rights to it under EEZ, not continental shelf declaration. Thus Japan has fishing rights on surface but Korea has the mining right beneath. This is the reason why Korea was building an impressive navy, to battle Japan one day.

They have more urgent matters to discuss, such as forthcoming liquidation of seized Japanese assets to compensate forced laborers and the probable naval confrontation at the JDZ after 2027.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan%E2%80%93Korea_Joint_Development_Zone

This is the real news on Japan's defense budget. Japanese MOD is starving for funds because of collapsing yen's exchange rate and are cutting back massively on new defense procurements for honoring old commitments contracted at 100 yen/dollar but Japanese government now must pay 162 yen/dollar.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/08/business/japan-yen-defense-spending.html

The Yen Is Plunging. So Is Japan’s Defense Budget.

The yen’s collapse this year to a nearly four-decade low is undermining Japan’s plans for its largest military buildup in postwar history.

The government has slashed orders for aircraft, and officials warn that further cuts may be imminent. Japan buys much of its military equipment from American companies, in transactions done in dollars. The government’s purchasing power has been drastically eroded by the yen’s diminishing value.

“What we are achieving in terms of actual defense capabilities and our original target — the two are not lined up,” Satoshi Morimoto, a former Japanese defense minister, said in an interview. The value of the defense budget over five years “has effectively been reduced by 30 percent,” Mr. Morimoto said.

The problem: The budget was based on an exchange rate of 108 yen to the dollar, which even then was far from the actual rate of around 135 yen to the dollar. Now, with the yen weakening to 161 to the dollar, the cost of equipment including helicopters, submarines and tanks has skyrocketed.

“At this point, even Japan-made military equipment is going up in price because many internal parts are sourced from overseas,” Ms. Takeuchi said. “Japan is already cutting procurement of certain aircraft, and if you can’t increase the budget, more cuts become inevitable,” she added.

Restoration of conscription is inevitable, that's the only way.

Japan cannot defend itself with an armed police alone, needs a real military to keep up with its neighbors seeking vengeance.

@deanzaZZR

North Korea poses zero threat to Europe.

1) North Korean troops are arriving in Donbas this month.

2) North Korea's 5 million artillery shells turned the tide of Ukraine War.

I would guess this would taste similar to the baked cheese spaghettis on US Pizza-Hut restaurants. I love that menu.

Same old same old. Nothing changes in Japan.

@tigerjane

Why is a Japanese company choosing to run a business in Burma?

This supermarket was serving Japanese expatriates.

@Fighto!

The South Korean custom is to jail the ex-president once he or she is voted out.

That only happens to conservative presidents as conservatives tend to be more corrupt than virtuous liberals, none of liberal ones were thrown in jail.

The closest thing was former President Roh, who committed suicide to prevent the prosecution of his wife who took bribes behind his back. This strategy worked as prosecutors stopped going after Roh's wife following Roh's death because public optics looked bad, but the prosecutors themselves were prosecuted for improper and illegal prosecution and were thrown in prison when Moon took power.

The same will almost surely happen to President Yoon. 

Right now the impeachment charges against Yoon is more damning than the impeachment charges against Park. Yoon is surely going to prison after term.

@nandakandamanda

Yoon himself seems to have been relatively good for South Korea.

Yoon is widely seen as the second worst president since the end of dictatorship within Korea, the worst was the dude who bankrupted the nation and went to IMF.

After Saudi Arabia, the next country in line to host World Cup in AFC territory is China; FIFA desperately wants China in World Cup and if the only way to do it is to award the hosting to China, FIFA will do it.

@Jim

Japanese gifts cannot match Chinese gifts in value.

We are talking gold nuggets shaped as moon cakes here.

@kaimycahl

If the Japanese people are fed up go march in the streets and demand closure of the bases

Japanese aren't fed up because they don't see US bases often.

It's the Okinawans who are fed up because Japan dumped most of US troops in Okinawa.

The only way to resolve the US military presence problem in Okinawa is to declare independence and ask the US to leave as the sovereign state of the Republic of Ryukyu.

@TokyoLiving

Why Japan doesn't has some dignity and close that invasive and inefficient US military base??..

Japan surrendered unconditionally in 1945, that's why. Note keyword "unconditionally".

Yen is a funny money now.

I might vacation and book a penthouse suite in Japan after all!!!

Good luck to Japan.

Japan used to be lucky with such draws, not this time.

Yes I am sure Japan will make it to the World Cup, it is just that it has to fight every match for it.

The only thing Japan can do is to accept the fact that Kim Jong Il have the full accounts of all abductees to Koizumi, the rest went missing in Japan.

Why is Kono the digital minister? Does Kono even know the difference between HTTP and HTTPS?

I doubt Kono ever wrote an e-mail in his life, all written by his secretaries.

@OssanJapan

It would take a complete reversal of the present NKorea-China-Russia alliance to break the US-JPN-SK alliance.

What will break it.

Seized Japanese assets are liquidated to compensate forced laborers as there is no other source of funding left. That is unless Japanese defendants agree to pay. Not in full amount, but a symbolic amount and then the remaining 50% by other Japanese donations. Then somehow Yoon can sell this as a victory and ask Korean corporations to match 50% with the blessing of the Democratic party which has forbidden Korean corporations from contributing to the compensation fund.

JDZ agreement fails to renew in 2027 and both starts drilling. This issue covers continental shelf rights of area between Japanese mainland and Okinawa. This is a complicated issue because Korea has the continental shelf rights underwater(continental shelf extends from Korea, not Japan) but Japan has the surface EEZ rights, and UN guideline is unclear who can drill. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan%E2%80%93Korea_Joint_Development_Zone

3. Japan expands its history denial campaign at home and at overseas.

Yamada-udon decided to renovate the store, in Meiwa, Gunma prefecture, offering 1,300 yen an hour for the first three months. That was shy of Costco's starting hourly wage of 1,500 yen but enough to entice job-seekers in the notoriously tight labour market. After three months, wages would be at 1,050 yen, versus 970 yen pre-Costco.

Wait, so Yamada-udon's wage goes down from 1,300 yen to 1,050 yen after 3 months? Who wants to work at Yamada-udon then?

Mark

what do you expect? it is Russia technology.

There is nothing wrong with Russian technology, it's the manufacturing quality and tolerance that decides quality and performance.

There are two countries whose supersonic/hypersonic missiles are based on transferred Russian technology, India and Korea. And neither have much problems.

In fact, the US wants a piece of Korea's hypersonic airbreathing propulsion technology.

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3261304/south-korea-brings-hypersonic-tech-aukus-table-sign-seoul-moving-closer-us-and-its-other-allies

South Korea brings hypersonic tech to the Aukus table in a sign Seoul is moving closer to the US and its other allies

Analysts say South Korea could ‘bring a great deal of expertise to any collaboration’ with its hypersonic weapons knowledge

LOL, Costco membership in Japan is $30/year and mine is $60/year + tax.

@SaikoPhysco

Sales did jump a bit from 2015 to 2018, and then dropped back to around 24,000 a year but even then, at the peak sales were just 3% market share. Currently they're around 1.6%.

You need to consider in terms of market share percentage, not raw numbers.

In Korea, 20% of markets are to foreign brands, mostly German luxury brands. It's not possible for foreign brands to compete directly against local Korean brands because of maintenance and service logistics. Korean brand cars can be repaired and service at a fraction of time and cost of foreign brands.

German, Italian, and British luxury and ultra-luxury brands can justify their long service downtime and high maintenance cost for being European luxury, Japanese brands can't do the same. You can't ask buyers of Japanese brand cars to pay BMW and Mercedes service cost and downtime, but that's exactly what Japanese brands were asking Korean consumers to do in Korea. This was justifiable 10 years ago, but not today where local consumers consider Japanese brands inferior to Korean brands nowadays.

@NB

When will the Japanese auto makers begin to make EVs?

They do, it is just that they are 10 years behind the Chinese in terms of technology and refinement.

@ianToday

How much is the tariff?

0%

@SaikoPhysco

same goes for Japanese cars in S. Korea.

Japanese cars sold well in Korea until 10 years ago, then the quality and the performance of Korean brand cars began to soar and Japanese brand car sales nosedived.

https://www.roadandtrack.com/reviews/a60514826/hyundai-ioniq-5-n-first-drive/

The Hyundai Ioniq 5 N Is by Far the Best Sports EV I've Ever Driven

PUBLISHED: APR 17, 2024 8:00 AM EDT

It's so good that it could save the future of race tracks in the United States, if it comes to that.

Better than Tesla Model S Plaid, Porsche Taycan according to reviewers.

@Roger Gusain

The Chinese models (I don't mean the cars) are better looking!

They are Japanese models. Auto companies do not fly in models, they hire locals.

@Wesley

BYD owners in china need to subscribe and pay a fee to have the heating or cooling function in their cars turned on remotely

This is nothing new, it's called subscription. BMW and Tesla pioneered this business model.

@OssanJapan

The Senkakus became incorporated as Japanse territory as Terra Nulleas in 1855

ABSOLUTELY NOT. None of Japan's claimed Terra Nulleas were Terra Nulleas, be it the Diaoyu Islands or the Liancourt Rocks. This is easiest to debunk.

And for those who think the Cairo Declaration has anything to do with the Senkakus, only territories and islands taken by Japan through war after 1914 were to be taken away

Read the text of Cairo Declaration once again. The Chinese clause isn't governed by the 1914 cutoff deadline, but ALL Chinese territories that Imperial Japan took via wars of aggressions including Taiwan and its periphery islands, specifically the Diaoyu Islands. The Diaoyu Islands are covered by the Cairo Declaration and legally have been reverted back to the Republic of China.

It is Japan that's illegally occupying the Diaoyu Islands, and this is why Taiwan challenged Japan to ICJ arbitration but Japan refused claiming Taiwan isn't the Republic of China that ceased to exist in 1948, because it's obvious Japan is guaranteed to lose.

@Calej

It’s only disputed by China.

Actually Taiwan claims the Diaoyu Islands per terms of Japan's surrender.

The world knows whose islands these really belong to.

Most of Japan's immediate neighbors(Russia, Korea, Taiwan, China) consider them Chinese territory per the text of the Cairo Declaration which Japan accepted. Which "China" is up to the debate, but the terms of Japan's surrender literally says "The Republic of China."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1943_Cairo_Declaration#Text

It is their purpose that Japan shall be stripped of all the islands in the Pacific which she has seized or occupied since the beginning of the first World War in 1914, and that all the territories Japan has stolen from the Chinese, such as Manchuria, Formosa, and The Pescadores, shall be restored to the Republic of China.

@Sanjinosebleed

Permanent presence required on the largest island now!

And that will trigger an immediate military invasion from China. This is why Japanese citizens are banned from approaching within 1 nm of the Diaoyu Islands by Japanese government.

@obladi

China and Japan should focus on large areas of mutual interest, like adapting to climate change rather than these tiny little islands,

A country's territorial integrity comes above all else.

@OssanJapan

If China lands on it they will start a shooting war with the United States.

Well, Ukraine and the Philippines expected the US to do something and all that could offer was the warm words of support.

After all, Ukraine had the US written guarantee of territorial integrity when Putin took over Crimea and the US did nothing, the same with the Philippines Scarborough Shoals and the Philippines had the US mutual defense treaty which again was worthless.

As long as Japan doesn't transition to democracy and maintains its Russian-style oligarchy, Japan will never escape from its perpetual decline as nothing changes.

I thought Japan liked low yen exchange rate to double foreign tourists to 60 million/year...

Oh, Japan is now cheaper to vacation than Thailand and Vietnam, Let's go!

@Bad Haircut

Sad news. While rare, EV battery fires are extremely hot and hard to extinguish

This isn't EV battery, but single use battery that you put into gadgets.

@OssanJapan

Links please.

https://www.reddit.com/r/korea/comments/1cexwuq/emmanuel_macron_brings_up_korean_armaments_during/

Emmanuel Macron brings up Korean armaments during a speech advocating a stronger European defense industry.

https://www.lemonde.fr/en/economy/article/2024/01/10/france-s-defense-industry-threatened-by-new-competitors_6418389_19.html

France's defense industry threatened by new competitors

South Korea, Turkey and Israel are formidable competitors for the French military-industrial sector which, despite its strengths and its position as the world's third-largest arms exporter, has a number of shortcomings.

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/11/01/europe-south-korea-weapons-00064427

Better call Seoul: U.S. watches nervously as Europe turns to South Korea for weapons

South Korea is racking up multibillion-dollar defense deals in Europe as Seoul pushes to become a bigger player in international weapons sales.

And it’s causing some jitters in the U.S. defense industry.

https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/01/30/south-korea-europe-k2-tanks-defense-partnerships-germany/

South Korea Could Sweep Up Europe’s Tank Market

Germany’s self-inflicted wound has left defense partners looking for alternatives.