In this edition of TPR News, we look at Shinzo Abe’s recent meeting with Japan’s returned abductees from North Korea, LDP Secretary General Hidenao Nakagawa’s recent comments to the cabinet, Scott Callon’s shareholder revolt, a tieup between McDonald’s and DoCoMo, and a short roundup of the Japan blog scene.

Politics

On Sunday, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met with five of Japan’s repatriated abductees and promised them that he would continue to pressure North Korea to resolve the issue. Japan and North Korea are set to begin their first round of bilateral talks in mid-March, with the top of Japan’s agenda being the return of all persons abducted to North Korea. Japan officially claims that 17 of its citizens have been abducted to the reclusive state. North Korea has claimed that 13 were abducted, five returned and the remaining eight are dead, and thus the issue is resolved.

Abe, who has made the return of all abductees one of the platforms of his administration, met with the five returnees for the first time since coming to office in October of last year. In a move to seemingly add a harder line to the upcoming bilateral negotiations, Abe has said that Japan will insist that North Korea hand over two former intelligence officials who are suspected of having instructed an operative to abduct Kaoru and Yukiko Hasuike in 1978. The Hasuike’s are amongst the five people who have been repatriated to Japan since North Korea admitted their kidnapping.

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 TPR News 2/27/07: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Have you given all you can, every penny beyond bare living expenses, to Canada’s War effort?

Didn’t think so.

Perhaps this is because you are in blissful ignorance. You are unaware that the scoundrel Colin Ross has been working for the Nazis. You are unaware of the danger that awaits the apathetic. You are unaware that there are. . .

Nazi Eyes On Canada.

This is the first part of a 1942 CBC series, starring Helen Hayes (Calm down, Gentlemen! Please!), based on the yet untranslated reports of the spy Colin Ross to his Nazi masters, explaining the benefits and methods of a Canadian conquest. Hollywood stars went up to Toronto to talk to real Canadian families via telephone and engage in dramatizations of what would happen if. . .

Nazi Eyes On Canada. . .

became

Nazi Boots On Canada.

(Originally aired on September 20, 1942.)

Japan comes in in episode 4. Vancouver will be in danger then.

Want to hear more?

Nazi Eyes On Canada, part 2, with House Jameson.

Nazi Eyes On Canada, part 3, with Quentin Reynolds.

Nazi Eyes On Canada, part 4, with Vincent Price.

Nazi Eyes On Canada, part 5, hosted by Orson Welles, as are all parts.

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 Nazi Eyes on Canada #1: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

In this edition of Seijigiri, Garrett and Ken go through the agreement reached at the conclusion of the recent Six-Party Talks in Beijing. Starting with the terms of the agreement, they go on to discuss the “Working Groups” that are set to get underway next month, why the supposed rift between the US and Japan is media bunk, and how Japan’s insistence on bringing the abduction issue has been played out in domestic Japanese media.

Perhaps a bit more ironic ‘humor’ than usual is inserted; Rest assured, we don’t actually believe the Asahi Shimbun is the mouthpiece of the North Korean government, and we would most likely trade neither Michael Jordan nor Scottie Pippen to North Korea in exchange for our children’s futures. Or maybe we would…

Articles and links referenced or referred to during this release:

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 Seijigiri #18: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

The following video is narrated by Joaquin Phoenix. I (and others I’ve spoken with) have some problems with a bit of what he says, but I still think the video is worth watching. It is not for the squeamish:

This sort of thing does not happen in ’small towns across Japan,’ to choose but one problem I have with the narration. Nonetheless, the video gives a glimpse into what does go on, and went on last year. At least while I have a forum for stating my own opinion: this type of hunting is wrong and should no longer continue. Humans can do better.

In this edition of TPR News, we look at Tokyo Governor Ishihara Shintaro’s bid for re-election, Japan’s drive to become a permanent member of the UN Security Council, Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhiaoxing’s meeting with Shinzo Abe, and what’s happening to bullies.

Politics

Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhiaoxing met with Prime Minister Abe on Friday and offered China’s help to Japan in resolving the issue of Japanese abducted by North Korea, saying, “I fully understand Japan’s concerns and would like to offer support as much as possible.”

On a less cordial note, Li asked for patience and seriousness in dealing with a dispute over natural gas rights that both countries claim when Abe expressed displeasure of China’s development of gas fields in Japan’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

The Six Party Talks have dominated foreign policy lately, but, rather than touch on such a complex event here, we ask our readers to listen to the forthcoming Seijigiri #18, in which Ken and Garrett will do their best to dissect the talks and figure out who actually got what in the agreement that emerged.

Tokyo Governor Ishihara Shintaro has apparently decided to go it alone. According to “an LDP member in Tokyo,” in mid-January, the LDP decided to offer Ishihara the party’s support in the upcoming Tokyo gubernatorial election after being approached by one of Ishihara’s contacts. However, last Friday, Ishihara denied that the LDP had made such an offer, saying: “I have been working without any party affiliation. I want to keep that as my principle. I will fight in my own way.” Some observers believe that Ishihara may be trying to distance himself from the increasingly unpopular Abe administration. The Asahi Shimbun hints that this story may not yet be over, writing: “A senior LDP Tokyo metropolitan assembly member suggested…that Ishihara, haunted by his own scandals, may eventually seek LDP support.”

(Read on …)

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 TPR News: 2/20/07: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

On this day in 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, which granted US military authorities with the power to declare exclusion zones and to relocate persons of Japanese ancestry. 110,000 people were eventually moved to ten internment camps, including the infamous facilities located at Manzanar.

Before we comment, let’s watch what the US government had to say about the incident at the time:

Most of us know the bare facts concerning what happened, and here is how the US Government explains the incident now: After Roosevelt issues Executive Order 9066, more than 120,000 people, including children and the elderly, were required to leave their homes in California and parts of Washington, Oregon and Arizona. Most of these people did not have time to store or sell their household goods, let alone get a fair price for them. Some people were able to move to other states, but the majority went to internment camps. They were allowed to take very few personal belongings with them, and many families lost virtually everything they owned except what they could carry. The internees then spent many years in the camps, kept behind barbed wire fences with armed guards patrolling them. Entire families often lived in cramped, one room quarters that were poorly constructed. (Based on a text from the US Department of Justice. Edited for grammar and clarity.)

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Editor’s note: TPR’s Alex Pappas recently visited the Japanese Embassy of Canada in Ottawa to have a chat with Embassy Counselor Jun Yanagi concerning Japan’s role in global security, its place in the United Nations, and its bid to become a permanent member of that body’s Security Council. What follows is his report on that meeting.

In 2005 under the leadership of then Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi Japan began its bid along with the countries of India, Germany and Brazil, for permanent seats on the UN Security Council. But good things as it is said do not come so easily to even those who are most eager. And Japan in particular has had a rather difficult run in convincing the world that it too deservers a seat at the round table of international power.

As it inches ever closer to realizing its goal of being a member of an organization that is charged with maintaining peace and security among nations, the country of the rising sun and its leaders are faced with the challenge of convincing the world of its worthiness and simultaneously charged with distancing itself from the uncomfortable memories of its old but not forgotten past.

A little bit of history; On January 17, 1946, the Security Council of the newly formed United Nations held its first meeting at Church House in London England. In attendance were the P5, or rather the Permanent Members of the Security Council who total five nations; France, England, The Soviet Union, the United States, and the Republic of China.

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By now, anyone and everyone who is reading this article or who has had even tangential contact with the news in Japan over the last few weeks is undoubtedly quite familiar with the remarks of Minister of Health, Labor, and Welfare Yanagisawa Hakuo, calling women birthing machines.

From the blogosphere to the Japan Times to respected former Prime Minister Nakasone Yasuhiro, we’ve heard about the trouble Yanagisawa’s remark and its equally awkward follow-up - that healthy couples should want at least two children - have caused. When Yanagisawa irritatedly responded to DPJ Diet member Komiyama Youko’s questioning with “もういいんじゃない,” there were surely a few observers thinking the same thing: enough already.

(Read on …)

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TPR’s Alex Pappas recently sat down with Jun Yanagi, Counselor to the Embassy of Japan in Canada, for a conversation about Japan’s role in the world, the United Nations in the post-Cold War world, the United Nations Security Council, and Japan’s bid to become a permanent member of that body.

We’ll be releasing Alex’s piece on their meeting soon, so stay tuned!

First, we owe a huge thanks to James at Japan Probe for finding this video at You Tube. Second, we recommend that if you enjoy it, please buy a copy; the DVD of Japan’s War is available from the Discovery Channel for a mere $9.95.

According to the Discovery Channel:

Until recently it was believed that no color film of Japan existed prior to 1945. Specialist research unearthed remarkable color record dating back to the 1930s including imperial Japanese troops in Manchuria, meetings with Adolf Hitler, the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor and more…

Using never-before-seen footage, this documentary tells a previously untold story recounting the history of the Second World War from a Japanese perspective.

Combining original color film with letters and diaries written by Japanese people, this is the inside story of a nation at war from the diverse perspectives of those who lived through it – the leaders and the ordinary people, the oppressors and the victims, the guilty and the innocent.

Here is Part 1, a ten minute excerpt of the beginning of the program:

Part 2, a second ten minute excerpt:

The full DVD runs 2 hours and 31 minutes and according to the Discovery Channel’s product information page, includes these features:

• The Last Bomb – a 35 minute U.S. government film including reconstruction and original color footage
• Exclusive color footage showing the Battle for Iwo Jima, the devastation caused to Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the dropping of atomic bombs and scenes from post-war Japan
• Restoring Film – a segment illustrating the complex process to restore film to its original quality
• The Power of Sound – a piece on composer Chris Elliot with extracts revealing the importance of sound and a sample of five original Chris Elliot tracks
• Interactive maps
• The diary of a Japanese solider
• Photo gallery