[Renkinjutsushi]

Thats pretty weird to read that its actually colder in Okinawa than here in Florida....I hope you guys keep warm over there since your not used to it.

These past two days have been extremely cold for Okinawa! I recorded the lowest temperatures in at least 2 years. The low was 45 F (7 C) and with the wind, it felt like 21 F (-6 C). These kinds of temperatures are almost unheard of in Okinawa, especially in MARCH!

Poor future R18 kids :laugh:

 

[maxxam80]

These past two days have been extremely cold for Okinawa! I recorded the lowest temperatures in at least 2 years. The low was 45 F (7 C) and with the wind, it felt like 21 F (-6 C). These kinds of temperatures are almost unheard of in Okinawa, especially in MARCH!

any pics?

 

[okinawatyphoon]

any pics?

pics....of what? i said the temperature was 7 C and with the wind it FEELS like -6 C. what pics are you looking for? people with jackets on?

 

[Tom_Green]

These past two days have been extremely cold for Okinawa! I recorded the lowest temperatures in at least 2 years. The low was 45 F (7 C) and with the wind, it felt like 21 F (-6 C). These kinds of temperatures are almost unheard of in Okinawa, especially in MARCH!

We have the same problem in Europe. -26°C in the north of Spain. -43°C near a lake in Germany and this in the end of February. If i look out of the window snows lie and we have around 0°C. This is not common. Maybe something bigger is going on in the climate. Maybe we have the next ice age and nowbody know this

 

[Isan]

OKA, same as Hawaii and therefore the cold weather is unlikely to be happened here

 

[Isan]

Japan calls China anti-Japanese rally 'extremely regrettable'

Japan called an anti-Japanese rally in Beijing that broke windows at its embassy "extremely regrettable" and called on China to ensure Japanese residents' safety amid rising tension between the countries.

Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Shotaro Yachi on Saturday expressed the government's regrets to a Chinese diplomat in Tokyo, Cheng Yonghua, who said he would forward the message to Beijing, a foreign ministry statement said.

Yachi said that demonstrators pelted the embassy in Beijing with bottles and stones, breaking the window glass.

"It is extremely regrettable that this kind of damage was done to our country's embassy," Yachi, the top bureaucrat in the foreign ministry, told Cheng, according to the statement.

Protesters pelted the embassy with bottles and cans, hurled rocks into the windows of a Japanese restaurant and ran amok in front of the Japanese ambassador's residence.

Up to 10,000 people initially joined the demonstration, called to protest Japan's treatment of its wartime past and its bid for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.

"We strongly call on (China) to take appropriate measures urgently to secure the safety of the embassy while keeping thorough guard on our other diplomatic missions in China to prevent a recurrence," he said.

"We also renew our strong request that (China) take thorough guard and other necessary measures to ensure the safety of Japanese nationals and normal operations of Japanese companies," he said.

The police deployed a heavy presence throughout Beijing during the demonstration. There were minor scuffles with protesters in an apparent attempt to keep traffic going, but there were no overt attempts to stop the march.

Japan ignited a fresh row with China on Tuesday by authorizing for school use a nationalist-written history textbook that Beijing says glosses over Japanese wartime atrocities.

The Asian neighbors have increasingly been at loggerheads over Japan's bloody World War II occupation of China and a dispute over scarce energy resources.

At the same time, trade has skyrocketed. China overtakook the United States as Japan's top commercial partner in 2004 as firms eye China's vast labor pool and emerging middle-class consumer market.

The foreign ministry reported April 1 that the number of Japanese people living in China shot up by 28.5 percent year-on-year in 2004, with Shanghai now having the third biggest Japanese expatriate population following New York and Los Angeles.

 

[coldstar]

thanx, but we should not discuss anti-Japan riots in China ignited by the government there, IMO.
(cause maybe every Japanese has anti-China sentiments in common. no need to talk about more)

 

[Isan]

Japanese gain joint control of future military crash sites
: April 6, 2005

Japanese authorities will have a strong voice the next time an American aircraft crashes.

The two governments have agreed to new rules on who does what at a crash scene. The decisions come in the wake of an August 2004 crash of a U.S. Marine Corps helicopter in Ginowan, and the American denial of access to Japanese authorities.

Japanese officials now have limited access to any crash scene, and will be in charge of establishing outer perimeter cordons. In the Ginowan incident, Japanese were not allowed near the crash site. The American military will maintain primary jurisdiction over the sites. The agreement also directs that the two governments will jointly establish inner perimeter cordons, and that both countries will be responsible for controlling the media.
Japanese police will now be in charge of safety near any crash site, and will oversee traffic controls.

Media access to crash sites will be more efficiently controlled under the new agreement, with both sides having representatives available to deal with them. Limited numbers of media will be allowed escorted access into the crash site areas.

A new policy on sharing information was instituted, particularly regarding potentially dangerous cargo aboard a downed aircraft or helicopter. The agreement did not address Japanese demands they be allowed to conduct independent investigations at the crash sites.

Following the Ginowan crash of a CH-53D helicopter last August, American authorities denied Japanese requests to conduct their own investigation until almost a week after the incident. Three crewmen were injured in that crash on the Okinawa International University campus, but nobody was killed either on the ground or aboard the helicopter.

Japan’s Foreign Minister agrees with the Americans that it must have jurisdiction and control, particularly when classified information is involved. Nobutaka Machimura says the U.S. will initiate the investigations, then share information with Japanese authorities. Close cooperation between the two sides is the key, the foreign minister emphasized.

 

[TRZ]

I really hate the garbag ethe US Military pulls sometimes. If a craft goes down on Japanese soil, it is under Japan's authority, end of stroy. The US can shove it up their ass. They're not wanted in Okinawa, or anywhere in Japan. The government is afraid to get rid of them (partly for good reason, but not enough of an excuse to do as little as they are doing IMO).

 

[Isan]

JAPAN FTA: Cut steel tariffs or else, carmakers warn
Published on April 12, 2005

Thaksin hints at gradual approach on Japanese steel imports

Heads of Japan’s automobile and auto-part associations warned Thailand yesterday carmakers might pull out of Bt41 billion worth of planned investments here if it fails to cut tariffs on steel and vehicles under a bilateral trade agreement.

Speaking after meeting with Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, Japan Automobile Association (JAMA) chairman Itaru Koeda said a gradual tariff cut didn’t make sense to Japan.

“Some of the Bt41 billion is planned for after the FTA succeeds. But if Thai tariffs on Japanese auto parts and vehicles aren’t reduced to zero, some of them may consider going to other countries,” said Koeda. He declined to specify which countries they might have in mind.

Koeda cited a recent survey among members of the JAMA and the Japan Auto Parts Industries Association (JAPIA) that showed that an estimated Bt41 billion or more was expected to be invested in the near future. Speaking through an interpreter, he declined to specify any timeframe for the investment.

JAMA-member assemblers and JAIPA parts-suppliers currently provide about 122,000 jobs in Thailand.

In a separate interview, Thaksin said the government would have to consider the overall impact before deciding to cut tariffs.

“What we are worried about now is that the Japanese want the same preferential tariffs that we give to Australia under the FTA. But if we give it to Japan, European and American producers won’t be happy about it,” he said.

Thaksin said the government might consider gradually cutting tariffs on Japanese steel imports to cushion the impact on local industries.

Koeda, however, implied that offer might not be good enough. “We don’t want to interfere with the Thai decision. But zero tariffs will improve the competitiveness of Thai producers,” he said.

JAIPA chairman and Denso Corporation chairman Hiromu Okabe said the end of tariffs didn’t mean Japanese producers would stop developing industries in Thailand.

“The auto industries require the complexity of supporting industries in second-tier or third-tier industries. We are keen to develop these industries with Thailand. Zero tariffs will make our products more competitive,” Okabe said.

He said the products that they want to produce here included the steel used in diesel rail vehicles. “We are aware of the concerns of Thai industries, but they can’t produce products that we need.”

Asked if the decision to end tariffs on Japanese steel might anger American and European cars, Okabe said that, “most western car companies make luxury cars here by assembling parts. They didn’t develop local supporting industries,” he said.

Koeda said governments should consider consumers’ benefits first, adding that consumers would prefer a variety of choices. For instance, he said Western-made luxury cars had 30 per cent market share of the luxury-car market in Japan in 2002. “Western cars will never disappear from Thailand,” he said.

Koeda said Japanese manufacturers had helped develop Thai exports, citing figures from 2003. Japan exported US$2.2 billion (Bt87 billion) of auto parts out of some $2.8 billion worth of auto parts and automobile exports from Thailand. Over the same period, Thailand produced and exported about $8 billion of finished vehicles produced here, $3.7 billion of which was exported abroad, including to Japan.

Asked about Thaksin’s response to his request, Koeda said that first, Thaksin told him that as the Thai premier, he had to make an agreement that would be beneficial for both sides. Secondly, Koeda said he got the impression Thaksin was interested in the reports his team presented.

Jeerawat Na Thalang

The Nation

 

[Isan]

Japan donates $100m to Sudan

Tokyo - Japan will offer $100m in aid to Sudan to help rebuild the vast African nation following a peace deal that ended its 21-year north-south civil war, a government official said Monday.

"We plan to actively implement $100m of aid for the time being," the foreign ministry spokesperson said.

Details of the pledge will be announced by Senior Vice Foreign Minister Ichiro Aisawa in Norway where a donors conference begins on Monday, she said.

The Mainichi Shimbun newspaper said on Monday that Japan agreed on the aid because it judged it needed to show it cared deeply about Africa as it is bidding for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.

Japan has in recent years reduced its aid budget, long a key tool of its foreign policy, as it takes a global role in other ways such as a military mission in Iraq.

But earlier reports said Japan has decided Sudan is too risky to contribute UN peacekeeping troops, ruling against a mission that would have marked a new breakthrough for the officially pacifist country.

Sudan's government and rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement in the country's south signed a peace accord in January ending two decades of strife that claimed about 1,5 million lives.

A separate bloody conflict is ongoing in Darfur in the west.

Japan has about 600 troops in Iraq on a humanitarian mission in its first military deployment since 1945 to a country where there is active fighting.

Japan sent about 950 troops to Indonesia this year for tsunami relief in its biggest post-World War 2 deployment and disbursed $500m in aid after the disaster.

11/04/2005 08:20 - (SA)

 

[Isan]

US Senator:Won't Sanction Japan Despite Delay On Beef Ban

04-12-05 07:28 PM EST

OMAHA, Neb. (AP)--U.S. Sen. Ben Nelson said Tuesday that he wouldn't impose sanctions against Japan but that he's frustrated by Japan's failure to lift its ban on U.S. beef.

The Nebraska Democrat criticized Japan for its lengthy deliberations on ending the ban. It was imposed 15 months ago out of fear the beef products could be tainted with bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE.

Nelson, speaking to reporters in a conference call, said Japan's delay in reopening its border is unreasonable. He pointed out that the U.S. has had only one incident of BSE, and it was caught before it entered the food supply.

"Stops were put in place to correct this for the future," he said.

Japan has found more than a dozen BSE-tainted cows in its domestic supply, Nelson said, so it should take advantage of the safe U.S. system.

"There is no excuse for this to drag on," he said.

The House is considering sanctions against Japan, the senator said, but that " is the last thing that I want to see done."

His Nebraska Senate colleague, Republican Chuck Hagel, met last week with the new U.S. ambassador to Japan, J. Thomas Schieffer, asking him to press the Japanese.

Hagel was among several members of Congress who met with Japan's U.S. ambassador in March. The delegation made it clear to the ambassador that if the issue were not resolved soon, Congress would be forced to take action against Japan, Hagel said.

Japan was importing an estimated $1.7 billion worth of U.S. beef products before it imposed the ban in December 2003, after the BSE-tainted animal turned up in Washington state, imported from Canada.

On another trade matter, Nelson said he was "perplexed" by the pending Central American Free Trade Agreement.

"Some ag interests think they will benefit," he said.

But sugar producers fear that dropping protective tariffs and quotas, as called for in the agreement, will severely damage the U.S. market.

"If sugar were diverted into ethanol production, that would be OK," Nelson said.

But corn producers need not worry about how that could harm them, he said, if the pending Fuels Security Act is approved. If it is, he said, "There will be a lot more corn ground."

One result of the bill would be a doubling of renewable-fuels production by 2012.

He said he still hasn't made up his mind on how he'll vote.

"I'm looking for options for sugar folks," he said.

Dow Jones Newswires

 

[Isan]

Thai visitors ashamed of national pavilion
PREEYANAT PHANAYANGGOOR

Aichi, Japan _ The Thai Pavilion at the World Exposition 2005 in Aichi, Japan, has become a target of criticism for many Thai visitors who entered with the expectation of a lively presentation from the Land of Smiles but emerged disappointed that it had no theme and lacked a Thai identity.

The 200-million-baht Thai Pavilion is under the supervision of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment which subcontracted the construction and decoration to the media firm JSL Co Ltd under the concept of ``Siamese Balance'' to coincide with the Expo 2005 theme of ``Nature's Wisdom''.

The 972-square-metre exhibition is divided into seven zones.

Zone 1 hosts a multimedia presentation on the theme of ``earth-water-air-fire''. Zone 2 exhibits natural biodiversity while Zone 3 presents the kingdom as the kitchen of the world.

Zone 4 shows off the wealth of cultural and natural resources in Thailand and Zone 5 showcases royal projects and the Thai-Japanese friendship. The last two zones present the One Tambon One Product scheme and the kitchen of THAI Airways International.

The Expo runs from March 25 to Sept 25 this year.

Complaints about the Thai Pavilion, particularly from Thai visitors, ranged from the lack of any proper theme or Thai identity to the dimness of the pavilion with no eye-catching design on the exterior.

This made it less attractive to visitors than nearby pavilions, including those from Cambodia and Indonesia, they said.

Cambodia had built a model of Angkor Wat and Indonesia had an ethnic-style jungle house in front of its entrance.

Visitors also complained about the unattractiveness of the THAI kitchen and the Otop showroom, saying the kitchen with its dim lighting was hidden at the exit door which made it difficult to see from the outside while the beautiful Otop products were not even for sale.

Boonsong Uharasami, a Thai tourist who was very upset with what he saw, said the Thai Pavilion was a major embarrassment for the country. Many visitors, particularly Japanese, expected to learn as much about Thailand as they did about other countries at their pavilions but came out wondering what it was all about, Mr Boonsong said.

The poorly-organised pavilion demonstrated clearly that Thai officials had not made enough of an effort to use the opportunity to show off Thailand to the Japanese and the world, he said.

Sorot Kunkrue, director of the Thai Pavilion from the Environmental Quality Promotion Department, said he had received many complaints from visitors and already forwarded them to JSL, asking the firm to modify the pavilion.

However, not everything inside the pavilion was a disappointment. The Thai local wisdom zone exhibited more than 50 varieties of Thai herbs in a drawer display, which invited Japanese visitors to pull out the drawers to smell and view the herbs, such as leech lime and galinga, which they were familiar with as ingredients in Thai food. Information on how to use the herbs for food and in traditional medicine was also available.

 

[Isan]

JAL pilot arrested for sex with schoolgirl
Thursday 21st April, 2005 (UPI)

Tokyo police have arrested a Japan Airlines pilot for having sex with a teenage prostitute, the Mainichi Shimbun reported Thursday.

Shigenobu Osuga, 50, was arrested for breaking the law banning child prostitution by paying the 17-year-old schoolgirl for sex.

A computer seized from the pilot's Yokohama home contained indecent images of a variety of other girls.

We've created an awful nuisance and apologize deeply, a spokesman for Japan Airlines said. We await the result of the police investigation and will deal with the matter severely.

Police said that Osuga paid the girl about $120 for sex in a hotel in Sagamihara, Kanagawa prefecture, Aug. 2. The pair had come into contact July 28 through an online matchmaking site.

 

[coldstar]

MUJI said today it had just decided to open its first store in Shanghai in this July in order to replace and banish tons of China's fake MUJI shops from Hong Kong. Hong Kong's false MUJI uses the identical company logo of the authentic MUJI without authoritation, and bogus MUJI's goods are quite poor in quality. What a shame! :sleepy:

pics of original MUJI
Tokyo

Paris

London

Stockholm

New York

 

[coldstar]

BTW, this is MUMU, Korean copy. :sleepy:

compare
true MUJI

 

[raymond_tung88]

What's MUJI?

 

[hyacinthus]

Guess you seldom do shopping

 

[Pangu]

BTW, this is MUMU, Korean copy. :sleepy:

compare
true MUJI

I don't know what the Hong Kong copy looks like as you didn't provide any images nor am I familiar with "Muji", but this Korean one doesn't look like a copy to me.

Mumu and Muji are quite different. Also, the Chinese characters are different too.

 

[hyacinthus]

guess he probably meant Mumu "copies" Muji's idea of "no brand".