Anti-U.S. base activist lashes out at tactics used in Okinawa

(The Asahi Shimbun) “I felt that long-term detention was meant to intimidate Okinawans,” said Hiroji Yamashiro, chairman the Okinawa Peace Movement Center, in a recent interview with The Asahi Shimbun. Yamashiro was first arrested last October on suspicion of causing damage to property by cutting barbed wire near a construction site for a U.S. military helipad…

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Military nightmare scenario brewing in the East China Sea

(CNBC, Okinawa) From the departure lounge at Naha International Airport on the Japanese island of Okinawa, passengers can easily see what’s going on. Between the regular comings and goings of commercial airliners, first one, then two, then two more F-15 fighter jets streak down the runway that Japanese Air Self Defense Forces (JASDF) share with Naha’s…

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Zombie Nation: In Japan, Zero Public Companies Went Bust in 2016

(Bloomberg) Corporate Japan achieved a rare feat in the fiscal year that ended last week. Not one of its almost 4,000 publicly-traded firms filed for bankruptcy protection. “It’s totally unhealthy,” says Martin Schulz, an economist at Fujitsu Research Institute in Tokyo. “Japan’s business cycle isn’t working. When no old companies go out of business, no new…

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Americans hold very negative views of North Korea amid nuclear tensions

(Pew Research) Roughly two-thirds of Americans (65%) are very concerned about North Korea having nuclear weapons. And 64% say that in the event of a serious conflict, the United States should use military force to defend its Asian allies, such as Japan, South Korea or the Philippines, against the Pyongyang regime, according to a new…

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