🇨🇳🇰🇷🇯🇵 China, South Korea oppose Japan PM's ritual offering to Yasukuni war shrine

China has lodged representations with Japan over Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s ritual offering to the Yasukuni Shrine, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said.

South Korea’s Foreign Ministry also protested Kishida’s ritual offering. “The Korean government urges responsible figures in Japan to face its history and show humble introspection and true remorse for the past with its action,” a spokesperson said.

The Japan Times reported that Kishida sent a ritual offering to the shrine in relation to the start of a spring festival on Friday.

The Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo is seen in China and South Korea as a symbol of Japan’s former military aggression, honoring Class-A World War II criminals, who were found responsible by killing thousands of Chinese and Korean people.

#China #SouthKorea #Japan

@asianomics

🇫🇷🇯🇵 France, Japan sign nuclear partnership deal

France and Japan have signed a nuclear cooperation agreement in Paris.

The joint declaration pledges to deepen and accelerate ties in the research and development of next-generation nuclear such as sodium-cooled fast reactors.

French Energy Minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher met Yasutoshi Nishimura, Japan's minister of trade, economy and industry, and they discussed accelerating technical cooperation on the nuclear fuel cycle, and working to build a supply chain involving only countries sharing "common values" — a reference to Russia's outsized role in the sector.

#France #Japan

@asianomics

🇯🇵🇲🇿 Japan pledges to help Mozambique fight terrorism

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida says his country is ready to assist Mozambique in the fight against terrorism. The Japanese PM is visiting Mozambique as part of his six-day tour.

He said Japan was interested in financing the fight against terrorism in northern Cabo Delgado province, which would allow Japanese companies that are part of the consortiums exploiting natural gas in the Rovuma basin, to operate in a safe environment.

Kishida and Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi spoke of a need for Japanese private investment in “structural areas” of the economy, with a view to concrete results in bilateral co-operation.

#Japan #Mozambique

@africaintel

🇯🇵🇺🇦 Zelenskiy arrives in Japan

Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskiy arrived in Japan on Saturday to attend the Group of Seven (G7) summit.

Footage from Japanese broadcasters showed the Ukrainian president stepping down to the tarmac moving quickly to a waiting car.

#Japan #Ukraine

@asianomics

🇯🇵🇰🇷🇺🇸 Japan, US, South Korea discuss sharing of North Korea missile data

Japan, the United States and South Korea are negotiating an agreement on sharing real-time data on North Korean missile launches amid growing nuclear and missile threats from the North.

Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said there has been no agreement yet, but “I understand that defense authorities are vigorously proceeding to set up an arrangement.”

Japan and South Korea are both key US allies and their cooperation is key to Washington’s security strategy in the Indo-Pacific as tensions in the region grow.

#Japan #SouthKorea #USA

@asianomics

🇰🇷🇯🇵 Japan, South Korea partnership funds to go to chips, energy

Top business leaders from Japan and South Korea announced they will use a fund meant to underscore the two countries’ burgeoning ties to strengthen their cooperation in energy, industry and other sectors.

Japan Business Federation and the Federation of Korean Industry announced a fund of $1.5 million in March. The money comes from an initial installment of $750 000 from each side to complement efforts initiated by South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol’s government to resolve a historical dispute over Japanese brutality.

The two groups selected specific areas of joint projects for the Future Partnership funds, focusing on youth exchanges and industrial cooperation. Areas of focus include semiconductor supply chain resiliency, energy security, maintaining the free and open international order, and climate change, among others.

#SouthKorea #Japan

@asianomics

🇰🇷🇯🇵🇺🇸 South Korea-US-Japan to hold summit in Hiroshima

President Yoon Suk-yeol will hold a meeting with US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on the sidelines of the upcoming Group of Seven summit to be held in Hiroshima, Japan, to discuss ways to cooperate on North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats.

The summit is anticipated to be hold on May 21, the last day of the G7 meetings.

The trilateral summit comes six months since the three leaders' meeting in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, in November last year. It marks the third such meeting since Yoon took office in May last year.

#SouthKorea #Japan #USA

@asianomics

🇯🇵🇺🇸🇦🇺🇵🇭 Japan, US, Australia eye ship deployment to Philippines for drill

Japan, the United States and Australia are considering sending their vessels carrying aircraft to the Philippines to conduct a trilateral naval drill next week in the South China Sea.

The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force has decided to send its largest destroyer, the Izumo, which is set to become a de facto aircraft carrier after undergoing additional renovation slated to begin next year or 2025.

The Royal Australian Navy will deploy its amphibious assault ship Canberra, while the US Navy is expected to send its amphibious assault ship America.

The exercise comes amid tensions between China and the Philippines after a Chinese coast guard vessel fired a water cannon at a Philippine military-chartered boat.

#Japan #USA #Australia #ThePhilippines

@asianomics

🇨🇳🇺🇸🇯🇵🇰🇷 China blasts US-Japan-South Korea summit

China is renewing its criticism of this weekend’s summit among the leaders of the US, Japan and South Korea, saying no country should “seek its own security at the expense of the security interests of others and of regional peace and stability.”

“The international community has its own judgment as to who is creating contradictions and increasing tensions,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin told reporters.

Beijing has made clear the current rapprochement between South Korea and Japan was something it very much did not want to see and its top diplomat, Wang Yi, last month made an appeal to racial-cultural similarities between Chinese, Japanese and Koreans as an alternative to partnering with the West.

#China #USA #Japan #SouthKorea

@asianomics

🌑🇯🇵 Japan next to shoot for moon after Russia and India missions

Japan will be the latest country to aim for the moon this weekend, just days after a Russian spacecraft collided with the lunar surface and India’s Chandrayaan-3 landed near its south pole.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA) H2-A rocket is scheduled to take off on Sunday morning from Tanegashima Space Centre in southern Japan.

Success could provide the thrust JAXA badly needs to begin rebuilding its battered reputation after a series of costly setbacks over the past year. They include several launch failures that derailed both the introduction of a next-generation rocket and the agency’s first attempt to launch commercial satellites.

#Japan

@asianomics

🇯🇵🇨🇳 Japan scrambles jets to monitor Chinese bombers

Japan's defense ministry on Friday said it scrambled jet fighters to monitor two Chinese air force bombers flying between Okinawa and Miyako islands in the morning.

The Chinese H-6 bombers were spotted flying through the strait between southwest Japan's Okinawa and Miyako islands, the ministry said. Okinawa is home to one of the major US military bases in Asia-Pacific.

This may be a part of the drills, that China conducted today.

#Japan #China

@asianomics

🇯🇵 Japan begins releasing Fukushima treated radioactive water into sea

Japan started discharging treated radioactive water from the wrecked Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant into the sea.

The water discharge commenced around 1 p.m. Japanese time.

The water will be diluted with seawater to one-40th of the concentration permitted under Japanese safety standards before being discharged via an underwater tunnel 1 kilometer from the plant.

#Japan

@asianomics

🇺🇸🇯🇵 US reaffirms support for Japan's release of treated water

The United States reaffirmed its support for the release of treated radioactive water from Japan's destroyed nuclear power plant in Fukushima, calling it safe and transparent.

Matthew Miller, spokesperson for the Department of State, also said the US is happy with the level of transparency Japan has shown in the lead up to the release.

The statement, however, comes amid concerns and opposition from Japan's neighboring countries, as well as its own fishing population, that the release of treated water into the Pacific Ocean may have a long-term, irreversible impact on the environment and people.

#USA #Japan

@asianomics

#Indonesia 🇮🇩 / #WestPapua: A recently-posted photo of a West Papua National Liberation Army (#TPNPB) fighter displays a noteable machine gun.

The fighter is posing with a historic Type 92 (九二式重機関銃) heavy machine gun; made by #Japan 🇯🇵 and chambered in 7.7x58mm.

It was very likely taken from the old Indonesian Army stocks.

https://twitter.com/war_noir/status/1696155263907103086

🇯🇵🇨🇳 China's Fukushima-linked seafood ban is unacceptable, Japan tells WTO

Japan has told the World Trade Organization (WTO) that China's ban on Japanese seafood after the release of treated water from the Fukushima nuclear plant was "totally unacceptable", the Japanese foreign ministry said.

In a counterargument to China's August 31 notification to WTO on its measures to suspend Japanese aquatic imports, which started last month, Japan said it would explain its positions in relevant WTO committees and urged China to immediately repeal the action.

Some Japanese officials have signaled the country may file a WTO complaint, which the US ambassador to Japan said last week the United States would support.

#Japan #China

@asianomics

🇯🇵🇨🇳 China rejects Japan's suggestion of joining Fukushima water framework

China has rejected Japan's proposal that it join an international verification framework for assessing the results of radiation level monitoring in treated water being released into the sea from Fukushima nuclear power plant.

Under the framework, participating countries will compare, analyze and evaluate the results of the monitoring carried out respectively by the Japanese government and the International Atomic Energy Agency on seawater off Fukushima Prefecture, northeastern Japan.

Since early this year, Tokyo has repeatedly asked Beijing through diplomatic channels to participate in the monitoring efforts, but has had its requests rejected by China under the argument that the framework "does not guarantee" independent analysis of the released water.

#Japan #China

@asianomics

🇯🇵🇨🇳 Japan PM speaks to China's Li about radioactive water release

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said he explained Japan's stance on the release of treated radioactive water from the Fukushima nuclear plant to Chinese Premier Li Qiang on the sidelines of a regional meeting in Indonesia.

Kishida told reporters he spoke briefly with Li ahead of a session at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Jakarta.

Kishida avoided commenting directly on whether he had sought the ban on aquatic imports to be lifted during his talk with Li, repeating that he had explained Japan's position. He added nothing had been decided on whether he would talk with Li again on the sidelines of the Group of 20 (G20) summit later this week.

#Japan #China

@asianomics