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http://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message2353076/pg1?regp=bm9fMTQxOTQxNzIwOQ==
'Lighten up,' French magazine tells Japan after Fukushima cartoon complaint.. SEE?
Await the blanket bans and indictments now the IOC are on board.. mark my words....
NATIONAL SEP. 13, 2013 - 06:45AM JST ( 39 ) 'Lighten up,' French magazine tells Japan after Fukushima cartoon complaint A man reads a Japanese newspaper that republished the cartoons in Tokyo, on September 12, 2013 AFP PARIS — A French satirical weekly on Thursday shrugged off Japanese outrage over cartoons mocking the decision to award the 2020 Olympics to Tokyo despite the Fukushima nuclear crisis. Japan angrily denounced the cartoons and said it would lodge a formal complaint with Le Canard Enchaine. But the popular weekly said it took “responsibility for the cartoons without the slightest soul-searching” and complained that the Japanese lacked a sense of humor and that they should lighten up. One cartoon showed sumo wrestlers with extra limbs competing in front of a crippled nuclear plant. A sports commentator says: “Marvellous, thanks to Fukushima, sumo wrestling has become an Olympic sport.” Another image showed two people standing in front of a pool of water while wearing nuclear protection suits and holding a Geiger counter, saying water sport facilities had already been built at Fukushima. Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said the satirical jabs give the wrong impression about the country. The government has repeatedly claimed the accident and its waste water problem are under control and should not affect the Olympics. [end snip] [link to www.japantoday.com] May as well get them in while I can...... this is beyond stupid....     |
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https://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/news/olympic-games-japan-upset-french-cartoon-linking-fukushima-043217268--spt.html
Olympic Games - Japan upset by French cartoon linking Fukushima to Olympics
Japan is to formally complain about a cartoon that appeared in a French weekly newspaper showing sumo wrestlers with extra limbs in front of the Fukushima nuclear plant and linking this to the Olympics.
View photo
The Tokyo Stadium, one of the proposed Olympic stadiums for the 2020 Summer Olympic games (Reuters)
Tokyo won the right to host the 2020 summer Olympic Games after overcoming concerns about leaking radioactive water at the stricken Fukushima plant north of Tokyo, with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe assuring the International Olympic Committee that the situation was "under control".
The cartoon, carried in the satirical Le Canard Enchaine, shows two sumo wrestlers, each with an extra leg or arm, facing off with the Fukushima plant in the background as an announcer says, "Thanks to Fukushima, sumo is now an Olympic sport."
Another cartoon shows people in protective gear by the side of a pool, the Tokyo Shimbun daily reported.
"This cartoon hurts the feelings of those who suffered through the Great East Japan Earthquake," said Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, referring to the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami that wrecked the Fukushima nuclear plant, triggering the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.
"It is inappropriate and gives a wrong impression of the Fukushima contaminated water issue. It is extremely regrettable."
Suga said Japan would lodge the complaint through the French embassy in Tokyo and that the Foreign Ministry had been directed to "thoroughly explain the situation" to avoid similar incidents.
Japan was angered last year after a French broadcaster used a composite picture that showed Japanese national football team goalie Eiji Kawashima with four arms and the caption "Fukushima Effect" about a save he made in a game between the two nations.
The broadcaster subsequently apologised.
Japan was chosen as host for the 2020 Olympics, beating out Madrid and Istanbul despite the issues posed by the Fukushima plant, some 230 km from Tokyo.
The crisis shows no signs of ending. The operator of the plant said on Wednesday that levels of tritium - considered one of the least harmful radioactive elements - spiked more than 15 times in groundwater near a leaked tank over three days this week.
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Fukushima: PM Shinzo Abe visits plant amid leak concerns
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-24059901
19 September 2013 Last updated at 09:42 GMT
Fukushima: PM Shinzo Abe visits plant amid leak concerns
Japan PM visits Fukushima nuclear plant
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Shinzo Abe Cartoon
https://www.google.co.jp/search?hl=ja&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1536&bih=714&q=shinzo+abe+cartoon&oq=Abe+Cartoon&gs_l=img.1.1.0i19j0i5i19l3.2616.9419.0.13574.5.5.0.0.0.0.98.404.5.5.0.msedr...0...1ac.1j2.60.img..2.3.263.rECezOGhyDo#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=nedhfwULjap1OM%253A%3BsKCpC--IIh3VPM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.cartoonmovement.com%252Fdepot%252Fcartoons%252F2013%252F12%252F3XbPc0sDSg2kC_YH2pSivg.jpeg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.cartoonmovement.com%252Fcartoon%252F12886%3B746%3B560
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http://www.cartoonmovement.com/cartoon/12886
Browsing All Pitches
Pitch Shinzo Abe's Abenomics
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visits Yasukuni Shrine to promote his right-wing “Abenomics"
26 Dec 2013
26 Dec 2013
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Time for Abe to show real leadership
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/China-Japan-Relations/2013-12/26/content_17198794.htm
Updated: 2013-12-26 07:37
By Martin Sieff ( China Daily)
Time for Abe to show real leadership
The first year of Shinzo Abe's second term as Japan's prime minister was a domestic political triumph, but his country has paid an enormously high price for it in its long-term economic policy and standing in Northeast Asia. Prospects for peaceful cooperation and understanding in the region have taken a battering which will take years to repair.
In domestic politics, Abe broke the curse of every failed, toothless prime minister since Junichiro Koizumi retired after a full five-year term back in 2009. Abe won a successful Upper House election, restoring his long-moribund Liberal Democratic Party to a commanding majority there for the first time since 2007. His stimulus spending policies have given a short-term and badly needed boost to the Japanese economy. And Japan's success in winning the main 2020 Summer Olympic Games for Tokyo has restored a swagger and confidence to his people they had not experienced since the start of their long economic stagnation a quarter century ago.
However, these successes have come at a fearful price, both domestically and economically. Abe's deficit-stimulus spending program recalls the reckless policies that drove Britain to ruin in the 1960s and 1970s under the long-discredited governments of Harold Wilson and Edward Heath.
On Dec 21, Abe won the approval of his LDP and New Komeito coalition government ministers for a record 95.88 trillion yen ($918.2 billion) budget for the coming fiscal year starting on April 1, 2014. It will boost spending on social security, defense and public works. At the same time, Abe remains publicly confident he can slash Japan's more than $10 trillion public debt, which is more than 200 percent the country's $5 trillion annual GDP, by far the highest burden of any nation in the industrialized world.
For all his promises to magically cut government spending, Abe in his first year was notorious for taking no tough decisions on economic restructuring or cost-cutting whatsoever. Instead, the government budget deficit rose in November 2013 by 35.1 percent compared with the same month in 2012 to a 1.29 trillion yen ($12.6 billion) deficit, the worst result ever for November and the 17th straight month of deficit.
Now Japan's headstrong, hard-charging prime minister is about to implement the "third arrow" of his Abenomics strategy - his economic restructuring program. If he is serious about this, it will badly hurt vested interests who have long supported his LDP and erode the popular support he has enjoyed. Yet Abe has only succeeded so far because of the short-term recovery under the stimulus of his big spending, not because of his hawkish stance.
Abe's neo-nationalistic policies have proven catastrophic for Japan with its two closest and most important neighbors, China and South Korea. Nearly 70 years after the end of World War II, he has single-handedly fanned fears of another era of Japanese expansion in both Beijing and Seoul.
This is an extraordinarily reckless and harmful "achievement." Because of Abe's diplomatic and military policies, not only have Sino-Japanese relations gone from bad to worse, but the drift between Japan and South Korea has widened. It is widely expected Abe may visit Yasukuni Shrine on Dec 26. That would once again sour Japan's ties with the countries it invaded in the past.
For all his rhetoric about providing leadership, Abe's first year in power was defined by a total failure to do so in economic affairs and foreign policy. He has yet to prove he is serious about taming the horrendous public deficit which threatens not only Japan but the entire world. And he continues to court the support of fringe extreme nationalistic elements at home. He has not shown statesmanship and leadership in telling his supporters why Japan cannot ignore the concerns of its neighbors and deny its own terrible history.
It is not too late for Japan or its leader. Abe could take a New Year's resolution to make his second year in office far different from his first. He could use his secure majority in both houses of parliament to finally attack the public debt mountain and cut it down to size. He could courageously slash government spending.
In foreign affairs, Abe could abandon his rhetoric of self-righteous denial about past war crimes and apologize for them instead. Japan needs China's booming market to maintain its own export strength. And it needs to peacefully and amicably resolve its bitter dispute with China over the Diaoyu Islands. Abe could learn a valuable lesson from South Korea's President Park Geun-hye who paid a successful visit to Beijing in June 2013.
Taking these steps will require character and courage. Japan's neighbors hope its leader will be worthy of the challenge.
The author is chief global analyst for The Globalist and a senior fellow of the American University in Moscow. He is the author of Shifting Superpowers: The New and Emerging Relationship between the United States, China and India.
(China Daily 12/26/2013 page9)
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The gamble that is Abenomics
By Xu Changwen (China Daily)
Updated: 2013-06-07 08:13
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Wednesday fired the third arrow of "Abenomics" by promising to relax rules governing the sales of non-prescription drugs and allow selected cities to experiment with lower taxes and deregulation.
After being sworn in as prime minister at the end of 2012, Abe introduced "Abenomics" in an attempt to tide over the country's economic troubles. Abenomics includes "three arrows": quantitative easing, positive fiscal policies to stimulate demand and creation of sustainable growth.
The first two arrows, the depreciation of Japanese yen and a 2 percent rise in consumer prices index, have already been shot. The exchange ratio of the US dollar against yen increased from 1:80 to 1:101.52 on May 24, and then fell to 1:99.95 on June 5. Last year, the International Monetary Fund set the ratio at 1:100.47, while the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development insisted that 1:103.9 was a more realistic ratio. So the ratio is close to Western economists' estimate.
The primary reason for the depreciation of the yen is the huge supply of banknotes. According to Bank of Japan data, the supply of money in the country will increase by 132 trillion yen to 270 trillion yen by the end of 2014.
The immediate impact of the yen's depreciation has been the increase in the value of some Asian countries' currencies against the yen. For example, the value of the Chinese yuan against the yen has increased by 18.5 percent. Likewise, the Indian rupee has risen by 17.12 percent, the Republic of Korea's won by 10.88 percent and the Thai baht by 20.17 percent.
This development may curb the economic recovery of these countries. Since more than 50 percent of the trade between these countries and Japan is settled in the Japanese currency, its depreciation has caused a decline in Japanese investment in these countries. Also, their exports have declined. For example, the ROK, one of Japan's main competitors, has seen a fall in the export of its oil products, automobiles and mechanical products.
The stock and debt markets of these countries, too, may come under pressure, because fears of the yen depreciating further could force more international short-term capital to flood their markets. That would not only cause their stock and debt prices to fluctuate, but also could lead to inflation.
The depreciation of the yen has had a negative impact on Japan too, and the country could enter a vicious circle of currency depreciation. Japan's trade deficit has been rising continuously. In 2011, it had a trade deficit of $32.28 billion for the first time in decades. The figure has increased to $87.11 billion last year, and the trade deficit could force Japan to increase its fuel imports, which, in turn, could lead to further depreciation of the yen.
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http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/opinion/2013-06/07/content_16581453_2.htm
Besides, the fiscal health of Japan has worsened. In 2012, Japan's budget deficit was 214 percent of GDP, the worst among the 31 OECD member countries. And it is expected to grow as the country increases its financial expenditure, which again could cause the yen to depreciate further.
Japan used to maintain a good balance of payments. But its international payment surplus has fallen rapidly since the 2008 financial crisis. In 2012, its trade surplus of current account ($4.7 trillion) was only one-fourth that of 2011. The trend is likely to continue, making Abenomics a gamble, the failure of which would trap Japan in the muddy pool of currency depreciation and recession.
Moreover, the three arrows are not an original concept, for many developed countries have tried out similar ideas. For example, after the 2008 financial crisis, the US Federal Reserve introduced three rounds of quantitative easing by lowering interest rates, stimulating the economy with $787 billion and taking measures to deal with bad bank loans to facilitate economic growth.
In the 1990s, Japan itself took measures to cut costs and lay off many workers to deal with its economic downturn. But since its action was confined to the fiscal and financial sectors, it could not solve the root problem. Not until 2002, when former prime minister Junichiro Koizumi introduced fiscal, financial and economic reforms, could Japan remove the biggest structural obstacles, such as bad bank loans, to economic growth. Experience shows that only structural reform can facilitate economic growth.
On Wednesday Abe finally shot the third arrow of his growth strategy by pledging to raise incomes by 3 percent annually and set up special economic zones to attract foreign businesses in order to boost economy. He also proposed to mobilize women in the workforce, boost private business and deregulate some sectors.
However, the third arrow will hit the target only if Abe can devise detailed policies and implement them, among which the economic structure reforms are the most difficult.
Abe has no choice but to shoot the third arrow, because Japanese bond, stock and currency markets have seen extreme volatility of late. Experts attribute the shockwave to the absence of a sound economic growth strategy.
Abe has to take more prescriptions in the third arrow, such as reforming the employment system to encourage labor flow, stimulating domestic investment to boost domestic demand, increasing rural and agricultural incomes, making trade more liberal and raising the contribution of free trade areas to the total trade volume from 19 to 70 percent by 2018.
These measures may have a radiant appeal to them and may cover almost all the problems Japan faces - from deflation and the outcome of Japan's entry into the Trans-Pacific Partnership to trade frictions and farmers' protests - but we have to wait to see whether they will be successful.
The author is a researcher at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, affiliated to the Ministry of Commerce.
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