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from Raw Japan:
Japan’s North Korea refugee risk
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's reported annointing of his youngest son, offspring of a Japan-born dancer, as heir highlights a dark chapter in Japan's history and a possible refugee headache if the regime collapses.
Apparent heir Kim Jong-un is said by South Korean media to be a son of Ko Young-hee, one of about 100,000 Koreans who returned to the North from Japan in the 1960s hoping to find a workers' paradise. Many were brought to Japan as forced labour before World War Two and faced discrimination after the war.
No matter who succeeds the 67-year-old Kim, no one knows if the succession will go smoothly or whether the reclusive communist state will fall into chaos, sending streams of refugees to China, South Korea, Russia and Japan.
So here is the question: Is Japan ready in case North Korea collapses for reasons such as a power struggle as it choses Kim Jong-il's successor or any rise of military confrontation in the future?
from Raw Japan:
Pyongyang back in black?
North Korea hasn't yet rejoined the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism, but weekend comments from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that the nation was mulling the possibility were replayed by Japanese media with the same gusto they gave reports on Japan qualifying for the 2010 World Cup.
Pyongyang, an initial member of President George Bush's "axis of evil" in 2002, was removed from the U.S. blacklist last October, after agreeing to a series of nuclear site verification measures.
"Obviously, they were taken off the list for a purpose, and that purpose is being thwarted by their actions," Clinton said.
from Raw Japan:
Who’s Roos?
Roos who?
That was pretty much the reaction in Japan when U.S. President Barack Obama tapped California lawyer and campaign donor John Roos as ambassador to Tokyo.
News of the choice sent Japanese diplomats and U.S.-Japan watchers scrambling for information about Roos, whom one U.S. expert described to me in a hurried email as a "Silicon valley mover and shaker, not with any link to Japan, though clearly to Obama".
The pick risked sending a sign that a wary Tokyo would interpret as more evidence of "Japan passing", a phenomenon much feared in Japan, in which Washington is seen cosying up to Beijing at the expense of its closest Asian ally.
from Raw Japan:
North Korea’s test of wills
Japan, perhaps the most nervous neighbor of unpredictable North Korea, is also the least able to overtly make its fears felt, after this week's nuclear test.
Analysts point out the combination of Tokyo's history of antagonism with the North and the fact that Pyongyang boasts missiles that could hit almost anywhere in Japan pose particular risks for the world's second largest economy.
Sanctions have already wiped out much of Tokyo's bilateral trade with Pyongyang, leaving little space for further punitive economic measures.
What is this regime doing? Are they trying to provoke Japan into starting an arms race. Its time for China to act and use its power to defuse this threat.
Is this a smart move? Don’t forget this still is the world’s number 2 economy, Joseph Nye would have been a far better choice, he has got great knowledge and knows what he’s talking about. In a way its not very respectful towards the Japanese people and although they’ll never say anything negative in public, this action may have closed doors that were once open.