Japan

Japan Dismantles Freedom Of The Press

December 18, 2015 Jon Mitchell, www.freedom.press Educate! Freedom of Press, Japan

By Jon Mitchell for Freedom of the Press - In 2010, Japan was ranked #11 in Reporters Without Borders' global Press Freedom Index. By February 2015, that number had plummeted to #61 - and next year it will likely fall further. Since coming to power in 2012, PM Shinzo Abe and his Liberal Democratic Party have embarked upon a war of attrition against press freedoms in Japan. Assaults have included: embedding neo-nationalists in key positions at state broadcaster, NHK; issuing veiled threats to TV networks that coverage critical of the government might cost them their broadcast licenses...

US Veterans Join Okinawa Protests Against US Base

December 12, 2015 Staff, www.space4peace.blogspot.kr Resist! Japan, Protests, US military

By Staff of Space 4 Peace - We were up early yesterday morning and on the road to Camp Schwab where there was a 6:00 am gate blockage against the early construction work on the proposed Marine airfield twin-runways that will be plunked down in pristine Oura Bay. Our Veterans For Peace delegation was warmly received by the more than 100 Okinawan citizens who were already gathering in front of the gate when we arrived. Many of them were elderly and protest leaders had them chanting and singing even before the sun rose.

Bhopal Victims’ Letter To Japanese PM: Stop India-Japan Nuclear Agreement

December 7, 2015 Staff, www.asiaprogressive.com Resist! India, Japan

By Staff of Asia Progressive - Greetings from the people of Bhopal. Ours is a city in India which has witnessed the world’s worst industrial catastrophe. As you may be aware, the disaster,itself a result of criminal neglect by callous profiteers, was only followed by political complacency and administrative apathy. The victims of Bhopal continue to struggle for justice, adequate compensation and proper medical, economic, social and environmental rehabilitation In our city, we have a commemorative statue of a mother and her child with “No More Bhopal, No More Hiroshima” written beneath it.

Okinawa: Sit In At Camp Schwab Passes 500th Day

November 27, 2015 Staff, english.ryukyushimpo.jp Resist! Japan, Protests, Sit-In

By Staff of Ryukyu Shimpo - How on earth does one measure the gravity of a single wish, pursued by many people together? On November 18, the sit-in protest in front of the gate of Camp Schwab, Henoko, Nago, by citizens opposing construction of a new U.S. base reached its 500th consecutive day. More than 1,000 people took part in the sit-in on this day. Japanese government officials who have not been to the gates of Camp Schwab before do not know how many hours it will take to go to Henoko. Going on a weekday from the prefectural office, Naha, for example, is nearly impossible.

Solidarity With People Of Japan Opposing TPP & US Militarism

November 21, 2015 Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, www.PopularResistance.org Resist! Japan, Militarization, Okinawa, TPP

By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers for Popular Resistance. The final stop on the Embassy Row protest in Washington, DC “The World is Rising to Stop the TPP” was the Japanese Embassy. Japan is the largest economy in the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) after the United States. It is the third largest economy in the world, but the Japanese economy has been stagnating for all of this century and is desperate to find a way out of its economic problems. In 2012 Abe ran for office as an opponent of the TPP but within three months joined the negotiations. Prime Minister Shinzō Abe has become a puppet of the United States not only on the TPP but also on the military pivot to Asia. His conservative Liberal Party has enough seats in the Diet, the Japanese legislature, to force through Abe’s agenda despite widespread opposition and protest by the public. He tries to hide is position as a US puppet in nationalist rhetoric of a strong Japan, but more people are seeing through it and his popularity is plummeting. The only way to defeat the TPP and other corporate trade agreements is unity across geographic boundaries and uniting all of the issues that will be adversely impacted by the TPP.

Okinawa Relocation Of U.S. Military Base Triggers Protests

October 30, 2015 Arata Yamamoto, www.news.com.au Resist! Japan, Protests

By Arata Yamamoto for NBC News - TOKYO — The Japanese government resumed controversial construction work to relocate a key U.S. airbase in Okinawa on Thursday, with elderly protesters who tried to stop the project being dragged away by police. Some residents oppose the plan to move the U.S. Marines' Futenma base to another location on the island. The government earlier this month overruled local Governor Takeshi Onaga's decision to rescind permission to build on the new site that had been approved by his predecessor. Outside the gates of the construction site and on a flotilla, more than 200 protesters gathered to condemn the move. They say it will damage the environment.

Sunday: Blue Vigil In Solidarity With Okinawa

September 26, 2015 Ayumi Temlock and Rachel Clark, www.popularresistance.org Resist! Democracy, Imperialism, Japan, Wars and Militarism

By Ayumi Temlock and Rachel Clark of Overseas NY. New York, NY - On September 19, 2015, the upper house of Japan’s Diet passed controversial security legislation, despite widespread opposition. A key feature of the new legislation is an end to a long-standing ban on the right to exercise collective self-defense, or defending the United States and/or allies that come under attack, in cases where Japan faces a "threat to its survival". Many ordinary citizens in Japan as well as hundreds of legal experts - including former Supreme Court justices, previous directors-general of the Cabinet Legislation Bureau, many constitutional scholars and the Japan Federation of Bar Associations - called on the Abe administration to withdraw the security legislation, saying that it is unconstitutional.

Japan’s ‘War Laws’ Provoke Skirmish In Parliament, Protests

September 18, 2015 Sarah Lazare, www.commondreams.org Resist! Imperialism, Japan, Wars and Militarism

By Sarah Lazare in Common Dreams - While protests raged in the streets outside, a scuffle broke out inside Japan's parliament on Thursday when opposition lawmakers sought to physically prevent the ruling Liberal Democratic Party from passing a series of widely unpopular bills derided as "war legislation" that would allow the country's soldiers to participate in the foreign wars of the United States and other allies. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been aggressively pressing for the rapid passage of the 11-bill package, which already sailed through the lower house in July. On Thursday night, upper house lawmakers in Tokyo opposed to the bills attempted to block a vote by physically preventing the committee chairperson from accessing his microphone. When ruling party politicians surrounded the chairperson, a scrum broke out, with punches thrown and some politicians even piling on top of the melee.

Okinawa Governor To Block Construction Of New US Airbase

September 15, 2015 Justin McCurry, www.theguardian.com Resist! Imperialism, Japan, Wars and Militarism

By Justin McCurry in The Guardian - The governor of the Japanese island of Okinawa is poised to halt work on a US airbase, in a move that is expected to irritate Washington and frustrate Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, as his government seeks to pass deeply unpopular security bills this week. Takeshi Onaga, who was elected as governor last year vowing to prevent construction of an offshore US marine base in the remote Henoko district on Okinawa’s east coast, said he would revoke permits to conduct landfill work. “This is a first step towards preventing this from being built,” he told reporters two days after the central government resumed reclamation work in Henoko’s pristine waters. Protesters in kayaks had previously clashed with the coastguard in the area. He added: “We will use every possible measure to block the construction of a new base in Henoko, as we promised during our election campaign.”

Mass Protests Against Japanese Militarization Continue

September 15, 2015 Andrew Poole, www.pppfocus.com Resist! Japan, Wars and Militarism

By Andrew Poole - Thousands of protesters rallied in Tokyo against Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s security policy on Monday as the government aims to enact legislation this month that would allow Japanese troops to fight overseas for the first time since World War Two. Led by young people, including members of Students Emergency Action for Liberal Democracy-s, or SEALDs, the rally drew the leaders of opposition parties, including the Democratic Party of Japan, as well as Kenzaburo Oe, victor of the Nobel Prize for literature. Protestors rally in front of the parliament building in Tokyo, Japan, on September 14, 2015. The mass rally in central Tokyo came after a similar protest at the end of last month that its organizers claimed was attended by 120,000 people. The bills are under deliberation in the Upper House.

Japan: US Pressures Revision Of Constitution

September 12, 2015 Yoshio Shimoji, www.popularresistance.org Educate! Constitution, Democracy, Japan, Wars and Militarism

By Yoshio Shimoji of Voice of Okinawa. Tokyo, Japan - The Abe administration is so intent on passing security-related bills now under deliberation at the House of Councilors. Why? One reason is that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe promised the Joint Meeting of U.S. Congress in a speech given on April 29 that the bills would be made into law by the end of the summer. Probably, Washington might have thought at the time that the time was ripe for them to urge Tokyo to revise the constitution -- a long-pending U.S. policy toward Japan. Junichiro Koizumi, the most pro-American prime minister in recent memory, was in power with Shinzo Abe serving as Secretary-General of the LDP. Abe replaced Koizumi as the next prime minister in September 2006.

Fukushima Report Downplays Ongoing Health Risks

September 3, 2015 Deirdre Fulton, www.commondreams.org Educate! Fukushima, Japan, Nuclear Energy

By Deirdre Fulton in Common Dreams - A new report from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) "downplays" the continuing environmental and health effects of the Fukushima nuclear meltdown while supporting the Japanese government's agenda to normalize the ongoing disaster, Greenpeace Japan charged on Tuesday. The Vienna-based IAEA released its final report Monday on the 2011 triple meltdown at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. While the agency pointed to numerous failings, including unclear responsibilities among regulators, weaknesses in plant design and in disaster-preparedness, and a "widespread assumption" of safety, it was more circumspect with regard to health concerns. The Fukushima disaster released vast amounts of radiation, leading to fears that cases of thyroid cancer in children would soar as they did following the Chernobyl disaster of 1986.

Newsletter – Black August, End Neo-Slavery, Resist

August 30, 2015 Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese, www.PopularResistance.org Newsletter Arctic drilling, Carbon, Drought, Environmental racism, Fight for 15, Finance and the Economy, Fracking, Gas, Guaranteed basic income, Hurrican Katrina, Iran, Japan, Jeju Island, Korea, Living Wage, Minimum Wage, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Oil, Okinawa, Peace, Political Prisoner, Prison, Prison Labor, Private Prisons, Racism, Solar Energy, Sustainable energy, TISA, TPP, TTIP, Wars and Militarism, Wind, Worker Cooperative, Youth imprisonment

By Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese for Popular Resistance - Black August is coming to an end as we commemorate the ten year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. As many head back to school, a full season of actions are being planned for the fall to stop the corporate takeover of our communities and world and the push toward neo-slavery. There is a lot of resistance going on. We hope that you have an opportunity this summer to relax and build up your energy for the many actions that are being planned for the fall. If you go to a park, there is one more thing you can do: take a moment to think about the people who inhabited the land before it became a park.

Japan: Thousands Protest ‘War Law’

August 30, 2015 Staff, www.aljazeera.com Resist! Asian Pivot, Corporatism, Japan, Wars and Militarism

By Staff at AlJazeera. Tokyo, Japan - Tens of thousands of protesters have rallied outside Japan's parliament to oppose legislation that could see troops in the officially pacifist nation engage in combat for the first time since World War II. In one of the summer's biggest protests ahead of the new laws anticipated passage next month, protesters on Sunday chanted "No to war legislation!" ''Scrap the bills now!" and "Abe, quit!" Organisers said about 120,000 people took part in the rally in the government district of Tokyo, filling the street outside the front gate of the parliament, or Diet. Similar demonstrations were held across nation. The law would expand Japan's military role under a reinterpretation of the country's war-renouncing constitution.

70 Years After The War, Okinawa Protests New US Military Base

August 26, 2015 Jon Letman, www.america.aljazeera.com Resist! Imperialism, Japan, Wars and Militarism

By Jon Letman in Al Jazeera - Demonstrators, many old enough to have survived the bloody Battle of Okinawa as children, sing buoyant but defiant protest songs while holding placards reading “No new base” and “Give us back peace, give us back land.” One sign, directed at the U.S. Marines reads, “We respect you but not your job.” Polls consistently show Okinawans and, increasingly, mainland Japanese are opposed to replacing Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, a sprawling military base in the south of the island, with a new facility in the rural Henoko district of Nago in northern Okinawa. Referred to as Henoko, the Futenma Replacement Facility (FRF) is planned to have multiple helipads, 5,900-foot dual runways, an ordnance depot, a fuel depot and an 892-foot pier capable of docking amphibious assault ships.

«1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 »

Daily movement news and resources