It’s over…
Tag: japan
Makes sense or not…
NPR Reminds Us Why It Needs to be Defunded With Its Latest Tweets
Before I begin this article, I want to give you a fun little fact about the National Public Radio (NPR) gets its funding.
According to The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which helps fund, they recently received a $50 million increase in funding support from the federal government, totaling out at $525 million, thanks to the House and Senate passing the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2022.
Got it? Good.
The assassination of Shinzo Abe was shocking news, not just to the people of Japan, but to the entire world. He was the longest-serving Prime Minister in Japanese history and a great ally in the fight against the communist regimes of North Korea and China. World leaders began issuing statements remembering the man fondly and expressing their sadness that such a man was slain.
However, there were two entities that made statements that disgusted many. One was from President Joe Biden who decided to turn Abe’s death into a chance at pushing anti-gun narratives.
The other was from NPR, which first posted a tweet calling Abe a “divisive arch-conservative” but soon deleted it.
But NPR didn’t delete it because they felt shame over their hyper-partisan tweet about a slain man. They just needed to reword it so that Abe came off even worse by using buzzwords that they typically associate with white supremacists, “ultranationalist.” Now he’s not just a political figure that opposed the left in his country, but now he’s a crazed xenophobe.
Does assassination of Shinzo Abe signal strategic shift for Japan?
It seems increasingly clear that more than any particular policy achievement, Abe’s greatest legacy was a more substantial global leadership for Japan and peace with Russia and China.
One focus of Abe’s foreign policy was to secure a treaty with Russia on their territorial dispute. Abe had pursued this initiative even after some of his closest foreign policy advisers tried to scupper his efforts. The operation in Ukraine gave current PM Kishida Fumio room to join US sanctions targeting Moscow – marking a changed course from Abe’s foreign policy legacy.
Japan had been happy to offer economic concessions on the disputed islands in the Kurils, but Kishida – even before the Ukraine crisis – had abandoned Abe’s Russia policy. There is little question that Abe’s diplomatic initiative was stymied by his successors, particularly given that the goal was ultimately strategic: to forge a friendship with Russia that would stabilize Japan’s northern flank.
Ironically, Abe often spoke throughout his career about revising the Japanese Constitution to give the Japanese Self-Defense Forces (SDF) greater room to expand. On Friday, he was murdered in cold blood by an alleged member of the Self-Defense Forces.
Despite Gun Ban, Japan’s Former Leader Was Assassinated With A Homemade Shotgun
Japan’s gun laws are some of the strictest in the world making it the go-to example for the anti-gun lobby in America. This is why the world was shocked on Friday when Japanese former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was shot and killed — with a gun.
Other than the police and the military, no one in Japan may purchase a handgun or a rifle. So comprehensive are the gun laws in Japan that even possession of a starter’s pistol is allowed only under extremely strict conditions.
Despite these oppressive gun control measures and a disarmed society, however, a deranged criminal was able to obtain a gun and kill the country’s former leader.
Before his body was even cold, the anti-gun corporate press began rolling out articles about Japan’s strict gun control and how this has contributed to the country’s low rate of gun violence. None of the articles mention anything about Japan’s far more peaceful culture and pacifism being the main contributor to lower violence, nor do they mention the fact that Japan is not free from mass killings.
In July of 2016, an assailant killed 19 people in an assisted-living facility. Because guns are banned, the killer used knives, highlighting the fact that disarming law-abiding citizens won’t stop criminals from committing mass harm.
Similarly, the banning of guns in Japan did not stop the killer from making his own gun and killing Shinzo Abe.
Japan’s Shinzo Abe assassination: Who is suspect Tetsuya Yamagami?
The 41-year-old suspect in the assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe reportedly has told police Friday that he was dissatisfied with the ex-leader and wanted to kill him, but not over his political beliefs.
Tetsuya Yamagami, who hails from Nara – where the 67-year-old Abe was gunned down while making a speech – is currently facing an attempted murder charge. But local police are expected to upgrade the charge to murder, according to Japanese broadcaster NHK.
“Former Prime Minister Abe was giving a speech normally, but a man came from behind. The first shot heard only a very loud sound and the person did not fall down. However, the moment the second shot was shot, former Prime Minister Abe collapsed,” a witness told NHK. “The [suspect] didn’t seem to run away, he stayed there and the gun was there.”
The killing has sent shockwaves around the world and throughout Japan, a country with notoriously strict gun ownership laws.
Japanese UFO researchers report hundreds of encounters
The privately-owned International UFO Institute, which was established in the Japanese prefecture of Fukushima in the summer of 2021, shared the results of its first year of operations on Saturday.
The institute is headed by Takeharu Mikami, the editor-in-chief of Mu magazine (which covers supernatural phenomena and occult mysteries), and operates in the city’s Iinomachi district.
The area has long been famous for alleged UFO encounters around the Senganmori mountain.
Mikami told journalists that his researchers have so far registered 452 UFO-like sightings over the past year – 125 of which are backed by photos, and 24 others by videos.
Japan passes bill making ‘online insults’ punishable by one year in jail
In an attempt to quell public concern about cyberbullying, Japan has passed legislation making “online insults” punishable by imprisonment.
The bill, passed by the Japanese government on Monday, has amended the country’s penal code and will take effect this summer.
According to the Japan Times, the amendment comes as a response to the death of professional wrestler and Netflix’s Terrance House reality star Hana Kimura.
Kimura, 22, died by suicide in 2020. News of her death was spread nationwide, with many Japanese citizens pointing to the ample online abuse and harassment Kimura received in the months before her death.
Offenders who post “online insults” can now be punished under the law with up to one year of jailtime, or fined ¥300,000 (approximately $2,870).
Prior to this legislation, insults were still illegal, though the punishment was lesser, with offenders earning fewer than 30 days detention and a fine of ¥10,000 (approximately $95).
According to CNN, under Japan’s penal code, insults “are defined as publicly demeaning someone’s social standing without referring to specific facts about them or a specific action.”
Insults differ from defamation in Japan, the distinguishing factor being that defamation must include specific facts when publicly demeaning another person. Defamation is also punishable under Japanese law.
The degree to which an insult will be punished under the new law has yet to be determined.
Ancient Japanese ‘killing stone’ said to contain evil demon has cracked open
As if the world doesn’t have enough problems, people are now worried that an evil demon locked in a rock for almost 1,000 years is on the loose.
The so-called ‘killing stone’ that kept the malevolent spirit imprisoned all this time has split in two, sending believers into a state of panic.
Japanese legend has it that anyone who comes into contact with the rock will die.
According to mythology, the volanic rock – officially called Sessho-seki – is home to Tamomo-No-Mae, aka the Nine-Tailed Fox.
The demon apparently took the form of a beautiful woman, who was part of a plot to kill Emperor Toba, ruler of Japan from 1107 to 1123.
Located in the mountainous northern region of Tochigi, near Tokyo, the rock is something of a tourist hotspot – but now visitors are fearful.
Some speculate that the evil spirit may have even been resurrected to wreck havoc once more.
Residents Of Japanese Town Say A Mountain Has Been A Hotspot For UFOs Since The 1970s
The residents of a mountain town in Japan say they have seen UFOs and aliens since the 1970s, Vice News reported Tuesday.
Iino, a quiet mountain town of about 1,900 outside Fukushima, is adorned with statues of aliens and its mascot is a white alien piloting a golden flying saucer, according to Vice News.
Tsugio Kinoshina, a UFO researcher, said he saw his first UFO in 1972 at age 25 while he was hiking a mountain with his friends, Vice News reported.
“This thing stuck out in front of me,” Kinoshina told Vice. “Starting and stopping in the blue sky. Then all of a sudden, it was gone.”
Kinoshina told Vice he thinks the aliens wanted to let him know they exist. “‘We’re here, too, on the other side of the distant sky,’” Kinoshina told Vice. “I think they just wanted us to know that.”
Since the sighting, Kinoshina has spent his time collecting as much information as he can about extraterrestrial life and does not dismiss people’s stories, according to Vice.
“I listen to what people have to say, and then I draw what can be drawn, and then I transcribe what can be transcribed, and then I make a handmade newspaper,” Kinoshina told Vice.
For decades, there have been stories about alien life near Mount Senganmori, the outlet reported. In September 2020, Japan encouraged the town to open the country’s first-ever lab that observes UFOs. Iino’s UFO lab director, Toshio Kanno, said it’s most important to collect videos and photos of the objects and that documentation is key.
Hellbound and Down 
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