Tag: China–Japan

  • Pictures from the reopening of the Nanjing Massacre museum

    Five years ago today, on the 70th anniversary of the Japanese invasion of Nanjing, the museum commemorating those events reopened. These are some pictures I took on my visit that day. As I am told is the norm for the anniversary, air raid sirens broke the quiet that morning after I woke near the city…

  • China–Japan maritime arrests: to care or not to care?

    After China’s stern reaction last year to the arrest of a Chinese sailor who rammed Japanese ships near islands disputed by the two countries, the world media has braced itself for another round of “tensions” following a new arrest. The fact that both Japanese and Chinese authorities are calling the incident a “regular fisheries case”…

  • Five Years of Transpacifica: Five New Japanese Prime Ministers

    I’m in transit these days, moving for the time being from Seattle to New York. This is a perfect opportunity to look back on what I’ve written in this space since I started here just over five years ago, on Aug. 18, 2006. Looking back, I found some early speculation about what Aso Taro, then…

  • Video: Hardcore rockers in China burn Japanese flag

    On China’s National Day, October 1, fans at the MIDI music festival in Zhenjiang, China, decided to follow up a set by a metal band with an act of their own: burning a defaced Japanese flag while singing the Chinese national anthem. Video at bottom. When photographer Matthew Niederhauser posted this video on his photo…

  • Young Japanese bureaucrats on China: Friend or Opportunity

    This is a blind item based on something a classmate in a Japanese ministry said. But it’s an interesting thought. For young Japanese bureaucrats on the security side, China is a potential threat. For young bureaucrats on the economic side, China is a potential friend, its growing economy an opportunity.