Have Japan and South Korea tried to normalize relations with DPRK? 

It was the expected plan with former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi visits, says  Kazuya Iwamura, a well known expert on North Korea. He was the Kyodo news bureau Chief in Pyongyang from 2003 to 2008. 

2 options: 1) Historical aspect to stabilize relations with Japan's neighbors who are still suffering the memories of the Pacific War and the colonization of East Asia by Japanese militarists under Hiro-Hito. 2) The second reason advanced by Iwamura is about security issues. In the early 2000, North Korea had 100 missiles pointed, the Nodong, towards eventual enemies (US, and its allies South Korea, Japan). But Pyongyang today has 200 Nodong missiles. Ready to be launched. The normalization process has been discussed for years between Tokyo and Pyongyang, secretly, but it now returns to  the news since August after talks were held in China between North Koreans and Japanese diplomats. Objectives: denuclearisation, regional security, international crisis management, the whole world could benefit from this diplomatic normalization, Iwamura says. The issue of abductees (Megumi san) remains also a painful issue. For this it will be necessary to go beyond usual maneuvers assumed by Japanese right wing and its counterparts in the US. I have had several contacts with the Koizumi administration and it seems to me that, very close to him, all was made to try to advance on the issue of regional security but Washington stopped all efforts. Junichiro Koizumi a charismatic leader had to give up, not the diplomacy. Today this process continues. But for some reasons, it is always in such difficult negotiations that international crisis happen and stop or slow down negotiations process, such as the territorial issues of the Senkaku Diaoyu (Japan China) and the Takeshima Tokto. (Japan South Korea).

Français: 1) Aspect historique: stabiliser les relations avec les voisins du Japon qui souffrent encore des souvenirs de la guerre du Pacifique et de la colonisation de l'Asie de l'Est par les militaristes nippon sous Hiro-Hito. 2) Seconde raison avancée, les questions de sécurité régionale. Début des années 2000, la Corée du nord avait 100 missiles NODONG pointés sur d'éventuels ennemis, aujourd'hui Pyongyang dispose de 200 missiles NODONG. Prêts au lancement. Le processus de normalisation qui est discuté depuis plusieurs années entre Tokyo et Pyongyang, en secret, revient dans les titres de l'actualité depuis Août lors d'entretiens tenus en Chine entre diplomates nippons et nord Coréens. Objectifs: dénucléarisation de la péninsule de Corée, sécurité régionale, gestion de crise internationale, le monde entier pourrait bénéficier de cette normalisation diplomatique avance Kazuya Iwamura. La question des personnes enlevées (Megumi san) reste également un sujet douloureux. Pour cela, il sera nécessaire d'aller bien au-delà des manœuvres habituelles assumées par l'aile droite japonaise néo-conservatice et ses homologues des États-Unis. 

A suivre. 

To be continued.

Kazuya Iwamura, Kyodo News

ABE Shinzo elected president of the LDP

A heir of a Japanese political dynasty leader of the conservatives

Abe Shinzo at Yasukuni shrine

Japan LDP conservative party new president is ABE Shinzo, 58. Elected at LDP Tokyo headquarters wednesday september 26th. He is a former prime minister (90th), and defeats former Defense minister ISHIBA Shigeru. ABE is the nationalists' candidate. Behind the scenes, the Senkaku Diaoyu crisis. He'll be the candidate of the Japanese conservatives if a general election is called by current Democratic party leader and current prime minister NODA. ABE Shinzo is a recurrent visitor of the Yasukuni Shrine inflaming China and Korea. In 2006, at 52, he was Japan's youngest post-war head of government but has given up his job as prime minister in 2007 September 12th because of a series of financial scandals involving some of his cabinet ministers, he also had been unable to pass the anti-terrorism laws at the Diet and he allegedly was said he resigned due to stress and physical problems he encountered during his administration. The political heritage of Japan Inc. proved the strong impact of dynasties on Japanese politics.

Senkaku - Diaoyu islands territorial war 

Japan Coast Guards start to impose a security cordon around the islets. Impressive naval battle on the blue! An expert tough naval water cannon battle between Japan Coast Guards and Taiwan Coast Guards and fishing ships happened morning of Sept. 25. Taiwanese boats entered the waters around the disputed Diaoyu Islands on Tuesday, were fought by the Japanese Coast Guard, just a day after two Chinese surveillance ships arrived on zone for defense patrol. Extraordinary pictures via Twitter Facebook from local Asian web networks.

(From Webpic. from pic.twitter.com/oQ51DaHP)

#Senkaku impressive use of water cannon by japan coast guards on #taiwan trawlers entering near #senkaku #china shy. twitter.com/joeljaponrtl/s…
— Joël Legendre (@joeljaponrtl) September 25, 2012

The Senkaku Diaoyu

When East Asian peace and development are threatened!
Live on RTL MONDE

尖閣諸島。 RTLのフランスのニュース。
The link of ｍy news-report on RTL MONDE French news channel 13:00 23 Septembre 2013 anchored by Daniel Férin. We reported live about the Senkaku-Diaoyu crisis from Beijing and Tokyo. Picture: the disputed Senkaku islets.

http://lnk.nu/rtl.fr/25qr

RTL MONDE "L'effervescence entre la Chine et le Japon à propos de 5 îlots et 3 rochers inhabités, soit 7 km carrés de territoires que les 2 pays se disputent. Fiévre nationaliste ou intérêts économiques, nous essayerons d'en savoir plus avec nos correspondants à Pékin et à Tokyo. ils seront en direct sur RTL.

(The turmoil between China and Japan about 5 islets and 3 uninhabited rocks, or 7 square kilometers of territory for which two countries compete. Nationalist fever or economic interests, we will try to find out more with our correspondents in Beijing and Tokyo. Live on RTL)


-尖閣諸島 Senkaku soft or hard landing, answer is with Chinese? If China appears as violent state, Japan will enter into diversifying its economy shifting towards other nations, Asia and others while reinforcing her defense. Diplomatic battles and major geopolitical and industrial shifts ahead. Development and social fault between Japan and China.


-To read with caution. "Map of Senkaku Islands in World Atlas published in China in 1960... Jiji news agency reported on Sunday that among the recently declassified documents in the National Security Archives at George Washington University was a May 1971 CIA report compiled to study the territorial claims for the Senkaku islets... they found yet another Chinese map showing that the islets were Japanese. This one was published in 1966 in an atlas for the Red Guards of the Cultural Revolution"

http://ampontan.wordpress.com/2012/09/24/the-map-is-the-territory/

Chinese tourists flow to Japan 

Unheard Senkaku Diaoyu islands protests

京都で撮影された中国からの観光客、着物のファッションショーを観覧（2012年9月20日）。These tourists from China are filmed in Kyoto, they attend a Kimono fashion show in Kyoto on Thursday September 20th 2012 while China and Japan allegedly are on the verge of a "war." This group of hundred young tourists are unaffected by the Senkaku Diaoyu islands friction, and as loads of other Chinese tourists, are touring Kyoto, Arashiyama and Nara on sightseeing while Chinese, Taiwanese and Japanese nationalists politicians and their troops are making lots of noise about some strategical (but lost in the middle of the sea) rocks and islets in the China seas and thoroughly monitored by Chinese, Taiwanese and Japanese governmental ships. Maybe attention should also be focussed on what ordinary people wish to do and how they wish to live freely their existence. Japanese war alike channels ignored these hundreds (thousands a week I'm told) of visitors to Japan, Tokyo Ginza included, and preferred to excite viewers and audience with pictures of calls for war? Huh! Media and psychology...

Japan and Food Security since Fukushima

Japan is to give up its nuclear industry by... the 2030s

RTL MONDE Magazine. Après la décision du Japon "de sortir du nucléaire" j'enquête à Tokyo et dans plusieurs régions du Japon sur l'un des sujets les plus inquiétants aujourd'hui: la sécurité alimentaire causée par les craintes de radioactivité. Coup de projecteur. 

I report for our News Channel RTL MONDE about Japan after Japan's decision to phase out nuclear energy in the 2030s and investigate on the pressing radioactivity fear on "food security"! (Anchored with Marie Guerrier in place of Daniel Férin)

"Japan is going to exit nuclear energy in the horizons of the 2030s, Japan announced its decision Friday. Such a shift of national policy would have never happened without the Fukushima catastrophe. Because actually it was the opposite that was planned prior to Fukushima. Japan wanted to increase the share of nuclear energy in its production of electricity. But... there was the tsunami of March 2011 and a total reconsideration of Japanese energy politics. An other consequence of the catastrophe at the power plant of Fukushima is the worrying of people about the effects of radioactivity..." 

Development on RTL MONDE starts at 13:00 
URL: http://lnk.nu/rtl.fr/25ju

The scary diagram Tepco and Government want to keep secret

Japan Nuclear Industry

This extraordinary picture is the diagram explaining the correlation of the Japanese Nuclear Power Village. 60% of Japanese economy works with the nuclear industry, from industry to services and it finances huge amount of the Japanese media.

Fukushima safety versus "man-made nuclear betrayal"

IAEA Team visiting Fukushima

"Manmade nuclear betrayal" is the expression used by a Japanese panel on Fukushima. I was reading again the Tepco front page and I want to write about future energy plan because I found this paragraph by Tepco absolutely scary.

"Among those who engaged in the emergency works at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station in the period from March to June, there are some people whose internal exposure doses have not been measured and who we cannot contact (10 people as of December 17, 2011). It needs for security and relief of identical person to evaluate the radiation exposure. If you know something about the person who can't get communication, please contact to our call center."  (In: Status of Fukushima Daiichi and Fukushima Daini Nuclear Power Stations after Great East Japan Earthquake (tepco.co.jp/en/nu/fukushima-np) )

"Radiation exposure" indeed. I watched last week a remarkable (but late) NHK TV special about the nuclear workers, the "cleaners". Terrifying news is the amount of radiation these workers endured in the last year or at the time of the interviews, some got 12 to 13 mSv already. Daily dose was slightly under 1 mSv a day, obliging the subcontractors to hire permanently new staff, in their 20's years old included. "Why haven't these stories been available before ?"

Now that Japan is embarked into new roadmap about its energy policy, people seem to talk more. The new head of Japan's biggest electric company aired concerns about the possibility that Japan could phase out nuclear power, saying such a move would necessitate a "complete" revamping of its investment and fuel-procurement plans and could be detrimental to the country's energy security as well. Based on Japan's past experience with oil shortages in the 1970s it'd be wiser to have diversity in Japan's energy mix, both in the kinds of fuels used and the places they are bought from. Says who? Naomi Hirose, president of Tokyo Electric Power this week. 

After the oil shocks, "we had to sharply hike rates twice, and Japanese society fell into chaos." Hirose's comments come as a threat while the situation is entirely different today. No NPP for a year and Japan works pretty well. So, where is the truth? But it comes a week before the administration of Japan Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda announce a long awaited decision on Japan's future energy mix, following last year's devastating accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear-power plant.

If Japan phases out nuclear power, Japan will have to draw a new map in terms on investment and fuel-procurement plans. Could be detrimental to the country's energy security? Critics say no. Since last year Japan worked out without needing nuclear energy. The fear Japanese have is about the consumption peak, at this moment they can need more energy access. Does it have to come from the nuclear power supply?


Safety and information, not deceitful communication

Improvement is necessary related to the selective presentation of information by Tepco, for instance on the Fukushima buildings and reactors 1 2 3 4. Tepco constantly denied access to information or delayed this access, say, when situation becomes hot... Then they find a couple of guys to file a story. So did the JP administration. 

Same with the work made on the Dai Ichi plant. Offering proper information on what constitutes dangers is not part of Tepco corporate culture. I wish I could go to Dai Ichi NPP tomorrow but Tepco does not invite us and if it does, it is so controlled that what we see is simply an inch of the reality, it often brings biased views. 

Not telling the truth on the spent fuel rods to the public and saying that reactor 4 is to be cleaned by late 2013 by showing new rods on official Tepco pictures (not contaminated) is an example of Tepco's poor communication, or say of malign type of expression to deceive the media especially when these pictures are not provided in accurate timing. 

Currently there are 1,331 used nuclear fuel and 202 unused nuclear fuel in the reactor 4 storage pool. A pool reinforced indeed but to levels which critics say, here again there are two sort of critics with those who work for Tepco and the others, who say Fukushima reactors cannot sustain new natural disasters. This is physics, meteorology and geological sciences and... luck or not. Quantifiable? Time will prove.

So I say again to Tepco: Don't wait for troubles to come and preach that you are sorry. Invite the foreign media and brief them seriously before we attempt to investigate more by entering the plant. Some talk about doing it without asking the permissions. Our interest is to check if Tepco and Co respect the mid-to long term roadmap toward the decommissioning of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Units 1 to 4.

One thing is: How, at the beginning, could Japan go for such reactors as Fukushima, the GE Mark 1, with confinement of the reactors which in case of accident see the formation of an uncontrollable corium, but with no confinement of the storage pool? This is where we are today, and an accident of high intensity is at risk to turn Fukushima and Japan into a nightmare. 

A Japanese University professor friend of mine, Mr K. speaks perfect English, told me 2 weeks after March 11 2011 that "when GE sold this Mark 1 nuclear reactors to Japan, the American maker told the Japanese that this was not earthquake prone, Japanese did not care about it" he added. Terrible right? Who is lying who is telling the truth?

One other of my sources, an American, who visited Japanese nuclear plants in official capacity told me about the dangers for mothers and children: "it is now our duty as specialists and independent inspectors to go and explain to the Japanese people and to go to Fukushima to tell them the truth, the reality." 

He is one of the IAEA monitoring team's member...!


Edited: 07 Sept. 15:35


n.b. So much information that never goes out in France or in the rest of the world despite our daily efforts, world capitals such as Paris are careful on news from Fukushima, is it because the IAEA Charter says the organization is here to promote the nuclear energy? Why this "shield" on Fukushima information? On Fukushima NPP, on the food chain contamination, on spreading of cesium, it has been over a year I spoke about it repeatedly. Nuclear nations such as France are timid, just reactive. In the U.S. and UK, the Chinese and Russians media appear even more talkative! Why is that so? Tepco does not communicate information. Reacts only later. Adds "chart", removes embarrassing questions, modifies its press statements, hesitates, changes positions on facts, does not comment on answers or avoid follow-ups. Its executives do not remember etc. We can not believe what we are told at Tepco press conferences, it is based on our daily tracking since March 11, 2011. In fact we saw a lot of propaganda on the extraction of a new rod midsummer, but then nothing on the shields to protect and reinforce the NPP R4, nothing came here on the shield because, as far as we can understand, Tepco will not admit that there is danger in the pool of R4 or elsewhere. Why reinforce when "it is safe, with no harm for health" etc.. are we served on each hot topic. On this R4 shield, we talked about "building structures" on the radio (live) with the head of the IRSN, Thierry Charles, who was a guest. His concern was so keen on the "risk of abuse". Disturbing nonetheless. Since then, new concerns and revelations appear from Fukushima: On the wall of R4, a gaping hole in the bottom of the building, hidden by trucks and cranes. Concern also lately about suspicious white fumes. Should the government set a crisis on the "psychological" Tepco? And why such a mess in the political life about the instability of the Noda government following the demonstrations against the nuclear industry, now in 100 Japanese cities on weekly basis, since prime minister Noda announced he would reduce the dependance on nuclear power supply? Shogun Tepco is maybe in a bad posture but the "Japanese nuclear village", as it is called, is still exerting a huge domination on media: "When middle management loses its nerves, there is a sort of self-restraint imposed within the newspapers not to handle articles that criticize corporations.” However, it depends on which media, which television etc. He said that he still believes that the Mainichi and Chunichi Tokyo Newspaper are doing solid investigative journalism. TEPCO has an advertising budget of about twenty-three or four billion yen ($230 to 240 million) a year. A lot of that was to keep the media under control," says Hajime Kitamura, publisher of Shukan Kinyoubi  (Friday Weekly).

Edited: 08 Sept. 11:45

Former Japan Prime Minister Naoto Kan:

"Danger posed by nuclear plants is tremendous"

Naoto KAN

Japanese former Prime Minister Naoto Kan was our guest speaker at the press club in Tokyo Wednesday August 29th 2012 with 180 people attending our press diner event, and over 60 journalists rushing to ask questions to the man who led Japan when the triple catastrophes crushed Tohoku, the northern part of the Japanese main island of Honshu with the earthquake, the tsunami and soon to come the nuclear accident.

"We could not control the reactors on March 11th and my question, Naoto Kan said, was to know when can we regain control?" "The danger posed by nuclear power plants is tremendous and so is the impact of radioactive material," he added. "On 15th March I called to Tepco and told president Shimizu any withdrawal is an unacceptable option, no possibility of withdrawal." "Hai Wakarimashita" (I understands yes) Tepco Shimizu told twice to Kan who also visited Tepco early morning of the 15th. 

"Since 3/11, I made a 180 degrees change of position (about nuclear energy). No other accident has such potential of destruction of a country as nuclear energy. I asked myself what is the best way to safely control a nuclear plant? The only way is to create a society where we do not depend on nuclear energy like Spain, Germany, Denmark opted. Japan is to give a plan goal in September, we would have to try to reduce to ZERO as soon as possible, reduce the burden on the nation, because we also produce nuclear waste and we have to opt for renewable energy." Naoto Kan stated.

After Kan's speech, assigned by my colleague moderator Martin Koelling of Germany [on the right on the picture] I raised the first question to the event, asking  Mr Kan if there is a danger threatening Japan, today, in regard to the Fukushima plants and especially with the dangerous potential of the unstable pool of building 4, containing tons of dangerous highly radioactive rods? An explosion due to a new natural disaster wouldn't be catastrophic I asked? Former Prime Minister Kan answered that "if the pool at building 4 is to collapse, then it will be a terrible accident." 

Tepco people said they manage it by reinforcing the (destroyed) structures of the building. But Mr. Kan conveyed to the foreign (and Japanese) media gathered here that he personally believes there is a high danger for people's lives. And of course we, media, know that Tepco is always selective about describing the exact situation on Fukushima. (Example with the confusion by Tepco about the 1533 highly radioactive rods contained into the unstable dangerous pool of reactor 4.) 

Prior to this question I commented to Mr Kan in introduction to my question that "because you forced Tepco people to stay on the plant after March 11th you certainly saved considerable number of lives and it would be natural that if you are asked and if you accept, you ought to receive the Nobel Peace Prize." At the end, when Kan thanked the audience and received our honorary membership of the press club and stated he'll be back "if I receive the Nobel prize" there was a thrill among the crowds gathered at the club, some sort of mixed feeling of emotion and pride and a touch of "Bel Esprit" sent by Kan. 

Why I told him that? Simply because these are the words heard within foreign embassies in Japan nowadays with thankful messages sent to him for the high level of responsibility and leadership that Kan and his team exerted since the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident March 11th, 2011. What he did at least was to avoid the unbearable catastrophe and we hear more and more details about what exactly happened then and since. But what about next time and what about Noda's responsibility for the future of these islands?

As a final comment I would say that the club's event August 29th was very well balanced and moderated with a chance for anyone to ask a question, including tough specific ones, it was a very professional atmosphere compared to the invitation of ex-Tepco president Shimizu. At that time, there was considerable complaints made by our fellow colleagues of the press club whose questions were refused then, creating anger and disappointment among some of our Japanese members and colleagues of the Fccj.