http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-04-23/1000-japanese-officers-participate-island-recapture-drill
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 04/23/2013 23:11 -0400
1,000 Japanese Officers To Participate In "Island Recapture" Drill In California
More than six months since the Japanese nationalistic escalation over the disputed island chain (that shall not be named) in the East China Sea sent Sino-Japanese foreign relations to a level not seen since a particular territorial dispute over Manchuria, tensions just hit a fever pitch overnight, when an armada of eight Chinese ships entered what Japan claimed were its territorial waters.
China's version of the story is that the vessels were there to monitor the activity of a flotilla of boats reportedly carrying members of a Japanese nationalist group (in what it too, naturally, views as its territorial waters). This was the most Chinese ships to enter Japanese waters near the Senkakus since the Japanese government purchased three of them from what it considers their owner last September and effectively nationalized the chain, a move China has quite vocally disputed and which has led to violent anti-Japanese demonstrations in China, as well as a wide-ranging boycott of numerous Japanese exports.
Japan promptly followed protocol and summoned the Chinese ambassador and lodged a protest over the maritime activity.
“It is extremely regrettable and unacceptable that Chinese state ships continue to engage in intrusion,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference. “We are protesting strictly through our diplomatic channels.”
The intrusion came after around 10 fishing boats carrying members of a conservative political group called Ganbare Nippon left Ishigaki Island in Okinawa and headed toward the Senkakus on Monday night. Things just escalated from there when running in four formations, the eight Chinese ships monitored the Japanese ships from different angles, China said in a statement.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe vowed to “expel by force” any Chinese landing on the islets.
“We would take decisive action against any attempt to enter territorial waters and to land,” Abe told the Diet in response to questions from lawmakers. “We would never allow” a landing.
“It would be natural for us to expel by force (the Chinese) if they were to make a landing,” he said.
Obviously, when we first read this latest incarnation of tiny David provoking a massive Goliath, we couldn't help but smile. Yet it turns out that Japan is indeed hell bent on pushing China to the limit, and then some, in this parading around with its best friend: the United States.
Moments ago Kyodo reported that Japan's Defense Ministry said on Tuesday that "about 1,000 officers of the nation's Self-Defense Forces will participate in a U.S. drill to be held in California in June involving recapturing control of an isolated island."
Did we mention the drill would be held in California?
It is quite clear what said "recaptured island" is supposed to represent. It is even clearer what the US backing and sponsorship of such a drill on US soil is supposed to telegraph to China, so we won't go into any details.
It will be the first time for SDF personnel to participate in such a drill on the U.S. mainland.Japan's participation could trigger a backlash from China as the Defense Ministry has been strengthening its capability to protect isolated islands amid soured ties with China over territorial issues surrounding the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, experts on defense issues said.
Actually China does not need to to twitch even the smallest military muscle: all it has to do is engage in a perfectly peaceful trade blockade of Japan: halt all exports to the tiny (by comparison) and irradiated nation, while boycotting all imports from Tokyo, which in better days amounted to 20% of all external trade. By doing so, China assures two things: the imminent collapse of Abenomics as even a 1,000,000 Nikkei225 will do nothing at all to prevent the country from entering an energy shortage shock, even as the local manufacturing sector implodes under its own weight, losing a core export market, and be forced to dump products on local soil in the process unleashing hyperdeflation.
In other words, if China wants, it can terminate Abe's career in months. And since the entire fate of the "developed world's" banking system is now in the hands of the BOJ and the successful conclusion of its reflation experiment, China just may just have been given the perfect opportunity to take down the (G-)7 birds with one stone.
The only question is whether Beijing feels it is ready and is willing to now finally truly challenge the Western reserve currency hegemony. Or wait some more.
Either way, it is only a matter of time now.
and....
http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/2013/04/sign-at-restaurant-in-wuhan-china-no.html
TUESDAY, APRIL 23, 2013
Sign at a Restaurant in Wuhan, China "No Entry for Japanese", No Tee Time for Japanese at a Golf Course
No Tee Time for Japanese Shows Depth of Toyota China Slump: Cars
Honda Motor Co. employees in the Chinese city of Wuhan need only visit the popular Feng Bo Zhuang restaurant to see the resentment their company faces. A sign at the door says Japanese are barred from entering.
Discrimination against Japanese is common in China, according toYasuhide Mizuno, the head of Honda’s venture in Wuhan, some 500 miles (800 kilometers) up the Yangtze River from Shanghai. Mizuno -- who has also been assigned to Thailand, Taiwan, Malaysia and Australia -- says he’s never worked in a more hostile place.
“Wherever I go, like department stores or in taxis, people ask me whether I am Japanese,” Mizuno, 49, president of Dongfeng Honda (GHAJCZ), said in an interview at the Shanghai auto show. When he says yes, he said, the reception can be frosty.
Mizuno’s experiences in the city, site of one of the bloodiest battles of the Sino-Japanese war in the 1930s, illustrate why sales for Honda and Toyota Motor Corp (7203). have yet to recover since violent protests across China seven months ago. Though the riots -- triggered by a territorial dispute over uninhabited islands -- have subsided, Japanese carmakers are continuing to lose share in the world’s biggest auto market.
...First-quarter China deliveries for Honda, Nissan Motor Co. and Toyota (7203) fell even as overall Chinese car sales rose 17 percent. The share of Japanese brands dropped to 15 percent, versus a peak of 23 percent in 2011, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. LMC predicts the Japanese will see no growth in China this year, while the country’s auto market will expand 10 percent. Toyota doesn’t expect deliveries in the country to reach pre-protest levels before this autumn, China chief Hiroji Onishi said at the Shanghai show.
...For Honda’s Mizuno, the numbers are personal, though he says things are slowly improving. Japanese expatriates are still turned away from grocery stores, but not as often as before, he said. The Wuhan Tianwaitian Golf Country Club is always booked when he tries to reserve a tee time, he says, though it’s better than simply being told Japanese aren’t welcome on the course, as was the case a few months ago.
“I’ve never had that kind of experience in Beijing, Shanghai or Guangzhou,” Mizuno said. “They don’t understand that what they do affects foreign impressions of the city.”
Wang Qian, a representative at Tianwaitian’s reservations hotline, said the club doesn’t discriminate, though she acknowledged it refused Japanese golfers in September and October. Currently, the club prioritizes bookings for members and Japanese executives don’t belong to the club, she said.
At Feng Bo Zhuang near Wuhan’s bustling shopping district, workers in the 150-seat restaurant make no secret of their prejudices.
“My boss thinks the Japanese are way wrong on the Diaoyu islands issues, so he decided to put up the sign,” said a manager dressed in a Kung Fu master’s outfit who identified himself only by his family name, Zhong. “It’s also our way of marketing, because Chinese people were all angry.”
Japanese automakers can’t pin all the blame on political disputes as their cars have a lackluster reputation, according to Zhu Bin, an analyst at LMC Automotive. Sales at Toyota had been falling in the two months preceding the protests, while Nissan was underperforming the broader market.
(Full article at the link)
"Lackluster reputation". Coming from Chinese is priceless.
Meanwhile 1,000 officers of Japan's Self Defense Force will have a joint drill in June in California with the US military to recapture an isolated island, according to Kyodo News.
When I tweeted the military drill news, one follower responded by saying "There is no way that the US will side with Japan. Only a token gesture, because they don't want to anger China." The same kind of people also accused the US for not helping Japan enough in March 2011.
Meanwhile 1,000 officers of Japan's Self Defense Force will have a joint drill in June in California with the US military to recapture an isolated island, according to Kyodo News.
When I tweeted the military drill news, one follower responded by saying "There is no way that the US will side with Japan. Only a token gesture, because they don't want to anger China." The same kind of people also accused the US for not helping Japan enough in March 2011.
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