India and Japan: News and Discussion

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svinayak
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Re: India and Japan: News and Discussion

Post by svinayak »

http://www.hindu.com/2008/11/01/stories ... 261000.htm

Toward Asian power equilibrium


Brahma Chellaney

Last week’s Indo-Japanese security accord is momentous, with Tokyo concluding such an agreement with only one other country, Australia. Its significance actually parallels the 2005 Indo-U.S. defence framework accord. But while the latter seeks to mould India into America’s junior partner, the former is between equals to help contribute to Asian power stability.

The India-Japan security agreement signed last week marks a significant milestone in building Asian power equilibrium. A constellation of Asian states linked by strategic cooperation and sharing common interests is becoming critical to instituting power stability at a time when major shifts in economic and political power are accentuating Asia’s security challenges.

What Tokyo and New Delhi have signed is a framework agreement, to be followed up with “an action plan with specific measures to advance security cooperation” in particular areas, ranging from sea-lane safety and defence collaboration to disaster management and counterterrorism. How momentous this accord is can be seen from the fact that Japan has such a security agreement with only one other country — Australia.

Tokyo, of course, has been tied to the United States militarily since 1951 through a treaty that was designed to meet American demands that U.S. troops remain stationed in Japan even after the end of the American occupation of Japan. Today, that treaty — revised in 1960 — is the linchpin of the American forward-military deployment strategy in the Asian theatre.

The Indo-Japanese security agreement, signed during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit, is actually modelled on the March 2007 Japan-Australia defence accord. Both are in the form of a joint declaration on security cooperation. And both, while recognising a common commitment to democracy, freedom, human rights and the rule of law, obligate the two sides to work together to build not just bilateral defence cooperation but also security in the Asia-Pacific.

But unlike distant Australia with its relatively benign security environment, India and Japan are China’s next-door neighbours and worry that Beijing’s accumulating power could fashion a Sino-centric Asia.
Canberra, quite the opposite, wishes to balance its relations with Tokyo and Beijing, and loves to cite the new reality that, for the first time, Australia’s largest trading partner (China) is no longer the same as its main security anchor (the U.S.).

But there is nothing unique about this situation. It is a testament to Beijing’s rising global economic clout that China is also Japan’s largest trade partner now and is poised to similarly become India’s in a couple of years. On the other hand, two of India’s most-important bilateral relationships — with Russia and Japan — suffer from hideously low trade volumes.

Trade in today’s market-driven world is not constrained by political differences — unless political barriers have been erected, as the U.S. has done against Cuba and Burma, for example. In fact, as world history testifies, booming trade is not a guarantee of moderation and restraint between states. The new global fault lines show that that it was a mistake to believe that greater economic interdependence by itself would improve international geopolitics. Better politics is as important as better economics.

Canberra has consciously sought to downplay its defence accord with Tokyo to the extent that, nearly a year after Prime Minister Kevin Rudd took office, a visitor seeking to access the text of that agreement on the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) website is greeted by this message: “Sorry, the page you asked for has been temporarily removed from the site — Following the recent Australian federal election, the content of this page is under review until further notice.” Indeed, Mr. Rudd’s Labour Party, while in opposition ranks, had openly cast doubt on the diplomatic utility of that agreement.

In that light, it is no surprise that beyond their similarly structured format, including the mirrored requirement for a follow-up action plan, the Japanese-Australian and Indo-Japanese agreements carry different strategic import. The one between Tokyo and New Delhi is plainly designed to contribute to building Asian power equilibrium. The Indo-Japanese partnership, as the two Prime Ministers said in their separate joint statement, forms an “essential pillar for the future architecture” of security in the Asia-Pacific.

By contrast, the Australian-Japanese agreement carries little potential to become an abiding element of a future Asian-Pacific security architecture, given the two parties’ contrasting strategic motivations and Canberra’s attempts from the outset to package it as a functional arrangement devoid of geopolitical aims. Tellingly, the push for that accord had come from the then Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the architect of the Quadrilateral Initiative. And it was Mr. Rudd who this year pulled the plug on that initiative, founded on the concept of democratic peace.

The significance of the Indo-Japanese agreement truly parallels the 2005 Indo-U.S. defence framework accord, which signalled a major transformation of the once-estranged relationship between the world’s most populous and most powerful democracies. Both those agreements focus on counterterrorism, disaster response, safety of sea-lanes of communications, non-proliferation, bilateral and multilateral military exercises, peace operations, and defence dialogue and cooperation. But the former has not only been signed at a higher level — prime ministerial — but also comes with a key element: “policy coordination on regional affairs in the Asia-Pacific region and on long-term strategic and global issues.”

This is an agreement between equals on enhancing mutual security. By contrast, the U.S.-India defence agreement, with its emphasis on U.S. arms sales, force interoperability and intelligence sharing, aims to build India as a new junior partner (or spoke) in a web of interlocking bilateral arrangements meshing with America’s hub-and-spoke alliance system, designed to undergird U.S. interests.

It is, however, doubtful that the U.S., despite the defence accord and the subsequent nuclear deal, would succeed in roping in India as a new ally in a patron-client framework. In a fast-changing world characterised by a qualitative reordering of power — with even Tokyo and Berlin seeking to discreetly reclaim their foreign policy autonomy — U.S. policymakers are unlikely to be able to mould India into a new Japan or Germany to America, notwithstanding the help from Indian neocons.

In keeping with its long-standing preference for strategic independence, India is likely to retain the option to forge different partnerships with varied players to pursue a variety of interests in diverse settings. That means that from being nonaligned, India is likely to become multialigned. The security agreement with Japan — still the world’s second largest economic powerhouse after the U.S. — jibes well with India’s desire to pursue omnidirectional cooperation for mutual benefit with key players.

Japan and India indeed are natural allies, with no negative historical legacy and no conflict of strategic interest. Rather, they share common goals to build stability and institutionalised cooperation in Asia and to make the 20th century international institutions and rules more suitable for the 21st century world. They are establishing a “strategic and global partnership” that is driven, as their new agreement states, “by converging long-term political, economic and strategic interests, aspirations and concerns.”

Such is the fast-developing nature of this relationship that the two, besides holding a yearly summit meeting, have instituted multiple strategic dialogues involving their Foreign and Defence Ministers and national security advisers, as well as “service-to-service exchanges including bilateral and multilateral exercises.” After all, the balance of power in Asia will be determined by events as much in the Indian Ocean rim as in East Asia. The Indian and Japanese space agencies are also to cooperate as part of capacity-building efforts in disaster management.

It will be simplistic to see such cooperation one-dimensionally, as aimed at countervailing China’s growing might. Beijing itself is pursuing a range of bilateral and multilateral initiatives in Asia to underpin its strategic objectives and help shape Asian security trends — from weapon sales to countries stretching from Iran to Indonesia and port building projects in the Indian Ocean rim, to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and north-south strategic corridors through Pakistan and Burma.

Given China’s territorial size, population (a fifth of the human race) and economic dynamism, few can question or grudge its right to be a world power. In fact, such is its sense of where it wishes to go that China cannot be dissuaded from the notion that it is destined to emerge, in the words of the then President Jiang Zemin, as “a world power second to none.”

Against that background, why begrudge the efforts of Asia’s two largest and most established democracies to work together to avert an Asian power disequilibrium? Never before in history have China, India and Japan been all strong at the same time. Today, they need to find ways to reconcile their interests in Asia so that they can peacefully coexist and prosper. But there can be no denying that these three leading Asian powers and the U.S. have different playbooks: the U.S. wants a unipolar world but a multipolar Asia; China seeks a multipolar world but a unipolar Asia; and India and Japan desire a multipolar Asia and multipolar world.

(Brahma Chellaney, a professor of strategic studies at the Centre for Policy Research in New Delhi, is the author, most recently, of Asian Juggernaut: The Rise of China, India and Japan.)
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Re: India and Japan: News and Discussion

Post by paramu »

Not really related to Indo-Japanese relation
Japan air force chief faces sack
The head of the Japanese air force is to be sacked after saying the country was not an aggressor in World War II, Japan's defence minister said.
...
He also argued that Japan was drawn into World War II by then US President Franklin D Roosevelt.

He said Roosevelt had been manipulated by the Comintern, the international communist organisation founded in Moscow in 1919.
Keshav
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Re: India and Japan: News and Discussion

Post by Keshav »

paramu wrote:Not really related to Indo-Japanese relation
Japan air force chief faces sack
The head of the Japanese air force is to be sacked after saying the country was not an aggressor in World War II, Japan's defence minister said.
...
He also argued that Japan was drawn into World War II by then US President Franklin D Roosevelt.

He said Roosevelt had been manipulated by the Comintern, the international communist organisation founded in Moscow in 1919.
I always thought that the Japanese were pretty jingo, with their ideas of "gaijin" (outsider), but I suppose not.
Paul
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Re: India and Japan: News and Discussion

Post by Paul »

Jingoistic statements on PRC and Korea are okay but not unkil.....at least for this stage of the game.
Lalmohan
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Re: India and Japan: News and Discussion

Post by Lalmohan »

the Japanese feel that attacking the Allies in WW2 was a pre-emptive move to prevent American domination of the Pacific and seriously threaten Japanese commercial requirements and energy supplies. They realised that to have any hope of success they had to attack early and hard and knock out the US carriers, hence pearl harbour
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Re: India and Japan: News and Discussion

Post by renukb »

China fears India-Japan space alliance By Peter J Brown

India and Japan's agreement in October to expand cooperation between the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), in the field of disaster management, has the raised the ire of a China fearful that the US is masterminding a powerful space alliance between its allies in the region.

All of Asia wants to see improved regional disaster management capabilities, but the growing ties between ISRO and JAXA come just as India and Japan are devising an action plan to advance security cooperation.

"China is concerned about the general effort of the US during the Bush Administration to form a Japanese-Indian alliance to contain China," said Dr Gregory Kulacki, senior analyst and China project manager at the Massachusetts-based Union of Concerned Scientists.

"They are more concerned about what this implies about US intentions rather than what it implies about the intentions of the Japanese or the Indians, particularly as it concerns space."

Brian Weeden, a technical consultant at the Colorado-based Secure World Foundation, hesitates to agree that India and Japan's efforts to pursue closer ties in space are part of a deliberate US master plan for the region, but he does not see the US taking any steps to discourage them.

"The US sees India as primarily a counterbalance to China in the region, but at the same time it does not see India as a full ally in the same sense as Britain or Japan. I do not think the US looks unfavorably on this relationship, but I am certain it will be examining it very closely and if the US does have concerns, they will be quietly expressed to the Japanese," said Weeden.

Whereas Japan benefits greatly from the steady deployment in the Pacific Ocean of US AEGIS ballistic missile defense (BMD) technology - it will soon be aboard all four of Japan's Kongo-class destroyers - this sea-based BMD system will probably not appear soon on any of India's warships, for example.

Weedon also points to the most recent 'Red Flag' exercise at Nellis Air force Base in Nevada. "The Russian-built Indian fighters participating had their radars in test mode so as not to give away their full capabilities to the Americans. Likewise, the US didn't let the F-22 participate for the same reasons."

The agreement is a concern for China, as it would be for any nation when their traditional regional adversaries talk about cooperation, adds Weedon. "Most countries still see the national security angle of space as a unilateral effort and are unlikely to collaborate in that area. They will, however collaborate in scientific or civilian areas."

There is considerable turmoil in Japan concerning the future of JAXA and how much money the Japanese government should be spending on it. The situation is made more complicated by Japan's recently enacted Space Basic Law, which for the first time permits Japan to consider deployment of national security space assets, which the Japanese had denied themselves until now.

"The government of Japan, particularly the Ministry of Defense, is still sorting this out," said Aerospace consultant Lance Gatling, head of Tokyo-based Gatling Associates, which closely monitors JAXA and the Japanese space program.

Japan has been using its weather satellites to provide free weather data to countries throughout Asia for many years without any hint of controversy, but this is quite different from deploying a new generation of surveillance satellites to monitor disasters.

Virtually all existing satellite-based multinational disaster management initiatives such as the "International Charter, Space and Major Disasters" depend upon the ability of the signatories to engage in the rapid tasking of their respective surveillance satellites. In other words, quickly altering the flight patterns of the surveillance satellites in question so they zoom right over a disaster zone is essential to the success of the mission at hand.

"This could be seen by some as a sensitive undertaking with obvious dual use possibilities which Japan will attempt to handle with great care. And that degree of sensitivity clearly permeates anything that ISRO and JAXA have been given the green light to develop in this instance, even though JAXA has no national security mission," said Gatling.

When, in early November, the Japanese press revealed that Japan has begun to explore the possible future launch of an early warning satellite which can detect the launch of enemy ballistic missiles, according to a draft plan obtained by The Yomiuri Shimbun, the joint declaration was not even mentioned.

Among other things, this draft plan promotes the use of rockets and satellites for defense purposes and endorses the need to examine the feasibility of deploying a new satellite which can perform BMD-oriented security and crisis management or disaster monitoring roles simultaneously.

The draft plan is scheduled for a final review in late November, and while it may not neatly address whatever ISRO and JAXA have elected to pursue, Beijing will be hard pressed to dismiss what could easily become a convenient addendum to the Joint Declaration.

India, on the other hand, simply wants to increase satellite surveillance of all Chinese military activities, particularly along the Chinese border with India.

On November 1, for example, the Times of India reported that during the most recent Indian Army commanders' conference, "one of the main agenda items" included a discussion of the need to dig tunnels in forward areas including along the Chinese border with "fooling enemy satellites from gauging the exact troop positions and their strength in forward areas" identified as one of the key objectives.

"China has resorted to tunneling on a large-scale along the LAC [Line of Actual Control] especially in the Tibetan Autonomous Region," one senior officer at the conference told the Times.

Proponents of increased Japanese government budgetary support look to exploit every opportunity to stress the commercial and strategic importance of the Japanese space program, and in this case, China's manned spaceflight program - not tunnels - serves an important purpose.

"The rapid advances in space by China - and India - clearly caught the attention of the Japanese who saw themselves as the leader in space in the region a decade ago," said Gatling.

Dr Joan Johnson-Freese, chair of the Department of National Security Studies at the US Naval War College, does not believe the Japan-India space relationship is picking up steam. "The consensus-driven decision making process used in Japan means that pretty much everything moves at a glacial pace," said Johnson-Freese.

She prefers to take the language in the Joint Declaration at face value.

"Disaster management efforts in the Pacific Rim region have been under discussion for a long time, and this is part of the culmination of those talks. It is one of the few areas where everyone in the region agrees that concerted efforts are required," said Johnson-Freese, adding that she has not heard of any serious concerns from China over Japan-India working together on disaster management.

Kulacki also recalls the tone and spirit of the proceedings of the International Lunar Exploration Working Group (ILEWG) conference in Beijing in 2006, where the Group issued a declaration on cooperation called the ILEWG Beijing Declaration.

"All sides seemed cordial, well-acquainted and anxious to pursue joint projects. I do not sense any tension among the space professionals of these three countries, who understand and are anxious to reap the benefits of joint efforts," said Kulacki.

Johnson-Freese views things a bit differently, and labels the three parties as "cautiously prudent".

"They will pursue joint projects when it is win-win," said Johnson-Freese.

Here she adds weight, albeit indirectly, to the argument that India and Japan are very much on the same page, and probably agree that a merger of their space activities gradually over time may offers a distinct strategic edge.

Johnson-Freese and Kulacki also clearly disagree over China's leadership role in the Asian space race.

"China is not anxious to be seen as a leader and does not see itself as a leader. China feels it is far behind most advanced spacefaring nations," said Kulacki.

"They are also focused on their own objectives and their own needs. While they would welcome the opportunity to be a competitive commercial space player, especially in the international launch services market where they have a strong advantage, they are focused on longstanding goals first set back in the mid-1980s and revised only marginally since then.”

"China very much wants to be seen as both the leader of space efforts in Asia, and for developing nations. They are using their manned program to reap all the prestige awards it renders - which are considerable, if only in perceptions created - including that it is beating the US," said Johnson-Freese.


“By virtue of their success in manned space - and the worldwide attention that it brings them - there is certainly the perception that China is the regional technology leader. While that is a function more of political will than technical capability, perception very quickly becomes the reality from which people base opinions and actions.”

Interestingly, news of Japan's draft plan involving the possible launch of an early warning satellite coincided with the arrival in Tokyo of Russia's Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov. He warned Japan and the rest of Asia about the dangers of the rampant missile technology proliferation now underway in the region and an emerging "confrontational atmosphere" stemming from such things as Japan's AEGIS BMD deployment.

Of course, Lavrov said nothing about Russia's important role in support of South Korea's entry into the Asian space race or about how Russia has been a major backer of the Indian aerospace sector. In fact, the Russian space agency is actively engaged in ISRO's Chandrayaan-2 project, supplying ISRO with its lunar lander and jointly developing a lunar rover.

China's recent announcement that it would provide Pakistan with a new communications satellite early in the next decade - adding yet another space asset to the fast-growing Asian "dual use" roster - no doubt provides India with further justification for pursuing closer ties in space with Japan.

China, at the same time, must not enjoy the news that numerous NASA scientists are apparently eager and poised to joint the ranks of ISRO, a timely shift in highly specialized talent that came to light in the days immediately following the successful launch of India's new moon probe, Chandrayaan-1.

"I doubt China is the only factor, but it is one factor in [any ongoing India-Japan joint space activity]. Other factors could be desires to increase regional relations and influence. We are seeing more and more cooperation in space, sometimes along traditional relationships like US and Europe, and sometimes along nontraditional ones like Japan and India," said Weedon.

The success of the International Space Station program, and the fact that countries are looking for new ways to cope with the huge costs of operating in space during this steep global economic downturn, are making international cooperation a more attractive and more acceptable option, he said.


Peter J Brown is a satellite journalist from Maine USA.
ramana
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Re: India and Japan: News and Discussion

Post by ramana »

A total fake debate is going on between US experts about what PRC, Japan and India can and cannot do in space and it totally ignores actual demonstrated capabilities by India. So its an ideal dialiectic rhetoric exercise. Craete new enemises and pump the stories
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Re: India and Japan: News and Discussion

Post by NRao »

A Japan model? (read when u have time.)

Neighborhood in Japan Files Lawsuit in Bid to Oust Mafia
Sanjay M
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Re: India and Japan: News and Discussion

Post by Sanjay M »

Well, that'll just weaken Aso further.
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Re: India and Japan: News and Discussion

Post by Keshav »

NRao wrote:A Japan model? (read when u have time.)

Neighborhood in Japan Files Lawsuit in Bid to Oust Mafia
One of my Japanese friends was telling me about how the Yakuza in Japan are far more open about their dealings and hate being called "thieves". They consider themslves prime time capitalists (read "businessmen"), apparently.

They have direct lineage with old feudal clans, are open in their dealings, and are extremely huge organizations. Or so he said.
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Re: India and Japan: News and Discussion

Post by Johann »

Keshav wrote:
NRao wrote:A Japan model? (read when u have time.)

Neighborhood in Japan Files Lawsuit in Bid to Oust Mafia
One of my Japanese friends was telling me about how the Yakuza in Japan are far more open about their dealings and hate being called "thieves". They consider themslves prime time capitalists (read "businessmen"), apparently.

They have direct lineage with old feudal clans, are open in their dealings, and are extremely huge organizations. Or so he said.
Actually its true that the Yakuza consider themselves to be the only people in Japan who have preserved traditional values like honour and responsibility.

But they are as integral to politics as organised crime is in India or Italy, or any country that moved directly from feudalism to electoral politics.

Organised crime is the way that the privileged in those situation maintain special status despite pesky problems like the rule of law, or equality before the law. They will be around until the ruling classes truly internalise those concepts.

Japan is changing though - there's far more civil society activism, and the public is more assertive about its expectations of the political class, so there's more of a squeeze on the Yakuza than there has been for a vey long time.
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Re: India and Japan: News and Discussion

Post by Keshav »

Big news out of Japan - its the first military execution of the Japanese security forces in years:

Japan to destroy North Korea rocket
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7967202.stm

Excerpt:
Japan's Defence Minister Yasukazu Hamada issued the orders to mobilise Japan's missile defence shield after a meeting with Prime Minister Taro Aso and cabinet ministers.

"We will do our best to handle any flying object from North Korea in order to assure the Japanese people's safety and security," said Mr Hamada.
It is the first time that constitutionally pacifist Japan has deployed the shield. The country's military is also expected to deploy warships off its coast.
Japan revised its Self-Defence Forces Law in 2005, legalising possible interceptions of ballistic missiles.

But the country's pacifist constitution does not allow it to intercept a missile if it is clearly heading elsewhere.

The Japanese government had previously warned it would try to shoot down any missile or debris that threatens to hit its territory.

North Korea has said it would regard any rocket intercept as an act of war.
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Re: India and Japan: News and Discussion

Post by ramana »

One Western commentator was saying that Japan has a rightwing govt and was posturing and escalating unnecessarily. If its a satellite launch where is the question of destroying falling objects? Do they want to shoot down spent stages? And why all this mobilization brouhaha or hungama?
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Re: India and Japan: News and Discussion

Post by Gerard »

xpost
Japan Says U.S. Risks Nuclear Proliferation
But in a security review published Thursday Japan's Defense Ministry criticized the U.S. for jeopardizing efforts to halt the spread of atomic weapons by agreeing to help India build nuclear power plants.

"The United States could undermine the basic principle of the NPT [non-proliferation treaty], which is to reward non-nuclear states with cooperation in the peaceful uses of atomic energy," Japan states in its annual East Asian Strategic Review. "By providing India with the same level of cooperation, the international community is placing India on an equal footing," it adds. India, which tested its first atom bomb in 1974, has refused to sign the NPT.
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Re: India and Japan: News and Discussion

Post by Keshav »

Why the hell does Japan need fighter jets?!

I heard a more militaristic government was put into power in Japan (possibly the DPJ) recently, rather than the LDP which as been in power since the war ended.
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Re: India and Japan: News and Discussion

Post by putnanja »

Visa services at Japanese Consulate in Bangalore
Bangalore, May 26 People travelling to Japan from Karnataka can now get their visa issued by the Japanese Consulate here, which opened its office in the city last year. Earlier, visa applicants had to travel to Chennai.

Chennai Consulate will now cater to Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala.

...
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Re: India and Japan: News and Discussion

Post by Lalmohan »

Keshav wrote:Why the hell does Japan need fighter jets?!

to attack Godzilla ofcourse!

or more realistically to be the teeth of the the North Pacific aircraft carrier of the US
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Re: India and Japan: News and Discussion

Post by sum »

Why the hell does Japan need fighter jets?!
Atleast they have a valid reason like N.Korea or Russia(with whom they have disputs on small islands) unlike countries like France, UK which maintain huge fleets just for fly-pasts with no real use...
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Re: India and Japan: News and Discussion

Post by arun »

Japan, India plan joint space research project

19 hours ago
TOKYO (AFP) — Japan and India plan to launch their first joint space research project this year, an experiment in growing plants in zero gravity, a Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency researcher said Friday.

The two Asian powers are set to launch a small and unmanned Indian-made satellite in October, carrying Japanese laboratory equipment, that is set to orbit for about one week at a height of around 600 kilometres (370 miles).

Aboard the satellite they will seek to grow a type of algae, said Noriaki Ishioka, a professor for Japan's space agency JAXA, who called the experiment "a basic study on photosynthetic activity in space." ……………

AFP via Google
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Re: India and Japan: News and Discussion

Post by harbans »

I just visited some Phillipine night clubs in different cities in Japan. I was shocked. Old Japanese men marry 19 year old pretty Phillipino girls. Have babies with them. The girls after 20 years earn less than 1000 USD, spend most of it sending home. And guess what? 20 years into Japan these girls, they are NOT granted Japanese citizenship. I met a girl very recently who cried her heart out..her baby from a drunken fat Japanese man has a Japanese passport, she does not. She earns 900 USD/ month (and has to pay for all living expenses) despite working 18 hours a day including in Industrial jobs, apart from being hostess to drunken Japs. Cannot make it home. Comfort women? Hey Japanese are still live to it.

I just wonder if Japanese have even learnt their WW2 lessons? Racist to the core. They think they are civilized, but i doubt it very much. Reflecting on my travels in a large part of Asia, i reflect..India is/ has the necessary way. The only way to teach Asians pride, civilization and ethics. Once again.
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Re: India and Japan: News and Discussion

Post by Keshav »

harbans wrote:I just wonder if Japanese have even learnt their WW2 lessons? Racist to the core. They think they are civilized, but i doubt it very much. Reflecting on my travels in a large part of Asia, i reflect..India is/ has the necessary way. The only way to teach Asians pride, civilization and ethics. Once again.
People who don't live there don't have that sense but an understated racism definitely exists in Japan. You can read it on many blogs and sites from personal experience. Some people experience it and some people don't. It also depends where you go.

You have to remember that the Japanese have been a homogenous, monoracial people for quite some time. India has been a multiethnic, multireligious people for all of its time. Quite the opposite really.
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Re: India and Japan: News and Discussion

Post by Sanjay M »

They're not totally mono-racial. The tanned Okinawans from the south have little in common with the fair-skinned hairy Ainu in the north, for example.
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Re: India and Japan: News and Discussion

Post by Jamal K. Malik »

Krishna in Japan to discuss ways to enhance strategic ties
http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/00 ... 030343.htm
India and Japan are both aspirants for the permanent membership of the UN Security Council and are part of a four-nation G-4 grouping that is pushing for the expansion of the powerful organ of the world body. Other G-4 members are Germany and Brazil.
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Re: India and Japan: News and Discussion

Post by sanjaykumar »

Yes but Okinawans are considered not really Japanese (or at least inferior) and the Ainu are in fact Japan's untouchables (literally).
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Re: India and Japan: News and Discussion

Post by Jamal K. Malik »

Japan urges India to do more on climate change
http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage ... ate+change
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Re: India and Japan: News and Discussion

Post by Jamal K. Malik »

India, Japan make 'progress' in CEPA negotiations.
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/india ... na/484598/
Sanjay M
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Re: India and Japan: News and Discussion

Post by Sanjay M »

Related to nuclear news, and I noticed that a Japanese guy has been made the head of IAEA.

To me, this is to put into place the next drive for a CTBT, since Japan is particularly alarmed about NKorea.
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Re: India and Japan: News and Discussion

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Gerard
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Re: India and Japan: News and Discussion

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NRao
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Re: India and Japan: News and Discussion

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SSridhar
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Re: India and Japan: News and Discussion

Post by SSridhar »

Feel good paradigm in Indo-Japan ties
Excerpts
. . . . On balance, surely, the nuclear issue is not the defining feature of the Japan-India strategic dialogue today. . . In a sense, this “meeting of minds” sets a robust tone for the larger bilateral engagement on a host of smart-power issues. Smart-power, as first propounded by Joseph Nye, is a blending of hard-power of the military kind and soft-power of diplomacy and people-to-people influences. . . Tokyo now has parallel security-related links with the U.S., Australia, and India. . . . In this issue-studded setting, India and Japan did not outline any specific accord at this time for space-related cooperation, a futuristic possibility. In the terrestrial domain, the promise of a new dialogue on cooperation for maritime security was held out. This was the farthest the two sides went, after having recently held a sophisticated naval exercise, which involved the U.S. as well.
Sanjay M
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Re: India and Japan: News and Discussion

Post by Sanjay M »

BBC:

Japan Poised for Historic Ouster of LDP

Looks like the reign of Japan's Kaangress is coming to an end. The Americans had better find a new Asian partner in India's Kaangress, since their traditional partner is going down the tubes.

Heh, by the time this new left-leaning Democratic govt has run its course, it will have spent Japan into honorary 3rd world status, with their declining population left holding the bag. That in turn may lead to a hard-right govt coming to power. I wonder if we'll see mass-migrations to Peru, etc, again?
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Re: India and Japan: News and Discussion

Post by arun »

X Posted:
arun wrote:
That the Japanese firms (Hitachi and Toshiba) are closely tied with the only two US firms manufacturing nuclear power reactors (GE and Westinghouse) should be of no Indian concern.

Should the US wish to partake of a slice of India’s nuclear power generation market then reining in the Japanese Government is completely their responsibility.

There is always Atomstroyexport and Areva :wink: .
Sanjay M
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Re: India and Japan: News and Discussion

Post by Sanjay M »

Japan two-party system — long in arriving

Another article:

http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/6390
Japan has been a one-party oligarchy for a very long time. This may not be a polite thing to say about a democracy and a U.S. ally. But Japan has been ruled by the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) for the last 54 years, except for a few nanoseconds after the Cold War when the ruling party temporarily lost its grip on power. Because of this stifling consensus among a small political elite, "Japanese democracy" has an oxymoronic connotation and Japanese politics has been one of the most boring topics in the world.
I find it ironic that as the conditions for the US-Japan alliance fade, and the Japanese shed their one-party rule for a new ruling party, that the opposite is happening with India. As an Indo-US alliance emerges, it is India which is shedding multi-party democracy to slide into one-party rule.

Perhaps one-party rule is the only type of system that is compatible for alliance with the USA. This is the only type of system the West will countenance in a non-Western ally.
After all, Pakistan, long the USA's "most allied ally" has been under dictatorship for most of its history. Even now, you see plenty Western media psy-ops praising the ruling dictatorship in Pakistan.

My concern is that the recent sudden abandonment of anti-incumbency voting patterns in favour of re-electing the Congress again and again, is a harbinger of an emerging one-party system in India. We are becoming the USA's new lackey, even as many traditional US lackies themselves abandon these traditions.

Because we Indians are slow-witted and slow to awaken to new realities, we will of course realize all of this too late, and our reaction to it will be too late to do any good. We're now going to have out basic democracy taken away from us, and replaced with multi-decade Kaangress rule.
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Re: India and Japan: News and Discussion

Post by Sanjay M »

Japanese Opposition Sweeps to Power, Ending LDP Monopoly

The reign of Japan's Kaangress has been broken, now the US is deprived of a major lackey that it had in the LDP. Sure, the bilateral relationship will compel DPJ to toe the same line as the past govt in many respects. However, the campaign platform that DPJ has run on will force it to innovate in many ways too, in order to meet the challenge of voter expectations in relation to the real-world constraints.

Otherwise, if the DPJ fails to do this, then it will lose its popular support and be cast out, perhaps paving the way for a voter-backlash that brings the political Right into power.
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Re: India and Japan: News and Discussion

Post by svinayak »

Sanjay M wrote:

Perhaps one-party rule is the only type of system that is compatible for alliance with the USA. This is the only type of system the West will countenance in a non-Western ally.

My concern is that the recent sudden abandonment of anti-incumbency voting patterns in favour of re-electing the Congress again and again, is a harbinger of an emerging one-party system in India. We are becoming the USA's new lackey, even as many traditional US lackies themselves abandon these traditions.

Because we Indians are slow-witted and slow to awaken to new realities, we will of course realize all of this too late, and our reaction to it will be too late to do any good. We're now going to have out basic democracy taken away from us, and replaced with multi-decade Kaangress rule.
Very important to understand this trend. This is the influence of the Global MNCs and Business groups which want a one party rule to increase business trade and business links.
Business groups have been the links to the old US allies during the cold war.
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Re: India and Japan: News and Discussion

Post by Sanjay M »

The revolution will not be televised :|
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