Chinese and Russian Naval Ships Patrol & more –22nd Aug 2023

nd of August: 2023

On Thursday the 17th of August, five Chinese and six Russian naval ships conducted a joint patrol between two islands of Okinawa Prefecture before heading to the East China Sea. While others have spotted similar joint ventures near Japanese waters in September of last year, this is the first time Japan’s Defense Ministry officially confirmed the sighting.

Although the ministry expressed security concerns, it noted that the ships did not actually break any laws. According to the UN’s Law of the Sea and the Coastal State, ships can legally pass through other countries’ territorial waters as long as they’re not committing piracy or some other crime. So for the moment, all they can do is watch and wait.

The very next day, on Friday the 18th, the Japan Coast Guard spotted more Chinese vessels near the Senkaku Islands, west of Okinawa’s main island. This marks the twenty-first time in the last month that someone saw a Chinese naval ship in Japan’s waters near Senkaku and Okinawa.

Even though the islands are officially part of Japan’s territory, China claims them as theirs, much like it claims Taiwan as one of its provinces. The defense ministry is keeping a careful eye on the situation.

As part of the effort to prepare for any hostility from China, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida boarded a plane to the US for a summit with President Biden and South Korean President Yoon. The summit took place on Friday the 18th at the Camp David presidential retreat. They held it in the hopes of strengthening a three-way partnership to help keep the Indo-Pacific region safe and secure, especially with all of China and North Korea’s shenanigans going on.

The leaders agreed to create a security hotline, coordinate missile defense efforts, and expand joint exercises. They also promised to hold yearly summits between the three countries.

As if in response to the summit, North Korea notified Japan’s Coast Guard on Tuesday the 22nd that it plans to launch an artificial satellite sometime between the 24th and 31st of August. The last time North Korea told Japan that it was going to launch a satellite, it instead launched an intercontinental ballistic missile.

After Kishida returned to Japan on Saturday the 19th, he visited the defunct Fukushima Daiichi power plant on Sunday the 20th. He inspected the plant’s preparations to release treated water into the ocean and also checked the location of the tunnel that will release the water.

The International Atomic Energy Agency already approved the plans to release the water last month. The water contains tritium, a radioactive substance, but is treated and diluted in order to meet the World Health Organization’s safety standards for drinking water.

Kishida said that Tokyo Electric Power Company, the owner of the plant, must ensure safety and keep the public informed. Kishida also plans to meet with senior officials from national fisheries groups to talk to them about the treated water release, since some are still against it.

In other news, Typhoon Lan went on a rampage in western Japan from Tuesday the 15th to Wednesday the 16th. In Tottori City, the capital of Tottori Prefecture, the typhoon obliterated an entire road. Residents who saw it said that the road fell away like dominos under the heavy rain. Over in Kyoto Prefecture, the rain also caused landslides that destroyed multiple houses.

In an effort to address some of the destruction, the social welfare council in Yazu Town began accepting volunteers to help clean up on Monday the 21st. Ten local residents and six prefectural officials gathered to remove mud and rocks that swollen rivers dragged into mountainous homes in Ochiiwa district. One of the volunteers said that people needed help most in such rocky areas where heavy machinery couldn’t get to. The social welfare council is going to keep recruiting volunteers and targeting the areas that need the most help.

Western Japan is far from the only region going through hardship. In the wake of the wildfires in Maui, Hawaii, and the tragic loss of over a hundred people, Japan’s astronomical observatory in Hawaii recently offered to support Maui’s reconstruction. Although the observatory is located on a separate island, around seventy percent of the observatory’s staff are local employees, some of whom have relatives or friends on Maui. They issued a statement pledging their support, and saying they would try working with other research institutions in Hawaii to raise donations and do volunteer work.

Though not on the same scale of tragedy, an incident last week saw an example of small evils still alive and well in society. On the 13th of August, several fans sexually assaulted DJ Soda, a South Korean DJ, at a music festival in Osaka.

During the end of her set, she got off the stage to interact with fans. She got close to touch audience members’ hands, but instead, several touched her breasts, with one female fan grabbing quite hard. At the time, she pretended it didn’t bother her so she could finish her performance, but she later said how violated and scared she felt.

While many offered sympathy to DJ Soda, some took to social media to blame her for wearing skimpy clothing. DJ Soda called such people out in a later post by saying that sexual harassment and assault can never be justified. TryHard Japan, the organizer of the music festival, promised to find the suspects, and may have already narrowed it down as they stated on Friday the 18th that they plan to file a criminal complaint next week.

Moving on, the town of Kaminoseki, in Yamaguchi Prefecture, announced on Friday the 18th that it’ll let Chugoku Electric Power Company see if it can build a nuclear fuel storage facility in the town. A lot of nuclear power plants have spent fuel rods taking up space, which they’d like to move off-site - hence the need for storage facilities. The government said it would offer subsidies to cities that host such facilities.

Earlier this month, the power company said it wanted to conduct a survey of the town of Kaminoseki for nuclear storage, and the town held an assembly to discuss it. The town has an aging population that’s been steadily dropping over the years, so the mayor saw this survey as an opportunity to bring in more people and keep the town alive for future generations.

Not everyone was happy about the proposition, though, with some residents protesting in front of the town hall before the meeting began.

In health-related news, on Monday the 21st, Japan’s health ministry approved a new Alzheimer’s drug developed by Japanese firm Eisai and its US partner Biogen. Researchers have found that one cause of Alzheimer’s seems to be the buildup of a certain type of protein in the brain. This new drug is the first-ever treatment designed to cut down on that protein and has already shown some success in clinical trials.

The US Food and Drug Administration approved the drug back in July.

Meanwhile, there is some semi-positive news coming out of the travel industry. During this year’s Bon Festival, a holiday celebrating one’s late ancestors between the 10th and 20th of August, eleven different Japanese airlines reported fifteen percent more passengers on domestic flights compared to last year. While the numbers are an improvement, the two biggest airlines, All Nippon Airways and Japan Airlines, said that it was seven percent less than pre-pandemic years and much lower than expected, mainly because a lot of people canceled their flights when Typhoon Lan came around. By contrast, there were nearly half a million international fliers, seventy-six percent more than last year, but still only two-thirds of passengers on international flights pre-pandemic.

That’s it for this week! Thanks for joining us!

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Mata Ne!