Japan assisting Ukraine

Russia on April 8 summoned Akira Muto, Japan's ambassador to Moscow, to protest a recent deal between a Japanese company and a Ukrainian drone producer, according to a statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry.

The Tokyo-based firm Terra Drone in late March became the first Japanese company to invest in Ukraine's defense sector, announcing a partnership with the Ukranian manufacturer Amazing Drones. The investment marks a significant policy shift for Japan.

[...]

In the protest note to Muto, the Kremlin said that Ukraine's drone attacks on Russian territory "provide grounds to regard (Terra Drone's investment) as overtly hostile." The ambassador was also told that relations between Russia and Japan "have reached an all-time low."

[...]

While Japanese companies have long eyed Ukraine's drone sector from afar, the government strongly discouraged investors from even visiting Ukraine. But amid the global rise in drone warfare — and security threats from neighboring Russia, China, and North Korea — Japan has increased defense spending, with its largest-ever budget in 2026 coming in at 9.04 trillion yen ($58 billion).

[...]

Although Japan's post-World War II constitution restricts the provision of lethal military aid to foreign countries, Tokyo remains one of Ukraine's top supporters, with around $15 billion worth of total aid (mostly financial and humanitarian) sent and another $3.5 billion committed.

[...]

Japan has also joined international allies in imposing sanctions against Russia due to its ongoing war in Ukraine.

  

What???

 

Grandpa's meds need to be adjusted

 

Mob boss

 

Sour deal with Japan

Frustration is mounting in Japan after it became clear this week that Tokyo and Washington have different interpretations of a key component of their new trade deal.

[...]

Tensions are running so high here that Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, fighting for his political survival after a humiliating electoral defeat last month, had to try to explain the unusual, vague deal his government struck with President Donald Trump on July 23.

“The other party [Trump] is not a normal person,” Ishiba told frustrated lawmakers pressing for more detail in a session at the Japanese parliament this week, asserting that his counterpart doesn’t play by the rules of conventional trade agreements and unilaterally changes the rules.

  WaPo

No shit, Shigeru.

Late last month, the two sides announced they had reached a trade deal but it essentially amounted to a handshake agreement. With no provisions committed to a formal document, the fact sheets that both governments released have conflicting information.

In their announcement, both countries said the United States would impose a 15 percent tariff on goods from Japan. Tokyo said any item already subject to tariffs higher than 15 percent would be exempt from the new taxes. But the executive order Trump signed last week suggested the rate would be applied on top of existing levies, including beef, which faces a 26.4 percent tariff.

Ryosei Akazawa, Japan’s chief trade negotiator, traveled to Washington on Tuesday to try to sort out the discrepancy but just after he landed, the U.S. interpretation was published in the Federal Register. On Thursday, Akazawa announced that the two sides had agreed to Japan’s interpretation. The White House has yet to release a public statement.

So, actually, there is no deal?

“I think Japan, South Korea, and other allied countries feel the same — that even toward strong allies, Trump tariffs are imposed without mercy,” Itsunori Onodera, policy chief for Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party, said in an interview. “This shows how difficult the U.S. is as a country to understand in terms of balancing its security alliance and trade relationships.”

[...]

Another point of contention is the $550 billion investment plan that Japan pledged in exchange for lower tariffs, a hallmark of the deal. Trump this week said the U.S. would be free to use the money to invest as Washington deems fit. “I got a signing bonus from Japan of $550 billion — that’s our money. It’s our money to invest, as we like,” Trump told CNBC. But Ishiba has maintained that the process would be led by Japanese companies and backed by financial institutions affiliated with the Japanese government, which would offer up to $550 billion in equity investments, loans and loan guarantees. The Japanese government does not have the power to compel Japanese companies to invest in the U.S., let alone the Trump administration.

Grandpa needs a nap

 This makes zero sense.

Let's make a deal

 

90 deals in 90 days

 Current count: 0

During the weeks leading up to a visit from Japan’s chief trade negotiator, the White House dropped hints it was closing in on a deal.

[...]

And yet Ryosei Akazawa, Japan‘s economic revitalization minister, has gone home without an agreement in place—telling local media he had urged the Americans to reconsider their “extremely regrettable” action.

Moreover, Japan’s prime minister said only yesterday he still has “grave concerns” about some of the policies announced by the Oval Office.

[...]

Such resistance from Tokyo is at odds with the message coming out of the White House, with President Trump saying “big progress” has been made in talks with Japan.

  Fortune

I wouldn't have expected him to say anything else.

Likewise Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Trump was “totally in the driver’s seat” when it came to tariff negotiations, and that meetings with more than 75 countries trying to cut a deal were “back to back.”

LOL Nutlick.

Investors are losing confidence in the U.S. dollar this week [...] wrote Thierry Wizman and Gareth Berry, rates strategists at Macquarie, in a note seen by Fortune.

“Many observers, including ourselves, had pointed to Japan as an early test case for an early deal,” the duo said. “And yet, the bilateral negotiations between the U.S. and Japan ended without the contours of a deal in place late last week.

[...]

And while America, the world’s largest economy, might be squeezing its allies toward a deal, there are other pressures shaping the global response to Trump’s administration.

Notably, China warned yesterday that any countries working against its interests would be punished.

And China is much more trustworthy than Trump.

“What’s made matters worse is that Japan’s prime minister … is facing upper house elections on July 20 (notably, after the end of the 90-day tariff reprieve). That may be forcing him to avoid seeming conciliatory to the U.S., until the elections are over,” the analysts added.

[...]

“The U.S.’s trading partners may try to run the clock out on Trump, thinking that concessions from the U.S. will be easier to come by as a U.S. slowdown deepens. The process, we expect, will be long and drawn out.”

After weeks of bluster and escalation, President Trump blinked. Then he blinked again. And again.

He backed off his threat to fire the Federal Reserve chairman. His Treasury secretary, acutely aware that the S&P 500 was down 10 percent since Mr. Trump was inaugurated, signaled he was looking for an offramp to avoid an intensifying trade war with China.

And now Mr. Trump has acknowledged that the 145 percent tariffs on Chinese goods that he announced just two weeks ago are not sustainable. He was prompted in part by the warnings of senior executives from Target and Walmart and other large American retailers that consumers would see price surges and empty shelves for some imported goods within a few weeks.

[...]

He entered this trade war imagining a simpler era in which imposing punishing tariffs would force companies around the world to build factories in the United States.

  NYT

In so many, many matters, it's increasingly obvious that Trump is living in the past.

. Trump’s aides insist that his maximalist demands have been an act of strategic brilliance, forcing 90 countries to line up to deal with the president. It may take months, they acknowledge, to see the concessions that will result.

[...]

“Have some patience and you will see,” the president’s press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, told reporters on Wednesday.

Well, she's just stupid. What's the other folks' excuse?

“We have a lot of action going on,” [Trump] said, repeating his now-familiar line that “we’re not going to be a laughingstock that got taken advantage of by virtually every country in the world.” He suggested again that the United States needed to return to the halcyon era from 1870 to 1913 — the year the country began to impose income taxes — when tariffs funded the government and “we had more money than anybody.”

FFS, the world is nothing like it was at the turn of the 20th century. We're a quarter of the way through the 21st.

And he repeated his prediction that “now we’re going to be making money with everyone, and everyone’s going to be happy.”

Two weeks, right?

But the president was clearly concerned about the warnings from economists that the country could be headed to recession — one of his own making, one that his critics are already trying to label the Trump Slump even before it happens.

I won't know if they're talking about his economic policy or the way he walks.

The tone of his comments seemed to suggest that if recession does come, the blame will fall on Mr. Powell.

And Joe Biden. Certainly won't be Trump's fault.

But once Mr. Trump declared “if I want him out, he’ll be out of there real fast, believe me,” another market sell-off began. It made little difference that he doesn’t have the power to dismiss the Fed chair, as Mr. Powell has noted in recent days. The mere threat of it seemed to accelerate the sense that the United States has become the biggest source of market instability in the world.

The sense? It's just a fact.

Then, on Tuesday, Mr. Trump changed his tune. “I have no intention of firing him,” Mr. Trump said of Mr. Powell. That didn’t stop him from continuing his critique of Mr. Powell as “Mr. Late” with rate cuts, but it was enough to reverse the market sell-off.

The next walk-back came with China.

The White House kept hinting that the Chinese were beginning to negotiate, seeking a way to end the tariffs. In fact, the strategy that Beijing appeared to be following was to wait for Mr. Trump to feel the pain of his own actions. The expected phone call from President Xi Jinping never came. And Mr. Trump didn’t want to be the first to call, either — a sign of desperation.

[...]

Trump seemed to expect China to be among the first to come begging for relief, given the size of its exports to the United States.

[...]

By late Tuesday Mr. Trump was publicly mulling lowering the Chinese tariffs, saying “145 percent is very high, and it won’t be that high, not going to be that high.” He added, “It got up to there,” as if the number had floated to that height by itself.

[...]

“Let me be clear: There will be no unilateral reduction in tariffs against China,” Ms. Leavitt said on Fox News.

She just keeps being willing to be made a fool of. She should ask all of his previous communications spokespeople about that.

[T]he Trump team appeared to have ignored three fundamentals about China: the depth of the Chinese retaliatory tool kit, the extent of China’s economic leverage over the United States, and the ability of Mr. Xi to make the United States the scapegoat for China’s economic ills, [Elizabeth Economy, who has written extensively about Chinese trade policy and served in the Commerce Department during the Biden administration, said].

Yeah, that's her name. She didn't make it up, either.

UPDATE 08:27 pm:

Pathetic.

Denied entry precedes citizen round-up

 

Art of the deal

 

Do you need more big news?

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday announced that he will resign due to poor health.

At a press conference in Tokyo, Abe, 65, said that he had been struggling with his health since mid-July and that he’s ready to leave his position to a successor as soon as his party chooses one in the next month.

"My poor health should not lead to wrong political decisions," he said. "As I'm no longer able to meet the expectation of the mandate of the people of Japan, I have decided that I should not stay in the position as prime minister anymore. So I have decided to step down."

[...]

The Japanese leader has for years battled ulcerative colitis, a chronic bowel condition. He also stepped down as prime minister in 2007 after just a year in office before getting the condition under control. He returned to office in 2012.

  The Hill

World shutting down

Spain now has more deaths from covid-19 than China (but half of Italy's toll - 6,820), Prince Charles has tested positive, New Zealand and India announced they're now on lockdown, Japan has nixed the Olympics, and Trump wants to lift restrictions by Easter.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Possible drug treatment for coronavirus on trial in Japan and China

Medical authorities in China have said a drug used in Japan to treat new strains of influenza appeared to be effective in coronavirus patients, Japanese media said on Wednesday.

Zhang Xinmin, an official at China’s science and technology ministry, said favipiravir, developed by a subsidiary of Fujifilm, had produced encouraging outcomes in clinical trials in Wuhan and Shenzhen involving 340 patients.

“It has a high degree of safety and is clearly effective in treatment,” Zhang told reporters on Tuesday.

Patients who were given the medicine in Shenzhen turned negative for the virus after a median of four days after becoming positive, compared with a median of 11 days for those who were not treated with the drug, public broadcaster NHK said.

In addition, X-rays confirmed improvements in lung condition in about 91% of the patients who were treated with favipiravir, compared to 62% or those without the drug.

  Guardian

I hope those in the trial who weren't getting the drug were getting paid a great deal of money.

Fujifilm Toyama Chemical, which developed the drug – also known as Avigan – in 2014, has declined to comment on the claims.

So, don't get excited, is what they're saying without saying it.

Doctors in Japan are using the same drug in clinical studies on coronavirus patients with mild to moderate symptoms, hoping it will prevent the virus from multiplying in patients.

But a Japanese health ministry source suggested the drug was not as effective in people with more severe symptoms. “We’ve given Avigan to 70 to 80 people, but it doesn’t seem to work that well when the virus has already multiplied,” the source told the Mainichi Shimbun.

The same limitations had been identified in studies involving coronavirus patients using a combination of the HIV antiretrovirals lopinavir and ritonavir, the source added. In 2016, the Japanese government supplied favipiravir as an emergency aid to counter the Ebola virus outbreak in Guinea.

[...]

A health official told the Mainichi the drug could be approved as early as May. “But if the results of clinical research are delayed, approval could also be delayed.”

Meanwhile, the world continues shutting down.

Guardian home page March 18, 2020

No worries, everything under control here

Japan's northern island of Hokkaido declared a state of emergency on Friday over the rapid spread of the new virus there.

Hokkaido Gov. Naomichi Suzuki said the emergency will continue until mid-March.

Suzuki, wearing a face mask, urged all residents to stay home this weekend, which he said is a critical time to keep the situation from worsening.

[...]

Since the first patient was detected in late January, the island prefecture has seen a steady increase in the number of patients, with the pace accelerating in recent days. As of Friday, Hokkaido has 63 confirmed cases, including two deaths.

Public health and virus experts have raised concerns about the developments in Hokkaido, saying clusters of infections with unknown transmission routes have emerged.

[...]

Amid growing criticisms of his leadership and crisis management, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has asked schools throughout Japan to close until the end of March.

  SFGate

Did Trump assure him the virus would be gone by April?

BTW, Hokkaido is home to over 5 million people, who are being told to stay indoors this weekend. Why will it be okay to go outside on Monday?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

China tariffs, and Japan will pay

Japan's parliament approved a trade pact with the U.S. that opens the country's markets to American beef and other agricultural products, as Tokyo tries to thwart a threat from Donald Trump to impose new tariffs on its lucrative car exports.

The deal cleared a last hurdle with approval from Japan's upper house on Wednesday. The U.S. has been pressing for the agreement to come into force by Jan. 1, which could help Trump land votes for his 2020 re-election campaign in agricultural areas that may benefit from the deal.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's ruling Liberal Democratic Party coalition holds majorities in both houses of parliament and was able to win passage easily. The deal has nevertheless been criticized by opposition lawmakers, who say it gives away bargaining chips without a written guarantee that Trump won't impose so-called national security tariffs as high as 25% on the country's auto sector.

[...]

Abe has said Trump assured him when they met in New York in September that he wouldn't impose fresh tariffs.

  alJazeera

What are you laughing about?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Destabillization of the Koreas

South Korea reportedly announced Thursday it is scrapping an intelligence-sharing agreement with Japan over ongoing disputes over diplomacy and trade.

The arrangement was intended to share information between the two countries over the threat that North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs poses to them both. The decision to scrap it comes shortly after Pyongyang launched a series of short-range projectiles in part over what it sees as threatening military ramp-ups in South Korea and Japan.

  The Hill

Seems like the perfect time to quit sharing intel, no?

Seoul accused Tokyo of creating a “grave change” by removing South Korea’s fast-track export status. Japan cited unspecified security concerns over the trade decision.

[...]

Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono torched South Korea for cancelling the agreement, calling it a “completely mistaken response” and extremely regrettable, Reuters reported. Tokyo later summoned the South Korean ambassador to protest the decision officially.

[...]

“We encourage Japan and Korea to work together to resolve their differences,” Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Dave Eastburn told Reuters. “I hope they can do this quickly.”

[...]

South Korea and Japan shared intelligence through the U.S. prior to the agreement’s signing in 2016. The deal was signed under pressure from Washington and despite opposition from some South Korean political parties still bitter over Japanese actions during its colonial rule of Korea from 1910 until the end of World War II.

The deal’s cancelation sparked fears that Japan and South Korea could be less prepared for aggression from Pyongyang.

You think?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Impeach this asshole

Trump is not a president.  He's a two-bit, third world dictator wannabe.

Trump was feted at two big-money fundraisers — first a lunch for 60 hosted by real estate guru Stephen Ross, whose company owns Equinox and Soul Cycle. Then Trump talked for an hour to a crowd of 500 at the sprawling Bridgehampton home of developer Joe Farrell. The two events raised a total of $12 million.

After Equinox members revolted over Ross’ fundraising for the president, with many threatening to cancel memberships, Trump said he had joked with Ross about how divided the nation is.

[...]

“Steve Ross got into a little bit of trouble this week, I said, ‘Steve welcome to the world of politics!’ ”

Of his fundraising visit, Trump went on to say, “I love coming to the Hamptons, I know the Hamptons well, everyone here votes for me but they won’t admit it.”

[...]

Trump told a story of going as a boy to collect rent checks with his father, adding, “It was easier to get a billion dollars from South Korea than to get $114.13 from a rent-controlled apartment in Brooklyn, and believe me, those 13 cents were very important.”

[...]

"Don Jr. is my gun expert, he knows more about guns than anyone I know.”

Turning to the tragic events of this past week Trump said, to applause, “We need meaningful background checks. It is time.

“I spoke to Lindsay Graham on the way over in the car, I spoke to Nancy Pelosi, I called her, she called me, I talked to Chuck Schumer . . . we are all in agreement about this. It is time for meaningful background checks.”

  NY Post

He almost admitted he reached out to Pelosi. So he had to add that she called him. In other words - returned his call.

Trump also made fun of US allies South Korea, Japan and the European Union — mimicking Japanese and Korean accents — and talked about his love of dictators Kim Jong Un and the current ruler of Saudi Arabia.

Talking about South Korea, Trump said it makes great TVs and has a thriving economy, “So why are we paying for their defense. They’ve got to pay.” He then mimicked the accent of the leader Moon Jae-in while describing how he caved in to Trump’s tough negotiations.

[...]

“I just got a beautiful letter from [Kim Jong Un] this week. We are friends. People say he only smiles when he sees me.

They're not complimenting either of you, idiot.

“If I hadn’t been elected president we would be in a big fat juicy war with North Korea. “

Turning to Japan, Trump then put on a fake Japanese accent to recount his conversations with Shinzo Abe over their conversations over trade tariffs.

Just disgusting.

Trump spoke about his friendship with Abe and how fascinated he was with Abe’s father, who had been a kamikaze pilot. Trump asked Abe if the kamikaze pilots were drunk or on drugs. Abe said no, they just loved their country. Trump remarked, “Imagine they get in a plane with a half a tank of gas and fly into steel ships just for the love of their country!”

I guess no one offered to fit him up with a plane and a half tank of gas.

And he couldn’t resist a real estate joke or two. Noting that the very house the event was at is currently on the market for $39 million, Trump joked to Farrell, “What would you rather have, Joe, this beautiful house for $40 million or the White House for free?”

Are you sure that's a joke about real estate?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:

While we're distracted

Trump's insidious narcissism takes up so much news space that there's little room for us average citizens to know just where the world around us stands at the moment.  (Hint: pretty fucking shaky.)

Pod Save the World has a wrap up this week that's fairly enlightening, if somber:

First, Tommy (Vietor) and Ben (Rhodes) talk about the threat from domestic terrorism, the escalating trade war with China, the protests in Hong Kong, tensions with Iran, and the war in Afghanistan. Then they discuss changes to Trump’s national security team, why tensions are increasing between Japan and South Korea, a major announcement from India about Kashmir, more sanctions on Venezuela, why arms control treaties are dying, and what the hell Lindsay Lohan is doing with the Saudi Crown Prince. Then former National Counterterrorism Center Director Nicholas Rasmussen joins to discuss what policy changes are needed to stop rightwing domestic terrorists.

Check it out here.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Speaking of Jair Bolsonaro at the G20...

NPR reports police arrested Sgt. Manoel Silva Rodrigues in Seville, Spain, Tuesday after the Brazilian Air Force plane made a stop on its way to the summit.

Bolsonaro was on a separate plane following behind but changed its route following the arrest.

Rodrigues was reportedly carrying 86 pounds of cocaine that was split up into 37 different blocks. He told local authorities that it was cheese and not drugs.

The Brazilian Defense Ministry put out a statement confirming the arrest and noted that it is investigating the incident.

Bolsonaro in a tweet Wednesday stressed that the arrest was not related to his team, calling the incident “unacceptable.”

"We will not tolerate such disrespect to our country!” he wrote.

  The Hill

Is that the proper response?
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Can't focus on the task at hand