U.S. delegation seeks to calm spats between Japan, South Korea
Reuters

The United States sent its top Asian diplomacy and security officials to South Korea and Japan to calm tensions between two U.S. allies whose squabbling has frustrated efforts to deal with a troublesome North Korea and an increasingly assertive China.

The high-powered delegation from the White House, Pentagon and State Department departed on Monday and will be visiting the region shortly after the election of a new nationalist-leaning Japanese government in December and before Seoul inaugurates a new president in February.

Anti-Japan Protestor Stabs Himself in Stomach

A 57-year-old man known for protesting against Japan stabbed himself in the stomach in demonstration against the Japanese envoy’s visit to president-elect Park Geun-hye.

Kim Chang-geun was part of a civic group demonstrating at Gimpo Airport in Seoul awaiting the arrival of Fukushiro Nukaga when he plunged the five-inch blade into his stomach. He was later taken to the hospital, according to the U.K.’s Daily Mail newspaper.

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Japanese Envoy Tries to Mend Ties With South Korea
New York Times

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan reached out to South Korea’s incoming president, Park Geun-hye, on Friday by sending a special envoy to Seoul with calls for mending ties that had become strained under their predecessors.

But no immediate breakthrough was expected as the two main East Asian allies of the United States exchanged barbs couched in diplomatic language, a reflection of their long-running differences, rooted in Japan’s often brutal colonial rule of Korea from 1910 until 1945.

S. Korea snubs Japan’s protest over Dokdo
Yonhap News

South Korea has rejected a protest by Japan over Seoul’s annual defense report that reaffirms its bid to protect the easternmost islets of Dokdo, a senior official said Monday.

Japan recently sent the South Korean government an official letter protesting the defense white paper that made clear Seoul’s sovereignty over Dokdo, which Tokyo has also claimed as its own.

Japanese Music Show Drops K-pop Acts Amid Island Dispute

Korean idol groups Girls’ Generation, KARA and TVXQ will not grace the stage at Japan’s widely-watched year-end TV show this year.

“Kohaku Uta Gassen” (The Red and White Song Contest), a live four-hour show aired on Japan’s taxpayer-funded broadcaster NHK, features the country’s biggest stars, according to AFP. The show is held on every New Year’s Eve with ratings usually eclipsing 40 percent of all Japanese households.

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Boat with 5 Dead Bodies Washed Ashore in Japan
Chosun Ilbo

Five dead bodies were washed ashore in what is likely to be a North Korean boat on Sado Island off the western coast of Japan on Wednesday.

Japanese police said the bodies had decomposed down to the skeletons, while the rear end of the vessel was badly damaged with the engine missing, Kyodo News reported.

Pic of the day: Where do you think you’re going? [Narita Airport, Japan]

Source: http://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/13ss18/where_do_you_think_youre_going/

Pic of the day: Daikon runs wild in Japanese countryside

Source:http://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/12ch7z/popped_up_on_my_facebook_feed_wtf/

U.S. activist calls for widening Japanese understanding of sex slavery
Yonhap News

The issue of Japan’s sexual enslavement of Korean women during World War II carries universal significance, and supporting grassroots movements among the Japanese public is the key to settling the long-time grievance, a Korean-American filmmaker and civil activist said Tuesday.

Fight Over Rocky Islets Opens Old Wounds Between South Korea and Japan
New York Times

The territorial debate over the islets, known as Dokdo in South Korea and Takeshima in Japan, is one of several simmering in Asia that some analysts fear could lead to hostilities, many of them tied to China’s rise and its increasingly assertive claims to territory in the South China Sea. But experts say the increasingly shrill disputes between Japan and its East Asian neighbors, including China and South Korea, are potentially more explosive because the animosity is rooted in good part in anger over Japan’s brutal dominance of both countries decades ago rather than solely in a fight for natural resources.

On Dokdo/Takeshima, such anger is palpable.