As Americans mark the anniversary of Pearl Harbor, an imbroglio breaks out in Japan over World War II revisionism and calls for rearmament. Japan’s former air force chief Gen. Toshio Tamogami, forced into retirement for denying the empire’s wartime aggression,… Read moreOusted air force chief calls for nuclear Japan
Authorities in the northwestern Chinese province of Gansu have imposed a curfew on districts of Longnan city following two days of violence between security forces and local residents resisting eviction. Fighting began Nov. 17, when some 1,000 people attacked a… Read moreChina: Gansu under siege after riots
A week after the close of the Third Plenary Session of the 17th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party in Beijing, officials announced Oct. 19 that new rules have been issued allowing China’s 800 million farmers to “lease their… Read moreChina land reform: great leap backward?
Former Boston Indymedia journalist and media activist Bryan Conley, founder of grassroots media videoblog Alive in Baghdad, is one of six US citizens detained in China for covering actions of Students for a Free Tibet during the Olympics. The other… Read moreFormer Boston Indymedia reporter among ten foreigners detained in China
From the Uyghur American Association, July 21: Bus Blasts Kill Two in Southwestern China BEIJING — Two public buses exploded during the Monday morning rush hour in the city of Kunming, killing at least two people and injuring 14 others… Read moreChina: Kunming blasts signal growing unrest in countdown to Olympics
Some 13,000 Japanese rallied against the permanent basing of the nuclear-powered USS George Washington aircraft carrier at the port of Yokosuka, just south of Tokyo, saying a recent onboard fire made it unsafe. The George Washington—relieving the soon-to-be decommissioned USS… Read moreJapanese protest US nuclear carrier
In the concluding event of ten days of anti-G8 protests, hundreds of activists from protest camps established in the area of the summit marched in a demonstration organized by the Ainu, the disenfranchised indigenous people of Hokkaido Island. The march… Read moreJapan: Ainu march on G8 summit
Heavily-policed demonstrations were held in the northern Japanese city of Sapporo July 5 as world leaders began arriving on the island of Hokkaido for the G8 summit that opens Monday at Toyako mountain resort. A march of some 5,000 was… Read moreProtests and repression in Japan on eve of G8 summit
Eight people were arrested June 29 as some 1,500 marched in downtown Tokyo to protest against the G8 summit that opens next week in Hokkaido. Chanting slogans including “Smash the summit,” protesters clashed with riot police who maintained an intimidating… Read moreJapan: police attack anti-G8 protest
Activists on the NO-G8 e-mail list report that three “citizen reporters” from the Hong Kong alternative website In-media, arriving for the upcoming protests against the Hokkaido G8 summit, have been detained by Japanese authorities at the Tokyo airport. Korean activists… Read moreChina and Japan: partners in repression?
Riots erupted in Osaka’s Kamagasaki district after a day-laborer was arrested June 12, and reportedly tied to a chair and beaten in police custody. When he was released the next day and told comrades what had happened, a protest of… Read moreJapan: day-laborers clash with police in Osaka
With the near-simultaneous Beijing Olympics and Hokkaido G8 summit about to open, China and Japan announce they have resolved their dispute over gas fields in the East China Sea. What a feel-good globalization-fest we are going to be subject to… Read moreChina, Japan to cooperate in offshore gas exploitation
