Japan
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obviously neglected
see fukushima million gallons nuke juice 919
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6 25 nhk japan
no lnx pix grf
Fighting falsehoods: the online battle over climate truth
Friday June 20, 2025
Global temperatures keep breaking records, and sea levels are rising. Reports from a United Nations climate panel say the science is settled, but it doesn't always seem that way online, where climate denial is thriving. Japan's Environment Ministry says that's undermining efforts to act, so it's fighting back with a new website that tackles myths and misinformation with cold, hard facts.
The global average temperature in 2024 was the warmest on record.
Climate change skepticism spreads
British news website Tortoise analyzed social media content from climate-related influencers. It says there was an 82 percent jump in the number of climate skeptic posts on the X platform from 2021 to 2024. It also says there was a 43 percent jump in the number of YouTube videos with that stance.
The United Nations Development Programme, which is working on measures to mitigate climate change, says there are two main motives behind the spread of disinformation on the topic.
One is to attract attention for profit. The UNDP says controversial views create followings that bring advertising revenue and political support.
The other reason, it says, is to protect vested interests. Delaying measures against climate change can protect the vested interests of the fossil fuel industry.
NHK spoke with Marc Morano, a former political aide and now an influential climate skeptic who disputes the link between global warming and human activity.
Marc Morano is a prominent climate skeptic.
Morano claims that the United Nations, governments and private companies stand to benefit from measures to limit carbon dioxide. He calls the issue of climate change "a clear fraud campaign" that has nothing to do with science.
The United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change disagrees. It says there is no doubt human activity has caused global warming, and says global temperatures have risen faster in the past 50 years than at any other point in at least 2,000 years. The panel also says climate change can be contained if we act in time.
Disinformation disruption in the real world
Climate disinformation isn't just a theoretical danger. It turned a civil debate into chaos in one Australian city. The council of Onkaparinga was planning to declare a climate emergency in 2023, but the meeting was swarmed by protestors fueled by false ideas.
Residents of Onkaparinga flocked to the city council to protest a climate declaration.
Opponents of the declaration had whipped up alarm with false statements on social media, including a claim that only electric vehicles would be permitted after the declaration was issued.
The meeting had to be suspended, with the mayor and assembly members forced to evacuate.
Ika Trijsburg, a disinformation expert at the Australian National University, says climate change issues are ideal fodder for those who disseminate falsehoods, especially in a divided society.
Ika Trijsburg
Climate myths surging on social media
Claims without scientific evidence are gaining traction in Japan, too. Environment ministry officials say they've seen a surge in misleading online posts since late last year, including claims that global warming is not happening, or that human activity plays no role in greenhouse gas emissions.
An analysis by NHK found a sharp rise in Japanese-language posts on the social media platform X that question the reality of climate change or criticize decarbonization efforts.
In 2020, around 60,000 such posts were recorded. That number grew steadily year after year, reaching 220,000 in 2024. The increase was particularly pronounced after November when Donald Trump, a vocal critic of the Paris Agreement on climate change, won the US presidential election.
Japan government tackles misinformation
Japan's Environment Ministry has launched a new web page aimed at tackling climate change misinformation by presenting clear scientific information about global warming.
The site, which went live Friday, compiles information from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, drawing on the latest scientific research to explain the causes and impact of global climate change. UN reports attribute it mainly to greenhouse emissions caused by human activity.
The page also offers domestic data that show a rise in the frequency of extreme weather such as heatwaves and torrential rain — events that scientists attribute to climate change.
Speaking to reporters after a Cabinet meeting on Friday, Environment Minister Asao Keiichiro voiced concern over the rise of baseless claims online. He warned that such misinformation could undermine efforts by the government, businesses and the public to combat climate change. He said the ministry will continue efforts to ensure people are well-informed about the issue.
Fighting misinformation and disinformation
The spread of climate misinformation and disinformation has become a global concern, prompting the United Nations to act.
The UNDP in Asia and the Pacific has announced the launch of Una, an AI-powered chatbot designed to talk about climate initiatives.
AI character Una can answer questions regarding climate change in multiple languages including Japanese, English and Chinese.
Melissa Fleming, UN Undersecretary for Global Communications, says the planet faces an existential crisis with climate change, and the UN is "in an information battlefield" trying to convince people of the facts.
Fleming says the fight is against special interests who want to convince people that climate change is a hoax or that renewable energy is unreliable or too expensive, so they would have to give up their lifestyle. She says none of this is true.
Melissa Fleming
Fleming says the UN sees this as "one of the biggest risks of our time." She says every player needs to play its role: digital platforms can reduce the flow of falsehoods; advertisers and PR companies can stop funding disinformation; and media-literate people and governments can play a constructive role in the information environment.
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Mauritius has asked Japan to pay close to 3.6 billion yen (€28.5 billion, $34 million) in order to support local fishermen whose livelihoods were adversely impacted by an oil leak last month, according to a Mauritian government document accessed by Japanese news agency Kyodo News.
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rw fail?
420 shoot troublemakers
Japan’s Shinzo Abe to Declare Emergency; Filipino Police Kills Man Who Flouted Coronavirus Rules
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57 Dead, 18,000 Hospitalized in Japan Heat Wave
Aug 07
japan Goes Rogue and Resumes Commercial Whaling
819
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https://www.alternet.org/2019/07/theres-a-simple-way-to-defeat-the-right-wings-favorite-talking-point-once-and-for-all/
gov't bank buys debt? also japan
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Abe hard right
https://thediplomat.com/2018/06/why-steve-bannon-admires-japan/
When Steve Bannon, Donald Trump’s former adviser, spoke at the conference of the Japanese Conservative Union, he praised Prime Minister Shinzo Abe,calling him a “Trump before Trump.” Bannon is not the only Western right-winger to admire Japan. Simone di Stefano, leader of Italy’s neofascist Casa Pound, is dreaming of an alliance between Italy, Russia, and Japan. And for Jan Moldenhauer, an ideologue of the xenophobic Alternative for Germany, when it comes to immigration, “Japan is the alternative.”
Coming from the world’s self-appointed populist leaders, these statements deserve reflection. Right-wing populism is often seen as a threat to democracy because it challenges the political establishment from the margins, using high doses of nationalism and skillful manipulation of the media. This has happened in Europe, most recently in Italy and Slovakia. But this pattern should not make us forget that the political establishment is hardly immune to right-wing agendas.
In Japan, populist and extreme right-wing nationalism has found an institutional home within the traditional conservatism of Liberal Democratic Party that aims for an authoritarian transformation of the political system — hence the effusions of the likes of Bannon.
Nippon Kaigi is influential in the LDP. At some point 18 out of 20 of Abe’s cabinets were members, many of whom with clear ultra-right sympathies. One, Tomomi Inada, then party policy chief, had posed for a photo with Yamada Kazunari, the leader of a neo-Nazi group. Another, Taro Aso, the deputy prime minister, remarked that Hitler was wrong in murdering millions of people, but that “:{his motives were right.:(style="background-color:#ffff66;"):}::{”:(style="background-color:#ffffff;"):}: He is also on the record for saying that the Nazis did a good job at gutting the Weimar Constitution — a remarkable statement for a government that wants to alter its own constitution.Since 2012, Abe has gradually enforced a hard right-wing agenda from within. He has impeccable nationalistic credentials. He is a special adviser of the Nippon Kaigi, a right-wing organization that strives to reconstruct Japan on a nationalist basis. It is active, for example, in advising the government on education policies, promoting ideas about “morals” as well as revisionist history textbooks.
Since 2012, Abe’s governments have been pushing policies that are still only on the agenda of many populists. Take theattacks on the media, for example. When Abe was appointed prime minister in 2012, he posted on Facebook that “my war with the mass media has started. I will fight my way through it together with your support.” Further, his government passed the State Secrecy Laws, one effect of which is to restrict the media’s news gathering capacity. Momii Katsuto, the former head of NHK, the public broadcaster, and a close friend of Abe, caused a stir when he said that NHK “should not deviate from the government’s position in its reporting.”
Abe has a clear “Japan First” outlook, a desire to remake a “beautiful Japan” that is socially harmonious and ethnically homogeneous. Despite the country’s acute labor shortage, Abe does not welcome immigrants. He declared that “before accepting immigrants or refugees, we need to have more activities by women, elderly people and we must raise our birth rate.” In 2017, Japan granted refugee status to 20 people out of an applicant pool of 20,000. Xenophobia is not only an American or European problem. It is rampant also in Japan, where right-wing groups target Korean residents with verbal abuse. In response, the LDP leadership has been reluctant to legislate about hate speech. Abe preferred to “leave this matter to the good conscience of the average Japanese.”
Japan lacks the strident version of populism that has engulfed Europe, but we would be missing the point by not seeing the country as a link in the global chain of right-wing politics. Though refraining from the crassest expressions of xenophobia and authoritarianism, Abe’s deceptively polite right-wing politics may be heading in the same direction.
Reto Hofmann, Ph.D., is Associate Professor at Waseda University, Tokyo and an expert on the history of transnational fascism, conservatism, and right-wing movements. His work has appeared in leading history journals, including the Journal of Contemporary History and the Journal of Global History.
https://www.ecowatch.com/bluefin-tuna-carl-safina-ecowatch-2625614406.html
3 million bucks
..."The prices accorded these fish in Japan have long been insane," Safina told EcoWatch in an email. "The fish become an ego contest for wealthy restaurateurs one-upping each other to display their wealth. The higher the price, the more they devalue the actual fish as the magnificent wild creature that it is."
Safina explained what made bluefin tuna so incredible.
"Bluefin tunas, largest and most wide-ranging of all tunas, are several species of warm-blooded, ocean-crossing giants that can travel at highway speeds and can weigh almost a ton," he wrote.
However, the fish are in serious trouble throughout the world's oceans. In addition to their depletion in the North Pacific, they have been apparently wiped out in the South Atlantic due to overfishing. In the North Atlantic, they are at around 18 percent of their 1950 numbers, according to the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna.
But the valuable bluefin are one of the world's most exploited fish, and their desirability has consequences. When management practices led to a resurgence in their Atlantic population, catch quotas were raised by 50 percent for 2017 to 2020, an article published in *ScienceAdvances* reported.
"They are completely awesome creatures," Safina told EcoWatch. "If it was up to me, they would never be fished commercially or sold and they would be allowed to return to their former abundance and their role in nature."
Safina is familiar with the tensions surrounding this fish. He was featured in the film *Bluefin* by John Hopkins, which looks at the bluefin fishing industry in North Lake, Canada, where a surprising resurgence of bluefin tuna left fishermen and scientists scrambling for answers.
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Japan Aims to Overthrow 32-Year-Old Global Whaling Ban
Japan is proposing a slew of rule changes at the International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting in Florianópolis, Brazil this week that conservationists worry would ultimately lift a 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling.
Japan, which launched a "scientific whaling" program in 1987 as a loophole to the moratorium, has killed more than 15,600 whales in the Antarctic since the ban (including juvenile and pregnant minke whales), according to a report released last month by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) and the Animal Welfare Institute(AWI).
Other commercial whalers include Norway, which has killed more than 14,000 minke whales, and Iceland, which has killed nearly 1,800 whales in defiance of the moratorium, according to the report.
Previous reports have revealed that the Japanese government has an ultimate goal to resume commercial whaling, even though most of its citizens no longer eat whales. Whaling proponents say that hunting the mammals is part of their culture.
Hideki Moronuki, Japan's senior fisheries negotiator and commissioner for the IWC, told the BBC that the country is pushing for the "the sustainable use of whales."
Among its proposals, Japan wants to set up a "Sustainable Whaling Committee" which would create catch-quotas for nations wishing to allow their citizens to hunt healthy whale populations for commercial purposes, according to AFP.
Japan, which says minke and other whale stocks have recovered, will propose setting new catch quotas for species whose stocks are recognized as healthy by the IWC scientific committee.
Japan is also seeking to lower the proportion of votes required to set rule changes to a simple majority of the 89-member IWC, rather than three-quarters.
IWC meeting host Brazil is trying to rally other anti-whaling nations, such ads the European Union, Australia and New Zealand, to sign the "Florianópolis Declaration" that states commercial whaling is a no longer economically necessary and would allow the recovery of all whale populations to pre-industrial whaling levels, according to AFP.
Conservation groups have highlighted significant welfare concerns regarding "inhumane" time to death (TTD) rates after the whales are caught.
Whalers typically use an exploding harpoon to try to kill the animal "instantly"—defined by the IWC as within 10 seconds of being shot.
However, the report from EIA and AWI found that the hunted whales have suffered up to 25 minutes before dying:
- Iceland's TTD data in 2014 claimed that 42 died "instantly" while eight whales had to be shot a second time and their median TTD was eight minutes.
- Norway recently collected TTD data for 271 minke whales. The median TTD for the 49 whales not registered as instantaneous deaths was six minutes. One whale had to be shot twice, taking 20-25 minutes to die.
- Japan's minke whales taken in the offshore North Pacific hunt take an average of two minutes to die, while those in the coastal hunt take over five minutes. Antarctic minkes take an average of 1.8 minutes to die.
Whaling opponents are urging the IWC to reaffirm its international moratorium on commercial whaling.
"If Japan gets its way, it would be a massive victory for those rogue whalers who have time and again defied the international ban on commercial whaling and an absolute disaster for the world's whales," said Clare Perry, EIA's Ocean Campaigns leader in a statement received by EcoWatch.
"Many whale species have not yet recovered from massive overhunting in the past, and they are also facing a wide array of mounting existential threats ranging from climate change to marine pollution by chemicals, plastics and noise," Perry added.
Kate O'Connell, marine wildlife consultant for the Animal Welfare Institute had similar sentiments.
"We're only just beginning to grasp the vital role whales play in maintaining the health of the world's oceans," O'Connell said. "Weakening the ban now would be a fatal mistake, and would open the doors to increased commercial whaling around the world. This cruel and unnecessary industry is a relic of the past that has no place in modern society."
"All other contracting governments to the IWC must step up to vigorously defend the moratorium from this new assault by Japan and its allies," O'Connell concluded.
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trump ignores re Koreas
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bigthink
Ian Bremmer: The problem is not Trump. Trump is a symptom.
If the problem were Trump it wouldn’t be happening in other places around the world. We actually see all sorts of countries advanced industrial democracies where people are getting angrier and they’re voting more and more against the establishment.
We saw that with the Brexit referendum, which was before the U.S. presidential election; We saw it in Germany with the rise of the Alternatives for Deutschland, an actively Euro-skeptic party for the first time since World War II; We have nationalists in the German parliament; We saw it with the recent Italian elections where they threw out all of the establishment parties and instead it’s the Five Star Movement and the League, again Euro-skeptic, anti-immigration, populist political forces.
This is very unusual and it’s not coincidence. So why is it happening? One reason is because you have lots of members of working and middle classes that feel like they are not doing well economically and no one in the establishment is going to help them. “So let’s vote for some change. Let’s vote against free trade. Let’s vote against the support of the establishment. Let’s bring in something new.”
Second point. A lot of this is anti-immigration. Demographics have changed an awful lot in the United States, in Canada and in Europe over the past decades and a lot of people feel – people that have come before say “Wait a second! You’re not taking care of me, but you’re going to bring in these new people and these new people who I don’t necessarily like or understand or trust? These new people who are getting benefits—but what about my benefits?! It’s going to cost a lot of money to bring them in. Are they going to steal my jobs? Are they going to cause crime?!” —Even though in the United States we know that first generation immigrants don’t actually cause more crime than those that have lived here.
Nonetheless the willingness to believe that those “other people are bad and a problem” goes up a lot when you feel like your government’s not taking care of you. So that’s been a big piece of it.
A third piece has been the military. You know the foreign policy establishment in the United States has been very willing to support the U.S. getting into wars around the world. But most of the sons and daughters of the foreign policy establishment don’t actually fight in those wars themselves—That’s also true of the political leaders that are responsible. As we know it’s the poor people, it’s the enlisted men and women. They get sent off, their families are left broken, their communities are hindered. They come back – Iraq, Afghanistan – billions upon billions of dollars wasted on these wars, enormous numbers of people that are killed or wounded or have post traumatic stress disorder. They come back they’re not seen as heroes. The Americans and the allies didn’t win these wars. The Veterans Administration doesn’t take care of them.
So as a consequence you see those people getting reallyangryand not voting for Hillary or Jeb. They’re voting for Bernie Sanders or for Donald Trump.
And then you have technology which is that technology today is increasinglydriving people apart. We get most of our information in the United States from advertising companies that view us as commodities, products. They sell our eyeballs and our time on their sites to companies that pay money to ensure that we spend as much time as possible on Facebook and on Twitter and on the rest. That’s how we get our information.
We’ll spend more time on their sites if we are divided and we are narrower, and only follow the things we like, which means Democrats are watching pro-Democrat sites and conservatives and Republicans are watching pro-Republican sites. And there’s virtually no overlap. And so it’s fake news for everybody. It’s us versus them.
That’s happening across Europe. It’s happening in Canada. Those four factors are driving us apart.
They’re ripping at the fabric of civic nationalism across all of the advanced industrial economies. And by the way, it’s happening when the economy is doing really well. The United States today and the UK and Canada and Germany feel more divided than at any time in my lifetime. And yet that’s when we can spend a lot of money.
So if that’s true, what do you think it’s going to feel like when interest rates go up and growth goes down and we start laying people off and we don’t have the budgetary space to give everybody a tax break? It’s going to get worse.
So it’s very clear that this is a structural condition that we have been living with and ignoring for decades and it’s getting worse.
One interesting point. There’s one country among the advanced industrial democracies that’s not experiencing this problem at all, and that’s Japan. If you go to Japan you’ll actually find that the people are pretty much just as happy and trusting of their political institutions, their leaders, their media as they were 30, 40 years ago.
Now let’s look at all of the factors that I just described that are causing problems in our countries: Economic erosion of the working class. In Japan the population is shrinking fast. From now to 2050 it’s going to shrink by another 15 percent, which means that even though the Japanese economy’s not growing per capita they’re doing a lot better, so they don’t feel so bad.
Immigration. Japanese actually let in almost nobody, so as a consequence there’s no one that they really have a backlash against. It’s all Japanese, right?
Number three. The military. United States fights in lots of wars, so do our allies. Japan does not. Their military is constitutionally forbidden from going abroad and fighting in wars. When they did support us in Iraq, they sent a few hundred Japanese. They kept them far away from any fighting. Every soldier had like a million dollars of insurance. They made sure that they were calling their families every week. They really didn’t have backlash against the military.
And finally social media/technology, where the Japanese as a government has worked hard to keep social media out of the political space and the average Japanese adult isn’t on social media. Only about 39 percent of them are, compared to well over a majority in the West.
So the one country in the world among the wealthy democracies that isn’t experiencing a crisis of democracy is the one that kind of rejected globalism and its precepts over the last 40 years.
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