Richard Burgan comments

Another example of the fact that there are stupid people in every country. First, many people don't know what radiation is or where it comes from, and they surely don't know about radiation safety. These are not the people you should listen to. Secondly, the water that will be discharged will be diluted so much that you won't even be able to measure the radiation it emits. The "boogie man"s more dangerous than the water that will be released. South Koreans should be solving real problems like North Korea. Kim Jong Un is much more dangerous.

By itself, Japan is no threat to the NORKs. Whether S. Korea could go beyond a stalemate if a fight broke out is questionable. The real threat to N. Korea is the US and the trilateral alliance. Mr. Kim should know that although he has a little RED BUTTON it doesn't mean he could ever use it. It should be labeled "PRESS TO END YOURSELF" and destroy N. Korea.

I had never heard of the mock-A-bombings. I learn something every day. Stories like this remind us how important it is to avoid war.

This is an excellent opportunity to stop selling to China. Ultimately, China doesn't do business deals unless it can be the dominant party. If they can't start out in a dominant position they will wait a while and change the rules. There are plenty of other markets available.

Does this mean J-Alerts will be timely and accurate!

Over the past 40 years, China came out of its isolation and built a great economy. That economy has been shrinking and will continue to shrink under the new Xi dictatorship. When the Chinese people wake up and discover that they no longer have such a great economy they will make a change. Let's help speed this along. Buy less Chinese stuff and encourage businesses to leave China and no longer deal with them. Just sayin'.

Kim's RED BUTTON should be labeled "PRESS TO END DPRK." A leaked US operations plan (OPLAN) from the previous administration described the use of 80 nuclear weapons against the DPRK. Because the north is so heavily armed and such a short range from S. Korea it is necessary to act very quickly and decisively if Kim attacks his neighbor. There's really no way to prevent Kim from doing a first strike. All we can do is try to deter him. But, he won't be making a second strike.

Somehow I don't think Kim has enough missiles to wipe out his perceived enemies. He should be reminded that the label on his big RED button says: "Press to END DPRK"

The carrier's objective would be to help the NORKs decide not to do an SLBM launch or continue lobbing rockets into the sea where the carrier group might be. If a small cloud of fighters pops up every time the NORKs are about to do a nuclear test, that would be great.

The crime rate among the US military in Okinawa is much lower than the local population. (Based on Japanese Police statistics) The base population is around 40,000, only about 3% of the total population of 1,500,000 for the prefecture. Adding in the military population lowers the crime rate. (I make no excuse for any US military member who commits a crime in Okinawa. I always say throw the book at them.)

Why is this in the news? His medical tests and results should be kept private, just like anyone else.

The Senkaku Island group in Okinawa Prefecture is a place where Japan should take immediate action. It's a use it or lose it situation. If Japan puts an outpost on the islands, China will have to take it away by force. But, if China is the first to put an outpost on the islands, Japan will have to take it back by force. Is it worth fighting a war about it? I'll bet Japan will still be studying the possibilities when China takes action...

If Japan wants people to get and use the MyNumber Card, they must be serious benefits. For example, you can already use the card as your medical ID, allowing the office to connect all your medical records. The problem is they charge extra if you use the card. How about offering the user 100 Yen cash for using the card? To get the cards into people's hands, they should streamline the application process down to 1 day. And issue the cards to every student when they become legal (able to sign contracts). And, make the renewal process a one-stop 10-minute process with ID verification at your city hall.

Japan should also keep the elderly population in mind. Not every elderly person can make the "digital transition," so a system to accommodate them is needed.

Shocking, just shocking! Governor Tamaki gets re-elected, and nothing changed. Oh well, it's time to move on to improve the economy and educational opportunities, reduce child poverty, promote tourism, and all the other things the governor should be spending his time on. [In polls before the election improving the economy was the #1 concern, and the base issues were #5]

Sadly only a little more than 20% of Okinawa voters voted. The rest get what they deserve by default. In opinion polls (probably representing a balance of the Okinawan population), the base issue(s) were fifth in importance, far behind economic issues. For 50 years, Okinawa's government has used base compensation funds for infrastructure projects (pouring lots of concrete) rather than benefitting its citizens. Okinawa is the poorest prefecture with the highest child poverty level. Recently Japan has been cutting the money it sends to Okinawa each year. Newly reelected governor Tamaki puts more effort into fighting the Henoko base construction than the economy. It looks like four more years of the same.

Most of the pictures that made the news were of men sitting around big tables, listening to briefings, or standing around. That's just like a normal day. It would be better to prepare for a disaster. Japan has had massive flooding for two years now. It might be a good idea to improve drainage and flood control systems now. Instead of depending on government workers for disaster recovery, how about promoting volunteerism and training? Example: The Daito islands were just hit by a Super Typhoon with gusts up to 75 MPS (270 KPH). They survived and had most of the damage and debris cleaned up within two days. Why is that? Hint: it wasn't the government doing the work. Now Miyako and Ishigaki islands are about to be hit by the same storm, and NHK was trying to tell them to be prepared. LOL

If a city worker shot me, I would definitely hold my taxes for a year. Maybe the city worker should pay them for me. Seriously though, I question the competence of anyone who points a rifle (or any weapon) at another person, loaded or unloaded, ever. (unless, of course, he/she intends to shoot them.)

For the last 50+ years, governors have been focused on the US base issue. For 30 of those years, the Futenma to Henoko issue has been the focus. Governors have repeatedly filed lawsuits and other administrative actions trying to revive the dead horse. It's not working. Even with continuous large cash subsidies intended to help align Okinawa's economy and infrastructure with Japan. Okinawa still has the highest child poverty, weakest economy, and lowest average income of all prefectures. This will only continue if no one makes a change. This time instead of taking the money and converting it to concrete, I hope the new governor will pursue an Okinawan people-first policy. First priority should be to end child poverty and make Okinawa's schools equal to the best in Japan. Promote jobs and companies that keep profits local. Bring in more research and development, high-tech companies. How about a leading-edge semiconductor fabrication facility? (And, don't tell me Okinawa is not a good location until you check out OIST, NICT, JAXA, etc. They are thriving in Okinawa.) The horse is dead.

I should say come on down to Okinawa, it's cooler here. The air temperature here never gets above 36 C. But, I would be fooling you because the heat index often goes to 46-48 C because of the humidity. Okinawans have their own set of terms for hot weather: あちこーこー, 熱こーこー, 熱ちこーこー Here, they drink hot tea to cool off. (It makes you sweat)

War games are simulations designed to teach people how to deal with real problems they may face in a real fight. China is conducting training for a blockade and invasion of Taiwan. I wonder how they are training for the part when Taiwan shoots them down?

Speaker Pelosi should go to Taiwan. She should just send her plane and escort while she stays in Tokyo. That will drive China nuts.

The government should require KDDI to provide detailed information on why, how, what, when, and where this outage occurred. The government should issue a "serious incident" declaration and instruct KDDI to make improvements to prevent this from happening again. And, KDDI should describe its plans, give dates, and frequent progress reports to the government.

I would like to ask some specific questions. For example, how much diversity and redundancy is built into KDDI's network. Let's say for example a prefecture was cut off from KDDI's fiber network. Would people in the prefecture still be able to use their phones to call each other, 110, and 119? Or (as I suspect) are we all dependent on the big switch in central Japan. Does the Senior VP of Engineering sit on the board? Does he have the autonomy to insure reliability over sales? How much does KDDI spend on network growth and reliability each month? (They should be spending at least $1,000,000,000 on network growth and reliability each month bases on other companies of similar size (Verizon, ATT, Vodaphone, etc.) Japan Today reporters should be asking these questions and reporting it here.

We need to require communications companies to meet reliability, redundancy, and security standards that prevent widespread outages. Where KDDI has divided Japan into two autonomous areas companies in the US have divided the country into hundreds of small autonomous areas. With proper management, outages will not spread from area to area. The government should set and enforce standards requiring companies build and prove the reliability of their networks.

As of July 4, 2022 - 54 hours after the start of the incident it's still not completely fixed! Many customers can not make cellular calls. This is bordering on incompetence. It is now obvious that KDDI did not build a robust and reliable network. KDDI should pay customers back for their inconvenience. That's going to cost them more than 233,000,000 JPY per day. What an incentive to get the job done. KDDI, let's see some cash.

KDDI it's not fixed until it's fixed. Yes, you got the call set up working. We can dial and ring the distant phone. But, when will the voice connections be made? The public deserves a clear and detailed account of what happened and why. Don't say you will study it and get back to us later. If you fixed it, what did you fix? (you don't need to study it!) Next, you need to take action to prevent this from ever happening again. When will that be done and by when? Oh and no more bowing and apologizing or resigning - get to work and earn a new and better reputation. Then you can resign if you want. Oh, and NTT are you watching? You could fix your problems too...

@Mocheake You imply that there is a first-rate outfit. Who would that be? Both NTT and KDDI have had widespread mass outages lasting more than 24 hours over the last 8 months.

In many countries, there are technical requirements for reliability, redundancy, and security. Does Japan have such standards? Now that NTT and KDDI have had major widespread outages, I doubt it. It's time for the government to take responsibility for communications away from MITI and create a separate agency to manage communications.

Some cities in Japan allow separate surnames. Japan has a long way to go with this. Japanese banks still don't allow joint accounts, they still have heads of households, some people with names using three kanji can't fill out forms properly, etc. By the way, what is the purpose of half-width katakana, and half-width alphanumeric characters? Do they think full-size characters won't fit in the computer storage? The DX revolution can't come soon enough.

Don't Japanese courts require evidence and proof of claims made in court? What's all this stuff about "the judge seemed skeptical" and "the Judge said maybe"? In a real court, you need experts to clarify these possibilities, not the judge's skepticism. And then there's the part about 28 days of solitary confinement... Aren't people presumed innocent until proven guilty? (I know, I know, the police get away with this all the time.) Oh, and one more thing, where was the US Embassy while all this was going on? In the end precious lives were lost and damage was done. Let's see if the justice system can work in a proper way.

First of all, I hope she wins. Secondly, when an individual sues a government it's not fair because governments have unlimited funds. So, to make things fair, the government should pay her legal costs, win or lose. Or if they don't want to pay her costs, the government should be obligated to pay 100 times the asked damages if she wins. By the way, is anyone in jail yet?