Hu wants no more Yasukuni

Today, when meeting Japanese delegates who visit China in attempt to improve ties with China, Mr. Hu Jintao promised that if Mr. Koizumi plans no more Yasukuni Visit, China is ready for a talk.

It seems that China also realizes how badly it hurt for the current bilateral relations, and desperately hopes for a better one, sooner than after September, when Mr. Koizumi is set to retire, and a possibly more hawkish Abe Shinzo takes power.

china has lowers the bar, how Mr. Koizumi reacts? Send some cheery trees to Beijing?

Japan's largest opposition party leader resigns

Mr. Maehara is elected last September, his foreign policy best described at a speech given to think tank, CSIS in Washington DC, where he voiced stronger voice regarding China than LDP, Japan’s incumbent party. Mr. Maehara said, China is “a real concern”.

Regarding to Koizumi’s Yasukuni visit, he echoed what Koizumi has been saying, that “All nations must honor their war dead and we don’t want to be told what to do”.

Tuantuan Yuanyuan at Play

Find us a home, a panda saga

Tuantuan, Yuanyuan, as shown here, are two pandas that are scheduled to be sent to Taiwan, as a gift, were officially rejected entry today.

Back in January 28^th, at a televised show in which Chinese celebrate the coming of New Year, over 100 million viewers cast their votes for a name for the couple. When the final result came out, it is not surprised that Tuantuan, Yuanyuan, which means Union, together were chosen by a majority, beat such names as Qinqin Qingqing(love, friendship)

Right after the names selection manifest, Tuantuan, Yuanyuan mania quickly spread all over China. Website names, new born names, enterprise names, and special edition of gold coins were issued in honor of the two pandas. All in a sudden, they are national heroes, carrying the mission of uniting the runaway state, Taiwan with mainland.

Obviously, China is upset by the Taiwan’s decision. The Sad thing to me, however is, whatever their names are, they are cute. And I don’t want they end up being homeless.

Murakami Haruki

Have you seen a book by Haruki Murakami? whose work has been described by the Virginia Quarterly Review as "easily accessible, yet profoundly complex".

Some of Murakami’s books include Norwegian woods, Cliff’s Kafka, etc. And last year, a movie, Tony Taketani, based on a short story written by him was released in the United States.

I got to know Haruki from an arcicle at New York Times, I was impressed by how he was so passionate about Hanshin Earthquake and Tokyo Sarin Gas indident. And how he keeps a strickt daily routine, go to bed at 9pm and get up at 4am.

Chongqing bombing

Today, a group of 40 Chinese who say they were wounded or lost relatives as a result of Japanese bombing of the city of Chongqing before and during World War Two filed a suit against the Japanese government

The plaintiffs, mostly in their 70s and 80s, want an apology and 10 million yen ($84,920) each in compensation. They also alleged that 20,000 people died in the bombing.

Zheng Youyu, who lost father in the bombing, said, “in Japan, everyone knows about in Hiroshima nuclear disaster and Tokyo bombing, through this lawsuit, I want Japanese people know about Chongqing bombing as well”.

78% of Japanese want a better relations with China

A recent survey find 78% of Japanese want to see Sino-Japan relations to improve. This survery is conducted by Japan Ministry of Foreign Affairs(MOFA), as many as 67% of surveyed 2,000 people think the current China-Japan bilateral relations is bad.

Accroding to TBS news, Japanese High School textbooks will correct writing on islands that are claimed by Japan and China, Japan and South Korea. Starting school year of 2008, regarding Takeshima and Senkaku (both in Japanese), in stead of “In negotiations with South Korea” and “In negotiations with China”, “the islands are belong to Japan” will be used.