Subject
War and peace
Every August this country passes the same three dates: Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and the surrender. The official speeches barely change from year to year. The way the comment sections divide underneath them does.
- A Russian military plane flew over the Northern Territories. Of 1,086 comments, the thread ran 85 to 15, 52 percent of the vote said stand firm and do not yield an inch, 21 percent used the word regret, and shoot it down or fire warning shots came to 133 comments and 7.7 percent. I counted 30 years of airspace violations in the Defense Ministry's own list: 18 by Russian aircraft, and zero warning shots At 2:11 in the afternoon of 7 September 2026, TBS NEWS DIG published a breaking story on Yahoo! Read →
- Thirty years of regret. What was done to Japan over the Northern Territories, the Senkakus and Takeshima, what Japan said, and what Japan did, counted from the government's own records. Japan acted with something other than words in six cases, twice or more in the same case only three times, and every one ended in a release, a deportation or a refusal. Warning shots: zero For the 30 years from 1996 to 2026 I counted what happened between Japan and Russia (the Northern Territories and the airspace), China (the Senkaku islands and the airspace) and South Korea (Takeshima), using the published records of the Defense Ministry, the Foreign Ministry, the Japan Coast Guard and the Prime Minister's Office. Read →
- China's army posted a Ghibli-style AI cartoon attacking Japan. Of 952 comments, 54 percent of the vote went to the government and the army — and 0.6 percent to the Chinese people The English-language official X account of China's People's Liberation Army posted a two-minute animated short criticising Japan's military build-up. Read →
- Russia protested Japan's protest. In 1,930 comments, exactly four took Russia's side — with three votes between them. President Putin visited Etorofu, one of the disputed islands off Hokkaido. Read →
- Japan's PM stopped ten minutes' walk from Yasukuni Shrine and prayed from a parking lot. The comment section split almost down the middle — which never happens here. August 15 marked 81 years since Japan's surrender. Read →
- Japan agreed 46 to 1 about a TV fee. About the atomic bomb, 1.5 to 1. At the Nagasaki memorial the prime minister said Japan "is upholding" its three non-nuclear principles — two characters different from last year's "while upholding". Read →