Schedium

A Chinese announcer shouted "Diaoyu Islands belong to China" during a live broadcast at Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK), sparking a controversy in both Japan and China. Based on an image by Uchinanchu via Wikimedia Commons   ________________________________ On August 19, a Chinese announcer at an NHK-affiliated radio station went off-script during a live broadcast, shouting in English "Diaoyu Islands belong to China", "Remember the Nanjing Massacre" and "Remember the Comfort Women".  The announcer made the statements after he had read a news story about a Chinese man accused of defacing the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo.  This action immediately caused a stir within NHK and attracted significant attention on social media. The Japanese government called the incident "regrettable". Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi urged NHK “to be mindful of its social responsibility as a public broadcaster and prevent a recurrence.” NHK promptly...

Hashima is an islet of 6.3 hectares lying off the coast of Nagasaki prefecture. From afar, its buildings and high walls, designed to protect it from typhoons, make it look like a fortress, or rather like a battleship, hence its Japanese nickname 'Gunkanjima' (軍艦島), or 'Battleship Island'. During the Meiji Era  (1868-1912) Hashima played an important role in Japan's rapid industrialisation . Coal, the fuel of the first industrial revolution, was abundant in the region. In 1890 Hashima was bought by Mitsubishi , which set up coal-mining facilities. The company transformed the islet into a major industrial site and a pioneering residential area, a model for Japan's industrial and urban development. Mitsubishi sank vertical shafts of about 200 metres, erected massive walls and carried out land reclamation projects in order to obtain new land for the construction of factories. Due to the demand for labour, workers began to flock to Hashima. The population g...

On September a 30-year-old Chinese national from Tianjin took part in the 28th "International Mount Tai Climbing Festival" ( 泰山国际登山节 ), a competition held on Mount Tai , in China's Shandong Province.  The only problem: the man was wearing a T-shirt with the logo of the Imperial Japanese Navy (大日本帝國海軍) . The navy, which was involved in Japan's imperialist wars, was dissolved in 1945 and replaced by the Japan Maritime Self-Defence Force . At a time of rising tensions between China and Japan, the T-shirt caused an uproar. The sight of what many people consider a symbol of Japanese imperialism arose the anger and indignation of the bystanders. The man was soon surrounded by a furious crowd, and an athlete even assaulted him and forcibly took off his shirt.