Category: Japan

Indonesia’s eel pioneer pins hopes on “Jawa Unagi” – Nikkei Asian Review

PELABUHAN RATU, INDONESIA — This small fishing town on Java’s southwest coast is best known for the legendary sea queen Nyi Roro Kidul, a spurned princess turned mermaid who is said to snatch whatever man takes her fancy from the miles of beach that forms the town’s frontier with the Indian Ocean. But the predatory queen is not the only marine enigma swimming through the turbulent undertow off the rain-swept coast.  For Hisayasu Ishitani, a chain smoking 72-year old Japanese, now in his 5th decade in Indonesia, the local waters mean a plentiful supply of eel — and the opportunity to fill a growing market gap in his Japanese homeland.

ASEAN sups with Chinese devil – Asia Times

HANOI – China’s rise has altered the dynamics within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and across Asia, as was on display at recently concluded summits meetings in Hanoi. Chinese naval expansion and increasingly assertive claims to disputed maritime areas in the East and South China Seas has prompted Japan, South Korea, Vietnam and others to reaffirm their enthusiasm for America’s security umbrella after some ambivalence in recent years. Japan and India, China’s main Asian rivals, are increasingly looking to each other, and to Southeast Asia, as a hedge against China’s rise, which has taken a hard turn in recent months. Prime Ministers Naoto Kan and Manmohan Singh met after the Hanoi summits, which were overshadowed by the mud-slinging coming from the Chinese and Japanese delegations. “Prime Minister Kan was keen to understand how India engages China,” India’s foreign secretary, Nirupama Rao said after that meeting. As well as increasing ties with Japan, India’s slow-to-action ‘Look East’ policy, which has brought the self-proclaimed world’s largest democracy into disrepute over its feting of the Myanmar junta, is likely to be enhanced in coming years, as highlighted in the statement issued after the India-ASEAN summit.