Japan's Military Is Revving Up To Meet China's Growing Regional Ambitions | ||
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For a long time, Japan's military force was an exercise in contradiction. The country has ranked among the world's top military spenders, at almost $50 billion in 2013 — despite a constitution that explicitly forbids war (and even the maintenance of "land, sea, and air forces"). But in July, the cabinet of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe approved a reinterpretation of the pacifist clause called Article 9. Without changing the constitution's wording, Abe made clear that Japan intended to step up its military prerogative in the region, allowing it to come to the aid of an attacked ally, for instance. The country spends the equivalent of 1% of its GDP on defense, a figure that could grow after a decade of flat-lining; last year Abe's cabinet approved a five-year spending plan on a laundry list of military hardware: Three surveillance drones, stealth aircraft, 52 amphibious troop carriers, 28 next-generation fighter planes (the F-35) and 17 Osprey aircraft units. The total expenditure from the plan is estimated to reach $232 billion to $240 billion. Aside from foreign purchases, Japan has also undertaken the development of its own advanced fighter. The ATD-X is envisioned as being a stealthy air-superiority fighter that could be deployed to counteract the development of fifth-generation fighters by China and Russia. Japan's Ministry of Defense plans to use the research developed for the ATD-X as a stepping stone to the eventual development of a sixth-generation fighter that would be designed for counter-stealth capabilities. Japan also wants to expand its fleet of submarines from 16 units to 22, an asset Japan has much experience leveraging. The National Interest explains that Japan keeps its submarines "at a number of key invasion routes to Japan [...] This concentration is a Cold War holdover, from when Japan expected that Soviet Union might invade during wartime." The BBC's Tokyo correspondent agrees that Japan's military was once mainly a foil to the Soviet threat, "designed in the days of the Cold War to protect Japan against an invasion from the north, from Russia."
The new perceived threat is China, a country with which Japan's relationship has never fully recovered from the latter's imperial aggression before and during World War II. Alongside China's economic growth has come a mushrooming defense budget, which has steadily climbed since 2000 (to $132 billion). In 2010, tensions reached a low boil, catalyzed by a territorial dispute over the Senkaku (or Diaoyu) Islands in the East China Sea. More recently, China has shifted tactics over the island chain by sending fishermen en masse to the region in an effort to assert de facto control. Ahead of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit (APEC) last week in Beijing — where the two countries' leaders halfheartedly shook hands for the cameras — Japan's prime minister did at least open the door to fielding Chinese claims on the territories. But an eventual armed clash in disputed waters is certainly possible.
"All those hotspots, and what's the common denominator? It's China," Gordon Arthur, a journalist focusing on Asian Pacific defense, told Business Insider. "I think they've been very assertive under president Xi Jinping, so I think it's very possible that an accident or escalation could happen." That case is the main driver for Japan's renewed defense priorities, and for its move to base its new amphibious capability — including a radar station — in southwestern Japan. "In case of various situations, it is essential to respond effectively and minimize damage by achieving air superiority and command of the sea," a document from Japan's Ministry of Defense states. Alongside new military spending is the country's cultivation of regional allies, and stronger cultivation of its long-standing alliance with the United States.
"You can't look at Japan's military as only Japan," said Steven Herman, the Voice of America's bureau chief in Bangkok. "So what Japan has in addition to its own so-called Self-Defense Forces, it has the full weight and might of the United States military behind it." If ever there was a formula for world wars, it's minor disputes between countries backed by big allies ("it's likely that there will be a third world war to fight for sea rights," reads one op-ed by a professor at a a Chinese military university). Even Shinzo Abe, a man in leadership rather than academia, this year compared the trade-heavy relationship between China and Japan to that of the UK and Germany before World War I. The advent of another great war isn't foregone. The Japanese public, for one, still remains largely opposed to war. In a 2013 Pew research poll, 56% of the Japanese public said they were against any form of military effort other than defense, although there has been a gradual trend towards military action becoming more acceptable within the nation. Tensions in China, Japan, and South Korea are greater than they were even in the '80s, when the wounds of World War II were fresher, said Herman. "What we're finding is more liberal voices in all of these countries," voices advocating for an understanding of other countries' perspectives, "are being squelched to a greater degree than they were in the past." SEE ALSO: This epic map shows the border disputes that could tear Asia apart Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Storm in a marmalade jar over 'Paddington' sex content | ||
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London (AFP) - Britain's film classification board said Wednesday it has removed a warning that the new "Paddington" movie contains "mild sex references" after the creator of the much-loved children's character expressed shock at the advice. Michael Bond, the 88-year-old author of the books charting the adventures of the marmalade-loving bear, said he was "totally amazed" at any suggestion of sexual content in the film, in which he has a cameo. "I'd be very upset. I might not sleep well tonight. I can't imagine what the sex references are. It doesn't enter into it with the books, certainly," he told the Daily Mail newspaper. The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) has given the film, which opens next week, a "PG" or "Parental Guidance" rating, meaning it may not be suitable for very young children. It cited "dangerous behaviour", such as when Paddington hides in a fridge in the film, and "mild threat", when a villain threatens to kill and stuff the bear. The "mild sex references" include a comic sequence where a man flirts with another man disguised as a woman, while the classification also warns of "mild bad language". However, following a minor media uproar, the BBFC confirmed on Wednesday that it had removed the reference to sexual content on its consumer advice in favour of "innuendo". Actor Hugh Bonneville, a star of hit TV series "Downton Abbey" who plays a leading role in "Paddington", said the film was "perfectly watchable" for children under eight. "I saw it with some five-year-olds the other day and the only danger they had was wetting themselves laughing," he told the BBC. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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The 10 Things In Advertising You Need To Know Today | ||
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Settle into Wednesday with the most important advertising stories from the last 24 hours. 1. The world’s largest ad has just been switched on in Times Square, New York City. The Clear Channel billboard is the length of a football pitch, and Google is understood to be the first brand advertising on it. 2. Clothing retailers are using “skinny” mirrors to get customers to spend more money. So far, most of the orders for the Skinny Mirror have come from small boutiques, but the company’s CEO tells Business Insider she is now in talks with a popular apparel chain that has more than 450 stores worldwide. 3. Facebook has taken a step towards its own original content by creating a breaking tech news feed. FB Techwire aims to pull journalists away from whittling away most their time hunting for stories on Twitter, but also signals Facebook is looking to position itself as a publishing platform in its own right. 4. We’ve taken a look at the things that would never have happened in the Steve Ballmer era at Microsoft. Some of the big changes under Satya Nadella have included giving away Office for iPad for free, featuring an iPad in a promo video, getting behind the “internet of things,” and starting to cure a cut-throat culture. 5. Urban Outfitter’s CEO Richard Hayne has identified the brand’s biggest problem after the company reported another drop in sales and disappointing profits. He admitted the team did “a poor job” of designing the architecture of the store and creating different assortments for different types of stores. 6. Manchester United confirmed on Tuesday the financial cost of failing to qualify for the Champions League this season: At least £43 million. The drop is reflective of missing out on bonuses from sponsor Nike, as well as declines in income from broadcasting and matchday ticket sales. 7. AOL’s CEO Tim Armstrong has spoken to USA Today. He talks about programmatic video ads, women in tech and fends off questions about a potential merger with Yahoo. 8. Digiday has taken a look inside Pizza Hut’s biggest ever rebrand. The overhaul includes new ads, a redesigned logo and lots of changes to the menu, including new artisanal pizza flavors. 9. UK retailer Argos has created a Tinder-like gift finder app, Marketing Magazine reports. The app allows people to swipe left or right to indicate whether they like a gift or not, and it then determines which products will be most appropriate. 10. Yahoo has integrated Flurry into its advertising system, giving marketers an option for in-app mobile video ad buys, Adweek reports. The move comes four months after Yahoo purchased Flurry for a reported $200 million to $300 million. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Amazon Is Slaughtering Royal Mail | ||
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Britain's Royal Mail is blaming online retail giant Amazon for a fall in first-half profits, The Times reports. In its financial report released today, Royal Mail saw its pre-tax profit drop £15 million to £218 million in the six months to Sept. 28. They were £233 in the same six-month period last year. Even though UK parcel volumes grew by 2%, revenues in this department fell by 1%. Overall revenue grew by 2%. In a statement, Royal Mail accused Amazon's own delivery system of "a reduction in the rate of growth of the addressable UK parcels market," and forecasted further cuts in its growth in the future. "We estimate that the impact of Amazon delivering an increasing number of its own parcels using its own delivery network will reduce the annual rate of growth in our addressable market to 1-2 per cent," Royal Mail CEO Moya Greene said. Other divisions of the national service are also under threat. The BBC reports that everyday letters delivery business fell by 3% in the past six months, a figure that was less steep than expected thanks to the Scottish referendum, which boosted the delivery of political pamphlets and poll cards. Amazon started its own delivery system in April this year, and has recently announced it is going to test drones for shipping the post. Amazon declined our requests for comment. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Here's An Exciting New Clue About Why Some People Stay Sharp As They Age | ||
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As it turns out, some older people may be able to learn certain things just as well as younger people by harnessing the power of a part of the brain that young, healthy people typically don't use in the same way. Gray Matter, White MatterThe brain can be thought of as having two major components: gray matter and white matter. We rely on our neuron-rich gray matter for everything from seeing and hearing to processing emotions, exerting self-control, and learning new information. White matter, by contrast, contains all of the brain's wiring — the complex web of twisting fibers that carry information across different parts of the brain. White matter may also help us learn and could play a critical role in overall cognitive function and intelligence, scientists are now discovering. As we age, our gray matter often shrinks or degrades, making seemingly everyday tasks tougher. But what if the brain had a sort of backup generator, an extra source of power that would fire up when our primary engines were down? It appears that in some older people, the white matter does just that. Flexible BrainsFor the new study, published Nov. 19 in Nature Communications, researchers took a look at 39 healthy volunteers, some young, some older. In the older people with the most flexible white matter, learning a new bit of visual information was just about as easy as it was for younger people who naturally just used their gray matter. The finding seems to contradict a widely accepted notion about aging: that as we get older, our brains lose their flexibility, making it tough for us to remember things and learn new skills. In some older people, the new study suggests, precisely the opposite happens. In these people, the brain retains the ability to adapt, but in a different brain area than in young people. "As far as visual tasks are concerned, some older people can learn just as well as younger people," says Brown University neuroscience professor and study coauthor Takeo Watanabe.
Good Learners And Bad LearnersTo arrive at their findings, researchers had 21 volunteers aged 19 to 32 and 18 volunteers aged 65 to 80 look at screens and push a button when they noticed certain changes in the displayed patterns. The volunteers did the task once before participating in a training session designed to improve their results, and a then a second time afterwards. During the training, volunteers were taught to memorize a letter that appeared on the screen in between the time when the pattern was changed. Memorizing the letter helped them stay focused on the center of the display. That training helped younger and older participants improve their performance on the task equally, and researchers wanted to see if anything in their brains could explain why. Before and after the task and the training, the researchers scanned the volunteers' brains. They monitored part of the visual cortex, the gray matter section of the brain responsible for visual learning, to see if it changed. They also looked closely at the white matter beneath it. While younger learners had far more changes in their visual cortex, made up of grey matter, older learners showed more changes in their white matter overall. Based on their results, the older volunteers seem to be in two distinct groups: "good learners" whose accuracy in flagging the pattern change went up by more than 20% after they were trained, and "poor learners," who improved by less than 20%. The more an older person's white matter changed, the researchers found, the better he or she learned. "We know that older people's brains are declining," Watanabe says. "But older and younger people are faced with the same learning demands in everyday life, and it appears that some older people can compensate for those losses." While the finding is for now limited to the effects of a very specific kind of visual training in a very small number of people, it provides interesting clues about how older brains might be compensating for — and even canceling out — some of the gray matter changes that have previously been seen as a marker of cognitive decline. DON'T MISS: Here's What Happened When A 65-Year-Old Woman Took Shrooms In A Lab Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Ever heard someone say you can't teach an old dog new tricks? 
Hollande confirms two Frenchmen in Islamic State video | ||
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Canberra (AFP) - President Francois Hollande on Wednesday confirmed that two Frenchmen had been identified as suspects in an Islamic State video showing the beheading of Syrian prisoners, while slamming "brainwashing" of the young. The men are seen in the brutal clip released by the IS group on Sunday which features the killing of 18 Syrian prisoners and a US aid worker. "All we can say for now is that there were two French people," Hollande told a press conference in Canberra alongside Australian leader Tony Abbott. "One has been categorically identified and the other one is in the process of being identified." French prosecutors have confirmed the first was 22-year-old Maxime Hauchard from Normandy in northern France. A source close to the case said Wednesday the second Frenchman has been identified as a 22-year-old man from an eastern suburb of Paris, who went by the name Abu Othman. Hollande said it was not clear exactly what role the men played in the beheadings and that "the judicial system will have to establish this". French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said in Paris that Hauchard left for Syria "in August 2013 after a stay in Mauritania in 2012", after reportedly becoming radicalised online. Around 1,000 French nationals are thought to have taken part in the conflict in Syria and Iraq, with 375 currently there, the government has said. At least 36 have died. Hollande, the first French president to make a state visit to Australia, said the issue of foreign fighters and how they were being "brainwashed" was a major concern. "They could be from any background, from any ethnic origin -- but they easily can be brainwashed into becoming converts, and this is a very important matter," he said. "We must be vigilant, and we must be strong." Like the United States, Britain and other nations, authorities in France are increasingly worried about the number of citizens travelling to fight in Iraq and Syria who could potentially come back and stage attacks in their home country. Earlier this month, Paris adopted an anti-terrorism law which will slap a travel ban on anyone suspected of planning to wage jihad and Hollande said it was crucial that the full force of the law is used on those opting to fight overseas. "What is very important is not just reducing the number and avoiding new ones (foreign fighters), but have some sort of penalty applying to those who went to these areas because if you go to a combat zone it is something that should be subject to sanctions and penalties within the law," he said. During his trip to Australia, Hollande has also voiced concern about the impact that "extreme horror" films used by terrorist groups is having on young people. Australia faces a similar scenario to France with at least 71 Australians currently fighting in Iraq or Syria with 15 having been killed -- two of them as suicide bombers. Abbott said the subject was discussed during their bilateral talks and that more collaboration is needed, "particularly when it comes to intelligence sharing on the question of foreign fighters".
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