Gov't embarrassed over wrong N Korean rocket launch info

Sunday 05th April, 06:55 AM JST

By Daisuke Yamamoto

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titian at 11:16 AM JST - 5th April

jeancolmar:

This ought to make you happy that Japan does not possess nuclear weapons and that there is still an Article 9 that put some kind of restraint on the clowns in the Japanese military and the Japanese government. This was a mistake but there was no excuse for it. It may well not have happened were not the nation put into high hysteria over the last several weeks.

Exactly, very well said! We know that two superpowers and were engaged in a cold war for many years with many real nuclear threads and early warning challenges, but, thanks god, such kind of things, as now with Japan never happened... And, as for the hysteria, I guess it is deliberately cultivated, as it detracts the public attention from the real domestic problems of Japan - economy, birth rate, unemployment, suicides, NEET...
UnagiDon at 11:44 AM JST - 5th April

NHK says it's launched..
gogogo at 11:46 AM JST - 5th April

The misstep has embarrassed the administration of Prime Minister Taro Aso, who was apparently hoping that by quickly conveying the launch information to the public, he could raise his profile as an effective crisis manager.

Get the hell out of the PM job, that is the most stupidest thing I have evre read. What a child Aso is! He has created this false platform and now hopes to prop it up with BS like this.

Aso wants N Korea to attack Japan, he wants trouble so he can look good in a crisis! Can't anyone else see this? He wants a crisis to happen, he wants people to be scared, get hurt or even die so he can look like a good crisis manager. This guy needs to be put in jail!
smithinjapan at 01:01 PM JST - 5th April

"Tensions were mounting after a report earlier in the day by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency that the satellite ‘‘will be launched soon.’’

As I and almost everyone on here said yesterday, the error was due to panic and confusion (hysteria). It's good that they are showing the proper embarrassment, and it sounds like they didn't take on near the same level of fear, etc. when the rocket actually launched. Kudos on eventually showing some restraint, and in retrospect I have no doubt the initial mistake helped in that regard.
pathat at 01:03 PM JST - 5th April

And the missile was launched over Japan and crashed somewhere in the Pacific, according to reports in the past few minutes.

North Korea continues its game of cat and mouse with the international community, trying to bargain for the survival of the military that pulls the strings of Kim Jong-Il's pathetic regime.

President Obama is obsessed with Afghanistan and Pakistan-in a misguided attempt to "win" an unwinnable conflict, just as George W. Bush so foolishly wasted so many lives and much treasure in the Iraq War.

Bush had little interest in North Korea. Will President Obama do the same?
Ultrashaman at 01:08 PM JST - 5th April

While I have always been against the "don't like it then get out" people, I'm starting to see why they get tired of constant complainers who think they can run a country better. The Japan-bashing bandwagon always seems ready to run wild.
pathat at 01:29 PM JST - 5th April

"The Japan-bashing bandwagon always seems ready to run wild."

JT provides many people the opportunity to vent their frustrations about life in Japan while learning quite a bit at the same time. I think this is positive.

The Japanese government regularly provides JT readers with plenty of opportunities to bash them, as evidenced by the screw-ups connected to this story.
smithinjapan at 01:39 PM JST - 5th April

Ultratrashman: "While I have always been against the "don't like it then get out" people, I'm starting to see why they get tired of constant complainers who think they can run a country better. The Japan-bashing bandwagon always seems ready to run wild."

Do you have anything to say about the article or rocket launch? The only thing worse than a person who says s/he 'cannot stand bashing' is when said person not only has nothing to say themselves about the thread, but simply cannot defend against what they say people are bashing.

As with yesterday, people are rightly bashing the jump in announcing a rocket launch -- that is something worth criticizing giving the gravity of the situation and something that can NOT AT ALL be refuted.

When situations like this arise, and people criticize what happened, those who are embarrassed and irrationally defensive can only say, "Japan-basher!" Likewise with people who argue against the US or its policies, guns, or what not you hear people who cannot defend themselves or the situation saying, "All this from foreigners!" and, "Anti-Americans!" etc. It's a pathetic attempt to cover one's own embarrassment and inability to argue by attempting to undermine the others' comments.

Here's my question: there are, every day, at least THREE articles on JT and in the media, not to mention updates throughtout the day on TV, leading up to the launch and especially with the false launch report. Now that the rocket has been launched, where the hell is the story?!? I want to read the details.
dr_jones at 02:21 PM JST - 5th April

smithinjapan:

Now that the rocket has been launched, where the hell is the story?!? I want to read the details.

How do you find time to read any story? You're spending 100% time of the day rummage through JT articles trying to find something that supports your Japan bashing!
bushlover at 06:39 PM JST - 5th April

No matter the gov't announced prematurely, They will always be in the wrong because some self righteous idiot here is here to tell the rest of us how things really are. Pathetic people all here for their own liking.
smithinjapan at 08:58 PM JST - 5th April

dr_jones: "How do you find time to read any story? You're spending 100% time of the day rummage through JT articles trying to find something that supports your Japan bashing!"

hahaha... nice try at posting something not at all related to the article. Rest your hot little head, though, and stop shaking your little fists; the rocket story finally made it on this afternoon some 3 hours after the fact. And how, please tell me, would you know I was looking through various threads on JT (not 'rummaging', which has a different meaning)?

Anyway, my advice to people like yourselves is, when you're this embarrassed about what happened and cannot defend it, you just not post and hide your head like so many other people who have no defense besides "You're a Japan-basher" do. I feel even more embarrassed on your behalf for your post... seriously, you don't say a single thing about the thread, the launch itself, North or South Korea, Japan, war... nothing; just something you cannot argue against and so throw out a 'Japan-basher' comment.

bushlover: "No matter the gov't announced prematurely..."

Big matter, actually, and hence the headline and why they are internationally and domestically embarrassed...

"...They will always be in the wrong because some self righteous idiot here is here to tell the rest of us how things really are..."

Correction: 'they'll always be in the wrong when they're in the wrong, as they were this time'. If that makes people who point that out 'self righteous idiots', it makes people who cannot accept it and can resort only to name calling really REALLY 'self-righteous idiots'.

"...Pathetic people all here for their own liking."

Says a poster here for his own liking.

How about the rocket launch? Any comments on that? errr... on the erroneous information?
dr_jones at 10:15 PM JST - 5th April

@smithinjapan

Your comment is 271 words long! Thanks for just proving my statement!
smithinjapan at 11:49 PM JST - 5th April

Dr_jones: Your statement claimed I 'rummage around JT articles'. Do you know what that means? Do you have a dictionary for that simple word? It doesn't mean 'writing long comments'.

"Thanks for just proving my statement!"

Clearly, what I proved is that your statements are irrelevant and nothing more than childish -- and you still have not commented on the article at hand, not even once.
smithinjapan at 11:52 PM JST - 5th April

dr_jones: "Your comment is 271 words long!"

Sorry, just one more point. You spend the time checking all the articles for my name and counting my words. I'm honoured! but really it just means you waste more time than me and STILL can't post on topic. I appreciate the attempt to be an apprentice editor, though. Thanks.

Care to talk about North Korea or the Japanese government's false claim of a rocket launch? How many words is this, by the way (just cut it, open up Microsoft Word, paste, highlight, and do a WordCount. Shouldn't take much longer than it would to come up with a simple comment on the article. haha)?
Ultrashaman at 10:58 AM JST - 6th April

Anyway, my advice to people like yourselves is, when you're this embarrassed about what happened and cannot defend it, you just not post and hide your head like so many other people who have no defense besides "You're a Japan-basher" do.

Posters should be ashamed about what the Japanese government does because they are not part of the Japanese government and have no influence in its actions.