JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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Dotobock
cleo
First of all. You do know that the mine whale is not endangered? And your favorite people SSCS are completely ignoring the highly critical RIGH WHALE off the coast of USA and Canada and instead fighting tooth and nail to stop Japan hunting non endangered minke whales.
In 1993, the Scientific Committee unanimously recommended the IWC to adopt the RMP. However, the Commission chose not to. Further,iIf you had bothered studying about this issue you would probably have known by now that the Chairman of IWC Scientific Committee Phil Hammond resigned in protest as IWC members kept completely ignoring the scientific data provided by IWC Scientific Committee.The IWC Scientific Committee unanimously agreed to adopt the RMP but anti whaling countries voted against. It should be obvious to anyone who knows anything about anything that anti whaling is driven not by logic or science.
As I stated earlier the Sanctuary is not due to scientific reasoning but cultural. They want the Japanese to look at whales as cute teddy bears, holy cows of the ocean. Where as the Japanese want to utilize a natural renewable resource in a sustainable manner.
http://www.whaling.jp/english/history.html#06 http://www.highnorth.no/Library/Policies/National/is-un-s.htm
Posted in: Anti-whaling activists use drone to track Japan fleet
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Dotobock
It has no scientific value as IWC ignored the unanimously adopted resolution by the IWC Scientific Committee that there were enough whales to be hunted in a sustainable manner. Countries voted due to culture imperialist reasons. Any country can permit scientific research and that is what Japan has been doing. It then becomes highly hypocritical and ironic that these countries which disrespect and ignore scientific data to begin with criticize Japan´s scientific research.
Posted in: Anti-whaling activists use drone to track Japan fleet
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Dotobock
Patric Smash
You are completely off the mark. I also urge you who seem to have an opinion on this issue to study the issue more carefully. It is not nationalist to hunt a renewable resource in a sustainable manner in international waters. The sanctuary was supposed to be a temporary measure which also Australia agreed to but some time during their agreement, they changed their stance thus lying about the purpose of the sanctuary to begin with. The sanctuary is null void. It was supposed to have been up to a new reevaluation in the early 90s and it was. The IWC Scientific Committee concluded that there were enough whales to be hunted in a sustainable manner using whaling management procedures such as RMP. Despite the scientific evidence countries such as Australia still voted again, because of culture imperialist reasons.Not scientific. Speaking of science, it is rich of these anti whalers to criticize Japan´s scientific research when they are the ones who ignore science to begin with. Not winning the mammals extinction race at home would be a much more welcomed global contribution than fighting tooth and nail from Japan hunting in a sustainable manner a non endangered natural renewable resource.
Countries fish krill, various fish in Antarctica. Japan also wants to hunt whales there and treat the whales like any other animal, fish in the ocean. This makes more sense than treating the whale as some holy cow in the ocean like some of these westerners do.
Posted in: Anti-whaling activists use drone to track Japan fleet
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Dotobock
Rangers are two time zones away from the rest of their division. That's enough to put anyone off. Japan only has 1 time zone. While the Rangers put a lot of money, there is no guarantee from Darvish that he will sign. Darvish was pitching in pitcher friendly Sapporo Dome a huge field with a high fence where as the park in Texas I hear is pretty small therefore hitter friendly, also in Sapporo he was pitching with a greater defense than the one he will be pitching for in Texas.
Posted in: Texas Rangers win negotiating rights to Yu Darvish
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Dotobock
Whoa! Some serious cash!!! I thought USA was in a recession? I guess not. What does surprise me is how teams in USA seem to have a lot more cash when Japan as a country ( not government) does have more or less the same amount of cash. The market is bigger in the States but I do wonder why they seem to be able to afford much more than Japanese teams.
Darvish pitched in WBC and it did not bother him. In the final his fast balls were clocked at 101 miles. I do not think he throws that fast but he was coming with some serious velocity against Korea. There are lots of obstacles for Darvish, it will be interesting to see how he will cope with the new challenges.I agree with people who say Darvish is better than Matsuzaka. Darvish will need to cope with a lot more traveling, a longer season and more home run hitters. In Hokkaido, he could hang a slider and the batter would get a base hit off him, in the States they'll drive it into the stands. As long as he got his placement, he should be all right. He got good stuff.
Posted in: Texas Rangers win negotiating rights to Yu Darvish
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Dotobock
I should have phrased it better. I think it is weird that the only way Japan can hunt whales is if it is scientific. It boils down to anti whaling countries not accepting Japan to hunt whales for food. Where as Japan wants to use the scientific data in order to hunt whales for food. When that said, I think Japan's diplomacy has not been very impressive. If they had played the right cards they should have by now been able to hunt commercial like Norway and Iceland.
Posted in: U.S., Australia, NZ 'disappointed' over Japan whale hunt
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Dotobock
I do not quite get the research thing myself to be honest. I guess it is the only way Japan can take whales is if they call it research. That has to do with IWC regulations though and Japan is using that to their benefit. But other countries are not doing their jobs at IWC. They have an obligation to work in the interest of the whaling industry. I also do not get why Norway and Iceland can hunt commercial but not Japan. Cannot Japan simply protest the sanctuary and start a commercial hunt? I do not think there is a reason why Japan should be voted down when they want to start a commercial hunt though. Maybe if there can be some kind of compromise everyone can be happy enough. Such as let Japan hunt minke whales but not in the Southern Oceans? But at this point, neither Japan or other countries are willing to have a compromise so we will probably have many years of useless confrontation. Since people and countries say the same things year after year at the IWC meeting, they might as well have the meetings once every two years just to save some cash.
Posted in: U.S., Australia, NZ 'disappointed' over Japan whale hunt
1
Dotobock
Brewers are one of my favorite teams in the Majors. And so is the Swallows. He'll be greatly missed at Jingu. Personally of the players I really liked. A few seasons ago he was unstoppable. But he has had some off years too. Hope he'll make the transition.
Posted in: Brewers win right to negotiate with Japan's Aoki
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Dotobock
Japan has to put up with lots of crap from countries such as Australia and SSCS for simply having a different preference in food. I agree with the fact that despite the unfair harassment and the unfair stance by other countries the Japanese do not fight back like other people who hunt whales. I'm sure if SS members roamed the streets of Iceland or Norway you would have angry mobs in a lynching mode. In Faroe Islands SSCS members had to flee because they were physically threatened by angry mobs. In Taiji where they also hunt the same type of whales the town invited anti whalers to a town meeting trying to explain their views to SS members from USA and Australia.you probably wount find more tolerant people anywhere and SS exploits that. Nit fighting back though is at times a true sign of strength, Japan and any Japanese whaler should not be pushed or intimated to change their stance and take pride in what they do.
Posted in: U.S., Australia, NZ 'disappointed' over Japan whale hunt
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Dotobock
Pete Bethune a former SSCS member explains that they used Butyric Acid against Japanese whalers. Butyric Acid PH is 1.5 times worse than battery acid. You get that on your face and you get severe injury. Pete Bethune also openly admited to purposefully sinking the AG as a PR stunt. It was orders from Watson. Watson has also said that Australia should send a naval vessel to the Southern Ocean to protect Australia's territorial waters. Sending a naval vessel would be seen as a act of war. These waters are not Australian. NO country in the world recognizes these waters as Australian. This would be a complete pointless naval confrontation over a territorial claim recognised by no other nation on earth and an issue that essentially boils down to outright cultural imperialism.
Posted in: U.S., Australia, NZ 'disappointed' over Japan whale hunt
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Dotobock
Sea Shepherd has chosen to draw on imagery from the Pacific War, modeling its campaign logo on "the legendary Flying Tigers who fought the Japanese Imperial Forces in China" and taking their name — Operation Waltzing Matilda — from "the unofficial national anthem of Australia." SSCS is playing on nationalism, anti Japanese racism. If they would have cut out the WW2 bollocks and only stuck with environmental reasons or conservation reasons they would actually have helped their own cause.
Posted in: U.S., Australia, NZ 'disappointed' over Japan whale hunt
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Dotobock
While, I do not believe that all anti whalers are bad people. In fact, in general I have a lot of respect towards people who are concerned about the environment. I know many people in Australia feel strongly about this issue. It has even reached the level where both countries's Prime Ministers have talked about this issue. What was good to hear was that both countries leaders agreed to disagree and not let this conflict have any consequences between the two countries which enjoy a good relationship.
However, the strong anti whale sentiments have also shown their ugly side with extreme anti Japan racism. SSCS anti-Japanese propaganda that harkens back to the ugliest moments of WW2. Their logo of their campaign is of a Chinese resistance movement during WW2. There is an undercurrent of anti-Japan racism that permeates Sea Shepherd’S propaganda. They also keep referring to Japanese as barbarians. Watson needs to target other cultures, the Japanese is an easy target because it is "others" and not "us" and because of WW2. This guy has completely lost the plot. He is a hateful racist who is obsessed with Japanese whalers rather than saving the whales. People with an anti whale stance do more harm than good by supporting such a violent group of hateful people.
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Watson.
I sometimes have called anti whaling stance as culture imperialist and perhaps I should be more careful as I think most people are genuine despite being anti whale. But Watson on the other hand who keeps imagery from WW2 and keeps referring to the Japanese as barbarians is a hateful racist in my view. Why support such a man?
Posted in: U.S., Australia, NZ 'disappointed' over Japan whale hunt
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Dotobock
Maddux was amazing. He could pitch for sure, and I agree with you that to succeed as pitcher velocity does not have to be crucial. My point was that if pitchers never had much velocity or if their velocity is the same then pitchers are all right. Once pitchers start to lose their velocity then it means the career is starting to end. Kyuji Fujikawa a few seasons ago had an amazing fast ball but Kyuji of today does not have the same velocity. Him being a fast ball pitcher, his career has peaked. For a lot of Japanese players going to the States, their career had already peaked. Matsuzaka when he was 24 or so, when he was still skinny and young was hard to hit. Now though, he will never be the same Matsuzaka that he ever was. If he succeeds in the future it will be if he learns a complete new style to his pitching which I think will be tough, close to impossible.
Pitchers get the upper hand in the beginning until batters start to learn. With Wada, a 2 year contract is a good deal for Baltimore. They gambled on Wada for 2 years. They figured the batters would take two years before they would catch up with him. A bit like Okajima in Boston. He was good in the beginning until batters started to get used to him. Okajima though was never a great pitcher in Japan either, a mediocre mid relief. Pretty much the same as he is in the States.
Posted in: Orioles sign Wada to $8.15 million, 2-year contract
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Dotobock
Sea Shepherd should tackle the extremely endangered RIGHT WHALE in USA and Canada. If they loved whales as much as they do, go and save some endangered whales and leave the Japanese whalers alone who hunt non endangered whales. Their campaign is driven by hate of whalers especially Japanese and not the love of whales.
Posted in: U.S., Australia, NZ 'disappointed' over Japan whale hunt
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Dotobock
cleo
Japan needs to kill them or wants to kill them because they look at them as food. Once they know the numbers the growth rate and whatever scientific knowledge there is available then Japan can hunt whales knowing just how many they can hunt without depleting the stocks. That's the point of IWC. Where as anti whaling stance is that whales should not be killed, therefore we got people banging their heads against each other. You I believe do not support killing of any animal, which is a fair stance. My view is though, while I think it is perfectly legitimate and fair to have a stance like yours, I do not support people forcing their stance on to other people.
Posted in: U.S., Australia, NZ 'disappointed' over Japan whale hunt
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Dotobock
Wada's fast ball is somewhere around 135. It's not fast. Not sure what this is in miles. Maybe 80, 85? The thing though, Irabu used to throw 155 which is somewhere around 95? Then his velocity dropped and he still tried to throw the same way. The same with Kawakami, Igawa and to an extent Matsuzaka. They had speed but their velocity gradually wore off. In that sense, maybe Wada could be a success because he never threw hard to begin with, and he never relied on his velocity and his velocity has not dropped. Im ranting here. We just got to sit back and see how this evolves as for now.
Posted in: Orioles sign Wada to $8.15 million, 2-year contract
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Dotobock
Igawa was a different type of pitcher. Both him and Kawakami relied more on their fast balls just like Irabu. But their velocity was not that great in USA where more pitchers can throw heat than in Japan but all three of them I think had peaked before going to the States. Where as Wada is a different type of pitcher. He throws sliders against right handers and it hits the outside corners. He is not the type of pitcher trying to blow you away rather make you hit ground balls.
On Sporto the other day there was an interesting segment of the best breaking balls in Japan voted by other baseball players. The best breaking pitch in Japan this season was Darvish's slider. I forget how many votes it got but it got the most votes, the second best breaking pitch was Tanaka's split and third best was Tanaka's slider and the fourth best was Sugiuchi's change up.
Posted in: Orioles sign Wada to $8.15 million, 2-year contract
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Dotobock
Takahashi actually improved in the States the first year. He was mediocre at his best in Japan and in the States he was decent. Their styles are similar but in Japan, Wada has been much better out of the two.
Posted in: Orioles sign Wada to $8.15 million, 2-year contract
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Dotobock
Wada does not rely on his fast balls as much as Kawakami did. Wada never had a great fast ball to begin with, it was his breaking pitches and placement which brought him wins. He should be all right. He is more like, as someone else mentioned Takahashi. But younger. Uehara has made the transition. He is doing all right. He was over the hill dropped to relief in Japan then went to the States and carried on in the bull pen. Its a good thing for Wada to have other Japanese on his team. I never thought Wada to be a spectacular pitcher. Nothing like Darvish or Tanaka.But a pitcher with good technique and placement. Be interesting to see how his style translates.
Posted in: Orioles sign Wada to $8.15 million, 2-year contract
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Dotobock
I'd support an ICJ case here. This seems dead locked. And I believe Japan has the law on their side and have a very good chance of winning. Australia should put the money where their mouth is and take it to court. In the mean time, I hope no one gets hurt due to the sheer stupidity of SS's actions. There is lots of anti Japan racism by the likes of anti whalers, especially SS. Japan should stay it's course, no need to compromise. Japan should never ever give up the right to hunt whales for food.
Posted in: U.S., Australia, NZ 'disappointed' over Japan whale hunt