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This is getting strange. Imagine Hello Kitty has a profile? Not a story or past or likes and dislikes, but an actual profile. This is what Hello Kitty looks like when it’s facing forward in a profile. There’s no nose, it’s eye has a lash and although it’s called Hellosmile, there no mouth. This is actually a project to put out the word on cervical cancer. So basically, the name, the new logo, the jet and the actual reason is makes little sense. A smile is always nice, but it’s actual tie in, not quite fitting. The plane’s route is a simple one as it’s going from Haneda to Sapporo at this time. You most likely won’t see it.
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  Remember the jet that crashed into a San Diego area neighborhood killing everyone in the house? It was the Yoon family. While the husband was out, came home to a house of death. Wife, kids, and in law. The US government who’s plane did the damage after the pilot screwed up and ejected rather than land must pay the man. After private negotiations failed, “pennies on the dollar”, it’s now in court. (SF Gate – Yoon)  
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  Asia is changing. I wrote previously that Japan’s ethnic sociology is shifting. However, Japan isn’t the only country in Asia coping with evolving demographics. According to a recent article from The Diplomat, South Korea is finally acknowledging the permanent settlement of foreigners, international marriages, and their children. This is just one of the many sociological issues that South Korea shares with its continental cousin. The other is the ethno-nationalism that persists in both countries. This blood-based nationalism has, as the article suggests, restricted South Korea from sublimating its definition for what it means to be Korean in the 21st century. What the article overlooks is that this race-based brand of politics is directly related to one of its historical enemy. Scholars and commentators like B.R. Myers have argued that the myth of Korean exceptionalism traces back to Japan’s annexation of Korea. According to Myers, the concept of tanil minjok (단일 민족) didn’t appear until the Japanese brought it to Korea. The Japanese implemented a European inspired brand of race theory to co-opt a developing nationality ensuing in reaction to the Japanese occupation. Except in this instance, the Japanese occupation taught Koreans that they were both of the same “Yamato race.” The only difference, in the eyes of the occupation, is that the Japanese saw most ‘Koreans’ as subordinate due to distinctions of class according to Sociologist John Lie’s book, Multiethnic Japan. What came about is the ethno-nationalism that people see today. The reason why I bring up the shared historical ideologies of Korea and Japan is because, as I stated earlier, both countries are facing shifting demographics. The days in which someone who is born in Japan is always of “100%” Japanese are long gone. The myth of homogeneity in Japan and its discriminatory practices against foreigners is the recurrent narrative in The Land of the Rising Sun. A similar type of story is surfacing where non-Koreans and their biracial inhabitants face identical prejudices. Furthermore, Japan’s reluctance to tackle these issues could offer a framework for what South Korea should avoid. So far, I’m under the opinion that the Japanese government has done little to ameliorate the problems their immigrants face. In certain instances, some of the comments from their various Prime Ministers and politicians have done more exacerbate sentiments against its multi-ethnic residents. (See Taro Aso and Ishihara Shintaro). Similarities aside, the stark difference between the two nations is that South Korea seems to be taking the issue seriously. The only education based multicultural program in Japan that I can recollect at the top of my head is the JET Program and that’s proving to be a bungling failure in its own respect. It’s not just this, but Japanese politicians have been more than stubborn to the U.N.’s calls for legislative reforms on the matter. The creation of a multicultural program catered directly towards its inhabitants is unprecedented in its economic big brothers like China and Japan. Like Japan, China is defensive of its domestic practices. I spoke to Michelle Gamboa,...
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