93% of CNN website visiting voters do not want Japan to become a permanent member of the security council.

The local NHK news here in Japan is making a big deal about large numbers of people in China protesting things in Japan. NHK went on for a while about how China is protesting Japan’s bid to become a permanent member of the security council. Some of my students mentioned that the Japanese are dying to become a permanent member.

I could not find anything about this story on FoxNews. On CNN, they had one story talking more about gas burning. Japan is allowing drilling in a region disputed by the two countries. Apparently it is some idiotically small island (or large rock) that Japan has claimed is part of their territory in order to secure the mineral/water rights within some number of kilometer radius of the land. It then moves on to assert that the Chinese are mostly protesting because Japan has a new textbook out ignoring the Japanese atrocities of World War II.

Japanese have apologized on “no fewer than 17 occassions”, but if it is anything like their news coverage or textbooks, I can imagine why the Chinese are still upset.

CNN also briefly mentions tension about Japan’s security bid.

Strange how different two news organizations can report a story. I remember thinking that the Japanese were fairly balanced because they were fielding quotes of Chinese protesters, but apparently they ignored an entire side of the story. Too bad.

This seems like a good example of why so many Americans have abandoned the perspective given by NBC and the New York Times for a fresh look somewhere else.

This entry was posted on 2005-4-14 at 4:08 and is filed under Life in Japan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.