Global Voices Online

With “Love Japan“, Rakuten Inc. has enabled personal donations to politicians via credit card, a first in Japan. Hit Okano [ja] ponders about the relationship between the amount of donated money and its influence on politicians, while blogger Satotaku [ja] refers to U.S. President Obama's success with online contributions and expects other services to follow.

LJ user rover seti reacts against [RUS] a resolution of Japan's parliamentary House of Councillors, declaring the Kuril Islands, occupied by the Soviet Union in 1945, Japanese territory “since ancient times.”

Lawyer and blogger raymiyatake expresses his doubts [ja] over the election of Japanese diplomat Yukiya Amano as director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). First, he says, Amano was supported by only 23 nations out of 35. Second, he points out the difficult situation that the Agency is dealing with, at present, and the “unfairness” of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which should be applied also to the five members already recognized as possessing nuclear power. Lastly, he suggests that instead of promoting a “pacific use” of nuclear energy, this should be replaced with clean energy sources (such as the geothermal or the aeolian ones).