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Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 5h

PHOTO: a ship's mooring line wrapped around a quayside bollard, no names, port or markings legible.

Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 5h

Beijing celebrates this power when chasing scam bosses, yet it becomes a flashpoint of conflict when that influence manifests as mysterious money linked to a neighbor's vice president.

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Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 5h

He survived, and the film credits Chinese police with hunting down the 'four families' who operated these compounds across the border. When placed alongside the chaos in Manila, a singular theme emerges: China's aggressive reach beyond its borders.

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Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 5h

Because he lacked the computer skills to meet his quotas, he was beaten and imprisoned in total darkness. In a desperate act of survival, he used an old razor to cut his wrist and pressed his bloody hand against the wall to signal for help.

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Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 5h

Deep inside China, a chilling narrative is unfolding on state television. A documentary produced by the police ministry and CCTV tells the harrowing story of Wang Weixing. In 2022, he crossed illegally into northern Myanmar in pursuit of wealth, only to be sold into a scam compound in Kokang.

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Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 5h

While her lawyers insist there is no proof the money was illegal or hers, and China's embassy dismisses the claims as fabrications, the political fallout is immense.

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Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 5h

The plot thickened the next day when Senator Risa Hontiveros linked some of the senders to Chinese state owned firms, prompting an immediate inquiry by the National Security Council.

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Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 5h

On 5 October, an official from the Anti-Money Laundering Council testified that roughly 320 million pesos (roughly 800 million yen) flowed in from mainland China and Hong Kong into a food company founded by her husband.

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Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 5h

The tension shifts to Manila, where 320 million pesos from China has suddenly ignited a national security crisis. The Philippine Senate is currently conducting an impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte over the alleged misuse of public funds.

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Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 5h

The result is a dangerous game where Korean sellers profit, Western sanctions leak, and Japan must answer for why its name was used as a cover.

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Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 5h

With Ukrainian drones systematically dismantling Russian refineries, Moscow is desperate for fuel and willing to pay a premium, while the sales themselves appear legal under Korean law. Seoul claims it monitors export controls "as needed" but refuses to deny the facts.

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Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 5h

Britain's Guardian tracked these vessels loading diesel at Ulsan, Yeosu and other South Korean ports throughout July and August, completing 14 runs in total. Three of these ships were already under UK and EU sanctions.

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Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 5h

Seven tankers just smuggled over 176,000 tonnes of South Korean fuel into Russia's Far East this summer, using Japan and Singapore as fake destinations to mask their true path to Vladivostok. The stakes are high.

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Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 21h

PHOTO: a hotel corridor at night with a row of closed room doors under dim ceiling lights, no hotel name, room numbers or signage legible.

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Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 21h

Want this in your inbox? Once a week I send the Japan and China stories that don't make the English feeds, read in the original. Free, one click to unsubscribe: learn.japanology.nl/newsletter.php

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Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 21h

As the yen weakens, dollar-priced oil and food become more expensive, meaning pricier imports could completely swallow the promised tax cut for every household in Japan.

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Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 21h

If investors suspect Tokyo will resort to borrowing, they will dump Japanese government bonds, driving up interest rates on all new debt. That same instability triggers a sell-off of the yen.

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Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 21h

She insisted this would be funded without deficit-covering bonds and claimed there was "nothing to worry about," yet she never revealed the source of the funds. Mainichi's headline turned her own words against her: no need to worry, no basis given. The stakes are massive.

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Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 21h

She promised to ease Okinawa's burden, yet vowed to push forward with the new base at Henoko and ensure US stationing remains smooth. Okinawans pay the price for that smoothness in a prefecture where children under 15 still outnumber those aged 75 and over.

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Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 21h

This phrase means 'hips pulled back,' describing someone leaning away from a fight while pretending to engage. Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae's policy speech to the Diet that same day exposed this hesitation.

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Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 21h

In extreme cases like murder or rape, Japan can request an earlier handover, which the US agrees to consider 'sympathetically. ' The Mainichi newspaper describes Tokyo as 及び腰 regarding these fixes.

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Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 21h

The battle over custody is where the friction peaks. Because this suspect was caught off base, Japan holds him. Had he reached the base first, Article 17(5)(c) of the US-Japan SOFA would have allowed the US to keep custody until formal charges were filed.

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Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 21h

On 5 October, Okinawa's new governor summoned Lieutenant General Watson, the top US commander, to demand changes to the Status of Forces Agreement, the pact governing US troops' legal privileges in Japan.

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Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 21h

A Marine from Futenma air base is now held on suspicion of robbery and murder, though he denies the charges.

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Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 21h

This atmosphere of Chinese pressure explains why Tokyo clings so tightly to US bases on Okinawa, which hosts 70% of the facilities used exclusively by US forces. But tension exploded on 3 October when a woman was found strangled in a hotel in Naha, Okinawa's capital.

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Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 21h

Now held as an unregistered agent of a foreign government, her plea remains unknown. Taiwan's presidential office warns this is a textbook case of transnational repression, where a state reaches across borders to terrorize critics by targeting their families.

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Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 21h

They filmed him, his wife, and their children arriving home while coordinating via WeChat, China's main chat app, before transmitting the footage and car plate numbers back to Chinese contacts. A nearby security camera captured every second of the surveillance.

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Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 21h

US court papers reveal a calculated operation that began during a trip to China in June 2025. By September, she and a male accomplice had tracked the eldest son of Lai Ching-te to his home in Seattle.

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Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 21h

Meanwhile, in Tokyo only a day later, Japan's prime minister was promising the US military a "smooth" stay on Okinawa.

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Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 21h

FBI agents intercepted a 34-year-old woman at Los Angeles airport on 4 October just as she was boarding a flight to Shanghai. The allegation is chilling: Chinese officials deployed her to spy on the family of Taiwan's president.

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Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

(Image: makunouchi bento from Origin Bento, photographed by 毒島みるく. CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.)

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Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Which particle did you catch yourself accidentally deleting first when you started chatting with Japanese friends?

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Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

In the chapter's lunch scene, a robot gets every single sentence grammatically correct but fails the register twice: she is neutral to her friends and colloquial to her teacher. The teacher's advice fits in one line: "When in doubt, stay neutral."

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Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Slap か on the end of a colloquial sentence and suddenly it stops asking questions. 食べるか！ shouted with passion means 'as if I would eat that'.

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Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Learners often treat casual Japanese like some scary second grammar they have to memorize. It is not. You already possess almost every form in it, and the middle of your sentences has been colloquial since the very day you learned ない.

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Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Three more nuggets of wisdom are hiding on that page rather than in this post.

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Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

New chapters appear regularly, every single one of them free, and Chapter 1 is a mere click away: learn.japanology.nl/grammar.php

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Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

This is just one of five habits found in Chapter 23 of my free Japanese grammar course, live today, which tackles the colloquial register: the version of Japanese you use with friends.

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Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

宿題、した？ means 'did you do the homework? ' but the を has vanished because homework is obviously the thing being done. 先生、来た。 means 'the teacher's here' but the が has bolted because the teacher is obviously the one who arrived.

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Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

When hanging out with besties, Japanese just yeets four of its particles into the void without a single regret. The golden rule for these four is simpler than any boring list: if your listener can mentally glue the particle back in, you are legally permitted to ditch it.

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Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Want this in your inbox? Once a week I send the Japan and China stories that don't make the English feeds, read in the original. Free, one click to unsubscribe: learn.japanology.nl/newsletter.php PHOTO: a large container ship under way on open sea, no name, flag or markings legible.

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Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Xinhua quotes expert Gulnara Shaimergenova on the desperate need for AI talent. Yet in July, Sankei quoted that same expert while warning of a Chinese-style surveillance society creeping into Kazakhstan. The two outlets are framing her world in completely opposite ways.

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Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Xinhua describes the language as a 机遇密码, an opportunity password, framing it as a key to wealth rather than culture. As Chinese trade and investment flood Central Asia, the language is rising as a business powerhouse alongside Russian.

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Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

In Astana, a Xinhua reporter discovered 136 Chinese language schools on one platform alone, while light rail ticket machines now display Chinese alongside Kazakh, Russian and English.

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Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Elsewhere, a story is unfolding that the English feeds are ignoring. In Almaty, Kazakhstan's largest city, a 26-year-old logistics worker signed up for Chinese classes in September to secure a future in China.

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Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Meanwhile, tension is boiling over in Okinawa. On 4 October, a US Marine was arrested for a killing in a Naha hotel.

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Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

These forces have pushed Japan's 10-year government bond yield from the 1. 6% range when Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae took office in October 2025 to above 3% today. For the average Japanese household, this volatility lands directly on their mortgage.

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Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

The shockwaves hit Japan instantly. Ships forced to detour around Africa drive up fuel costs, transit time, and war-risk insurance premiums for every single barrel. Because oil is priced in dollars, a weak yen means Japan is being hit twice.

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Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Asahi captures this peril by rendering the English word chokepoint as 急所, the martial arts term for the precise spot where one blow drops an opponent.

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