iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 6h

English digital learning environment: learn.japanology.nl Real lessons, in Dutch, in Leiden or online: www.japanology.nl

100

Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 6h

Fair enough. She is not a shirt.

100

Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 6h

余計な慰めはいらないの！ Yokei na nagusame wa iranai no! 'I don't need your comfort!'

100

Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 6h

Every time you comfort a friend in Japanese, you are technically ironing them.

100

Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 6h

And then the heart. Two thousand years ago 'to calm someone' was written with plain 尉. A Tang commentator noted that 'only later did people add a heart to it', and that gave 慰, as in 慰める (nagusameru), to comfort. You smooth out the creases in someone's heart.

100

Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 6h

Japan kept him: the junior officers are still called 尉官 (ikan), from 大尉 (taii), a captain, down to today's Self-Defense Force ranks 一尉 (ichii), 二尉 (nii) and 三尉 (san'i).

100

Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 6h

Then the iron joined the army. In old China an 尉 was an officer, a man with a stick and a sword, and the scholar Ying Shao explained why: 'To bring what is below to rest from above is called 尉, and so all military offices bear that name. ' An officer, in other words, irons his troops.

100

Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 6h

Over the centuries hasty scribes shrank 火 into 小, the hand became 寸, and nobody could see the fire any more. So someone put a second fire under it. 熨 is an iron that got new batteries.

100

Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 6h

Now look closely at 熨. It is 尉 sitting on a fire. Which is funny, because 尉 already had one. The Shuowen, China's classic dictionary, writes 尉 with 火 (fire) at the bottom and explains it as a hand pressing a pan of hot coals down onto silk to smooth it.

100

Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 6h

The noshi started life as a strip of dried abalone, pounded and stretched flat, and in Japanese 'to flatten' is のす (nosu), which you can also write 熨す. So the envelope you hand the bride carries an iron in the corner. Romance.

100

Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 6h

Every Japanese wedding gift comes in an envelope with a small folded ornament in the top right corner, the noshi, and its name, 熨斗 (noshi), is written with the old Chinese word for a clothes iron.

100

Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 13h

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

000

Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 13h

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.

100

Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 13h

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.

100

Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 13h

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.

100

Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 13h

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.

100

Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 13h

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.

100

Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 13h

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.

100

Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 13h

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.

100

Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 13h

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.

100

Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 13h

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.

100

Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 13h

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.

101

Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 13h

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.

100

Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 13h

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.

110

Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

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.

000

Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

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

100

Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

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.

100

Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

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.

100

Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

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.

100

Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

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.

100

Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

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.

100

Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

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.

100

Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

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.

100

Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

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.

100

Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

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

100

Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

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.

100

Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

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.

100

Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

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.

100

Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

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.

100

Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

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

100

Loek van Kooten, MA @loekalization.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

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.

100

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.)

000

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?

100

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."

100

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'.

100

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.

100

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.

100

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

100