I Hope That Someone Makes a Movie About This

For various reasons, the water infrastructure in Osaka, Japan is relatively old, and as such is in need of maintenance.

Someone donated ¥560,000,000 ($3.6 million) to the city to support these repairs.\

Nice story, but the interesting bit was that this anonymous donation was made in the form of 21kg of gold bars.

I want to know the rest of the story.

Osaka has received a hefty gift of gold bars worth 560m yen (£2.7m) from an anonymous donor and a request for its specific use: to fix the Japanese city’s dilapidated water pipes.

The gold bars, weighing a total of 21kg (46lb), were given to the Osaka City Waterworks Bureau in November by the donor who wants to help improve ageing water pipes, the mayor, Hideyuki Yokoyama, told reporters on Thursday.

“It’s a staggering amount and I was speechless,” Yokoyama said. “Tackling ageing water pipes requires a huge investment, and I cannot thank enough for the donation.”

The mayor said the city –Japan’s third largest, with 2.8 million people – would respect the donor’s wishes and use the gift to improve waterworks projects.

Most of Japan’s main public infrastructure was built during the rapid postwar economic growth, but urban development in Osaka, a regional commercial hub, started earlier than many and its water pipes and other infrastructure are ageing earlier, the city’s waterworks official, Eiji Kotani, said.

Osaka needed to renew 160 miles (260km) of water pipes, he said. Renewing a 1.2 mile segment would cost about 500m yen, Kotani said.

If I had to venture a guess, I would think that this might be someone from the Yakusa, as making such a donation in gold does seem to imply that some sort of money laundering was involved, and doing this is very much a Yakusa sort of thing.

Today in the Annals of the Criminal Enterprise Formerly Known as Facebook™

Literally a sketch from the 1970s movie The Groove Tube

In a move that seems to have been foretold by the 1974 sketch comedy film The Groove Tube, Facebook (Meta) decided that the appropriate response to its inundation by scammers and fraud was to sabotage the tools used by government regulators to find fraudulent advertising.

No attempt to protect the users, no attempt to protect its legitimate advertisers, just lobby to allow for business as usual. 

I'm not surprised, but I am disappointed. 

Japanese regulators last year were upset by a flood of ads for obvious scams on Facebook and Instagram. The scams ranged from fraudulent investment schemes to fake celebrity product endorsements created by artificial intelligence. 

Meta, owner of the two social media platforms, feared Japan would soon force it to verify the identity of all its advertisers, internal documents reviewed by Reuters show. The step would likely reduce fraud but also cost the company revenue. 

To head off that threat, Meta launched an enforcement blitz to reduce the volume of offending ads. But it also sought to make problematic ads less “discoverable” for Japanese regulators, the documents show.

The documents are part of an internal cache of materials from the past four years in which Meta employees assessed the fast-growing level of fraudulent advertising across its platforms worldwide. Drawn from multiple sources and authored by employees in departments including finance, legal, public policy and safety, the documents also reveal ways that Meta, to protect billions of dollars in ad revenue, has resisted efforts by governments to crack down.

………

Meta’s internal documents cast new light on the central role played by fraudulent advertising in the social media giant’s business model – and the steps the company takes to safeguard that revenue. Reuters reported in November that scam ads Meta considers “high risk” generate as much as $7 billion in revenue for the company each year. This month, the news agency found that Meta tolerates rampant fraud from advertisers in China.

If there is any justice in the world, (s[poiler, there isn't) we will see Mark Zuckerberg frog-marched out of Meta's corporate offices in handcuffs. 

A Stopped Clock Moment

Images from WikipediaIt looks like Donald Trump finds Kei Cars kawaii, (かわいい, meaning cute) and wants to make them legal in the United States.

These tiny vehicles, limited by Japanese Law to having engines no larger than 660 cc engine displacement, 47 kW, and 3.4 meters long are available in Japan as normal(ish) passenger cars, sports cars, and tiny pickup trucks.

During his Wednesday announcement regarding shifting fuel economy regulations, President Donald Trump dropped a surprise victory for car enthusiasts here in the United States. While outlining how his new plans will improve the affordability of new cars in America, Trump announced that he has tasked U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy with clearing the regulatory deck to allow small cars of the sort sold in Asia, such as Japan's kei cars, to become available in the United States.  

………

Trump explained how he saw these small cars during his recent trip to Asia, which he described as both “cute” and “beautiful,” but was told they could not be sold in the United States due to regulations. The president's remarks suggested he thought that silly, and that these small machines could be sold at a more affordable price point than other traditional models. Trump also touted how smaller cars are more efficient thanks to their smaller engines, and specifically named brands like Honda and Toyota as potential sources for these machines.

For those who are not familiar, kei cars are a segment of vehicles that are quite popular in Japan. They are built to strict dimensional standards, and must feature an engine no larger than 660 cc. The form factor can range from pickup truck to mid-engine sports car and everything between. They’re absolutely tiny however, with many being utterly dwarfed by the likes of the Mazda Miata.

Unfortunately, I'm not sure how well they will do in America, the land of 5,500 pound death machines.

Reminds Me of the Movie Over the Hedge

Every so often, you see a headline, and you think, "Way to reinforce stereotypes."

The headline, "Japanese Farmers Send Out Automated Laser Drones to Defend Chickens," is one of these heds.

It has a seriously dystopian robot anime vibe: 

Chicken farming is a fowl business. To make it, you’ll need extensive knowledge in animal husbandry, business finance, biosecurity, and mechanical repair. If one company in Japan has its way, that list could soon include “drone skills” as well.

A Japanese firm called NTT e-Drone Technology Company Ltd has developed a drone-laser system designed to scare wild birds and other unwanted visitors away from chicken coops, as reported by tech blog Tom’s Hardware.

The quadcopter system sports a payload consisting of a laser-grid projector not unlike those chintzy Christmas light shows from 2019. When deployed, the drone automatically navigates toward unwanted nuisance animals before blasting them with a dazzling array of red and green lasers.

Also, it reminds me of a movie I saw a while back:

80 Years Ago Today

The bombing of Hiroshima.

I went there with my dad when I was 17, a rather somber moment in an otherwise delightful, and delicious, graduation trip.

That was a long time ago, and I still have not worked out my feelings about the whole matter. 

バカにつける薬はない*

Dateline, Mt. Fugi, Japan. A student climbs the iconic Japanese mountain before the start of the official climbing season, loses his climbing equipment, needs a helicopter rescue, realizes that he left his mobile phone on the mountain, so he climbs back up the mountain to recover his cell phone and needs to be rescued again. 

An inexperienced climber became stranded on Mount Fuji last week, after climbing to the top of the Japanese mountain and losing some of his climbing gear. As if that weren’t bad enough, the man subsequently returned to the peak a few days later because he’d forgotten his phone at the summit. He then had to be rescued again.

BBC reports that a 27-year-old Chinese university student (whom authorities have mercifully declined to name) was initially rescued last Tuesday near the summit of the mountain after losing his crampons. Crampons are a kind of spiked cleat that allows for safe traversal of icy environments. He was at a height of some 12,388 feet when he had to be rescued by helicopter and flown to safety, authorities told CNN.

However, the student then made the dubious decision to scale the mountain again a few days later because he had forgotten his phone at the top, officials said. He had to be rescued yet again, after climbing to a height of 9,842 feet and experiencing altitude sickness, CNN writes. Altitude sickness occurs as the body’s response to climbing in elevation too quickly. Some climbers can have trouble adjusting to the more limited oxygen levels and may experience disorientation and difficulty breathing.

This guy is cruising for a f%$#ing Darwin Award.

^*This translates to, "There is no medicine for stupidity."

Another Reason to Oppose the Death Penalty

The case of Iwao Hakamada, who was on death row for 46 years based on fabricated evidence.

An 88-year-old man who is the world’s longest-serving death row inmate has been acquitted by a Japanese court, after it found that evidence used against him was fabricated.

Iwao Hakamada, who was on death row for almost half a century, was found guilty in 1968 of killing his boss, the man’s wife and their two teenage children.

He was recently granted a retrial amid suspicions that investigators may have planted evidence that led to his conviction for quadruple murder.

The 46 years spent on death row has taken a heavy toll on Hakamada's mental health, though, meaning he was unfit to attend the hearing where his acquittal was finally handed down.

Hakamada's case is one of Japan's longest and most famous legal sagas, and has attracted widespread public interest, with some 500 people lining up for seats in the courtroom in Shizuoka on Thursday.

As the verdict was handed down, Hakamada’s supporters outside the court cheered “banzai" - a Japanese exclamation that means "hurray".

A note to the BBC editors, you do not need to tell people what, "Banzai," means.  We know.

………

A former professional boxer, Hakamada was working at a miso processing plant in 1966 when the bodies of his employer, the man’s wife and two children were recovered from a fire at their home in Shizuoka, west of Tokyo. All four had been stabbed to death.

Authorities accused Hakamada of murdering the family, setting fire to their home and stealing 200,000 yen in cash.

Hakamada initially denied having robbed and murdered the victims, but later gave what he came to describe as a coerced confession following beatings and interrogations that lasted up to 12 hours a day.

This pattern of intimidation and violence by law enforcement is the rule rather than the exception in Japan, as Human Rights Watch has observed.  (HRW called it the, "Hostage justice system.")

Abuse of the law is unavoidable in law enforcement, adding to that the possibility of state sanctioned murder makes it worse.

Where I Want to Go on Vacation

Yoshida Village, Shimane Prefecture, Japan.

They have a vacation package where you spend a couple of days smelt steel, specifically tamahagane, the steel that is traditionally used in their swords.

I also want to hit Sri Lankha to participate in a wind driven "monsoon" furnaces recreation.

I am the dullest man on the face of the earth.

Everyone Wants to Tell Rahm Emanuel to Shut the F%$# Up

Including, it appears, the Biden administration.

I was among the legion of people who thought that appointing Rahm as an ambassador was a stupid idea, particularly as ambassador to Japan.

It turns out that Rahm's recent behavior on social media is perceived as disruptive:

Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel is reportedly in hot water with Biden administration aides for recent social media posts.

The social media posts include Emanuel questioning the recent whereabouts of Chinese government officials and accusing Chinese President Xi Jinping of disinformation.

“President Xi’s cabinet lineup is now resembling Agatha Christie’s novel And Then There Were None,” reads one of Emanuel’s posts on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. “First, Foreign Minister Qin Gang goes missing, then the Rocket Force commanders go missing, and now Defense Minister Li Shangfu hasn’t been seen in public for two weeks. Who’s going to win this unemployment race? China’s youth or Xi’s cabinet? #MysteryInBeijingBuilding”

According to NBC News, National Security Council officials warned the staff of the ambassador to Japan about the risks of his comments. They said it could jeopardize attempts by the Biden administration to repair rocky relations with China.

A White House official who spoke on condition of anonymity to NBC News said the ambassador’s posts are “not in keeping with the message coming out of this building.”

Rahm Emanuel has always been an incompetent grandstanding sh%$-show.

I don't blame him, I blame Biden and his minions for assuming that it would be any different.

Interesting, Not in a Good Way

All I've found is a twitter thread, anarticle on on an obscure chinese news site, but it appears that, apparently in response to overtures by the US and Japan toward the government of Taiwan, the Chinese ambassador Wu Jianghao, has held talks with the deputy governor of Okinawa, Yoshimi Teruya, and held a lengthy meeting.

Following the meeting, the Chinese diplomat stated that, "China would now be officially calling Okinawa prefecture by its old name "琉球", i.e. Ryukyu," the name of the old kingdom that was occupied by Japan in 1879.

Given the existing tensions between Okinawa Prefecture and the central Japanese government, many Okinawans feel that they are 2nd class citizens, and they are the location the bulk of the US military presence in Japan, so it is fertile ground for secessionist sympathies.

It seems to me that the Chinese are sending a message on Taiwan.

I'm worried that this is going to escalate.

This is Weird

It appears that Japanese conveyor belt sushi restaurants, Kaitenzushi (回転寿司), are threatened by people who are licking the sushi.

While the Kaitenzushi are a rather uniquely Japanese thing, it appears that the adulterating food is yet another by social media influencers to boost their audience.

Osama bin Laden was right about the West, which in this case includes Japan, we are a truly debauched society:

Japanese police have arrested three people over "sushi terror": viral, unhygienic pranks that are threatening the world-famous feature of sushi conveyor belt restaurants.

Last month, a video of a man licking a soy sauce bottle on a sushi conveyor went viral, sparking outrage.

In the video, he can be seen squashing sushi dishes at a Kura Sushi restaurant branch.

Since then, dozens of such videos have proliferated sparking public concern.

Incidents filmed include diners - many of whom are children and young people - spoiling others' orders by touching sushi dishes passing by.

One video which emerged last month showed a customer putting wasabi on another's dish, while another person licked the presented chopsticks.

In another video, filmed at a Sushiro chain outlet, a diner is seen rubbing saliva on passing sushi pieces.

The viral trend has horrified many Japanese and spurred action from several conveyor-belt sushi chains - known as kaitenzushi locally.

Who knew that the TV show Jackass wasn't just a bunch of idiots doing stupid sh%$.  It was prophecy.

It's Nostra-Dumbass all over again.

Smells Like the DotCom Crash

Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son appears to be personally on the hook to the tune of almost $5 billion to the company that he runs, because of recent setbacks with the company's investments.

Son borrowed money from Softbank to make personal investments in the funds, and he's lost that money.

I really hope that he gets taken to the cleaners:

Masayoshi Son personally owes SoftBank close to $5bn because of growing losses on the Japanese conglomerate’s technology bets, which have also rendered the value of his stake in the group’s second Vision Fund worthless.

The billionaire’s ballooning personal liabilities, discovered through a Financial Times analysis of SoftBank’s recent filings, comes as the world’s biggest tech investor was hammered by plunging tech stocks and valuations in private companies over the past year.

………

The total amount the Japanese executive owes his company is now at $4.7bn, when losses in the group’s shortlived internal hedge fund SB Northstar are also taken into account, SoftBank confirmed to the FT.

………

Son has to personally cover a third of the losses in Northstar, which earned notoriety for carrying out the “Nasdaq whale” trades in US technology stocks in 2020. The stock-trading unit’s total investment losses grew to nearly $6bn at the end of September as the group continued to liquidate its investments.

If the internal hedge fund’s outsized derivative bets had paid off, Son would have reaped a third of the gains.

Similarly, if Vision Fund 2’s investments in private technology companies had been profitable, the SoftBank founder stood to gain handsomely without putting up any upfront capital. Instead the arrangement has wiped billions of dollars off the net worth of one of Japan’s richest men.

I'm not a finance guy, and I know nothing of the laws regarding financial impropriety in Japan, but it stuns me that this sort of wheeling and dealing is legal.

It should not be.  This is the very epitome of parasitic finance.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?

Former Japanese PM Shinzo Abe has been assassinated in Nara, where he was giving a campaign speech for the upcoming elections for the upper house of the Diet.

At this point, this appears to be a lone nut job, and not right wing nationalists, who have been responsible for the overwhelming majority of political violence in Japan, so Abe's ties to right wing nationalists, he served as the parliamentary advisor for Nippon Kaigi (日本会議), do not appear to be related to this.

According to multiple reports, the shooter claimed that he shot Abe because of his alleged support for the Unification Church.

It should be noted that there are to my knowledge no evidence of any such ties.  The story originated from a fringe party whose primary focus is the abolition of television license fees.*

That's all we know at this point.

^*As Anna Russell would say, "I'm not making this up, you know."

Useless F%$#ing Democrats

In the dead of night, the US Senate had confirmed Rahm Emanuel as ambassador to Japan.

This is a guy who was forced out as Mayor of Chicago because he covered up a murder by a cop to help his reelection bid, allowed the Chicago PD set up an off-the books black torture site, and gas a large responsibility for every Democratic Party electoral debacle in the past 30 years, and has generally failed up throughout his entire career, but Joe Biden nominated him as ambassador to Japan because they felt it necessary to engage in hippie punching. (See here)

Add to this the fact that he is abrasive, abusive, and loud, which makes him spectacularly ill suited for a post in Tokyo, and you have a trifecta of stupidity.

We know that they did not want this noticed, because they did it in the just after midnight on Friday:

In its final business of the year, the Senate confirmed Rahm Emanuel, the controversial former Chicago mayor and White House chief of staff, as ambassador to Japan early Saturday morning on a bipartisan vote.

Emanuel’s confirmation came as Senate Democrats struck a deal with Republicans to advance dozens of other Biden administration nominees, including ambassadors to major U.S. allies that had been sitting in limbo because of opposition from Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), who sought to force a vote that could block the Russian-owned Nord Stream 2 pipeline.After days of fits and starts, an agreement finally came together early Saturday morning as senators of both parties itched to begin their holiday recess. Democrats agreed to a pipeline vote next month in return for the confirmation of nearly 50 ambassadors — including envoys to Ireland, Switzerland, Sweden and the European Union — plus several other Biden administration nominees.

 ………

Emanuel was the only State Department nominee to require a roll-call vote, however — a reflection of his hard-charging style and the opposition he had generated from both Republicans and Democrats, who raised particular concern about his tenure as mayor and his handling of the 2014 murder of Laquan McDonald by a Chicago police officer.

Three of the most liberal Senate Democrats — Edward J. Markey (Mass.), Jeff Merkley (Ore.) and Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) — voted against Emanuel’s confirmation. A fourth liberal who had considered opposing the nomination, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), did not vote.

But eight Republicans backed Emanuel, giving the confirmation breathing room on a night when more than 30 senators were absent because of the impending holiday break. The final vote was 48-21.

Seriously, why does this loser keep failing up?

My explanation is that he is that the Democratic Party establishment (There is no Democratic Party establishment) is ineluctably corrupt, and this is a signal to their minions that no matter how worthless they are, they will always have a job.

Headline of the Day

Nominating Rahm Emanuel to Be Ambassador to Japan Suggests We Don't Like Japan

—Charlie Pierce in Esquire

Seriously.  There is literally no one less qualified to be Ambassador to Japan.

He does not know the language, he has no exposure to the culture, and he is rude, abusive, incompetent, and LOUD.

It's kind of the antithesis of Japanese culture:

Rahm Emanuel is a pestiferous lout who kept getting hired by Democratic administrations, where he took as his main job pissing off the party’s base. He then got elected to Congress, where he did very little, and then he got elected mayor of Chicago, where his most notable accomplishment was to be accused of covering up the police killing of Laquan McDonald. Along the way, he alienated anyone who came within a 25-mile radius of his smirk. Nevertheless, the current administration nominated him to be ambassador to Japan in a move that made some observers wonder if this country was yet over Pearl Harbor.

But thank the attentive Deity, there came Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon, of the Dickensian senatorial firm of Merkley and Markey. Senator Jeff and Senator Ed both voted against Emanuel’s nomination. It went through the Senate Foreign Relations Committee despite their opposition, which Merkley explained quite clearly in his statement accompanying his vote.

If he gets appointed, it will be with Republican votes.

Also, if he gets appointed, he will f%$# it up, just like he has for every other thing that he has done in his life.

How Utterly Proper

It appears that Joe Biden's nomination of Rahm Emanuel to be ambassador to Japan will have to rely on Republican votes to get confirmation.

Let's see, Rahm:

• Does not speak Japanese.
• Has never spent much time in Japan.
• Is completely unfamiliar with the concept of "Diplomacy".
• Is so toxic to the Democratic Party rank and file that a significant number of Democratic Senators will vote against him. 

The Democrats hate him because he covered up a police murder to win reelection, and got caught.

He's too toxic for the voters of Chicago, but Biden wants to find a place for him in his administration, despite the policy and political incompetence that he has generated over the years.

Emanuel should be in the dock for obstruction of justice and abuse of office, not up for Senate confirmation:

Former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, whose nomination to become ambassador to Japan has angered liberal activists, has clinched the votes of at least three Republican senators, giving him an important buffer against possible Democratic defections and boosting his chances of winning confirmation in the evenly divided Senate.


Emanuel, who has held powerful positions in government for three decades, is waging an aggressive behind-the-scenes effort to secure votes from Democrats and Republicans, according to people with knowledge of the situation. Among his earliest coups are Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), a close ally of former president Donald Trump; Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), the fourth-ranking GOP senator, who has opted not to seek reelection next year; and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), a centrist fresh off winning a fifth term.

………

The fight over Emanuel’s nomination offers a fresh glimpse into the nation’s reckoning on race and police violence, given his wrestling with those issues as Chicago mayor. It will also test the power of personal relationships in Congress, given Emanuel’s longtime relations there.

It will test the power of corruption in Congress, both generally, and among the Democratic Party establishment (There is no Democratic Party establishment).

My money is on corruption winning.

………

The Washington Post contacted the offices of all 100 senators this week to ask if they plan to support Emanuel, in some cases speaking with the lawmakers themselves. Most did not respond or declined to take a position ahead of Emanuel’s hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which has not yet been scheduled.

Among those who did not weigh in were a handful of Democrats whose votes Emanuel’s critics and champions believe could go either way. They include Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who has clashed with Emanuel, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), another prominent liberal.

Neither of the chamber’s African American Democrats, Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Raphael G. Warnock (D-Ga.), who have been outspoken critics of police violence against people of color, disclosed a position on Emanuel.

At least one Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), has suggested that McDonald’s killing could be relevant to his decision. Activists were furious that dashboard-camera video of the shooting was not released until 13 months after McDonald’s death; [and just after Emanuel's reelection as Chicago mayor] Emanuel attributed the delay to an ongoing federal probe, but critics accused him of playing politics.
[because it clearly was a reelection ploy]

Emanuel is absolutely wrong for this position, and absolutely wrong for ANY position of authority.

Make him ambassador to the Grand Dutchy of Fennwick, because his fictitious diplomatic skills are well suited to a fictitious country.

Tweet of the Day

Godzilla at the end of every movie pic.twitter.com/EyU4YFqzJN

— Oscar (@CringeMcMahon) August 28, 2021

This is truer than taxes, except for the first movie, of course.

Japan Wins "Gold"

Following the Olympics, Japan has experienced a Covid-19 spike so severe that they have run out of hospital beds.

I really do not understand why governments compete against each other to host the Olympics.

It's kind of like competing for a case of the clap:

Japan’s worst Covid-19 outbreak yet has thrown a spotlight on the inability of the country’s otherwise highly regarded medical system to adapt quickly to emergencies and its lack of reform to meet such needs.

As new cases surged to more than 25,000 a day this month driven by the delta variant, the number of medical emergencies nationwide that required an ambulance dispatch, but had difficulty finding a hospital to accept the patient, rose for six straight weeks to a historic high, according to data from Japan’s Fire and Disaster Management Agency.

Defined as cases where emergency medics were turned down by more than 3 hospitals and at the scene for more than 30 minutes, the figure jumped to 3,361 in the week of August 9-15, said the agency that oversees the ambulance system nationally. The case number ticked down slightly last week, but was still the third-highest ever recorded in Japan. About half the patients were suspected of having Covid-19.

The ambulance quandary has resulted in a handful of high-profile Covid deaths, sparking a debate over the efficacy of what is widely recognized to be one of the world’s most successful health-care programs. While the Japanese system has nurtured the world’s longest-living citizens with preventative care, the pandemic has laid bare the long-standing dysfunction in emergency care, where private hospitals aren’t required to take in Covid patients and don’t coordinate with local governments and ambulance services. 

For F%$#'s Sake, Why?

Why the hell does Joe Biden want to appoint Rahm Emanuel ambassador to Japan?

Rahm has a serious claim to be the most overrated man in Politics, he does not speak Japanese, and he is a loud obnoxious bully, which does not play well with Japanese social norms.

Anyone this side of the "My Pillow" guy would have been a better selection.

The man is a cancer on the body politic:

Joe Biden has picked the former Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel to be his ambassador to Japan.

………

Some progressives view Emanuel as a major antagonist within the party. He is often criticized among liberals, for example, for his handling of a shooting of an African American teenager during his time in Chicago.

He covered up the shooting, and kept the shooter on the force until the courts forced the release of the video.

I get that political supporters get assignments like this, but why the f%$# do you have to appoint someone so completely ill-suited to the position.

Because They Cannot Resist Hippie Punching

Joe Biden is looking to appoint Rahm Emanuel ambassador to Japan.

I get it.  Rahm was once an important member of the Democratic Party establishment (There is no Democratic Party establishment), but there is no reason to appoint him to anything.

He is so incredibly awful that he was forced out as mayor, and under his watch, the police literally operated a black torture site, he sold his city to any well dressed charlatan with a few buck of campaign donations.

The only reason for Rahm to be given a position like ambassador to Japan, where, let's be clear, he won't have anything substantive to do, career bureaucrats in the US and Japanese have been handling the important stuff for years, is to show progressives in the Democratic Party that they are neither respected nor valued:

Former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel appears poised to take on a high-profile ambassadorship for President Biden, a step likely to trigger contention with progressives who’ve balked at him taking a Cabinet role.

Emanuel is the front-runner to be Biden’s nominee as ambassador to Japan, sources familiar with the matter told The Hill.

He’s also being considered for the post in China, but sources said Japan is the more likely landing spot for former President Obama's chief of staff. Former State Department official Nicholas Burns is the likely front-runner to end up in Beijing.

The diplomatic role in Asia would mark a high-profile return to the federal government for Emanuel, who built a reputation as a brash but effective political tactician in the Democratic Party.

Emanuel led Democrats to the House majority in 2006, working closely with Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to return the party to power for the first time since the Gingrich revolution in that cycle.

What he has is a gift for self-promotion.

He dropped millions on candidates who stood for nothing, and lost, while Howard Dean's 50 state strategy generated seats that Rahm wrote off completely.

Furthermore, "Brash but effective," is the WORST POSSIBLE combination for dealing with Japan.

Brash does not play well in Japan, though they do understand that the position is a political plum:

Japan has been seen as a top diplomatic post. Past ambassadors to Japan include the 1984 Democratic presidential nominee Walter Mondale, the legendary GOP senator Howard Baker and Caroline Kennedy.

See what I mean?

These are people who understood their role was not to make (or even implement) policy, but to show that the ambassadorship is prestigious, and hence the relationship is valued.

Even if we weren't dealing with a crass and venal incompetent who had spent his political life failing up, he is spectacularly unsuited to this position.