SBS Japanese Weekly News Wrap Friday 30 May
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30/05/2025 11:36 Listen to SBS Japanese Audio on Tue, Thu and Fri from 1pm on SBS 3. Replays from 10pm on Tue, Thu and Sat on SBS1. Listen to past stories from our podcast. Download the free SBS Audio App and don't forget to visit SBS Japanese Facebook and Instagram page.
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ABC News
6 hours ago
- ABC News
South Korea's new president Lee Jae-myung will be busy balancing relations with the US, China and North Korea
South Korea's new president has a gargantuan job ahead. After six months of political chaos, three different interim presidents, protests and legal battles, deep divisions have been exposed in what's considered one of Asia's most successful democracies. President Lee Jae-myung has experienced the worst of this himself. After he survived a serious assassination attempt early last year, he'd been campaigning behind bullet proof glass and wearing a bulletproof vest. Healing society's wounds will be chief among his priorities as he begins his new role. "I will build a truly happy community where we coexist and cooperate over hatred and confrontation," he told supporters as the votes were being finalised. "What the president is responsible for is harmony among others." Voters went to the polls exactly six months to the day since impeached conservative leader Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law, throwing South Korea into chaos. Politicians — including Lee Jae-myung — scaled fences and fended off armed officers to enter the National Assembly so they could vote to block the declaration. They did so successfully and Yoon lifted the order after only six hours, but it dredged up painful memories of South Korea's authoritarian past. Hundreds of thousands of South Koreans rallied calling for Yoon's resignation and impeachment over following weeks. Standing on the wide road leading up to the country's National Assembly, flanked by thousands of other protesters, one young woman cried as she told th ABC she feared that South Korea's democracy had been destroyed. "I think it's tragic, I've lived in a democratic country my whole life and suddenly I feel it's not democratic anymore," she said. Retired teacher Seo Haewoon lived through the last time the government declared martial law more than 40 years ago. He was shocked to see it happen again. "I was looking for a job, four months after finishing my military service, when I saw the martial law army coming, suppressing the civilians," he told the ABC of the declaration in the late 1970s. "I was very confused and shocked. It is still a trauma for me." But Mr Seo is hopeful the country has now learned a valuable lesson. "All political turmoil should be resolved via communication and democratic methods, not with the guns or martial law," he said. "I believe students today have learned the value of democracy. They are looking for a fair society. If the politicians do any bad things like last year, I'm pretty sure the students would rally again. "Martial law cannot be accepted. This demolishes democracy." South Korean media reported that Mr Lee began his official duties at 6.21am, before even being inaugurated. He won't benefit from the usual two month transition period, considering the country was on its third interim president before his election. And there's no doubt there's plenty of urgent work to do. Many South Koreans the ABC spoke to were concerned about the country's economy, some even said they thought Yoon's martial law had deterred tourists from visiting. The other chief concern is negotiating with the US, South Korea's most important ally. The revolving door of presidents over the last few months has stymied South Korea's ability to finalise a deal with the White House. US President Donald Trump wants to put 25 per cent tariffs on South Korea. He also wants the country to pay more for the 28,000 American troops stationed here to deter nuclear armed North Korea. Under Yoon, tensions with the North had grown. Mr Lee is more open to communicating with Pyongyang and fostering on regional alliances, rather than putting all the focus on the US. "I will try my best to recover the economy, restoring livelihoods as soon as possible so that you can come to an end with this difficult periods," Mr Lee told his supporters. "I will build up a peaceful and coexisting Korean peninsula with dominant national defence power, clearly deterring North Korea. "I am sure that genuine security derives from winning without fighting rather than confrontation. With inter-Korean communication we will come to a common prosperity." Navigating these relationships will be one of the key challenges for the new president, according to Chun Chaesung, a professor at the Department of Political Science and International Relations at Seoul National University. "How to maintain a strong US Alliance? That's very difficult, because these days, the US is showing the so called MAGA realism, and President Trump doesn't put more put much emphasis upon the alliance partner," he said. "So it'll be very hard for him to strengthen the alliance, which is critical in deterring North Korea risk of actions in the future." And of course, just across the Yellow Sea, Mr Lee needs to navigate relations with China. "Now the bilateral relationship is really bad, and President Lee thinks that we have to recover the relationship with China, because China is the number one trading partner of South Korea, like your country," Professor Chun said. "So how to achieve these two very difficult, incompatible purposes — which is to maintain [the US] Alliance and recover relations with China — it will be very critical." While many, including Mr Lee, will be hoping his election marks the end of a sorry chapter of South Korea's history, it's likely there is more drama to play out. Yoon is still on trial for insurrection, and he's been indicted for abuse of power. Many of his supporters still feel he's been unfairly treated. And Mr Lee isn't without legal troubles himself. His candidacy was briefly thrown into doubt when the Supreme Court overturned his acquittal for an alleged election law violation. If found guilty he would have been barred from running. The court postponed the retrial until June 18, saying it was "in order to guarantee a fair electioneering opportunity to the defendant, who is a presidential candidate, and eliminate controversies about the fairness of the trial". It's unclear now if that will still go ahead, or if Mr Lee will benefit from presidential immunity. The election result too speaks to the deep divisions remaining in South Korean society. Professor of Political Science at Pusan National University, Robert Kelly, said the outcome — with only 8 per cent between Mr Lee and Mr Kim — should have been a slam dunk for the president-elect's progressive Democratic Party. "The big take-away of the [South] Korean presidential election is not the leftist's victory, but the strength of the right despite the huge scandal of the previous conservative president imposing martial law last year," he posted on X. "If anything should lead to a wave election, it should be impeachment. But it still didn't happen. "That's how polarised South Korean politics is. Wow." Mr Lee's own story exemplifies the magnificent transition the country has seen over his life time. Growing up in poverty, he didn't finish school. Instead, he worked in sweatshops and factories as a teen and was seriously injured in a machinery accident. But he managed to pass the university entrance exam, eventually becoming a human rights lawyer before entering politics. This is his second time running for president — he lost in 2022 to Yoon Suk Yeol by the narrowest margin in South Korea's democratic history. But this time around, with the highest voter turnout in nearly 30 years, Professor Chun argues Mr Lee is in a strong position. "This is the highest vote in 21st century South Korea, reflecting the public's interest and eagerness to move beyond instability and show the resilience of democracy," he told the ABC. "Secondly, Lee Jae-myung took office with a vast majority in the Congress. "So he is backed by a parliamentary majority for his party, which is giving him a very rare, unified government, a strong mandate." But with that, comes the responsibility to meet the expectations of South Koreans hoping to put this saga behind them. Cho Seoyeon, a mother of three told the ABC: "I hope we can live in a better Korea, with our kids — with our next generation — in a better, peaceful place."
Sydney Morning Herald
6 hours ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
Edgy or offensive? How these early-2000s internet creators kept webcomics alive
It's an average day on the internet in 2005: your friends are changing their status on MSN Messenger, a new Salad Fingers episode has landed, and everyone is blogging. But look, something new – a comic strip about a stick-figure with alcoholism. What is this twisted, yet hilarious, creation? It is the work of Cyanide and Happiness (C&H), a US-based dark comedy webcomics group and one of the unofficial founders of meme culture. Originally developed by Kris Wilson, Rob DenBleyker, Dave McElfatrick and Matt Melvin, C&H comics have few boundaries – topics such as religion, abortion, murder, even necrophilia, all feature. Yet, despite their bleak and potentially offensive content, they were attracting over a million daily views by 2012. 'C&H has this shit-post kind of attitude; we've always been meme by nature. That was pretty new and rare [in 2005],' Wilson says. 'We're never intentionally trying to be edgy or offensive, but I think that's a big reason why C&H resonates with people. It's joking about everyone for the sake of it, making fun of everything.' Now, nearly two decades later, the internet has changed. Webcomics are arguably well past their peak, with short-form videos and influencer content dominating. But C&H is still releasing new comics every day and will be in Melbourne for Oz Comic-Con this month. 'We're constantly trying to reinvent the way we distribute our comics,' DenBleyker says. 'We try to adapt to the internet instead of fight against it. The majority of our audience doesn't even go to our website any more. They read our comics on Facebook, YouTube or Instagram. As long as people are reading our comics, we're happy. It doesn't matter where.' Unlike many websites in the early 2000s, C&H was not precious. It allowed fans to share and remix its comics – which is what meme culture is all about.
Sydney Morning Herald
13 hours ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
‘I was eating eel gills': How a Kiwi trapper conquered Alone Australia
Shay Williamson is the winner of the third season of Alone Australia. He stayed 76 days in the bush in south-western Tasmania, a new record for the Australian version of the show, and the sixth-longest across all versions (the record stands at 101 days in season seven of the American series). The 30-year-old New Zealander, who spent his teens trapping possums in the wild for their fur and now works as a cattle farmer when not making bush survival videos for his Keeping It Wild channel on YouTube, beat Corinne Ooms, who tapped out after 70 days, and Murray 'Muzza' James, who lasted 73 days and at 63 was the oldest contestant on the Australian series yet. Williamson spoke with Karl Quinn the day after filming the reunion special for SBS. First of all, Shay, let me just say congratulations. Oh, thank you. Yeah, I feel pretty excited about it. Well, you say that, but when your partner came out to greet you at the end you didn't give much away or say a lot. What was going on for you at that moment? I was just a bit lost for words. I'm not a big talker anyway. I just wanted to give her a hug, really. It was a huge feeling of relief more than anything in that moment, that it all worked out and I got to go home. I wasn't desperate to go, though. I was going to stay until I couldn't any more, and I was working my way through 10-day blocks. At that point, I had food until day 80, and I was focusing on getting food until day 90, and then it would have been food until day 100. But I was missing the family more and more every day, so the sooner the better, in my mind. When you first went in, you talked about 300 days as a target. I know towards the end you said that was only ever a motivational thing, but did you ever think you could actually stay out there that long? I think if the food had stayed the way it was in those last couple of weeks I could have done it. I'd reached a point of being sustainable out there, which I didn't actually think I'd do. But things are changing all the time in nature, and there's no guarantee the food situation would have stayed as good as it was. So there's no way of knowing whether that would have happened or not. What was the hardest thing – the physical conditions, the lack of food, or was it just missing the family? It's hard to differentiate the physical and the mental because it's all kind of linked up. The physical conditions were really tough – like, they were pretty extreme, the worst weather I've ever encountered, and the toll that takes on your body as well. And the mental strain of living paycheck to paycheck food-wise for that long definitely knocks you around. It's hard to put my finger on what was harder, but missing the family and not knowing when I'd get to go home was probably the trickiest thing mentally to deal with because it was just an unknown, and I had to accept that it was out of my hands, basically. Loading Has this experience changed the way you think about the bush, the environment, in any way? Yeah, it's changed the way I think about humans and our connection. Before I had quite a practical view of our place in nature. Now, I've got a bit more of a spiritual one, almost. I think about the instinctual side of things a bit more now; I got more in tune with my instincts out there a couple of times. I can't really explain why I knew certain things were going to happen, but they did, things like the lake water. I was worried about it rising a second time, and then one day I woke up and I just wasn't worried at all, and then the next day it went down a metre, and I knew that was going to happen. It was really weird. Catching the all-important pademelon, that seems to have been a moment that was driven by instinct. Yeah, and that was really strange, too, because that day I was eating eel gills, and normally they don't taste good, they're kind of bloody, but I was really liking them. And I said to the camera, 'It's almost like I'm craving iron'. And then that night I got this huge injection of red meat, almost like divine intervention. It was weird. Are you a religious or spiritual guy, generally? No, not at all. Not at all. What does winning the $250,00 mean for you? Loading It will just take the pressure off. It means we can get our family where we want it quicker, and prioritise what we value more, spending time with the family and not being stressed about money all the time. We've just bought a house with a mortgage in the Bay of Plenty [in New Zealand's North Island], so this will cut a huge part of the mortgage off. It's a massive gift to have that weight lifted. What about the bush – have you seen enough of it for a while or are you keen to get back out there? I'm chomping at the bit to get back out and take the family with me, ideally. I've probably got more motivation now to share the bush with the family. The kids are two and four and they already know quite a few edible plants, they know a couple of poisonous ones. It's pretty cool. You've just filmed the reunion special with the other nine contestants. Doing this show is such an isolated experience, but you all had a version of that same experience; it must be special to be able to finally share it. Yeah, it's been awesome to unpack it with the others, to talk about our experiences because we're the only ones that really understand it on the same wavelength because it's such a unique experience. It's been awesome to share with them and I think we'll all be keeping in touch and be friends for life.
