I love that the genesis of that was an article calling him a “short fingered vulgarian” aka a common thief but he was too uneducated to realize that and instead thought they were making fun of his small hands. He would send the author pictures of himself with his hands circled in gold sharpie trying to prove that his hands were actually of normal size. The internet then picked up the small hands thing and ran with it.
I was stationed at MCAS Futenma on Okinawa. The US shows no mercy when it comes to crimes against the local residents. Usually the Japanese legal system gets them first then after they spend time in Japanese prison they face the military legal system. We get a whole week of classes when we first get to the island about Japanese culture and they make sure to impress upon how fucked you will be if you cause an international incident. Even minor offenses such as underage drinking are dealt with very harshly. There were two Marines from my squadron sent to Corrective Custody Unit for drinking underage at an off limits bar.
Honestly, enough where I would read an article if it was posted but not interested enough to seek out articles that don’t appear on Reuters or the AP’s front page. It is depressing to watch my country fall to authoritarianism and it would be interesting to see how a formally democratic society is dealing with authoritarianism being imposed on it. An article on a new cat cafe or a dog parade would also be nice.