A Plan Only An OB Could Love And Kyodo Could Report With A Straight Face

I was intrigued, as well as a bit dismayed, with the headlines appearing starting a few hours ago.

Japan may "acknowledge" China's claim to Diaoyu Islands to calm tension: media
Xinhua

TOKYO, Oct. 10 -- Japan is considering plans to calm tensions with China by acknowledging Chinese claims to the disputed islands in the East China Sea, while maintaining its own position, Kyodo news cited sources as saying on Tuesday.

The report said that the plans would allow Japan, without changing its long-held position, to compromise a little with China, which has called on Tokyo to acknowledge the existence of a dispute over the Chinese Diaoyu Islands, referred to as Senkaku Islands in Japan...

Bummer, I thought. The Government of Japan has no reason to acknowledge Chinese claims to the islands. To do so would be reckless to the point of idiocy unless it had iron-clad promises from the PRC and ROC governments to take the dispute to the International Court of Justice -- which the PRC n-e-v-e-r does.

So I rescanned the top paragraph again to confirm the source of the report.

Oh Amaterasu, it is Kyodo News, citing unnamed sources.

Kyodo News, jointly owned by all the prefectural newspapers, answers to no one. Unsurprisingly, this makes it Trial Balloon Central.

Let us go to the original, English-language report:

Japan may "acknowledge" China's claim to island to calm tension
Kyodo

TOKYO, Oct. 10, Japan is considering plans to calm heightened tensions with China by acknowledging Chinese claims to disputed islands in the East China Sea, while maintaining its position that no official territorial dispute exists over the islet group, sources close to the matter said Tuesday.

The plans would allow Japan, without changing its long-held position, to compromise a little with China, which has called on Tokyo to acknowledge the existence of a dispute over the Japanese-administered Senkaku Islands, called Diaoyu by the Chinese.

It remains uncertain, however, whether China would be encouraged by the Japanese step to improve the soured ties, according to the sources...

(Link)

Really? The sources are not certain the Chinese would want to be played for fools, with the GOJ in superposition, simultaneously admitting and not admitting the existence of a dispute?

The sources are not sure the Chinese are not in the mood to play games with Schrödinger's Cat?

Meow!

This is the kind of logical nonsense (at the macroscopic level) that Ministry of Foreign Affairs OBs ("Old Boys" - and yes, they are all boys, in both the sexual and development meanings of the term) just love to churn out, in their certainty that the rest of residents of this blessed land and people just about everywhere else are really, really stupid. It is on par with "Yes we apologizing, no we are not -- but look, here's a nifty signed letter from prime minister what's-his name-this-year?!? Now take the money. Take it! TAKE THE DAMNED MONEY AND SHUT UP!" nonsense that has the country in such trouble with the Republic of Korea over the sexual slaves of the Japan Imperial Forces.

Unless the Government of Japan has decided to radically restructure, operating now only on the quantum level, we should expect to hear this idea, though it hardly deserves the appellation, come crashing into the ground.