Does anybody knows why Cho U doesn't appear on the international Go scene?

He does, just not much. I think he plays in perhaps a third of the international tournaments these days. I think the typical explanation is money, though I dont know if he's ever commented. He's made up to $1 million from Japanese tournaments in a single year. He has the ability to win on the international stage, but the competition is much stiffer.

As a fan, and as a Japanese go fan in particular, it's a shame. I recognize that the Japanese aren't as strong these days, but I wish their best contender was competing.

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Occupy Babel!

http://www.culture.tw/index.php?option= ... be+deleted.

The number of Go enthusiasts is growing throughout the world, Taiwan in particular, thanks to Chang’s distinguished performance and one popular Japanese comic book that reportedly depicts his true story. He defeated defending champion Yamashita in the best-of-seven championship series this January to win the Kisei Title, sponsored by the Yomiuri Newspaper.

what does the paragraph above mean? Did some character in Hikaru no Go based on him or they were just talking in general.

He did play the first board of the Taiwanese team in the Asian Games. Even if they ended up in the 4th place, he had straight wins as far as I know.

In the BCcard cup e.g. it is quite obvious that only "hungry" young players from Japan compete in the preliminaries, the title holders go only when seeded. (That is there are only 2 9-dans, some 7-dans, several of the stronger new 1,2,3-dans.) Even if they do ok, it is really just statistics that it is unlikely that a japanese champion arises in a competition fielding some 200 korean players, the top players from China (who don't mind competing in the preliminaries) and only a dozen or so Japanese.