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Kenishi posted:Is there any chance this is a play by the LDP to gerrymander? Rejigger the districts to knock out the DPJ strength? No, the LDP wants things to stay exactly as they are. In fact, this ruling keeps elections that would almost certainly sweep them into power from happening. Also, the current electoral maps are pretty clearly unconstitutional and the court is simply affirming that.
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Oct 28, 2012 05:33
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Kenishi posted:Lol, can anyone confirm or deny this happened?
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Oct 28, 2012 05:33
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Samurai Sanders posted:I knew who it was before I even clicked the link. "Scrap and scrap! Destroy everything!" I can see that Best president~
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Nov 7, 2012 07:56
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Samurai Sanders posted:Isn't this one of the things the new Japan Restoration Party wanted to do too, or am I mis-remembering? I think he wanted Japan to have only one house of parliament instead of two, which would of course mean completely changing all that stuff. It's less extreme than what's effectively being done in practice with this debate, namely, eroding the authority of the judiciary into nothing.
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Nov 7, 2012 19:12
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Well, China has a new leader now, and I believe Noda set the general election for middle of next month, where I assume his party will lose power. Will the LDP (I presume headed by Shinzo Abe) and new CCP chairman Xi Jinping go skipping through the tulips together on a fine summer's day, or what?
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Nov 15, 2012 06:00
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Samurai Sanders posted:Well, China has a new leader now, and I believe Noda set the general election for middle of next month, where I assume his party will lose power. Will the LDP (I presume headed by Shinzo Abe) and new CCP chairman Xi Jinping go skipping through the tulips together on a fine summer's day, or what? Doubtful. I remember hearing that Abe is pretty anti-China. His policies and rhetoric are generally not supportive. The LDP is also suppose to be the "conservative" party, so I figure they'd be the least amenable to working with China. I'm still waiting for someone to try and push an Article 9 reform through so Japan can start to militarize more. The DPJ was crazy pro-China. In fact, when they came in at first and I was watching them in the news; everything they were doing was screaming "Lets get buddy-buddy with China." There was almost a "anti-US" rhetoric in there two. It was quite subtle. After the quake though that shifted a bit when the US started aiding, plus shortly after that the Senkaku islands came into the media spotlight, and it has been downhill from there.
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Nov 15, 2012 06:59
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Japan is such bullshit (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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Nov 15, 2012 07:00
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I may have been sarcastic about the skipping through the tulips thing.
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Nov 15, 2012 07:45
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Twistys Redemption posted:Japan is such bullshit Hey now, you're talking about the Glorious Nippon I love
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Nov 15, 2012 09:44
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Elections, next month! Didn't the supreme court find that the districting was unconstitutional? Did they seriously fix that problem that fast?
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Nov 15, 2012 10:38
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Samurai Sanders posted:Well, China has a new leader now, and I believe Noda set the general election for middle of next month, where I assume his party will lose power. Will the LDP (I presume headed by Shinzo Abe) and new CCP chairman Xi Jinping go skipping through the tulips together on a fine summer's day, or what? Abe just visited Yasukuni during the Senkaku kerfuffle, so I'm guessing outlook: bleak.
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Nov 15, 2012 14:33
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Speaking of China, the LDP, and Article 9... how do most people feel about Japan re-arming? I know China would be livid, and South Korea would probably make a few references to Imperial Japan, but is it generally seen as a good thing or a bad thing? I know the US certainly would like Japan to start taking responsibility for more of the security of Pacific Asia... what about the rest of the world? Average Japanese? The Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, etc.? I mean, the JSDF is one of the top 10 most well funded militaries in the world... and it's not even officially a military. It has, what, 200k+ members? It sort of seems like logistics and armament wise, Japan is almost entirely re-armed (save aircraft carriers and cruise missiles); is the re-working of the Constitution that major of an issue?
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Nov 15, 2012 15:01
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It seems like it'd be a symbolic statement and make people flip their collective poo poo (including a lot of Japanese people, presumably). I don't think governments would do much except their usual nationalist gently caress Japan exploitation, or that it would actually affect things. As you said, Japan already has a powerful military in all but name, so it wouldn't change the reality of the situation. From watching politics here in SK I get kind of a feeling that some people would make a fuss, and the government would officially make one, but at some level the SK government would be okay with it. They make a lot of noise about gently caress Japan but I think there's a recognition that if there was serious trouble, like with NK or an aggressive China, that SK and Japan would end up fighting on the same side. They were right on the edge of a mutual military pact before LMB decided to toss it out for election year Saenuri nationalism. It just seems like on both sides the adults in the room realize SK and Japan are natural allies, even with all the poo poo that goes on in public. But maybe I'm projecting my wishful thinking that Korea will stop spinning themselves into frothing rages over nothing and about people whose grandparents were children at best the last time the countries fought.
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Nov 15, 2012 15:10
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CronoGamer posted:Speaking of China, the LDP, and Article 9... how do most people feel about Japan re-arming? I know China would be livid, and South Korea would probably make a few references to Imperial Japan, but is it generally seen as a good thing or a bad thing? I know the US certainly would like Japan to start taking responsibility for more of the security of Pacific Asia... what about the rest of the world? Average Japanese? The Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, etc.? I mean, the JSDF is one of the top 10 most well funded militaries in the world... and it's not even officially a military. It has, what, 200k+ members? It sort of seems like logistics and armament wise, Japan is almost entirely re-armed (save aircraft carriers and cruise missiles); is the re-working of the Constitution that major of an issue? Japan's military really is a military. It's apparently not quite as powerful as it might seem from the relatively high budget, because a lot of it goes into paying wages for soldiers which is relatively high, and their equipment is supposedly pretty expensive (even stuff like the Type 89, the standard infantry arm, costing ~$4000 a unit). The only thing is that they don't have any real offensive capability. Really a change of Article 9 isn't likely to happen without an incredible amount of bitching from the people. For all the Japanese government is pretty rightist, and the leftist/moderate parts of the populace don't have too much of a habit of demonstrating (relative to other countries), Article 9 is one issue where pretty much everyone is likely to come loaded for bear. Personally I think one of the best things for Japan to would be to modify/eliminate Article 9... and then do nothing with their "new" (i.e. what they've had all along) military.
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Nov 15, 2012 15:11
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The most likely scenario I can imagine for Japan abolishing article 9 is if the US military pulled out of Japan. In that case Japan would be forced to rearm in order to build up its own imperialism separate (to some extent) from that of the USA. Article 9 is a nice statement, but it doesn't really amount to much when you have the US 7th Fleet backing you up. As long as the US bases remain in Japan Article 9 is likely to stick around.
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Nov 15, 2012 15:27
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CronoGamer posted:I know the US certainly would like Japan to start taking responsibility for more of the security of Pacific Asia... what about the rest of the world? Average Japanese? LimburgLimbo posted:Personally I think one of the best things for Japan to would be to modify/eliminate Article 9... and then do nothing with their "new" (i.e. what they've had all along) military.
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Nov 15, 2012 15:30
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Kenishi posted:I have long suspected that the real reason that the LDP wants to modify/remove Article 9 is because it would allow them to pump more money into the defense industry. They would be able to start building new weapons of their own and pad the pockets of the large Japanese corporations which would be doing the work. They could justify the expenses as "re-arming" the military, even if it is a crock of poo poo. No evidence to back this up though, just idle speculation on my part. I wouldn't call it entirely idle speculation. I mean, it's not as if the politicians of most countries lack a track record of using national defense and the defense industries to bring home pork for their constituents and interested parties.
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Nov 15, 2012 16:07
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I think that a couple years ago some Japanese politicians also floated the idea of making Japan into a net arms exporter as a means of jumpstarting the economy. Im not 100% on it but I think the reason they couldnt export arms already was due to Article 9 or some other law. Would there even be a market for Japanese weapons? My guess is that countries like Thailand and Indonesia would want to buy Japanese arms. With China going willy nilly on various territorial claims a lot of the other southeast asian island nations are getting understandably nervous.
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Nov 15, 2012 17:26
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I suspect that it would take something like North Korea lobbing more missiles over the country, before the public would be particularly supportive of removing the pacifist clauses. This is why I never could figure out why China wasn't pulling on Kim's leash when he was doing it, since China has the most to lose by a re-armed Japan. (China not understanding how the public can influence policy in a democracy I suppose.)
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Nov 15, 2012 21:14
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ocrumsprug posted:I suspect that it would take something like North Korea lobbing more missiles over the country, before the public would be particularly supportive of removing the pacifist clauses. Alternatively, Kim was a loving looney.
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Nov 15, 2012 22:24
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DerDestroyer posted:
I remember reading somewhere about Australia being interested in Japanese developed naval technology for submarines. I could see Taiwan as well being a potential buyer, albeit through more clandestine means.
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Nov 15, 2012 23:40
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Yeah last year Japan eased the ban on exporting military tech. They're not exactly gearing up to sell offensive weapons on the open market or anything, but they have opened some avenues for limited defense industry exports. http://www.defensenews.com/article/20111227/DEFSECT04/112270304/Japan-Eases-Long-Standing-Arms-Export-Ban
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Nov 15, 2012 23:45
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Strange trivia time: the Toyota Hilux is the preferred base for technicals throughout Africa, consequently giving Toyota a dominant share of the light truck markets in Africa. Protocol 5 fucked around with this message at 16:24 on Nov 16, 2012 |
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Nov 16, 2012 00:30
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I'm not sure that there's a market for the inevitable special edition miniguns that have rabbit ears sticking out the top of them or come with a free tail that you'll end up tripping over.
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Nov 16, 2012 01:59
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Defense industry is a lot more about partitioning off large government budgets and then shoving billions at a few companies to do R&D for new stuff. Look at DARPA, look at all the money Lockheed, Boeing, Raytheon, General Dynamics gets. There's a lot of money there. I believe Mitsubishi has a weapons R&D lab or does work in defense. But I could see many of the old zaibatsu getting involved in defense if only some money would come their way.
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Nov 16, 2012 03:14
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So Ishihara's Party of the Sun has merged into Hashimoto's Japan Restoration Association. What does the thread think is more likely? A LDP-Komeito-JRA government or a LDP-Komeito-DPJ government? No matter who wins, we lose. http://shisaku.blogspot.jp/2012/11/ishihara-shintaro-is-waste-of-my-time.html
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Nov 17, 2012 11:05
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The latter definitely. The old guard will try to shut out the new blood because that's how it's done here.
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Nov 17, 2012 12:43
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hadji murad posted:The latter definitely. The old guard will try to shut out the new blood because that's how it's done here. A counter-example would be the LDP forming its long-term partnership with the Komeito, which used to be considered "new blood" (If I recall correctly, in the 1970s they were lumped in with the Communists as an up-and-coming challenger party and there was some question of whether they would lean right or left because of their lower-class membership. In the end they unsurprisingly joined up with the right).
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Nov 19, 2012 16:23
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MaterialConceptual posted:So Ishihara's Party of the Sun has merged into Hashimoto's Japan Restoration Association. What does the thread think is more likely? A LDP-Komeito-JRA government or a LDP-Komeito-DPJ government? LDP - Komeito government. DPJ doesn't even need to factor in. A sexy submarine fucked around with this message at 02:36 on Nov 20, 2012 |
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Nov 20, 2012 01:44
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A sexy submarine posted:LDP - Komeito government. DPJ doesn't even need to factor in. I have a feeling that LDP-Komeito won't get to a majority alone. That may be the Hashists way into government.
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Nov 20, 2012 13:57
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Have we talked about the coming age demographic crisis yet? It's a real doozy. Yes, this first article is dated six months ago, but the first sentence really says it all. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-09/elderly-at-record-spurs-japan-stores-chase-1-4-trillion.html Hold your adult baby jokes, please- especially since it portends a horrible economic future in Japan, and ultimately the world. http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/10/the-next-panic/309081/?single_page=true tl;dr- The elderly population holds a great deal of Japanese debt, and the government refuses to change the pension system to prevent the oncoming economic disaster.
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Nov 24, 2012 04:52
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I finished reading Yakuza by David Kaplan, and the major take-away point from the book seemed to be the obscene levels of corruption running wild through Japanese culture/politics without much concern from the citizens until a major scandal brings down some shame. There's so much money tied up in public works projects and pork I wonder if Japan could slide to Greece-levels of financial difficulty. I think its near impossible but what, if any, is the projected tipping point?
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Nov 24, 2012 06:27
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Is there rampant tax evasion or anything in Japan? I just realized I have no idea.
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Nov 24, 2012 06:28
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pentyne posted:obscene levels of corruption running wild through Japanese culture/politics without much concern from the citizens until a major scandal brings down some shame. Also America minus the shame part.
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Nov 24, 2012 06:47
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Lemmi Caution posted:Also America minus the shame part. Nothing that a teary apology can't fix.
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Nov 24, 2012 09:43
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Samurai Sanders posted:Is there rampant tax evasion or anything in Japan? I just realized I have no idea. It depends on what kind of taxes you're talking about really. For income tax, there are all the typical dodges you'd expect at the high end, and a lot of under the table employment and unreported (or under-reported) cash income at the low end. For corporate tax, the typical dodge for large corporations is to contract out various services to wholly owned subsidiaries so as to move profits around and avoid having to pay anything higher than the minimum marginal rate. A company I did consulting work for had a maintenance services subsidiary that did all of the custodial work for the parent company and had its own logo, executives and offices within the main campus of the HQ of the parent company. Many people will also try to avoid paying for entitlements like the national health insurance scheme, the national pension scheme, and school lunches at public schools. Wage stagnation and underemployment among under 30s is a big part of it.
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Nov 24, 2012 22:38
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How come Japan has high unemployment with so many aging workers? Are they just not retiring, or are companies not replacing them when they do retire, or is it some other factor?
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Nov 25, 2012 03:16
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Japan doesn't have high unemployment as long as you count working into ones 30s at a couple service jobs that don't participate in social insurance schemes as being fully employed.
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Nov 25, 2012 03:32
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Konstantin posted:How come Japan has high unemployment with so many aging workers? Are they just not retiring, or are companies not replacing them when they do retire, or is it some other factor? Eh, Japan's unemployment rate is probably one of the lowest in the developed world. Under-employment is a totally different issue though.
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Nov 25, 2012 13:17
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Kenishi posted:Lol, can anyone confirm or deny this happened? Has there been any more development on this? With elections coming up in like ~3 weeks, how will that work? Will they just use the old districts/system until a new electoral process is worked out, and basically say "lol gently caress you" to the Supreme Court? Also, on a related topic, I've been curious lately about the power of the rural areas and the LDP's loyalty to them... Especially on the subject of agricultural subsidies. Japan wants in on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, but one of the conditions that other parties (esp. the U.S.) are insisting on, as I shakily understand it, is the removal of excessive subsidies that make trade with Japan unfair. Are Japanese agriculture subsidies as bloated as I've read? Will the LDP, assuming they win the expected majority next month, refuse to sell out the inaka on which their electoral success rides?
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Nov 25, 2012 14:35
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