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Teddles posted:Any word on when they're going to stop covering the countryside in concrete? That might save a few bucks. What is this all about?
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Dec 17, 2012 00:57
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Samurai Sanders posted:edit: wait I'm confused, according to this, Naoto Kan lost his seat but then...didn't? Frankly I don't understand why, that proportional representation part of their election system is something I haven't fully grasped. Yeah, he lost the election in his local single seat district, but was placed on the party lists for proportional representation. He was beaten in his personal election against another candidate, but is enough of a big-wig in the party to be given a seat from the pool of seats that were won by the party. So his approval ratings really don't matter. The party can put whoever they want in the proportional representation seats as long as they pay the registration fees. The only real rules governing it have to do with the ability of parties to prioritize who gets assigned to which districts, and also that these lists are of course submitted before the election as part of registering as a candidate. There's a good run-down of it here: http://www.mutantfrog.com/2009/08/29/how-japans-proportional-representation-voting-system-works-from-nikkei/ I'll see if I can dig up the party list to see how close Kan came to being thrown out on his rear end. That article says he didn't find out until 3AM. They already knew about like 300 of the seats at midnight, but I don't know how they were calling proportional representation seats. ErIog fucked around with this message at 01:27 on Dec 17, 2012 |
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Dec 17, 2012 01:03
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Mercury_Storm posted:What is this all about? Make-work projects for the construction industry and the people who work in it. Since people in rural areas vote LDP the party is in favor of continuing those projects even though they do nothing for the environment, easing transportation woes, etc.
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Dec 17, 2012 01:23
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Cliff Racer posted:Make-work projects for the construction industry and the people who work in it. Since people in rural areas vote LDP the party is in favor of continuing those projects even though they do nothing for the environment, easing transportation woes, etc. Do they really "do nothing" though? I mean what are we talking about here, pouring concrete directly into the ocean? One could say that at least say that giving people a job, even if that job's utility is only marginal, is better than letting them rot in destitution. A prospect which is more than likely considering Japan is just as attached to capitalism as many of the other large economies are.
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Dec 17, 2012 01:38
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Okay, here's the deal on the Naoto Kan thing. This page gives pretty good information about what happened: http://senkyo.mainichi.jp/46shu/kaihyo_hirei_seitou.html?bid=05&sid=002 The DPJ ran 25 candidates on their list for proportional representation in the Tokyo block. The Tokyo block has 25 single-seat districts and 17 proportional representation seats. The DPJ put 24 candidates going for single-seat districts on the list, all with the maximum priority of #1. There was 1 extra, running for proportional representation only and that was listed with a priority of #25, named Koichi Yoshida. The DPJ ran no one in Tokyo's 12th district. On election day DPJ won only 2 of 24 of the single-seat districts they were competing for and 3 seats for proportional representation in the Tokyo block. So instantly Koichi Yoshida is out because you have a 22 way tie for #1 on the party's proportional representation registration list to fill only 3 seats. At that point I believe it's just up to the party to divvy them up, and DPJ decided to give one to Kan. It's not very surprising considering he had enough power at one point to become prime minister. His personal connections within the DPJ don't go away just because he lost a few elections and had an abysmal approval rating. From digging through the election stats from yesterday, it looks like the proportional representation seats were used as an insurance policy in the case party big-wigs lost their elections for single-seat districts. I think this is kind of how it's gone since the system was put in place. An interesting wrinkle about the system is that if a party does not register enough candidates to fill all of the proportional seats they've won then those seats get passed on to the next party. ErIog fucked around with this message at 01:53 on Dec 17, 2012 |
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Dec 17, 2012 01:47
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Mercury_Storm posted:Do they really "do nothing" though? I mean what are we talking about here, pouring concrete directly into the ocean? One could say that at least say that giving people a job, even if that job's utility is only marginal, is better than letting them rot in destitution. A prospect which is more than likely considering Japan is just as attached to capitalism as many of the other large economies are. Well I know that a lot of the concrete pillars they love sticking on their beaches actually are a little bit bad for the ecosystem while having only negligible impact on beach erosion or typhoon protection or whatever their stated goal was.
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Dec 17, 2012 02:11
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Cliff Racer posted:Well I know that a lot of the concrete pillars they love sticking on their beaches actually are a little bit bad for the ecosystem while having only negligible impact on beach erosion or typhoon protection or whatever their stated goal was. Maybe now with the LDP in power they'll make a lot of those make-work jobs into actual work jobs by turning them towards the recovery effort? There's still rubble to be cleared and processed, communities to rebuild, etc. Tons of people are still basically living in the same temporary housing they've been in for the last 2 years. That would be the logical solution to this problem, but I don't really have any faith the LDP will get it done. I mean they have the perfect opportunity to fix a bunch of poo poo. They're at risk of considerable deflation and have the opportunity for a giant recovery project they can pour a bunch of printed yen into. They have chocolate. They have peanut butter. Is it just incompetence that prevents them from being put together? It seems like a lot of what happened in this election is that the DPJ couldn't respond to public needs or public opinion properly. It feels like the disaster happened, and then they just were caught out not knowing what the hell should be done. Then they started talking about raising taxes, and were kind of wishy-washy on things that look very pro-economy, like TPP, during a recession. It's not really surprising the DPJ lost out since the LDP has decades of experience in policy creation and responding to public opinion that the DPJ just doesn't have. They are shockingly effective at maintaining the status quo. ErIog fucked around with this message at 02:27 on Dec 17, 2012 |
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Dec 17, 2012 02:16
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quote:Okay, here's the deal on the Naoto Kan thing. This page gives pretty good information about what happened: So to be sure.. a candidate can get voted out for being overwhelmingly unpopular and the party can just be like: "Haha nope! Proportional representation seats, he gets to stay in power regardless!" If so, no wonder voter apathy here is so high. Imagine if that happened in the US, and someone like "legitimate rape" Akin got voted out, and then the GOP just puts him right back in and no one could do anything about it.
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Dec 17, 2012 02:18
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Mercury_Storm posted:Do they really "do nothing" though? I mean what are we talking about here, pouring concrete directly into the ocean? One could say that at least say that giving people a job, even if that job's utility is only marginal, is better than letting them rot in destitution. A prospect which is more than likely considering Japan is just as attached to capitalism as many of the other large economies are. Of course they don't do nothing. They make life easier for the people living in those areas (better/safer roads, etc.) which is why they continue to vote for those politicians. It makes it possible for people to continue living in rural areas, without which politicians would have a harder time getting elected so it's a win-win for rural residents and politicians. The losers of course are the city residents who foot much of the bill.
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Dec 17, 2012 02:20
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I know Abe has recognized that he doesn't have a strong mandate but I expect we will see plenty of saber-rattling, construction industry pork (I doubt it will be rationally allocated to reconstruction since that doesn't grease the gears in all the other LDP constituencies), and return to the status quo on nuclear power. How depressing.
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Dec 17, 2012 02:25
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Mercury_Storm posted:So to be sure.. a candidate can get voted out for being overwhelmingly unpopular and That kind of situation could happen, but that's not really what happened here. Kan lost to his challenger by only 4%(~10,000 votes): 32% vs 28% vs 17% vs 11% vs 6% vs 5%. http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/election/shugiin/2012/kaihyou/ya13.htm#k018 In comparison to his performance in 2009 where he got 60% of the vote it's quite a precipitous drop, but it's not like they really hate his guts or anything. Also, have a bonus picture of Shigeru Ishiba looking like death on election night:  This isn't just a screencap from a fleeting moment either. He literally sat there covered in sweat and looking like that all night. ErIog fucked around with this message at 03:14 on Dec 17, 2012 |
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Dec 17, 2012 02:46
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http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-12-17/japan-election-turfs-govt-out-after-single-term/4431078 This guy's just phoning it in. This report is an absolute disgrace and frankly it's embarrassing that the ABC is depending on a guy like this for its news from Tokyo.
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Dec 17, 2012 04:48
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The disparity in the value of votes between districts ended up being worse this election than it was during the '09 election that was deemed unconstitutional by the Japanese supreme court. It grew from 2.30x to 2.425x. This also happened despite measures taken last month to try to remedy the system to shrink the disparity below 2x, which the supreme court said was their benchmark for constitutionality. http://mainichi.jp/select/news/20121217k0000e010343000c.html So, do politicians just not give a poo poo at all about the Japanese supreme court? Is it really that powerless to stop unconstitutionally-elected politicians?
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Dec 17, 2012 05:47
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ErIog posted:So, do politicians just not give a poo poo at all about the Japanese supreme court? Is it really that powerless to stop unconstitutionally-elected politicians? Supposedly they are going to start working out a system that is actually constitutional, but really when the people voted for and will probably continue voting for the 50 year nearly unbroken status-quo why would they have any reason to change? This is assuming that the Japanese supreme court is anything like the US SC, in that they only have power if politicians actually agree to put force behind their rulings. In the US I would not be surprised at all if the SC came out with a similar ruling and congress told them to gently caress off, or just dragged their heels for as long as possible until it got to the point where they were somehow forced into doing something.
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Dec 17, 2012 08:10
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Mercury_Storm posted:Supposedly they are going to start working out a system that is actually constitutional, but really when the people voted for and will probably continue voting for the 50 year nearly unbroken status-quo why would they have any reason to change? This is assuming that the Japanese supreme court is anything like the US SC, in that they only have power if politicians actually agree to put force behind their rulings.
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Dec 17, 2012 13:08
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I thought the deal had been that some prefectures would drop a few districts from the election as a sort of "temporary band-aid" fix so that they could get the SC to agree to the election.
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Dec 17, 2012 14:36
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I'm a lazy piece of poo poo. Does anyone want to write some biographies for important people in the new government?
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Dec 20, 2012 08:14
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Can anyone tell me about Abe's inflation scheme? I'm a bit out of touch with what's going on. But whatever he's up to, it's tanking the yen, and I'm loving it.  way later edit: I mean seriously. Over 88 yen/dollar for the first time in like 2 and a half years. I keep leveraging up to lock in my gains and it's just basically free money. ReidRansom fucked around with this message at 09:16 on Jan 4, 2013 |
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Jan 4, 2013 05:27
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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-11/japan-s-abe-unveils-10-3-trillion-yen-fiscal-boost-to-growth.htmlquote:The Japanese government will spend 10.3 trillion yen ($116 billion) to drive a recovery from a recession in Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s first major policy initiative to end deflation and boost growth. So, isn't this exactly what Japan has been doing? How is this recovery plan any different?
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Jan 11, 2013 03:43
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ErIog posted:Maybe now with the LDP in power they'll make a lot of those make-work jobs into actual work jobs by turning them towards the recovery effort? There's still rubble to be cleared and processed, communities to rebuild, etc. Tons of people are still basically living in the same temporary housing they've been in for the last 2 years. The problem is that the employment generated is going to be the same as usual: temporary contract workers, probably listed as independent contractors (working for subcontractors hired by whoever is running cleanup) so they won't even have help paying health insurance or anything. There have been reports from people contracted to do cleanup work that everything about the job was totally subpar, including not even being told they'd be handling radioactive material until after the fact. A few months after 3/11 someone in the Japan thread actually found a job ad for doing cleanup in Fukushima for something paltry like 1000 yen an hour. It had all the hallmarks of a terrible dispatch labor job, as one would expect. The guy that stands at the intersection down the road from my house and presses the crosswalk button so cars can leave the HI Hirose parking lot - the very definition of a totally pointless job - makes more than that (1100 yen/hour from 5 to 9pm!).
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Jan 11, 2013 14:43
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pentyne posted:http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-11/japan-s-abe-unveils-10-3-trillion-yen-fiscal-boost-to-growth.html I'm confused by this as well. The markets have really loosened up in terms of the exchange rates, and I can't really see any rational reason why. They announced before the election that would be another round of substantial monetary easing, and it didn't budge then. It looks to me like a bunch of business types feeling more comfortable with the return of their LDP "pro-business" security blanket. Is there a better explanation? Do we expect exchange rates to rebound in a few months when the markets realize that nothing substantial has actually changed? I will add that I'm a few weeks behind on Japanese news since I was in the US over the holidays. So it could really be that something has changed, but I'm suspicious. Sheep posted:The problem is that the employment generated is going to be the same as usual: temporary contract workers, probably listed as independent contractors (working for subcontractors hired by whoever is running cleanup) so they won't even have help paying health insurance or anything. I should have figured as much with the current labor market being quite flush in terms of available workers. It's really sad because the power and capital were actually there to make those decent jobs. I didn't have a lot of faith in the Japanese government before, but seeing the stuff post-election has left me kind of bewildered. That said, the worker safety stuff you posted doesn't strike me as being out of the ordinary for Japan at the best of times. Japan treats workers like poo poo. The only difference now is that the pay and benefits aren't there anymore. I guess that could lead to some sort of popular movement, but it's unlikely to since so many people are so disillusioned with the entire process. ErIog fucked around with this message at 15:08 on Jan 11, 2013 |
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Jan 11, 2013 14:57
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Pretty much. Sadly I had no luck finding the job ad in question, but it's mentioned in the Wikipedia article on Fukushima cleanup anyways. And there are plenty of Google hits for the terrible working conditions there. Edit: And considering that something like half the workforce are now on temporary contracts, if there ever was going to be a popular movement against this sort of thing, you'd figure it would have happened by now. Sheep fucked around with this message at 15:34 on Jan 11, 2013 |
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Jan 11, 2013 15:32
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ErIog posted:The markets have really loosened up in terms of the exchange rates, and I can't really see any rational reason why.
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Jan 12, 2013 10:17
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ReidRansom posted:Can anyone tell me about Abe's inflation scheme? I'm a bit out of touch with what's going on. But whatever he's up to, it's tanking the yen, and I'm loving it. Part of Abe's election platform was a 2% inflation target. Considering that Japan has literally not had inflation rates anywhere close to that in decades, it's a pipe dream. What he has done is made a lot of noise about forcing the BoJ to accede to this with threats of pushing out the current governor and bringing in a more compliant one.
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Jan 12, 2013 15:20
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The irony of all this is that you can trace the cripplingly strong yen back to the fact that major Japanese brokerage houses didn't get suckered into the mortgage-backed securities scam on Wall Street. A guy I knew who worked as an analyst for Nomura back when the meltdown happened was gloating that anyone dumb enough to buy into the idea that property prices will never go down deserves everything they get. I'm sure it doesn't seem quite so funny to him now.
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Jan 13, 2013 11:16
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Whatever happened with the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands thing? A few months ago it seemed like it was about to blow its top but I've heard nary a mention since.
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Jan 14, 2013 21:53
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It's just bullshit sabre rattling, but China is still sending planes and boats into Japanese airspace and waters like every other day. Edit: New Japan Times article this morning that kind of sums it up. Sheep fucked around with this message at 00:33 on Jan 15, 2013 |
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Jan 14, 2013 22:57
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ReidRansom posted:Can anyone tell me about Abe's inflation scheme? I'm a bit out of touch with what's going on. But whatever he's up to, it's tanking the yen, and I'm loving it. It's yer normal stimulus stuff; making the BOJ print more money, increase government spending (which will probably end up being mostly pork), focusing on GDP growth rather than keeping inflation low etc. Naturally, according to the DPJ, this means hyperinflation and bread lines. Then again Jim Cramer reccomended investing in Japan a few days ago, so you should probably cash in those bonds people.
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Jan 15, 2013 04:41
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Wow this is kind of big. Japan to join child abduction treaty I had heard somewhere else that part of this push on the treaty, will also help push reform on general child abduction issues domestically in Japan. Apparently child abduction by family members is a huge problem for many and the justice system is really set up to favor those that act first and kidnap the child.
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Jan 20, 2013 18:40
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Oh yeah, I heard before that they were one of the only countries that hadn't. I hope it fixes their international marriage problems.
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Jan 20, 2013 19:08
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Kenishi posted:Wow this is kind of big. Last I heard the government is still going to give Japanese an out by allowing "verbal arguments" to count as domestic violence. So while they may or may not sign the actual treaty, it does precisely zero good unless the domestic laws are changed such that it isn't just smoke and mirrors to fend off foreign pressure. It all really comes down to their bullshit argument of "foreign spouses abusing Japanese women and children" that basically calls-out-without-actually-doing-so the court systems in other countries by suggesting that foreign courts would return children to abusive parents. I'd be far more worried about that occurring in Japan for a host of reasons, from the lack of a real CPS-like organization to the numerous problems with Japanese family law and family courts. Also new article about subcontractors at Fukushima since we were talking about that a bit earlier. This is precisely the kind of work you dont want to be creating for people. Sheep fucked around with this message at 07:40 on Jan 21, 2013 |
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Jan 21, 2013 02:45
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I've been meaning to catch up on this thread, but it's been inactive for a month anyway so I forgot about it. But I was just reading this rather alarming article that says Japan is making constitutional changes that will turn them into 'Literally Hitler.'SCMP posted:Abe has already stated that his first step in the process of rewriting the constitution will be to scrap the requirement for two- thirds of politicians to support the changes, and reduce this requirement to a simple majority. Does anyone have some more detailed, less alarmist information about this? What exactly are the 'restrictions on free speech' it proposes?
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Feb 22, 2013 02:57
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Bloodnose posted:I've been meaning to catch up on this thread, but it's been inactive for a month anyway so I forgot about it. But I was just reading this rather alarming article that says Japan is making constitutional changes that will turn them into 'Literally Hitler.' I've found some blog posts saying basically the same things as the SCMP article and citing the same sources, some news stories (from December 2012 onward) saying is Abe was planning to amend the constitution without giving specifics other than lowering the threshold for further amendments and repeal of Article 9, and a February 4 article from Frontpagemag (who are pretty close to being fascists themselves) jerking off to the possibility of Article 9 being repealed. This story from a couple days ago discusses the debate over lowering the voting threshold without discussing what Abe wants to do after that: http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T130218003245.htm I partly feel that if Abe was really trying to become Literal Hitler, there would be more stories about it in reputable Japanese and international media sources. Having said that, Abe is just enough of a shithead that the possibility can't be dismissed; perhaps I'm just looking in the wrong places. Abe is in the news right now for another reason, though: he's meeting with Obama to discuss trade and relations with China: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-21528834 Silver2195 fucked around with this message at 04:33 on Feb 22, 2013 |
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Feb 22, 2013 04:25
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The "restrictions on free speech" is by far the least alarming entry in that list.
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Feb 22, 2013 04:57
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Yes, of course. I singled it out because it's the one on the list of which the article has none of the planned legislation's specifics.
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Feb 22, 2013 05:13
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Constitutions should not be easy to change, just my opinion. If Japan's news media was different, the change on 2/3 to majority, wouldn't be happening because it'd be causing a huge stink. The TPP is back on the table again, and I can't say I'm looking forward to it. The copyright bullshit that the US is trying to shove down everyone's throats for the media corps is pretty ridiculous. With any luck though, the whole thing will probably fall through. Abe has been trying to get an exemption on rice as the thing that Japan needs to open up.
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Feb 22, 2013 05:35
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More hard-hitting, relevant reporting from Japahahahaha no I can't finish that sentence. "C-can you believe it? The American media hardly cared at all about this historic meeting between the heads of state of the two most important nations in the world!"
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Feb 24, 2013 03:00
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That was pretty funny. Abe got clowned by the US press corps something fierce. I also thought it was hilarious that they made a point of noting that he didn't respond to a request to explain his position on the Senkaku Islands dispute. Never mind that any response at all would draw criticism from someone for no appreciable gain, but why on Earth would he give a gently caress at all? The territorial disposition of some loving barren rocks a hemisphere away are bound to be pretty low on his list of priorities of things to formulate positions on.
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Feb 24, 2013 03:15
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Protocol 5 posted:Never mind that any response at all would draw criticism from someone for no appreciable gain, but why on Earth would he give a gently caress at all? The territorial disposition of some loving barren rocks a hemisphere away are bound to be pretty low on his list of priorities of things to formulate positions on.
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Feb 24, 2013 05:44
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I've ready about the issue plenty, thanks. I fail to see what the US president would gain from publicly taking sides on it. There is not going to a be war over the Senkaku Islands, regardless of all the ridiculous posturing and saber rattling. The rewards are utterly dwarfed by the immense political, economic, and social costs of armed conflict. The State Department's stance has been "we aren't touching that one with a ten foot pole", and though the mutual defense treaty would compel the US to step in should armed conflict occur, it's never going to happen. As with everyone other hot-button China-Japan issue, it's just political theater to stir up yahoos while business goes on as usual behind closed doors.
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Feb 24, 2013 19:52
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