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Well it sure as hell isn't helping if the government isn't spending every penny of that tax on hiring people.
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Nov 18, 2014 01:00
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Stringent posted:Don't get me wrong, I'm all in favor of a progressive sales/consumption tax here, but I'm not convinced the sales tax hike is what's causing the recession. Flat-taxes, by themselves, rarely cause a recession unless a population is living at the margins where the tax pushes them from 'disgruntled compliance' to 'non-compliance and dissent.' I posted a bit about city contracting in Illinois with Japanese firms for capital purchases, and from what I've seen, the whole Japanese economy looks like a house of cards with regressive structures designed to subsidize old men loving each other over on deals while keeping the highest Japanese employment rate as possible without consideration for worker quality of life. Am I off in that understanding?
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Nov 18, 2014 01:03
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Well yes, the recession is really caused by structural problems. In my opinion, the fact that something as regressive as this was the only solution the political system could poo poo out is an extension of those structural problems.
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Nov 18, 2014 01:06
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Japan's economy has been in a slump for a while but it's far from a "flat" slump. The last tax hike in '97 sent it into depths previously unseen and the same thing is happening again. There was a really good article earlier this year from Carl Weinberg titled "Japan's sales tax hike: anatomy of a murder" that put it all together really well (as well as, obviously, accurately predicting the current situation), but it seems to have been wiped from the interwebs by unknown forces, aside from other articles mentioning it.
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Nov 18, 2014 03:17
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Though I'm not entirely convinced of it myself, I can kind of buy the argument that the increase isn't quite as regressive as analysis might suggest since a good chunk of those with low income are either young people who still may be receiving assistance from their families in some way and in any case still have a decent lifetime earning potential, or are old and retired, in which case though they may have little or no income might have significant savings. Also I would guess that for the former their marginal propensity to save is quite high and for the latter their average propensity to consume quite low so maybe it's not so bad. Not that it isn't a bad and ineffective idea, just that it isn't necessarily bad because it's regressive. 7c Nickel posted:In my opinion, the fact that something as regressive as this was the only solution the political system could poo poo out is an extension of those structural problems. Well there's also the changes to the inheritance tax, but I'm not clear on what it was before and how much it changed, so I can't really comment.
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Nov 18, 2014 04:19
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So, people who know more about Japanese politics than I, is Abe calling a snap election a good thing? On the surface of it, it seems like it, as it means that it'll basically be a referendum on the next consumption tax hike, but I can't imagine he'd have done it if he wasn't sure he'd win.
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Nov 18, 2014 12:51
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Zo posted:Japan's economy has been in a slump for a while but it's far from a "flat" slump. The last tax hike in '97 sent it into depths previously unseen and the same thing is happening again. The current hike was not nearly as bad as the last one and Japan is basically already out of the recession and will post gains in the 4th quarter. The question is whether or not they proceed as planned with the next 2% hike or put it off for a year to give the economy more time to absorb the impact (very likely).
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Nov 18, 2014 16:35
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pentyne posted:It was more a point that the voting population strenuously resisted any attempt to create a national police force as a result of how oppressive and brutal the state police were back then. There are much better criticism for the Japanese police/justice system but none of them really linked back to pre-war abuses. This just simply isn't true. After the prewar police were disbanded in 1945/1946, it was followed by the creation of the National Police Agency in 1954. I have the documents from SCAP Headquarters detailing the creation of its predecessor, the National Rural Police, in 1947 right behind me. They clearly state that the structure is to be in general decentralized, which was changed in 1954 to be under a central authority thus rebranding it the NPA. There are completely valid reasons for criticizing the Japanese police vis-a-vis prewar standards, if only because conservative leaning politicians have made strenuous efforts to try and resurrect some of the less creepy (but still kind of creepy) police powers from that era. They have thankfully in general been unsuccessful, but as you point out the new structure has generated more problems that I think are worth more attention than worry that Japan is somehow on a backslide. Edit: Oh wait, upon rereading I may have made a mistake. You guys must be talking about a national police agency with actual policing powers, not just a unified organizational structure. Never mind ignore me carry on. Shinobo fucked around with this message at 07:46 on Nov 20, 2014 |
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Nov 20, 2014 07:42
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pentyne posted:Imagine if when the FBI was created it did clamp down on interstate crime but was also a tool to punish anyone anything deemed dissent by a cabal of leaders who didn't have to answer to anyone.  Edit to add thread-specific content: Is Martin Luther King a well-known figure in Japan? I would figure that his emphasis on non-violence would be popular there.
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Nov 25, 2014 02:25
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Ponsonby Britt posted:Edit to add thread-specific content: Is Martin Luther King a well-known figure in Japan? I would figure that his emphasis on non-violence would be popular there.
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Nov 25, 2014 02:43
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Ponsonby Britt posted:
Yes, he is extremely popular. School children are taught about him, and are also taught a bit about the American civil rights movement. They're also taught about Gandhi, but to a lesser extent than MLK. This has had some unforeseen negative consequences, though. You get a lot of people in Japan thinking that "racism" is an American phenomenon that doesn't exist in Japan because they only ever hear of it in the context of the American civil rights movement.
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Nov 25, 2014 02:56
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I saw a return the northern territories speech that was a line by line rip off of MLK's I have a Dream speech, but in Japanese and modified to be about the northern territories.
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Nov 25, 2014 07:20
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A friens of mine was just complaining that the MLK narrative in his textbook went something like "MLK solved racism and now a black guy is president so everything is fine."
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Nov 25, 2014 16:20
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Rochallor posted:A friens of mine was just complaining that the MLK narrative in his textbook went something like "MLK solved racism and now a black guy is president so everything is fine." I too am disappointed by the lack of depth in the middle-school ESL textbook's narrative.
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Nov 25, 2014 23:04
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Rochallor posted:A friens of mine was just complaining that the MLK narrative in his textbook went something like "MLK solved racism and now a black guy is president so everything is fine."
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Nov 26, 2014 03:14
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Its that time again! Time for the courts to tell politicians they are in office illegally.  http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20141126_28.html
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Nov 26, 2014 10:00
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Kenishi posted:Its that time again! Time for the courts to tell politicians they are in office illegally.
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Nov 26, 2014 10:12
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Samurai Sanders posted:That situation makes me wonder what would happen if the US supreme court told congress that they were unconstitutional. Would they ignore it just as hard as the Diet is? Signs point to yes.
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Nov 26, 2014 10:13
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Samurai Sanders posted:That situation makes me wonder what would happen if the US supreme court told congress that they were unconstitutional. Would they ignore it just as hard as the Diet is? The courts have handed down rulings which forced district boundary changes before and (and here's where Japan is different) the legislatures then had to go back and redraw the borders for the next cycle. Its honestly amazing that this issue hasn't been fixed in Japan yet, can nothing be done?
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Nov 26, 2014 10:29
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Samurai Sanders posted:That situation makes me wonder what would happen if the US supreme court told congress that they were unconstitutional. Would they ignore it just as hard as the Diet is?
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Nov 26, 2014 14:32
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Good news! http://www.cnbc.com/id/102265970 quote:Shinzo Abe won his snap election on Sunday and his ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and coalition partner maintained a supermajority, according to media exit polls, giving the Japanese prime minister a fresh mandate for his struggling strategy to revive the economy. Also quote:While Abe achieved a fresh mandate, voter turnout speaks volumes about public sentiment. Setting records by an additional 6% of the electorate so resigned to Japanese "democracy" they don't ever bother to vote.
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Dec 15, 2014 16:39
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pentyne posted:Good news! Check this out, a party in Hokkaido calls itself "support no party" (so the ballot reads "socialist party, democratic party, support no party....") and gets 100,000 votes, more than two other parties. I guess they didn't set any rules about the name of your party... Samurai Sanders fucked around with this message at 17:45 on Dec 15, 2014 |
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Dec 15, 2014 17:42
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Recently the Wall Street Journal has been on a big kick about Abe trying to carry out his grandfather's ambitions for Japan rearming itself. They made this video, http://www.wsj.com/video/manchukuo-asias-unfinished-war/7CD03F90-A619-4D4B-9D6E-F476C4344B11.html, and its generally an area most Americans don't touch on or even knew about so I was surprised to see it. Is the Japanese press making anything of this like the WSJ? I'm guessing they aren't because the Japanese press seems pretty friendly to the LDP and the rule of thumb in Japan seems to be, "Don't mention the war." How common are the views expressed by the Japanese people in that video? I know they're talking about their fathers and grandfathers so they're going to be biased but is that something the average person on the street would agree with?
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Dec 15, 2014 21:07
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Samurai Sanders posted:Check this out, a party in Hokkaido calls itself "support no party" (so the ballot reads "socialist party, democratic party, support no party....") and gets 100,000 votes, more than two other parties. I guess they didn't set any rules about the name of your party...
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Dec 16, 2014 04:11
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RocknRollaAyatollah posted:Recently the Wall Street Journal has been on a big kick about Abe trying to carry out his grandfather's ambitions for Japan rearming itself. They made this video, http://www.wsj.com/video/manchukuo-asias-unfinished-war/7CD03F90-A619-4D4B-9D6E-F476C4344B11.html, and its generally an area most Americans don't touch on or even knew about so I was surprised to see it. There were like mass protests and several dudes poured gasoline on themselves and lit themselves on fire over abe's pro-war maneuvers so far. Did you miss all that? Abe gives no shits. But there's no opposition to speak of (my wife and my japanese friends all abstained from voting because of this) so he rules.
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Dec 16, 2014 04:26
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Zo posted:There were like mass protests and several dudes poured gasoline on themselves and lit themselves on fire over abe's pro-war maneuvers so far. Did you miss all that? Abe gives no shits. But there's no opposition to speak of (my wife and my japanese friends all abstained from voting because of this) so he rules. I know about the protests and the general apathy but I'm more interested in the angle the media is taking. My main interest is in the Kishi legacy in particular and talking about Manchukuo, which predates the Second Sino-Japanese War. RocknRollaAyatollah fucked around with this message at 04:50 on Dec 16, 2014 |
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Dec 16, 2014 04:37
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RocknRollaAyatollah posted:I know about the protests and the general apathy but I'm more interested in the angle the media is taking. Oh I see. Yeah, it's not exactly news, so I wouldn't think the media even brings it up. Personally I've never seen Kishi brought up around here.
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Dec 16, 2014 04:55
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Also, is the lowest voter turnout in Japan yet really a similar turnout to usual elections in America? That is to say, even though they appear to be apathetic as hell compared to us, that doesn't translate into fewer people voting?
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Dec 16, 2014 04:58
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Silver linings:
This poll was never going to be anything but a LDP/Komeito victory, but there are a few positive signs. Maybe Shigeru Ishiba can beat out Abe for head of the LDP in the party presidental election next year and things can get really crazy.
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Dec 16, 2014 05:50
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Yeah, the thing I'm hoping for in such a huge LDP victory is the inevitable in-fighting. Abe shows any cracks, and the different factions within the LDP will be at each other's throats, knowing their majority is pretty secure.
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Dec 16, 2014 06:56
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The main reason why voter turnout is higher than in the US despite widespread apathy is that voter registration is completely automatic upon eligibility, so the pool of registered voters is automatically a much larger proportion of the population (100% of all people eligible). Sure, people do actually have to drag themselves down to the polling station, but that's pretty much all a voter is required to do.
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Dec 16, 2014 07:59
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Samurai Sanders posted:Also, is the lowest voter turnout in Japan yet really a similar turnout to usual elections in America? That is to say, even though they appear to be apathetic as hell compared to us, that doesn't translate into fewer people voting?  US "disenfranchisement" A is not a good yardstick. In fact it is the worst yardstick
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Dec 16, 2014 08:20
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Mr. Fix It posted:Silver linings: The NGP ads on Youtube were precious. They were basically a musical arrangement of "We're just asking questions!" Also, congratulations to the comrades in the Communist Party. The founding of the People's Republic of Japan in 2144 will be a glorious moment.  ...But seriously they worked hard for this and should be glad.
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Dec 16, 2014 09:37
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Zo posted:
This thread gets really smug sometimes.
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Dec 16, 2014 09:49
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Mr. Fix It posted:Silver linings: I didn't think much about the first one, but was very glad for the third and over the loving moon for the second. Seriously, gently caress those guys. Why they had the balls to name it the Party for Future Generations is beyond me. The absolute best thing to come out of that election, though, was Ishihara losing his own seat. I won't shed a tear when he carks it, the nasty old gently caress.
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Dec 16, 2014 10:33
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Samurai Sanders posted:This thread gets really smug sometimes. It's mostly just Zo Edit: And me.
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Dec 16, 2014 13:08
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RocknRollaAyatollah posted:I know about the protests and the general apathy but I'm more interested in the angle the media is taking. The media is 'fair and balanced' of course.
Reverend Cheddar fucked around with this message at 06:39 on Jun 25, 2017 |
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Dec 16, 2014 16:30
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Samurai Sanders posted:You don't have to be all smug when that's basically what I was saying. Smugness? Among MY Japan experts? *clutches pearls*
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Dec 16, 2014 17:05
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Ishihara bows out He's gone! But not before saying more ridiculous things once again. Government mulls ‘couple’ tax deduction Surprised its taken them this long to get around to considering getting rid of this. It should go a long way to helping with getting women working full time if they remove it.
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Dec 16, 2014 23:25
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Kenishi posted:Government mulls ‘couple’ tax deduction Also I'll kind of miss Ishihara's insane rants, but it's good that he's out.
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Dec 17, 2014 02:49
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