The Japanese politics thread: Old men fucking each other ITT - The Something Awful Forums

Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > The Japanese politics thread: Old men fucking each other ITT

ThisIsJohnWayne: Feb 23, 2007; Ooo! Look at me! NO DON'T LOOK AT ME!

And we are not buying time, entirely waiting for it to crash so we can go "see, it crashed, now it's to late to do anything"

# ? Jun 14, 2019 18:37

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? May 23, 2024 18:00

Mineaiki: Nov 20, 2013

Is there any reason Japan doesn't just replicate the JET system, but with a bunch of other kinds of work? There are a lot of weebs in the US who maybe can't be JETs, but who would move to Japan just to be second-class citizens paid pennies to work at convenience stores.

I get why they don't want to import foreigners en masse, but I feel like there's definitely a market for Westerners willing to sacrifice a lot to have the "experience."

# ? Jun 16, 2019 17:06

Phone: Jul 30, 2005; 親子丼をほしい。

they do but with manufacturing and whatnot

it's hard to advocate for putting western foreigners in a service position when they're already reluctant to learn the language

# ? Jun 16, 2019 17:36

RocknRollaAyatollah: Nov 26, 2008; Lipstick Apathy

Mineaiki posted:

Is there any reason Japan doesn't just replicate the JET system, but with a bunch of other kinds of work? There are a lot of weebs in the US who maybe can't be JETs, but who would move to Japan just to be second-class citizens paid pennies to work at convenience stores.

I get why they don't want to import foreigners en masse, but I feel like there's definitely a market for Westerners willing to sacrifice a lot to have the "experience."

Probably for the same reason they haven't updated the pay scheme for the JET system, which used to be at a scale to attract Ivy League grads, money. The experience with the Brazilian immigration scheme also seems to make the government hesitant about inviting immigrants that are interested in living in Japan or are theoretically knowledgeable of Japanese society.

They already have Chinese immigrants to work for very little at convenience stores. I think the biggest target for such a scheme is nurses and they already have a limited program set up with the Philippines.

# ? Jun 16, 2019 17:37

harperdc: Jul 24, 2007

RocknRollaAyatollah posted:

Probably for the same reason they haven't updated the pay scheme for the JET system, which used to be at a scale to attract Ivy League grads, money.

They did update the pay scale, starting from 2012. They made it start lower :v:

:v:

I was on the last year starting on the old contracts, which were apparently paying the same all the way from 198x until 2011. I think I did the math once, and yeah, that was closer to getting paid a good office job than it is now (when it�s like an okay starting job, depending on exchange rate).

Also companies keep getting in trouble here for abusing the guest worker programs, for things like �making these interns work like salarymen.� Oops.

At least the overtime rules seem to have scared some companies straight.

# ? Jun 17, 2019 00:33

icantfindaname: Jul 1, 2008

something something 99% conviction rate something something fascist hellscape etc. i�m sure the gawking, sneering times article is on the way shortly

https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/06/11/only-2-of-federal-criminal-defendants-go-to-trial-and-most-who-do-are-found-guilty/

quote:

Trials are rare in the federal criminal justice system, and when they happen, most end in convictions. Nearly 80,000 people were defendants in federal criminal cases in fiscal 2018, but just 2% of them went to trial. The overwhelming majority (90%) pleaded guilty instead, while the remaining 8% had their cases dismissed, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of data collected by the federal judiciary.

Most defendants who did go to trial, meanwhile, were found guilty, either by a jury or judge. (Defendants can waive their right to a jury trial if they wish.)

Put another way, only 320 of 79,704 total federal defendants � fewer than 1% � went to trial and won their cases, at least in the form of an acquittal, according to the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. These statistics include all defendants charged in U.S. district courts with felonies and serious misdemeanors, as well as some defendants charged with petty offenses. They do not include federal defendants whose cases were handled by magistrate judges, or the much broader universe of defendants in state courts. Defendants who enter pleas of �no contest� are also excluded.

icantfindaname fucked around with this message at 22:44 on Jun 18, 2019

# ? Jun 17, 2019 01:48

Charles 2 of Spain: Nov 7, 2017

harperdc posted:

They did update the pay scale, starting from 2012. They made it start lower I was on the last year starting on the old contracts, which were apparently paying the same all the way from 198x until 2011. I think I did the math once, and yeah, that was closer to getting paid a good office job than it is now (when it’s like an okay starting job, depending on exchange rate).

*checks current stipend for Monbusho scholarship*

Lmao

# ? Jun 17, 2019 02:27

Stringent: Dec 22, 2004; image text goes here

JET is a complete waste of money and they should've ended it ages ago.

# ? Jun 17, 2019 03:24

LyonsLions: Oct 10, 2008; I'm only using 18% of my full power !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

harperdc posted:

Also companies keep getting in trouble here for abusing the guest worker programs, for things like �making these interns work like salarymen.� Oops.

Oh I don�t know, salarymen are probably allowed to date/get married without being fired.
https://www.nhk.or.jp/ohayou/digest/2019/05/0520.html

# ? Jun 17, 2019 05:44

Charles 2 of Spain: Nov 7, 2017

Wow, who could have foreseen that happening

# ? Jun 17, 2019 10:07

Thrasophius: Oct 27, 2013

Stringent posted:

JET is a complete waste of money and they should've ended it ages ago.

It's an awesome experience (on it currently) and the pay has let me fund my masters without loans but the amount of wasted money is insane. I'm returning home and have to pay for my return flight first before being reimbursed. Flight costs 400,000 yen because the BOE goes through travel agencies. Looked myself and found a direct flight for 80,000. I was imagining the hundreds of jets that fly in and out every year for the past 35 years and realised just how wasteful the BOE is with funds. It's crazy. That's without mentioning all the other useless poo poo they spend on.

# ? Jun 18, 2019 05:33

KOTEX GOD OF BLOOD: Jul 7, 2012

icantfindaname posted:

something something 99% conviction rate something something fascist hellscape etc. i�m sure the gawking, sneering times article is on the way shortly

https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/06/11/only-2-of-federal-criminal-defendants-go-to-trial-and-most-who-do-are-found-guilty/

"american criminal justice system is good and fair" - a thing the nyt argues regularly :confused:

:confused:

# ? Jun 19, 2019 06:21

Grouchio: Aug 31, 2014

Now why is Japan so adamant at being able to whale again? And why the hell is Abe still in office?

# ? Jul 4, 2019 03:20

harperdc: Jul 24, 2007

Grouchio posted:

Now why is Japan so adamant at being able to whale again? And why the hell is Abe still in office?

Old men who saw their fathers and grandfathers� pride broken by the Americans in WWII.

# ? Jul 4, 2019 03:40

Negostrike: Aug 15, 2015

Do young people there even eat whale

# ? Jul 4, 2019 03:54

Stringent: Dec 22, 2004; image text goes here

Negrostrike posted:

Do young people there even eat whale

Yeah, although at least in Tokyo nobody really eats a lot of it. I think some places out in the countryside that have more of a hard-on for it actually serve fried whale cutlets at school lunches.

There's a place not too far from me that specializes in whale sushi/sashimi and nihonshu. It's ok but gets old fast, definitely not worth how expensive it is.

# ? Jul 4, 2019 04:02

harperdc: Jul 24, 2007

Stringent posted:

Yeah, although at least in Tokyo nobody really eats a lot of it. I think some places out in the countryside that have more of a hard-on for it actually serve fried whale cutlets at school lunches.

Was an ALT at a small-town school and went from the highs of seeing the food cart rolled into the staff room with curry dishes to the lows of realizing its くじらカレー in an instant. That was a downer. But even in the inaka it�s hardly a staple dish. It�s really some hardcore nostalgia and pride that keeps it going.

# ? Jul 4, 2019 04:23

Deep State of Mind: Jul 30, 2006; "It was a busy day. I do not remember it all. In the morning, I thought I had lost my wallet. Then we went swimming and either overthrew a government or started a pro-American radio station. I can't really remember."; Fun Shoe

Stringent posted:

There's a place not too far from me that specializes in whale sushi/sashimi and nihonshu. It's ok but gets old fast, definitely not worth how expensive it is.

Post the address I wanna eat a whale so loving bad.

# ? Jul 4, 2019 05:47

Stringent: Dec 22, 2004; image text goes here

https://tabelog.com/tokyo/A1304/A130401/13000109/

# ? Jul 4, 2019 05:54

Rochallor: Apr 23, 2010; ふっっっっっっっっっっっっｃｋ

harperdc posted:

Was an ALT at a small-town school and went from the highs of seeing the food cart rolled into the staff room with curry dishes to the lows of realizing its くじらカレー in an instant. That was a downer. But even in the inaka it�s hardly a staple dish. It�s really some hardcore nostalgia and pride that keeps it going.

I live really close to Taiji and even here it's a fairly rare dish. Dolphin is even rarer (and it's really not very good). I don't care much for whale either but I can see why people like it.

# ? Jul 4, 2019 06:26

mikeycp: Nov 24, 2010; I've changed a lot since I started hanging with Sonic, but I can't depend on him forever. I know I can do this by myself! Okay, Eggman! Bring it on!

i'd try whale, though i can't imagine it standing up to the glory that is horse meat

# ? Jul 4, 2019 08:35

harperdc: Jul 24, 2007

mikeycp posted:

i'd try whale, though i can't imagine it standing up to the glory that is horse meat

It doesn�t. Tough beef or really lovely bacon, depending on the cut and preparation.

# ? Jul 4, 2019 09:38

Stringent: Dec 22, 2004; image text goes here

I had whale sashimi once at an Okinawan place in Shinjuku that was amazing. Like a cross between beef and really good tuna akami. I don't know what variety whale it was and the place closed down like ten years ago.

# ? Jul 4, 2019 09:41

LyonsLions: Oct 10, 2008; I'm only using 18% of my full power !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The problem with whale is that it has to be eaten fresh to be any good, but since that is logistically very difficult, people only eat it fried in oil or some other way that enhances the natural greasiness and gaminess.

The reason it�s a continual political issue is that the whaling industry is largely based in Abe�s home prefecture and government support of it gets him votes. If the government stopped subsidizing whaling, the industry would quickly die a natural death. Whaling ships are extremely expensive and the market wouldn�t support it.

# ? Jul 4, 2019 10:11

icantfindaname: Jul 1, 2008

Here's thread favorite Michael Cucek on the whaling issue

https://www.tokyoreview.net/2019/02/the-whaling-controversy-harpooning-the-gordian-knot/

quote:

The Whaling Controversy: Harpooning the Gordian Knot

On December 26, the Government of Japan informed the International Whaling Commission of its intent to withdraw from the organization. It chose to remove itself in order to resume commercial harvesting of baleen whales � large, plankton-eating whale species whose killing is prohibited by an IWC moratorium imposed in 1986. It was a decision that was bound to cause a backlash. In the hopes of softening it, Japan simultaneously announced that it would permanently end the hunting of whales in areas surrounding Antarctica, an activity it had carried out for years in the name of research and which was opposed by the Australian government and anti-whaling groups. Japan said its resumed commercial baleen whale hunts � specifically for sei, Bryde�s and minke whales � would be restricted to waters near Japan, inside the country�s maritime economic exclusion zone (EEZ). Given Japanese consumers� weak demand for whale meat, whether this will be an economic boon for Japan�s whalers or a death knell is another question.

Reaction to Japan�s decision was split. The New Zealand and Australian governments both protested the resumption of commercial baleen whale killing, which is scheduled to start on July 1 this year. The Australian government had to admit, however, that its longstanding demand for a whale sanctuary in the Southern Ocean had been met. Greenpeace, the international NGO whose 1970s call to battle, �Save the Whales!� found its apotheosis in the imposition of the 1986 IWC moratorium, found nothing to like in Japan�s announcement. Yet the more radical Sea Shepherd Society, which had traded blows and lost ships in direct confrontations with Japanese research whaling expeditions in the Southern Ocean, declared victory.

On the broader politics, liberal internationalist scholars and commentators lamented what they saw as parallels between Japan�s action and the withdrawals of the Donald Trump administration from the Paris Accord on climate change and the INF Treaty, or even Japan�s withdrawal in 1933 from the League of Nations. The action, they said, damaged Japan�s and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe�s claims to be staunch supporters of the post-1945 liberal world order in a time of rancid unilateralism. But Japanese commentators and editorialists by and large praised the GOJ�s decision, as the IWC has long been portrayed in Japan as an intergovernmental organization gone bad, its offices captured and mission distorted by NGOs with anti-whaling agendas.

The fight over the resumption of commercial whaling is riddled with hypocrisy and opportunism. The 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling has been never been as total as NGOs and certain governments claimed. Japan�s coastal commercial whaling industry never closed down; its harpooners merely shifted out of hunting large baleen whales into hunting smaller, toothed whales. Japan continued to hunt whales in the Southern Ocean and the north Pacific under the name of research � an approach that suffered a severe blow in 2015 when the International Court of Justice ruled against the Japanese program, questioning its scientific and legal basis.

Japan�s management of the atmospherics of whaling has always been hobbled. It did itself no favors by recruiting countries without whaling traditions � including landlocked countries � to become members of the IWC, where they duly supported its point of view. It also gave its IWC negotiators too much free rein, with embarrassing results � as when Masayuki Komatsu famously referred to minke whales as the �cockroaches of the sea.� That phrase and others like it, pleasing though they may have been to Japanese nationalists for poking the international community in the eye, made it hard for other governments to seek compromises with Japan. When in 2010 Tokyo approached other governments with a plan for a limited resumption of commercial whaling � one whose harvesting targets, in large part, resemble the current unilateral Japanese proposal � they had to do so in secret. However, the necessary secrecy of the exploratory meetings blew up in everyone�s faces, as anti-whaling forces portrayed the effort as a conspiracy to overturn the international system of ocean management.

Japan has never managed the biosphere-impact argument, either. Minke whales may not be cockroaches but their population is in the millions. The harvesting of even a few thousand individuals will have no lasting effect on total numbers and genetic diversity. By contrast, the numbers and diversity of the Pacific bluefin tuna have declined to crisis levels. For the population of bluefin to recover there should be a bluefin moratorium. Many of the countries whose governments have opposed the resumption of the hunting of baleen whales are indeed big traders of bluefin tuna � a point not lost on Japan�s whaling community. Japan could never make use of this hypocrisy, though, as own insatiable appetite for bluefin has made it a captive of the global bluefin producers.

The intertwining of motives and histories made the resumption of commercial whaling under IWC authority into a Gordian knot � its enervating insolubility highlighted by the failure once again of a Japan-sponsored resumption proposal at the IWC�s Florianopolis conference last September. With a looming decision on how to replace Japan�s aging factory ship � the mothership of its Antarctic whaling fleet � the Abe administration decided to make an end of the hypocrisies on both sides and withdraw from IWC, becoming in the process a roguish (i.e., a not quite international pariah) whaling nation like Iceland and Norway. Japan had tried demonstrating its commitment to international law and the international liberal institutionalist order by working within the IWC system to persuade other governments that the commission had devolved into a perverse mirror-image of itself � a whaling-management organization that does not allow whaling. It failed to do so, but not out of a lack of reasonableness in its proposals.

Under the new regime, hypocrisies will be fewer. So, possibly, will be the number of whales killed. No membership in the IWC means no research whaling, a fully government-subsidized activity that produced a huge mass of unsaleable whale meat and hunts outside of Japan�s area of sovereignty. Without compulsion, Japan will oversee whaling done under IWC rules meant to guide sustainable commercial hunts after the end of the moratorium � rules that have been prepared but, with the moratorium having become open-ended, never implemented. Nationalists in Japan, quick to defend whaling when it meant Japan was standing up for its rights in international organizations, will now have to show their patriotic fervor by actually eating whale in sufficient quantities to keep a domestic, small-scale industry alive � which may be a bigger challenge than it sounds, as changing tastes in food mean that most Japanese would prefer to watch whales swimming in the waters about Japan than see them sliced up for sale in their local store.

Also, here's his yearly lecture on the political situation in Japan from a day or two ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKs9UCSwGDA

# ? Jul 6, 2019 08:59

mystes: May 31, 2006

Nobody's posted about Japan's export restrictions to South Korea for totally legitimate security reasons yet?

# ? Jul 8, 2019 23:50

SpaceDrake: Dec 22, 2006; I can't avoid filling a game with awful memes, even if I want to. It's in my bones...!

So Kyoto Animation's 1st Studio suffered a case of arson today. "Lol, of course goons are posting about anime", one might be tempted to say. I wish to God that's all it was.

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/07/18/national/dozens-injured-fire-kyoto-anime-studio-man-questioned-police/

Instead, what's happened is the single worst incident of mass murder in decades, eclipsing even the '95 sarin attack.

quote:

A suspected arson attack on an animation production company in Kyoto left at least 25 people dead and dozens more injured on Thursday.

The death toll is the highest for an arson incident since 1989, when the previous Heisei Era (1989-2019) started, according to police.

Police said some people witnessed a man screaming �Die!� as he set the fire at a studio of Kyoto Animation Co.

Police also found knives at the scene. The suspect, 41, who was also injured, was taken to a local hospital.

About 70 people were believed to have been working when the fire broke out at around 10:35 a.m. Many bodies were found on the second floor of the structure.

There was no immediate information on a possible motive.

Given the severity of the attack, I can't imagine that there aren't going to be political repercussions of some sort, though it's difficult to imagine what they would be at the moment, with the motive very unclear and the implements comparatively mundane (the precise timeline of the fire and potential explosion is unclear, but the accelerant used does seem to have been a legally-available typical accelerant and may even be gasoline).

Right now I'm in too much of a haze to really think or post anything else. It's a hideous and idiotic loss of life.

EDIT: The death toll now stands at 33 total.

https://twitter.com/AP/status/1151834709636386817

SpaceDrake fucked around with this message at 14:06 on Jul 18, 2019

# ? Jul 18, 2019 13:26

Negostrike: Aug 15, 2015

That's horrible news. Kyoto Animation's work is really good and they pay their animators decently, which is an exception in the industry.

# ? Jul 18, 2019 13:40

LimburgLimbo: Feb 10, 2008

Real mind blowing how many people died from the fire. I�m guessing that what I�m sure are literal tons and tons of loose paper they have hanging around, like most offices in Japan, allowed it to spread incredibly fast.

LimburgLimbo fucked around with this message at 14:04 on Jul 18, 2019

# ? Jul 18, 2019 13:59

Stringent: Dec 22, 2004; image text goes here

I feel bad because when my wife told me this morning that someone had burned down Kyoto Animation my reaction was "lol"

(USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)

# ? Jul 18, 2019 14:02

Asteroid Alert: Oct 24, 2012; BINGO!

The amount of deceased is currently at 33. I'm just speechless.

# ? Jul 18, 2019 14:02

Darth Walrus: Feb 13, 2012

Adaptabullshit posted:

The amount of deceased is currently at 33. I'm just speechless.

That's 20% of the KyoAni workforce, and either the deadliest or the second-deadliest mass-killing in Japan since World War II depending on whether you count the Myojo 56 arson.

# ? Jul 18, 2019 14:06

Stringent: Dec 22, 2004; image text goes here

Darth Walrus posted:

That's 20% of the KyoAni workforce, and either the deadliest or the second-deadliest mass-killing in Japan since World War II depending on whether you count the Myojo 56 arson.

Probably the most justified tho.

(USER WAS BANNED FOR THIS POST)

# ? Jul 18, 2019 14:08

Stringent: Dec 22, 2004; image text goes here

I'm sorry I shouldn't joke about this, in a perfect world I reckon a lot of these people wouldn't have been making the poo poo they were.

# ? Jul 18, 2019 14:09

Asteroid Alert: Oct 24, 2012; BINGO!

KyoAni was known to pay good wages and also offering jobs to housewives with children.

The building that was burnt had a nursery on the first floor.

# ? Jul 18, 2019 14:14

Stringent: Dec 22, 2004; image text goes here

They were also like the Sackler family to incels and pedophiles. It's a world of contradictions.

# ? Jul 18, 2019 14:15

Negostrike: Aug 15, 2015

Stringent posted:

I'm sorry I shouldn't joke about this, in a perfect world I reckon a lot of these people wouldn't have been making the poo poo they were.

Shame the arsonist didn't break into your house and burn your sorry rear end.

# ? Jul 18, 2019 14:19

Stringent: Dec 22, 2004; image text goes here

Sorry I don't mean to be flip about this, nobody in that building deserved this. It's just that they've been loving around with some weird poo poo for a while now and it seems kind of obvious in retrospect that something like this could happen.

(USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)

# ? Jul 18, 2019 14:20

Darth Walrus: Feb 13, 2012

Stringent posted:

They were also like the Sackler family to incels and pedophiles. It's a world of contradictions.

You, uh, sure you're not thinking of Doga Kobo or someone? KyoAni mostly does mild, inoffensive high school dramas (with lavish production standards) these days.

# ? Jul 18, 2019 14:26

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? May 23, 2024 18:00

AnoHito: May 8, 2014

Stringent posted:

Sorry I don't mean to be flip about this, nobody in that building deserved this. It's just that they've been loving around with some weird poo poo for a while now and it seems kind of obvious in retrospect that something like this could happen.

Dozens of people are dead and your response is "serves them right for making anime, amirite :jerkbag:

:jerkbag:

"

Kindly gently caress off.

# ? Jul 18, 2019 14:27

1
2
3
4
5

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > The Japanese politics thread: Old men fucking each other ITT

Powered by: vBulletin Version 2.2.9 (SABB-v2.24.05)
Copyright ©2000, 2001, Jelsoft Enterprises Limited.
Copyright ©2024, Jeffrey of YOSPOS