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oh, guess this hasn't been mentioned yet: bunch of folks have been arrested and are being investigated over olympics graft https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2022/09/05/national/tokyo-olympics-bribery-scandal-daiko/quote:The corruption case involving a powerful former Tokyo Olympics organizing committee executive continued to widen Monday, with prosecutors raiding the offices of Osaka-based advertising firm Daiko on suspicion of bribery.
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Sep 6, 2022 03:51
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Mr. Fix It posted:how much of that is going to Sakura wo Miru Kai buddies?
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Sep 6, 2022 04:48
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Mr. Fix It posted:oh, guess this hasn't been mentioned yet: bunch of folks have been arrested and are being investigated over olympics graft https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2022/09/05/national/tokyo-olympics-bribery-scandal-daiko/ I definitely chuckled when I saw that Mori was getting caught up in it too. [Edit] vvvvvv it’s links to companies that were local sponsors of the Tokyo Olympics (in particular suit and business wear brand Aoki), not the IOC level ones. harperdc fucked around with this message at 05:58 on Sep 6, 2022 |
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Sep 6, 2022 05:23
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prosecuting crimes related to graft for the olympics, what? does japan not understand the purpose of the IOC or FIFA
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Sep 6, 2022 05:25
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Mr. Apollo posted:As a non-Japanese, it’s surprising to see that an outside company would be running and managing a state funeral. I’m used to various government agencies planning and running all state functions (they may contract out some minor functions like basic crowd control or back up security to a third party). Neoliberalism gets to everything eventually. Might be considering the surrounding circumstances, outsourcing it is the politically convenient option because no one in government wants their fingerprints on that mess.
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Sep 6, 2022 07:13
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Mr. Fix It posted:it's in a lot of the news coverage about the fallout from the Abe assassination. if you want something predating it, here's a paper from 2001 about Kishi and the 1955 System that mentions the Unification Church: https://www.gwern.net/docs/japanese/2001-12-samuels-kishiandcorruptionananatomyofthe1955system.html Related haunted image https://mobile.twitter.com/Andrew_Levidis/status/1565858156160266242 See if you can name all the people in that photo
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Sep 6, 2022 08:24
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VSOKUL girl posted:prosecuting crimes related to graft for the olympics, what? Mori ranting and pacing back and forth in his office like Clay Davis
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Sep 6, 2022 11:20
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Rochallor posted:Mori ranting and pacing back and forth in his office like Clay Davis kusssssssssoooooooooooooooooooooooooo
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Sep 6, 2022 11:39
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Mr. Fix It posted:kusssssssssoooooooooooooooooooooooooo
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Sep 6, 2022 13:03
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Mr. Fix It posted:kusssssssssoooooooooooooooooooooooooo 
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Sep 6, 2022 13:20
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Shinzo Abe's funeral will cost 12 million dollars. So, like, do they have state funerals for every ex-PM? Because they have a lot of them so this could add up.
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Sep 6, 2022 20:48
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Lammasu posted:Shinzo Abe's funeral will cost 12 million dollars. So, like, do they have state funerals for every ex-PM? Because they have a lot of them so this could add up. make the Moonies pay for it
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Sep 7, 2022 10:28
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FNN broke the news that Japan will remove visa requirements for tourists coming from previously visa-free countries. They're also looking to remove the foreigner entry cap. What is going on, is the economy taking that bad of a hit?
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Sep 12, 2022 14:11
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need some foreign capital to keep the yen from furthering weakening, i think. i dunno, i don't know macroeconomics
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Sep 12, 2022 14:18
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From a completely selfish position I'll take it, I recently moved away and I have so much yen that I don't want to convert. When I first moved to Japan it was 75 yen to the dollar!
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Sep 12, 2022 14:22
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Asteroid Alert posted:FNN broke the news that Japan will remove visa requirements for tourists coming from previously visa-free countries. They're also looking to remove the foreigner entry cap. Short answer: Yes It is a similar story to a lot of the larger economies where GDP is recovering, it isn’t translating to actual growth. Global inflation hasn’t hit Japan, yet, but their economists are expecting it to happen, and with the weakening of the yen over the last couple years, it’s going to suck harder when it does. AlternateNu fucked around with this message at 14:32 on Sep 12, 2022 |
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Sep 12, 2022 14:25
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Speaking of tourism, I'd like to visit Japan one day but I'm on Adderall which is completely illegal in Japan. I can't go to a Japanese prison, I've seen Ricky-O. Anyone have any advice for this?
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Sep 12, 2022 16:01
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Simply become a famous Olympic athlete.
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Sep 12, 2022 23:29
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I think if you have a prescription and are a tourist it’ll be fine. Also they probably won’t check your bag. But you should check all of that on a Japanese customs website. You are certainly not the first person to pose this question
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Sep 12, 2022 23:37
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Charles 2 of Spain posted:Simply become a famous Olympic athlete. Are jerking off and playing video games an Olympic sport? Because if so I'm at a Morty level.
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Sep 12, 2022 23:43
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Lammasu posted:Are jerking off and playing video games an Olympic sport? Because if so I'm at a Morty level. Depends. Beating Elden Ring as you bring yourself to completion? That's absolutely an Olympic-level effort. Separately... I'm not sure.
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Sep 12, 2022 23:46
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Lammasu posted:Speaking of tourism, I'd like to visit Japan one day but I'm on Adderall which is completely illegal in Japan. I can't go to a Japanese prison, I've seen Ricky-O. Anyone have any advice for this? To my understanding stimulants like Adderall are completely prohibited. You do have non stimulant options for ADHD but, as someone on bupropion, they aren't as effective.
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Sep 12, 2022 23:57
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captkirk posted:To my understanding stimulants like Adderall are completely prohibited. You do have non stimulant options for ADHD but, as someone on bupropion, they aren't as effective. Yeah. The amphetamine ban is over 70 years old at this point. Furthermore, Japan had an issue with speed being rampant in the 80s due to the yakuza and therefore doubled down. They allow a Ritalin variant called Concerta, but it's strictly controlled (you have to both hold a health insurance card in Japan and have a physician's referral to receive it, and a tourist isn't going to have the former). Japan's Narcotics Control Department is extremely clear that Adderall is prohibited so petitioning them in advance isn't going to get you anywhere. It does suggest Vyanse as an alternative, though.
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Sep 13, 2022 00:34
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Navaash posted:Yeah. The amphetamine ban is over 70 years old at this point. Furthermore, Japan had an issue with speed being rampant in the 80s due to the yakuza and therefore doubled down. They allow a Ritalin variant called Concerta, but it's strictly controlled (you have to both hold a health insurance card in Japan and have a physician's referral to receive it, and a tourist isn't going to have the former). So, can I bring concerta into Japan if I have all the right paperwork?
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Sep 13, 2022 03:43
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I think you can bring up to a month without paperwork, but it's better to have it just in case.
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Sep 13, 2022 04:31
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Fun fact, amphetamines are banned in Japan because during WWII most of the nation was wired on them and didn't stop after the war was over. Even after the ban was in place in the 50's, legitimate companies were still producing them and unloading them on the black market. After one company got a slap on the wrist fine for doing this, lawmakers went nuclear because it became a party drug for all night partying. It was like the opioid crisis today but with meth because the government was handing them out like candy to soldiers and factory workers. The postwar work culture continued to push their abuse as well but the club scene was definitely what got lawmakers going.
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Sep 13, 2022 14:51
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RocknRollaAyatollah posted:Fun fact, amphetamines are banned in Japan because during WWII most of the nation was wired on them and didn't stop after the war was over. Even after the ban was in place in the 50's, legitimate companies were still producing them and unloading them on the black market. After one company got a slap on the wrist fine for doing this, lawmakers went nuclear because it became a party drug for all night partying. It was like the opioid crisis today but with meth because the government was handing them out like candy to soldiers and factory workers. The postwar work culture continued to push their abuse as well but the club scene was definitely what got lawmakers going. From what I understand didn't Imperial Japan invent meth?
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Sep 13, 2022 18:28
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Lammasu posted:From what I understand didn't Imperial Japan invent meth? Ephedra had been used for centuries as a stimulant tea but it wasn't really discovered what gave it the kick until the 1920's when a Japanese scientist, Nagai Nagayoshi, extracted Ephedrine from it. A number of scientists around the world synthesized amphetamines, Akira Ogata synthesized methamphetamine in 1919, but Smith, Kline, & French was the first company to actually market and sell it as Benzedrine in 1933 as a decongestant. In 1938, the German company Temmler began selling Pervitin, which was their variant and as pep pills, and they're the ones famous from WWII. The Japanese began using them soon after the Germans and the Allied nations started experimenting with them. The Japanese also had a green tea mixed tablet of meth they gave soldiers before they went on suicide charges. After the war in the US and Western Europe they were usually sold as diet pills and for "depression" because the drug companies were doing that stuff even back then. You could still buy Ephedra from the Traditional Chinese Medicine merchants, in China, a decade ago. I had some friends who used it and they all spent a couple nights cranked up so it wasn't much different than the pills, just less convenient. RocknRollaAyatollah fucked around with this message at 19:35 on Sep 13, 2022 |
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Sep 13, 2022 19:28
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Is this thread dead or a new one? It's just weird how the thread to the politics of an entire nation just suddenly stopped around September
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Oct 29, 2022 22:10
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Too many old people..
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Oct 29, 2022 22:45
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japanese politics are boring. the current government, headed by Fumio Kishida of the Liberal Democratic Party, is vaguely unpopular at the moment for two pieces of fallout from the Abe assassination: their extensive ties to the Moonies have been in the headlines and they held a state funeral for Abe despite it being highly unpopular. the most recent NHK approval poll has them five points underwater, 38%-43%. this doesn't matter tho, cuz they don't have to hold an election in the lower (more powerful) house of representatives until october 2025 and the next house of councilors election won't happen until july 2025. based on nothing but vibes, i would predict that there will be another cabinet reshuffle sometime between the close of the current special session of the diet and the opening of the regular session in january, probably closer to the latter. interesting (?) stuff for the near future: the ldp, as ever, might try to amend the japanese constitution, probably just by adding a mention of the self defense forces and their legitimacy. my feeling is that they wasted any possible momentum for this on throwing Abe's going away bash and will maintain the LDP status quo of the last 15 years or so of saying they'll amend the constitution and just keep punting. i think they would fail to get the public to vote for an amendment regardless of if their approval recovers. the opposition parties will continue to be feckless and ineffective. only thing that could deliver them electoral victory is a perfect storm of scandal, economic calamity and an actually charismatic face for the coalition. hoping for a reverse jinx, but the LDP will remain in power for the foreseeable future and probably until earth death.
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Oct 30, 2022 05:34
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Mr. Fix It posted:japanese politics are boring. the current government, headed by Fumio Kishida of the Liberal Democratic Party, is vaguely unpopular at the moment for two pieces of fallout from the Abe assassination: their extensive ties to the Moonies have been in the headlines and they held a state funeral for Abe despite it being highly unpopular. the most recent NHK approval poll has them five points underwater, 38%-43%. this doesn't matter tho, cuz they don't have to hold an election in the lower (more powerful) house of representatives until october 2025 and the next house of councilors election won't happen until july 2025. based on nothing but vibes, i would predict that there will be another cabinet reshuffle sometime between the close of the current special session of the diet and the opening of the regular session in january, probably closer to the latter.
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Oct 30, 2022 06:20
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Lammasu posted:I don't know if I would call Japanese politics boring. I think like a lot of things Japanese; it's usually quit but when it goes crazy it goes crazy. I can't think of another example of a former chief executive being gunned down and the public response is, "That assassin had a point"
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Oct 30, 2022 06:23
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Lammasu posted:I don't know if I would call Japanese politics boring. I think like a lot of things Japanese; it's usually quit but when it goes crazy it goes crazy. I can't think of another example of a former chief executive being gunned down and the public response is, "That assassin had a point" Wasn't that a common reaction in Japan in the 1920s and 30s?
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Oct 30, 2022 06:42
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Nessus posted:Yeah that's really the wildest part of this. Are the Moonies that bad in Japan? I mean, they apparently targeted getting 30 billion yen / $210 mil USD per year in donations from Japan alone, and considering how that money is made, yes, that seems pretty bad. quote:During consultations with the children of Unification Church followers, Sakurai apparently met many people who said that their parents' donations triggered a collapse in family finances, and interfered with their daily lives and academic careers. He encountered many cases where second-generation followers faced issues of parents creating debt with credit cards under their children's names, becoming unable to confront relatives as their parents have borrowed excessive amounts of money, and shouldering debts on behalf of parents.
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Oct 30, 2022 06:59
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Lammasu posted:I don't know if I would call Japanese politics boring. I think like a lot of things Japanese; it's usually quit but when it goes crazy it goes crazy. I can't think of another example of a former chief executive being gunned down and the public response is, "That assassin had a point" I'm of the opinion the assassination is what Abe would have wanted. He was all about going back to the Beautiful Country of the early 20th century when Men Were Men and Men Whose Name Was Kishi was in charge of things, as it should be. Assassination was all part of the game back then so he must be smiling down on the guy who did his patriotic bit  7
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Oct 30, 2022 07:31
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i suppose from the outside that's all p interesting, but living in it, even as someone without the franchise, somehow makes it boring. i don't think being able to vote makes a huge difference on that, tho. voter turnout is way down.  turnout for the last two house of councilors elections were 48.80% and 52.05%, the second and fourth lowest on record, respectively. objectively interesting poo poo is happening, but the zeitgeist seems to be it won't change who's in power or how they'll wield it. it could be that the feeling is wrong and will be proven so shortly.
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Oct 30, 2022 11:58
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This is more economics than politics, but I don’t totally get why Japan is so loving psyched to have inflation finally hit a positive number. They’re just finding out that wages aren’t keeping up so everyone is just earning less and spending more. I get the problems of deflation but the central bank cheering on inflation is still just the weirdest thing to me.
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Oct 30, 2022 14:31
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Vegetable posted:This is more economics than politics, but I don’t totally get why Japan is so loving psyched to have inflation finally hit a positive number. They’re just finding out that wages aren’t keeping up so everyone is just earning less and spending more. I get the problems of deflation but the central bank cheering on inflation is still just the weirdest thing to me. Modern economics 101 says that you need some inflation to drive investment to make the economy grow. No inflation means less pressure for money to flow into investments since it's not gonna lose any of its value just sitting in a bank account. ECB, for example, has attempted to keep Eurozone inflation at around 2%, high enough to incentivize investment but low enough to maintain price stability and therefore keeping the labour markets relatively calm. Whether you think this is sound macroeconomic theory is up to you, but it's why Japan's central bank would celebrate inflation after years of deflation - to them it's a signal that the economy is on a genuine growth track.
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Oct 30, 2022 18:13
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It's always wild to me that a country like Japan with its insane amount of exports still has basically the world's worst debt-to-GDP ratio. I know it's a hangover from the crash of the 90s but it's just an unbelievable amount of debt that I feel should have been eaten into much deeper by now.
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Oct 31, 2022 16:38
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