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This Jacket Is Me posted:What's voter apathy like in Japan? I would expect that it's high. My personal experience is that people hate all politicians and feel like they have no influence on government....just like in every other advanced capitalist country...(Every country?) Also Toru Hashimoto and the Ishin no Kai should be added to the OP. EDIT: I think one thing that distinguishes Japanese politics from politics in Canada and probably most advanced capitalist countries is that the parties (Except the Communists, sort of...) don't have youth wings in the universities. Making them even more incestuous and lifeless than usual. MaterialConceptual fucked around with this message at 13:55 on Jun 26, 2012 |
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Jun 26, 2012 13:52
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A sexy submarine posted:I'm sure it helps that politics usually makes the headlines on the big national newspapers, and that election posters, at least in the small town that I live in seem to be up all year round. Yeah those posters are up all year round across the country. Another interesting Japanese election fact is that politicians are banned from door-to-door canvassing. Hence the ubiquitous election trucks.
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Jun 26, 2012 14:33
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I'm going to try to translate an article about Hashimoto and neoliberalism I read in this month's edition of the Communist-affiliated economics monthly Keizai. I'll post the translation here if I get it done.
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Jun 26, 2012 14:57
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ErIog posted:Where is that sold in Japan or do you get it online? I've been looking for good magazines to read, and everything I see at the conbini looks like such garbage. I'd probably have better luck going to a rack at a proper bookstore. They actually have it in the economics library of my university, but you can buy it online as well. I checked the local book shops, but unsurprisingly none of them sell a publication of the Communist Party. The articles are pretty detailed analysis, so you'd probably find them interesting if your Japanese level is up to it. The focus is definitely on Japanese politics. Last month's issue was on the globalization of the Japanese economy, and this month's is on the nuclear energy issue. Here's their website: http://www.shinnihon-net.co.jp/magazine/keizai/ You can order copies here: http://www.fujisan.co.jp/product/635/b/list/
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Jun 27, 2012 10:15
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SirPhoebos posted:This is so I've always found those kind of signs a bit creepy (it's not just the LDP that uses them) because they're so at odds with the reality of what they're supposed to represent. (Corrupt club of power-hungry privileged bigoted old men lording over the grey machinery of the Japanese state) -> (HAPPY CHILDREN PLAYING IN THE SUN  )I guess it's nice that propaganda in Japan doesn't take the jingoistic style common in the USA, but I still find it sort of creepy.
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Jun 28, 2012 01:15
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, It's hard to think that its the logo of a major political party in one of the world's most important democracies.
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Roadside_Picnic posted:"My general impression is that Keizai is usually painfully dull" Well the article I'm translating calls Hashimoto "The spitting image of Hitler" and is a pretty acerbic polemic so I'm not sure I would call it painfully dull...
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Jun 28, 2012 14:17
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Roadside_Picnic posted:The main reason they aren't more successful is because there are already two other minor left parties which account for about 10% of the popular vote and there isn't room for a third. Basically this. Both the Communist Party and the SDPJ run on "red-green" platforms, especially since the Fukushima disaster. I have a question for the thread. Where is the the SDPJ's remaining power concentrated? I live in Kyoto, so the Communists are very prominent here, but I can't really remember seeing SDPJ candidates advertised anywhere I've been. I also get the impression that the SDPJ is mainly comprised of the left-wing remnants of the Socialists (The right wing going to the DPJ). If that is the case why didn't they just join the Communists? Is it their support for North Korea that is the stumbling point, or just old animosities that keep the parties apart? EDIT: In view of Hashimoto's rise as the "alternative" to the LDP-DPJ order and the inability of the left to get much traction from the nuclear issue, it seems that Japan could really use a "Left Front" party like that found in France. MaterialConceptual fucked around with this message at 06:20 on Jun 30, 2012 |
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Jun 30, 2012 06:06
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Roadside_Picnic posted:Also, under the cuddly, the JCP is still a Leninist, democratic-centralist party that makes its political decisions based on a political line, and there's no mechanism for bargaining on specific points. Thank you for the interesting reply. Could you expand on this point? I can't say my experience in the social democratic NDP in Canada varied all that much from this description (Policy basically seemed to be decided by which faction seized control of the party leadership and dissenting voices were utterly marginalized) so I'm not sure how the SDPJ would really differ in this manner. The point you make about union-affiliations is one that I thought would be a major factor, but in terms of Communist supporters I think you left out their rather sizable support amongst the small-business owning petty bourgeoisie. EDIT: My view on most social democratic parties today is that they are "vanguards going nowhere." They act as "vanguard parties" of the proletariat and petty bourgeoisie insofar as they claim to articulate their political interests and offer them organization, but have no revolutionary agenda whatsoever. I don't see how either the JCP or SDPJ really differ on this point and would like some more info. MaterialConceptual fucked around with this message at 07:46 on Jun 30, 2012 |
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Jun 30, 2012 07:40
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Roadside_Picnic posted:The JCP doesn't have factions I'm not sure I can believe you there considering that even the CPC pretty clearly has factions, but I think I can see where you're coming from. I guess I'll try reading up on the party more, because I'm still not really understanding what makes them different from your average social democrats.
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Jul 1, 2012 02:33
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So Nihon TV is reporting that Ozawa might leave the DPJ as early as tomorrow over the tax hike. Is this the end of the DPJ, the end of Ozawa, or the end of both?
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Jul 1, 2012 16:41
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A sexy submarine posted:Well, its official, Ozawa's officially gone. He took 49 of his followers with him, so the DPJ still has a majority, albeit a very slim one. Also seems like the Kizuna Party and the SDPJ will be likely to support him. That would bring his numbers up to around 70. http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20120703a1.html#.T_JGMUiaA0g
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Jul 3, 2012 02:10
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There are some members of Ozawa's new party that want to join up with Hashimoto and Ishihara to form a right/ultra-right alliance for the next election, but neither Hashimoto or Ishihara seem that interested. Hashimoto because he opposes Ozawa's position on the sales tax, and Ishihara because he personally hates Ozawa. If these guys could get together I'm pretty sure they could sweep their way into power in a heartbeat, but I doubt they would be able to share power amongst each other considering their massive egos.
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Jul 4, 2012 18:02
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Lemmi Caution posted:Ozawa still has a machine for local elections, but clearly quite a few of his people are taking this opportunity to jump ship. There won't be an election for a while so they will have time to figure that out. Yeah Ozawa basically has what's left of the Tanaka machine, which is why he has had as much power as he has over the last two decades. quote:You vastly overestimate all three men. I realize they're all pretty hopeless in their own way, but you have to think about what they're up against in the LDP and DPJ. People want "change" in this country, and the only kind of "change" they're going to get is the ultra-right wing variety. You're probably right that I was overstating the point though.
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Jul 5, 2012 12:05
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The Commmunists (Mainly middle aged and elderly people) did a little march through my neighbourhood today protesting nuclear power. I have to admit it was kind of cute.
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Jul 7, 2012 08:30
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I am OK posted:People may notice Japanese micro-aggression more because it's the first time that the inevitably white, well-off person has encountered anything like that in their life. It's absolutely this. I thought Arudo's article was insightful in some ways and it helped me to understand what the people around me were complaining about all the time, but it's very true that the only reason this appears as a serious issue to white people is because it's their first time experiencing something other people have to put up with all the time back home. That isn't to say that there shouldn't be anti-racism efforts in Japan (I have personally had a number of experiences of racism here that were none too pleasant) but people need to put it in perspective. On another note the chairman of the JCP gave his address for the 90th anniversary of the party if anyone is interested in knowing what the Commmunists are up to: http://www.jcp.or.jp/english/jps_2012/20120105_04.html
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Jul 17, 2012 02:45
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Ganguro King posted:for all intents and purposes, aren't they inseparable? In other words, does it really matter for the average person living in Japan that the technology itself isn't bad if the government and the industry continue to ruin it with incompetence and corruption? This is basically the problem. The only groups that can implement nuclear power are the government and big business, and they have shown themselves to be untrustworthy. It's probably true that there is an anti-nuclear prejudice in Japan because of how the A-Bomb is taken to be the ultimate symbol of war, imperialism, and Japanese victimhood in the historical consciousness of the country. However even if this were not the case, there is no party that the majority of Japanese feel they can trust to implement nuclear power safely. I think the end result of these protests is going to be a compromise, where some nuclear power plants will be reactivated (because of economic reasons) but large investments in alternative energy and energy saving will also be made. I think on the whole this will be a positive outcome for the country and for the world in general. Nuclear power has a lot of positive points to it, but there is so much public opposition to it that the development of alternative energy sources should be supported (So that anti-nuclear doesn't just equal pro-coal or pro-natural gas).
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Jul 18, 2012 03:32
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hadji murad posted:Brown shirt Hashimoto made his mistress dress up as a flight attendant in sadistic cosplay because thats a loving surprise. Honestly I can only see this increasing his popularity.
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Jul 21, 2012 01:02
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Arglebargle III posted:Yeah can we get a read on the Japanese reaction to the huge protests in China and the Chinese mission to drive some boats in circles around the island? Some people in China are talking loudly about war. I personally think this is all psychodrama for the Chinese people (I almost typed "electorate" lol) to get them to look the other way for the power transfer which is turning out messy. Is there a concomitant frothy lather of spittle in Japanese conversation on the topic, or do they think its as stupid as us expats living in China do? The general impression I get is that people are thinking "Oh those Chinese sure are nutty..." and "We would never have crazy protests like that in Japan!" So I guess a general vacillation between apathy, condescension, fear, and bewilderment.
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Sep 17, 2012 14:04
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Konstantin posted:Ideally, the government should redistribute the productivity gains through the population using taxes and spending, and enact measures that ensure employment, such as subsides to pay for more public service workers and maybe a reduction of working hours. Of course, that would require a sensible government that wasn't run by the rich, who want to keep most of the gains for themselves. The problem with this idea is that it will reduce the rate of surplus value (By paying the same wage for less work and by increasing the rate of taxation) and render your industries "uncompetitive." It would only really "work" if a global labour movement could secure it across almost all the major manufacturing countries, and even then long-term consequence would be a profit squeeze crisis. The problem cannot be solved in the long term under the capitalist mode of production, especially as the advance of technology renders it worse and worse. Now on the other hand if these measures could be secured (if only temporarily) they would have some benefits because they would force capitalists to invest in more automation and increase the speed at which productivity is increasing. This doesn't really solve any problems, but it does create a better basis for socialism. EDIT: Misquote Also people should remember that automation doesn't just operate upon the manufacturing sector. It operates upon the service sector quite a lot as well (In the form of software, roboticization of routine tasks, and in the future social robotics). MaterialConceptual fucked around with this message at 03:28 on Sep 29, 2012 |
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Sep 29, 2012 03:20
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hadji murad posted:I don't think anyone is surprised at how dire the political choices are anymore. I cackled about it when I heard but even Twitter was quiet. He is a terrible choice, he quit because of making GBS threads too much previously (slightly more complex), but that only makes him as bad as every other choice out there. When you put it that way it does seem pretty dire. I can't say I would vote for any of them. EDIT: Richard Seymour's description of the "petty caesarism" at work in British politics right now seems like it could apply to the situation in Japan: Richard Seymour posted:Caesarism emerges because the contending classes have reached a stalemate. What I referred to as ‘petty caesarism’, then, is just the expression of this tendency in a muted form: not exactly a total stalemate but certainly a state of disarray; polarisation but each side hesitating to enter the fray wholeheartedly; both sides almost running on empty. One morbid symptom of this tendency is the emergence of rival hybrid forms of politics – ‘Red Toryism’, ‘Blue Labourism’ – in an attempt to short-circuit political polarisation and reconstitute the relationship between party and class. When people say ‘no one voted for this, how do they think they can get away with it’, the answer is clear: caesarism in this case is a symptom of mutual weakness. Yes, the ruling class is in crisis, yes it is divided and hesitant, yes it lacks political legitimacy; but as of now, its opponents are not in a better state. Except the stalemate is so stale that nothing is even being done. If Hashimoto is elected I expect the situation will better fit Seymour's description of the phenomenon. MaterialConceptual fucked around with this message at 14:11 on Oct 6, 2012 |
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Oct 6, 2012 13:51
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Roadside_Picnic posted:Who can follow Ishihara? The choice is clear. This guy is a fascist so I guess it would fit the times.
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Oct 26, 2012 03:16
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The most likely scenario I can imagine for Japan abolishing article 9 is if the US military pulled out of Japan. In that case Japan would be forced to rearm in order to build up its own imperialism separate (to some extent) from that of the USA. Article 9 is a nice statement, but it doesn't really amount to much when you have the US 7th Fleet backing you up. As long as the US bases remain in Japan Article 9 is likely to stick around.
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Nov 15, 2012 15:27
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So Ishihara's Party of the Sun has merged into Hashimoto's Japan Restoration Association. What does the thread think is more likely? A LDP-Komeito-JRA government or a LDP-Komeito-DPJ government? No matter who wins, we lose. http://shisaku.blogspot.jp/2012/11/ishihara-shintaro-is-waste-of-my-time.html
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Nov 17, 2012 11:05
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hadji murad posted:The latter definitely. The old guard will try to shut out the new blood because that's how it's done here. A counter-example would be the LDP forming its long-term partnership with the Komeito, which used to be considered "new blood" (If I recall correctly, in the 1970s they were lumped in with the Communists as an up-and-coming challenger party and there was some question of whether they would lean right or left because of their lower-class membership. In the end they unsurprisingly joined up with the right).
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Nov 19, 2012 16:23
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Samurai Sanders posted:I guess the Tokyo governor's race still has mandatory TV time for all candidates, and still has candidates like this... Well this is about what I'd expect from a graduate of my university...
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Dec 8, 2012 05:27
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The left parties in Japan aren't so bad (They more or less articulate what the demands of the popular movements are today), but they are considered basically irrelevant. I suppose if they were to merge they might have slightly more clout, but I can't really see that happening (even though their platforms are very similar).
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Dec 14, 2012 15:58
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DeepSpaceBeans posted:If it wasn't for the unhealthy love affair with north Korea some of their leadership has, I 'd probably throw my hat in with the communists. But Jesus Christ if they don't go out of their way to drive away potential allies. I think you have the Social Democrats (社民党) in mind?
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Dec 16, 2012 05:19
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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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Sheep posted:Edit: the lingua franca among almost all international students in Japan, aside from insular groups like "the Chinese students" or "the Korean students" or whatever is going to be English, which is why those classes are being offered - either they have classes in English or expect foreigners to come to Japan with strong enough Japanese to be able to take regular classes in Japanese, and since foreigners can't speak Japanese because Japan, there you go. From personal experience at Kyoto University I have to say I'm not so sure about this. First of all, it's impossible to say that Chinese and Korean students are "insular" when they are the vast majority of foreign students in Japan. If anything the non-East Asian students are the insular group (Yes they come from more countries but they are a minority of students). Second, the lingua franca between these groups is just as likely to be Japanese as it is to be English. Since they came to Japan to study, they pretty much all have some level of competency in Japanese, especially considering how it is closer to their native languages than English. That being said, it remains the case that English is considered to be the WORLD's lingua franca, so any "international" programs at Japanese universities are likely to include a lot of English language instruction, although there is no guarantee that anglophone teachers will not be hired on as non-research sessional track instructors.
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Mar 10, 2013 09:42
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Sheep posted:This was my experience taking undergraduate classes aimed at Japanese students. There's some goon (Lemmi Caution I think?) who is properly enrolled as a 4 year undergrad at Sophia or something and speaks highly of it, but his situation seems to be the exception. I'm a doctoral student at Kyoto University, and so far I would say the experience is more or less equivalent to attending a mid-tier research university in North America (Although on average there is less support from supervisors). It isn't outstanding, but it is fairly respectable. Also you don't have to turn into a stunted mole person who does nothing but study from dawn until dusk (Unlike some Ivy League doctoral programs) which I think actually has some benefits for quality of research.
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Mar 10, 2013 16:45
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Sorgrid posted:The foreign students of engineering/hard sciences had MUCH tougher schedules in comparison; Some of my friends had often to spend nights in the lab, they had to deal with insane lab politics and treated pretty much like personal oompa-loompas by professors/native students (Thanks, Kouhai-Sempai relationships!) Yeah I'm a humanities student. The STEM students clearly have it a lot harder than us, I won't lie.
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Mar 11, 2013 14:03
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Bloodnose posted:So this situation is basically the only way to work under the labor regulations? I'm trying to understand why someone couldn't just set up shop in Japan with American-style management and HR practices and dominate the business landscape by owning all the talent and actually having a lean, efficient workspace. I assume it has something to do with monopolies collaborating against any such action?
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Apr 3, 2013 13:15
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Protocol 5 posted:The LDP/DPJ split was more over internal LDP politicking than any kind of conscious reform movement. The main difference between the two parties is policy priorities rather than any major ideological or doctrinal differences. The LDP is also still hilariously corrupt at the prefectural and local levels. The DPJ also contains some remnants of the Socialist Party, but they have been pretty much wiped out.
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Apr 26, 2013 12:05
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It occurs to me that we should update the OP to note that Aso is now the Deputy PM and Finance Minister (As sad as that is).
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Apr 27, 2013 11:20
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LimburgLimbo posted:Yeeeeep it's super loving dumb. I mean I'm for changing Article 9, but I always knew the only people who would be interested in doing so would unfortunately not want to stop there. This is a bit worse than I imagined though. The problem is the Americans didn't go far enough with their "revolution from above." They left the Emperor there and they brought the fascists back into power towards the end of the Occupation. With the fascists having a stranglehold on Japanese politics any attempts to rewrite the constitution in the name of national sovereignty (Something I am not against in principle) would automatically take the form of reaction and return to the bad old days "for the emperor." (Who, as far as I know, does not like Abe or his plans in the slightest, not that it matters)
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May 2, 2013 01:43
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Reverend Cheddar posted:Well they did bang a lot of European prostitutes. There's tons of those WWII 'watch out for the clap, boys!' posters out there so something was happening. I don't think the US is any less hypocritical in that regard at least. And in fact that's how a lot of Japanese justify it -- that these girls were prostitutes anyway. And of those who were actual Japanese comfort women, many were legit prostitutes and went perfectly willingly. The problem with comfort women is in assuming that these already-oppressed people are being willing prostitutes, and also the fact that even if US troops slept with prostitutes in their own right, I'm pretty sure they weren't being held on brothels near the front line (it's possible we did? But I sorta doubt that) The closest thing to this happening I am aware of was actually organized by the Japanese government when the occupation first started. They expected the American troops to start raping and pillaging when they arrived, so they set up the Recreation and Amusement Association (RAA) and put out newspaper ads that used appeals to self-sacrifice in the name of the nation to convince women to volunteer to work as prostitutes for the Americans. The point of this was to protect upper class Japanese women from being raped. Many of the women weren't experienced prostitutes, and they had to work in abysmal conditions. Dower states in Embracing Defeat that they weren't given any beds or futons to lie on, and they had to service upwards of 20 men a day, sometimes in a building hallway. Some of them either ran away or committed suicide after their first day of work. EDIT: After that of course the prostitution continued - it's estimated roughly half of GI income was spent on prostitution during the occupation - but the working conditions were generally better than what happened with the RAA. MaterialConceptual fucked around with this message at 07:07 on May 14, 2013 |
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May 14, 2013 06:59
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hitension posted:2% of Japan are Communists? Yeah the JCP is one of the largest non-governing Communist parties in the world.
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May 30, 2013 03:11
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Genpei Turtle posted:I think a lot of it is just the way that the Japanese software development industry evolved. Japan was (and still is in some ways) a leader in embedded software development during the 80s and 90s, and a lot of their industry was oriented toward that end. The skillset doesn't necessarily transfer well though--programming for a bare-metal microcontroller is a lot different than programming for computers where the hardware is obfuscated by several layers with the OS. Generally what you tend to see is that the further away from the metal a given Japanese program is, the crappier it's likely to be. You see that sort of "embedded programming" style creep into their general purpose software a lot too--to use the earlier game example, Japanese Windows games are liable to be heavily dependent on the environment they were developed in, relying on arcane version-specific DirectX calls or use of a very specific subset of graphics cards. Use any even slightly differing hardware/OS configuration and it's liable to flat-out not work. My grad school advisor did quite a bit of research on this topic and his argument (from what I've picked up in lectures and conversation) is that Japanese software design and organization was heavily influenced by Japanese architecture design and organization methods. This lead to a lot of wasteful and sclerotic designing from first principles and waterfall style development. I'm sure there are plenty of opinions about why Japanese software development has been such a flop, but that's his. He used to work for MITI back in the day, and the frustrations of that job (e.g. The failure of the Fifth Generation Computer) are where he got his ideas.
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Oct 20, 2014 16:41
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Samurai Sanders posted:I figured every last person in every government in the world did that stuff, and the people who get pinched for it are the ones who didn't suck up to the right people. To varying degrees I think you're right. Japan's ranking in the "Corruption Perceptions Index" is pretty rough considering it's just above the USA and below Hong Kong the land of unaccountable government, powerful gangs, and unfettered oligarchy. Then again I don't know if it's worth putting any stock in the CPI.
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Oct 21, 2014 04:37
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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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