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A sexy submarine
Jun 12, 2011
Welcome to the Japanese politics thread. Japan is the world’s third largest economy, one of the G8 nations and a member of the G4 group (wannabe UN security council members.) We also have a magnificently byzantine political system full of ruthless man-children (and they are almost always men) who do anything to get a brief glimpse of the spotlight. Did you know that over the last seven years Japan has had seven prime ministers, each one (except Taro Aso who was voted out) ejected in a ruthless political coup? No? The politicans in the Japanese national government have a reputation for being very Machiavellian, a reputation that is unfortunately mostly true. So, are you interested in finding out more about that country which makes all your animes? Then read on! Whether you are new to Japanese politics or a hardcore political junkie feel free to talk about domestic and international politics that relate to Japan in this thread.

The Japanese Model


The Japanese Diet

Japan is a constitutional monarchy and operates similarly to the British model, whereby the Emperor is the official head of state and appoints the Prime minister, who is usually (read always) the leader of the largest political party elected to the legislature. The Prime minister in turn appoints a cabinet of elected members of the legislature to handle the running of the executive. The judiciary on the other hand, operates similarly to the American judiciary in that the Prime minister appoints justices to the supreme court (via the emperor), but the judiciary is otherwise independent. The legislature, based in the Diet building, is bicameral and consists of a more powerful lower house – The House of Representatives and an upper house – The House of Councillors. The members of the House of Representatives have a term limit of 4 years and are elected en-masse every 4 years, whereas those in the House of Councillors whose members have 6 year terms and have elections every three years where half the chamber gets put up for election – A very similar setup to the U.S. Congress.

A brief history of modern Japanese politics.


Yoshida Shigeru and Douglas McArthur – probably the two most important people in post-war Japanese politics

So far, so standard; so what makes Japanese politics unique from similar democratic systems in the West? Well, the answer lies in post-war Japan where, under the direction of Douglas MacArthur and the Allied Occupation, democratic elections were re-introduced. However, when China and Korea had had their civil wars and subsequently established communist regimes, the U.S. and the C.I.A. in particular decided to throw their support behind the newly formed Liberal Democratic Party; a coalition of right wing parties headed by Yoshida Shigeru, whose main support base was in white collar workers and government elites. So it was that from 1955 to 1993, the Liberals were the only party in government. Although the C.I.A. stopped supporting the Liberals in the early 70s, a combination of gerrymandering and sustained economic prosperity meant that the LDP suffered no serious challenge to their supremacy from either the left of the right.

The bursting of the Japanese bubble economy in the early 1990s combined with various political scandals briefly removed the LDP from office and replaced them with a shaky coalition of socialists, communists, anti-LDP liberals, members of the Buddhist Komeito party and various smaller right-wing parties. Naturally the coalition crumbled only a year after its founding and the LDP held onto power for another 15 years.

The Democratic Party of Japan, whose members are commonly known as the democrats, was founded in 1998 and grew steadily in power throughout the noughties. The party was originally a splinter group of more left-leaning members of the LDP, but has developed to become a more unique party in its own right. The credit crisis of 2008, combined with growing public dissatisfaction with the LDP and Prime Minister Taro Aso in particular, handed the Democrats a landslide victory in 2009, comprehensively putting an end to the LDP’s 54 year political monopoly.

That’s all very interesting, but what does that have to do with anything?

Having had the same party in government for so many years, political conflict in Japan tends to rooted in intra-party rivalries rather than inter-party disputes. Put simply, opposition to government policies tends to come from rival factions within the government’s own party rather than from dedicated ideological opponents. This is because in order to maintain power for so many years the LDP required a broad base of support from politicians and bureaucrats and the each with their own pet-projects and ambitions. In other words, political parties within Japan are the epitome of ‘big tent’ parties. Party bosses also have very little political control over their members. There's no real whipping system to speak of, and controversial government policy frequently gets shot down from within its own party.

Japanese parties operate on a system of patronage, similar to how early 19th century political parties did in America and Britain – If you support a powerful member of a party and do his bidding, he’ll take you under his wing and in turn, one day you may get a cushy cabinet position, if not you can always go through the big revolving door and end up in an even cushier corporate position as a ‘consultant.’

This way of doing things has been traditionally associated with the LDP, and with the DPJ in power, whose leadership are almost all old rebels from the LDP, things don’t seem like they are going to change in a hurry. These days however, we are starting to see more ideological unity within political parties, particularly the smaller ones like the New Komeito party, whose members all tend to toe the party line in the bigger votes. That said, people like Ichiro Ozawa remain massively more powerful than they would be in Western systems of democracy.

Political Parties

Main Parties
That said; let’s have a look at some of the political parties in Japan

Liberal Democratic Party of Japan: (lit – Liberal Democracy party)



The big dogs. In power for 52 years, this vaguely right of centre party view themselves as Japan’s default ruling party. Out of all the political parties in Japan, it is the most divided by internal strife due to its huge number of factions and byzantine party structure. Seriously, look at this poo poo.

They came back into power after a landslide victory in December 2012's general election. Its president is former and current Prime minister Shizo Abe.

Abbreviations: English - LDP, Japanese – LibDems

Democratic Party of Japan (lit: Democratic party)



The DPJ started out as a more centrist splinter faction of the LDP, but these days is more aligned with the centre left. They were elected on a vaguely left-wing manifesto in 2009 and have done their best to ignore the majority of their manifesto promises. They then lost the next general election quite comfortably.

Recently they have been reshuffling their cabinet and haemorraging support. Its president is Yoshihiko Noda, but not for much longer.

Abbreviations: English – DPJ, Japanese – Democrats

Minor Parties

Japan Restoration Association - a.k.a. JNR (lit: Japan restoration association)

Toru Hashimoto's national vanity project and is almost identical politically to his Osaka restoration association party. It was launched in September 2012. It has an eight point plan of vague bullshit and a few statements by hashimoto that suggests there will be a policy focus towards constitutional reformation, particularly with regards to article 9 (a.k.a. the pacifist clause). It merged with Shintaro Ishihara's sunshine party in November 2012, putting Ishihara in charge of the party.

People's Life First - a.k.a. LF (not that LF) (lit: The citizens' livlihood is paramount)

Ichiro Ozawa's party formed from rebels from the DPJ who opposed Noda's doubling of the sales tax in June 2012. It also opposes the proliferation of nuclear power plants. It's platform is basically 'gently caress the prime minister', and as such is seeking to ally itself with outer political outsiders and minor parties.


Dead

It rebranded itself as the Tomorrow Party of Japan a.k.a. TPJ (lit: The Future of Japan party) less than a month before the election and hilariously fell flat on their faces. They went from having 61 representatives to having 9. Although its led by the famale governor of Shiga prefecture, Yukiko Kada, Ichiro Ozawa still looms over the party and most critics have attributed the party's absolute destruction to his poor public image.

New Komeito Party (lit: New Justice party)

Also formed in 1998, the NKP are the successors to the long running komeito party, but more conservative. Their founders, current leadership and majority of supporters are all members of the Soka Gakkai sect of Buddhism, and as such are not particularly popular with Japan’s largely secular electorate. Their core beliefs are humanitarianism, the promotion of world peace and the lowering of corporate tax. They like to present themselves as Amnesty International with business suits, but are more commonly thought of as ‘that party that always supports the Lib Dems'. Now part of the ruling coalition...again.

Japanese Communist Party (lit: Japan Communist Party)

The communist party is the oldest party in Japan and dates back to 1922 (according to Wikipedia). One of the most popular non-ruling communist parties in the world, the JCP got about 7% of the vote last election, and has been in decline since the 1970s. The JCP is ostensibly Marxist-Leninist and they tend to run on a platform of Anti-Americanism, republicanism and wealth redistribution.

The Social Democratic party of Japan (lit: Social Democratic party)

The JSP used to be Japan’s second party, but are now a mere shadow of their former selves. There are many speculations as to why this is, but the most probable cause is a combination of the formation of the DPJ and the JSP’s continual support for North Korea, which has become a hot button issue since Kim Jong Il took over. They have almost identical policies to the JCP, but with more of a focus on domestic policy than foreign policy. Also famous for having its leader assassinated live on television by a katana wielding fascist back in 1960.

Possibly :nws: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4KROpdUkrM

Your Party (lit: Everyone’s party)

A reletively new (can't really say that with a straight face anymore) party formed in 2009. Basically has the same platform as the LDP. Currently tipped to become Japan’s 3rd party. I’d like to give more information, but quite frankly nobody really knows who they are.

There are also a bunch of minor parties like the Sunshine Party that absolutely no-one cares about (much to Shintaro Ishihara's dissappointment) (alas poor Sunshine party) and who have maybe a couple of representatives in the Diet between them.

Important people in Japanese politics

As I outlined in the introduction, Japanese politics is very much personality based and if you read news stories about Japanese politics, you’re probably better off trying to understand the people involved rather than the institutions they supposedly represent.

Shinzo Abe



Abe is Japan's 8th prime minister in as many years. A former Prime minister of Japan, who had a nervous breakdown in office and resigned as an unpopular disgrace. He has very controversial opinions about Japan's imperial legacy and is an extremely divisive figure not only within Japan but within the LDP. He managed to pull off an unlikely victory in the LDP ledership election in September 2012 and has an unenthusiastic party behind him.

Yoshihiko Noda


(trans: Is Japan safe in his hands?)

Former Prime minister of Japan. He became prime minister after Naoto Kan resigned over the criticism of the government’s response to the March 11th disaster. He is a thoroughly unpopular prime minister who lashed himself to the mast of his flagship policy, a single bill combining a shake-up of social security and a doubling of the sales tax rate. He survived a bust-up over the sales tax hike, the departure of 49 lawmakers to LF, the further departure of members of the diet to parties like the JNR, enormous pressure from the right over the Senkaku islands and a leadership contest. He may have wrecked the DJP, but you have to hand it to him; the man's a survivor. He’s also a black belt in Judo, so my dearest wish is for Noda and Putin to have match – winner gets the Kurils. He lost the election and destroyed his own party :thumbsup:

Ichiro Ozawa



A.k.a. the shadow shogun, Ozawa is was the Leader of the largest faction in the DPJ and possibly the most influential person in the party, before he left to form his own party. He used to be the leader of the party, but had had to resign because of a corruption scandal in favour of Yukio Hatoyama who subsequently went on to win the 2009 election. He was indicted for corruption last year and has lost almost all formal responsibilities as a result (but escaped prison). Personally, I liken him to Dick Dastardly from wacky races: a man who frequently finds himself in the lead, but always ends up looking like an idiot because he just can’t help being a dick and trying to bully people.

Seiji Maehara



A conservative member of the DPJ, Maehara became known for his staunch opposition to raising the rate of sales tax and being at the forefront of the Senkaku islands dispute with China in 2010. During the race to become P.M. last year after Kan stepped down, he came across as being as bland as a butter sandwich but his policies were very popular with the party base. As the DPJ policy chief he found himself in the inevitable position of having to defend the tax hike he so staunchly opposed only a year ago. He's finally back in the cabinet after the October reshuffle.

Shintaro Ishihara



Ishihara is the infamous governor of Tokyo prefecture, who has become known internationally (especially in China and Korea) over his ultranationalist views. He has on several occasions denied that the Nanking massacre took place, which didn’t win him many friends amongst Tokyo’s sizable Chinese community. Almost didn’t get re-elected last year after saying that the March 11th disaster was ‘divine retribution’. Despite all this, he is regarded as being an efficient governor and is often credited with putting Tokyo back into the black back in 2006, and with making Tokyo even more of an economic powerhouse than it was before. That said; he’d probably attract more business from Asia if he’d keep his mouth shut.

Junichiro Koizumi



In a sea of bespectacled old men in grey suits and ‘short short back and sides’ haircuts, Koizumi stood out like a sore thumb. Koizumi was Japan’s longest serving Prime minister since the 60s and was an unabashed neo-con. He got in some constitutional trouble over sending non-combat troops to Iraq, an action that possibly went against Japan’s strictly pacifistic constitution. He also privatised the postal service and visited the Yasakuni shrine a whole bunch of times. He’s mostly remembered for his hairstyle though.

He's also the only former prime minister to fly a jet into a North Korean nuclear warhead and emerge unscathed.

Taro Aso - By Funk Monkey



In some ways responsible for the LDP's massive fall from power, Aso's infamy was sealed not only because of his extremely short term (one year before being voted out of office) and engineering the general house election that resulted in a crushing defeat for the LDP, but because of the myriad scandals and controversy surrounding him. Heavily prejudiced against the Burakumin (Japan's equivilant to India's 'untouchables'), Aso was caught multiple times making bigoted statements in regard to LDP campaign opponent Hiromu Nonaka's suitability for Prime Minister. There was additional controversy stemming from his mining company's history of using Allied POWs and conscripted Koreans as slave labor. Finally, Aso became known for mispronouncing/misreading commonly-used words during speeches.

Politically, Aso was most known for being extremely hawkish in his foreign policy, being openly hostile to China and Korea and highly supportive of the global war on terror. Aso also recognized Taiwan as an independent political entity, which didn't exactly win him points with the Chinese government. Other noteworthy points on Aso include his being the first Japanese Prime Minister to visit the Obama Administration, and for being one of the very, very few Roman Catholics in Japanese government.

:godwin:Toru Hashimoto:godwin:



Toru Hashimoto is Osaka's young populist mayor, whose political career has revolved around unifying Osaka's disperate municipal governments into a single authority (under his command). Hashimoto comes from a very poor background, his father was a burakumin (Japan's old 'untouchable' class) and a yakuza, and through his own determination and hardwork, got a law degree from Japan's prestigous Waseda university. He is very right wing and loves to bash teachers and public workers unions, and has a long string of verbal gaffs; higlights include:
  • (Of a 10 year old girl who was raped) "It all hinges on whether they took off the girl’s clothes, or whether she took them off herself"

  • "Japanese men hiring prostitutes in China is like ODA" (Official Development Assistance.)

  • (Of the unemployed) "Lock them up and set them to forced labor!"
His bad temper and insistence on getting things his own way not to mention his particular brand of populist right wing politics has lead to accusations of him being a dictator, a charactisation he wholeheartedly embraces. He and his fellow 'Hashists' are nevertheless extremely popular in Osaka, especially with the poor many of whom see him as a challenge to fusty old political elites and unaccountable bureaucrats.

A youthful populist politican known for his desire to flush his country of 'traitors' and political elites and incendiary right wing politics, hmmm...

[Feel free to add your own political biographies here]

A note about language

English only – Feel free to post news articles in Japanese but make sure to translate the relevant points.

A sexy submarine fucked around with this message at 08:12 on Dec 20, 2012

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A sexy submarine
Jun 12, 2011
Online sources

English

Newspapers
  • Japan Times – The Japan Times costs 180 JPY for ten pages of news, a few pages ripped straight out of the Washington Post and some news commentary (The fact that Debito Arudo is a featured columnist should give you some idea of the general quality of this commentary.) The web edition has four stories – Fukushima, Senkaku islands, Noda does something and boring fluff piece. Sometimes good articles do sneak in though.
  • Daily Yomiuri, Asahi shimbun – Asia and Japan watch and Daily Mainichi – English language versions of their respective papers. Basically, useless because their free content is generally watered down to only a few paragraphs from the full stories in the print editions. They typically don’t host stories for particularly long and often expires after a couple of weeks. Moreover, a noticeable percentage of the articles are from wire copy, so different sites end up reporting the story in rather similar ways. Simply put, just don’t even bother with them.

News sites
  • Japan Today - Japan Today is a pretty relaxed site where you can just hang out and not worry about things like correctly translated sources or journalistic integrity. Did you see an article about Japanese style toilets and feel compelled to extrapolate it into a 5,000 word essay on the inferiority of Japanese morality? Feel free to join fellow like-minded readers in the comments sections.
  • Kyodo wire service – A simple and up to date news site and the best wire service in Japan. If you like your news simple and to the point, I’d recommend using this site.
  • Japan probe – Somewhere between the above two. The only people that use it are people that live outside Japan have lots of ~opinions~ about it.

Blogs
  • Ampontan – Bill Sakovich is a fairly right-wing blogger who knows his poo poo. He’s lived in Japan since 1984 (according to his website, and has a very good grasp of Japanese culture history and politics. You may not agree with his politics, or his opinions on China and Korea, but I think he’s still vastly more knowledgeable about Japan than any professional journalist I can think of.

    Update: Bill Sakovich died of cancer on December 21st 2012. I'll leave the link to his blog up because I genuinely admired his work, even if I didn't always agree with his point of view.

  • Shisaku – Shisaku is a great blog for following the various minutiae of national Japanese politics. It gets a bit wonky at times, but is always up to date and insightful.
  • Japan Real Time (Wall street journal) – It’s a WSJ blog…about Japan. Readers should expect neo-liberal economics and analysis that can get downright woeful at times. It’s still better that almost every other blog belonging to old media publications.
  • Dispatch Japan - :words: A fantastic blog if you like that sort of thing.
  • ó1 – Sigma 1 is a pretty good blog that does a good job of relating Japanese internal politics to political concerns in the region. That said, I don’t read it much.
  • Debito blog



Japanese

coming soon

A sexy submarine fucked around with this message at 07:09 on Jan 16, 2013

A sexy submarine
Jun 12, 2011
The sales tax increase passed in the Diet a few minutes ago.

http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/politics/AJ201206260065

363 votes to 96, most of those against came from assorted DPJ rebels including Ozawa and his gang. We'll see if Ozawa leaves the party like he threatened to now.

A sexy submarine fucked around with this message at 07:46 on Jun 26, 2012

Randallteal
May 7, 2006

The tears of time
Not to start the thread on a tangent, but it's always weird to hear about Ishihara in the news. I wouldn't have thought the author of Season of the Sun and Crazed Fruit would turn out to be such an uncritical nationalist. I haven't read anything he's written in the last fifty years, though.

french lies
Apr 16, 2008
Great OP.

Are the Senkakus (or the Diaoyu Islands as they're known in China) a political issue at all in Japan? I know Ishihara said he was planning to buy them, and I remember there was some hubbub about a collision between Taiwanese and Japanese vessels a few years back. But other than that it's always seemed like another non-problem Chinese nationalists can get butthurt and self-righteous about. Do the Japanese even care at all?

ReidRansom
Oct 25, 2004


I want to be interested in Japanese politics. I really do. I like Japan, I have lots of friends there, but I just can't. It's so boring. Another year, another prime minister, a bunch of party infighting or some poo poo, and then nothing terribly important continues to happen. That said, at least raising the consumption tax is something, though it doesn't sound like a terribly good idea in a country already prone to saving rather than spending. I guess they'll see bumps in durable goods and other large purchases before the increases go into effect, but that's hardly a path to sustained growth or recovery, I'd think. A wealth tax of some sort to at least try to recapture savings and ticking up inflation a bit as a disincentive to make up the difference seems like it would be a better approach, but then like I said, Japan just can't hold my attention on these things, so I haven't been paying any mind to the debate there on these matters. Also, I know dick-all about economics.

This Jacket Is Me
Jan 29, 2009
What's voter apathy like in Japan? I would expect that it's high.

I couldn't imagine taking time to examine candidates and proposals when everything is so fluid and what gets done is more a matter of personality than party. I can hardly care about voting in the US. If I were in Japan I'd probably just ignore everything.

As an example, I remember a lot of hand wringing when the DJP came to power over Okinawa. There was a spat between the new PM and Obama, then the new PM resigned and the issue hasn't come up since. If it was a matter of party conviction to bring up the Okinawa bases, then I would assume that the conviction would pass to the new PM, but that clearly isn't the case.

Al-Saqr
Nov 11, 2007

I think you made a really big omission by failing to mention the fact that Koizumi beat Kim Jong-Il, the Chinese communist party followed by a Frankenstein Mao Zedong, George Bush (both of them), the pope, Putin, and rescued the world from a space Nazi invasion lead by a demigod Hitler and his evil twin children through the power of Mahjong.

The legend of Koizumi

Morton Salt Grrl
Sep 2, 2011

D&D: HASBARA SQUAD
FRESH BLOOD


May their memory be a justification for genocide

Al-Saqr posted:

I think you made a really big omission by failing to mention the fact that Koizumi beat Kim Jong-Il, the Chinese communist party followed by a Frankenstein Mao Zedong, George Bush (both of them), the pope, Putin, and rescued the world from a space Nazi invasion lead by a demigod Hitler and his evil twin children through the power of Mahjong.

The legend of Koizumi

I was about to post that myself. Koizumu :allears:

Would anyone care to give me an overview of rural politics in Japan? I'm aware that rural areas have lots of political influence when you consider their small populations, but other than that I don't know much.

Grand Fromage
Jan 30, 2006

L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?


french lies posted:

Great OP.

Are the Senkakus (or the Diaoyu Islands as they're known in China) a political issue at all in Japan? I know Ishihara said he was planning to buy them, and I remember there was some hubbub about a collision between Taiwanese and Japanese vessels a few years back. But other than that it's always seemed like another non-problem Chinese nationalists can get butthurt and self-righteous about. Do the Japanese even care at all?

Similar question, the Liancourt Rocks. Over here in Korea Dokdo is a big loving deal but I get the impression that other than some right wingers and trolls no one in Japan actually cares. It looks to me like there is a minor dispute but most of the issue is invented by Koreans as part of their general gently caress Japan narrative, but I don't know what it's like in Japan.

MaterialConceptual
Jan 18, 2011

"It is rather that precisely in that which is newest the face of the world never alters, that this newest remains, in every aspect, the same. - This constitutes the eternity of hell."

-Walter Benjamin, "The Arcades Project"

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

A sexy submarine
Jun 12, 2011

This Jacket Is Me posted:

What's voter apathy like in Japan? I would expect that it's high.

If you're measuring apathy by voter turnout, Japan has a turnout usually in the 60s. Last election it was 67% and in 2009 it was 69%. By contrast the voter turnout in the U.S. was 57% in 2008 and 38% in 2010. 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.

Al-Saqr posted:

I think you made a really big omission by failing to mention the fact that Koizumi beat Kim Jong-Il, the Chinese communist party followed by a Frankenstein Mao Zedong, George Bush (both of them), the pope, Putin, and rescued the world from a space Nazi invasion lead by a demigod Hitler and his evil twin children through the power of Mahjong.

The legend of Koizumi

How have I never seen this before? Into the OP it goes.

Grand Fromage posted:

Similar question, the Liancourt Rocks. Over here in Korea Dokdo is a big loving deal but I get the impression that other than some right wingers and trolls no one in Japan actually cares. It looks to me like there is a minor dispute but most of the issue is invented by Koreans as part of their general gently caress Japan narrative, but I don't know what it's like in Japan.

I think you're right on the money with that. Occasionally you hear people down the 'izakaya' talking about how the Chinese are crazy or the Koreans have a superiority complex, but honestly the disputes over those tiny islands rarely come up in conversation if at all. The Kurils are a slightly bigger deal I think, but not by much.

I would blow Dane Cook
Dec 26, 2008
What's the current political mood on US bases? 1945 was 67 years ago so are they outstaying their welcome a bit?

Nine of Eight
Apr 28, 2011


LICK IT OFF, AND PUT IT BACK IN
Dinosaur Gum
OP, you might also want to mention that Koizumi was first elected on a platform of what more or less amounted to "destroying the LDP".

The mood on US bases is pretty bad in Okinawa, the moving of the Marines base has been a contentious issue for the last few years and unless I missed something, still hasn't been resolved.

MaterialConceptual
Jan 18, 2011

"It is rather that precisely in that which is newest the face of the world never alters, that this newest remains, in every aspect, the same. - This constitutes the eternity of hell."

-Walter Benjamin, "The Arcades Project"

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.

Navaash
Aug 15, 2001

FEED ME


I live in Osaka and nominally follow the political scene here. This is a city that's cracked down on dancing in nightclubs (as "unlicensed dancing") because of an obscure, outdated law that started getting selectively enforced last year out of nowhere.

Nine of Eight posted:

The mood on US bases is pretty bad in Okinawa, the moving of the Marines base has been a contentious issue for the last few years and unless I missed something, still hasn't been resolved.
Yeah, the bases issue is what did in Hatoyama, as This Jacket Is Me mentioned.

Here's a link for some required reading about Toru Hashishita^H^H^H^H^Hmoto. Guy is an all-around horrible person. He got elected based on support from the poor suburbs.

MaterialConceptual
Jan 18, 2011

"It is rather that precisely in that which is newest the face of the world never alters, that this newest remains, in every aspect, the same. - This constitutes the eternity of hell."

-Walter Benjamin, "The Arcades Project"
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.

Apraxin
Feb 22, 2006

General-Admiral

A sexy submarine posted:

If you're measuring apathy by voter turnout, Japan has a turnout usually in the 60s. Last election it was 67% and in 2009 it was 69%. By contrast the voter turnout in the U.S. was 57% in 2008 and 38% in 2010. 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.
The weird thing about the high turnout rate is how it's actually that high when everyone seems to hate their politicians so much. In pretty much every poll I've seen that asks 'Which party are you likely to vote for?', support for the LDP and the DPJ hovers at around 20% each, and 50%+ of respondents answer 'No Party'.

FatherD
Jan 1, 2009
Wow I really learned alot from that OP. I didn't even realize that Japanese politics were so complicated that you could make some sort of crazy faction based board game about the parties.

I think this is OP may be the most objective "insert country" politics thread out of all of them.

Buck Wildman
Mar 30, 2010

I am Metango, Galactic Governor


Nine of Eight posted:

The mood on US bases is pretty bad in Okinawa, the moving of the Marines base has been a contentious issue for the last few years and unless I missed something, still hasn't been resolved.

From what I understand, it's set to potentially be even more contentious in light of recent activities of the SDF. Setting aside the constitutional issues, the SDF's operations in the Iraq War and ongoing peacekeeping operations have really rallied public support for their own armed forces, and depending on how long the DPJ's power coup lasts, we may witness a renewed push for increased defensive sovereignty. That was certainly one of Kan's big policy promises when he was running.

Apraxin posted:

The weird thing about the high turnout rate is how it's actually that high when everyone seems to hate their politicians so much. In pretty much every poll I've seen that asks 'Which party are you likely to vote for?', support for the LDP and the DPJ hovers at around 20% each, and 50%+ of respondents answer 'No Party'.

The Japanese have always struck me as being apathetic when it comes to specific support of a particular candidate or party, but EXTREMELY reactionary in terms of government officials making unpalatable policy decisions. When the Japanese public views a leader as being bad (or not good enough), they quickly show it in terms of protest and outcry. Naoto Kan's term is a good recent example, but admittedly that was under pretty extreme circumstances.

Edit: I typed up a brief bio on Taro Aso, in case you're interested in adding it to the OP.

Taro Aso

In some ways responsible for the LDP's massive fall from power, Aso's infamy was sealed not only because of his extremely short term (one year before being voted out of office) and engineering the general house election that resulted in a crushing defeat for the LDP, but because of the myriad scandals and controversy surrounding him. Heavily prejudiced against the Burakumin (Japan's equivilant to India's 'untouchables'), Aso was caught multiple times making bigoted statements in regard to LDP campaign opponent Hiromu Nonaka's suitability for Prime Minister. There was additional controversy stemming from his mining company's history of using Allied POWs and conscripted Koreans as slave labor. Finally, Aso became known for mispronouncing/misreading commonly-used words during speeches.

Politically, Aso was most known for being extremely hawkish in his foreign policy, being openly hostile to China and Korea and highly supportive of the global war on terror. Aso also recognized Taiwan as an independent political entity, which didn't exactly win him points with the Chinese government. Other noteworthy points on Aso include his being the first Japanese Prime Minister to visit the Obama Administration, and for being one of the very, very few Roman Catholics in Japanese government.

Buck Wildman fucked around with this message at 23:30 on Jun 26, 2012

A sexy submarine
Jun 12, 2011
It's interesting to note that whilst Taro Aso was the grandson of Yoshida Shigeru, he shared none of his ancestor's political acumen. Also, he was a massive idiot who fully deserved his somewhat cruel moniker of Aho Taro (Taro the moron).

ErIog
Jul 11, 2001

:nsacloud:
OP, thanks for making this thread. I've lived in Japan for a while, and making sense of the stuff that goes on is difficult sometimes. The write-ups definitely helped me make sense of it. I'm going to try to be better about reading the newspaper and keeping up with current events in Japan. It gets kind of tiring, though, when every second story is something to do with Tepco, wreckage from the disaster, or nuclear plants in general.

A suggestion I have for the OP is that it would be great if you put in the proper Japanese names of things like people, places, and political parties. It'll make it easier for people who are introduced to Japanese politics by way of this thread to branch out into reading news from native sources.

MaterialConceptual posted:

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.

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.

Essentially I'm trying to find something akin to a Japanese version of the Economist or the Atlantic that's mostly focused on domestic journalism in Japan rather than foreign news.

FatherD posted:

Wow I really learned alot from that OP. I didn't even realize that Japanese politics were so complicated that you could make some sort of crazy faction based board game about the parties.

I think this is OP may be the most objective "insert country" politics thread out of all of them.

Only a few of us live in Japan, and there's kind of a language barrier for the native Japanese people to converse with us here. So it's easy to be objective when a lot of us don't really have a dog in the fight. I also doubt anyone in this thread is actually registered to vote in Japan, either. A lot of foreigners have some pretty crazy apathy when it comes to this stuff because they feel like they have zero control over any of it so they shouldn't bother.

ErIog fucked around with this message at 05:43 on Jun 27, 2012

Elec
Feb 25, 2007
I'm glad this thread exists, as I'm very interested in keeping informed, though none of my friends share that interest, and my wife can only follow along for so long before she just gets mad/bored.

We're in Tokyo. I convinced her that it was really important that she vote for Tokyo governor. I don't remember exactly who she voted for--it wasn't Mac Akasaka though, so no worries--but we were super bummed when Ishihara won again. That whole family is just, ugh.

After the quake/tsunami, we were introduced to Yukio Edano, who gave near constant updates, and such and garnered quite a bit of sympathy from the people for how long he continued. Some people I knew said he should be PM, but he seems to stay away from the limelight. I hope he's actually a Good Guy, because he seems pretty likable.

My two 'favorite' political stories recently are:
-Defense Minister Naoki Tanaka, literally not knowing anything about anything

-Maehara getting in trouble for taking donations from a "foreigner", which in these cases means an ethnic Chinese or Korean who was most likely born and raised in Japan and has a Japanese name.

Also I am really looking forward to Toru Hashimoto opinions, because the guy frustrates me to no end.

ReindeerF
Apr 20, 2002

Rubber Dinghy Rapids Bro
You should definitely feature ongoing updates of every crazy thing Ishihara says, because he is seriously loving entertaining just as a troll. hadji murad, another forum expat living over there, sends me news links from time to time and they're awesome - seems like he's always calling foreigners lazy and saying that Japan deserves some consequence for some moral failing. It's like if Bill O'Reilly and Pat Robertson's lovechild were Mayor of New York or something.

Al-Saqr posted:

I think you made a really big omission by failing to mention the fact that Koizumi beat Kim Jong-Il, the Chinese communist party followed by a Frankenstein Mao Zedong, George Bush (both of them), the pope, Putin, and rescued the world from a space Nazi invasion lead by a demigod Hitler and his evil twin children through the power of Mahjong.

The legend of Koizumi
This is loving hilarious even though I'm sure I don't get 80% of the referential humor.

ReindeerF fucked around with this message at 06:05 on Jun 27, 2012

MaterialConceptual
Jan 18, 2011

"It is rather that precisely in that which is newest the face of the world never alters, that this newest remains, in every aspect, the same. - This constitutes the eternity of hell."

-Walter Benjamin, "The Arcades Project"

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.

Essentially I'm trying to find something akin to a Japanese version of the Economist or the Atlantic that's mostly focused on domestic journalism in Japan rather than foreign news.

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/

Pompous Rhombus
Mar 11, 2007

Navaash posted:

I live in Osaka and nominally follow the political scene here. This is a city that's cracked down on dancing in nightclubs (as "unlicensed dancing") because of an obscure, outdated law that started getting selectively enforced last year out of nowhere.

Fukuoka's doing the same thing.

ReindeerF posted:

You should definitely feature ongoing updates of every crazy thing Ishihara says, because he is seriously
This is loving hilarious even though I'm sure I don't get 80% of the referential humor.

Parts 2 and 3 have little pop-ups that explain it, although I think you'd get most of it, really.

Apraxin
Feb 22, 2006

General-Admiral
Latest round of opinion polling from the Asahi is up at http://www.asahi.com/politics/update/0627/TKY201206270711.html.

Highlights:
Support for the Noda government holds steady at 27%, unchanged since April. 56% of respondents oppose the Sales Tax increase, 32% in favour, although hilariously only 29% approved of the Ozawa faction's opposing the bill, with 61% disapproving. To cap it off, 78% said that they have no expectations that a new 'Ozawa Party', if formed, would achieve anything good - this despite breakaway parties usually drawing a high level of support, at least in the short-term. I had no idea Ozawa was this unpopular.

Elec posted:

Also I am really looking forward to Toru Hashimoto opinions, because the guy frustrates me to no end.
Hashimoto's latest crusade is a campaign to eliminate the menace of public workers with tattoos (because the yakuza often heavily tattoo themselves, therefore all tattoos are yakuza-related). Back in February, a nursery worker showed some children a tattoo on his arm 'causing them to be afraid', so the mayor very reasonably forced 34,000 city workers to answer a questionnaire on whether they had tattoos, what sort, where etc. He didn't explain what would be done with the information, but did helpfully clarify that a list was being compiled of all workers who didn't respond to the survey, and that these workers 'shouldn't be surprised if they found their promotions blocked'. The survey has so far turned up 113 tattooed people, mostly maintenance and garbage disposal workers. Tattoo types include 'moons, turtles, and dolphins'. A further compulsory survey of 17,000 educators uncovered a total of 1 teacher and 9 educational support staff with tattoos. No children have reportedly been harmed, but directives have been issued banning any inking of new tattoos and instructing the removal of existing ones, where possible.

No comment on whether this is related to Hashimoto's rumored complex about his dad being a gangster.

Apraxin fucked around with this message at 17:57 on Jun 27, 2012

Buck Wildman
Mar 30, 2010

I am Metango, Galactic Governor


Apraxin posted:

I had no idea Ozawa was this unpopular.

It's been only three years since he got rocked by the funding scandal, and he was only just acquitted of a more recent indictment over misappropriation of funds:

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20110131x1.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/apr/26/japan-court-clears-ichiro-ozawa

The man's nothing if not resilient; who knows what will happen once the heat dies down.

He's also had a long track record of working behind the scenes through proxies, and the voting public may be uncertain as to his ability to take a more prominent role. This is only supposition on my part, though.

SirPhoebos
Dec 10, 2007

WELL THAT JUST HAPPENED!

A sexy submarine posted:


Liberal Democratic Party of Japan: (lit – Liberal Democracy party)



This is so :3:, It's hard to think that its the logo of a major political party in one of the world's most important democracies.

Are other party logos like this?

uinfuirudo
Aug 11, 2007

ReidRansom posted:

I want to be interested in Japanese politics. I really do. I like Japan, I have lots of friends there, but I just can't. It's so boring. Another year, another prime minister, a bunch of party infighting or some poo poo, and then nothing terribly important continues to happen.

You arent doing it right, Japanese politics if you are a political junkie are dull, but there is plenty of crazy to gawk at, right wing groups in busses, weird religious parties, and other things that are insane by our standards.

MaterialConceptual posted:

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.

See: Kan, Naoto. No really he married his cousin.

7c Nickel
Apr 27, 2008
So why haven't you guys put this guy in charge yet?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=df7jOd6HcIY

MaterialConceptual
Jan 18, 2011

"It is rather that precisely in that which is newest the face of the world never alters, that this newest remains, in every aspect, the same. - This constitutes the eternity of hell."

-Walter Benjamin, "The Arcades Project"

SirPhoebos posted:

This is so :3:, It's hard to think that its the logo of a major political party in one of the world's most important democracies.

Are other party logos like this?

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 :D)

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.

SirPhoebos
Dec 10, 2007

WELL THAT JUST HAPPENED!

MaterialConceptual posted:

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 :D)

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.

Well, if you're just comparing logos to logos, the Democrat and Republican logos look like something generated by a souless ad company robot. At least here it looks like someone actually cared about the false image they were presenting

Roadside_Picnic
Jun 7, 2012

by Fistgrrl

MaterialConceptual posted:

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.

My general impression is that Keizai is usually painfully dull, but that sounds like it's worth reading. I'll definitely read the translation--hell, I'll DO half the translation if you send me a pdf.

When I lived in Yokohama you could get Zen'ei at most of the big bookstores, though I guess Keizai sort of looked too specialized to stock. I usually just wound up reading sekai and small lefty journals anyway.

Have you ever tried to read anything by Fuwa Tetsuzo? It's really really dull.

EDIT: for additional stuff.

Roadside_Picnic fucked around with this message at 03:38 on Jun 28, 2012

Roadside_Picnic
Jun 7, 2012

by Fistgrrl

ErIog posted:



Essentially I'm trying to find something akin to a Japanese version of the Economist or the Atlantic that's mostly focused on domestic journalism in Japan rather than foreign news.

There used to be a pretty substantial center-moderate 総合誌 called Ronza, but it died. Aera is kind of a mix of real journalism and lifestyle pieces, and you can learn a lot about random Japanese social anxieties from it. Both エコノミスト and 東洋経済 are a lot like the Economist, though they're a lot more Keynesian.

Lawman 0
Aug 17, 2010

Wait how many chinese even live in japan now?
I would think they wouldn't be that welcomed...

Elec
Feb 25, 2007

Lawman 0 posted:

Wait how many chinese even live in japan now?
I would think they wouldn't be that welcomed...

There are like over 300,000 people of Chinese descent living in Japan. Quite a few were born and raised here. A lot of young Chinese come to Japan for work, study or travel, just like lots of Japanese people go to China for the same things. There are a lot of political and cultural tensions for sure but it's not like it's a racial terror day-to-day.

Apraxin posted:

Hashimoto
Yeah, I've been following this and it's just really crazy. From what I've heard (so basically, hearsay), Osaka actually *does* have a bigger yakuza problem than most other places, so you could argue that the worries are grounded in some sort of reality, but in the end I really just see everything he does as overstepping his bounds in every way, such as his plans for the Osaka metropolis as a whole. I'm glad to hear that some lawyers are getting involved but who knows.

On the news last night, I caught a video of him at a Kansai Electric shareholder meeting or something? He went over time, kept talking, and was drowned out by a ton of shouting. I wish I had been paying attention from the beginning of the story but I was distracted and wasn't really sure what was going on.

2ndclasscitizen
Jan 2, 2009

by Y Kant Ozma Post
So with the contant revolving door of Prime Ministers, do the governments try and have any long reaching policy programs? Or is it all just short-term payoff policy for quick gains in the polls to try and stave off the (apparently inevitable) knife in the PM's back?

MaterialConceptual
Jan 18, 2011

"It is rather that precisely in that which is newest the face of the world never alters, that this newest remains, in every aspect, the same. - This constitutes the eternity of hell."

-Walter Benjamin, "The Arcades Project"

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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Deleuzionist
Jul 20, 2010

we respect the antelope; for the antelope is not a mere antelope

7c Nickel posted:

So why haven't you guys put this guy in charge yet?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=df7jOd6HcIY

I'm so sad that video is titled "Revolutionary Fascist"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koichi_Toyama

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