The LDP shows who and what it (still) represents

...On the recent decision of Prime Minister Naoto Kan and all of his Cabinet members not to visit the shrine out of consideration for Asian victims of Japan's past militarism, Tanigaki said, "Each party has its own view." Japan Times

LDP chief Tanigaki will, of course, visit.

PM Kan's recent apology to South Korea for its colonial rule of the country further inflamed some of the right wing of the LDP:

Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of the LDP criticized the government's decision, describing Kan and Sengoku as "foolish" and "ignorant" about dealing with historical issues. Japan Times

One may disagree with ol' I-quit-'cause-I-gotta-sh*t Abe, the fellow with a long history of denying that the Japanese Imperial Army recruited women to serve as sex slaves during the war and who got into hot water for boldly stating same as PM, but one can not question his expertise on being "foolish and ignorant about dealing with historical issues."

Since Abe's attempt to lead Japan toward a Fujiwara Masahiko influenced Beautiful Country got nowhere, the LDP will now boldly try the same thing over and over. This is a brilliant strategy as sooner or later people will quite worrying about the 2010 economy and their future and focus on reliving the 1900s.

Edited to add: The DPJ could be accused of coming up with this because they seem to have little in the way of (visible) success for improving the economy and the future, but we will look at this as a positive for the party and not a cynical political move as the DPJ is concerned about improving Japan's relations in the region. Unlike the party of Tanigaki/Abe/Mori retrogrouches. Now, about the future...

Gobblins of the past

Was watching BS Fuji Live Prime News when that fellow who quit due to bowel trouble appeared, Ol' Beautiful Country Abe himself.

I actually got the creeps. I feel unclean and unwashed. Abe began to opinionate* about North Korea and I could not switch the channel fast enough.

For the simple-minded and naive, it is difficult to understand why anyone in the US would have any sort of nostalgia for the Japan of that fellow's party.

Today, it was reported in a number of articles that Secretary of State Clinton has moved to cool down the crisis(!!!???) over Futenma---though one reported that she expressed no willingness to compromise.** Joseph Nye had earlier written an article for the NYT trying to talk some sense into everyone---and it was necessary?

How unbelievable it is that such a thing escalated into what seemed to be (at least in news reports) such a major issue. If the US-Japan relationship is still "the most important relationship in the world, bar none"*** (or even close to it) how can that single issue "threaten" it? Obviously, we peons don't understand anything that's going on and cannot determine what is important and what is not. Our esteemed leaders cannot seem to explain what's going on and why it is of such importance either,**** which does not reflect especially well on them.

Hatoyama may not have handled the issue perfectly, but I do admire him for hanging tough. Maybe the days of Abe and his ilk are over for a while.

*Note to the language sensitive: Intentional use of Nonstandard English.
**Read it this morning, but cannot recall where.
***It obviously ain't now, if it ever was.
****Repeating the same-ol', same ol' a zillion times is not an explanation either, especially when the explanation seems to assume that the same ol' same ol' relationship will continue unchanged forever.

Beautiful country continued

Fired Japan Air Force Chief Gen. Toshio Tamogami (sorry, I meant Air Self-Defense Force. Air Force sounds like a military branch) defended his and his fellow traveler's interesting beliefs:

In his first public appearance since being sacked over the essay Friday, Tamogami reiterated that Japan was not an aggressor nation and that the people have been misled by erroneous education...

"It is necessary to revise the view that Japan did wrong during the war, if it wishes to prosper as a nation in the 21st century" ...

Tamogami also touched on the 1995 war apology issued by then Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama, saying the statement, now the government's official line on Japan's wartime responsibility, "needs verification." (means withdrawn?) Full article at Japan Times.

The same old thing over and over.

Confidence restored

MangaMan Aso is a man of action and as such has already appointed a fresh, competent cabinet.

His new tourism minister began by arguably being a bit too honest:

...Nariaki Nakayama wasted no time putting his foot in it. The day after stating that Japanese do not like foreigners and that the country is ethnically homogeneous...

...Asked how more foreign travelers might be enticed to come to Japan in the face of opposition from some locals, Nakayama responded, "Definitely, (Japanese) do not like or desire foreigners."

He added that Japan is extremely inward-looking and "ethnically homogeneous." (Japan Times.)

OK, so Japan is not "ethnically homogeneous." I assume that this error in fact is what the controversy is over as the rest of what he said rings true. Or is it because a man in his position should have more sense than to publicly make statements, well-intentioned/true or not?

Or, is the real sin this statement:

"In that sense, I envy somewhere like China"...

(Made when complaining about local opposition to the Narita airport expansion--- I guess he assumes that it would be better if he and his fellow rightwing nutjobs could repress protests as China can.)

Mr. Nakayama is one of rightwingers who has claimed that the Nanjing Massacre is a lie*, and was so happy that he could have s**t himself when references to sex slavery were removed from some school texts in 2005.

Maybe, just maybe, the LDP is on its last legs this time. These old goofs are going to continue these sorts of statements because they believe them---and in some cases making such statements satisfies the nutjob section LDP supporters. The question is if the public cares enough about these sorts of things to throw them out for more than one election cycle. I wonder, as even the pension scandal seems to have gone off the radar screen. Of course, if they do vote the LDP out then we'll get to see if the DPJ, led by Ozawa (???!!!), is any different.

* 29 Sept: I have also read that he actually said that the number of deaths has been exaggerated by China, but that he did not deny Nanjing occurred. Also, I deleted "Aso/Abe" from "rightwingers" as I do not know that either of them have claimed Nanjing is exaggerated or a lie.

Woman, 79, slashes two at Shibuya

Female pair wounded; suspect says she fled shelter, is broke, wants police to care for her.

A 79-year-old woman slashed two women with a fruit knife..."I thought police would take care of me if I caused an incident." JTOnline

Well, gotta add fruit knives to the list of knives to ban. Could it be possible that there are other problems that the government of old, never-had-a-new-idea-and-never-will geezers should look in to? Could it be possible that neither making new rules for the type of knives that can be legally sold, nor attempting to return the the "Beautiful Country" imaginary past will solve them? Could it be possible that there will be no perfect solution? Could there be problems with social welfare that should be looked into? Would the country not be better served by the LDP/DJP actually doing something? Will Fukuda et al take action? BAHAHAHAHA! Is this really an increasingly common problem, or does it just seem so because of the juiciness of the stories for the media?

2025: I love blogger. I can change the font size in "compose" mode with the target highlighted and nothing happens. Then I can check in "edit html" and supposedly font size is "normal", but yet when published it is extra large. Blogger does not have not 12/14 point sizes. That's why it's free(?)

He's baaacccckkkk

Bowel trouble mostly cleared up, ExLax PM Abe, best buddy of MangaMan Aso is gonna try once more to make Japan a Beautiful Country. No, he's not gonna leave, but is:

trying to move back into the political limelight, even though his close associates think it's too early. Japan Times (yet again)

24 August. I apologize for the childish attempt at humor by calling Abe an ExLax PM instead of ex-PM. I have been properly reprimanded.

Nutjob Watch

The esteemed (and dignified) Ms. Yoshiko Sakurai's recent newspaper ad and one of her blog posts is discussed on Shisaku in the post: Saved by the Bowel.

Others on the nutty right seem to have a different view of the US-China relationship than Ms. Sakurai. See Observing Japan: Komori on US China policy.

The price of xenophobia

Again, no surprises here. Japan to wants to return to the past which it never really left; to go to the fantasy world of Fujiwara. There are a few penalties to pay, but I am sure it can all be blamed on sneaky, Japan-bashing foreigners who don't understand The Beautiful Country:

By raising barriers to foreign investment and impeding the flow of foreign nationals, Japan, as a nation, is at risk of becoming a "subprime state."

[The Japanese Supreme Court labeling of Steel Partners as an "abusive acquirer"]...the overwhelming lesson to be learned from this case was that external capital is no longer welcome in Japan.

...there are also steps that affect the people who move through them [speaking of Japan's attempt restrict foreign investment in airports], in particular, foreign nationals.

It is hard to imagine another world-leading nation engaging in such regressive and exclusionary behavior. From an article in the JT online by Jochen Legewie, President of CNC Japan.

Japan has been playing a rather insincere game of being an international, open, market-based economy for decades. It has never really been true. Japan won't usually open anything unless outside pressure is applied---how often has the government taken the position that opening some sector of the market or even society to foreign companies or people is good because it is good for Japan and the Japanese?

I know it is childish and spiteful, but I wish other countries would take a simpler policy towards Japan. "OK, we can't enter or freely work in your markets/society. No problem. It's your country and your 'tradition.' We won't argue. However, your companies and your people will not have free access to our markets/society. That's all. Should you ever decide to open up, come and see us after you have do so. We don't want to hear sweet talk and "we are unique" excuses. It's action or nothing. Until then, goodbye."

If Japan wants to return to a Third World status let it. If it wants to give up let it.

MangaMan is tanned, rested, and ready

Now that it once again seems possible that the U.S. election will revert to folks advocating doing the same old thing over and over and expecting different results, Japanese politics may become interesting. Fukuda is a bit boring and although there are rumors that he is actually doing something, what that something is isn't noticeable unless all the new paint in your world has dried and you've nothing else to do except pay attention to him and his crew.

There is a post on Observing Japan about the comic book man and noted right-winger Taro Aso prepping himself for the prime minister spot after Fukuda fades away. (Well, old LDP leaders never die and also seem to never really fade away. Nakasone is still around in some role.) Taro has come to the conclusion that Japan needs a spine. Well, no doubt it could use one (and Uncle Sam could assist by withdrawing the supposedly evil, crime-prone U.S. military that the Japanese media so loves to hate, and by tearing up the Security Treaty) but the question is: What would getting a spine mean for Japan? Pretending it was a victim in WW2 and denying any wrong-doing? Insist that the women used as sex slaves during the war by the Japanese military apologize to Japan? Asking Korea to repay Japan for all the infrastructure it built during Japan's 35 year occupation of the country? Being more aggressive in its territorial disputes with China? Acting on "Blinky" Ishihara's idea from a few years ago to attack North Korea? Taking Abe's Beautiful Country ideas to the extreme?

Oh, MangaMan would be quite entertaining, infuriating, and everything else one would expect from a man who thinks that Japan could gain international understanding for its foreign policy through comic books. It has a foreign policy other than selling Japanese products or angering its neighbors?)

Kanagawa Prefecture Education Board goes Blinky

A few years ago, the rightist bigot and Tokyo governor Shintaro "Blinky" Ishihara got Tokyo prefecture to attempt to force all school teachers to stand during the playing of the national anthem. Many object to this as they remember the role of teachers in WW2 in helping the state instill jingoism and obedience to the emperor in students. Blinky and the Tokyo government have lost court decisions challenging the legality of this order, but they are appealing it.

Kanagawa prefecture, the home of a politician who became a little controversial among the foreign residents (like Ishihara, his remarks/beliefs didn't cause much of a reaction among the native-born citizens) who said that ALL non-Japanese in the prefecture were criminals and who refused to apologize or retract his statement, has an Education Board that wants to step up to the plate and punish citizens who disagree with its stance:

The Kanagawa prefectural education board decided Monday to continue collecting the names of teachers who refuse to stand when the "Kimigayo" national anthem is sung in school ceremonies, board officials said.

The board's decision defies a recommendation by a prefectural panel on protection of personal information that it stop the practice.

"It's undesirable there are such school staff members who don't stand (to sing the anthem), as enrollment and graduation ceremonies are important events," said Takaichi Hikichi, head of the education board. More here.

Blinky, "Beautiful Country" Abe, "Comic Book" Aso, and I assume "Barcode-head" Fujiwara must all be panting, giggling, and blinking rapidly with delirious glee.

Right-wing fantasies in Japan

Tobias Harris (Observing Japan) has written an interesting piece on the mindset of some of the "conservatives" in the LDP.

Based on his reading of an interview with three right-wing LDP members in the Japanese magazine Voice, he notes:

• This group believes that there was nothing wrong with Abe and that his attempt to move the country much further to the right.*
• Fukuda is making a big mistake by not pressing on with Abe's constitutional reforms.
• And of course the Chinese influence on the US government.

There is much more to read here.

I don't know to what extent the Japanese public agrees or disagrees with Abe's and his fellow nutjobs' basic views. It seems more of a case of them finding those views to be at the bottom of their list of priorities. The test, in my opinion, is who is consistently elected and re-elected.

*The "right" or "conservatism" in Japan is much different than conservative politics in the US. Perhaps as different as the American left and Castro's "left," though I suppose in the polarized US political debate, the left would be more than happy to claim that both country's conservatives are the same.

Another Scandal

This one by a Japanese firm which was given a contract by the government to clean up WW2 era chemical weapons which remain in China. It didn't. Instead, Abandoned Chemical Weapons Disposal Corp. stole the money.

"Those profiteers were taking advantage ... preying on the very victims who should be helped by this project," said Norio Minami, a Japanese lawyer supporting Chinese injured by the poison gas. "Japan's loss of credibility is inevitable." AP article here.

It's a good thing this is Japan though, where this kind of thing is not standard like it is in those foreign countries. One has to suspect that this sort of crime, as well as the Akafuku garbage-as-food scandal is somehow a result of foreign influence. Anyway Japan can't be spending time cleaning up poison in China when we have to worry about poisoned-food sold by Japanese companies. Oh, sorry, perhaps that is a bit overblown. It's been 40 odd years since a Japanese company negligently mass-poisoned Japanese. (Chisso Corp in Minamata.)
At least as far as we know.....

Shift the future

Japan is following the old Nissan ad---moving boldly forward into the future. Koizumi trashed a lot of the old-boy factions, the protectionism, the closed club of politics and business in Japan to some degree. Abe moved forward by ignoring the economy and allowing the old gummers to move back in: thus the return to cross-share holding of equity in Japanese companies and so on. He also decided that Japan did nothing really wrong in WW2 so he moved boldly into the future with hallucinations of a "beautiful country" based on revisionist/denial nonsense.

Will the next PM be the old school elitist (this alone would give Fujiwara Masahiko a boner) bigot Aso or the youthful 71-year old Yasuo Fukuda. As Japan's economy appears to be slowing and returning to the past, this old guy is sure to put things back on track. With either as PM, the old-boy club is sure to be gone as Japan rushes forward into the 1980s. Warning: sarcasm. (At least Fukuda appears not to be a member of the Yasukuni worshiper nutjob crowd.)

A Reuters article is at the NYT temporarily here.

Also see: The battle to become the next Prime Minister of Japan has narrowed into a confrontation between an unpredictable right-winger with a penchant for comic books and a colourless and austere moderate who admits the contest has left him “flustered”. From Times Online.

Working in Japan?

Work rules that employers can create unilaterally and change at will. The essence of the draft of the “Labor contract law,” prepared by the ministry of Welfare and Labor to be submitted to the current Diet session, is to make these work rules into “labor contracts.”

...the number of disputes between individual workers and employers has increased, so the Ministry view is that the contractual rules between company and worker need to be clarified.

....The proposed law would apply to all aspects of employment contracts from hiring to retirement, seconding to related firms, or shifting a worker’s contract to another firm. Particular emphasis is placed on consolidating rules concerning “changes in labor conditions.” (From a Japan Focus article "A contract law that "enslaves" Japanese working people, by Suda Mitsuteru. You can read it HERE.)

And you can bet your last yen that in Japan that those "clarified" rules will always favor the employer. (No doubt it is heading that way in the US, but not so far, and not so fast. And it never started from the same point an of employer-favored environment anyway.)

Although this legislation has not yet been approved, it should worry anyone working in Japan. And after my experiences at 2 of my previous workplaces in Japan, the worst* of which was that eikaiwa company starting with a "B" and ending with "z" and spelled B-e-r-l-i-t-z, I am very concerned. This new law seems to mean that the company can do what it wants to a very large degree. What are you going to do about it---sue? In Japan? Got 20 years to wait and even if you do win, get an award of an absurdly small amount of money that wouldn't even cover 1/2 the legal expenses?

The author goes on to explain that the new law will mean that work rules will be entirely decided by the company unless they violate the law or a current contract (and as explained in the article, that latter exception may not be ironclad). All they need do is ask an opinion from the employees. It makes no difference what the opinion is, nor whether 100% object. As long as they ask for an opinion, that is all that will be needed.


*I wrote earlier about some of the experiences I (and others) had at Berlitz. In actuality, they needed change work rules as they tended to ignore them anyway if they thought they could get away with it.

Abe says he'll stay on

as PM. According to NHK TV, Abe believes his loss was due to scandals by his cabinet and the pension disaster and had nothing to due with his education/constitution reforms. Therefor, he won't resign as his policies weren't rejected by the public. I suspect that he is right, people are most concerned about the first two and other money issues.

Abe campaigns with the bigot Ishihara

Rightwing revisionist Abe campaigned for the LDP with the well-known racist and bigoted governor of Tokyo, Shintaro "Blinky" Ishihara. This was apparently to make sure that all the extremist voters were covered. Well, perhaps that's going too far. After all, the citizens of Tokyo elected Ishihara 4 times, and one could never say that there was any racism/bigotry/nationalism involved. After all, such things don't exist in Japan.

It seems unlikely that this will work though, for the citizens seem to be more concerned about money issues and the continued scandals under Abe and the LDP than they are in Abe's "Beautiful Country." (Some may be shocked that money is important to people here as it is everywhere else except Fijuwara's neo-bushidoist dreamworld and in a few socialist/Marxist fantasies).

Ichiro Ozawa's Democratic Party may be poised to win:

“If we fail to win a majority and allow Abe’s administration to survive, it means democracy will never take root in Japan,” Mr. Ozawa said Saturday. From the Japan Times. Full article here.

Huh? Japan is not a democracy? How 1980s.

Abe and the LDP's rational

I believe that the Abe administration is playing down the issues of "comfort women" and the Okinawa mass suicides in order to restore the Japanese Imperial forces their honor by covering up the historical facts that disgrace them. This appears to be part of Abe's widely touted agenda of creating a "beautiful Japan."

From the Japan Times Online Tokyo Shimbun editorial writer Hiroku Hanai. Full article here.

Although Abe is a right wing nutjob, most Japanese

are not. His administration is sinking in popularity. His fixation on creating a "Beautiful Country" of nationalism mainly (only) for "pure" Japanese seems to be not at all popular. His idea of revising the constitution to what seems to be pre-war standards is of importance to only 6.2% of those who responded to a recent poll. If accurate, it is refreshing to know that only a minority of folks are actively hoping for a return to 1938.

Surprisingly, even the North Korea issue only comes in at 32.8% despite the government forcing NHK to concentrate on that issue, and the governments manipulation of facts and science regarding the same.

Even members of Abe's right wing LDP seem to have little respect for him as they were recently chewed out for not standing when Beautiful Abe entered the room.

Of course one of the problems with his lack of support, in addition to his total disregard of economic issues is the fact that other than trying to push the country to a nationalistic right, nobody can tell exactly what he plans to do. It's as if he thinks all he has to do is make folks very patriotic, reduce individual rights, and harp on North Korea and somehow everything will be ok. Japan will turn into a beautiful country. What does that really mean anyway? A beautiful country? Even he has not really be clear about it.

Japan Focus has an article about this, if they don't remove it HERE

U.N. Rep responds to Japan's assertion of homogenuity

A few days ago Japan's Education Minister, Bunmei Ibuki (who is in need of education himself), made the bizarrely inaccurate and false claim that Japan is a homogeneous society.

The U.N. special rapporteur on racism, racial discrimination, and xenophobia responded:

"There is no such thing as pure blooded or a pure race. Where do the Ainu fit in to Japanese society? Or the Chinese and Koreans?"

"I am absolutely shocked at his remark. Here is the education minister, the person who in charge of educating Japan's children about their history, saying something that is so outdated."

I am shocked that he is shocked. I would assume he would have a lot to respond to about Japan. I guess since he is in Japan now, he was able to see and hear about Ibuki's comment directly.

One would not likely see many European politicians get a free pass for bigoted and racist comments the way Japan's leaders do. Perhaps nobody expects any better of them.

Have not as of yet heard much domestic criticism of Ibuki's remarks. That may change since a U.N. representative has commented on them. Or it may just be ignored by the Japanese language press and of course Japan's elite.

Abe agrees with Ibuki as this is in keeping with his vision of a "beautiful country." I assume that means a Japan with no non-pure Japanese defiling it.

Abe's Beautiful country to kids: Screw you too!

Reversal: Nine kids with Japanese dads not citizens from the Japan Times.

Abe's "Beautiful country." Oh well, does the fact that Japan will not recognize many children of Japanese men and non-Japanese women as citizens of Japan actually surprise anyone?

"Presiding Judge Hidetoshi Somiya said the law is justified and does not interfere with the children's constitutional right to equality...."

"...The nine plaintiffs, between the ages of 7 and 13 and all born in Japan, have Philippine citizenship and live in Tokyo and Chiba, Saitama, Kanagawa and Aichi prefectures with permanent residence status..."