Does any party have the ideas and vision needed to help Tokyo overcome its myriad challenges?
Japan’s politicians have been released from legislative deliberations, and are rushing to prepare for the next Lower House election, scheduled for December 16. The media is in hot pursuit as politicians change allegiances and new parties emerge and join forces against Japan’s old legislative guard. There is a palpable frenzy of criticism against Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and his much maligned ruling party, the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ). But to think this election is just a referendum against the DPJ misses the point. This election will shape Japan’s choices for years to come.
Ever since the DPJ came into power, the effort to force it back into an election has driven opposition parties, most notably the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). Several rounds of no-confidence votes were put forward in the Diet, one purportedly a deal between the DPJ’s Ichiro Ozawa and then LDP president Sadakazu Tanigaki. Efforts to forge a policy consensus between the DPJ and the LDP seemed destined to fail, as electoral ambitions colored the policy deliberations more thoroughly than the pros and cons of policy options.
Today’s excitement is enjoyed only by the politicians. Personal loyalties are being tested, and individual politicians, first and foremost within Prime Minister Noda’s own party, are leaving their old parties and saddling up with new partners in preparation for this next election. The notion that members of the DPJ and the LDP, not all that far apart in their interests and sentiments, could forge another round of political realignment is again being put forward as the logical outcome of political change. The erosion of the single party dominance of the LDP in the 1990s is lamented as part of Japan’s political problem, and thus the solution is simply to build a new party that will once again bring the calm and stately management of government back in a new guise.
But watching the currents of politics in Tokyo these days, I find this idea of a grand coalition hard to grasp. First of all, this idea seems to overlook the fact that the DPJ itself was a realignment of this type, a forging of a coalition among those who wanted to put forward a viable political party that could contest the LDP’s longstanding grip on power. The coalition that emerged as the DPJ was hard to manage, however, once the party took power. Second, the erosion in DPJ membership, most notably the decision by Ozawa and his followers to leave the party in July, may have strengthened the DPJ rather than weakened it. Those who remain—such as Noda, Katsuya Okada, Koichiro Genba, Seiji Maehara, Yukio Edano, Motohisa Furukawa, and Goshi Hosono to name just a few—are staunchly reformist in their beliefs, and they have considerable experience in government. At a time when the party seems increasingly defined by their leadership, I find it hard to believe that they will want to merge with the LDP.
Photo Credit: Office of the Prime Minister: Japan
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anon
Isn't this supposed to be a discussion on the upcoming election and opportunity for reform in Japan. I'm amazed at how everything always descends into a cock fight between rednecks and CPC mouth pieces on this site
Seth
I think TD needs a forum specifically for nationalistic rants – that way it doesn't spill out and dominate the comment section of every article.
ACT
@all of the above
is is just me, or is the Diplomat's commentary section increasingly populated by xenophobic, ultra-nationalist racists of the kind who would have, in 1930s Germany, flocked eagerly to the Nazi rallies? This is a comment about both sides, but certain individuals (John Chan, Jean-Paul, John LaChance, i'm looking at you) have been increasingly reactionary, and seem to feed off of each other's rhetoric. Special mention goes to Bankotsu, who–while at times logical–is the biggest hypocrite of them all, consistently saying that China is going to have a peaceful rise and then actively calling for a division of the pacific between the US and China a la Treaty of Tordesillas so that China might have its own "east asian co-prosperity sphere" (complete with the implied atrocities due to the rampant ethnocentrism inherent in Chinese culture, as well as the fact that the CPC deliberately enculturates its youth with a revenge complex [see: "righting historical wrongs"]).
.
But i digress; Ampontan has made good coverage of the recent Japanese elections, which make a mockery of US passion for politics; the Japanese are obviously very motivated with regards to deciding their country's future, but the question remains as to whether the Japanese politicians will be able to put the national interest above party politics (as is going on in the US to a more stupefying and embarrassing degree); if there's one thing to congratulate the CPC on, it's that despite all the self-interest and corruption, they still manage to maintain their nation's course upwards! I would advise against total japanese re-armament, however, if only for the reason that doing so would spark protests and actions within hte PRC that would make the events surrounding the nationalization of the senkaku-jima/Daioyutai look like a friendly Gangnam-style flashmob.
JohnX
I agree with you as its become harder to find intelligent comments here.
Though in my case I tend not to say anything at times as its pointless. I do try to speak out against the most inaccurate comments though, but it does seem pointless.
Find a quiet place to survive and try to outlast this hatred is my advice. No one seems to want to listen or learn from each other and Global Times and other blogs really make me cringe for human intelligence.
John Chan
@ACT,
None of the pro-China bloggers is aggressive, all they did is to present their point of view of world events in the eyes of a Chinese; they all passively expose the lies told on China, clear smear painted on China and correct the distorted facts fabricated for China. Besides all pro-China bloggers’ rebuttals are civilized comparing to the agitators’ incitation.
The perpetrator of the recent deterioration in commentary section is Jean-Paul and the new addition John LaChance, both of them are way more noxious than other ant-China bloggers.
Indeed both Jean-Paul and John LaChance remind us the Third Reich and Fascist Japan.
ACT
@John Chan
lies eh? then why are the various nations of the ASEAN almost exclusively flocking to the US for military support?
civilized? perhaps. But that doesn't deny the fact that many comments by you, vic, and other pro-china bloggers have either blatantly warped the truth as the rest of the world (excluding north korea) knows it, or have been jingoistic and ethnocentric in the extreme; while the PRC may not have de-jure ethnocentrism, it certainly has de-facto ethnocentrism, much of which is very obvious in your many comments, Chan; calling the US "predatory" and "imperialist" is effectively throwing a tomato at the mirror considering the end goal of every single one of the PRC's military actions over the whole of its existence; in fact, that's what scares people in the US: it's not that China is different; its that China is exactly the same when it comes to ethnocentrism, sense of destiny, and the need to achieve predominance at almost any cost; while the PRC doesn't want global hegemony, it does want to resurrect its old tributary empire (which, if you carefully examine China's recent history, is effectively the meaning behind "righting historical wrongs").
"Fascist Japan"
need i remind you, once again, that the generation that fought that war is almost entirely dead; visiting the shrine to japanese war-dead is no different that a US president visiting Arlington Cemetery; the Japanese you hate so passionately have not espoused war for approximately 70 years now, and i would hardly call your nation's reaction to Japan forcing the status quo "civilized"; not when your government leads protestors around using plainclothes police to deliberately hunt down japanese citizens in China and torch their establishments. If you need further proof, look at the reaction of the Japanese public when the SDF was deployed as part of the US alliance during the invasion of Iraq in 2003: they wanted their forces out of there, post-haste. What you see as "fascist japan" is a deliberate focus on Japanese atrocities–despite the fact that the government that committed them is now 67 years gone–by your government to justify your government's returning the favor with interest when it has the strength to do so; this is not intended to make light of the horrors that were inflicted upon your people by them, but the grandsons and great-grandsons should not have to suffer for the crimes of their ancestors, not when no less than 7 different heads of state and other government officials have formally apologized to your own.
Jean-Paul
@ ACT
I have been a peaceful lurker of this site and its comment section for several months now and have watched John Chan and other chinese posters rant belligerently against the USA, Japan, Europe and white people the entire time.
I am merely trying to point out the blatant, painful hypocrisy that these arrogant chinese posters display on a daily basis in the comments section. It is rather appalling and painful to read them in fact. I do enjoy your posts along with JohnX, and imperium Vita's posts as well as they are often insightful and well written.
I apologize if my posts are a bit too strong in nature, but I feel it is necessary because sometimes being given a taste of your own medicine can cause you to become self reflective as well.
John Chan
@ACT,
I thought you want honest discussions, it seem I was mistaken.
John Chan
@Jean-Paul,
You need to read Mathew 7 “Judging Others” in the Gospel. Committing sin then explaining it away with morality even the Gospel could not anticipate.
ACT
@John Chan
i did want honest discussion: however, while vic and bankotsu manage to provide the occasional valuable insight or smart comment, you tend to fly off the handle; almost every single argument you make somehow descends into an argument about how "the white man's truth is not the only truth". Yes, every ethnicity has a viewpoint, and the more viewpoints we have the better for us all. However, when you type that line over, and over, and over again it doesn't feel like "you" writing; what i want to know is your feelings on the matter, your experience on the ground that shapes your perspective. Vic has done this before. So has Bankotsu; i want to know your opinion within this debate, not the opinion of the CPC whose party line you so often appear to represent.
ACT
@John Chan
to put it more succinctly, where is your proof that much of what is said here is smearing or lies aimed at China? i can even support your argument to an extent; in my research into just this, i ran across an article called "my hearsay is better than your hearsay: what really happened at tiananmen square"; as it turns out, there was no Tiananmen Square Massacre; to all evidence, the students seem to have been escorted from the square peacefully. There was, however, a Beijing massacre, where the PLA deliberately targeted rioting workers who were rioting in support of the student unions who had taken the square, and only then because those rioters started throwing molotov cocktails at tanks (www . bearcanada . com/china/letstalkabouttam . html). If you can provide evidence such as this, then perhaps more people will listen to you.
Japan: What has Japan done to you, personally, in the past 25 years? nothing? good. Alright then, so why all the hatred against the great-grandchildren of the WWII soldiers who comitted these crimes? they have nothing to do with what went on!
JonathonT
ACT is right, except there are lies and smear spread on all sides by some bloggers, but not all. John Chan you can't entirely prove that everything is lies and smears aimed at China, sometimes there is. But in most of these cases the comments are made by people who aren't genuinely putting forward an honest and thought out point of view, they are just trying to make you mad just for fun and you take the bait.
Having said that, you John Chan have gone off the rails with some of your comments, In the past you have made comments about Australia and I would like to remind you that it was Australian troops in China, fighting alongside Chinese, to protect China from a Japanese invasion during WW2. That however is not the point I am making, the point is that both Chinese and Australians, as well as British, New Zealand perhaps Americans (Not entirely sure if America had any involvement in the war at this stage let alone if they raised a hand for China's defence) suffered in Japanese POW camps atrocities commited by Japanese commanders of these camps. Now that is a small number of people, it does not reflect the country as a whole. And since their defeat as ACT has said, Japan has not been involved in any such acts of violence since.
We hear alot of bad things happening with China, committed by a group of people, this does shape our outside views of your country as a whole, but that doesn't mean we treat it like if one person is like that, the whole country is like that. And yes you did raise a good point that you are sharing the point of view from Chinese eyes, but at the end of the day we are all blogging on here talking about our views on what we read on here when the honest truth of the matter is what we read here is only scratching the surface of the true reality of what is happening, none of us are qualified to have a realistic opinion because we don't have all the information. So just relax mate, try not to let the trolls get to you, and don't think the world is out to get you, because it really isn't… unless you live in Australia, because mother nature really is out to get you and has an armory to do the job.
Seth
100% agree – it's hard read most of these comments because I feel like they are attacking one side or another. Not sure why The Diplomat attracts some of the most racist, nationalistic people out there.
Sacramento
Arm and go bankrupt, Japan. Please do. There are multitudes of articles out there that say China will go bankrupt in an arms race. Like Japan won't? Why doesn't the US help fund this arms race? Because it can't. If it were so easy to beat China in an arms race, why isn't it happening right now? Thinking of invading Asia like during WWII? That's why there are nukes. Japan can build up nukes but using them means all that fallout blows back at them. Sort of like falling on your own sword. Japan's economic problems have nothing to do with China. Japan is only rich because it either invaded other countries and took what it wanted or they're dependent on others to sell their exports. Not good for a country that wants to be independent. It's not like Japanese are monks not wanting material wealth. They like wealth and all the rewards it can buy. So Japan will always be an aggressor like during WWII or a lackey to the US. It will be either not neither of those.
DD
Japan should rearm & boost its defense capability as fast as possible to defense itself against the shark China. Don't count too much on the US' security umbrella. That's the only way for other countries in the Asia-Pacific to survive in a hostile dangerous environment recently caused by an increasingly aggressive ambitious hegemonic China.
Sacramento
All you have to do is look at the deer-in-the-headlights known as the Japanese economy. No one elses fault but crony Japanese thinking. You think Japan is going to get out of that anytime soon? Japan is dying by its own sword. Population is declining where all that is left is a bunch of old Japanese men. The Japanese women outmarry more than any other country. The sun is truly setting on Japan in more ways than you think.
John Chan
@DD,
Plaza Accord set Japan back economically and caused it to spiral into lost decades and counting, because Japan did well in economy without the USA blessing.
What will be the penalty if Japan does well in rearmament without USA’s blessing is an interesting question. We all know what happened the last time when Japan did well in armament that could challenge the USA, don’t we?
DD
Don't blame the US for all your faults or failure.Even without the Plaza Accord, China will also surely be slipping into the lost decade like Japan before. It's China's export-led mercantilist & investment-heavy growth model will bring it down for good if there were no serious reforms in the coming years. Japan's rearmament ( not militarism) is just something quite normal for any nation in the face of security threats from other hostile foreign countries. The breakup of current China would start right from Tibet. It's quite a shame & unacceptable for any kind of racism ( if any) in this forum!
John Chan
@DD,
Can’t stand with each other because of their arrogance and selfishness, so that continuous breakup is the European’s trait. On the other hand Chinese values peace and harmony, therefore after thousands of years China is still around as an entity.
With the European inherence and the mounting national debt there is a real concern that the USA is going to break up, because all states want to negate their responsibilities of the national debt in order to protect their own gains. So please watching out the cliff in front of your step instead of yelling wolf coming to the shepherd afar is more constructive.
DD
Just want to remind you that 'All American national debts are denominated in DOLLAR, its own CURRENCY. Period'. BTW, do you know that China's real debt-to- GDP ratio currently is from 96% ($5.8 trillions) — 180%, in comparison with 115%, Greece, 227%, Japan & 101%, US? There's a big difference b/w the US & China that you need to know ' By tradition, all American political & economic crises are soluble whereas all Chinese political or economic ones are really hard to find/ come up with a solution.' You will see the fiscal cliff be surely avoided or resolved in the coming days. But in your China it's so sad that there'll be a lot of trouble & hard times lying ahead for its people!
John Chan
The Diplomat is losing its moral grip; it cannot stand the rational arguments put out by the bloggers around the world to promote peace, liberty and freedom for the world. It is resorting to publish Fascist toxic hate ranting like the comments put out by John LaChance and Jean-Paul to create animosity and acrimony around the world.
The USA is definitely in decline, even its propaganda proxy is losing its cool and exposing its root deep in Nazi and Fascist Japan.
Jean-Paul
John Chan the white does not need to be even 5% of the worlds population because quantity does not matter, it is the quality of the person that matters. As long as the whites live in the first world economies they will prosper, this I have no doubt. The European governments such as France are doing what they can to support proper immigration rules and to increase the birth rates.
Also western culture will be the beacon towards freedom and prosperity for the next 250+ years as other cultures are beginning to accept western culture superiority. For example when Japan accepted western culture superiority they also became a first world economy, same with south korea as well. Hopefully China can learn the same so it does not fall into the middle-income trap.
Until Chinese learn western culture they cannot grow to be the inventive genius like we have in the west. Thats why the west and japan have been leading the world in technology for so long, look to this to see how inferior chinese culture is http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/peo_nob_pri_lau-people-nobel-prize-laureates.
Look how many nobel prize winners France has, despite being a nation of only roughly 65 million people we have over 5000% more inventive genius's compared to China. See John Chan, the white can only be less than even 2% of world population and still overcome the robot ant colony culture of the chinese.
John Chan
@Jean-Paul,
Neither Japanese nor Korean thinks of western culture very much; they still stuck in the culture they copied from China. Most of them hardly know English, French is an unknown gibberish in Japan and Korea. All they took from the West was bits and pieces what they thought it was useful, just like the West stole from China, Muslim and India what they thought it was useful.
Nobel set up the award to promote peace and science advancement for the humanity, I must protest on his behalf that you abused his award to promote White racism, and smeared Nobel’s reputation recklessly.
The White is only 5% of the world population, and the current Nobel prize is a Whiteman self-perpetuating carnival hosted by a group of unaccountable weirdoes behind the close door in a remote corner of the world; using an unrepresentative minority’s handiwork to gauge the 95% of world population’s contribution to the humanity surely is a distorted hubris beyond recognition. Besides French falls far behind the English and the Germans in the Nobel medal counts, are you saying the French is inferior to the English and the Germans?
The current western culture is only 150 years long, it is only a blip in the human history, and it will die off very soon if the White becomes hubris and bigotry like you, Romans died off for good because its citizens acquired the characteristics displayed by you. The declining western influence in the world is a sign of the West walking the Romans’ path.
Seth
Very much enjoyed this comment. You know, I'm a white American liberal who never tries to suggest that my culture or identity is superior to any others – but to read comments like John-chan's really pisses me off.
Western society has made mistakes, sure, but that doesn't mean that westerners don't have a lot to be proud of. We value *individual rights, justice, rule of law; – that is a lot to be proud of and I'm tired of hearing Chinese people be critical of America and Europeans as tho we are old new and doing everything wrong.
Perhaps the reason that we are developed, stable economies with fair labor practices should count for something? Or maybe the fact that de-facto slave labor in "new-news" countries like China is the primary reason for the lower job market stability of the last 5 years.
John LaChance
Ishihara's way of thinking is so old-fashioned. Who really wants to pollute the earth with more radiation? Here is how it's done. It's simple. It's the new way to fight wars. Remember how the Soviet Union used to be dangerous. Now, it's just Russia, with lots of other big countries. Remember Yugoslavia. Now it's just Serbia, with lots of other little countries. That's how we fight China and bring the world back from the precipice of nuclear holocaust or, just as bad, Chinese hegemony. How? We break up China, using the advantageous weapon of greed that is consuming the east and southeast coasts of China.
A really bad problem for us would be if the highly productive east and southeast coasts remained as a single unit. Think of it this way. These people are the entrepreneurs and educated workers in sophisticated companies. The hinterlands are full of poor people dependent on government largesse. In fact, the new government in China has made it policy that redistribution is the norm for the next ten years. Let's carve out three new countries in the hinterlands: Tibet for Tibetans, Xinjiang for Uighurs, Inner Mongolia for Mongols. How? Subversion, of course. Have you heard of the internet?
The greedy coast would love to dump the hinterlands, so they wouldn't have to share their wealth. Just imagine. They got rich in the last ten years, richer than most Americans. That's the truth. Now the government is telling them that they will be taxed to death to support the other half of the population. Yeah, the coast wants to dump these poor cousins, as long as their businesses maintain contractual control of the resources in those areas. That means the provincial governments on the coast will fight against Beijing to keep their wealth…if Japan and the US are smart enough to pollute the Chinese mind with clever propaganda working on their greed to keep it all to themselves.
During its entire history, China does this sort of thing, going from an inward-looking phase as under Mao and an outward-looking phase, as they're experiencing now. With the new government policy of redistribution, the coast has begun to think it can do better by itself than with Beijing running things. Problem for us is if the coast manages to stay together as a unit, because then they'd have 700 million strong.
That's why, right now, Japan and the US should start making sure that the huge cities start thinking of themselves like the city-states of Shanghai and Hong Kong. For instance, Guangdong has a population of over 100 million people. Think of it. This one Chinese city (a city) has one-third of the entire population of th e United States. Henan, Sichuan and Shangdong aren't far behind. These can serve as the hubs of individual countries equivalent to the US in population. At a minimum, we need the coast broken down into three separate countries vying with each other for market share instead of vying with other Asians in the South China Sea and the East China sea for political or territorial control.
Yeah, you're getting the idea. China as a monolith, the way it is now, is a monster just beginning to open its cavernous maw and eat up Japan. Follow my advice and, with clever propaganda, break it down to manageable units: six individual countries where there was once China, where once there was a Soviet Union, where once there was a Yugoslavia.
applesauce
of course the best way dealing with your geopolitical enemies is for your enemies to disappear and a dissolution of their nation is a good way to accomplish that (ie: soviet union).
however it is flat out not possible with china for the forseeable future, the CIA certainly have tried in the past and failed in places like tibet.
you seem to think that the regional government have any chance at all to go directly against Beijing's wishes, that is laughable at best. your whole plan rests on encouraging the coast to dump the inlands which is not going to happen so long as beijing does not wish it, and beijing would rather a nuclear war happen than to let territory go, as shown by actions ranging from war with india in 1962 to current spats in the near seas to new passports that reinforce their claims.
In china the government owns the most powerful business not the other way around and those who are wealthy are only so because the government lets them not to mention the most wealth are all a part of the government either directly or through relatives, the last thing they want to do is to go against the government, for that is the quickest way to lose everything.
and your comparison with other nations that broke up really doesn't work, none has a history like china and if the US or any other country push propaganda/actual support for separatists Beijing can and will push back very hard and for what? china is more likely to become stronger as the government points out foreign plots against the Chinese peoples. there is a good reason the US stopped such activities almost 50 years ago
John Chan
“China does not export revolution; it does not export famine and poverty; and finally, it does not mess around with you (the West)” such conciliatory approach is taken by the USA and its lackeys as weakness, so they are bellicose against China without fear, John LaChance, is the typical example of the Westerners.
Conciliatory and harmony are foreign concept to the Westerners; the Western culture only understands “eye for eye and tooth for tooth,” “survival the fittest,” and “end justify means.”
Qing has made the mistake of not understanding the Western culture; it seems China has yet understood the West and its culture. John LaChance exposed the Western culture naked in a postage-stamp-size internet stage.
ACT
@John Chan
for once, i agree with you; John Lachance is either trolling for a reaction, or is just that wildly paranoid.
DD
Very interesting idea. Quite agree with you, pal!
Jean-Paul
@ John Lachance
I couldnt agree with you more, these chinese and their ant-colony culture cannot be allowed to expand further beyond their own borders, such a thing would slowly lead to the destruction of the human race and the entire planet no doubt. There is simply no way the earth could support a 1+ billion human ant colony running around mass polluting the entire planet.
Not only would the entire earth have to be mass polluted to support a first world china but chinese culture would bring about the destruction of individual freedom and liberty as their robot mentality and slave like work ethic would destroy all the progress western culture has made toward the liberty and freedom of the human mind.
John chan
@Jean-Paul,
By the year 2050, the world population will be 10 billions, and the White will be less than 5% of the world population. By 2030 the blonde will be an endangered species. Meanwhile India is adding one million mouths per month, they and African Muslims will continue to flood the Europe and USA, Chinese will be the last item you need to worry; by year 2050 the western culture will be probably in the similar fate as the blonde due to illegal immigrants in Europe, USA and Australia.
You should worry something really matters; ranting against China out of jealousy, resentment and fear is not going to solve your anxiety.
bert
Ahem ! Plese don't ever miss the forest for the trees. The west, i.e. the US, should focus more at home like the simmering caldera at Yellowstone AND that other one in Death Valley. There are no similar dangers on the Far Eastern mainland. Remember don't you miss the big forest by only seeing trees and nothing else.
bert
Ahem ! Please don't ever miss the forest for the trees. The west, i.e. the US, should focus more at home like the simmering caldera at Yellowstone AND that other one in Death Valley. There are no similar dangers on the Far Eastern mainland. Remember don't you miss the big forest by only seeing trees and nothing else.
AChinese
@Jean-Paul,
"chinese culture would bring about the destruction of individual freedom and liberty as their robot mentality and slave like work ethic would destroy all the progress western culture has made…", If you think these lazy behaviors which is within scope of seven sin as progress made by Western Culture, you're lost, at least your God totally disagree.