Economist.com::
A showman, he told the country he could destroy from the inside all that voters This will be the upheaval in Japanese politics that Mr Ozawa has long
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I'm on the staff of a DPJ member of the Upper House and I am recording my observations and analysis at the url included in my profile (I'm not permitted to include it here).
I would appreciate questions and comments.
Fair enough; I did ask for questions and comments.
1.What is the DPJ going to do about the Ijime (bullying) on Japanese schools.
Lot's of kids who commit suicide or become hikikomori.
First, I think the hikikomori problem is way overblown. It's one of those media sensation issues that burn out fairly quickly once the media finds something else to discuss. And, in any case, I don't think there's much the national government can do to solve issues of social alienation like hikikomori, and, to some extent, the ‚¢‚¶‚ß–â‘è. I -- and, I believe, also the DPJ -- am certain about one thing, though. Making the schools "teach" patriotism won't solve the fundamental problems of the Japanese education system, nor will it prepare students for the challenges of the twenty-first century. But this is a problem hardly unique to Japan; I would argue that the American education system is equally unprepared.
So that's a long way of saying that the DPJ doesn't really have a clearly defined position on this question; that's the long and short of being an opposition party. At the moment the party leadership is working on developing a more coherent agenda under Ozawa's guidance, but whether that will result in a truly innovative agenda remains to be seen. For the moment the DPJ resembles the LDP, complete with innumerable divisions along personality and policy lines.
2. I want to know what you guys are doing about the Birthrate problem.
Actually, it's surprising how little both parties discuss this. For all the talk in the international English-language media about Japan's demographic problems, you hear very little about this from either the government or the opposition front benches.
That's not to say they're not thinking about it, but I think all parties there's not an easy solution to this problem. As above, social problems are tremendously difficult nuts for central governments to crack.
Besieged From the Inside? | newmatilda.com::
In view of Westpac's takeover of St George, Evan Jones wonders what is driving . The super wealthy Japanese PM pretends he's one of the common people,
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Japanese Whaling, culture and science - Politics & Current Affairs ::
Jun 19, 2006 Welcome to POLITICS AND CURRENT AFFAIRS. You are currently viewing our forums as a guest which gives you limited access to view most
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I recently translated an interview by my boss -- at the time the shadow foreign minister and now the shadow deputy chief cabinet secretary of the DPJ -- printed in a Swiss newspaper earlier this year, in which he acknowledged the intractability of the problem. In particular, the DPJ is strongly in favor of equal rights for men and women, but the introduction of more women into the workplace makes it harder to solve the birthrate problem. He floated some ideas about financial support for parents -- as has Ozawa in recent policy documents at the DPJ website -- but these notions haven't crystallized into concrete policies yet. One wonders, though, where the Abe Cabinet is on this issue.
Lastly, as for me, I was until recently a graduate student at the University of Cambridge. But now I'm neither intern nor student -- for the moment I'm something of a professional fly-on-the-wall, getting practical experience with Japanese politics before returning stateside for a Ph.D.
Completely serious. I couldn't have picked a better time to be here either.
Japan_Observer, I wanted to follow up on the post in the thread about education but I thought it was too off the topic, so I hope you don't mind that I'm referring to it here. Here seemed like the obvious place to continue.
I wanted to ask about this, as it baffles me: "The world is being reordered, and the question that each nation must answer is whether it will be flattened by change or whether it will ride the waves, so to speak." What would you say is the reordering going on?
Also "Yes, there are powerful corporations in Japan, and yes, elements of the LDP are in cahoots with them. But the 1990s was a transformative time for Japan, and ruling elites have a harder time making self-interested decisions and getting away ill governance. Well, I don't really know where to start with this one. It actually sounds like you're saying that corporate influence is rather limited, that political decisions are not made in the interests of business and that they cannot get away with bad practice. Am I right?
Nancho Consults: Arne Naess::
So, deep ecology starts from a philosophical or religious view that all living In Japan you particularly hear news about greens and politics in West
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. The politics of nostalgia: museum representations of Lafcadio ::
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTMLmuseum, and so there are no exhibits inside the house apart from replicas of .. the erstwhile demonized view of wartime Japan and attempts to justify the
http://www.le.ac.uk/ms/m&s/Issue 15/askew.pdfHOME |
Then you say: "The people are watching; there is real opposition in government." And I'm thinking why is he spooning out what can only be described as political spin? You're implying that if 'the people' see something that they dislike, that they have the power to do something? You mean perhaps the ballot box? And a 'real opposition'? Since when did it become real? Because you've arrived?
You'll have to excuse my cynicism and I mean no offence to you by picking at your words but it's just that I've heard the same phrases over and over many times before.
I just hope JO sticks around. I'm a little worried if no one posts on JO's threads , he may give up and go away. I for one like to read Non/J-Rock/anime threads, even if I don't post to them.
Uncle Frank
:souka:
JO, stick around! We need level-headed people who have knowledge of the inner workings of Japan around here.
I don't often post on topics of a truly political nature, but I too appreciate them very much. Observing Japan | The Japan Times Online::
Nov 28, 2007 I learned that there's real demand for information and analysis about what's going on in Japanese politics and began to try to meet that
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Okay here are 2 questions:
1.What is the DPJ going to do about the Ijime (bullying) on Japanese schools.
Lot's of kids who commit suicide or become hikikomori.
2. I want to know what you guys are doing about the Birthrate problem.
LDP's political flexibility, from fairly conservative to center-left, is in a way a great strength, however, I think it is a terrible weakness for a challenger like DPJ.
I just wish genuine single-seat constituency, at least in the upper house election, without any consolation game.
This reminds me of those subversive pro-government provocateurs and thought police infiltrating chat sites and bulletin boards in the PRC, spreading the "truth" and weeding out dissidents and free thinkers...:chinese: :worried:
I think this is a little unfair. All I'm doing is providing -- humbly speaking -- the little expertise I've acquired on Japanese politics and Asian international relations. I'm not interested in "weeding out" anyone; I am, however, interested in hashing out the truth (or some approximation of it), and cutting through obfuscation and shoddy reasoning.
If you have a problem with that, too bad.
You serious?....heh...welcome. :wave:
I think this is a little unfair. All I'm doing is providing -- humbly speaking -- the little expertise I've acquired on Japanese politics and Asian international relations. I'm not interested in "weeding out" anyone; I am, however, interested in hashing out the truth (or some approximation of it), and cutting through obfuscation and shoddy reasoning.
If you have a problem with that, too bad.
It was just your comment on not being able to "have picked a better time to be here" and your writing style that made me think of it. I was not accusing you of anything yet...;-)
First, I think the hikikomori problem is way overblown. It's one of those media sensation issues that burn out fairly quickly once the media finds something else to discuss. And, in any case, I don't think there's much the national government can do to solve issues of social alienation like hikikomori, and, to some extent, the ‚¢‚¶‚ß–â‘è. I -- and, I believe, also the DPJ -- am certain about one thing, though. Making the schools "teach" patriotism won't solve the fundamental problems of the Japanese education system, nor will it prepare students for the challenges of the twenty-first century. But this is a problem hardly unique to Japan; I would argue that the American education system is equally unprepared.
Is the problem overblown, or does the Japanese government doesn't want to see the problem.
Having over 800.000 young adults being Hikikomori (this isn't even the total number), and having a lot of bullying problems on the schools (one 1994 survey by the Ministry of Education reported that 58.4 % of all junior highschools reported serious bullying incidents), this sure looks like a big problem too me. And for a lot of Japanese in the upcoming years, if the Japanese government is not going to make a big step to help this kids.
Having consults at schools, having (thanks Mike cash) teachers back in the room (instead of the Teachers room) etc.
I will come back on this, because I am going to celebrate my birthday right now.
Thanks for your reply !!!:wave:
This reminds me of those subversive pro-government provocateurs and thought police infiltrating chat sites and bulletin boards in the PRC, spreading the "truth" and weeding out dissidents and free thinkers...:chinese: :worried:
That's absolutely right. Right now, the DPJ looks a lot like a copy of the LDP, and why should the Japanese voters vote for a party that's very much similar to the LDP, but without the record of governance.
So the big challenge for the DPJ is to sell itself as better able to govern. It's less a matter of policy than of competence.
What would you say is the reordering going on?
Quite simply, it's the post-cold war reordering that should have happened fifteen years ago but didn't. Instead we've had a somewhat aberrant period of extreme unipolarity.
That's not to say that we're seeing the re-emergence of some kind of nineteeth-century-like multipolar system characterized by armed conflict and zero-sum competition.
Instead, we're seeing the re-emergence of multipolar competition WITHOUT the threat of war. Just look: the threat of great power war is more or less non-existent. While some would like to believe that the US and China could go to war, aside from the Taiwan Straits issue there's no issue that could result in war, and in recent years the US has backed away from providing unconditional support for Taiwan.
In the absence of military competition, however, economic competition is ever more essential, and while it is more or less non-zero sum competition, the competition is no less intense. What's happened is that all those countries who for decades believed in alternate forms of ordering their economies have bought into free-market capitalism in a big way, and are out-competiting the established developed countries. This has resulted in acute fears of international economic competition throughout the developed world: the US, France, Germany, Japan, etc.
As international economic competition has intensified, so has the need for all countries to retool their societies to thrive in that competition, and respond to the rapid change that globalization entails.
That's a very brief summary of what we're seeing, but it will be the fundamental international and domestic policy issue in every country over the next fifty to one-hundred years.
It actually sounds like you're saying that corporate influence is rather limited, that political decisions are not made in the interests of business and that they cannot get away with bad practice. Am I right?
I'm not saying that corporate influence is pervasive or limited; I'm rejecting your pseudo-Marxist argument that the political and bureaucratic elite are the lapdogs for financial and industrial capitalists. It's just not that simple. Yes, Japanese corporations wield considerable power, but to say that the government just serves corporations is puerile. To take an extreme example, how did Koizumi's going to Yasukuni serve Japanese capitalism? Argubably it was profoundly against the interests of Otemachi, who would prefer that Sino-Japanese and Japan-Korean relations were as smooth as possible. You think Japanese corporations want Chinese boycotting them?
So the Kantei and the Diet are not just taking orders from Otemachi, just as in the US the White House and Congress do not just take orders from Wall Street. Japanese corporations have to compete with other interests in seeing that policy decisions favor them. And, increasingly, corporations are finding competition for the ears of government.
And I'm thinking why is he spooning out what can only be described as political spin? You're implying that if 'the people' see something that they dislike, that they have the power to do something? You mean perhaps the ballot box? And a 'real opposition'? Since when did it become real? Because you've arrived?
I would advise you to stop with the ad hominem attacks in the future. It's a highly ineffective form of argumentation, and it just irritates the person with whom you're arguing.
In any case, I don't have any special sources; just read a newspaper. How would you explain Abe's declaring that the LDP won't take money from Japan's megabanks? Or demanding that Honma resign from the Tax Commission in the face of major public disapproval? These are just two recent examples, but if you don't think Japan has changed politically in the past fifteen years, your head is buried in sand. The change is slow, without question, but the public -- and opposition parties -- are watching. The government cannot simply get away with whatever it wants anymore.
And it's not like I'm alone in seeing how Japan has changed.
Well, I couldn't have picked a better time.
If you haven't noticed, the Japanese political system may be in the midst of another earthquake, a la 1993-1994.
So you're an intern? A student? Will you be in the position long? I had a look at your blog but it didn't seem to give much away and you did indicate we could ask any questions...
Personal opinion about population decrease. I think there are already too much people on this island, if it can be changed during half way let it happen. 129million people on this small island. I think people would be more happy if it was only like 60million and that is still lots of people.
also economy doesnt have to decrease too much becouse of these, products can still be manufactured in neubouring countries.
 I Am a Sinner – What About You?
 Global Sourcing and Supplier Online by Dylan
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Viewing Japanese politics from the inside