Japanese Politics Thread

[Shrillland]

Taro Kono. That is all. Thank you.

Well, Kono certainly would be a conciliatory figure, and some of his policies seem more in line with the DPJ of old(and possibly new in the coming weeks with the CDP and DPFP merger), not in Nippon Kaigi yet one of Abe's most loyal stalwarts. I'm not sure that's what the LDP will go for, however. Remember, they won't be having a proper leadership election where all members can vote this time, just the Diet members and prefecture representatives.

[Region of Dwipantara]

Abe is just the start of a wave of idiotic PMs who do nothing. Ironic his last name is that of the nickname of a president who did so much good. Japan is a good country but I feel like it’s politics are going on a downward spiral.

The start? The LDP's been in inertia for years, this is what happens when you dominate politics for so long with only a couple of brief breaks. If anything, Abe's the continuation of Koizumi's pushing the LDP rightward into a revanchist party that's hell-bent on bringing back the glory days, albeit without the invasions and crimes against humanity.

Will Koizumi's son, Shinjiro, be different/better? He's not running now, yes, but very likely in the future. As far as potential candidates goes, he's the only one that caught my attention.

[Qihein]

How popular was Abe among the Japanese people?

[Shrillland]

The start? The LDP's been in inertia for years, this is what happens when you dominate politics for so long with only a couple of brief breaks. If anything, Abe's the continuation of Koizumi's pushing the LDP rightward into a revanchist party that's hell-bent on bringing back the glory days, albeit without the invasions and crimes against humanity.

Will Koizumi's son, Shinjiro, be different/better? He's not running now, yes, but very likely in the future. As far as potential candidates goes, he's the only one that caught my attention.

Well, from what Wiki says, he's also a revanchist like Abe who famously dismissed Abe's nationalist shift as "Chinese propaganda" back in 2013, though I don't think he's in Nippon Kaigi. He does visit Yasukuni on VJ Day like his father does and even like Kono does. Unlike some other LDP giants, he's still seen to be in favour of nuclear energy of some sort.

[Ethics Committee of the SCPF]

Abe is just the start of a wave of idiotic PMs who do nothing. Ironic his last name is that of the nickname of a president who did so much good. Japan is a good country but I feel like it’s politics are going on a downward spiral.

The start? The LDP's been in inertia for years, this is what happens when you dominate politics for so long with only a couple of brief breaks. If anything, Abe's the continuation of Koizumi's pushing the LDP rightward into a revanchist party that's hell-bent on bringing back the glory days, albeit without the invasions and crimes against humanity.

Yea but he’s the guy who really solidifies that future.

[Shrillland]

Now we have competitor number four and major competitor number two: Yoshihide Suga's now running: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/08/30/national/politics-diplomacy/yoshihide-suga-ldp-leadership-election-shinzo-abe-japan/#.X0tjLMhKhPZ

[Baltenstein]

Now we have competitor number four and major competitor number two: Yoshihide Suga's now running: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/08/30/national/politics-diplomacy/yoshihide-suga-ldp-leadership-election-shinzo-abe-japan/#.X0tjLMhKhPZ

Seriously disappointed his name is Suga and not Sega

[Ansarre]

All right, the LDP's saying the vote will be held sometime around September 15, and there are already three candidates: Ishiba's the biggest one so far, Fumio Kishida, the former Foreign Secretary and current LDP Policy Research Council is running as is Hakubun Shimomura, former Education Minister and current Election Strategy Chief. Aso's decided not to run.

The vote will be done amongst LDP members of the Diet and representatives from the prefectures, with a total of 535 people making the decision.

I can't wait for Ishiba Shigeru to run Japan for the next decade. This will be a huge win for the west.

All right, the LDP's saying the vote will be held sometime around September 15, and there are already three candidates: Ishiba's the biggest one so far, Fumio Kishida, the former Foreign Secretary and current LDP Policy Research Council is running as is Hakubun Shimomura, former Education Minister and current Election Strategy Chief. Aso's decided not to run.

The vote will be done amongst LDP members of the Diet and representatives from the prefectures, with a total of 535 people making the decision.

All three of these are old men in their 60s, and all members of Nippon Kaigi. Same old recycled oyaji shit.

Ishiba is the kind of guy who calls peaceful protestors "terrorists", just to give you a taste of the kind of trash we're dealing with here.

YESSSS I LOVE HIM SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!! LETS GOOOOO

Now we have competitor number four and major competitor number two: Yoshihide Suga's now running: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/08/30/national/politics-diplomacy/yoshihide-suga-ldp-leadership-election-shinzo-abe-japan/#.X0tjLMhKhPZ

Annoying. I love Ishiba so I'm hoping he can finally win but Suga is one of the "high profile" Abe allies I'm more favourable towards.

[Hatterleigh]

I feel bad for him, he wasn't able to reverse Japan's declining birthrate. I hope his health aliments are helped

[Ansarre]

The start? The LDP's been in inertia for years, this is what happens when you dominate politics for so long with only a couple of brief breaks. If anything, Abe's the continuation of Koizumi's pushing the LDP rightward into a revanchist party that's hell-bent on bringing back the glory days, albeit without the invasions and crimes against humanity.

Will Koizumi's son, Shinjiro, be different/better? He's not running now, yes, but very likely in the future. As far as potential candidates goes, he's the only one that caught my attention.

The world will be a different place in ten years or so, which is likely when Koizumi will run for leadership, so maybe he'll have a platform offering significant change down the line. I think it's needless to speculate on whether he'll be different or better when he hasn't published a manifesto or anything for a leadership campaign. Just now he's just the run of the mill LDP politician. Pretty mediocre, moderately militarist and critical of nuclear power.

[Saiwania]

Shinzo Abe was truly one of the greatest leaders Japan has ever had, especially given the problems of the present day.

Hopefully whoever succeeds him, will continue to protect Japan from immigration which would prove bad and will get the full revision to Article 9 that he wanted. A ton of progress has been made already to bring Japan's military to glory again in terms of their equipment. The Howa Type 20 is a welcome replacement for their 1989 rifle. They can finally mount accessories to rails like the Colt M4 series.

[Aureumterra]

Shinzo Abe was truly one of the greatest leaders Japan has ever had, especially given the problems of the present day.

Hopefully whoever succeeds him, will continue to protect Japan from immigration which would prove bad and will get the full revision to Article 9 that he wanted. A ton of progress has been made already to bring Japan's military to glory again in terms of their equipment. The Howa Type 20 is a welcome replacement for their 1989 rifle. They can finally mount accessories to rails like the Colt M4 series.

Agreed, I can’t take the Japanese military improvements away from him, total credit to him for preparing Japan against the Chinese threat along with the Quad Alliance

[Major-Tom]

Shinzo Abe was truly one of the greatest leaders Japan has ever had, especially given the problems of the present day.

Hopefully whoever succeeds him, will continue to protect Japan from immigration which would prove bad and will get the full revision to Article 9 that he wanted. A ton of progress has been made already to bring Japan's military to glory again in terms of their equipment. The Howa Type 20 is a welcome replacement for their 1989 rifle. They can finally mount accessories to rails like the Colt M4 series.

Japan needs immigration, anybody could tell you that. With such a declining population hampering an already horrid economy, a better set of economic stimulus coupled with looser immigration laws should be their first order of business unless they would like to continue going down the most boring economic death spiral of all time.

I know you don't like immigrants much, but they can help a severely warped job market (see JAPAN).

[The Black Forrest]

Shinzo Abe was truly one of the greatest leaders Japan has ever had, especially given the problems of the present day.

Hopefully whoever succeeds him, will continue to protect Japan from immigration which would prove bad and will get the full revision to Article 9 that he wanted. A ton of progress has been made already to bring Japan's military to glory again in terms of their equipment. The Howa Type 20 is a welcome replacement for their 1989 rifle. They can finally mount accessories to rails like the Colt M4 series.

Japan needs immigration, anybody could tell you that. With such a declining population hampering an already horrid economy, a better set of economic stimulus coupled with looser immigration laws should be their first order of business unless they would like to continue going down the most boring economic death spiral of all time.

I know you don't like immigrants much, but they can help a severely warped job market (see JAPAN).

They are leaning that way. I remember a year or two ago they opened up citizenship for people who had one Japanese parent. My flunky was such a person. We told him he should consider it as if things to go crap here; you have a place to go......

[Organized States]

Taro Kono. That is all. Thank you.

Well, Kono certainly would be a conciliatory figure, and some of his policies seem more in line with the DPJ of old(and possibly new in the coming weeks with the CDP and DPFP merger), not in Nippon Kaigu yet one of Abe's most loyal stalwarts. I'm not sure that's what the LDP will go for, however. Remember, they won't be having a proper leadership election where all members can vote this time, just the Diet members and prefecture representatives.

That's honestly true, but Kono would easily be the best figure for Japan and East Asia as a whole at this point in time.

Repair ties with Korea, strengthen ties with the United States, and potentially help defuse tensions between China and the United States.

[Novus America]

Shinzo Abe was truly one of the greatest leaders Japan has ever had, especially given the problems of the present day.

Hopefully whoever succeeds him, will continue to protect Japan from immigration which would prove bad and will get the full revision to Article 9 that he wanted. A ton of progress has been made already to bring Japan's military to glory again in terms of their equipment. The Howa Type 20 is a welcome replacement for their 1989 rifle. They can finally mount accessories to rails like the Colt M4 series.

Agreed, I can’t take the Japanese military improvements away from him, total credit to him for preparing Japan against the Chinese threat along with the Quad Alliance

That I give him credit for. I might disagree with Abe on many other things, but he did substantially improve Japanese military capability. Which is absolutely vital, we need a strong Japan to hep us contain Xi’s insanity.

[Organized States]

Shinzo Abe was truly one of the greatest leaders Japan has ever had, especially given the problems of the present day.

Hopefully whoever succeeds him, will continue to protect Japan from immigration which would prove bad and will get the full revision to Article 9 that he wanted. A ton of progress has been made already to bring Japan's military to glory again in terms of their equipment. The Howa Type 20 is a welcome replacement for their 1989 rifle. They can finally mount accessories to rails like the Colt M4 series.

Your lack of understanding of Japan's current economic situation shows strong through.

Anyone who's been to Japan in the past decade can tell you that their immigration system has effectively stifled significant economic growth and their aging population is showing through.

I was there in December and I can tell you that you don't see kids. Those very few parents that you see are easily in their forties or late thirties. The country is on the verge of total demographic collapse within the next two generations.

[Saiwania]

Japan needs immigration, anybody could tell you that. With such a declining population hampering an already horrid economy, a better set of economic stimulus coupled with looser immigration laws should be their first order of business unless they would like to continue going down the most boring economic death spiral of all time.

I know you don't like immigrants much, but they can help a severely warped job market (see JAPAN).

Japan doesn't need any non-Japanese immigration. It is of utmost importance that Japan be preserved on a cultural and ethnic level. The people are at the heart of every nation that exists. If the character of the population is lost, so too is the nation. Hence, it is better in my eyes for Japan's economy to shrink than to allow for its population to drastically change.

[Novus America]

Shinzo Abe was truly one of the greatest leaders Japan has ever had, especially given the problems of the present day.

Hopefully whoever succeeds him, will continue to protect Japan from immigration which would prove bad and will get the full revision to Article 9 that he wanted. A ton of progress has been made already to bring Japan's military to glory again in terms of their equipment. The Howa Type 20 is a welcome replacement for their 1989 rifle. They can finally mount accessories to rails like the Colt M4 series.

Immigration to Japan need not be open borders rainbow capitalism style. They could limit it to say only immigrants from China, Taiwan, Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand. And only to the minimum required to offset their population decline. Even at 300,000 a year or so it would not greatly upset their culture or demographic balance. And have strict language tests and cultural acclimation classes.

That would be reasonable compromise.

You cannot have an effective military if you lack the young people needed to man it.

[Conservative Republic Of Huang]

Shinzo Abe was truly one of the greatest leaders Japan has ever had, especially given the problems of the present day.

Hopefully whoever succeeds him, will continue to protect Japan from immigration which would prove bad and will get the full revision to Article 9 that he wanted. A ton of progress has been made already to bring Japan's military to glory again in terms of their equipment. The Howa Type 20 is a welcome replacement for their 1989 rifle. They can finally mount accessories to rails like the Colt M4 series.

Article 9 is already dead, after the LDP shit all over it by passing their tortured interpretation of it through the Diet. His Abenomics has also failed to rouse the Japanese economy from its perennial stupor (his structural reforms have fallen completely flat). He is associated with the ultranationalist group Nippon Kaigi, and he also denies Japanese war crimes, actively led an organization supporting revising Japanese textbooks to reflect a revisionist view of history (read: minimizing or denying war crimes), especially comfort women and his repeated visits to Yasakuni Shrine, all of which have unnecessarily worsened relations with South Korea and China. Malapportionment continues to plague the Diet and definitely contributes to continued LDP rule Despite the Supreme Court of Japan repeatedly ruling that the degree of malapportionment is unconstitutional, the LDP has done nothing to address the structural issues that contribute to their continued rule. The Japanese government has also only just recognized the Ainu as an official ethnic minority last year and has still done nothing to address the systematic discrimination Ainu face. The Japanese government has also still not recognized the Rykukuans as an ethnic minority either.

But sure, they got some new weapons. I'm sure that's all that matters to neo-cons like you. Best prime minister ever.

[Conservative Republic Of Huang]

Japan needs immigration, anybody could tell you that. With such a declining population hampering an already horrid economy, a better set of economic stimulus coupled with looser immigration laws should be their first order of business unless they would like to continue going down the most boring economic death spiral of all time.

I know you don't like immigrants much, but they can help a severely warped job market (see JAPAN).

Japan doesn't need any non-Japanese immigration. It is of utmost importance that Japan be preserved on a cultural and ethnic level. The people are at the heart of every nation that exists. If the character of the population is lost, so too is the nation. Hence, it is better in my eyes for Japan's economy to shrink than to allow for its population to drastically change.

I always find it strange that supporters of the LDP lay on the ultra-nationalism so heavy but ignore the fact that the LDP has done nothing to preserve the cultures of the Ainu and the Rykukuans.

[Organized States]

Japan needs immigration, anybody could tell you that. With such a declining population hampering an already horrid economy, a better set of economic stimulus coupled with looser immigration laws should be their first order of business unless they would like to continue going down the most boring economic death spiral of all time.

I know you don't like immigrants much, but they can help a severely warped job market (see JAPAN).

Japan doesn't need any non-Japanese immigration. It is of utmost importance that Japan be preserved on a cultural and ethnic level. The people are at the heart of every nation that exists. If the character of the population is lost, so too is nation. Hence, it is better in my eyes for Japan's economy to shrink than to allow for its population to drastically change.

Except Japan is already an extremely culturally diverse nation and that the idea of cultural and ethnic homogeneity is only a perception.

Don't believe me? Ask the Koreans, the Ainu, the Bonin Islanders, the Ryukyu Islanders, the Chinese, the Brazilians, etc. Further evidence can be seen in the total cultural divergence from Tokyo to the rural parts of the country.

Japan is not a monolith. Stop using it to idealize non-existent ethno-states.

[Conservative Republic Of Huang]

Japan doesn't need any non-Japanese immigration. It is of utmost importance that Japan be preserved on a cultural and ethnic level. The people are at the heart of every nation that exists. If the character of the population is lost, so too is nation. Hence, it is better in my eyes for Japan's economy to shrink than to allow for its population to drastically change.

Except Japan is already an extremely culturally diverse nation and that the idea of cultural and ethnic homogeneity is only a perception.

Don't believe me? Ask the Koreans, the Ainu, the Bonin Islanders, the Ryukyu Islanders, the Chinese, the Brazilians, etc. Further evidence can be seen in the total cultural divergence from Tokyo to the rural parts of the country.

Japan is not a monolith. Stop using it to idealize non-existent ethno-states.

Well said. The LDP loves to pretend that Japan doesn't have to deal with ethnic/race issues because they're all Wajin, and unfortunately that misconception has spread pretty widely overseas.

[Ansarre]

I always find it strange that supporters of the LDP lay on the ultra-nationalism so heavy but ignore the fact that the LDP has done nothing to preserve the cultures of the Ainu and the Rykukuans.

Because they're Japanese nationalists, not Ainu or Ryukyuan nationalists.

But sure, they got some new weapons. I'm sure that's all that matters to neo-cons like you. Best prime minister ever.

He isn't a neoconservative lol.

[Novus America]

Shinzo Abe was truly one of the greatest leaders Japan has ever had, especially given the problems of the present day.

Hopefully whoever succeeds him, will continue to protect Japan from immigration which would prove bad and will get the full revision to Article 9 that he wanted. A ton of progress has been made already to bring Japan's military to glory again in terms of their equipment. The Howa Type 20 is a welcome replacement for their 1989 rifle. They can finally mount accessories to rails like the Colt M4 series.

Article 9 is already dead, after the LDP shit all over it by passing their tortured interpretation of it through the Diet. His Abenomics has also failed to rouse the Japanese economy from its perennial stupor (his structural reforms have fallen completely flat). He is associated with the ultranationalist group Nippon Kaigi, and he also denies Japanese war crimes, actively led an organization supporting revising Japanese textbooks to reflect a revisionist view of history (read: minimizing or denying war crimes), especially comfort women and his repeated visits to Yasakuni Shrine, all of which have unnecessarily worsened relations with South Korea and China. Malapportionment continues to plague the Diet and definitely contributes to continued LDP rule Despite the Supreme Court of Japan repeatedly ruling that the degree of malapportionment is unconstitutional, the LDP has done nothing to address the structural issues that contribute to their continued rule. The Japanese government has also only just recognized the Ainu as an official ethnic minority last year and has still done nothing to address the systematic discrimination Ainu face. The Japanese government has also still not recognized the Rykukuans as an ethnic minority either.

But sure, they got some new weapons. I'm sure that's all that matters to neo-cons like you. Best prime minister ever.

Sai is not a necon at all, more an isolationist.
I strongly disagree with him on many things, but he is definitely no neocon. Neocons a generally supportive of immigration BTW.

In the contemporary world, which is going back to 1800s style geopolitics, you will need to be strong to survive.
The best deterrent against war is military that aggressors are afraid to start a fight with.
In a dog eat dog world you need big teeth lest you become dog food.

You need not be a neocon to advocate for strong defense. Sure Abe has had many flaws and failures, but his increasingly Japanese military defenses is not one of them.