Japan Watch Thread

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raklian
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Re: Japan Watch Thread

Post by raklian »

Hand-made "gun" that killed Abe. I guess the suspect had to figure out a way around the extremely strict gun laws there.

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(credit: The Asahi Shimbun/Getty Images)
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caltrek
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Japanese Voters Back Party of Former Prime Minister Amid Shooting Fallout
by Justin McCurry
July 10, 2022

Introduction:
(The Guardian) Japan’s ruling party has won a comfortable victory in elections overshadowed by the assassination of the former prime minister, Shinzo Abe.

Exit polls showed that the Liberal Democratic party (LDP), which Abe led until he resigned in 2020, had secured more than half the 125 seats being contested in the 248-seat upper house.

The LDP and its junior coalition partner, Komeito, were projected to win more than 63 seats, according to a Kyodo news agency exit poll. The public broadcaster NHK said the parties would win between 69 and 83 seats.

The coalition needed to secure 55 seats to retain their majority in the upper house – the less powerful chamber in Japan’s parliament.

“It’s significant we were able to pull this election together at a time violence was shaking the foundations of the election,” the prime minister, Fumio Kishida, an Abe protege, said after the exit poll.
Read more here: https://www.theguardian.com/world/202 ... g-fallout
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caltrek
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Ex-Prime Minister Abe's Death on Minds of Japan Voters, but Turnout Low
July 10, 2022

Introduction:
(Kyoto News) The fatal shooting of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe remained fresh on Japanese people's minds as they headed to the polls Sunday for the House of Councillors election, but it appeared to have no significant impact on voter turnout.

Abe's death at a campaign event generated enormous focus on the triennial election, putting politics front-of-mind for the voting public while averting attention from key issues such as cost of living pressures.

According to a Kyodo News estimate, however, the turnout rate stood at only 52.0 percent as of 1 a.m. The figure is just 3.2 percentage points higher than the second-lowest turnout of 48.8 percent recorded in 2019.

On Sunday, many people journeyed to pay their respects at the area in the western city of Nara near where Abe was assassinated, with mourners lining up to leave flowers.

"Mr. Abe was a politician who worked hard for Japan. It's regrettable," said Akihiro Yorimoto, a 43-year-old from Osaka who came with his family to place flowers.
Read more here: https://english.kyodonews.net/news/20 ... low.html
Last edited by caltrek on Fri Jul 22, 2022 8:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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caltrek
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A Big Win for Bloc Pushing to Make Abe’s Dream of Revision a Reality
by Kazuo Ikejiri
July 11, 2022

Introduction:
(The Asahi Shimbun) The prospect of a national referendum being held on revising the Constitution moved closer to reality after four parties in favor of amendment won enough seats in the July 10 Upper House election to forge the two-thirds majority needed in the chamber to initiate such momentous change.

It was a dream that slain former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had desperately hoped to achieve during his nearly nine years in power. He was gunned down while campaigning July 8 on behalf of a ruling Liberal Democratic Party candidate.

The LDP and its junior coalition partner Komeito were on course to win at least a combined 70 of the 125 seats contested, ensuring a majority for the two parties.

Nippon Ishin (Japan Innovation Party) looked set to double the number of seats it held that were contested. And along with the Democratic Party for the People, the four parties were narrowing in on at least 82 seats.

Combined with the uncontested 84 seats held by the four parties, the bloc in favor of amending the Constitution will reach the 166 seats that represent a two-thirds majority.
Read more here: https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14666446
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caltrek
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Shinzo Abe Wanted to Make Japan a “Normal Country” — as He Saw It
by Bryan Walsh
July 8, 2022

Extract:
(Vox) The assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday was shocking for many reasons: the rarity of political killings in an advanced democracy these days; the paucity of murders of any kind in Japan, long one of the world’s safest countries; the use of a gun in a nation that reportedly had just one shooting homicide in 2021.

But perhaps the most stunning thing of all was the assassin’s target: Abe, who had seemed to master the art of political resurrection as few leaders had in Japan or any other country.

A political scion

Abe was quite literally born to occupy the highest rungs of Japanese political power. His maternal grandfather was Nobusuke Kishi, an ardent nationalist who served in Tokyo’s military-run government during World War II, and was imprisoned by US occupation forces for more than three years after Japan’s surrender in 1945. But Kishi was never brought before the Allied War Crimes Tribunal and was released in 1948, along with scores of other wartime politicians, as US interests turned from punishing Japan’s militarists to bolstering the country as an anti-communist ally.

Abe was the first Japanese prime minister born after the war, but the conflict’s legacy — especially the pacifist constitution put in place by the American occupiers, which officially renounced war as a sovereign right of the Japanese nation — was never far from his mind. Inheriting his father and grandfather’s nationalist politics, Abe made it a goal to revise the constitution, strengthen the nation’s military — officially known as the Self-Defense Forces — and make Japan what he called a “normal country.”

Shinzo Abe dies having never fully completed the work of his grandfather and father. But political resurrection was his stock in trade, and he did perhaps more than any other political figure to resurrect a version of Japan that many — including many of his countrymen — thought was gone forever.
Read more here: https://www.vox.com/world/2022/7/8/232 ... on-guns
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caltrek
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Japan to Create Two Cabinet Minister Posts to Support Startups and Cut CO2
July 22, 2022

Introduction:
(Kyodo News) Tokyo- Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Friday he plans to create two new ministerial posts within his Cabinet responsible for promoting startup businesses and decarbonization efforts in the country.

Unveiling the positions during a speech in central Japan's Nagano Prefecture, Kishida aims to increase investment in decarbonization by aligning the public and private sectors while driving economic growth through the cultivation of more startups.

Industry minister Koichi Hagiuda is expected to double as decarbonization minister, while Daishiro Yamagiwa, minister in charge of economic revitalization and coronavirus response, will likely concurrently hold the post of startup minister, a government source said.

Dubbing the efforts in decarbonization as a "green transformation" which will be branded "GX," Kishida vowed to deliver an "unprecedented support framework to spur massive long-term private sector investment" in carbon reduction industries.

While not elaborating on specific measures, Kishida reaffirmed the "government's commitment to the private sector and financial markets through the backing of financial resources."
Read more here: https://english.kyodonews.net/news/202 ... o2.html
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Re: Japan Watch Thread

Post by Doozer »

Japan is known for being conservative nation more so than most western ones, but what just happened makes me ask something. Could the murder of Abe trigger a period of massive political and social polarization from within, leading to drastic change in the near future?
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caltrek
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^^^Although I came here to post the article below for other reasons, it does contain some discussion of the differences in viewpoints within Japan, particularly between generations.

Japan, China Need Direct Dialogue to Build Peaceful Ties
September 29, 2022

Introduction:
(The Asahi Shimbun) Sept. 29 marks the 50th anniversary of the day when Japan and China established a formal diplomatic relationship in 1972.

In the middle of the Cold War, Japan “restored” its ties with the People’s Republic of China and “severed” its relations with the Republic of China in Taiwan.

It was Tokyo’s strategic decision in response to the surprising move of the administration of U.S. President Richard Nixon to soften its stance toward communist China.

During the half century since then, the Cold War came to an end and China has emerged as a leading power, eclipsing the Soviet Union. Now, the confrontation between the United States and China is rocking the world.

China has overtaken Japan as the world’s second largest economy and has acquired huge military power. The relationship between Japan and China has been plagued by constant diplomatic friction over Taiwan, the Senkaku Islands and perceptions about history-related issues.
Read more here: https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14729876
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caltrek
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Japan Spends a Record $20 Billion to Support the Yen
October 1, 2022

Introduction:
(Reuters via The National) Japan spent up to a record 2.8 trillion yen ($19.7 billion) intervening in the foreign exchange market last week to prop up the yen, Ministry of Finance data showed on Friday, draining nearly 15 per cent of funds it has readily available for intervention.

The figure was less than the 3.6tn yen estimated by Tokyo money market brokers for Japan's first dollar-selling, yen-buying intervention in 24 years to stem the currency's sharp weakening.

The ministry's figure, indicating total spending on currency intervention from August 30 to September 28, is widely believed to have been used entirely for the September 22 intervention.

It would surpass the previous record for dollar-selling, yen-buying intervention in 1998 of 2.62tn yen. Confirmation on the dates of the spending will be released in November.

“This was a big burst of intervention, if it had happened on a single day, underscoring Japanese authorities' determination to defend the yen,” said Daisaku Ueno, chief forex strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities.
Read more here: https://www.thenationalnews.com/busine ... -the-yen/
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caltrek
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As Regional Threats Rise, Japan Eases Defense-only Strategy
December 16, 2022

Introduction:
TOKYO (AP via Courthouse News) — In a major break from its strictly self-defense-only postwar principle, Japan adopted a national security strategy Friday declaring plans to possess preemptive strike capability and cruise missiles within years to give itself more offensive footing against threats from neighboring China and North Korea.

With China, North Korea and Russia directly to its west and north, Japan “faces the severest and most complicated national security environment since the end of the war,” the strategy said, referring to World War II. It named China as “the biggest strategic challenge” — before North Korea and Russia — to Japan’s effort toward ensuring peace, safety and stability for itself and the international society.

Possession of the strike-back capability is “indispensable” as deterrence to discourage enemy attacks, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told a news conference Friday, calling it “a major change to Japan’s postwar security policy.”

“When threats become reality, can the Self-Defense Force fully protect our country? Frankly speaking, the current (SDF capability) is insufficient," Kishida said.

Under the strategy, Japan’s defense spending through 2027 will increase to about 2% of Japan's GDP to total some 43 trillion yen ($320 billion), 1.6-times that of the current five-year total.
Read more here: https://www.courthousenews.com/as-regi ... strategy/
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