I don’t “feel sorry” for Japan anymore.
It was pretentious and ignorant to have that feeling initially, although it came from a genuine place, and I’m relieved that it’s finally all gone, because I got my own problems. Japan, much like America and Europe, all are on the same team as it is, is rocketing toward the edge of a cliff. This cliff, once reached, introduces one to a grand BASE jump like experience as you scream willy-nilly, plummeting away from things like personal freedom, economic balance, sustainability and the general feeling of safety that the Japanese so deeply need, and which so many pussified ex-pat liberals blow their horns about.
What does “safety” matter if all it means is declining wages, a stagnant economy and a government taking armfuls of more power as they march the people of a tiny little country with no natural resources to war with a Goliath? I’ll tell you what it means: jack-shit.
Wing suits are really cool and it must be one hell of a ride, until you slam into a fucking bridge…
…”Weeeeeeee BOOOOOM.”
This is the Japanese government as they realize that the people are completely neutered, unarmed, and generally scared of their own shadows. They can do whatever they want, until well, they slam into something immovable and that clearly won’t be the Japanese people.
So, this is a list of some of the ways the government is giving the Japanese citizens the finger, and just doing whatever the hell they please.
5. Japan is increasing its military spending
Despite literally everyone, every common punk-slut-idiot on the street, knowing from day-to-day life that the Japanese economy is not doing well, and despite the international consensus that “Abe-nomics“ is a hilarious failure, the Japanese government is increasing its military spending.
“Because…North Korea!”
North Korea is the convenient whipping boy for, well, the world. It’s a destitute shit-hole, ruled by a maniac, full of maniacs who can’t figure out how to grow cabbage properly, but they’re going to kill us all? Negative. Also, good old saber rattling has been NK’s (can I call you guys NK) modus operandi for years and years.
Need more rice?
“WE WILL GAS SOUTH KOREA!”
“Thank you for rice, dogs.”
Need medicine?
“WE WILL BOMB YOU ALL.”
“Thank you for medicine, scum.”
Need some money?
“WE WILL DESTROY THE AMERICAN DOGS!”
“Thank you for the loan, white devils.”
Same old, same old.
The only reason, plain and simple, that North Korea is still a place is because the powers that be want it to remain one.
Oh and the other big threat, China. Evil, angry, commie China; an ancient beast which is rearing it’s malevolent head stealing valuable territory from Japan in the South/East China sea. Oh, the great islands China has stolen…
So, is Japan really going to start a fight with its big, big brother over some deserted rocks really far away from what anyone would realistically consider Japanese territory?
What’s more, the increasing of the military budget, when the economy is in the crapper and the 2020 Olympics is looming, now estimated to cost 4 times the originally anticipated amount, is equal parts useless and irresponsible because in the end, who pays?
Unless Abe is hoping entangling Japan in endless wars will create a weapons manufacturing boom…?
4.Pacifist constitution is being dumped
Article 9 of the Japanese constitution is pretty straight forward, or so many people thought. But, taking a page out of Obama’s play book, PM Abe is “re-interpreting” the article in new and exciting ways. Essentially, Japan is going to get in the mix, from now.
Now, this isn’t really new-new, Japan deployed “troops” in a support role in 2003 and the Japanese air force has been running auxiliary operations alongside the USA for years, but now, the likelihood of the Japanese military spearheading, or even operating unilaterally is increasing.
In addition to all the super-duper mecha kakkoii robot laser weapons everyone hopes Japan will finally develop, the official voting age has dropped from 20 to 18 years old. Many question this and have asked “But are 18-year-old kids old enough to vote?”
Thing is, you can’t start drafting 18 year olds into mandatory military service if they can’t even vote.
But…Japan doesn’t have a draft.
3. Orwellian State Secrets law
Blow a whistle in Japan, and Abe could put you away for up to ten years. Similar to the USA, although not yet on such a ridiculously large-scale, Abe and his goons have successfully, after ignoring massive protests, enacted the State Secrets law allowing them, essentially, to hide the dirty shit they do from the public.
Accountability; America doesn’t need it so neither does Japan.
And if, say, some rogue reporter finds out that Fukushima, is in fact, leaking massive amounts of radiation poisoning millions, well, if the Japanese government has dubbed that a “Super duper Staty Secret“, then said rogue agent could be enjoying ten years of cold rice and mental torture in a prison near you.
2. Still way, way behind on standard human rights issues
This is a long, long list and I’m getting bored. But essentially it goes as follows:
- Discrimination of Ethnic Minorities. No-brainer. Go walk around town for ten minutes and find the “GAIJIN DAME” signs.
- Refugees and asylum seekers. 2014, they let in…wait for it…11. Total. 11. More on this in closing.
- Fags have no rights here, period, UNLESS you’re fabulous and live in the Shibuya area. Suteki!
- Girls just have it kinda bad here. discrimination, violence, groping and stalking.
- Free speech has been scrapped, see above #3.
- They can still lock you up for 23 days, for no reason, essentially torture you, and then dump you back on the street without so much as a “oops”.
1. Overlord Abe will have as much time as he needs.
The grand Overlord of Japan, Shinzo Abe, has decreed (probably), that he will ignore the law and will extend his term limit to 9 years, not 6. This is of course, good for all the loyal and hard-working and ganbatteru Japanese who will enjoy a life of peace (well probably not peace) and abundance (probably not this either, his “three arrows” all missed). But never the less, all must bow before the subarashi Overlord of Japan and all things Gundam.
Why I don’t care
Over the years I’ve watched from far and away as the United States and Europe, both places I grew up in and love, eating themselves alive through wars, a complete disregard for the environment, religious like idiotic “progressivism” and horrid economic policy, begin to fall apart. It’s been tough to watch, I must say. What’s more, those of you who live there, you can’t even see it; your perspective won’t allow it.
Living in Tokyo, but never being accepted as someone who really lives here, forever the perpetual guest, I’m always on the outside looking in, and events in the last few years have been dark. But, darkness alone is not enough to make someone not care, however, watching an entire country march in lock step toward wildly darker times, all the while pleading ignorance despite this being the information age, it’s numbing as hell.
An acquaintance of mine, early 30’s, Japanese. He and I had spent long hours over two years discussing his personal and professional lives, both of which were in a shambles. He’s smart, multi-lingual and young, with years of experience at a major chemical company under his belt. Well, when his company turned on him, driving him to the edge of both quitting and losing his mind, he was at an incredibly low point. We spent so much time talking about the world, options, lifestyles, and this bullshit consumer matrix like reality they try to keep us all trapped inside. His mind literally opened before my eyes and he devoured literature and his ability in language, he speaks four, flourished and I was impressed. Deeply impressed, in fact; he motivated me.
His company had humiliated him. They had sent him to a psychiatrist and relegated him to the lowest depths possible, literally forcing him to take out trash and replace the phones for those who used to be his peers. He was passed over for promotions while his peers advanced. He was told, flatly, “You will never work in management. But you can continue till retirement in a support role, only.”
He was utterly humiliated and it had become clear that if he left the company, within a month he would be hired by one of many other attractive options. Things looked bright with possibilities.
What did he do? He stayed with the company which had fucked him for years. He decided it was better for him to “be a hard-working bee” and support this company, out of loyalty, loyalty to an organization that did everything in their power to make him quit. Once I heard this, he and I stopped talking. For me, he is a metaphor which clearly illustrates Japan, painfully.
They have all the tools, all the information, but nobody does shit while their country heads toward a really shitty place. Can’t feel sorry or care about that anymore. What’s the point? It’s the constant hypocrisy: We love peace! But your government is moving clearly toward war. Brexit is so tragic! But you aren’t interested in a hard and fast version of the EU here in East Asia because, China= gross. Oh why won’t Trump let in the refugees? Why can’t we all help the refugees? But fuck those refugees coming to Japan you let in 11 and that was 11 too many.
The list goes on and on but really, who cares now?
Pray for Japan? I did. It didn’t work. And it wasn’t God’s fault, it was Japan’s fault.
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Gaijinass 
Funny that I had a similar conversation recently with a Japanese guy, similar situation and he also stayed with the company that was screwing him, I told him that apart from from being a fucking idiot, he must be a masochist with a suicidable tendancy. He had many good alternatives with way better outcomes, but no he stays, bends over and asks for more!?
Yep the planet is rapidly spiraling towards a gigantic star sized shithole, it has gotten way past the point of stop the planet I want to get off!
Correct. Most people think everything is awesome. Well, it isn’t. Things happen in cycles. A bad cycle is on it’s way. Japan will be part of that.
I like to call this the #brokendream when I write my articles. A lot of people I speak with that want to go to Japan have a fantasy island in their head… I guess if you’re coming over there to be an otaku and go home you certainly could hold that idea of Japan. I’ll be in Fukuoka for 2 years, and I’m not fooled by the fantasy island shit.
I still think Tokyo is an awesome place if you’re single, ready to mingle and your outcomes here have no real impact on what or where you’ll be in 3 or 4 years. However, if you’re thinking family and looking at a longer timeline, staying here for the majority of foreigners from the west is keenly sub optimal.
Yeah buddy, the toilet flushes and geys clogged….again….after you unplug it half a dozen times you finally just say fuck it, throw up your hand, and just walk away….not even bothering to mutter your disgust is so great. The word of the day is “AQUIESCENCE”.
If people want to live with their head firmly planted in the sand, fine. But when people come looking for alternatives and advice, and the first piece of advice, the core principle they are given they then choose to ignore, well, the washing of hands then occurs.
Wow, hard to believe someone has their head so far up their ass that they would argue in favor of accepting more refugees in Oct 2016. I almost envy the ignorance/inability to process facts.
Hey, that’s Japan.
I lived in Okinawa for four years. Everyone knows what they are supposed to do. Your behavior and life follows established rules.
Again, please remove the libel, instead of just editing it as you’ve done.
Some of the stuff seems old hat as Japan I’ve always heard about, top down, consensus with no disagreement, and the Japanese “folk” as a single unit. Only Japan could create the Company Man who worked himself to death for the glory of a rebuilt and prosperous Japan – a German, Frenchman, or Pole would’ve had a union strike. Of course they’re not keen on making themselves a multi-cultural much less multi-racial society. Guys I know who were stationed in Okinawa say the Japanese are cool with us being there vs. Japan proper since even after 400 years they still don’t consider Okinawans Japanese, so who cares what we do to them. I’m surprised they took in 11 refugees. The troubles you went through for your visa renewal was a long game of “let’s mess with the gaijin.” Guys who served in Korea who were in my unit tell me South Korea is not any more “welcoming.”
Now the cold war is over, I doubt the USA is as Three Musketeers all for one and one for all with its allies as it once was. Japan sees this. So does the president of the Philippines as he gives the USA grief and cozies up to China. We pulled our missiles out of NATO member Poland (instead of expanding NATO it should’ve been abolished in favor of individual treaties but what’s done is done) and pretty much left them on their own, surrounded by major powers again. I wonder if we’d go to war over the Baltic NATO members. Turkey knows it’s on its own. I can see your concerns about Japan being once again a militarily independent country, and your living there I bet you have a better feel for what that means besides just reacting to shrinking American strength. But I can’t see a non-militarized Japan as anything but a sitting duck for someone as the USA pulls back. I wonder if, as Hawaii’s independence movement gets more steam, we don’t let them go their own way also.
North Korea is useful to China as its Bad Cop lets China step in and play Good Cop. As the West fights for environmental standards and hardens industrial ability to work and be good custodians of the land, the businesses go to China with no labor or environmental concerns (worker’s paradise all right).
Only you can tell me if Japan has always had a one party consensus minded Diet with other parties there to look like an option but it being no real loyal opposition. I don’t see them “hashing it out” like in Britain, the USA, or Israel. Kind of why communism or other religions never got much interest. Parliamentarian Republic seems something Japan does because MacArthur said to do so like a child eating his green beans, so no wonder why Abe’s extension is a non-issue. With this mindset, I wonder what the “Japanese people” can do to in real terms to thwart whatever the gov’t/banking/industrial triangle decides for them. In the West “the people” got populist movements going and the entrenched powers of course call them every epithet but Child of God to make the people who support them pariahs to be shunned, but the whole sexist racist homophobe shaming is losing its steam to ruin someone. Clinton calling them Deplorable was mild. Trump and Sanders were the F You candidates. Trump cleaned the clock of the party that acts like an opposition at election time but meshes with the Dems the other 4 years. Sanders won but got compromised by, I don’t care what your politics, someone who is no more than a Machiavellian thug we will have to live with soon. A saner Democratic Party would’ve been ashamed to have her over 100 much more able and ethical candidate choices. I don’t see how a Japanese opposition has a chance.
Here in the USA, you leave your bad job and good luck landing something. HR is a beast anymore. They hold quitting before hiring somewhere else against you, as well as having employment gaps, or leaving a really crappy job before 2 years are in (job hopper = shunned by employers). So I know people stuck in crap positions here. It’s not like in my father’s time where if you didn’t like your job, you walked across the street and began working there. I’ve known too many educated and brilliant people who can’t get hired or are in what used to be teenager jobs, and it’s not from laziness. Aaron Clarey’s blog covers the situation more eloquently than I can. I pity your former friend.
Thing is with the guy I know he had and as far as I know the offer is still open, another better job he could move straight into. The employers even are aware what a rough time is getting at his current position and have offered him an out to a better job at their company. He has skills they want and will pay well to get. He is not in the position of being unemployed if he quits his current position, quite the contrary, he will be taking a positive step up the ladder with the new employer, and yet he still chooses to stay and be the whipping boy.
That is why I called him an idiot!
Hmm … you see if you were in the US, I’d say this guy was clearly blowing smoking up your ass about having another job lined up and was making up a fabulous story to save face. Another company offers what sounds like the world in comparison to what he has now and he opts to be treated like dogshit? Who does that? But I’m more than aware of the culture of conformity that pervades Japan even though I’ve yet to understand it. Maybe there’s an inherently masochistic angle about Japanese culture I had yet to consider. I’ll have to think a little more about that one.
One thing this blog entry has really crystallized for me is how the erosion of our Bill of Rights and protections guaranteed in the Constitution here in the US can trickle down to how other countries govern themselves. Sure of course I was aware of Duterte’s uncompromising support of extrajudicial killings of anyone related to the drug trade in the Philippines. He even turned himself into a bit of a public enemy to US media and public when he called Obama’s mother a whore when told the US president planned to speak to him about his shameless promoting of vigilantism. His desire to lead the charge away from US hegemony of what he’s convinced is a falling empire isn’t exactly a secret. But I thought it more isolated than it apparently is. Guess I’ve been sleepwalking on Asian/Pacific news to not be up on Abe’s authoritarianism until reading this. Japan rarely makes US headlines these days unless it’s something related to rape of Okinawans by US servicemen it might get a blip. But I did hear something unsettling a few months back about how the Japanese Supreme Court ruled on a case brought by Muslims challenging their unlawful surveillance that Muslims in Japan had no rights and could therefore be monitored to whatever extent determined by authorities. That should have clued me in something was seriously amiss. I had always feared and probably implicitly knew conventional wisdom would predict this might turn into a domino effect as a consequence of the US gov’s authoritarian lurch rightward but there was always a part of me that had hoped other countries might learn from our bad examples the valuable lessons as to what NOT to do for fear of becoming like us.
Wishful thinking I know, it only takes a few in government to opportunistically seize the moment and march it in lockstep towards corporate militarism and authoritarianism when the path of gold was paved by none other than the plutocratic leaders of the USA, the oligarchs that own them, and a military industrial complex that powers its economic engine that drives the rest of the world, helped by the federal reserve and the dollar as the defacto reserve currency of course. Who is to tell them otherwise when the US did so well playing by its rules? sigh.
Your comments are succinct and well written but I agree with you, there is a fundamental masochism deeply ingrained in the culture, as well a fear of conflict. That fear of conflict is actually much more powerful than I had once thought, particularly among people my age and younger. Finally, a point literally all Japanese miss or willfully ignore, and a point you seem to have missed above, is that Japan has a very functional and high tech military right now. It’s already in place under the ridiculous euphemism “Self Defense Force”. So, this idea of a sitting duck Japan, it’s inaccurate as of this moment.
Oh shit, that guy hitting the bridge was in Colorado, that’s my home state. Brutal! But I’ve been following a good amount of what you’re saying here from the guys from ‘Tokyo on Fire’ on YouTube. I’m wondering how all this will play out with the US preparing (Trump) to negotiate TPP/NFTA and all the trade deals across the board and from what I heard on Tokyo on Fire is that the US may pull a lot of resources out of Japan, and have them fully be responsible for their own protection… OR have to pay for it. Not sure where that’s going but that’s what I heard was discussed with President Elect-Donald Trump, but removing article 9 is certainly an open window for endless printing of money. I certainly would like to see that shit curtailed. We need to audit the fucking fed over here in the States… then perhaps it can have a rolling affect across the world when they open up that can of worms. Anyway, great article.
I like this blog but take issue with this assertion: “Blow a whistle in Japan, and Abe could put you away for up to ten years. Similar to the USA, although not yet on such a ridiculously large-scale, Abe and his goons have successfully, after ignoring massive protests, enacted the State Secrets law allowing them, essentially, to hide the dirty shit they do from the public.”
Dude, no. The whole reason a state secrecy law was finally passed was because Japan was literally one of the only countries in the world to not have any of their own. The law exists only to protect state secrets so that foreign countries such as China and Russia stop using Japan as their own little espionage haven. Russian intelligence recruits a CIRO official to pass him sensitive policy information in exchange for money like what happened in 2008? Now that’s punishable. PSIA doesn’t want to share intelligence information with the National Police Agency because of information stove-piping and battling other agencies for credibility, which is what prevented the agencies from stopping the sarin gas attacks by Aum Shinrikyo? Now agencies are forced to share in the name of public safety.
It also isn’t there to hide anything dirty. There is absolutely no reason why the general public needs to know about, say, the names of counterterrorism officials overseas who have been deployed to liaison with foreign intelligence agencies to stop terrorist attacks. There is no reason why the general public needs to know the locations and capabilities of allied naval vessels. Now that Japan has a law in place, it will greatly discourage people from leaking sensitive information to the public or foreign intelligence officers from trying to run secret sources in the government.
I also wanted to add that Japan has earned a reputation as a country that cannot keep defense-related information a secret and has seen over 100 espionage cases since the end of World War II. Given Japan’s relative low-profile in international affairs, that ain’t good, especially for a country that is the biggest ally of the U.S. in East Asia.
I understand and can appreciate the need for operational security. That having been said I profoundly disagree with the following: “There is absolutely no reason why the general public needs to know about, say, the names of counterterrorism officials overseas who have been deployed to liaison with foreign intelligence agencies to stop terrorist attacks. There is no reason why the general public needs to know the locations and capabilities of allied naval vessels. ”
If public funds are being used then the public does have a reason. If deeds are done in the name of the Japanese people, then they have a right to know. I guess herein lies the conundrum: Operational security matters, but so does transparency of government. Many things the US has found itself entangled in, and which have resulted in blowback, never would have gotten a green light if people had known what was going on.
As for stove piping and that being eliminated, well I doubt that. America’s obsession with state secrets hasn’t helped information show up where it needs to be and we can see that in everything from 9/11 up to the 2012 DOD reports regarding ISIS. Inter-agency politics will always be present regardless of security clearances.
However for me that’s the trees, not so much the forest. I’m on the side of Chalmers Johnson here, I think it’s all a black hole, money flows in and generally mayhem flows out.
I guess my question would be, what would the public have to gain in terms of transparency or accountability by knowing such specific information? That detail of information has nothing to do with transparency. IGs and the like already exist for that reason. They are objective parties that hold agencies accountable to the law. We must remember that newspapers are in the business of selling a product, not simply informing the masses out of altruism. Likewise, once information is let out to the public, there is no way to control who can and cannot see that information, including adversaries. Al Qaeda reads the NYT and BBC just like the rest of us. Early after the 9/11 days, a news report mentioned how Bin Laden was simply being tracked by the USGOV. Shortly thereafter, the gov could no longer track his comms because he shut his phones off and went strictly to couriers. It’s extremely easy to disclose sources and methods even through general statements. All it takes is for an adversary to ask, “how do they know that?” to compromise sources and methods.
Even the United States didn’t have a law to punish those who leaked names of undercover intelligence officers until the 70s (Intelligence Identities Act) when a CIA station chief was assassinated in Greece after his name was exposed. When another station chief was kidnapped and killed in Lebanon in 1985, he was forced to expose the names of informants working on CIA’s behalf there that were later killed or simply disappeared. Obviously these revelations make potential future informants more hesitant to work for governments. Names might sound benign, but they absolutely do matter.
As somebody who worked in the game for over a decade before leaving for the private sector, I can assure you that information sharing is way better than it was before 9/11 as matters of analytic integrity and the law. ODNI wasn’t created for the lulz. Also, ISIS had nothing to do with interagency politics or ignorance of what was happening. It was well publicized that DIA’s director hammered on the point repeatedly and was fired. It was well known across the IC but was intentionally ignored by POTUS because it didn’t fall into lockstep with his narrative of “a responsible conclusion and transition” of Iraq. So that was a policy failure, not an intelligence failure. I’m glad to see that Japan is finally making attempts to abandon its milquetoast aversion to all things military and improving its intelligence capabilities to counter China and ISIS’s nonsense.
It seems then that it boils down to whether or not one thinks Japan should militarize. I do not. If I did, I would support a strict control of information. But I do not and I think a militarized Japan is a mistake. More military and state control always comes at a loss of liberty.
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