Japanese Prime Minister & Obama Want Japan Able to Wage War

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Re: Japanese Prime Minister & Obama Want Japan Able to Wage

Postby cptmarginal » Sat Feb 08, 2014 6:15 am

Dug this up from some really old bookmarks of mine:

http://web.archive.org/web/200708121206 ... 00051.html

http://seclists.org/interesting-people/1999/Mar/51

Interesting People mailing list archives

Subject: IP: For those of you who remember The Japan that can say No. .. the sequel

From: Dave Farber
Date: Sun, 21 Mar 1999 18:19:11 -0500

The previous book was translated by the NSA without the copyholders permission. The official translation, many moons
latter, was substantially milder than the NSA one. Wonder if anyone has dome that translation again. djf


From: "Richard Hendy"
Date: Sun, 21 Mar 1999 11:22:31 +0900


Fellow Fukuzawans,
First of all a big thank you for such a lively forum and long may it
remain vibrant.
Shintaro Ishihara seems top be in the lead in the polls for the
Tokyo Gubernatorial Election, and in interviews he can come across as quite
reasonable - see for example the article in last weeks' "Shukan Bunshun".
One wonders whether the media is really doing it's job properly, however. As
far as the Aum connection goes and Hans van der Lugt's contention that it is
all an LDP plot, well I know not, but Ishihara seems just as capable of
shooting himself in the foot without assistance from LDP eminence grises.
Piled up high at my local bookstore is 'The Japanese Economy That Can Say
No', which appears to be a follow-up to the infamous 1989/90(?) tract, 'The
Japan That Can Say No', and co-authored (or ghost-written?) by the
Hitotsubashi Sogokenkyukai at Ishihara's old alma mater, Hitotsubashi
University. (Does anyone have any more info on these scholars?) I don't
think this latest tome has been translated into English yet - perhaps the US
Senate are sleeping on the case... To give you a flavour of it, here are the
chapter headings:
1 The Japanese Economy is America's Foot-bound Mistress
2 America's Financial Empire Aims For World Domination
3 The Asian Crisis - An American Plot
4 Learning from the EU And Creating A Great East Asian Strong Yen Sphere
5 Asian Solidarity Will Change the World
While it's not quite Mein Kampf, Ishihara does engage in some dubious
ramblings - of particular note see pp102-104, sub-headed 'The Bullying Of
Asia By The Merciless American Jewish Trio' (he is referring to Albright,
Rubin and Soros). There is a vehement denunciation of the retired British
sevicemen's protests against the Emperor's 1998 visit to Britain on pp141-6
and some examples of dubious broadsheet reporting, with which one can at
least sympathise. Unfortunately Ishihara then tarnishes his case by
concluding:
'English people like these (meaning the servicemen who burned
the Japanese flag), and American Anglo-Saxons, who crossed the seas from
England and who built the current America, exterminating and massacring the
Indians and buffalos as they went west with their expansionist lust, have
now selfishly come up with a new type of financial strategy for the East
Asian arena, with Jewish financial experts as Cabinet members installed at
the centre.'
Of course most Tokyoites would care rather more about a link to Aum
than Ishihara's anti-semitic rambling, I suppose.
As for the Ishihara - Seiyukai connection, Jens Wilkington may not
be right about the respectability of Seiyukai. I remember seeing somewhere
on the Web revelations of brainwashing etc from a (Belgian-based?) cult
investigation organisation.
All contributions on Ishihara gratefully received.

Richard Hendy
a teacher

-----Original Message-----
ol : Tim 'T3' Romero
: fukuzawa () ucsd edu <fukuzawa () ucsd edu>
: 1999 N3 19 21:56
: More (of the same) on Aum


Ishihara's close association with Aum is old news. I was talking it over
three years ago on one of my websites and on the DFS. However, I've never
seen anything to indicate that Ishihara is a member of Aum, and would be
quite surprised if he is or ever was.

At the moment, I don't have time or inclination to dig trough my old notes,
but from memory the basic sequence of events is as follows.

1) Shintaro Ishihara authors "A Japan that Can Say No", in which he
advocates, among other things, strengthening Japan's position in the world
by engaging in weapons technology transfer with Russia.

2) Ishihara lobbies to ensure that Aum is recognized by the government as a
proper religious organization.

3) The Japan-Russia Friendship University is founded in Russia using
primarily Japanese taxpayer money.

4) Aum is put in charge of this university. (Never did find out exactly how
that happened)

5) Using this University as a base, Aum begins a program of weapons
technology transfer, and pays out hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes
to high-ranking Russian officials.

6) Tokyo subway is gassed.

7) Three days after the raids on Aum begin, Ishihara unexpectedly resigns
his diet post in the middle of his term. His only explanation is that he
suddenly became tired of being a politician.

8) Diet member Hamada writes a book in which he explains that Ishihara was
funneling huge amounts of money into Aum.

Just something to think about. This guy could be our next governor.

L8r,
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Re: Japanese Prime Minister & Obama Want Japan Able to Wage

Postby cptmarginal » Sat Feb 08, 2014 6:19 am

One good thing about the Tokyo gubernatorial election: Dr. Nakamats is running for office again!

Image

Yoshiro Nakamatsu, We Salute You // Brainsturbator

-
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Re: Japanese Prime Minister & Obama Want Japan Able to Wage

Postby cptmarginal » Mon Feb 10, 2014 10:53 pm

A former welfare minister backed by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe handily won Tokyo's gubernatorial election Sunday, brushing aside his rivals' attempts to turn the election into a referendum on nuclear policy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y%C5%8Dichi_Masuzoe

Masuzoe ran for Governor of Tokyo in the 1999 election, placing third among nineteen candidates (behind Shintaro Ishihara and Kunio Hatoyama).[7]

He won his first Diet seat in the Upper House in 2001 with the largest number of ballots in the national proportional representation section of the House of Councilors.[8]

In 2006, he was named deputy director general of an LDP committee charged with redrafting the Constitution of Japan. In this role, he argued that Article 9 of the Constitution of Japan, which prohibits Japan from maintaining warmaking potential, was increasingly disjoined with the reality of Japan's defense arrangements, and should be revised in order to allow the Japan Self-Defense Forces to have the status of a military.[9]

[...]

Masuzoe led opinion polls through the final week of the [2014] campaign. His most prominent opponent, former opposition Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa, had the backing of the popular former LDP prime minister Junichiro Koizumi. In a rare display of humor, Masuzoe dismissed a question as to whether the "tag team" of ex-prime ministers was intimidating, saying "I wouldn't care if they had a hundred prime ministers!"[34] Hosokawa, as well as rival Kenji Utsunomiya, both made opposition to nuclear power a key issue in their campaigns, while Masuzoe, who supported a gradual phase-out of nuclear power, focused on social welfare issues. He ultimately won the election amid low voter turnout following a blizzard in Tokyo the previous day.[35]

Views

In a 1996 Shokun article cited by former SDP leader Mizuho Fukushima, Masuzoe argued that nuclear power is a fundamental component of national energy and defense policy and should not be influenced by local concerns: he asked "if 30,000 local residents can reject a national policy in a referendum, where and how are the other 125 million Japanese citizens supposed to manifest their own intentions?"[36]

Fukushima also cited a 1989 article in which Masuzoe argued that women are "not fundamentally suited for politics;" that women lack the ability to compile parts into a logical whole, thus leading to single-issue politics; that women lack the physical strength to work 24 hours a day and make major decisions; and that their menstrual cycle leads them to be "abnormal" on a monthly basis and unsuitable for making major policy decisions such as whether to go to war.[37]


http://www.japansubculture.com/if-she-b ... -governor/

“If she bleeds, she can’t lead…” Sexist, Pro-nuclear, LDP loyalist Masuzoe Elected Tokyo Governor

Posted by subcultureist on Sunday, February 9, 2014

This is an op-ed news bulletin. It does not necessarily represent the views of everyone at the Japan Subculture Research Center but probably comes close.

February 9th, 2014

The man who personifies Japan’s gender gap, former health minister Yoichi Masuzoe, 65, with the support of the Liberal Democrat Party, the nuclear energy industry, and the Sokka Gakkai fan club (Komeito), today reportedly won a four-year term as governor of Tokyo. He beat out his two nearest rivals who had said Japan should phase out nuclear energy. His victory was assured with a voter turn-out rate of roughly 34% , a lapdog media that is in love with advertising money from Tokyo Electric Power Company, and preceded by Tokyo’s worst snowfall in over a decade. (As if it were a sign of things to come…)

Shortly after polling closed at 8pm, the Japanese media, including Prime Minister Shinzo Abe controlled NHK (aka A.B.E News) reported that he had won by a sizeable margin, based on exit polls, wishful thinking, and haste to go home early.

With this victory, Mr Masuzoe will be Tokyo’s “face” for the next four years–even if that face resembles that of a horse with mange. Because of his rabid support of nuclear power as an energy source, Mr Masuzoe’s election is expected to spur the Liberal Democrat Party’s efforts to restart the country’s idled nuclear reactors. It will also be a boon for politically connected construction firms wishing to get a big share of the unneeded 2020 Olympics construction and plans to demolish interesting parts of the city in order to create a money draining infrastructure that will temporarily benefit cronies of Abe and the Liberal Democrat Party.

Yoichi-kun is beloved by Japan’s feminists for his colorful remarks about women and power. In fact, allegations of his domestic violence, abuse of power and his past history of colorful sexist statements earned him his own unique twitter account: 舛添に投票する男とセックスしない女達の会 @Nomasuzoe–which in English would be, “The Association Of Women Who Won’t Have Sex With Men Who Vote For Masuzoe”.

In 1989 during Japan’s so-called “Madonna Boom” when a surprising number of women became elected officials, Masuzoe stated, “This is an exceptional period in history, that’s why even these women things are showing up…but those who have been elected are all a bunch of old middle aged hags.” Well, lucky for us Japan has come a long way since those crazy “women-in-politics” days. Once again, Japan has shown us that with enough voter apathy, a compliant media, and the connections and funding of the nuclear industry, that any middle-aged asshole guy can be the leader of one of Japan’s largest city-states.

How bad a leader will he be? No one can for sure but one thing is certain: there are possibly 3,067 supporters of Masuzoe who are not going to get laid tonight. One can hope. (Because if there’s anyone in Japan who we’d like to see not procreating, it’s the idiots that would vote for this charlatan in the first place.)

Image


Sounds kind of like Ishihara (whose right-wing placeholder candidate just lost the election, as everyone expected)

In 2000, Ishihara, one of the eight judges for a literary prize, commented that homosexuality is abnormal, which caused an outrage in the gay community in Japan.[37]

In a 2001 interview with women's magazine Shukan Josei, Ishihara said that he believed "old women who live after they have lost their reproductive function are useless and are committing a sin," adding that he "couldn't say this as a politician." He was criticized in the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly for these comments, but responded that the criticism was driven by "tyrant… old women."[38]


Good luck with that!
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Re: Japanese Prime Minister & Obama Want Japan Able to Wage

Postby cptmarginal » Mon Feb 10, 2014 11:03 pm

http://www.jicl.jp/english/related/back ... 00612.html

The Constitutional Amendment Arguments made by Mr.Masuzoe of Liberal Democratic Party of Japan's New Constitutional Amendment Drafting Committee and its Issues.

Jun 26,2006

Prof.Toshihiro Yamauchi
<Professor at Ryukoku University, Japan Institution of Constitutional Law Visiting Researcher>

On June 10th, Nagasaki Broadcasting and Nagasaki Newspaper co-hosted the Symposium regarding our constitution, "Supporting our Constitution or Amending our Constitution? Thinking in Nagasaki". As the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan's Constitutional Amendment
Drafting Committee Deputy Director General, directing the drafting of the Constitutional Amendment, Yoichi Masuzoe from the position of Constitutional Amendment and I from the position of supporting our current Constitution both expressed our concerns. Based on those concerns, Hideo Tsuchiyama former President of Nagasaki University <Co-Representative of the Prefecture's Article 9 Association> and attorney Katsumi Sagara <Provincial Bar Association Constitutional Committee member> joined to do a panel discussion moderated by Toshiya Nakamura, Professor at the Siebold University of Nagasaki.

The content of the Symposium was published by the Nagasaki Newspaper on the 11th and the 18th, therefore today I wish to briefly introduce the Symposium and express my personal views on it.

First of all, Mr. Masuzoe pointed out that we need an amendment because certain articles are ill-suited to our current situation such as Article 89, and also because there are issues such as Intellectual Property and Environmental Rights that have newly emerged. Furthermore, he pointed out that the Liberal Democratic Party's largest pillar of the amendment is Article 9, and describes the necessity of amendment as below. Regarding Article 9, the disjunction between the article and reality is widening. Our current Self-Defense Forces is clearly an army, conflicting with the second clause of Article 9. The Self-Defense Forces has been deployed as far as Iraq and the Indian Ocean, but there is no Constitutional Provision that justifies this. There's a limit as to how much we can deal with this disjunction by the interpretation of our Constitution, and it seems like we've reached the limit. In Japan, since before World War 2, we've seen how facts have been euphemistically concealed, such as how retreats were referred to as strategic anabasis before since pre-War periods. However I strongly believe that deceiving our citizens as such is unacceptable. The Self-Defense Forces should firstly be admitted as an army by our Constitution, and then their activities should be regulated by our Constitution and laws. It is queer to have a foreign army stationed in one's country for a long time, but under the current situation where Russia, China, and North Korea possess nuclear capabilities, Japan has no choice but to maintain our partnership with the US and to rely on America's nuclear capabilities. The US will assist us if Japan is ever attacked, so it is just to think that we must cooperate to an appropriate level. The citizens do not exist for the Constitution, but the Constitution for the better lives of our citizens and maintaining world order, and we must think about how the Constitution should be in order to achieve that.

In response to Mr. Masuzoe's concerns, I replied as below. In who's hands lay the responsibility of the disjunction between Article 9 and reality? It is unacceptable in a law-governed country to put aside that responsibility, but trying to adjust Article 9 to reality.
This is nothing but a reversed debate. Not only does the amendment of Article 9 just constitutionally admit the presence of the Self-Defense Forces, it accepts Japan to exercise the right of collective defense, and also accepts the Self-Defense Forces to take military action in Iraq. Thus the amendment of Article 9 means changing Japanese society into a military-first society. The Constitutional Amendment draft by the Liberal Democratic Party contains a provision of a military court, but this also means that even in the domain of the judiciary, the logic of military precedence will go unchallenged. In addition, our current Constitution rules military conscription as unconstitutional, and even the recent Emergency Acts forbid forcing people to serve through penalizing. The amendment of Article 9 aims at enabling such things. The reason why the amendment draft contains a provision that allows the restricting of human rights under the name of "common good and public order" is to enable the suppression of human rights for military order and national defense. In addition, the preamble of the Constitutional Amendment draft contains the term "patriotism", but they are putting the car before the horse when there is no provision to make it a duty to love one's country but there is a provision that makes it a citizen's duty to support and defend one's country. The Constitution was made to be a restrictive code to regulate state power, but paradoxically the amendment draft is a code that restricts its citizens. Article 9 has greatly served Japan's peace, and it meant a "pledge to never fight war again" especially towards our Asian neighbors. At such times of turbulence, we must protect and utilize Article 9.

With such issues raised, Mr. Tsuchiyama and Mr. Sagara joined the panel discussion and Mr. Sagara remarked the following. People mention the gap between Article 9 and reality, but the real gap is between Article 9 and the government, between the government and its people. In the Liberal Democratic Party's Constitutional Amendment Draft, the phrase "public welfare" has been deleted, but we must not forget that this is the principle that mutually adjusts between various civil liberties and rights, reflected in Article 13's "respect of individual". In addition, from his experience in actively promoting the abolition of nuclear arms, he also notes that if the Self-Defenses Forces turn into an army, it will be one that perhaps even our Prime Minister will not be able to control, and also that it will probably respond to the US request in exercising the right to collective defense. Furthermore, we have reached the limit in trying to amend our Constitution through interpretation, but we must recognize that it is because of Article 9 that the Self-Defense Forces personnel have never killed any foreign-nationals, and overall that is a good thing.

At the symposium, there was also debate over the results of the provincial attitude survey on the Constitution conducted by the Nagasaki Newspaper and Nagasaki Broadcasting this April. Mr. Masuzoe explained that the reason why the majority of the people supported Constitutional Amendment was mainly because of the effect of recent international affairs, and also mentioned that regarding the point that the majority were against the amendment of Article 9, he stressed that it was important to persuade the citizens. Mr. Tsuchiyama pointed out that the results of the attitude survey differed depending on the respondent's understanding of the Constitution, and the more they knew about the Constitution, the more people would be against Constitutional Amendment. In addition, Mr. Sagawa mentioned that it was inappropriate to generally ask whether people were for or against Constitutional Amendment, instead of asking for or against for each Article. I recognized that the majority were against the amendment of Article 9, and regarding the fact that there were many who argued that it should be clearly stated that the existence of the Self-Defense Forces is the reason behind the amendment of Article 9, I urged that there is a need to appeal that the motives behind the amendment of Article 9 is enabling the exercise of the right to collective defense.

The symposium itself was a great success, with approximately 600 participants at the venue. There were more than a few who came because they wanted to take a glance at Mr. Masuzoe, but there were many members from the Prefecture's Article 9 Association who participated too. The questions from the audience also varied, but one could also see that the citizens of a bombed site were strongly interested in Constitutional issues.

By the way, there is one thing I cannot overlook in the discussion by Mr. Masuzoe. That is how he mentioned that he wanted to protect the Rule of Law at the price of his life. This has something in common with the argument that the amendment of Article 9 is necessary for Constitutionalism, but I believe that before mentioning that, we must firstly hold the Liberal Democratic Party responsible for ignoring the Rule of Law. I also point out that in their draft of the Constitutional Amendment, there is no provision regarding who declares war <and thus who decides to use military force>, lacking the Constitutional brake that most "normal countries" have in their Constitutions. Therefore, the Liberal Democratic Party's Constitutional Amendment draft could be aimed at protecting the Rule of Law, but has nothing to do with the Rule of Constitution. Unfortunately, there was no clear answer from Mr. Masuzoe regarding this point. With time limitations, we could not debate on the national referendum legislation, but I believe that the participants were able to obtain an understanding of the objectives and issues of Constitutional Amendment. I am convinced that if we conduct Symposiums like this nation-wide, more citizens will re-realize the importance of protecting and utilizing our current pacifist Constitution.
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Re: Japanese Prime Minister & Obama Want Japan Able to Wage

Postby seemslikeadream » Fri Feb 28, 2014 9:42 am

WEEKEND EDITION FEB 28-MAR 02, 2014

Beyond Yasukuni
Japan’s March Towards Militarism
by SAUL TAKAHASHI
Events in Japan have been worrying to many outside observers, in particular since Prime Minister Shinzo Abe became the first Japanese Prime Minister in seven years to visit the now internationally infamous Yasukuni shrine late last December. The visit was followed with predictable vilification by the governments of China and Korea, but the Japanese population was stunned by the swift condemnation by other important international partners, including the United States, the European Union, and Russia.

The Yasukuni issue is an emotive one in Japan, one which does not lend itself to simplistic right vs left divisions (for example Japanese big business, mindful of the need to maintain good relations with its international trading partners, has been largely critical of Abe’s visit.) Nevertheless, Yasukuni is really a sideshow: almost a distraction from the truly alarming moves that the current government has been taking on a march towards militarism, which include the government’s stated goal to scrap the pacifist Article 9 of the Constitution.

Japan: the Next Merchant of Death

The famed Article 9 of Japan’s Constitution states “the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the national and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes”. Though Japan maintains a military euphemistically known as the Self Defence Force, the pacifist intentions of the article are clear, and it has acted as an overarching framework (and constraint) for all Japanese diplomacy since the end of World War II. It has also been a constant eyesore for the conservative politicians of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which has advocated for the revision of this article since the party’s forming in 1955.

The lion’s share of attention, both domestically and abroad, to the constitutional debate in Japan has focused on the efforts of successive governments to revise this Article, so as to allow the establishment of a ‘proper’ military and the exercise of collective self-defence, currently forbidden under the official interpretation of the Constitution. The government has also created controversy by announcing in late 2013 that it would ease its strict restrictions on weapons exports, opening the door to joint weapons development and ushering in a potential role for Japan as one of the next leading global merchants of death (unlike Abe’s visit to Yasukuni, Japanese big business is very excited about this move, and indeed, has been pushing for it for years). In late February, it came to light that, as part of the easing of its restrictions, the government intends to allow the export of weapons to countries that are currently party to a conflict. It appears that this move is to pave way in joining the United States in exporting weapons to Israel – weapons that could be used in oppressing the Palestinian people, laying siege to Gaza, or attacking Iran or Lebanon.

The End of Human Rights in Japan?

More alarming than these developments are the current government’s plans for revising other sections of the Constitution, which go far beyond Article 9 (and the scant media attention given to these plans within the mainstream media in Japan). A draft revised Constitution published by the LDP would have grave implications for human rights in Japan, and could be a throwback to the arbitrary ‘security’ powers of the military government in the 1930s and 40s, when suspected political opponents were detained and tortured at will.

The draft revised Constitution published in April 2012 is straight out of a dictator’s handbook. It includes a sweeping restriction on fundamental rights, stating that the rights of the people to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” could be legitimately restrained by “public interest and public order”. The right to freedom of expression and assembly are also subjected to this new “public interest” restriction – a particularly worrying development given the new Designated Secrets Act which was rammed through parliament in December above howls of national and international protest. This Act dictates sweeping categories of information that can be designated secret at the whim of the government, together with extremely high penalties for leaking secrets (e.g. ten years imprisonment). In response to the outcry, the PM announced at the eleventh hour the creation of a panel of independent experts that would advise on criteria for designation. The panel met for the first time in January, and the minutes are – you guessed it – secret.

The current Constitution already includes a restriction on rights in the name of “public welfare”, but this has been widely interpreted to mean that the executive has to show that any restriction is necessary (and proportionate) for the protection of other rights. Unhappy with this primacy of human rights protection, the LDP argues lamely in the FAQ issued together with the draft that “public interest” is somehow a more concrete concept that transcends trivial questions of individual rights. Clearly, the LDP believes that the executive should be entrusted with defining the “public interest” in each specific case – a sure blank check for arbitrary actions. In his personal blog, Shigeru Ishiba, the Chief Whip of the LDP, branded peaceful protesters against the Designated Secrets Act as “terrorists” – an ominous sign of how the government plans to interpret the “public interest” criterion.

The current Constitution prohibits torture or cruel punishments “under any circumstances”. In the LDP’s draft, the phrase “under any circumstances” is gone without a trace – suggesting that the government believes, in fragrant violation of international law, that torture could be justified under some circumstances. This is particularly grave given that rampant and systemic ill treatment in detention facilities, in particular during pre-trial detention, is one of the longest standing human rights abuses in Japan. This problem has been documented extensively by international and Japanese NGOs and the Japanese Bar Association. The problems were reiterated recently in 2013 by the UN Committee against Torture, which listed extensive human rights problems related to the current system of pretrial detention. The comments of the UN Committee were dismissed by Abe, who stated that they were not legally binding. None of this bodes well for the future of human rights in Japan.

Educational Reform – All Hail the Flag

The ease of the government to push forward these revisions is an open question, since changes to the Constitution require a two-thirds majority in both houses of parliament and majority support in a referendum. On the other hand, dramatically changing the face of Japanese education has been much easier.

Education in Japan from the period of industrialisation through to the end of the war was geared predominantly towards producing obedient servants of the Emperor and, by extension, the military. All the older generation remember reciting the Emperor’s Rescript on Education, which instructed the Emperor’s subjects to “offer [themselves] courageously to the State; and thus guard and maintain the prosperity of Our Imperial Throne”. They also learned grammar through rote citations of saita saita sakura ga saita, susume susume heitai susume (“the cherry blossoms bloom, onward the solders advance”).

Japanese post-war education was framed with the explicit goal of building democratic values and preventing the kind of nationalistic education of the past. Unsurprisingly, the LDP is unhappy with this, arguing that schools have promoted a “self-flogging” view of the country’s culture and modern history. Successive conservative governments have made attempts to exert more political control over the powerful local education councils (who decide, inter alia, which of the approved textbooks to use in the district) and to break the staunchly leftist national teacher’s union.

In 1999 the parliament adopted a law requiring that all state schools display the flag at commencement ceremonies, and that all teachers (though not necessarily students) stand and sing the anthem – both extremely controversial in the Japanese context because of their close connection with militarism. State school teachers are regularly disciplined because of their refusal to stand during the anthem and even for allegedly only mouthing the lyrics, as thought police of the school administration have been instructed to stand by teachers and listen with ears pricked, to ascertain whether they are truly singing.

Numerous court cases arguing the unconstitutionality of these punishments (and of the law itself) have gone nowhere, with the Supreme Court stating that standing for and singing the anthem was merely “customary and ceremonial”. In one case, seven secondary school teachers in Tokyo who refused to stand were each docked a month’s pay for this expression of their conscience. In September 2013, the Supreme Court invalidated this punishment as being disproportionate, after which the municipality cynically issued formal warnings to the group to ensure their employment records were marred. And if the government has its way with constitutional reform, the people would be required to “respect the national flag and the anthem” – presumably legal justification for demanding more shows of loyalty.

Education as a Tool for Nationalism

In 2005, amendments were made to the Educational Basic Law adding “respect for tradition and culture” and “love of our country and of the homeland” as one of the objectives of education. In an ominous move seemingly aimed at reintroducing conscription, the LDP’s draft revised constitution also dictates that the people must “proactively defend the nation and the homeland with pride and spirit”. Very similar language also features in the new national security strategy adopted in December 2013; the strategy states “it is vital that each citizen understands that national security is not a distant issue … the government will take measures to foster love of our country and of the homeland”. Clearly, educational reforms are being undertaken with these national security objectives in mind.

Sure enough, in November 2013, the Education Minister announced a plan for new guidelines requiring textbooks to be sufficiently “patriotic” for approval. An indication as to the metric of patriotism, the guidelines also state that textbooks should reflect the government position on particular issues, an obviously worrying step given the many efforts of successive governments in whitewashing wartime atrocities in school textbooks.

Equally sinister is the promotion of the ethics course within the curriculum. Currently all Japanese schoolchildren have a course on ethics throughout their mandatory schooling, but this is somewhat ill defined, with much left up to individual teachers. In late December 2013, a government appointed panel recommended that ethics be promoted to a formal subject within the curriculum. Though the panel stated that ethics should continue to be an unmarked course (i.e. students would not be marked), this change means that there will be a national outline of its content and a textbook. With the new requirements for promotion of patriotism through textbooks, naturally there are serious concerns that the new ethics course will become nationalist indoctrination.

The Tokyo of 2020

These debates are longstanding ones, and obviously predate Abe’s premiership. The many elements at play include the stagnation of Japan’s economy since the burst of the “bubble” in 1991, neoliberal reforms pushed forward since the 1990s and the consequential explosion in numbers of un- and under-employed youth (many of whom have proven susceptible to populist propaganda of all sorts), and the perceived threat from a politically and economically rising China.

It would be foolish to say that the current trends are all Abe’s fault. Nevertheless, it is also true that Abe is personally committed to these right wing reforms in a way that few other Prime Ministers have been, and that he has managed to present them as a cure to the country’s ills. History shows that a public constantly under threat of losing their paycheque and their status in the social hierarchy, as is currently the case with the majority of Japanese, provides fertile ground for fascism.

One – perhaps the only one – of Abe’s diplomatic victories has been the choosing of Tokyo as the site for the summer Olympics in 2020 (a feat achieved only with Abe’s disingenuous assurances to the selection committee that the ongoing nuclear disaster in Fukushima was “under control”). The government is doing its best to draw parallels with the first time Tokyo held the Olympic games in 1964, when a confident nation boasted its technological achievements and went on to become one of the global economic powerhouses. In fact, the Olympics had also been scheduled for Tokyo in 1940, but were cancelled amongst growing international opprobrium against Japanese militarism and its war in China. If Abe has his way, the Tokyo of 2020 may very well resemble that of 1940, rather than 1964. In many aspects, it already does.
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: Japanese Prime Minister & Obama Want Japan Able to Wage

Postby cptmarginal » Fri Mar 07, 2014 7:44 pm

Japan Focus, still on point:

http://www.japanfocus.org/-Lawrence-Repeta/4086

(Click through for more)

The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol. 12, Issue 10, No. 1, March 10, 2014.

Japan’s 2013 State Secrecy Act -- The Abe Administration’s Threat to News Reporting 2013年日本の特定秘密保護法 安部政権、報道に対する脅し

Lawrence Repeta

The “Specially Designated Secrets Protection Law”1 poses a severe threat to news reporting and press freedom in Japan. Government officials have not shied away from intimidating reporters in the past. The new law will grant them greater power to do so. Passage of the law fulfills a longstanding government objective to gain additional leverage over the news media. The new law could have a withering effect on news reporting and thus on the people’s knowledge of the actions of their government.

Precedents

In 2009 a highly respected reporter for Japan’s primary news wire service, Ohta Masakatsu, conducted a series of interviews with retired senior officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs concerning “secret agreements” (mitsuyaku) allowing the entry of U.S. naval vessels into Japanese ports and waters with nuclear weapons aboard. This is a matter of intense public interest, not only due to implications for Japan’s national security but also because of the longstanding government policy of denial. Ohta’s work confirmed that the government had lied to the Japanese people about nuclear weapons policy for decades.

After his article based on the interviews appeared, Ohta writes, “I was called in by a senior public official. I was told that even though my interviews were with retired officials, by questioning them and publishing their comments, I had committed the crime of soliciting (kyōsa) a violation of the National Public Employees Law.”2 The officials’ duty to maintain state secrets continued even after they left government service. If the reporter had not prodded them to talk, they might have remained silent.

Ohta was not prosecuted, but he still feels the unease and perhaps fear that followed such a direct threat from a high government official.

Like every Japanese journalist, Ohta was well aware of the infamous Nishiyama case in which another reporter for a mainstream news organization was arrested, tried, and convicted for a similar “crime.” Mainichi Shimbun reporter Nishiyama Takichi was arrested in April 1972 and charged with improperly soliciting the leak of a government secret.3 Nishiyama had received copies of a series of cables showing that when they negotiated the final terms of the return of Okinawa to Japanese control, American and Japanese representatives secretly agreed that Japan would shoulder approximately $ 5 million in compensation for property damage. This disclosure directly contradicted the government’s declared position that the United States was responsible for these payments.4

Citing the free press guarantee of Article 21 of Japan’s Constitution, Tokyo District Court found him not guilty. (The foreign ministry official who leaked the information to Nishiyama was found guilty of violating her duty to protect state secrets as a government employee.) Nishiyama’s acquittal, however, was overturned and on May 31, 1978, the Supreme Court of Japan upheld the guilty verdict.5 The evidence showed that the reporter had taken advantage of a sexual liaison with the official in order to persuade her to provide the information. The Supreme Court decided that he had violated the fundamental rights of the official and his action was therefore outside the scope of the constitutionally protected freedom of the press. In the court’s words, “Reporters do not hold the privilege to improperly violate the rights and freedoms of another in the name of news reporting.”

In Japan there is no doubt. Reporters can be put in jail if prosecutors and courts decide their methods are inappropriate. The Nishiyama and Ohta stories show that the government already wielded significant power to intimidate reporters prior to passage of the 2013 secrecy law. Now it has more.

How the SDS Law Affects News Reporters – the Threat of Criminal Prosecution

Blocking Information at the Source

The 2013 state secrecy law will affect news reporting in two fundamental ways. First, inside information sources will be harder to find. Government officials and others who leak information labeled secret will risk prosecution and up to ten years in jail. They will think very carefully before sharing any potentially designated information with reporters. Second, news reporters themselves will face prosecution and up to five years in prison if government authorities judge their methods inappropriate. When they do make that big scoop, reporters and their employers will be obliged to weigh the risk of prosecution before they publish. Self-censorship is inevitable.

Article 23 of the Specially Designated Secrets Protection Law provides that government officials and authorized private contractors who leak specially designated secrets are liable for up to 10 years imprisonment and a maximum 10,000,000 yen fine.6 This is a very sharp increase over pre-existing law, which mandates a maximum penalty of one year imprisonment.7

Declaring that Japan is a “haven for spies,” rightwing politicians have loudly demanded the adoption of an “anti-spy law” for decades. In 2013 they produced something very different and far more menacing to Japan’s democratic institutions. The 2013 law is not an “anti-spy law” which penalizes leaks of national security information to enemy agents; it is an anti-whistleblower law. This law penalizes leaks of information to anyone, including news reporters and anyone else without the required security clearance. Moreover, the 2013 law extends potential secrecy coverage to subject matter beyond the scope of national security that might be of interest to real spies.8

The law does not excuse whistleblowers who uncover corruption, threats to public health or the environment, or otherwise act to serve a public interest.9 Unauthorized disclosure of any material labeled “specially designated secret,” for whatever reason, is a violation of the law. Moreover, in future prosecutions, the government will not be required to show that the release caused any actual injury to a government interest. The authority to prosecute even trivial matters is a clear mark of arbitrary power.

The Direct Threat Against Reporters

Article 25 of the Law also threatens prosecution of anyone accused of “soliciting” (or abetting, kyōsa) or “instigating” (or coercing, sendō) a leak or conspiring to cause the leak of designated information. These offenses are subject to a maximum five-year prison term. Potential violators of this rule include news reporters, actual foreign spies, members of the Diet or anyone else who employs some inappropriate means to persuade officials to release designated information.

The 1970s prosecution of Nishiyama Takichi is instructive. The secret information revealed as the result of Nishiyama’s work did not cause injury to Japan’s national security or any other significant public interest. It did cause great embarrassment to the Sato Administration because it exposed government lies. In a democratic society, this is precisely the kind of information we rely on investigative journalists to uncover. If Japan’s news media had more aggressively pursued the dangers created by the “nuclear power village,” the word “Fukushima” might not have become global shorthand for nuclear meltdown.

In the Nishiyama case, Japan’s government was caught in a lie. It responded with the most lethal weapon at its disposal: criminal prosecution. Democratic constitutions guarantee freedom of the press. In order to succeed, criminal prosecutions must overcome a strong presumption that the actions of reporters are protected.10

Nishiyama was charged with violation of Article 111 of the National Public Employees Law, which prohibits improper inducement of the leak of secret information by a government official. He was subject to a maximum penalty of one year in prison and a fine of 30,000 yen.11 With passage of the “Specially Designated Secrets Act” in December 2013, the potential threat confronting news reporters has increased dramatically. It is this threat to freedom of the press and more broadly to people’s right to know about government action that is the reason the secrecy bill was opposed by so many academics and organizations that seek to protect fundamental rights.


http://www.japanfocus.org/events/view/211

The Revenge of History: Chomsky on Japan, China, the United States, and the Threat of Conflict in Asia 歴史の復習 チョムスキー、日中米とアジアにおける対立の恐れを語る
Mar. 02, 2014

Noam Chomsky

Interview by David McNeill

In the 1930s and 40s, a young, politically precocious Noam Chomsky was much affected by the Great Depression and the slow, seemingly inexorable slide toward world war. The jingoism, racism and brutality unleashed on all sides were appalling, but it seemed to him from his home in Philadelphia that America had reserved a special level of animosity for the Japanese. When Washington ended a campaign of mass civilian slaughter from the air with the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in the summer of 1945, the 16-year-old, deeply alienated by the celebrations around him, walked off into the local woods to mourn alone. “I could never talk to anyone about it and never understood anyone’s reaction,” he said. “I felt completely isolated.”

In the subsequent two decades, Chomsky built a glittering academic career, transforming the study of linguistics with a string of convention-shattering theories. During the Vietnam War, he reluctantly forged another identity – the one for which he is best known around the world – as an unrelenting critic of U.S. foreign policy. Much of his intellectual life since has been spent stripping away what he calls America’s “flattering self-image” and the layers of self-justification and propaganda he says it uses in its naked pursuit of power and profit around the planet. Unlike most mainstream commentators, Chomsky did not view the Vietnam quagmire as an aberration but as the inevitable product of imperial overreach.

In one of his most famous pronouncements, Chomsky once said that if the laws of the Allied postwar trials of war criminals in Tokyo and Nuremberg were fairly applied, “then every postwar American president would have been hanged.” The template for this presidential dispensation had been laid in his youth. The fire bombing of Tokyo, the A-bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were war crimes; they just weren’t our war crimes, he noted. “A war crime is any war crime that you can condemn them for but they can't condemn us for.”

Now aged 85, and still in demand across the world as a public speaker, Chomsky has returned to Japan at a time when the ghosts of World War II history have again returned to haunt the nation’s dangerously unstable relationship with China. Prime Minister Abe Shinzo has signaled he intends to move ahead with the transformation of Japan’s postwar political architecture. The attempt to reinterpret the pacifist constitution is aligned with a campaign of double-speak on the history of Japan’s war crimes, infuriating Beijing, Seoul and other Asian nations. What was once unthinkable – the prospect of another war in East Asia – is now part of mainstream discussion. The prospect still seems remote, but as Chomsky notes in this interview before his departure for Tokyo: “History has taught us that playing with fire is not a wise course, particularly for states with an awesome capacity to destroy.” He also reflects on the alternative: the development of a vibrant regional economy that could provide the foundation for a peaceful and prosperous Asia no longer so heavily dependent on a declining but still dangerous American military power.

Tell us about your connections to Japan.

I’ve been interested in Japan since the 1930s, when I read about Japan’s vicious crimes in Manchuria and China. In the early 1940s, as a young teenager, I was utterly appalled by the racist and jingoist hysteria of the anti-Japanese propaganda. The Germans were evil, but treated with some respect: They were, after all, blond Aryan types, just like our imaginary self-image. Japanese were mere vermin, to be crushed like ants. Enough was reported about the firebombing of Japanese cities to recognize that major war crimes were underway, worse in many ways than the atom bombs.

I heard a story once that you were so appalled by the bombing of Hiroshima and the reaction of Americans that you had to go off and mourn alone…

Yes. On Aug. 6, 1945, I was at a summer camp for children when the atomic bombing of Hiroshima was announced over the public address system. Everyone listened, and then at once went on to their next activity: baseball, swimming, et cetera. Not a comment. I was practically speechless with shock, both at the horrifying events and at the null reaction. So what? More Japs incinerated. And since we have the bomb and no one else does, great; we can rule the world and everyone will be happy.

I followed the postwar settlement with considerable disgust as well. I didn’t know then what I do now, of course, but enough information was available to undermine the patriotic fairy tale. 
My first trip to Japan was with my wife and children 50 years ago. It was linguistics, purely, though on my own I met with people from Beheiren (Citizen’s League for Peace in Vietnam). I’ve returned a number of times since, always to study linguistics. I was quite struck by the fact that Japan is the only country I visited — and there were many — where talks and interviews focused solely on linguistics and related matters, even while the world was burning.


Full interview at link
The new way of thinking is precisely delineated by what it is not.
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Re: Japanese Prime Minister & Obama Want Japan Able to Wage

Postby cptmarginal » Wed Mar 26, 2014 9:08 pm

http://www.japanfocus.org/events/view/213

A “Dynamic Joint Defense Force”? An Introduction to Japanese Strategic Thinking
Mar. 18, 2014


Sabine Frühstück

The Japan Ground Self-Defense Force public relations channel (https://www.youtube.com/user/JGSDFchannel; for the English version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tT63npchUM) recently announced in an illustrated video showing the GSDF in action that, according to the new National Defense Program Guidelines for FY 2014 and Beyond, Japan is building a “Dynamic Joint Defense Force.” As such the SDF will emphasize “readiness, sustainability, resilience and connectivity in its software and hardware, supported by advanced technology and C3I (Command, Control, Communications and Intelligence) capabilities, also laying a wide range of foundations for JSDF’s operations.” The grand and stylish 15-minute film is perhaps the most combative piece of public relations issued by the SDF thus far. There is talk of a “tough & resilient Japan Ground Self-Defense Force” and “effective deterrence and response” capabilities. The SDF do not just appear perfectly aligned with the USFJ. The USFJ look as if they were but one branch of the Japanese armed forces.

To my knowledge, never before has the SDF public relations apparatus officially dared to adopt the hawkish rhetoric of becoming “more battle oriented,” speaking of “combat vehicles” that are needed for “optimizing the force structure from an operational point of view,” or the eventuality of responding “to attacks on remote islands.” The smooth aesthetic, musically dramatized and enhanced with defense rhetoric more similar to American military public relations efforts than anything I have seen before in Japan, is a clear departure from earlier, more amateurish attempts to familiarize a broad audience with the Self-Defense Forces’ mission and style.

Yet, there are familiar messages of disaster relief, peace-keeping and peace-building as well and it is important to note that the Self-Defense Forces’ range of public relations techniques and strategies have been more varied than those of many other military establishments, sometimes to the point of conveying rather contradictory messages. Furthermore, style and rhetoric have significantly evolved since the end of the cold war. Numerous political, technological and social factors contributed to this change. Internationally, Japan drew criticism, even scorn, particularly from the United States, for its primarily monetary contribution to the Gulf War (1990–1991). Domestically, the United Nations Peacekeeping Operations Bill was passed in the Japanese Diet amidst substantial protests as it established the legal grounds for Japan’s first peacekeeping mission in Cambodia that same year. Many similar peacekeeping missions followed. Together with the first international disaster relief mission to Honduras in 1998, the 1990s marked a clear departure from the scope of previous operations. Until then, the Self-Defense Forces had been primarily deployed for domestic community and disaster relief missions.

Despite all those experiences, the SDF were deemed inept and unprepared when the then second-biggest earthquake in Japan’s modern history hit the Kobe area in 1995. They would only recover from that natural disaster’s public relations debacle much later, namely in the aftermath of the massive triple disaster – earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown – that struck northeastern Japan on March 11, 2011. The majority of the Japanese population had opposed the deployment of service members to Iraq. Yet, it was the State Secrecy Law of December 2013, put into place by Prime Minister Abe Shinzō in the wake of America’s “global war on terror,” that drew the most massive protests as many feared not only restrictions on freedom of speech but an end to civilian control over the military and matters of security. These, together with growing China-Japan territorial and other conflicts, have spurned a rhetoric of “ever more severe” and “ever more complicated” security concerns for Japan. Accordingly, some of the recent public relations projects have shifted to incorporate the language of crisis and urgency and thus appear alarmingly in line with the 2013 State Secrecy Act that empowers the Minister of Defense to designate information he determines to be “especially necessary to be made secret for Japan’s defense” (see http://japanfocus.org/-Lawrence-Repeta/4011).

In addition to these political events, the multi-layered mechanisms of engaging new electronic and digital technologies such as those used in the film furthered the military’s tighter embrace of the aesthetics of the entertainment and media world. Even ten years ago, the defense ministry’s and SDF branch websites looked dull and bureaucratic. Now, they offer video clips and games, individual service members’ accounts of their motivations and experiences, and other dynamic materials in addition to data about capabilities and missions.

The military public relations apparatus is now appealing to a youthful audience that is largely clueless about the circumstances of the Constitution’s Article 9 and the U.S.-Japan alliance. Many in the young generation tend to see the first as outdated and the second as fait accompli and unproblematic.

Today, SDF presentations range from professionally shot defense ministry-sponsored interviews with service members to staged encounters of young service members with equally young fellow citizens who appear utterly ignorant of the SDF and matters of defense more generally https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cah5SYGq9U8, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-Wt3Nl-Hvo) to cheerful messages and imagery that defy the vision of the SDF’s future laid out in the National Defense Program Guidelines for FY 2014. They include fast-paced weapons systems flashing across one’s screen. One 2013 highlight was the first publically advertised Mr. and Ms. Maritime Self-Defense Force contest showing each contestant in his fast-paced often high tech work on land, sea and in the air as the beat goes on (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SUEVf6I-NA). Another was the almost seamless merging of military and popular cultural takes of the SDF during open house days of bases across Japan. For instance, while the National Defense Program Guidelines for FY 2014 and Beyond was being worked out, the Ministry of Defense homepage continued to encourage visitors to “Believe your heart” (fig. 1) and promised recruits that once in the SDF, they would come to “love themselves” by virtue of “making peace [their] business” (fig. 2).


Click through for pictures & more

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Re: Japanese Prime Minister & Obama Want Japan Able to Wage

Postby cptmarginal » Wed Mar 26, 2014 9:16 pm

Incredible!

http://ocw.mit.edu/ans7870/21f/21f.027/ ... index.html

Tokyo 1960: Days of Rage & Grief

Hamaya Hiroshi's Photos of the Anti-Security-Treaty Protests

In May and June 1960, Tokyo was convulsed by the greatest popular protests of its postwar history. The target of the protests was the renewal of the U.S.-Japan security treaty, originally signed in 1951. The treaty committed Japan to support U.S. cold-war policy in Asia by hosting and rearming a huge network of U.S. military bases. This unit introduces Hamaya Hiroshi’s classic photographs, taken between May 20 and June 22, when demonstrations and clashes with police resulted in many injuries and the tragic death of a female student.

MIT Visualizing Cultures

Massachusetts Institute of Technology © 2012 Visualizing Cultures


Image Image Image
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Re: Japanese Prime Minister & Obama Want Japan Able to Wage

Postby cptmarginal » Wed Apr 02, 2014 7:06 pm

http://www.japansubculture.com/understa ... -on-japan/

Understand Abe & his right wing crew, but focus on Japan. “You’re talking to the wrong people”

Posted by Grant Newsham on Saturday, March 29, 2014 · 1 Comment

This story was originally posted on the PacNet Newsletter*

There is rising concern that Japan risks entrapping the United States in a conflict with China as a result of Prime Minister Abe Shinzo’s “right-wing” policies. Abe’s views should be placed in perspective: there is a genuine basis for concern, as well as a basis for progress and optimism.

Some of Abe’s actions, particularly his Yasukuni Shrine visit, are mystifying and frustrating to those who value the Japan-US alliance. Equally difficult to justify are the routinely provocative comments about comfort women and Japan’s behavior during World War II and the decade leading up to it by NHK directors’ and other Japanese officials. These actions are less mystifying if one understands the thinking behind them, however.

Abe and a slice of Japan’s ruling class believe Japan did a noble deed with its war to throw off the white man’s yoke in Asia and free the colored races (their words, not mine). Moreover, they believe that the Tokyo War Crimes trials were illegitimate, and the Nanjing Massacre and other “alleged wrongdoings” were just that — “alleged.” And, they reason, if Japan did do anything wrong, everybody did such things during the war.

Abe and that small slice of the ruling class believe that as long as Japan accepts this “masochistic” view of history (again, their word, not mine), Japan will never regain its independence and respect – its own self-respect and the respect of other nations.

Thus, actions such as Abe’s Yasukuni visit convey that the current administration in Tokyo does not accept past apologies and admissions of “guilt”; these are intended to refute the “self-humiliation” that restrains Japan. Abe considers it principled leadership to take such actions, and deems them worth doing even if they provoke criticism.

One aspect of Abe and his allies that is seldom recognized is their resentment over Japan’s loss in World War II (which, they believe, they were tricked into) and being occupied. Equally irksome is that their Constitution (and democracy!) was foisted on them by Americans.

They hate the idea of foreigners controlling Japan – from some, I have even heard regret over US-imposed democracy. They believe that Japan is a Confucian society, run by an elite class (them) for the good of everyone else. Although most of these people would like to continue the relationship – including the military relationship – with the United States, their resentment is a troubling undertone and must always be kept in mind. This explanation is key to the debate over “why” Abe does what he does. It’s not that hard to figure out: just ask him and his people. But Americans normally fail to ask.

This apparent lack of familiarity with Japan’s conservatives is in line with my long-held observation that America’s “foreign policy class” (diplomats, think tank researchers, journalists, academics, bloggers), seems to only talk to a relatively small number of Japanese elite and media. A prominent Cabinet minister told me shortly before being selected for his position, “You Americans always talk to the wrong Japanese.” (I’d just told him that the Japanese always talk to the wrong Americans.) It may seem like “Diplomacy 101,” but at times we have forgotten that communication with all elements in Japan’s political arena is vital to improving mutual understanding.

Do the ideas of Abe and hardline rightist resonate with the Japanese at large? Not really. Importantly, in what passes for Japan’s ruling class, there are many people who do not possess this resentment about World War II, nor totally agree with Abe and his supporters. They appreciate the US and want a sound relationship, albeit a more equal one.

The US needs to better cultivate and support these people. Talking to them regularly would go a long way. This would enhance their position in the Japanese hierarchy, and would help the US to better understand Japan. Japanese politicians, officials (active and retired), academics, and media often express frustration at not being able to offer their insights. They either have no access to or are sometimes obstructed by Japanese officials bent on controlling the dialogue. The US side — PACOM, the Pentagon, and the Washington foreign policy world – should have a reasonable open-door policy and do more to welcome this community into the conversation

Track-two dialogues, think-tank discussions, and seminars are helpful communications channels, but can be improved by a concerted effort to include scholars, officials, and others who aren’t fluent in English, which is a vast majority of this group. Going beyond the relatively small group of English-speaking Japanese would broaden understanding in both directions. Interpreters are expensive, but the payoff is considerable.

Americans should step back and consider Japan from a broader perspective and not focus too much on a particular administration. Prime ministers come and go, and most of them have their peculiarities. Don’t fixate on particular comments. Some of former Prime Minister Hatoyama Yukio’s ideas caused as much consternation as anything Abe has said. There is more to Japan than a prime minister and his curious ideas about history.

Finally, understand that neither Abe nor Japan have any intention of picking a fight with China or anyone else. Ultimately, Japan represents a higher manifestation of civilized, responsible behavior, individual freedom and consensual government than most of its neighbors, particularly the China, North Korea, and Russia.

Japan seldom explains itself well; it can use US help. For example, Chinese and Korean assertions that Abe has taken Japan to the verge of 1930s militarism have been allowed to take hold. The US government should help Japan challenge this false assertion. Instead of publicly expressing “disappointment” over Abe’s Yasukuni visit, US spokespersons might have highlighted Japan’s last 70 years of exemplary behavior and declared our relationship will not be undone by the Yasukuni visit. If necessary, complaints should be made in private.

If the US is serious about achieving its national security objectives in Asia, it must look beyond the quirks of the Abe administration and build a relationship with Japan similar to the “special relationship” we’ve had with the British. Japan has its quirks, as do we, but our two countries are still the best hope for freedom and prosperity in Asia. The key is to focus on Japan, rather than Prime Minister Abe.

Grant Newsham (gnewsham78@gmail.com) is a Research Fellow at the Japan Forum for Strategic Studies, with over 20 years of experience in Japan as a diplomat, business executive, and US Marine Corps Liaison Officer to the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force. He is well-known for not pulling punches in his writing or his conversations or in bar-room brawls.

*PacNet is the online newsletter for CSIS Pacific Forum. CSIS is Center for Strategic and International Studies in DC. It’s regularly rated as the world’s #1 foreign affairs think tank. Pacific Forum is its Asia-Pacific branch, based in Honolulu.


A translation of this article into Japanese can be found on JB Press. We have reproduced most of it here:

安倍首相を理解しよう、しかし焦点は「日本」に

(米「パシフィックフォーラム CSIS」ニュースレター、2014年20号)


Hilariously stupid:

Ultimately, Japan represents a higher manifestation of civilized, responsible behavior, individual freedom and consensual government than most of its neighbors, particularly the China, North Korea, and Russia.

Japan seldom explains itself well; it can use US help. For example, Chinese and Korean assertions that Abe has taken Japan to the verge of 1930s militarism have been allowed to take hold. The US government should help Japan challenge this false assertion. Instead of publicly expressing “disappointment” over Abe’s Yasukuni visit, US spokespersons might have highlighted Japan’s last 70 years of exemplary behavior and declared our relationship will not be undone by the Yasukuni visit. If necessary, complaints should be made in private.


Interesting but short-sighted comment on the article:

Don MacLaren says:
March 31, 2014 at 9:43 pm

Dear Mr. Grant Newsham:

In your essay you write of “…Japan’s last 70 years of exemplary behavior…” and tell us, “Ultimately, Japan represents a higher manifestation of civilized, responsible behavior, individual freedom and consensual government than most of its neighbors…”

Though I admire your resume and the scholarship you undertake, I disagree with your assertions.

It is true that Japan has not waged war in the last 69 years, but not surprising – given that there are tens of thousands of U.S. troops stationed in the country.

Though the U.S. is supposed to be a beacon of democracy and human rights, and hard at work “protecting” Japan, the corruption I’ve seen here in China (a country that does not pretend to be democratic and which the U.S. is not “protecting”) pales to that which I saw – and was victimized by – in Japan.

My employers in Japan (who were also my visa sponsors, and who I was thus totally dependent on for my livelihood in the country), showed through their actions that they cared little about basic human rights when they withheld their employees wages for months at a time and accused me of crimes they had themselves committed. The role Japan’s legal system and press played in these disturbing affairs made me question those “democratic” institutions respect for human rights as well.

At one point, after I’d worked for an employer (and my visa sponsor) in Japan who had not paid us for several months, I wrote a letter to the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, asking for help. In the response I received I was told the Embassy would relay the experiences I’d outlined to the office that puts together the U.S. government’s human rights report on Japan. However, I saw no mention of abuses by Japanese employers against Americans or other Westerners in subsequent human rights reports (between 1998 and 2001 – when I left Japan for several years). So, I could only conclude the U.S. government was far more interested in protecting the status quo in Japan than it was in publishing human rights abuses. Perhaps Japan has done an exemplary job of protecting U.S. corporate interests and military bases (though even that’s questionable), but it has failed me and many other individuals in the areas of democracy and human rights.

Because of all this, I am not surprised when Japanese politicians deny atrocities in Japan’s past (and keep getting re-elected).

There are other issues that have been covered in the press over the decades, such as racial discrimination against Americans and other foreigners in Japan, adversarial trade with the U.S., etc. None of these seem the actions of an exemplary ally.

My first contact with Japan began in 1982, when I was in the U.S. Navy. During that short port visit I became fascinated with the country and in 1991 I moved to Japan. Since then I’ve spent 11 years in the country.

I am grateful to the U.S. military and Japan for having given me the opportunity to experience the wonderful things Japan has to offer, and giving me a rich alternative to the life I had in the U.S. Midwest before I joined the Navy. However, both the U.S. and Japanese governments have a lot of work to do to make Japan an exemplary democracy that respects human rights.

For more on my experiences with corruption and the human rights abuse I witnessed and experienced in Japan, please see the following links:

A letter of mine published in The Japan Times, 14 December 1997:

http://donmaclaren.com/labor_scofflaws_ ... ished.html

Published essays of my experiences in Japan’s courts (in Wilderness House Literary Review, spring and summer 2010):

http://donmaclaren.com/don_maclaren_-_j ... ourts.html

Thank you.

Respectfully,

Don MacLaren
(Resident of Jiangsu Province, China since August 2010)


When it comes to democracy and human rights in modern Japan, how about starting with the criminal court system?

http://www.japansubculture.com/crime-an ... -in-japan/

What happens in Japan from the moment somebody is arrested?

Richard Lloyd Parry said that for the Japanese police, the prosecutors and the judicial system, the moment of arrest is the climax of the media interest in anyone’s crime. The arrest gets more attention than the filing of charges or even the criminal trial. The reason for that is that, “in Japan, once arrested, it’s all over,” he explained. Most people are arrested and charged. Depending on the type of crime, “about 99% of those are criminally convicted,” he said.

“There are exceptions from time to time. But for most people, when the cuffs go on that’s a guarantee that you are going to go down,” he said.

“And so the attitude of journalists reflects this. The arrest is news, and the story is over. An arrested suspect being charged is not such big news. If a criminal suspect being convicted at the end of the trial, is acquitted like Mr. Ichiro Ozawa recently, it is news.” But conviction is generally what one would expect. This is reflected in the way that the public and lawyers regard defendants in Japan, Richard Parry said, “for practical reasons one is not innocent until proven guilty.”

“When an individual is arrested, he/she is no more referred to as the conventional -san but -yogisha, meaning criminal suspect.

Richard Lloyd Parry said that the Japanese would admit that there is a high conviction rate, “but they would argue that the reason for this is because they (the prosecutors) only charge people who are guilty.” “Guilt or innocence is something that is established not publicly in court rooms, but behind closed doors, in secret, by the police and the prosecutors.”


http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p0 ... nfessions/

Assignment - Japan Forced Confessions

Justice in Japan works differently to anywhere else in the world. Criminals overwhelmingly confess to their crimes. Over 90 per cent of convictions are secured this way, largely due to a culture which demands repentance as a way to rehabilitate both criminals and victims. But following a recent case of cyber-crime where false arrests were made and forced confessions were extracted, abuse within the system and the unreliability of confessions was brought under the spotlight. Why do innocent people confess in Japan and could the judiciary’s reliance on the confession finally be changing? Mariko Oi investigates. Produced by Nina Robinson.

Broadcast on BBC World Service, 4:05AM Sat, 5 Jan 2013
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Re: Japanese Prime Minister & Obama Want Japan Able to Wage

Postby cptmarginal » Wed Apr 02, 2014 7:13 pm

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/02/world ... .html?_r=0

Japan Ends Decades-Long Ban on Export of Weapons

By MARTIN FACKLER APRIL 1, 2014

TOKYO — Taking his nation another step away from its postwar pacifism, the government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe discarded a nearly half-century ban on the export of weapons and military hardware on Tuesday, a move aimed at helping Japan assume a larger regional security role to offset China’s growing military might.

The decision, which had been under consideration for years before Mr. Abe took office, replaced the self-imposed ban dating to the late 1960s with new, still-restrictive guidelines that permit the export of weapons only to allies and partners that agree not to sell them to third nations without Japanese approval. The new guidelines will also make it easier for Japan to join multinational development projects for expensive new weapons systems, like the American-led effort to build the F-35 stealth fighter jet.

The move formalizes a change that had already begun in incremental steps a few years ago, as Japan created a growing number of exceptions to its export ban, known as the three principles. The principles were one of the most visible pillars of Japan’s post-World War II renunciation of war, along with its pacifist Constitution, which Mr. Abe has also said he wants to revise.

Adopted in 1967, the three principles originally prohibited arms sales to Communist nations, countries under United Nations sanctions and countries in armed conflict, but it eventually grew into a blanket ban on all weapons exports.

Analysts said getting rid of the principles was partly aimed at opening new markets for Japanese defense companies at a time when Japan’s own military spending, while up for the first time in a decade, remained severely constrained by ballooning budget deficits. But they said Mr. Abe had finally decided to carry out the long-discussed change to achieve a larger strategic goal: augmenting Japan’s regional influence by offering its technologically sophisticated defense hardware to other countries locked in territorial disputes with an increasingly assertive China.

Analysts described the decision as a step toward Mr. Abe’s goal of turning long-passive Japan, which has Asia’s second-largest economy after China, into a more proactive player in regional security. Japanese officials say Mr. Abe wants to do this by turning Japan into a full-fledged defense partner of the United States, which has guaranteed Japan’s security since the war but has recently been forced to cut military spending because of fiscal problems of its own.

American officials, who have long urged Japan to assume more of the defense burden, have said they would welcome a lifting of the ban.

Japan is reacting to a shifting balance of power in the Asia-Pacific region brought by a relative decline in American dominance and a rapid military buildup by China, analysts say. One of Japan’s responses has been to build military ties with nations other than the United States, including Australia and India. Analysts said ending the ban would help expand those ties by removing legal obstacles to proposed deals, including sales of Japanese-made diesel attack submarines to Australia and seaplanes to India.

Tuesday’s move will also make it easier for Japan to provide military aid to less developed Southeast Asian countries that would help them respond to Chinese claims to contested territories in the South China Sea. This strategy, known as capacity building, has also been adopted by the United States to check China’s territorial ambitions while avoiding a direct confrontation between Washington and Beijing.

Japan has already been doing this to a limited degree, by supplying civilian coast guard ships to the Philippines, which is locked in a dispute with China over control of uninhabited islands. Experts said Tuesday’s move would make it easier for Japan to provide military equipment to help not only the Philippines but also Vietnam and Indonesia enforce their claims. They said the decision may also be an early step toward Japan’s eventually forming military alliances with Southeast Asian countries or dispatching warships to jointly patrol contested waters.

Two of Japan’s neighbors were cautious in their remarks about Tuesday’s decision. A Chinese government spokesman said his country was watching the move. A spokesman for the South Korean Foreign Ministry said the change “should be carried out with the maximum level of transparency in consideration of concerns by neighboring countries,” according to the Kyodo News agency of Japan.
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Re: Japanese Prime Minister & Obama Want Japan Able to Wage

Postby seemslikeadream » Mon Apr 07, 2014 10:16 pm

US Sending 2 Warships To Japan To Counter North Korea

LOLITA C. BALDOR – APRIL 6, 2014, 7:59 AM EDT1672
TOKYO (AP) — U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel delivered a two-pronged warning to Asia Pacific nations Sunday, announcing that the U.S. will send two additional ballistic missile destroyers to Japan to counter the North Korean threat, and saying China must better respect its neighbors.

In unusually forceful remarks about China, Hagel drew a direct line between Russia's takeover of Ukraine's Crimea region and the ongoing territorial disputes between China, Japan and others over remote islands in the East China Sea.

"I think we're seeing some clear evidence of a lack of respect and intimidation and coercion in Europe today with what the Russians have done with Ukraine," Hagel told reporters after a meeting with Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera. "We must be very careful and we must be very clear, all nations of the world, that in the 21st century this will not stand, you cannot go around the world and redefine boundaries and violate territorial integrity and sovereignty of nations by force, coercion and intimidation whether it's in small islands in the Pacific or large nations in Europe."

Hagel, who will travel to China later this week, called the Asian nation a "great power," and added, "with this power comes new and wider responsibilities as to how you use that power, how you employ that military power."

He said he will talk to the Chinese about having respect for their neighbors, and said, "coercion, intimidation is a very deadly thing that leads only to conflict. All nations, all people deserve respect no matter how large or how small."

Still, he said he looks forward to having an honest, straightforward dialogue with the Chinese to talk about ways the two nations and their militaries can work better together.

The announcement of the deployments of additional destroyers to Japan came as tensions with North Korea spiked again, with Pyongyang continuing to threaten additional missile and nuclear tests.

In recent weeks the North has conducted a series of rocket and ballistic missile launches that are considered acts of protest against annual ongoing springtime military exercises by Seoul and Washington. North Korea says the exercises are rehearsals for invasion.

North and South Korea also fired hundreds of artillery shells into each other's waters in late March in the most recent flare-up.

Standing alongside Onodera at the defense ministry, Hagel said they discussed the threat posed by Pyongyang. He said the two ships are in response to North Korea's "pattern of provocative and destabilizing actions" that violate U.N. resolutions and also will provide more protection to the U.S. from those threats.

On Friday, North Korea accused the U.S. of being "hell-bent on regime change" and warned that any maneuvers with that intention will be viewed as a "red line" that will result in countermeasures. Pyongyang's deputy U.N. ambassador, Ri Tong Il, also said his government "made it very clear we will carry out a new form of nuclear test" but refused to provide details.

The two additional ships would bring the total to seven U.S. ballistic missile defense warships in Japan, and it continues U.S. efforts to increase its focus on the Asia Pacific.

The ships serve as both defensive and offensive weapons. They carry sophisticated systems that can track missile launches, and their SM-3 missiles can zero in on and take out short- to medium-range missiles that might be fired at U.S. or allied nations. They can also carry Tomahawk cruise missiles, which can be launched from sea and hit high-value targets or enemy weapons systems from afar, without risking pilots or aircraft.

Hagel is on a 10-day trip across the Asia Pacific, and just spent three days in Hawaii meeting with Southeast Asian defense ministers, talking about efforts to improve defense and humanitarian assistance cooperation. Japan is his second stop, where he said he wants to assure Japanese leaders that the U.S. is strongly committed to protecting their country's security.

Japan and China have been engaged in a long, bitter dispute over remote islands in the East China Sea. The U.S. has said it takes no side on the question of the disputed islands' sovereignty, but it recognizes Japan's administration of them and has responsibilities to protect Japanese territory under a mutual defense treaty.

Onodera said he and Hagel talked about the islands, known as Senkaku by Japan and Diayou by China, and the concerns about any changes to the status quo there.

Hagel said the U.S. wants the countries in the region to resolve the disputes peacefully. But he added that the United States would honor its treaty commitments.

The ships are just the latest move in America's effort to beef up Japan's defenses. Last October, the U.S. and Japan agreed to broad plans to expand their defense alliance, including the decision to position a second early warning radar there by the end of this year. There is one in northern Japan and the second one would be designed to provide better missile defense coverage in the event of a North Korean attack.

The U.S. will begin sending long-range Global Hawk surveillance drones to Japan this month for rotational deployments. They are intended to help step up surveillance around the Senkaku islands.
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: Japanese Prime Minister & Obama Want Japan Able to Wage

Postby cptmarginal » Wed Apr 09, 2014 2:30 am

U.S. defense chief gets earful as China visit exposes tensions

(Reuters) - Tensions between China and the United States were on full display on Tuesday as Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel faced questions in Beijing about America's position in bitter territorial disputes with regional U.S. allies.

Chinese Defense Minister Chang Wanquan, standing side-by-side with Hagel, called on the United States to restrain ally Japan and chided another U.S. ally, the Philippines.

Then, Hagel was sharply questioned by Chinese officers at the National Defense University. One of them told Hagel he was concerned that the United States was stirring up trouble in the East and South China Sea because it feared someday "China will be too big a challenge for the United States to cope with."

"Therefore you are using such issues ... to make trouble to hamper (China's) development," the officer said.

Hagel assured the audience that America had no interest in trying to "contain China" and that it took no position in such disputes. But he also cautioned repeatedly during the day that the United States would stand by its allies.

"We have mutual self defense treaties with each of those two countries," Hagel said, referring to Japan and the Philippines. "And we are fully committed to those treaty obligations."

The questioning came just a day after Hagel toured China's sole aircraft carrier, in a rare opening by Beijing to a potent symbol of its military ambitions. Chinese Defense Minister Chang called Hagel, the top civilian at the Pentagon, the first foreign military official to be allowed on board the Liaoning.

Chang and Hagel spoke positively about improving military ties and announced steps to deepen them. But the effort could do little to mask long-standing tension over a range of issues, from cyber spying and U.S. arms sales to Taiwan to China's military buildup itself.

At a seminar in New York, China's ambassador to the United States Cui Tiankai said Washington needed to think hard about the purpose of its military presence in Asia and whether its political agenda and those of its Asian allies were the same.

He spoke of the need to move away from "outdated alliances" and warned against any attempt to create an Asian version of the NATO Western military alliance to contain China.

"If your mission there is to contain some other country, then you are back in the Cold War again, maybe," he said. If your intention is to establish an Asian NATO, then we are back in the Cold War-era again. This is something that will serve nobody's interest, it's quite clear."

Beyond developing an aircraft carrier program, China's People's Liberation Army is building submarines, surface ships and anti-ship ballistic missiles, and has tested emerging technology aimed at destroying missiles in mid-air.


Video: Why is Japan building up its navy?

As the balance of power in Asia swings towards China, Japan is building one of the most modern and powerful naval forces in the world.

In the aftermath of WWII, the US imposed a settlement on Japan, supposed to "cure" it of its war-making abilities.

In a new constitution, the country renounced war forever. But in 2013, Japan scrambled fighters 267 times to intercept incoming Chinese aircraft.

Rupert Wingfield-Hayes reports for Newsnight from Tokyo.
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Re: Japanese Prime Minister & Obama Want Japan Able to Wage

Postby cptmarginal » Wed Apr 23, 2014 3:07 am

Japan expands army footprint for first time in 40 years, risks angering China

Japan began its first military expansion at the western end of its island chain in more than 40 years on Saturday, breaking ground on a radar station on a tropical island off Taiwan.

The move risks angering China, locked in a dispute with Japan over nearby islands which they both claim.

Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera, who attended a ceremony on Yonaguni island to mark the start of construction, suggested the military presence could be enlarged to other islands in the seas southwest of Japan's main islands.

"This is the first deployment since the U.S. returned Okinawa (1972) and calls for us to be more on guard are growing," Onodera told reporters. "I want to build an operation able to properly defend islands that are part of Japan's territory."


War-Shrine Visit by Japanese MPs May Cloud Obama’s Tokyo Visit

A day before U.S. President Barack Obama is due to arrive in Tokyo, 147 Japanese legislators visited the controversial Yasukuni Shrine, which honors Japanese war dead, including top war criminals convicted of orchestrating imperial Japan’s appalling Asia campaigns. Japan’s polarizing Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was not among the worshippers. Instead, he sent a traditional tree offering the day before.

Tuesday’s Yasukuni pilgrimage took place during a spring festival of the Shinto faith and included one Cabinet-level official. In December, when Abe became the first of Japan’s last seven leaders to worship at Yasukuni, the U.S. embassy in Tokyo expressed its disappointment. Reaction in China and South Korea, two nations most ravaged by imperial Japan’s excesses, was far angrier.

Since Abe took office in December 2012 — after a campaign in which he talked tough on China and called for a potential revision to a Japanese apology to wartime Asian sex slaves — Japan’s relations with Beijing have cooled. Territorial disputes in the East China Sea and historical grievances over Japan’s attitude toward its wartime past have even affected the two nations’ trade ties. (On April 21, more than 270 activists, including descendants of Japanese war dead, filed a suit at a Tokyo court, alleging that Abe’s December visit to Yasukuni Shrine contravened Japan’s postwar constitution, which was written by the Americans to ensure the country’s commitment to peace.)


Obama: Senkakus ‘within scope’ of U.S.-Japan treaty

President Barack Obama—for the first time as an incumbent U.S. president—clearly stated the Senkaku Islands in Okinawa Prefecture are subject to Article 5 of the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty, in a written reply to questions submitted by The Yomiuri Shimbun.

“The policy of the United States is clear—the Senkaku Islands are administered by Japan and therefore fall within the scope of Article 5 of the U.S.-Japan Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security. And we oppose any unilateral attempts to undermine Japan’s administration of these islands,” the U.S leader stated ahead of his visit to Japan starting Wednesday.

Article 5 stipulates U.S. defense obligations to Japan, which apply to territories under the administration of Japan. Obama’s comment therefore means the United States will defend Japan in the event of a Chinese incursion on the islets, over which China also claims sovereignty.

Mentioning “mutual interest” between the United States and China, Obama said his country will “deal directly and candidly” with China over differences on such issues. He also stressed that maritime issues should be handled constructively. “Disputes need to be resolved through dialogue and diplomacy, not intimidation and coercion,” the president said.

The administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe aims to revise the government’s interpretation of the Constitution, which prohibits the nation from exercising the right to collective self-defense. Obama said he has “enthusiastically welcomed Japan’s desire to play a greater role in upholding international security.”

“I commend Prime Minister Abe for his efforts to strengthen Japan’s defense forces and to deepen the coordination between our militaries, including by reviewing existing limits on the exercise of collective self-defense,” the president said, requesting the Self-Defense Forces “do more within the framework of our alliance.”

Obama’s four-nation Asia tour aims to reassure the countries involved of his continuous commitment to and U.S. presence in the region. Describing the alliance as “stronger than ever,” Obama hailed Japan’s role as he said, “The world is better off because of Japan’s long-standing commitment to international peace and security.”
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Re: Japanese Prime Minister & Obama Want Japan Able to Wage

Postby cptmarginal » Sat May 03, 2014 2:49 pm

-

Japan Prepares to Enter the Arms Market

Image

By Bruce Einhorn and Matthew Philips - May 01, 2014

Keenly aware of the trouble that came with ambitious generals and an expanding munitions industry, the Japanese government has long banned most weapons exports. That policy helped buttress Japan’s pacifism, but it also hindered the growth of the country’s defense industry. Because it couldn’t sell parts overseas, Japanese defense companies missed out on chances to develop tanks, fighter jets, and other weaponry with the U.S. The ban “has resulted in an isolated Japanese defense industry that produces very small quantities at very high cost,” says Lance Gatling, president of Nexial Research, a defense consulting company in Tokyo.

Japan’s Asian neighbors have taken advantage of its absence from the export scene. South Korea exported $3.4 billion worth of arms in 2013, up from $1.2 billion in 2010. China last year passed France and Britain to become the world’s fourth-largest arms exporter, behind only the U.S., Russia, and Germany, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

In April, the government of Japan’s conservative prime minister, Shinzo Abe, lifted a ban from the 1970s that restricted arms exports. The country’s contentious relations with China, which claims Japanese-controlled islands in the East China Sea, made getting rid of the ban politically much easier for Abe, even though a recent poll suggests most Japanese citizens don’t support loosening export restrictions. The old policy “was too strict,” says Tsuneo Watanabe, director of policy research and senior fellow at the Tokyo Foundation. “The voice of pacifism is getting lower because of tensions with China.”

Abe’s policy change is part of a larger strategic shift. Since 1945, the Japanese have focused on the defense of their home islands. The task of policing the rest of Asia fell to the U.S. Now, Japan sees itself as an active participant in the region’s effort to thwart China’s expansion. It considers the Southeast Asian states as potential partners in this stand-off with China, and it wants to be able to sell arms to those countries, too.

The opportunities for Japan to grab market share won’t be in building entire weapons systems such as jet fighters or aircraft carriers. Japanese companies have a competitive edge in building high-end components, particularly electronics. “You may have fighter jets and warships from different manufacturers, but the electronics inside those ships and planes have to be able to communicate and share data with each other,” says Robbin Laird, a defense industry consultant with International Communications & Strategic Assessments in Arlington, Va. “What you really care about are the electronics inside, and that’s what Japan does best.”

One of the most important tests of Japan’s new role will be the F-35 program, the Pentagon’s most expensive weapons project ever. The country is buying 42 of Lockheed Martin’s (LMT) joint strike fighters. Almost all will be assembled at a Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (7011:JP) plant being finished in Nagoya. Japan now has the chance to make components for the F-35 that other countries may be able to use.

One interesting opportunity for Japanese arms exports is India, now the biggest foreign buyer of U.S. arms and possibly the world’s largest market for weapons over the next 20 years. The country has had bad experiences buying Russian and French weapons. The Japanese could compete, especially if they do better by the Indians, says Dean Cheng, an East Asian military analyst for the Heritage Foundation. “It sounds funny, but customer service matters just as much when you’re buying weapons as it does when you’re buying a car.”


One can only imagine that there are shades of this affair to the deal:

SCANDALS: Lockheed's Kuro Maku - Monday, Feb. 16, 1976

Shed your blood for the state, shed tears for your friends, and sweat for your family.

—Yoshio Kodama

A powerful yet shadowy Japanese ultranationalist, Kodama also shed much sweat for Lockheed Aircraft Corp.

Last week it was disclosed that for many years he was Lockheed's secret agent in Japan, collecting more than $7 mil lion since 1960 to help the firm sell air planes. An enormously wealthy man (worth an estimated $1 billion), with no readily identifiable occupation, Ko dama helped to found Japan's ruling party, assisted in the naming of Prime Ministers, and presumably used his connections on Lockheed's behalf.

His unmasking as a paid Lockheed operative was the highlight of a week of corporate scandals; the others involved entertainment of Defense Department officials at hunting lodges by military contractors and a Christmas vacation for Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz paid by the Southern Railway.

Wide Pattern. Lockheed has admitted paying out $22 million abroad over the years to increase sales of its military aircraft, but has refused to name the recipients. The company did not itself name Kodama, but documents from Arthur Young & Co., Lockheed's auditors, fell into the hands of a Senate subcommittee investigating multinational corporations, and the subcommittee made them public. They revealed not only the Kodama connection but also a pervasive pattern of corporate influence buying: payments to Italian politicians, "gifts" to Turkish officials, and the pur chase of industrial secrets.

Among the extraordinary documents are signed receipts for Lockheed cash. One, from Hiroshi Itoh, an executive of Marubeni Corp., a trading company that acts as agent for Lockheed, reads, "I received one hundred peanuts"—meaning 100 million yen, or $333,000.

Carl Kotchian, Lockheed president, told the Senate subcommittee that that and other payments were passed on to Japanese government officials, with his "knowledge and concurrence," because Marubeni people told him it was the only way to sell planes.

Four other documents are English translations of receipts signed by Kodama (in Japanese fashion, with surname first) for payments totaling $2 million. They are dated November 1972—the same month that All Nippon Airways agreed to buy $130 million worth of Lockheed's TriStar jetliners, in a deal that was regarded as crucial to the company's survival.

Powerful Friend. That was not the first big deal that coincided with payments to Kodama. He began receiving Lockheed money in 1960 (some was eventually sent to him in yen-filled packing crates, some in checks made out to "bearer"). That year the government bought Lockheed's F-104 Starfighters—although it had seemed certain rival Grumman would get the order. No connection was ever established; however Kodama's longtime friend Nobusuke Kishi was Premier of Japan at the time.


See also: Kakuei Tanaka - a political biography of modern Japan | Chapter 4: ANTEN continued - The Lockheed Scandal

With the final arguments concluded, judgment day was set for October 12, 1983. The day was 190 hearings, more than one hundred witnesses and six years, eight months after it had all begun. It had been a spectacular show. Three of the total sixteen defendants had fallen ill, while three witnesses and one judge had died. More than twenty books concerning the trial had been published; most best sellers. Mieko Enomoto had followed her devastating testimony by doing a nude layout for the Japanese edition of Penthouse magazine. Pornographic movie star Mitsuyasu Maeno had jumped into a light plane and in kamikaze fashion crashed it into the home of Yoshio Kodama. The whole affair had taken on bizarre proportions resembling a cross between the U.S. Watergate Hearings and the Scope's Monkey Trial.


I said "one can only imagine" because the avoidance of these sorts of scandals is exactly the purpose of the "Specially Designated Secrets" law and state secrecy in general.

Image

http://www.japansubculture.com/japans-s ... by-hitler/

The first rule of the pending Japan’s Special Secrets Bill is that what will be a secret is secret. The second rule is that anyone who leaks a secret and a reporter who writes it up can face up to ten years in jail. The third rule is that there are no rules at to what government agency can declare state secrets and no checks on them to determine they don’t misuse the privilege; even of no longer existent agencies may have the power to declare their information secret. The fourth rule is that anything pertaining to nuclear energy is of course a state secret so there will not longer be any problem with nuclear power in this country because we won’t know anything about it. And what we don’t know can’t hurt us.

The right to know has now been officially superseded by the right of the government to make sure you don’t know what they don’t want you to know.

Legal experts note that even asking pointed questions about a state secret, whether you know or don’t know it’s a secret, could be treated as “instigating leaks” and the result in an arrest and a possible jail term up to five years. Of course, the trial would be complicated since the judge would not be allowed to know what secret the accused was suspected of trying to obtain.

And of course, trials about state secrets, would by the nature of the law, also be secret trials and closed to the public.

At this point in time, no one has really claimed authorship of the secrecy bill. The author is a secret. Kafka would seem the most likely scrivener for this perplexing legislation, if he was still alive, but ruling coalition members acknowledge that another famous white man from the past may have provided the real inspiration for the bill and its implementation.
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Re: Japanese Prime Minister & Obama Want Japan Able to Wage

Postby cptmarginal » Mon May 26, 2014 8:54 pm

Who really wrote Henry Stokes’s revisionist history book? More questions. - Japan Subculture Research Center

The Japan Times wrote yesterday:

Journalist now stands by Nanjing book

Former New York Times Tokyo bureau chief Henry S. Stokes is standing by a claim made in his new book that the Nanjing Massacre never took place, describing the event as a “propaganda tool of the KMT government.”

Kyodo News reported Thursday that Stokes’ book, titled “Eikokujin Kisha ga Mita Rengokoku Sensho Shikan no Kyomo (“Falsehoods of the Allied Nations’ Victorious View of History, as Seen by a British Journalist”), contained “rogue passages” that didn’t reflect the author’s view of the event.

The news agency accused translator Hiroyuki Fujita of adding lines to “fabricate” Stokes’ denial of Japan’s wartime responsibility for the 1937 Nanjing Massacre.

The headline is slightly misleading in that Henry Stokes did not talk to the Japan Times for the article–the person accused of tampering with the contents did. I have spoke with Henry about the book as it is and what he thought it was and he expressed that he troubled by inaccuracy and things taken out context. However, I can understand the circumstances in which Henry feels compelled to follow the party line of his “translator”. After one man-to-man conversation about the book this month, the next time I approached Henry to discuss the contents he whispered, “Fujita is here.” I’m not sure what to make of that. I also find it hard to believe that Mr. Stokes’s would deny the existence of the Nanjing Massacre after stating that China’s War with Japan, 1937-1945: The Struggle for Survival by Rana Mitter was a “trustworthy” account of the incident. He has also said as much in an interview with VOICE magazine.


Continued at link...
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