Slog
News & ArtsMonday, August 31, 2009
International The 21st Century
Posted by Charles Mudede on Mon, Aug 31, 2009 at 8:28 AM
NYT reports:
TOKYO — Japan’s voters cast out the Liberal Democratic Party for only the second time in postwar history on Sunday, handing a landslide victory to a party that campaigned on a promise to reverse a generation-long economic decline and to redefine Tokyo’s relationship with Washington.From Iran to Japan, a major cultural/social/economic shift is in the works. Obama is a part of this shift. The shift itself (the fact that it is everywhere happening so quickly) is what's making people like Jon Voight go nuts. The rice farmers in Japan will also go nuts. Yukio Hatoyama is soon to become their Obama.In the powerful lower house, the opposition Democrats [liberal] virtually swapped places with the governing Liberal Democratic Party [conservative], winning 308 of the 480 seats, a 175 percent increase that gives them control of the chamber, according to the national broadcaster NHK. The incumbents took just 119 seats, about a third of their previous total. The remaining seats were won by smaller parties.
“This has been a revolutionary election,” Yukio Hatoyama, the party leader and presumptive new prime minister, told reporters. “The people have shown the courage to take politics into their own hands.”
Mr. Hatoyama, who is expected to assemble a government in two to three weeks, has spoken of the end of American-dominated globalization and of the need to reorient Japan toward Asia. His party’s campaign manifesto calls for an “equal partnership” with the United States and a “reconsidering” of the 50,000-strong American military presence here.
On NYT website, Hatoyama said:
As a result of the failure of the Iraq war and the financial crisis, the era of US-led globalism is coming to an end and that we are moving toward an era of multi-polarity.Bush, it all goes back to the Bush, the twilight of American global hegemony.
1
What shift? Seriously, Obama is as liberal as Bill Clinton: Mr. "The end of Big Government".
Sorry, in this country at least, are still under the death grip of right-wing corporate facism that we know as Reaganomics.
Sorry, in this country at least, are still under the death grip of right-wing corporate facism that we know as Reaganomics.
2
BUT, I am a huge fan of other countries (hopefully) pushing our armed forces OUT. We already have bases in Guam and throughout our territories in the Pacific, so no great loss. If other places help us to bring troops home from abroad, that will only strengthen our national defense and reduce spending. Could it be that W standing for Worst actually helped speed along getting our noses of other countries' business? Time will tell.
3
Good Morning Charles,
I disagree. Bush isn't responsible for the decline of American hegemony. Diplomatically, that began right after we won the Cold War and with the creation of a fully integrated Europe. Economically, it started with the combination of China as the world's factory and the great manufacturing ebb in America when it became a greater consumer than a producer beginning in the 70s.
I disagree. Bush isn't responsible for the decline of American hegemony. Diplomatically, that began right after we won the Cold War and with the creation of a fully integrated Europe. Economically, it started with the combination of China as the world's factory and the great manufacturing ebb in America when it became a greater consumer than a producer beginning in the 70s.
4
Maybe suffering through 8 years of Bush is exactly what the world needed to push them towards the progressive present we need so desperately.
5
From Iran to Japan, a major cultural/social/economic shift is in the works. Obama is a part of this shift.
Obama isn't part of the shift. He exploited it. He's simply Bush with a kinder face. The same people are still in control.
Obama isn't part of the shift. He exploited it. He's simply Bush with a kinder face. The same people are still in control.
6
I just want to point out that the conservatives are the Liberal Democratic Party and the liberals are the Democratic Party. And we think Yes on 71 is going to be confusing!
9
If you blow the dust off a history book, you'll see that Japan "reorienting towards asia" doesn't have a good track record. If the US military were to leave Japan, their official policy of pacifism would evaporate immediately. If a nuclear armed Korea makes you nervous, how about a nuclear armed Japan (which they could do in a heartbeat) facing off against a nuclear armed China? China is busily building a blue water navy to increase their influence in the Pacific and Indian oceans--Japan would be forced to respond in kind. American hegemony has it's upside.
10
9, if we want to prevent nuclear war, the best thing we can do is work on non-proliferation starting with reducing our own nuclear program and seriously taking on international arms control. Occupying Japan 65 years after WWII ended does not help us. It just creates resentment in some quarters, as in the new ruling party which wants us out.
Our foreign policy should start with what Americans want. I want my damn military out of Japan (and Korea for that matter), so that we can devote those resources to something else. I'm fine with a massive navy to keep global trade as open as possible but we don't need Okinawa for that to work. Let's shut our military bases and focus on diplomatic and economic engagement rather than military engagement.
Our foreign policy should start with what Americans want. I want my damn military out of Japan (and Korea for that matter), so that we can devote those resources to something else. I'm fine with a massive navy to keep global trade as open as possible but we don't need Okinawa for that to work. Let's shut our military bases and focus on diplomatic and economic engagement rather than military engagement.
11
@10 you make some good points, but they come from the point of view of the US. If they Japanese become responsible for their own defense, it will be impossible to keep them from the bomb. They have the resources, the technology and the need. Consider the fact that their most powerful neighbors--China, India, and Russia are all nuclear powers. If you were responsible for the safety of Japan, could you risk not having parity with your potential enemies? Non proliferation is a noble idea, but the genie is out of the bottle. If a barely functioning state like N. Korea can get the bomb, Japan could do it at will. And no one in the world is in a position to threaten Japan with embargoes to stop them.
12
"The rice farmers in Japan will also go nuts. Yukio Hatoyama is soon to become their Obama. "
The rice farmers in the small rural town where I live seem highly disinclined to go nuts. The LDP voters I know are apprehensive, while the people who voted DPJ for the first time in their lives did so out of dissatisfaction with the LDP, but remain pessimistic about the chance of any real change. Hatoyama has no personality cult surrounding him; he`s just another politician and in a country where prime ministers have been falling one after another like dominoes he has to prove himself before people will believe in him. Not that anyone really talks about politics - listening to the chatter in my office, you would have no idea that an election had taken place, let alone one so historic. Politics usually comes up only when the crazy American starts asking about it. Whether the new administration is a spectacular success or a catastrophe, I doubt anyone here in my town will go nuts.
The rice farmers in the small rural town where I live seem highly disinclined to go nuts. The LDP voters I know are apprehensive, while the people who voted DPJ for the first time in their lives did so out of dissatisfaction with the LDP, but remain pessimistic about the chance of any real change. Hatoyama has no personality cult surrounding him; he`s just another politician and in a country where prime ministers have been falling one after another like dominoes he has to prove himself before people will believe in him. Not that anyone really talks about politics - listening to the chatter in my office, you would have no idea that an election had taken place, let alone one so historic. Politics usually comes up only when the crazy American starts asking about it. Whether the new administration is a spectacular success or a catastrophe, I doubt anyone here in my town will go nuts.
Advertisement
Most Commented on Slog
-
Hating People Doesn't Make Them Thinner by Jen Graves
-
Los Angeles Gay Bar Bans Bachelorette Parties Until Marriage Equality Is Attained by David Schmader
-
Fill in the Blank by Grant Brissey
-
This Reminds Me of the Great Calculator Scare of the Late '70s/Early '80s by David Schmader
-
Idiot Tries to Defend Bigoted Anti-Gay-Marriage Preacher on Anderson Cooper by Paul Constant
-
SL Letter of the Day: Putting It In by Dan Savage
-
Six Moms with Too Much Time on Their Hands and a Shitty Website Decide to Fight Gay Superheroes by Paul Constant
-
Why Mayor McGinn's Wife Canceled Her Family's Seattle Times Subscription by Eli Sanders
-
What the Hell Is Wrong With Seattle's Pride Parade? by Dominic Holden
-
Meet the UW "Swagga Suit" by David Schmader
RSS
Facebook
Twitter
Comments (12) RSS