LDP Japan

>>2374876
Democracy is not desirable in itself, and will not grow in areas where it isn't forced. Japan never had a home grown movement, so despite their constitution being written by the US, the old power structures still remain.

>>2374876
democracy is a western meme

>korea
>japan
>singapore
>"""""""""""taiwan"""""""""""

of these only taiwan has any semblance of a real democratic system but im sure if i were todig further i could point out how its not really a true liberal democratic state.

>>2374876
Japan is kind of famous for having a consensus on most things.

>>2374885
Not necessarily. The old power structure that overwhelmingly favored rural areas was broken down a while back (can't for the life of me remember when, I am so drunk) and this allowed the other party (fuck, can't remember their name either) to temporarily take power.

Then the LDP just adjusted to the new order, changed its policies again, and things went back to normal.

>>2374995
Japan still has a democracy. Just because the majority tend to agree on everything doesn't change that. You might argue it's a natural outcome of a society that's so homogeneous, relatively speaking.

Hell, even in a diverse country like the US, the two dominant political parties occupy an incredibly narrow part of the political spectrum, so narrow that people walked away from the Obama-Romney debates in 2012 thinking "wait, how are these guys different again?".

>>2375024
DPJ my nigga

>>2374876
Doesn't the LDP coalition change up every now and again?

No Jews to subvert politics with leftism.

>>2374876
Asian Insectoid Collectivists aren't fit for democracy, it's a western thing.

>>2375310
Whereas hedonistic, morally bankrupt, deviant individualist are for fit.

Whilst it's not entirely true, the LDP has been incredibly successful in maintaining their grip on power but usually do so in a coalition with other parties that are democratically elected.

However in the 1990's and from 2009-2012, the LDP were ousted from power.

There is a big meme that it's simply because "Asians don't like democracy!" or something ignorant like that but if you've ever been to Japan or have studied Asian politics as a whole you can find that it's not so much that the people reject democracy but instead that ruling parties go to great lengths to make sure they can never be removed without a colossal defeat like the LDP suffered in 2009.

Parties like the LDP or the PAP in Singapore or even the KMT before the 2000s work by making alliances with big business to stamp out workers unions and to secure enormous amounts of funding. Another tactic is refusal to build infrastructure in an area which votes against the ruling party (this is particularly prevalent in Singapore).

So whilst it can be said by those who know little on the subject put it down to "cultural factors", it makes little sense that burgeoning middle classes in industrial economies would ever accept having no right to vote and history shows us that they don't.

The real reason behind the LDP's strength is their ability to change policy whatever popular sentiment is (lack of clear ideology), smash labour unions with the help of the keiretsu and promise funding to friendly constituencies.

>>2375024
>Japan still has a democracy

Democracy implies that the people actually govern. That's not the reality in Japan.

At best, it's a one-party democracy.

>>2376283
I don't mean to doubt you(i have no knowledge whatsoever of asian politics), but could you give some sources. This seems pretty interesting and i would like to read more about this. Not only japan, but also other countries in a similar situation.

>>2376283
LDP's only real electoral defeat was in 2009 at the hands of the DPJ, and that ignores the fact the upper house remained divided.
That's not even mentioning the fact that the deep-state bureaucracy (the real power brokers in Japan) hamstrung the DPJ into ineffectiveness.

The 1994-1997 period was only possible because a part of the LDP abstained from voting. Opposition only had a minority government.

In conclusion, the LDP has been in power for 72 of the last 77 years.

>>2377472
You can start with this anon

>>2377472
http://scholar.harvard.edu/files/amycatalinac/files/syllabus_government1270.pdf

This outline hits a bunch of important areas, and has research papers related to each area.

Just go to google scholar after finding which area you want to focus on

>>2377472
Thank me later anon

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It isn't exclusive to Japan. It is an emerging or established practice and it will only become more common.

- Turkey (AKP).
- Russia (United Russia).
- Singapore (PAP).

etc.

Also: Thailand is essentially a monarchist-militarist state at this point, Malaysia and Indonesia are right wing as fuck. The Gulf is largely run by absolute monarchies, India is now run by ascendant Hindu Nationalists, the PRC is evolving into some Confucian Bureaucracy with a deep ideological opposition to democracy in of itself, the DPRK is a racial state through and through nowadays, the West's darling in Myanmar/Burma turned out to be an ethno-nationalist, Philippines and Duterte and so on.

Everywhere you look, liberalism is in radical and terminal decline because it has been unwilling, unable or both to deliver real and meaningful solutions to problems: Philippines drug epidemic are the most recent and obvious example.

And the same thing is going to happen in the West too. Remember that center-left parties in the West hinge increasingly on non-white voters to actually win anything these days, and they appeal to these voters on a racial-tribal basis usually, not a socially liberal one.

It's astonishing how ignorant your average white liberal in the west is, when he or she presupposes that the rest of the world accepts liberal axioms by default, simply because they aren't seen as ideological in the west.

It's that sort of ignorance that led to the bizarre assumptions people had about the so called "Arab spring" (all the op-eds in the Guardian about how it was an "anti corruption and human rights movement").

>>2376283
>There is a big meme that it's simply because "Asians don't like democracy!"

Why is it so difficult for you to accept that different races are different?

Why do you project uniquely western ideas onto the rest of the world and assume they are default beliefs?

The belief in democracy is ideological, it is not some default thing.

>Parties like the LDP or the PAP in Singapore or even the KMT before the 2000s work by making alliances with big business to stamp out workers unions and to secure enormous amounts of funding. Another tactic is refusal to build infrastructure in an area which votes against the ruling party (this is particularly prevalent in Singapore).

Ah, I see, you're a socialist/communist who believes human beings are interchangeable worker cogs. Nevermind.

>Another tactic is refusal to build infrastructure in an area which votes against the ruling party (this is particularly prevalent in Singapore).

If it were really as bad as you claim, Singapore wouldn't uniformly have some of the finest city-based infrastructure of any city on earth.

>>2377526
>It's astonishing how ignorant your average white liberal in the west is, when he or she presupposes that the rest of the world accepts liberal axioms by default, simply because they aren't seen as ideological in the west.

And these same people then turn around and accuse others of not being knowledgeable about other cultures. When to them all cultures are just westerners of varying hues.

>>2377536
Lmao just because Singapore has great infastructure doesn't mean the PAP doesn't benefit its proponents more than its opponents.

>>2377552
What does it say about the infrastructure of cities like London and New York that Singapore can outclass them both despite this handicap?

Just consider the fact the LDP has been in control of the government for 70 of the last 73 years.

That's a record only broken by the CCP.

It's worth mentioning that LPD is a force fractioned as fuck. It isnt really so clear nowdays with Abe having such a grip over the state, but for most of time in modern history LPD prime minister terms were really short (like 2 years on avg.) and the real force were bureaucrat cliqes inside ministries that struggled for power between each other. LPD is and was full of parties inside a party.

>>2377556
Completely irrelevant.

I personally believe East Asian "democracy" is the best form of government in human history.
That doesn't disprove the fact the government of these nations generally punish their opponents.

>>2377566
I see.

And I'd agree, it's not really distinctively East Asian though. De facto one party states exist in Turkey and Russia too.

Although Japan is helped by having a nationalistic deep state rather than one composed of liberal internationalist loons like in the US.

>>2377559
You could say the same about the CCP.

30% Maoist fucks who want to continue the revolution
30% Liberal nationalists who want to represent the will of the "Chinese people"
30% pragmatic Deng-boos keeping the shitshow from falling apart
10% crazies who want to burn the world and get rich/powerful

>>2377601
>30% Liberal nationalists

You think the PRC is liberal capitalism?

And don't kid yourself, they're all nationalists.

>>2377579
Nah. East Asian Bureaucratic democracy is restricted to solely the Confucian/Chinese Buddhism nations of East Asia.

>>2377604
In that case, yes.

Are you overseas Asian?

>>2377603
I didn't claim that anywhere

>hurdur they are all nationalists
1. Almost all politicians are. If you aren't, you probably shouldn't be representing your nation.
2. I think you are ignoring the very visible Maoists who unironically believe in world brotherhood, import thousands of Africans/Latin Americans into Chinese universities, and who would be perfectly fine with blowing up all the buddhist monuments in China.

The CCP also has a few of the same globalist cucks as the West.

I'd say probably 80% are Chinese nationalists. During Mao's time it was closer to 50%.
Then again, the US congress is 80% nationalist as well.

>>2377610
Nope. I happen to be very closely related to this document though>>2377503

Mostly someone deeply interested in the East Asian Bureacratic states of the 20th century.

>>2377619
>1. Almost all politicians are. If you aren't, you probably shouldn't be representing your nation.

No they aren't. Only in the West is national-interest realpolitik viewed as controversial. Look at western foreign policy and how much of it is motivated by liberal internationalist ideology.

In before bullshit about Iraq War being for "oil".

>Then again, the US congress is 80% nationalist as well.

Really? The left in the US quite literally spouts rhetoric about not believing in borders, and believes 15 million illegal immigrants should receive eventual citizenship.

>>2377624
Have you read MITI & The Japanese Miracle by Chalmers Johnson? It's a good explanation of how this confucian bureaucracy engineered economic policy in Japan, eg strategically directed credit windows, suppressed consumption, banks over stock markets, control of key industries etc.

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>>2377628
Look at the vote for war in Afghanistan 2001.

Just because you consider Democrats as "anti-nationalist" doesn't make them so.

Obama promoted US interests extensively. That's what the original meaning of nationalist meant.

>>2377633
Picture related

>>2377559
Closer to 3-4 years actually

>>2377644
Anon, the War in Afghanistan was not a nationalistic conflict. It delivered zero tangible material gain to the US. It wasn't even vengeance since the US spent billions rebuilding the country.

>>2377556
It says that WP holds very few areaes you dumbfuck. Also PAP gerrymanders the shit out of singapore

>>2377686
>it wasn't even vengeance
[Citation needed]

>>2377750
Vengeance warfare looks like what Germanicus did to the Germanic tribes that fucked over Varus.

It doesn't involve spending tens of billions on infrastructure and "outreach programs" faggot. In the modern sense it would involve a punitive campaign to fuck their shit up to the point they don't dare support anti-US forces in their country again.

>>2374876
I recommend two books about the subject.

The first is Democracy Without Competition in Japan: Opposition Failure in a One Party Dominant State http://bookzz.org/book/846595/917dd4

Some of the things that make it a great read is it shows how critical minor features that are generally overlooked when talking about democracy can be and has plenty of information of how other democracies work and compare/contrast with the Japanese.

That book alone isn't enough to get a good understanding the Japanese situation. You need to read Shadow Shoguns: The Rise and Fall of Japan's Postwar Political Machine to get a good idea of how power politics in Japan worked. The system was spectacularly corrupt and would later bite them in the ass in a big way. Unfortunately those are the only two books I can recommend based on my limited knowledge that don't devolve into idealist drivel of how people think Japan works.

>>2377628
>Only in the West is national-interest realpolitik viewed as controversial. Look at western foreign policy and how much of it is motivated by liberal internationalist ideology.
I don't see how anybody who claims to have some knowledge of US foreign policy could make this statement seriously.

>>2377756
>vengeance warfare
>nationalism

>>2377760
>I don't see how anybody who claims to have some knowledge of US foreign policy could make this statement seriously.

Daily reminder Iraq's largest postwar oil contract went to Sinopec.

Some realpolitik you got there.

You assume the national interests of the US are the interests of liberal internationalism, but that's an illusion only born of the fact most Americans have never really known anything else.

>>2377762
Regime-change for universalist ideological reasons is the opposite of nationalism, yes.

>>2377760
Thank you anon

May you summarize some of these "minor things"?

>>2377760
Forgot the link for Shadow Shoguns http://www.mediafire.com/file/9vb2ddcw11h245p/Shadow_Shoguns.pdf

>>2377765
>Some realpolitik you got there.
I like how your whole argument hinges on Iraq ignoring almost every other interaction the US has had with other nations such as supporting dictators because it is in their interest to do so.

>>2377760
>The system was spectacularly corrupt

In the sense of the amakudari system you mean? That wasn't corruption, it was implicitly built into the system to prevent keiretsu companies from being controlled by non deep-state actors. The negative results of having your major corporates controlled by globalists can be seen in the contemporary US right now (trading away tech advantages for easy access to Chinese markets for eg).

I'd argue the US is the most corrupt system on earth since it is essentially controlled by a globalist aristocracy who do not see themselves as owing loyalty to any real nation (beyond Israel perhaps).

>>2377770
I can tell you are younger than 25.

Why? Because you obviously don't remember the 2000-2004 period

>>2377793
Corruption means different things in different places

>>2377526
>>>/pol/
Friendly reminder that the KEKSA aren't part of the western world.

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>>2377566
>confirmed for not living in any of those countries

>>2377788
>I like how your whole argument hinges on Iraq ignoring almost every other interaction the US has had with other nations such as supporting dictators because it is in their interest to do so.

Those were ideological too, namely capitalism vs. communism cold war politics and all that. It wasn't about "national" interest, it was about the interests of what is today called neo-liberalism as an ideology.

And we can bring it plenty of other examples. al-Assad and his father, Hafez, repeatedly said they were happy to do business with the US in terms of trade and allowing foreign investment, but the US repeatedly refused out of obligation and deference to Israeli regional interests and the fact the Assad family were "MUH DICTATORS!" Not to mention the complete hamstring job the US have done on themselves in East Africa by refusing to engage with governments the policies of which they don't like. And the most recent example: Almost destroying US/Philippines relations because Murka don't like Duterte killing drug dealers (how the fuck is that realpolitik in any way?)

Here's the thing: Either the US doesn't actually pursue a strict national interests foreign policy, or they DO, but they're just incredibly fucking bad at it.

>>2377794
Bush was a neo-liberal internationalist par excellance, what are you talking about?

>>2377793
>In the sense of the amakudari system you mean?
I mean in the sense of "Almost the entire Finance Ministry is literally paid off" way. When the Lockheed scandal broke nobody in Japanese politics could even press Kakuei Tanaka too hard because everybody including the opposition parties were implicated in the corruption.

>>2377802
>hose were ideological too, namely capitalism vs. communism cold war politics and all that. It wasn't about "national" interest,
You coming dangerously close to "that isn't true X" type thinking anon. I'm not even sure what you would consider "true" interest since if it plays into another ideology in any way you consider it to be invalid.

>>2377820
I'm saying that taking universalist ideologies seriously by definition precludes having a strict national interest.

China and Japan do not give a fuck about ideology, democracy, equality, what have you. They care about what is best for Japan. You've just bought the kool-aid to such an extent you unironically believe spreading liberal democracy and America's narrow national interest are the same thing.

>>2377784
>May you summarize some of these "minor things"?
The biggest "minor" thing I remember is huge restrictions on how politicians can raise money. It was a big thing because it didn't change the fact that it took a lot of money to run a campaign. Small parities faced debilitating limits and other politicians found "alternative" ways of getting that money and those that had the money had the power.

>>2377801
I am Japanese

I made this thread

>>2377809
He was also a nationalist

"Nationalist" meme pop culture meaning isn't the Political Science meaning

>>2377829
>you unironically believe spreading liberal democracy
I don't believe that and judging by how real existing US foreign policy has worked they don't either.

>>2377836
Did the author mention that Akari province gets 7 times the voting power per person than I do here in Nagoya?

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>>2377839
I am Singaporean and its political system sucks overall compared to liberal democracies. Plus why would you ask /his/ to tell you about your country? The fuck nigga

>>2377865
>chink qong wong chang

Your "country" is objectively one of the best in the world

Die

>>2377859
It mentioned that rural overrepresentation was a big part of the LDP staying in power. He didn't do a province by province breakdown. Shadow Shoguns goes more in depth on how certain prime minsters and other players redirected national funds towards their home base at the expense of everybody else.

>>2377844
>Nationalist

In what sense? How did he advance the interests of the United States as Nation, detached from the meme that the United States is a vehicle for liberal internationalism and not really a Nation at all.

>meme pop culture meaning

You mean the literal definition

>>2377845
Why did the US hamstring itself it its Asia Pivot by alienating Duterte on the basis of "human rights abuses" then?

>>2377874
Thou is rude

>>2377865
>my political system sucks

Puesto 39.º
• Total (2016) US$ 488 351 mill.
• Per cápita US$ 87 809 (2016)[1]
• Total (2016) US$ 308 716 mill.[2]
• Per cápita US$ 55 509[1]
IDH (2014) Sin cambios 0,912[3] (11.º) – Muy alto

>>2377526
This x a gorillion. When you say liberalism has failed wrt drugs, do you mean the "war on drugs", decriminalization, or both?

>>2377874
That is the biggest problem of an elitist technocracy. They are obsessed with metrics and never listein to the working or middle class's needs and demands. All the problems you people complain about neoliberalism is far more potent here withou Muh freedums

>>2377884
The literal definition of a Nationalist is someone who promotes the national interests.
Bush very much did that.

>>2377901
The US has more freedom than Singapore.

But Singapore is far better governed and an objectively better place to live for the majority of people.

>>2377907
How did Bush promote US national interests, as distinct from liberal international interests?

>>2377901
Care to tell me why the Singaporean government just won a supermajority in the democratic elections and recieves 60%+ support in all polls?

>>2377526
Butthurt /his/trionic libtards btfo'd.

Funny how everyone here believes in Fukuyama/historical materialism one way or another, even if they posture at being edgy socdems.

>>2377914
According to who? You who has never lived here? What standards do people measure?

Do people record how many immigrants comes every year?
The rising inequality?
The amount of jobs lost or undercutted by migrants workers?
The rising population density?

You are right in saying majority of people, coz the migrant population is rising

>>2377917
Why do you think the system that has brought objective gains and political stability to the vast majority of the world, including the United States, is somehow separate from the national interests?

Just because Bush fucked up doesn't mean he didn't think he was helping the United States.

>>2377917
By squandering trillions of dollars in a revenge war and giving a cause for a new wave of terrorism.

Oh wait.

>>2377919
>death of muh great leader
>hardcore gerrymandering
>Controlled opposition parties created so PAP can fear monger the masses to not vote for the legitimate ones

>>2377829
>China and Japan do not give a fuck about ideology
You could say the same thing about the US. The US's concern for human rights or democracy very much depends on their relationship with them which is why they don't really give a damn about what Saudi Arabia does. The Washington Consensus was largely a geo-strategic move by the US and TPP was supposed to be a big fuck you to China.

>>2377928
So you basically conflate liberal internationalism and US national interests as one and the same thing.

>political stability

Yep, Wilsonianism certainly didn't pave the way for a large part of the chaos of post ww1 Europe or anything. And US military adventurism post 1991 has definitely helped make things more secure. Not.

>including the United States

The US became prosperous through capital intensive manufacturing. Not through liberalism. In fact it developed these industries under tariff barriers for the most part.

>Just because Bush fucked up doesn't mean he didn't think he was helping the United States.

He thought he was helping the world/humanity/mankind etc.

That's what you don't understand. Other races don't give a shit about these nebulous concepts you dumb white liberals think are "universal", they do not recognize "humanity" as meaningful concept beyond the taxonomic.

>>2377926
Just because you are butthurt doesn't disprove objective measures

PPP per capita
Nominal $ per capita
IHDI
Stability index
Living standards index
Average lifespan
Etc.

Migrants are only coming because your people won't fuck

>>2377933
Also the legit opposition party don't have the MPs to control the parliament even if everyone voted for them in their GRC

>>2377934
>The US's concern for human rights or democracy very much depends on their relationship with them which is why they don't really give a damn about what Saudi Arabia does.

That's true, but that's not out of any genuine love of what the KSA does or its system of government. It's because the KSA is simply too valuable to adopt the same standards to.

If you believe the US do not purposefully retard their relationships with other countries and the strength of their own interests in the name of human rights as a result, then look at US/Philippines relations over the past year. Jesus Christ, it is a golden case study in what I'm saying. By your standards the US should ignore Duterte's actions in the name of a broader anti-Chinese encirclement policy, but from the very moment he came into office, even before the reapproachment with Xi, they were criticizing, doing low level restrictions on arms sales etc.

The US as a purely self interested actor on the world stage hypothesis MAKES NO SENSE when compared to the evidence.

>>2377939
I am not denying the standards, but that the technocrats never act in the masses's interest, only theirs.

>migrants come for low population growth
No they are being used as temporary and cheap labour to undercut locals. If anything that decreases locals having children coz it is too fucking expensive

>>2377933
Now you know how it is here in Japan

Not to mention we have state-controlled media.

>>2377960
At least Singaporeans don't take state media seriously for local politics

>>2377957
The locals stopped fucking way before the micrsnts came en masse

>>2377950
>The US as a purely self interested actor on the world stage hypothesis MAKES NO SENSE when compared to the evidence.
I agree. Saying the US is motivated mostly or totally by liberal internationalism is equally absurd.

>>2377938
>The US became prosperous through capital intensive manufacturing. Not through liberalism. In fact it developed these industries under tariff barriers for the most part.
http://www.nber.org/papers/w7639

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>>2377969
>mfw he thinks there was never a period of high immigration in a city of immigrants
It is only when people are using here as a means to their ends did shit really hit the fan as living costs to accommodate these people.

Migrants coming here to live is fine but taking our jobs and university places only to leave once they are rich or educated is what fucking the country. Neoliberalism at is finest

>>2377974
>late nineteenth century growth hinged more on population expansion and capital accumulation than on productivity growth

The two concepts are one and the same: maximum capital accumulation from domestic consumption hinges on being able to have that domestic market as a captive market.

>>2377982
>The two concepts are one and the same: maximum capital accumulation from domestic consumption hinges on being able to have that domestic market as a captive market.
Which both have to do with liberalism so I'm not sure why you said liberalism had nothing to do with growth in the US especially when said growth is situated in the classical liberal period of the US.

>>2377967
Japanese trust them too much

>>2377993
Liberalism preaches free markets, not tariff barriers.

>>2377974
>nber

The anon is actually correct though

The US had the world's highest average tariffs from 1790 into the 1950's

>>2378000
That is really dumb and naive desu

>>2377993
The US was in no way economically liberal until the post-WW2 period.

Matter of fact, it remains one of the most protectionist developed markets even today.

>>2378020
Why do you think Fukushima happened?

Or the 1990 bubble era

Most Japanese believe what the media says

>>2378002
Liberals vary wildly in their adherence to the free market. Most unite against tariffs because they end up being little more special interest pandering at the expense of everybody else that don't even do what they want them to do like the current steel tariffs.

>>2378024
The US because less liberal close to WW2 and more liberal during late Carter.

>>2377938

Are you or another poster in here the old tripfag athens? I recognize the posting style

>>2377601
>30% Maoist fucks who want to continue the revolution

really? I can see this maybe at the lower levels of the party, but the closer you get to the top it seems to be more Deng-boo technocrats

>>2377526
Nice memes my friend

>>2378384
>memes

What was a meme about what he posted exactly?

Everything he said is true. Right down to the bullshit fantasy narrative about the "Arab Spring" being some tidal wave of liberalism that you could find in western rags like the Economist circa 2011.

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>>2377566
>I personally believe East Asian "democracy" is the best form of government in human history.
Besides the fact that mabyo f these so called cobfucian utopias have plenty of mass political action, demonstrations and diverse public, none of these countries are as stable as you think, South Korea's president was mind-controlles by a cult, Taiwan has had massive protest movements in the past and elected a center-left president, just ot name a few.

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>>2377526
>implying we've had any form of democracy in the past 5 decades

>>2378527
>Taiwan has had massive protest movements

Same with HK: Follow the money. These things are definitely Soros funded.

Taiwan's President is a dumb leftard who has low approval ratings anyway. And even then she'll never go as full retard as western "right wingers" like Merkel.

Keep in mind that the LDP is not an ideologically cohesive body and in most cases acts as a patronage machine. See: the Christian Democrats in Cold War Italy, the PRI for most of 20th-century Mexican history, the Democrats in the American South from Reconstruction to the Civil Rights era.

>>2378038
What?

>>2378325
The CCP is made up of 80 million party members anon

>>2379787
Difference is that eventually those systems broke down

Japan had a 2 party system before WW2 (Seiyuukai vs Minseitou). So the fact that Japan doesn't have a 2 party system after the war is because of other reasons. For the postwar years (1955-1989) it's simple. The main opposition was the Socialists and the Communists who said that Japan should get rid of its military and join forces with the USSR, PRC, and N Korea. You're not got get people to vote for that shit.
The reason why there's no 2 party system right now is because the DPJ (now DPP) sucks. When the DPJ was in power (2009-2012) they promised many things that were impossible (moving the US base in Okinawa, children's stipends), screwed up the recovery after the East Japan Earthquake, and raised taxes after they promised they wouldn't raise taxes. No shit, nobody in Japan wants to votes for them now. The LDP is winning elections right now simply because there is no better alternative.

If I were to set up an opposition party platform to the LDP it's be real simple. 1) Abolish the consumption tax (VAT), 2) Abolish the corporate tax. 3) Jack up the income tax on highest bracket of earnings to 67%. 4) Introduce a pollution tax. 5) Print gov't money to pay off old debts held by the Japanese central bank.
With the added revenue do 1) the cleanup of Fukushima and 2) re-implement the child stipend. Also 3) Do infrastructure and military spending where necessary.

>>2377628
>No they aren't. Only in the West is national-interest realpolitik viewed as controversial. Look at western foreign policy and how much of it is motivated by liberal internationalist ideology.

And at the end of the day the Democrats support the same interventionist shit that Republicans do. What does that tell you, dipshit?

>>2377526
>unable or both to deliver real and meaningful solutions to problems: Philippines drug epidemic are the most recent and obvious example.

Killing homeless kids, petty criminals and decimating rule of law creates a worse state of affairs than what it aims to remedy. Vigilantism isn't even a democracy vs nondemocracy thing anyway.

>>2377874
>oh a dictatorship I don't live in is sooo great
>nevermind the reality that plenty of asians living in authoritarian states hate their existence and have generally worse living standards than western liberal democracies, that's less important than my authoritarian ideoboner

Japan is a democracy, just as India is... the same as Bangladesh, Pakistan, Yemen or North Corea, I mean...

>>2382543
Are you Japanese? Your opinion sounds really right. Because I am.

>>2382917
I'm American but I lived in Japan in 1998-2000 and in 2007-2008. I try to keep track of what's been going on over there. Also, it helps that I happen to be bilingual.

>>2382543
>The main opposition was the Socialists and the Communists who said that Japan should get rid of its military and join forces with the USSR, PRC, and N Korea
[Citation needed]

>>2382667
Wow you surely BTFO that strawman

>>2376283
>this is particularly prevalent in Singapore
Singapore is one city, what do they do, refuse to pave a single street?

>>2376283
>look up keiretsu on wikipedia
So is Japanese business more complicated than it is over here, or just different?

>>2382997
Go read the Japan Communist Party Homepage and the Socialist Party homepage. They still say that Japan should adhere to the constitution (which means getting rid of the Self Defense Force).

http://www.jcp.or.jp/english/2011what_jcp.html
The Communists admit that they were infiltrated by the USSR and PRC until 1979 and 1998.
(Today, they say they resisted interference but I don't trust them at all considering their origin. Their early leaders were people like Katayama Sen and Nosaka Sanzo who were Soviet agents and spies.)
http://www5.sdp.or.jp/vision/vision.htm
The homepage for the Socialists is in Japanese, but it's pt III.6.

You have to be a naive idealist or a traitor to want to vote for these idiots today when all the information is out in the open.

Why is Japan in deep denial over the problems in their country? There's just something artificial and fake about the clean image it tries to present itself as.

>>2382658

States existed for millennia without rule of law. Stop thinking the world can't function unless practices that have only existed for a few centuries are put into practice.

>>2382667

Singapore isn't a dictatorship.
The difference in living standards has literally nothing to do with democracy vs other things.

>>2377526
Don't be so triumphalist. George Soros, the CIA and USAID fund liberal and progressivist NGOs in East Asia too. They are increasingly powerful in Souht Korea (where the conservative right has just been discredited by a massive corruption scandal), Taiwan (where the KMT was defeated and a progressive left party is now in power).

There are a lot of Jews doing work in Japan too, Paul Krugman was Abe's advisor, and Noah Smith, some young Jewish economist who is extremely liberal and progressive, did some work there with liberal institutions, now Japan is even reconsidering its immigration policy.

So don't put on your hopes for an anti-liberal coalition in East Asia. Things can change there very fast.

>>2375024
>Hell, even in a diverse country like the US, the two dominant political parties occupy an incredibly narrow part of the political spectrum, so narrow that people walked away from the Obama-Romney debates in 2012 thinking "wait, how are these guys different again?".

Consider how much of that is due to a flawed system which forces and maintains a status quo rather than breaking the mould in any way or giving voice to smaller parties.

>>2384303
Where on earth did you get the idea that rule of law has only existed for a few centuries?

>>2383041
You claimed the JCP wanted to QUOTE
>The main opposition was the Socialists and the Communists who said that Japan should get rid of its military and join forces with the USSR, PRC, and N Korea

This is factually wrong. Kill yourself

>>2384537
How is that wrong? They still say the SDF is unconstitutional and that Japan should get rid of its military. Can you not read?
If the Communists are infiltrated by USSR and PRC spies, and they take the reins of the country, who do think they will work with, US and the West or the USSR, PRC, and North Korea?
I guess I outed a PRC or North Korean agent, lol.

>>2384053
Tatemae is very important.

>>2381496

Eventually, sure. But the South was a one-party region for eighty years or so and Mexico was run by the PRI from 1929 to 2000.

>>2384369
OH the Jew da Jews Jews.

>>2384308
The other party has no hope at all of winning and the PAP pretty much shits on anyone who does not vote for them.

DPJ was majority and the prime minister for a brief period a few years ago.

On the point of Singapore, y'all ever been to their museum?
It has a kids science museum feel, a lot of stuff is made extremely simple with hands on exhibits, which I guess is alright.
But then you get to the display on how elections work. this is great: there's boxes, representing parties, and they're filled with fake ballots. One is to understand, of course, that this is how one votes. What is interesting is that the box for the PAP is given its logo, a very big one, and the display box itself is filled with fake ballots well in excess of the plain boxes representing other political parties. It sends a very clear message to the observer, doesn't it?
Now, that said, it's not a bad museum, would be nice to have grander displays but hey you get what you get.

>>2384456
He's not saying that rule of law is only a few centuries old, he's saying that states without rule of law have existed for millennia.

>>2384053
>Why is Japan in deep denial over the problems in their country? There's just something artificial and fake about the clean image it tries to present itself as.

They never had a Sixties.

Or rather, they had a sixties, but it actually started int fitties, and the US and LDP ruthlessly crushed it.

>>2385081
That's not what was claimed you absolute faggot

Can you not comprehend this?

>>2385134
One was solely based upon disenfranchisement of 40-50% of the eligble voters.
The other was literally a non-democracy/authoritarian police state for 50 of its 70 years

>>2386537
No Hippies, no sexual revolution, no cultural Marxism; people stay conservative

Japan is truly based

>>2386564
they just need to solve the birthrate, hikko and overwork problems and they'd be perfect

>>2385407
1. For 3 years of the last 72.
2. They did not have a majority in the Upper house. The Upper house in Japan is about as relatively powerful as the US senate.
3. DPJ got nothing done because of the rogue LDP faction that initially joined them in 2008, but then abandoned them in 2010. DPJ had about 16 months of actual Diet majority rule.
4. The bureacracy, judicial branch, and state media were all LDP controlled.

DPJ had an effective majority for 16 months of 1 or 2 of the 5 branches of government in Japan.
Hence why they got nothing done and went through
1. Hayotama = actual opposition, in office for 9 months
2. Kan = former LDP
3. Noda = placeholder for election

>>2384303
I know they can exist without rule of law, but it's not a desirable state of affairs you philistine.

>>2386556
I guess you're earning your 5 cents today.

>>2386598
Don't make shit up.
In the upper house, the DPJ had the majority in 2007-2010 and a slim majority from 2010-2013.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_House_of_Councillors_election,_2007
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_House_of_Councillors_election,_2010
And it coincided with DPJ rule with its historic victory in the lower house from 2009 to 2012.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_general_election,_2009

DPJ failure had nothing to do with LDP. They rammed tons of bills through the parliament but the DPJ fucked themselves over.
The earthquake was not their fault but they sure could have handled the aftermath better. And they certainly didn't need to raise the consumption tax (VAT) to 8%.

>>2378384
Nice argument my friend