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Whenever I see this happening I find it hard to not think up of unlikely but satisfactory conspiracies where this is all a plot to make the educated middle clas

Whenever I see this happening I find it hard to not think up of unlikely but satisfactory conspiracies where this is all a plot to make the educated middle class less aware of social issues and the similarities in the themes of human struggle of all societies. In a context where Japan's conservative government seems to be contemplating future conflict with its neighbors as a more likely outcome, it would help to shield the populance from the fact that their "enemies" are human too. Mind you, this isn't just about the Japanese conservative government, but I just can't see what purpose this could possibly ever serve.

guard-of-terra 11y ago
Why would Japan seriously conflict with neighbors? It has shrinking population and this is going to get worse. Can't sacrifice people, can't make use of what you conquer. Of course we can imagine drone wars but what's the point exactly?
- PhasmaFelis 11y ago
  Areas that experience significant population loss due to war or disaster often have baby booms afterwards, and wind up with more people than they started within a very few decades. Hey, maybe that's the plan! Kill a bunch of citizens in foreign wars, and the survivors will surely breed a strong new generation!
  - guard-of-terra 11y ago
    To bet your country's demographic future on "often have" is a bold move. It depends. After WW2, USSR seems to have recovered its numbers (until late soviet birth rate and life expectancy slow dive). Germany never actually recovered, it seems to me - their population numbers are flat for decades and they're bringing a lot of immigrants in. France, I don't know - I guess they sidestepped this issue by repatriating people fleeing from ex-colonies.
  - ekianjo 11y ago
    Yeah,looks like you don't remember that Japan was razed to ground almost everywhere in the last war they fought. It did not work too well for them.
    - PhasmaFelis 11y ago
      Yeah, but check out those population numbers! 1940: 73 million. 1945: 72 million. 1950: 83 million. A runaway success, for an extremely specific definition of success! (Seriously though, I thought it was pretty clear that I was joking when I suggested war as a practical solution for falling population. Should I have used more exclamation points?)
      - ekianjo 11y ago
        I know you were joking, sadly there are many people who are often saying seriously "we'd need a good old war to get things rebooted again".
- jevgeni 11y ago
  I don't think Japan's concern is that they themselves will attack a neighbour. Without beating around the bush, they are concerned with China reasserting its naval military presence as of late.
seivan 11y ago
I can see why Japan does this as a preventive measure and cut across the board. They probably took a long big look at Sweden and decided, yeah not a good idea to continue with some[0] of it - or at least that's what I'd love to think ;-). I think it's a good move, and they probably have their own reasons. The mathematician Tanja Berkvist[1] talks[2] a lot about this in Sweden, unfortunately most of her stuff[3] is in Swedish. I guess she didn't see that the crap[4] would be exported one day. 0: https://translate.google.se/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=https%3A%2F%2Ftanjabergkvist.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F11%2F14%2Fiiiinte-80-miljoner-till%2F&edit-text= https://translate.google.se/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&pre... 1: https://tanjabergkvist.wordpress.com https://tanjabergkvist.wordpress.com 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czF3Df7Z4c0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czF3Df7Z4c0 3: https://vimeo.com/23900392 https://vimeo.com/23900392 4: https://vimeo.com/79228784 https://vimeo.com/79228784
- dang 11y ago
  Please stop using HN for internecine Swedish political battles.
crdoconnor 11y ago
>Whenever I see this happening I find it hard to not think up of unlikely but satisfactory conspiracies where this is all a plot to make the educated middle class less aware of social issues and the similarities in the themes of human struggle of all societies. It's not exactly a conspiracy, but it's entirely the result of the elites trying to shape the labor market. They still see engineering as an overpaid profession (one of the last holdouts of the middle classes), which is why they're trying to push more of the younger generation into it and pull in more immigrants (see Mark Zuckerberg's FWD.us, for instance). Driving up supply will push down wages. This is the source of all of the sneering about useless degrees in humanities too - as if it were the fault of 21 year olds that they graduated into the worst labor market since the depression.
- michaelbuddy 11y ago
  Driving up supply? The demand isn't even met yet. When there is a shortage you need to encourage interest.
  - crdoconnor 11y ago
    The demand for dirt cheap genius programmers will never be met. That said, if you're prepared to pay, there is no shortage.

guard-of-terra 11y ago

Why would Japan seriously conflict with neighbors? It has shrinking population and this is going to get worse. Can't sacrifice people, can't make use of what you conquer. Of course we can imagine drone wars but what's the point exactly?

PhasmaFelis 11y ago
Areas that experience significant population loss due to war or disaster often have baby booms afterwards, and wind up with more people than they started within a very few decades. Hey, maybe that's the plan! Kill a bunch of citizens in foreign wars, and the survivors will surely breed a strong new generation!
- guard-of-terra 11y ago
  To bet your country's demographic future on "often have" is a bold move. It depends. After WW2, USSR seems to have recovered its numbers (until late soviet birth rate and life expectancy slow dive). Germany never actually recovered, it seems to me - their population numbers are flat for decades and they're bringing a lot of immigrants in. France, I don't know - I guess they sidestepped this issue by repatriating people fleeing from ex-colonies.
- ekianjo 11y ago
  Yeah,looks like you don't remember that Japan was razed to ground almost everywhere in the last war they fought. It did not work too well for them.
  - PhasmaFelis 11y ago
    Yeah, but check out those population numbers! 1940: 73 million. 1945: 72 million. 1950: 83 million. A runaway success, for an extremely specific definition of success! (Seriously though, I thought it was pretty clear that I was joking when I suggested war as a practical solution for falling population. Should I have used more exclamation points?)
    - ekianjo 11y ago
      I know you were joking, sadly there are many people who are often saying seriously "we'd need a good old war to get things rebooted again".
jevgeni 11y ago
I don't think Japan's concern is that they themselves will attack a neighbour. Without beating around the bush, they are concerned with China reasserting its naval military presence as of late.

seivan 11y ago

I can see why Japan does this as a preventive measure and cut across the board. They probably took a long big look at Sweden and decided, yeah not a good idea to continue with some[0] of it - or at least that's what I'd love to think ;-). I think it's a good move, and they probably have their own reasons. The mathematician Tanja Berkvist[1] talks[2] a lot about this in Sweden, unfortunately most of her stuff[3] is in Swedish. I guess she didn't see that the crap[4] would be exported one day. 0: https://translate.google.se/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=https%3A%2F%2Ftanjabergkvist.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F11%2F14%2Fiiiinte-80-miljoner-till%2F&edit-text= https://translate.google.se/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&pre... 1: https://tanjabergkvist.wordpress.com https://tanjabergkvist.wordpress.com 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czF3Df7Z4c0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czF3Df7Z4c0 3: https://vimeo.com/23900392 https://vimeo.com/23900392 4: https://vimeo.com/79228784 https://vimeo.com/79228784

dang 11y ago
Please stop using HN for internecine Swedish political battles.

crdoconnor 11y ago

>Whenever I see this happening I find it hard to not think up of unlikely but satisfactory conspiracies where this is all a plot to make the educated middle class less aware of social issues and the similarities in the themes of human struggle of all societies. It's not exactly a conspiracy, but it's entirely the result of the elites trying to shape the labor market. They still see engineering as an overpaid profession (one of the last holdouts of the middle classes), which is why they're trying to push more of the younger generation into it and pull in more immigrants (see Mark Zuckerberg's FWD.us, for instance). Driving up supply will push down wages. This is the source of all of the sneering about useless degrees in humanities too - as if it were the fault of 21 year olds that they graduated into the worst labor market since the depression.

michaelbuddy 11y ago
Driving up supply? The demand isn't even met yet. When there is a shortage you need to encourage interest.
- crdoconnor 11y ago
  The demand for dirt cheap genius programmers will never be met. That said, if you're prepared to pay, there is no shortage.