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> Japanese are extremely cautious and change isn't something they deal with on a frequent basis (Japan moves very slowly) so I think this freaked people out. I

• bamboozled 2y ago
  I've lived in Japan for a while now. Everyone understands a weak yen is a preference for major business here and that the government of Japan strongly prioritizes for major business happiness. There is almost zero concern for the populations economic prosperity and there is no political opposition. This isn't a "vibe" this is fact. If you go far back as the 90s economic collapse, most of it was ultimately caused by the mingling of politicians being executives of the banking sector and ultimately looking after their own interests. Rather than doing the right things to fix the situation then, the government did the wrong things. It's really sad but your average Japanese citizen has very little interest or idea about politics and policy and the population and the country suffers greatly because of this. Democracy isn't in their DNA, it was imposed. I will tell you though, the "vibe" here is, things aren't good, they just haven't worked out they're allowed to blame the government for poor monetary policy yet. Which IMO is what the government is starting to worry about. Personally, I don't think much will manifest from this, and Japan will just continue to slip backwards while the major corporations are taken care of. Vibes do matter when it comes to the share market, clearly.
  • bugglebeetle 2y ago
    > It's really sad but your average Japanese citizen has very little interest or idea about politics and policy and the population and the country suffers greatly because of this. Japan has been an effectively ”managed” democracy for the entirety of the postwar period, so I find this argument to be unconvincing. In the postwar period, the ruling LDP party was assembled by U.S. intelligence services from a mix of war criminals and far right business leaders and funneled millions of dollars and provided other forms of support for decades. There was widespread unrest as a result of this up until the early 70s, where the tensions around America’s use of the country as a FOB for the Vietnam War came to a boil and state police and security services engaged in widespread violence and crackdowns, ANPO was reauthorized, and it was demonstrated that no, actually, things will not be allowed to change. From this point on, most Japanese people became increasingly disengaged from politics because they correctly determined that their votes and protests did not matter, except to the extent that they reinforced the status quo. > Democracy isn't in their DNA, it was imposed. Separately, your depiction of the imposition of democracy is also entirely incorrect and ignorant of history. Japan had one of the most politically active and engaged populations in it prewar period, but this was strangled by its ruling elites because popular political movements were almost universally left wing. The perfect example of this was that the expansion of universal male franchise in response to widespread labor unrest was paired with the outlawing of left wing political parties.
    • bamboozled 2y ago
      Why is the argument unconvincing to you after you've just provided a bunch of evidence as to why Japanese people aren't engaged in politics and there is no opposition here?
      • bugglebeetle 2y ago
        I disagree specifically with the framing that the “the population and the country suffers greatly because of this” as it was demonstrated that mass political movements would never be allowed to exert control over its politics. It’s an entirely rational response to a sham democracy. The country (now) suffers greatly as a result of the course the U.S. set it on by subverting its democracy to protect its own interests.