DeLong's Japanese 'Utopia'

[Brad De Long]

>DeLong writes:
>
>>'The regime and society that grew out of MacArthur's proconsulship 
>>is the >closest thing to Utopia that exists in Asia.'
>
>This is a stunning statement. From who's point of view? Thousands 
>upon thousands of Japanese citizens demonstrated in the streets in 
>1960 and 1969 against the US-Japanese security treaty, the Vietnam 
>War and their government's alliance with the US (the 1960 treaty was 
>passed only when the government forcibly kept out the opposition 
>parties from the Diet by the way). On the industrial front, ever 
>hear of Minamata disease? The destruction of the Japan Sea and then 
>large swaths of Indonesian forests by marauding Japanese 
>corporations? The alliance between construction companies and the 
>ruling party that in 1998 paved over the last free-flowing river on 
>the island of Honshu? The use of gangsters, even today, against 
>environmental protests, leftist demonstrations, corporate 
>stockholders meetings? Utopia? Maybe for a white man sitting in 
>Berkeley with several years of Treasury Department experience under 
>his belt. But not to rank & file Japanese.
>TS

I didn't say that Japan *was* Utopia: I think there are lots of 
things wrong with the Japanese polity, economy, and society.

I said Japan was the *closest thing* to Utopia in *Asia* today.

You pretend to disagree, but you don't really. For what is your 
candidate for a better regime and society today in Asia than Japan? 
You have none.

Learn to read.

Brad DeLong