Problem: national 'exceptionalisms' (Japan, USA _and_ Israel) Spark: Korea? That will get thing going in Japan. My impression is that the Japanese left, including JCP, has over the still historically recent 'prosperity years', slid back into the dreamworld of 'Japanese exceptionalism' (knowing Japanese history, this exceptionalism is easy to see). The endless 'Golden Recession' has hardly been severe enough to shake the social order. A perceived threat to physical existence will be required to prick the dream bubble (so American, isn't it?).
The trigger could be Korea. As Korea goes, so goes Japan. As Japan goes (and Japan is the global linchpin of US hegemony 'now, more than ever' with the - temporary? - desertion of the evil Euro Axis, hell, forget Greenspan, the BoJ _is_ the USA's Central Bank now, by which the USD lives or dies), so goes the USA. And as the USA goes, so of course goes Israel. And they all know it.
That there are _any_ antiwar demonstrations in Japan shows that the bubble may be bursting in the minds of some Japanese leftists, who then begin to show some sense of urgency. They should, because the situation is urgent.
BTW, some anecdotal observations of last weekends' S.F. antiwar march, made to another list:
Sounds like Japan, all right. Koizumi is one of the most rightwing PM's in recent times, so no surprise there - he's a Japanese Assnar right down to his love for the Yasukuni Jinja.
Perhaps anecdotally on demos, in the one here last weekend in S.F. (third weekend in a row), of about ~100,000, I made a point of observing the entire line of march, and I found that the most disciplined, well organized contingent was the Korean led group. They assigned people to keep their group together and compact, their chants were energetic and well-synchronized (to the beat of Korean drums), and consequentially they attracted quite a following. And they were the most multiracial and least white of the march. The were a sharp contrast to the long, spread out straggling columns of mostly silent - because so dispersed - white people, acting as if they were just individuals out on a Sunday stroll.
-Brad
Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2003 20:13:19 -0500 From: Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1 at osu.edu> Subject: Leftists in the USA, Israel, and Japan
Among leftists, which nations' leftists are the most responsible for the current sorry state of political affairs? I'd say US, Israeli, and Japanese leftists. The USA and Israel are the only countries where the majority of the populations say that they are in favor of the current war on Iraq. Opinion surveys reveal that about 80% of the Japanese are said to be opposed to the war, but protests in Japan have been far smaller than in the other second-rate imperialists in the "coalition of the willing," the UK and Australia. I thought that the decade-long economic decline might provide a spark to the Japanese left, but apparently it hasn't.
What is to be done about the Axis of Feckless Leftists? - -- Yoshie