I asked Brad what his take was on the elections in Japan. Below is his reply. I don't quite understand it, but it may be of some use to those of you who know more of Japanese history.
Joanna _________________________________
A quick reply. Could you please repost this time (only) to LBO? Just for fun and the good old days..
Actrually, I think the "shift to the right" already took place at Koizumi's first arrival, what, 3 years ago. Then his popularity was at _90%_! It precipiteously fell off soon after to around 60% when he dumped Tanaka Makiko as Foriegn Minister. She has been popular with women, so Koizumi lost a lot of poll support from Japanese women (despite his coffeur and bachlerhood). She is the daughter of the old leader of the main enemy faction to Koizumi's faction in the (former, now 'transformed') LDP from back in the 1970's. Koizumi's faction - always the most cravenly 'pro-American', war-revisionist faction - traces back to the late 1950's Prime Ministership of Kishi Nobusuke (Japanese seem to love keeping these long lineages - look at the JCP!) of AMPO noteriety, and more:
http://reference.allrefer.com/encyclopedia/K/Kishi-No.html
"Nobusuke Kishi[nOboos´kA kE´shE] Pronunciation Key, 1896–1987, Japanese statesman; older brother of Eisaku Sato. The son of a minor official, he went to live with prosperous relatives and took their name. After attending the law college of Tokyo Univ., he entered government service in 1920, rising to high office in the ministry of commerce and industry. _After 1935 he played a key role in the industrial development of Manchukuo_ (N.B.) During World War II he was minister of commerce and industry in Hideki Tojo's cabinet; he was imprisoned for three years after the war. As secretary-general of the postwar Democratic party (Note: the old prewar one), he was instrumental in uniting all conservative factions into the powerful Liberal Democratic party (1955). He became party president and prime minister in 1957, but widespread public agitation over the new United States-Japan Security Treaty forced Kishi to resign from both posts in 1960. He was succeeded by Hayato Ikeda."
BTW, I believe Tanaka (if I heard the NHK report correctly, my Japanese is not entirely reliable but I heard all the people in the Tanaka campaign room shout "Banzai!" - Let me live 10,000 lives as a parlimentary cretin, yay! :-), meaning they won) got elected as an _independent_ and note that there are some 40 - odd such "independants" in the lower House now, some 8% of the total. Compare that to the JCP's 9 and the Social Dem's 8 (What a sorry lot the S.D.s are these days).
It should be noted that in the late ninties the electoral system was rejiggered from one of a fairly fully proportional representation to a less democratic system of a split winner take all (just like America!)/ proportional rep. system. This was all part of a broad arrangement across all sectors of the Japanese bourgeosie to move toward am American-style "two party system" and squeeze out the Left. Thus JCP representation has fell from around 20 in the mid 90's to 9 today. The Japan Democratic Party - the would be 'opposition' that is a latchup of ex-LDPers from an earlier wave of expulsions from the early 90's plus the rightwing of the old Japan Socialist party that also exploded (the 8 S.D.ers are the remaining independent fragment) - was expecially interested in and eager for this exclusionary arraingement of an organized independent Left presence. Just like Doug Henwood's fearless political leadership, Nathan Newman, is here in the US. You know, bourgeois 'oppositionists' grouped together (the historic function of the US Democratic Party) with the right wing of populist/pwog/labor/socialist/green whatever. All of course done under the rubric of "democratic reform".
Ironically, the LDP's big win puts that project in jeopardy - that's the silver lining of good news for the Left. Let's hope this so-called "opposition party" blows up under the pressure!
The Tanaka Makiko incident, and "independent" phenomenon, is just one example of how volitile this "mass support" really is. But the balance of forces within the Japanese bourgeoisie swung to the right some time ago, as I suggested, but of they haven't bothered to inform the masses, of course, as usual. They just expect them to follow their demagogic exhortations of the moment like any orders given from the boss to the Japanese company salaryman. That is really the quasi-dictatorial manner in which Japanese political society works. The line from above is propagated and the rest are expected to fall in line. Like One Big Company Town (take that, Wobblies! :-) with the Kindly Father in Chiyoda as Company President. The official political culture still largely functions like that. Koizumi's Komeito/Sokka Gakkai prop of religious cultists (without which he could not have ruled until now) is one prime example. It's a Bush Gang dream come true. With some interesting twists, though.
That is 1) unlike America, thanks to the fine work of the Newmans of the world, there IS AN ORGANIZED INDEPENDENT LEFT. How else could one withstand such a systematic, deeply ethnocentric mind control cult like "Japan, Inc."? (Of which so-called 'multicultural" America is a strikingly parallel mirror image, but without the Left) and 2) the volitility I have indicated demonstrates a high degree of trepidation and general disorientation on the part of the "following" masses outside
the field of the Left organizations. Polls indicate that many are wondering, why do we have troops in Iraq? Why do we slavishly follow the American everywhere? Why do "they hate us" so much all of a sudden in China and Korea? Why do we have to privitize the postal bank? Why does the JDP bother running as an obviously fake 'opposition' party? And so forth...the Japanese masses do not honestly follow their leaders in their hearts.
The Japanese bourgeoisie, like its American counterpart, has no consensus answer (they do not know what to do), leaving a political vacuum permitting its officially most radical, fanatical factions to move into the centers of state power. It is only because this faction is the most mindless adherent of the America Cult - all while they make neo-'nationalist' claims to make Japan a 'normal' country again - that it will lead Japanese society towards a profound crackup bringing an end to an era of unparalleled peace and prosperity for this country. And here is the supreme irony: in doing so they will undermine the last remaining anchor of the otherwise rapidly deteriorating state of American global power as we have known it since the end of WW2. For these days it is only the Battleship Yamato that keeps the USS Enterprise afloat.
-Brad
joanna wrote On 09/11/05 23:07,:
> WHY?
>
> Joanna
>
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: [lbo-talk] Updates on the elections in Japan
> Date: Mon, 12 Sep 2005 14:55:39 +0900
> From: JC Helary
> Reply-To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
>
>
>
> A major shift to the right with a huge victory for the current
> leader, Koizumi.
> The opposition is virtually crushed... Interesting things are bound
> to happen in the next few weeks...
>
> Interesting that the parties with the clearest message are the ones
> that either made it (LDP) or did not loose any seat (SDP, JCP) while
> the ones that were messed up did loose (Komeito) or loose a lot
> (Minshuto, leading opposition party).
>
> JC Helary
>
> http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200509120188.html
> http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20050912dy01.htm
> http://www.nni.nikkei.co.jp/AC/TNKS/Nni20050912D11JFF04.htm
> http://www.nni.nikkei.co.jp/AC/TNKS/Nni20050912DA2J9124.htm
> http://www.nni.nikkei.co.jp/AC/TNKS/Nni20050912D12JF102.htm
>
> ___________________________________
> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
>
-- /**********************************************************************/ Brad Mayer Technical Support Engineer, DPG CIS Sun Microsystems, Inc. - Sun Developer Platforms Group Sun Menlo Park Office: (650) 786-4884 Fax: (650) 786-8858 Email: bradley.mayer at sun.com
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