lol you are so rightThat's so off - EU has a population of 450 million.
lol you are so rightThat's so off - EU has a population of 450 million.
The Australia of Europe.
Yeah. If the worst happens, then China could just say that Lithuania is not a country so that Russia can roll in and take it.No, it's worse than that. The Australia of Europe without resources, clout or influences, and boxed in by Russia and Belarus!
Yoshihide Suga’s short tenure as prime minister may be over, but don’t expect this to lead to any foreign policy changes. Such a short one-year tenure of Suga is perceived as a surprise, but bar the persistence of his predecessor (Abe Shinzo was the country’s longest-serving premier), it is in fact extremely common for Japan's dominant party to espouse a “revolving” door system of leaders, with many lasting only one or two years in office. (2021/09/03)
As a result, this is not as much of a game-changer as people might think, and no one should expect Tokyo's foreign policy, especially as regards China and the United States, to change drastically.
The regular change of leadership is a tactic the LDP regularly employs to keep itself in power almost perpetually, which is why the country’s democracy is often ranked lower than that of its Western counterparts. Here is how and why this system operates.
When Japan surrendered to the United States following the end of World War II, 76 years ago last month, the way the situation was handled was FAR DIFFERENT FROM the experience of Germany. While the Nazi regime was held to account by the allies for its crimes against humanity and its ideology publicly disgraced, the emerging strategic environment in East Asia saw the United States decide to simply rehabilitate and rebrand Japan, as opposed to demolishing its legacy of empire and exposing its crimes against neighbouring countries, in particular, Korea and China.
The contemporary Japanese state is NOT A NEW ONE, but rather a “regime” as we understand it; that is, its ruling classes and interests were not removed but simply reincorporated, under American terms of conditions, of course. A historically famous photo of Douglas MacArthur with Emperor Hirohito stands as a powerful testament of that era. It was designed to symbolically demonstrate to the public of Japan “who’s in charge” now – you can keep your emperor, but understand that there’s another authority above him.
The new Japan would be a democracy, but, nonetheless, it was for all intents and purposes a status quo regime, with the overseer being the United States. The conservative-led LDP would soon become its primary conduit of choice, and communist groups were relentlessly purged in the 1950s.
Against this backdrop, the LDP functions differently from how a “democratic ruling party” does in a conventional sense, in that it sustains an unmatched level of influence and power throughout all the institutions of Japanese society, and subsequently manipulates the agenda at will to sustain itself in power almost perpetually.
Its close partnership with the United States is crucial in this, showing us how a clientele relationship between the two feeds into domestic Japanese politics. The United States is the one that spared and rebranded the “Japanese regime” and transformed it into Washington’s standard geopolitical flag bearer in Asia* Thus, as the LDP flexes its muscles on behalf of the US' strategic objectives, it subsequently reaps the domestic benefits of fear and antipathy towards neighbouring countries.
It is worth noting that the only times when the LDP did not have power, and the public of Japan opted for someone else, were in the 1990s [1993-1998] and the first decade of the 2000s [2009-2012]. Whilst part of this was due to the country’s poor economic situation, it was also due to Japan’s irrelevance in the “War on Terror” epoch of US foreign policy (focusing on the Middle East, not Asia), and more amicable ties with China.
So as Suga departs, do not expect much to change within Tokyo. A new man or woman may soon be in charge, but the country’s fundamental foreign policy themes under the LDP, involving confronting America’s enemies and invoking domestic fear of them, will continue.
(…)
By TOM FOWDY
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The meaning behind this picture of Emperor Hirohito and General MacArthur
This is a picture of Emperor Hirohito and General MacArthur meeting on the 29th of September, 1945, after Japan surrendered at the conclusion of World War 2. At the time, the United States led the Allies in the occupation and rehabilitation of the Japanese state.
Emperor Hirohito was a living god to the Japanese, and MacArthur found that ruling via the Emperor made his job in running Japan much easier than it otherwise would have been. Therefore, this picture was taken to show the Japanese that MacArthur had more power than Akihito.
What is most important here is the standing position. From the Japanese traditional perspective, men always stand to the right of women. However, in this picture, Hirohito is to the left of MacArthur. It signifies nonverbally that MacArthur is more powerful than Hirohito. When you examine historical pictures, it is crucial to interpret them according to the way in which the photographers intended the picture to be seen.
(…)
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That is the key to understand why EU expands to east Europe. It's military goal is to contain Russia and cut it's strategic influence and then to exploit the weak low income countries of east Europe. It's easy to expand your "tentacles" and squeeze those countries when there are no taxes between and use the same currency (no devaluation option to make gains by export of goods). The big fish eat the small, and there's no second option because you simple signed to join the EU. Don't forget EU has about 800 mil ppl. While big fishes went mad cannibalising other EU members they forgot to seal the loopholes they created to sell up the national wealth of weak members, China took the opportunity and got in the game to serve it's own interest. Chinese bids where unbeatable from European capital, so naturally China put a strong foot on Europe (hi tech,ports,energy) so EU had either to seal the doors for the capital flow from China and face the retaliation or to make the deal (China sould minimize purchases on EU strategic sectors ). In the big EU "neighbourhood" it's kinda better for Deutsche Telekom to bid the Greek Telecom Company than a Chinese bidder. lol . Anyway this is another shortseeing planning. They cannot turn full on against China ( if there was a drop of logic on this ) not because of the lack on knowledge but due to systemic incompetence, just like USA. Deemed to loose
I also read somewhere a lengthy article about the European Union. In short, the EU is also a union with huge problems!That's so off - EU has a population of 450 million.
Yoshihide Suga’s short tenure as prime minister may be over, but don’t expect this to lead to any foreign policy changes. Such a short one-year tenure of Suga is perceived as a surprise, but bar the persistence of his predecessor (Abe Shinzo was the country’s longest-serving premier), it is in fact extremely common for Japan's dominant party to espouse a “revolving” door system of leaders, with many lasting only one or two years in office. (2021/09/03)
As a result, this is not as much of a game-changer as people might think, and no one should expect Tokyo's foreign policy, especially as regards China and the United States, to change drastically.
The regular change of leadership is a tactic the LDP regularly employs to keep itself in power almost perpetually, which is why the country’s democracy is often ranked lower than that of its Western counterparts. Here is how and why this system operates.
When Japan surrendered to the United States following the end of World War II, 76 years ago last month, the way the situation was handled was FAR DIFFERENT FROM the experience of Germany. While the Nazi regime was held to account by the allies for its crimes against humanity and its ideology publicly disgraced, the emerging strategic environment in East Asia saw the United States decide to simply rehabilitate and rebrand Japan, as opposed to demolishing its legacy of empire and exposing its crimes against neighbouring countries, in particular, Korea and China.
The contemporary Japanese state is NOT A NEW ONE, but rather a “regime” as we understand it; that is, its ruling classes and interests were not removed but simply reincorporated, under American terms of conditions, of course. A historically famous photo of Douglas MacArthur with Emperor Hirohito stands as a powerful testament of that era. It was designed to symbolically demonstrate to the public of Japan “who’s in charge” now – you can keep your emperor, but understand that there’s another authority above him.
The new Japan would be a democracy, but, nonetheless, it was for all intents and purposes a status quo regime, with the overseer being the United States. The conservative-led LDP would soon become its primary conduit of choice, and communist groups were relentlessly purged in the 1950s.
Against this backdrop, the LDP functions differently from how a “democratic ruling party” does in a conventional sense, in that it sustains an unmatched level of influence and power throughout all the institutions of Japanese society, and subsequently manipulates the agenda at will to sustain itself in power almost perpetually.
Its close partnership with the United States is crucial in this, showing us how a clientele relationship between the two feeds into domestic Japanese politics. The United States is the one that spared and rebranded the “Japanese regime” and transformed it into Washington’s standard geopolitical flag bearer in Asia* Thus, as the LDP flexes its muscles on behalf of the US' strategic objectives, it subsequently reaps the domestic benefits of fear and antipathy towards neighbouring countries.
It is worth noting that the only times when the LDP did not have power, and the public of Japan opted for someone else, were in the 1990s [1993-1998] and the first decade of the 2000s [2009-2012]. Whilst part of this was due to the country’s poor economic situation, it was also due to Japan’s irrelevance in the “War on Terror” epoch of US foreign policy (focusing on the Middle East, not Asia), and more amicable ties with China.
So as Suga departs, do not expect much to change within Tokyo. A new man or woman may soon be in charge, but the country’s fundamental foreign policy themes under the LDP, involving confronting America’s enemies and invoking domestic fear of them, will continue.
(…)
By TOM FOWDY
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The meaning behind this picture of Emperor Hirohito and General MacArthur
This is a picture of Emperor Hirohito and General MacArthur meeting on the 29th of September, 1945, after Japan surrendered at the conclusion of World War 2. At the time, the United States led the Allies in the occupation and rehabilitation of the Japanese state.
Emperor Hirohito was a living god to the Japanese, and MacArthur found that ruling via the Emperor made his job in running Japan much easier than it otherwise would have been. Therefore, this picture was taken to show the Japanese that MacArthur had more power than Akihito.
What is most important here is the standing position. From the Japanese traditional perspective, men always stand to the right of women. However, in this picture, Hirohito is to the left of MacArthur. It signifies nonverbally that MacArthur is more powerful than Hirohito. When you examine historical pictures, it is crucial to interpret them according to the way in which the photographers intended the picture to be seen.
(…)
View attachment 76928View attachment 76929