lol you are so right
Miscellaneous News
- Thread starter bd popeye
- Start date
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.
(…)
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.
(…)
No, it's worse than that. The Australia of Europe without resources, clout or influences, and boxed in by Russia and Belarus!
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.
What! You want sanctions against Russia? Lithuania is not a country, thus no invasion against a recognised country, 5D chess move
t
lengthy quotes, waste of space. nobody gives a shit to what happens in japn, it doesn't mean anything anyway.
lengthy quotes, waste of space. nobody gives a shit to what happens in japn, it doesn't mean anything anyway.
I also read somewhere a lengthy article about the European Union. In short, the EU is also a union with huge problems!
In essence the single currency euro gives advantage to highly productive manufacturing nations mainly Germany (and some smaller nations like the Netherlands and Austria also do well) to sell its products within EU market and globally. But the less productive industries, mainly in the Southern Europe were decimated by the strong euro, out of competition globally. What happens nowadays in essence is Germany provides the credits / loans / debts to the less competitive EU countries so they can buy Germany's exports.
Then there is the so-called TARGET2, a real-time gross settlement (RTGS) system owned and operated by the Eurosystem. Central banks and commercial banks can submit payment orders in euro to TARGET2, where they are processed and settled in central bank money, i.e. money held in an account with a central bank.
TARGET2 settles payments related to the Eurosystem’s monetary policy operations, as well as bank-to-bank and commercial transactions.
From Alasdair Macleod :
Despite negative interest rates and money printing by the European Central Bank, which conveniently allowed all Eurozone member governments to fund themselves, having gone nowhere Eurozone nominal GDP is even lower than it was before the Lehman crisis.
Then there is the question of bad debts, which have been mostly shovelled into the TARGET2 settlement system: otherwise, we would have seen some substantial bank failures by now, esp. among the PIIGS or PIGS (minus Ireland).
The Eurozone’s largest banks are over-leveraged, and their share prices question their survival. Furthermore, these banks will have to contract their balance sheets to comply with the new Basel 4 regulations covering risk weighted assets, due to be introduced in January 2023.
And lastly, we should consider the political and economic consequences of a collapse of the Eurosystem. It is likely to be triggered by US dollar interest rates rising, causing a global bear market in financial assets. The financial position of highly indebted Eurozone members will become rapidly untenable and the very existence of the euro, the glue that holds it all together, will be threatened.
If one national central bank runs a Target2 deficit with the other central banks, it is almost certainly because it has loaned money on a net basis to its commercial banks to cover payment transfers, instead of progressing them through the settlement system. Those LOANS appear as an ASSET on the national central bank’s balance sheet, which is offset by a LIABILITY to the ECB’s Eurosystem through Target2. But under the rules, if something goes wrong with the TARGET2 system, the costs are shared out by the ECB on the pre-set capital key formula.
It is therefore in the interest of a national central bank to run a GREATER DEFICIT in relation to its capital key by supporting the INSOLVENT BANKS in its jurisdiction. The capital key relates to the national central banks’ EQUITY OWNERSHIP in the ECB, which for Germany, for example, is 26.38% of the euro-area national banks’ capital keys.[iii] If TARGET2 collapsed, the BUNDESBANK would lose the trillion plus euros owed to it by the other national central banks, and instead must pay up to €400 billion of the net losses.
To understand how and why the problem arises, we must go back to the earlier European banking crises FOLLOWING LEHMAN, which has informed national regulatory practices. If the national banking regulator deems loans to be NON-PERFORMING, the losses would become a national problem. Alternatively, if the regulator deems them to be performing, they are eligible for the national central bank’s refinancing operations. A COMMERCIAL BANK can then use the questionable loans as COLLATERAL, borrowing from the national central bank, which spreads the loan risk with all the other national central banks in accordance with their capital keys. INSOLVENT LOANS are thereby removed from the PIGS’ national banking systems and DUMPED ONTO THE EUROSYSTEM.
In ITALY’s case, the very high level of non-performing loans peaked at 17.1% in September 2015 but by March this year had been reduced to 5.3%. The facts on the ground state that this CANNOT BE TRUE. Given the incentives for the Italian regulator to deflect the non-performing loan (NPL) problem from the domestic economy INTO THE EUROSYSTEM, it would be a miracle if any of the reduction in NPLs is genuine. And with all the Covid-19 lockdowns, Italian NPLs will have soared again, explaining perhaps why the Italian central bank’s TARGET2 liabilities have increased by €137 billion over the course of Covid lockdowns.
More:
Five bucks Abe will become Prime Minister for the third time.