Japanese politics takes a huge turn
 

Can't believe there's no post around here about the elections yet.

The LDP has just crashed and burned for the first time in 50 years --
In landslide, DPJ wins over 300 seats | The Japan Times Online
Aso decides to step down | The Japan Times Online

What are everyone's thoughts?

None really, have to wait and see what happens first.

Japan Victor hails "revolution"
 

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Japan victor hails 'revolution' what are your thoughts about this? could japan become better whit this new government?

I don't know what this new group's interests are, wasn't really sure what the last group's were either, to be honest.

As I don't know much about Japanese politics, I'll wait for someone who does for their input, however hopefully they know what they're doing.

They wanted change, and they elected this new party. America wanted change and we got saddled with Obama, someone who ignores the more pressing matters in favor of his own personal agenda.

It's a great victory after the 54 years of LDP pseudo-single-party dictatorship. Even without voting, LDP was destined to fail.

Let's hope the DPJ and other splintered LDP-based parties expose more scandals from the LDP.

I hope that this works out.

I hope they make life easier for gaijin.

I hope for that too.

I`m a bit disappointed on how one sided this is.
Japanese government tends to work best when there is a level of balance between parties - not when 95% one party. Different parties being up there keep the other in balance and make it harder for abuses to occur.

I don`t really trust the DPJ (the one that won - I always forget the English abbreviations for them.) because they offer great sounding plans with no firm explanations of how they intend to actually do any of them....
And I particularly don`t like their policy of "We`ll do anything the rest of Asia tells us to!!" up until now. That leaves a really bad taste in my mouth, as they have so far aimed for "Economic growth in Asia at the cost of Japan!" ... Which isn`t good for Japan. You can`t bow to the whim of other countries and expect them to tell you to do things that will be good for you.

In what way? Free immigration? Just what Japan needs to tax an already struggling system! :rolleyes:

By all accounts, they can't be much worse than the current administration.

I think citizes from most countries suffering from continued economic crisis are looking for something new... not sure if they will find what they are looking for or not.. But hey the new government said they would stop useless constructions projects.. that's a start!

But it's sure more functional than South Korea.

What I found interesting is the during the Japanese election, the Blue House (also known as the South Korean parliament) announced a new rearrangement of cabinet members. Consider that the current South Korean president is secretly connected with a subfaction of LDP of Japan, this is not a huge surprise.

Tax is probably the main reason Japan needs more immigration. Japanese couples are not having enough babies, so there are not enough people to pay for the retirees. Either you need to start having more kids or encourage more immigration to have people of a working age paying into the system. I fear with low rates of immigration Japan could be doomed and the sweeping changes the LDP clone that is the DPJ promise will be for nothing :vsign:

Oh my god you mean someone else noticed this??? THANK YOU!

I don't like how Nyororin put words into my mouth and then debunked them but if it brought on the revelation that other people realized this then YAY. :)

But it`s also not so simple as just bringing people in - and for some reason the majority of the foreign community... Particularly people OUTSIDE Japan looking in - have this weird notion that opening Japan to free immigration would somehow magically solve all the problems.

I get sick of hearing it, and have heard that sort of remark about 10 times since the election results.
"Well, maybe they`ll open Japan to immigration." and "Well, maybe they`ll let Japan be a multi-cultural country now!", etc... As if policies are going to make the transient workers who enter Japan to make money to take home (90%?) decide to live in Japan for life... Or those who enter and work subsistence level jobs will suddenly be boosted up to make lots and fill the national coffers.

It doesn`t work like that.

ETA;
I`ll apologize for putting words in your mouth. I didn`t even notice it was you. :D
I was just tired of seeing the overwhelming response everywhere around the net being "Well, I hope they make it easier for me to go to Japan!", or "Hopefully they will make it easier for us to send our companies and workers over there to take advantage of the country!" on news sites... With no one giving a crap about what the party will do for JAPAN, and what the actual advantage will be for JAPAN.

Im actually not that excited about it. I dont see the check and balances at systems at work here instead of both parties working together to try to solve the problems facing Japan its like 95% of one sided running everything without a plan without experience and a lot bad mouthing (similar to Rep and Dem here in the states). They say they will not make hasty decisions but are already talking about doing so. They stated that they will work more closely with their Asian neighbors however it seems to be more of an appeasement approach than anything else. How is Japan suppose to support Japan if they are bowing and doing what another country tells them to do. How does that benefit Japan?

Actions speak louder than words and it seems to me that the DPJ does not realize they have a world of a mess to clean up. Several citizens have already stated they are worried they wont know what they are doing. I support Japan being more independent from the US while still keeping a stronger alliance and forming a real partnership on equal terms.

I expected the new Government to do whats best for Japan not making immigration easier nor making it easier for foreign workers to come there make money not add anything to the GDP and then leave the country. What works in some countries does not work in all countries. Until the Party announces what plans they have that will benefit Japan I will remain skeptical.

They have a year to show the citizens they have what it takes to run the country or they could voted out in just a year.

It has been like this in Japan for over a half of century. I'm very happy that the LDP is dead because it's a solid relic of pre-1945 Japan. Majority of influential LDP politicians are known to have some close connections with wartime Imperial Japan politics.

When Japan kicks out some prominent politicians, there is a good room for stable reformation in South Korea. Actually a lot of South Koreans are happy that DPJ takes over Japan because there is a better justification to kick that corrupted president and other politicians (usu. historically affiliated with Imperial Japan from their forefathers) out of South Korea. :rheart:

This recent Japanese election is the greatest blessing for South Korea. Thank you, Japan.

You are assuming that they are going to do a good job and do whats best for the people. Like i said i reserve judgement until they show they not only know what they are doing but they are capable of doing it. Next year doing elections if the populace is not happy it could all turn around again and we could see a power shift.

Too early to tell but if things go south for this admin you bet South Korea will be effected as well.

I think its a good thing that the majority of the voters in Japan have elected the DPJ over the LDP. The LDP has been in power far too long and their policies to me seem to resemble that of the Republican party of the US.
When Japan's economy was doing very well for about 30 years (1959-1989), I suppose reelecting the same political party made seance because their policies at the time helped Japan's economy rise. But since the economic crash of 1989, their policies clearly haven't worked to revive the former economic glory. And plus having read about their policies regarding human rights and poverty, they overall really couldn't give a shite about people (except the rich).
So I think giving the other political party a chance was a wise decision. I'm just hoping they will live up to most of their promises, and this decision won't be a regret.

I believe he was a democrat??

That's okay, immigration isn't even what I was thinking about when I said it. Sure, it would be nice to not have to go through this hell to get a visa, but it's the same--and sometimes worse--for every other country. It's to be expected. What I was thinking of was more the process of living in Japan, like how the government treats/doesn't treat us. One example is the new gaijin cards with a scannable computer chip so a policeman can pick out all the gaijin in a crowd. Another example is police being taught that gaijin commit up to 90% of all the crimes in any given area, and are trained to go out and stop random foreigners for questioning/harassment.

Actually... the only problems I think I have is with the police. Hm. I've experienced this first hand, so when I see the cops roll by I can't help but feel my lip curl a bit. There's a lot of power tripping going on, in all levels of government in Japan.

Other than that there doesn't seem to be much going on in regards to foreigners in Japan in a positive light. It's all just about punishing the illegal immigrants and all that. And how about that new law about national health care and renewing visas?

We're now required to pay into national healthcare AND pension. Plus, if you've been in Japan however many years or so, I'm not sure, but don't you have to pay BACK pension? On top of that, foreigners are only entitled to withdrawl 3 years' worth, if you apply for it two years ahead of time. So it only really helps you if you plan to stay in Japan the rest of your life, and completely screws you out of a large portion of your salary if you don't.

So in a way I guess foreigners coming to Japan to live and work DOES help out the national coffers..

Japan has limited space/resources, so I can understand Nyororin's point about Immigration controle. It's also true that Japan has a very low birth rate, wich should be a concern as well. An organisim that isn't growing, is dieing.

Governmental changes of high magtitude have happened across the globe it seems. Wether anything grand will come of it or not has yet to be seen, it takes years for a tree to gain any size.

That is fear mongering. I am THRILLED about the new cards. Why? Because gaijin are being taken out of the separate system, and put into the SAME one everyone else is in for juminhyo. With the new system in place - which, by the way uses the SAME cards and SAME IC chip system as the Juki net... nothing special for foreigners. Japanese ID cards are the same. - Foreigners won`t be tied to the pain of doing all their government transactions at the place they first registered or be fined etc for forgetting to change residence information.

But somewhere along the line somebody out there say IC chip in the works and jumped to assume it was to single people out in crowds. Sure, it could be used for that... The thing is it`s a system wide thing. All the Juki cards will/already have it.

Official documentation they are taught by is 50% for certain types of crime, which is actually correct and WAY outweighs the normal amount you`d expect. Asian crime rings have a huge presence in Japan, Nigerian and Middle Eastern gangs are also prevalent... and they DO commit a pretty hefty chunk of *the type of crimes that they could tell by stopping you on the street*.
When 50% of street drug dealing, pick pocketing, and the like are committed by a tiny slice of the population... Unfortunately racial profiling happens. A good thing, no. But a policy that isn`t as founded in nothingness as a a lot of people would like to think.

I`ve never had a negative run in with police. In fact, I had my very first contact with police quite recently when they came by to gather emergency contact information from everyone in my building because a new koban had been built... So I can`t comment on any negative behavior, as I`ve not witnessed any first hand.

You were ALWAYS required to pay it. I was legally required to pay it back 10 years ago. They`re just pushing it as they didn`t follow up with employers about it when it came to short term residents.
*sigh*
People in Japan for short term do not contribute much of anything. They usually get by on close to free health care for the first year (as it`s calculated on the last year`s paid taxes - the first year you`re here there are none.) and most people dodged paying pension. In a country where the pension system is in a terrible state and there are too few children... The money has to come from somewhere if not from kids, right? In this case, it`s foreign residents in Japan.
I thought this was kind of what everyone wanted when they went on about foreigners needed in Japan to help pay for the aging population?

By the way, you are required to pay 25 years into the pension system in order to collect. This is between 20 and retirement. However, if you have lived abroad for any period you are entitled to an "empty period" allowing you to receive credit for that number of years. So if you`ve lived 25 years of your life outside Japan between 20 and retirement - you can still receive without having contributed. If you have lived in Japan straight and don`t want to do the exemption, you will need to pay back payments to make the 25 years before you retire... The SAME as regular Japanese recipients. Something you COULDN`T before because you were a foreigner. You also no longer have to start from zero if you take Japanese citizenship, which was true in the past. You`d be "reset" as a person, and have to start over.

Anyway though - I`m quite HAPPY with the changes *gasp*, because it is the beginning of a process of putting "gaijin" on the exact same playing field as regular Japanese. No special treatment, no exceptions, etc. The Juki net move is a HUGE step toward putting gaijin on regular juminhyo, and it is something a LOT of long term residents pushed for. The government made the excuse that because the systems were and always had been separate there was no way to unite them - then the Juki net came along and they had to move a chunk of Japanese over into that anyway... And are now going for a nationwide electronic system for juminhyo, starting with those who registered for Juki. Putting foreigner info in the Juki system is a huge step in the right direction. Unfortunately because the cards are the same as all the other national ID cards that come with an IC chip, it`s become "OMG!! It`s for oppression of foreigners!" while somehow forgetting this is what a bunch of foreigners have been pushing for since god only knows when - being put into the same system and being treated (system wise) as native Japanese.

Thank you for an insider's perspective, Nyororin. It's nice getting an educated gaikokujin perspective.

The election results aren't as "ground-shaking" as the world media is making them out to be. It must be a slow week for news, so something has to be made of it.

It's no surprise that the current government got voted out. With unemployment as high as it is, and with those who are still employed facing cuts in hours and pay, it was bound to happen. The national debt for last year came out to $64 billion (minuscule in comparison to American debt, but big trouble in Japan). The new party's plan to "improve" the economy and erase this deficit is to spend $150+ billion on various programs... it sounds a lot like America's plan in a way.

Anyway, the more things "change", the more they stay the same. The new government will not be able to make good on the majority of it's promises, Japan's export-driven economy depends on the well-being of foreign trade partners. Unless America and Europe staring buying Toyotas, televisions, and Playstations, there is not really much that can be done. After the new government shows that it can't really do any better of a job than the former one did, the LDP will win many of their seats back.

The only good thing to come of all of this is that the election proved to many politicians that their positions are controlled by the people, and that they are answerable to them. America should do the same thing with it's current crop of senators and congressmen.

Japan's negative birthrate is little different from that of Europe. A lot of Europe has a negative birthrate, except for minority populations, which are, as always, exploding. Japan values their culture and their national identity, I don't see them doing anything to change or ease up immigration in the near future. If anything, they will enact measures to encourage more Japanese to have children.

You could read more carefully. I said I am very happy about essentially because the LDP being out of power.

LDP out of power = extremely good for Korea in the long run

So far, I expect there will be a huge turnout in Seoul in 6~9 months after Lee Myeong-bak's "sugar daddy" called LDP is out for good.

um yea i read it correctly and my comment still stands but i will put it another way. How does you talking about South Korea have anything to do with how DPK with handle the country of Japan i repeat not South Korea but Japan.

Chinilpa - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I told the similar thing two months ago and frankly you forgot all of them.

Honestly Komitsuki you post so much stuff like this how do you expect me to remember all of it? However, i do remember what you are referencing now and we are still miscommunicating so i am just gonna stop.

You must be in the kansai region right? I have only ever been harrassed by the police down in Kyoto. It put me right off the place. Been everywhere else in Japan and had no problems with any police or government officials except in Kyoto.

Nyororin,
While I may not always agree with you, I do appreciate the detailed, intelligent and rational responses to some of the reactionary stuff posted.

My own rather reactionary dismissal of some of it is much worse. If you don't like a foreign country's ways, get out. No one is demanding you stay. Quit being an arrogant visitor and go home. Your attitude is about as appealing as an invading army.


As for the low birthrate, the Japanese would be better off to address the causes than to encourage immigration, especially when those who respond seem to be either unhappy or disrespectful of their culture.

The problem is population density and high stress life styles. More people will not solve this and if scientific studies are correct, it will actually make the problem worse.

Majority of the Mindan members are second and third generations living in Japan anyways.

Thanks to the indirect influence from DJP for few years, it is great to see that now there is a firm way to bring Mindan Korean residents decent voting rights. It's more of a power play within a lower tier political environment but it's still worth it.

You think that's the problem? I can pinpoint a bigger problem for you.

[img=http://www.etherealvortex.com/wp-content/gallery/fashion/man_bra.jpg][/img]

Now that we've had our chuckle, yes, the rapid feminization of male society in Japan is one of the hugest factors to the negative birthrate. Yes, negative. You say "low" but it was actually UNDER zero last time I checked, which means old people are dying faster than babies are being born. I think it would be a good idea to open a new thread about this topic, because it's just downright fascinating and I love discussing it and trying to dig up underlying reasons.

Oh, and I feel that immigration is most beneficial to the Japanese economy, which has been in steady decline for most of the past decade. There was a recent UN report that stated if Japan wants its economy to start moving in the other direction, they'll need 50 million immigrants by the year 2050. Unfortunately I can't find the report at this moment so I can't cite it, but I can see why such a thing would be necessary; lord knows nobody here has done anything significant to pick things up financially.

...What were we talking about again? :D

this immigration thing is tricky,...

on the one hand it will make the already densely populated areas worse, and frankly, your average mr chin immigrant from china is not exactly going to head straight for the inaka. the fact is that he's gonna head straight for the big towns. which of course he has every right to do.

on the other hand, i am tired of stupidly priced staple foods like rice that are subsidised and protected industries that frankly should have failed years and years ago.

what i mean is, i dont need my apples to be lovingly handpicked by granny yamada in deepest darkest inaka, washed in the finest mountain springs and transported to my super in the utmost comfort, so they can charge me an amount that would feed an entire village in china for a month.

cheap labour immigration would get rid of so much waste here, and would stimulate the economy if people actually had a bit more to spend, and if people actually felt comfortable. sure you'll get a whole bunch of negatives that come along with unskilled labour, but i would imagine the pluses outweigh them.

one thing i found surprising here,...

for a nation that is responsible for some of the most efficient products in the history of the world,..... they are surprisingly inefficient.

We could just all pack up and move to Mars ..then we would all be immigrants.

agreed.

shotgun!

Or, instead of spouting such childishness.... you could actually go out and talk to - or even read articles written by - married women of childbearing age who in the past would have been popping out kids but aren`t.

It all comes down to money. It has absolutely nothing to do with "feminization" as you put it - unless we are to listen to the big burly western men in Japan thinking they can "fix" the problem by knocking girls up.

Raising a child in Japan costs money. Raising a child in a city in Japan costs even more money. Most young couples live in cities for the employment opportunities.
Couples like to have savings before they have a child... So it ends up that both work saving up the cash until they feel they have enough to have a child. And then they have ONE child - and the biggest problem arises. Securing money for another. There is nowhere close to enough support provided for the mother to return to work (and culturally, most of the time this isn`t desirable) - but at the same time companies in the cities have grown accustomed to the pay system where both work... So pay ends up being halved with no additions for family from the husband`s company.

And child number 2 never comes along because the money just isn`t there, and there is no reasonable way to get it. In the past, young couples would live close to their parents - often both sets - and have the free support of family. Not in the modern era.

There was an interesting article I read recently about the difference between couples living near their families and those living more than an hour away... Those living near or with one set of grandparents averaged 2.8 children. Those living more than an hour away averaged 0.6. In the countryside, near family, the 3 child family is still the norm. In the city, far from family support, just over half end up having no children at all. Either by choice, or because they waited too long and have fertility issues.

Yea, cost of liveing is a major contributing factor. I would think Nyororin's points are probably more in line with reality concerning the lower birth rate than some of the other arguements posted.

Although, I have to disagree about the burly part, not all of us are burly. I'm barely 5' 10" 185lbs. :p