Forum - View topicINTEREST: Hayao Miyazaki Pens Essay on Japanese Constitutional Reform
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revolutionotaku
Posts: 896 |
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I'm with Miyazaki 100% with his pacifist comments about the Japanese government & Shinzo Abe wanting to revise the constitution without thinking.
Last edited by revolutionotaku on Thu Jul 25, 2013 2:36 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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revolutionotaku
Posts: 896 |
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"Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
-George Santayana |
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mgosdin
 Posts: 1302 Location: Kissimmee, Florida, USA |
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I can see where politicians in Japan might want to change their constitution and eliminate the " No war unless defending themselves " clause.
This world is a dangerous place. There are many people even entire nations who truly believe in " Kill them all and let God sort it out " or some similar thought. Nowhere is safe, Not Japan, Not the USA, Not Europe, no where ... period. It is good to see Japan taking the time to discuss this. It needs to be done with care, much thought, in public, openly and, agreeing with Miyazaki, with the full participation of their people. Mark Gosdin |
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YamadaKun
 Posts: 304 Location: Sunny California |
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Completely and utterly agree with Miyazaki. War is bad. It does nothing cause despair, hatred, sadness, friction, loneliness and all sorts of negative emotions. I haven't lived in Japan in years, but I was born and spent my early childhood there to say that Miyazaki is "un-Japanese" is wrong on so many levels. The Japanese as a whole very much hate war and to change the constitution, for the purpose of entering war is stupid and unnecessary. I wish all countries would stop fighting and all these retarded wars just end. Miyazaki is a champion of the Japanese people.
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Tenbyakugon
 Posts: 800 Location: Ohio, United States |
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The ideas of Liberal Democratic Party leader Shinzo Abe are just that: liberal.
He also should've thrown in the monopolistic takeover of both houses absolutely thanks to their manipulation of the naïve New Komeito. I haven't seen anything as unrepresentative as when Barack Obama and a majority-Democrat Congress had been elected into office. Not everyone is a liberal, not everyone is a Democrat -- it's not representative. |
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enurtsol
 Posts: 14889 |
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Hayao Miyazaki has been in controversies lately. On the release of his latest film The Wind Rises:
Hayao Miyazaki Called “Anti-Japanese,” a “Traitor,” and “Dim-Witted”
Last edited by enurtsol on Thu Jul 25, 2013 3:17 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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esw01407
 Posts: 9 Location: PA |
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Wouldn't be shocked if corporations are pushing this, Japan has one of the most modern militaries in the world and is one of the few countries not really exporting weapons. South Korea has gotten into the market knee deep with the Indonesian Submarine deal. Taiwan is looking for deals.
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Cutiebunny
 Posts: 1767 |
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While I respect Miyazaki for his opinion and for stating it, I wonder if he would say these things had this interview(s) been conducted 30 years earlier, at a time when many of his classic films had not yet been made. Would he be willing to risk any possibility of the film's success because of his opinion? Or would he refuse to speak up?
Money (and the fame that often comes with it) is a very liberating thing to have. At this point, Miyazaki doesn't need to care about losing fans and possible consumers of his product because of his opinion; Totoro and all the merchandise that derived with it will support his heirs as long as Japanese copyright law will allow. He's on his way out of this world, and no longer has to worry about any possible reprocussions his opinion will cause. And should he say something that certain political figures don't like, they'll shrug it off as the delusions of an old man. I think more artists, authors, etc. would speak up more against this law had they not been at a point in their career where they are very much dependent on public sentiment for a living. Something like this could bar them from publishing their work with well known publishers, and force them to end their careers far earlier than they intended. |
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gatotsu911
Posts: 457 Location: US of East Coast |
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I've harped on this before, but - isn't Hideaki Anno's political philosophy, like, the exact opposite of this? That Japan needs to re-arm and assert itself?
How do they stay friends? |
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gatotsu911
Posts: 457 Location: US of East Coast |
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lol. Only Brian Ashcraft would try to pass off a Yahoo News comment section as a journalistic resource. (Because it's Japanese, guys!!) |
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Kikaioh
 Posts: 1205 Location: Antarctica |
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I was under the impression that the Liberal Democratic Party is the strongly Conservative/traditionalist/right-leaning party in Japan. Wouldn't the liberal counterpart be the Democratic Party of Japan? And I could've sworn Republicans controlled Congress and the Presidency from 2003-2007, so it's not as though one-sided political representation was something new that started with the Obama administration (even going further back, the first two years of Clinton's presidency also saw Democratic control of both chambers of Congress). As an additional aside, holding a 'majority' in two branches of government doesn't necessarily equate to congress not being representative, since there are still elected legislators from both parties holding office. It just means that one party has more representation than the other, and has greater latitude in pushing forward legislation (and even then, it's no guarantee --- a majority in the Senate isn't the same as a filibuster-proof majority, as the past 4 or so years have demonstrated). |
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Surrender Artist
 Posts: 3264 Location: Pennsylvania, USA |
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For reference, I believe that the changes being mooted are these.
I think it's unlikely that the changes will be made. To amend the Japanese constitution, the amendments must first be passed by 2/3rds of each house of the Diet, then approved in a referendum. The LDP has enough votes in the House of Representatives, but despite their victory in the House of Councillors election, do not have the votes needed there. I think that it might be wise to amend Article IX to reflect the reality of the Japanese Self Defense Forces; under a strict reading of the constitution, they shouldn't even exist. (They might not, if not for the cold war and Japan's proximity to the Reds) However, I don't like the idea of going further than the least needed to reconcile law with reality.
In what sense are they liberal? I think that by any fair representation of any sense of the word, that's a rough case to make. The Liberal Democratic Party, contra its name, is broadly conservative. The name comes from the merger of the Liberal Party and Democratic party in 1955. Both had chosen their names to sound pleasing to the occupation forces. The old joke is that the LDP is not liberal, democratic or a party. That's deliberately glib, but not without truth. Traditionally, the LDP has tended to be more a collection of political factions that often feuded and competed piled together because it was electorally beneficial. It's probably worth repeating, even though I think it might be known already, that the LDP was in power continually from 1955 to 1993, then against from 1993 to 2009; it was also the largest party in the Diet for the entire period from 1955 to 2009.
I don't think that this is a reasonable statement. There are reasons to think that the LPD's victory was exaggerated. Japan uses a Mixed-Member Majoritarian electoral system with significant malapportionment to elect the House of Councillors. The electoral system tends to exaggerate the popularity of winning parties and the malapportionment favors rural, typically more conservative, voters. (Similar problems afflict the House of Representatives; some courts have even begun invalidating the December election, although the Japanese Supreme Court has a history of minimalism in these matters, so I wouldn't expect that to come to a head) The political system is also not functioning well, so there's room to argue that the LDP is the beneficiary of being the historical natural party of government and stifling the ability of meaningful opposition parties to emerge. Political Scientist Matthew Søberg Shugart has written some excellent posts on Japanese elections. I also don't think that the Kōmeitō is naïve or exploited. They've been the LPD's coalition partner for quite a while new, through several elections, and because the LDP doesn't control a majority of the House of Councillors on its own, this outcome arguably gives them the greatest potential influence. (The LDP would also need the Kōmeitō to muster the 2/3rds vote of the House of Representatives needed to overrule the House of Councillors on ordinary legislation) The point high point that you seem to be making: that if the same party controls the organs of government by majorities through winning free and fair elections, that is unrepresentative seems absurd. Assuming, for convenience, that elections are free and fair, this is unreasonably undemocratic. Everybody is indeed not of the same party, but just because those dissenters are represented, if they didn't actually win more support, that doesn't entitle the to control. That would be seen as illegitimate. Members of the others party are there, they're just fewer in number; it is representative. More to the point, it's not actually effective. Counter-majoritarian features don't create nearly as much minority protection as they do bargaining points where marginal players who control those points can extract what they want from the process. (Refer back to the special concessions that Senator Nelson of Nebraska won on the Affordable Care Act in exchange for being vote #60 for cloture) The difficulty that this creates in passing agenda is also arguably less democratic and representative, because the bargaining and compromise obscures the accomplishments and outcomes attributable to the part in power. As such, voters have inferior information to make judgements when casting their votes. It makes elections a muddle. Please refer to "Kludgeocracy: The American Way of Policy". (And while I'm throwing things on the pile, I like "10 Things That Political Scientists Know That You Don't" too) |
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insert name here
Posts: 85 |
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We're not the only country suffering from this kind of jingoistic nonsense. I wonder if someone told him that if he doesn't like it he can geeeeet out. |
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mdo7
 Posts: 6397 Location: Katy, Texas, USA |
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Yeah I remember reading that on Kotaku a few days ago. I'm glad Miyazaki spoke about the atrocities Japan did in World War 2 in his essay. Also I'm glad he's bringing up the comfort woman controversy and I'm glad he's not backing down on that. Please recall the Japanese history textbook controversy. The Japanese govt think they can cover all this up and people in Japan will not know but the govt didn't count on future and current internet tech like social media, Youtube, blogs, and textbook outside of Japan that talk about the comfort women, and Japan's atrocities during WW2. Japanese historians that are against historical revision have others way to tell the stories and truths about what Japan did in WW2 by using those tech. I like to note Comfort Women, Nanjing Massacre does have it's own Japanese wiki section so no way historical revisionist can't cover up anymore. What Miyazaki did will end up sparking interest and debates about Japan's past. |
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SilverTalon01
Posts: 2417 |
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Its actually just flat out a "no war" clause. There isn't anything in there about letting them declare war if they are declared upon. The entire defense force is a loop hole that we actually kinda forced on them in order to have an armed buffer against communism in the East. Though I think 'loop hole' is generous as it really is just them conveniently not using the word that most accurately describes the "defense force." |
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