Is the Japanese Politics really Effective?

Japan's snap election ended with the Liberal Democratic Party's landslide victory. The coalition exceeds 2/3 of seats in the Parliament, meaning the Liberal Democratic Party and other small parties can pass a legislation without worries. Prime Minister Abe regards the result of election as "a message from our citizens that Abe's Economics should keep going forward".

Even though I personally like Abe's Economics, I am not very sure about whether politics in Japan effectively works. Unlike the US, Japan has only one powerful party(Liberal Democratic Party). However, this does not mean the party has absolute supports from citizens, but means "There is no other party that citizens want to vote for."

Sometimes this situation can be effective in that many legislations are passed without complexities and disagreements. However, it means there is no competition among political parties, indicating Liberal Democratic Party might be reluctant to implement more thoughtful and effective policies.

Is Snap General Election Always Waste of Tax?

              Mr.Abe, the prime minister of Japan, called the snap general election several weeks ago because the GDP of Japan in recent months was lower than expected and the cabinet wanted to ensure the voice of citizens.

              I hear lots of complaints about this call. These opponents claim that snap general election will cost so much tax expenditure which Japan can use for other social benefits and that all the ongoing bills have to be thrown away, which will be time-consuming.

              Nevertheless, I still promote the snap general election. Even though it takes time and money, reflecting citizens' opinions is more important than anything else. There have been many controversial issues in Japan such as whether increasing VAT or not, so why do not we give our own voice and votes? I think this is the time when we can take advantage of democracy.

A National Anthem and its Meaning

Today, my younger brother talked about the Vietnamese national anthem. While discussing it, I found the difference between Japanese and Vietnamese anthem.

The hidden meaning in the Japanese national anthem is "to live longer". I find this theme very interesting because the government wants to emphasize longer life during the time of imperialism.

In contrast, the theme in the Vietnamese national anthem is quite obvious. The song starts with "Soldiers of Vietnam. March Onward.". Which clearly indicates military strength of Vietnam. Even though it refers to the country and its people as a whole, military theme is definitely included in this anthem.

If you look for your country's anthem, you may find the history of your country!

An Issue Looks Different Depending on How You Look at.

              There is a gap in understanding history between Japan and Korea. The Korean government asks the Japanese government for compensation because of comfort women for Japanese military during Second World War. The Japanese government recognizes the issue as already solved by The Treaty on Basic Relations.

              The US government, often acting as arbitrator between Korea and Japan,  regards sex slaves as unethical actions and a country needs to compensate for its shameful history. I would not get into whether Japan should compensate or not, but explain how this issue looks different.

              Firstly, during the Vietnam War, many Korean troops raped local Vietnamese women, who eventually gave births. The Korean government does not compensate for this sexual violation as it was a part of the war in which many problems happen.

              Secondly, the US raped thousands of women in Japan immediately after controlling over Japan in the Second World War . Did the US government compensate for this incident?
              Of course, Japan did the same thing in more violent ways, but I guess you now see the issue of comfort women differently. I often think this is why we cannot be one-sided while judging which one is right or wrong. Though the government needs to seek benefits of its own citizens, it also has to consider other sides and compromise to some extent.

Rethink the History of my Country.

In my Japanese Literature class, we are reading a book called "The 20th Century For Me" written by Mr.Kato Shuichi. While reading this book, I often rethink the history of Japan in the 20th century.

The first thing I came across was Japan's rapid economic developement in post-world war. There must have been many factors which contributed to its development, but the book pointed out two factors, one of which was the Korean War.

Demand for many military supplies was dramatically increasing as Korean War started. As a result, the geographically closest country (Japan) prospered as it sold many military as well as food supplies to the US army.

Even though I am Japanese and of course stay on the Japanese side when a political issue occurs between Japan and Korea, I find this event very ironic. From 1910 to 1945, Korea was a part of Japan (Japan does not officially regard this as colonization, but I assume it was.) ,which generated many slaves in Korea. 5 years after its independence from Japan, Korea fell into a war; Japan started being economically developed because of its neighbour's war.

An Unbelievable Relationship Between Religion and Economics

Have you ever heard of a book called Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism? The lecture on the TV introduced this book and explained a central idea of the book in brief.

Overall, the book explains a relationship between religion and economics, more specifically between protestant and capitalism. The book says those who had economic prosperity in Germany were Protestant, particularly Clavinists.

Calvinists believe that God is so powerful that it determines their destiny regardless of their actions in their lives. Thus, because Calvin wanted to prove that they were born to be good and thus could go to heaven after their deaths, they worked so hard. This idea highly motivated Calvin to pursue as much wealth as possible and contributed the foundation of capitalism.

I was completely fascinated by this idea because I had never thought of  a relationship between religion and capitalism. If I have a free time (probably not till the graduation), I really want to read this book and stimulate my curiosity.

How can the US Get out from an Endless Loop

The US government announced that it would double the non-combat troops in Iraq to train Iraqi army, transport humanitarian aids and so on.

When I saw this news, I thought the US might start being in an endless loop. Even though the Iraqi government tries to be independent from the US in the near future, the IS gains greater military force at the same time. As a result, by the time the US leaves the Iraq, the IS can be ready for the anti-government attack.

In order to prevent this worst scenario from actually happening, the US and other European countries have to ensure that Iraqi government can control over its entire country by itself(providing more military equipment might be one of the options.), which probably takes several years to accomplish.