Hell freezes over - Asahi News calls for 'protests'

[Taro Toporific]

Asahi News calls for grassroots protests and media campaigns to block "reckless" Abe.

EDITORIAL: Japan's democracy to be put to the test
July 02, 2014 | The Asahi Shimbun
Democracy took root in Japan nearly 70 years ago after the country's defeat in World War II. Who would have thought someone could overturn it so easily? But Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has done just that.
On July 1, the Abe Cabinet approved a document that revises the government’s interpretation of the Constitution to allow Japan to exercise the right to collective self-defense. It came merely six weeks after Abe said he was considering doing so....
Blah, blah, blah...
...We should not just pin our hopes on opposition legislators who will be challenging the ruling coalition in the Diet. Grass-roots protests and media campaigns are also indispensable components in any democratic system, and Japan's democracy itself is about to be tested.

[wagyl]

That is an interesting concept of democracy.

While Abe is most certainly aware that this is a controversial topic which should be seen to be deliberated carefully, and while he has most certainly ignored that advice to bully through some "legislation (maybe even constitutional amendment) by cabinet," I will say that the democratic system of checks and balances in Japan is that cabinet is watched by the Diet, who can have their say by instituting a vote of no confidence in the cabinet, and the Diet is watched by the voters, who have their say in elections. Is the Asahi suggesting that we go to the streets to seek an early general election? Because if Abe feels comfortable with doing what he has done already, I am not sure that people shouting outside the Diet will sway him either.

Of course the real problem with the democracy here is far too many Diet members listening to their faction leaders and not listening to their constituents.

Not that their constituents speak up. Maybe that is what Asahi is wanting to change.

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

Allow me to add that the system of checks and balances also includes a judiciary, which may rule on decisions made by the legislature (the Diet in this case).
It should be noted that the Constitution's Article 9 is explicit and spells things out clear enough to really make interpretation pretty much moot (in both the original English and translated Japanese). Just as a refresher, here's what it says:
Article 9
Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order, the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes.
In order to accomplish the aim of the preceding paragraph, land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained. The right of belligerency of the state will not be recognized.

I think Abe's popular push -- and that's what it is because you scratch a Japanese of any persuasion and you will almost invariably find a nationalist -- will be accepted considering previous interpretations (subsequently rubber-stamped by the Supreme Court) have allowed the cuntry to build up and maintain one of the world's largest collections of land, sea and air psuedo-forces in addition to enormous military industry contributions to this cuntry and other cuntries that shall remain unnamed but everyone knows I'm talking about the Untied States, which probably couldn't fight a war now without the support of Japanese industry.

[Wage Slave]

in addition to enormous military industry contributions to this cuntry and other cuntries that shall remain unnamed

Why? Name the fuckers!

but everyone knows I'm talking about the Untied States, which probably couldn't fight a war now without the support of Japanese industry.

Ah, I see, you were going to anyway. For rhetorical effect I'd give that 1 out of 10. Rather detracts from the content in fact.

Anyway, what evidence do you have for that statement? I'm not saying it isn't true but I would like to see some evidence that it isn't an exaggeration as it would seem a serious oversight on the part of American military planners.

[Coligny]

The japanese military industrial complex !?

The guys who can't build jack shit without buying the blueprints somewhere else ?

I'm pretty sure they are arrogant and stupid enough to think they are major players, but I would not trust them even for a locally designed sailplane...

[Yokohammer]

That didn't take long ...

First Arms Export Set for Approval Under New Rules

Japan is set to approve its first arms export following the relaxation of a self-imposed ban as the nation seeks to boost its global military and economic stature, a report said Sunday.

[wuchan]

The japanese military industrial complex !?

yep: https://www.mhi-global.com/products/defense.html

[Coligny]

The japanese military industrial complex !?

yep: https://www.mhi-global.com/products/defense.html

I know aboot MHI, it's just that I doubt their r&d department work with anything better than a bunch of color copiers.

Aside from their MBT's nothing seems more than license build stuff. And I wouldn't trust much battletanks from a nation with no MBT tradition and hardware that never saw combat.

If you think pant shitting MBTs you think Leopard 2a6, Abraham M1a2, Leclerc, Merkava or Russian T90...
Their type 10 and type 90... Not so much... Are they even allowed to use live rounds for training ?

[Russell]

All good and well, but telling the world that you willfully abstain from having armed forces is not the best way to keep the peace.

Just say'in.

[Wage Slave]

In the golden days of Showa (Hasten Be Their Glorious Return) I always felt that one of the reasons the Japanese and German companies were so much more successful was that almost all their best engineers were focussed on making things that answered consumer needs rather than military appetite. Our smartest engineers and manufacturing facilities were far more focussed on military equipment. Some of it might have made a profit but an awful lot didn't. How many times has BAE had to be rescued/given sweetheart deals/allowed to bribe their way to contracts?

Whether Japanese Companies fare any better is an open question. Yes, there is a market. Yes, it is growing, unfortunately, but it is very competitive, very political and there are a lot of companies being supported by national governments to do what they do.

I still think there's a lot more money to be made by concentrating on designing, developing and marketing civilian things.

[wagyl]

Of course, the other reason that German and Japanese manufacturing was better is that whatever manufacturing equipment hadn't been blasted to oblivion, had been taken by the victors in reparations, meaning that German and Japanese plant was brand new, and the equipment in the victorious lands was cobbled together stuff from before the war, to a large extent.