BURN BABY BURN! Shinjuku self-immolation

[Coligny]

Expecting health report update about the guy who nearly nobody reported the immolation...

Might need to dig deeper for that one...

[matsuki]

The lack of reporting the incident is very North Korea/China-like....maybe they literally buried him as well.

[IparryU]

The lack of reporting the incident is very North Korea/China-like....maybe they literally buried him as well.

cant do shit with the super ninja secrecy act in play. NHK et al wont say shit... state run my man.

but ya, japan neeeds to learn how to do protests.

[yanpa]

This ANN video has been on the Youtube front page all day:

youtube-shinjuku-incident.png

Doesn't provide any useful info however.

[Coligny]

It's a softcore skinemax version...

[Taro Toporific]

Japanese Mass Media Buries Self-Immolation Protest Over Abe Government's Constitutional Coup
Sep. 15, 2014 / by Jeff Kingston and Asano Ken’ichi comments on a self-immolation protest against the Abe government’s collective self-defense policy.
The reverberations of the act of self-immolation next to Shinjuku Station on June 29, 2014 seem akin to the sound of one hand clapping. Japan’s mass media reliably jumps all over any sensational story, but not this one. While not ignored, it was certainly not pursued, as the story of a man reciting an anti-war poem by Yosano Akiko, a national legend, before igniting himself in front of throngs on a Sunday afternoon at Tokyo’s most crowded commuter station somehow failed to gain traction. It was a remarkable political statement without precedent in the Japan I have lived in since 1987 making the negligible coverage all the more newsworthy.
The man was protesting Prime Minister Abe Shinzo’s gambit to reinterpret Article 9 of the constitution to allow Japan to exercise the right of collective self-defense (CSD). The mere fact that he invoked the celebrated poet in his indictment of Abe’s constitutional putsch just before setting himself on fire would seemingly merit some reflection, yet this incident quickly slipped off the media radar screen. Odd, but then again I recall that the protests against PM Koizumi Junichiro dispatching troops to Iraq back in 2004 were largely ignored by the media and in mid-September 2011 a massive demonstration against nuclear power right across the street from NHK never had a chance against the local fireworks story; it was completely ignored.
Continues...

[Samurai_Jerk]

I've got some really lefty friends and they were complaining about that story being buried. They also think the dengue fever scare is being hyped up to keep people's attention of the failure or Abenomics and the re-militarization of Japan. Some are even claiming that there were more cases of dengue fever last year but that the government also buried that story to keep people from panicking but that they needed to use it this year so they let the media run with it.

And people say the Japanese don't discuss politics.

[omae mona]

Let me say in terms of the actual political issue, I'm on the same side as the guy who immolated himself.

That being said, I think Japan is structured more or less correctly as a democracy (yes, it has problems including the voters). So I don't think it's right for one guy to get a bigger voice than everybody else just because he does something extreme. If he's opposed to the government policies, he should campaign to get Abe and his party voted out of office. You have to work hard and gather popular support to do that, not spend 1000 yen on gasoline and light yourself on fire. He's not special just because he wants to be.

This is not Tibet, where lighting yourself on fire is possibly the only way to actually have an effect on policy.

So I don't have a problem with the media not paying special attention to the guy. He got plenty of attention, and for the right reasons, which is that he screwed up the JR train schedule.

[Samurai_Jerk]

Let me say in terms of the actual political issue, I'm on the same side as the guy who immolated himself.

That being said, I think Japan is structured more or less correctly as a democracy (yes, it has problems including the voters). So I don't think it's right for one guy to get a bigger voice than everybody else just because he does something extreme. If he's opposed to the government policies, he should campaign to get Abe and his party voted out of office. You have to work hard and gather popular support to do that, not spend 1000 yen on gasoline and light yourself on fire. He's not special just because he wants to be.

This is not Tibet, where lighting yourself on fire is possibly the only way to actually have an effect on policy.

So I don't have a problem with the media not paying special attention to the guy. He got plenty of attention, and for the right reasons, which is that he screwed up the JR train schedule.

Another explanation for the lack of coverage that I heard from a colleague who is also very much into politics is that the media here have agreed not to sensationalize or romanticize suicide due to Japan's high suicide rate. Like the claims about purposefully burying the story I'm not sure it's true but it is plausible.

[omae mona]

Let me say in terms of the actual political issue, I'm on the same side as the guy who immolated himself.

That being said, I think Japan is structured more or less correctly as a democracy (yes, it has problems including the voters). So I don't think it's right for one guy to get a bigger voice than everybody else just because he does something extreme. If he's opposed to the government policies, he should campaign to get Abe and his party voted out of office. You have to work hard and gather popular support to do that, not spend 1000 yen on gasoline and light yourself on fire. He's not special just because he wants to be.

This is not Tibet, where lighting yourself on fire is possibly the only way to actually have an effect on policy.

So I don't have a problem with the media not paying special attention to the guy. He got plenty of attention, and for the right reasons, which is that he screwed up the JR train schedule.

Another explanation for the lack of coverage that I heard from a colleague who is also very much into politics is that the media here have agreed not to sensationalize or romanticize suicide due to Japan's high suicide rate. Like the claims about purposefully burying the story I'm not sure it's true but it is plausible.

Yeah, I think that ties in to what I was saying. If the media gave him special coverage they're demonstrating that if you commit suicide, you can get your message spread nationwide. Much more widely than a normal everyday salaryman could ever dream of normally. I agree it would encourage more suicide.

[matsuki]

I think Japan is structured more or less correctly as a democracy

I got chewed out by a lefty lemur when I dared even call Japan a democracy. Her take was:

a Japanese cannot go from nothing to politician in Japan...the politicians are in their own bubble and will force out any "gaijin" who dare to try to enter their ranks so they keep control. They are also so out of touch with the average Japanese and their lifestyle, they cannot possible understand the problems the average person faces or how to improve them.

I'm not even going to pretend I understand Japanese politics but her description (while not exactly unique to Japan) seems plausible.

[Samurai_Jerk]

I think Japan is structured more or less correctly as a democracy

I got chewed out by a lefty lemur when I dared even call Japan a democracy. Her take was:

a Japanese cannot go from nothing to politician in Japan...the politicians are in their own bubble and will force out any "gaijin" who dare to try to enter their ranks so they keep control. They are also so out of touch with the average Japanese and their lifestyle, they cannot possible understand the problems the average person faces or how to improve them.

I'm not even going to pretend I understand Japanese politics but her description (while not exactly unique to Japan) seems plausible.

Other than the gaijin part that sounds like the US.

[matsuki]

Other than the gaijin part that sounds like the US.

Yep, but if someone "makes it" in the U.S., they don't usually get gang banged out of office by all the other "circles" and the old people that drink the kool-aid don't out number the rest of the population when it comes to elections.

[IparryU]

I think Japan is structured more or less correctly as a democracy

I got chewed out by a lefty lemur when I dared even call Japan a democracy. Her take was:

a Japanese cannot go from nothing to politician in Japan...the politicians are in their own bubble and will force out any "gaijin" who dare to try to enter their ranks so they keep control. They are also so out of touch with the average Japanese and their lifestyle, they cannot possible understand the problems the average person faces or how to improve them.

I'm not even going to pretend I understand Japanese politics but her description (while not exactly unique to Japan) seems plausible.

Other than the gaijin part that sounds like any other politician in any other country.

FTFY

[Taro Toporific]

Another explanation for the lack of coverage that I heard from a colleague who is also very much into politics is that the media here have agreed not to sensationalize or romanticize suicide due to Japan's high suicide rate. Like the claims about purposefully burying the story I'm not sure it's true but it is plausible.

This story was reported but the burner forgot to set up a live link to his camera and post his note everywhere online, meh.

Man burns himself to death in Hibiya Park, leaves note protesting collective self-defense
The Japan Times | Nov. 12, 2014
An apparent activist opposed to the relocation of U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Okinawa set himself on fire Tuesday in Hibiya Park in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo, police said, adding the man was pronounced dead at a hospital.
Investigators said they consider the case to be a suicide, noting the man left a protest note of some kind and a video camera, through which he was seen to have recorded the scene of his self-immolation.
NHK meanwhile said the note left by the unidentified man was addressed to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and the heads of both chambers of the Diet.
More...

[Russell]

I hope he got the focus right.

And it may be overexposed, with all them flames coming out...

[Taro Toporific]

Once again they forgot to leave a note and a live-cam blaming Abenomics, sheesh.

Woman dead, man in critical condition after apparent self-immolation
The Japan Times (KYODO) Dec, 8, 2014
CHIBA – A woman died and a man was in a critical condition after they were found aflame Sunday evening on a street in Ichikawa, Chiba Prefecture, police said.
A male local resident called the fire department about two people on fire on a private street in Miyakubo at about 4:45 p.m., according to the Ichikawa police station.
The woman was confirmed dead at the scene, while the man was rushed to the hospital.
Residents extinguished the fire by covering the two with a blanket, police said.
They said a couple in their 60s living nearby were missing. They found a plastic container holding what appeared to be kerosene and a cigarette ligher {sic} on the ground in front their house.
More...